Three Months Old

Sweet Baby B is three months old today.

I can hardly believe that three months ago from today he was only 5 and a half hours old, and I could hardly imagine how much joy he would bring to our lives. I mean, I knew I was going to love him lots, but I'm overwhelmed every day by how I just love him more and more and more with each passing second.

I wake up in the morning in the almost-dark to see these big, dark eyes staring up at me, a crinkly little nose, and then he smiles from behind his paci and I just melt into a big pile of mushy and gushy all over the place. Oh, he's just the sweetest little guy around.

Here's what we've learned about Baby B in the past 3 months...

1. That Baby B is a char-mer. You've never seen a more precious gummy smile until you've laid eyes on this toothless-wonder. Especially when it's 10:30pm at night and you're trying desperately to finish your lesson plans and the monitor is registering 5 illuminated red lights signifying the cry of the century is about to commence, and you run up the stairs three at a time and the minute you peer into the pack-n-play he's magically Mr.Grinning Goose. And then you swoop him into your arms and kiss the cheeks off of him, silently scolding yourself for being such a sucker. And then you remember, he's only this little once. Sigh.

2. He adores a good softie. We're talking two or three right against or over his face. He can't get enough. In fact, he likes them so much he tries to eat them - double-fisted, no less.

3. He cannot STAND his carseat. No siree. I cannot count how many times my arm has fallen asleep as it extends beyond human reach to rummage for his paci in his carseat while still manning the steering wheel with the other hand. Safe? Probably not. Sanity saving? Most definitely.

4. He continues to be a boob man. And we are both proud of that. The mommymilk is chunkin' up this little butterball, as his face is consumed by soft and smoochable milk-baby cheeks. (Also, an excellent dieting trick for mommy. I firmly believe he's literally sucking the excess baby weight right out of me. I can see now why people breastfeed until their kid is four. Not that I personally have any desire to do that, but what better way to consume half a Dewey's pizza guilt free and still lose weight and provide your child with the most nutritionally sound nourishment possible? IT'S AWESOME.)

5. He continues to be a clone of his father. Seeing them face-to-face is like seeing an age progression from birth to 26 years. The resemblance is uncanny. Again, thank goodness B's got the good looks going on.

6. He's not a grunter any longer. But he's on the verge of giggling any day. I will probably cry the day he does.

7. He loves a good football game. I guess all men are drawn to image of a green field on a TV screen. B keeps saying that we need to get some soccer stations so he can watch real football, but unless it comes on one of the seven channels that we don't have to pay for, then the Bengals and Wolverines are it.

8. He sleeps through the night. PraiseJesusAmen.

9. When he sees the camera he puts on his Hansel face. Smiles to seriousness like that.

Exhibit A

10. He is the love of my life and I cannot imagine life without him. He has certainly showed me that time flies and that I seriously have to make the most of every second that I am blessed to spend with him. While three months of pregnancy seemed like eternity, three months of mommydom seems like three seconds.

Baby Beck, if you ever read this, your daddy and I love you more than you will ever ever ever know.

The Amazing Talent of....

A sweet sorority sister of mine, Mary Ellen, has opened her own stationery business. She is suuuuuuper talented and I am very impressed (and jealous!) of her adorable and classy work. Please take a second to look at her site by clicking on the above picture!

You can also visit her at http://mostlymellen.blogspot.com/.

A Vain and Shallow Post about my Post-Preggo Body

Fellow blogosphere friends...it was a red letter day today.

Twelve weeks after the most painful (yet totally worth it) experience of my life, I fit into a TWO pairs of pre-pregnancy pants - and one was a pair of jeans. We're talking straight from the dryer jeans. Not even already stretched out. Sure, I may have done the pants dance around my bedroom trying to put them on, but darnit, even ladies who aren't three months post-partum have to do the shimmy to put their jeans on every now and then. I didn't even have to unbutton the top button and there was minimal overhang. Praise the Lord.

