Selling like hotcakes

Now we all know the Astor's don't do anything half 'arsed'. Full time job, running little man, sounds like the perfect time to start a business, and what a business it is! These babies are selling like hot-cakes! I'm probably the only business owner who says "Oh Sh*t" every time I get an order (kidding, I love every minute of it.) I'll sleep when I'm old.

Another one bites the dust

(lots of pictures this week!)

We're down another feeding, he dropped the morning feeding this week, leaving us only with an evening feeding. Holy Hormones, they're nuts, flippin' insane. I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm laughing, I'm crying. I've got two new friends located on my face (eww) as well as one boob the size of Montana (he is only feeding off one side these days.) I spent Tuesday complaining to my mom.

Me: "Oh my gosh, this zit is huge, ugh."


Mom: "Well if it's that bad then go feed him."


Me: *confusion* (How is feeding him going to help my zit?!?)


"No, I said my ZIT is huge, not my tit"

In Nolen news:

Nolen's new favorite spot in the house is located in the corner of our garage. It's conveniently located next to all of our swifters, mops, and brooms (his absolute favorite thing to play with.) If we're inside he walks to the garage door, stands waving and announcing "bye, bye" until we take him out. If you try to bring him back in before he's done playing, he gets a death grip on a swifter and screams. I'm sure the neighbors are watching this from their window and analyzing it all wrong- 'I think she's beating him with a broom.' Oh Nolen, with all these toys and you pick a broom in the dirty garage.

My girlfriend Ameila & I

I'm bringing sexy back

Another blog I read brought up a genius point. She said she's bringing her Mommy sexy back. There's no reason that just because you have a little one you have to be a frumpy mommy. There's no reason that your fashion sense should be affected. So I've made the commitment, just like JT, I'm bringing sexy back. This Momma is done eating girl scout cookies, done making up excuses not to work out, done, done, and done! Bathing suit season is tapping at my shoulder and I'm going to be ready for it. I'm going to flaunt my pre-baby bikini's and love every minute of it. People will be left wondering if I'm the mommy or the nanny. Mission Sexy Back begins today (right after I finish this row of Somoas.)

Dum, Dum, Dum...

(This was a taken by the one and only, Nolen)

We have entered into yet another new phase, the 12 month wakeful. You see when a baby acquires a new skill (in this case walking) their sleeping declines. It's because all they want to do is practice their new trick. Last week Nolen woke up faithfully at 4:30 am, ready to walk. For a moment I blamed day light savings, but then I realized that should be working in our advantage. Well fingers crossed that this is just a phase, the past 2 days we've slept in, until 6am.

Saturday we spent the day at my school's spring carnival. Nolen was in awe. He is some what of a celebrity among my 3rd graders. This could be because I start every school day with a picture, story, or video of little man. Also if the students are good, Nolen sometimes stops by as a reward. They LOVE it, they love him (it melts my heart.) So back to the carnival...it made me realize just how big my little man actually is. He was able to enjoy the bounce house, ran over to the petting farm (Stinky) and has his first taste of a snowcone (or 3.) He grinned that sweet toothy smile every time a little voice yelled, "look, it's baby Nolen!"

Space Mission Complete

Guess who's walking!

Thursday afternoon I walk in the door from a long day of teaching. Over walks Nolen. Yes you read that correctly. Over WALKS Nolen. Just nonchalantly, as if he's been doing it for months. Strolls right on over to his mommy and laughs. Panic, excitement,heart beating from joy. I immediately ask my mom how long he's been doing this, she insists it was his first time. From the look of shock on her face I know she's telling the truth. Little man waited until his Mommy got home to show off his new moves. love. The funny thing is he didn't take the normal wobbly first step, he just started walking, right across the room, never looking back. love this little man! (Stay tuned for the video!)




side note...our camera decided to break the day of Nolen's birthday (of course it did) so our pictures might be a little shady as it gets repaired the next few weeks.

Little mans going shopping...

Mr. A and I are on a b...bbb....(this word really makes me cringe)...budget. Why can't they call it something nicer, like saving for a house, living minimally, enjoying fewer of the finer things in life, don't those have a nicer ring to them?

Anyway, we each have a allotted amount of "fun money." The kind of money that's no questions asked, used solely for your fun and enjoyment! My fun this month was getting little mans summer wardrobe kicked off! Every month I drool over the MiniBoden catalogue, so I finally just went for it. Watch out GQ, Nolen Reed will be styling pro-filing through the streets of of GA.

Nursing

I made a promise to myself long before Nolen was ever born. I promised myself that I would try to nurse, but wouldn't beat myself up if it didn't work out. So little man arrived, slight moment of panic "I never took the breast feeding class, I don't know what I'm doing." Then mother nature kicked in and little man latched right on. So far so good.

I always try to warn all my new mommy friends that breastfeeding was by far the hardest part of having a newborn (for me at least.) Somehow in all of my baby books it never mentioned this little tid bit. It was overwhelming knowing that I was the soul provider of food for this little man, every 3 hours, day and night, no breaks. I made it to 3 months and then set my next goal for 6. Six months came, I was going back to work so I thought that was a good stopping point however things were just going too well, so we kept at it. This time adding in pumping 2 x a day to the mix. By the time we made it this far it was second nature to our days. Next goal, 12 months.

