Confessions of a Co-Sleeper

There are some big changes on the horizon for our family.  Let's start with a "Little" history...December of 2011 we welcomed the most beautiful, amazing, precious gift into our lives; our sweet baby girl, lovingly referred to as "Little".  She turned our world upside down in the best way possible and we were left falling into all the parenting cliches and doing all the things we swore we would never do...funny how that happens :)  

Little has never been a great sleeper, in fact we have battled with this since the day we brought her home.  In the beginning we researched every possible answer as to why she refused sleep; was it the bed, noise level in the room, heat, cold, teeth, gas, swaddled, not swaddled, you name it we checked it out.  Even going as far as moving her to another room! Well...that was a lot of work for no reason, she's back in her "old newest" room! Lol Turns out this kid just doesn't like to sleep and as a result we created about a million and one bad habits..the major of them being co-sleeping.  Even as I type tonight there is a sneaky Little sneak trying to steal my pillow.  I started co-sleeping with Little purely out of a selfish need to sleep, the up every 45 mins and back and forth between bedrooms was proving to be hazardous to our safety.  Often times on my drive to work I would find myself falling asleep behind the wheel or not able to remember the drive at all...talk about scary!  I was a space cadet, a walking zombie and generally not a pleasant person to be around.   I'm sure this is a very common persona for all new mom's, except of course any of MY momma friends.  They all have amazing sleepers but also follow the CIO method, to each his own, I'M not ready to go that route yet.  So here we are excatly one year later still not sleeping through the night, still sharing a bed and I have to admit I am officially done!!  I'm positive Little will have another agenda and I know that this will bring back those sleepless nights and I'm sure I will again be that walking zombie with a terrible attitude but this change needs to happen, it's time for a Little someone to finally sleep in her own bed; for more than 2 hours at a time. Wish me luck. 

Awwwwwe....New Babies

My dearest friend in the WHOLE wide world just brought the sweetest little thing into this world.  Little Miss Hannah has finally joined all of us crazy "mooks" (nickname is a long drunk beach trip story for another day)...and we can't wait for the day when our Little can play with their Little!!

Isn't she the cutest?? LOVE!!!

Throughout my friends pregnancy and with this perfect new addition,  it has brought back a flood of memories from when my Little was born and I have literally shoveled tons of my advice and knowledge my friends way; which I'm sure was pretty annoying.  I have learned through the kindness and generosity of all of our visitors that you never come empty handed, so while I was preparing my grocery list today to get supplies for the "new mom & dad, welcome to the club, holy crap the hospital let you bring that baby home" kit, I came across 2 blog post that hit the nail on the head (so to speak) about visiting a family with a new addition. They are so great, I just had to share;  Rules for Visiting a New Mom & Feeding New Moms!!

And in true throw-back Thursday fashion, here a some of our Little's first pictures!! 

 Awe...New babies!! What's not to love!?!?  It's kinda hard to believe that they were ever this tiny :)

Fugly

Have you ever just felt fugly? You know...fu**ing ugly!?! Normally I'm the type of girl that could care less how others see me, if I feel I look good than damn it, I.look.good! And I'm a true believer in "rocking whatcha got, when you've got it"! Meaning that I'm not going to spend every waking minute worrying about what body type I have, if anyone is going to think I'm fat,  if my clothes are ok, how's my hair?? Basically meaning I'm not going to stress my appearance!! Now I'm not saying I don't put thought or effort into myself, I really do like looking nice but I hate the constant worry that you might not be good enough! And you might be a lot more fun or have a lot more friends if you just lost a couple (or 20) pounds!  But I have to admit that I've fallen into a state of fugly, I still put on a brave face but deep down my appearance is depressing me and it all centers around my...you guessed it....weight! That damn baby (you can still say baby weight a year and a half later right?) weight!! Amongst other issues that is the biggest and seems to be the one that makes me the saddest.  It's not that it's not coming off, cause it is..thanks to advocare but it's just not coming off very fast and I'm left in that awkward in-between sizes phase where your 12's are to big and give you diaper butt but you can't button your 10's, that awkward phase where your face has started slimming out all except for your double chin, that awkward phase where you just simply feel FUGLY!!  My state of fugly has officially peaked, I have spent the majority of this week stressing and planning my outfit for a public event, nothing fancy, in fact I am pouring beer at a beer festival but my stress comes from wanting to look good; not just good...HOT! So hot that people want to come to our booth, so hot that people will say..screw the beer, we want to talk to the hot blonde over there!! Ok ok, not really, I guess what I'm really looking for is for someone other than Little's Da to think I'm attractive, maybe a second look or a smile, maybe just maybe that's the confidence booster I need to snap out of this fugly gutter I've been stuck in!! What do you think? Do you ever just want to be ogled? Totally normal, right?!?