See, when you have a baby your body does some weird things, and the recovery time seems to vary from body part to body part. My hips have finally rehinged, I think all my vital organs are in their appropriate positions, and I've come to the conclusion that my belly button may never resume it's pre-pregnancy appearance (what was I thinking getting it pierced when I turned 18?!). Fortunately, I suffered only a stretch-mark or two on my backside which have faded substantially since June. While my tummy's still shrinking, I'm going to have to visit the gym and complete a Britney Spears-esque ab routine to make it perfect again. Oh, wait, it wasn't perfect to begin with. I'll settle for flat and firm. And, I was referring to the Britney abs circa 2002 when she danced at her first VMAs - not the Britney abs when she was psychotic and bald and all - just so you know.

So, syonara maternity jeans with the ever-so-lovely elastic panel. Au revoir Bella Band that disguised my unbuttoned-ness. Helllllloooooo Gap Long and Leans! Can I get an AMEN?!

Note to Rach - I MAILED YOUR PACKAGE!!!!! Isn't that incredible? You should get it today or tomorrow. Wahoo!

Also, my house is CLEAN and I am doing LAUNDRY and PUTTING IT AWAY IN THE RIGHT PLACE instead of letting it pile up on my floor. Don't get me wrong, there are still piles on the floor, but I'm putting away all the most recently cleaned items. If I were one of my kindergarteners, I'd tell me to pat myself on the back. And I would do it. Because I'm a good listener like that.

Maybe I'll even make dinner tonight to top off the I'm-finally-getting-the-hang-of-this-working-mother thing.

Lots of love. Hopefully I'm back from my blogging hiatus.

Picture Montage

Baby Dedication at Church. Oh, yes, we totally color-coordinated.
My sweet boy's sad face.
Me and Baby B enjoying tummy time.
Baby B hanging out with Red's greats.
Family picture before the Red's game.

I know...I know...

I'm a big blog slacker. My friend, Lindsay, recently posted about her personal blog-slackerness, and I am totally right there with her. After the Great Blackout 2008, we're still trying to get things together at the M household, so I guess I have an excuse.

We do have power now, and I will post more about how we rojoiced in the streets on Friday night at 11:00pm when our electricity was restored. I wanted to embrace the Duke Energy technician. Not kidding.

I will also post about Baby B's first outing to see the Cinci Reds, and the baby dedication service at church. I will also post about how I have totally not got around to his birth announcements yet. But, again, I have an excuse - I was waiting for his baby acne to clear up. It was rough, but it only lasted a month as his pediatrician promised.

Anyhoooooo....

More tomorrow when I'm a little more organized and a little less tired. Peace.

Home sweet home...

I miss my home.

And though every room is accented with a pile of laundry, an abnormally large baby occupier (hello, floor gym - could you be any bigger?), and an empty can of Diet Coke, it is our house and I miss it dearly.

That being said - yes, we are on Day Four without power. So, maybe it was fun for the first four hours to play in the wind with the neighbors and search for every candle and flashlight we could find, but now - four days later - I'M OVER IT.

And the amount of TV stations we have to choose from at my inlaws is giving us a complex - I only want to choose from channels 5, 9, and 12 - not channels 1 through 987! Did you even know a channel existed that just shows all the different ways you can prepare a banana?! Just kidding, but hey, with the selection they have it could totally be possible. I digress...

Anyway, B's parents have been super hospitable and we cannot complain even a bit about our accommodations (well, maybe the pink princess bedding Baby B is sleeping on...). We're very fortunate to have a bed to sleep on and a hot shower in the morning. And my heart certainly goes out to those in TX without homes or those who don't have family to stay with. But, nevertheless, it's not like we ever expected Kentucky to be hit with a Level I hurricane. I mean, the Ohio River is the closest body of water for goodness sake. Three-headed catfish are all we bargained for, not 78mph winds.

B's office is still out of power also, so he's been Super Dad by taking good care of Baby B (I returned to work today). He may not work all week.

Nothing like a free vacation in September, eh? If only it weren't hurricane season we could have re-booked our cruise to the Caribbean. Oh wait, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place without the hurricane. We can't win.

