dear baby a,

happy 13 month birthday! even though it's a little late, you still turned 13 months and i'm still writing about it, so that's all that counts. 

so much has happened since your birthday. if i didn't know any better, i'd think that you knew you turned one because you're a completely different baby than you were on that day. it's so weird. the day after your birthday, we flew to utah and were there for three weeks. in that time, you learned a few tricks, turned into more of a little sassafras than you already were, and became the cuddly baby that i've always dreamed of having. seriously. random cuddles for no reason at all have made my day. along with these few things, here are some other things that you've been doing:

-you aren't nursing anymore! i think this is my favorite milestone out of all the things listed here. i will admit that i was super sad at first. we all know that breastfeeding wasn't the easiest thing in the world for either of us, so it really surprised me at how sad i really felt. but that quickly went away when i realized that i can go anywhere for any length of time and not have to worry about you starving to death. i can even leave you with other people and not have to stress about whether or not you will take a bottle and such. it's the most liberating feeling in the world! that doesn't discount how awesome it was to be able to do it for an entire year though. i know a lot of moms that aren't able to at all and i definitely don't want to sound ungrateful in any way. but still. i can't believe the day has finally come, even after it being a whole month later.
-you're officially walking now! whether it's free standing or holding onto a chair, you definitely walk more than you crawl. you're the cutest little walker I ever did see.
-you're a little chatterbox, too. you have mama, dada, hi, and uh-oh down pretty well, but you're always down for repeating other words that we say. even when you get them wrong. which you do. every single time.
-i don't know if it's all the travelling we have been doing for the last month or what, but you have picked up the habit of crying every time i put you to sleep. i hate it! i miss you going down without a peep and it breaks my heart to let you cry, but you and i both know you need the sleep. it's given us an excuse for lots of extra cuddles though, so things could be worse.
-every time you see a comb or brush, you have to comb your hair with it. the same goes for having to put bows in your hair when you see them or shoes on your feet. you're such a girly girl.
-speaking of which, you're completely enamored by jewelry. it's one of my biggest fears that you will rip my earrings right out of my earlobe. you love holding onto my wedding ring, too. soon enough, i'll have to buy you some jewelry of your own!
-you still love books. if you're fussy or i need you to sit still while i change your diaper, i can give you a book and you will immediately start laughing. it's adorbs. animal books are your favorite.
-actually, animal anything is your favorite. you can't see an animal without pointing it out to us. you definitely took after your mama there.
-you like to pick flowers. your uncle michael made the mistake of showing you how to do that and i can't put you near flowers anymore without you destroying them.
-you love babies. which is weird because you're kind of a baby yourself. there was a 15 month old little boy at the airport and you would squeal every time he got near you. you little flirt.
-you started giving kisses and they are so stinking cute! at first it was just a big, open-mouthed mess, but you've gotten the closed-mouth part down finally and you do it even when we ask for it. or when we don't. tonight for instance, dad and i were laying on the ground while you ran around being your cute self, when you walked up to dad, gave him a kiss on the nose, them the mouth, then walked over to me and gave me one too. it was pretty much the cutest thing i've ever seen.

even though i'm sad when i look at pictures, to see the little baby self you're leaving behind, i'm loving the little toddler girl that you're becoming! i love you, sweet pea.

-mama

one year.

i've been thinking about what to say in this post for weeks now. yes, i'm one of those moms. i won't go into details about addi's actual birth day. if you want that, you can visit here. but i'm pretty sure that every mom feels the same way that i do, now that this milestone has finally happened - how is it possible for my little, tiny baby that i gave birth to what seems like yesterday, to be a year old? an entire year. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8,760 hours. 525,600 minutes. 31,536,000 seconds. i'm interested to know how many of those seconds, minutes, and hours were spent awake, trying to get the little bean to go to sleep, when i myself should be sleeping. i also wonder how many of those seconds, minutes, and hours have been spent giggling together, taking pictures to document just about everything, and simply staring in amazement that i have a child. all moms feel like this, right? the thing is, i've only ever heard about moms feeling like this. this is the first time i've ever felt like this myself.

i've had more than a handful of people tease me for how many pictures i'll probably take of adelaide and not of my future children. when thinking about why this is, i came to the conclusion that never in my life have i seen a person grow up right before my eyes like this. sure, i've seen nieces, nephews, cousins, friends' babies, etc. grow up, but only in an 'i see you every other week' kind of thing. it really is the most amazing thing ever to see a baby go from a tiny, helpless thing like this:

to this little bundle of joy:

it may have been a year, but i still have to stop myself sometimes and let it hit me all over again - the fact that i'm a mom.

i think if i said that this has been the best year ever, i would probably be lying to myself and to all of you. has this year brought some of the best moments ever? definitely. but, there were also, some not so good ones that i try really hard not to think about. my patience has been tested time and time again. i have felt more insecure and inadequate than i did as a 14 year old girl. and i lost more sleep than i'd like to even know. but, as cliche as it is, nothing has been more rewarding than getting to be a mom to this sweet girl.

here are some fun facts about my little one year old lady:

-she's turning into a little sassafras. she does this thing, that we affectionately call 'when babies attack' where she starts grabbing and pinching at the closest thing to her when she doesn't get her way. it's pure joy. #not
-she learned to go down the stairs on her own last week! i can't even tell you how much stress this has relieved. she would only do it if you put her halfway up the stairs for a while, but today, i set her at the top and she immediately turned around and went down every single step. booyah!
-she loves playing with the faucet in the kitchen sink. i'm tired of all the dirty clothes that come simply from just feeding her, so i've been stripping her down to her diaper lately and then spraying her off in the sink when i'm done and i think it's one of her favorite activities of the day. she loves it! {if you couldn't tell.}

{i promise i put clothes on my kid sometimes.}

-she has 5 teeth...i think. i haven't checked in a while. i don't want to jinx myself or anything, but we have had a pretty good run with teething. i'd heard horror stories before i had a baby and then when addi's first tooth came through is when she started taking longer than 40 minute naps, so i was in heaven! her second tooth was kind of a struggle, but since then, we haven't really noticed a difference when she's teething. i'll consider it a huge blessing!

