Isla walks, eats dog food, and has really long fingernails.

-Isla is walking 98% of the time now, which is just crazy for me to wrap my mind around! My little baby...not even 11 months yet should not be walking! She only crawls if she has to get somewhere fast...like if she sees a weakness in my security barricades, she bolts! Anyway, earlier today I was in the kitchen getting breakfast and around the corner walks Isla with a huge smile on her face. I realized at that moment that I have a big girl now, not a baby! I know I say that all the time...but I just can't get over it. In order to get into the kitchen, Isla had to move the pack-n-play (which I use to block off the entrance to the kitchen/dining room). She has learned to pull it just enough to give her a tiny bit of room to squeeze though. Smart kid.

-Yesterday Isla ate dog food. Well, she didn't actually digest it. She put a handful in her mouth and you should have seen the disgust on her face when she realized that Torii's food is not yummy. Priceless. She opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue, and the let dog food fall to the floor. Ever since she started crawling, I had become super paranoid about her choking on dog food. Since we leave Torii's bowl full all the time, I knew it would be a matter of time before she got into it.

-Now that Isla is walking, she follows me everywhere. Normally she doesn't even like me sitting at the computer and she tries to pull herself up and touch the keyboard. She screams when she isn't able to pound her little fingers on the keys. Right now, she has been reading books for a good 20 minutes, which is a nice little break for me. I love being home with Isla...but I have a hard time playing with her. I don't know what to do for hours and hours each day! Play time is not very fun at this age...I can't wait until she is older so we can play dolls, barbies, and do fun crafts. Earlier, we spent 15 minutes or so taking turns putting the little dump truck driver in our mouths. Back and forth. Woooo!!

-Isla refuses to hold her bottle or sippy cup. I have tried everything I can think of to get her to use her hands. I will hold the bottle and then let go. Instead of holding it, she will grab the bottle and throw it on the floor! Then she screams. She prefers me holding the bottle so she can stick her fingers up my nose and mouth. After she cut the inside of my mouth this morning, I realized her fingernails are longer than mine. I better get on that...

Surgery!

I have waited 28 years for this....next week I will be able to breathe out of my nose! Woo! Although the thought of surgery is not at all pleasant. I have only been put to sleep for a surgery once when I was 7 years old...I still remember being asked to start counting backwards from 10. I was too young to be freaked out by what was happening.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled out 3 years ago and I remained awake and used laughing gas and Novocaine to numb the pain. I refused to be knocked out. Now, I have no choice. The doctor is going to go in and remove the massive nasal polyps that are restricting my airway and straighten my septum. Obviously it's not something I'd like to be awake for if it was even possible. I'm mainly scared of never waking up again. I know it sounds ridiculous, and the chances of that happening are virtually zero...but still.

I'm trying to focus on the positive aspects so I don't send myself into a worrying frenzy. So aside from the fact that I'll be able to breathe like a normal person, I also get ME time Thursday-Sunday as Andy is taking over full duty of Isla so I can recover/be lazy. Bring on the girly movies and One Tree Hill DVDs!!

I steal cookies from children.

Isla and I were at Subway a few days ago and I had to resist the urge to get a yummy chocolate chip cookie. After I paid for my sandwich, the cashier (one of the many women there who LOVE Isla) asked if Isla wanted a cookie. I said no, but she took one out anyway and gave it to her. I gave her the tiniest crumb and then scarfed the rest of the cookie down in three bites, Cookie Monster style. Of course, I waited until I got to my car to enjoy the chocolaty goodness. I didn't need everyone to know that I enjoy stealing cookies from small children.

The hyphen.

I hate, HATE having a hyphenated name. It causes me nothing but problems everywhere I go, specifically at the doctor's office. Our insurance card only says Andy S*****. And since my last name is W***-S***** I run into problems. My name gets filed under S a lot, instead of W, which I don't understand. Sometimes people don't use the hyphen when they spell my name, and then when I go to type my name to check in...there is no match, because it hasn't wasn't spelled right in the first place! Grrr.

Usually, I still go by only my maiden name if I'm making an appointment somewhere. I just ignore the hyphenated crap all together. This sometimes makes me feel like I'm living a double life, or have multiple identities. Sometimes I get confused when I call and make an appointment...I can't remember what last name I've given them in the first place.

I love my maiden name. I don't want to give it up, but I may just throw in the towel and change my name to S***** to make life easier on myself. I'd prefer to drop Andy's last name and continue to use my maiden name, but I'm pretty sure I'd be sleeping on the couch for life if I did that.

I pay money to get my ass kicked.

