Inspiration Monday - Spring has sprung

I haven't done an Inspiration Monday with two birds in awhile, but liked this look they picked from Cara Delevigne (and who is she? #oldlady) this week.

I've been looking for an excuse to finally wear this boho style fringe vest I bought way back this fall, so I think this finally gave me the excuse to do it!  And ankle pants because Spring has come to Minnesota and I sure hope it's here to stay!  And I'd love to wear my hat all day, but sadly I will have to take it off for work.  The hair growing is going all right, but it's nice to just hide under a hat too!

Shirt - Gap (thrifted on Instagram), Vest - thrifted (b. resale)

Pants - Old Navy, Shoes - from friend

Hat - Target 

I'd love to say more, but it's been a hectic day already with a checkup for Oliver (he's healthy) and catching up at work, so this is all I've got today.  Friday was hectic too with a water heater inspection at our house and a half day of work that day too!  So I'm a little behind on my blogging groove, but should be back to regular programming tomorrow!  In the meantime, be sure to check out two birds for other Inspiration Monday looks!

Thrift Style Thursday - An Unexpected Match

It's Thrift Style Thursday!  Today's theme is brought to us from Martyna of Spoolish - "An Unexpected Match" - or in other words, something you bought that you weren't expecting - maybe it's not your usual size, or you found it in the men's department or children's department.  I am choosing to feature the awesome dress that Megan and Nora of two birds found me at the workshop they hosted last month on Valentine's Day at Second Debut, an offshoot store of the Goodwill.  This is a picture heavy post because I love this dress so hard.

I'm sure you're wondering - how is this an unexpected match?  Well I'll tell you - this dress is many, MANY sizes below my normal size.  Yes, I have recently figured out I am a smaller size in most clothes than I used to be, but this dress is still a much smaller number than where I currently am and I'll just leave it at that.  So, if I saw this on the rack on my own, I'd likely have skipped it based on the size on the tag.   But the girls insisted I try it on, so I did and I was shocked.  Not only did it fit, it made me feel like a million bucks.

Then I was shocked to discover it still had it's original tags on it.  And it's from Banana Republic.  So let's just say that while Second Debut is not as cheap as the actual Goodwill because it's more designer and upscale brands - I still got this dress for a STEAL.

We also found these awesome shoes for me as well that were 50% off that day.  So, my Valentine's Day date night outfit was born.  Nate loved it of course.  I also ended up wearing this dress to a wedding this last weekend, I changed up the look to be more "Mom friendly" since I had to help chase after Ollie, I added tall boots and a cardigan and it worked pretty well for that too.

So for something that I consider an "unexpected match" I actually call it a match made in heaven.  I know that this dress and I will have many wonderful days yet to come as well.

It just goes to show, as I have actually said before, you should really explore all areas at the thrift store and don't pay that much attention to the size on the tag - you just never know what might work for you!  
Have you ever thrifted something unexpected?  Make sure to check out the other Thrift Style Thursday gals as well and see what unexpected things they have found too!

Currently in March

Time once again for a Currently post!  Is it just me or did February go by really fast?  I know it's a short month, but wow.  Oh well, we're into March, Spring is on the horizon and here are some things I'm currently up to!
--Currently I am--
Dreaming - About summer and the fun things I hope we'll be able to do this year.  Also dreaming about a warm getaway, possibly next winter in advance of our ten year wedding anniversary.  We're starting to look at this possibility anyway!
Planning - Nate and I have started having some sit downs aside from our date nights to start planning for our future a bit - mostly in financial terms.  We're comfortable, we're fine, but we aren't doing a great job of looking at the big picture, so while it isn't the most fun, we've been starting to figure out our goals for the next five, ten and even twenty years so we know what we need to get in place to continue to have a comfortable financial situation and to ensure that Oliver will have one as well. And actually, I've enjoyed our talks so far, it hasn't been all doom and gloom!
Making - I'm excited to be starting a scrapbook of Oliver's first year!  A talented friend of mine who is very good at scrapbooking is going to help me.  We've already bought a bunch of the supplies and tonight we're going to start actually putting some of it together!  I know it will take some time, but I'm excited to have a keepsake of memories and to actually do something with a bunch of the pictures we have instead of them just living on the computer for all eternity.
Baking - Sadly, nothing!  I don't know why either, I have actually been in a baking mood.  I guess one reason is Nate's not eating as many sweets lately and I think the other reason is I only have time to bake on weekends and ours have been pretty full up of stuff lately!
Watching - We started the Breaking Bad spin off Better Call Saul and it is so good!  I was a little worried it would just be Breaking Bad Jr., but they've done a great job of keeping the essence of what made that show so good while creating it's own story.  Also in rotation right now is Shameless, Covert Affairs, Portlandia, Modern Family and we are dragging out the last few episodes of Parks and Recreation for as long as we can, don't want that to end!
And that's what's up this month!  Not the most exciting update ever, but it's still winter, so what can I say?  Make sure to visit Anne of In Residence and Jenna of Dearest Love for other Currently posts!  

