Motherhood

Slow down. Open the windows. Make a cup of tea. Sip slowly and leave the unfolded laundry. Turn up the music and have a dance party. With minions! Heck, bring them to brunch, too!  Lay with your baby in bed. Give them snuggles. Let them help with chores. Grab take out for dinner. Have an all day pajama day. Savor life. Hold on to moments, they pass by so quickly. Let them eat chocolate pancakes for breakfast. Hoist them up on your hips. They are only little for so long. Watch them smile. Feel yourself smile back. 

-reminders to myself. 

Remember these moments

Today. In a nutshell. And it's only 1pm

Woke up to my husband yelling about the cat misbehaving all over the rugs/house last night. I get up on my ONE day to sleep in and dress/feed/make lunches for Jack because my husband is running late. Make my Thursday run to target and they are out of everything I need! Cool. Come home to start laundry and find out our dryer is broken! Drive to my parents to dry clothes. Come home around 1pm to finish cleaning up the house. Struggling to get some down time before I have to pick up Jack, so I get in the bed, turn the lights off, light a candle, turn on my favorite show, grab my Hershey bar and BAM! The electricity goes out! Can I get a  do over?!

Does anyone have one of these days where nothing is going right? Work and home are a mess and you're just trying to make it through the week. I've reached my breaking point. It can only go up from here hopefully!! Oh, and it's sleeting/snowing out. Boo. 

3 questions to ask your children at night

I want to start incorporating these questions into our bedtime routine with Jack. 

What is something that made you smile today?

What is something that made you sad today?

What is something you learned today?

1. It's helping him learn how to communicate. I want Jack to feel comfortable and to tell me or ask me anything- even when he's 16. 

2. It shows me how my son viewed his day. I want to know him better. Plus it will guide me in the right direction if he misunderstood or misinterpreted something the wrong way. 

3. I feel it will bring us closer together. In turn, he can ask me questions as well!

Snow cream!

We took advantage of another 5+ inches of snow and made our own snow cream! There are many different versions, but we made ours like this:

4 cups of snow 

1 cup of milk

1/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

About this weekend

This was a weekend of cooking, lounging, eating good food, and making crafts. Jack and I spent our Saturday making homemade play-doh(more on that later!), shopping for some goodies to cook, lunch date at chick-fil-a, and searching all the consignments in RVA for a dresser to store all his sister's sweet baby clothes! Sunday we made banana bread, showered our home with tulips, snuggled in bed, ate awesome Mexican Baja Tacos, and watched the oscars. Snow is still on the ground, but on the up side, the 33 degree temperature this morning felt like a spring day compared to the -1's of last week. Spring?? Are you near?

Baby talk

How far along?

21 weeks 2 days

Baby is the size of?

A banana 

Weight gain?

Last check up I was up 6 pounds. Ahh!

Showing yet?

Oh yeah!

Maternity clothes?

I have a few pieces. I can still wear some of my non maternity tops. Bottoms are all maternity jeans or regular sweatpants. 

Stretch marks?

Not yet!

Sleep?

Still waking up at 1am every night and staying up a couple of hours. I usually shop for baby stuff online :)

Food craving?

Burgers! All the time!

Gender?

A sweet baby girl!

Kicks?

ALL the time. She is kicking me as we speak and she is a strong little mama!

Let's catch up!

This cooking a baby thing is really wearing me down! I have neglected my poor little blog. With the weather being in below freezing temperatures we have been going a little stir crazy. I am so ready for warmer temperatures!! Here's a little bit of what we've been up to:

1. We went to see our beautiful baby the other day. Baby G was 11 oz and bouncing around!

2. With the heat on in our house going 24/7, we had to invest in this bad boy!

3. Bought these cute pillow cases for our bedroom!

4. I've been resting and bonding with this beautiful bump as much as I can. 

5&6. It's a GIRL! We are so smitten!

7. I'm sick of looking at this!

8. Nesting mode in full force! Closets are getting gutted!

9. Selfies from Jack. Always.