Again, pray for power. We miss our cozy little cable-less home :(

Bwa-ha-ha-ha....

So, you probably don't know this, but B is a big practical joker. He especially loves to scare people, particularly me and his mother. When he was younger, he used to scare his mom with this creepy little figure that is made from some of his brother's old clothes (check out the acid wash jeans - totally circa 1994!). He would put it in random spots in the house at night and then just wait for her to run into it. To this day, B still thinks it's pretty hilarious to spook her, or anyone else for that matter.
Before I continue, I must mention that we love our neighbors, Josh and Beth. We hang out with them often, and Josh and B always cut up with each other while Beth and I just roll our eyes at them. They're the kind of neighbors that call you from Krogers when they find a clearance deal on Huggies or invite you over to watch the Stanley Cup finals because you don't have cable. But, they're also the kind of neighbors that have college team loyalties that totally clash with ours. You see, Josh is a big ND fan, and, being UofM fans, we have a little discrepancy - the Irish and the Maize-n-Blue don't seem to mix well.

So, B has been wanting to scare Josh and Beth with this spooky guy for awhile now. So, he brought it to our house from his parents,' glue-gunned its head back on, and then at about 9pm on Sunday we set out on our mission (yes, I was the look-out). First, B made the following note...
Then, he set said figure on their doorstep, knocked on the door, and booked it back to our house where we watched them freak out from our side window. It. Was. HILARIOUS. Neither of them would touch it! We later found out they thought it was a small child. A really freaky small child.

So, before they called the policed, B ran over and outed us. Here is what the inside of the note said:

Unfortunately, UofM lost to ND, but we still think we're the better team . And now we're just waiting for Josh and Beth to return the practical joking - supposedly they're bringing out the "Fuh-nay-nay" - whatever that means. We'll let you know when they get us. However, we've already planned our next plot against the neighbors... he he he ;)

And, to update you on the power outage situation, we're STILL without power and are staying at B's parents' house for the second night in a row. Good thing Baby B is only 2.5 months old and can't be permanently damaged by the pink Disney princess crib bedding he's sleeping on. I'm off school AGAIN tomorrow, and I totally didn't spend today polishing off lesson plans, so it's a good thing.

Say a prayer for electricity - we're one of 41,000 costumers in our county without it!

Against the wind...

Yes, we're still alive - after surviving three hours of the worst wind gusts that our area has seen in decades. Seriously, we were expecting to see chickens and the Wicked Witch of the West fly by our window on her bike. I think that the gusts topped out around 60mph, leaving power lines and tree limbs blanketing roads and front yards. We have been without power since 1pm today and, according to the radio, we may not have any until next week! Eeeeek!

On the upside, school is cancelled tomorrow, meaning that Baby B and I get to spend a luxurious day together (I'll be catching up on lesson plans that I couldn't do today since I was without laptop power). And, at this point, B may be home with us too, as his office is currently without electricity.

It's been a pretty crazy day. Our down-the-street neighbor lost half of an enormous tree, and my dad and B came to the rescue and helped pick up the debris. My dad used his chainsaw to break everything up (you know that was so right up his alley) and the rest of us (including our fav neighbors, Josh and Beth) pulled limbs to a big stack. There are no traffic lights working either which is pretty scary.

Fortunately, B's parents have electricity, so we're vacationing in the Hills tonight. B's passed out on the couch - he was watching the football game - and Baby B's snoozling in his "pink" crib upstairs. Hopefully our power will return tomorrow!

Oh, and our camera is dead, otherwise I would have taken pics of the windy massacre today and posted them. Maybe tomorrow...

Night!

What I wake up to every day...

Are you cracking up? I totally am.

(And could he look any more like my husband?)

Guest Post from Baby B!

