sleep.
something i've dreamed about for oh, the past 6 1/2 weeks plus the third trimester of pregnancy.
i finally got sleep. legit sleep.
Isaiah slept through the night! Not just one night, but TWO nights! It was a crazy thing to wake up and feel the sun on me and realizing that I didn't wake up at all the night before to feed him. After the hubby turned to me and asked if I fed him in the middle of the night and I said no, I really had to think about....did I or did I not feed him last night? Maybe I was only half awake and don't remember? But, no I did not feed him! It was a beautiful thing. It's funny what happens to you once you become a mom. I'm proud of my son for sleeping through the night~such a silly milestone when I say it out loud, but important to me none the less. I can't imagine how proud I'll be when he graduates from Kindergarten, or when he catches a baseball for the first time, or when he takes his first steps....I've become one of those crazy parents. But, I guess we all have it in us to be "those crazy parents" and we all want to be them. I've dreamed of being a parent for pretty much as long as I can remember and when I look at my son, I can't believe it's here. I'm soaking in the moments with this truly precious gift from heaven....however cheesy and sappy it sounds. Goodnight my dear son. May you forever have a good nights rest.
my brother. 4 years and 2 days younger than me. i love this guy. i would lay down my life for him if i had to. but he's the one laying down his life for me. we fought most of our childhood. but we understand each other now.
Noah is currently fighting for our freedom in Afghanistan. This picture was taken the day he graduated from Corpsman school. You sound it out like core-man...unlike how our lovely President sounded it out multiple times during a speech to the nation. Noah sees things that I only see in movies. I always knew that Noah would be in some sort of military job....he wanted to take care of people and to help them. We played tons of cops and robbers, he was obsessed with fire trucks, and our older brother was in the Army so from a young age he loved camo. Actually, if I remember right, Noah accepted Christ while watching a fire truck drive by with its sirens on. I can't imagine what Noah goes through on a daily basis in Afghanistan. He faces shooting daily, has to take care of a bunch a Marines, and has to live in a legit desert. with no freezer. crazy. Our make belief growing up is now his reality.
I am proud of my brother. I love my brother. I miss my brother. Come home swiftly to us Noah. Stay safe. Fight hard. We support you and the cause. Because of you, the fight hasn't come to us. Thank you for giving my son a safe place to live.
Yesterday was a fantastic day. A great way to start off my week with Isaiah. First, he slept in his crib for all of his naps yesterday (which is a major accomplishment since he had NEVER done it before), second, I went to the doctors and got the go ahead that I can now resume all normal activity, and third, my super duper cute labels from amazinglabels.com came in. Oh yeah! and fourth, Isaiah did this:I've realized I'm obsessed with the color green. Actually, I realized this obsession as I was looking around my house and saw the green pillows, green photo album, Isaiah looking super cute in a green onesie, the green diaper bag, Isaiah's green bedding, my green shirt...I don't know where the love of green came from, but I love the color green. Kelly green, mint green, lime green, sage green and of course, Christmas green. I think I could have my whole house green and I would be a-ok with it. Well, I would need to have splashes of bright blue, yellow, loads of brown and a hint of orange. Such random colors but they sure do make me happy. Maybe it's my love of nature and wanting to bring it into my house. Suburbia doesn't always have the best "natural" settings to go walk in. Yes, there are the beautiful trees strategically placed and the perfectly mowed lawns~my mum refers to this area as "stepford village." Some might find it offensive, but you know what, this area is kind of like Disneyland with everything so well maintained. It is nice have everything so manicured, but how I dream of living with wide open spaces, rolling hills, mature trees that God himself put there and a place where my kids can run free all the quiet of the backyard. Maybe one day....if only this dream could be combined with the city...oh how life would be perfect. :)
I have two wonderful creatures that live with me & my hubby and now Isaiah.
First animal is my pretty little kitty: Lexicon Jasmine. For short we call her Lexi. How did we come up with such a bizarre name? Brian named her. Lexicon is a type of lighting board (if I remember correctly) and we figured that we should name our animals the weirdest names so that we didn't want to name our kids weird off the wall names.