-speaking of teeth, this girl loves to brush her teeth. she'll do anything she can to get to her toothbrush when she sees it and when i start to put toothpaste on it, she squeals. when i actually brush her teeth {and by brush, i mean try to wiggle it around when she doesn't have her teeth chomped down on it}, she laughs the entire time. glad to know she has such a good relationship with brushing her teeth already.

-she has turned into a full-blown daddy's girl. she's always gotten excited when zach is around, but for the first time a few weeks ago, he was holding her and when i went to take her from him, she burrowed into him and started to cry. it might have stung initially, but i must say that it's pretty much the cutest thing ever. you know when people say that they fall more in love with their spouse when they seem them love their kids? yeah. it's all true.

-she picks up on things and has copied things that we do for a while, but it hasn't been as apparent as it has been lately. she was tapping a pot with her hand at breakfast the other day and i hit it with the backside of my finger. immediately, she whipped out one finger and started laughing as she tapped the pot just like me. then the other day, zach, addi, and i were laying in the living room and zach patted me on the leg. addi crawled over to me as fast as she could and started tapping me exactly where zachary just had. it's amazing how much they notice and want to imitate.

my heart hurts to let this sweet baby turn one year old today, but i can't wait for the adventures in learning to walk, talk, ride a bike, tea parties, dress up, learning to drive, stay up late giggling over boys, and every other fun thing that comes with having a little girl. it's definitely true when they say that "making the decision to have a child is to forever decide to have your heart go walking around outside your body." you feel completely naked and vulnerable, but in the end, it's totally worth it!

-the mrs.

The Great Regression

Family, friends, frenemies,

Let me tell you about the Great Regression. It hasn't happened yet, but scientists can predict it with uncanny accuracy. You know how it happens? Well, you see, when a man has lived 26 years of his life as a bachelor and then gets married, something marvelous happens. After a little while, he actually ENJOYS not being a bachelor. Well, when the spouse of said man goes on a... let's say 20 day, 2 hour, 35 minute vacation without him, there is an almost unavoidable potential for the Great Regression. That is, that man will regress into a degraded, depraved, and untamed bachelor state.

Sarah and the babelet are going out of town next week. You see, such an experience, if of a short duration, might encourage Zach to be optimistic and try and find enjoyment in his loneliness. Perhaps he would go to a few movies, go for a drive up the canyon, eat cereal and macaroni and cheese for every meal, and maybe even start up an old neglected video game (after clearing away the cobwebs and hurt feelings... if video games could have hurt feelings).  Normally, Zach could extract at least SOME enjoyment in-spite of the absence of two HUGE puzzle-pieces of his life.

You see, that's the problem. Normally such experiences CAN BE a great time BECAUSE they are short-lived. Man was never meant to be alone. Most of you might be nodding your head in agreement but let me illustrate the gravity of the possible outcomes.

Story #1:

Sarah pulls into the driveway after being gone for 20 days. She leisurely gets Adelaide out of the car, grabs a bag or two, and walks up the steps to the porch. As she reaches for the handle to the front door, she is suddenly aware of how dark it looks inside her home. That’s strange. I thought Zach would be home, she thinks. She gasps as she touches the handle. It’s ice cold!

Now, very concerned, she barrels through the front door. Air rushes through the doorway, as if the house itself was starving for oxygen and hadn't taken a breath in ages. Mist coalesces and hovers around her ankles. She can hear a pronounced drip, drip, drip deep within the caverns of her home. “Zachary!” She yells, now more concerned.

She hears a screech as a very large bat with the face of her husband flies out the door, never to be seen or heard from again.

Story #2:

Sarah pulls into the driveway after being gone for 20 days. She leisurely gets Adelaide out of the car, grabs a bag or two, and walks up the steps to the porch. The door is open just slightly… Pushing the door open she gasps at the sight, dropping her bags and nearly dropping the baby.

Zach is lying on the living room floor with boxes of macaroni and cheese strewn about. The room looks like a mad scientist’s lab; test tubes, burners, and various varieties of mac’n’cheese all over the kitchen table. Something is bubbling on the kitchen stove. Sarah runs to Zach and finds cheese oozing from his nose, mouth, and ears. She sees a syringe, clearly filled with Kraft Cheddar Explosion lying next to Zachary’s arm. He’s breathing, just barely.

Story #3:

Sarah pulls into the driveway after being gone for 20 days. She leisurely gets Adelaide out of the car, grabs a bag or two, and walks up the steps to the porch.  She opens the door and yells, “Zachary, we’re home.” Silence. “Zach?!” Strange, she thinks, I thought for sure he’d be home. Everything seems normal around the house, with of course, the exception that Zach and Copper are missing.

She puts Adelaide to sleep and calls Zach’s phone. It rings down the hallway. Why would he leave without his phone? She walks to the bedroom and picks his phone up to discover he has 17 missed calls and 3 missed messages. Ten of those missed calls and all of the messages are from a number she doesn’t recognize. She listens to the first message. Hi, Mr Averett? Yes, this is deputy Sharp from the Fort Collins PD. Someone turned in your wallet to the Police department downtown here. Do you mind coming by to pick it up? Also, er, the clothing they found with it?

Sarah clicks on the second message. Mr Averett, deputy Sharp here. We haven’t heard from you. Please call us immediately. We know it’s you who’s terrorizing the neighborhood, we have all the evidence we need, there’s no use running.

Third message. Mr Averett, if you don’t turn yourself in, we will be forced to tranquilize you and bring you and your dog in by force.

Suddenly very alarmed, Sarah redials the number from Zach’s phone. “Yes, deputy Sharp? My name is Sarah Averett. I just got home and – yes? Really? No, that can’t be, are you sure you have the right man? The animal shelter? But why the animal sh— Oh, sorry for interrupting. Yes, I’ll be right down.”

