Just Checking In...

Wow, this year is flying by so I just want to take a second to check in with myself! If I don't, I think I will forget everything that is happening right now.

First of all, I have never been so busy in my life! I've been back to school for a couple of months now and man, the days are long! The daily routine is really wearing me out, but luckily only one more week before winter vacation. Then two weeks of with my baby and Gil!

Mason is so fun these days!! He's crawling, pulling up to a stand all by himself, and working on popping his 4 top teeth any day now!

To say I lovvvvve him is an understatement. What an awesome little guy he is! He loves being silly to make us smile and is the happiest little guy ever. He loves looking at his books and will usually reach for a book over his toys. He likes being read to and turning the pages. He loves crawling around and exploring.

Gil and I have been plugging away at the house, doing projects here and there. I love the changes we've made and it's really starting to feel like a home. We had most of the downstairs painted and have finally started hanging things on the walls. Gil has been working hard at replacing old fixtures, like light switches. He also replaced all the toilets. We just ordered a new washer, dryer, and dishwasher...thank you Black Friday deals!

We are going to replace the light fixtures on the main floor soon. Over winter break we will hopefully  knock out a few more projects.

This is the first year that we aren't going back to GR for the holidays. We are looking forward to starting some new traditions as our little family of three (plus Laila!) this year. We have the Christmas tree up and Gil decorated the house with lights.

This weekend we are going to pick out Mason's first ornament and stockings. I just ordered The Night Before Christmas so we can read it to our kid(s) each year on Christmas Eve.

Looking forward to the holidays and some time to relax at home!

Here are some catch-up pictures:

From Grand Haven this summer

Some Miscellaneous:

What a little love!

Sleep? What's that!?

Just taking a second to check in so I can remember this period of my life. Otherwise, it'll all be a sleep deprived blur!

Mason will be 5 months old on Monday and he's so so fun and adorable. He's learning new things and seems more like a real little person each day. That being said, he is terrible at sleeping! Ha! Just being honest.

From the get go, he hasn't been a great sleeper but it's getting harder everyday. Maybe it's the four month sleep regression everyone talks about...I'm wondering how long it'll last!

It's super hard to get him down for naps lately and once he actually falls asleep, it's 30 minutes tops. I'm hoping this truly is a phase he will get through. I never imagined that sleep would be so hard for a baby but he sure knows how to fight it. He definitely has not learned how to get past the first sleep cycle and how to fall back asleep without help yet. I tease Gil that Mason inherited his stubbornness. Gil claims he got it from me. Maybe he got a double dose. :)

Yesterday Gil and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We had such a fun day. We did some projects around the house in the morning. Gil changed all the light fixtures in the upstairs bedrooms and hallway (I helped minimally). I'm so happy all the ugly ceiling fans are outta there!

Then in late afternoon, the three of us headed to a new brewery, Griffin Claw, we hadn't tried before. It had an awesome outdoor eating area for summer and reminded me of Brewery Vivant in GR. If you go, try the fried pickles. They were delish. After dinner, we headed to RO to get dessert at Astoria Bakery, per our anniversary tradition. We walked around for a while and then we took a drive by our old house. It was a fun, low-key evening.

Looking at Daddy at dinner

The night before we enjoyed our last bottle of wedding wine!

Can't wait to see what the future brings for us!

Mixed Feelings

I know it's still June and I'm not going back to work until the end of August, but the wheels are already turning in my head thinking about school and everything I need to do before the year starts up again. It feels like so long since I have been in my own classroom since I did push-in this year and have been out of school since the end of February. I really hope I haven't lost my mojo! Ha!

Part of me feels excited to get back in the classroom. I'm excited to have a new group of kids, to decorate my new room, and to be back in the groove of working everyday. But...a big part of me feels terrible about the idea of Mason being with other people all day, everyday while I'm gone. Right now he is literally a different baby everyday when he wakes up. He's learning so fast and has new skills to show off everyday. I don't want to miss that! The idea that he will be at daycare for at least 8 hours a day is really depressing to me, even though we found a place that I'm sure he'll love. But oy...not fun to think about leaving my little baby, especially when I think of how fast four months has already flown by. I feel like I'm going to blink and he'll be 17.

