June 3, 2018 by Stephanie

Why Whole 30

In my 33 years, I never thought I would actually go on a diet. I eat fairly healthy, I don’t really have weight to lose. And I enjoy food. I don’t eat things just to get energy, I eat because I like to enjoy the taste. I like connecting with others over a meal. So I have never felt it necessary to worry about calories or what the food is going to do to my body.

So what has changed to make me want to embark on this diet with Whole30?

Well, some of it has to do with feeling good about my body again. I have been supporting another human being for the better part of 2 years. That takes a toll. And honestly I am surprised that Daphne didn’t come out as a donut by the amount I consumed during her pregnancy. Because of the two years of eating as much as I want, I need to retrain my brain on what healthy is again.

When I started doing my research on Whole30, I was shocked that what I was eating was not as healthy as I thought. For example, my lunch every day is a salad. Did you know that some packaged tunas have sugar? And pretty much any salad dressing has sugar added. At first this seemed really daunting because almost everything I ate in my normal day had added sugar. So it made me start thinking about what I was pumping into my kids unintentionally. I think this whole process will be educational so we can be more aware of the foods we are buying once this is done.

And on that note, Tom and my mom are doing this with me. We all have our own reasons to do this, but the support to take back our health helps.

Then when I met with my doctor recently, she said my blood pressure was not in a good place. She is concerned that my high blood pressure is no longer a white coat syndrome issue. We talked through my options which are either food and exercise change or medication. So this is motivating me to see if there are any changes that this food elimination can help with.

Lastly, I can do anything for a month. This isn’t a diet where you count calories or try to eat certain portions of things. Those seem too hard for me to follow through, and don’t seem to change my outlook on food. This diet is all about having a “whole” approach. You can eat as much as you want, and it’s all “real” food. I just have to be more intentional about checking ingredients.

The hardest thing for me is going to be giving up my twice a day chocolate fix. I live for chocolate.

We’ll see how this goes.

Hopefully it is not like Tom has mocked, “Whole30 is like Peter Pan. I’m having make believe for lunch.”

whole 30 humor - remove bad foods

image via

May 18, 2018 by Stephanie

Daphne-12 Months

This year and this girl.

She has been loving on us for a whole year. She is everything I hoped for and more.

Weight: 22lbs.

Health: This month she has been fairly healthy. I do think she has allergies because we all got hayfever with the crazy pollen. Everyone’s eyes were a little puffy for a few days. She is still working on teeth. She has a total of 7 now, with a couple more on the way. I love the little toothy grin.

Diet: I BREASTFED HER FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR!!! Whoop whoop! I really honestly cannot believe that we actually made it this long. I will start weaning her off over the next month. The only time she is actually interested is the first feeding of the day, so that will be the last one I cut out. During the week, I nursed her in the morning and before bed. She only had two bottles during the day while I was at work. One of those was typically a formula bottle. Depending on how well she nurses at night, she may get a 2-4 oz formula bottle before bed as well. On the weekends, for the most part we avoided the formula and nursed the whole time. She is eating three full meals, and generally eats what we eat. I hope that we can keep up the good eating habits. I mean she ate salad greens this month!

Clothes: She is in 6-9 month and 9 month clothes. She is in a size 4 diaper, and size 2 shoe still.

Sleeping: We have been putting her to bed around 7:30/8. She generally stays asleep most of the night. She hardly sleeps past 7am. She still has two naps a day, and she is really sticking to two hour naps. It will be interesting to see how real milk will change her patterns.

Likes: I am fairly positive that she would live upside down if she could. She loves to be dipped. She is really into stacking things. She is loving the “That Not My” book series from Usborne. She loves George. He can always make her laugh, and she is starting to follow him wherever he goes. She is going to be into music; with whatever is playing, she is dancing. She loves playing with plastic bottles. She beelines it for outside whenever the door opens. She likes George’s trucks.

Dislikes: She does not like to be done eating. You better have food on her tray. She still has a general disdain for most people. (Her party could be interesting tomorrow…) She does not like the word no. She is not a fan of when the dogs are barreling through the door. She is pretty much done with the day at 5. She can be kind of grumpy if she isn’t eating at this time.

Milestones: She has taken a few unassisted steps! She won’t do more than 3 steps, but she does them! She still crawls so fast, so she seems uninterested on going any further.

