Farmer's Market!

I don't really have much of an excuse for not blogging for over a month besides that we've been here and there and everywhere and when we are home chasing after a one year old wears me out!  We've had lots of adventures in the past month.  We've had weddings and 5K walks to raise money for cancer research. We've had graduations and birthdays and in between all these exciting life moments we've had quiet times to read books and eat dinner as a family.  This weekend we met Oliver's posse at the Farmer's Market.  

Not pictured: Miss Greta Norton. She turned one this weekend and is celebrating in Detroit Rock City

The Farmer's Market in Bloomington is nothing short of amazing.  Any given Saturday morning from April until October you can venture downtown and be welcomed by the smell of kettle corn and find vendors selling everything from beautiful hand spun yarn to pussy willows to black raspberries still warm from the sun.

 

We bought these black raspberries and peaches from a young boy with the type of lilting Appalachian accent that only sounds charming coming from the mouth of a Mennonite boy wearing a crisp white collared shirt and black suspenders. 

In addition to these lovely fruits we also brought home Oliver's very first balloon animal.  A monkey in a tree with bananas of course.  We stood patiently in line waiting our turn.  Of course I was very aware of the fact that this poor balloon animal would most likely be popped by the time we made it to the other side of the market but sometimes the joy is in the moment of watching and observing, transfixed on the balloon man mastering his craft.

Amazingly enough the monkey in the tree with bananas made it all the way home.  He rode in the car next to another monkey, fast asleep with another adventure under his belt.  

This and That

It has taken us a while to truly believe that Oliver is saying his first word.  Maybe I shouldn't say believe but actually realize.  I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was thinking more along the lines of a well pronounced "dog" or "ball" or "Lola stop eating the baby's food".  Instead it was "that".  He's been saying it for about a month but we just took it for his usual babbling. Corey and I are constantly asking him, "what's that?" and then answering so I guess it makes sense.  Oh, but a wicked little game it has created.  Everything now is "that?" and then sometimes he'll look at us for the answer, sometimes he'll just point at something else and say "that" and then something else and so on and so forth.  I know that his little developing baby brain probably doesn't realize that he is asking "what's that?", "that" probably means "ball" or "dog" or "mom I'd like a snack" but as a human adult we are engineered that when asked a question we answer.  So when he points and says "that" 8 million times a day I am so inclined to answer. Quite exhausting really.  I thought we wouldn't hit this stage until he was about 2 and half or 3 but that is parenting...having an expectation and being completely blindsided by a very different answer or result.

In less that three weeks Oliver will turn one and it seems like just yesterday I was walking up and down the blocks of our neighborhood trying to bring on labor.  It was all in vain, an eviction notice had to be delivered and I was induced and after 14 hours of labor came this life changing little person and here we are 12 months later.  He is now using walking as his mode of transportation about 80% of the time. Crawling is saved for really crucial matters that require getting someplace at warp speed, like the stairs or Lola's dog bowls. He gives kisses on demand, big open mouthed kisses.  The really special ones are the kisses he doesn't have to be asked to give, those I want to wrap up in a tiny brown package with twine and put them in a time capsule to be opened 17 years from now. He still just has two teeth, the top ones have been working their way in for weeks but to no avail.

With the big birthday coming up I've been planning his birthday party.  Nothing over the top, just some family and friends and of course cake.  I've also been working on some special crafties for the day.  I'll share those after his party.

We've gotten one more room finished at Casa de Rekers.  The laundry room has now been painted.  I want to put in some cupboards and a shelf eventually but here is the before and after.  The paint color is Tranquility, it's from Lowes, it's a Valspar color I think.

Laundry room before

Laundry room after

Well we have places to go and people to see.  Namely the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.  We're going on this little adventure with Greta and her mom Carrie.  Thank goodness for the distraction too because those aforementioned top teeth are giving us heck and that makes for one clingy baby.  This adventure could be a success or it could be a total snot dripping, leg clinging, screaming from the back seat failure.  Let's keep our fingers crosses for success!

A New Place to Call Home

Oh, so much to share.  It's been weeks since I've been able to move thoughts from brain to blog.  In the past month we have sold a house, bought a house, moved into said house and began a myriad of home renovations both DIY and contractor led.  It has been an exciting and stressful time and all the while I've tried to maintain some sense of normalcy amid the sound of nail guns and contractors yelling to one another to "shut off the main water" as a pipe burst out of the wall and soaked one of our spare bathrooms.  Luckily the pipe burst before the renovation of that room was complete so no big worry there, it has been fixed and we have moved on.