Hi!
My name is Baby B. I won't take a nap for my mommy today, so she told me to blog hoping that it would wear me out. I doubt it. I'm a pretty active little dude. Sometimes, I pretend like I want to sleep (I'll close my eyes and everything - just for dramatic effect), and then as soon as she lays me down -pop!- I make my eyes real wide and let her know I was only kidding. She's so silly, that mommy, to think that I'd rather be anywhere other than in her lap, cuddling. It's so much more comfy there than in my lonely crib, ya know?

Now that I'm a big 10 Weeks Old, I like to hold my head up real high and pretend I can fly. See?

Have I met you yet? If I haven't, then I can't wait. I keep telling mom to let visitors come over, but she keeps saying something about the house being a total disaster. I don't think I have anything to do with that.

I have some new favorite literature. Do you like Goodnight Moon? So thrilling to say goodnight to the bowl full of mush and the red balloon. We read this before I go to bed at night. Only recently have I not crossed my eyes when staring at something so close.

I also loooooooove softies. And having my blankies up around my head. Don't worry, Mom always unwraps them from around my face after I fall asleep.

Okay, I'm tired now. It's hard to blog and breastfeed at the same time.

Love,

Baby B

This week I will..

1. Paint my toes. I haven't painted them since before Baby B was born. I had an excuse - I couldn't reach them. Now I have none. I'm just too busy, which is no excuse for ugly tootsies.

2. Put the laundry away. It is clean. It is keeping our bedroom floor company. In multiple stacks. I don't even know why I folded it in the first place.

3. Mail thank-you notes. I told you I was bad at this.

4. Condense Baby B's first floor bedroom. Possibly move it to top floor, with the exception of the changing table.

5. Turn Baby B's first floor bedroom into office/catch-all room. At least when it gets unbelievably messy I can close the door.

6. Cut coupons and organize them.

7. Mail Rachel's baby shower gifts. Her shower was two months ago and she now has the baby. I am way behind on the times.

8. Decorate the walls in living room. We've lived here over a year and I just can't decide what would look best on the big blank wall that stares at us when we sit on the couch.

9. WORK OUT. I am ten pounds away from my pre-baby weight (amen, thank the Lord Almighty), so the breastfeedind diet is working out studpendously. For those of you who didn't know, I put on a WHOPPING 59lbs with Baby B, and if you told me it was all in my belly, well, you're a liar. I do, however, want to be back down to my pre-baby weight ASAP and one of my best girls is getting married in May of '09 and I have to be fitted for my dress in November. So, I have t-minus 2 months to knock away at the last ten - which, of course, are always the hardest to part with. Beck's pediatrician referred to it as "the hostess gift." Too funny.

10. Prepare for garage sale that is set to occur in two weekends. It is amazing the amount of clutter two people can accumulate in two years of marriage. I think it multiplies when you have a basement too. Like the Stuff Fairy christens you with four times what you had in your apartment.

Please be my accountability partners! This stuff has to get done! It may seem a little over zealous, but I have faith that I can get it done and be a superstar mom and be a rockstar kindergarten teacher!

And, because I owe you from last week, here is a picture of Sweet Precious. Check out his onesie. Love it.

Why I Heart My Husband Reason #172...

He spends his evenings helping me cut out miniature apples for our calendar in kindergarten. And he does it with a smile on his face.

Oh, yeah...

I remembered two other things I was supposed to tell you. And, yes, it is important that I tell you at 11:59pm.

1. Baby B is totally still sleeping in his pack-n-play next to our bed. The whole let's-try-sleeping-in-the-crib idea was a bust. So, I guess we're officially modified co-sleepers (somethings I was VERY against before I met Baby B, but he charmed me into it). I mean, he's only a this little once. Thus, I can only roll over and look at his precious face for a couple more months before I become a distraction and prevent him from sleeping because I'm staring at him. Plus, it makes his midnight snacking habit much more tolerable since I don't have to trek to the other side of the house to get him. Okay, his room is actually an extension of our room, but still, it is the other side of the house.

