I really love to check the mail, like I can't wait to get everyone and everything in the house in the afternoons so I can grab that little key by our family pictures and turn the lock to see what is there. No, really.
I'm not usually expecting anything specific, but I just love to see what is waiting for me on any given day. Sometimes it is a new issue of a magazine (Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, to name a few of our subscriptions) and though I don't usually have time these days to sit down and enjoy it right away, knowing that Matty and I will choose recipes out of them that we want to cook for each other, that I will dog ear pages of places to put on our travel bucket list and that they will be tucked away to read at the beach or during a family nap (aka mommy's reading time) makes me happy.
Sometimes there are cards from family and friends to the baby, which I love to see. Her little name printed on an envelope always makes me smile; such a beautiful name for a beautiful baby. And lots of times there are coupons and ads and circulars because I sign up for every rewards program out there and clip coupons and make long, organized lists of where we need to go to buy diapers or cases of Greek yogurt or Yankee candles.
Last week our little mail box was bursting with good news. No fewer than one baby shower invite, two wedding shower invites and three wedding invites! There is so much love and excitement happening for our friends and I am so excited to share in their celebrations!
After I had the baby this past fall I realized that between our engagement in February of 2009, our wedding in September of 2010, the birth of Madeleine in November of 2011 and her baptism this past February, I had received about three million wonderful gifts and cards from our loved ones and I had likely sent out an entire forest's worth of thank you cards to try and convey how truly, deeply thankful we were for everything.
Now, it is our turn.
We get to shower people with Crate and Barrel boxes and tiny little baby gifts and let them know that we are so excited for the new chapter in their lives.
Matty and I have only bought three boxes of diapers since the baby was born, and two of them remain unopened, which is just a small example of how helpful everyone was in preparing us for the baby's arrival. We ate our mac and cheese with hot dogs (my under-the-weather choice of cuisine last night) out of beautiful bowls with real silverware and slept under a warm down comforter - all gifts of love and generosity from our many recent celebrations and I am excited to provide the same for others. There is just something so adult feeling about having more than enough matching plates when people come over for dinner, I tell you! And thinking about where they came from, even on the couch watching Community over mac and cheese always makes me smile.
With the onset of "wedding season" I am feeling more pressure to get my mommy butt (and the rest of me) into shape so I have recently decided to lay off of the sweets, save for one indulgence per week. I love sweets but for some reason was under the impression that I don't eat them that much. Someone must have slipped something into my munchkins, because in the few days that I have decided to opt out of eating them I have been presented with three cakes (two in one day at work!), a cupcake, a doughnut and an entire bag of candy. These are all things I would have gladly shoved into my mouth, because I don't eat a lot of sweets, so one here and there aren't bad...but that's actually completely untrue, I am the cookie monster! I am glad that I am finally noticing this, and this is probably what has been sabotaging the scale lately and keeping it from going down as quickly as I want it to (and here I thought it was Louis sneaking in and putting his paw on the scale each week). So, sugar free Stefanie is going to give this a whirl and see what it does for me. I have read the recent adventures of other bloggers that have completely given up sugar and talk about a whole new level of feeling healthy, so perhaps I will benefit that way with my new limit of one per week (not having any is no way to live, sorry). Don't get me wrong, I love sweets, and food in general, and this is in no way a "diet", because I am not a big fan of that idea at all. I tend to make pretty healthy choices in what I eat and don't like to shy away from something delicious in exchange for something boring (especially when eating out), but I do try and keep things in moderation and spend a little extra time exercising if I feel that I overdid it on the Tasty Burger.
