On Ester and Mabel

So, has anyone seen Wanda Sykes comedy routine where she names her gut "Ester" and discusses how her gut dictates what she eats and demands carbs such as bread and desserts? She even talks about how Ester will roll down her Spanx and attempt to make and appearance during important events. It's hilarious.

Well, I found this inspirational and decided I needed to name my gut, especially after being pregnant and now having that extra skin around my midsection. Therefore, I would like to announce Mabel. (Noteworthy: I had trouble deciding on a name. I was really leaning towards Duncan as in Dunkin' Doughnuts...but I decided my gut was a female, giving it a male name just felt, well, wrong.)

I have noticed Mabel gets in the way of things now. She likes to hang out at the top of my pants, and wave hello. She also likes to get my yoga pants to roll down, and cause me to want to wear a size bigger in pants just so my pants don't touch or rub her the wrong way. It is rather annoying.

Despite breastfeeding, I have noticed that I can't seem to get all of my pregnancy weight off. My body is just clinging to the last few pounds, as if all hell will break loose if my body were to let them go.

Now, let me share my story.

I am in Target, wearing a red top (big mistake) and black yoga pants. I am standing in the baby section debating over different bottle brushes when some lady walks up to me and says "Can you tell me where the diapers are?"

Assuming she is asking me because of my red shirt I answer, "Actually, I don't work here but I do know where they are".

To which she replies in a bubbly voice, "Oh I know, I just saw your little bump and knew that you would know".

Err.. what?!?

Seriously???

I bit my lip and walked her to the diapers, all the while silently wondering if it was THAT noticable and if I was bending over or not sucking in or...SOMETHING.

I might have corrected her if she wasn't so darn nice and bubbly, and seemed so genuinely excited for me.

Oh well. Reality check! Better keep hittin' up that gym!

And note to self: I will never, ever, ever assume that anyone is pregnant!

Colds

So, this week has been a busy one, and it is only Monday. Camden officially has his first cold.

Ick.

I noticed starting on Black Friday that he was extra snotty, but hoped he would get better. As the weekend progressed, things only got worse. Husband and I continue to suck the boogies out of his nose, use baby chest rub to help open the nostrils, run the humidifier at night, and give him fresh milk/nurse as much as possible.

Poor thing still can't hardly breathe, you can hear him all the way across the house. But he's still a happy baby, and thus far has no fever.

The down side is that he sleeps less than he was before, and wants to sleep upright. Which I can't blame him, but that means that Mommy gets to sleep upright. Therefore, I started off this week exhausted.

I went ahead and took him to daycare after carefully reading the rules, and it didn't say anything about colds, just that they can't come if they have a fever. I kept expecting a phone call all day, with them saying, "Come get your snotty kid!", but so far we are in the clear. Hoping everything works out for the rest of this week!

Here's to getting our immunity on!

Shutterfly is fly

Well, it is already that time. Time, that is, for Christmas cards!

The holidays are my favorite part of winter. For those of you that know me, you know how much I despise being cold, yet somehow the holidays make the cold bearable. Its come Jan/Feb when things really get miserable, but that's besides the point.

Back to the holidays. One of my favorite things about the holidays is recieving all of the cute litte updated letters from families usually accompanied by adorable Christmas cards. I love looking at family pictures and catching up with everyone and seeing what they are up to.

In years past, Chris and I would skimp on cards. After all, we only had a fur-baby at the time, and I think people were a little worried about our fur-baby's human like qualities, which only translated to questioning of our sanity. But this year, oh this year is a different story. We have our own little family and this Mommy is dyyyying to whip out the camera and create, create, create!

Thanks to shutterfly, this shall be an easy feat. Well, in theory. They have so many options to choose from, that is my only problem! How will I pick what I like the best?

Here are a few of my favorites:
this one

and this one

and this one! See what I mean?
Decisions, decisions.

Shutterfly has always made been so user friendly for making books, albums and even calendars that are so incredibly easy and chic, I love using them! Try it, you won't be disappointed! I have in the past used other companies or places to print cards, and the quality is not near that of Shutterfly's.

Thanks Shutterfly for being so fly!

Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving takes on a whole new meaning for me. Don't get me wrong, I have always been thankful for everything that I have been blessed with, and have always counted myself as incredibly rich in these blessings. I have: my health, a wonderful family, caring friends, a house to live in, a car to drive, a job to help pay for these things, groceries in the pantry and spending money for clothes or different items be it necessities or just desires.

But, this year is different.

This year, Husband and I are part of our own brand spankin' new family. And it is AMAZING. I can't even find the words to describe it. Before my head hits the pillow at night, I always find myself whispering a prayer of thanks for this family of mine, namely being blessed with an amazing husband and a precious baby boy.

What did I do to deserve them? To deserve this incredible joy and happiness my son has brought me?

Nothing.