Buying and moving into this house has been quite the story but I won't bore you with the long drawn out version. Basically it goes something like this:  We really weren't planning on moving so quickly but it was one of those cases where the stars all aligned and everything seemed to fall perfectly into place, so much so that every now and again Corey and I would look at each other and say, "when is this going to go wrong, this is too good to be true". A few months back, before Christmas to be exact we decided that we would like to think about moving into a bigger space.  Not much was wrong with our current house, we really liked it actually but when Baby O came into the mix a house that was already filled to the brim seemed to bulging at the seams and we were starting to feel more cramped by the day.  This isn't to say that a family can't make it in a small space, people do it all the time but we were aching for a basement and for more trees and something that felt more like ours, not just a stopping point along the way.  So we would research online, never really finding that house that made us excited and we would drive around on Sundays with Ollie strapped in his car seat snoozing.  Then one day we took a left turn on a road we had passed many times but never given a second thought to and we discovered a small neighborhood half a mile from our house that we didn't even know existed.  We saw a house that made us both say, "yea, I could see us pulling into this driveway every day for the next decade" and so we called the Realtor and saw it the next day.  When we walked in we had to look past the outdated fixtures and the forest green trim and make it a blank slate.  As they say on HG TV, it had good bones and we could both see that.  So we put in a low ball offer that we eventually negotiated and could still be happy about, we listed our house and sold it in a week and we sat back and said to ourselves "holy crap are we really doing this?".  We knew it was going to be a lot of work but we were up for the challenge.  I engrossed myself in Pinterest and came up with a plan for paint colors and got a little giddy planning out my new kitchen and Corey mulled over budgets and plans and contractor bids and now here we sit in our almost completed renovation.  We still have many walls to paint and our counter tops don't arrive for another two weeks but the contractors will be done this week and we couldn't be happier with our new home. I will share before and after pictures in blog posts to come.

This past Thursday would have been my mom's 59th birthday.  It's also a year to the day since it was confirmed that she had stage IV pancreatic cancer that had spread to her liver. We are quickly approaching the anniversary of her passing. A year later and it still feels like the rug has been pulled out from beneath all of us.  We go about our business day to day, it still seems unreal that she's not here with us.  I still get the urge to pick up the phone and call her to tell her about something funny or cute that Oliver has done and it still feels like a punch to the gut when seconds later I come to the realization of her absence. I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to that.

About a year before my mom passed she had in a way started a new life.  She was an empty nester.  All of us girls had moved out and our sister Karley had also been moved out,  as on her own as she ever can be.  She lives in a small house with a couple of other girls that also have special needs.  My mom had spent the majority of her adult life caring for others.  Caring for 5 girls was no small task and she did a fantastic job.When she found herself in an empty nest she started doing more for herself.  She was working a job that she loved at Mariposa Farms.  She sorted and packed culinary herbs and I have never seen her so happy in a job before.  She was meeting friends and she loved the people she worked with.  They would go out for birthdays and other special occasions at Casa Margarita, a Mexican restaurant in Grinnell.  My sisters and I would joke that she didn't have much time for us anymore because it seemed every time we would call her she was always doing something.  Every so often her response was "well I can't really talk now I'm at Casa with the girls".  We would feign that our feelings were hurt but in all honesty we were so happy that she was taking time for herself and really enjoying her time.

As we tackle these firsts without her; first birthdays, the first anniversary of her death, first holidays without her, we do so with as much grace as we can.  We try our hardest to honor her memory and the legacy that she left behind.  We hug each other a little tighter and try even harder to enjoy the time we have together.

We toast her birthday with a margarita glass raised in her honor, we spend time with our sisters crying but also laughing.

Her most adamant request on her death bed is that she never wanted us to lose our sense of humor.  We have tried our hardest not to and I hope that when she is looking down on us she is overcome with a sense of accomplishment and pride at how we have honored her.

Right now...

Now that the holidays have come and gone and I'm slowly deflating back into normal life I'm feeling less than crafty.  I also need to be in a swimsuit in T minus 10 weeks so the inspirational recipes and crafts on Pinterest are having to go on a temporary hiatus. So this week I'm taking a prompt from one of my favorite bloggers, Kelle Hampton, and I'm sharing some of what I love.  What I love right this minute, what I love this week and what I love in general.

Discovering shadows.

