I think I'm getting the hang of this!

Wake up. Change baby's diaper. Feed baby. Burp baby. Play. Sing. Laugh. Be amazed. Rock-a-bye to sleep. Rinse; repeat. I wish this didn't have to come to an end!! I am trying to cherish every moment because I have to go back to work in 2 weeks. My heart is sick over it. I know we'll both be fine....I just dread the thought of it. Anyway, I think I'm doing pretty dang good as a Mama. Lord knows I love the job; despite the being puked, peed and crapped on. Just when I think I've seen Jonah's biggest diaper masterpiece, he trumps and I'm in awe and the amout of poo that comes out of something so small. Seriously, I had crap on my elbow the other day. My elbow. Do you know how difficult it is to remove doo-doo covered clothing without getting it on you? I don't think it's possible. If you're a parent reading this, don't scoff, you've had poop on you at some point. If you're not a parent [yet] and you're reading this...be ready. You'll find skid marks when you least expect it. Something I've noticed about Jonah and apparently this is a "thing" with some kids...every time he gets in his jumperoo he poops. We've dubbed it the Pooperoo. Strange. But hey, I guess it gets things going. I just continually do the sniff test while he's playing in his jumperoo. Oh geez, and I'm sorry to continue on with the bum tales....but Jonah has first chair in playing the booty trumpet! He's also discovered - or perhaps I should say he has decided - that farting is funny. He is an 11 week old male, and he already thinks farting is humerous. At least he's not high-fiving his father. He's a typical boy and I'm very OK with that. And he is crazy about his daddy. I'm very OK with that, too. He tries so hard to copy Brent! When Brent talks to him, he just grins and coos like crazy! Brent has been making Jonah laugh by sticking out his tongue...and now Jonah is starting to stick out his tongue! It is so funny to watch him try to figure out how to do it! I swear he's the cutest baby I've ever seen. : )

I think that I've pretty much figured out Jonah's schedule. I know better than to be awake now, that's for sure. My alarm clock doesn't have a snooze button....it just keeps going until the boobs show up. Luckily, I type fast....so I'll hit the sack in a few minutes when I finish updating the world on my world. Ok, a few things in my world right now: I have lost 43lbs since Jonah was born. I started back on my Weight Watchers and I'm lovin' it! I've still got about 20 to lose (I think my total gain was 57lbs from pregnancy, and I had gained about 10 or so during 2007). I'm happy to say I'm on the wagon at the moment and things are going well. My secret? Cheat. I cheat every Monday night. Not too prophetical, huh? lol Another thing that I am just soooooo impressed with myself over is my cooking. I think I'm a distant cousin to Martha or something. Last weekend I tried "once a month cooking". I made 18 meals (4 servings - so enough for seconds if we want it) for $180. Dinner's in the freezer! Here's what we got: Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole, Chicken Fried Rice, Garbanzo, Tomato, & Carrot Casserole, Asian Honey Pork Chops, BBQ Shredded Chicken, Mexi-corn Lasagna, Shepherd's Pie, Creamy Chicken Rotini, and Fajita Macaroni. And by the way, all of them are WW friendly! I hope they taste as good as they did when I made them! It was like Golden Corral at my house on Saturday! I did learn a few things though, for next time. First, I won't do it while Jonah is home. I'll do it on a Friday when I can take him to day care. I kept having to stop and nurse him and then I felt like I ignored him because he was in his swing/bouncy/pack n play all day long. Mommy guilt kicked in, I won't do that again. Second, I'll be wearing good shoes next time. I cooked barefoot all day long....and my everything hurt. Third, keep it simple, stupid. Some of the recipes I made were incredible! But they were a little too complicated to do for OAMC. I'll make things that are around 10 ingredients or less next time. The trick to OAMC is shopping the sales ads and not taking the "convenient" route (ie: fresh veggies, not frozen) so it definitely is time consuming, but shoot, I did pretty good if I say so myself! Basically we got 18 meals for $10 each and technically with the serving sizes, if we don't overindulge with a second helping, we'll have lunch for the next day, too. I can't wait to try the food! I'll let you know how they turn out!

