My little helper :)

I just realized I never published this post!  This was round one of our holiday baking - treats for our Sunday School Christmas party (that ended up getting cancelled due to the weather). 

Mack loves when he gets to stand on a chair at the kitchen counter :)

He decided measuring cups were best for mixing...

...and for flinging powdered sugar everywhere!

He was so good the whole time we were working, you never would have known he was coming down with the stomach flu!  Less that five minutes after I took the last two pictures, he climbed down to run around.  I ran after him to grab the powdered sugar and peanut butter covered measuring cups, and went back into the kitchen to wipe up a little stray peanut butter.  The next thing I knew, he ran back in the kitchen, stood in front of me, and puked everywhere!   You never would have guessed he was sick afterwards either.  When Ryan and I got it over the following days, we could barely move off the couch for a couple days - not much fun.  

Pregnancy thoughts

Pregnancy brings with it so many awesome things - these are just a couple I'm thinking about today...

1. Childbirth is an amazing experience.  As crazy as it may sound, I remember feeling a twinge of sadness right after Mack was born that it was over.  I had a fairly easy labor and yes, I had an epidural, but it had mostly worn off by the time I needed to push (for just over an hour) so it just barely was taking the edge off and it still hurt plenty.  It's just so incredible to experience childbirth - nothing else compares.    I'm hoping I'll "enjoy" it as much the second time around :)

2. Nothing compares to the absolute joy you feel when you see and hold your baby for the first time.  It's just indescribable and there's no way you can ever comprehend the utter joy and love you feel.  I can't wait to meet #2!!

That's all for today!

Now I really need a new blog name...

We finally got to announce to our family and friends that we're expecting #2 in July 2011!  Our parents and close friends were completely shocked, because we've been saying for a long time that we weren't sure when we'd be ready for another.  I still don't know if we're 'ready' but we have several months to get there :)

Now that our news is out, hopefully I'll be blogging a little more.  I was having a hard time thinking of anything non-pregnancy related to write about, plus the first trimester brain fog made it hard for me to think at all :)

Sweet boy :)

I started this post a few days ago about some of the sweet/cute things Mack has done lately, but he's been such a stinker the last few days that I was waiting until it was a little more heartfelt :).  Not that I love him any less when he's acting up of course, it's just a little more fun to be a mom when your kid actually acts like they like you.  Anyway, I decided now is as good a time as any - I could probably use the reminder of how fun he can be.

We changed our plans last minute to head north to spend Thanksgiving with family.  Mack and I were both getting bad colds, and we decided not to share our germs with everyone.  I was pretty bummed, but we made plans to go up the week before Christmas instead and decided to make the best of it at home.  It turned out to be really nice - we had 5 days together to spend as a family - something that doesn't happen all that often.

On Thanksgiving day, we took Mack to a matinee of "Tangled" and he LOVED it!  For as busy as he can be, we were both a little surprised at how well he sat through the whole movie - I don't think he took his eyes off the screen once.  He was totally into it too - he "oooh"ed, clapped, and giggled throughout.  He loved the horse in the movie, and at one point when he was running through a field, Mack was laughing so hard we thought he was crying at first!  He clapped the most when the evil mother fell out of their house.  Once again, I'm thinking we're going to have to work on inappropriate clapping (another example - at the Summerfest parade, the only float he clapped for was the "Ankeny Area Democrats").  For the whole 30 minute drive back from the mall, he was smiling and randomly laughing.

Since that movie was such a hit, the next day we took him to see "Megamind" in 3D.  We didn't think he'd leave the glasses on, but he actually wore them for most of the movie.  At one point he switched from Ryan's lap to mine, and he got the biggest kick out of looking at me through his glasses.  They were totally messing with his depth perception too - he was trying to take a drink of Sprite but couldn't seem to get the straw to his mouth - which he found hilarious, of course.

A few mornings ago, Mack decided 5:45 was a perfect time to get up for the day.  I decided to try laying down with him in our spare bedroom.  Aside from a week last winter when he had an awful cold, I've never been able to get him to sleep with us - no matter what time it is, he thinks it's time to play and climbs all over us.  He must have been feeling extra snuggly that morning - because he just cuddled as close to me as he could get, pulling my arms around him and the blanket over his head.  He laid there in the dark with me for almost an hour, whispering in his sweet little voice.  He actually fell asleep, but apparently only very lightly - when I moved an inch he popped straight up and started scooting off the side of the bed - must have been afraid he was going to miss something :).

