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!