{chocolate chip} banana oatmeal bites

It's no secret.  I have a chocolate addiction.  As well as an ice cream addiction.  But that isn't the point right now.  My point is, in general, I add chocolate chips to almost everything I bake.  And this recipe was no different.

if anyone is by chance wondering, the plate is from pottery barn a couple years ago

I found this recipe for banana oatmeal bites via pinterest.  It looked like a semi healthier mini muffin.  Lately I've been trying to find some sort of baked good to keep around the house, that is easy to eat on the go, so that Christopher can grab something before heading out the door for work in the wee hours of the morning.  So far everything I've tried has been a little too healthy for his liking, or I've failed in the baking process and burnt it.  Plus I had been making full size muffins.  But these little guys?  They got the hubby's approval.  Mine too.

I'm sure the little things would be fine without the chocolate chips, but in general if I add chocolate chips to something Chris is more apt to want to eat it, and I love chocolate (wait, did I already say that?).  Ryann likes them too, and I convinced her to try them by telling her there were chocolate chips in them.  Chocolate chips and ketchup, the two things I use to bribe my child into eating things.  Oh well.  Is dunking vegetables in chocolate counter productive?  Anyway...

Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Bites
barley adapted from Rachel Ray Blogs 

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon  (next time I might add a touch more cinnamon...)
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Grease mini muffin tins with butter or line them with mini muffin liners (I got 31 mini muffins, the original recipe says it makes 24).
2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and rolled oats.
3. In another bowl, combine eggs, bananas, oil, brown sugar and vanilla.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Do not over-mix.
4. Fill each muffin cup to the top and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Muffins will keep for 5 days tightly sealed in an airtight container or plastic baggie.

Enjoy!

a letter to ryann

My sweet baby Ryann,

I want to still call you baby, you are my baby.  But you aren't such a baby anymore.  Today Daddy and I took you to your first day of 'school', ok just mother's day out (MDO), but we are calling it school.  When I first signed you up, I freaked out a bit.  Why would I want to leave my precious girl with complete strangers for a day?  You didn't need to go there.  What was I thinking?

 

But then, then I was ok with it.  It would be great for me to have a day to catch up on, well, stuff, everything.  To have a little me time.  And I so badly want you to get to socialize with some other kiddos on a more regular basis.  At the moment you are so timid around other children.  Just one day a week, it would be good just once a week for you to do your thing, and me to do mine.

This morning as we were getting you ready, packing your things in a bag (A wet bag of course, because I haven't gotten you a cute little backpack yet, mommy is a procrastinator.  Sorry!), I started to get really worried again.  What if you hated it?  What if you cried the whole time?  I was so worried you would be miserable.  For years I wanted other mommies and daddies to trust me to take care of their babies, but now that the tables were turned I couldn't imagine how these ladies could possibly take care of you the right way.  I had so many things I wanted to tell them.  That you like this, or that, or you are most comfortable with this, or you hate it if we do that.  But I kept my mouth shut and tried to trust that they would do a great job.  Just like I hoped other parents would trust me.

  

she obviously wanted nothing to do with us, more interested in everyone and everything else!

We got to school and washed your hands, per classroom instructions.  All kiddos must start the day with clean hands!  :o).  I put your diapers on the shelf.  Your bag by your star.  And then it was time to say goodbye.  You had already started playing, so Daddy and I considered sneaking out, but I wanted a goodbye, I didn't want to just leave you.  So Daddy and I each stole a hug.  You were a bit unsure, you could tell we were leaving.  But you didn't cry.  We told you to just keep playing and we would be back.  Then Daddy and I left, my stomach was all in knots.  I didn't want to leave you.  I missed you the entire time you were there.  

But you know what my sweet little girl?  You rocked it.  You rocked your first day of school.  When we came to get you, your little eyes lit up.  Your teachers said you did great, you were happy and attentive.  Barely a tear at all.  You played with the other kids.  You sang songs.  You counted to 12 for the director of the program, oh my little smarty pants.  You are such a big girl now.

It was hard to leave you there today.  Hard to let you go a little bit.  But I am so so proud of you.  It may just be a one day a week program.  Just a few hours once a week.  But it is just the beginning of a new chapter for us.  You are starting to spread your wings.

Baby girl, I love you so much.

