Back to School...

This summer has gone by so quickly!  I swear we just finished up, and tomorrow we go back!  My colleagues and I have been back off and on since the middle of July, so I'm sure that's why none of us feel like we ever left!

So many great things have happened in our district over the summer, and we're all really excited to return.  The leadership on a handful of levels have changed; we weren't unhappy with our building leadership, but the change was really great for our building principal, and I am 100% happy with the person that took his place.  We now have an "interim" building principal (she was our assistant principal) for the year while our amazing superintendent takes the time to interview and inquire within the staff to be sure that he has made the right choice.  I respect the fact that our superintendent is taking the opinion of the staff into consideration; it really shows how much he values the classroom teacher, which often isn't the case today.  Even with all of that, I'm confident that she will stay in place.

As a result of our AP moving up, my hubs has taken on some extra responsibilities within our building.  He completed his masters in educational leadership in May, so he was really prepared for this change.  This means some very wonderfully stressful things for our family, but I'm so excited for him!  He also was named district teacher of the year last Friday!  I'm just beyond excited for the direction our lives are headed recently!

In preparation for the new school year, nugget's 13 month "birthday" came and went by in a blur!  A lot has happened in a month, so I just knew that I had to do an update.

57 Week/13 month Update
Weight: 
Length:

Milestones: He now has 8 teeth.  He got 2 more on the bottom right after his first birthday, and then we spotted 2 top molars about a week ago.  About 2 days ago he started nodding his head “yes,” and is trying to jump every time daddy does!  He’s also trying his hand at words (whenever he wants to, of course), and is pointing at absolutely everything to ask us to tell him what it is.  He can point to your nose when you ask him where it is, and he LOVES pointing at my eye and saying “eye.”  Tonight he used a spoon all by himself for the first time! Oh, and he can climb (all by himself) into his little rocking chair!
Sleep: 1 two hour nap a day after lunch and then about 12 hours during the night!
Eating: It’s getting better.  His protein still consists of chicken and hot dogs.  We’ve moved on to frozen veggies (green beans, corn, and carrots), but he still won’t eat much of fruit by itself.
Mood: He has been so sweet lately!  He’s also been easily frustrated though too.  He loves to try things and does NOT want a single instance of any one’s help, so he will just throw the most epic temper tantrums.
Likes: Running back and forth between Mommy and Daddy to launch himself into your lap for a hug.  He also loves flopping on the dog beds and pretending to be asleep.
Dislikes: Any time he can’t figure something out on his own, and being hungry.

Things I want to remember: How loving and sweet he is, and this summer.  We had so much fun!

Looking forward to: This school year and tackling all of our new opportunities as a family of 3.  I’m also looking forward to him starting to talk more!

Look at those eyes and that smirk!

Party, Party, Party!

South Carolina has been "home" since 2009, but home will always be the hills and woods of western Pennsylvania.

Blue Ridge Mountains in Virgina/West Virginia.   

...so...the middle of July took us home.

Out here its like I'm someone else,

I thought that maybe I could find myself

if I could just come in I swear I'll leave.

Won't take nothing but a memory

from the house that built me.

Posting my son's first birthday pictures on social media and drafting this blog entry helped me realize how valuable the individuals in my life are and how the memories that have been made over the past few years are truly irreplaceable.  Recently there have been some surprises about who is still around and who has disappeared.  It's sad; more so, it makes me inordinately angry, but I can't say that I would trade how I ended up "here" with these people and these memories for anything different.  I keep telling myself that the acceptance of change (and subsequently changing yourself) means that you are still capable of adaptation; therefore, change is good.  Right?  I used to be fairly decent at expressing myself through the written word; lately, I just don't know what to do with myself and my thoughts.  I'm afraid my husband gets the brunt of that because everything that I think just pours out.  Every question, every statement, everything.  Poor bastard.  Especially when I expect the same from him, and anyone that knows my husband knows he's the watch, think, think some more, and then maybe, if you're lucky, he'll comment or share his opinion/emotion.  More often than not, he really doesn't say much about his feelings, so I guess I speak enough for the both of us.

But I digress...

While we were home, we were responsible for a small handful of events.  One was an engagement party for my cousin, H.  The second was nugget's birthday party!  I was completely geeked out by both, and had a blast planning each of them.

