Life Update and Stories of Late

Oh my gosh you guys!!

I CANNOT believe how much time I let go by without posting on my blog.

Creating this space to write whatever I feel is SO important to me. I LOVE having this site and the ability to put it all out there in hopes it may resonate with you, simply make you laugh, or inspire you.

But DANG I need to get better about carving out space for it! When you have a 9 month old baby that’s constantly on the move, a dedication to working out and eating right, a full time day job AND a side passion filling your days, there is simply less time to play with. But what’s important to you, you will find time for, so every day is a giant prioritization list that constantly gets reshuffled based on what happens during each hourly time slot!

I want to kind of treat this one as a “check-in” type post to let you know what we’ve been up to, how parenthood is going, and of course, a Heath update!

I asked for feedback on what my next post should be about, and someone said “how parenthood has changed you”. I feel like if I just get going, “talking” about what’s going on in my life, that part will naturally show its face, so let’s just see how it goes 🙂

Here’s what we’ve been doing!

Learning the parental ropes

Obvi, the Heath bar tops the list!

The littlest Kliewer is now 9 months old and in. to. everything! The past month has been a big one in terms of new exciting things happening literally every day.

• I finally got a “Mama!” on Mothers Day. There are lots of “Dada”s being said these days along with baby babble. He also said “dog” and I love that this was one of his top first words, but I also wish the dogs shared the same enthusiasm for him. They really aren’t into being poked and grabbed so they keep their distance.
• Heath started crawling! He’s been rolling around, sitting up and crawling backwards, but forward motion wasn’t quiiiiite coming to him yet. Until now. Plz send wine. Thanks.
• He’s got two teeth on the bottom with the top two juuust about to poke through
• This kid is enormous! He has started growing in length a lot more recently and is wearing 12-18 month clothes. He wore 24 month swim trunks just fine. He’s probably about 30 lbs, but we’ll find out at our next pediatrician appointment next week. We are hoping he starts plateauing in size/weight as he gains mobility — mostly just because there is a weight limit for certain pretty important things, the car seat for instance, that we have no clue what to do if he outgrows them so early!  And OH YEAH, he also is wearing a size 6 diaper and that’s the BIGGEST SIZE I CAN FIND. Not real sure what happens should a baby surpass the diaper size limit anywhere near this young of an age?!
• He is like wrangling a gator at most times of the day. Changing his diaper is a small feat, bathing is a wet, splashy adventure, getting his legs into pants legs can be like doing the Hokie Pokie (sing it with me…) and some days deserves a medal, and just plain holding him is tough when he gets the wiggle bug.
• He has impeccable timing and he poops in his britches prettttty much every time we go somewhere. I seriously wonder if anyone from Asheville has started to recognize us as “those people” always hovering over the back of the white Subaru wiping up poop from a little behind in the parking lot of {insert location here} before ever walking inside. Driving by, shaking their head thinking, “THOSE poor folks again…” He’s gotten us at a wide array of locations and events, and bringing a change of outfit (for all of us) has become an important part of life.
• We started swimming lessons today and he was NOT feeling it. I was a little mortified in the pool with the one screaming baby with his cries echoing on the walls in this giant freaking room like, do I make him wait it out? Do I get out of the pool? AM I TORTURING HIM?! That’s probably what all these people think, RIGHT?! All issues aside, I can’t wait to see how he does as a water baby! Glass half full heading into next week…
• He’s super curious and loves pulling open cabinet doors, and all of the things inside
• Sammy and I both have hazel eyes, but mine are a bit darker green with more brown in the middle. I think Heath’s eyes are going to be more like mine though they aren’t finished turning yet.
• His personality is just perfect. He’s been SUCH a good baby really, he sleeps well, he’s sweet, he’s hilarious, he’s smart, and I really just don’t think we could be any more smitten!

Babyproofing

Figuring out TV mounts, baby gates, carpets/padding to go over the hardwoods, trying to keep small things out of reach, crib bumpers, socket covers, these cool magnetic cabinet locks, etc. is really never ending. We still have work to do by all means, but we are learning as we go! Every time something new happens, we are prompted to implement some new safety situation. It’s a constant game, a back and forth between offense and defense where Heath is definitely a couple points up on us but he at least passes us the ball every now and again to let us try to catch up for just a second.

What We’re Watching

Now that I write this out, I realize somewhat the amount of time that TV takes up in my life.

I probably should cut that out.

