Great Day :)

Damien was in the best mood EVER today. He was mostly quiet and calm. It was actually quite strange. I kept wondering if he was feeling okay or not. He usually is super active and is constantly making some sort of noise. Since he can't talk yet, it's usually something like "ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhhh, AHHHHHH, da da da, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." It's almost like white noise lol. He even cuddled with me on the couch today for the first time ever. Oh, and he even took a few steps pushing this cart thing. I know it's a pretty boring post now that I proofread it, but oh well. I'm just so happy and I had a great day.

Thank You for the Presents

Thanks so much for the nice gifts for Damien's first birthday :) Damien got some comfy sweat pants from his Grandma and Grandpa Hanks. I haven't decided what to do with the monies yet. I also have money to spend from his Great Grandma Van Winkle. Next is a picture of the nice presents from his Grandma and Grandpa Milliken. They gave him a growth stick that hangs on the wall so we can keep track of how tall he's getting, a wooden case for what I'm assuming is to put his teeth when the tooth fairy comes, and a wooden truck. We also got some blueberry pancakes and syrup. The last photo is of Damien eating a pancake :D I forgot to get pictures, but Robbie and Naomi sent Damien a couple of super cute shirts too. Thanks again everyone!

On a sidenote, Scott and I aren't doing a party this year for Damien's birthday. We don't really know anyone and so it would feel weird to invite people over. I bought some stuff to make cupcakes to bring over to his daycare next week.

I also scheduled an appointment with a photo studio off base to take some professional photos of Damien. It's set for 3 Sept and I already have his outfit picked out. I'm pretty excited. I'm not really sure how it's going to work yet and what I'll have to choose from for prints. I may end up spending more money than I wanted to, but can you really put a price on memories?

So Fresh and Clean

Here's some photos of Damien from his bath the other day. He LOVES playing with the bath toys and I swear it's the only time he's quiet. It's been super warm here lately and Damien seems to have inherited my excessive sweating-Yuck! He's also sprouting some new teeth...well at least one anyways.

Saarbrücken

Scott and I went on a USO tour for how to use the German train system and a day trip to Saarbrücken (about an hour away). It was informative, but it turns out that using the train system here is pretty expensive unless you buy the tickets way in advance.

The train station was right across the street from a huge mall and shopping area. So large, in fact, that we didn't see everything that was there. The shopping was successful because I actually found clothes that I liked and fit! Even bras! I'm quite happy with my purchases and I wish I had energy to look more.

Straight ahead is the outside of the mall

For lunch, we stumbled upon a place where you stand in a line for the type of food you want and they prepare it in front of you. They had lines for pasta, salads, pizzas, and appetizers. Scott and I got the pasta and it was DELICIOUS! You choose the type of dish and the type of pasta you want them to use and they cook it up adding all the fresh ingredients in as they cook.

Yummy shrimp & spinach pasta with cream sauce :)

 After Scott and I ate and shopped some more, we were EXHAUSTED. Our feet hurt, but we still had a lot of time to kill before our train was leaving for home. So we both got manicures and pedicures together! It was Scott's first time getting a pedicure :) It was nice to sit in a massage chair and have our feet soak. I had my nails painted too so they look nice.

It was a long day, but it was eventful. We didn't have time or energy to visit any of the historical sites but it's close enough were we can always go back to visit.

Food Journal Update

It's been a full two weeks since I've started recording everything I eat during the day. It wasn't too difficult and I didn't skip a day. Unfortunately, it's not as effective as I had hoped. I thought seeing what I ate would make me reconsider my food options, but it hasn't prevented anything. Maybe it's because I'm not counting calories or maybe it's because I write it down at the end of the day when the damage is already done. I don't understand why this is so hard.

Early Shopping and Other News

Damien is getting so big that he's no longer fitting in 12 month clothes very well...meaning I've been having to purchase new clothes. I know he's not turning 1 for another few weeks, but I can't help but buy him new things. He got some new PJs, socks, tees, and long sleeve (for the chilly days). I also bought him some bath toys and a glow worm baby. I wanted to get Damien some sort of doll to play with and it was the only one that wasn't straight out GIRLY.

 

In other news, on Thursday night, Damien had quite an accident. He was just crawling across the floor and somehow lost his balance resulting in his face hitting the floor really hard. He split open some gum skin inside his mouth by his front teeth. There was blood EVERYWHERE. He also bite a hole in his pacifier from it. We calmed him down and called the ER/advice line people and they gave us some at-home care steps. So I gave him a bath and a popsicle and he's doing just fine :) Below are some pics I took of him today.

Found Photos

It seems like I'm always finding pictures of Damien that I've never seen before.

Damien didn't like to sit still long enough to be carried like this.

Scott entertaining Damien while I'm trying on clothes in another fitting room.

LARPing

I'm not sure what this is called. It looks like LARPing (Live Action Role Playing), but without playing a character. Basically just throwing on armor and hitting each other on a Saturday afternoon.

The long process of fitting the armor.

Waiting for battle!!!

Partying Hard

Damien was pretty tired after coming home from daycare this evening.

Heart Rate Monitor for 5K

Today I participated in a 5K "run" which equates to about 3.1 miles. I'm not really sure how far I went because the trails weren't marked with which direction to go so I had to turn around and go back. All in all though, I was walking/jogging for 1 hr and 10 min. I had my heart rate monitor on to see how many calories I burn when I run and what my heart rate is, of course. Anyways, it was about 540 calories. Pretty nice considering if I was just to sit in a chair and do nothing that I'd only burn about 120 in an hour. It's not that I didn't know that exercising burned calories, but it's good for me to see the numbers.

Progress

After some ups and downs with working out 5 days a week and being pretty unmotivated after my last PT failure, I'm finally seeing a little bit of progress with my personal trainer. I feel stronger and am able to do more than I was before. I remember the first work out with Sandi and she had me to one of my most hated exercises: dips. I couldn't do very many at all and it put so much pressure on my wrists. She keeps telling me that it's because my arms are supposed to be supporting my weight, but are too weak and my wrists are taking the weight of me. Well, today the dips went way better and I was pretty excited. This is just what I needed. Seeing some progress has inspired me to make my umpteenth attempt at a food journal. It won't be anything crazy. All I'm going to do is write down what I eat during the day. No calorie counting. No sitting there pondering the intensity of my hunger and how I am feeling (ex: bored). I'm just going to acknowledge what I eat during the day.