One more thing, then it's bedtime for bonzo....Please take a moment and check out this website: http://www.gigglestogracephotography.com/ Jonah is the first thing that pops up (baby in the basket with rings on his toes) and it's got my little man on there under "New Beginnings". My big man is on there, too. There's a couple pics of us on the "Belly Laughs" section. My mom has declared that Jonah is already a model. Well, if that's so, then this can be his first 'gig'. lol Anyway, it's my friend Mandy's site and she's AMAZABLE (to quote my nephew Lincoln) at taking pictures!!

So, that's my world at the moment. I'm still on cloud 9 and over the moon in love with my little family. Brent and I had our 8th anniversary on the 22nd, and this year will be 10 years since he asked me to be his girl. He still makes my heart skip a beat when he smiles at me and he can still make me almost pee in my pants laughing. I think those are good signs. :) Life's good. No, life's great....and I'm lovin' every minute of it! xoxo

A Star Is Born...

Who needs a star in Hollywood when you can have one in the sky?? Jonah is such a little super star, he now has a real star in the sky named after him. Jonah got a toy lion for Christmas that came with the ability to register it and name a star in the sky. We decided that Kingston was a good name for the lion. So we logged on to the website and named Kingston, then we got to select where in the sky Jonah's star would be. We chose the constellation Ursa Major (also known as the "Great Bear"); you probably know this constellation as the Big Dipper. His star is named Jonah Sebastian and for all you star gazers out there, the location in the sky is: 9h 24m 52.48s 44 13'31.97' (whatever the heck all that means! lol) I can locate the Big Dipper and that's why we picked the constellation Ursa Major. I can't wait until he gets older and we can point out to him where his star is in the sky. Jonah loves his new buddy Kingston....and we all knew that he was a shining star since November....so today we just sealed the deal. <3

In My Son's Eyes....

In my son's eyes, I am a hero.

I am strong and wise, And I know no fear.

But the truth is plain to see: He was sent to rescue me,

I see who I want to be, in my son's eyes.

In my son's eyes, everyone is equal,

Darkness turns to light,

And the world is at peace.

This miracle God gave to me,

Gives me strength when I am weak.

I find reason to believe, in my son's eyes.

And when he wraps his hand around my finger,

Oh, it puts a smile in my heart!

Everything becomes a little clearer.

I realize what life is all about.

It's hanging on when your heart has had enough;

It's giving more when you feel like giving up.

I've seen the light: it's in my son's eyes.

In my son's eyes, I can see the future.

A reflection of who I am, And what will be.

And though he'll grow and, some day, leave; Maybe raise a family.

When I'm gone, I hope you'll see,

How happy he made me,

For I'll be there.... in my son's eyes.

"Song For A Child"


Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth;

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.

Hang out the washing and butter the bread.

Sew on a button and make up a bed.



Where is the Mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue.
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby, loo.)



Dishes are waiting and bills are past due.

(Pat-a-cake, darling and peek, peek-a-boo.)

The shopping’s not done and there's nothing for stew.

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look, aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby, loo.)

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow!

But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So settle down cobwebs, dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Jonah has discovered his voice...

The picture quality isn't great in this video, but the star of it sure is....

2009: A Year of Many "Firsts"....

The transition into the new year hasn't been too difficult so far. Brent and I are extremely enjoying parenthood; especially since Jonah is starting to develop a little personality of his own. He's such a good baby, he really is! He doesn't fuss too often and when he does, it's generally short lived. I have been enjoying my time at home with him tremendously and I'm not looking forward to that coming to an end. When he does something adorable, I find myself looking at the clock....I get depressed if it falls during a time he'd be at the sitter's house. I think to myself, "I would have missed that"and it makes me kind of sad. I think I have it all mapped out though. I'm going to convince the lady (her name is Tonia) to lie to me. Just lie. Or maybe just not disclose everything. For example, if Jonah takes his first step at daycare, I don't want to know about it. Ignorance IS bliss, and quite frankly, I'd like to be blissfully ignorant about such things. I know it's a big transition for all of us, and I know we'll be fine....but if I had it my way, I'd work a whole lot less and spend time with my little monkey more. Ok, enough whining about that.

