Best summer ever

WHAT. THE. HECK. 

where did my summer go??

It was so totally awesome!!

 We had busy days. Filled with swimming, shopping and hanging out with family. 

And we had lazy days. Filled with slow mornings, laying in the grass and just enjoying each other's company. 

I loved this summer. I am so grateful that I had this break to watch my baby grow. He is the sweetest, cutest, busiest, and poopiest baby on the earth. (He poops all. Day. Long.)  

I LOVE my job! I really do love teaching. But I do Not want to leave my baby. I know some moms really enjoy working outside the home - I enjoy it too. I just miss my little J man. 

He goes to the daycare for the first time tomorrow!! I'm a nervous wreck. He is such a sweet baby I am sure he will do good. But I'm a mom so I worry

So keep little j man in your prayers and me too :) 

Talking about the crappy stuff

I've gotten older lately. In years, cuz I just had a birthday. 

I've seen a lot of the world. (I think I've been out of the U.S. a whopping 3 times). 

And I've experienced a whole lot of everything (you know because my life has  been so original.. Go to college get married. Teach. Have a baby)

Even though I'm mostly joking - I have experienced a few things and there have been times where my life has gotten hard. (For example Woody makes me kill spiders now all by myself)

But really, you know what helped? Talking about it. (I have to leave the room when I see a spider collect myself and then go back in and kill it).  

All of our lives are so different. And yet pretty similar. 

It is my belief that we were put on this Earth together for a purpose. People aren't meant to go at it alone. We have families and friends for a purpose, to help us through the hard times and of course to enjoy the good times. 

But how can people help us through the hard times if we don't tell them about it? Or if they are so worried about saying something that will make us upset that they say nothing at all?

I really am not the poster child for talking to people when I'm struggling. Want me to write about it? Sure! Call you and talk to you about it is a little harder for me. But I totally believe that it helps. 

I've read blogs and other things about how people should stop asking when couples are planning on starting their family.  

I totally understand that this can be a touchy topic. I also believe that it is a very personal decision that is between you and your spouse.  And people (including me) should stay out of other peoples business (except my sister heather, I'm going to continue to ask you when baby number 3 is coming until I have proof they are on their way!) 

BUT you know people will ask you! Sometimes they are just being obnoxious - but sometimes they might just be trying to get to know you, to get closer to you, to start a friendship. So why not let them in? 

The quickest way I know how to get people to stop asking you when you're having kids is to tell them! And if you don't think it's their business, tell them! I promise they won't ask again either way. 

If you've read my blog then you know I struggled getting pregnant. And the best thing I ever did was to write about it. I made friendships, got closer to current friends, and helped people I didn't even know because I talked about it. 

Sometimes I think that we try so hard to seem perfect. When people ask how we are we say "perfect!" Even when we aren't. Why not say, struggling but ok. Or man today was really hard! 

I don't think you have to tell your whole story to everyone! Or seem like a complainer. Or make things seem worse, but why not tell it how it is? Because odds are someone out there is going through the same thing and could really use a friend to help them through their trial. 

So folks. I'm keeping it real on here! So if you don't want to read about the hard times of life.... Keep reading cuz my life is easy!!! Ha ha JK 

Thank you for reading my random thoughts. As a reward here are pictures of the cutest baby currently on earth: 

Sleep training

While I was still in school J started sleeping really well and would go to sleep between 7-8 and stay asleep until between 2-4 it was FABULOUS! 

I'm not gonna lie I brushed my shoulders off a couple of times and gave myself "best mommy of the eternities" award for not having to "sleep train" him. 

But then.... Calamity hit. 

Out of the blue (what does that even mean??) J started waking up every 2-3 hours again! And sometimes after only an hour cuz he pooped!!

I returned all my trophies and suffered through it for a couple of weeks. 

I decided I couldn't complain because I was no longer teaching so I should have been ok with my lack of sleep, right? Wrong.

I wasn't really taking any naps during the day and was seriously exhausted. So I decided it was time to sleep train. Cue tears (from everyone). 

Well I learned something I already knew: I can't sleep train my baby. 

