June 9, 2013

*this was supposed to go live yesterday but momma didn't get a chance to*

On this day two years ago my baby boy turned 21 months old. I know that isn't some sort of milestone number or anything but this picture popped up in my flashback photos for today and I had to share!

I took monthly photos of him on the ninth of every month up until he was about 2.  I wish I could've kept them up but on nights like tonight where it's raining and we've been at work & school all day, I don't he'd be up to it, I wouldn't have good lighting, and my house is a wreck so who wants to see that mess in the background?! 

I loved doing these pictures. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we had just gotten back from church. The weather was gorgeous and we were clearly taking advantage of that. Buggy had always gotten a kick out of the self timer function on the camera and this was no different. We had so much fun being silly. Look at the joy in his face!

I think this qualifies as an official 'Take me back Tuesday' photo. Now only if that were a real thing!

Momtography Monday

If you follow me on Instagram, then you've certainly seen this already. But I wanted to share a bit more of the story behind this photo.

In our household we count our rainbows- not our thunderstorms. #boymom #love #sograteful

A photo posted by frommrstomom (@frommrstomom) on May 11, 2015 at 4:59pm PDT

The weather that week had been a little crazy. It went from kind of hot (how I like it) at 88 degrees to way too cold with an overnight low of 39 degrees. But we were still determined to enjoy the warm weather when we could. So after dinner we decided to sit on the front porch and watch the rain go by. This gave me a chance to sit down (rather than chase a little boy around) and allowed him to burn off a little left over energy from the day. 
We sat and watched the rain turn from a drizzle to a downpours to a windy mess of getting misted while outside. He thought it was fantastic! I on the other had was cold.
After the storm clouds passed a beautiful rainbow appeared in the skies. It might quite possibly be the first real live rainbow that he was able to comprehend. So I decided to snap a few pics of him with it. I know this is supposed to be my momtography (using my real camera to capture photos) post but I didn't have time to get all that. So I used my phone instead. 

This time around it was less about capturing the perfect picture but instead, remembering the perfect moment.  He was fascinated by the rainbow (and quite frankly so was I). In order to get a better picture, I changed him into his rain boots and we left the porch so that so many trees and houses wouldn't be in the way of the shot. Then I had to get creative...

It was a little hard to get that juuuuust right, but who cares- he was giggling so hard I couldn't keep a steady hand anyway! I edited the one below to get the rainbow to 'stand out' more.

Once I had snapped a few pics I was ready to call it quits. But he looked at me the way only a 3 and a half year old could and asked if he could play. So I figured what the heck! So he would get a little (ok a lot) wet, and probably be dirty but I bet he would have the time of his life- and continue to burn off that extra energy. So I let him let loose- right into every single puddle on our block. By that time a few of the neighbors had come outside to see the rainbow as well and they thought he was so cute. I think jumping in puddles seem to bring anyone back to childhood memories, before marriages, before the bills, before life's twists and turns kinds of put a jaded view on the little things in life that bring happiness.

And that... is how you count rainbows and NOT thunderstorms.

Five on Friday: The weekend

Our weekends this month are kind of packed. But that's the way we like it! I am hoping to be able to actually share the outcome of each of these but here is what's deck for the next 48 hours...

Tomorrow morning is the first of our hospital classes. Buggy is up first. He's attending a sibling class which I'm really excited about. According to the class description they will go over normal infant behavior, feelings the children may have, and ways to help mom and dad. My son is really excited about the new baby and we've been discussing it a lot. He says he is going to share with her, help take care of her, and teach her everything. Every once in a while he asks me to take a video of him so he can send a message to the baby. It so adorable! He even knows that when baby has a stinky diaper he will get a new one so baby can be changed. The class will also make a project for the baby to give as a gift and have cupcakes as a birthday celebration.

The rest of the day is going to be spent prepping for Father's day. My family is coming to visit with us again and we have lots planned. So, I have to start getting the house ready. Making sure the guest bedroom is ready, continue our spring cleaning, etc. It's not exciting but it has to get done. It's the only weekend we'll be home between now and then so I gotta start somewhere. I'm also home to spend sometime just relaxing as a family. I got buggy a new water table and if the weather is warm enough I'm whipping that out for him!

 Sunday we will - as a family- attend our first 5K run/walk. We've missed this event in years past so I'm happy we will finally have the chance to attend. I've started prepping Buggy for what to expect and I'm secretly hoping that he will win in his age category. I have no hopes of winning anything in my current condition though but it's a fun fundraiser for a good cause. Anybody have any good tips for us?!

 My current condition... It might be time for a bumpdate.

Sunday evening is going to be more relaxing. I have a one day business trip the following day and it's a long drive there and back. I almost wish I could drive down ahead of time just to easy the anticipation of the 'long drive'. It's not the drive itself that I'm not looking forward to- it's just that I'll be in the car with my coworkers and while I like them (a lot) I'm not a conversationalist and find it awkward to have to make conversation for 6 hours (3 there and three back). Plus, I'm a pretty private person (despite having such a public blog) and I don't want to go on and on about myself. Nor do I care to hear every single detail about someone else's personal life. Certainly we share our family updates and funny stories at the water cooler just like any other office, but not for 3 hours. In fact, we have to leave so early I'd probably like to be asleep for most of the drive. Of course that won't happen but still. Fun stuff. However, a day out of the office is a day out of the office...

