getting the cobwebs out of the corners with a broom

Um, seriously? Two weeks since my last post? Definitely a new record around here. Don't say you didn't miss me:)

Where to even begin....

I guess I could tell you a story about me almost being eaten alive by 5 million mosquitoes, while trail running with my husband for 6 miles through the freaking forest, with insane hills and uneven terrain, during the hottest part of the day. That was sweet.

Or I could talk about how Truman was sick with a cold last week which meant he couldn't breathe without rattling, which meant the idea of sleep was a thing of the past. I also diagnosed him with teething some phantom teeth that are invisible to the naked eye, but produce all the classic symptoms. Poor baby boy was still flashing those killer grins at us from behind a sea of snot and drool and coughing and sneezing, which was heartbreaking and adorable all at once. And then he decided to wake up (for the second time that night, of course) at 2:45 am one night and remained awake until 5 am...when my alarm went off for the day and I subsequently gouged my eyes out with a spoon (then drank obscene amounts of coffee and cursed my role as a working mom). Yeah, that was fun. He's feeling better these days and thus my sleep deprivation is fading slightly.

Maybe I should write about Truman's first meeting with his Great-Grandpa (Pepaw)...
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or his fun play date over coffee donuts with baby Charlie (born on the same day as Truman! Betrothed!)...
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or his other fun play date with baby Eli and Henry and their awesome parents, when we hosted a BBQ at our place...
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Henry the boy with Henry the dog!
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or how I went a little nutso at the Carter's outlet. What? It could have been much worse my friends. And considering that he's in 9 month clothes and our generous supply of a baby-shower produced wardrobe pretty much stops after this size, I just HAD to buy a bunch of 12 month outfits. Well, and a few niners but who's counting. I've discovered that I am obsessed with my baby wearing shirts with collars. Cannot get enough.
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Plus, we took Truman to his first church service last weekend and it was a success! We were even brave enough to send him to the nursery to avoid the chaos of bringing a five month old baby into the service. Besides his freaking adorable outfit (Sunday best, baby) the highlight of the day was when I just couldn't stand it anymore and asked Nate to go check on Truman in the nursery. When he came back he had a goofy grin on his face and said that Truman was being held by one of the teachers and was totally content....until he saw Nate. Then he started to bawl. Great idea on my part to check on him, right? But really, he did great and they loved him and we are all about this church-going stuff. Our goal is every-other weekend so we don't burn out. And the baptism talk is still in the works.
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church shoes!
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Oh, I know! I should write about how my baby boy turned 5 months old last weekend and then I took approximately 384 pictures to commemorate the event. But that's going to be a separate post of it's own, one devote just to the passage of time and Truman's favorite things (and tons of cute pictures, of course). And of course, that post will include pictures of him tasting his first bites of rice cereal because I feel like he's ready for that step and it was absolutely hilarious to watch his facial expressions while 'eating' his new dish. We'll see if I can get that post up before his six month birthday...
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I've been meaning to tell you that my milk supply is finally somewhat predictable now, as is Truman's intake (remember: the ability to predict the numbers equates a very happy nursing/working mama). If I pump three times a day, I can bank on getting 15-16 ounces total. And if I squeeze in a session before work, as Truman still sleeps (ha!) while I'm getting ready I can boast 18-19 ounces total. Which is sweet because little man is taking three or more often four bottles a day while I'm gone, always 4 ounces a piece now. So yeah, all is well in this pumping mama's breastfeeding journey for the time being. And hooray for making it to five months without needing to supplement!

Maybe instead of talking about all of those things that have happened in the last two weeks, I should just remind you that I have the most disgustingly adorable kid evah. He's growing hair and being chunky and is generally amazing. I don't hate to take pictures of him you know.
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hey ladies. check out my hot bod.
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Run DMC shirt = hilarious
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My little expressive man:
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And even though we never ever have poopie blow outs in our cloth diapers, there is a first for everything. While I snapped away photos of my boy in this shoot, pretending to be a photog, I saw him give me this face:
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which was followed by a huge wet fart. No big deal, I thought. I'll change his dipe when we are done. When I went to pick him up I found that the poo had exploded from the side of his diaper and was all over the couch, in between the cushions and totally grodie. Those poor couches. But can you get over his pooping face up there? I can't. :)

My last update tidbit (because this post is getting to be ridiculous and rather scatterbrained): I am flying to St. Louis on Saturday morning for Keri's bachelorette party! Of course I am totally pumped about it but then again, it will be my first night away from Truman so I hope Nate can pull of being mister mom at night especially. Not too sure how Truman will handle being away from the boobs. I will have to bring my pump and use it while we are out and about on the town which will be pretty hilarious and disgusting at once. I'm worried about carrying milk back with me on the plane and worried about having too much to drink and needing to dump it all out (the horror!). But mostly I'm just excited to have an entire night to sleep without interruptions. That is reason enough for me to stay sober, just to enjoy un-broken sleep! Now if I can only find an appropriate bachelorette party outfit for a nursing mama: don't want to look like I'm trying to be a 20 year old partier anymore but I don't want to look like a frumpy mom, either. And the boobs must be somewhat contained or I could look rather slooty. I'm going to get creative with the outfit I think...

