My heart is so full.

David gets Noah out of his crib in the mornings while I get 2 extra minutes of sleep. 

I decided to skip my 2 minutes and watch Noah on the video monitor for his reaction when he hears and sees his daddy. And I'm SO glad I did because I never would have seen this adorable face:

Watching the two people I love the most love each other. Theeeeee BEST. 

Life is so, so good in our little corner of the world. 

Lunch!

It seems like I have all these ideas for things to write about but I either 1) forget to finish the draft and never remember what I was going for or 2) forget altogether because baby brain is happening something fierce over here. [no joke. I was thinking about putting dishes away while making dinner last night and the tortillas got put in the cupboard and not the fridge....]

In light of all that nonsense, I thought I might as well write this one and post it while Noah is sleeping in the backseat of our car. 

David works in downtown Hartford. A 10 minute car, 20 minute bus ride from our house. So today we (I) got my act together and we met him for lunch! 

I did not do the following

 - take a picture of our sandwiches

 - bring our nice camera

 - get a picture of all of us. 

 - take a picture of the cherry blossoms

But I did get a picture of my two favorite people. 

And now the plan is to meet up for lunch every Friday! 

Definitely the best way to kick start the weekend. 

Solids!

We got the okay from the doctor to give Noah solids a few weeks ago. Noah has been watching us eat and definitely can follow along with the fork/spoon going from the dish to our mouths. 

Last night we randomly decided to start. 

Following the advice of a friend who said "Make sure you give them vegetables first or they will never eat them after trying fruits."

Green beans it is, my friend. 

HE LOVED THEM. 

He could not get the spoon into his mouth fast enough - even though he doesn't know to not push the food out yet. We were laughing quite a bit. 

And of course, we took pictures. 

(When you're not the parent, I know you don't care so much. So I tried to tone it down. We took 80, and I only posted 3! Are you proud of me?!)

4/14/2014

Our bed! (A year and a half later.....oops)

Found this in my drafts.... figured it was probably time to post it.  [And when we eventually move into a house, there are some other pieces of furniture from that website that I plan on making. They really are very easy to follow and you can (sort of) choose how much you want them to cost. I think after everything, we ended up spending $220 after we decided to get nicer pieces of wood for some parts.]
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Remember this post on how we started making our bed?
With David going out of town for interviews and a family trip to Goblin Valley, we finally finished it three weeks later and we are SO happy with it!
Definitely one of those things we hope we can pass on to our kids someday.
(We got the original plans from here and made a few tiny adjustments. And let's be honest. David and his dad mostly built it. I just sleep in it....)

It looks so big without the mattress/box spring and pillows on it.

Still working on finding other pillows that work because these red ones were from the living room.

An Untraditional Wedding Song

If I got married again, I would do things differently. Don't get me wrong, I loved my wedding! But, just a few of those decisions were made during a stressful semester and sort of don't really feel like they are "me" anymore.

I would have gotten the ice cream bar. (Which David reallllllly wanted.) I would have nixed the yellow. I don't know why I thought I needed purple, grey, AND yellow. But that's that.   I would have also had more dancing. 

Our grand plan was to do all the meet-and-greet stuff, eat cake, toss the bouquet, etc, do the First Dance, and then keep dancing and while other people were dancing we were going to slip away. Of course, we didn't realize that at your wedding you are always being watched. So we tried to make a quiet exit after a mere five songs. AND EVERYONE FOLLOWED US. (Like normal. I don't know why I thought our wedding would be different. oy.)

BUT. One choice I will always always always do again was our first song. 

David went on an LDS mission to San Francisco -- CHINESE speaking. So he spent a lot of his time in Chinatown, got to know lots of Chinese people and got pretty fluent. And of course, like all foreign missionaries do, they come home with some music that they might not have listened to otherwise.

Fast forward to when we start dating/are almost engaged. He shows me this video of one of his favorite Chinese songs. And being the baby that I am = TEARS. Seriously. It got to me. Because when you're in love, you can't possibly imagine your life without your other half. And this song got even better because he would sing me the words in my ear sometimes when I would force him to dance around the kitchen with me. I eventually learned the words from us singing it enough.

              

Because it's about how much they love each other and wanting to be the fairy tale they have always heard about.  TRUE LOVE, you guys. TRUE LOVE. I'm a sucker for it.

So of course, we decide to skip any traditional/normal song for our First Dance. Sometimes I go back and watch this video and get all fuzzy and warm. If it's really late at night, I might even be found weeping again over the love story.

I linked it here so you can watch it. 

Then and Now - mini version

I've been thinking about this all week and then I was inspired by this.  (A great blog!)

Exactly one year ago tomorrow, we were heading down to New York to watch General Conference with my family. It was also the day we found out about Noah.

I snapped this picture before we got in the car.

The next weekend we drove down again to go through the temple with my sister.

As I made David take this picture with me, I remember thinking that we were keeping a happy secret.

And now life is so, so different. In the best way possible.

Noah @ 4 months

Noah is at the BEST age right now.

