The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

For the record, I do not like potty humor. I don't find it funny. There is a reason my preschooler knows the word "crass". (He is the main culprit of potty humor in our house.) Yet, here I am processing the delightful topic of baby poo. It was 11am and I was already showered and dressed. A win! I was cooking my breakfast of oatmeal, thinking of what a blissful day it was, with the golden leaves peeking in from outside my window. So young, and naive my morning self was. Also, you read that right, breakfast at 11am, even though I had been up since 5:45am. But food evaded me as I got the kids ready for school, then broke up fights between the older two, which led to my oldest and I discussing how I need to work on my parenting skills as he ate his breakfast and I made his lunch.  But now, it was my time with the older children gone. Baby was in his high chair babbling along to our listening party of T Swift's Midnights . (I did not stay up until midnight last night to he...

  The sweet gift my husband made me for Valentine's. I love it! Yesterday was the Day of Love. Some people hate it. Some people love it. Some people have weird expectations around it. I've come to love Valentine's Day and this was long before I got married. I spent many years in my 20s without a significant other on Valentine's. However, that experience taught me to look outside of our culture's hyperfocus on romantic love and appreciate the other types of love in my life: Good friends, family, and working on my own self-love. I would get my roommates as well as myself valentines gifts back then. I've been known to still buy myself flowers when I feel like it.  This year was an interesting Valentine's because my husband and I are exhausted. It happens when parenting young children, plus the heaviness that life sometimes brings. In all honesty, I did more for our kids to celebrate Valentine's than my own husband. We tend to make this day a family event. H...

Happy 10 months! Milestones He now plays peek-a-boo where he will hold a blanket up to his face and pull it down, waiting for our reactions. He is finally sleeping through the night. Not all the time, more like a handful of times, but I'll take it. He can stand when holding onto something without having one of us hold him up. He calls me "Mama," but not consistently. He usually says it when he is sad and I come get him from his crib or if he wants me to hurry up and give him his food. Every once in awhile I will get a happy "Mama" as well. He also will sometimes say "num num num" when it is time to eat or if he is hungry. Likes Avocados (sometimes), Mangoes, Berries, Apricots (sometimes), Apples, Bananas (if other fruit is mixed with it), Cherries (mixed with apple sauce), Sweet Potatoes and Cereal. Cars. He kicks like crazy with excitement when one drives by. Favorite toys: Anything with tags and his octopus that plays music. It us...

Since May is almost over, here's April on Instagram! Enjoy. April 5th - The Easter Bunny came! April 6th - Annual birthday dinner with Talena! April 10th - Cutest little boy! April 11th - Cake for breakfast is always a good idea. April 11th - I was impressed. April 11th - This picture warms my heart and makes me want to kiss those little cheeks. April 13th - The Tulip Festival! April 13th - Me and baby at the Tulip Festival. April 14th - Also from the Tulip Festival, my awesome sunburn. I tend to forget I'm a red head at the beginning of each spring when the weather warms up.  April 18th - Hanging out with my boy on the porch swing.

This month is my birth month. Some people have birthdays, others birth weeks, but I have a birth month, because why not? For some reason the age of 32 has caused me to be rather reflective. Since I'm stuck in a chair with the most perfect little baby sleeping in my arms after an entire week of horrible naps, it seems like a good time to try to create some order of my reflective thinking. I've been thinking a lot about my 20's. I'm proud of my 20's in a lot of ways. I accomplished a lot of goals and had a lot of fun with only a few regrets on the side. One of my friends described 20's as being so great because it is a decade of firsts, which is true in a lot of ways. As I've been thinking about my 20's I have dubbed it "The Decade of Love." I think I know what you are thinking, "That's so sweet, because you found your love, Danny, in your 20's." Yes, Danny coming into my life is part of The Decade of Love, but that is just ...