Well little man turned 12 months, and we did stop some feedings, just not ALL the feedings. We've decided to cut out his daytime feedings (aka pumping at work.) For now we're nursing in the morning and at night. I want the decision to be mutual. I want Nolen stop when he's ready. I hear for lots of babies it's around 15 months (we may have to rethink this if we're still going at age 12.)

Whatever happens from here on out I'm good with. I feel relieved that I was able to give him 12 full months of that liquid gold goodness. I'm grateful that we were able to have 12 months of such a special bond. We'll see where we go from here!

Blog hop!

It's time for the first ever Bump blog hop. For those of you who are not familiar, the bump is an online commuity of mommies and preggers galore.

Directions:
Visit at least 3 new blogs and leave a comment on each! Thats it, have fun hopping! Hopefully you'll find some new reads!

1. A Sink full of Dishes
2. Baby Nolen's Journey (I had to add this in :)
3. And Along Came Lyla
4. Pop Culture Curmudgeon
5. Carrie's Sweet Life
6. Adventures from Chez Wills East
7. Honey we Made a kid...
8. Life With Aiden
9. The Vanderlofske's
10. Another Ten Miles
11. She's a Hoot
12. Momma Maven in the Making
13. Magically Mundane
14. Whoa Momma!!
15. Logan Patrick
16. Modern Day Suzy Homemaker
17. Peek into Our Nest
18. Hanging with Dad
19. Paint and Prozac
20. The Pedersen Family
21. The Fudges
    

It's Mommies birthday!!

Mommy is turning 29 years young, it's my birthday week! That's how we do it around my house, not a birthday day, instead a birthday week. Mr. A and I started the celebration with a mini vacation to Atlanta (he's still there in training for his new job.) Aquarium, shopping, eating, and most importantly sleeping! He kept asking what I wanted to do on our mini vacation and sadly the only thing I could think of was sleep. I just really wanted to lay in bed all day and sleep. Funny how things change. We were pitiful without the little guy in tow. Everywhere we went we'd say "Oh Nolen would love looking at those fish." "Nolen would have loved seeing the giant coke bottle." "Oh, if Nolen was here he'd be laughing at this." or then there was our romantic dinner date where a baby sat conveniently close. We sat playing peek-a-boo, and talking about how many teeth our little man has. Daddy was even giving advice on teething necklaces. Oh how times change. Next year my birthday plans will include the little guy (and maybe some more sleep!)

Below are a few pictures from my trip to Maryland last week...

First off are my best girl friends from HS. Trouble we were, but look at how good we turned out :)

Next we had a visit with my good friend Danielle and FINALLY got to meet her cutie patootie Kellan. Him and Nolen loved each other, I just wished we lived closer :(

(please excuse me in this picture, Saturday night I forgot and thought I was 21 again,

Yager bombs are NOT my friend anymore!)

Hawaii

This week at school I was showing a map of the United states to my third graders. I was reminded of a time, sadly just a few short years ago, when I had a revelation. Mr. A and I were having a conversation that went something like this:

Me: We should go to Hawaii, I've never been and I think I'd like it.

Mr. A: Well it's a really long flight, that would take up 2 days of our vacation.

Me: No it wouldn't, it can't take any longer then our flight to Colorado, or that one to Oklahoma, 3 hours is nothing.

Mr. A: It's like a 12 hour flight

Me: There's no way **grabbing out a map** you see it's like the same distance from FL as Colorado, so if it's 3 hours to get that far then it would only be 3 hours to get to Hawaii.

Mr. A: **eyes grow wide** Hawaii is not below Texas, they just put it in that box so it will fit on the map, Hawaii is wayyy over here.

Total blond moment. I blame my 7th grade geography teacher.

My big boy & my big weekend

A dear friend of mine had her baby shower over the weekend, in Maryland. A quick trip up and back makes for one tired mommy. I just think of all these little flights as practice rounds for our big flight to Italy coming up this summer. It will just be like flying to Maryland, 10 times :(

Part of me thinks it will be easier flying with a bigger baby. He can eat real food, he can communicate better when he needs something, he can watch movies on the Ipad (I know it's bad, don't judge.) Then the other part of me, the part that flew with him this past weekend, thinks that Momma's gonna need a few drinks on this flight. I won't say he was awful , but definitely more challenging then previous flights.

The same big boy who is now able to communicate better sometimes choose to communicate through a loud screeching (think little girl sticking her feet in boiling water) noise. He also didn't understand the concept of 'remain in your seat with your seat belt buckled at all times.' He wanted to dance, and run, and go visit with every passenger. Then there was the new game he played that involved taking everything out of the seat back pocket and handing it to the stranger beside us (thank GOODNESS she was happy to play along.) Next he decided to fix hair, unfortunately it belonged to the person in front of us. We can't forget his other new game , it's called 'lets throw everything I can get my hands on down the isle.' (That was a fun one!) We finally had peace (so I thought) as he quietly occupied himself over my shoulder. Turns out he was busy removing the emergency signs located on the back wall. Oh dear. Italy could be a very, very long flight.