Oliver - 15 Months

My baby is 15 months old today!  And while he's still my baby, he's becoming more and more of a little person every day and he's so much fun right now.  I know I did kind of an "update" post from his point of view last week, but I thought I'd do an age update today because it's been awhile and he's just changing by the day lately!

Height - Somewhere around 31 inches I think.  It might be more.  He's getting very tall, that's what I know, he can reach the top of tables and things now!

Weight - Again, not really sure, we have a doctor appointment on Monday to get that information. We think he's around 26-27 pounds or so now.

Nicknames - Ollie boy, The Ollie, Munchkin, Buddy, Kiddo, Kid, Boy, Monkey, Wild Man

Sleep - He's still holding tight to his one wake up at night, but I'm still ok with that.  Compared with where we were around his first birthday, I'll take it!  He pretty much sleeps about 11 hours at night. His naps are starting to change, we're kind of in the transition from two naps to one.  He kind of leads on this mostly, if he refuses a morning nap we just kind of go with it and he seems to be ok with just an afternoon one.  This has worked well for morning outings now, we don't have to rush home to get him down for a nap.  And while I miss having the two time periods in the day to get stuff like laundry done on weekends when he's down, he stays down a good two hours for the one nap he gets, so that's been kind of nice!

Eating - He's still a big carnivore, this boy sure loves his meat.  He's a carb-o-holic too, give him ALL the bread.  He still likes most vegetables and he's finally taking a bit of a liking to fresh fruit. He really enjoyed pineapple at a wedding we were at this weekend.  I found a dairy-free yogurt he seems to also finally like.  He loves his almond milk.  He's down to nursing only once before bed and then his little midnight snack and that's it.  Again, kind of letting him lead with this and I think it's been a nice gentle weaning process so far.  He's also a big fan of his daddy's homemade pancakes and I think he'd eat french fries pretty much all day every day.  And of course, puffs.  He's a good eater, we're very lucky I think!

Diaper size - Still hanging tight in size 4's!  I can't believe we've been consistent in this for so long now!  We are slowly looking at moving to 5's, mostly for bedtime since he's going so long now without being changed.

Clothing size - 24 months/2T is what fits best now.  If he has clothes labeled "18-24", especially in shirts, they still fit, otherwise we've moved up a bit here, partly due to his getting taller.  I'm glad clothes we buy get more than one use at this point though, I'm thankful the growth has slowed so much since his first birthday!

Mood - SO happy all the time.  Yes he is a toddler and he has his toddler tantrums here and there, but he is just pretty much the happiest little guy for the most part.  He cut one of his molars this month and we had a rough day or two when that was at it's worst, but again, those days are few and far between (and Orajel helps a TON).  He just loves life, he loves to explore, and I think like Buddy the Elf in the moving Elf, "smiling is his favorite."

