Happy Halloween!

Plagiarized Post Idea: Halloween Flashback

Because I am nostalgic and just love love love seeing babies in Halloween costumes, I'm totally stealing this idea from the cutie pie Tales of the Thompsons...

John Michael at 5 months
Just an itty bitty little sweet pea!

With best buddy, Rhys the Elephant. Back then they seemed so far apart in age!


JM at 17 months....eating M&Ms through the package in our neighbors' lawn...

The little gnome was a hit!

This playgroup picture never gets old! They were so little and funny!



Can't wait for this year. Here's a preview from JM trick or treating at LaLa's sorority house. It's so fun to see him grow! We know you are surprised about the costume. Pic of both boys to come tomorrow!

Hitting the Pause Button in Fast Forward Fall

Here is Kristin Armstrong's speech I keep blabbering on about. This is the best 41 minutes I've spent lately:

Between the Masses - Kristin Armstrong - Time Out for Moms - Hitting the Pause Button in Fast Forward Fall from St. John Neumann Catholic Church on Vimeo.

Passion #1: Running

Part of Kristin Armstrong's speech the other day was about identifying your passions. She said she did not want her children to attend her funeral and find out only then about the person that their mom used to be (horrifyingly from her college friends, she quipped), but rather to be able to answer within seconds what she was passionate about. She said being a writer allows her to travel and speak to many womens groups and it makes her incredibly sad to give a speech asking women what they are passionate about and to receive blank stares in response, which she said happens all too often.

At the end of last week listening to Kristin, I was one of those blank stares and it really bothered me. Now having two pretty good nights sleep in a row (thank you, Noah), I feel the cobwebs clearing a bit and feel like I've identified a few things that make me happy and fulfilled in a passionate way. I know you are on the edge of your seat, so I will reveal them: 1. Music 2. Writing 3. Reading and being resourceful 4. Running 5. Faith 6. Cooking

This morning was crisp and sunny, so running is top of mind to me right now. Running is a gift in my life. I didn't become a runner until I was 27. A friend of mine from work (Kara) wanted to train for a half marathon and asked me if I wanted to do it with her. Prior to that, I had done some occasional jogs around the park, but no races or anything serious. I smoked cigarettes on and off from ages 17 to 26 and never took much joy in running growing up (the Mile Run as part of the Presidential Fitness Program in gym class was always something I dreaded). Not that I was nonathletic, I swam and played tennis; I just didn't like running. Anyway, all that said, the bottom line is the fact that I am a runner is quite ironic to me, and I love it. Training for the half with Kara and Anne was a beautiful beginning point in my life. I had just gone through the painful experience of placement with M. and running not only got my body back in shape, but having a goal in mind and training for months to complete it was good for my confidence. I caught the bug and after that, when I started dating Mike, started running with him and then training with a local group for my first marathon the year following.

I am not the fastest runner, but I'm not the slowest. Running a marathon was hard as heck and coming down the stretch, I swore I'd never do it again. I do love a good half marathon or 10K, though. They are challenging enough to push me, but not to the point of wanting to die (like the marathon did for me). Running made me feel like myself again after having John Michael. I ran at Lady Bird Lake this morning with Noah and felt like myself, again, with Noah. It brings me a lot of joy. Anyway, the lesson that I'd like my boys to take away from this long-winded story is that 1. it's never too late to take care of your health or start something new. 2. getting outside and exercising is a great joy and a natural high!

As a side and somewhat related note (can you tell I'm long-winded and preachy today) while JM was at school this morning, I had a lovely time with Noah doing something I would have never done with JM, which is let him nap outside the crib. I talked to my friend Katy this morning and heard myself say "I am such a bad mom. Instead of being home, I just ran and now am taking my tired child to the store so I can return something" then caught myself and said "actually, no I know I'm not a bad mom, he's just a second child." Kindly, mother of two, Katy, concurred. She and I agree that even though all the sleep books and pediatricians tell you that your child should be constantly napping in their crib, it is equally important for us moms to get out and socialize with the world and if that means your child misses a nap in his or her crib once in a while, don't sweat it. Mike is probably dying reading this, because he knows what a sleep Nazi I am. I still think that sleep in children is VERY important, but I also think we all need to get out of the house, too. Thanks to my newest CL purchase Ergo carrier, Noah had a long snooze this morning while I chatted with Katy, returned some shoes and had a lovely spinach salad. Yes, I ate the salad with him in the carrier! Love that thing. Anyway, if you are a first time mom reading this, I encourage you to get out once in a while. Don't hole yourself up in your house, like I did, because being alone all the time is bad for your soul! Put your baby in a sling or carseat or stroller and go for a run, have lunch with a friend (or yourself) or do whatever it is that you are passionate about and makes you happy!

Naptime is over... stepping off soapbox. What would your kids say you are passionate about?

