Baby Nolen's Journey: May 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

13 month pictures

We seem to be a month off with all of our milestone pictures. 6 month pictures at 7 months, now 12 month pictures at 13 months...oh well...enjoy! Thank you Nicole Ryan for our beautiful pictures!

Monday, May 23, 2011

I apologize for my lack of posts. The Astor family has had an insane past few days.

Wednesday: Mr. A gets the call that we're transfering back to Florida (yeehaw!)
Thursday: I call my old school back and get my job back (weeeee!)
Friday: drive to Orlando after work to find a place to live
Saturday: Find our dream home and make an offer (SO EXCITED!)

Throw a trip to Italy in the mix on June 10th and you can see how things are getting a little hairy. It's all good, but all a little nuts right now!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Easier everyday!

Having a newborn is crazy, absolutely insane. There is no feasible way to explain to someone what is about to happen to their life once a baby arrives. It's just complete chaos. Perhaps that's why there's this commodity among all mommies. This unspoken rule that "I know what you've been through, I've been there too" type of understandings. I can remember being completely overwhelmed and wondering how the hell people have more then one of these. Well something has happened over the past year. He's gotten older, easier in some ways and tougher in others. He's my big boy but still a little baby. For the first time we can actually fathom having another one (and no, another one is not on the way.) We're simply understanding how it would actually be possible to have another, we can see the light. Nolen might actually have siblings one day.

I've been thinking about whats changed, why he's easier these days:

- He SLEEPS! I used to hear people saying that their 2 day old slept through the night. Right. I'm sure they do! It has nothing to do with the fact that you wear ear plugs, don't own a monitor, and could sleep through a hurricane. These people really eerked me. Newborns don't sleep through the night, and Nolen was no exception. He really didn't start sleeping through the night until he was close to a year old, and oh what a glorious day that was!

-No more nursing! Mommy can wear anything she wants, can drink mimosas with breakfast (can take Tylenol when she has one to many mimosas,) she can eat spicy foods, she can leave you for longer then 4 hours at a time, she can stop drinking 2 gallons of water each day, she can wear normal bras, she can be FREE!

-He eats table food. SO much has gone into Nolen's eating this past year. Before leaving the house we'd have to do the rundown,"Do we have baby food, bib, spoon, little bowl, bottle , milk..." Now when can get up and go without much thought. This boy can eat anything, anywhere! Easy.

-He can feed himself now, well, kind of...

-The car- Car rides used to be a huge fiasco. Nolen hated his car seat, he hated riding for longer then 5 minutes at a time. We would be forced to sing 'Wheels on the Bus' for our entire car ride. These days he's enjoying his big boy seat, more room! He likes to listen to music, sing songs, and if things get a little hairy we just toss some goldfish back and turn on Elmo. Nice.

Love.this.little.man.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Being a mother means...

Being a mother means:

Always putting someone else first. Work, sleep, exercise, eatting...doesn't matter. You may or may not get one, or any of these things for that matter.

You happily shorten your get-ready time in the morning so you can get some extra snuggles and smiles.

Scooping up things that magically appear, floating in the bathtub.

Turning your tatas into a milk factory, open for business 24 hours a day.

Trading in your favorite radio station for "The Wheels on the Bus."

Running down the road like a crazy women, flailing your arms, because it's making a certain someone laugh.

Pointing out the color of everything your come in contact with in hopes of teaching colors. "The Starbuck cup is white, WHITE."

Trading in your 52" TV for a 3" baby monitor screen. Who knew watching a little one sleep could be so therupedic.

Going out to dinner and being thankful to see a roomful of other babies!

Buying all your clothes in size 12-18 month. (Little ones are SO fun to shop for, who needs clothes for themselves any more?)

Counting down the minutes, from the time you leave in the morning, untill you can get back home to that sweet little face.

Planning your meals & outting around naptime and bedtime. (8-10am, 1-3pm, & 7pm)

Learning what it truly means to love. Love, love, love!

Being a Mommy truly is the best.thing.ever. Happy Mothers' Day!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

So close I can taste it...

(It's a good thing that I invested so much into his summer wardrobe. Those clothes will look awfully cute in his closet as he runs around in his birthday suit all summer.)

Summer is Oh-So-Close, the school year is almost over, Yahoo! 13 school days and counting. Truth be told, it could be my last days of teaching. When we moved to Georgia this year, I became the low man on the totum pole, the last one hired at my school. Well budget cuts, yadda yadda, my contract has yet to be renewed. They have to first make sure every other teacher has been placed. I should be worried, but I'm not. In fact I have this very calm, "don't' you worry, bout a thing, cause, every little thing is gonna be alright" feeling. Maybe I'll teach next year, maybe I won't. We shall see, but things always have a way of working themselves out. In the meantime I'll be enjoying every minute at home with my little man, all summer long, yippee!

On Saturday our neighborhood had a local farm fest. Farmers galore, selling organic produce,meats, and dairy, yum! We stocked up on a gallon of strawberries that you could smell from a mile away. What do you do with that many strawberries you ask? Strawberry everything. Strawberry waffles, strawberry daiquiris, strawberry fruit salad, strawberry everything! I even made some frozen strawberry puree Popsicles for little man, he approved!