I'm not Catholic ...

But I think every blog I have read today has been a "confession post" so I'll do some confessing of my own...

1.  I love to swear (how trashy is that?)
2.  I believe in Karma AND that no good deed goes unpunished
3.  Things have been working out so well... I worry sometimes that the bottom is about to drop out from under me.
4.  Most days I drink more diet coke than I do water
5.  Nolan LOVES TV and I let him watch way too much of it (at least they are PBS shows right?)
6.  The older I get the more irritated and unforgiving I am with inconsiderate and selfish people.
7.  I am embarrassed to say I live in Arizona
8.  I get frustrated when Nolan only takes a 30 min nap and at the end of the day I am overwhelmed with guilt that I felt anything but grateful that I get to take care of him during the day.
9.  I rock Nolan to sleep every night and nap time even though my pediatrician says to put him down before he is fully asleep... and that is ONE thing I don't feel guilty about. 
10.  I have like A MILLION projects started that I may never finish 
11.  I don't like to send food back at restaurants because I truly believe that the server will spit in it.
 

Whoa okay that's enough... I won't get too carried away here.  But there ya go... some of my dirty little secrets. ha!

How did we get here?

Nick and I went on a date last night (with Nolan in the care of his grandma who LOVES him to death) and as we drove away (in a car that is paid off) from our house (which we have owned for 3 years) on our way to dinner (to a place that we had the freedom to choose and the jobs that help us to afford it) I couldn't help but wonder, how did we get here? 

I wish I could say that I have worked so hard and struggled so much for every thing I have, but that is just not the case.  I have lived a charmed life.  Not without struggle or heartbreak, but all in all, pretty charmed.  I do try to give back and to be a good person so maybe a little bit of this is karma but mostly I just have some pretty amazing people in my life and god/love has been a constant in my life.

I asked Nick if he could have ever imagined that that he would meet such a great gal (hahaha) on e-harmoney or that that simple first date at Applebees would result is a more dates and an eventual "I love you" and "will you marry me."  And though I know the down fall of the housing market has been a disaster for almost everyone else, it was a blessing for us.  It meant prices came down to a level that was affordable for us. It meant we could have backyard and pick paint colors and all sorts of fun things!  And finally, our sweet Nolie-face... he is more wonderful that Nick and I could have EVER hoped for or imagined.  Nick and I often look at each other and wonder, how did we create a little person THIS COOL!

I know there are a NUMBER of factors and people who have helped Nick and I get to where we are today, but I do credit Nick with a lot of where I, personally, am today.  Because of him I get to be a wife and a mother.  Because of him I get to be exactly who I am.  I get to be loved and cared about and considered.  This is the song that we danced to at our wedding... I LOVE this song because it says exactly how I feel about my sweet husband.


So at the end of the day, I don't really know how we got here, but I am so grateful that we are here. 


   

End of Summer

 So the end of summer is upon us, so WHY the heck is it so dang HOT outside still.  Well, hot or no, school is still starting and my sisters are going back to college.  I realize that we are SO SO SO lucky to have our family close but it is hard not to be greedy, and want ALL of Nolan's aunts to live just a few minutes away when Nolan loves spending time with his family SO much.  My sister Tatem and Brianna are leaving for Utah on Monday... we will miss you!!   

Big SMILES!

Tatem put Nolan in the Mini cart and pushed him around the store

This summer Nolan has learned how much fun it is to explore

Totally thrilled with his new crawling skills!

A little afternoon nap with grandma and anut tatem

Close up

Nolan is has become and expert at pulling himself up onto things! 

This fall I have signed up for a Yoga class at Mesa Community College... wish me luck!! 

aw motherhood

Before motherhood, there were days when I felt inadequate and overwhelmed with my to do list.  But motherhood has taken those days and magnified their intensity about 100 fold.  Today was one of those days... today my arthritis seems to have taken over my ENTIRE body.  And I woke up today with a swollen and sore throat... which was just more than I could handle with what I have already been dealing with with my little Nolie-face.

Nolan has been a "spitty baby" since he was 4 months old when I started feeding him formula.  I brushed it off trying not to be the neurotic new mom.  But after 2 months I brought it up to my doctor who suggested a formula change to the Acid Reflux formula.  Which worked for about a month and then the spitting up was back into full swing.  Then Nolan not only was spitting up sizable amounts of formula but started spitting up veggies and would cry when he would spit up.  I was DONE I was determined to figure out what was going on.  The doctor gave us zantac... which has YET to work (its been a week).  And because Nolan was still having dirty diapers the doctor said it was probably just a stomach bug.  I don't buy that for a second... he has showed NO other signs of being sick or not feeling well.  So yesterday late afternoon I started him on a soy formula.  Today he has been fussy has spit up twice and has not had a dirty diaper all day.  I am an ever-loving mess!  I'm sick of my body hurting and I am even MORE sick of my Nolan's body hurting.  The doctor is getting another call from me first thing tomorrow.  Worrying is exhausting!!   

