Watermelon, Dogs, and Silly Boys

In these brief snapshots of our life

I see beautiful beautiful blessings.

Joy and happiness FILLS my soul

and I am thankful beyond words.

Thankful for our loving church,

that greets us every Saturday with OPEN ARMS.

Thankful for our goofy, yet SWEET dogs.

Thankful for this PERFECT moment...

A father and son enjoying the simple things life has to offer.

Thankful for little boys being silly.

And extremely thankful for great friends to share our time with!

And SO thankful for juicy, red, sloppy WATERMELON :)

Very thankful for my iPhone to capture funny moments like this...

and hilarious moments like THIS! Ha!

And I'm  thankful for the quiet moments while my son naps, when I get to read a book on the couch.

Or in today's case...on the recliner.

"Mommy, I want bubbles"

ORIEN:  "Mommy, I want bubbles outside."

ME:  "But it's so hot out right now sweetie."

ORIEN:  "Mommy, I want bow bubbles. I want bow bubbles"

ME:  "Okay, let's go out for a bit and do bubbles. But first let's take your clothes off so we don't make a mess."

ORIEN:  (As I start blowing bubbles) "No no Mommy! I want bow bubbles! My bubbles"

ME:  Sigh. "Okay okay. Fine. You blow bubbles. Wait, no! I'll hold the bubbles, you hold the stick."

ORIEN:  "Mommy, I want it, I want it."

ME:  "Alright, go for it I guess."

ORIEN:  (Grabs a full bottle of bubbles) "Uhhh...ohhh...ummm, Mommy? Mommy? Oh no, Oh no...bubbles"

ME:  (laughs) "Orien, you poured the bubbles out baby! Why don't we just go swing?"

SLEEP (Warning: DO NOT READ if you are pregnant or have a newborn)

Okay, well now that most of you who are reading this are preggo or have newborns, don't say I didn't warn you.

People lie to you a lot when you get pregnant. 

It's sad but so very true. They say things like "parenthood is so great!", "being pregnant is just wonderful", and "having a kid is super fun!" Now there is great truth to all of that. But there is so much they aren't telling you. Secretly, they're thinking "oh you poor thing, you really have no clue what's about to happen." Or maybe that's just what I think??

Anyway, back to people lying. They lie about how easy labor and delivery is, they lie about the "adorable" newborn stage, they lie about the JOYS of breastfeeding, they lie about the entire first few years of sleep. Etc, etc.

This blog post is about sleep. And it's mostly for me. I wanted to take a look back on my sleep. I feel like after 3 looooong and very blurrrrrry years, I finallllly am getting normal sleep every night. Whew! That's not to say I'm not totally exhausted every day still, because I definitely am. That just comes with being a fulltime mom of course :)

So here we go.

After not sleeping for 9 months (pregnancy) and two nights (having a baby) here I am with Brett & newborn O! What an experience that was! Pale was SO in.

Daddy is already dosing off and it's still Day 1...uh oh.

 Week 1:  How did I find strength to put on make up?! I think Emily and Preston were coming over to visit. I wanted to look a quarter-way decent for outside-world visitors. At this point in the game we (me) were getting 1-2 hours/night of BROKEN UP sleep. Hmm... good times!

Week 1:  Daddy again nearly half dead holding our newborn. He wasn't getting much more rest than I was during this time. Brett was feeding Orien formula once/night. Gotta love my man!!! He never complained ONCE :)

Week 4:  First road trip! At the lake house and still totally exhausted. Lesson learned - vacations are now RELOC-ations. 

Week 8:  Looking a bit more lively here. Maybe it's the white shirt, but do a have some color??? Still not getting ANY sleep here though I assure you! We didn't get several hours consecutively on a nightly basis until month 8. 

Month 8:  Big jump here! We're both looking well rested and pretty happy :) Must have been a good night. 

 

 Month 13:  We hit a year and things went really well for a while. But then he started waking up all through the night for MONTHS. I couldn't believe it! 

Month 17:  Visiting Jackson Hole, WY. Vacations were never easy as far as sleep goes. We could always just expect not to sleep much. Especially when we traveled to JH. Although we were exhausted during this trip, it was an awesome vacation!!! One of our favorites.