Each day I am just filled with the wonder and the amazement that is this little guy. 

Tea. 

I've been enjoying a hot cup of tea in the mornings lately instead of my normal cup of coffee.  It started with a sore throat that called for tea with a bit of honey and has temporarily shelved its cousin Joe. With each cup I feel like I'm channeling the spirit of my mom, she was a tea drinker through and through. Lipton Black with just a bit of sugar. Lately the days of remembering my mom and feeling happy to have been blessed to be on this earth with her for 29 and half years are outweighing the sad days when I feel so let down that I don't get to spend another 40 years with her.

Snuggles after afternoon naps that sometimes turn into longer afternoon naps in the warmth of momma's lap.

An impromptu text from a friend triggered by the gorgeous weather that says "playing outside at 4:15ish, meet us there if your kiddos need to burn off some steam".

Finding new tickle spots that make my baby giggle. (Right under the chin and above the collar bone.)

What are you loving lately?

Too Big for our Britches

In case you haven't been made aware, 2012 is the year of the wriggling baby. Somewhere between Santa dropping some presents down the chimney and 2011 fading into 2012, Oliver has become this whirling, twirling mass of life bouncing from one dangerous thing to the next. My days now are spent mostly following behind him cleaning up messes, pausing to fill his belly with bananas or sweet potatoes or squash, and then back to trying my best to prevent him from climbing the DVD cabinet or pulling lamps down on top of himself.

Today was no exception, as a matter of fact it could have been one of the more challenging days of parenthood thus far. It should be noted that these are the things that we are now too cool for:

1. Diaper changes. What once was an enjoyable time to chatter to my baby has morphed into a session of baby wrangling that involves one arm trying to pin him down while trying to maneuver his tooshie into a diaper with the other arm.

2. Sitting in the bathtub.  Once again a session of baby wrangling.  While he goes from sitting to standing to laying I'm trying to wash avocado out from behind his ears as quickly as possible.  I do have to laugh though as he sprouts up, peeks over the side of the tub at me and squeals with delight.  At the end of bath time I sit sprawled out on the bathroom floor, shirt sleeves soaked to the elbow, harried and wild eyed trying to catch my breath but loving the feeling of his little body wrapped in his hooded towel.

3. Sleeping at 4 am.  I've read that there is a sleep regression phase that happens somewhere between 8 months and 9 months and good Lord have we hit regression.  Apparently 2012 has switched some circadian rhythm in this child's body and at 4 am on the dot he is wide awake and ready to party.  He'll cry to jolt me from my peaceful slumber and once I'm there he's all "hey mom, how's it going, wanna hang out?" Not cool buddy, not cool.  He'll finally nod off again at about 5 or 5:30 and then we're ready to tackle the day at 7. We can't go on like this much longer. Mom is cranky, dad is cranky and let's just say patience is running thin through this place.  As a note to the only other adult in the house, the next time you put an empty cereal box back on the shelf you better sleep with one eye open, the good news is you'll most likely won't be sleeping because the baby is awake. 

As I rocked Oliver to sleep tonight I let the soft ticking of the clock and the gentle sounds of rain from the sound machine bring me back to center.  I wouldn't change this day for anything. It wasn't long ago I was wondering if I would ever get the chance to be a mom and I'm thankful each day that my prayers were answered.  It may have been a challenging day but I can only hope that tomorrow will be better.  I'll pray for more patience and make myself go to bed earlier because I know that at 4 am I have a date with one handsome little man.

Eight Months

Eight months. Wow.  I really wanted to try and avoid the cliche phrase of "where has all the time gone?", but really it's impossible not to say.  I have watched my little bubzy transform from this helpless little creature into a little man that every day is learning something new.  He is seizing his days, discovering and testing,  falling and standing.  Each day he gets a little braver and each day I think he can't get any more awesome and then he does. It truly is amazing the way that the days melt into the next and before you realize it your child has changed in front of your very own eyes. A little over eight months ago I was lying in a hospital bed anxiously awaiting the arrival of the little being that I had been dreaming about.  Wondering if his nose would look the way I pictured it in my head (it does, by the way) and hoping that I could be the mother that I had set out to be.  I'm constantly in awe of the way that he barrels through life.

He learned how to climb up the stairs this week.  I hovered behind him, making sure to not let him fall but wanting to let him do this on his own. I watched as he climbed up one step then the next.  When he got to the top he turned and looked down, not quite surprised that he had made it but proud of himself.  While he was climbing he didn't once look back and didn't look too far forward, but instead focused purely on the step he was on.

