It's like this

I am a stay-at-home mom.

Every month, I'm still paying off my student loan.

Every month, I'm a little more okay with that.

More often than not, I look like this^ A far cry from the every day dress up of salon life.

Today I made the bed and did two loads of laundry before 11am and I feel like a rock star.

I change out of my pajamas into clean yoga pants. Getting dressed, like a boss.

Clean is a relative term. (A little spit up never hurt anyone, right?)

My baby screamed at me for almost two hours this morning, and she still looked cute to me.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, my baby is finally napping, but I'm not because this might be the only hour I get to myself all day.

This might be the only hour I get to myself all day, and I just creeped on my baby in her crib because I miss her quite terribly.

I slept maybe 5 hours last night. Considering that my baby gave up sleeping through the night, that's effing awesome.

That last statement was not a sarcastic.

After cleaning out my closet, my wardrobe is almost exclusively tops that I can easily unbutton or lift up at a moment's notice.--Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm feeding my kid.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, my workouts consist of squats and bench pressing my baby. She quite enjoys it.

If you ask what I do all day, I will punch you in the throat...or employ very strong rhetoric.

The amount of stuff I can accomplish with a baby strapped to my chest is mind blowing.

I have full conversations with myself my baby.

I have been known to occasionally spend my daughter's entire nap time straightening my hair, because I may be at home all day, but damn it, I want to look pretty. It's the little things, people.

At this point, I can recite Green Eggs and Ham from memory.

When my nails are painted, I inexplicably feel like I have my shit together.

I am a stay-at-home mom, I narrate my activities and speak through stuffed animals.

I'm pretty sure my baby knows what time Kelly and Michael starts.

If I get out of the house by myself, I don't know whether to skip or panic.

I can hear a baby squeak through a closed door, music, and open windows with a washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher running at the same time. Basically, I'm a superhero.

My Instagram is a parade of baby pictures.

I hate Mondays because it means the maintenance crew outside the bedroom window is going to screw up my baby's morning nap with their lawnmowers and leaf blowers.

My husband makes fun of me because as soon as I put Scarlett down for the night, I immediately open my phone and go through old videos and pictures of her.

Occasionally there are days when I feel like I'm slowly going crazy. Everyday, I am so thankful that my husband works so hard so I can stay home with our girl.

I'm a stay-at-home mom--
It's a love-hate relationship and love wins pretty much every time.
It's kicking my ass. Daily.
I'm happy.
I'm a stay-at-home mom, hear me yawn.

My girl who loves trees

I have a new favorite thing.
Make that two.
One: We've been calling Scarlett "Shrimp" since...forever. So this shirt was an absolute must have.

Two: Going outside, laying a blanket down under the base of a tree and parking it there to enjoy the view. Baby girl loves looking at trees, which got me to thinking, she would probably love the view looking up at one. Best idea ever. She flipped. In a good way. Lots of happy flailing and faces like this:

Have I mentioned how much I love this kid?

Having a kid makes the smallest things so magical. It was giggles and happy toes for days!

This was actually my trademark move as a babe.

I quite enjoyed the view myself! It was oh so relaxing.

 

Best new activity ever? I think so. 

Summer Lists

My favorite list making notebook!

In high school, my best friend and I started a tradition--the summer list!
The last days of school we'd bust out some notebook paper and scribble down a list of summer goodness: restaurants we wanted to try, concerts we'd kill to go to, books to read, places to go--the plan for the perfect summer. Sadly, I skipped out on making a list last summer. I was in my first trimester (read: feeling like crap and constantly looking like I just ate a burrito) and hubby and I were working opposite hours, soooo we didn't really have summer plans beyond my solo trip to Minnesota.