My sister is the maid of honor in my cousin H's wedding at the end of August.  We know that it is going to be an amazing event, so we just knew that we had to host a really perfect engagement party.  My sister is in the Air Force Reserves, and took a small, voluntary deployment to Riga, Latvia to assist the building of an orphanage.  She was gone for a few weeks before the party, so I finalized many of the details (cake, decorations, food, etc.), but we worked together to finalize everything two days before the party when I finally made it north of the Mason Dixon.

I'm so very much looking forward to the wedding.  H and her fiancé are really adorable and fit very well, so I'm sure that the wedding will be both fun and heartwarming.

L and I tried really hard to make a fairly fancy engagement party in my parent's backyard and garage.  I think we pulled it off!

Wildflower centerpieces (Thanks, Aunt L)!

Candles lit! <3

Cake and cake table set up

Uncle C, hubs, me, J, H, and H 

We had a day of rest and recovery before we had to gear up for the nugget's first birthday.  I had been planning this event for months.  When I started decorating the night before, I was afraid that I had  planned too much for a first birthday before I realized that I straight up didn't care.  This is nugget's first birthday.  We only get one first birthday party, and we don't ever get this first-first again.

Here are the highlights of our amazing Where the Wild Things Are themed birthday party.

The cake table set up!

Collage of monthly pictures.
Smash cake.
Cupcakes arranged on a handmade stand thanks to the hubs.
Where the Wild Things Are and custom crown (which we forgot)
A sign that read, "Welcome to Lochlan's Wild Rumpus!"

Favor table.
Favors were small green boxes filled with candy rocks and bubbles. 

 Everything turned out so perfect.  By the end of the day all of us were absolutely happy, exhausted, and overwhelmed with love.

A few more of us and the happy birthday boy:

He actively opened his Aunt M and Uncle M's gift.

Mamaw bought him an awesome roller coaster.

I swear he enjoyed it.  He was just so hot and tired!

Nugget and his friend C.  So cute!

Smash cake with 80+ people looking at him was a huge success!

Look at those baby blues! *swoon*

It's always hard to leave, and now that we have little nugget, it's getting harder and harder to make that break; however, it also really makes me appreciate the time and space that the hubs have to create our life, and I think that's so crucial when you're a new family.

My perfect little family of 3!

Our Journey so Far...Happy Birthday, Nugget!

This past year has gone so incredibly fast.  I knew it was going to be crazy quick, but I never anticipated this.  The past weekend was incredible.  I have spent the last three (okay, maybe five or six really) months planning both our family celebration and our larger birthday party back "home."

My mother has always made birthday's so special for my siblings and me, that I was looking forward to everything so much!  Every birthday she would sneak into our bedrooms and decorate everything with streamers, balloons, etc. and when we came down to breakfast "our chair" would have a helium balloon tied to it and our first (of many) presents would be waiting.  I know Lochlan is much too young to remember, but I just had to get the tradition started!  The hubby and I spent the evening blowing up balloons and wrapping his presents.

Here is the end result:

The birthday boy's door!

We dumped the balloons in on him when he woke up...he was confused!

Our day was spent hanging out around the house, kicking the balloons around, throwing fits when mommy or daddy said that he couldn't chew on them, and packing up for our summer trip back home.  Of course, being part me, he refused to nap, so we had to have an early dinner, which meant pictures and cake smashing were earlier than expected and not right before bath time.  We didn't really expect him to smash since he's so funny about picking up things that are sticky, but he did not disappoint!

After dinner, we attempted to get Lochlan to open his gifts.  I'm not sure if it was because he didn't take his afternoon nap, or if he just didn't want to be bothered, but he really wasn't too interested in tearing off the paper.  This was disappointing because he had been so interested in everything at Christmas-time.  Regardless though, he was fascinated by his largest toy, so all-in-all, I think we picked successful birthday gifts.

We had such an incredible day, and this little nugget is such an unbelievable joy to be around.  I am sure that every parent believes this, but I think we are just the two luckiest people on the planet because we have the best little boy that was ever made!  I can't wait to spend the next year watching him grow into an even more independent and determined little boy, and I can't wait to do that with my amazing husband at my side.

Special Shout Out to Aunt Liz for the AWESOME onesie!

