Love list: The Mostly Emma Edition

Emma is taking over this week's Love List with some of her new favorite things this week. Mom managed to sneak a couple in, but it's mostly all about the Wee One.

1. Itsy Bitsy Spider

She knows how to do most of the hand motions now, but her favorite is the clapping at the end so she likes to try and jump ahead to that part :) She was also unusually aware of Hans and the camera so we will have to try again when she doesn't have camera shyness.

2. Reading time

This one makes my heart SO happy! We have been reading to Punkito since day one and she's always liked it. She'll settle down and intently listen and watch. But just in the past week or two, she has started wanting to read all the time, bringing us books, getting excited about them, and carrying them with her everywhere. She is really fascinated by the process of opening and closing and turning pages by herself. She will just sit there and flip through the pages back and forth all by herself. I love it. LOVE. Her favorites right now are "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" (we read 15 times a day) and "Dear Zoo." She still hasn't given up on her first love, "Go Dog Go" and we through in "I Love You Stinky Face," "Are you my mother?," Good Night, Moon" and "Guess How Much I Love you" for mom and dad's sanity. We are so proud of our little reader and are doing everything in our power to raise a fellow bookworm!

3. Spotify

Yes, I've been living under a rock. Everyone has told me about it and I think I signed up for an account a long time ago, but I've never tried using it. We started using it this week and love it! Right now, as you can see from my screen shot, it's all about Em. We have a nap playlist, a disney play list, and a dance party play list. It really helps in the car - music will generally stop her screaming (she hates the car!) Do you have any good recommendations for songs to add or playlists to follow?

4. Divergent 

Friday night our family date night took us to Half Price books. I have heard a lot about this series and really wanted to see the movie, but I'm a read-the-book-first kind of gal. I was a little embarrassed to admit I was looking for YA fiction, but whatever.

And this photo represents why I had three very, very late nights this week. I couldn't put it down! It's no literary feat and there are some aspects I don't care for, but the premise is intriguing enough and the characters are pretty good. And the action gets intense. I've already ordered the second book and I'm annoyed Amazon hasn't delivered it yet. Now I just have to find someone to watch Punkito so I can drag Hans to see it!

5. Blogilates
Wanna know how many times I've been to the gym since Punkito was born? Two, *maybe* three. I do go running fairly often and I'm pretty sure I'm losing weight just chasing the crazy one around. But my weight loss has plateaued in the past couple months and it's bugging me. And let's be real - moms, it doesn't seem to matter how much weight you lose, your stomach still gives away the fact that you pushed out a watermelon.

So I've been looking for some workouts that I can do at home, quick and easy. I used to take pilates classes and loved them, but it's been a couple years. Recently I found Blogilates and I LOVE it. I'm still doing the beginner workouts while I get back in shape, but I can definitely tell that they are working. After the first workout my abs were so sore it hurt to laugh. She does a really great job of walking you through each movement so you can make sure you're doing the positions and exercises correctly. I highly recommend it!

It's only in iPhone format, but I'm using the iPhone app on my iPad and it still looks great. And I think you can find all her workouts on YouTube.