Isabelle's 2nd Birthday Letter

Just 1 year ago.......



May 18, 2011
Isa-Belly-Boo,
You are a little person now. The baby is gone and we are ready to celebrate your 2nd birthday already. My, how you have grown in the past year! You have been walking for so long now that you are sometimes able to outrun Riley (and usually Rudy)! You are tall for your age. People always think you are already 2 or 3! You independence doesn’t really help. You want to do everything on your own! You would rather make a complete mess of yourself trying to use a spoon alone or eating with no help at all. (I think you get that from me). It’s hard for Mommy to let go, but I know I have to let you grow into your own person. You do care about messes though! (I think you get that from Daddy). If you get your hands dirty while you are eating, you will wait until someone gives you a baby wipe so you can clean up a little (by yourself) and then finish. You are good at cleaning up the toys after a long day of playing and making a tornado of a mess in the living room. Sometimes you even do better than Riley. You like competition. If I mention that he picked up more toys than you, you will run like crazy to try to get more. Mommy LOVES that game!

Here are some things that you loved this past year: Dora the Explorer (the cartoon and anything with her on it): you have a Dora doll that you sleep with every night and when Daddy takes you somewhere, he brings it in case of emergency! Fruit snacks; you and Riley always get to pick out your own box of fruit snacks when we go to the grocery store. Cholcolate milk (sugar free) in a sippy cup with your coozie. You will not use a sippy cup anymore without your coozie to keep your hands from getting too cold. We have created a monster! Chariot style shopping cart; you and Riley get to sit next to each other in this shopping cart and we can usually only find them at Super Target, but you like to buckle your own seat belt and look at everything while we shop. Bounce houses; you will ask all day long about bouncing (and use the sign language you made up for bouncing) if you know that we are going somewhere to bounce! Playing outside (you get this from Daddy); you would camp out for weeks at a time in the backyard if we let you! It’s a struggle to get you to come inside, so we usually have to tell you that you will get a bath if you come in. Baths; your favorite time of every-other-day. You and Riley bathe together and swim while squirting each other with bath toys and pouring water from a cup as Riley shouts “waterfall” as loud as he can! You always laugh about that. You also LOVE getting your hair fixed! You are so girly! Each morning I will sit you up on my sink and ask you if you want 1 bow or 2. You always say 2, so almost every day you wear pigtails. Whether or not you really have “bows” in, doesn’t matter, you always call it bows! I was never girly, so I expect that we will learn a lot about getting fixed up together in the next few years. You also love Ravioli. You will ask to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner some days. It is the messiest thing on the planet and yet, it’s your favorite. We’ve gone through a lot of bleach this past year! Talking on the phone is a favorite pastime of yours, especially if Riley says hi to Daddy, you need to make sure you talk too (got this from Mama). Coloring, reading books, playing with your baby, and riding the motorcycle on the driveway are also some of your favorite ways to spend the day.

Some things Mommy has loved this year: Your tight hugs. You squeeze long and hard and pat my back nobody gives better hugs than you (Daddy taught you this). When you say cheese for pictures. Sometimes you have your stubborn moments when you refuse to smile, but every once in a while you will cooperate and shout “cheese” for every picture and then ask if you can see the picture! When you say “know” for I don’t know. I’ll ask, “Where is Daddy?” and you shrug your shoulders and say, “know”. It is soo funny! When you turn into a dinosaur to scare everyone. You are so shy around strangers, yet if someone mentions that you better not scare them, a different child appears who uses a dinosaur growl and scary hands in the air to get them to laugh. You always laugh the most. When you say, “I wub you” (I love you). You just started saying it and it melts my heart every time. I could honestly listen to you say it all day. When you and Riley hold hands when we are out at the gym or the store. He’s very protective over you and will make you hold his hand so you won’t be in danger. You usually tell him no, but then grab his hand anyway. Your dimple. I tell you that I’ll kiss your dimple and you smile. You have the most adorable cherub face. You get compliments on your beautiful eyes all the time, but I still say your cheeks are your best asset!

