I'm just saying...

...I wore it first ;)

Just kidding! But really, with the exception of the sleeves do you see the resemblance? I thought she looked stunning and I am not at all sorry that I set my alarm for 4:30 am this morning to catch the festivities. Did you watch the royal wedding?

Wordless Wednesday: My heart

Anything you can do, I can do...quieter

I love my little munchkin to the moon and back, but let's face it, he is the most sensitive sleeper I have ever met. If the stars are not in perfect alignment, he's not going to sleep. I remember the day he was born, he slept the entire day - couldn't even rouse him to nurse, despite my (and 4 or 5 nurses') best efforts. I thought "wow, this is easy!" Ha. Oh naive new mama, the joke was definitely on you. When we brought him home many people told us to carry on as usual and not try to be quiet while he was sleeping, lest he get used to sleeping in a totally quiet environment. I get the logic there, but that lasted about a week before I started tiptoeing around in a desperate attempt not to wake him up when I managed to get him to sleep in the first place. I should have put signs at every door that said "If you knock on this door, the dog will go bezerk and wake my baby and then very bad things will happen to you." Yes, that means you Jehovah's Witnesses who came to the door when Sweetie Pea was a mere 5 days old, I was a hot mess and he had finally fallen asleep at the breast, which meant that at least one of them was on display.

What does all of this mean? It means I have developed an uncanny ability to live in a near mime-like state when my child is sleeping. Here is a list of things I can do without making a sound:
Change, fold and put away loads of laundry
Go up and down stairs without so much as a creak
Wash, dry and put away dishes (even pots and pans!)
Feed the dog
Pee (that's talent)
Make a meal
Intercept the mail/FedEx/UPS guy before he lays a knuckle on my door
Host a small cocktail party (kidding)

I have in fact become so adept at walking around silently that I've inadvertantly scared Hubs several times by sliding up behind him. This causes him to yelp quite loudly and me to lecture him on the very real possibility that he could meet the same fate at the Jehovah's Witnesses. Oh sleep, when will you return to our house? And when you do, will I even know how to pee normally anymore? ;-)


  

Grandma's Banana Muffins

For as long as I can remember, my mom has made the best banana muffins. They make the house smell SO yummy while they are baking, and I could never resist sampling one from the batch set out to cool on the counter. I don't know what it is about them, but they are crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside and just perfect.

See? Perfection.

When I started baking my own banana muffins I was always disappointed in them. They just weren't the same. I figured a banana muffin recipe was a banana muffin recipe, but I was sorely mistaken. All muffin recipes are not created equal, people. So I finally asked my mom for hers (what took me so long?). It turns out she has been baking her banana muffins forever from her yellowed, splattered, dog-eared and battered copy of the Feed Me I'm Yours Cookbook that she got when I was a baby. Love it! I don't know why I wasted my time on any other recipe, but I do know that this little guy can't get enough of them:

Mmm, what is this goodness on my tray?

Score! Banana muffin!

They are finger-lickin' good.

Hmmm...how can I get more?

Banana Muffins

From the Feed Me I'm Yours Cookbook, Copyright 1974 (no, I am not that old)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup uncooked oatmeal

4 mashed ripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Cream shortening and sugar until light. Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add oatmeal and bananas and mix well. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and add to the wet mixture, stirring just enough to moisten. Pour into muffin cups and bake at 375 for 20 - 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy! 

The Story of Us

Once upon a time (March 2006, to be exact), a handsome young salesman and a perky young high school counselor met in the cafe at Barnes and Noble. He had a bottled water. She had a lemonade. It was thundering outside so they spent hours talking among the books. From that moment on, they were a couple.

It didn't take long before they were off on all kinds of fun adventures...

They fell head over heels in love - fast! So that Christmas, they got engaged and set the date for a beautiful autumn wedding.

They spent the next 10 months planning and dreaming of their perfect wedding. Then they rehearsed it...

...and on October 7, 2007 they tied the knot!

A year later, they bought their first home.

And celebrated by adding two furry family members, both adopted from local rescue organizations.

Kittymahn:

And Bighead:

Then, on Thanksgiving Day 2009, a little surprise came their way!

Whoa baby! The first trimester was filled with obsessing, reading and ridiculous amounts of internet research. And Cheerios three meals a day.

The second trimester rocked.

And the perky, but now-somewhat-larger young school counselor was sad to see the third trimester come to a close. She loved being pregnant!

Happy Birthday Sweetie Pea! 

After nine months of obsessing, reading, planning and remodeling, and a 13 hour, totally natural labor and delivery, baby made three on August 1, 2010.

It's been nearly another nine months since that amazing day. 

And the happy little family has gone from this

To this!

((NOT)) The End :-)

Hi. I'm new here.

To blogging that is. Or more specifically, to writing a blog. I've been an avid blog reader for some time (actually, since I got pregnant, joined The Bump and discovered the wonderful world of mama blogs. That was definitely the start of my blog addiction) and I've always thought "wouldn't it be fun and satisfying to write my own blog?" But I just never started, partially out of getting buried in life's little to-do's, partially out of fear (can I really put my life out there for others to read? What if no one reads my blog?), partially out of not knowing how to start. But it's Spring Break for me this week, as much as it can be spring in a region of the country that still requires winter coats in April, my sweet baby has finally learned the fine art of entertaining himself for 15 minutes or so, and I decided to jump in.

One of the things I realized from reading other blogs is that you don't neccessarily have to have a theme, or a strict topic. The ones I enjoy the most are those that give their readers a glimpse into their everyday lives. There are blogs I read that make me feel as if I know the authors, that let me know I'm not the only mama who struggles sometimes, that have given me great ideas or made me think "gosh, if I lived closer to this person I'm sure we'd be friends!" So to those bloggers that I already read, thank you. You have each inspired me in different ways. I admire you and have truly enjoyed your honesty, insightfulness, and creativity. And for me, those things are what make blogging so relevant and real. It's what I'll try to do here, and I invite you to come along :-) Subscribe, follow me, email me - I welcome your feedback!