Life Lately...

Well, the non-napping continues in spurts, but I am dealing with it.    But this past Sunday, Ledger gave me the best gift ever; a 3 hour nap in the GARAGE.  Yep, the garage.  We took a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood and when we strolled into the garage, he was passed.out.  Like comatose.  I wasn't about to move the bear....  

So from 4:15-7:15, I got SO MANY THINGS DONE.  Brad and I did go check on him ever so often to make sure he was still alive:)

 He sleeps on the bathroom floor too while Momma gets ready... but that only lasts about 5-7 minutes.  

Better than nothing I guess.  

Mom flew in last Thursday and we were thrilled!  Ledger loves his Bob and I am pretty darn sure the feeling is mutual... 

 Walked upstairs Friday morning and this is what I found...  Love this sweet picture.  Priceless.

Looking at how big he has gotten - (And how crazy that hair is!)

Ledger is extremely high maintenance at times...  (Have no idea where he got that!?!)

If he is left alone in a room when he is awake, you will know in about 60 seconds.  The boy has a set of lungs.  So from now on, he joins our nightly dinner parties in his car seat, on top of the table...

Mom had to unexpectedly leave at the crack of dawn Saturday morning to head back to Texas for the best reason ever...  

Hodges Grandchild #5 was born Saturday, February 21st at 12:46 am - 

Elizabeth Slade Hodges - "Ellis".  

Cannot wait to meet sweet, little Ellis!

 

What a surprise this was, especially for Slade and Lindz!  Although we were sad to see Bob go, Bob-duty was needed and no worries here; She will be back in less than 3 weeks.  WOOHOO...

 Bebo and Knox waiting for Ellis's arrival...

 Cutest little doctors I have ever seen...

So late Saturday afternoon after Mom left, Brad said he would run to the grocery store for me.  I loathe going to the grocery store, so he mostly does all the shopping for us.  I sat here thinking about not wanting to cook.  (Who I am kidding, Brad does the cooking because - he cooks, I clean...) He walked in with some groceries that we needed for the upcoming week and SUSHI!  I thought, "Well, that was nice of him to pick sushi up for us!" 

Little did I know, our wonderful friend Lindley had text Brad earlier that day and wanted to buy us dinner since it's really not feasible for her to bring us dinner all the way from Lubbock:).  Brad gave her the name of a sushi restaurant that we love, and lo and behold, Brad went and picked up our order of an appetizer and two rolls for us to DEVOUR (First sushi since baby did not disappoint!)  What a sweet, sweet thing to do.  I teared up thinking of what a great friend Lindley is to both of us.  Biggest heart in the world!  Love that girl...

Yum...

Sweet Lindley...

Some days are spent like this.  No make-up, dirty hair and this little guy attached to me while I try and get some things done!  Usually doesn't last longer than 10 minutes.  Awesome...

AND around 5:30 everyday - 9 times out of 10, here is what is going down at the Wainscott household.  

(At least he has a cute Saints onesie on!)

And then I may sarcastically text Brad:

"Welcome Home!" or "Mommy needs wine ASAP... HURRY!"

BUT here he is around 7:30... ALL FREAKING SMILES!

Do not know what happens during that two hour time gap, but whatever it is, I will GLADLY take it.  

Love this little guy and this sweet smile!

Hell might be freezing over as I type.  It is 5:46 and silent.  

I guess I better go check on the napper, in the Cadillac, in the garage...

Love,

~H

 

 

 

 

 

Up and At ' em All Day Long...

Well, I am going to go ahead and say that Ledger may have his mother's sleeping issues.  Yep, I think so...  I am a horrible sleeper, napper, etc. and always have been.   

Side note:  When I was little, I would start stressing out about sleeping at night when I was walking home from school.  I mean I could work myself up into a straight tizzy!  No lie-  Can you say WEIRDO ELEMENTARY STRESS BALL?  My mom or dad would put me to bed every night and I would toss and turn thinking about how exhausted I was going to be the next day at school.  And then when I could hear the Cheer's theme song faintly playing from the TV in the living room, I knew it was late (9:30) and the world's biggest freak out session would commence.  Bawling, kicking, screaming for my mom, you name it...And I could have been 10, 11, and 12 yrs. of age:) Embarrassing, I know.  Long story short; I would end up spending the night on a pallet next to my mom's side of the bed 3 out of 5 school nights.  I was NOT allowed in bed with them, so I would just camp out on their floor!)

