Today My Sweet Baby Turns One

One year ago today...

At 3:0-freaking-2 in the morning...

We welcomed the most beautiful little girl into the world.

She stole our heart from the moment we saw her sweet little face.

 

And she went on to make it the most exciting, nerve racking, unbelievable year we've ever had.

 

Happy Birthday Natalie!  We are so proud to be your parents and forever grateful God has blessed us with you.  We love you more every single day.  

Love,

Mama and Dada

11 month post...almost a month late. Almost!!

Well, since you turn one year old on Sunday, Mama figured she'd better hurry up and get your 11 month post done.  Sorry for the delay sweet girl.  It's much more fun to play with you than to write about it.  But I'll try to be better!

Some highlights from this month:

• You have 6 teeth that have given you practically zero problems.  So thankful for that little one!

• Mama's still squeezing you into size 3 diapers even though you are definitely in a size 4.  I need to finish the package!

• Started cruising on the couch...you are super fast!  But you like to chew on the end tables and have left teeth marks on them.  Not cool little one.  Not cool.

• Super into reading books...okay really just looking at them and chewing on them...but you love them nonetheless

• Stood on your own for approximately 5 seconds!

• We've dropped an afternoon nursing session leaving us with just 3 total a day

• You had your first babysitter who even put you to bed and said you were great!  We love her.

• You've discovered door stoppers and are obsessed with them.  I was okay with this until you took off the top and put it in your mouth.  No way sweet girl.  Gone.

• Your daddy and I joke about your "path of destruction" you leave wherever you go.  He can always tell where you were when he gets home from work.  You're into everything you can get your hands on and put every miniscule thing on the floor into your mouth.  How you spot those specks of lint even the vacuum leaves I have no idea.

• You spent Thanksgiving in Indy with your family and finally met Mook the dog.  Boy you loved him!  You laughed and laughed when he licked you and it was the cutest thing. 

• Near the end of the month you saw Santa and were so nonchalant about the whole experience.  You just looked at him like, "What's up!?" and then continued to chew on Sophie.  Love it!

Clearly you're a fan of chewing.....

I love you so much sweet girl and it has been my joy to watch you grow these last 11 months.  I look forward to so many more celebrations of your achievements.  I cannot wait to see the little person you become.  

Love, Mama

The Fastest, Bestest Year of My Life

Y’all.  My sweet baby girl is turning one on Sunday. 

One.

As in she’s been here in this world for 365 days.

I feel like it was just yesterday she was a squishy little newborn.  But on the other hand, it seems like so long ago.  Some days I can hardly remember her being this small.

Now she’s a toddler.  Long gone is my baby who would contently lie on the floor in one spot.  In her place is a babbling, wannabe walker who wants nothing more than the walk around the house ALL.DAY.LONG.  

 

Needless to say, a lot has changed in one short year. 

I became a mom.  Something I still can’t believe.  The fact that I have a child and have been entrusted to raise her still floors me.  The responsibility of it all overwhelms me at times, but I know in my heart God gave her to me specifically because we were a perfect fit.  She was my missing piece.  And now my heart is fuller than I ever thought possible.

You know the totally overused line of “I never knew I could love anyone so much!”?  Well, crap.  It’s true.  Through all of the frustrations and moments of lost patience on my part…I still find myself thinking about her and smiling.  Or missing her when she’s sleeping.  Or wanting to snuggle her up into a little ball and keep her this size forever.

But she’s growing up.  And I truly am excited to she her learn more and more each day.  It’s just sometimes a little bittersweet watching her become more and more independent.  But I’m proud of the sweetie she is becoming.  And gosh darn it, the girl is a hoot!

I’m in serious party planning mode over here.  All of my immediate family is coming and staying with us so it is going to be a lot of fun…and a lot of work.  But I want to make sure we focus on the reason for the party.  The celebration of my sweet baby girl who has brought so much joy into all of our lives.

Can’t wait to share more with you all!

Rip Van Winkle Wannabe

Do any of you have snoring spouses?

I didn't.  I was lucky.  Until Christmas.  Suddenly my silent bed partner turned into a wake me up out of a deep sleep bed partner.  

And he's still here.

At first he blamed it on congestion.  And I bought it seeing as he was actually sick.  But even since the "sickies" left, the snoring remains.  What's up with that?

I've been having to get up in the middle of the night and move to the guest room.  A guest room where I haven't put sheets back on the bed since we last had guests.  They're in the room, mind you.  Just not on the bed.  So I've been sleeping on top of the comforter, using the sheets as blankets, and sleeping with my robe on because it's so cold.  

Poor, lazy me.

But seriously.  What can I do about this?  I am beyond sick of leaving my warm bed in the middle of the night.  And I know Matt feels really bad.  Do those Breathe Right Strips work? 

source

That couple looks really peaceful, huh?  Oh how I want that.

So what's a sleepy mama to do?

Natalie's First Christmas!

I know this is super late, but if only for my own memories I’d like to recap our Christmas vacation.

Matt was involved in a trial down in Akron for most of the month of December.  We were concerned about it interrupting our Christmas travel plans, but luckily it wrapped up just before the holidays.  And he won!  It was a big case not only for him but for the firm and gave him such great trial experience.  It’s funny how before I met Matt I just assumed all lawyers tried cases like you see on T.V.  Believe me; it is not at all like that.  So not the glamorous job it is portrayed to be.  But in this instance it kind of was.  He actually got to cross examine witnesses and everything!  I am so proud of him and the effort he puts into his work.  Natalie and I are very lucky to have him.

Side tracked a bit, huh?  Since we were celebrating the holidays out of town, we had our family Christmas morning on the 21st.  Natalie had her first fever so she wasn't really into opening presents, but it was still nice to have that time as a family.