After piling a very sleepy and as a result, grumpy Adelaide into the car, Sarah makes her way to the Fort Collins animal shelter. Deputy Sharp is waiting for her, “Mrs Averett, I must say, you might be shocked by what you see.” He leads her inside. At first everything seems normal. You know, the typical sounds and smells of an every-day animal shelter. But as she turns the corner to the canine section, she is stunned to see a very naked and very feral Zach, running on all fours in the dog kennel, howling and barking with the other dogs.

Story #4:

Sarah pulls into the driveway after being gone for 20 days. She leisurely gets Adelaide out of the car, grabs a bag or two, and walks up the steps to the porch.  She opens the door to find Zachary standing there, emaciated and red eyed. She quickly puts Addi on the floor and Zach collapses into her arms. As she lowers all 98, sickly pounds of him to the ground, he whispers the last 5 words he will ever speak, "I missed... you... to... death...*long, drawn-out and dramatic exhale*"

These stories, of course would never happen! *Zach scoffs and hopes that this obvious statement hides the concern hidden behind his eyes*

Really though, I am a little concerned that the 20 days without my wife will turn me feral and wild, perhaps reverting to my old bachelor self, lonely and miserable, crying and rocking myself to sleep every night. Not that I did that as a bachelor or anything… What is a man to do?

I have plans. For example, I plan on working on projects around the house. I plan to go to the shooting range and finally find time to sharpen my marksman skills. I’m hoping to finally see a movie… in an actual theater… with actual popcorn in my arms. These things will be glorious and wonderful! Don’t get me wrong, I look forward to certain aspects of being a bachelor, but how do I prevent myself from morphing into Dracula? How do I stave off the mac’n’cheese overdose and subsequent rehab time? How do I prevent my wild adventures with Copper in the streets of Fort Collins? How do I NOT die from missing-itis?

I’d appreciate suggestions.

-The Mr.

dear baby a,

isn't it funny how this blog is titled 'the mr. and the mrs.', but really it's just turned into a bunch of letters written to you?? haha! {okay, not that funny.}

happy 11 months to you, my cutie pie, nugget chunkalicious!

  

i haven't been able to stop thinking all day about how the next time we celebrate your monthiversary birthday, you'll be a year old. an entire year old. part of me is so excited that we all made it this long and part of me wants to run away with you to neverland where you will never grow up. here is what you are up to these days:

 

-you pull what we like to call the 'scared face'. i don't know where it came from or why you even do it, but you have been doing it for a while and your dad and i bust a gut every time it happens. just recently though, you've started doing it on command or any time you want to get a rise out of us and it's hilarious. {everything you do is hilarious to us. that's what makes us good parents.} you've already got this wrap-mommy-and-daddy-around-your-finger game down pretty good.

 

{note: my computer doesn't have sound right now, so i have no idea how truly obnoxious my mom voice/laugh is in this video. don't judge.}

 

-you pretty much don't stop talking while you're at home. ever. so, when there is a binky in your mouth, it just turns into a bunch of noises coming out of your nose. it's totes adorbs.

-you don't like being taken by surprise. today, for instance, your boyfriend, dean, {i say your boyfriend, because he is totally enamored with you. you haven't decided how you feel about him yet. he's cute. you'll come around.} wanted to love on you, so he tapped you on the head to get your attention when you weren't looking. after a full on wail of a cry and some serious lovin' from dad {combined with your favorite purple binky}, you decided you might just live, but you don't ever want to experience that kind of surprise again. i can't make any promises.

-you still love books. {i may have said this one last time, but it hasn't changed. so...} if i leave you in your room to play, i can usually find you flipping through the pages of 'pat the bunny' - your favorite book that was given to you by one of your biggest fans, lauren cyr. you love that thing. every time we get to the page where you are supposed to play peek-a-boo with paul though, you get confused and think you're supposed to chew on the blanket that paul is holding. it's weird. so, there's that.

-you've been a fairly good sleeper for the past few months, but this last week has been awwwwesome. okay, you have woken up at 5:30 on the dot almost every day, but luckily you will go back to sleep until at least 7:30. until last night when you went to bed at 8:30 pm and didn't wake up until 8:00 am. i could literally hear angels singing when i woke up. {that was a lie. i didn't literally hear them, but i wouldn't be surprised if i did.} i think you've slept that long consecutively, maybe twice in your entire life. it rocked my world. #mombrag

-you can down almost two whole bananas in one sitting. i don't think that i can even do that. way to go, girlfriend.

-you love camping. how do i know that? because when it was time for bed, instead of going to sleep like a good little girl or even throwing a tantrum because you're awake three hours past your bedtime, you giggle and crawl all over your dad and me. in all honesty, i don't think this has anything to do with camping. i think you were loving the idea of having a sleepover with us. this was the first time in my life that i wished we coslept with you, so that you would know it was time for bed. {that quickly went away when we came home and i put you in your crib and i had half of our bed all to myself.} you really were a camping champ though and we will definitely be doing it again. get used to it. this is going to be your life!

 

 

 

-you have always loved peek-a-boo, but now, you've learned to do it back to me. you'll do it with anything - blankets, towels, sunglasses, cheerios. some items work better than others. it's freaking adorable how hilarious you think it is.

-i'd like to say that you're getting close to walking, but i don't know what happens when a baby gets close to walking. i mean, you pull yourself up to things and cruise along them, like it ain't no thang, but word on the street is, that some babies do this for months before they actually learn to walk. i'm really hoping it'll happen before your first birthday, because i would kill to see you and your cuteness, toddling around in the tutu i'm making for you. that means you have a month. get on it, girl.

 

i know it's not much, but it's 11 o'clock and i'm tired. so, i'm peacin' out. keep being the ridiculously adorable girl that you are and know that i love you, sweet pea!

 

-mama

 

dear baby a,

You’re 10 months old today!!

