Back to basics: Gushing about my Baby.

My best friend Stephanie and I were talking about all the changes that are happening to our babies.  Oliver and Ada are 17 and 15 months old...and every day they learn something new!  I keep telling myself I will remember it all, but I know I won't.  So let me tell you about the recent cute updates.

Oliver has started repeating everything we say.  I have had to limit my exclamations to "Whoopsie!" and "Uh-oh!", though it doesn't always work.  However, I find when my son repeats when I say, "Crap!", I feel like one of those parents.  No thank you!

His other new game is finding his body parts!  Currently, he can point to his nose, eyes, ears, mouth, chin, hair, head, elbow (Eh-BOW!), foot, hand, belly, and belly button (okay these last two are shockingly similar, but he does say "BE-BO!" when he touches his belly for belly button.  It's from a book eveyone should own called The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton, an author that every child needs to grow up with.  Other favorites include Hippos Go Berserk and Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs!  Sorry for the tangent!).  It astounds me that his little brain can hold all this information.

I keep meaning to make a list of all the words he knows, but it's so long I always quit.  A couple of months ago the list was about thirty.  I'm sure it is more like fifty now, if you include that animal noises.  My baby!  The genius.  You know those are Levi's genes, right?!  HAR HAR, LEVI'S JEANS!

I love that Oliver still lets me tickle him.  We have tickle fights about three times a day.  He also gets super tickled when I scratch his back.  I think it's adorable.

At bedtime, he snuggles up really close and lays his head on your shoulder and pats your back while you sing to him.  We made up this song to the tune of "Oh My Darling" that is silly, but we have sung it for so long it just because part of bed/naptime.  We sing, "Let's go ni-ni, let's go ni-ni, let's go ni-ni punkin boy, we will have us a good night (or nap) now, and we'll wake up later on.  Let's go ni-ni, let's go ni-ni, let's go ni-ni stinker boy, we will have us some sweet dreams now, and we'll wake up later on."  It's silly, but he loves it.  And I love that it's our thing.  Levi has taken to singing it to him too, which I think is super adorable.  <3

Every day at 5:30pm, we watch a video together.  Usually it's Baby Einstein (today we're  watching Baby Mozart!), but sometimes we watch Wonderpets, because it's on the Netflix Instant Q, and let's face it...Levi and I love to sing the songs.  Mock if you want, but you will love them, too!  This.  Is.  Sewious.  After the video is over, Oliver knows that it is time to eat supper.  We eat, then play, then it's off to bed at 7pm.  We start all over again sometime between 7:30 and 7:45am the next day.

Our boy is growing so quickly!  He amazes me more each day.  I'll keep updating about his awesomeness from now on.  I don't want to forget a thing!

12 Month Pics!

SO.  CUTE.  Here we go!

This is my favorite!  Happy boy!

SUPER baby!

Mommy loves her little man.

Daddy does, too!

Family pic!  <3

We had such an awesome time.  Oliver wasn't too sure at first, but we got the job done.  Hooray!  We made it a whole year!  God has truly blessed us.  We couldn't ask for a happier, healthier boy.  <3

Changes!

Big changes around here!  Sorry I've been awol, I have been longing to get back to blogging, but life gets in the way sometimes.  Anyway, here we are!

Do you like the new look?  My friend Jenni over at http://jennibro.blogspot.com/ took on her first blog re-vamp, and I think she did a phenomenal job!  It took a bit of prodding to get the hubs to finally add it to the blog, but we did have vacation and parties to take care of.

Speaking of parties, my little guy turned ONE last month!  I can't believe how quickly the time has past!  He had a party when we were on vacation at St. George Island, FL, and then another one after we got home.  His actual birthday was low key...just a peds appointment and lunch with Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Robert, and Miss Ada Lou.  Good times!

Today was Oliver's first haircut!

We started with this:

And ended up with this little fella (pictured with his stylist, Ms. Lori!):

He looks JUST like his Uncle Aaron did when he was a little tot!!  Adorable.

Tomorrow, we're finally getting 12 month pics taken (after having to re-schedule due to equipment issues at the photography studio).  So there will be a picture intensive post tomorrow.  Glad to be back!  More to come.  Stay tuned!

gDiapers for the win!

SO.  STINKIN'.  CUTE!!

Not only are the gDiapers adorable, they fit great!  He had both a wet and a messy diaper and the gDiaper held up beautifully.  He's still in a disposable at night, because he is suuuuuch a heavy wetter and I haven't found the right diaper for night time.  Double inserts don't work.  For now, we're using Huggies Overnights.  I feel better about throwing away 30 diapers a month rather than 200+!