Jonah is 9 weeks old now and growing like a weed!! He's already up to 14lbs, 3oz and is 23.5 inches long. He's starting to "talk" to us more and I swear he's the cutest baby I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that because he's mine...har, har. During the day, we like to dance and sing and watch Disney channel. We know the words to the Little Einsteins intro song and we like to do the Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggety Dog dance with Mickey Mouse every afternoon. We rock out in the mini-van to Jonah's Droolin' Banjos CD that Uncle Josh bought him. In between all that, he eats. And poops. A lot. And farts. A lot. He's more and more like his father each day. lol Occasionally, he'll throw his little red headed Scotch-Irish tantrums....and he's survived whatever crisis he had to face thus far in his two months of existence. Although sometimes you'd think he wasn't going to live for a minute more if I didn't get my boob out any quicker to nurse the poor starving child. I love every minute of it. I honestly could not prepare myself for how much love I would actually have for a tiny little person. The feeling I get in my heart when that little boy looks up at me and smiles his crooked little toothless smile....or when I have the priviledge to sing him to sleep and I can literally see him comforted and peaceful simply because he's in his mama's arms....and especially when I see him and his Daddy playing together....it amazes me how much love I never knew I had. I am so in love. It also blows my mind how having a child with my husband has made me love him even more, too! Brent is such a great father...it's nuts to think he was nervous about it. I think being parents suits us just fine, thanks. I find myself thanking the Lord a million times a day for the blessings he's bestowed upon us. We're so very thankful that He's blessed us so much.

Today I had my first "Mommy's day out". Brent agreed to keep Jonah for me while I went to the salon and got my hair done and eyebrows waxed. Now, there's either two possibilities why he agreed to this: either he's just THAT nice and wanted to give me a break to pamper myself...or....I looked bad enough to trump his worries of baby sitting. I was lookin' pretty rough there for a while with my skunk stripe grays showing and my azalea bush brows. I feel like a new woman. Boy have I missed getting my hair done! I could have just let the gal wash my hair for half an hour. It was very relaxing and it was nice to get de-uglied. And I did all this before a diaper needed to be changed or a tummy needed to be filled! It was a win-win for everyone.

Ok, I should probably go to sleep now. We are trying Jonah in his crib tonight, in his own room. Mind you, I've got a camp set up in there (I'm on my laptop in here right now) and I'll be sleeping in the recliner...but he is in his own room. I just came along, too. hehe :)

I'll do my best to keep up with my blog a little more. Sorry it took me this long to update it, I've had lots of people remind me to update it! I'll try to do better from now own! xoxo

Jonah's First Christmas

I don't have anything really clever to say about Jonah's first Christmas. He was only a month and a half old, so he didn't get too excited about all of the hullaballoo. Brent and I, and the rest of the family got more excited about it than he did. Not working and being caught up with all of my house chores meant lots of time to play dress up and take pictures of my handsome little man. We had a wonderful Christmas together. We are so grateful and blessed to be a family and we're so in love with Jonah. He's starting to get a little personality now and no one can make him laugh better than his Daddy. It's so sweet to see them playing together. My heart is so full of love, sometimes I feel like it's going to burst. I am so proud of my son and I'm so proud of my husband. Seeing this humongous man babbling like an idiot just to make this tiny little thing smile his crooked little smile fills me with such joy. That's a perfect word to express what I feel: JOY. This year comes to an end with such feelings of joy. I couldn't ask for more. I love my life as a mommy & a wife. God is good. All the time.