 I can hardly even believe it. Just stop growing up, please! Here is what you are up to as of today:

-You are crawling on hands and knees now. Finally. You've been belly crawling for a while, but you just found out this week that crawling on all fours is a lot faster and takes a lot less work. Not to mention, it’s super cute to see your little bum in the air, everywhere you go.
-You pull yourself up to everything these days. Your walker, your changing table, a basket, my leg. EVERYTHING. You can usually get out of it, but on the rare occasion that you can’t, you freak out. A lot.
-I found out today that you hate grass. You cried every time I put you on it, but you were perfectly fine on the cement. Ya weirdo.
-You have gotten to the point that I think you know when dad has been gone for most of the day and when he comes home, you get excited. Most of the time you smile and are super giggly, but sometimes you even put your head on his shoulder! That’s actually a really big deal in this house.
-Speaking of which, you’ve been really cuddly this week and I love it. For the past few nights, I haven’t been feeding you when you wake up at night {which has been a lot because you’re teething.}. Instead, I just give you your binky and cuddle you and you put your head on my chest and fall right back to sleep. There have been times where it’s 1 in the morning and I know I should go back to bed, but I just have to sit and soak up the moment with you for ten minutes. I’m sad that you don’t feel good, but it does my heart good to get some snuggles in with you!
-You have 2 and 1/2 teeth. That 3rd one should break through any day now! I think we're all pretty excited about it. For more reasons than one.
-I think you’re addicted to Cafe Rio just as much as I am.
-You’ve gotten really big into pointing lately. Half the time, I don’t know what you’re pointing at, but it’s like you want me to notice every little thing around me. I love seeing that tiny little finger pop up.
-You’re really into ordering Copper around. Or at least that’s what it looks like. You will point at him and yell, but the weird thing is, you don’t do it to either dad or me. Just Cop. You love him so much. He just tolerates you.
-You have ridiculously tiny feet. You’re still in size 0-3 month shoes. I keep buying you size 3-6 because I know you’ll grow into them and all, but as for now, your feet keep slipping out of them and it’s kind of annoying. Where did you get your tiny feet from?!
-If I put socks on your feet, I can guarantee that they will be off of them in a matter of seconds. I rarely will open the car door to get you out of your carseat and see you with socks still on. It’s okay though. I’m not a socks girl either.
-You love going down the stairs, backwards. Your doctor said that now that you’re crawling, one of the first things we need to do is to teach you how to properly go down the stairs - on your belly with your feet first. You can’t do it on your own yet because you’re kind of a shorty, but every time I show you how to do it, you think it’s the funniest thing ever.
-You motivate me to keep the kitchen clean. I can’t leave you to play with your toys in the living room when I have stuff to do in the kitchen anymore. You want to be right by my side and of course, you manage to find every piece of food {or not food} on the floor and it goes right into your mouth. Gross.
-You love books. Reading stories with Dad is seriously one of your favorite times of the day. You like turning the pages for him.
-You’re slowly learning ‘nose’, ‘ear’, and ‘mouth’. You’ve known ‘nose’ for a while and will point to mine when I say it, but you haven’t quite caught onto the other two yet. You mostly just like to point them out, even when I don’t say them. I will be looking at you and you will grab my face and fling it to the side, just so you can touch my ear. Or you’ll poke me directly in the eye. That’s always fun. You love that my eyes open and close.
-I bought you a picnic basket for Easter with play food and cups and plates and your favorite thing about it is taking everything out and scattering it all over the living room. Same with the remote console downstairs. You don’t give up on that thing until every last item is taken out of it.
-You can’t hold an ear plug without it going directly into your mouth. And that’s just gross.

That’s all that I can think of as of now. I can’t believe how much you are growing and learning. It’s exciting to see the new phases that are happening, but it’s breaking my heart that you are slowly becoming more of a toddler and less of a baby. :( I sure do love you, sweet pea!

Love,

Mama

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.

top five friday {3.7.14}

soooo...it's been a while since i've done a top five friday. partly because life is busy. and partly because i've thought that i really don't have much to share. then i decided that last sentence was stupid, because dang. i have a freaking awesome life and i guarantee that there are always five things in a week that can be celebrated. so, i'm hoping to keep this up again. after all, it used to be my favorite post of the week on this ol' blog, so maybe it'll give me something to look forward to! anyway. let's begin.

1 - planners. i've sucked at using a planner my entire life. my entire life. my freshman year in college, my friend gave me a planner for my birthday {because she knew how much i needed it. i'm the most disorganized/forgetful person ever.} and i was super pumped to use it and after about a good solid week, i stopped using it. cold turkey. i've just never been good at writing things down. that was until i bought a new planner last month. i think my problem with planners is that i usually get the week by week ones, so the amount of space to write down my to-do list for the day is no bigger than the size of my thumb. granted, i do have big thumbs {stupid man hands}, but it still just didn't cut it for me. this new planner is a day by day one and i literally have a whole page to write on! it's awesome. since acquiring this planner, my house has never been cleaner, i've never had so many posts written on my food blog and i've never worked out more in a week. it has made me so productive! i'm the type of person that needs a goal to work towards and attain, so being able to cross something off my to-do list every day makes me feel so accomplished. even if sometimes i do something and then write it down, just so i can cross it off. it still feels awesome. my goal is to cross off everything i've written down by the end of the day. i still have yet to do that.

2 - painted toenails. and sunshine. going along with number 1, because the house was clean one day this week and i had already worked out and such, i put addi down and found that i didn't have a whole lot to do. i have had "paint your toenails" on my to-do list for 3 weeks now {it always seems to be one of the things i can never get crossed off} because i have had the same smidgen of toenail polish on my feet since i painted both mine and addi's toes before halloween. don't judge. anyway, i sat down and painted those babies and as i laid on the bed, waiting for them to dry, i was seriously overcome with what a gorgeous day it was and how good life can be. yeah. i get giddy over lame things. but to me, they're awesomely lame things!

