My child likes eggplant parmesan

I'm a lucky Mom, no?

I'm sitting here blogging while my almost 1-year old finishes off her lunch of eggplant parmesan. (Homemade and healthy, of course). Anna was a bit of a picky eater while we were on vacation. But now she's back to her old self... chowing down on everything we give her, apparently.

Mama loves you, my good little eater.

In other news, Anna's turning one on Friday. Can I get a HOLY CRAP!!!!!? I can't believe it. It's been a year.

A few things I didn't expect to have happening as my child approaches one year of age:

• Anna's still not sleeping through the night yet. Mind you, it is much better. Last night she woke up twice. Once around midnight (took a little while to get her back to sleep), and again at 4:00. (I nursed her at 4 because I just REALLY wanted to go back to sleep).
• I'm still carrying 15 pounds of baby weight. I'm doing all the right things, so I know it'll happen slowly but surely. But I remember thinking I'd be back to pre-baby weight by around 6 months. Ha!
• Anna has only 2 teeth and very little hair. Not a biggie at all... I just assumed she'd be all hairy like I was. Her two little teeth are very adorable, though. All little and sharp and cute.
• I'm not going back to work full time. The freelance is picking up. Needless to say, I'm pretty damn happy.
• I'm sleep-deprived, but so over-the-top happy as a Mom. I always knew I wanted to be a Mom. I knew I'd love having kids. But man - they just don't tell you how unbelievably awesome it is. When Anna wraps her little arms around my neck to hug me and presses her soft little cheek up against mine... there's really nothing else in the world that could ever matter.

Ever.

Food log, part 2

Anna's lunch today:

• Mashed up sweet potato (the only fresh veggie we still had in our house).
• Yogurt with pears mixed in and a whole grain cracker.
• I figured this would cover off the fruit and veggie category, yogurt covers the calcium and protein category and the cracker is the grain section...

Dinner:

• Whole wheat macaroni with mixed veggies (corn, carrots, peas)
• Turkey sausage
• Yes. You read that last one right... Andrew and I had turkey sausages for dinner and Anna gobbled them right up.

Love that good eating kid of mine!

Food log. (Tee hee... I just said "log").

We're going on vacation soon. Which means we're rapidly running out of food in the house.

Not such a big deal for me. I can live on cereal (dry or with milk) for several days. Anna, on the other hand, is relying on her Mama for a balanced, nutritional diet day in and day out. The nerve of her. Kind of annoying, isn't she?

So anyway. I've decided to log Anna's food diet here so I can keep track visually and be sure that I'm not depriving my little buttertart of the good stuff.

Thursday night. Anna's dinner:

• Mixed grain baby cereal with peaches and pears. (We were having a curry beef dish for dinner which wouldn't have been a good thing for her little two-toothed mouth. Or her bum.)
• Side note: The baby cereal was a last resort after realizing that Anna would have NOTHING to do with the scrambled egg yolks I made for her. (Was trying to get some protein into her. With no luck).
• Oh, and she had one whole grain cracker with hummus on it. This was her appetizer as I got the cereal ready.

Friday morning: Anna's breakfast:

• Cheerio appetizer (of course).
• Leftover baby cereal from dinner last night (wasn't much), whole grain toast and blueberries

Pretty decent breakfast, I think. I would have liked to put something on the toast... a little bit of butter, maybe some cream cheese. But we had run out of all of those products. Sad, really. A house with no butter or cream cheese just isn't a house in my opinion.

I'll update later on with Anna's lunch and dinner. I really hope I can scrape together some good food for her. And I hope feeding her healthily on vacation isn't going to be too much of a challenge. Maybe it'll inspire me to make healthier food choices when we're out at restaurants.

(Or maybe Mama will sneak some 3-cheese spinach dip, french fries and greasy burgers behind Anna's back.)

Work, vacations, exhaustion and more.

Things that are new with me:

1. I got a freelance gig. Woo hoo! (A small one, yes. But hey - it'll pay a bill or two.)

2. I'm working out with a personal trainer who will also be my Running Room Half Marathon clinic coach. 2011 is going to be the year that I work on "Operation: Get Hez Fit." (My trainer promised I'd be bikini-ready by summer. To which I say: HA!)

3. Anna, Andrew and I are going on our first out-of-the-country family vacation. Looking forward to some sun and relaxation (maybe). Not looking forward to the plane ride all that much.

4. Had my first new book club meeting last night. Good times. It's so nice to talk about books over a glass of wine with fellow grown-ups. Of course, we spent a lot of time talking about our kids... but how could you not with a face like this?

Things that are not new with me:

1. I'm exhausted. Completely and utterly exhausted.

2. That's all.

Anna's mama takes a leap of faith

Well, it's official.

I am jobless.

Actually, I guess it's been official since I made the decision and resigned from my full time job in September. But I think it's just hitting me now because my mat leave pay will be running out in 3 weeks.

So. Here I am. Without job.

If I don't want to resort to feeding my family cat food, I'm going to have to start networking and finding me some freelance work. (Need a freelance writer? I'm very efficient and lovely to be around!)

Man, this decision was huge for me. I'm definitely not the type to just quit my job and give up security to "see how things go". Especially now that I have a wee one to provide for.

But, hey. I'm a different person now. I'm a mama.

I'm responsible for the health and happiness of another human being. (Excuse me a minute while I go fish the lamp cord out of her mouth). I'm in charge of the huge responsibility of making sure she grows up normal. Every little thing I do from now on will either provide her with confidence or somehow scar her for life. (Again, must go get that cord out of her mouth).

So my hope is that one day, in a future blog post, I link back to this one with all good news and talk about how funny it is to see how nervous I was - especially since I became a successful freelance writer and then won the lottery, to boot.

Who knows what the future holds. All I know is that now, in this moment, as I watch Anna cruise around, getting closer and closer to her first steps...

Everything just feels right.

Mommy, does this mean more time for us to hang out and eat Mums-mums together?

My 11 month old...

... finally has her first tooth! It came through on Christmas Eve. The second one isn't far behind, judging by her mood the past week.

... can crawl really fast, pulls herself up like it's nothing, cruises on all the furniture and even walks behind one of her push toys. She's a mover and a shaker, that one.

... still loves shoes.

... isn't sleeping through the night yet. But she gave up the night time feeding at around 10 months. Now it's just her teeth that keep waking her up. (I think).

... just started waving hello and bye bye to Mommy and Daddy. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

... definitely understands the word "no". And definitely doesn't obey it every time we say it.

... says "Dada" a lot. But we're still not sure if she's directing it towards Andrew or if everything in her path is Dada.

... loves her new Christmas toys. Most babies would prefer the paper or the box... and Anna likes those too... but she truly loves her toys. She's playing independently with them on the floor right now while Mama drinks coffee and writes this blog.

... smiles and laughs a lot. Also likes people. And once she warms up to a new situation, starts babbling and laughing and grabbing onto everyone's feet.

... is great in restaurants. She even came to the King Edward Christmas brunch with us in her fancy holiday dress and was a perfect, perfect angel.

... sleeps well in the car, but won't sleep at anybody else's house. Which should prove to be interesting when we head off to Florida in a few weeks.

... is the cutest little buttertart in the world. Even when she's miserable from teething.

I love you so much, Anna. Happy 11 month birthday, baby.