This is Lexi. A sweet, freakishly small, ridiculously shy, loves to eat our eyelashes while we sleep cat. We call her our love child. The day we got back from our honeymoon (4 years and one month ago), we went to my parents house to open all of our wedding gifts and heard there were free kittens at a house nearby. I pleaded with Brian and, he gave in. Lexi was the cat that wouldn't come to me and was petrified of people. She was hiding under a table and shaking. I was in love. When I was pregnant she would come curl up on my lap and lay her head on my belly. She either thought it was an awesome pillow, or knew she had to keep my belly safe. I like to think the latter. When we brought Isaiah home from the hospital, she was spooked. She was happy to see me, but not the thing that I was holding. That didn't last long though. Now she's back to herself, jumping on my lap and curling up next to me~especially when I'm feeding Isaiah. She's a little momma herself. She doesn't like many people, and I love that she feels safe with me.
This is Daisy. Our first dog. Our "if we can keep a dog alive and trained, then we're ready to have kids" dog. My puppy. She's a little over 2 years old and still has that puppy spirit. She still gets excited when we come home~even if we've only been gone for a moment. I got to name her, and I couldn't come up with anything clever. I wanted to use a musical term, but couldn't think of anything. I mean, who wants to be yelling out "come here forte!"? Lame. So, we named her Daisy. When I was pregnant, Daisy would sniff my belly. When I became huge, just like Santa Claus, she became very aware that something was changing. Then, when the stroller, the highchair, and the pack n play came into the house, she was very aware. When we brought Isaiah home from the hospital, Daisy wanted to sniff. and lick. When he cried for the first time, Daisy whined and paced back and forth like she was begging us to make him stop. Now she just buries her head in her bed and tries to sleep through it. I love this dog. We were the proud owners when she passed through puppy training. And, well, scoffed at the other dogs who didn't, who couldn't hold a flame to our dog.
I love these animals. They drive me crazy at times, but when they cuddle and give the cutest looks, I melt. I can't wait for Isaiah to love on these animals....I'm sure there will be more pulling of ears and tails before there is actual "love" but you get my drift.
I can't help but post when I get a cute picture of him smiling.....
Over the past year or so, I've realized the importance of being eco-friendly. I know, you might roll your eyes and think that I too have jumped on the band wagon of this buzz word and might even think that I have crossed over to the dark side of left wing/liberal thinking for using such a phrase. It might be a social way of thinking for some, but for me, it's been a change in my view of the environment and how I can protect it. No, you won't find me waving some flag to stop global warming or to save the latest creature going extinct. What you will find me doing, is learning how to leave a smaller carbon footprint on the planet. You know, those simple things that the tree huggers have been talking about for years that we should be doing that us conservative minded people are just now getting through our thick heads like: turning off lights when not in a room, opening up windows instead of turning on the AC, recycling, reusing, taking reusable bags to the store (and using them!) instead of the pesky plastic and paper that they offer in every store, shorter showers, not watering the grass as often, yadda, yadda. But it's gone deeper for me recently with the birth of Isaiah than just these simple things that any true blooded American can do. Did you know that using one diaper like Huggies or Pampers takes about 200 years to decompose in a landfill? Yep, you heard me right. 200 years. So if Isaiah were to wear one of said diapers, it would decompose by the time his great-great grandchildren were born. The magnitude of that is overwhelming to me. I want to show Isaiah how to live a more sustainable life than I have for the past 20 something odd years. No, he doesn't need to go live in some hut in the middle of the forest and only eat berries and whatever else the earth produces, but he needs to understand the magnitude of what we have been doing to the planet for the past 100 years or so and how we can make a difference. I don't want him to be surrounded by landfills, I want him to be surrounded by nature. Right now, this is an extraordinary task because people don't want to change. My hope is that one day it will be ordinary for everyone and that no one can imagine using anything but their reusable bags and eco-friendly diapers.
So, here is my "green" tip for you moms out there. Instead of picking up the popular diaper brand, pick up a biodegradable diaper brand. They are a tad more expensive, but when you think about a few extra dollars, or 100s of years in a landfill, the answer should be without a doubt to spend a few extra bucks to keep our landfills down. We've been using Seventh Generation diapers and I'm very pleased with them. They are simple, chlorine free, and will biodegrade in a landfill in 2-3 years instead of 200.