3 - date night. i've always loved going on dates with zach, but since we have had addi, it hasn't been as much of a priority. not because we don't want to go out by ourselves, but because leaving your kid with a babysitter is stressful. if i'm not worrying about whether or not she will be okay without me, i'm worrying about the person babysitting her and imagining addi screaming her head off the whole time and not wanting to take a bottle or nap. it's hard for me to let go of. luckily, we have some really great friends here that have helped us out though and have put us at ease. i don't think people realize how freaking lucky they are to have family living close by. some days, i'd give anything for it! i'm so grateful for friends that can be like family to us. anyway, we have tried to make it a point to go out every thursday now. last night we went to a local place called 'the chocolate cafe'. umm, is there any possible way a date could go wrong at a place with the word 'chocolate' in it? no. the answer is no. not to mention, they had the best bread pudding i have ever had in my entire life and i don't even like bread pudding. 'nuff said. i love being able to get away and share a few hours with my main squeeze!

4 - adelaide is officially eating solids. willingly! i know. i never thought i'd see the day either.

i tried so hard when she hit six months and she refused. it actually made me kind of sad to be honest. i wanted to try some baby-led weaning, where she could basically just eat table food from the get-go, but after a few episodes of dry heaving and full on puking, i decided that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. i think she doesn't know what to do with a chunk of food on her tongue, so it triggers her gag reflex. so, purees it is. but at least it's a start! if anybody has some good recipes on homemade purees, send them my way!

5 - i attended a blog conference last month and had so much fun that i wanted to go to another one. there is one called blogher foods in may and it's geared just towards food bloggers so i really wanted to go, but i knew there was no way we would be able to afford it, considering that it's in miami freaking florida. then, i got talking to my friend, hayley, and she encouraged me to try to get sponsored. so, i asked around a little bit and what do you know? the company that makes candiquik {that dipping chocolate you see in like, every grocery store? yeah. them.} is totally going to pay for me to go!! i was super excited about it and still can't believe that this blog has taken me to places like this. i have a problem with comparing it and its size to other people, but ya know what? i've worked dang hard at getting it to where it is and i'm totally proud of it. regardless of whether it's smaller than other people's blogs. that's all.

well friends - same time. same place. next week. {actually, probably not the same time because ain't nobody got to worry about writing a blog post at the exact same time every week. but, you get the point.}

-the mrs.

a jumble of thoughts.

i've sat down to blog about a dozen times in the last two months and it's like i have a billion things to say, but for some reason, i can't get the words formulated into sentences without completely boring myself to death. i've never seen myself as a creative person, but i feel like i'm losing what creativity i did have and i'm at a loss on how to get it back. i used to scan pinterest for hours, looking for all things diy and now all i look for is food. i feel like i can be creative sometimes when it comes to my food blog, but as far as making things for myself to like i used to, it's basically non-existent. i just want to make pretty things for my house, gosh dang it! i realized that back in the day, when i was writing on this blog consistently, i was also making some kind of craft like every other day. it sounds weird, but i'm wondering if the two things go hand it hand. i've heard that if you want to become like a legit writer, then you must write every day, not matter how long or short, meaningful or pointless. maybe that's the same with me and writing on this blog. so im going to try to up my crafting game and see what it can do for the ol' brain. my first attempt was last night when i decided on a whim to make addi a new crib sheet.

when i started piecing together her nursery, i was bound and determined that it was going to be gray and white with a soft, light pink touch to it. that sounded awesome until i found that the cheapest gray rocking chair in like the whole wide world, was no less than $600. umm, no thank you. so i settled for a $200 dark brown recliner and themed the nursery around that. where that recliner is super comfy and pretty much perfect - it's still brown. which means i settled. i hate settling. so, i've talked zach into letting me revamp the nursery in the near future and making it exactly how i want it to be! i bought some fabric last night and went to town.

i'm pretty much in love with it and want to make like, 10 more. i found the tutorial on how to do it from danamadeit.com. I'm pretty sure you need to visit that place right now. it's a wonderland. and you should make like, 10 of these too. if not for you, then for someone you know. or for me. that's fine too.

along with not feeling creative, i know that the only thing i would ever write about is addi. which isn't bad, but i keep thinking that there are only so many posts about addi that i can write before this blog gets a tad bit redundant and boring. then i realized how stupid that sounds. you learn quick as a mom that you seriously eat, drink, and sleep baby mode. if she's sleeping, i'm checking the clock to see how long she has been down. if she's asleep for too long though, then i'm peeking through the crack in the door because i'm almost positive that she has passed out in her sleep or something, which in turn actually wakes her up. then i'm torn with the emotions of 'dang it, i should have let her keep sleeping!' and 'thank heavens, she's okay!'. when she is awake, i'm making sure she is entertained so that she doesn't become dumb like all the parenting books tell you will happen if you don't spend enough time interacting with your kid or i'm thinking about when the next time she needs to take a nap, or the last time she ate, or worrying about why she hasn't rolled from her back to her belly yet and don't even get me started on crawling. she's only 7 months old, but she hasn't even started trying to crawl, which makes me envision taking care of this full-grown adult that doesn't know how to walk and can barely sit up. yeah. all of that runs through my head. every day. being a mom gives you a crazy, busy mind. so, sue me if this blog ends up turning out to be more about the little miss and a lot less of the mr. and the mrs. someday, i'll have my brain back and will be able to form two thoughts that don't have to do with my kid. but, today is not that day. and i'm completely okay with it. 

i recently read this article actually and i thought it summed up my current feelings on motherhood pretty dang well. sometimes it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel where you don't have puke on your shirt, or you don't have to fight your child every time they take a nap or you don't have to carefully plan out getting ready for the day so that you can shower and blow dry your hair without the baby around because she screams every time you turn the blow dryer on, or when you can leave home by yourself for longer than three hours. who knows when that won't be my life anymore, but as for right now, i'm trying to soak it in because one day my baby won't need me, and only me. she will have someone else to complete her just like zach completes me now. and that makes my heart hurt already. 