In case you have never thought about it and you are {just like most other people} feeling like your daytime hours are extremely limited, TV time could ALWAYS be dedicated to something more productive!! ALWAYS. One of these days I will do a 30 day detox from television (anyone interested?!) but for now, I am really enjoying that I can get through a 22 minute episode of Friends while I give Heath a bottle.

This is what consumes the majority of our watching time:

Friends – I have started it from the beginning and am loving it! I have probably seen every single episode, but totally scattered here and there over the past TWENTY FIVE (that’s right, this show started TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO) years of my life, but never in order. Kids who grew up in the 90’s, UNITE! I love that REM is Monica’s go to party music. I basically watch it while wearing my flannel shirt and listening to Nirvana while checking in on my Tamagachi to make sure he’s pooped – in other words, these early seasons are a total time warp! And I love all the 90’s reminders. Now I only have about 8 seasons to go…. that TV detox will just have to wait until I finish.

Safe – We started this to give it a try over the weekend. What. Just. Happened! Now I feel invested and I NEED to know what went down at that party!

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – I wish I knew how many times we’ve seen every single episode (that’s not an exaggeration) of this crazy ass show. I’m sure it’s a lot. I go through phases (because we’ll literally watch 6 episodes in a row, DAYS IN A ROW) where I get burnt out and need a break, but they don’t last long. Some days it’s all I want to do. And thanks to the channel Viceland, they make it all too easy for us to get sucked into the gang’s adventures at Paddie’s Pub (and beyond).

Baseball – it’s that season again! When the remote is in Sammy’s control, you never know what game will be on TV, but you do know that sports WILL be on.

Jeopardy — Ummm I literally plan everything around my 7:30pm date with Jeopardy.

Dinner.

Heath’s eating/bath.

Family walks.

Outings.

GIVING BIRTH.

That’s right. I went to the hospital at almost exactly 8:00pm last year when I was in labor… I told myself I could make it through an episode of Jeopardy first. If I ever go on this show, I guess we know what my tidbit about myself would be. Then again, I’d have to hope that no bible categories popped up because I’d fail them miserably.

I’d be like, “What is the 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus, Alex?”

Don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant, so cuddly, but still omnipotent…

Westworld – Who watches this show??? Shit’s out of control! Literally. We watched an episode of Vice last night outlining how advanced 3D printers are changing EVERYTHING. And the concept of this show could become a reality very soon. I had no idea this was going on! They can build body parts with these printers and the manufacturing of tools is changing the global trade economy. GTS! (Google. That. Shit.)

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – The news disturbs me greatly these days, so watching the clown show unfold with his commentary makes it slightly more bearable.

Slightly.

Also, for those of you like me who just break down when getting too much crazy news, the Skimm is a wonderful alternative! If you want to stay in the know without having to see that orange face and all the corresponding ridiculous nonsense that is now real life all over your TV screen, you should give this a try!

Gardening

We finally planted our garden and I’m so pumped to reap the benefits! We have had trouble growing things here for some reason. I assume they are just not well adjusted to this climate and/or the slugs are feasting at night.

On that note, WHO KNEW that this area is literally a rainforest??? We live in the Appalachian Temperate Rainforest where the AVERAGE yearly low temp is ~40 degrees, and the average high is ~60 degrees. Since it still gets cooler at night even though it’s June and we’re officially heading into summer, I just think our seeds that prefer warm soil are getting veryyyy confused. Some have just thrown in the towel on growing up, so we keep trying again and again.

Things we intend to grow: lettuces, kale, cucumbers, beans, edamame, summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers (banana, jalapeno, cayenne, bell), and quinoa.

Fun story: We went and stocked up on our garden stuff a few weeks ago, and as usual I was browsing the seed selection in the checkout line and ended up throwing some packets in our pile. One of them was for beans. When we got home, I took all these seeds out of my purse, except the beans because, who knows, I guess it was just TOO MUCH to remove that last packet. About a week later, I dumped my purse out and CAN YOU GUESS HOW MANY BEANS ARE IN THE BOTTOM OF THIS PURSE? First person to guess correctly gets a prize… (not really)

I feel like this takes that whole “What’s in your purse?” game to the next level.

The Kellie level.

There might be a toe in there for all we know.

Or a pigeon.

You just never know.

Pest control

I feel like a big part of being an adult is trying to get rid of pests.

So. many. pests.

Animals.

BUGS.

Mold/bacteria.

Certain people.

Like the crazy old guys down the street whose entire asses hanging out their pants I’ve seen more times than I care to share. Wait, I just did…

Honestly, it’s never ending.