52 Week/12 month Update
Weight: 20 lbs. 14.4 oz.
Length: 29 ½ inches

Milestones: He is completely and totally mobile!  He’s walking all over the place with absolutely no assistance…until he forgets to pay attention to how quickly his feet are moving and he crashes.  At that point, he usually crawls himself to a nearby object to pull himself up.  He’s not regularly standing upon his own, but walking is definitely his main way of moving around!  He is saying a handful of words…when he wants to.  Never, ever on command, of course!
Sleep: Through the night 12 hours!  His naps are super tricky right now.  I think we’re stuck deciding whether or not we want 1 nap or 2.  We try to stay on a daily schedule, but he pretty much decides when he’s going to nap.  There are days we go rock and read a book around 10:45 and when we lay him down, he will play until 11:15.  Other days, if you don’t have him in bed by 10am, you’re dealing with the spawn of Hades! And that’s just morning naps!  Afternoon naps are a shot in the dark.  Sometimes we get a stretch of days where he takes a nap from 10:45/11-12:30 and then a second around 3.  Other days he will nap from 11-1 and not take his afternoon.  I’m so lost, but trying not to stress about it because for the most part he’s not cranky.
Eating: This is seriously the worst!  His diet consists of hot dogs, chicken nuggets, or mozzarella cheese for protein and then canned vegetables (he mostly just eats the potatoes and carrots) and baby pureed pouches that are mixed fruit and veggies.  Sometimes we can get him to eat a quesadilla, but fruit is an absolute HELL NO!
Mood: Determined. Temperamental.  Loving.  Goofy.  He has run us through the gambit this month, and it’s been an absolute joy and terror all at the same time.  He’s becoming such an interesting little man.
Likes: Books, books, and more books!  He also enjoys (much to our dismay and attempt to stop him) screaming and chasing Jarkko around.
Dislikes: Being told no or being removed from something in lieu of being told no.

Things I want to remember: His first birthday. It was an absolutely amazing time as our little family.  I am so glad that we get to experience those moments together.  Maybe it's selfish of me, but I really, really enjoy our moments just the three of us.

Looking forward to: His birthday celebration back “home” with all of the rest of our family!  Of course, I’m also looking forward to the next milestones and memories that we will make with this munchkin.  The past year has been incredible!

Here are a few more adorable shots from the rest of the day!

Gosh, we made a handsome boy!

More to come in the next week and a half!  The rest of July is full of adventures!

Five Year Anniversary, First Father's Day, and Summertime Fitness Goals

Holy title alliteration, Bat Man!  It's a good thing I'm an English teacher, or I wouldn't have such inventive and interesting titles to my titillating blog! (see what I did there with the continued alliteration ;-)...)

Let me just start this by saying, I am the absolute WORST at buying my husband something he actually likes or something that I feel actually fits him/that he deserves, but this time, I have to pat myself on the back; I've done fairly well (I think)!  This week was full of new firsts, and I am so happy that all of these happened during the summer months when we can just soak them all up and be selfish!

On the 16th, hubs and I went out downtown to The Music Farm to see Against Me! in concert.  I will admit that I was completely unfamiliar with the band, but hubs was interested (and I love The Music Farm), so we decided to check them out.  Before the concert, we had a fantastic dinner at Joe Pasta.  I think it's been ages since I've eaten so much food!  I spoiled myself with chicken alfredo, white wine, and chocolate cake...hubs had pesto gnocchi, New Castle Ale, and chocolate cake.  We were so stuffed that we didn't have any room for beer at the concert!  Ha!  So unlike us, but the food was so good, we couldn't help ourselves.  One of my former cheerleaders baby sat for us, and as always, booger was wonderfully behaved (even though he shat himself), so we were able to have a great early anniversary dinner and concert.  We made it back home around midnight and zonked out until our favorite little boy was up, raring to go at 6:45am!  No summer clock for this boy!  I swear, by the time we have him waking up at 8...hell, I'll settle for 7:30...it will be time to head back to work.  Either way, we had a great time, and it was nice to just be us for a few hours.

The rest of the week was a bit chaotic.  Wednesday morning, booger woke up with some mucousy eyes, but I wrote it off as just a bunch of sleepy-crusts since it was only in one eye.  As the day went on, the edge of his eye got red, and the mucous got a little worse, but when he woke up on Thursday it was a hair better.  As Thursday went on, it got worse (I was so lost), and his right eye started to get some gunk too. It wasn't too bad, and both of us were sure it was getting better.

