Holy Crap!

I am a mom.

It is so strange and so amazing. I still don't know how it all works or how it will go in the future but I am SO in love with this kid. It actually is a little shocking to me. I just want him to have the world, but I want the world to be better for him.

I find myself totally fixated on him, I love watching his movements, hearing his little sounds and trying to figure out what his different faces mean. I am also reveling in watching baby boy and his dad. They are so darling together and I get overwhelmed by how much happiness I get from those two people alone.

I haven't a clue as to how we'll do once the novelty wears off. Once we are both back to work and time feels more precious than ever. I'm sure we will have tense days ahead as we figure out what kind of parents we want to be. Don't get me started on how nervous I am about raising a good person. A good man, respectful, caring, who contributes to society.

But for now, I am going to hold my little two week old, watch him stretch his limbs like he is still in awe to have so much room to move around, and listen to his coos and grunts as he settles in to eat.

I have no idea if I will start blogging or what. I am not sure what he and I will spend our days doing for the next few months. So unsure of so many things. Save for one, I am eternally grateful for this time in my life and for my family.

Early Bird gets the Chair

Sitting in the waiting room during my two hour glucose tolerance test and gazing with jealousy at the ladies who snagged the recliners.

Actually this isn’t so bad. I have been wasting time on the internet and generally being lazy for the last hour. Better than work I guess. The drink wasn’t too bad either.

What brings me here to type is how wild baby boy’s movement has gotten in the last day or two. I’ve been feeling him for a few weeks but it was always relatively mild. Now it is like he is thrashing about in there like a mad man. It is beyond bizarre. He is registering a full on one baby, March on Spleen, protest right now about the fact that we haven’t eaten today. I throw this out to my silent blog because, so far, M has been around when I experience these fits of activity so I’ve had someone to tell and be incredulous about it with me. But right now, I am alone with my computer (and some comfy looking stranger pregnant women).

This week ends the second trimester for me and I seriously can’t believe it. I don’t really have any deep thoughts on pregnancy or impending motherhood or even the way time passes. Maybe that’s part of why it has been quiet on the blog front.

3: stay [LISTEN]

The WEverb12 prompt for today is:

How did you stay in the moment this year?

Honestly, I REALLY struggled with this in 2012. I would find myself so focused on the really big changes we are trying to make in our life that I’d lose sight of how incredibly lucky I am and how great my current life is. 

This is the first full year we have spent trying to grow our little family and kept coming up against obstacles and bad news everywhere we turned. I was very easily frustrated by all of this and got more anxious to just push to the end result and put all the BS behind us. Hell, I started researching daycare options. That is how far from being “in the moment” I was at times.  

Luckily for me, I have a really great husband who is able to gently nudge me back to the realization that, if I don’t live in the moment, I’ll miss some truly wonderful things. We have a good life. We were able to go to Hawaii this year, I got to go to the east coast for a couple of days to visit a dear friend, we visited family in OK, we made it to CA for a wedding. We got a few weekends away, just us and with friends. We painted the kitchen and our home is feeling homier and homier. We refinanced said house, my first foray into home buying.We both had jobs that brought us stress and had someone at home to buffer that. We cooked and baked together. We have been Weight watchers members together the entire year and have each lost more than 10% of  our own body weight.

So, I have to confess that I didn’t live in the moment all the time but, thanks im large part to M, I did spend most of my time there.

With no apologies, 2: watch [LIVE]

 

I saw this set of prompts on a blog I read (which too had gone silent for months). So I’m gonna try to participate in WEverb12 myself.  Weverb12 is “a series of questions/prompts that ask you to reflect on 2012 and look forward to 2013.” I will be answering a question/prompt every day as the mood strikes me this month and publishing it here.

Day 2: What movie did you see this year that you would recommend to a friend?

It probably helps that it was very recent but Argo was an awesome flick. M and I saw Argo as one of our lazy CA trip movies. We saw three in total in those few days and this one stood out head and shoulders.I went into it wanting to know more about the history but truly not thinking it’d be as entertaining as it was. It completely revived my love of historical dramas. Now I need to get my butt in to see Lincoln. 

Time for a new header?

Because I’ve been married for a YEAR already!

It was such a great day and the year has been pretty darn good too.Maybe I’ll wax poetic about what I learned about weddings and my family later today but, for now, I just wanted to share one special wedding dance. Not our first one (cause honestly, that was slightly painful) but the last song of the night.

This is the song I dedicated to Michael because it says so many things about the way he makes me feel. I said during our ceremony that, being a bit of a loner, I love that being with him is equally as comfortable if not better.

M, This past year has been great and I am excited for more to come. Thanks for making me free in you.

Free In You
Indigo Girls

A hard knock
A cold clock
Ticking off my time
A long look
But no luck
Couldn't seem to find
Or unwind
Into peace of mind
While I was trying

A quick glance
A big chance
My heart beat like a drum
I saw you
And I knew
Chances just don't come
Round again
Not like this
First a laugh
Then a kiss

And I'm free in you
I've got no worries on my mind
I know what to do
That's to treat you right
And love you kind
Thank you ever on my mind
Love is just like breathing
When it's true
And I'm free in you

The lost time
And self pride
Are my big mistakes
A clear voice
A bad choice
Sounding like an ache
In my day
Not too bad
But too real
To go away
But now I'm free in you

I've got no worries on my mind
I know what to do
That's to treat you right
And love you kind
Thank you ever on my mind
Love is just like breathing
When it's true
And I'm free in you

And I don't know
How you show
Such gentle disregard
For the ugly in me
That I see
That for so long
I took so hard
And I truly believe
That you see the best in me
I'm enough
for your  love
And that thought
Sets me free

Free in you
Got no worries on my mind
I know what to do
That's to treat you right
And love you kind
Thank you ever on my mind
Love is just like breathing
When it's true
And I'm free in you
Yes I'm free in you

Crafty Aunty Win

My birthday present for my baby niece’s first birthday turned out so cute I had to share.

I was looking at knob puzzles as a potential birthday present when I came across this one:

And I had an idea! A personalized puzzle. So I bought this puzzle and a shape puzzle, with the idea that I’d make an immediate family puzzle and an extended family one.

My sister’s family is four kids plus a mom and dad. For the immediate family one I chose pictures of each of them (being a little silly) and set to work.

The only fruit that I assigned specifically was the banana. Other than that I just tried to match the shape with the frame of the snapshot I’d chosen.

I used the puzzle piece as a stencil and cut out the image into the appropriate shape.

Then it was time to secure the pictures. I was using spray glue but found it was really messy and unwieldy. After messing up a couple of pics, I figured out that if I put a small tape loop on the front of the image and secured it to a piece of scrap cardboard, less glue got on the front of the image AND I could hold the tape, rather than the picture itself, when placing it into the puzzle frame.  

I think it turned out so cute and I will be doing this again for other babies in my life. I think it is a great gift for a one year old (since they don’t really have their hearts set on anything specific and generally don’t care).
Finally, I wrote on the front (in my chicken scratch )
Odessa’s Family Is Bananas on the banana which was the family picture.

Some of the images are from the construction of the extended family puzzle but the final product is the fruit basket immediate family.

Wow, I dropped the ball on this one

Opened up live writer today and saw this post. So here it is…only about a month overdue. I’m not even going to improve upon it. Just make up a story from all of the pictures (one hint: It is pronounced KWEE-Chee)
 
This past weekend I made a quick trip to visit my friend Ali in New Hampshire. It was awesome