Each month I have meant to mark the occasion of his birthday by making a list of his accomplishments but eight months have come and gone and I haven't done it yet. So today is the day.  Here is Oliver, month eight.

Accomplishments:
~Climbed the stairs.
~Babbles.  He has said both mama and dada but I know he hasn't quite put it together what the words mean, soon I think.
~Crawling...everywhere.
~Standing alone for a few seconds at a time.
~Playing pattycake and peek-a-boo.

Likes:
~Pears.
~Sweet Potato Chunks.
~Bath time. Favorite toy in the bath? A measuring spoon.
~Feeding Lola.
~When daddy blows bubbles on his belly.
~Using mom, dad and Lola as his personal jungle gym. (Coincidentally NOT one of Lola's likes.)
~Shutting doors.
~Dumping things.
~Anything shiny, Lola's dog bowls top the list.
~Looking out windows.

Dislikes:
~Peas.
~Diaper changes.
~Getting his nose wiped by Kleenexes.

He loves life and I am so blessed to have a baby that has so many items in his "likes" column and so few in the "dislikes.

Tomorrow marks the end of yet another year.  2011 was pretty rough, we lost two grandparents and my mom. But we gained an amazing member of our family.  Here's to much more celebration than grief in 2012. Cheers!

Taking a Breath

I woke up today with a million thoughts going through my head. I need to go to the grocery store. I need milk, I need this, I need that. I need to do laundry, oh so much laundry. I need to buy baby gates. I need to put away my fall decor. I need to get out my Christmas lights and decorations. We need to put up the tree. It's Cyber Monday I should do some Christmas shopping. And then I decided I need to take a breath.

We got home late (very late) last night from a really great week in Iowa with our families. Working in the banking industry I have always had to work the day after Thanksgiving and so we've always had to leave to drive back home a few hours after our Thanksgiving feast. But not this year!  This year we got to linger a little longer and enjoy a little more.

At 2 am last night I sat in my rocking chair in the nursery with a snoozing baby in my arms and reflected on what a great week we had.  We got to catch up with old friends over mocktails (my bestie is expecting their first baby at the end of March), see a movie (something I haven't done in a theater in quite a while), we went out to dinner and the baby didn't cry once and I got to eat my meal without having a wiggling baby on my knee! The dog got to play with other doggie friends and burn off the steam of being cooped up inside.  There was a disappointing moment though, when my dad called me the morning we were supposed to be visiting him and told me he had bronchitis and we weren't going to be able to have our visit.  I know this absolutely crushed him and I am so hoping that he is feeling better and looking forward to some extra special time at Christmas.  My most favorite moment though? Overhearing Corey's aunt and Corey's dad talking while looking at a picture of himself, Corey and Oliver and hearing her say "you must have needed to have a grandson to smile like that in pictures." If you would have looked down you would have seen my heart melted in a puddle on the ground.

We had Ollie's first Thanksgiving dinner. Complete with a homemade turkey onesie.

A meal fit for Pilgrims...apples, parsnips and sweet potatoes!

You might have picked up on something written above, we need baby gates.  The day before Thanksgiving Ollie started crawling! He now has it perfected...none of this army crawling, real hands and knees crawling and holy smokes are we in trouble.  I think babies just instinctively know what they aren't supposed to get into and beeline it right to it.

Our trip was relaxing and wonderful.  Full of lots of smiles, laughter, baths in sinks and snuggling. In a word, perfection.

We usually end our trips back to Iowa aching to be living back there but this time it felt good to settle back into our home in Indiana.  We may have been welcomed back by piles of laundry and floors that need to be vacuumed but I'll take it.  It's nothing that a little Christmas music and a Cozy Fireside candle can't fix.

Ghosties, Penguins, and Cops (Oh my!)

The pumpkins have been picked and the candy has been bought (twice if you must know) and Halloween is here!!  The fact that candy is one of my favorite things on the planet (see above comment) Halloween ranks right up there among my favorite holidays. I don't know if I just remember it differently 20 years later or if things really are different now. My Halloween memories consist of being pigeon-holed into a warm costume because it was always either raining, snowing or bitterly cold (all three if you were really lucky) and it was always pitch black out raising the spooky factor a good 50 percent.  Today trick or treating starts at 5:30 and ends at 8:00 so you really only get 30 to 45 minutes of spooky ambiance and the temperature is forecasted to be about 45 degrees with no rain, maybe those people talking about global warming are on to something?  Regardless of rain or shine it is still Oliver's first Halloween and that's pretty exciting. We had to pick out two costumes because when all the good stuff was in the store it was still about a month and a half away from Halloween and any one that has ever had a baby knows that a whole lot can change on the size front in a month and a half.  So we have the penguin (look at his cute little tail)...

and the policeman...