Since I am definitely going back to work in August, I'm trying really hard to get myself excited about it, instead of concentrating on the bad parts. When Mason goes down for {very short} naps, I've been trying to work on back to school stuff. The best I can do is be very prepared and organized so that I don't feel stressed during the school year. Hopefully that'll help ease the blow.

Through it all, I can't help thinking that every woman should get a year maternity leave! All these poor little babies being separated from their mommas...doesn't seem right! I am thankful at least that I have a job that allows me to get out of work relatively early in the day, have holiday breaks, and the summer time off.

Working mommas, any tips for easing the guilt when your little one is away from you during the working day?!

Happy...

It's summer, the baby is peacefully napping, and I have an iced vanilla latte next to me. Life is good.

Things I Want to Remember at Three Months...

Mason is already three months old- almost four. He's becoming more and more fun each day. Things I want to remember about three months old:

* so smiley
* starting to laugh more
* likes holding onto fabric
* can reach for and grasp toys like rattles
* getting much better at tummy time and his neck is getting very strong
* started rolling from stomach to back probably a month ago
* loves looking at nature- stares at the trees and being outside calms him
* likes the bath {most days}
* bedtime is easy- he goes right down
* daytime naps- not as easy...usually maxes out at 30-40 min of sleep
* starting to chew on everything, especially his hands
* drooling...might be starting to teethe
* does NOT like his carseat- screams when he gets in it but then calms down once we get moving
* still prefers to be held all the time!
* loves being sung to
* adorable baby chatter
* likes books...will listen to me read 4-5 at a time most days
* has the most adorable pout ever

Love you, little guy!

The Longest Shortest Time...

I've been meaning to write this for a long time now, but you know, I've been kind of busy with a baby! This has been the longest three months and the shortest three months of my life all at the same time. I want to make sure that I remember the details of these blurry first few months, starting with February 27th...

So my due date, the 27th, rolled around and I went to work like normal. By the end of the day I had decided that even though the baby wasn't here yet, I wanted to be done with work so I could rest. Let me tell you, lugging my very pregnant self around school was not the most comfortable by the last few weeks!

I went to bed like normal and woke up around 11 pm that night with contractions that I knew were real. I woke Gil up and told him I was having some contractions and he happily went back to sleep immediately. Ha!

I tried to get some sleep...because that's what everyone says you should do. Sleep now to save up your energy! Yeah right! I had to get up and move. I got up and went in our bathroom and just kept moving and swaying. Somewhere in there I started timing contractions. I must've really been in the zone because the time flew by until 1 a.m. when I felt like I should wake Gil up. By now the contractions were pretty strong to the point where I thought maybe we would be heading to the hospital.

Gil got up, showered, packed the rest of the things in our hospital bag, and called my doctor and  the birthing center. The nurse wanted to talk to me to see what state I was in and by now I had to stop talking to her to get through a contraction. They said I sounded ready to come in! My biggest fear was that we would get there and be sent home. Before we left, Gil said he needed to eat something so I stood there having contractions waiting while he ate a bowl of cereal. Hilarious to think about now because by the time we got to the hospital I was already 8 cm dilated!

I was also scared about the car ride to the hospital- that I would be extremely uncomfortable and miserable. But somehow through it all, I must've just been in the zone and stayed pretty calm and comfortable.

When we got to the hospital, Gil dropped me off at the Emergency Room entrance like they told us to, so I could get right up to the room and he went to park the car. I remember a nice old man getting a wheelchair ready for me and I had to wait a minute or two for a contraction to pass before I could even think of sitting down. Then a nice nurse came and got me to wheel me up to the Alternative Birthing Center. I remember her making chitchat with me and being slightly annoyed by this haha!

I got up to the ABC and there was a warm bath waiting for me in the huge tub. Yes please! I labored for a couple of hours and by 6:47 a.m. Mason James was born! He was 8 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long.

In the hospital the day we went home

It was a pretty amazing experience and I was so happy to have Gil by my side the whole time.

As Ready As We're Going To Be...

That's how I'm feeling these days! I'm 38 weeks + 4 days preg today and it has definitely started to feel like a waiting game! Personally, I think this little guy is gonna go the whole 40 weeks but we will see. Right now I am on mid-winter break and it's perfect timing to have this week off to rest and get last minute things done. I wonder if I will be returning to work this school year or not!?

