Cotton Candy and Kale

So having KALE for lunch makes up for all of the COTTON CANDY, right?

My aunt gave this little bucket of sugary cottony candy goodness to Ruby with her other birthday gifts! Thanks CC! HAHAHAHA! No really, my dad the dentist says there is nothing wrong with having super sugary things as long as you brush regularly (really regularly)! I did deal with sugar crash that day, though. What's childhood without a good sugar high every once in a while?
Now for the surprising information: my kids LOVE KALE! Who would've "thunk" it? I saw a recipe for crispy kale chips in some family geared magazine a while back and thought I'd give it a whirl. I couldn't find the mag, but thanks to the marvels of the internet...viola, crispy kale chips in minutes. Yes, minutes. It took less than 20 to bake some super iron-y and vitamin-y goodness that Ruby and Elvis ate up!

My question to Ruby: "What is your favorite? Mac & Cheese or Kale?"

Ruby's reply: "I like the KALE the best!"

(She ended up eating more than 2 helpings of Kale and about 1/2 a helping of Mac! AHHHHmazing!)

xoxo

Ruby is 3 Years Old!

Yesterday we had Ruby's THIRD Birthday party, a costume party in City Park. It was AWESOME! Thank you everyone for participating by wearing your super cool Halloween costumes...everybody looked so great! We had a fabulous time. For those who weren't able to join us here are a few pics to help you pretend you could make it (thanks to Rob for sharing his photos...I only snapped a few of the kids in costume before the party really got swinging).

This is SERIOUS! Ruby and Elvis as the Wonder Pets' Ming Ming and Tuck.

Ruby loves her Ming Ming costume & being 3 years old!

Elvis wore his Tuck costume the entire length of the party (much more than I can say for Ruby).

I can't say for sure, but I think Papa's costume was "a football fan graciously missing the game for his great grand daughter's birthday"! :)

Mimi was a beautiful "Pumpkin Fairy"!

Rob wins for easiest to put together costume, a tourist!

Our favorite arm sniffing Becca...I mean Mary Katherine Gallager.

Lil' B & MKG

Ruby requested CUPCAKES...thank goodness she didn't want a Ming Ming shaped cake! Not being able to make it easy for myself I made 72.

You can see Alex's and my (sort of) costumes here. We were Woody and Bo Peep from Toy Story.

The BOYZ!

The WINNERS of Ruby's 1st annual Costume Contest: The Puccio Family as Mystery Inc. aka The Scooby Gang

(Anyone willing to attach facial hair to their infant instantly wins extra points in my book!)

I wish the last pic I had was of Ruby, but she was too busy running around playing with everyone. So, here's Elvis saying farewell from the party...see y'all next year!

Ruby was very much surrounded by people she loves and who love her yesterday. She is more than excited about all of her big girl presents (which include Barbie Dolls, art sets, big kid puzzels and a SKATE BOARD). While playing base ball with the big kids Ruby actually hit the ball with the bat but ran the wrong way (not toward 3rd base but completely away from the field all together). There was so much fun had, she (and we) are so lucky!

I asked Ruby this morning if she can believe she is 3 years old and she responded with an are you kidding me "YEAH!" It seems like yesterday that I was in that hospital room not knowing exactly what to expect from this little being I was about to meet. I can't believe I'm about to cry. She was so beautiful yet alien to me at the same time. I knew I loved her more than anything, but there was still a hesitance about it all. I wanted to make sure I could take care of her, love her, do what she needed me to. I was afraid I wouldn't measure up, know what to do, be able to do things right. I am so thankful that instinct and LOVE took over. Some how when we got her home by some miraculous unseen force everything fell into place. The farther from the hospital we drove everything got less and less foreign, it seemed as if Ruby had been there forever with us. She was a piece of us that had been there the whole time just not physically. As she sits on the other side of the room from me this moment with her mouth agape watching a movie (Monster's vs. Aliens for the 3rd time in 2 days...gotta make the best of a rental) I look over at her and try to imagine a world without her and it isn't possible...not at all...ever! I tell her "Mommy is writing a blog about how much I love you" and she rolls her eyes. That's my girl! We are so blessed to have both of our children, but today is all about my Ruby.

So, today is Ruby's actual birthday and we have a little fun planned. In the typical Austin Family style, we'll be going to the movies (probably Where the Wild Things Are) topped off by dinner at Chuck E. Cheese (They have a fabulous birthday club that sends coupons for free stuff...I have Ruby's and Elvis's coupons! Awesome!).

xoxo

WILD THING

Yeah, wild with cuteness!

The other day Ruby thought her baby brother needed to be contained. I have to say, I've never thought caging children was cute or even an option, but this has changed my mind. He's cuter than a monkey at the zoo!