The mustache paci I saw on Pinterest and followed the link to an Etsy website where they were selling them for $15!!! I thought hogwash, I can make that, so with a bit of felt and my hot glue gun I did!  We'll see which costume fits tonight, either way pretty darn cute if you ask me.

I missed a post last week, sorry about that, we were really busy around here.  Grandpa and Grandma Rekers came for a visit.

We had all sorts of exciting things happening.  We had a Halloween party at the neighbor's house.  I made cake balls that looked like pumpkins and Nutter Butter Ghosties.

I've been making cake balls for several years but only since the cake pop revolution have I started putting them on sticks.  I'll give you my recipe for cake balls at the end of this post.  They can be time consuming but can be the perfect treat for any party from bridal showers to Christmas parties.  Make sure you eat a few after you make them because you more than likely won't get any at your party because they go really fast!

We're on hands and knees now people!

We haven't quite figured out how to put wheels in motion and move forward, but soon I think, very soon.  And then look out world and good-bye knick knacks on bottom shelves for you shall be packed away only to be re-introduced someday when danger has passed.

We're headed to Chicago again this weekend.  Daddy gets to come this time and all the aunties will be there with the exception of Karley.  We initially planned the trip so that we could run the Hot Chocolate 5K Run and it turned into a perfect weekend to reunite with friends and family.  We'll also be lucky enough to meet up with some of our dear friends that we met in Minnesota who now live north of Chicago so it looks like it's going to be a great weekend.  Oh wait, maybe not as great as planned, did I mention that I've run twice since I signed up for this race two months ago? In case you are wondering, no, I am not the type of runner than can pick up where I left off and run when I haven't run a race in months over a year. So if you need me this weekend I'll be laying in the middle of Grant Park trying to recuperate from the heart attack I am sure to have at about mile 1.


Cake Balls:
1 store bought cake mix
1/2 can store bought frosting (coordinating flavor, chocolate with chocolate cake mix, vanilla with vanilla etc.)
1 bag colored Wilton Candy Melts (you can find these at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and sometimes Wal-Mart)

Bake the cake according to directions on box and allow to partially cool.  When still warm break cake into about 6 pieces and put in large mixing bowl. Add half can of frosting.  Mix until all incorporated and sticky. This works best if you just use your hands, the heat from your hands and the warm cake melt the frosting.  Once it's the correct consistency (no cake crumblys left) roll into small balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Place a lollipop stick (you can also find these at Michaels, Hobby Lobby etc) in each ball but not all the way through.  Place in freezer for about an hour. Once the balls have been frozen for an hour melt your Candy Melts according to directions on the bag.  Dip each ball in the melted goodness and lightly tap against bowl to shake off excess coating. Place back on wax paper or if you want perfectly shaped balls  stick the stick into a piece of Styrofoam and let coating harden.  These also freeze well so you can make them ahead of time and they only take about an hour to thaw.  Enjoy!!

Me Time

Among the hundreds of things that change when you have a baby one of the biggest changes is "me time".  In my previous life running to the grocery store, reading a magazine, watching my favorite TV show or sitting down to watch a movie were all easy tasks.  I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember so I am in no way complaining about not having as much me time.  However, me time is so important for my well being and let's face it, my sanity.  Nowadays even an hour to myself can bring on a whole new sense of being refreshed. You have to choose your activities wisely though. Some days the grocery store is enough to do the trick.  Some days require a good run on the treadmill.  But the past few days I've been feeling less than inspired so Sunday for my hour I needed some inspiration. I needed to get my craft on.  So I set out for the fabric store.

