Friday, November 29, 2013

That's the stuff(ing)


Thursday, November 28, 2013

Jonah and his hair

Jonah's hair decided to go with the turkey look today.

"Hey guys!  Good to see ya!"

"What?  Turn my head?  Ok like this?"

"Ok why do you guys keep looking over here and laughing?"

"Oh.  It's my hair."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Adventures

We are having some adventures this week.  The kind that probably will be funny someday but they're not aged yet.  So in the meantime I'll be bringing you pictures.  I'll tell you our tales soon.  When they're funny.  Or at least when I can even talk about them...


Saturday, November 23, 2013

Baby translators

One thing I swore I'd never do as a parent is put words in my baby's mouth.  You know how people do.  They think they're baby translators, walking around saying stuff like, "He's going what is she thinking?"  Or "He's saying I like that!"  and more "He's going (fill in the blank)."

Well.

I am so one of those people now.

In fact I do it with pictures too.

But my favorite baby translator quote right now is this one, submitted by a loyal blog reader who also happens to have given birth to me:

"I'm pretending to be a baby." 

It just cracks me up.  Every time.

My other favorite is this one, submitted by an unloyal blog reader who also happens to be married to me:

"What's a girl like you doin' in a place like this?"

While Jonah pretends to be a baby to try to pick up moms at nursing pillow bars, y'all have a good weekend now, ya hear?!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

The B Sides

Let's just all take a moment to reflect upon the fact that I'm old enough to use a phrase like 'the B sides.'

OK.

Now that that's over with, here are some of today's at-home photo shoot takes that did not make the cut for our Christmas card (I know you've all been on the edge of your seat...just pretend you care as much about this as we do).  Yesterday's 3 month post made me realize it's actually not that hard to upload photos from my 'real' camera, so here you go!







Wednesday, November 20, 2013

3 Months Old

WAAAAAAAA!!!  My baby is 3 months old!!  Our to do-list pretty much says: 1. Change diaper 2. Fill out college applications.

Why do they grow so fast?

(Probably so we're not pregnant for 5 years...)

Jonah weighs 16 pounds with a full tummy and a full diaper.  He weighs 15 with an empty tummy and a clean diaper.

He can hold and turn his head really well now, with almost 100% stability.

He mimics some sounds we make like rumbling our lips and the hard G sound.  (We're thinking about changing Nonni's name to Lady Gaga for that reason...among others).

He loves black and white images.

He loves the computer screen.  (Now that he can turn his head this is becoming an issue...)

He sleeps from about 8:30pm to 7:00am with a 3:00am feeding.

He LIGHTS UP when Papa comes home and talks to him.

He is losing a lot of his hair. : (  But some golden - yes GOLDEN - strands are coming in for round two hair.

His eyes are less navy blue and more hazel (like his mama's).

He can let me know when he is hungry, uncomfortable, and when his diaper is wet without crying.

He is PRECIOUS.








Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Top 2 Tuesday: I'm mad about TWO

I'm weird.  I'm really cheerful and sorority-ish but I'm also really sarcastic and get mad about stuff easily.  Today is one of those days because I have two things that as a parent just make me mad.  I've also been up since 2:30am and that doesn't help matters.  So thanks in advance for allowing me to RANT.

***
Jonah,  if you are 7 or under and reading this, STOP.
Jo, if you are between the ages of 8-13, ask me first before you read.
JD, if you are 14 or over, feel free to read.  I'm sorry for the bubbles that are about to burst.
***

1. My parents instilled a wonderful love of Christmas and magical cheer for the season in me...and with Jonah's entrance into the world I was just beginning to digest the fact that Santa will not come to my house and put out presents and leave behind magical non-melting snow and boot prints and carrots nibbled by reindeer anymore.  No, it's not because he's dead.  It's not because he isn't real.  It's because he already lives here.  Because I am Santa.