Nicknames: Daphers, Daphie, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are still Daph and Sister.

Quirks: She likes to pass things to people. She loves sharing her pacy with people. She also likes to use anything as a walker: books, chairs, buckets… She likes to pull things off the shelves or out of containers, but then tries to put them all back.

We parents are: still tired. It’s been a crazy month with various things in our world. We are building a playground for the kids, and by we I mean Tom. It looks amazing so far. I had my 33rd birthday, and we got to see Lion King live! So good! I also had two people (grown people that I work with) ask me if I was expecting again, so there is that…I had lots of feelings about it at first, but I am really trying to not let it get me down like the time I cried after my niece said something similar when George was 9 months old. (Not my best moment…) I am proud of what my body is doing. A HUMAN SURVIVED OFF MY BODY FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS. It’s ok if there is still some extra to love around me!

George is: such a ham. He will have really good days, and then some really bad not listening ones. And he has been really into screaming lately because he has “loud in his mouth.” He also has been commandeering Sister’s pacies and hiding them in his room or hiding himself while he “gets it wet” for Daphne. He said he has to test it out for her. We are in trouble with this one. He LOVES that we are outside almost every day. That has helped with some cabin fever. He is getting really good at writing his letters. He makes up his own songs. I am so proud of how much he has learned!

The dogs are: ridiculous. They are pretty much barking at everything these days. Crosby wants to be outside all day. They are a mess, but we love them anyway.

0-2

collage 3-5

collage 6-8

collage 9-12

I thought George grew fast, but this time was such a whirlwind. While it was tough, I feel like we enjoyed the process more and were much less stressed this time around. Daphie has been a fairly easy baby, so that helps. She is such a dream. Even though these little baby features may fade, I am excited to see her personality continue to develop.

Daphie Girl, you are such a light in our days. I am honored to be your mom.

Here is George at 12 months.

April 18, 2018 by Stephanie

Daphne-11 Months

This month has been so fun with this little Daffodil.

Weight: 21lbs.

Health: She has been pretty healthy this month. She is still working on some teeth; two dropped, which brings her to four total teeth. But I think she is working on a few more.

Diet: I can hardly believe that I am one month away from breastfeeding for a whole year. Shocked really. Now that I am this close, I will do whatever it takes to get there. Our routine hasn’t changed a lot this month, but I can tell that the more actual food she eats the less she wants to nurse. During the week, I nurse her in the morning and before bed. Her morning nursing session is the best that she does all day. She still only has two bottles during the day while I am at work. Some days, I do not make enough for two, and she will have one formula bottle. Depending on how well she nurses at night, she may get a 2-4 oz formula bottle before bed as well. On the weekends, for the most part we avoid the formula and nurse the whole time. She isn’t super interested in nursing on the weekends, and will generally still only last for 5 minutes. I do still pump once before she goes to bed every day to keep up with the two 5 oz bottles she has during the week. She is eating three full meals now. I have kind of lost track of new foods she has eaten, but I know she ate lo mein and raspberries for the first time. This girl loses it whenever we bring the raspberries out! She is a really good eater! She often eats all of her food plus whatever George doesn’t eat.

Clothes: She is in 6-9 month clothes. I am going to pull some 9 month clothes out soon, just because we don’t have a lot in 6-9, and I don’t feel like buying anymore. She is in a size 4 diaper, and size 2 shoe. Everything is growing but her feet…

Sleeping: We have been putting her to bed around 7:30/8. She generally stays asleep most of the night. Lately she has been waking up around 4 am. I can usually nurse her back to sleep until I wake her up at 7am. It sucks for me though when you have a 5:15 alarm. She still has two naps a day, and she is really sticking to two hour naps. I really should do a post on why I think she is a good sleeper. Someday…

Likes: She loves getting things out of boxes and laundry baskets. She is always emptying containers. She also likes to stretch clothes. She loves to be dipped upside down. She loves her jeep walker; she is so funny whipping around in that thing. She also gets stuck in our hallways, which she does not like. She loves to pull things off the fridge. She thinks “No” is hilarious. She laughs so hard when we are telling her to stop getting into things.

Dislikes: She does not like to be done eating. She still has a general disdain for most people.