Says - He's so verbal, no idea where he gets that (wink).  He can say words like bottle (comes out like bobble sometimes), puffs, Elmo (Elbow), up, buh-bye, nom nom (you know he loves his food when he says that!), no, and his newest favorite word is turtle.  We have a book of sea animals and when turtle comes up he says it clear as day.  He's started calling Nate "papa" instead of dada or daddy somehow, and he calls my dad "boppa" which is the cutest thing ever.  We also think it's pretty cute that instead of saying yes or yeah if you ask him if he wants something he instead says "sure."  It's just fun listening to him talk - I always worried I wouldn't understand him when he started talking but maybe it's something about your own child, you just do know what they mean somehow.

Teeth - All eight in front and one molar in the back.  Working on the molar on the opposite side now.

Loves - Books (yay! parenting win!), puppies, kitties, Elmo, Mickey Mouse, swimming, chasing mommy and daddy around the house, playing with blocks, playing with Tupperware lids, singing Old McDonald and Baa Baa Blacksheep, Curious George, music, watching birdies in the yard, bath time.

Dislikes - Sitting still for any length of time, getting changed, getting bundled up to go outside, when it takes mommy too long to get his food warmed up, cutting molars, not getting his way.

Latest milestones - He's a full fledged walker now, he'll still hold our fingers if he's in a more unfamiliar place, but otherwise he's good on his own.  He can sing songs, he's learning words by the day.  He will pick out the book he wants and hand it to you.  He feeds himself finger foods pretty well and will even feed himself with a fork if we stab the food for him first.  
Dear Oliver, You are just the sweetest little boy and I am so amazed by all your new skills and things you are learning each day.  You're a little sponge, you're just soaking up so much now.  I love seeing things through your eyes, you're teaching me to see things in a whole new way.  And you are just so much fun.  You pretty much do something to make me smile every day.  Even if you're becoming a boy, you're still and always will be my little baby! Love,
Mama

Fitbit Fun

I've talked a little bit about Nate and my efforts to live a healthy lifestyle.  This isn't to say that we were not doing so before, but we felt we could do better.  Nate had worked hard at losing close to 100 pounds before we had Oliver and after he was born, put back on about twenty or so and wanted to work at re-losing that.  I just want to very much maintain the weight I'm at now - I never want to sound like I'm bragging and I hate talking a lot about weight here since it's a sensitive subject - but I'm still 15 pounds below my PRE pregnancy weight with Oliver and I'd very much like to stay here, so my goal is maintaining.

Nate decided one thing that would help him is to get a fitness tracker that reminds him to get up and move around each day.  He got the Garmin Vivosmart and has been using it for about a month now in conjunction with the My Fitness Pal app on his iPhone.  When I saw how easy it was for him to track steps and daily food logs I decided I might want a fitness tracker too.  I did a bunch of research and though a lot about it.  I like Nate's Garmin, but I also had heard good things about Fitbit too.  After some thought and debate I settled on the Fitbit Charge (just the plain one, not the new version with the heart rate monitor). 

It was a bumpy start at first, because I couldn't get the Fitbit app to play nice with the My Fitness Pal app, but after some help from the tech support team, I now have successfully been tracking my steps for a few days and I'm loving it.  I love how it cheers you when you meet your step goal for the day.  I love that it helps me determine if I can have an extra treat after dinner or if it's better to skip it that day.  I love that it also tells me if someone is calling me - sometimes my phone is in my purse and I don't have any clue if someone is calling or not.  Nate's Garmin will actually alert him to text messages too and I do wish mine had that feature, but otherwise, I love all the things that this does.  It's pretty comfortable to wear and I even sleep in it since it can track your sleep and tell you things about that (which I think I'd almost rather not know, but it's still a neat feature). 

So I'm pretty happy overall and I think it's going to help me maintain the place I'm at.  I'll have some more thoughts on this soon, especially when it comes to some realizations I have come to recently on body image and appearance (specifically when it comes to what I wear and other various thoughts), but I haven't quite found the words quite yet to write a post, so I'll have to keep playing around with that! For now, I'm really just happy with where I'm at and how things are going and I'm having a lot of fun utilizing the Fitbit to continue to live a healthy lifestyle!

Have you tried a fitness tracker?   If so, what do you use?