But, I couldn't be more thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Three Months: A Letter

Dear Camden,

You are three months old! I know I say this every month, but, where does the time go? With the end of Mommy's maternity leave and her returning to work, things have felt like a whirlwind around here. You are growing soooo fast and we can't seem to do anything to slow it down!




This month you have been a very busy little boy. The first week of Mommy working you stayed with family. You stayed with Grandma Beeson, Grandma Allen and Grammy Cici. You started to work on sleeping a little longer at nights at that time, (thanks to the help of family making you stay awake during the day) but you are still a night owl and will stay up as late as eleven! The longest stretch of sleep Mommy got was 7.5 hours, so you are starting to make some progress. You still have nights where you only sleep for 3-4hour stretches.




You moved up to size two diapers by start time of daycare. The size ones were becoming low-rise diapers and we have a few pooping incidents so, up a size we went!




You can easily fit into 3-6 month clothes now. You can still wear 0-3 month if it is separates. You are starting to get tall, mister, and the 0-3 month is starting to get a little tight height-wise. The six month stuff is a little big, one night I came in to pick your fussy self up and it was because you had both of your feet pulled out of the footy part and were stuck up where the stomach area of the pajamas are. It was quite the sight to see!



You are becoming quite the chunk, with those yummy baby thighs that have the folds and creases that I have to make sure to clean in between. You even have baby cellulite that is just precious!

At 11 weeks you started noticing your hands. You stare in amazement at them, often times crossing those eyes when trying to focus on something so close to your face. A lot of times you will grip a blanket or burp rag and pull it towards your face and just stare. You are very amazed at your world now, and it is so cute to watch.



You are still not a huge fan of pacifiers. Your Dad seems to have discovered your favorite is the soothies brand, but only if you need it to soothe yourself to sleep or are extremely hungry. Lately, it seems that you have been excelling at getting your thumb into your mouth. You are just nailing it over and over, which confirms Mommy's fears that you just may be a thumb sucker. We shall see!

The people at the daycare seem to love you. They say you are a good boy, and even when you are tired you aren't fussy. I am glad that you are good for them during the day! At night it sure seems to catch up with you, your lack of sleep that is, and that's when you decide to fuss it out a bit. But it's not bad at all, in fact, its cute a lot of the times.



You did have a blow out your first week at daycare, and you were wearing the CUTEST outfit ever. So, of course you would make a mess of it! Speaking of diaper changes, you can be the hardest baby to change. You love to pull those feet and legs up to your belly, making a 3 am diaper change in the almost pitch dark nearly impossible. Your little legs are so strong!



This past weekend we ordered you a jumperoo and boy are you cute in it. You are still too short for it so we have to use a pillow underneath, but you absolutely LOVE to look at the toys on it and kick your feet the best you can. I can't wait until you're bigger to really get a-jumpin'.

You are still a little talker when you are happy, which is something they have noticed at daycare. You talk and coo and squeal and it is SO adorable.



You had lots of firsts this month. First bike ride, first day at daycare, (aka first day without Mommy), first Halloween, first round of multiple shots, first time to notice Pearl. You are a little busy body just like your Daddy!



Well, mister, we love you so much. Mommy and Daddy are loving your snuggles and can't stop kissing those sweet baby cheeks. So yummy! We better get it in while we can, because before long the face in the below picture is probably the one we will get when we do so! ;)




I'll love you forever and like you for always,
Mommy

On Racism

So, one of the favorite kooky patients has been back since I have returned to work from maternity leave.

She came to my exercise group yesterday wearing a brown sock and brown shoe on one foot, and one white sock and white shoe on the other. Keep in mind, she does not have dementia like a lot of the other patients, so she was well aware of what she was doing.

So I asked her, "What happened to your shoes?"

To which she replied, "I am taking a stand against racism", as she proudly displayed both feet to the group saying, "One brown one, and one white one".

I was feeling a bit ornery at this point, so I asked her which shoe she likes better. Ha! :) That one stumped her for a moment, before I jumped in and said "Now, that would defeat the purpose wouldn't it?" The look on her face was priceless as she was trying to decide if she should pick a favorite shoe or not.

I tell you what, its moments like this that remind me why I do what I do.

Husband on Breastfeeding...

This is a statement from a while back, that I just couldn't resist putting on here.

Husband was discussing the difference between bottle feeding and breastfeeding and the necessity of burping Camden during and after his meals. After nursing Camden, Husband said, "Now, you don't have to burp him when you do that, right? I mean, there is no air in your boob".

Which I must admit, is a good point. :)

The Dreaded Shots...

So, our two month shots weren't too bad after all. While getting the drops he had these big crocodile tears in his eyes, but he wasn't crying or making noise. Must not have tasted good! He gave one of his cartoon screams when getting the shots. A cartoon scream for those of you that don't know is when he wrinkles his face, turns red and opens mouth wide and you can see tongue vibrating/flapping on the inside. After I picked him up he calmed down easily, poor baby. He came with us (Mom and I) to run errands at Target and shop a little, and he was fantastic while we were out.. It was at home where the below happened....