I do know that I am not comfortable at the weight I am at and YES I know that I just had a baby, but really, she is almost five months old, so just is being generous. And I am also very aware that I am breastfeeding (solely, as a matter of fact, no formula for my little one) but I am not breastfeeding out of my tummy's fat stores and I am not Heidi Klum so it is not causing me drop five pounds a week to nourish my child. I really just need to get my shit together. I need to get out of bed and away from my warm, snuggly baby who is fast asleep at 5am to go running so I can get home when she does wake up feeling awesome about myself; I need to stop shoveling sugar down my throat and wondering why my healthy diet isn't helping me to drop more pounds and I need to continue to get to yoga class whenever I can and get on my bike as soon as the weather stops being seasonable and goes back to being more like summer.
I tend to shy away from talking about weight and body image here because I don't want to send the message that it is something that is a major priority or something that I lay in bed obsessing over (I don't, I am usually thinking about my next move in Draw Something or kissing the baby's cheek until she starts to stir and I have to tell myself not to wake her up) but putting it here makes me feel a little more accountable and gives me a little motivation. Almost as much motivation as this dress
So that is my Tuesday story.
In other news, Madeleine is trying really, really hard to sit up, and she gets into this little 'V' position that resembles the 100 position in Pilates and it is adorable and hilarious. If you give her your fingers while she is doing this and give her a little lift she comes right up and breaks into a huge, proud smile. It's wonderful and I really love watching her master new things and smile at herself for accomplishing them.
I have been battling some terrible chest congestion since we have been back so I am trying to take it really easy this week, which unfortunately meant I had to pull out of an event for St. Baldrick's, but being a mommy and being sick is a serious different ball game and I can't bang out of that job, so I have to try and really pay attention to my body when it is asking me to be nice to it.
This weekend we are celebrating Easter brunch with Jane before she leaves for vacation, hanging out with our awesome nanny share parents and I am attending the first (of many) bridal showers of the season! Yay!
Have a wonderful week y'all, and don't forget to check the mail.
XoXo
I'm not usually expecting anything specific, but I just love to see what is waiting for me on any given day. Sometimes it is a new issue of a magazine (Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, to name a few of our subscriptions) and though I don't usually have time these days to sit down and enjoy it right away, knowing that Matty and I will choose recipes out of them that we want to cook for each other, that I will dog ear pages of places to put on our travel bucket list and that they will be tucked away to read at the beach or during a family nap (aka mommy's reading time) makes me happy.
Sometimes there are cards from family and friends to the baby, which I love to see. Her little name printed on an envelope always makes me smile; such a beautiful name for a beautiful baby. And lots of times there are coupons and ads and circulars because I sign up for every rewards program out there and clip coupons and make long, organized lists of where we need to go to buy diapers or cases of Greek yogurt or Yankee candles.
Last week our little mail box was bursting with good news. No fewer than one baby shower invite, two wedding shower invites and three wedding invites! There is so much love and excitement happening for our friends and I am so excited to share in their celebrations!
After I had the baby this past fall I realized that between our engagement in February of 2009, our wedding in September of 2010, the birth of Madeleine in November of 2011 and her baptism this past February, I had received about three million wonderful gifts and cards from our loved ones and I had likely sent out an entire forest's worth of thank you cards to try and convey how truly, deeply thankful we were for everything.
Now, it is our turn.
We get to shower people with Crate and Barrel boxes and tiny little baby gifts and let them know that we are so excited for the new chapter in their lives.
Matty and I have only bought three boxes of diapers since the baby was born, and two of them remain unopened, which is just a small example of how helpful everyone was in preparing us for the baby's arrival. We ate our mac and cheese with hot dogs (my under-the-weather choice of cuisine last night) out of beautiful bowls with real silverware and slept under a warm down comforter - all gifts of love and generosity from our many recent celebrations and I am excited to provide the same for others. There is just something so adult feeling about having more than enough matching plates when people come over for dinner, I tell you! And thinking about where they came from, even on the couch watching Community over mac and cheese always makes me smile.
