Parenting

Logical thoughts are going through my head right now that it is late and I should be getting ready for bed rather than starting a blog post.

 I will quickly be reminded of this poor decision tomorrow morning when it is time to get up and all I want to do is pull the comforter up over my head and sleep for 10 more minutes.

 I have been toying with a post lately that I know getting it out there will make my 12:00 bedtime worth it, because it is my life right now.

As I rocked my sweet 21 month old to bed tonight and watched his eyelids get heavy until he was almost asleep, followed by a sudden sit up to point out every feature on my face.

Eye? Yes baby that my eye.

Mouooth (that's how he says it)? Uh huh, that's my mouth.

 

Then he would continue to carefully place each clump of hair carefully behind my shoulder, because apparently little man does not like to lay on hair.

He would then lay his sweet little head back down and continue to doze.

In my effort to get him to sleep this slightly frustrated me, which turned into a laugh, because I KNOW I will look back on these endless rocking sessions with such fondness.

So, as we rocked some more I pondered about all the parenting advice I got when I was pregnant and he was a newborn.

 

 

 

Parenting advice that I thought was the law because I had never done it before and surely everyone else knew my baby better than me.

 

I spent the first 6 months exhausting myself trying to get my little one to conform to everyone else's advice, comparing him constantly to other babies his age and reading books that had "all the answeres". I found myself utterly frustrated and fed up when he had nothing to do with it.

Why was MY baby the difficult different one?

 

He cried, A LOT..... was only happy when I was holding or nursing him....was not sleeping longer than 2 hour stretches... and turning this momma's world upside down. 

 

 

Ok, so back to rocking my almost 2 year old to sleep, which I have done every.single.night since he was born. Seriously every night!

 

 

It was unanimous that you MUST not rock your baby to sleep everynight or you will create a rod for your own back and your baby will want to be rocked until he is 10.

 

Looking down at him tonight and the fleeting moments that he will actually want to be rocked by me, I am okay with that.

Baby, if you want to be rocked for 6 solid years, bring it on.

Your sweet sighs of comfort and sweat beads that form on your nose from nuzzling into my chest are gladly accepted as long as you like.

 

The day my sweet husband sat me down and I quote, "Alexis, you have got to quit taking everyone else's advice and realize that YOU are his momma,

YOU know him better than anybody, and

YOU have got to learn to trust your heart on this stuff"

is the day that my life changed as a momma and

 I became the momma that I never thought I would be.

 

Maybe one day I will get into my opinion on the cry it out method, when to take away bottles and pacifiers, etc.., but tonight I will enjoy that my sweet boy still enjoys being rocked and rock we will!

 

 



Marriage

Blogging was not part of my life when John and I were married so I am so excited to be linking up with From Mrs to Mama,  "Show and Tell Monday".


1. Are you married? If so when did you get married, and tell us about your special day. If not? How would you describe your dream wedding?

Yes. John and I were married on 9/10/11, best decision of my life. That sounds like such a cliche thing to say, but it really is. He has made me a momma, stretched my ways of thinking, always been my biggest fan, strengthened my faith, taught me not to take life to seriously and to laugh at myself.... the list could go on.
We had a small outside wedding that was perfect for us. I wanted to elope; however, we did want to be able to include our family and seeing as how we had a 9 month old, eloping wasn't really the best option. The night was lite perfectly with little strands of white lights, there was food, drinks, dancing, family and fun. LOVED the night, the memories and what it means for the rest of my life.

2. Show us some wedding pictures. Either yours or of some that you love.

 

 

 

 

3. How about the engagement? Tell us your story. If not engaged, what's your dream proposal?

I think it is automatically assumed that when you get engaged after you are pregnant that you are getting engaged BECAUSE you are pregnant and that is not our case at all. We were planning on getting married regardless and ended up getting an extra lucky surprise before we had the chance. Some have judged us, talked about us, looked down upon us, but all we see when we see this...........

is how utterly BLESSED we are.

4. Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo! If not engaged/married ... show us your "dream" ring.


The first photo is significant becuase I don't have a picture from the exact night he proposed to me, but it was just a few short weeks before this picture was snapped and we welcomed our sweet love into the world.

 

5. Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many? What can we do to make things last?

I think far too many people in this day and age do not view marriage as a commitment. It is viewed as temporary, something to be thrown to the wind when times get tough. Rather than confront issues that are straining the marriage people chose to avoid them or fill that void with something or someone else. Vows have just become empty words for a pretty dress and a reason to party.

If people spent half as much time planning their marriage as they did their wedding, I think the divorce rate would take a dratic nose dive. Until people start viewing their marriage as, the only option is to make it work, the divorce rate will continue to increase.

Sweet Retreat

I was going to start this post with, "I feel like we have been on the road non stop for the past week", but then I realized we have been on the road non-stop. Fun and exhausting,  but sweet, sweet memories made.

Memories that I know Crewe won't directly be able to recall, but all things that I know are shaping that sweet mind.

Brotha man was a trooper and never missed a beat, except for the pitiful, uncomfortable wimper at 1:30 in the morning, as we drove into the driveway. 

Clearly a carseat can only be handled for so long, regardless of the amount of tater tots, baby einsteins, and M&M's offered.

 

Can't say I blame the dude. I was ready to be out of the car and I had far less restricted movement.

Crewe truly rocks at reminding me to stop and smell the roses, picture of roses, fake roses, well you get the picture. My boy loves him some roses.

Go ahead and line up girls, he is going to make someone very happy.

 

And is never short on lovins

Momma definitely had to get a game plan together to enable me to shower and

Crewe not break a leg.

In THIS post Mr man showed everyone his mad swimming skills.

Look at the suspense on his face watching Emma prepare to jump in. The second picture is

post- splash where (wait for it) not a SINGLE drop of water got on him.

By the looks of it, a tidal wave just washed over him.

Ahhh, gotta love him. LOVE HIM

You know you can never be too cautious. 

So glad we got to tag along with my hard working man.

We are too spoiled by his job and me wrapping up Texas.

 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Not of this world

I have been struggling lately, I mean like really struggling, with comparison, desiring worldly things, seeking others approval etc.... 

Joel Olsteen has an awesome facebook page, that if you are not a part of, you should be. He (or his admins) always have the most uplifting posts, that make you think about your thoughts and actions, but with a positive spin. Today he post:

"Everyone has an opinion. But if it doesn't match what God has put in your heart, let it go in one ear and out the other."

I let people's opinion of me weigh in far more than I should. Most days I feel I am more concerned with people's opinion of me than I am with God's opinion of me and at the end of every day, HIS is all that matters.

I will be honest that I feel judged about the car I drive, how big of a house we live in,

the vacations we do (or don't) take.

Do you see a trend here?

 It all revolves around monetary things.

Things that when I am 80 years old I won't remember, but what I will remember are:

the times I spent playing trains on the floor with Crewe,

or talking with John about life after Crewe goes to bed,

or taking that extra bit of time in the grocery store so that Crewe can push the kids shopping cart all the way to the back of the store to pay a special visit to the lobsters.

THOSE are the things I know will be burned in my memory when I am 80.

Yet why is so hard to remember these things everyday?

Why do I strive to have a bigger house, a newer car?

I know it is because I am human. I live in a world that I don't belong.

I am tempted by Satan to be of this world. I fail a lot,

BUT I will continue to ask myself when I am faced with a challenging situation, is this something that will be important to me when I am 80. 

Recently, I think I have made the wrong decision; however, I will strive to improve!

These things stretch me, they grow me, but more importantly, they remind me that I do not belong to this world!

Insert random cute pic, because you can't have a post without a pic ;-)

Truths

Truth 1: As I rocked my wee one to bed yesterday, I was looking at his crib, and it struck me how much his crib scene summed up my life right now. See for yourself.

In the back of the crib you have a smiling Mickey, taking it all in and enjoying all that life has to offer, and in the very same scene you have a sock monkey ready to bail and call it a day.

That has been our life as of late. 

So many wonderful things happening that we are enjoying and relishing in Gods sweet goodness,

but with the good sometimes comes the icky.

And the icky are a constant reminder of how sweet the good is!

Truth 2: Sweet boy forgot how important it was to listen to momma when she says not to play in the pool after she puts your clean/dry clothes on . Yes he did get to ride home in his diaper that particular night.

Truth 3: This is the ONLY way momma makes it through her p90x work outs these day. Mommy guilt? A little. Endorphine rush post workout? Totally voids the mommy guilt.

Truth 4:Frozen yogurt runs and these 2 ARE the perfect Saturday

Truth 5: This is the only way getting my hair up and out of my pajamas happens everyday

Truth : I have been promising before/after pics of our house for far too long. So here is one ; ) and the room isn't finished, so a part 2 will follow.

Note: Plans are still to get curtains up and spray paint the frames above the bed black. We also have a custom headboard in the works.

Truth 7: Browsing through my phone, I came across THIS pic and it was just too good not to share. A perfect depiction of the first 6 months of my life as a new momma.

Hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend!

Another first

My sweet boy just completed his first swimming lessons and I am so proud of him.

He was pretty unsure what to think during the first day, as in he cried the whole 30 minutes,

but as the days went on he was more and more comfortable in the water; however,
 we did get their 5 minutes late, which resulted in me ripping our clothes of and running to the water.

I guess that might scare anyones first experience with something.  

It makes my heart smile to see him gain confidence in himself and his abilities.

We have yet to master going underwater without it being a tramatic experience (as you will see below),

but I can't say I blame him.

We spend the first 14 months of his life trying to keep water off of his head and out of his ears in fear of ear infections, so he is not that used to it.

We got to take lessons with our sweet friends Cassie and Nixon. Nixon and Crewe are bound to be best friends! He is one cool kid and we are quite fond of him!

It is still hard for me to believe that this sweet boy

Is now this sweet boy

I am so looking forward to recording every first and second and third milestones of his sweet life!

Randoms

I have nothing witty to say tonight (do I ever), but do have a boatload of pictures burning a hole in my drive, just begging me to download them.

 So overwhelm yall with pictures I shall.

Thank me later!

Apparently something was in the air, John/ the dog (hilarious),
while Crewe just nomnoms on his popsicle.

Sophie has quickly learned that Crewe + water hose (does not)= Nice leisurely drink,
so she scrounges where she can.

I will leave you with this, don't you just hate when you pass someone in the store, parking lot, running etc.... and you go to give them a closed mouth smile,

only to realize you lips are way too dry for that kind of smile,

which turns into more of a snarl in their direction than a smile, due to your parched lip getting caught on your tooth/gum.

Totally happened to me tonight walking into walmart. HATE that.

Always fell I need to go apologize!