This is Camden after shots and before Children's Tylenol


And after Tylenol and a nap, he woke up all smiles. Much better. :)



Camden with his bandaids from his shots..


In fact, he was feeling so much better at the end of the evening, we decided to take him on his first bike ride. Pearl was not so thrilled, especially since that was her cart to ride in and instead we strapped a car seat in to take the baby and left her at home. Don't worry about her too much though, she still got a nice walk in afterwards. We told her not to worry too much because before long she will be able to sit in there with him! :)





He seemed to love the ride, while it was still daylight out he was looking around and grinning. Which is a good thing, because I am sure there are many more of these to come!

A Letter to FMLA...

Dear Maternity Leave,

I must say, I have rather enjoyed you. You have been a very nice and well deserved break from the working world. I have very much needed you during those instances when the mister decides he wants to wake up 3 times in the night. I have throughly enjoyed sleeping in late with the little one to make up for these nights, and I will surely miss them while I attempt to work in a zombie like state with my cracked out looking eyes. I have enjoyed running errands and cleaning house at my leisure. I have loved getting visitors, walks during the day and catching up on tv shows while hanging out with the little one.

I must say though, who decided that twelve weeks was enough? (Granted I didn't take the full twelve cause I couldn't afford it, but even my SIL only took six weeks...How in the hell she did it I don't know...) Twelve weeks. It goes ridiculously fast, but seems so incredibly short. At this point the little ones still aren't sleeping through the night very well, most are still dependent on their mothers for food (if breastfeeding) and you expect us to be able to return back as good as new?

Let me just say, Canada has this all figured out. They get a whole year. Which I would say is the MOST important part of the little one's life. The first year you reach the most important milestones and really aid in developing them and shaping them. I can't help but think what Camden and I could accomplish in a year. We would have eat/sleep/play routines figured out. We would have set naptimes. We would be eating solid foods. We would be able to self soothe. We would learn proper play interactions and discipline according to Mommy. All of these things and I can't help but wonder how they will work out with Camden being at daycare, and in the care of others besides Mom and Dad for more than 40 hours a week. I know everything will work out fine, I just think about what the two of us could accomplish ourselves during this period. We will still get there, it just may not be the way I had envisioned, and giving up control is hard for a Mommy!

In conclusion, Maternity Leave, I really feel you should go back to your creators and demand more time for mothers. I know I will back you up!

Signed,
A happy yet tired Mom who is dreading work, only because she knows she is leaving half of her heart at home!

Anniversary

Today is our anniversary. Four years ago today, we were preparing to walk down the aisle to say "I Do". Amazing how time flies and how much things have changed, especially in the last year.

We aren't big on presents for our anniversary anymore and we usually just head to dinner. Instead, Camden and I are gonna meet Husband for lunch on Friday as it will be my last day of maternity leave. When it comes to presents, there isn't anything I need, and I have all I wanted.


Matching hairlines and all. :)


(pardon the sucker I am hiding behind my back...)
See what I mean? It doesn't get much better. :D

Halloween: The Magic Number is...

This Halloween was even more intense than the last! We usually have a pretty impressive turnout, thanks to crazy Halloween guy in our neighborhood. When I say crazy, I mean CRAZY. He spends most of the month setting up his yard as a graveyard. He has multiple blow up Halloween decorations, lights, a fog machine and even wooden tombs. This guy even cut off part of his porch railing to make a better exit to prevent crowding on the porch. The family that lives there dress up and sit on this porch and I assume they scare the kids. I don't know b/c I didn't take Camden through this year, maybe next year. :) Here are some pics of this madness that were taken with my cell phone and really, don't even do it justice.








Overall, the magic number of trick or treaters was 326. Yes, 326!!! It was insane. They were coming in trucks, strollers, on a 'hay ride' being pulled by a four wheeler, you name it! This year I bought the same amount of candy as last year, but was stingy and only gave out one piece of candy per person. Good thing! We had some cute trick or treaters, what I thought was going to be my favorite was a little kid dressed as a nerd, using his trapper keeper as his candy holder. I complimented him on his costume and he paused, looked me up and down and then he responded in a smart alec voice "I like yours". Keep in mind, I wasn't dressed up. At all. So his Mom was standing around the corner and said, "Are you being rude?" I'm thinking "uhh YEAH" as she peeked around to see that we were NOT dressed up, and then she dragged him off. Now, if I were his mother I would have made him apologize! The audacity of kids nowadays.. I seriously almost asked for my candy back!! Gah.

I also saw some very interesting candy holders. A Cereal Box, a Pizza Box, you name it. At least this year we didn't have near as many high school kids, you know the ones that you wanna yell at them to get a job and buy their own candy. :)

The best part of Halloween this year was dressing up Camden. He was a monkey, and he was the cutest monkey on the block!!




Complete with cute monkey tail...

Cross Eyed Camden