For all of his antics, he sure can be sweet when he wants to :).

starting up again...

In the last few days I've felt compelled to try and start this up again.  Every time I've written a few posts in the past I've given it up because I decide I really don't have anything all that interesting to blog about.  Which is still true, but for me at least, my reason for blogging isn't to amass a huge following.  I started it a year ago mostly to document these fleeting days with my baby - to keep track of all the memories you don't think you'd ever forget but over time you start to.  Reading back over previous posts, I'm kicking myself for not being more diligent about writing this stuff down, because I know there are dozens of fun little Mack-isms that are already fuzzy in my mind.  It's also a nice little outlet for me, so my poor husband doesn't get my brain dump every time he walks in the door :)


So we'll give this another try and see how it goes...

P90X

In a few days, Ryan and I are going to be starting P90X.  I've already stocked up on food for the first phase - basically, lots of protein, very little carbs, and no sugar/junk.  This should be interesting...


I started this back in May and lasted exactly four days :).  I was actually doing pretty well until Mother's Day.  I was training for the Dam to Dam (i.e., the best dam race in Iowa!) and had run 10 miles that morning and was feeling fantastic.  We get to Sunday School, and someone had brought the ooeyist, gooeyist caramel rolls ever.  Uh oh.  Well, me being the queen of rationalization, I decided I could have just one!  I mean, come on - I ran 10 miles and it was Mother's Day!  I deserved to have just one little caramel roll!  I could promptly get right back on track, no big deal.  Or not.  Instead, I decided if one was good, two was better.  And then decided, who is crazy enough to give up sugar??  This stuff is amazing.  Needless to say, it was all over from there :).


Hopefully, with Ryan's help I'll do a little better this time.  Hopefully.  I don't diet well at all - I'm terribly all-or-nothing - as seen in the example above.  Also, my rebellious side seems to come out when I diet.  As in, no one (meaning myself, in this case) is going to tell me what I can or can't eat.  I can't have a cookie?  Watch me.  Maybe I'll even have three or four...


I've done some of the workouts off and on since May, choosing the ones that I like.  I've skipped right over yoga (long and oh so boring) , chest and back (too many pushups and the woman in the video annoys me), and ab ripper X (so stinkin' hard!! and I can't keep up).  I'm thinking I won't be able to get away with that now.


The plan is to do the workouts together early in the morning.  To say Ryan isn't a morning person is a bit of an understatement :).  So, combine him getting up at the crack of dawn to join my annoying, perky morning self and me going through major sugar withdrawal...


We'll see how this goes...

I'm pretty sure I have adult ADD...

This blog is a perfect example - I started it what, like nine months ago, and until yesterday hadn't posted for six.  Oops.  I find myself often starting a project, and then getting distracted or frustrated so I move onto something else.  With my blog, I've wanted to change the name almost from the beginning - I'm planning to be mom to another little kiddo someday and I'm more than just mom, right?  But I can't think of anything witty/creative/perfect so instead I kind of just gave it up all together.  Well, that and shortly after my last post in February I started working part-time from home, which translated to "if Mack was sleeping I was working."  


We've now been in our house for just about a month, and there is still plenty to do around here.  We got all of the big stuff done within the first week and have been steadily working on the rest ever since.  Now we're mostly down to decorating and organizing the crap-that-I-don't-really-know-what-to-do-with-but-can't-get-rid-of.  And this is where I become horribly indecisive because I can't figure out the perfect thing so I just shut down and find something else completely unproductive to do instead.  


Ryan's been out of town for work for several days each of the last two weeks, so I've made long lists of things to work on (during Mack's naps and at night) around here to keep me busy, otherwise those days really drag by.  I've been able to accomplish quite a bit - including locking myself out of the house (apparently having had a key the whole time, but that's a story for another time) and draining my car battery (thankfully in the garage).  Yeah, I'm awesome like that :)


Yesterday I decided it was time to finally tackle my "office."  I'm starting to think it wasn't the best idea to make this the first room people see when they walk in.  It's been a bit of a catch-all as we've unpacked and has become quite an eyesore.  Once I dealt with all of the random stuff in there (read: moved it to the basement), it was time to get down to business.  I have an IKEA bookshelf/desk combo with cubbies for some stuff, but overall not a lot of storage space.  And I have a lot of stuff in my office - bills/important papers, tax books/info and work stuff, and all my scrapbook/crafts/sewing junk.