at the beginning of the year, i opened up an email account in addi's name and i have been sending her a picture or herself every day, along with what we did that day. sometimes, i write her letters and just tell her how i'm feeling or thinking and little bits of information that i think she needs to know. i haven't decided if i'm going to tell her about it before i give her the password to it, but either way, i'm excited for all the memories it will keep for us. i look at her hands and feet and they still look so small. i know it's ridiculous, but i've honestly wondered if her feet have grown at all since she was born, because they still look so tiny! then we took some friends some dinner last week. they just had a baby and holy toledo. addi looked like a giant compared to their baby! you may think that sounds stupid. like, duh, sarah. what do you expect from a seven month old? they can't stay little forever! yes. i know that. but when you see them every day, you don't realize how big they truly are. my baby is literally growing right before my eyes and i wish time would just slow the heck down so i can soak up every little moment and memory. i'm really hoping that this whole e-mail thing will help preserve as many memories as possible. after all, i'm only going to be a first time mom once!

anyway. long story short, i'm feeling kind of nostalgic tonight and i'm missing this space here on the internet that was once my spot to write everything down and share every little thing. maybe it's because we are finally settling down a little bit, so we don't get out and explore as much, so i don't feel like i have much to talk about? i don't know. if that's the case though, then it looks like we need to do some adventuring to keep our life not so boring! oh, summer time. you can't come fast enough. until next time, friends!

-the mrs.

new year's resolutions 2014

i'm kind of lame when it comes to new year's resolutions. i always think, "pssh, i don't need no resolutions to motivate me to do something." and then new year's day comes and i get all nostalgic like, "i can't not make resolutions! that's just what you do!". then i'm sad because i didn't complete one of my resolutions that i made on the first day of the year, so i obviously have to wait until next year to try again. that totally happened tonight actually. i thought it would be cool to set up an email account for adelaide and take a picture of her in the same position every single day and send it to that account. i was super excited about it until i remember that she is in bed. sound asleep. and there ain't no way i'm waking her up for a stupid picture. my ocd mind is all bummed out because i can't get exactly a year of pictures now, but the more i thought about it, the more i realized how lame i was being and that i should start it tomorrow and it will be awesome still.

anyway. long story short. i'm a procrastinator when it comes to goals. ironic much? yeah. but here i am. setting goals for the new year. and i'm actually really excited about it. you see, i may have thought about the whole picture thing last minute, but i've been mulling around some other goals in my head for a few days now. i didn't want them to be the same goals that i make every year though. you know the ones - "oh, i want to eat healthier this year" or "i really want to workout more" and those lame generic kind that are only about losing weight. yes, i do have a goal of working out 3 times a week {gotta put my gym membership to use. those things are expeeeensive!}, i would love to lose 25 pounds {don't you dare tell me that's too much. i've had a few people say that already and to them i say that's a bunch of poppycock. i know what my body is capable of and i know it has 25 pounds to lose.}, and i want to eat a serving of vegetables at at least one meal a day, {yeah, it's that hard for me to remember to eat veggies that i have to make a goal out of it.}, but i also wanted to try to do some things that were actually meaningful to my soul. so, after much thought and pondering, here's what i came up with:

5 - make thursdays laundry day. back when we were living in santa maria, zach and i were talking about household chores and i told him how much i loathed doing dishes. i think i was forced to do them one too many times growing up and now i can't stand it. not just the loading/unloading either. i can't stand the smell. nothing makes me want to dry heave more than a waft of warm, ranch dressing smelling steam, blowing in my face. blech. it gives me the shivers just thinking about it. anyway, i digress. i told him i hated doing dishes and he said, "that's funny, because that's how i feel about doing laundry!". {really, i think he hates doing laundry because he has to fold everything perfectly to air force standards, so it takes him an hour to fold one basket. it's okay though. i think it's kind of cute. ;)} so, we made a deal that from then until we die, i would be in charge of laundry if he would be in charge of dishes. it actually works really well! besides me having to do the part where i clean and fold the laundry - you know. the main part? i'm so bad at it. it drives me crazy. so, i've designated thursdays as laundry day. really, any day could be laundry day, i guess. i am a stay at home mom, after all, but for some reason thursday stuck out in my mind. chances are, i will forget, so since i'm telling you, feel free to send me a gentle reminder. my husband will be ever so grateful. ;)

4 - send a birthday card to every member in my immediate family {sorry extended family. i love you, but that's just so. many. people.} i've wanted to do this for years, but always end up accidentally forgetting someone and then i think that i can't keep sending them to everyone else because that person will think i don't love them, but i can't send out a card late because they will know i forgot and that won't make them feel very special either, so i end up bagging the whole idea and by the end of the year, i kick myself because i know how much it means to me to get a card on my birthday and i want other people to feel that special too. whew. longest run-on sentence ever. basically, i would love to send a gift to everybody i know for their birthday, but when you add up the gift and postage and times that by like a hundred relatives? talk about expensive. so, birthday cards will have to do. i'm determined to make it happen.

3 - plan a budget for every single penny that comes into our bank account and stick to it. to say i love budgeting is an understatement. i looooove it. i've always been the money manager in our marriage. zachary is still a part of it and i bounce ideas off of him frequently, but finances stress him out a little bit more than they do me, so i've been happy to take charge. i've written a budget for 99% of every paycheck we've ever received {i think i missed one} and it has helped us so much in reducing debt. my only problem is that i write the budget, pay the essential bills immediately, and then kind of shove all sticking-to-the-budgetness out the window. {let's just say that retail therapy is real and i've fallen victim to it multiple times.} each paycheck, zachary and i get $30 each that is ours to spend on whatever the heck we want. my goal is to pay off the bills and rather than seeing left over money that's free game to supplement my 'fun money' for the new pair of pants i've had my eye on, i have to save up for as long as it takes to buy them with my 'fun money' alone. it's sounds like an easy concept, right? i'm terrible at it. we'll see how it goes.