A little update and whatnot

Did I ever mention how much I adore my Wednesdays off? Sigh. They are the best. Time for things like laundry...
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running with, then taking a walk with, then cuddling the heck out of this adorable little man with a new hat from Great Aunt Dana...
(pet peeve that it doesn't match his outfit, but Daddy insisted we take pics anyway)

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dressing him up in a vintage outfit from 1981. Yes, this is one of Nate's baby outfits and I can't get over how sentimental that makes me feel when I see Nate's son in one of his outfits. And of course, there's no denying that Truman is Nate's son when you look at these pictures. Isn't vintage Pooh Bear too much to handle? And can you believe how good this outfit looks for being so old? It's super soft and T loves it.
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except this is a total mommy face, no doubt
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and this is all T-man:)
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Plus, Wednesdays are my time to catch up on uploading photos and videos. It has been our life's mission to catch Truman's laugh on video and today, my friends, he finally opened up for all the world to hear his chuckle. FINALLY! I can't handle the cuteness.

Best sound ever:


And I have to post this one because the first little clip is hilarious and heartbreaking all at once. It's amazing how a giggle can morph into a cry within one second!


I have about 10 other videos on Flickr of various Truman-isms, but this is the only one I'll make you watch here on the blog. Truman, tweaking out over his canvas. I love when he goes crazy like this:)



So yeah, life is good in our world right now. Other happenings?

-I think we have finally found a church that we love! We are planning on officially joining as members and are meeting with one of the pastors to discuss baptizing Truman, too. I could go on about this subject forever but I know religion is a sensitive subject for a lot of people. I'll just say that Nate was raised in the Catholic church, I was raised going to a Baptist church and a Lutheran grade school (mom's side is Baptist, dad's is Lutheran), and we've wanted to find our niche in the various Christian denominations out there for awhile. I think that Lutheranism is a nice compromise between Catholicism and Southern Baptist, if there is such a thing between these two:) Lutherans baptize babies and since our new-found church is Lutheran, and we want to embrace the denomination as a whole, we feel like baptizing Truman is the right thing to do. This would coincide with the Catholic faith but Baptists don't baptize babies at all and I myself was baptized when I was old enough to ask Jesus into my heart. I still hope that Truman will someday decide for himself to be a Christian once he's old enough to understand, but for now I'm planning on this infant baptism while embracing Lutheranism.

So that's enough rambling about religion and baptism for now, but I'm really excited for this whole process. I have no idea where I'll find a baptism outfit for mister man that isn't too girlie, so any recommendations are much appreciated!

-Also, in other news, as of August 1 Grandpa Tony won't be able to watch Truman on Tuesdays and Thursdays anymore. Boo! Basically, one of his co-workers is having major health issues and they asked him to come back full time and help out the clinic while she is away. He pretty much has to retire completely or accept their offer of full time again and because he isn't really ready to retire and happens to be an extremely caring person, he obviously said he would come back to help them. He's really sad to leave his nanny days behind and is totally bummed about it--especially since Truman is getting to be SO much fun. But I know this is the right decision for him and we are incredibly appreciative of the two months he was able to help us out in the daycare front. For the month of August, Lois--my mother-in-law, has offered to take off Tuesdays and so we will be doing daycare on Thursdays and Fridays now. Then Nate has a 3 week break between his clinicals when he gets to watch Truman full time and we can pull him from daycare that whole time. I know---our place is awesome. After that little daddy-stint, we are planning on Truman going to daycare all four days that I work which is obviously totally stressing me out. Not because I don't like our place or don't trust them (because I do, and I'm over the whole 'letting him be with strangers' idea since the teachers there aren't strangers anymore) but because I will have to be on top of my game four evenings and mornings instead of just Thursday night/Friday morning. It's so much harder to pack Truman up with me and drop him off outside of the home instead of just leaving him here for Tony or Nate. But oh well, I'm sure I can handle it.

So it was great while it lasted and we are incredibly blessed that Truman won't have to be full-time (well, four days a week) in daycare until the middle of September, when he is 6.5 months. A little older, a little more interactive, and hopefully a little stronger immune system to boot!

That's that: pictures, videos, updates. Whew!

Twilight zone?

Weirdest daycare-related story ever:

Friday is our daycare day and it also just happens to be the busiest day at work for me, so pretty much Fridays are total chaos. Well this past Friday was the most chaotic, weirdest, most stressful one I've had in a long time. Please read on if you care to laugh and be confused simultaneously.