But Ledger's issues are not at night....  his are the lovely daytime hours.  Ledger thinks that daytime = PARTYTIME!   I cannot get anything done.  And he does NOT like to be put down.  At.all.  Poor guy (and Mom) is lucky to get one maybe two 20 minute naps a day and let's not even talk about the early evening hours.  It's like someone has pulled his arm off...  The fussiness is out.of.control.  Brutal.

But boy, can he nap in the car and out in public.  You name the place - and he is PASSED OUT!  An absolute ANGEL in public. (And then all hell breaks loose at home...) So that is definitely a plus for sure when I have to get out to run errands or head to my beloved Sonic.

But as I know, this too shall pass.  Thank the Lord he is cute and cuddly:)  I am treasuring every minute (maybe hour, not minute:) of these non-sleeping days with him because I know that they are limited before I head back to work in a couple weeks.  Sigh...  Cannot even say that out loud without tears starting to form...

 Our Starbuck's morning ritual.  We know all the baristas by name:)

Happy One Month "Ledge"!  

 He loved his first trip to Rouses in the Baby Bjorn.  Who are we kidding, Daddy may have loved it more.

 

 Friday, Ledger and I loaded up and went to Pizza Domenica on Magazine Street to meet our friend Stephanie for lunch.  What a fun couple of hours and FABULOUS pizza!  She was in town for Mardi Gras/Endymion and squeezed us into her wild and crazy weekend.  Ledger loved meeting sweet Steph...

My little Mardi Gras Man!

AND..... Bob comes in two days.  WOOHOO!  

We simply CANNOT wait to pull into the airport Thursday afternoon.  What a great way to round out the Mardi Gras break!  

With the spare bedroom being upstairs right next door to Ledger's nursery, I see an Ambien and a set of ear plugs in my near future.  Just typing that makes me oh.so.freaking.happy!

Love,

~H

All You Need is Love...

I love, love Valentine's Day...  Yes, it is a manufactured holiday I know, but I love how excited kids get on this day.  I loved Valentine's Day growing up.  Special sweet treats from Mom, trading silly, cheap cards with classmates, having the much anticipated party fueled with Capri-Suns and kid-crack, getting out of doing boring school work, and the ever-so-popular construction of the VDay box the week before February 14th...

I remember one year when I was in intermediate school there was a contest for the most creative Valentine's Day Box!  I was super stoked...  So Mom and I slaved over the box and I was ecstatic to lug it up to school to be judged!  I knew I had this one in the bag...  

This was a WINNER...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was a good, ol stick of Wrigley's Doublemint Gum.  Made out of cardboard, green butcher paper and foil.  It was perfection.  (Wish I had a picture of it!)  And yes, the directions for the contest said that the box must be "KID MADE"....  And who are we kidding, Sharon did the whole darn thing.  I am sure I didn't even touch the box.  Except for when I boldly strutted through the doors of West Central Intermediate School, carrying the winning box.  It looked as though an adult constructed the clever piece of gum, but who would even notice?

Well, someone definitely noticed.  I am pretty sure mine got disqualified and/or it didn't even PLACE!  Talk about mega tears flowing and one heart-broken 10 year old.  I am sure that some junky, crappy cereal box with every word misspelled on the front won...  

Lesson learned....  When all else fails, follow the directions.

Maybe I say this because I will not be at school on Valentine's Day this year...  Kids go crazy for this holiday.  Kid crack is what I call Valentine candy.  It's like nothing you have ever seen...

 I love this pic of my desk last year...  My body is thanking me that I am NOT there this year.

 Since I will not be in attendance this Valentine's, I made gift sacks complete with sugar and a picture of Ledger with a hand written note on the back from L to each of my students!  I am sure they will get a kick out of those...

 I love when you bring the most adorable outfit home, wash it and then notice IT'S MISSPELLED!  Sigh...  Thanks Target:(

I love this little Valentine and hashtag...

("Really Mom...  This is so dumb.")

I love this 5 hour birthday gift. The.best.Saturday.ever...

I love taking a nap with this 8 lb., sweltering blanket on top of me...

I love the way my husband swaddles.  Hey - whatever works...

 I love being able to drop by and see Daddy whenever we want!

I love when we have visitors.  Brad's Aunt Carla was driving through LA headed to North Carolina!  Ledger loved his Auntie Carla...

I love when he naps for over two hours in his carseat in the car (you must look close).  I was NOT about to move the child.  Like I said, whatever works for mommy's sanity!

Most importantly, I love being a mommy (even through all the tears (mine) and sleepless nights:)

And I love the fact that it is not even 11:00 am, and I have been peed on twice, pooped on once, and changed someone's clothes three times already today.  Awesome....