This year though, I am determined to make this the most awesome, fun-tastic summer two people with a baby ever had. Eric and I decided that this would be "The Summer of Activity."
I want to be outdoors as much as possible, get awkward sun tans, take Scarlett to a forest (I think she'd lose it with excitement. Girl loves trees.), and try new things! I made Eric sit down and make a summer list with me and so far, this is what we've got:

Summer 2013
Swim, Hike, Walks--get outdoors! get exercise, get a funky tan, get some air
Cook at least one new recipe a week, be it a whole meal or a dessert (I've been in a cooking rut, so this is a big one and so far I've been rocking it! Gracias, Pinterest!)
Camping
Get to the lake. Often.
Head up north and take Scarlett to see the sequoias
At least one overnight at the beach
Spend some downtime at the library with my little bookworm
Read a book together ( book still TBD. Suggestions??)
Hit some outdoor concerts
Make the perfect mojito
Try a few local restaurants--these days if we go out, it's all about ease and efficiency, so we usually just hit up chains that we already know we like. It's time to expand!
Spend some quality time at the farmer's market and u-pick farms

That's what we've got for now, and hopefully we'll be adding more to it in the coming weeks. I'm loving getting a jump start on summer and I'm pretty sure that this one is going to be bommmbbb-tacular :) Suggestions to add, anyone??

Take me back to the sea

Ohhh what a week.  My brain is so fried that I don't even know where to start!
Since this week has been the official 12 week shitshow growth spurt (last week was just a "coming soon!" teaser. Not cool.), I'd like to harken back to happier times. Times when my baby was still sleeping and happy. And we went to the beach!

It started out cloudy and gloom-tastic, so we were long-sleeved up for the weather. Buuutttt the sun did not fail us and soon I was busting out the bathing suits. Yes--suits. Not plural as in "mine" and "hers." Her suits. Judge away (Scarlett definitely did). I've been waiting months for this moment and I needed beach pictures of both glorious get-ups. Tell me I was wrong, I dare you:

Middle picture all I can hear is "An outfit change? Seriously, Mom?"

Gotta love that ocean air! Scarlett wasn't too sure about actually having her feet in the water, but she definitely liked the sound of the waves. It made for a nice, cozy nap time once she was good and over the beach, and over it, she was:

"I am sooo over this, guys! Dad, let's get our nap on."

Oh to go back. It's already calling my name. Actually it was calling my name around 1am when baby girl went on a sleep strike. What does she want? Food and play time. When does she want it? Right. Friggin. Now. and every 2 hours from 1am- 10am.
Excuse me while I go hold sea shells over my ears and dream of a happy place.

I love this kid

Aaaaand we're back (said like this):

Where to begin?
Scarlett will be 12 weeks old on Tuesday but it's insane how much older she feels. She's so chatty and enjoys trying to stand (on our hands) and trying to sit up. Crazy kid. I swear, in the last week she has grown up so much! She's even more alert than before, if that's possible, and she's just a smiley ball of fun and sunshine. Today she sat on my lap while we had Dr. Seuss palooza and she actually sat and listened and liked it. I couldn't get her to do that just 2 weeks ago. Le sigh. (And now I can't get "Gox box socks" out of my head.) I'd be seriously depressed if this phase wasn't so much fun!

So we just got back from spending 10 lovely days visiting my family. My sister was in town from Minnesota with her little man and it was a great time filled with baby squeals and Tangled.

While we were in town, we went to the most fantastical, magical baby consignment sale you ever did see. It was a warehouse crammed with all things baby and if I didn't have an extremely unhappy baby looming over me, I probably would've done some serious damage. But I was on a time crunch and went in on a serious mission for an Exersaucer. I am happy to say that I scored a nice one for 40 bucks and it is officially Scarlett Approved:

"I don't know about this thing, Mama!"

"Oooo is that a butterfly?!"

"It is! That's a butterfly!"

"Helloooo, little butterfly!"

"Silly butterfly!"

What's that? Oh, just the sound of my heart melting to the floor. I'm sooo obsessed with these pictures, it's ridiculous. I want them framed. In every room in my house. Yes, I am absolutely that mom who's totally all about her own kid's cuteness. I happily admit it. Because come on, that is one freakin' cute kid.
More on our trip (and the beach!) soon!

Pssst! It's me!