We have slugs eating our bean seedlings before they even have a chance to become little bean toddlers.

We have ants invading our kitchen.

Centipedes and spiders just coming right in and unpacking their shit in my basement like they live here.

Birds and a giant groundhog that love to eat my precious cherry tomatoes. I LIKE TO EAT THEM TOO, GUYS. Also, I pay the rent around here and this is just good old-fashioned theft and I really don’t appreciate it.

A one-eyed squirrel who eats all the bird food I put out in the feeder. TBD on what happened to said eyeball, but I shall call him Willie for obvious reasons.

Carpenter bees who are eating our deck into a series of bee tunnels and holes. Also, wasps who want to join the fray.

It’s an ongoing war that was totally worth mentioning because HONESTLY, fighting back against them has been a chore lately.

We also got this frickin cool motion-detected sprinkler that will blast any critter who tries to eat MY tomatoes! Pew pew pew!

Problem is, Georgia signs up more than willingly for the blast to the face and it is truly never-ending fun for her. Ever seen a dog try to attack a hose? Yeah. It’s like that.

But it’s automatic and has no limit to the amount of faceblasts it will supply.

Totes worth it though!

Fitness

As I announced in this blog post last year, I also am a Beachbody coach. I’ve been dedicating time out of nearly every day to my personal health and fitness, as well as some of yours, too!

Late last year, the announcement was made about this new program called 80 Day Obsession coming out from Beachbody and I started seeing pictures of the results people were having from the test group.

Wow. 

At the time, I was about 3 months postpartum, back to work but doubling as a stay at home mom (still am – some-frickin-how), still hovering at a number on the scale that I had never seen before. It wasn’t budging either, although I had started working out again at my own pace with an MMA-style program that I was doing in the afternoons right in my living room while baby watched. This number was about 15 pounds higher than my comfort zone and none of my clothes were fitting yet. I was still wearing maternity pants and leggings and not really sure what to wear should I have to leave the house. All in all though, I wasn’t letting it get to me and looking back, I’m really proud of myself for that alone! I still felt pretty good, I thought I looked pretty good (I’m glad I have BEFORE pictures now is all I will say), and I was a new mom just tryin’ to LIVE and keep the baby ALIVE, y’all.

In November, I pulled out my portion control containers and started getting my nutrition in check. I started looking at my clothes (really just my pants if I’m being honest) in two piles: those that fit, and those that didn’t. Just by following the nutrition plan, I lost a few pounds in a month, but then I fell off the wagon when Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around.

These holidays are a major weakness for me!! But I didn’t beat myself up about it although I was a little upset about the progress I had made. That one or two pair of pants that had made the switch from the YOU-AIN’T-GETTIN’-THIS-OVER-YOUR-BUTT pile to the HEY-THIS-FITS pile had to sadly return to the NAH pile.

Then I started seeing where January 15th was the date that 80 Day Obsession would be available for all to try.

I made the decision on a whim in true Kellie fashion late the evening of the NIGHT before, on January 14th, that sure, I’ll try it, alongside a lot of other girls in our virtual accountability group.

I’ll tell you, the weight started falling off in the first couple weeks, and then I quickly started SEEING physical changes. Those can be tough to see on yourself, but this program was making it easy.

I’d try some of my pants on every couple weeks or so as I watched the fit pile stack up and that dreaded NAH-GIRL-DIS-TOO-TIGHT pile dwindle down to nothing.

I didn’t have any specific goals in mind when I started this program, I just got up every day and did it. I had no idea what kind of changes it would make on my body AND mind, but it was the first one I ever completed from beginning to end. I watched the changes occur for the girls in our group. I saw them happening on myself and now I am a total believer in the power of this program!

In fact, I started it again this week 🙂 Along with ~30,000 other people who decided to start it alongside Kathie Lee and Hoda from Today! I couldn’t resist that kind of momentum.

Now, I’m in better shape than I probably ever have been and I’m just getting re-started. There are actually abs poking through! I can carry around this giant baby-man with relative ease. I just ran a mostly uphill 5k without stopping, and I used to always stop on the hills! I shifted my mindset throughout this whole thing, and now I’m on the constant lookout for the next challenge.

Top fitness goal at the moment: Complete a Tough Mudder challenge. More to come on this later!