HOW WE TOLD EVERYONE

Despite our joy, elation, and pure excitement I was hesitant to share our good news with the world. I just wasn't ready to cope with the possibility of having to "untell"- so it was just our little good news- just me & hubby. However, I was ready to tell our parents and siblings sooner than I thought. We would be spending nearly two weeks at my parents house over the Christmas holiday and my recurrent pregnancy loss was a little cumbersome so they would eventually ask what the heck I was doing. We decided (after a bit of pro and con weighing) that we would share our news on Christmas Day. BEST.DECISION.EVER Everyone's initial reaction was "nuh-uh!" Uhhh guys-why would we lie about this! It was too funny to see them try to put together what we were saying. After everyone had opened gifts, we "found" a gift under the tree to Buggy that must've somehow got skipped. It was a cute t-shirt that I had purchased almost 2 years ago (so it didn't fit anymore) which is why we opted to have him open it up and show it off rather than have him wear it.

Of course there were lots of hugs and well wishes all around along with hopes of a baby girl. And we pulled this off twice- once at my parents house and the other time at hubby's sister's house. Now, we just had to make sure everyone kept our secret- and boy was that hard for them to do!

After another 3 months everyone was getting very antsy. My Dad started telling people and swearing them to secrecy, my brother was slipping up and telling family that we wouldn't be at the family reunion this year...for no apparent reason; we haven't missed a year since we got married and I only missed the year before that because I was in the process of finishing up my surgical tech licensing. My mom was bursting at the SEAMS. My husband was refraining from making fun of me via Facebook statuses. It was crazy y'all. The only person who didn't seem to mind keeping our secret was Buggy- cause we hadn't really told him! When 'made the announcement' with my first pregnancy it was so easy. We did it at my mom's birthday party. There were 100 of our closest family and friends there and she was oh so happy to share the news. Everybody who had a need to know was there- with the exception of some of our friends who we either that the pleasure of telling face-to-face or if they were too far- they got a phone call.  This time around I had no easy way of telling 'everyone'. I pondered how I would do this for weeks! Of course the number one suggestion was to make the Facebook announcement but I really kind of loathe that. I mean (no offense to anyone who does this) but sometimes too many miscellaneous people are in the know. I never made it Facebook official the first time and I was perfectly happy with who knew and who didn't. Plus... what if we had to untell?! We (as well as my physicians) were pretty confident that it was a viable pregnancy and anything that happened from that point on was unrelated to my non-diagnosis but still... what if. I've seen it happen. One of my friends was hashtagging all of her statuses #pregoproblems then one day not anymore. Of course the outpouring of support was great- but I'm just not that type of person. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But back to my story... In the end I lost the Facebook battle and one Friday evening my husband posted the picture and we let it do what it do. But not before I called my great Aunts & Uncle (who at nearly 70 years old are NOT on Facebook) The response was actually overwhelmingly great. The only thing that freaks me out is when photos get re-shared cause at that point you've lost control over privacy settings and the picture could end up anyway in cyberland. But here it is our 'Facebook announcement'... and yep- I had two different ones... what?! I'm indecisive!

Hello June!

I made it!!! The entire month of May I kept up with this blogging journey. I was able to do so by allocating my lunch breaks to blogging. The most time consuming and not iPad friendly parts were picture editing. And FYI- it's my 400th post!!! If I keep this up I'll be at 500 in about 2018, LOL!

While Memorial Day tends to be regarded as the beginning of summer, I usually think of the month of June as the beginning of summer. Growing up I went to a private school where we were in school longer during the school year (meaning 8 to 3:30 unlike the public school schedule- why on earth are kids still getting out of school at 2:30?!?!) which means we were out of school in May. We had put in our hours a whole month (and change) ahead of time and while the rest of our friends were still drudging to school I was home with my grandma chillaxing.

There are quite a few things I look forward to every June:
- my (former) dance school's yearly recital. Even though I don't go anymore (boohoo) I still go to support my mom & brother who still dance. Plus there's a ton of kids from my church who go there as well.

- Hubby's birthday. he's such a low key guy that there is never any fan fare surrounding his birthday. I remember one year while we were dating I took him to Atlantic City for a long weekend. he said it was the best birthday he had ever had :-) Dang, I wish we could do that again.

- Father's Day. Because there is nothing like Dad. I'm a  Daddy's girl and hubby is a great father to our children so I like celebrating them.

-My parent's anniversary. They are such an inspiration! This year marks number 33 for them.

- Graduations. There isn't anyone in my immediately extended family graduating this year. But maybe I''l take the opportunity to recap my cousin's high school graduation from last year. Maybe not- the pictures that I have are horrible!

See!

- Weekend trips. I don't think we will get in any this month cause of all the celebrations we will have going on. We literally have on e free weekend this month to do that any I am sure it's going to get booked up soon!



Hopefully (fingers really crossed) this month on the blog you'll be seeing:
- A recap our Babymoon
- Baby's gender reveal
- A recap of Mother's Day
- A recap of Father's Day
- Some bumpdates
- more of my momtography
- anything else fun we got going on.


But if not- I'll catch up with ya in about 3 months... kidding... kind of!