Bear In My Belly

growling like the bear in her belly

showing us the bear and where she planned to put the bunnies to get them to the bear...we convinced her that the bear would get bunnies if she put them in her mouth

eating like a hungry bear, too

Ruby: "Daddy! There's a bear in my belly!"

Alex: "What's that?"

Ruby (with a "duh" kind of look on her face): "There is a bear growling in my belly."

Alex: "Why? What does it want?"

Ruby: "Daddy, it is sooooo hungry."

Alex & me: "What does it want to eat?"

Ruby: "Bunnies. It wants bunnies."

Ruby got her Annie's bunny crackers and a big laugh!

DAY 8...The Fast is Broken

Days 6 and 7 were pretty mellow, except for me getting cold on day 6 and not warming up until tonight (After an extended lunch and shopping trip at WFM I was FREEZING for 3 days...me or WFM? We'll never know.) This morning Alex let me sleep in because I wasn't feeling so hot. I didn't wake up until nearly noon and all alone, Alex had taken the little ones to the YMCA (we are discontinuing our membership and of course now he finds time to go...typical). I hadn't had anything to drink, water or lemonade, since last night and I was in bad shape. I was so weak I could barely walk down the stairs. When I got to the bottom all I did was sit there for about 10 minutes. I then crawled to the front entry way and lay on the floor for another 10 minutes. By this time I was completely drenched in sweat, my heart was pounding, and I was FREEZING (not to mention crying...I'm very dramatic). I made it to the couch a few minutes before the family arrived back home (thank goodness they didn't make their planned lunch at McDonald's but came home to eat their leftovers from last night). Alex knew something was wrong, he told me later that I was as white as a ghost when they arrived. He set the kids up for lunch and ran to the corner store to get me some orange juice (what you are supposed to drink for a day to break the fast). So I had about 80 oz. of orange juice today and tried to eat half a can of organic vegan lentil soup for dinner (not the best idea, I should have waited until tomorrow for that). I think I'll be eating just cereal and soup for a few days, at least until the weekend. You would think that maybe after today and not making to 10 days I'd be down on myself and the Master Cleanse, but I'm not. I really think fasting for a week made significant changes in my life and breaking it early was just a sign that I know when to say when. If I didn't have my two beautiful children to look after tomorrow and the next day I might have soldiered on, but I could not see myself for two more days with them alone going through what I went through today. Alex told me that his days 8 and 9 were very similar, that he felt really weak and was good for nothing then (at the time he did it he literally had nothing to do but hang out around the house for the 10 days, much less have kids to pick up and run after). I had to make the right decision for me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So, I'll call the Master Cleanse a complete success...who knows if I'll ever do it again, but it has changed the way I look at food and myself.

xoxo

The Master Cleanse...DAY 4 & 5

You totally thought I bugged out on the Master Cleanse because I didn't blog yesterday, didn't you? Well, I'm so glad to say that I am on DAY 5 and feeling awesome! Yesterday was another story...my day just wasn't the best so I didn't feel like blogging or doing much at all. It think day 4 was the hump day that I had anticipated on day 3. Why do I feel so awesome today? Well, for one the eraser that was feared swallowed appeared yesterday afternoon...IN Elvis's after lunch poopie diaper! He DID swallow it and passed it like a CHAMP! I just hope I can keep this house free of little things he wants to swallow WHOLE (yep, the eraser was WHOLE). Anywho, today I'm completely jazzed because I am wearing a pair of shorts that I bought months ago and only wore once. I only wore them once because I very hopefully bought them a little tight thinking I would naturally lose some of my baby weight in the coming months...but didn't. That one time I wore them is probably burned in the minds of every person that saw me that day as one of the most frightening images of their lives! It was bad...I won't go into detail, but you can imagine someone at least 2 sizes too big for something squeezed in without the help of a single shaping garment...it ain't pretty! I am wearing those shorts today without any embarrassing jelly rolls spilling over the waistband and it is even comfortable sitting in them! HELLO MASTER CLEANSE!

So, today is my HALFWAY POINT! I am 1/2 finished with the Master Cleanse! I am so freaking excited that I am actually following through on something I've wanted to do for myself for so long that somehow it has gotten the ball rolling on my LIST. I've been cleaning, doing school with Ruby (that I started earlier in the Summer and just let being 'busy' take us away from it), getting organized! This Master Cleanse is more than a physical body cleanse but seems to be having a cleansing effect on my spiritual & mental body as well. It is really changing my outlook on so much! I think I'll go mostly veggie when I'm done, too...I said MOSTLY.

xoxo