Milestones: She stands for much longer periods of time on her own, and she can squat down without falling. She climbs the stairs on her own. She hasn’t figured out how to come down so we definitely have to keep an eye on her.

Nicknames: Stinkerbug, Daphie, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are Daph and Sister.

Quirks: She likes to pass things to people. She also likes to use books to crawl faster. She will put them under her hands and use them to slide, kind of like an ab roller. She will do downward dog. She has been sticking out her tongue lately, which is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

We parents are: drained. This has been an incredible hard month on us. Tom is going through some thing at work that has been exhausting and unpredictable. I have been shocked and disgusted to be on the sidelines and try to support him through this, all the while trying to stay afloat at my own job and as a mom. We are still trying to make our relationship a priority throughout this situation and make sure that our family is the focus right now. We find that when we are going through stuff or hit milestones in our marriage “The Office” is a great common ground, so we are making our way through the series for the umpteenth time.

George is: three. Remember that time when I said we weren’t having the threenager stuff going on? Oh yea about that. It is like clockwork, at 5pm everyday, he turns into this raging tornado. He is screaming like a banshee just to see how loud he is, and he swirls around literally banging into everything. Like he for real thinks he is a walking tornado. It is exhausting. He is super sweet the rest of the day…but man are the evenings hard. He just got a piggy bank, so we have started incentivizing with pennies. So we’ll see how that goes. He is still in love with his sister. He loves being part of her bed time routine. They also have started sort of playing together, which melts my heart.

The dogs are: losing their minds with this weather. One day they can spend the whole day outside, and then the next we are looking at snow. Crosby is barking non-stop which is exhausting. They only really pay attention to Daph when she is eating.

Daphie, you are more precious than silver, more costly than gold, and more beautiful than diamonds. I love you sweet girl.

Here is George at 11 months.

March 18, 2018 by Stephanie

Daphne-10 Months

It is so cliche to say, but how in the world is this girl two months away from being one?

Weight: 19lbs. At her 9 month check up she went from the 7% to the 46%, so food has been good to her.

Health: This month her health has been fine until today. Tonight, she is working through a stomach bug. She has been barfing about every 30 minutes for a few hours now. Not sure what is going on, but hopefully she is almost done! She is working on FOUR teeth, possibly SIX. There are 4 coming in on the top, and it looks like there may be others coming soon after. They are taking their sweet time coming out though.

Diet: Y’all I am still breastfeeding! I never would have imagined making it this far after my experience with George. Our routine hasn’t changed a lot this month, but I can tell that the more actual food she eats the less she wants to nurse. During the week, I nurse her in the morning and before bed. Her morning nursing is the best that she does all day. She wasn’t finishing her three bottles during the day, so we cut back to two breastmilk bottles while I am at work. Some days, I do not make enough for two, and she will have one formula bottle. Depending on how well she nurses at night, she may get a 2-4 oz formula bottle before bed as well. On the weekends, for the most part we avoid the formula and nurse the whole time. She isn’t super interested in nursing on the weekends, and will generally still only last for 5 minutes. I can tell my supply is dipping because of her increased interest in real food. I do still pump once before she goes to bed every day to keep up with the two 5 oz bottles she has during the week. Actually she isn’t really interested in drinking anything. She will sip at a formula bottle for awhile too. She would just rather be eating than drinking. Usually, she has oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast, eggs and fruit for lunch, and then a sample of whatever we are having at dinner. She has tried all kinds of new things: sloppy joes, mac and cheese, pork, olives, crackers, cucumbers, salmon patties, and oranges. She is a really good eater! She often eats all of her food plus whatever George doesn’t eat.

Clothes: She is in 6 month and some 6-9 month. She is in a size 4 diaper, and size 2 shoe.

Sleeping: Teething has been rough on her sleep. It is all over the place. She still does have two naps, but you never know how long she will stay down. They can vary from 30 mins to 2-3 hours. She goes to bed around 8pm. She will wake up anywhere between 3am-6am. I will nurse her then put her back down until I am ready to leave for work. Usually that does the trick.

Likes: She is getting a little more adventurous, and is really into pulling things down like all the things on the fridge or the kitchen chairs to the floor. She is more into music and loves dancing. She is very intrigued by my in-laws cat, Albert. This girl thinks it is hilarious when I high kick-the best giggle fits ever!

