Very Thankful Thanksgiving

We successfully completed the annual musical houses that is Thanksgiving this year. We are officially pros at it now - 19 years for me and 6 for Sam - so it's easy cheesey at this point. Now that we live in Columbus, we always do the day of the holiday at home/go to Bill & Becky's and then make the trek to Cleveland usually the night of the holiday. This year my mom got us on Thursday night and then off to Dad's on Friday night. Then home on Sunday night. We usually try to split the last day - but little man was NOT happy about something (we never did figure out what) so that didn't happen. We even tried to leave earlier than planned because of said unhappiness - but we couldn't get him to eat enough to fall asleep so that was a lost cause. And the ride home was awful. Nothing better than driving through Atlanta holiday traffic with an inconsolable baby in the backseat. Atleast I knew to stay in the right lane so we never truly stopped and made it through the traffic jam relatively easy.

Ok - enough of the timeline...

Thanksgiving Day

I am thankful for the abundance of family. (besides that it means there are lots of people to hold the baby when I can't handle the stress of him crying anymore..) We have approximately 60 or so family members (including close extended family) and it's really great anytime we get to see them all. It was especially fun this time because Mimi & Jack (my stepmom's parents) had not met William yet and they are just the coolest grandparents ever anyhow. (no really, I kept refering to them as aunt & uncle when I was younger because they were THAT cool..heehee) anyhow - Mimi had a big time playing and holding William and I love that he has so many Great Grandparents to grow up knowing. 7 Great Grandparents to be exact. And 1 Great Great Grandmother, Mema. Though, he probably won't get the chance to actually remember her and it's really sad that he won't know how awesome she is. But atleast she got to meet him and we have great video of it - so we can show him later.

All the Rumer Kids, and a boyfriend for good measure

I am thankful for my amazing husband who just happens to moonlight as the world's best daddy too. I always knew he would be great but it really came to light when we were at the hospital having William. He really stepped up and "managed" all the family who came for the birth, and that is no small feat people! (musical holidays remember) Even in my cracked out, drugged up state I was in awe of how effortlessly he handled what could've been a sticky situation. That many people wanting to see the baby, me and everything in between and only so many people allowed in the room at any given time - it was really a recipe for disaster but he was wonderful. A really strong man and I love him for all of it. And nevermind that he puts all my pieces back together when I melt down... ;)

Thanksgiving Day 2 - with Omi

With Mimi

I am thankful for William. When he is happy he is an absolute joy. Smiles and goos and loveliness. I love when he falls asleep on in my arms. And he always wakes up happy - those early (and I do mean early - the new trend of 5:30 has got to stop) morning smiles are adorable. And he's precious when he's eating his nighttime bottle and right before you know he's done - he smiles with the bottle in his mouth and his eyes closed. And just so you know I'm not sugarcoating - Mimi asked me if I could remember life without him and my answer, to her surprise, was absolutely. I wouldn't trade my life for then - but I do definitely remember. (Give me some credit - it was literally only 4 months ago - I may have mom brain - but I'm NOT THAT bad yet)

I'm thankful for my friends. You know who you are and you know why I love you.

I am truly blessed. My new goal is to remember that when the baby is screaming. :)

Loves.

I love my Daddy.

Who else would be in Columbus the next day at 8am with a smile on his face and open arms to take the screaming baby from me?! Seriously - I have the best daddy ever.

In the spirit of being honest - which y'all know that I am (seriously why sugar coat?! - it just makes me feel like a failure when I read what other people write and it's all rosy, but I guess that's on me...) - I was losing my mind. My sweet little boy has no happy median. He is either all smiles and coos or screaming bloody murder. And if said sweet little boy doesn't poop on a regular basis he is miserable, which makes my life miserable. And he didn't poop on Sunday. Not ok.

Luckily for me, I also have the best friend in the whole world, who when I called her at 10am on Monday about to have a crazy crying meltdown, she "forced" me to bring him over to her house and told me to go home and relax. I would never survive my life if it wasn't for the sixteen daily phonecalls and the spontaneous crashing her house two/three times a week. I love me some Hads. He pooped for Hadley on Monday afternoon - after she dealt with 3.5 hours of severe unhappiness. (Sorry Hads - didn't mean to scare your hubs.) And then all was right with the world. Though by that point, Sam had made me call my Dad and ask if he was available this week - so I got another two days of happy mommy time.

