A Day in the Life of M

Mommy's been slacking on the pictures lately so I thought I would show you how I spend my days...

I love seeing Mommy in the morning and always greet her with a big smile.

While Mommy and Daddy get ready for work, I sit and play with my toys.

Then it's time to go to daycare.

Don't worry about me Mom, I like it here.

After playing all day, I'm excited to see Mommy pick me up.

Then it's dinner time. I love Sweet Potatoes!

After dinner, I get to play with Mommy and Daddy. I love standing up now. Look at me standing all by myself.

Check out my new bathtub. It's comfy! And the duck quacks. hehehe

At bedtime, Mommy reads me a few books. Our favorites are "The Poky Little Puppy" and "Goodnight Moon."

The Cult of Motherhood

I read this today and just had to pass it on. It's hysterical and so true.....
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The Cult of Motherhood
Come, join us...By Kristen Chase

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but we moms have more in common with Katie Holmes than we'd like to think. That’s right. Because when we popped out that kid, we got an automatic membership to a special cult of our very own.

It’s called "THE NAP".

Don’t try and tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about because I’ve seen you. And it’s sucked you in too. Hell, I’ve been a card-carrying worshipper since 2004.

Sure. We don’t wear crazy white sheets, sport bad blue running shoes circa 1982, or shave our heads, but on some days, I’m thinking those would look better than my 3-day old gauchos, Old Navy shirt, and inside-out underpants.

Why do you not change your white sheets disguised in way-too-clingy-to-my-roly-ass stretch pants you ask? It’s because I’ve been brainwashed. And all I can think about is THE NAP.

Membership to THE NAP is for the kids-only crowd. If you don’t have kids, then you just don’t get it. They ask us “What’s this NAP you speak of? Why does it rule your life? You’ve got to just get out from under THE NAP.

But we know. And we laugh at them. GET OUT FROM UNDER THE NAP? Have you lost your fucking mind?

THE NAP RULES MY LIFE. THE NAP RULES MY LIFE.

It plays over in my head like a broken Best of John Denver record. THE NAP makes us do crazy things, like weird hip-rotating dances and bizarre rituals such as turning on rain machines and walking in weird figure eight patterns to avoid creaky floorboards.

And we sing crazy songs like “Hush Little Terror Baby” and “Twinkle Twinkle, Take a Fucking Nap.”

It makes us weep uncontrollably and beg for mercy.

PLEASE GIVE US THE NAP. I WILL GIVE YOU MY SOUL AND FOUR PAIRS OF GOOD-ASS JEANS. JUST FOR THE NAP.

And you never discuss THE NAP with anyone - even if you actually see THE NAP – particularly the long one. YOU NEVER TELL ANYONE ABOUT THE NAP for fear that you will never see THE NAP again.

The presence or lack thereof of THE NAP determines the course of your day. But you have no power over THE NAP – it has a mind of its own, determining your fate in a matter of 15 short minutes or 2 glorious hours.

But if you do happen to please THE NAP and it shines its face upon your pasty white complexion thanks to spending way too many hours attempting the aforementioned NAP, joyous tribal celebrations ensue – dancing in the shower with actual soap, shaving of the legs and pits, hair drying, and eating. Eating of a full meal in one sitting.

So if you thought that donning frocks formed from recycled potato sacks, wearing a $26 single strand red yarn bracelet or birthing of children in silence was crazy, you might want to think again. Because let’s face it. That daily rock, beg, lay, and creep ritual you do in yesterday’s pajamas? Makes even quiet labor look the epitome of sanity.

Epic failure....again

So, as you might have guessed already, the Cinnamon rolls didn't come out so well. As a matter of fact, this might have been my worst attempt yet. :( I think it's time to hang up my baker's hat on this one and call it a day.

Cinnamon Rolls, take # 150,001

Okay, so maybe not quite that much. But I've tried to make homemade ones alot and they come out super crappy every time. It's a recipe from my neighbor who makes T.H.E. best cinnamon rolls EVER, so I know it's not the recipe.