    

a week in my life - thursday

5:25AM:  I halfway wake up to Christopher kissing me goodbye before heading off to the hospital.  I promptly pass out again.

6:10AM:  This time I am woken up by the sound of something repeatedly slamming into a wall.  Not going to lie it is a bit startling.  I finally realize it is Ryann kicking the wall through the slats on her crib.  Lovely.  I get it.  You're up.  And I choose to lay with the pillow over my head for another 5 to 10 minutes or so.  I really REALLY need to go to bed earlier.  Eventually I get up, make the bed, get myself dressed, and go in to tell the wee one good morning.

6:58AM:  Time to eat.  I have the usual, peanut butter toast and vitamins.  Ryann has a waffle, some mango and a few yogurt melts.  While we are eating I quickly throw up a blog post (by the way, the brand of those shoes people were asking about is Naughty Monkey, I think I got them at Von Maur, or Dillards, or Nordstrom...), which really was just dropping some point and shoot pics in a post.  After breakfast we, for some reason, move a snail's pace getting ready.  I pack a change of clothes for myself, a swimsuit for Ry, and some snacks for after the gym.  Meanwhile Ryann is enjoying Jake and the Neverland Pirates on my bed.  She LOVES that show.  But is also eager when I ask her if she wants to get dressed to go to the gym.

7:55AM:  We are finally out the door.  Today my training schedule calls for a 3.5 mile run and some stretching.  The run feels rather terrible, my legs are just dragging.  But I finish my 3.5 in 32:20, and walk until I hit 40 minutes.  Feels good to have that done and over with.  After my workout I change my clothes and half attempt to put some make-up on so I don't look so ridiculous.  Then I grab Ry from the child center and change her into her swimsuit.

9:35AM:  Ryann and I eat a quick snack in the car (goldfish, some apple, part of a nutrigrain for Ry, and some chocolate covered almonds for me) before making the 20 minute drive to the splash park.  Honestly?  The drive was a little sketchy, I've never been in that area before and it wasn't what I was expecting.  But I was pleasently surprised when the park finally came in to view.  We met up with Sarah and the boys, and the kiddos seemed to really enjoy the water.  Ryann also wanted to play on the slides and such, but the play equipment was designed for kids a good bit bigger than her.  So we had a little more fun in the water before heading home.

11:30AM:  Home again.  I change Ryann out of her wet clothes and get started on lunch.  Today she is having, drumroll please.... veggie tots*!  Ha ha.  I put together a sandwich for myself, and eat the rest of the mango.

12:44PM:  Once Ryann is in her crib I consider taking a shower, but I am already wearing 'real' clothes, and I have no desire to be wet.  So I um, skip it.  I speed read some blogs before working on client projects.  And eventually end up working on my envelopes some more.  It sounded like a fine idea, signing up for that, the whole concept is awesome.  I'm just terrible at executing projects.

3:14PM:  Ryann is awake and ready to play.  As soon as I am done changing her diaper she squirms out of my arms, grabbed her stuffed kitty cat and heads to the family room.  She is so funny with stuffed animals, telling them to do this or that.  I love it.  Eventually I convince her that it is snack time (I was HUNGRY!), even though she'd rather just keep playing.  I thought I'd be cool and make peanut butter banana cracker sandwiches, which were incredibly tasty in my opinion, but Ryann freaks out when she realizes the banana is on the cracker.  So she eats hers separately.  Weirdo.

4:26PM:  Last week I got a coupon in the mail to Sports Authority, so I decide we should head over there and find me a new running top.  Race for the Cure is on Sunday, and the only pink top I have is the same one I wore for the Mother's Day 5K (so not cool obviously, wearing the same top :o).  Ryann helped me search the store for pink things, I only wish I was quicker with my camera when she was so excited that there was pink in some rainbow snake print shorts.  "Pink mommy!  Pink mommy!"  Yes thank you dear, but I'll pass on rainbow snake skin for my behind.  I find an under armor tank I like and end up only paying $10 for it.  I'll take it.

5:00PM:  Home yet again and time to start working on dinner.  This is pretty epic for me, cooking dinner by myself twice in one week.  Ryann sits on the counter while I start peeling shrimp, but eventually she gets bored so I let her run off.  Suddenly it gets a little too quiet.  "Ryann?  Miss Ryann?  RYANN ELIZABETH!"  No response.  I quickly get my butt in the family room to find her sitting quietly on the floor coloring on her pad of paper, looking like such a big girl.  Heart melting.  I head back to the kitchen to keep cooking, and Ryann joins me again not too much later.  But she is starting to get a bit whiny, and hungry, and just wants my attention.  So I give her a giant spoon, a spatula and a bowl full of blueberries.