2 - going along with that, i'd really like to bump up our savings. i saw this picture floating around facebook last week and i immediately saved it:

isn't that amazing?? That's almost $1400 without breaking a sweat. I figured that if we do that along with what we already have allotted to go into savings each month, we will be set.

and finally,

1 - blog more here and less there. okay, maybe not so much less there, considering i've posted like twice in the last two weeks, but when i sat back and thought about it, my ultimate goal is to make it so adelaide only knows my work blog exists because i tell her it does. not because she sees me working on it all the time. there's something you should know about me: i'm kind of an addict. to all sorts of things. junk food. sleeping. cheesy netflix shows. you name it. and as much as it pains me to say it, i am also addicted to my computer. i have a tendency that when i'm working on a blog post, i immerse my whole self into it until it's done and when something interrupts me, i tend to get a little bit annoyed. that something has been my phone, copper, zach, adelaide, or heck, even needing to eat! it's a little out of hand. so, i told myself that i can only blog when addi is sleeping or when zachary is home, so he can play with her. and even then, i have an hour {unless it's saturday, then i get two} where i can work as hard as possible and whatever i get done is great, but once the clock is up, the laptop gets closed. i'm sick of wasting so much time on my computer and i look forward to days when i can fully focus on adelaide without feeling guilty that i haven't written a post or made a recipe. oh, the joys of being your own boss. i'm actually the most excited about this resolution. the last thing i want is to put my family second to something that is just going to bring in a little extra income = satisfy temporary happiness. the whole point of me working from home is to be able to spend time with adelaide. it kind of defeats the purpose if i'm working for 8 hours and ignoring her anyway! my reasoning behind wanting to blog more here though, is because this blog has been like a journal to me. we have so many good times shared on here and i'm a little bit sad that in looking over the last year, i only have a handful of posts to read. especially since it's been such a life changing year. my goal is to blog so much that it probably annoys the crap out of people, but at least i can have every moment documented and then i want to print it out and make a book out of it. so, sorry in advance for the bombardment of posts. i'm sure you'll get over it.

so, there you have it. my top resolutions for the year. i've never been good at keeping resolutions, but i want 2014 to be the year for change. wish me luck!

-the mrs.

p.s. feel free to share your resolutions! i love hearing what people are working on. sometimes it motivates me to do things i wouldn't have thought of otherwise!

having a baby: what they don't tell you.

*warning: this is really long. that's all.*

i posted addi's birth story a couple weeks ago and mentioned that i wanted to cry every time i thought about it in the beginning. here's where i tell you why. to some, this blog post may seem a little uncomfortable. it's going to be honest and blunt, but if there is just one mama out there that feels the same way that i did and can know that they aren't alone, then my mission will be complete.

things were rocky from the start. i tried to get adelaide to breastfeed  right after she was born, but she wouldn't. the nurses told me she must not be hungry, so we snuggled her and cuddled her and soaked in every skin fold and tiny finger and toe that we could. we tried a couple times over the next twelve hours, but nothing worked. twelve hours my baby went without food. i'd like to believe that the nurses were right in saying that this was okay, but looking back now, i wish they had helped me try harder. i told one nurse that i thought babies came out just knowing how to breastfeed and she looked at me and said, matter-of-factly, "they know how to suck, they don't know how to latch." i was a little dumbfounded and wondered why the crap nobody told me that before i had this little rugrat in my arms that i was supposed to take care of!

anyway, that was just the prelude to what would be the worst week of my entire life. two days in the hospital, being checked on every couple hours, having every meal prepared nice and hot for us, and the next thing we know, we're loading up a 7 pound human into her car seat and taking her home. where it would be just us three. at that moment, i was excited, not terrified like i've heard a lot of moms say. that didn't last long.

i don't remember very well what even went down that day. all i know is it ended in tears. and so did the next day. and the next day. and pretty much every day that entire week.

i still had problems breastfeeding. so much so, that i finally broke down and got a pump. that right there, made me cry. hard. i was so envious of my mom friends that were breastfeeding without a problem and could have that "special bond" that everyone talked about. instead, i felt like a milking cow. every feed, i would pump while zach gave her the bottle. that was until she stopped taking a bottle. we were feeling hopeless and desperate. we knew she was starving, but she would suck a few times and then push it out and scream. this went on for about an hour. we were at our wits end, all three of us crying, and then as i grabbed the bottle, i realized after all the sucking she had done, none of it had been eaten. come to find out, the stupid nipple didn't have a hole in it! this didn't happen just one, but two times. note to self: check all nipples before using.

night time made me anxious. when about 5 o'clock rolled around, i would be a nervous wreck and just cry and cry. all i could think about was the sleep i would lose due to the baby that i didn't know how to console. day time was spent mourning the life i would never have again - zachary and i doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. being able to cuddle up and watch a movie. taking spontaneous trips to denver. sleeping in on the weekends. the idea of having to take care of a human all day, every day, with no appreciation for my sacrifice was daunting. to say the least.

i don't know what it's like for most new moms, but i do know that there was so. much. screaming. adelaide seemed livid all the time. if she didn't like something, she wasn't afraid to let us know. i was convinced that she just plain hated being a baby and that we were going to have to deal with this for the rest of our life.

when i really sat back and thought about it, i realized - i hated my baby. i know. that sounds awful. i cringed even typing it up just now. no mom was ever supposed to feel this way. i didn't want to be around her. i didn't feel any sort of connection to her. i'd fantasize about going to the hospital and convincing them to take her back. i'd tell them that i was crazy and wasn't fit to take care of a baby, so they'd lock me up in an insane asylum and that's where i would live out my days, but at least i wouldn't have to be responsible for someone that i was almost certain hated me back. pretty extreme, right? what happened to the feelings of euphoria that moms feel when they bring a baby home? what happened to being overcome with love for someone that i had just met? why didn't anyone tell me how truly hard being a parent is? all i ever heard was how rewarding it is and how there's nothing like it and blah blah blah. i wish someone had told it to me straight. things felt so unfair.