Well, a girl from work brought in some homemade cinnamon rolls that were really good, so I pounced on her. (Side note: Who brings in homemade cinnamon rolls to work?!) Anywho, I grilled her on what she did and think I might have figured out my downfall.

I'm giving it another try this weekend. Wish me luck! If I'm successful, I'll tease you all with yummy pictures.

"I can't get my arms down"

Ya know, like Ralphie from A Christmas Story? That's what M was screaming at me this morning in baby speak. I should have taken a picture of her. She did look pretty rediculous. But it's flipping 7 degrees outside! Sorry little one, like it or not, you are getting bundled.

Andy is playing soccer again!

He joined an indoor league and his first game is this Thursday. I’m so excited for him! Unfortunately though, with M going to bed by 7pm, I doubt we will ever get to see him play. :(

Let’s hope he doesn’t break anything. Last time he played in a sports league, he broke his nose. But this is a 30+ league after all. hehe (He will kill me for saying that.)

Playdate with the boys

Madeline had a playdate with a bunch of stud muffins this weekend. She was the only girl there.

This here is West man. I just love his hair! It's so thick and starting to curl. And he crawled circles around the rest of the babies.

There two sweetie pies are twin brothers, Will and Sam. They do look slightly different than each other, but I still can't ever tell them apart. I promise to get it right one of these days. They were kind enough to share their toys with the rest of the group. And since there are two of them, there were plenty of toys to go around!

And this cutie-pa-tootie is Jake monster. His mom and I have him and M as college sweethearts when they grow up. But he plays the field alot with girls in other play groups, so I better keep my eye on this guy. ;-)

Tag, I'm it

Tammy tagged me…

here is how it goes: go to your 4th folder (where your pictures are stored) and find the 4th picture….and post it. then explain it.

This picture was taken at the beginning of September when M just turned 4 months old. I got her dressed up for her monthly birthday "photo shoot" in her cute little skirt from Aunt Jackie. She was looking cute as always.

I'm tagging:

Sarah W., Kenzi, Liz, Jody

Maggie is four years old

Yes, I have two other babies. They are our two beagles, Maggie and Miles. We got Maggie as a puppy the first year we lived together. We weren't even engaged yet so it's crazy to think how much has changed since we got her. She was a spoiled rotten puppy and is definitely the queen doggie. These two are so completely different in personality, but we love them just the same.

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Miles' arrival. She was none to happy.

But now they are best buds.

Teething sucks

We are so tired.

People would ask me all throughout the holidays, "Is Madeline teething yet?" And I would say, "No, I don't think so." She was drooling and putting things in her mouth, but she had done that for months. Then a week later, a tooth pops through. Who would have known?! But the symptom we can't mistake now is not getting any sleep at night. Holy moly, I can't wait until tomorrow night when the week is over. If I make it that far.

By the way, tooth # 2 popped through two days ago. :) It's her other front, bottom tooth.

7 months old

This picture is getting harder and harder to take. As soon as she notices the sign, she wants to grab it and eat it. There should be video of Andy and I trying to keep her attention. Now that would be funny!

Let's see, this month...

- she got a new tooth

- she likes to babble da-da-da-da-da-da-da alot. I'm trying to get her to babble ma-ma-ma but she hasn't figured that one out yet.

- she is almost up on all fours but not quite. It won't be too long though.

New tooth

Christmas pictures

Madeline writes....

"My Aunt Jackie better learn how to feed babies before my cousin gets here in June."

"My Mom finally remembered to take a Four Generation picture with my two great-grandmas on her side. "

"Here I am having a good time with my Mommy on Christmas Day."

"Look at all the new babies! We are gonna have a great time next year when we can all run around and play together."

"Good thing we took this nice family picture before my, umm, accident. We won't discuss that."

Looking Back at 2008

What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?

Gave birth!

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't make them.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, Lots! Liz, ErinJ, Jody, StephV......

Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no. Although, my husband's grandfather passed away two weeks ago.

What countries did you spend time in this year?

Only the grand ole' US of A.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

More time with my husband.

What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

June 5th - The birth of my sweet little girl.

What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?

Having a baby!
Working full-time while taking care of a baby with a husband working full-time and going to night classes.

What was your biggest failure?

Needing to quit work earlier than planned before the baby was born.
Needing a c-section

Did you suffer any serious injury or illness?

Thankfully, no.

What was the best thing you bought?

All of the baby stuff.

Whose behaviour merited celebration?

My husband. He has taken such great care of me.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?

I would say disappointed more than anything, both in myself and others. But things happen and as much as it bothers me, you just have to move past it.

Where did most of your money go?

Baby stuff

Compared to this time last year, are you,

a) happier or sadder? Most definitely happier!

b) thinner or fatter? Fatter, but it's okay. It's baby weight and I'll take that anyday.

c) richer or poorer? Poorer! We have quite the student loan bill now.

What did you get really, really excited about?

Having my baby
Andy's graduation

What do you wish you'd done more of?

Spend quality time with those I love

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Worrying about things I cannot control.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Yes! Obviously since you read my blog, you've seen MANY pictures of my beautiful baby girl.

How many one-night stands?

Umm, none.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Hate is a very strong word to use, so no.

What was the best book you read?

I don't read alot of books.

What did you want and not get?

To be a stay-at-home Mom. Maybe one of these days...

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 29 and spent the day with my little baby while on maternity leave.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Having family closer to spend more time with.

What political issue stirred you the most?

I'm not really political. So nothing.

Who did you miss?

My family. I wish we lived closer. :(

Who was the best new person you met?

I've met alot of new people this year and they are all really great! SarahW, sarah, Tammy, Randy to name a few.

Tell us a valuable life lesson(s) you learned in 2008.

That life is precious and to enjoy every.single.minute.

What sums up this year? (a word, a quote... ?)

I'm going to steal this answer from someone else, but it's fitting for me too.

Life changing!

We have a tooth!

One of her front bottom teeth finally poked through today. So that's why she's been such a crankypants. I think I feel another one coming through too.

Merry Christmas!

We are back after a wonderful visit back home with friends and family. As expected, M got WAY too many gifts. We couldn't fit them all in the car so my Mom is bringing up a load later this week.

M got us all sick so I feel like poop. I'll get pictures uploaded later when I'm feeling better. Although, I don't think I got too many. I was taking more video than still pictures.

I apologize for being a moron

This month has been a whirlwind of activity and I haven't been able to keep up. I was wrapping all our Christmas gifts today and I noticed how random my presents were. I normally have a game plan of what I want to get people, but this year it just didn't happen. Andy laughed at me and said, "It looks like your caretaker took you to the store and you picked up whatever was bright and shiny." Nice, honey. Real nice. Maybe if you would have helped me, our presents would have been better.

Then I noticed I bought way too much stuff for one person. I had purchased items and then completely forgot I had bought them something and then bought more. WTH?!

To top things off, I also realized today that I missed a bunch of people on my Christmas card list. So they didn't get one and I don't have any stuff left to mail them out. Gah! Sorry to those of you that didn't get one. Here it is. I designed it all by myself. :) It's nothing stellar, but I really like how it came out.


Is this month almost over?

First "official" babysitter

So for Andy's graduation ceremony on Friday, we decided to go out without M. Every other time we've gone out without her, it's been a weekend and a member of our family drives up from Cincinnati and watches her for us. But with it being a Friday night, that wasn't going to work.

I was a nervous wreck just thinking about getting someone else. We ended up asking M's lead teacher from daycare. You can't get any better than that, right? But the whole time we were gone, all I could think about was if she was okay. Of course she was. I know! But a Mom worries and I really missed her. She definitely missed us too! We got home about 30 minutes after she went to bed. She started fussing so I went in to calm her down and she woke right up. She was up for the next hour with a huge smile on her face. All she wanted to do was play with us. It gave Andy and I little warm fuzzies to see that she missed us so much. :-)

Jenna is engaged!

