Mother's Day

Happy (late) Mother's Day!


I was going to write yesterday, but my first Mother's Day ended up being so busy, and as much as I wanted to write down every moment as they happened so I wouldn't forget, I couldn't (and didn't want to) tear myself away from my family for even one second yesterday.

S took L downstairs yesterday morning so that I could sleep in (Glorious!!!!) and when I finally made it down I was met with a beautiful bunch of pink roses, an avocado omelet and bacon, yum!

After we ate we headed into Glendale and went and saw Babies at the movies. So cute, and I definitely cried a little, remembering L when he was first born and how little he was, but I think you probably have to have children to truly appreciate it. It was a good message too, basically that despite race and culture and circumstance, we are all the same and we all start out the same. After the movie we grabbed a quick lunch and then S took me shopping. Shopping makes Mommy very, very happy! It's been a long time since I've bought anything for myself so it was a great gift. We wrapped it all up with sandwiches and wine and watching Ugly Betty curled up on the couch. What a great day. What a great holiday. I love Mother's Day, and not because of the flowers and the gifts (although those were pretty awesome) but because I felt so, so loved and it was an excuse to just soak in that love and spend all day with the two people I love most in the world.

And as an additional Mother's Day Gift, L had two big milestone moments leading up this weekend. First, our boy is officially crawling. And, oh boy, he is loving it. He is on the move big time and there is no stopping him. And he seems to especially gravitate to stuff he isn’t' suppose to be getting into. (The DVD rack, the garbage can, the dogs water bowl. We have had at least three instances where he has dumped the water bowl on himself. He thinks it's hilarious.) It's tiring, keeping up with him, but it is so much fun to watch. I love how proud of himself he is. He makes little grunting, squealing noises and he crawls along, like he is just so excited to finally be moving like this. It is so funny, and so cute.

Secondly, he went swimming for the first time on Saturday. So much fun. When I was in high school I spent my summers life guarding and teaching swim lessons to all ages, babies through pre-teen, and it was some of the most fun I ever had. I remember when I used to teach the "water babies" classes thinking "someday I'll be able to do this with my kids." And now, ten years later, here I am, with a beautiful baby boy and teaching him how to swim. Ok, not really teaching him how to swim yet, more like holding him in the water and letting him splash. But it was great, and he loves the water and I am so excited to spend summers by the pool with him.

Overall, this was one of the best weekends I've had and it was made all the better by getting to celebrate Mother's Day for the first time. So happy Mother's Day to all you other Mama's out there, I hope you had as wonderful a day as I did!

New blog name

I changed the name of my blog. (If you are reading this, you probably already realize this). I've been giving it a lot of thought, and it seemed like the right thing to do. When I started this blog it was almost an experiment. I knew I wanted to do it, but I honestly wasn't sure if I would keep up with it. I have a bad habit of getting excited about a new project and then quickly growing tired of them. There is proof of this by the discarded knitting needles and yarn that was barely even unwound, cooking books that don't even have the spine broken, our office desk that currently sits half re-painted in our garage.... I could go on and on. But so far, this blog seems to be different. I love documenting what is going on in my life, and I especially love documenting L as he grows and changes. I hope that I will be able to look back on what I have wrote and remember exactly what he was like at each stage. It's also helped me to appreciate my life and all that I have. If I'm having a horrible day or throwing myself a pity party, nothing can brighten my day faster then reflecting on my wonderful husband or posting pics of my beautiful son.

But, I digress, that point is I changed the name. When I choose the original name, it was kind of on a whim and I thought it was kind of witty and funny. If you know me personally, you know I have a fairly sarcastic sense of humor. But sarcasm aside, I am not in any way a cynical person and I was worried that those who didn't know me view the title of my blog as cynical. Also, the more I wrote the more I wanted the title to reflect what my blog is about and that really is about being a Mommy. Everything I love about my life is now deeply rooted in my this new adventure of "mommyhood".