I feel so much better now that we're back in cloth for most of the time.  I am loving the gCloth, though I did loathe the prep work.  Ugh!  Like I don't have enough laundry in my life...lol.

I have some super adorable pics to post from my nephew's first birthday, but that'll have to wait.  Night!

Mothering with Purpose.

After my pitiful Mommy post, I decided to get down to it and get it together.  But first, this adorable picture:

What a little stud!  I'm telling you, he could be in magazines with that face!

/MommyGush

Anyway, I ended up going to bed at like 6pm last night.  Levi got home and graciously took the whiny little tot for me, and instead of running off somewhere to wallow or vent, I just crashed out.  Hence why I am awake at 3am!  So, I found this blog called Inspired to Action which I found through this post on Simple Mom.  What a timely gift from God!  There are so many things written there that I needed to hear!!

One of the things that Kat of Inspired to Action write about is what she calls "Purposeful Motherhood".  What an awesome description!  It's what I want to be...a Mother who lives with purpose.  One of the things Kat recommends in order to begin Mothering with purpose is to write a Mission Statement.  It's something I will be working on this week.  Perhaps it's something I'll also share here, we'll see how it goes.  She posted this quote by G. K. Chesterton (someone I've been meaning to pick up a book on after reading many of his musings in Ravi Zacharias books), and it really hit close to home for me:

How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.

Wow.  Today was a day where I definitely felt that my function was laborious.  And when Kat talked about leading our children with passion, purpose, and vision, I realized she was right...I had the passion...it was the other two that needed work.

Another thing she recommends is rising early.  I am particularly bad about this, because I rarely want to get up when the alarm goes off.  But rising early has many advantages (just as you read when you clicked that Simple Mom link...if you didn't, do that!)...it's quiet time that I can spend with God.  Reading the Word and mentally preparing myself for the day that lies ahead.  It's something I used to do every day, and I stopped the last month of my pregnancy when I was busy anticipating my little guy (who, by the way, showed up a week late), and that was nearly an entire year ago.  Levi and I spend time doing a book study at nights, but it's been a very long time since I spent a significant time in the Word.  And if I am completely honest with myself, IT SHOWS.

I'm looking forward to bettering myself both as a Mother, and spiritually.  I know that it may not be easy, but with God's help, I know it can be done!!  Please keep me lifted up in prayer as I begin this journey of Mothering with Purpose.

Getting it together.

Sometimes I read other people's blogs, and feel like a big fat failure.
These moms have super powers.  They manage to keep a clean house, clip coupons, save money, raise a family with four kids, and look great doing it.  Some days, I barely get the dishes done, I've given up on couponing, my ONE relatively well-behaved child is driving me bonkers with this separation anxiety business, and most days I don't even make it out of my pajama pants.

I know that I'm being a bit ridiculous, but sometimes...it's just so hard.


I knew being a parent was going to be a hard job, and even with the wonderful support and help I get from my husband Levi, it still seems like I rarely get a break.  I feel like I haven't got the time to work on me (yet here I am ranting about it), and it makes me crazy.  Worse yet is that I feel myself slipping back into old habits, and that makes me feel even more like a failure.

Then I think about having another baby.  It's something we keep talking about these days, and I just can't imagine adding another human being to the chaos that can be my life.  I know it's not time right now, but it's even scary to just think about it.  I don't know...perhaps that changes.

I feel ridiculous even complaining about it, because I know there are moms who have it worse off than me.  Their kids don't sleep well, or they don't eat well, or they don't have husbands who are willing to help like mine does.  They have money problems and live paycheck to paycheck, and I ought to be thanking God daily (which I do) that I am blessed to me a stay at home mom with a husband who loves and cares for us and has a stable well paying job in today's economy.  I need to quit my whining and just GET IT TOGETHER already.  Yes, this job is hard.  But is there a better job out there for me?  Not a chance!

And the smiles.  OH the smiles!  And the giggles!  And how can anyone resist this little face:

Yes, it's hard.  But it's so worth it.  I'm glad I wrote this post.  I was feeling a little hopeless when I started it, but now I'm feeling a little more energized to start making the changes I need to in order to get it together.

I can be supermom, too!!

Ten Months!

Since the guys were all here Saturday, I didn't get a chance to post, but Oliver turned ten months old on Saturday!

