10 Things I have learned...

Tuesday Noah will be three months old! How crazy that three months ago today I was waiting in anticipation of this little life that we would finally get to meet in two more days!  In my mere three months of being a first time mom/stay at home mom I have learned a few things about these little babies...

1) If you put new/clean clothes on them, they will spit up, drool, poo, or pee on the new item of clothing,         especially if you are going somewhere and/or excited to show off their cute outfit. They sense that it is clean and will have nothing to do with it.

2) Just when you think they are asleep, and you think you can FINALLY get something done that you have been putting off, those little eyes shoot open like someone just screamed in their ear.

3) Anytime you say "they have been so good all day" or "he never _______" they will immediately do the opposite, just to prove you wrong.

4) Just because you are home all day, does not mean that your house is going to be immaculate. It is actually quite the opposite. Your house is now nastier than it had been before the difference is you just get to sit and look at it all day.


5) The dog, if you have one, will indeed be jealous of the baby. Even if you have the most well mannered dog in the world, it will still be jealous.

6) As soon as you hand the baby to someone else, they will begin pooting/pooping.  And the other person will crinkle their nose and try to find a cute way to tell you what your child is now doing in their lap and hand them back.

7) If your baby has been laughing and smiling all day, the second you pull out your camera, something in their life has just gone terribly wrong and they will begin to cry

8) Someone always has something to say about your baby. Be it good or bad, strangers always feel the need to express their opinion of your child.

9) You will suddenly begin to talk for your baby. Or should I say through your baby. When someone gives the baby something you say as you hold your baby "Say Thank you" or if someone asks you a question regarding the baby such as "how are they sleeping?"  you say  "Say we are sleeping pretty good". Why? I can't  explain it, but it happens.

10) Nothing will make you happier than to see that sweet baby smile at your silly songs and silly voices...well except listening to him talk to his elephant friend.

 

  This is obviously not Noah but I just love Murray's speckledy feet!  :)

My Ode to our Mailman

Do you remember how when we were little we used to LOVE getting mail? I wish that were true still today... Now I go to the mailbox begrudgingly (<~~Thank you Lord Jesus for spell Check...or rather thank you Lord Jesus for creating the man (or woman) that created spell check), open it with hesitation and pray that the number of bills inside the box don't make me pass out in the road. I also on a daily basis hope secretly that there will be a large check or even better cash awaiting for me in there! Very rarely this is the case but when its there, Oh boy!

I think my hatred of the mail has also come from our jerk of a mailman. For those of you in my neighborhood, you will concur. (<~~I am putting this spell check to WORK today!!)  He is probably the biggest jerk that I have never met in my life! I get it, you work for the post office but you deliver in the county so you aren't special enough to drive a "real" mail truck so you bust out your 1985 Oldsmobile for delivering our mail, but there is no need to be bitter about your job. I am not MAKING you stay there, so please sir deliver my mail with a smile! And if not with a smile then just freaking deliver my mail EVERYDAY!

Our mailman has a personal vendetta against our neighborhood, and the only reason I can come up with is because it has caused him a great deal of more mail to be delivered on a daily basis since we are a new neighborhood. So he picks and chooses when and to whom he will deliver to. If you have mail and he doesn't feel like coming down your road...well then you won't have any mail today. Which is fine because it would save me from my daily panic of opening the mailbox, but the thing is I still have to go check my mail because I don't know that our house was on the "Don't Deliver route" today, So all I am asking is if he insists on being so rude as to not DO HIS JOB and deliver my mail on a daily basis then please just figure out a way to warn me so I don't waste my time walking to the mailbox and getting all worked up for an empty box... Thank you.

Sorry no Noah photo today :(  Stupid desk top computer which hoards all my precious photos has the blue screen of death.

Chubby Girl... Down!

I have begun my attempt to loose this baby weight!! Yesterday for the first time in...well I wouldn't want to tell anyone but honestly I don't even know the time frame... Lets just say it has been a LONG period of time, I went to a Step and Sculpt class. It was fun, but I apparently don't have good form because the instructor spent a good deal of time watching me and trying to get me to correct all the things I did wrong. And to make the night even more eventful...I FELL!! I have never claimed to be the most coordinated person in the world but seriously I thought I could make it through a Step class without falling on my rear! Oh my goodness! The sad part was before I fell the instructor was saying "if your foot does not pivot well, do not do this move..." and here I was thinking, my foot is pivoting pretty well for a newbie to the class and WHAM! My thigh muscle locks up, I attempt to catch myself as I stumble backwards and then I was on the floor. It must has looked a lot worse than it felt because immediately the instructor has run over to me asking me if I was OK. Lord...seriously?! Did that JUST happen? I embarrass really easy and this needless to say was very embarrassing! In a class full of people the new, chubby kid goes sliding across the floor! I hope you have a good mental image... I am sure from an outsider's position (once they knew I was fine) it was a comical sight to be seen.

Today since my legs were a little on the tight side I opted to not go to class and instead went to my in-law's house and rode a bike and got on the treadmill. I did not feel the need to go to class and have my entire leg lock up and fall again. I am just hoping that since I did work out again today that I will not be in AS much pain as I would have been if I had stayed on the couch at home. I am really trying this time. I hope I can keep it up! From last week at this time I have lost 3 pounds and even just losing that small number it has been a good motivator that I can try even harder and lose more.