It has not been all roses and sunshine. You are, after all, entering the “terrible twos”. You have already been acquainted with time out and here are some things that you have gotten in trouble for this year: Taking toys away from Riley, getting too rough with Rudy (he is only a tiny dog and much smaller than you now!), saying “No” to Mommy and Daddy, and not sharing or taking turns. You are quite the drama queen when it comes to you getting your way. You will not back down. Some of your tantrums have been quite lengthy, but you are learning that Mommy and Daddy do not back down either and in the end, you are just pretty tired and still don’t have what you wanted to begin with. You will learn to save your energy for fun things, but for now, we are letting you learn your way on your time. You are independent, but very smart, so hopefully it won’t take long.

You have recently started using a “big girl bed”. We took the front rail off of your crib so you can get in and out of bed all by yourself. You love it (of course). It only took you 2 days to get used to it. The first night was torture since you got out of bed crying 4-5 times, but after you realized that it wasn’t that bad, you did fine and you have been a champ ever since. You can get in the bathtub by yourself as well as into your car seat without help. You are so big and strong.

I didn’t think it was possible when you were so tiny in the beginning and I was so in love with you; there was NO WAY I could ever love you more than that. But, my baby, I do! The same as you have grown bigger and stronger, my love for you has grown bigger and stronger. I love so many things about you. I see myself in you, but somehow only those good things shine through (most of the time). I see lots of Daddy in you too. You are a very healthy mix of our best qualities. You are still my baby even though I am starting to accept the idea that you aren’t. You are always on the go and I’m always waiting to see what your next adventure will be. We will see what this next year brings you. I am so proud of you; all that you are. Happy 2nd birthday Isabelle Reese! Mommy and Daddy wub you so much!

Love,
Mommy

Such a big girl now!

Happy 2nd birthday baby!

Weight Loss Journey

My weight has been a battle for me my whole life. I was always the big kid in the class. The big friend in the group, the girl that didn't make the drill team in high school becasue she was too big. I made up for it in other areas. I made good grades, I tried to be funny and make people laugh, I was a leader, a hard worker, and a helper. Maybe people wouldn't notice. If I ignored it, maybe so would they. Well, it didn't work out that way. After years of going up and down on the scale, I finally hit rock bottom after I had my 2nd baby in 2 years. The day I delivered my daughter, I weighed 240 lbs. although only 40 of it had been gained during the pregnancy.

I was constantly trying to make sure for the first 9 months that everyone around me knew that I "just had a baby" especially if Isabelle wasn't with me, because maybe then they would understand why I was so big. Sure, I was Type II diabetic and have had trouble burning sugar and fat my whole life, but it was easier to tell myself, I just had a baby. She was about 9 months old when I decided that I HAD to do something about it. The only way I was going to help myself was if I was willing to take action every day. That's exactly what I did. Starting in March of 2010, I started going to the gym 7 days a week. I did what I knew. I got on the eliptical and went for an hour. That seemed like a normal workout. I told myself that I would go everyday so that I wouldn't make excuses. My husband was right beside me. Every day I went, he went too. He started making the culinary changes we needed to see more of; grilled chicken, fish, replacing potatoes with veggies like mushrooms and peppers. Seems easy, but it was a slow change. I worked so hard at the gym. I started losing about 2 lbs. per week. I had already lost 30lbs. right after having Isabelle so I was at about 210-215lbs. in March of 2010. I have been faithful with my diet and 7 day a week exercise because I finally told myself that I was worth it to take the "Me Time" every day to make this happen. I will not say it's easy, and often get resentful when people breezily ask, "You lost 80lbs...oh, what did you do?" (hopeful for that miracle secret). When I explain that I did hard core cardio for over an hour EVERY SINGLE DAY burning around 1,000 calories per workout, for 6 months, they say, "Oh, I can't do that".

It's not rocket science. The more calories you burn, the more weight you lose. Everyone knows it, but less are willing to get up and do it. I needed to be active everyday. I needed my kids to see that it was important to me. I needed my husband to encourage me when the last thing I felt like doing was going to the gym. I had all of that, but more than anything, I needed to change my attitude about who I was and how worthy I was of deserving to live a healthy, happy life. It's a very hard thing to admit. I was ready to take care of everything else first. That would show that I was a good wife and mother. Nope. I didn't have time...Nope. I have 2 little kids. Nope. No excuses.

I needed to be honest. I decided to tell my husband that I weighed 210lbs. (anyone who has ever weighed more than their husband knows how humliating this can be-to yourself)and every Monday I would weigh myself and report. I needed that. I needed to know that I was going to be held accountable.
Over a year has passed since I started and to this day, every Monday morning I tell my husband how much I weigh. It works for me.