6:11PM:  Christopher is home!  He feeds Ryann her dinner while I finish making ours. After we eat I beg Chris to be the clean up crew.  Okay, I didn't really have to beg, he is a sweetie and did it for me after I politely asked.  Ry and I head to the family room to play while daddy cleans.  Randomly I start singing a little jingle that her music table plays (said table is currently in the basement).  Ryann looks at me, runs to the gate to the basement and starts saying "Table?  Table?"  I don't know how she remembers it is down there, or connects the jingle to her table which is in the basement, but whatever.  I figure if she straight up asks for something like that I'll give it to her!  So we get it out of the basement.  When So You Think You Can Dance Comes on we start watching it together.  Man I hope Ryann wants to dance.

7:30PM:  Time for a bath.  While Chris gets Ry all squeaky clean I do a quick clean up of the kitchen and laundry room.  Then I head in to put Ryann to bed.  Randomly she tells the ball toy in the kitchen "Bye bye.  See you tomorrow.  See you in a bit."  (I taught her to say those two things, no intending them to go together.)  Then she starts saying "See you in a bit" in the weirdest high pitched voice over and over and just cracking up at her self.  So I am laughing harder than ever.  I'm sure Chris thought we were nuts.  Chris is off to bed, I grab my ice cream, and finish watching So You Think You Can Dance.

9:00PM:  After the show I read some blogs, work on my envelopes and put Ryann's clothes in dryer.  I realize I haven't taken any notes on the days events, so I figure I better write my post now rather than have nothing for it in a couple days.

10:44PM:  I really wanted to make myself go to bed at 10, but I'm still getting in bed before 11, progress maybe?

***

*Yesterday Amy asked about the veggie tots... I think I might have mentioned the veggie tots and salmon stix before, but I get them at Whole Foods.  The brand is Happy Baby, and they look like chicken nuggets/tater tots or mozzarella sticks, but have a meat substitute (I think) and veggies in them.  Even though I hate feeding her the same thing all the time, I know she will eat these, and I know she is getting some protein and veggies throughout the day. 

a week in my life - wednesday

I apparently don't take pictures in the morning.  We do most of our running around in the morning.  Which is part of it.  But I pretty much failed at capturing pictures to use throughout the day.  Oh well.

***

5:25AM:  I wake up a bit as Chris is heading out the door, but manage to fall back asleep until 6.  This time I'm up for good, so I research some ab exercises on my computer and read some blogs until Ryann wakes up around 6:20.  Time to make the bed and get my workout gear on.

6:58AM:  Typical breakfast, a slice of peanut butter toast and blueberries for the both of us.  After we are finished eating Ryann 'helps' me unload the dishwasher.  We practice counting the dishes as I put them away.  Ryann has seriously become obsessed with The Very Busy Spider, so we read it a couple of times before getting her dressed and ready to head out the door.

7:45AM:  We leave for the gym.  Today is pretty straight forward for me, two miles on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the elliptical and some ab work. 

9:40AM:  Home again, and of course, time for a snack.  Ry and I both have some watermelon, her with a side of cheerios, mine with a side of scrambled egg whites.  After a quick clean up of the dishes, we read books and color in the family room while I slowly put together a grocery list.

10:44AM:  We are on our way to the grocery store.  Ryann isn't always a huge fan of grocery shopping (or any shopping for that matter).  At the grocery store she is usually just ticked off that I won't let her eat all the fruit I'm putting in the cart.  Today I got clever, and didn't buckle her in, but let her do it.  She loves buckling her carseat, so for ten minutes or so she would work to get the buckle done, and I would undo it for her so she could try again.  Yes, I know she should be buckled in the cart at all times, but hey, you do what you have to do right? 