I've been thinking about what to write today for my little blog, and nothing comes to my mind. Just blank.thoughts. I don't get it. One day I feel my mind is full with thoughts that the world needs to hear, and then the next there's nothing. Nothing! How does that happen?
I do know that the thoughts (when they appear) that swirl around my head have to do with baby clothing, diapers, well, really anything having to do with baby and traveling. I need to travel....and soon. The hubby gets the itch to move about every 6 to 9 months after we've moved into a new place; but I get the itch to travel every 6 to 9 months. Brian and I love to travel. We've been to quite a few places since being married and now I need to start thinking about where the next place we will visit. Of course, it has to be somewhat kid friendly which really changes the type of place we would vaca at. Maybe a cruise....see! random thoughts swirling around.
Isaiah is 1 month old now and is out of his newborn clothes. Does it keep passing by this fast? He's already smiling at me, and cuddling me and about an hour ago, he turned over onto his side for the first time. I'm holding on tightly to these moments-I don't want to forget how small he is, how he giggles, and looks at me like I'm his saving grace. I can't forget. I won't.
I understand now why moms don't go out of the house not looking put together. And the moms that do go out of the house looking like you-know-what you kinda look at them with your head cocked to the side and ask what on God's green earth happened to them? Well, that's what I thought when I saw them. I swore up and down I wouldn't be either type of those moms. I wouldn't be the one that had to be all done up but I for sure wouldn't look like a walking zombie. I am a walking contradictory. Not only did people come to my house today while I wore sweats and sported a spit up stained shirt, all I could think about is: must. hide. the raccoon eyes. I've never been one to wear make up on a consistent basis. I don't think I ever really needed it. Until now. I was hoping that I was going to be able to find some common ground between looking all done up and looking like death....like this cool, hip, "I make this look easy" being a mom deal. yeah right. But now, I'm not so sure. My insides are tired. freakishly tired. So to even think about hiding this tiredness with foundation and mascara seems absurd. Did I mention I don't have any summer clothes? And shopping for clothes....not something I want to do, but I think I kinda have to. I can't live in sweats forever. The ugly truth is that no one told me that I wasn't going to magically fit back into my clothes. Oh, my poor clothes. I haven't seen my clothes for 10 months now. Who knew I would be so attached to clothes. I'm not that type of person....but when you take so much away from a girl-physically.....oh you get the picture. hopefully. I no longer wonder what's wrong with those moms who look like you-know-what. I empathize with them now. Note to self: don't judge a mommy who looks like a train ran over them. Because, well, you've become one yourself.
There are two things that Isaiah needs to have a peaceful nap. The "swaddle me" (aka magic blanket/lifesaver/or as my older brother fondly put it as: a straight jacket) and his white noise. The magic blanket is this marvelous invention some desperate mother I'm sure invented after getting tired of trying to use a receiving blanket to swaddle her child only to have him kick out of it moments later. This blanket was invented for Isaiah and his freakish cricket legs and arms (which will be discussed I'm sure on a later post) so that they are incapable of getting lose. The velcro on this thing is awesome. That box to the right of his head, that's the insides of the sleep sheep that a few mommies told the hubby about and out of desperation went and purchased. Best $28 spent. It makes "white noise" i.e. rain, ocean, heartbeat and whale noises. Isaiah prefers the rain and the ocean~the whale sound is kinda creepy. Once you wrap him in the magic blanket and turn the white noise on, he's out like trout almost instantly. Amazing. I wish I had my own magic blanket to get me to sleep that quickly.
Knowing that summer is here for me, means the smell of fresh cut grass. Seriously. Not the smell of a baseball field and the screaming fans, or the BBQ ready for the first meat of the season to sizzle away on it, and not even the smell of sunscreen. For me, it's that smell right after the grass has been mowed and edged-as if it were a warm embrace for the children to come run on or for the special blanket that has the sole purpose for where your rump sits so you don't get those pesky grass stains. I know, random. But today, I smelled summer and it was oh-so-sweet. It brings me back to my childhood when I would have been dead asleep on a Saturday morning to be awaken by my dad mowing the lawn. I'm sure at the time I would have liked to have screamed out "stop the madness! Do you have any idea what time it is?!?!" but now, my nose remembers that familiar smell and reminds me that summer is here. I wonder what smells Isaiah will remember that will bring him back to those special memories that we have yet to create.