Top fitness story at the moment: Last week I was just FEELING a morning run. Runs are not something that I just FEEL like doing very often, but it struck me that day so I turned on Spotify and just went for it. I ended up on a street that I had never been on before and I was going along at a nice pace when I see this “cute” little cockapoo looking dog standing at the end of presumably his owners’ driveway. I kind of slowed down to say hey, but I quickly could tell that he wasn’t having any of it. He started barking at me, and THEN he started chasing me biting at my heels like something from a movie.

Full speed.

Down the road.

I was muttering “WTF!?” to myself (which was probably a lot louder than I realized since I had my earphones in and the jams turned up) as I ran as FAST as I could down this street to outrace this curly little bugger. His potential was deceiving and NOT proportionate to the length of his legs – this dude was FAST.

I finally got some distance between us and realized the road was a dead end. I had to go BACK by him again!! I just went full speed past his house and he didn’t even bat an eyelash at me this time.

Mean ass.

So on my first run in a really REALLY long time, I ended up running as fast as I could like it was Field Day all over again to escape a little Cockapoo who looked like a cute little stuffed animal, but had an attitude like the Beast from the Sandlot.

Good times.

Planting our roots

It’s hiking season!

It’s Biltmore blooms time!

There are about a million waterfalls around here to keep anyone happy!

As we head into summer, the itch to go stand on a mountain becomes more pronounced, as does the itch to actually LIVE on a mountain….

So, we have started more hardcore checking the sites for houses around here that we might like to BUY.

Whaaaat?!?!

We have been professional floaters for a little bit it would seem, but it is TIME to get out of this renter’s black hole and have a space we WANT to add our special touches to. That we can build whatever we want and not have a landlord tell us that they are taking money OUT of our security deposit for the price of taking apart the nice garden boxes that we assembled and left behind on purpose because we saw it as a nice addition to the property (yep, that happened). That we can have guests come and stay with space to actually live. That we can maybe not live in a neighborhood where we have now found 5 used needles on the ground, someone willingly throws their Bojangles and McDonald’s trash right out their window onto the ground often, as well as being neighbors to a man who had his house burned down by his own son and I’ve personally heard of two other break-ins that have occurred on our street.

True stories.

It just is time. 

So the search is ON!

In conclusion…

I wanted to spend this first post updating friends and family about what we’ve been doing and how we spend our time! Many things have changed, and many have stayed the same and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now, let’s circle back to this: What I’ve learned about being a parent.

Every day is a trial in patience, discipline, and grace. I have constant conversations in my head about being patient through cries, accidental pinching and pulling from little hands, doing things (1043049 times) after you just said “no” also 1043049 times, all the smudges on my glasses even though I clean them frequently, constantly having to get up to move the baby back to starting point A after he has inevitably crawled to ending point B in 5 seconds flat (it adds steps to my Fit Bit, right?), having to change that shitty diaper that is always waiting for us upon arrival no matter where we go, trying to get actual work done while he explores his surroundings on the floor beside me…

A parent is always the best toy a kid can play with. I try to keep my phone out of sight and maintain eye contact when I’m feeding him so he knows where my focus lies. I try to teach him something new almost every day whether that’s what a blueberry tastes like or how to wave his arms around.

I have never been the most punctual and this whole having a child thing is not helping the situation to say the least, but I’m trying. Being prepared is a whole new ballgame now and we laugh at the fact that in the beginning, we actually went places without the diaper bag… I am not really sure how we made it. Each appointment is a new lesson in being on time.

Like most of us, I have so much to do and so little time! I promised you guys this blog post LAST WEEK, yet here we are. I am trying to slow down and enjoy all these times without a screen glaring in my face because when you hear “they grow so fast”, it truly doesn’t sink in until you have your own. And looking back at pictures where I can tell how small he was makes me cry without a second thought. Because he will never be that small again and all the memories of how we were getting by at that time in both of our lives comes rushing back from one quick glance at a photo.

I am doing my best to take notice and celebrate each little thing he does every day that is learned or new. Every day really is something new! Watching his little personality take flight is my absolute favorite thing and the love we have for him is indescribable.

I have experienced moments of intense mom guilt or wondering if I’m doing it right. In these times I try to remind myself to have the GRACE to forgive myself and move on. To think about how I’d handle it if it happened again, or under different circumstances. There are plenty of things I’ve done wrong, but more things that I believe I’ve done right. Nobody is perfect and nobody pops out a baby with a real idea of what they’re doing! We are all works in progress and the best thing you can do is just wake up every day and give it your best shot. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep trying!

“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” — Frederick Douglass

Thanks for being part of our village 🙂