Baby L's nursery is not really done yet. We need to hang artwork and such, but all the staples are there and he won't be sleeping in his own room for a while anyways. So I'm not too worried about that.

With Gil working so many hours during busy season, it was my biggest worry that the baby would come and Gil would be totally drained already. Now that busy season is past us (they filed on Friday...yay!) I feel like I can relax a little.

I can't believe that this pregnancy is almost done! For the most part, it feels like it has flown by and I have felt really good the whole time. Can't wish for anything better than that. Now I'm just ready to meet this baby!

Wish me luck in labor! :)

Sometimes the Weather Just Doesn't Cooperate...

at least when you live in Michigan it doesn't! I was supposed to have my baby shower yesterday. My sisters and best friend worked so hard planning, decorating, buying food, arranging everything. But you guessed, it the weather interfered. The shower was supposed to be in East Lansing and most people were driving in from the West side of the state. Unfortunately, they got slammed with a winter storm the night before and roads were not safe.

I debated back and forth whether or not we should just try to do the shower with whoever could make it since my due date is so soon. But people were dropping like flies and in the end, I decided it just wasn't worth risking the trip on potentially snowy/icy roads myself.

So we ended up canceling, but unfortunately, my Aunt Beth and Hilary did not get the message and they ended up going to the party. Long story short, Rachael, Sarah, Erin, Beth, and Hilary got to enjoy some shower food and cake. I'm pretty bummed that I wasn't at my own shower!!

Beth & Hilary

Me on the left, Gil on the right, baby in the middle!

Erin & Sar enjoying some shower treats

Beth and Hilary were so nice. On their way home, they dropped off some shower gifts that had been shipped ahead of time, so I got to open some gifts after all.

Gil felt really bad that the shower got canceled, so he came home from work with some gelato (what a great husb!) and took me out to dinner. Afterwards, we opened the gifts together. In the end, it ended up being a fun day...even though I would've much preferred to have spent it with all my friends and family if the weather had allowed!!

They made me an adorable scrapbook for future pictures

The adorable diaper cake Sarah made

On the flip side, we have now had four days total off from school because of weather. So, you win some you lose some. Snow days are definitely a win, in my book!

This mama to be has enjoyed those extra days off for resting! We're already at week 35! Not much longer to go!

This polar vortex is supposed to continue this week...wonder if we'll have anymore days off??!!?!

Crazy Michigan and Some Nursery Updates

We have been having some crazy weather here in Michigan the past week or so. We were due to come back from Winter break on  Monday, but we ended up with three snow days in a row! It was amazing! So today was my first day back to school...quite strange to start the week on a Thursday.

Over break, Gil was a champ, working on the nursery SOO much {after battling strep and a bad fever-poor guy!}.

When we first saw this house, we loved the spaciousness of the rooms but knew we had a lot of decor-updating ahead of us. This is how the nursery room looked when the previous owners were living here:

Not cute, right!? I will be honest, I haven't helped one ounce to actually prepare this room for our little guy. Gil gets all the credit. So far, he has taken down the lovely heart border, done some wall repair, painted the ceiling, primed and painted the trim, painted the walls, installed new outlet and light switch covers, and changed out the old registers for new ones. He also put together the crib, changing table, and dresser! I'm exhausted just writing all of that. He's one hard worker.

We still have a lot to do in the nursery, but it's definitely coming along.

 It's hard to tell the color of the walls from my iPhone pictures, but they are a light aqua. We are using aqua, gray, and yellow for the colors in the nursery. Kinda like this:

{source}

I bought this wall art from Etsy, which I'm waiting on any day now:

YassisPlace on Etsy

I also think I want to get this rug (although I haven't seen it in person yet) from IKEA. It was out of stock when we went last time...thumbs down. It looks a little brighter than it's showing up in the picture below. Even if we don't get this particular rug, we will get some kind of yellow rug for a pop of color on the floor.

Ikea Stockholm Rug

It will be fun to see how it all comes together. On a related note, we joined Amazon Mom  and have started to stock up on a few things. We got a shipment of newborn diapers the other day and they are ADORABLE. So teensy tiny.

Last but not least, I started working out again over break and am keeping track of my workouts (however minor) on a calendar on the fridge. Here's the bump & I on the treadmill. Getting big!