 Everyone needs a little frog in their lives!! :)

I give!

I had a bit of a rough day today and really for no other reason than I allowed myself to get upset. It sucks being a girl sometimes! I don't even really want to get into the details because they are that stupid but seriously I couldn't contain myself. I feel like everyone needs a good cry every once in a while and today was my day! But regardless of how my day is, when I got home this sweet little face was waiting for me

All anxieties and stresses are lost when you see such a precious face looking at you. Oh how I do wish I could be as carefree as the little ones are! His only concern is if we will remember to change his diaper and feed him. And if we are going to get down to the nitty griddy about it... he is full B-O-Y. He doesn't care if he is clean or not, just give him some food and he is good to go! He is at his absolute happiest when he has just eaten, and in between diapers on his changing pad...free as a jaybird!  Oh how I love his sweet innocence...

But it is only 3:30 and this day had gotten the best of me. I am all done with it and ready for tomorrow.

October is wonderful!

It was absolutely beautiful outside today! Noah, Murray, and I went on a 2 mile walk today around the neighborhood and it felt so good! This is hands down my favorite time of the year! The colors are beautiful, the temperature is unbeatable, and it means that the holidays are just around the corner :)
Our family loves the holidays and I can not wait for Noah to experience them with us this year! It is funny because even though he will still be so little and won't really have a clue as to what is going on, Allen and I are both so excited about his first round of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! We loved the holiday season before when we were by ourselves but it makes them so much more special now that we have this little guy in our lives.

(This one was from a week or two ago but it makes me smile)

Rub a Dub Dub. Noah in the Tub

I just gave Noah his first bath in his baby tub without the sling! What a big boy! He loved it!! He was so sweet, he just laid there a kicked his little feet, getting me VERY wet! I can only imagine what it is going to be like in a few months when he is bigger and playing with toys in there :) I wanted to take a picture of this monumental moment but a) it wasn't a safe thought considering I would have had to leave him in the tub to get the camera (or my other option I guess would have been to drag a wet 12 pound, kicking baby out of the tub...) and b) I am betting in about 13 years Noah will appreciate the lack of multiple tub pictures.

How I Impressed my husband

This event was actually probably a few weeks ago but it really does make Allen laugh when he thinks about it. Let me give a little back story on this... I am the youngest in my family and since there are only two of us...my brother and I, obviously I am the only girl. While I feel as though (Carie J. that is for you ha ha...good ole Guy W.) my brother probably did watch WWF Wrestling because I think I became his practice dummy for the moves he saw on a daily basis, I did not watch the show and did not become familiar with the "characters".  Well Allen on the other hand, along with a large group of our friends, was a HUGE fan of the show. I am talking shirts, action figures, paying for it on Pay Per View... the whole nine yards! So being the fine members of society that we are, over the summer when there is nothing on TV, instead of enjoying the weather and going on a bike ride or a nice stroll around the neighborhood we sat on the couch and watched Monday Night Raw. (Lord knows, I would probably be fighting less with this awful baby weight had we been walking but I digress.)

Since we were watching this terrible excuse for entertainment, one will start to learn the characters and themes of the show. Sadly there are a lot of people that are still on this show that were on it when Allen was watching. So he would try to catch me up on their back grounds.. Well John Cena is the big star right now and there is some group called Nexis. For dramatic effect, they had week after week of previews about John Cena having to join the Nexis group if he could not beat them. Apparently this is a big thing? So we missed the week of the big fight and I casually asked Allen "I wonder if John Cena is going to have to join the Nexis?" We had some friends over that night and I thought both boys were going to fall of the couch. They both started laughing at me and said "What did you just say?!?" So I proceeded to repeat myself. I never thought I would see so much pride come from Allen's face! It is the little things for the boys that make them proud... Learn a football term or two and then use it correctly in a sentence...Watch in amazement at their reaction!

Unemployed...Homemaker...Domestic Engineer

Yesterday was the day it was announced at work... I made the decision to stay at home with Noah and would not be returning. What a interesting feeling to have... for the first time since I was 16, I do not have a job. Excited? Of course I am excited, I get the joy of staying home and raising my son, but how can anyone say that staying at home with a newborn full time isn't a scary thought? It is very rewarding, what with all of the sweet smiles, but this little person is counting on you for everything! All of their needs and wants. What if I do it wrong? What if he doesn't turn out "right"? I just love him so much and to think that Allen and I (with lots of help from our family) are responsible for raising this little guy to be a acceptable member of society scares the living day lights out of me! I know that I can do it, I know that there are a lot of people out there ready and willing to help the second that I ask, so it is not that I feel alone in our journey of parenthood, it is just the knowledge our journey has started at all. I still look at this precious little man and can't believe that he is mine. I always wondered of what my children would be like and now that he is here...well he is WAY better than I could ever dream up!

You know now that I think about it, I take it back...I am currently still employed. No, I don't get a paycheck every two weeks direct deposited into my bank account. No, there is no great insurance plan that comes along with it. No, there is no 401K plan that I can enroll in, but the pay is GREAT! I get a wonderful child, this gift, that was given to Allen and me. He was picked out especially for us to raise by God and no one can take that away from us. Even on the days that are challenging because nothing seems to comfort him or make him happy, I still wouldn't trade this job and go back to work.