So, if you were here before I hope you keep reading my posts despite the name change, and if you're new then it doesn't really matter to you what the original name was! (Of course, this is all me assuming that there are any "you's" out there reading my blog in the first place!) But if you are out there and you are reading, please feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself! 

And, how can I leave you with out some pics of my handsome little guy!

So close to crawling!

The first time I ever gave him a teething biscuit to chew on. I turned my back for two minutes and when I looked back he was covered in biscuit goop! It was so funny I had to get some picture before I cleaned him up!

Teething

Houston, we have a problem.

And that problem is teething. Oh. My. Goodness. I feel like karma is just laughing at us for all those times we made comments like:

"Oh, our baby sleeps soooo well, he neve wakes up!"

"He always sleeps though the night."

"We have to wake him up for feedings!"

That, my friends, is no longer the case. For the past 5 days poor L has been up pretty much every hour on the hour. And we are exhausted. I feel like this is the kind of tired everyone said we would feel when we brought him home from the hospital, only it's hitting us 8 months later. And I feel so bad for him, because you can just tell that his poor little mouth is hurting him, and he doesn't understand it. During the day he seems to be ok, as long as he is always chewing on something, but night is a whole different game. He wakes up wailing and calms down as soon as we pick him up, but it's like he knows that his mouth is hurting when he sleeps, so he refuses to go back down.

Thank God I have a husband like S who helps out at night, even though he works such long hours. We take turns walking him and feeding him, but his crying still wakes both of us up everytime.

Poor guy, I hope this passes quickly! Any advice out there on teething would be greatly appreciated! Please post comments!

Here is how L is when he is a happy baby:

And here is how he is at night when his mouth hurts::

(Ok, this pic is actually from when he didn't like the baby food I was trying to give him, but it's not like I have my camera on me at 3 A.M., and you get the idea!)

Sorry if this post is a little rambly.....did I mention I'm so tired?!?!

Happy Anniversary

2 years ago today was the second happiest day of my life. (This first, of course, is the day Landon was born). 2 years ago today I married my best friend, the love of my life, the person that truly completes who I am. Ok, fair warning, this is probably going to be pretty cheesy, but I can't help it. S makes me cheesey! When I talk about us, and our marriage, and our family, and our wedding I turn into a big ball of goo that wants to cry and sometimes uses words like "soulmate" and occasionally wishes that life had a soundtrack so that everyone could hear "better together" by Jack Johnson when I talk about my husband and our life together.

And, wow, has life changed in 2 years. I knew we would be starting this amazing adventure together when we got married, I knew kids would be in the (near) future, but I never could have even imagined how amazing it would all be. Our wedding was beautiful, and so, so, so much fun. I love that we had a fairly large wedding. I love that we were surrounded by friends and family that loved us and were there to see us off on this journey we were about to take. I love that everyone had so much fun and that it was a great party.


But mostly I love that I got to start this new chapter in my life with this man by my side.

I remember being so nervous and so excited at the same time. The whole day felt surreal. My dad cried as he walked me down the isle, and I have never felt more loved by the people in my life.

And now, 2 years late our little family has the most wonderful addition. And the happiness I felt on our wedding day is magnified by about 200 million everytime I look at him. And it's maginified by about 5000 million when I see S and him together. Because these two men are all mine, and I love them more then I knew was possible.

So, happy anniversary baby, I love you. I can't wait to see what the future brings us.

luckiest girl in the world!

I realize this is two posts in one day, but I had to write and tell everyone out there that I am by far the luckiest, most-loved, blessed girl in the world!

As I was toiling away at work (Ok, I was reading other peoples blogs, mentally decorating our master bedroom  and toiling away at work) in walks an incredibly handsome and dapper man, dressed to the nines in a shirt and tie. Very, very, very successfull-business-man handsome. And this man hands me a beautiful vase of flowers and gives me a kiss.