"Riding the horse"

He's such a great GDaddy too - he plays with William and walks him until he's blue in the face and seriously, I think he's got esp - because he always figures out exactly what's wrong with W. Though - I guess there's only so many options - so he just whittles down the list quickly.

GDaddy had him mesmerized by this toy - so cute!

The other great Daddy in my life!

I wanted in on the pleasant baby picture action too.

I'm glad I'm surrounded by wonderful people because I'm slowly losing my mind. Atleast I have them to pick up the pieces behind me.

Loves.

I wanted to go to Mexico

But, alas, only Sam got to go. He called me at 4:00 on Tuesday and "asked" if it would be ok if he went to Mexico on an emergency business trip. I, being the amazing wife and mother that I am, said of course - it's for your career - absolutely. Go be the TSYS rockstar. It wasn't even his client that needed all the help. So - the next morning he headed up to the airport and left me at home with the 3 month old sweetheart/monster.

Wednesday was easy cheesey. William was in a perfect mood. He ate, slept, played exactly on schedule and we had a big time. Then THURSDAY came.... He cried and screamed and then repeated that ALL DAY. I really thought I was going to lose my mind. I thought he had an ear infection, I thought he might be teething, I think I finally landed on that he just wanted to make my life miserable because I had no one to hand him off to. Oh - did I mention that he chose these two nights to not sleep? Yeah - that REALLY was not helping anything. I have not been the one to get up in the middle of the night to feed him because I have an amazing husband who values his life and my happiness - so this was not good. AND To top all of this off - William insisted on being held and walked all day and night. Little man is heavy for being under 50 percentile and my arms and back hurt. Hurt might be the wrong word - I needed a serious deep tissue, please find my bones and make me feel better massage to counteract the pain...

I (we) managed to survive until Friday. We went to the park with Hadley & Robbie because we both needed some fresh air to make it through our lives and when we got back to her house - he had pooped!! I have never been so excited to see nasty brown stuff in all my life. Turns out little man was pissed off because he hadn't gone in 2.5 days!!! Good thing ear drops aren't deadly if a kid doesn't have an ear infection....just saying. ;) So Friday was infinitely better. He ate, slept and played just like he was supposed to.

Funny - Hadley came over with a movie Friday night after she dropped Robbie off at Honey's (her mom - don't you want to be called Honey by your grandkids!! love!!). I made teriyaki chicken, but I cooked it on the wrong burner - so there were cold spots. Sweet hadley said hers was completely warmed through...I'm not so sure. and then we put the movie in - Management with Jennifer Aniston. Yeah - don't waste your time. We were exhausted and way too tired to put up with a bad movie. We watched for 28 minutes, stared at my sad DVD collection and decided that we were too tired to care about watching a movie and really just wanted to go to bed. We made the executive decision to stay in living room until 9:00 so we didn't seem SO lame and then she left and I went to bed. haha!!

Ok - Sam was supposed to be back at home by 2:00 on Saturday. But he "misplaced" a piece of paper from immigration and they wouldn't let him leave the country without it. Problem - his flight left at 7:30 and immigration dept. didn't open until 8:00. ugh - that meant I had to survive another ENTIRE day all by myself. I wasn't upset - just disappointed... (ha - totally pulling that one out of the "mom book") Anyhow. He finally made it back at 8:30 that night. Which was perfect timing because W woke up from his spontaneous 3 hour nap 15 minutes later and I'm not sure I would have been able to physically lift him out of the crib....

In summary - I made it 4 days by myself and the munchkin. Pretty proud of that. Though - I did fantasize about baskets, bows and doorsteps....yes, that's brutal honesty for ya. Enjoy. When you have kids - you'll think about it too. Promise. :)

Glad I got it out of the way though - because Sam is lobbying for a week long trip to Ireland and it's good to know that I can survive. Even if I can't stand up straight.

OH - The M&Ms!!! Because he insisted on being held/walked Wednesday & Thursday I only ate M&Ms for literally almost 48 hours. I would grab a handful every loop around the house when I passed the candy dish. So it's good to know that you can subsist on only chocolate. I haven't gotten on the scale to see what it cost me but I'm still alive so I think that counts for something.

Loves.