On Friday (our 5 year anniversary), he woke up with both eyes all puffy and them all gunk covered.  It was so weird though, because when  he was awake, it would get better, but he would wake up with his eyes a bit puffy and some gunk in and around them,.  After himming and hawing, we called for an appointment on Friday afternoon.  Talk about a typical day of parenting!  Hubs was putting together his gift to me (Adirondack chairs), when I told him that we had a doctor's appointment, which is an hour away, in two hours...all of this while booger-butt was eating lunch.

The appointment was really very routine; he had no ear infection; it wasn't pink eye; there was nothing in his eyes; his lungs were clear, but they gave him antibiotic eye drops since the gunk was yellow/greenish to help ward off any possible sinus infection.

We then attempted to go to Logan's steakhouse for dinner.  Bad.  Idea.  Lochlan had brilliantly refused to take his afternoon nap in the car, so he had been up for 5 hours.  He did manage a brief 10 minute nap while waiting for our table to be ready, but he woke up like a singed cat!  I don't often lose my cool with him, but he was absurd!  Squealing, throwing his head back, all-in-all, throwing one of the best, most epic temper tantrums we have been privy to so far!  He refused to eat more than one bite of his grilled cheese (which has been par for the course this WHOLE week), and then he wouldn't even sit with us while we ate.  I couldn't determine if I was more embarrassed or angry with myself because I knew we should have just headed home to eat.  We did manage to survive, packed up our dinner, and headed home.  He stayed awake the entire way home (it's an hour drive), and was up being so marvelously wonderful *insert sarcastic mom look here* until 8:45.  I guess moral of this story is: get a baby sitter for your anniversary dinner or be prepared to deal with a screaming infant/toddler.  In his defense, his naps were definitely off for the three days that his eyes were yucky, so I'm sure all of that was tied together.

On the happy, loving side of things, I agonized over the hub's gift for months!  What the hell are you supposed to find that's unique and useful that is made out of wood!?  I could have easily bought a nice wooden frame and put our picture in it, but I knew that it would just join the stack of frames with pictures in them that have yet to find their way to our walls.  I also thought that was a super lame attempt.  By the way, my trusty Pinterest was a life saver (as always).  Hubs was really thoughtful and bought us matching Adirondack chairs; we're going to be building an outdoor fire pit when the heat subsides enough for us to be outside after 11am and before 7pm!  I wavered for months over a few things on Etsy, but ended up buying Jenga (I have some great memories playing as a child) and wrote a list of five of my favorite memories from each of our married years.  I think it is definitely something we will actually use, and the list will be something fun to look back on in a few years with a smile!

The rest of the weekend was equally full of temper tantrums and refusing to eat.  It was also full of walking all over the living room, tickle attacks, and dog chasing!  I wouldn't trade these moments for the world.  Yesterday was the hub's first Father's Day, and I had been planning this one for a few months too!  What do you get a guy for his first Father's Day that won't break the bank but will be genuine and something he can keep around forever.  I really earned my creative stripes on this one too (with no Pinterest influence)!  A month ago, I started making him a photo book using Walmart.com; I don't usually like Walmart's photo production, but they really did well with the book.  It took me ages to figure out which pictures from the past year I wanted to use, and which order I wanted them in throughout the book, but the end result is pretty damn awesome.  That was his gift from me.  Lochlan's gift was the creative and unique one.  I bought a wooden frame, some black paint, a black paint pen, and ordered a few photos from Walmart.  We had an interesting experience one afternoon while Josh was at work, but I successfully transferred a semi-messy hand print and foot print to the frame.  I think it's unbelievably adorable, and I can't wait to see where it ends up (I'm thinking it will end up at work).  It also contains a super cute picture of hubs and nugget, so it's something that really captures the time.

Our gifts for the hubs!

The two loves of my life! 