I can't even explain the level of support Blair gave me and what a deep respect I have for him. He never told me I needed to lose weight or workout. He just asked what my goals were and how I planned to reach them and if they were reasonable. We were a team. He would send me text messages when he was out of town to tell me to have a great workout and he would ask me how it went later. How could I NOT go? LOL. It worked! My kids started asking everyday when I got home from work if we were going to the gym because that's what we did every day. How could we NOT go? It worked. The motivation came quickly when I started getting lost in my clothes. I had started in March in a size 18/20 and was in a 12 by the end of the summer. During this school year, I have only lost 10 lbs. and I gained 5 of it back. But, I'm in a size 8 now so I am noticing more from measurements than the scale now. I got down to 158lbs at one point this year and am at 165lbs now. I know I will get back to the 150s! I have been "unclassified" as a Type II diabetic because my blood sugar is constantly under control with this amount of exercise. That was HUGE to me!

I'm still on this journey and it I ever get to a place where I think I've hit my goal and stop worrying about it, I will be doomed. I have to live this new healthy life with choices that affect it everyday. Maintenence is a goal. So, as long as I'm here, I'll be working towards something. When I finally reached 160lbs. I decided to train for a 1/2 marathon with one of my best friends, Dawn. I'm soooo not an athlete. Not even close. This was out of my league. But why not try? Why not set a goal? Why not celebrate losing 80lbs? So, I did. For 9 weeks I trained and I ended up beating my goal time of 2 1/2 hours. I finished in 2hours 27min. I've come a long way and the 13.1 miles was just a short part of it!



30 Min. before I delivered Isabelle by C-section. May 18, 2009: 240 lbs.

After: Wearing the same shirt as the day of delivery-80lbs. less. Dec. 2010

I don't recognize this person from March 2010. I was in San Antonio at the Alamo so it is blurry-but I swear, it IS me! This was at 215lbs. 1st week of working out.

After: August 2010 Lost 75lbs

After: April 10, 2011. After completing my 1st 1/2 marathon race with my friend Dawn after training for 9 weeks. I finshed in 2hrs. 27min.

Year long update

It happened to me. For 2 years of having my 1st born, I swore I wouldn't turn into a mom who lost all accounts of recorded history with the 2nd child. So here I am. A liar. My last blog was done over a year ago when I still sat at a computer to type up blogs instead of laying in bed, typing on my iPhone, which is how I do it now! My how times change! So, since I've just finished a 10 hour work day, took both kids to open house by myself at Riley's school, made dinner, got both in new diapers and pjs and tucked in bed, I'll take as little time as possible to sum up the past year. We Roaches have obviously been too busy living life to write about it. Here's a quickie: Blair is still flying pasengers w Frontier Airlines. His planes carry 85-95 people. He has been doing projects around to house to constantly make it more of our own. In the 6 years we've lived in our home, he has managed to keep adding to his list of what he can tinker with & it keeps getting better. B has always been the kind of guy you love to hate; athletic, sexy, superman metabolism, etc. It comes so easy to him, but he does work hard too. He stays in shape by working out at hotels and has played a huge role in motivating me to get healthy. About a year ago, I turned 30. Constantly told people I "just had a baby", I was type II diabetic, weighed 215lbs, and was ready to do something about it. I made up my mind that I had to get active. I had to workout 7 days a week, stop making excuses, stop being too busy, stop. So I did. I finally made a choice everyday that my health and myself were worth it. After a year of working out literally almost every day, I've lost over 50lbs in the past year. I've gone from a size 18 to an 8. I have lost a total of over 80lbs since I had Isabelle and weighed 240lbs. It has been such a long, difficult, exhausting journey, but I am so changed because of the chance I've given myself. I am not Type II diabetic anymore. I could run for no more than 2min last year. Now, I'm training for my 1st 1/2 marathon and have run 6miles (66 1/2 min) without stopping. I feel amazing! Riley is a little sponge and is learning so much in preschool. He is talking so much better! He loves school. He loves jumping, running, reading books, and watching tv. He is all boy! He is learning his ABCs and counting really well! He still calls Isabelle "baby". Isabelle is a little princess and is all girl! She is almost 2! I can't believe it! She loves getting her nails painted, hair put in ponytails, and wearing shoes! She enjoys playing outside, coloring, and reading books. We are staying busy and growing together and learning everyday how to be a better family together! So, if you don't hear from us for another year, you will know that it's because I'm the busy mom I swore I wouldn't be & I'm too busy reading to my kids to blog!
Hugs!