Feb. 10th - Sometimes he puts his hand on top of mine when we read books and I think it is the  sweetest thing on earth. Feb. 13th - Cutest face in all the place. Feb. 18th - We have had  unseasonably warm weather this winter, so we went to the park with some friends. Baby H was rather fascinated by this thing we call grass. Feb. 23rd - Sweet potatoes are for wearing, not for eating. Feb. 27th - We went to Houston for Danny's brother's wedding. We spent a lot of time in the car, but were delighted by this lovely sunset one evening while driving on the interstate. Feb. 28th - The Grandma, Daddy and Baby and also quite possibly one of the best photo bombs I've seen by Danny's brother Nathan. Feb. 28th - All dressed up for the reception. PS Bow ties are cool.

Milestones Baby H is sitting up like a champ. He's tried a few more different types of food: Sweet Potatoes, Avocados, Apple Sauce and Pears He turns pages in his books and he grabbed the spoon and fed himself the other day. He has just started to wave at people. First time on an airplane! Overall, he handled it really well. First time to a new state, which was Texas. (It was my first time to Texas too.) We went for Danny's brother's wedding. Likes He is really liking his little jumper activity center. He doesn't really jump in it, though. He more tries to walk and is bounced around. His toes! And putting those toes in his mouth. Grunting, yelling, making noise in general. He can be a very loud baby. He thinks it is hilarious when I pretend to eat his hands. FaceTime! He's grabs for my phone all the time now if he sees it. He's especially liking books this month. When he's sad, we sit down and read a few, and it calms him down. He li...

Better late than never... Jan. 3rd - Found this gem in Danny's sister's family album. I have a major crush on him. Jan. 7th - The joys of peek-a-boo. Jan. 12th - Chilling in my gnome socks from Talena and eating crackers and frosting while Danny puts the baby to bed = bliss. Jan. 14th - This face. How will I ever say no?! Jan. 17th - Trying solids for the first time. He seemed to like the rice cereal. Jan. 19th - Just enjoying the spring like weather, which has been the case for most of this winter. Jan. 20th - Art comes in many forms. This particular night it came in the form of berries and pineapple on a massive sugar cookie. And there was much rejoicing. Jan. 23rd - Spitting. All the time. Jan 26th - I take way too many pics of this boy sleeping, but look at how precious he is! This particular day he refused to take naps anywhere but my arms, but honestly it was sweet, even if it gave me a dead arm. Jan. 28th - My cousin gave me this ...

Dec. 1st - Decorating the Christmas tree. Dec. 3rd - Wide open spaces. We went on a day trip to visit our dear friend Melissa. Dec. 4th - Melts my heart. Dec. 11th - Probably the only person in the world who can suck on my finger and I find it cute instead of repulsive. Dec. 17th - It instantly feels 10x more Christmasy when I have one of my  Mama's  candy cane cookies. Mmmmm . Dec. 18th - Out fighting croup, poor baby. Dec 19th - The doc said cold air would help clear up his croup cough, so it seemed like a good time to go look at Christmas lights. Dec. 19th - Christmas couple pic. Dec. 24th - The best thing about wintertime, it is completely acceptable to dress up my child as a woodland animal.  Dec. 25th - Baby H's first Christmas. It was a success!

I had the intention on posting these autumn occurrences as they, well, occurred, but as we can see, that didn't happen. So instead, this is your crunchy leaves/pumpkin pie/candy corn-rolled-up-into-a-ball-and-thrown-in-your-face type of post. Enjoy. Also, warning, if you hate lots of pictures of nature and a cute, little baby in different scenarios, you will hate this post. Might I add, if you hate pictures of nature and cute, little babies, what is wrong with you? Alpine Loop When Danny's mom was in town, we went on a drive on the Alpine Loop. The leaves were just starting to change. It was a nice way to welcome Fall. How I love the mountains. My love and me. A fall foot shot was necessarily. Pretty leaves. We went on a quick jaunt up a trail while Danny's mom watched the baby. The baby slept on. Mountain roads. Autumn Trees. A cute picture of Danny and his mom. The Pumpkin Patch! We went to our neighborhood pumpkin patc...