I don't know how I didn't blog about this yet. It happened about two weeks ago. They've been dating for over a year now and he is a great guy! Look how cute they are together.

Jenna wants to finish law school first, so they won't be getting married until Spring 2010. But guess who is going to be the flower girl?

Graduatin' and Celebratin'

Andy's graduation ceremony was on Friday night. It was kinda strange with it being such a small affair. It was only for his college so there weren't many there. Here he is getting his gift clock. I was a couple seconds too late, damnit!

A class photo. hehe

Afterwards there was a reception with food and drink. Doesn't he look snazzy? :-)

Saturday we had our families up to celebrate. We went out for lunch and then came back to the house for some cake. Before we left the restaurant, OSU Santa came by.

Once the entertainment fell asleep for her afternoon nap, everyone was gone. But it was alot of fun celebrating this event with family. We had a wonderful day!

It's over!

Andy took his last exam tonight! It's been a long 2.5 years but it's finally over. He graduates on Friday!

Shopping for a Christmas Tree

We picked up our Christmas tree on Saturday. We just went to a lot close to our house, but maybe in a few years when M will appreciate it, we'll actually traipse out and cut one down. That would be fun. Anyway, it was super cold outside so I wanted to keep M extra warm. I saw on a friend's blog where she put her baby in a sling and wrapped her coat around him. Brilliant! So I stole that idea and used our Bjorn. I looked like a dufus, but it worked well and kept her nice and toasty.






Here is our tree. I suppose it doesn't look all that great in this first picture, but I love it. It's nice and full and even and smells wonderful in the house. Way better than the tree we had two years ago. That one sucked! But we had waited too long to pick one up. Last year we didn't even get one. We were scrooges. So it's nice to have a tree again this year.

Nice and pretty in the house.

My Baby is 6 months old!

Wow how the time flies! She has gotten so big and I just love her at this age. I wish I could push the pause button on her growing up and leave her here. My favorite thing she does now is eat my chin, leaving a slobbery mess. But it's the best! She also screams at the top of her lungs just for the fun of it. Andy and I were trying to have a nice talk during dinner last night and we had to speak over all her noise. I suppose we better get used to that. :-) She's eating rice cereal twice a day now and we just gave her her first vegetable, sweet potatoes, on Saturday. She seemed to like it well enough. She'll try peas later in the week. As you can see by her stats below, she doesn't have any trouble eating.

She actually turned 6 months old on Friday, but I was waiting to post with her new stats.

Height: 26.5" 75th percentile
Weight: 18 lbs. 15 oz. 90th percentile

And her new pics of course. It's getting harder to keep her still for these now.

Christmas is in the air!

This photo was taken by my good friend, Jody. I can't thank her enough for taking M's christmas photos for us. There are more, but I don't want to show them until our Christmas card is mailed out.

Check this out!

Jan, one of my best friends, named a craft after me. She makes all kinds of great stuff and this is her latest invention. She's debuting her line of Smelly Bacteria Stuffies at a craft show this Friday and is telling the world about them on her blog. I'm a science nerd so I think this is awesome!

Check out the link below for Andrea the Anthrax Spore.
***Link***

If you are interested in buying any, let me know. I imagine she'll sell them on her Etsy.com store at some point. Click *here* for her store to see other things she makes and sells.

Visiting Andy's Family

Friday we drove up to Indy to visit with Andy's family and see his Grandpa, Frank. He hasn't been doing well so it was really nice to see him. Here is some of the gang that was there.

M made her rounds saying Hi to everyone. She was having fun here with Elle.

I think Jack looks adorable holding her.

Andy's Aunt Lisa

And I captured this great photo of Andy's cousins, Dan and Elle.

Maggie and Miles also had a blast there too. Frank has a HUGE fenced in yard (we are talking acres here) and they ran around and smelled the smells for hours. Doggie heaven!