Catching up!

Ok, so it has been over a month since any updates. Life in the Roach house is crazy as usual. Isabelle just turned 7 months old, so here are a few updates on her:

She has 2 teeth now (she wanted her 2 front teeth for Christmas, and she got them! They are both on the bottom). After about a month of waking up in the middle of the night and being uncomfortable, they both are finally all the way up over the gums. The drooling is insane and she puts everything in her mouth. Everything. Her fingers, her toes, dog bones, toys, the side of her bouncy chair. Everything!

She is an official sitter upper! She can sit for a very long time in one spot. When she finally gets tired of it, she rolls onto her belly on purpose. No more wobbly sitting.
She can roll both ways.

Unless she is teething, she sleeps through the night and usually takes a 2-3 hour nap during the day. If we are REALLY lucky, we can sometimes time it so both kids sleep at the same time.

She is talking to herself now. She loves that she make sounds and is convinced that she is having a very meaningful conversation with us. It's adorable!

She is getting in the crawling position but only rocking, not actually crawling. She will roll from one side of the room to the toher to get what she wants, but not quite a crawler yet. It won't be long though.

She loves baby cereal and has been eating that and jar food for 3 months now. She is a great eater!

She can hold her bottle! The day couldn't come soon enough that she could help me out with this. It is such a blessing to have her want to hold it herself! I never seem to have enough hands.

Isabelle is so tall that she is wearing 12-18mo. clothes at 7mo old bc anything smaller is too short!

Riley updates:
We got him assessed for fine motor skills that he seemed to having a little trouble with and it turned out that he qualified for help with an occupational therapist. She will be coming once a week to help him with dressing and undressing, writting, using eating utinsils, and some other coordination and fine motor skills and to give us ideas of activities we can do with him. He has "class" with her on Monday mornings and his speech therapist, Susan, on Thursday mornings.

He is starting to put 2 words together regularly. We can ask him to say 2 comfortable words like "more Mama" and he will repeat. He has only been doing this for about a month and really should have started doing it 6 months ago or sooner. But, it is progress, so we just keep working with it. He is just now able to say "Mommy" and "Daddy" rather than the less mature "Mama" and "Dada" that we were used to and I LOVE it! He thinks he needs to say it in a really high pitched voice though, which is so cute!

He loves playing musical instruments! He got a set for Christmas and has even asked to take the drum sticks to bed with him for his nap and at night. When he got up in the morning, he was still holding onto them! We may have a rocker on our hands!

Riley is still very affectionate. He asks for hugs all the time and loves to sit on our laps. (Especially when we are holding Isabelle)

He has started to play with Isabelle. Now that she is down on the floor at lot more often and is getting around, he is starting to show her how the toys work (when he's not taking them away from her). We are still working on sharing!

He is getting to be a much better eater. He loves finger foods like cheese sticks, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks, but he is also starting to eat salad and meat, which was a hard sell for us for the longest time. We had to just keep trying. He will almost always eat whatever we have for our meals now which is a thousand times easier than the 30 things we would offer him before just to get him to eat an ounce of food.

Ok, so we need to catch up on some pictures over the past month or so.

Santa came to Mommy's school! Isabelle didn't even cry! She was too worried about trying to grab her feet with new shoes on! LOL

FYI: Riley hasn't used a paci since he was 3 months old. But, since Isabelle needs one, so does he!

They love playing in her crib together!

We had to celebrate Christmas 2 days early b/c Blair has to work Christmas Eve, Day and the day after. So, we already have Christmas pics! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning!
We have started a tradition with Riley that we take a "before" picture in bed with a Santa hat before going downstairs to see all the presents! Even cuter when there are 2 of them!




Stocking time!



I love my little stinky face!
Everyone was in the Christmas spirit, even Rudy.


Riley loved his Dora electric toothbrush and xylophone.

My little M & M!

Belly Boo fell asleep about half way through presents! Notice she can hold her bottle even while she is asleep! haha

Riley needed to read the directions to his new musical instrument set! LOL