i quite love mr. cohen. quite a lot. but now i'm slightly jealous of him. he's three and he has an eye for photography. already. i hope to get lucky with my picture taking, but i'm more into the editing, which may make it look like i might have an eye too....

here's a little of cohen's abstract photography with a little bit of mommy's editing =)

i never think of taking pictures of that fat ass of mine. . .  not sure it would fit in the viewfinder, but i guess i should try huh?

ok, let's get down to the nitty gritty.

this week's unsuccessful weight loss, read weight GAIN of 1.8 lbs, makes me a whole lotta 186 lbs. poop on that. can't be too surprised though, as i've not been eating too consciously. i've not been eating a ton of crap or anything, but i'm pretty sure i could have made better choices.


let's review what i could have done better. . .

• my morning and afternoon coffee: go back to my skinny caramel macchiato creamer (1 1/2 - 2 tbsp) rather than the powdered coffeemate creamer at work (random, vigourous shaking of said powder into cup without any measurements). i looked at the nutritional info yesterday on that creamer and it's measured by the teaspoon not the metric ton. whoa nelly! gotta slow down on that. when i think about it, i like the caramel macchiato much better anyway.

• my morning croissant: pretty sure i can think of 50 things better than this. the bakery two steps from my office allows for this yummy and convenient bad choice. the walk to get it in no way works off the calories consumed. funny thing is i actually prefer the easy peasy steal cut oats i've found in the freezer section at the grocery store. it's pretty freakin' awesome and only 5 WW points. if you're counting. oh, and add a zero point banana, and that's a much better choice.

• lunch: so, if i'm not careful, i might end up going to sonic for their happy hour and getting a super large unsweet tea. this is fine, but add the grilled chicken sandwich, no mayo, and my zero point tea treat turns into an 11 point meal. ugh. that's what i ate tuesday before i weighed myself in. lame. think you're making a good choice, and then wham. the 2 corndogs are less points. anyway, smart ones by weight watchers and lean cuisines include the points based on a pre-portioned meal. they fill me up, until i'm ready for my snack, and there's more variety anyway. and much cheaper. duh. back to the freezer section i go. 

oh, and by the way, they make good breakfast as well. i find that having the french toast       for lunch completely curbs my afternoon sweet tooth. which runs freakin' rampant all the live-long day.

• speaking of my sweet tooth: a cookie is not a good daily afternoon snack, even if it's oatmeal raisin. i very much like to mix dannon's light 'n' fit yogurt with breakstone's low fat livactive cottage cheese. it's a filling high fiber, high protein 3pt snack. i have no idea why i insist on sabotaging myself when i actually like the healthy alternative.

so here's to thought-out and planned-well meals next week so i don't find myself trying to make the best of what i have conveniently around me. healthy eating doesn't have to be inconvenient but it does take some getting used to. i was in the groove for awhile and it was getting pretty easy, but as soon as i fell off the routine, old habits came back in full force. it is a lifestyle change. not that i was doubting EVERYone who says that, but dammit.

be sure to stop by stephanie's blog to check out her weight loss journey too!!

cohen was watching the stoned-out-of-their-minds crew at yo gabba gabba the other day and they were drinking lemonade. he wanted to try it and it sounded really, really really good, so we bought out all the lemons at the store and preceded to make some at home...



now, cohen bites his nails. hard core. a few times i've found him bleeding, and tried my darndest to explain how awful it is, but with no success.

well, there was this one time. . .  i bought that awful anti nail biting polish and told him if he didn't stop we were going to have to paint his whole hand with it. i painted my thumb just to test if the torture would be sufficient and dear lord. a) never realized how often my thumb goes in or around my mouth in a day, b) the taste doesn't leave your tongue for a week, c) that taste is seriously awful. after bath one night i realized he had taken to biting his toe nails. really? at what point did my human decide to contort himself into a pretzel and place his dirty foot in his mouth and precede to nibble on his toes. and where was i? feeling awful about it, i pulled that polish out and told him i was going to have to use it and that it would probably hurt me more than it would him. once the toes were finished, i moved to the little fingers and to my surprise they were loooong.

"cohen!! you stopped biting your nails!!"

"well, yeah mommy, so you had room to paint them with that yucky stuff."

oh.

that didn't last long, however. he's back to being a secretly stressed ridden 3 year old.

ok, so fast forward to our brilliant idea to make fresh squeezed (with our hands) lemonade. i think we made it through 2 halves before he completely flipped his shit. i couldn't tell what was wrong with him (because unlike you, i didn't have his bad habit on my mind) and then the screaming started. poor thing. lemons and freshly bitten fingertips don't really go all that well together. so after we washed his hands and legs and arms (he's a boy with cuts and scrapes all over), our project turned into a solo one for me. well, susie homemaker's lemonade freaking rocks! i should bottle it and make you buy it from me like summertime liquid crack.

irie doesn't know it yet, but one day we'll need to plan an intervention. she's addicted, and eventually, the madness will have to stop.



she has pacifiers (called "B!!!!" in our house) stashed in every room. she usually has one in her mouth, and one in her hand, on standby. just in case. in case of what? i'm not exactly sure, but one needs to be prepared. she often switches back and forth between these two binks ... maybe to insure each has equal suckage.

this particular baby item is available just about anywhere and it's completely legal. these places sell them, in multiples and even disguise the evil with pretty colors and cute pictures of animals, with no regard to dental bills and possible mental breakdowns. accessories are available. they con mom with quotes like "mom rocks." i have fallen victim to this marketing and willingly stuck these things in my poor little girl's mouth without thinking much about it because hey, i do in fact rock people.

well now she has teeth. and now she throws tantrums. and that little piece of plastic with the little rubber nipple at the end, hurts like daggers when it's thrown at your legs as you walk away from the demon child crying on the floor (for no real apparent or life threatening reason). you should see the mad PANIC that ensues if we haven't located her stash before bedtime.

ugh. it's worse than sugar and potty training. our entire house has fallen victim to the pacifier. i don't even want to think about the day we decide to tell her she's going to have to figure out how to fall asleep without it. the intervention will come

let's wait til she's willingly peeing in a toilet.

and just in case you were wondering what i look like after miss iriebean and her big brother have had their way with me. . .


haaa! ha. it's so NOT funny.