And I've been very fine with my new identity.  I've been very excited!  I've been looking forward to the increased pressure to be both homemade-cinnamon-roll-maker-present-buyer-stay-within-the-budget-Mom AND Santa-stay-magical-but-also-within-the-budget-Claus.  I was feeling a liiiiitle stressed to add on top of it all the other traditions like Christmas pajamas (how much is too much to spend?  Do we all need Christmas pajamas or just Jonah? When do we open them?  What should the backdrop for our pajama photo be?) and making my family look like mannequins for a Christmas card (how much is too much to spend?  Do we all need a new outfit for that or just Jonah?  When do we schedule them? What should the backdrop be? How will we all get on clothes without spit up AT THE SAME TIME?) and of course ACTUALLY making the whole thing about the real meaning of Christmas because then seriously what kind of mother would I be...

And then I remembered about stockings and I was a gonner.  At that point I knew it would just be a stressful season and if I could get everything purchased before Thanksgiving each year and print a master December calendar wired down to the hour for my Mom identity and my Claus identity then maybe, just maybe, we could provide our child the all-American Christmas experience.

And then.

THEN.

THEN I learned about this little fellow.  This little, creepy, conniving, son of a gun who was too annoying for Santa to work with so he started his own business weaseling his way into homes to give mothers that onnnnne little push to officially send them into crazy land.

This is the type of thing that makes a person want to use a cuss word.  

So I guess every night in December, after your North Pole Breakfast to introduce your 'adopted' Elf  (clever.  It's like you're against adoption if you don't buy this thing), you station this thing in a cute way in the house so he can watch if the kids are being bad or good for Santa.  And when I say station, I mean crap like this every single night:


But they just tell you he comes to watch the kids.  He's really there to watch YOU, the MOM.  I can just hear his annoying voice now..."Where will you hide me tonight?  Aren't you going to buy me different outfits?  The other kids' elves have different outfits!  Why don't we do the birthday and Valentine's and Easter and Fourth of July and Arbor Day and the Lincoln's Birthday and National Pie Day tooooooo????"

Seriously WHO did this to me?!  I will FIND you and I will NOT say thank you.  

2.  The second thing I've learned that I don't like in the parenting world is this idea that saying no is a bad thing.  You're called 'negative' if you say no.  Well sure.  You're saying 'no.'  But why is that bad or wrong?  'No' is incredibly healthy and as a toddler grows and discovers, he seeks boundaries.  Boundaries are good for us.  They keep us safe, they keep us spiritually healthy, and they keep us from becoming the worst versions of ourselves (unlike Elf on the Shelf).  Saying no is a skill many adults in our culture have lost as well (hence the parenting advice I suppose).  We don't tell ourselves no, so we take on debt to have that thing NOW, we eat the cookies and watch TV instead of jog, we Facebook instead of read, and we've created a mess.

All the while God has given us clear principles to keep us within boundaries that not only glorify him, but benefit us.  Many of them involve no, but where you say no to one thing you say yes to another, and if you're saying no to the right things, your yeses are to freedom, health, fulfillment, security, and peace.  

And I'm positive about that.

I know buddy, it's a lot to take in.  For now just enjoy getting pampered by your Lolli and Auntie Gwynne and living in the precious YES days!





Our weekend with Nonni, Poppy, and The Godfather

Jonah had a fussy day on Friday but didn't cry the rest of the weekend.

Some snuggles from Nonni fixed him right up


On Saturday he sported his Tech pride for Poppy.  I was OK with it.  It's in-state tuition so GO RED RAIDERS!  Ha!

He was an inch worm with Papa and got to hang with Uncle Greg


The big people ate and ate and ate and watched football and sat around debating the appropriate use of apostrophes with acronyms...ya know...NORMAL family stuff.

After the family left Jonah and I looked at early Christmas lights (he loved them)

And today we enjoyed falling leaves and neighborhood football.  I can't believe he'll ever be old enough to play.


Stay tuned tomorrow for Top 2 Tuesday and the 2 things I'm rebelling against as a parent!  Well, 2 OF them anyway...



Friday, November 15, 2013

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Favorite Things!!