When I signed up for boot camp, I knew it would be HARD. It's not hard. It's brutal. Intense. Almost unbearable. I assumed this boot camp was for people who needed to get in shape, like ME! Wrong again. Almost the entire class, minus 3 or so people, are in GREAT shape! They run circles around me, literally.

Let's rewind to my first day of class. (I missed the official first class because of my MN trip). By my first class, my brother, Tom, had already dropped out! He didn't officially quit until the next week...but we knew he had no intentions of coming back. Anyway, so we get outside and our warm up is almost a mile run. YIKES. If that was our warm up, I knew I was in trouble. Then, our workout consisted of sprinting roughly 100 meters, then doing 10 squats, lunges, push ups, mountain climbers and jumping jacks. Then we had to sprint back and do 9 of each, then 8, then 7...you get the idea. It doesn't sound too horrible when I write it, but living it, SUCKED. After that, there was more running, ab work, and a cool down. It was a 50 minute workout, but it seemed like hours.

I hadn't worked out since the summer of 2008...and that was just half-assed working out. Going from no working out, to boot camp is KILLER. My body is in constant pain. Getting up at 5:00am Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is rough. Especially when I know I'm just going to get my ass kicked. It's very tempting to sleep in, although I haven't missed a class since I started!!

Yesterday, we ran a mile for our warm up, ran up and down a hill for 15 minutes, did stairs for 5 mins, and then ran up the hill backwards for 5 mins. We also did some arm work, ab work, and core work before the cool down.

On Wednesday we ran to York High School and worked out out on the track. It totally brought me back to my track days. In track, I ran the 400 meter dash (one lap around the track). The 400 is tough, because it's essentially a sprint the entire way around. Now, I could barely jog 1 lap without feeling completely winded. WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?! I could still picture high school Betsy at practice, running effortlessly around the track, leaping hurdles, sprinting, and overall kicking ass...I miss that! It was definitely motivation to keep me going.

Each workout is different, and brutal. I have been close to passing out more than once. I keep reminding myself that no one on The Biggest Loser has died during a workout...and I continue to push myself each workout because I hate being so out of shape. I'm hoping at the end of boot camp (in 3 weeks) that I will see some good results.

I'm running my first 5K (since college!) in July, and I'm hoping to run the entire way. I'm also hoping to rid myself of this flesh fanny pack I've been lugging around for almost a year now.

My Big Girl!

Isla has changed so much in the last few weeks. She no longer wakes up during the night. YAY! DOUBLE YAY! It's so lovely to be able to get a full nights sleep. I think the combination of eating big people food, and drinking 7oz per bottle instead of 6 helped. The last night feeding was 2 weeks ago, and that was only once that entire week! We have been putting her down around 7:30 and she gets up around 6am. I think she is going through a major growth spurt because she has been much more tired lately! Yesterday, she napped for 3 1/2 hours before I woke her up!! She used to nap from 10-12, now it's more like 9-11:30 and then sometimes an afternoon nap for an hour or so. I'm not complaining...I like the extra time to get things done! But it is kind of crazy for her to be sleeping so much.

Aside from her sleep schedule, her eating habits essentially changed over night. She used to eat EVERYTHING! Now, she won't eat peas, carrots, peaches, pears, and squash. One day she was shoving those foods in her mouth, the next she won't touch them! It's pretty frustrating. She can't get enough green beans, grapes, and watermelon though.

Isla is walking more and more each day! She still prefers crawling, but she is definitely on her way to full time walking soon. She is still in love with Yo Gabba Gabba and cheers and claps each time I turn it on. She bounces along to the songs, and points and laughs throughout the entire show. Yo Gabba Gabba live is coming to Chicago in October. I'm debating bringing Isla. She'll be 15 months and that might be a little young to see a live show, even though it is only an hour long. We'll see.

She still loves reading books, and lately she's been playing a lot with her "babies" (my favorite cabbage patch kids), hanging out in Torii's doggy bed, and playing with her dump truck. (Yes, I bought her a dump truck. She loves pushing cars around and making "brrrrrrr brrrr noises). She also loves going for walks and swinging on the swings.

I swear, she just gets cuter and cuter every day! The millions of hugs and kisses I get each day make me so happy. I'll leave you with some play time pictures from this week.

I'm not dead.

I haven't been feeling much like writing lately! I do have lots to write about though...

I could talk about Isla and her bedtime routine and her new eating habits, or my ridiculous amounts of doctor appointments lately, or my upcoming surgery, or my venture into anxiety medicine, or boot camp, or about adapting to life in IL, or how I have the cutest kid ever, or about random conversations strangers keep starting with me...

Maybe tomorrow!