Brothers

JM was working in his sandbox this afternoon. I put Noah on a blanket next to him in the backyard, then turned my back for a minute. When I looked again, I saw this.
It makes my heart so full of love looking at these guys interacting with each other like this. JM is incredibly sweet with his little brother. Someone recently compared adding a new child to the family as similar to a polygamist coming home with a new sister wife. The "first wife" (JM in this case) is supposed to love this new addition, but can't help but be a little jealous and sad about the new situation. ;) Anyway, JM is doing so well with this adjustment and I'm so proud of him. I can only imagine what life is going to be like when they can actually play together!

Edited to add: Rereading this, I just realized that I have become completely immune to the fact that JM wears a fire fighter ensemble (hat, boots and the shirt in this picture, usually) 24/7. In case you are new to this blog, we've been in firefighter mode since before his birthday in May, with no end in sight. He even puts his boots and hat by the foot of his bed at naptime and at night, in case there's a big fire he needs to fight!

No place like home

I'm feeling better, internet. It really made a difference to be home this weekend. Just us. Nothing on the agenda. No guests. No music festivals. No day trips to Dallas for the State Fair. Saturday I managed to do a menu plan for the whole week and with it got to the grocery store. Thanks to Mike, a trip all alone to the grocery store. It might sound silly, but as dinner is one of my responsibilities, not having a plan for it for the past few weeks and living on making do every night has been stressful. Just getting to the store lifted my mood significantly, as did sitting down with Mike and having some good conversations during naptime, getting my hair done and finally buying the cool grey Tom's I've been eyeing. Not a bad day!

God was also working in my life today, because at church I remembered that Kristin Armstrong (writer, marathoner, single mom, fellow parishoner and ex wife of Lance) was speaking in a seminar series that they have after Mass. Today's topic was for moms, on the subject of hitting the pause button in the crazy life of parenthood. Again, I give thanks for my awesome husband who took both babies outside for an hour so I could go and listen because I.needed.to.hear.every.word.she.was.saying. She talked about being your true self and living passionately as an example of faith for your children. She talked about joy and about how you spend your time and energy and how your kids are watching your every move. Scary! Being a good example for my boys has been on my mind lately, especially now that JM sees everything, repeats everything and is so honed in on my soul. That is, if my heart's not in something like playing with him or chatting with him, he can totally tell. I've been thinking a lot about being the person I want him to see. A lot lately I feel like I'm living, but more as an empty vessel, when the person I want him to see has a much richer life. Kristin's talk was recorded and I'm going to post a link to it on Thursday when it becomes active, because I loved it so much. In the meantime, here are a few reflection questions I'm going to be praying over that I thought I'd share:

1. Kristin's childhood priest said he could easily tell anyone their priorities- just hand over your checkbook and your calendar. Does the reality of your priorities match your intentions?

2. How diligent are you in the details of your life? Pause and reflect on how your daily choices are impacting your "destination"- the overall legacy of your faith and family. What could serve as a trigger or a daily checkpoint for greater mindfulness?

3. If someone asked your child or children to describe Mom or Dad's gift or passion- would they have an answer? If so, would their answer reveal the real you?

4. John Eldredge puts it so beautifully when he says, "we have to be intentional about the joy." How apparent is the joy of your faith to your children? Do they sense your joy in raising them? How well do your children know the real you? How can you be more intentional about joy?

I've never heard someone speak and so very much wanted to go ask them if I could be their friend, or better yet, have them for a mentor, but that's what I wish I would have done with Kristin! She is pretty awesome. Anyway, I have a link to her running blog in my sidebar if you want to read more of her dead-on musings. Such good stuff!

Also not dead

I'm still here.
The past few weekends have been chock full.
Noah has been waking up a lot at night, too.
I'm feeling tired.
I'm feeling like a bad friend and wife.
I'm a grump.
I'm feeling like I'm doing everything for these little people and I don't know who I am, at the moment.
I feel like I've become kinda boring.
Shit, I'm a martyr.


A smart thing I'm doing is to try to simplify things in my life right now. For one, I've bagged trying to get to the gym so much. For two, I'm taking a hiatus from cloth diapering, because doing that extra laundry was more than I can handle right now. Sorry, earth. Maybe when JM gets potty trained or Noah starts sleeping regularly, I'll be back to protecting you.
We don't have a lot on the docket this weekend, other than me getting my hair done. I'm hoping to feel recharged and get out of this funk.
Until then, I will take comfort in small things.
Like this

And these

And this

And this

And, JM singing "My Favorite Things" which really is the cutest thing that I need to get on video, because it will make the whole interweb happy.

Big and little

These sweet boys are ruling my heart.
Aunt Cheryl gave us these shirts. They are so cute!




And, this is what really happens when the shutter stops. Noah falls over for lack of core strength and JM starts pointing at me like a Jersey Shore castmember! And, notice the wet spots on both of them! Oye, the drool in this household!

4 months old

Oh, Noah, you really are the sweetest thing. We are totally in love with you. You are always smiling. You love to snuggle and be held. You never cry unless you are hungry or tired. You are a joy in our chaotic lives!