Just Not That Into You

When I was single and the guy I liked didn't seem very responsive and I spent hours with my girlfriends trying to figure out what I could change about myself or how I could do things differently... UNTIL I found the single girls' BIBLE!  He's Just Not That Into You.  God bless Sex in the City and writers Liz Tuccillo and Greg Behrendt.  I was a missionary of sorts and gave that book to everyone I could, including one of my best friends who later disclosed to me how mean she thought it was that I gave her that book (to borrow and please return)... because the guy she liked WAS DIFFERENT (cough cough... yeah right).  Now we can laugh because we are both happily married and that guys she was trying to date... well we now believe him to be a closeted homosexual, and not just because he didn't date my friend.  Talk about dodging a bullet!   


Nowadays its not a concern whether or not HE is into me... but more a matter of trying to prioritize my time and energy (finite and precious resources these days).  With a baby and two work schedules (mine and Nick's) we are stretched thin (figuratively speaking... I STILL need to get on the weight loss train).  And so Greg and Liz's advise once again is my anthem.  Essentially they say, don't invest more than you are getting back....in a relationship.  Basic investment advise really.  Is the time and energy you are investing worth the return on investment?  If the answer is yes... sweet!  Keep on truckin'  If the answer is no... peace out!  So, my goal this week... spend time and energy wisely... on things and people that are a return on my investment.  And, like I said many times before... YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!!  You can borrow mine.    

7 months

Today my little Nolie-Face is 7 months!!  He has grown into the following:

21 pounds 5 ounces

wears 9-12 month clothes

 2 teeth

can crawl..forward and backward

he can go from laying down to sitting... VERY quickly

He can pull himself up to a standing position

LOVES to boune

knows the difference between his family and people he does NOT know

great sleeper and getting better at napping

lover of the passies

continues to love TV and now has a favorite show... ELMO

loves to swim and take bathes and LOVES to splash

can say DaDaDa and BaBaBa and sometimes he will squeak out a Mama

Screams in his high chair when he does not get his food and fast as he things he should

loves mellons

loves to snuggle with his mommy

LOVES crawl on daddy, his favorite time of day is when daddy comes home from work

Loves other kids

 

His hair is also getting long... so that it sticks out over his ears, which I LOVE.  He also has the MOST expressive eyes!  I have never understood the whole "eyes are the windows to the soul" thing until I met my babe.  They REALLY are my windows into him. 

Cloth Diapers... revisited

I know most of you won’t read this post because … here I am, AGAIN talking about cloth diapers.  So on Tuesday I spent over $100 on 6 more cloth diapers (I already had 3).  (I got mine from Meredith from GoGo Natural, who I HIGHLY recommend!)  I am so paranoid about Nola getting a rash because of the rash he had when he was teething.  So I really wanted to keep using bum cream even with the cloth diapers.  I have a giant tub thing of Desitin so I thought I would just use the rest of this stuff then get something mother “cloth friendly.”  HUGE MISTAKE! I washed my diapers after the first use and noticed my NEW diapers smell like fish!  SICK SICK SICK!!  I smelled them forever trying to figure out exactly where it was coming from and WHY!  Then I noticed that there were extra white spots on the diapers from the Desitin and those were the stink spots.  As usual, I consulted Google.  First thing that popped up, Desitin has cod liver oil in it (what the hell for?) and it makes things smell like fish after being washed…First solution per Google, throw the item away that smells like fish. WHAT?! You have got to be friggin’ kidding me!  No no no, there HAS to be another way… I did NOT just buy a $20 diaper that will be tossed out after the first use.  Next solution, scrub in dish soap and the use some bleach in the wash… Which worked (thank god) after 30 minutes at the sink with a tooth brush and about 7 cycles with HOT water in the wash.   La la la … and we will be back in cloth diaper business in a few hours or less since the diapers are drying in the sun and it is sweltering out there!  

Another unintended result of cloth diapers… Nolan’s little shorts don’t exactly fit him right with the extra bulk of cloth diapers and the shorts are so tight that they significantly restrict his range of motion. It’s a good thing those diaper are super cute because most of the time I just throw a shirt on him and call it good. 

And finally a shout out to cloth since I have been complaining about them a lot lately.  I LOVE that they produce less waste.  I’m not really a “green freak” we recycle and try to limit water usage and had a garden last year (being new parents was a little consuming this year) but I really feel like this is something I can do to help Nolan’s word be less filled with trash.  And in the long run, it will save money.  I get to be a stay at home mom and (so far) I only have one little one so I do have the time to do an extra load of laundry per day.  To me it is worth it.