With the onset of "wedding season" I am feeling more pressure to get my mommy butt (and the rest of me) into shape so I have recently decided to lay off of the sweets, save for one indulgence per week. I love sweets but for some reason was under the impression that I don't eat them that much. Someone must have slipped something into my munchkins, because in the few days that I have decided to opt out of eating them I have been presented with three cakes (two in one day at work!), a cupcake, a doughnut and an entire bag of candy. These are all things I would have gladly shoved into my mouth, because I don't eat a lot of sweets, so one here and there aren't bad...but that's actually completely untrue, I am the cookie monster! I am glad that I am finally noticing this, and this is probably what has been sabotaging the scale lately and keeping it from going down as quickly as I want it to (and here I thought it was Louis sneaking in and putting his paw on the scale each week). So, sugar free Stefanie is going to give this a whirl and see what it does for me. I have read the recent adventures of other bloggers that have completely given up sugar and talk about a whole new level of feeling healthy, so perhaps I will benefit that way with my new limit of one per week (not having any is no way to live, sorry). Don't get me wrong, I love sweets, and food in general, and this is in no way a "diet", because I am not a big fan of that idea at all. I tend to make pretty healthy choices in what I eat and don't like to shy away from something delicious in exchange for something boring (especially when eating out), but I do try and keep things in moderation and spend a little extra time exercising if I feel that I overdid it on the Tasty Burger.
I do know that I am not comfortable at the weight I am at and YES I know that I just had a baby, but really, she is almost five months old, so just is being generous. And I am also very aware that I am breastfeeding (solely, as a matter of fact, no formula for my little one) but I am not breastfeeding out of my tummy's fat stores and I am not Heidi Klum so it is not causing me drop five pounds a week to nourish my child. I really just need to get my shit together. I need to get out of bed and away from my warm, snuggly baby who is fast asleep at 5am to go running so I can get home when she does wake up feeling awesome about myself; I need to stop shoveling sugar down my throat and wondering why my healthy diet isn't helping me to drop more pounds and I need to continue to get to yoga class whenever I can and get on my bike as soon as the weather stops being seasonable and goes back to being more like summer.
I tend to shy away from talking about weight and body image here because I don't want to send the message that it is something that is a major priority or something that I lay in bed obsessing over (I don't, I am usually thinking about my next move in Draw Something or kissing the baby's cheek until she starts to stir and I have to tell myself not to wake her up) but putting it here makes me feel a little more accountable and gives me a little motivation. Almost as much motivation as this dress
Oh how I heart you and your overpriced things, Anthropologie
which I plan on buying for the season once I am a size that I can buy in person and not online in my yoga pants while juggling munchkins.So that is my Tuesday story.
In other news, Madeleine is trying really, really hard to sit up, and she gets into this little 'V' position that resembles the 100 position in Pilates and it is adorable and hilarious. If you give her your fingers while she is doing this and give her a little lift she comes right up and breaks into a huge, proud smile. It's wonderful and I really love watching her master new things and smile at herself for accomplishing them.
Reading me her new book from Aunt Megan on the drive home from NY, while also holding her new ball. Our kid, spoiled rotten? Noooo
We spent the weekend in Brooklyn with Megan and Julian and got to enjoy a super sunny day on Saturday doing some shopping, some great eating (I had tongue for my first time), walking around Prospect Park and paying skee ball at an awesome bar in Williamsburg. Maddie had lots of fun cruising around Brooklyn and loved seeing her Aunt and Uncle and getting to make them smile (her favorite activity these days is to get people to smile, when she isn't doing Pilates).
I have been battling some terrible chest congestion since we have been back so I am trying to take it really easy this week, which unfortunately meant I had to pull out of an event for St. Baldrick's, but being a mommy and being sick is a serious different ball game and I can't bang out of that job, so I have to try and really pay attention to my body when it is asking me to be nice to it.
This weekend we are celebrating Easter brunch with Jane before she leaves for vacation, hanging out with our awesome nanny share parents and I am attending the first (of many) bridal showers of the season! Yay!
Have a wonderful week y'all, and don't forget to check the mail.
XoXo
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