11:30AM:  Home from the grocery store, and time to put away the groceries.  I give Ryann a small bowl of yogurt melts to keep her occupied while I get everything sorted out and start on lunch.  Today I'm making myself a salad... with avocado and tomatoes... :o).  But the dang avocado isn't quite ripe enough so it is TOUGH to get it out of the skin.  Don't worry, I prevail.  I top my salad with some Trader Joe's pineapple salsa.  Ryann ate her chicken fingers left over from our Chili's lunch date.  She takes a while to eat, so I start having a dance party.  Which becomes even more ridiculous when I try to capture said dance party on camera.  Ryann doesn't know what to think.  Eventually we get all cleaned up and ready for nap time.

ryann is thinking, "help.  please.  someone help me.  my mom is crazy."

or she was just interested in the beeping coming from my camera.

and she was incredibly entertained by my shenanigans.  for the record.

well, except when I tried to kiss her.

12:48PM:  Ryann is in her crib and I head to the bathroom for a quick shower.  Then it is time to catch up on a few blogs and work on my envelope project.  I get a little bit hungry and grab a handful of animal crackers before starting on a wedding program for a client.

3:12PM:  Suddenly Ry is awake, staring at the monitor, yelling "MOMMY!  MILK!  MOMMY!  MILK!"  Uh, I guess little girlie is thirsty?  Sheesh!  I go to get her and find some crazy nap hair.  I love crazy nap hair :o).  We sit down for snack, a pita half and hummus for me, yogurt and pretzel fish for Ry.  I ask Ryann if she wants to run errands, she responds with "play in fam?  color in fam?"  Fam = family room, so I take it she would rather stay home to play and color.  Which is fine by me, I'm starting to feel a little run down.  I attempt to pick up toys and junk around the house, but there is a little girl following behind me pulling more stuff out.  Ryann decides she wants to read books, and of course requests all of the longest ones off her shelf.  I suppose it is ok, it means we sit still for a good 20 minutes or so!

5:40PM:  Chris is home and I am beat.  I don't know what is wrong with me, slowly but surely I am starting to feel more and more drained and sick this evening.  We have leftovers from last night's dinner.  More books are read.  Chris takes Ryann on her bike for a bit while I keep working on client projects.  When they come back in Ryann wants to play in our bed (she always wants to play in our bed) which turns in to a big tickle fest.  Good times :o).

7:23PM:  Time to get Ryann in the bath.  Chris bathes her while I clean up the kitchen.  Tonight Chris decides to put Ryann to bed so I get started watching So You Think You Can Dance.  Chris joins me for a little bit, but he is exhausted and heads off to get ready for bed.  Eventually I get my nightly bowl of ice cream, and pick up the toys in the family room during commercials.

9:00PM:  I switch over to Dance Moms on Lifetime.  Please tell me I'm not the only one out there watching this (Christin??).  I find it very, um, interesting.  :o)  While that is on in the background I work on some client projects before spending a little more time on my envelope project.  Somehow I end up on facebook...

11:09PM:  This morning I swore I would be in bed by 10:15.  Whoops.  Goodnight!

a week in my life - tuesday

My current Tuesday could be an interesting one.  This morning I woke up to Chris setting off the motion detector as he was running around late for work...

***

5:26AM:  I wake up as Chris is heading out the door.  I consider trying to go back to sleep, but my mind is racing with random thoughts and ideas, as usual.  So I grab my computer, read a few blogs, and start typing out more of the week in my life posts (even though yesterday I learned it isn't a good idea to blog at 5:30 in the morning, oh well).

6:21AM:  Ryann wakes up and starts chatting to herself.  I seriously love being able to hear her in the mornings.  Sometimes she is counting.  Sometimes she is spouting off letters.  Sometimes it is a conversation with the owl mobile above her crib.  It is absolutely adorable.  Make the bed, go to the bathroom... WHOOOOOOT!  This morning when I stepped on the scale, I saw the number I'd been hoping to see for the last five months.  It feels amazing.  I know the scale isn't the only measure of my progress, but damn, it feels SO good to meet my goal.  I grab Ryann, we eat breakfast, and get ready to head out the door.

7:45AM:  On our way to the gym.  On the schedule today?  A 3.5 mile run.  Thankfully the miles go by pretty quickly.  I throw in 25 sit-ups so I can feel like I did something besides run, and then do some stretching. 

9:22AM:  We are back home again, and a few minutes later Grammy arrives!  Unfortunately Ryann gives her the cold shoulder in favor of a snack.  Sorry Grammy, food usually trumps everything.  I try an apple with some sunflower seed butter (eh, not impressed), while Ryann has blueberries, goldfish grahams, and then steals a piece of my apple.  I put on some non sweaty clothes and we head out the door for Sam's to stock up on essentials.