Today I'm linking up at www.mcanallyfamily.blogspot.com for a Favorite Things party!  Right now my favorite things under $10 are these bad boys:

I learned about these from wonderful Shay at www.mixandmatchmama.com.  You can find these in the store over by the foil and Saran Wrap.  I haven't even used them yet and they are already bringing more peace to my life just knowing I won't have to scrub another crock pot ever again!!  They come to a little above $1 per liner (it's usually sold as a box of 4 liners).  And that's TOTALLY worth it to me, even on a tight budget, to not clean the crock pot!  (Can you tell how much I hate cleaning crock pots?)  Heck I probably spend more than $1 in water and soap to clean the darn things!  

Yes, that's crock pots plural.  I ended up with a plurality of crock pots by accident but it should have been intentional!  I use them both a LOT!  And I would use even more!  Especially a little tiny one for sauces and chocolates and cheeses and such.  You can never go wrong with having melted chocolates and cheeses on hand...

What is your crock pot situation and do you use liners?  Did you know I actually have a degree in something and I can converse about things a little more meaningful than crock pots and their liners?  Did you know actually I can't because I'm tired and my brain only runs on slow cooker mode these days?  

And because I know why you really stopped by today, here's my favorite thing that's priceless!!


 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Girls night!!

After 11 weeks (he's 11 today - WOW) of caring for Jo and a day of hosting said 11 weeker, a 5 monther, and a 1, 2, and 4 year old, it was time for Mommy to get a little break.

Here I am getting ready.  Can you tell I'm excited?


In case you didn't get that, it's:

At that point in the evening I had already had a blast,  and I hadn't even left my bathroom yet.

Here's the snack I made for girls night:


Bacon wrapped blue cheese stuffed dates.  YUM.  They almost didn't make it to the party they're so good.  These go great with red wine.  Here's the recipe:

1 pound pitted dates
4 oz blue cheese 
1 pound bacon, cut into fourths
Toothpicks 

1.  Preheat oven to 376.3*.  Slice open dates and stuff with pinched off pieces of blue cheese.  
2.  Reclose dates, wrap all except 2 with bacon, and seal with toothpick.
3.  Eat the 2 you didn't wrap with bacon.
4.  Place the dates on their side on a cookie sheet with sides to catch any grease.  
5. Bake for 20 min, then flip all the dates to the other side and bake another 20.

Enjoy!

Back to the girls night - so I did end up actually leaving to go somewhere.  We had a painting party!  It was so much fun and the painting was such a nice relaxing thing to do.  I loved it!  Here we are with our creations:


We just loved seeing the differences in everyone's work.  Here's my creation for Papa and Jo - they loved it!


I had so much fun and Jo and Papa did great, but I was happy to see my boys again.  I especially missed Jo's hair.





Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Top 2 Tuesday: Milestones!


1.  Jonah said Mama last night.  Twice.  There's a debate in our house over whether or not he MEANT it but there's no question over the fact that he SAID it.  Twice.  That's November 11th, 2013 at approximately 6:30pm for those of you keeping your own Jonah journal.  

Jonah said MAMA.  !!!!!

Yes, I do believe punctuation is a complete sentence on its own.  That's 'its' WITHOUT an apostrophe because 'on IT IS own' would make no sense, for those of you keeping your own grammar journal out there.

2. Today Jonah learned how to HUG!  YAY!  

Step 1: Determine the target.  Make sure the target wants to be hugged.  Do not punch, bite, headbutt, or throw up on the target.

Step 2:  Wrap both arms around the target and squeeze!  Repeat as needed.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Veni vidi vici

We ate.  We played.  We played hard.  We drank out of red solo cups.  Now you tell me that's not a party.


Jonah told us all about it this evening and then subsequently crashed.  The after party high is the best. :-)



Sunday, November 10, 2013

Little visitors...

We have lots of little ones coming over tomorrow!  Can you tell?

Breakfast bar- check!


Craft paper table - check!



Little seat thingy - check!


Cookies and icing - check!



Basket of books right next to an outlet- check!



Jonah's face when I told him we were having lots of friends over tomorrow: