First Baby Daddy Day

No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, until he has a child and loves it. And then the whole universe changes and nothing will ever again seem exactly as it seemed before.

- Lafcadio Hearn

One hundred and eighty degrees. 

The past fourteen years of our relationship have been turned around, flipped upside down, dumped into a blender, and thrown in fifty different directions. The last three and a half months have trumped all of those years. We don't know how we ever lived without these two precious men! I'll say it a million times...we definitely have been blessed with more than we deserve.

I tried to get Andy to write a post about his first Father's Day, but he wasn't having it. He said that he would spend three days erasing things and telling himself that he sounded stupid, and it just wasn't worth it. Awesomeballs! One day I WILL convince him to be a guest blogger. I'm sure that it would be entertaining to say the least!

Yeah, Andy...you read that right. Get to thinking.

I hope that I made his first Father's day special...I really, really tried! It's sooooo hard trying to buy things for a man. I definitely didn't want to get the generic wallet or tie...I wanted him to look back and remember this day.

I started out by cooking him breakfast in bed. I'm so creative....no joke. I made heart-shaped cowboy eggs, an entire plate of grease-slathered bacon, complete with a bowl of Reese's Pieces and Miller Light on the side. Man + Meat + Candy + Beer in the AM = Score.

We started out by making the boys their own stepping stones complete with footprints! This gift led up to Sunday, when I surprised him with two baby Japanese Maple trees. I thought that it would be so cool to watch these trees grow up with A & B! We had a planting party Sunday afternoon and placed the stepping stones in front of each boy's respective tree. If we ever move, I'm not leaving without having them transplanted.

I hope that Andy enjoyed his weekend...there is nothing like watching the joy on his face when he's with Boom Boom and Pow. I can't even begin to describe how it feels seeing this side of him. I'm so glad that I could finally give him the gift of fatherhood! He has been such a good father and I don't know what we would ever do without him. I can only pray that they will grow up to be just like their daddy...without the smell!

Cuddle time with daddy

Love

Being silly

Heart shaped cowboy eggs

Breakfast in Bed, complete with Reese's Pieces and washed down with a beer;)

Telling secrets...shhh!

Time to make our stepping stones!

Messy stuff

Putting our footprints on the stepping stones!

More interested in the chandelier

Baney's stepping stone

Anderson's stepping stone

Boom Boom and Pow left this message for Daddy:)

Daddy, his boys, and their baby trees

Who's yo daddy?

Baby Japanese Maples and their stepping stones

Can't wait to watch them grow with our babies!

Can't forget hose time with the firstborn...

Happy Father's Day Andy, finally! You deserve every minute of it!

We're Three Months Old!

What upppp errbody!

We're a quarter of year old! Mommy always tells us that she's gonna take us to Neverland so that we can't grow anymore. We are both in size 2 diapers now. Daddy weighed us on his scale and it looks like Anderson is 13ish pounds, and Baney is 15ish. What can we say? Mommy has amazing juggies.

Our eyes are are starting to look dark greenish. Daddy's eyes change from blue to green all of the time, so we're probably taking after him. Our hair is medium brown with a little Auburn/copper tint to it. Baney lost a lot of his and was starting to look like Charlie Brown, but it's growing back now. Anderson's, on the other hand, is gelled and mohawked on a daily basis.

We eat anywhere from 6.5-8 oz of pumped breast milk every 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Anderson still likes to eat a couple of times during the night, but Baney prefers sleep more often than not. We like to take 2-3 hour naps mid-morning and after lunch, then a short power nap late afternoon...onnnnnn a good day. We do like to stay somewhat unpredictable and skip naps sometimes...it keeps Mommy on her toes. And we laugh. Haha.

Mommy had to leave us at the end of May to go back to some crazy thing she calls work. We were a little discombobulated at first, but we're kind of getting used to the new schedule. We saw her crying a lot, so we worked really really hard for a couple of nights and taught ourselves how to giggle. That made her smile a little more. She told us they're letting her work part-time, so she gets to stay home and cuddle with us TWO extra days a week. Can't beat that.

Our grandma (Mmmie K) takes us to a nice lady's house when Mommy has to work. We have made lots of friends there and even brought home our first colds! It was terrrrrrrible. It was so hard to breathe, but mommy stuck our faces in that steamy thing and woke us up in the middle of the night with a big sucky thing up our noses. She made up for it by rocking us back to sleep...so it's hard to stay mad at her. She tries.

This past month we have learned to giggle, flirt with hot mamas, do push-ups, sit upright in our Bumbos, and drool.  Anderson got all crazy one day and decided to roll over on his back during tummy time. Baney has yet to master the skill, but he was jealous and has been working on his upper body strength by lifting weights teething rings. We also discovered one another and like to make silly faces at each other. We even try to make conversation, but we can't understand all of that babble yet. We decided that we are going to have to make up our own language to drive Mommy and Daddy bonkers! We're pretty much geniuses.

There are these little wiggly things at the end of our arms that fascinate us. We try to eat them but they don't taste very good. Slobber is just sooooo bland. They are good for pulling out Mommy's hair and punching each other in the face, though.

The best part of this month was taking our first swim! We dressed up in special diapers and hats and played in the water with Mommy and Daddy! We loooove water and it was so much fun. Bath time is now our favorite part of the day! Ahhhhh.

We get to go out to eat every time we turn a month older...it's turned into a tradition and so far we've behaved every time. Mmmie K and Daddy Mike got to come with us this month! We love to people watch so that keeps us distracted while the 'rents put this stuff they call food in their mouths. Too bad they can't suck on boobie milk all day like we can.

We could get used to this thing called life. It's preeeeettttty cool. We can't wait until next weekend...it's Daddy's first Father's Day, so we have to think of some surprises! We got this.

Our 3 month shoot...mommy and that camera.

Giving a shout-out to our Aunt Ebeth in Chicago! Gooooo Cubs!

Our first swim! We call this redneck pool day in our inflatable pool.

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?

Mohawk Mania

Baney has a meltdown during our first pool day.

Baney's first swim

Anderson's First Swim...not so sure about this, haha

We're 3 months old!

I just love my Mommy

Baney

Anderson

Pictures are soooo overrated. Gah.

Chunky Monkey and Spider Monkey

Our first walk!

And this is just part of our daily loot. Mommy said she's going to become a professional bottle washer.

I'm Daddy's clone

What uppppp

I love my Mmmie K

I love my Daddy Mike

3 Month Celebration

3 Month Celebration

See ya next month!

   

An Anniversary Road Trip to Remember

11 years. Eleven. Eeeeeeleven.

Whew.

I called it last year! I said that we would have a family by our 11th anniversary, and looky looky what came true! We usually go on some crazy unplanned road trip to a far away land every year, but we were perfectly content just chillin' with our homies. Well, it started out that way. Then, my parents offered to watch them while Andy and I went on a date! Sounds easy enough, right?

We might as well have hired a crane to lift our house up and set it down in my parent's backyard.

We started packing all of their things up the night before. And kept packing.

...and kept packing.

Sixteen hours later. Yep. Still packing.

Two-of-everything-stuffed-in-our-car-later, we hit the road Saturday afternoon to drive ten miles to my parents house. We dropped the boys off and made sure that we handed my parents an entire page of instructions on how to take care of our babies...as if they didn't raise four kids already.

An hour later they finally convinced us to put the babies down and leave.

We planned it out. We were going to stuff our faces, see an afternoon matinee, stuff our faces again, then partake in an evening of adult beverages. We would then take a cab back to my parents house and crash there for the night.

All started as planned...first stop, Mexican. Ole! Or whatever you say in Spanish. It was a mild and beautiful day, so we sat outside on the veranda and showed the cheese dip and margaritas who's boss. I'm so glad that I had on maternity jeans. I don't think I'll ever be able to give those bad boys up. Muffin-top be gone.

It all went downhill from there.

Next stop, Target. We got our Starbucks fix, then hit up the clearance section. I was so excited that I found the Dove lotion that I've been searching for...cucumber and green tea. I LOVE the smell of it. Not to get off track, but I just realized (nearly a month later) that it was body wash. I've been putting BODY WASH on my legs for the past month. I was wondering why it sucked. Blame sleep deprivation. 

After our Target shopping experience, we pulled to the back of the parking lot and I hopped in the back seat of my car and...haha. Not what you're thinking. I plugged in the Medela and pumped away. Ahhhhh. The life of a breastfeeding mommy. It's a full time job in itself.