10:13AM:  We have plans to meet my bestie's mom for lunch at 11:30, and realize we aren't going to have enough time to go to Sam's, come home and head back out, so we make a quick U-turn so that I can grab what we need for lunch for Ry.  Then we head off to Hobby Lobby.  I need to grab a few things for my envelope project, and pick up a couple items that I need to do a couple of crafts I've been itching to try.  We have another 15 minutes to kill so we make a trip through Old Navy.  There are a couple of cute items, but I'm not all that impressed.  However Ryann is thrilled with the Old Navy dog manequin.

11:30AM:  A little lunch date with Sheryl.  I order the Caribbean Salad without the dried cherries and add on avocado... a salad essentially with chicken, tomato and avocado, hmmm, seems to be a trend.  For Ryann I order the crispy chicken tenders and some corn.  For some reason it seems to take forever for them to bring our salads, so in the meantime I feed Ryann some snacks and part of a fruit cup.  When the waiter finally brings our food he says, "I was going to try and get her lunch over here quickly, but it looks like she had plenty of snacks to keep her happy!"  Umm, sir, did it dawn on you maybe I would have preferred she be hungrier for the lunch we are paying for?  Whatever.

hahaha oh the terror on her face.  how dare I try and have her sit next to Sheryl!

she still wouldn't cooperate

12:40PM:  We are home for nap time.  A little TMI but Ryann hasn't pooped in almost 48 hours, so I give her a little time to run around in the hopes of her working something out.  And I'm right, she gets to work, but it takes forever!  Poor thing.  When she is all cleaned up I read her a couple of books and lay her in her crib, just after 1:00.  Then it is time for a quick shower.  When I get back out to the family room I find my mom taking a little snooze of her own so I hop on the computer and read a few blogs.  Once Grammy has had a little power nap she provides some moral support while I start working on my envelope project.  It isn't exactly going how I'd hoped, but I think I've come up with something I halfway like.

3:55PM:  Sleepy little miss finally wakes up (I am by no means complaining about her sleeping!).  She gets some love from Grammy, before settling down with a snack of watermelon and cheerios.  I have some carrots and hummus.  Grammy heads back home, and Ryann and I do a good job of making a mess with all of her toys.

5:16PM:  Chris texts me to let me know he is on his way home, so Ryann and I get started on dinner.  Which equals me chopping vegetables while Ryann pulls on my shorts and whines.  She doesn't want to 'help', and she doesn't want to play by herself, so I give her a small bowl of yogurt melts.  That works for a little bit, but it doesn't take long for her to by fussy again.  Thankfully Chris gets home and just goes ahead and feeds her dinner.  By the time I am finished cooking, Ryann is finished eating, so Chris and I grab our bowls of sausage pasta skillet and eat in the family room while Ryann plays.

what?  we cook the majority of our meals in a wok.  i'm messy.  this helps.

6:40PM:  We decide on a quick bike ride around the block to entertain the wee one.  It makes her happy.  Until we come home of course.  So I read The Very Busy Spider for the 90 millionth time of the day.  And then again, and again.

(yes, I edited out her bug bites in this pic, it was too cute to leave them there!)

7:23PM:  Time for bath and bed.  Once Ry is in her crib I read some blogs while Chris and I watch, umm, Beauty and the Beast on tv.  Apparently it was the only thing on.

9:00PM:  Chris goes to bed, I turn on Teen Mom and grab my bowl of ice cream (frozen yogurt, whatever).  I love ending the day with some guilty pleasures.  More blogging, client e-mails... just before bed I start a load in the dishwasher.

10:51PM:  Goodnight!  A little creepy... same time that I checked the clock last night before shutting my eyes... 

you don't have to count calories...

...but calories count.

A couple weeks ago I read that on Monica's blog, and I thought it was such a great way to think about healthy eating and calorie counting.