I can't believe how much happened during that ninth month.  He began chattering a lot more, and pulling up on EVERYTHING!  He has been a second away from walking for weeks now (we're certain those first steps are coming this week...be on the look out!), and has been super playful.  He finally dropped that third nap...and he adjusted very well.  He got FOUR new teeth (wow!), and starting what we call "flailing bye-bye".  Instead of waving with just his hand, he waved with him entire arm.  It was super cute!  But wouldn't you know it, the very next day after he turned ten months?  He starting waving with just his hand.  Most times, it's still him waving bye bye to his face, but he's getting the hang of it.  =)

Words we learned in the ninth month include mastering ma-ma, da-da, and mmmm!!  When he first started eating solids, I'd give him a bite and say, "Mmm, mmm, yummy!"  Now every time he takes a bite he goes, "MMM."  Too cute.  He also learned night night (which really sounds more like ni-ni), and started working on bye bye and Nana.  The day after he turned ten months, he started making this "t" sound, and we're hoping that leads to things like toe and perhaps even kitty!

We started venturing out more in the ninth month.  Since he dropped that last nap from 5:30-7:30pm, anytime after he eats at 3:30pm, we can go ANYWHERE!  Grocery shopping, visiting, or even to the park.  Oliver isn't a huge fan of swinging in the kids swings at the park, and I read somewhere about snapping their leg if you go down the slide with them (thanks a lot, Parents magazine, something else to be paranoid about!), so we don't do that.  He does seem to like when we swing together in a regular swing (and I like it, too!), and he likes these spinning seat things.  Mostly, he enjoys riding in the stroller on the wood chips.  It's like off-roading, but for babies.  The weather has also been nice, so we've been taking more strolls with the daddy around the neighborhood.  =)

All in all, I look back and can't BELIEVE ten months has come so quickly!  Another short two months, and we're off to the beach to celebrate the week of Oliver's birthday!  We're leaving before his actual birthday and spending that day just the three of us, but then we're celebrating AGAIN the weekend after!  So many people love our little tyke.  It can be overwhelming how good God has been to us!

Me cracking up Oliver cracking me up.

I never posted this!!  You have to watch, it's so cute.



See why my favorite thing is to solicit giggles from him?  =D

Pics, and general life updates.

I got some great shots today of the tot...he usually never smiles for the real camera (I can sneak one from the cell camera sometimes, lol), but today, I GOT ONE!

Big smiles!

Nice toe sprawl, huh?  lol

Some other shots from today:

What a cutie patootie pie.  I love my punkin boy!


My fluffy mail is on the way...two Planet Wise pail liners from eBay, and six more Smartipants from Kelly's Closet.  I can't wait to get them...pulling out inserts is for the birds!  =)


Last night was my first #clothdiapers chat, and I met a ton of nice new people!  I can't wait til next week!!  It was neat to meet moms who cloth diaper...many from some of my favorite blogs!


Today has been pretty chill.  I have been doing laundry and hanging out with the tot.  I've been cooking some White Bean Chili that we got from Omaha Steaks.  Instead of using the suggested ingredients, I decided to add chicken instead, so I hope it turns out well.  Mmm.  Yum!  It can't beat last night's supper, though...my mother in law came up to visit and made homemade chicken and dumplings for supper.  I made apple betty for dessert for the first time...it turned out pretty great, actually.  Hopefully tonight's supper will be almost as good as homemade chicken and dumplings.  =)


Oh, and by the way...Vanilla Coke Zero?  DELICIOUS.  =D


K, gotta catch up on my blog reading.  More to come!

They're HEEEEERE!! The adventure begins...

  

bumGenius! 3.0 One Size Cloth Diapers in Clementine, Butternut, and Grasshopper.

=D

 

Again, with inserts (both newborn and one size).

I can't wait until tomorrow when I have a chance to run to Whole Foods to get some detergent!  My prefolds will be here either today or tomorrow, and I'll have to wash those separately.  Squeeeee!  I can tell that this is going to become an addiction...lol!  I took a pic with my phone...check it:

 

Oliver loves his new cloth!  This was put on over his disposable, but I can't WAIT to actually diaper him in them!  Look how cute!!

Okay...enough of my squee-ing.  I'm in love! 

Also, my wetbags came today from Amazon.  I like them all, but none are large enough for my pail.  Sad!  I thought the Thirsties bag would be, because it said it was large enough to hold three dozen diapers.  Uh, I don't think so.  =P  I think I'll be getting the one labeled "diaper pail liner".  DUH.

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