How to miss a childhood

My friend shared this link the other day and it shook me to the core:

http://www.handsfreemama.com/2012/05/07/how-to-miss-a-childhood/

Pretty heavy stuff, no? It's one of those things that makes you hang your head in shame (and then see your toes and realize you put shoes on without letting your polish dry on Sunday. Dang)

I will no longer be the kind of person that has my phone attached to me at all times. It will be devastating to potentially miss the daily telemarketer call meant for Sergio who has been sent to collections for an unpaid debt but I know I can manage. I have been doing a media/phone "semi-fast" the past couple of days and it truly has made a difference. I never was good at fasting for meals (I don't curse or steal and am honest so that kind of makes up for it, right?) so it is nice to succeed at some sort of fast. I refuse to miss my sons childhood or time with my sweet husband. Try it! Because I doubt we will look back one day and say "oh man...I really regret not playing that extra game of Draw Something" or "If only I would have been on Facebook to know that my friend Sally got a haircut."

Peace, love and attempting to better ourselves

ps. Hide your daughters. Really though, this kid is a charmer so hide them so that my blood pressure doesn't go too high. Could you just die of cuteness overload? I do every day.

Warning-dang precious nudity ahead.

At my doctors office they have dozens of pictures up of babies that were born under their care displayed in the waiting room. While waiting for my appointments Cooper and I would always stare at that board and dream of which baby ours would look like.

I could have never imagined a baby as beautiful as the one I was given. You may not think he is the cutest baby ever. To that I would say you probably need an eye appointment and psych eval. Totally kidding...

But seriously.

All I wanna do is stare at him all day. Pretty much I do...except for during my mealtime. Baby hasn't changed me that much, let's not get crazy here.

Apparently I am also promoting Costco brand baby wipes. Your welcome, Costco.

My favorite day.

When I was about nine months pregnant I was giving a snack to a little boy at church and he yelled at me "your the worst mom evvverrrrr" for no apparent reason. Great- not even a mom yet and I am already the worst evvveerrrr (what? worse than some of the toddler and tiaras moms? worse than Regina from "Once Upon A Time?" worse than Esther on Vampire Diaries? That's harsh.) I certainly don't insult people when they give me food but he was three so I forgive... But it got me thinking even more than I had been about whether or not I was going to be a good mother like I wanted so badly to be. The sentence that I will cherish more than anything I have ever heard is when my husband told me recently that I exceeded his expectations for being a mother.

My mothers day started by sleeping in wrapped up in my lovely new bedding from the last post (my early mothers day gift.) I pretty much needed nothing else but the greatness continued with breakfast and little love notes hidden around the house with candy. Our church gave all the mothers candy and gave us some yummy snacks to enjoy during the lesson-nothing like being fed to feel appreciated.

Later that night we went to our Missouri parents' house where the men in the group cooked us fish tacos. And as if all that wasn't enough I found the last note of the day on the bed which was a coupon for a foot massage. Heaven.

All of this and our little guy was an absolute angel all day-

I have to recognize my own mother who is my very best friend, even from 1300 miles away (she cemented that position even tighter after sending the bomb.com package that she did on Friday. if you would like to be in the running for my second best friend I will gladly give you my address. Currently my older sister, Rachel from Randomness With Rachel and Haley S. of LIfe IS Sweet hold that title because of their fabulous packages.:-))

My mom is SKINNY (she has lost 30 pounds!!!) compassionate,beautiful, empathetic, fun (her laugh is the best...or is it the lack of a laugh?;-)) and patient. And those are just some of her best qualities. Big shout out to her, my fabulous mother-in-law, the mothers who look after us here in Missouri and all the other mothers in my life that have influenced me and supported me during this time when I want nothing more than to emulate them. Love you all!

Black socks

So, fun little fact about me-I am quite the singer. I think the actual term when you are this talented is "vocalist." It's true. I am probably a cross between Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. In the looks department as well. I just sing poorly on purpose as to not make others feel badly. They don't want to know that I have a gorgeous husband, angel son AND an awesome voice, it wouldn't be fair. Well, my first year of choir we sang "black socks" and the lyrics are "Black socks...they never get dirty. The longer you wear them the blacker they get..." This week as a mothers day present Cooper let me pick out a new bed set. I don't know if you realize this or not but babies are MESSY and Shalyn's are MESSY and Cooper's are MESSY, so what do we do? We get a black bed set. I know how this works- the longer we sleep on it and make messes (messes from the baby and from snacking in bed, you sicko) the blacker it will get. Genius. And how is that working for us, you ask?

Spit up/milk stains EVERYWHERE.

At least it looks nice from a distance.

Having OCD for cleanliness has no room in motherhood.

Neither does a REM cycle.

Some pictures from last week, including our black bed set that is not getting any blacker-

One month check-up. Baby is 25% for height and 90% for weight. HA. Are we surprised?Me too. I totally thought I would have a light eater;-)

St. Louis botanical gardens-

The new banana pudding milkshake has my thumbs up.

Cooper calls this his "sexy photo" ha. So happy that he loves his baths.

You may have already seen this one on Instagram. Poor kid has such an adorable cry that sometimes I just want to listen to it. Probably that makes me a bad mom. I promise I take care of my child...eventually.

I made this carseat cover and declare that I don't have to do anything else domestic for another week at least. yessssss...

I have spent the last 3 weeks doing this thing they call being a "mom" and I gotta tell ya- it's a pretty sweet gig. There is nothing better than being that one person this little guy depends on. Its definitely not all glamorous, though. Just last night, for example- our little guy took his first real, full immersion bath and pooped in it in the first minute (which means we start over...) and then this morning he decided it would be fun to pee all over himself and then poop on the floor within 30 seconds of each other. I suppose I should have been shielding him and hurrying to get him diapered instead of laughing hysterically and calling Cooper in to see...

I never said I was good at this new gig...

Another crazy new development- I have actually postponed some meals. The other day I didn't eat lunch until 3. Yep, you read that right. Stop panicking, I obviously did not die like I surely thought I would if I ever postponed a meal. This is normal for a new mom I think.

Here are some pictures- My Iphone has gone from approx. 70 photos to almost 400 in a week and a half. I am thankful for camera phones and for the blogger app!

And wheat thins.



First bath at home-

Back to the hospital:-(

My Missouri baby shower. SO THANKFUL to all the ladies who threw/came to support us even though we have only been here such a short time. I got a little excited about the Big Hunks...SO thankful my mom, sister and mother in law were in town to make it to my shower. Isn't my mom so pretty?

In Brodys first 2.5 weeks:

-Holds head up for multiple seconds at a time

-Smiled at 4 days old WITH DIMPLES:-)

-has a habit of dirtying his diaper approx. 2.5 minutes after being changed.

-Likes to pee on people (we all have our talents, don't we?)

-Has big feet/ long toes

-Loves holding his own hands

- Giggles when he sleeps

-Umbilical cord fell off at two weeks and one day old

-Gained 9 oz. in the first week home from the hospital- this kid likes to eat like his momma

-Sleeps 3-4 hours at a time at night

-Had to go back to the hospital at a week and a half old for 2 days because of a staph infection. I would write more on that experience but I don't care to remember details, besides the yummy hospital food. I'm fine remembering that.

Peace, love and stellar (not) parenting! Aren't you automatically supposed to be granted more maturity when you have a child? ;-) Happy Monday everyone!