I have four or five different scrapbooks I've completed about a dozen pages in and then promptly moved on to something else.  I have several craft/sewing projects partially completed.  Some of these are less about being indecisive, and more about my apparent lack of sewing ability...


I'm kind of an embarrassment to my family in that way - all of the women on my mom's side are pretty much awesome seamstresses.  Is that still the word to use?  I don't know.  They can sew good, how about that?  Anyway, I'm not exaggerating here.  One of my aunt's made my wedding dress and it was beautiful, not an awkward-fitting, home ec project :)


When I sew, I have temper tantrums.  Again, not an exaggeration. I made Mack a fabric photo book for Christmas, and at one point had a little rant on facebook about how I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a sewing needle that actually sew with it.  A week ago, I tried to sew a simple pillow cover and ended up stomping out to the garage and throwing the whole machine in the trash bin.  Really a mature way to handle frustration, huh?  Thankfully this awesome behavior was only witnessed by my husband and not my little sponge of a 15-month old.  


I have a cheap, old machine so that could be the problem, or it could be that I barely know how to sew in a straight line and have zero ability to trouble-shoot if it's not working properly.  I'm going to have to either get a better machine that is idiot-proof or give up sewing all together before my son see me acting like this! I really want to get it figured out, because I have a few dozen projects bookmarked on my computer to work on someday.  


But I digress.  My point is I have several half-finished sewing projects (now including the pillow cover), that I need to put somewhere.  There's also all the left over scraps and supplies from previous somewhat successfully completed projects.  Not to mention the really important papers I don't really need, the tax books and class materials I'll never look at again (why look in a book when I can google it?!), and all the other crap that doesn't belong anywhere else either.  I just don't know what to do with all this stuff!  I love the idea of organizing, but it almost always makes me feel the same way.  It just seems to paralyze me, and all of my list-checking-off energy of the past few days is gone.  Instead, I find myself watching the Tyra Show, where she has experts answering all the questions about pregnancy that everyone already knows, and having a snack.  There was a reason I kept putting this off.  


After thinking about it a little more, maybe my problem isn't so much distraction/lack of focus, but more of perfectionism and indecisiveness.  I know which types of projects leave me feeling this way, so I avoid them or stop in the middle and find something else to do.  Like having Tyra answer all of my undying questions :)

What we've been up to...

I'm not sure how 6 months has gone by without me posting anything! It makes me really sad to read my last few posts on here, and realize there have been dozens of other sweet little Mack stories that I never documented and will probably forget before too long . So, I'm going to try to get back into posting, for myself if no one else :)

A quick(ish) summary of what we've been up to the last 6 months...

Mack:

- started walking around ten and a half months, and never stopped!!

- took his second trip to Florida

- started sleeping through the night. After a little tough love on our part, he is now a fantastic little sleeper!

- began talking: he now says mama, dada, hi, doggy, go, no no, uh (for uh oh). He also jabbers non-stop at anyone who will listen :)

- celebrated his first birthday

- blows kisses just about whenever we tell him to say 'bye' to someone

- climbs all over everything

-had his first sleepover at Grampa Nick and Gramma Jane's

Other family updates:

- Ryan and I both turned 30 and we celebrated our nine-year anniversary.

- I worked part-time during tax season. Part-time turned into every time Mack was asleep, I was working, which stopped being fun after a few weeks.

- We sold our house, lived at our in-laws while we built our new one, and moved in about a month ago.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but there's a quick snapshot of what we've been up to the last 6 months.

When Mack's quiet, he's up to somethin' :)

Last week I had lunch with a friend who is expecting her first little one in just a couple months. Whenever I see her lately I feel compelled to share a little parenting advice. This time I told her that when noisy, active little babies like Mack are suddenly quiet, you should investigate because they're usually up to somethin'.

Less than an hour later, Mack and I were back home and hanging out in our downstairs family room. He took off crawling around the couch to look out the window. He loves to do that, so no big deal I thought at first, until I realized that his happy chatter had stopped. I peeked over the couch to find that he had discovered a piece of rawhide on the floor and, of course, had it in his mouth. Yes, the same rawhide that Cooper had been chewing on only a few minutes early. Oh yeah, and Cooper likes to eat his own poop sometimes. Awesome.

I of course emailed my friend to share this little story, lest she think I have it all together. Which I highly doubt, since she was the same friend I had lunch with when Mack dumped my soup on the two of us. Supermom I am not :)