After a weekend of ridiculous indulgence, we both agreed to start getting serious about getting fit.  I usually say that I want to "be skinny again," which is ultimately 100% true, but I also want to be fit.  I think any mom wants to get her body before baby back, and for the last 2-3 months I've been moderately serious about eating right and working out as much as possible.  During the school year, it's nearly impossible to make time for an hour power walk when we don't make it home until 4 at the very earliest.  I also absolutely loathe the gym, so I refuse to pay for a membership.  If only we had a larger home and we could have a workout space, everything would be perfect!  Last night, we agreed to buckle down and get serious about losing weight.

For my own benefit, I've decided to take weekly pictures.  I will not be sharing these with the world.  Perhaps when I end this journey skinnier and fitter I will also be brave enough to show where I started, but for now, I think I'll just keep them to myself.  I would like to share a few tidbits of knowledge that I've found already.

1. Exercise SUCKS!
1. Anyone that actually enjoys sweating to death needs to have their head examined.
2. Eating healthy is easy if you plan in advance.
1. I've found that if I know what I'm going to make for dinner, we are less likely to venture to Taco Bell or another fast food restaurant.
3. Finding healthy alternatives to your favorite comfort foods takes a bit of research.
1. Powdered peanut butter is absolutely awesome!
2. Substituting vanilla protein powder as creamer (for an iced coffee "shake") is also a decent substitution.

I plan to update every so often with some fitness ideas and my progress.  Hopefully, it will not only interest those of you that indulge me by reading this account of my life but it also will keep me honest and on track with things

School's Out for Summer...

or at least for a month and a half!  I'll take it though!  This week was our first week out of work, and even though Lochlan and I enjoyed ourselves, Daddy was still working until Friday.  Hubs has finished his masters program in administration from Purdue, and has been working as the faculty trainer all year.  The main building has received funds to bring in laptop carts and create classrooms that are one to one.  Knowing how desirable the technology is, our principal put expectations on their receipt.  Each faculty member that wants a laptop cart was required to participate in training, and hubs was 1/2 of the training team.  The training involved the faculty learning to organize, manage, and implement, a project based environment.  This is similar to our situation in New Tech, so hubs and our dean were tapped to do the training.  It's great to know that he's such a valuable commodity to the district, but I'm happy to have him to myself (kind of) for a month! 

This week, my baby brother was on vacation with his friend in Myrtle Beach, so on Friday, we made the 3 hour drive.  Poor booger was so tuckered out and up way past his bedtime, that we didn't even attempt pictures on Friday, but we did  manage to get some at the beach and with Uncle J.

Uncle J, Lochlan, and Daddy

Chillin' in our beach shelter!

No, mom!  I don't NEED an afternoon nap!

He was NOT too sure of the waves.

He's getting so big so quickly that I just can't stand it!  He has such a distinct personality and is so very, very determined.  I can't wait for all of  the amazing memories that the three of us will make together this summer!  We had to do his 11 month picture this morning, and he was such a little ham!  He took so many good pictures, and was just such a goober before our walk that I HAD to include all of them!

47 Week/11 month Update

Weight: 20lbs.

Length: 30 inches

 

Milestones: He took his first unassisted steps on June 3rd!  He’s been walking to and from things when he feels like it.  We’re still at the stage where it’s faster for him to crawl, so he just drops his butt and crawls!  He also learned how to shake his head no this week…I think he’s saying ‘dog,’ but who knows!  He only says it when he feels like it and won’t repeat it for me.  He’s also started to clap, which is adorable because he misses his hands half of the time!

Sleep: Apparently summer means nothing to this boy!  He’s always bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am!  It’s not really a bad thing though because it gets our lazy butts out of bed!  He’s still taking 2 naps, a mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Eating: He’s ridiculously picky.  One day he likes something, the next he looks at you like you’re the devil for making him eat it!

Mood: Clingy and more whiny than normal.  He’s truly expressing stranger anxiety.

Likes: Waffles, cheerios, and running (crawling really quickly) away from you when you chase him!

Dislikes: Anything slimy…and being told no or taken away from something he’s interested in doing.

Things I want to remember: How stubborn he is even at this age.  He’s going to be such a determined little kid, and I can’t wait to see how that turns out.  I also want to remember how fun this summer vacation is…

Looking forward to: I can’t wait until he actually starts talking and communicating.  I’m pretty sure ‘mum’ doesn’t always indicate me…I’m sure it’s interchangeable with his sippy cup as well…

Too cool for school, Momma!