When I dropped Truman off at daycare in the morning, he was asleep in his car seat. I always carry him in to the center in his seat, then take him out and hand him over, then take the car seat back with me so it doesn't clutter up their room. Well 'Miss Linda' saw that T was sleeping soundly and suggested that I just leave him in the seat and they'd put it in back for the day. I thought that was a fab idea since you really don't want to mess with fate and wake a sleeping baby. Ha. Fate had other plans this day anyway.

So I left him, had the world's most stressful day at work, and was the last one in my whole department left a little after 5:00. I was rushing around to get the heck out of there, get Truman, drive home, feed him, and then meet some friends for a pizza date. When I arrived at daycare little T was snoozing in a swing and 'Miss Margaret'--one of my fave teachers---was just chilling with Truman and one other baby. I was gathering up our things and searched around for the car seat but couldn't find it. 'I left Truman in his car seat this morning when I dropped him off, but now I don't see it,' is what I said to Miss Margaret. The look on her face immediately told me we were headed for disaster, then she said, 'Oh no, is it red? I think I sent one of the new babies home in it today with his grandma! I thought it was his....oh no.....' and so on.

No big deal, we could just call the baby's grandma and have her drop it back off to me, right? Well, they didn't have the number for the grandma since she doesn't always pick up the baby and the mom was up at the hospital working as a nurse, and was in surgery with a doc at the moment. Fabulous. How in the heck was I supposed to drive my baby home for the 30 minute commute we had ahead of us? Where was my car seat? And how did this actually happen?

Then my saving grace, aka a mom named Angela, was there picking up her son Noah and she pitied me enough to offer up her car seat to my poor soul. She said she lived 3 miles from the daycare and once she dropped off Noah I could have her car seat to use for the night. I was sort of in shock but this sounded like the best option at the time. It was either that or just camp out at daycare until the nurse-mom called and we figured out where the missing seat was located. So I left Truman at daycare with Miss Margaret, who felt awful by now, but I tried to tell her it was no big deal while I acted totally cool and calm and hip. I hopped in my car and followed Angela home while dialing Nate to inform him that the world was basically ending and our night was totally ruined and OMG CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY SENT A CHILD HOME WITH OUR CAR SEAT?

As I was explaining the situation to Nate, I realized that this was truly hilarious and of course it would happen to me....on the one evening we had plans....after the worst day in history of work. Nate was pretty hot about the whole thing and I found myself a lot more calm by the minute. Thank GOD for Angela. Seriously. We pulled up to her house and she had me hold Noah while she got the seat for me. Luckily it was a Graco and it actually fit in my car seat base! I thanked her profusely and apologized and got all of her info so I could call and drop it back off in the near future. She told me that one year old Noah also has a two year old sister and thus, her life is always this chaotic and it was the opposite of a big deal to be without a car seat all night. Dude. Kids 12 months apart would be like ground hog day, repeating the level of chaos I had on Friday over and over again. No thanks!

So I returned to daycare with the loaner seat and took Truman home after consoling Miss Margaret some more. We made it home in one piece with the strange seat and Truman even discovered Noah's gigantic hanging toy on the handle of the seat and fell in love. Hmmm. I hope the other kid loves our hanging toys as much!

The nurse-mom did call me back when she got out of surgery and was somewhat apologetic but somewhat flustered. She said she never leaves her baby, Collin, in the seat but when her mom picked Collin up, she would have had no way of knowing that wasn't their seat. Which made semi-amounts of sense to me at the time but the more I think about it....where in the heck was THEIR car seat? I mean, when she picked Collin up she had to have a seat in the car waiting for him, right? So when she carried him out to the car in our seat, did she just push the other one aside and figure they must be giving out new seats at daycare or something? And as far as his safety goes, I know she didn't have a base and totally picture her just setting the seat down in the car without any sort of buckle and going home. Yikes dude.

We survived, went to an awesome pizza dinner and then I promptly passed out at 9:15 from sheer exhaustion. On Saturday morning I asked Tony to watch Truman to avoid the musical chair situation with a baby who needs a seat, then I drove back out to Angela's house and dropped off her car seat on the back porch with a thank you note. Girl deserves more than that but it's all I could do at the time. Then I drove back to the hospital and met Collin's mom while she was working to retrieve our seat. She was nice to me and did apologize, but not after saying, 'Yeah, my mom was like "I hope I have the right kid!" when she picked him up.' Um, that is so not cool. It seemed like she was a little annoyed with her mom about the whole thing and for her to even question if Collin was the right baby frightens me. It could have been so much worse, you guys. What if old girl took my babe instead of my car seat? Not okay.

So yes, I spent an hour of my Saturday morning exchanging car seats and had a little bit of a stressful evening. But at least we have a good story out of the deal and you better believe I will label our car seat with the most obnoxious tag ever. I thought of labeling bottles, outfits, and bags but never considered the dang car seat. Lesson learned, my friends. And now I am a more experienced daycare mommy.
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