2. I kept meaning to update the library book situation, which ended up being a bad situation for me financially. After B sent me this article, I decided I might want to return the stash I was hoarding instead of risking jail time. (They probably don't let you bring your breastpump to jail with you, and that right there would be bad news for everyone involved.) Nevertheless, I paid $24.50 in fines. Oops.

Roly Poly

Could he be any cuter, seriously?

Found it!

Of course it was in the bottom of the diaper bag! Why didn't I think of that in the first place???

Good Morning!

Wow. I can't believe it's been almost a whole week since I posted last. Shame on me.

The main reason I haven't posted (besides the fact that I am a working mother with a life), is that I cannot for the life of me find the camera. Which means I can only provide you with words and no pictures. Major bummer.

So, here's some random things you need to know...

1. The air conditioner is working. And then it's not. And then it's working again. And then it's not. This is very frustrating. But, today, it's a lovely 68 degrees out currently with a pleasant breeze, so we have the windows open. Love it.

2. Baby B is still recovering from his cold. But he's not near as snuffly as he was a week and a half ago. We also went to his two-month check-up last week. Here are his current stats: 13lb9oz and 24" long - the 90th percentile in both! He's growing like a weed. He also had to get FOUR shots which all but broke my heart. I cried harder than he did.

Oh, and guess what? BABY B ROLLED OVER YESTERDAY! And, it couldn't be a fluke because he did it SIX TIMES!!!! He's so amazing and intelligent and super-dee-duper and terrific and lovely and all the most wonderful adjectives rolled into one diapered little bundle. Sigh. Love him.

3. My handyman husband is accomplishing task after task at our house. The glass front door did go up last weekend (after two straight days of work and the purchase of a $150 saw to help install it!). We owe a HUGE thanks to my father-in-law, Mike, who spent his Labor Day weekend helping us out. Then, B and Matt, our brother-in-law, installed a ceiling fan in Baby B's room and are putting the second one in our room today. Wahoo! And, to top it all off, B fixed the washer. Love my husband. Most of the time, anyway ;)

4. A big congrats to Chels, Matt, and Soph - they're having a BOY! Can you puh-leaaaaase name him Gretzsky? He he he....

5. Another big congrats to new parents, Rachel and Lee, on the birth of their son, Walker! Baby B and Walker will attend UK together in the fall of 2026. Holy Cow. We're very excited for them and cannot wait to meet the new little man. And, Rach, I PROMISE you will eventually receive the gifts that I purchased Walker, ummmmm, before Baby B arrived. Sorry!

Okay, when we locate the camera I will post pics of the new door and of my amazing son. Have a great Saturday!

Guest Postage

I'm guest-posting over at Secret Agent Josephine today! (Click on the link to read my story about adopting our crazy mutt.)

If you've ever scrolled through the blogs that I stalk (over on the lefthand side of my blog), you'll notice that Brenda's blog is one I visit. No, I don't know her, I just think she's an entertaining writer with a darling little girl she calls Baby Bug who is equally as entertaining. Brenda's on a blogging hiatus until September 15th and was looking for guest-posters, so I offered a story about Leland.

Thanks, Secret Agent Josephine! I'm so excited to have made your blog!

I Heart CVS!

So, I've recently become a coupon-er. Like, pretty much obsessed. And when you combine couponing with CVSing, it pretty much results in a spending high like no other. Why, you ask? Because this weekend, I was PAID by CVS to shop at their store. This is not a joke. Check out the picture below:Now, included in above picture are four items purchased at Walgreens, but they basically paid me to shop at their store too (I spent $3.80 on $40 worth of makeup.)

What you are looking at is $151.53 worth of goodies that I paid $5.22 for! And, it's all name brand stuff, too!

!!!!!!!

When the cashier was ringing me up at CVS, she was like: "Ummmm, you're in the negative. Like, we OWE YOU money. You're going to have to go pick up something else." FOR REAL?!

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit.

And, I transferred a prescription to CVS which resulted in a bonus for me - a FREE $25 giftcard! AND, $25 in Extra Care Bucks that I can use LIKE CASH next time I shop. Awesome.

Take that, Economy.