Movies and Meatless Mondays

Hunter and I went to our first movie together today. It was fantastic. Monday Morning Mommy Movies is such a great idea. As soon as the movie came on Hunter was in awe. I think he was excited for such a huge TV. Much to our chagrin, the kid loves TV. He was fussy for a good 1/2 hour, but it wasn't too traumatizing since most of the other babies were as well. All us moms got up and walked around, bounced the kids in the aisles and changed diapers on the changing area set up in the theater. I will definitely be doing this again.

So Adam is very particular about what he eats. Even though his parents are very fit he still has a family history of high cholesterol and blood pressure. We try to watch sodium and cholesterol intake but now that we're on this health kick we've decided to eat a lot more lean meats and vegetables. But yesterday Adam decided he'd like to include a lot more vegan meals into our normal dinner repertoire. Enter Meatless Mondays (and possibly Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well.)

And now I have to give a shout out to Stone Brewing Company for having a meatless menu on Mondays. One more reason in a very long line of reasons to drink Stone.

I got this amazing cookbook from my friend Lem Jay for my birthday. It's called 'The Conscious Cook' by Tal Ronnen. And it's touted as vegan recipes for carnivores. I highly recommend it. Tonight we had Agave-Lime Grilled Tofu with Asian Coleslaw and M Cafe's Scarlet Quinoa Salad.

You'll have to buy the book for the tofu and slaw recipes, and believe me, it's so worth it. But here is the M Cafe Scarlet Quinoa Salad Recipe from the LA Times.

And here are some pics of little man from the past few days.

xoxo,

Lauren

A Dose of Cute

I've been neglecting the daily picture so here are some from the last few weeks.

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad

Adam's back home and things didn't get easier as I had anticipated, although he did fix the electricity and the computer instantly. He's way busier than either of us was expecting so fewer breaks for him means fewer breaks for me, as well as making 3 meals, extra laundry, the list goes on... But he's really enjoying his work these days and he's doing it mostly from home, so that's been nice for both of us.

He wasn't supposed to have work this week but he got some awesome work very short notice. And I am so excited for him. I really wanted to post about it on Facebook but he asked me to hold off, although he did say I could put it on my blog because maybe 10 people tops actually read it. So he's working with this guy in a band that rhymes with Schmeastie Shmoys. SO COOL! I guess it's so exciting to me because I've been listening to them since I was 6. So yay for Adam!

As for me, I guess my full-time job title is now Mom. I was planning to go back to work on a limited basis in September but apparently my job no longer exists. Can you sense the bitterness?The girl that has been covering my position is only working there twice a week because there is so little work. She immediately changed stuff when she began working there and she's been doing stuff her way for the last 4 months so I'd have to be retrained to do MY job anyway. I'm bitter about it because I don't think the situation was handled very well by my ex-boss. But she often doesn't handle things well, so I should have assumed this would happen.

If I could I would do this (NSFW):

The good news is that Adam totally supports me staying at home, although he is urging me to resume painting more and maybe doing something with my art degree. I know I am so lucky to have his support and this opportunity. And I'm looking forward to giving Hunter my undivided attention, like he deserves. It just wasn't planned this way so it's thrown me for a bit of a loop. But I believe things are this way for a reason and for the better. And of course I want to spend every day with this little dude.

In other news, I'm finally below my pre-pregnancy weight. So rad! I've been working my ass off! Literally. I put on freshly washed jeans this morning and didn't even have to do the waist band pull or shimmy into them, they just fit perfectly. It did take me closer to 4 months than the 3 I had hoped for to lose the weight. But I also gained more weight than I wanted.

Because I had a high risk pregnancy I had to go to a perinatologist. Even my OB called him the "food Nazi." And he really was. Every time I went to see him (monthly) I was in tears, expecting to be yelled at for my weight gain. At 36 weeks and 35 pounds gained, when I was already feeling pretty fat and grumpy, he gave me a really harsh lecture on how studies show because I was already overweight if I gained any more I was going to keep gaining and become obese. And that when I started breast feeding, I couldn't have any extra calories because that would make my kid obese too. He was so mean. And now I'm BELOW my pre-pregnancy weight. So Dr. Doany, to you I say FACE!

So good to get that all of my chest!

XOXO,

Lauren