Dislikes: Public changing tables. She is not a fan of most people unless you are in your immediate circle. (She did let my best friend hold her this weekend which is a miracle.) She is either standing up or trying to stand up, so this girl doesn’t like being kept down. She hates when I leave the room-definite mama’s girl and is going through severe separation anxiety when I don’t have her.

Milestones: She can get to a seated position on her own. She has said Buba (in reference to George). She started clapping this month. We have started giving her a real sippy cup to drink water in. We are just skipping over the soft tops, which I am ok with.

Nicknames: Stinkerbug, Daphie, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are Daph and Sister.

Quirks: She pulls at her hair when she nurses. This girl is so fast crawling. I don’t know if she will walk anytime soon because she knows she can get there so much faster by crawling.

We parents are: trying to make more time for each other. In the past we have both done our own things at nights, which can be nice, but we have so many weeks out of the year when Tom isn’t home at night, so we really needed to make a better effort when he is home to be Tom and Steph and not just Mom and Dad. We started a marriage devotional, and we are attempting to go on more dates. It can be hard, especially with breastfeeding, but it is important for us to make the time.

George is: just the best little boy. He just takes my breath away every day. He is just the sweetest and has such great enthusiasm for every day. However, he has less and less patience for Daphne these days. She is fast and likes to put everything in her mouth, which George does not approve of. On the other hand, he does love her and tries to take care of her when she is crying. Or he just alerts us that we need to deal with it…

The dogs are: needing spring to be here. They bark at every moving thing outside, so I need the weather to warm up so they can stay out there for extended amounts of time and run their little hearts out. They do love Daphne and her passion for food. Other than feeding time, they don’t really pay attention to each other.

This girl has us wrapped around her pinky.

Here is George at 10 months.

February 26, 2018 by Stephanie

(Re)Member Mommy

Today, George is 3 and a half.

He is always saying to me “Member, Mommy. Insert random instructions he has for me.” He uses his pointer finger to emphasize the importance.

I do want to remember. I want to remember how quirky and fun he is. I want to remember how sweet and caring he is. I want to remember him at three.

I wish you all could meet him in person. He is the best little boy. He is such a gift every day.

Here is a small glimpse of our perfect little man with an “interview” with him. We told him that we needed to talk, and he turns to me and said, “Ok, Mommy. I need to talk to you too.”

What’s your name? Georgie, Georgie Winter George (He will sometimes say his full name…George Lawson Whitener)
How old are you? four (Uhhh…)
What is your favorite color? Blue
What is your favorite animal? A gray animal like an elephant
What is your favorite book? The George Book (No idea what this book is.)
What is your favorite TV show? Team Umizoomi
What is your favorite food? chicken (Interesting because about 50% of the time he does not eat it.)
What is your favorite drink? Shake
What is your favorite breakfast food? peanut butter balls and milk
What is your favorite snack? milk (He would drink his meals if we let him.)
What is your favorite toy? Little People (These are old Fisher Price toys. He loves making a city and doing all the people.)
What is your favorite activity? To make paper flowers
What is your favorite tool? The hammer hitting tool
What do you like to do with Sister? hold her
Who is your best friend? Daddy
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my firetruck
What is your favorite holiday? I want Christmas to come back.
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Kirby
What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to stay home.

So many people have warned us about age three, but I have absolutely adored him at this age. I love talking with him and seeing him making connections to ideas. My favorite time of day is when we are doing our night-time prayers and we process the day together. He is so smart and learning with him is so refreshing.

Yes he is a toddler who is super in tune with emotions, but I hope that we can continue to encourage him using those emotions to connect with people. He definitely wears all his emotions on his sleeve. He never ceases to amaze me about how he cares for others and wants to make sure we are all okay. More often than not he has to check on everyone in the house before he feels ok going to bed. He professes his love for us all the time. It’s these little moments that give me so much excitement, and I hope he never loses that ability (and carefreeness) to be open with his feelings. And he seriously gives the best hugs.

His imagination is one of a kind. He does voices and really thinks through what would happen in his make believe scenarios. (However, he likes to boss you around if you play with him. You have been warned.) And his ability to stick with an activity seems unreal for a kid his age.

He is always a little wild, and he is always going full-speed. He is all in all the time. Some days this can be difficult to harness, but I do love this quality about him. And my gosh, he is so funny.