Javagirl, do not feel bad about letting the kiddo watch Baby Einstein. We have all done it - you are only human. There is no way that we can all watch and hold them every second of the day. Just think, you are allowing him some independence and you are letting him get some visual stimulation - now don't you feel better! I honestly tried to make sure that my little one learned to play alone at an early age. Believe me it will only make your life easier later. Once he got a little older I would put some toys on the floor near the computer and let him play while I paid bills, give him some pots while I made dinner, etc. It's not always easy because they prefer your undivided attention, but it is good for both of you to have a few minutes a day to yourselves.

As for me, I am doing pretty good on all fronts. I have paid down my debt and restructured all of it to lower interest cards - which has in turn improved my payments siginificantly. This is allowing me to put more of my extra money towards payments. It is fun to watch the balances go down. Now if I can just keep my job...

I also just bought a new car. Was this a good idea? The jury is still out. My old car had been wrecked when it was only a year old. They should have totalled it, but didn't. After being in the shop 4 times to get it right, it was over the threshold for being totalled but was of course too late at that point. Almost a year after the wreck I started having trouble again. The body shop told me that I would have to pay out of pocket for a rental and diagnosis and that even though the exact same parts were not working, they could not conclude that it was from the wreck. Let's keep in mind that we are talking about a 2 year old car with around 40k miles. So, long story short I found out that the car was worth next to nothing since the car facts report showed a serious wreck (which just sucks because I was sitting still people!) and they were now telling me that I was going to have to dump even more money into it. I decided that it wasn't worth fighting, so I traded it in (at a different dealer) and got a smaller car for the same payment. And it is brand new and under warranty - thank goodness! I will tell you that this is the time to buy if you are in the market. I got my car for almost $10k under sticker and almost $5k under invoice.

On the weight front I have lost 11.8 pounds in the last week. I haven't started working out yet, but I plan to start within the next week. Treadmill at first, then work my way back up to pilates and yoga a few times a week. I know that 12 lbs in a week sounds like a lot, but remember I have almost 100 lbs to lose so it comes off faster in the beginning. It also doesn't hurt that I am doing a weight loss contest at work. I am really competitive and so are my co-workers, so we are really egging each other on. It doesn't hurt that the winner will get $420. That coupled with the fact that my health hasn't been the greatest lately, my knees have been hurting, I'm always tired, etc really motivated me to finally get started.

I hope everyone else is still doing well too. Let's post more girls!!! We need to keep each other motivated!