Dearest readers (of whom I like to think I have and appreciate greatly!),
We've been on hiatus over here, visiting family and getting weird sun burns (For serious, who burns a stripe on to their forehead? Certainly not me). We'll be wrapping up our 10ish(I think?) day visit this weekend. I have oodles to share when we get back including munchkin's first trip to the beach! *Spoiler alert--wardrobe changes were involved. Don't judge.
So if you're a sucker for adorable beach bum baby pictures and tales of unbelievable sales, stick around :)

--the person in charge around here
....who still can't believe she's in charge of a mini person
(Seriously, who decided that was ok?)

Boiling duckies and assorted good(and not so good)ness

Okay, good stuff first--so much exciting stuff going on this week!
April 16th--in addition to being my favorite Minnesota man's FIRST birthday (Happy birthday, Charlie Doodlebug!), today my nugget is precisely 10 weeks old. 10 weeks!!! It's crazy, she seems so much older. My chub-a-lub is always alert and checking out the world, whipping around her crazy strong neck, trying not to miss a thing. If I put my palm under her little feets when I'm holding her, she stands herself up and gives me a "Hey mama, get a load of this!!" face. I die. And I need to get pictures of all these fancy tricks!  She has discovered the mirror and she loves checking herself out. This past week we spent a lot of time at my sister's house (she was busy rocking a home birth, bringing my new little nephew into the world. Nah bigs.). She has mirror closet doors in her bedroom and Scarlett could not get enough of them. I think she was a little disappointed when we came home to our much less mirrored apartment. Sorry, baby girl. Since we've been back home the weather has been glorious, so afternoon walks have definitely been in order! Scarlett loves to look at trees so our walks usually involve me splitting time between narrating the trees and cracking up at her reactions. *Sigh* so. much. cute.

my adorable Little Hip Squeak!

the focus is waaay off (still figuring out my fancy camera) but come on, could she be more cute?!

Now, maaaaajor buzzkill (*salute* Major Buzzkill), we are in the middle of a trifecta of misery. A shitstorm, if you will. As I wrote before, thrush has reared it's ugly head, once again. It's hard to believe that we've been fighting this for almost 8 f-ing weeks now, 6 weeks officially diagnosed. Pretty much her whole little life. EW. My sister's lovely midwife took some time to talk to us about it and her opinion was that one or both of us is dealing with a systemic condition.  Aaaand I'm inclined to agree after doing more research. So basically, I'm on an intense diet and probiotic regimen for the next six weeks that requires me to basically go full-on Paleo. What. Le. Fuck? How the hell does a former vegan do a complete 180 and go Paleo? I guess like this: no carbs, no sugar (including fruit. I might go crazy.), no dairy except plain yogurt, no starchy vegetables. I'd say I need a drink, but those are out of the question too. It's scrambled eggs, salad & veggies, lean meats and tuna on bell peppers for days. And water and green tea like crazy. Ef that shit This should be fun..?

Fun stuff, for reals (sorta): Scarlett loves her little Wubbanub ducky. (Mr. Ducky to us. We're super creative with toy names around here.) Anyways, I realllly needed to blow torch the hell out of the thing til all the thrush on it died boil it, but I couldn't figure out how to do it with out destroying the duck part.
That is, until I actually pulled out the pot:

hehehe clever

just hanging out to dry

This had me and Eric quite entertained last night

But wait, there's more! I said TRIfecta, people.
In addition to thrush, we haaaaave.....teething.

I know, right? In my perfect little world, a 10 week old has NO business teething, but apparently, my 10 week old does.
Scarlett has some chompers coming in and I hate what they're doing to her--grumps galore, fussy from the pain and refusing to nap for more than 15 minutes. My poor baby is so tired and just cannot catch a break.

And, just for funsies, we have (I'm pretty sure) a growth spurt that decided to show up early.
Thrush. Teething. Growth Spurt. Why?
So basically, my baby's mouth is raging, but all she wants to do is eat for ages at a time. It's making her soooo tired but all the discomfort is keeping her awake.

In 6 weeks, there is a shot of tequila with my name on it.
Grumpy, uncomfortable, poor baby.
Frazzled, sleepy, hungry mommy.
Check, please.
Hoping the rest of the week is kinder to my sweet babe!