Welcome to Little's Kitchen

I will openly admit that I am adicted to Pinterest, so when I found an adorable kenmore kids kitchen on Craigslist I knew just what I wanted to do with it.  We actually bought this set well over a year ago and it's been sitting in the abyss of unfinished project (aka the Garage) calling my name!   So with a little elbow grease, a good cleaning, custom wall decals, curtains, a hanging light, mini table and chairs & some artwork it's finally finished!! And wouldn't you know...Littles to short to reach the counter tops!!  Haha.  My tiny Little peanut, gotta love it! 

I really am proud of how this turned out, can't wait until Little is tall enough to really play with it ;)

Salem, OR Adventures

Just got back from our Oregon adventure (My parents live in Salem, OR....5 hours to far away from us!!) this is a trip we use to make so often that we knew the I-5 corridor inside and out but now with a Little one in tow its much more difficult to make the trek.  Anyways, this weekend my amazing little sister graduated from high school, I have such mixed feelings about this, part of me swears she did this already and the other part of me desperately needs time to stop dead in its tracks and keep all the Littles in my life Little forever!!  The graduation ceremony was great and being there to see her walk the stage was a priceless memory that I will cherish forever!!  My Little on the other hand could care less about the happenings and wanted to run the halls and talk to all the police men so we spent most of the evening chasing a barefoot Little girl around the Oregon State Fairgrounds Auditorium.  Another highlight was FINALLY getting the chance to meet my sisters boyfriend who is seriously the nicest guy ever!! Not sure what their futures hold but good luck to both of them in their college adventures!

Congratulations Class of 2013!!

I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that there is a children's discovery village and carousel close by so of course we had to go ride the horses!  The village will be another trip as we were in full no-nap, hungry melt down by the time we left ;) 

Carousel Rides with Grama! 

This was sometime in the middle when she was not sure if she wanted to stay on or get off those crazy horses! Lol

It's no secret that Little approaches life VERY serious, beautifully carved colorful horses are no exception! 

Another great trip for the memory books, till next time Salem!!

Washington Adventures, Part 2!

Outback Kangaroo Farm in Arlington.  I am so in love with this place, not only do you get to see tons of beautiful Peacocks, Emu's, Kangaroos, Leemars & Alpaca...YOU GET TO PET THEM!! And if you plan your trip just right you can get the chance to hold a little Joey!! The highlight for sure!!! 

It's amazing how tame these guys are..you can walk right up and pet any one of them.  This girl was so cute, she had a tiny joey in her pouch that was peeking out.

GORGEOUS!!!

You can "Kiss" these guys, we passed but it was fun watching everyone else do it.

This is the joey that we were able to hold, so stinkin cute and snuggly.  Oh  and if you REALLY love him, he's for sale...only $1200! <3

And here is the rest of us...

Time to meet the family!  Da & I meet several years ago when he was running a local coffee stand, we started hanging out before we knew it we were inseparable.  We have has so many great adventures together and have gotten each other through some really tough times.  In 2009 we purchased our first house together and about a year into home ownership we decided to start trying for a family, and no, you didn't miss anything, we are NOT married an in all honesty...we wouldn't have it any other way!  Things are great just the way they and we don't see the point in changing something that works so well. 

St. Patty's Day 2010

Sounders 2011

We found out we were pregnant again and we didn't want to believe it! I waited 10 full, extremely long, weeks before heading to the doctors for the confirmation ultrasound.  It was there that we got the first little glimpse of what would be our next amazing adventure.  

Our first glimpse, 10 weeks

38 weeks! It's a GIRL, we knew but did not tell anyone else!!

The 3D ultrasounds are pretty amazing!

As you can see Little came out looking almost exactly like her 21 week ultra sound picture!

 Little is now 17 months and I often wonder where in the heck the time has gone!  We have had so much fun learning and watching her grow that it has literally flow by!  She is by far the BEST thing that has ever happened to us and our little family is know complete!

That grin makes my heart melt!

Diva in the making!

And...The 3 of us!