Friday, September 27, 2013

over and out

whew.
i'm packed.
that was hard.
i'm pretty sure brette has everything she could ever need.
me?
i'll probably look like a homeless person.
oh well, nashville - - here we come!
 
i'm really nervous about the road trip.
normally its my favorite part of vacations,
but with a three month old,
i just want to get there.
 
pray for us.
 
 
here's brette today.
notice the bib?
she's quite the slobber queen.
i hate it.
so in order to keep a shirt dry,
we change out bibs a couple times a day.
i packed a lot of those.
wish us luck.
 
i'll be back in a week!
 
 

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

a few things






one
i am still trying to figure out nap time around here.
nothing is really working amazingly.
i did start using the swing and she will sleep in there about
an hour, but she normally wakes up once during that hour.
then she sleeps on me for the next hour, for a total of
a two hour nap.
i still can't figure out what's waking her up
or why she can't put herself back to sleep.
at night she wakes up and falls back to sleep on her own.
i think my next step is buying room darkening curtains
to make her room super dark.
maybe that would help.
 
two
ronnie is not going with us to nashville.
i hate it.
who wants to go on a family vacation without their husband?
lame.
he thinks he needs to stay and work.
i think he needs to take a break and hang out with me.
it doesn't seem very fair that i don't have a job
and i'm the one getting the vacation.
i'm hoping he takes it easy while we're gone.
hang with some friends or something.
but knowing him he'll slave away.
 
three
our foundation work on the house is complete.
the grass is sowed and our yard is covered in straw.
hopefully, grass starts popping up soon.
now we just need to lay the carpet in the basement.
the guys are coming next week while i'm gone.
hopefully, i come home to it being completely done.
then i can get the treadmill back out and
maybe try working out again.
(i don't think i can blame the fattiness on brette past 6 months.)
 
 
that's what has been going on over here in cox land.
happy hump day!
 
 

Monday, September 23, 2013

the nashville insider

 
i am leaving for a week in nashville with the fam.
we were supposed to be headed to our annual trip
to estes park, but they had some m a j o r flooding
and the highways were literally washed away.
so this vacation to tennessee was booked yesterday
and we leave friday,
which means we have no plans.
i hate not knowing what to do,
where to go
and what to eat, when i visit a city,
so if anyone has been
and has some great recommendations,
i would really appreciate it.
 
so far i found a lot of
bars, bars and more bars.
which makes me wish ronzo and i
had visited a couple years ago.
but now we're traveling with my parents and three little girls.
so we need some family friendly suggestions.
that makes things a bit harder.
 
ready. go.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

please, no old jokes

if you have been a long time reader you will
remember that i made a list of
30 things i wanted to do before i turned 30.
i wrote this list when i was turning 28,
and updated it when i turned 29.

1. visit another country
(we have a trip to mexico booked, does that count?)
2. do the splits
3. finish my basement and master bedroom
4. read 100 new books
5. start a garden
6. run five 5Ks
7. take 'fuck' out of my everyday language
8. find a new job
9. keep a gratitude journal
10. remember to compliment my husband
11. learn how to play the guitar
12. start a hat collection - and wear them
13. learn how to curl my hair - beside how i did in the 5th grade
14. secretly save $1200 for a gift for ronnie
15. train my babies - they really shouldn't be having accidents anymore
16. make dinner four nights a week
17. go to church regularly
18. let go of my grudges
19. be romantic
20. give up television one night a week
21. wear the lipstick i buy
22. find my inspiration
23. buy land or a new house
24. routinely exercise
25. see bob seger in concert
26. learn how to make a pie from scratch
27. share my blog
28. learn a new word a week
29. always be truthful - even when it's hard
(this one i consider ongoing.)
30. make a decision about having a kid

 
well, tomorrow is the big day.
i am proud of the things i accomplished
and honestly, some of these things aren't
that important to me anymore.

do the splits?
never gonna happen.

wear lipstick?
i did start wearing it to work,
but now it's just me and B
and lipstick might be a little fancy for what we have going on.

learn a new word a week?
who gives a F.
which obviously means i'm still working on #7 too.

then there are those i thought i'd FOR SURE have done.
finishing my master bedroom?
i really need to pull it together.

read 100 new books?
i don't know why i don't read like i used to.

run five 5K's.
well, i got pregnant and stopped running.

and then, honestly the one i didn't know if we'd ever figure out:
#30 - make a decision about having a baby.
and obviously, we did.

so i didn't get to scratch
e v e r y o n e
of them off my list.
but i did half.
(which by school standards is failing)
but i'm going to consider this a success.


maybe i need a list for my next 30 years...
in the mean time, i'll be eating cake.

