Hi there, 2012

Most nights, on nights when we get to put D-nut to bed (as opposed to having him fall asleep in the car on the way home from a party, which was often the case during the holidays), we say prayers together before he dozes off. One thing we make sure to do is thank God for a short list of things we are grateful for from that day, be it french fries to a new toy from his cousins' trip to Disney World.

It got me thinking this morning that I'd like to start something this year with my blog. In addition to my usual writing, I'd like to write about at least one thing I'm thankful for each day, and tell you why. I think it'll be a nice exercise in being appreciative of both the big and little things in our every day lives, and something nice to share.

Enjoy!

What I learned in 2011

• There's nothing wrong with accepting help that is offered to you.
• I've found that starting our own family has filtered out what we don't need and held onto the things and people we do need. Also, our perspective on life has become much clearer.
• Sometimes a step backward is necessary to make a bigger step forward. Just remember not to step too far back or take too many steps in that direction.
• Some people don't ever change.
• If you ever really want to appreciate the things you have, pack them away for a few months.
• The work day isn't so bad when you're dedicated to the cause you're working for.
• The end of maternity leave is hard. The start of every day after that when you leave your baby for the day is even harder. But, it does get a littttle bit easier after a while.
• Oprah is even more amazing on her own network/OWN.
• People grow apart, and that's okay. Also, that doesn't mean that there has to be a definite ending, nor that if there is, it has to end badly.
• All-nighters are good for getting things done, and good for turning your brain to mush.
• Being humble is a challenge. Being more humble is also challenging, no matter how humble you were to begin with.
• Job hunting isn't so bad when you have really good motivation to do it and faith that someone will hire you.
• It's not that I'm not interested in having a career. It's that I'm more interested in growing our family and want to do it while my body still can. My career, whatever it will be, can wait, along with seeing the world.
• There's no such thing as a child who is a neat sleeper. 
• Mr.S and I make really sweet babies.
• Things are just things. What you need, you most likely already have.
• Is the show really worth it when all you're doing it for is yourself?
• "If we all realize that everyone has their own story, people would be kinder to one another."
• A cold can be a blessing.
• Going to emergency in an emergency doesn't mean that you're going to be seen right away. One thing it does mean, though, is that you'll worry and stress a lot, and you'll hear/see some strange things during the wait.
• Every woman has at least one story they'd like to tell, and if they could only tell one, they'd all be good.
• It is difficult to be useless.
• It's never too late to apologize.
• Even scary people smile.
• Whether you like it or not, that bad thing that happened to you is really a blessing in disguise. When you find out it's a blessing is often up to you.
• Some people completely change.
• One person can ENTIRELY change the direction in which your life is going. It's up to you if you want to let that person in and in which direction you'd like to go.

500 Days of Summer revisited

I love these two.

Dear Mr.S...

He loves Santa, HONESTLY!!!

I was wondering...

So this is my first Christmas at this organization and being the sucker/Forgetful Jones that I am, I used all my vacation days and personal days (blame it on the millions of appointments you have when you're preggers) and am going to be here over the holidays, with the exception of the stat holidays we get since Christmas and New Years Day both fall on Sundays (SCORE!). This is actually my first Christmas in the working world where I'm working through the holidays. At my old job, we got Christmas through to the Monday/first business day after New Years off, without having to use vacation days, in addition to many other perks. Oh how I miss the private sector sometimes.

So, I was wondering if I'd get to at least leave early today, given that it's the Friday before the holidays. I know it's not Christmas Eve, so when I hadn't heard anything, I kinda figured it'd be a full day. UNTIL....

Yay for my first Christmas gift! I guess my lunch with Mr.S will be a nice LONG one...for me at least :)

I can't get enough of...

*hit Girls Say.

I Love Zooey Deschanel

And since everyone's talking about it...

The new Dark Knight Rises trailer. And, since I haven't been keeping up with the who's and what'ses of this movie, I had no idea that Mr. Gordon-Levitt was in it too (see 1:43 in...I'm serious, I'm not just typing 143 for fun here). Mr.S and I were talking about it this morning on the way to work about how we're going to manage to watch this movie with the baby on my boob in IMAX, and I told him he could just go watch it with the brothers or the guys and I'll just wait. Well, forget that. I'm going, baby on boob if I have to!

It's HERE!!

The trailer, that is. (WARNING: NSFW. I watched it this morning and have not done any work since.)

Enter the Guilt

I wasn't sure if I wanted write about this. But I believe that it's gonna be okay, and I figured I could get some feedback from you mothers of more-than-one.

I'm feeling guilty about having another baby be my baby other than D-nut. The days with him as our only baby are winding down, and I'm really starting to feel like our days of just us are numbered. Ugh, I'm gonna cry. It's never gonna be just him again. When this new baby comes, my attention will have to be divided into at least half, and I feel like the chances of me missing things in D's growth are going to increase. I don't want to miss things. He's growing so quickly and is picking up things so fast. I've already missed enough having decided to go back to work.

And then there's this little baby, whose mother is going to be worrying so much about what she's missing with the older one, that this one doesn't get all the attention the older one had at his age. It's bad enough I've forgotten what infants do and when! Does that stuff jump back into your memory with the baby jumps out of your womb? Can I be a good mother to two children?

I've been thinking about it day and night for weeks, moreso than in the months before that.


Then, on Sunday at mass, during D's regular I'm-bored-I'm gonna wander-around-the-baptismal-font-and-see-what-I-find walk, he saw two kids, a boy and his little sister, around D's age, playing. Usually, when he sees other kids, especially those around his age, he approaches them and sorta tries to hang out with them. These two, though, were the first set of siblings we've ever seen him just watch. The age difference between the two kids looked like two years, just like D and his baby brother will be. He just watched them play and talk to each other and kept turning around to look at us and smile. He'd walk over to get a closer look if they were moving around, but he never actually approached them. He just kept looking at us and smiling.

Oh, the peace I felt in my heart after that. It's like his smile said, "Ma, it's gonna be okay, I want one of those for me too." And then with the next smile, "Ma, really, I'm sure, this is gonna work." And then with the next smile, "Really, can I have my baby brother now?" And then with the next smile, "Trust me. We're gonna be fine."

In all my worries, I had forgotten that this baby I'm carrying is not just a gift to Mr.S and me, but to our D-nut. My siblings are the best gift I've ever gotten from my parents, and whatever attention I missed out on from them, was made up by the attention I got/get from my siblings.

So, this is gonna be great!

On the run

I think I wrote about how D-nut was not a fan of my sling until he was several months old and on the tail-end of the maximum weight the sling could hold. He liked the Baby Bjorn, but I liked the weight of the sling (it was also challenging to have to adjust the bjorn back to my size after Mr.S wore it). And so, now that I'm going to be a mother to not only 2 boys, but to one infant and a very active 2 year-old (OMG, he's turning 2! Waaaaaah!), I need to have my hands free. I'm not just talking about so that I can do stuff around the house, but I need to be able to catch that sneaky little guy (oh, he's getting so sneaky!). So, I'm in the market for a new and comfy baby carrier.

I'm tickled...

BLUE!!!

It's a BABY BOY!

Mr.S was right. He thought he saw something at an ultrasound and when we had another one shortly after, it was confirmed. It's a boy! Then we saw for ourselves, that Mr.S was, in fact, correct.

Also, he's already got a name. This whole thing with having a name and calling him by that name is already a lot of fun. D-nut already knows it, can't say it, but knows exactly where he is if you ask him where _____ is.

Skin-to-Skin

One of the many, many things I'm looking forward to when this baby is born is our very first skin-to-skin contact. For those of you who haven't had children yet, one of the first things they do after you deliver the baby is put the baby on your bare chest. It's amazing (complete understatement right there). (And honestly, at that point, you don't care that your boobies are out and about for the world to see!)

I remember when D-nut and I were first introduced skin-to-skin, he wasn't even crying, he was just looking around, with his head down. The nurses and doctor were saying "Wow, he's so quiet", and of course, my reply was, "Yeah, just like his father." He was so slippery and sweet. He had our full attention so much that we didn't even know I was delivering the placenta and whatever else was happening "down there".

Ugh, I'm so excited to feel all this again.

Here's a story I read this morning about a skin-to-skin miracle. Be armed with your tissues, people.

I Love Zach Galifianakis

Smell the onion!

Jimmy Kimmel's at it again!

What To Expect When You're Expecting...

...THE MOVIE.

TOO COOL!!

My cousin and sister told me about this. A Bubble Calendar. The year has never looked so fun (and December 31st so sad)!

Momlife

We're the first of our circles of friends to be parents. Now we're the first of our circles of friends to be parents of two kids. Scratch that. We're the only of our circles of friends to be parents. Period. For now, anyway!

I think our friends are used to that though. We did a lot of things first...started dating first, I moved out first, we got married first, etc. But in all the change that we've embraced first, most of our friends have been patient with us. Life changes when you take big leaps like that, and most of them have never complained or changed the way they were around us because of the way our life changed as we leaped from milestone to milestone. Most of our friends have embraced the change with us and celebrated each milestone with us as though it were their own. They have offered us a level of understanding and acceptance that we cannot thank them enough for. That's just part of the reason why we love our friends like they're family, and we both have very big families.

And so, when I read this article (once a few weeks ago and again this morning), I couldn't help but think about how most of our friends have never exhibited this sort of curiousity, and if they did, they never questioned us about it. I'm sure many of our friends have wondered though. And so, here is the answer, and I promise, I don't intend on whatever snarky tones the article might have, but the facts within. Welcome to our world.

This Christmas

It'll be different but that is not to say that different is a bad thing.

This year, we don't have our own home with halls to deck, nor will I be baking. But, we are giving ourselves the gift of relaxation and calm, and will be mixing our decorations with those that adorned the home my husband grew up in.

I will likely never experience a Christmas like this again, and although it is different, I plan to embrace it, for it's the only one of its kind that I may have.

Merry Christmas to a different Christmas.

Note: If I like this non-baking Christmas thing too much, consider yourselves out of luck in the years to come (just kidding).