Her favorite gift, the bubble wrap.  Of course.

We headed down to Indianapolis on the 23^rd to start our week long stay.  I had my annual Christmas dinner with my high school besties and had an absolute blast.  We’ve grown apart over the last few years…it’s easy to do when you live so far away…and the little addition we have doesn’t make this easier…but I felt a closeness coming back to our group and I hope that sticks around.

Every year we go to Christmas Eve Mass at the church I grew up in.  Even though I’m no longer Catholic, I still enjoy going.  We attend the children’s service where in place of the sermon…the priest has all of the children come up to the front and he reads a story about the birth of Jesus.  I took Natalie up to the front this year and even though she tried to walk away the entire time…and left a pile of Cheerios in her wake…it was kind of a dream come true.  I cannot tell you how many years I have sat in the pew and watched those sweet kiddos run up to hear the story and dreamt about it being my little one.  It was awesome.

That evening we went to dinner with my whole family, Matt’s parents, and some of my dad’s extended family per our usual tradition.  Natalie was pooped though and she was having no problem showing it to the entire restaurant…so she and I scooted home and I put her to bed.  It actually worked out well seeing as she was fast asleep when everyone got there so I could enjoy the gift exchange…and wine J

Unclear why, but Natalie had a r.o.u.g.h. night that night.  I’m not sure if she was over excited to see Santa or what but she was up almost all night crying about something.  Not so fun.  But we rallied in the morning and opened presents with my parents and siblings.  Girl got some sweet loot!

Later that day we headed over to my aunt’s house to celebrate with my mom’s extended family.  We had a lot of fun and it was nice for some of my family members to get to meet Natalie for the first time. 

We finished out our celebrations with Matt’s parents the next morning.  We had such a full week of love from everyone and it was just a fantastic experience to celebrate Natalie’s first Christmas with us as a family.  Love that girl to pieces! 

 

A New Start-January Goals

I mentioned yesterday that I had some goals for 2012.  I hesitate to call them resolutions as I feel as if I'm setting myself up to fail.  But clearly, that's what they are.  The coming of the new year brings with it a sense of change so I'm stepping up and sharing with you some things I've been wanting to do in my own life for some time.

1.  Go to the gym/work out at least 5 X a week.  

I had a pretty good routine of 4 X per week going before Christmas hit so I'd like to bump that up a little bit to get in some more cardio.  With this goal also comes the obligatory goal of losing weight.  I put on some pounds during the holidays so I have some serious work to do.  I actually took a before shot of myself yesterday morning and intend on doing an after shot on my birthday (6/3/12) 5 months from now.  Lord, let me look better than I do right now.  It was not pretty.

2.  Read my Bible everyday.

When I was working I had the perfect set up.  I read the Word during my breaks and at lunch and finished the entire thing in a year.  But since then, I've kind of been lackluster in my reading.  And honestly, I've been lost at how to approach it.  I found a Bible I was gifted when I left my job in a different translation than my regular one so I'm excited to get into it.  It has a reading program in it so I think I will follow that for now.  My plan is to do it as soon as Natalie goes down for her first nap before something else comes up.  I started yesterday.  So far, so good!

3.  Give up pop.

I'm not a big pop drinker.  I gave up caffeine when I got pregnant and have pretty much stuck to it as I've continued with the breast feeding.  But some days I just really want one, you know?  I know water is much better for me so I'm going to try to bump up my intake of that instead.

4.  Organize recipes that are winners.

I'm a meal planner.  And probably uniquely so, I exclusively make new meals.  Okay, that's not entirely true...but for the most part I'm a one and done kind of girl.  I'm not sure why, but I just have so many recipes waiting to be tried that I have never even thought of keeping a list of those that we loved.  Kind of stupid when you think about it.  So I'm going to start a folder on my desktop to compile those I would make again.  And, you know, make them again.  Does anyone have any other easy way of keeping track of this?  The folder idea's all I've got.

5.  Finish Natalie's 1 year photo book, keep up with her baby book, and print pictures to put in albums.

I'm about half way through Natalie's photo book in Blurb, but I recently got a Shutterfly coupon code for a book so I'm not sure what to do.  Anyone made one on either of these sites?  Recommendations?  

I'm fairly good about keeping up with her baby book but I have yet to print any pictures to put in there.  I'd like to get that done.

Also, I do want to print out all of our pictures and keep them in really nice leather albums just so we have them.  Do any of you do this?  Suggestions for great albums to use?

6.  Get an Ohio driver's license.

Okay.  Confession.  I have lived in Ohio probably 6 years now and I still have an Indiana driver's license.  I know.  I'm hanging my head in shame.  I do have Ohio plates though, so that's a start!  I have lots of excuses as to why I haven't done this...such as I didn't want to do it when I was pregnant...or before I lost the weight...or I didn't want to take the lame written test.  But it's seriously, seriously time.

That's my list so far.  I want to check back every month to keep an updated list of how things are going and perhaps add some new idea that come to mind as the year progresses.  Keep me accountable, okay? 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends!  So sorry I disappeared from the blog world.  It wasn’t particularly intentional, but I was going through one of those periods where I felt forced to blog rather than really wanting to blog, you know? 

Well, I’m back and feeling refreshed!  Perhaps the coming of the new year has renewed my spirit?  Not sure, but I’m going with it!

I have a lot of goals and aspirations for 2012.  My sweet baby girl turns 1 in just 12 short days, weight loss is always an issue, and my spiritual walk needs some serious work…just to name a few.  Want to follow along with this crazy journey I call my life?  Stick around!

P.S.  You'll get a steady stream of pictures of Natalie.  That's enough, right?  Girl holds my whole heart...