Although exercise is very important to a healthy lifestyle, what you put into your body can be even more so.  It can seem rather daunting to calculate the calories for everything you eat during the day, and no, I bet no one really wants to do that everyday for the rest of their lives.  But the truth of the matter is that weight loss (or gain) is highly dependent on the ratio of calories in vs. calories out.  So even if you don't want to be a calorie counter, it is necessary to be aware of the calorie counts in various foods.  And remember that every nibble/bite/quick handful counts.

via

Some of my favorite healthy foods, almonds and avocados, happen to be pretty high calorie (go figure) so it is important to eat them in moderation and really pay attention to portion sizes.  If you are interested in losing weight, I definitely suggest tracking your calories for at least a week.  You might truly be surprised at the amount of calories, high or low, in certain foods.  Get on restaurant websites, see what your favorite meals add up to.  Find out how many calories are in the things you eat everyday.

When I started my weight loss journey, I downloaded Calorie Counter Pro by MyNetDiary on my iphone.  It was one of my most important tools I used throughout this process.  Now I don't necessarily track everything I eat, because I'm pretty aware of what most of my meals add up to.  But if I plan on splurging on something here or there, it is awesome to put in that calorie count, and see how I need to adjust my eating for the rest of the day.  Something else that was really helpful, was putting in what I planned to eat the following day, before I went to bed.  I could see how everything added up, and if I was lacking any nutritional elements.

Through this process I've also learned that I really like to eat large volumes of food.  I'm not really satisfied with a small portion of a slightly higher calorie food, so I'm finding ways to get more, without sacrificing calories.  For example, I've taught myself to like egg whites.  At first I was eating two scrambled eggs for breakfast, then I switched to one egg + two egg whites, and now I'm eating three egg whites.  I add a little milk and garlic salt to keep them from being too bland, but the calories I save are huge, not to mention the cholesterol (however the cholesterol is not something that is a major concern to me).  If I decide to give in to my craving for Panda Express (like I did last night) I get mixed veggies instead of rice. In order to still eat the pasta dishes I love, I've swapped out half the pasta for more veggies.  And to tell you the truth I like it that way a lot more! 

I challenge you all to track your calories for one day.  Did you find any surprises?

a week in my life - monday

I apparently did a terrible job of taking pictures throughout the day.  Oops...

***

5:00AM:  Boo.  Chris's alarm is going off.  I wish I was better at tuning things out when I'm trying to sleep, but I'm not.  So I toss and turn for a while, but when he leaves around 5:30 I'm up for good.  Ryann wakes up for a little bit right after he leaves as well, but thankfully she goes back to sleep.  I try and write a blog post, but who on Earth writes posts that early in the morning?  It didn't work out.

6:27AM:  Ryann is up for the day.  I make the bed, go to the bathroom, finish waking myself up, etc. before heading in to get her.  She is apparently full of sass this morning.

7:03AM:  Yum, breakfast time!  My training session isn't until this afternoon, so I get to have a larger than usual breakfast, scrambled egg whites, toast with strawberry jam and blueberries.  Ry has peanut butter toast, yogurt melts and blueberries.  While she is finishing up her breakfast, I start unloading the dishwasher.  After a bit she pretends to help me, but then runs off, so I am left trying to quickly put dishes away here and there while running back and forth between the family room and the kitchen, making sure she doesn't climb up on anything crazy or something like that.  We play in the family room, read some books, color, the usual.  I work on my no heat curls.

8:10AM:  Slowly but surely Ry and I start getting ready for the day.  It has been gloomy out this morning, but after checking the weather on my phone it looks like we might have time to squeeze in a walk before it starts raining again.  I throw on my sneakers and put Ry in the stroller.  She chats with her 'buddies' for a while (Little People toys) and then all the sudden she is really upset.  I don't have a single clue, but she says 'home' more than once, so that is where we head.

9:32AM:  Despite several requests from the little miss, we do not stay outside on the soaking wet driveway to draw with chalk.  Instead we head in for a snack.  Grapes, string cheese and chocolate covered almonds for me, grapes and a graham cracker for Ry.  We head to Ry's room to get her dressed, and she decides she wants to play with some headbands.  Squeeee!  I'm so excited.  She won't leave them on longer than five seconds, but the fact that she wants to try them all on is definitely a step in the right direction.

10:20AM:  Ry really wants to color, but I really want to run and pick up some envelopes before it starts raining again.  I agree to a few more 'draw this' requests before scooping her up and sticking her in the car.  Off to Xpedx we go!  We grab some envelopes and cardstock, and Ry carries the goodies to the register for me.  And then proceeds to try and escape out the front door.  Love me some toddler wrangling while attempting to sign a receipt.  We head back home, for you guessed it, more coloring, books and toys.

