Random Thoughts For Your Friday

I'm pretty sure that last night is the very first night since I've been blogging regularly that I actually just completely and totally forgot to write a post. I normally write my post for the next day the evening before, and last night...just didn't even cross my mind. THAT is how you know this little mama has a lot of stuff going on in her brain.

So now it is Thursday night, and you all will be seeing this tomorrow morning. Hopefully by that point I will have woken up from an amazing night of restful sleep and I will be bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to start my day (what IS that saying, anyway?). This week has been a bit...challenging? I hate to even call it that because nothing difficult has happened at all, but still...I'm tired, y'all!

Not only are we trying to sell the house, which means we have to be out of the house several hours a day for showings, but I've also started a new freelancing gig that is requiring several hours a week. All great stuff, but add that to a baby who is currently cutting FOUR teeth and not sleeping great, plus trying to find something to do with said baby and a crazy dog for hours a day when you have to be out of your house....it's a lot!

But life is great and grand and I'm happy as can be. I'm loving the freelance stuff that I'm doing...it's so nice to have a "job" of sorts again. I've done a few little things off and on since starting my life as a SAHM, but this seems like it may be pretty consistent work. I hate to admit this, but I feel a little more fulfilled when I'm working. Don't get me wrong, I adore Grayson more than anything on this entire planet, and I wouldn't give up staying home with him for anything, ever. But it can leave me feeling a little...uninspired? Unappreciated? It's nice to use my brain and to meet deadlines and have something I have to do, other than change diapers and sing silly songs and play all day. All things I love (minus the diapers), but still...I'm sure you get it.

This could turn into one of those posts about women staying home vs. women working, and what that means and which is best and blah blah blah. But it won't, because I just don't care. I think women make the choice that is right for them, and that's great. I'm learning that I need a little more on my plate than just being mommy to make me feel good and happy and satisfied, and that's fine. Some women don't. Some women need a thriving career and 50 hour work weeks. I'm good with all of it.

I have no idea how I went off on that little tangent in what was supposed to be a quick "Hey, I'm still here, hope you have a great weekend!" post. But that's how my brain is running these days. Nonstop and all over the place and who knows what you're gonna get. Keeps things interesting!

But now, I actually do want to say I hope you have a super fabulous amazing weekend. Grayson has been throwing up tonight, which is always scary, but he's sleeping soundly now and I hope that means it's over and done with and we aren't looking at something that will linger over the next few days. I'm hoping that our weekend includes someone putting an offer on our house, us finding the perfect house, and some fun thrown in there somewhere.

Now for your weekly dose of cuteness. For those of you who aren't following me on Instagram (if you aren't, do it!), here are my favorite pics from the week. I must say my family seemed extra adorable this week, but I might be a bit biased ;)

Happy Friday, friends!

Home Tour - The Kitchen & Dining Area

Doing a house tour on the blog is something I've considered for awhile now. Forever ago I did a couple of posts on updates we'd made to the house, then I just kind of stopped for some reason. Now that we may be moving, I thought I'd like to do a few posts so someday I can look back and reminisce about our first house.

To be honest, I'm excited about potentially moving into a new house, but it's a little bittersweet. A part of me hates to leave our first home behind - we have so many amazing memories here! I always get a little sad when I move, which is crazy because I have moved a lot in the past 10 years. At least once a year every year until we moved into this house 2 1/2 years ago.

So today I thought I'd start with the kitchen/dining area, which is what originally sealed the deal for us when we bought it. The kitchen had been completely updated, and with our budget we weren't finding that at all. Almost every place we saw had outdated appliances and linoleum floors and not-so-cute countertops. In comparison, THIS kitchen was amazing. Even though if I were designing a kitchen this is probably not at all what I would choose, I still really love it.

Keep in mind: I don't have a fancy schmancy camera, so this is the best I could get with what I've got. I'm crossing my fingers a little fairy will magically deliver a beautiful fancy new camera on my doorstep sometime soon...a girl can dream.

I spy a little creeper baby in that last one. He's literally never more than five feet away from me. He just can't handle it. If he loses sight of me, panic ensues. 

 The dining area is big and open and more than spacious enough for what we need. To be honest with you we are totally eat in front of the TV people (ahh!) so we literally only use it if we are having a dinner with A's family. This isn't even our table, it's my mom's. It's a beautiful table, but it's totally her style, not mine. But we definitely appreciate her letting us use it! Without a table to host dinners at I'm quite sure A's family would disown us.