 




Tuesday, September 17, 2013

my next 30 years

i'm turning 30 this week.
i hate it.
i don't want to say goodbye to my 20's
but i know brette will make my 30's a decade to remember.
 
 
 
i hinted to ronnie that i wanted a party.
(not really, i straight told him he better do something
since we went to vegas for his 30th.)
 
 
 
he invited my 14 best friends to par-tay.
he made reservations a fun outdoor restaurant-bar
and booked a party bus for road trippin.
(one of my favorite things we used to do).
the bus ended up being in the shop,
so they sent us a party shuttle.  it had no radio.
i'm sorry, what "party" vehicle doesn't have a radio?
good thing is was half the price.
but honestly, with all the beers and inappropriate stories,
we had a blast.
after road tripping for a couple hours
we went back to the bar to listen to the band.
we were a mess and fabulous all at once.
it was such a fun night and i feel like i have the best friends eva.
eva. eva.
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 

 


 

 
 




 
 
only at 30th birthday party do you have beer and breast milk in the cooler.
have a pump on the party bus.
and have someone throwing up from carsickness (and the beer).
 
 
 
ps- brette spent the night at grandma and grandpa's house.
her first night away from us.
she made it great, but i couldn't wait to get my hands on her the next morning.

Monday, September 16, 2013

brette: 3 months

 
growth:
she weighs 12lbs 2oz
her height is 22in
i'm not sure what her head circumference is.
we'll have to wait to go back to the doctor next month.
but her cheeks have taken over.
seriously, chubby.
and adorable.
 
she's still in size one diapers
and wear 0-3 month clothing.
i have a couple of newborn outfits that she can still sport,
but i took most of them out and packed them away.

her head and neck control is awesome.
i no longer have to support it.
she is constantly looking around and
wants to be carried facing out so she can see what's going on.
and she hates to be carried like a baby.
her eyes are still blue - but it's a dark blue.
her hair hasn't lightened up any
and she's starting to lose a bit in the back.
 
sleeps:
she is still sleeping in her crib every night.
she goes down somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00
and sleeps till 7:00.
then i put her back down and she sleeps another couple hours.
after that, she's up until her afternoon nap,
which is normally two hours.
i'm still struggling with putting her down,
but i might have come up with a solution.
the swing.
i've only tried it twice so its too new to say if it's going to work,
but i'll keep you posted.
 
eats:
she is still on the boob diet.
i feel like she still can't go more than
3 hours without nursing again
and that's only if she's had a nap in there.
if she's awake the whole time,
she might only let me go 2 hours
but i'm trying to lengthen her out to three hours.
sometimes she makes it and other times she doesn't.
and keeping with our routine,
she still takes a 2oz bottle every night before bed. 
 
plays:
we've busted out some toys!
i use them to help with her hand coordination.
she can follow objects with her eyes,
instead of moving her whole head and
she's batting at things you put in front of her.
she'll grab ahold of an object and
bring it to her mouth.
in fact, she took the pacifier from me and popped it in her mouth.
i know it was a one in a million shot,
but i also considered that maybe i just have genius baby.

she is also such a talker.
it is the cutest thing to have a conversation with her.
you can see the video of her and ronnie talking last week.
 
firsts:
she had her first over night without mamma.
she had her first road trip. (6 hours in the car in one day)
she went to her first festival.
she had her first blow out diaper. (gross)


she's growing and glowing
and ronnie and i couldn't be more in love.


ps- our tummy photos did not go well.
we might have to cut those.  she cried and i didn't get one good shot.








 
wanna see her grow?
 
 
 
 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

to grandmother's house we go

my missy b is three months today.


she is for sure growing by the minute,
but since i want my monthly pictures to be in her room, 
i'm holding off taking them until 
tomorrow when we're back home.
in the mean time you can check out 
what we're doing at grandma and grandpa's house.


my mom hung towels over the windows to make it extra dark for brette's nap.
worked like a charm and she slept 2 hours. (in my arms...)


she helped grandma make dinner. 
maybe she'll pick up the cooking trait that i lack?


and we took our first bath in a big girl tub.
she loved it. 
in fact, she was so happy afterwards she talked and coo'd 
for 30 minutes before bedtime.


take note. three months is the exact age to start
a chewbacca conversation with daddy.
who knew.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

its getting hot in here

we are all staying a couple days with my parents.
we discovered foundation problems
and we have been waiting FOUR months
to get someone out to our house and fix it.
cheese-us.
the process involves removing our AC unit from the house.
i don't roll like that.
i need me some AC.
so we're in warrensburg until my house is a cool 72 degrees again.

also, we're going to have to buy some grass seed.
holy mess.




and yes, ronnie left sweet love notes around the house for me.
just in case i forgot about the four men in my yard.