At 4 months, you can:
-roll over both ways
-hold your head up really well (despite mama constantly forgetting about tummy time, bless you)
-giggle (you like to laugh, even though we're pretty sure you don't get the joke!)
-sleep unswaddled! Who knew! The ped told us to unswaddle you last week and sure enough, those arms don't wake you up, anymore.

You like to eat every 3 hours during the day. At night, you generally go from 7-2:30 eat and then sleep until 7ish, which mama doesn't mind too much. Our ped gave her permission to let you cry at night, but right now she's not ready to do that. You do sleep all the way through the night sometimes, too. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. It's a special gift you throw our way once or twice a week. Ever since our 4 month ped visit last Friday when our ped gave mama permission to do so, we are letting you cry putting you down for naps. We are sorry that it's come to this, but before it was taking about an hour to get you down each time (ehem at 3 naps a day, that's 3 hours of back and forth!). The good news is that so far you are doing great with this and barely crying. What a relief and a blessing to have that stage over with (we hope)!

Anyway, just as mama could have predicted, your curiosity about the world and not being interesting in eating as much led to you going down a little on your weight percentile. You are 13.3 lbs (25th percentile, down from 50 at 2 months), 25 inches (60th percentile) and you have the littlest little head at 40.5 (15th! percentile). Mama asked the ped if I needed to be worried about your weight and he said he wasn't concerned at all. Okay! Really, he is the happiest baby and since he's exclusively breastfed at this point I'm not too concerned. Mama is "trusting nature and trusting Noah" and trusting our ped, too. I feed Noah whenever he seems hungry and don't worry about it! We started JM with cereal at 4 months on the ped's rec, but with Noah, he told us there was no need to introduce solids, yet, and I don't feel like dragging out all the "food" paraphernalia until he really needs it, so we're waiting until 6 months.

Ah yes... the 4 month wakeful period

We have been living through a few weeks of not so much fun with sweet baby Noah.
I noticed it right around the time he started rolling over.
No longer is he content to go down to nap easy. Okay, so Mr. Party Pants has never gone down to nap easy, so let's be honest and say... No longer when frustrated by his lack of wanting to nap on his own can I even put him in the swing as a backup! He hates the swing, now! Worse, no longer is he giving me my beloved long stretches of sleep at night. Noah was never totally sleeping through the night every night, but he was doing it about twice a week. Now, not so much. Surely he must be going through some sort of developmental phase.

This time around I am keen on the idea of Wonder Weeks and sure enough, at 16 weeks, we are wedged in between a lot of growth! Every time I am scratching my head wondering what the heck Noah is doing, sure enough it is around a Wonder Week. Noah's 16 weeks now, so I can see some correlation to the week 19 one (so advanced, this child!). And clear out the cobwebs, I am also remembering that right around the time we hit 4 months was a sucky time with John Michael. He plummeted on the weight chart because he was so interested in the world around him. Although not technically 4 months until next week, Noah is there, too. Suddenly he is more interested in seeing and hearing what e.g. Martha Stewart has to say on Oprah, than in feeding. Side note: Really, Noah? Martha wasn't terribly interesting, IMO, but whatever floats your boat! This is a great link from Ask Moxie about the 4 month wakeful period that made me feel better and had some good ideas for keeping one's milk supply up. It's nice to know that these phases of extra neediness, wakefulness and disinterest in eating are normal! Having been through this once, I can say I am much less stressed about it than I would have been with JM. I know, for example, that this period will end very soon, so I don't mind the 2 am wakings as much. I also think watching Noah interact with the world in this new way is incredibly amazing! What must be going through his mind! Anyway, I guess for the time being I have to shut off my DVR'd Grey's Anatomy and try to find a quiet place to nurse the poor, overstimulated little bug! :)

Our life in pictures the past 5 days

Whew! It's been an intense last few days or so... Decided to do the Austin Half, so started running again in the cool fall mornings and I'm proud to say I've pushed my boys around twice the past few days and sad to say I am SLOW moving, but happy to be out there, again. We went to Burnet to do Day Out with Thomas with the J's. Rhys and JM were ADORABLE riding on the Thomas steam engine. We also had Noah's baptism and a Christening brunch for our family afterward and out of town guests. And, just to add a little more fun to the mix, we took a day trip to Dallas to take the boys to the State Fair! JM really got into the Fair. He loved petting the farm animals and totally takes after his roller coaster-loving mama, because he went crazy over a little airplane ride and even went all by himself. He cried getting off, so we let him go again! I'm really hoping that we can settle down a little the next few days! It's been a little "cray cray" to quote Project Runway... Trying to jam so much into our already chaotic lives has left us living on corny dogs and baptism cake, napping in strange places, and my house currently looks like a bomb went off. I need to make a list and starting getting us all back on track! We all need to settle back into our routine. I feel a little overwhelmed. It's really been fun, though. The weather has been gorgeous!

P.S. This morning when I was doing my makeup, I put Noah on the floor outside the bathroom and while I was curling my lashes (like I always do, you know) that little monkey rolled over from back to front! If he starts crawling at 4 months, oye! He wants to!