And here's a look at the kitchen/dining area from our staircase. One of our very favorite things about this house is how open it is. The ceilings are super tall which make the house feel so big. We're having a hard time finding something comparable in our house search now. 

I think this picture is hilarious....my mom is playing tug-of-war with Addie. This is how Addie spends approximately 25% of her time. Almost the entire remaining 75% is spent napping on the back of a chair. We're pretty sure she's part cat. Oh, and please don't judge all the stray toys in the photo. I attempted to keep everything picked up for the photo session that day, but unfortunately that little baby wasn't having it. 

So thus begins our home tour. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope someday when I'm a billionare living in a lavish mansion I will look back on these photos of our humble first home with fond feelings ;)

The Purge

Now that we are maybe, potentially, hopefully moving, I am more aware than ever of the large amount of stuff that we have. I mean, really. How is it possible that two adults, a baby and a dog have so much stuff? And I feel like a very small portion of what we have is anything that I actually want.

I think maybe my taste is changing? That has to be it. Because I seriously look at all our many, many belongings and I feel kind of meh about the majority of it. The new stuff I've been buying is totally different than what I've bought in the past, which is fun...but it means I've got a real random mix going on around here. I would say if there were a word to describe my style it would probably be "eclectic", so the randomness doesn't bother me too much....but I think I need to kinda figure out what I'm going for.

Also, my closet. Sigh. I have SO many clothes. And shoes. And I never, ever feel like I have anything to wear at all. I have been super inspired by Sarah from Tucker Up, who I had the pleasure of meeting completely randomly this weekend. We actually ran into each other at a pizza place...what are the odds?? Anywho, Sarah has totally inspired me because she did not shop for an entire YEAR. Can you imagine? She basically just spent the year shopping her closet...and when I started thinking about that I realized how I probably could do the exact same thing. I'm not saying I'm going to not shop for a year - let's not get crazy - but I'm gonna see how long I can keep it up. I've sworn to myself that I'll wear every single item in my closet, and if I hate it, it's out.  I've already found three pairs of jeans and a sweater that went straight to the donate pile after spending the day in them and feeling not so hot.

So my plan is to do a complete and total purge during this moving process. Or non-moving process if we end up staying here. Either way, I want to simplify and keep only the things I really love. I'm kind of a weirdo because doing stuff like this is really exciting to me...like, now getting dressed every day is fun because it's a challenge. So hopefully that will motivate me to keep it up. If nothing else it should help my marriage, because think of all the money I'll save!

Ha, who are we kidding....if we move into a new house I'm sure I'll make up for it buying new stuff to decorate with. It was a nice thought, though.

Oh, and these photos have nothing to do with anything. I just found a bunch of pics on my camera that I forgot about...so why not?

Grayson's First Christmas

Really, a Christmas post the last week of January? Reeeaaallllyyy? 

I know.

Basically, I have been completely slacking on this and I would just let it go BUT it was Grayson's first Christmas and I feel like I have to document it. So I'm gonna be short on words and heavy on pictures and once this is done I won't feel like a terrible mommy blogger who skipped over her baby's FIRST CHRISTMAS.

So here we go.

Grayson's first Christmas was a lot. Just, a lot. We went from Texas to Tulsa to Norman back to Texas. We celebrated with my mom and uncles, then the rest of my mom's family, then with A's brother's family, then with my parents, then with all of the rest of A's family and my parents. It was a lot.

Grayson got more gifts than any 8 month old baby ever should. He got so many gifts that I still will get in his toy box and pull out something I don't remember seeing. He absolutely loved it, although sometimes he seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by it all.

We put out milk and cookies for Santa and he wore his cute little Santa pjs...and then he slept until something like 10 on Christmas morning. It was awesome, and I have a feeling that will be the very last year that he's not waking us up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa brought.

And don't worry, Addie was almost as spoiled as Grayson. She got several gifts from my family, and Santa brought her a few things, too. She looooves opening presents, and it was so super overwhelming for me to try and keep up with her and Grayson at the same time. How do parents of more than one kid handle Christmas?

The only downside to the entire thing is that I did a terrible job of taking pictures. You wouldn't know it, because there will be about a bajillion attached to this post, but I feel like I missed SO much important stuff. Like, pictures with grandparents....it looks like Grayson didn't even see his grandparents on his first Christmas! And a really cute sitting under the Christmas tree photo? Where is that?