Handsome business man is my husband, who drove all the way from Scottsdale to hand deliver me flowers on his lunch break.  How lucky am I?

"What are these for?" I asked him, giggling like a schoolgirl.

"I just realized that I haven't bought you flowers in a long time."

**Sigh** My heart melted.

And then hansome, thoughtful, wonderful husbanded headed back to work, after completely making my day and making me feel oh so loved!

Sorry ladies, he's taken!!!

7 months

Landon turned 7 months last week. How crazy is that? It seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital, and he was so small and we truly had no idea what we were doing! Lol, I laugh about it now but those first few days I just remember being so terrified about everything. I woke up about 10 time a night just to check his breathing, I was convinced he had a fever everytime he felt the slightest bit warm, if he wouldn't sleep I was worried, if I thought he was sleeping too much I was worried..... it was pretty stressfull! But then, like all things, we settled into our routine and slowly navigated our way through caring for a newborn. I have friends that sometimes ask, "how do you know what to do?" and the truth is, we don't. We just learned as we went. If we didn't know we googled it (Thank God for google!)  or asked family member and sometimes, we just guessed. And seeing as how Landon is now a healthy and happy 7 month old, we obviously didn't fail too misrabely.

Everyone tells you how fast it is going to fly by, but it's hard to believe how true that really is. Landon is still trying his hardest to crawl, but he is definetly very mobile. He can scoot or roll to wherever he wants to go, and he is starting to pull himself up into standing position.

He loves taking baths, and I love taking bathtime pics! (Seriously, is there anything cuter then a wet little baby playing in the water?)

He is still the sweetest little boy ever, but he is also learning to express what he wants. He has this loud shriek/yell that he does if he feels that you are not paying enough attention to him and he also will yell at you if you take away a toy he wants. Another thing he does  is hold out his arms to be picked up, which absolutely melts my heart everytime, so I end up doing pretty much everything with a baby on my hip!

I love, love, love this little guy and everyday is amazing to watch the little boy he is turning into.

Some pics of Landon 7 months ago:

And now, 7 months later he is soooo big and so handsome!

Writers block

It's been awhile since I've written anything. I've had a case of "writers block" or something. Or, maybe it's just more of a case of "I have a 7 month old baby and am usually lucky if I have time to shower and/or eat lunch, so what was I thinking when I thought I would have time to write a blog on a regular basis?"  It seems like everytime I've sat down to write something one of two things happens. Either I sit here and stare and the screen, write something, then erase it and repeat this procces about 10 times before I give up and swear I will come back later and write. Or I sit down, bursting with inspiration and ideas and the second my finger touch the keyboard my little guy start crying for my attention and all ideas are lost as I run to get him.
We are settled into a good routine now, even with my new work schedule. Everything is so good and we are so happy, but at the same time our days just kind of chug along, running into one another untill one day I look up and realize three weeks have passed. And I know I have things I could have been writing about along the way, pictures I could have been posting, or lifes little annoyances that I could have been bitching about. But I haven't and now I am irrated at myself because the whole point of this blog was to be able to look back on this time and remember all the good and bad and happy and funny as we navigate our way through the early years of young marriage and parenthood and all the joys and trials that go along with both.
I think the older you get, the faster time seems to go. I can't belive L is almost 7 months old. I can't believe S and I have been married 2 years this month. I wish I could soak it all it all in and remember every little moment (hence the blog) but it's going at such a fast pace I feel like I am almost running just to stay caught up with everything.
This is a little disjointed, I realize. Maybe even confusing for some of you, but it makes sense to me. And the main point of this entry is that I just need to sit down and write something, even if that something was about the fact that I haven't been writing. So, hopefully, the "writers block" is broken. I have put something down and stopped the cylce. No be prepared, because next time I have a flash of inspiration but L is crying, I'm going to pull him up on my lap, give him a cuddle, and make sure I do not stop writing until I get down what I wanted.