Baptism

Today was William's Baptism. He was incredibly fussy all morning. Screaming fussy. We were really worried that he was going to continue all the way to the church - but luckily he settled down and even took a nap until right before it was time to go up. Thank goodness! He did so good!! A little upset at the water but the pastor was really good with him. (he has a seven month old baby girl - so he knows all about jiggling and patting the butt!!) I almost cried as I watched him walk William down the aisle while the church sang Jesus Loves Me. So sweet - but I held it together. ;)

I ended up having to leave the service immediately after the baptism. The good effects of the nap were wearing off and William was getting antsy and hungry. Oh well.

Then we went to Bill & Becky's for lunch with everyone. It was so good and nice to spend time with all the friends and family who came down for the occasion. And the food. was. so. good. Much better than M&M's - I'll fill ya in later on that. ha!

Enjoy the pictures - he was precious! (Oh and Hadley & Bobby are the godparents - that's why they're up at the front with us..just fyi)

He was starting to cry just a touch...

Getting baptized.

Walking the aisle during Jesus Loves Me

Family & Friends outside the church

My handsome family.

Thank you to everyone who came and traveled to be here for us and for William. And thank you to my in-laws for hosting the lunch so we could all get just a little more time together. It means so much to us! We have the best friends and family!! Much love to y'all!!

Loves!

Enjoying the Weather

The weather was too gorgeous not to go out and play. And William is too cute not to bring the camera along. My mother-in-law says he is the most/best documented baby ever. I think she's teasing us about taking hundreds of pictures every month - but it's so easy to go "overboard" with the SLR. I personally don't think we take enough pictures...just saying.

Loves.

3 Months Old!!

Loves!

Who needs sleep...

...when you could be sewing!! It has become a theme - I finally get up the courage and materials to tackle a new sewing project and can't sleep through Friday night to start on it on Saturday. So I get my butt out of bed at 11:30 and get started. It's kinda ridiculous but I actually really enjoy the quiet uninterrupted time. Project this weekend was window treatments for our bedroom. We recently moved all the furniture around and it's so much better now. It's never my first choice to put the bed in front of a window and we gave the big wall a good try for 5 months (wow - we've lived here that long! time flies!!) but there's so much more space for walking now. Plus - you aren't accosted by the bed when you first walk in the door which is always a good thing.

So yeah. I had the fabric - we had bought it on sale right before we moved (and then two months later it went on crazy sale - but I was so pregnant and miserable and saving for baby that I didn't buy anymore - stupid stupid girl) anyway... We just wanted two panels, one width, no reason for them to be lined because the window faces an 8 foot fence and gets very little sun exposure (I might add it later though....much later) And to save on the cost of hardware - which can seriously add up for the good stuff - we are going to make a cornice board, paint it and add pretty moldings to cover the less expensive hardware. I feel genius for thinking of this. $4 in rods and the panels are up! Granted, we still have to buy a piece of plywood, paint, and moldings to finish the look (and get new bedding and make an upholstered headboard) but the cost for this is WAY under $100!! Well - actually I think it's $84 - but still. The wholesale labor cost for a one width panel is practically that much. And it's worth it because I'm sure they are sewn much better than these - but for all intents and purposes - I'm tickled pink with ours. I can't wait until we get it all done, piece by piece. I'm hoping that by this time next year it'll be done. Though I have a feeling Sam is going to convince me to spend the money much sooner... ;)

ignore the lack of picture quality - I took this on the iphone...

also, feel free to ignore the state of disaster of our bedroom...

On that note - we have decided to build some serious shelving for our office. Covering an entire wall around the window and Sam is even going to turn the corner and make a desk for me too. CANNOT WAIT!!! It's going to be a storage masterpiece!! Sam is also hoping this happens sooner rather than later. Why can't Lowe's just let us walk in and grab what we need - it would be so much easier to do projects if we didn't have to PAY for them! :)

It's kinda silly though - one of the most heard sentences in our house is "add it to the list". This "list" is getting stupid long of things we want/want to do to the house at a much quicker rate than things are coming off. Oh well. Atleast we won't be moving in 7 months like every other year! haha

I feel like there was a lot of project rambling....sorry!

Loves!

Not cold enough for snow..

William was the cutest snowman for Halloween!! We went trick or treating with my best friend Hadley who has a 2 year old (he was a very cute green dragon)

Loves!