     

Month 21:  Another JH trip, this time with Maqui! We were all dogsledding, so we must have been feeling pretty rested :) This was such an awesome experience. Speaking of sleep...Orien slept the ENTIRE time we sledded. 

Month 24:  And here we are...looking NORMAL! We made it! Orien has moved to his big boy bed (that turned out to be the KEY to sleep around our house) and we are all sleeping wonderfully every single night. 

 I know I've made lots of jokes about lack of sleep, but I wouldn't change any of it. It's made us three grow closer and stronger, that's for sure. We love our handsome, sweet man just as he is! 

Plus, ya' know what they always say...the second one is always the opposite of the first!

Yes, another car seat photo

But if you think about it, it's the only time I can force him to be still. So another car seat photo it is.

Like his "cheese"? Like his slicked hair and new hair cut? I do!

And I like that preschool has started back up after spring break. This mom needs a little break! Especially after a week of whining and fussing. Whew.

Picture of the day

After not seeing each other for a week, Orien and his Maqui played hard today. 

G'night sleepy heads :)

A Spring Saturday

Today, Orien was

Dad's little helper

outside in the garden.

They mulched and planted

and made the front yard absolutely beautiful!

Thanks boys!

Train of Thought

Today Orien woke up whining and has not stopped yet (it's 5:25pm). Lucky for me, he napped for three hours allowing me to get my sanity back a bit. I even had a phone convo for nearly an hour with a good friend, wow! 

Yesterday we went to the Science Museum in town and it started out really great. We checked out all the permanent exhibits, including my fav, the butterflies. I have never seen so many butterflies in that place before. They were landing all over people. Orien was pretty freaked out because I of course had to put one on his shoulder and scare him (unintentionally) right when we walked in. After the museum I promised O we'd go on the train across the street. After 45 minutes of gridlocked traffic and whining, we realized the train just wasn't going to happen. This Mom just had realized (duh!) it was Spring Break. Not sure what I was thinking there. Thankfully, he passed out on the way home, but sadly he woke up when we got home and wouldn't go back to sleep! Bummer. The past two days have been long!

I've been on my gluten-free diet for about two months. I can't say it's getting any easier. I actually feel like it's getting more difficult. I feel as if I'm eating the same things over and over again. I find myself wanting to go out more (not good - expensive) because I get more of a variety, although my menu options are quite limited. I just keep getting down about the whole thing, although I never stay down for long. I, of course, have not forgotten the horrendous pain I experienced for so long when I was not on this diet.

I'm so looking forward to church tomorrow. I really need it, ya know? I'm ready for my family to get back from Jackson Hole. They've been gone all week skiing and Orien and I have definitely missed them. Orien asked every day where everyone was. I'm so glad he has preschool again next week. It's hard not having a break. I'm totally ready to hit the beach soon!! The weather is pretty much hot enough to go. We just need to pick a day and head south! I know O will just love it like he did last year. 

It turns out Brett and I are going to get a little getaway this summer - just us! I can't express how exciting this is. Just us two, in South Cali, on the coast?? Amazing! We were already going for a good friend's wedding (Breanne & Isaac!) July 4th weekend. We decided to make a four-day weekend out of it and enjoy some time to ourselves. Seriously, it will be awesome!

Last night, Brett and I had a totally amazing night out!!! We went to the rodeo to see Zac Brown Band with Aaron (Brett's co-worker) and his wife Andy. The rodeo never fails to entertain. Zac Brown was great! They only played for 45 min, boo. But that's what you get at the rodeo. We had LOTS of laughs and definitely want to hang out again with Aaron and Andy!

Oh, today Orien and I saved a baby turtle! It was all dried up on the sidewalk, poor guy :( We walked him down to the bayou nearby and plopped him in the water. I was a bit freaked out to go down there since our neighbors told us they killed a copperhead down there yesterday. Our neighbors are 6 and 8 who told us that, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt. But still. 

Hope y'all have a wonderful, sunny weekend!!!!

 St. Patty's day trip to the Museum...