But aside from that, it pretty much was amazing and fun and wonderful and memorable and all of the things that a baby's first Christmas should be. It was by far the best Christmas I've ever had, and I can't wait until next year when he really gets it and is super excited.

Loved it, love him, love you guys. See ya tomorrow.

9 Months.

I say two things every month: I can't believe Grayson is (insert number) months old already, and (insert number) months is my favorite age so far! Well, wouldn't you know, I feel the exact same way about 9 months as all the others. I am amazed that he's already been on the outside for just about as long as he was on the inside...9 months passes super fast when you've got exciting things going on I've learned.

Another thing I've learned? It seriously gets harder and harder every month to take a decent picture. They get progressively worse the more mobile he becomes. This month I just gave up after like three minutes because it was obvious it wasn't happening...that and he'd already chewed up half of the "9 Months" sticker.

OH! One more thing before I get to my letter: Grayson's birth story is featured on one of my all time FAVORITE blogs today, Mama & Mou. I absolutely adore Kristin, and I'm so honored that she featured our story!

Grayson,

I think it's official: you and I are completely obsessed with each other. We make each other laugh, we love to hang out, we play fun games, we dance and sing....I'm pretty sure we're best friends. You are seriously just an absolute JOY to be around these days. Happy, funny, sweet and a big goof. Pretty much the coolest baby in all the land.

You are growing so fast, in size and in all around development. I'm almost positive you're an actual genius baby, but I might be slightly biased. You are allllll over the place these days. I can't keep up. If I walk out of the room for two seconds to grab something, by the time I come back you've disappeared. It's terrifying. And it means I literally can do nothing but watch you all day, every day.

You're starting to test your boundaries around here. You seem to have a pretty good understanding of what no means, and it's about 50/50 on if you listen to it or not. You've started doing something where if you get told no you bounce up and down really fast and grab on harder to whatever you have. Or if you're crawling toward something you aren't allowed to have (Addie's toys, always Addie's toys) and I catch you, you crawl as FAST as you possibly can to try and make it there. You also throw fits a little less than last month, but when you do you arch your back and throw yourself back and cry like I'm the meanest mom on the planet.

You're still mostly living on mama's milk at this point, but we're giving you pieces of most things that we eat. You'll try anything, and as long as you can feed it to yourself you seem to be a fan of most foods. You love water and drink it whenever I give you your sippy cup...although you aren't great at holding it yourself (totally my fault cause it's easier for me to just do it).

One of the funniest things you do is attack our faces with open mouth kisses/bites. You grab onto both sides of my face and pull me in as hard as possible, then basically try to eat my face. It makes me laugh, which makes you laugh and do it more. It's hilarious and adorable...like everything you do. You seriously make me laugh so much. Sometimes you'll just hold onto my face and look at me real close and just laugh and laugh. So funny. You also just started doing that thing babies love to do where you want to put things in other peoples mouths. Your teething rings, your socks, my hair....you really like to share, which is sweet. Another new development is climbing the stairs. You're pretty quick at it, and mama needs to buy a baby gate ASAP. You've got as high as the fourth step and then I get scared and take you away.

One way I know you're just about the best baby around is by the fact that you are currently getting FOUR teeth in your tiny little mouth at the same time, and you are just as happy as ever. You rub your little gums really hard and get a tiny bit fussy sometimes, but if I get you a little Orajel natural stuff and give you something to chew, you're happy as can be. Also, you are such a good sleeper. You usually go down around 8 to 8:30, wake up maybe around 12:30 or so to nurse, then maybe around 4:30 or so, and then usually about 6:30 or 7. Most of the time, I'd say 90%, you will even go back to sleep after that and not wake up for the day until 7:45 or 8. Mama LOVES YOU for this, because mama LOVES her sleep.

Right now I would have to say your favorite things are crawling around and getting into EVERYTHING, Addie....oh man do you love Addie, bouncing up and down when you're standing up holding onto things, trying to climb things, putting things in other peoples mouths, taking off your socks and eating them, walking around when you're holding on to things, and seeing your favorite people. You aren't a fan of diaper changes, getting dressed, and unfortunately over the last few days, bath time. You also really don't like it when we take things away from you, and you hate waiting on things you want...like bites of food.

Even when you're unhappy, it doesn't last long. Like I said, you are truly a joy to be around right now. You are so fun and funny and happy and sweet. You are my most favorite little guy in all the world, and I am so glad I get to spend every single day watching your cute little personality develop. I love you oh so very very much.

Love,

Mama