Happy Valentine's Day Friends!

Love,

~H

Ledger - 1 Mommy - 0...

Well, we are 21 days in the books.  The time has flown by.  L is getting bigger by the second and his cheeks are out of control; along with his rockstar hair.  Maybe it's time for some hair products:)  His Dad has a drawer full we could try out on his spiky "do." 

And I am tired, yes tirrrred; and I only have one!  I cannot believe how my Mom did it with newborn twins and a 5 year old, or my friend Erin with infant twin girls, or my sister-in-law Lindsey with a non-stop precocious 5 yr. old, an on-the-go 2 yr. old and about to have baby #3.  Soooooooooooo, with that being said; I am not "THAT" tired!  I just think I am.  All a state of mind; (I keep telling myself).  And don't get me wrong, it's a good tired!  I have waited for this kind of tired for a long time...

Day 20 was definitely the hardest day thus far.  Yes, that was yesterday.  A complete whip, beat-down, pretty much torture...  Up at 8:30 am - and his first nap was 4:30pm.  Yes people, I said 4:30.  HOLY TORTURE.....  I had no idea what the h#*% was going on.  He was fed, changed, rocked, soothed, bathed, pretty much given all the one-on-one attention he possibly could get!  I rocked, swaddled, and even loaded him up in the car and headed to Sonic.  I drove around every neighborhood in Mandeville to get him to go to sleep (in my house shoes, with dirty hair, ratty old sweats, no make-up and no bra - Awesome.  Thank the Lord I did not get stopped.)  

 This pretty much sums it up...

No such luck.  I obsessively googled, text girlfriends, ugly cried to girlfriends on the phone, cried to my mother, and said a lot of prayers.  FINALLY at 4:45, the little man cried himself to sleep and we had to wake him up at 8:00 pm in fear of him not sleeping at night.  Brad changed and fed him and lo and behold, he went straight down at 8:45 and slept til midnight!  HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!

He knows me oh so well...

 

Even though 1-20-15 was a rough one, I'll keep him.  Sweet, sweet baby.  (A sleeping baby!:)

On a less tired note, we had a great weekend!  It was my 29th:) bday and the much anticipated Super Bowl for the husband...  Brad always does a great job on birthdays.  It was a much 'different' bday this year.  No fancy dinner and drinks, but a dinner with my two favorite guys at home in my sweats with no make-up!  Even better.

 

My all-time favorite food (my last prison meal) is the ever, low calorie chicken fried steak and macaroni and cheese.  Hands.down.  Not the least bit healthy at all, and that's ok!  Sooooo my husband and the amazing cook he is prepared CFS for the very first time and it DID not disappoint.  It was delicious, maybe one of the best I have ever had (Thanks to Pioneer Woman's recipe and my hot chef!:)  Now, he starting prepping at 6:30-7:00'ish and we sat down to eat at 9:58pm, no lie!  Haha....  Took a tad longer than he expected.  And then at 10:07, someone (I won't mention names.....) started crying from upstairs.  So the hubs went upstairs to tend to baby and I ate my bday dinner alone. In silence....

And while Daddy cooked, I relaxed in the tub!

 

And homemade gravy...  YES!  It was a great first birthday as a Mommy.

Battered and fried meat, fattening gravy, a twice baked potato as large as two potatoes and some Sauvignon Blanc - Happy Mom.

And we have had some more "firsts!"

 

 First 8:00 am Target trip...  

First walk at the lake front...

First extreme close-up...  Haha!

First Super Bowl!  Donning navy and white for the Patriot's.  

(And for Mommy's boyfriend Tom!)

 

 At Elizabeth and Paul's Superbowl Party.  My my, our SuperBowl parties look a tad different these days.  And I couldn't be happier!

Still didn't hit it off.  Ledger is snoozing away and Greta is still not impressed!

 

As of much of control freak as I am, I now realize that some days are just going to be like yesterday.  As much as I want everything to go perfectly, I know that that will NEVER happen.  Thank the Lord I have such a great support system; whether it's my Mom, my two sister-in-laws, or friends that have babies/toddlers, someone is always there!  And poor friends, I completely exhausted all my life lines yesterday!  

And we have received so many meals lately...  AND it so appreciated.  Honey Baked Hams from my wonderful team at school, homemade meatballs and salad and Zea's take-out all from friends here in Mandeville!  And one meal came yesterday.  Talk about perfect timing Elizabeth and Les:)

Ok, off to take a nap before Motherhood calls or a baby starts screaming... 

Love,

~H