dear baby a.

happy 9 month birthday today, sweet cheeks! 

i can't believe you're 3/4 of a year old. oh, how quickly time goes by. i wish i could slow it down, but then again, things keep getting more and more fun with you that i think i would be missing out on a lot. we went to the dr today and they determined that you are ridiculously disproportioned. your head is huge and you're way short. it's weird. but at least it makes for you being adorable! here is what you're up to these days:

-you've learned how to army crawl. you can get up on your hands and knees, but you can't quite go anywhere yet. i think it's because of your big head and belly.

-you are eating all kinds of foods. you seriously eat anything that i eat. except for the really sugary stuff. which i eat a lot of. you choke a lot too. which scares the crap out of me. i thought that you could handle bigger stuff and just bite it off, but you don't. if it can fit in your mouth, it's going in there.

-you love mirrors. mostly, you like seeing me in them, but you'll take whatever you can get.

-have i mentioned that you take a binky now? it's awesome. sometimes you will wake up from your nap, then find your binky and fall back to sleep. it gives me so much time to get things done!

-you shake your head when i shake mine. it's tots adorbs.

-you are starting to babble 'mama' now! you've been saying 'dada' for a while and dad doesn't hesitate to rub it in. ;)

-this may sound crazy, but i swear you keep trying to say copper's name. every time we say it, you give a cute 2 syllable noise or just say 'per'. i'm pretty sure you're copper's best friend.

-you can walk along the coffee table downstairs! puffs are your biggest motivator. you get really frustrated when you don't get them right away though.

-your giggle is absolutely contagious!

-you have a hanging toy in your car that sings songs when you pull the cord. every time i put it up when I put you in your carseat, you give me this grin like, "hey, are you looking?" and then you pull it and smile so big and look over at me to make sure that I saw it. it pretty much makes putting you in your carseat the best thing ever. 

-speaking of you and your carseat - you love it. very rarely do you cry in it and if you do, it's because you're hungry. and even then, you are a rockstar and usually just fall asleep in a few seconds. it makes life so good that you love it!

-after waking up every two hours at night for like a month, you slept the whole night through for like 5 nights in a row, and now the last two nights, you've woken up once. that's not that bad really, but i just want you to sleep through the whole night always. :(

-you now throw full-on temper tantrums. if i take something away that you shouldn't be playing with, you throw your head back and cry so hard. it's sad, but really funny.

-usually when you wake up from your nap, instead of crying these days, you just babble all cute-like to yourself. then when I come get you, you stop whatever you're doing and stare at me before you get wiggly and bounce up and down and giggle. it's the best post-nap greeting ever.

so much of your personality is starting to show. you still aren't much of a snuggler at all, which honestly makes me super sad, but i love that you are happy and content when i'm holding you. you act like it's your happy spot and that makes me happier than i can even put into words. i've had you in the boba wrap a lot this week and i love being able to kiss your little head any time i want. also, you love seeing yourself in the mirror when you're in that thing. you laugh like none other. people used to say that the love they have for their kid makes their heart want to burst and i never knew what that was like until i met you. my heart has felt like it's wanted to pop out of my chest multiple times this week! you have been the best thing that has ever happened to our family, little girl and i thank God every day that i am blessed enough to be your mama. i love you, sweet pea.

love,

mama

top five friday {4/11/14}

happy friday!

without going into too much detail, because it probably won't make sense anyway, zach just got kind of a different job, so weekends are officially a thing of the past. boo. on the flip side though, he will have random days off during the week, so that will be nice. he actually had last friday off and then he asked saturday and sunday off and he didn't have to go in monday and only had to go in for a couple hours on tuesday. it was awesome! addi has been sleeping like poop at night, so zach has been a rockstar of a husband and has gotten up with her at the buttcrack of dawn, so i can get some extra sleep. i sure married one awesome man. anyway, because he's been home during the day, he's been having to go into work at night and doesn't get home until midnightish. on paper, it sounds like a fair trade, but i hate going to sleep alone, so i end up waiting up for him and then we are both exhausted the next day. it's a joke. so, pretty much, that was just a really long way of saying that zach isn't home now and i'm killing time until he is and thought i'd share my top five favs from the week. ;) 

1 - i just started another job. yep. another one. do you want to know the best part about me working two jobs? both of them can be accomplished in my pajamas at home! i've been talking to my boss from the pharmacy for months now about doing some computer work for him and things have finally started rolling with it. i feel so grateful that i can earn a little bit of money while still being able to stay home and play with adelaide!

2 - hiking. once upon a time, i went hiking with a bunch of peeps and we thought it'd be a good idea to leave at 1 in the freaking morning. note to self: the next time you want to go hiking at a time like that, do not do it. it was sooooo miserable, i can't even put it into words. since then, i've been convinced that i hate hiking, until a couple weeks ago when i went with my little brother in estes park. that was kind of a lame hike though. ever since the flooding in colorado last fall, estes park has been demolished. so, last weekend, zach and i went to a different area and i loved every second of it! i kept saying over and over that i wanted nothing more than to go hiking every weekend. not only does it get me out and exercising, but it's so dang pretty! also, addi loves it. she sat in her chair and giggled the entire time.

3 - this song:

i seriously can't help but roll the windows down every time it comes on the radio. it's definitely my favorite feel-good song as of late.

4 - i'm officially 4 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. you'll probably get an update when i'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight too, so just deal with it. i've been hovering between 4 and 6 pounds for a few weeks now and although i'm not where i want to be completely, i feel pretty dang proud of how far i've come! it wasn't as easy to get rid of it all as it seems like it is for a lot of moms. probably because i love chick-fil-a milkshakes too much, but still. it may have taken almost 9 months, but it's still happening nonetheless. it blows my mind to see the difference between these two pictures. i know you can't compare bellies or anything since i was pregnant and all, but my face? good freaking night. that's 36 pounds that i hope to never see again!

{36 weeks in, 36 weeks out!}

5 - i've been feeling all sorts of nostalgic this week. yesterday marked 4 years since zachary and i went on our first date. on that date, he took me to my very first thai restaurant and i have been in love with thai food ever since. so now, it's tradition to eat at a thai restaurant every year. 

{the one we went to this year was a total let down, by the way. but that's beside the point.} 4 years. i can hardly believe it. it's nuts to see how much has happened and all the places we've been in those 4 years. we did a little reminiscing and played the "remember that one time?" game where we just recall memories from the last 4 years and they all start with "remember that one time?" {duh} and holy cow, i was busting a gut. it's amazing, the pathetic kinds of things your mind remembers.

i sure love this boy with all of my heart and i'm so grateful that out of all the people in the world that i could have ended up with, i ended up with him. i'm grateful for that beautiful little girl that he has blessed me with and that even though it sometimes feels like we are out here in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from our families and feeling a little lonely at times, at least we have each other! and i wouldn't have it any other way.

-the mrs.