Xander's first birthday was yesterday! I cannot believe my baby is 1 already! It is so fun to see him change but it is a little sad too that the first year seemed to go by so fast. I am excited though to see how much he changes this next year. He isn't walking yet but can stand for a few seconds, walks behind his push toy and cruises along the furniture with ease. He can't say many words yet but he can imitate us when we say 'mama' and 'dada'. The other fun thing he just started doing is waving. I am hoping he will be walking by Christmas so the family can see him doing it. If not, oh well - he will do it eventually!
His party went really well and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The theme was 'Curious George' since he has a stuffed George that he loves so much. We had the party at noon and served lunch. We got a really yummy cake and Xander had his own little smash cake with a '1' on it. We ordered the cake from The Cake Gallery here in Omaha after a few recommendations from my co-workers. I told them I needed to order a cake and several people said they have the best cakes in town. We ordered a cake with Curious George on it and when we ordered the cake, they gave us a free smash cake with our order since it was his first birthday. I will definitely get a cake from there again in the future.
Xander got some fun toys for his birthday and he has already played with several of them. He got some fun bath toys too which I know he will love. The kid already likes to take baths so the toys will make it even more fun for him!
I can't believe his party came and went so fast. It seems like I was planning the party for a long time and it seemed like it was far off for a long time then suddenly it was here! It's weird that he is now 1 and no longer my little baby. I guess now it is time to write the thank you notes!
On to another subject - my new job. I don't know any nice way to say this - I don't really like it. I think part of it is the fact that I don't want to have to work full time at all and I resent it. Part of it is that I don't enjoy answering phone calls at all. I am so over any job in customer service and though this isn't directly customer service, it is pretty similar since it requires I answer the phone all day and help the caller with whatever they need. The nice thing is, it is not the end customer that I am talking to.
I guess this would be a good time to explain what I do exactly. I work at a Broker/Dealer firm. If you don't know anything about the financial industry then you may not get it but we are the middle man between a financial advisor and a clearing firm. Again, those are terms you may not get if you don't work in the financial industry. My company basically makes it possible to do the everyday stuff you need to do to be a financial advisor and help your clients with their accounts. Anyway, I don't have to talk to clients about their accounts (or at least not very often) but I talk to the advisors when they have procedural questions. I have my 7 and 63 so technically I can place trades but I don't at my current job. I already know that after I have been there a while and hopefully gotten my series 24 then I am going to apply for a job in compliance/anti-money laundering. I know I would enjoy a job like that a lot more than the one I have now. I will need to get a few more licenses but you don't have to have them before you get the job, you just have to be able to get them soon after you start the job. I know after taking my 7 that those tests are hard, but doable if you study enough. I am just counting down the days until I can move on to another job within the company. I figure a good goal is to be out of my current job within 6 months. I am not sure I will be able to stand it much longer than that.
I rejoined weight watchers about a month ago and though I lost a total of about 7 pounds since I started, I feel like I have either gained most or at least some of it back by now. I really haven't been following the plan and I am not sure why. This coming week, I decided I am getting back on track, even with Thanksgiving. I look at it this way - it is only one day and even if I eat what I want, I can get right back to it once it is over. I also know that the food you eat at Thanksgiving doesn't have to be that bad if you don't make it. I know turkey is lean and having a small portion of potatoes and maybe some corn isn't so bad. I just have to limit how much I eat and not eat dessert at all or have a very small serving. Even if I give in a little more than I should, it won't ruin my diet forever. I know it is going to be harder to eat well since the holidays are coming, but I think it is a choice and I have to choose to eat well period. I know I am the only one who can decide for myself what and how much I am going to eat. I also decided it is time to start working out again. I just want to feel strong and fit even if I am not skinny. I feel like I have no muscle anymore and lifting heavy stuff is a lot harder than it used to be. My kiddo is not getting any smaller and lifting him is becoming harder so I want to be able to lift him without it being so difficult.
I have already started Christmas shopping and I even wrapped a few gifts last night. I have a lot more shopping to do, but most of it will have to wait until next weekend when we get our paychecks. I am going to try to be at least 75% done after next weekend so I won't have much left and have to feel stressed about it. I wanted to get some of the Christmas stuff out this weekend so we can start getting it put up, but Todd works later tonight so I don't know if he will be in any mood to get up into the attic and get stuff out for me. I might just have to wait until this week or next weekend. I am excited to get the Christmas stuff out and put up since I love, love, love Christmas! I can't wait to decorate but I am going to have to be more careful this year since Xander is into everything. I think I am going to try to decorate pretty close to how I normally do it and just try to teach him not to touch, but I do have to think about safety also. We will just have to see what happens. I also don't know what to get for the kiddo for Christmas. He is still too young to remember what we get him and he already has so many toys that I am thinking about either getting him nothing or getting him something small or even something practical like clothes.
I have a bunch of stuff to do today and it is already 11 and I have gotten nothing done. I need to get in the shower since I have several errands to run. It sucks because the weekends always seem so short and go by so fast that I am never able to get everything done that I want to get done. I know I am the one who sets my own standards for my house and my life and what I want to get done, but I feel like I never do everything I want to do. I just hate having only 2 days to get everything done that I want to get done. I guess most of the world is in that same boat so I should quit complaining.
Here are some pictures from Xander's birthday. I wish that we would have taken more pictures. I basically did everything at the party so Todd had to take pictures and he didn't take as may as I would have. Here are a few that we did get. He is getting to be so big!
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