11:30AM:  I get the oven heating up and finish cleaning the kitchen from breakfast while Ry throws half the books of her shelves.  Good times.  For lunch Ryann has veggie tots, salmon stix and a fruit cup.  For me it is leftovers from last night's dinner.  We read a couple books before I lay Ry down in her crib.

12:21PM:  Somebody is not acting all that sleepy, and a wee bit cranky... I quickly clean up from lunch, and settle in front of my computer to finish up some ad design work.  Once I e-mail off a proof, I read a few blog posts.  But Ryann still isn't sleeping.  And she isn't exactly laying calmly either.  Since she hasn't pooped yet today I decide to check on her, usually she won't go to sleep if she has a dirty diaper.  But that isn't the problem, so I tell her to lay down and go to sleep.  Apparently that wasn't what she wanted to hear, because after I close her door she is crying uncontrollably.  I give her another ten minutes before checking on her again. 

1:14PM:  Something is just off, even though Ry isn't usually quiet about going to sleep, she rarely gets upset anymore.  I cross my fingers, and hope laying in bed with Nick Jr. on will make her zonk out.  All I succeed in doing is making myself tired, Ry on the other hand perks up like crazy and can't seem to sit still.  So I guess a nap isn't in the cards for us today?  Ridiculous.

2:00PM:  In the family room Ryann slips on some beads and declares herself 'sooo pretty'.  YES!  More girliness happening!  My heart is bursting with happiness :o).  We spend a good deal of time taking necklaces on and off, counting them, talking about the colors, and just having a great time.  Again, she won't wear the necklaces for any length of time, but people we are so making progress in the girly department.  We have a snack, mango and goldfish for Ryann, half a sandwich thin with hummus for me.  It is about time to head out the door for the gym, but I get a text asking for a couple of edits on the ad I e-mailed out.  I scramble to get it done and we are out the door.

3:18PM:  Surprise surprise, Ryann passes out on the way to the gym.  I had intended to do a little cardio before my session with the trainer, so instead I spend 20 minutes playing on my phone while Ryann gets in a little nap.  When I do get her out of the car she looks like a hot mess, one side of her head got SO sweaty, and her curls are super crazy, not to mention all the bug bites she has right now look ridiculous.  As I was setting her down in the child center I realize she is only wearing one shoe.  Crap.  Where did that stupid thing go?  I do find it, all the way back in the car.  I still manage to make it upstairs on time for my session.  I follow that up with 20 minutes on the elliptical before getting Ryann and heading home.

5:22PM:  When I am getting Ry out of the car, all she wants to do is color with sidewalk chalk.  I put in a text to the daddy, since my instructions were to be inside... Ry and I have both been getting covered in bug bites the last couple of days.  I convince him we will be fine, lather us up with some bug repellent and grab the off fan.  Some sidewalk chalk and bubbles until daddy comes home, to one very sticky messy baby :o).

6:03PM:  Dinnertime!  We are totally taking the easy route, microwave meals all around.  Chris tried a pesto tortellini bowl from Trader Joe's, eh.  Nothing exciting.  I had a Healthy Choice Steamer, rosemary chicken and sweet potatoes.  It is a pretty good one.  Everyone enjoys a little bit of watermelon as well.  Yum.

why does she look scary when she's eating watermelon? 

a little post dinner crack.  reason #937 my kid shouldn't be left without pants on.

6:43PM:  Chris plays with Ry while I get the kitchen all nice and tidy.  When I'm done I join them for some wrestling in the bed.  Ryann loves to play in our bed all the time.  Eventually we decide it is time for a bath, since a little someone didn't really sleep much today.

7:37PM:  Ryann is in bed, so I hit the computer for some serious blogging.  First I whip up a post about how crossfit is going for me, and then for some reason, I let my tired brain write a post about my hair.  Ridiculous?  Yes.

9:11PM:  Nightly ice cream break.  Seriously, break a few pretzels in your frozen yogurt.  You'll thank me.  I put the finishing touches on my hair post before heading to bed to snuggle with Chris.  When he drifts off I get lost on pinterest.  I do so love wasting my time on pinterest. 

10:51PM:  Whoot!  Lights out before 11:00.  Go me!