It's been a year...
...a crazy, exciting, devastating, perplexing year. But, we're back with a vengeance! ha!
This will be a long one folks - so grab a cup of coffee, and relax.
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* Where We've Been *
The last year has had me on overdrive to say the least, and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon.
I spent most of my summer working, visiting my parents, and trying to wrap my noggin' around the fact that I was going to be a MOM...scary, I know.
I ended up waiting until the last minute to get most things ready for our wee one. I wouldn't go back and change my time spent for the world though. I was able to spend my extra time visiting with my Mama (and my Pops).
As some of you may know, my Mom was diagnosed with Neuroendocrine Small Cell Tumor (the big C) in March-ish of last year. Unfortunately she lost her battle with the disease at the end of October last year. She had just turned 65 years old.
It's been difficult to adjust for me. She was one of my best friends, she was the person I called whenever I needed to just talk, she was my partner at craft shows, she was my inspiration, my cheerleader...she was my Mom. She was going to have all the answers for me when I called her in the middle of the night because I had a colicky baby...or more accurately commiserate with me about having no idea what I'm doing...and remind me that I will do the best I can, and that's all I can do.
There are times when I allow myself to feel that pain...when I'm completely alone, in the shower (which if you're a Mom...you know this doesn't happen very often!), and it lasts a couple of minutes. I then shelf that feeling, and move on. I'll do what my Mom always did, and save that for when I'm less busy. ha!
Now onto happy moments....
Squish arrived on January 1st, 2013 (she was the first baby of the New Year!!) at 11:12 pm. She was 8 lbs. 15 oz., 21 1/2 inches long, and was 2 weeks overdue! She was worth the wait...but if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have let her go that long. I had to be induced...which I can say was HORRIBLE! She decided that she was comfortable right where she was, and did not want to budge! This speaks to her personality outside of the womb as well...she will do what she wants...on her own schedule. :)
I'm not going to go into details at this time about my delivery, but after that whole thing...we will enjoy our Squish for quite a while before we think about having another bambino!
* Where We Are *
Squish is rapidly changing...I never knew they grew THIS FAST!! She's a very happy baby...always has been since the second she was born. Don't get me wrong the kid has a set of lungs on her, but she's typically a happy girl. She loves to smile, laugh, and babble (just like her Mama).
We are still on the Cloth Diaper Wagon...and going strong! I'm always up for talking Cloth, so you are always welcome to shoot me a message about it. :) I'm glad my good friends Lindsay and Kristin were the brave pioneer women (at least in my life) that convinced me to cloth diaper.
I'm also breastfeeding Squish...which has been (thankfully) very easy from the beginning.
Squish is also eating tons of fruits and veggies, she's an eating machine! I've been trying to keep up with her demand for food by making my own. I just need to get a spare moment to restock the freezer....ahhh!!!
B-Real is recovering nicely from his dirt bike accident in April (happy friggin' birthday to me...it was on my b-day weekend! GAH! Men!). It was a scary phone call, but he survived...and by the time he was healed up enough...I was over the angry stage of it. It made things pretty complicated for me though. Work, baby, broken partner...2 hours of sleep each night because my child refused to sleep at night.
He would like to be hitting the trails again by the end of this summer...I'm a wee bit harder to convince on this timeline. ;)
I'm still working full-time...and hating it. I've gotta be honest on this one. Everyday I miss my Squish! We are incredibly lucky that close family watches her 3 days a week, and the other 2 days she goes to a great babysitter. I want to be with her though. She's growing and changing so quickly...I feel like she's being raised by someone else.
Every night I have to rush home after work, unpack the bags from the day, make dinner, feed Squish, bath time, jammies, book, then bed...then I have to fold laundry from the day before, clean up the house, etc....etc...etc...
Don't even get me started on the pumping...let's just cut out the middle man shall we?!?! I don't mind pumping for someone else to give her a bottle every once in a while. Heck, I'd even make sure to have one bottle on hand for B-Real to feed her every night before bed. Trying to work in pumping at work has been a nightmare, and now my supply is starting to suffer because of this. BLAH!!
* Where We're Going *
There are tons of great opportunities coming this fall!
* In the beginning of August I'm working on a mini session photo shoot with an amazing photographer (and great friend) Kylie K. Photography. You can also find her at The Dreaming Tree Photography on Facebook.
She does AMAZING work...and she'll be offering up a great new service for all you blokes out there that are thinking about popping the question to your lovely lady!
Check her out!!! :)
* There will be some great posts about Cloth Diapering, new recipes, DIY tutorials, Giveaways...and the beat goes on....the beat goes on. Sorry...I had a little Squirrel moment there.
* There will be Pinterest Win or Lose posts...where I try to remake a famous Pin on Pinterest.
* A Ready - to - Ship sale is coming to the Facebook page the second week in August.
* We are going to have a Facebook/Blog Giveaway in August...details to come in the next week.
* We are also going to be having our very own YouTube channel...which will be up and running this week also!
* And...which I'm MOST excited for...I'll be doing subscription box reviews. The first review will be up this week, and there will be a theme every month! I'm pretty stoked for this one. Can you tell?
So many fantastic things are coming up over the next couple weeks alone! So stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, you can check us out on our other media sites:
Thanks everyone!!