Friday, September 6, 2013

why don't i get paid for this?

i am looking for jobs.
say whaaa?
 
 
i do not want to put brette into child care.
i am totally being one of those crazy moms
that sees herself being with brette until she enters pre-school.
but that's just a fantasy, considering ronnie and i
agreed on only 6 months to a year off.
he wants 6 months.
i want four years.
 
so i am trying to find something i can do from home.
i could be making some extra $$$
so ronnie is happy,
but i would get to stay home with my baby.
i'm waiting to mention this to ronnie
until i find something.
he would be totally psyched to have me
make some money and also not have to pay for child care,
but i know its a long shot,
so i don't want to get his hopes up.
(like mine are)
 
unfortunately, remote positions are hard to find
unless you have a medical or teaching background.
wah wah.
i totally should have gotten my teaching certificate.
[insert hand to forehead]
 
so then i started looking into part time stuff.
maybe i could just work a couple days a week.
i could probably live with that.
 
honestly, i don't know how this is going to turn out.
my "maternity leave" is half way over,
so its definitely time to start looking,
but i just want this dream at-home position to fall into my lap.
 
anyone have ideas?
know of anyone that works from home?
(my background is in public relations, communications, fundraising, and marketing.
feel free to send suggestions my way)
 
i guess i better start updating my resume.
blah.
 
how can i leave this face?
this is her first time in her bumbo,
she is going to be a sitting champion aaaany minute.
and no, does not store food in her cheeks,
but she totally could.
 
 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

zzzzz's

this is another one of those posts
where i need your help.
everyone was so great with my flat head concern
and brette's issues with the carseat.
(which ps- she is back to LOVING)
but now,
i have a new problem.

the nap.

i battle brette everyday to get her down.
i've wrapped her.
i've walked her.
i've rocked her.
i've driven her.
i've nursed her.
but getting her to sleep isn't the problem.
all of these methods got her to sleep.
the problem,
is laying her down.
once she's asleep, i cannot lay her in her crib.
she wakes up within 20 minutes.
sometimes she wakes up instantly.
i've read some articles on this and they say that i'm not waiting long enough.
i guess most babies take around 20 minutes to get into a deep sleep
and if you try to put her down before then, she will wake up.
so i tried a bunch of different lengths of times
i've held her anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.
and it didn't make any difference.
if i hold her the whole time she will sleep for two hours.
but i'm not even being greedy.
if i could just get her to sleep for ONE hour,
after laying her down,
i would be happy.
 
any suggestions?
i was thinking i could lay something in the crib
next to her so she would think she was still on me,
but i didn't know if she was still too little to have anything in the crib with her?
 
the weird thing is,
we have NO issues at night.
she goes right off to sleep in her crib.
so maybe it's too light in her room?
 
i really don't know.
and she's going on three months.
waaaay to young to not have an afternoon nap.
please help.
 
ps- our little missy turned 12 weeks today.
i did a little photo comparison shot this morning.

(two weeks)

(twelve weeks)
 
same outfit, same lounger.
adorbs.


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

don't mess with me... please

ronnie was working out of town last week.
he left on monday morning and got home wednesday night.
i normally do pretty well when he's gone.
no major issues.
and on monday night, it was same ol' same ol'.
but tuesday night,
i got scared.
i kept thinking i was hearing things.
it didn't help when my freaking dog
sat up in bed and starts growling at our dark hallway.
mother fucker.
really?
and he's a chihuahua,
what the hell is he going to do to an intruder?
the most i've ever seen him do is growl and hide under the bed.
which is what i wanted to do to.
except i can't leave brette.
then my mind got away with me. 
how would i get us out of the house?
i know ronnie keeps a gun on his side of the bed,
but honestly i don't know if its loaded.
assuming it is, i don't even know if i could
turn the safety off and be able to use it.
maybe i could just point it at him and scare him away?
maybe i could make it to her room and go out the window?
maybe i could run down the hallway with my gun and my baby with my yappy dogs following?

i decided i need to check things out.
(which getting out of bed and turning on the light is the hardest.
you just hope nothing is actually there when the lights flick on.)
so i got up and rechecked that i've locked all the doors,
i even checked the garage.
but i think i freaked myself out so much that
i spent the rest of the night in and out of sleep.
i texted ronnie at 6:00 in the morning telling him to come home.
i'm sure he thought i was being a sweet wife,
but really i would just rather him shoot someone than me.