14 lbs 1 oz, 24 3/4 inches long

NOAH:
▲  will gurgle and babble ALL day long - lately it is vowel sounds while rolling his tongue in his mouth. He kept doing it while we were out shopping today and I was laughing the whole time
▲  last week of sleeping was no bueno, but TODAY WAS MAGICAL. He's pretty good about sleeping through the night and I kind of had just given up on naps, but today I laid him down and he played and talked with his lovey  (a thin small burp cloth) and then closed his eyes. I was in heaven. My mommy heart hurts when he cries.
▲ had a fantastic appointment and everything looked great. And he cooed at the doctor the whole time she was trying to talk to me. So funny. He just wants to be a part of every conversation
▲ puts everything in his mouth. and sucks on my shirts every time I'm holding him. He is pretty good about holding all his toys and getting them up to his mouth.
▲  his hair is kind of starting to grow in and when it sticks up, it is the cutest peach fuzz

MOMMY (& Daddy):
▲ absolutely loving the fact he is sleeping well at night. When you are in the middle of the fuzziness and delirium that come with a newborn, everything starts to seem hopeless. And while sometimes it is too easy for me to find something to complain and say that being a mom is hard, not sleeping was definitely the one thing that killed me to give up. And now that he is pretty regular, life is THE BEST.
▲ Things are great. He has a sort-of schedule and that helps me to kind of plan on what I can accomplish each day. I love hanging out with my buddy all day and I miss him when he is asleep (even though I am glad for the break).
▲  I got my act together and started making dinner every night (instead of making David do it when he got home). Coincidence that this happened when he started sleeping regularly? DEFINITELY NOT.
▲  Trying to get back on the working out bandwagon. There isn't really much for great trails nearby or sidewalks that don't disappear here, so I'm debating getting a gym pass but they are SO pricey and it would be a 20 minute drive. (PLUS stinky weather. It snowed again today....) I almost can't remember what it feels like to run a mile. So if you ladies (and gents?) have any suggestions for an at-home workout, throw them this direction and maybe, just maaaaaaybe, I'll be ready for the pool and not just the hot weather that I miss so much.

3/17/2014

I'm kind of obsessed with our baby --

In case that wasn't obvious enough on Instagram. So if you have seen enough, you can skip this post. I won't be offended. :)

[This post could alternately be titled "Why It Is Worth It to Bully Your Husband to Buy a Nice Camera & Lenses."]

These are straight from my camera with no editing. (They could use a little bit, but I don't feel like it...) Just shows what good lighting and learning manual can do.

Having a cute baby helps too, I guess...

Noah @ 3 months

12 lbs 3 oz

24 inches long

has the cutest little cheeks now!

NOAH:

• is definitely more vocal about what he does/does not like  - and is starting to realize he does NOT like hiccups

• still LOVES being talked to more than toys and will coo at you to get your attention

• supplementing has done wonders for his sleep habits (and Mom's sanity!). still not sleeping normally but doing MUCH better (hallelujah!!)

• did FABULOUSLY on his first plane flight(s) at 12 weeks. 

• figured out he can suck on his hand and now tries to stick the whole thing in his mouth.

• rubbed off most of his newborn hair and now has awesome old man hair at the back of his head

• is just barely starting to get chunky and have the little lines around his wrists and feet!

• has now met almost all of his extended family (and we are so grateful you all came to his blessing!)

MOM (and Dad?): 

• This month has been full of vacation/visitors for us, so it has really gone by quickly. We are sad to not have any planned for awhile, but excited that winter is on its way out. (about time!)

• Buying new shirts helps make you accept your post-partum body more, but with spring coming, so do my plans to start getting healthy. I definitely have eaten too much sugar this vacation. 

• I am still learning the balance between taking care of Noah while still managing to take care of myself. Definitely something I have to figure out each day. 

• I am terrrrrrified of how our flights home will go tomorrow. They are all daytime flights so NOT when la bebe will be sleeping.

• Also, I need a haircut. And inspiration. Anyone have any advice/ideas?

And Noah is crying so that is the end of this post.

if you want more, just follow me on instagram

and if you really can't help yourself and want even more, Noah has an instagram too. 

A few things.....

1. I think I am extremely witty when I write posts at 3 am before the crack of dawn and the return of my sanity slash filter in my head. Then the light comes and my self-confidence returns to a normal "95% on a good day"......

2. This maaay be another post later (yay, so exciting!) where I can (unnecessarily) disclose more (unwanted) details but I have yet to decide what to do about feeding/formula-ing with my tiny distracted drowsy eater who would much rather party instead. The convenience of the bottle + other snags along the way make it sound so lovely and enticing to just give up on a la natural, olden time way of sustaining a child. BUT. My sentimental heart hasn't fully accepted that I would have to give up bonding that way with le bébé. So here I sit, still doing both and I'm strangely okay with my indecisiveness for now. Is that even something I need to decide? Or do I just overthink everything? Probably. 

3. David is out of town tonight and the bed is lonely. But I was just out of town for 3 nights. So obviously he trumps me in the who-has-the-more-right-to-complain-department but we both know I'm a bigger baby aaaand there we go. The bed is lonely. 

4. David had a layover in Philadelphia and had a Philly cheesesteak for dinner. Because when in Philly, right? I replied that I had a bowl of raisin bran and when in Hartford?...........turns out he had that twice this week while I was gone. Truth. In Hartford we eat the exciting raisin bran. 

5. I said goodbye to the NY house again today after going down with Mom to paint a couple rooms/clean up some stuff to make it look nicer. And hopefully it sells soon and that was really goodbye for reals. Anyone looking for a home in the NY area? Available to buy or rent now, I think.... So send any prospectors this way because we would hate to have them keep searching in this cold weather when we have a lovely updated home waiting to be occupado. 

  

From the kitchen window this afternoon. He looked right at me then gracefully leapt away. Leapt is a word, right?