funny enough, i remember zachary asking his brother early on when he felt like things got worth it. {because at that point, they didn't feel worth it at all. we were cursing ourselves for making the biggest mistake of our lives.} his brother said that at about the six week mark is when things start paying off. was he ever right. in fact, i can honestly say that on addi's six week birthday is when i felt like i could actually do this whole mom thing. what a relief it was.

i think my biggest mistake in all of this, was thinking that the struggles we were having were going to be there forever. that's what brought the most feelings of hopelessness - thinking about the future and feeling like i would rather die than have to do what we had been doing those first few days for another month or longer.

umm, hello? do you have any idea how much a baby changes in a month? adelaide was nowhere near the same baby in a month as she was during that first week. were things still new? yes. would she scream and i still didn't know how to help her? yes. did i want to curl up in the fetal position in the corner of my bedroom and cry some days? yes. but i can't even tell you how different i felt. every day brought just a little bit more confidence in my abilities to be a mom.

now that things have slowed down a bit, i realized that all of these feelings of absolute helplessness were probably due to an extreme lack of sleep. that and my total resistance to being a parent. is life different than it used to be? you betcha. but now, after three months of this little beauty in our lives, it's hard to imagine what it would be without her.

i would give anything to have known what i know now in those early stages of parenthood. oh, what a difference it would have made in my life! because of this, i'd like to share 9 of the most important things that i think every new mom should know. take it for what it's worth. if for nothing else, i'll be able to show this to adelaide one day when she becomes a first time mom. :)

1. breastfeeding is hard. really hard. you may not have the experience i have had, but i haven't talked to one mama that hasn't had some kind of pain with it. be ready. read up on it. know how to breastfeed. even if it means looking up pictures and videos of other random people feeding their kid. don't be afraid of seeing boob! the more you know, the smoother it will be.

2. have your baby checked for a lip/tongue tie. i hope i didn't give off the impression that once your baby is three months old, everything is rainbows and unicorns. it might be for some parents, but not for us. it still hurts every time adelaide latches. trust me though, this is not the norm. early on, i wrote in a breastfeeding support group that nursing was still super painful and a few people suggested that addi might have a lip or a tongue tie. i kind of cast it off because that seemed to be the first thing people turned to in this group and it was kind of annoying. so finally, last week we had her checked and it turns out she has both. her lip tie is pretty severe actually and we are hoping to get both of them clipped as soon as our insurance situation is figured out. everyone with a lip/tongue tied baby swears that it makes a heck of a difference getting it fixed, so i'm crossing my fingers that it will do the same for us! just do me a favor and make sure early on, so you don't have to go through what i've had to!

3. invest in the book, 'secrets of the baby whisperer'. i read 'baby wise', which i really liked, but then my sister-in-law, carli, suggested this one. i got it in the mail one day from what i thought was my little brother, but it turns out it was from my high school soccer coach. yeah. she's a gem. and i can't tell you how much this book has changed my life. i don't know what i'm doing as a mom, but this book has at least given me some kind of grip on things and made me feel like i might actually be able to do this whole being a parent thing. if i can suggest one book to read your entire pregnancy, this would be it. i bought a lot of birthing and pregnancy books, but let's be honest - that's all the easy part. the hard part is knowing what to do with the baby after it's here, which is what this book helps with. buy it. use it. love it.

4. do not, and i repeat, do not wake your sleeping baby at night. i don't care how many books you've read that say you need to wake them up to eat every four hours, don't believe them. your baby will be fine and honestly? they'll probably end up sleeping longer sooner. after all, why would you want to put your baby on a schedule to wake up at night when your end goal is to get them to sleep? it doesn't make sense. i know. just let them sleep. i promise, you will thank yourself later for this.

5. when your baby does start sleeping for 8 hours at night, don't go bragging about it. because the next thing you know, she'll only want to sleep four hours at a time again. trust me. i know from experience. i wasn't intentionally trying to brag. i was just excited. and then we had two weeks of interrupted sleep. every. single. night. it was awful knowing what a full night's sleep was and then having to go back to that. but on a good note, she slept for 11 hours last night! hooray! {is that bragging?}

6. give your baby a freaking binky! i don't believe in the whole nipple confusion crap. every nurse and lactation consultant will tell you that giving a baby a binky is bad juju, but if i could go back, i would have given adelaide the first moment i could. babies need to suck, that's all there is to it. they suck for comfort and if your baby is anything like mine, they won't want to use their hands to remedy that problem. instead, the nurses had zachary give addi his finger and that's all she will take now. i will literally have my finger in her mouth and quickly switch it for a binky and she will spit it out like it's poison. so weird. i know a lot of parents that complain about having to break their child from a binky, but if it can save your sanity just a little bit, then i say it's worth it.

7. don't compare. i can't tell you how many times in these short three months that i've worried there's something wrong with my baby because someone else's baby was doing things quicker. rolling over, holding up their head, babbling your ear off. all of it has caused some kind of insecurity inside of me. take it from someone who knows - don't compare. it'll make you miserable and after all, every baby learns and grows at their own pace. just because your baby is slower at something doesn't make them any less capable.

8. shower every single day. my friend, whitney, shared this little piece of advice and what a difference it has made! don't judge me, but i used to shower every other day. i didn't like washing my hair every day, so this was my solution. that was until i discovered shower caps. oh, and dry shampoo. best. invention. ever. since having adelaide, i still only wash my hair every other day, but i shower every day and what a difference it makes! you'll feel better, more motivated to get things done, and the obvious? cleaner. much cleaner.

9. snuggle the crap outta that baby. soak up every smell, giggle, and wrinkle. just about every baby book you read will frown against rocking your baby to sleep, but i usually take one naptime out of the day to rock adelaide to sleep. there is nothing more tender than a sleeping baby and it gives me time to appreciate her sweetness. take in as much of their littleness as possible. they grow up so fast.

maybe you see all of this as a bunch a poppycock and that's okay. it's been therapeutic for me to write it. just do the best that you can as a mama and whatever that is, is great. keep calm and mother on, friends.

-the mrs.