First I made a slight detour. A trip to the fabric store is always enhanced by this:

It's funny the way your interests and activities change the older you get.  I can remember being a little girl and being so annoyed by being dragged through the baby section at Wal-Mart or some other department store while shopping with my mom.  Instead of looking through onesies and tiny little shoes I would have rather been shopping for Lip Smackers, Debbie Gibson tapes, and tapered ankles jeans.  Fast forward 20 years and I find myself right back there in the baby section but by my own choice. Who knew?!  Another place I was always taken against my will was the fabric store with my aunt.  I didn't really mind it in small doses but there was no such thing as a short trip to the fabric store.  I would drag my feet up and down those aisles while she would pick out zippers, buttons and bolts of fabric.  Once again fast forward a couple decades and where do I find myself?  In the freaking fabric store!!  Now I get it, it's a place of creativity and inspiration.  I don't consider myself the most creative person in the world.  I see people knitting, crocheting, painting, sculpting and sewing and it makes me so jealous. There are so many projects and things I wish I could do but there is just not enough time in the day, month and year.  If I choose semi-easy projects I get my creativity fix.  We have some friends that are having a baby in November so I thought I'd try my hand at these bibs and burp cloths.  I found this super cute fabric and can't wait to see how they turn out.

I know it will take me awhile to make the bibs and burp cloths since I am so new to sewing but my craft craving needed to be fulfilled.  For a quick crafty fix, I decided to make my little guy a cozy blanket. I went with the old-school, no sew fleece blanket. He loves the fringes. 

Our house has been a bit nuttier than usual these past few days.  We had to finally bite the bullet and work on getting the babe to sleep on his own in his own crib.  I always said that I would never be the mom that lets her kids sleep in bed with her.  I've got nothing against those that decide to co-sleep, it is a personal preference and there are more studies coming out recently that promote the family bed. As a result of lack of sleep we've found ourselves with a bed buddy and a baby that refuses to sleep in his crib.  I have to admit though, I don't really mind it all the time.  I love waking up in the morning next to my baby.  He rolls towards me and  looks at me with those big blue eyes and smiles at me every morning.

We stretch together and ease into the day by snuggling just a little longer.  I love catching an unexpected whiff of his sweet baby smell in the middle of the night.  I love hearing his little sigh right before he falls fully asleep.  But with the good comes the bad.  We have a vicious cycle of the three of us (sometimes four if the dog is part of the slumber party) waking each other up.  Corey will snore and wake up the baby, I'll wake up and get the baby back to sleep and then because Corey is snoring I can't get back to sleep so I'm nudging Corey telling him he's snoring. I don't think we've had a good night's sleep as a couple since January.  In addition to the constant waking, when I do finally get to sleep I'm still aware of his tiny little body next to mine and I will sleep perfectly still and wake up stiff and sore from laying immobile for six hours.  Over the past couple of months I've said so many times, "this is it, I can't do it anymore, we've got to get him to sleep in his own bed".  So I'd go into it a little half-assed and fail every time, overwhelmed with his crying and too tired to fight it.  This weekend I said it again but this time I followed through.  The first night I eased into it and gave up at 11 pm.  Night number two was nothing short of brutal.  For four hours I tried to fight through the gut wrenching soul beating cry.  I'd give him five minutes and then go to him and soothe him for two to three minutes.  We did this for FOUR HOURS.  Worst. Night. Ever.  Finally at 1 am I gave in and brought him to bed with us where he fell fast asleep the second he put his sweet little head on my mattress.  But I considered it a bit of a success, I made it two hours longer than I did the night before.  At this rate maybe we'll be sleep trained by December, bleck!!!!  But Saturday night we did it!  I decided to let him cry for 10 minutes before I went in to soothe him and it worked!  I only had to go in and soothe him twice and he slept for 9 hours!!! NINE! I, of course, couldn't sleep.  I was wide awake at 2 am twiddling my thumbs and not knowing what to do with myself.  Not to mention the fact that I had to pump.  So I did, and checked my email, cruised Facebook, checked the weather forecast and caught up on my celebrity gossip on my US Weekly app.  I didn't want to jinx it though. We did spend most of the day outside so I figured the fresh air got him all tuckered out.  I didn't want to count my chickens, but last night it was 12:30 and he'd been sleeping since 7 and I had barely heard a peep out of him.  Don't kid yourselves though, I went into his room no less than ten times to make sure he was still breathing.  And so there I sat, wide awake, feeling a bit lost without my bedtime snuggle buddy.  I really shouldn't have drank that Dr. Pepper at six o'clock.  I'm still not counting my chickens before they hatch.  I know that it takes two weeks to form a habit and I'm sure that our sleepless nights are not completely over but I'm going to take what extra "me time" I can get.

P.S. Did you know that Friends is on Nick at Night? What the what?! Nothing like making you feel older than dirt.