I just cannot stand to hear him cry. I stare at the clock and don't do anything else while I await my alloted time to pass before I can go in and sooth the poor kid. It's awful. Did I mention I hate it? It stinks. Like a poopy diaper. (I have a lot of experience with those so I know what I'm  talking about)

The biggest problem is that I don't stay at home all day and work really hard to make sure j gets all of his naps and that they are good naps. We go out and about and he misses naps or will only take cat naps so by the end of the night the poor kid is overtired and after 2 -  5 minute crying sessions woody and I say "he just needs help tonight" and rock the poor baby to sleep. He's so precious when he's sleeping. 

But we've had some good moments. Like this one night when J only fussed for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep on his own. (I busted out my best mom ever trophies that night). And then one time when he woke up at 1 and I didn't go to him right away and he fell back asleep. (I celebrated by also falling back to sleep. That's a good celebration right?)

So we are still learning. And I'm probably making things worse by trying to make him cry it out and failing but we will survive... I hope. And he's still so small so I can fix all of his bad habits later.... Maybe. 

I'm not the Joneses

My little family and I took some family pictures this week... How do you react to "family pictures" do you get excited? I mean Who doesn't love taking pictures?! Or do you groan and moan? Because who actually loves taking pictures?

I grew up in a picture taking family. Everything warranted pictures and I love having so many to look at it! It's fun to be able to look back and see how my family and I grew up and all the fun things we did. Which is what pictures are for right? The memories?

Pictures have changed. Like everything else and I feel like they have gotten much more complicated than they need to be. 

There are hundreds of posts about how to dress for your family pictures. I'm totally guilty and have pinned oodles of them. The talk about how you need accessories, hats, scarves, boots, cardigan for the husband, patterns that match just enough so they aren't matchy, but they look good together, colors that are friends but not FRIENDS. I can't even explain it, that's how good I understand it. But they all look SO good. And you think "yeah. I can do that. No problem."  Wrong. It's a problem. 

My mother in law bought me a 20x24 canvas so I really wanted to have some good looking family photos. 

So I started the hunt. I went through about a million combinations. Added a cardigan for me, tried to fit in a pattern. I had the pattern, no j has the pattern, nope a different pattern, maybe I should have the pattern and the cardigan. Shoot what's woody going to wear? Should he have a pattern? No he wore his good pattern shirt last time. Crap. Woody wants to wear shorts. Should I wear shorts? Shorts don't look good. What about capris? Do I have a necklace for this shirt? Should j wear shorts?

2 whole days worth. 

And finally j ended up with the pattern, woody got the shorts he wanted and I wore jeans to make my legs look good. ;)

J's shirt was too close of a match to my shirt and his pants blended into woodys shirt. And we didn't have any accessories. 

But as I look at the few pics I have so far this doesn't bug me like I thought it would. Because in the end it's the people, the smiles and the stage my family is in that matters the most. 

Would I have been forever bugged if I had had a bad hair day? Definitely. Would I be mortified if I had picked pants that made my butt look big? Absolutely!! Will I be sucked into trying to have to the perfect picture outfit? Most likely. 

But this time around. We did not end up looking like the joneses. But were still pretty cute ;)

Who wants more pictures?? I know I do!

Where have I been lately??!!!

I've been around.. you've just missed me because camouflage has been used.

J and I have been working hard (or hardly working??) lately.  J finally caught his feet!! He has been staring at these little stinkers for quite some time now. And his hands have finally decided to cooperate just enough for him to grab them! He loves it and I love it

J and I spend most of our mornings in my bed. At one point or another he ends up in here with me so I can sneak in a few extra zzzz's by snuggling him.  He has the best stretch ever!! I think he dreams of being a super hero.. so he makes the appropriate pose when he wakes up to tell me about his stories

You never know how long we will stay in bed.. I've been trying to get up this week and sneak in a work out. Sometimes I'm successful. Sometimes I'm not.

J has had one fun and exciting time at the pool so far. He spent most of it sleeping... but who doesn't enjoy a good nap by the pool?? I sure do!

J babe is loving his toys lately! 

This one time J had woken up and was laying around very nicely. So I snuck in and just watched him for a couple minutes :) I can't help it. He's so cute

J's new thing is to stick his tongue out. He does it all day long!

And of course he loves his nighttime snuggles with daddy. I mean who doesn't??

I love the life of a stay at home mom. J and I play all day long! When dad comes home I'm OK with him being a baby hog, because I'm a baby hog in the day! Or I don't mind getting some things done around the house at night, or bedtime! I love my time with my J babe and am soaking up every last second.

SO there's my update. Hopefully I'll be more consistent so that I don't have to do only an update in the posts :)