By this time, it was already too late to see a matinee, so we just went on to dinner. We decided on the Ale House so that we could try out some new drafts and catch some games. We basically talked about the boys the ENTIRE time, flipped through pictures of them on our phones, ate, and were back at my parents house by 10:30. I ran upstairs to their pack n' play to give them some kisses and make sure they were still breathing. Then I pumped again.

~~~ Happyyyyy. Anniversary. ~~~

Since the boys were out of their element, they were confused and ended up staying up ALL night. We tried to mimic their cribs with the pack n' play, but that was a lost cause. Thankfully mom brought them downstairs the next morning so that we could get a little cat nap.

Moral of story...stay home where your camp is already set up, buy some fancy beer, cook, and cuddle with babies!

A & B on our anniversary...they wanted to be dressed for the occasion!

I'm pretty certain that the ten mile drive to my parents house was the best anniversary road trip we have ever taken in our eleven years together. All because we finally had our babies with us. With a little practice and a moving van, we'll be good to go come this time next year.

P.S. Look like lotion. Smell like lotion. Not lotion.

Burnt Toast and a Coor's Light. Finally.

Mother's Day, 1986. My sisters and I decided that it would be a great idea to make our mom a Mother's Day breakfast. I was 7, Katie was 5, and Elizabeth was 2 1/2. To our mother's surprise, we walked into her bedroom with a plate of burnt toast...and a Coors Light.

"Oh my God...I can't drink this, girls!!! It's 6 am!"

Our eyes immediately turned to disappointment...welling up with tears because we thought we had let her down. We had worked so hard on her special breakfast and mom wouldn't drink the beer.

Mom saw the looks in our eyes and quickly cracked open the Coors Light, took a swig and said, "Mmmm...this is the best beer ever! Thank you so much girls!"

Lol. Sorrryyyy Moma.

Here are some pics of my beautiful Moma and I when I was a baby.

 

Happy Mother's Day, Moma! I love you more than you will ever know, and appreciate all you have done for us and the boys!

After seven incredibly long and painful years, this is what I woke up to on Mother's Day:

My three men staring at me:) I still can't believe this is my reality, but I'm so happy where I'm at. All of the years of depression have finally lifted, and I feel like my life is just beginning. I love motherhood, and it is by far the best job I've ever had! I will never forget all of those years of infertility, and I pray for all of my friends still waiting to be parents on a daily basis. It is SO hard and I know how difficult every Mother's Day can be. Been there and don't want to go back. Infertility permanently affected who I am as a person and put a definite strain on our marriage. I still feel the all to familiar sting when I hear a pregnancy announcement...probably because it comes so easily for most. And probably because we will still have to go through the same crap if we ever want more children. It's so unfair! Having children did not "cure" me. I will probably always have issues, but I'm doing my best to look forward from here on out.

Why did we have to endure years of heartache and disappointment? Why did we have to drain our bank accounts and rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt? Why did we have to put ourselves through countless medical procedures that failed every. single. time. Why couldn't we just have sex like normal people, get knocked up, and live happily ever after??

This, my friends, is why. If everything would have gone as WE had planned, these two beautiful boys would never be. God knew what he was doing. As a matter of fact, the entire ordeal brought God into our relationship. We had no faith before. Downward spiral. It goes to show that everything is in His time...we have no control. The end result is MUCH better than we could have ever imagined! I don't know what I would do without my babies, and I thank God he made us wait for them!

My first Mother's Day was unbelievable...Andy and the boys made sure that it was a day that I'd never forget!

Breakfast in bed...cornflake crusted french toast and bacon. Yummo!

My little hams wearing their Mother's Day onesies just for mommy.

Mother's Day onesies

My little giggles!

Griswold gave me a bottle of toilet water. Thanks man.

Andy gave me a beautiful locket for their pictures that will be engraved with their initials:)

Anderson in his Mother's Day outfit. Little nugget.

Anderson and Baney gave me a "Mom" charm for my Pandora bracelet. Sigh. Love my little men.

My happy Baney!

Baney giving mommy some cuddles.

My life is complete!

Ahhh!

Love love love them!

Can't get enough of their toothless grins.

Handsome:)

My entire life is sitting on this bench, folks.

We even surprised Mmmie K with a visit,  and got to facetime with Aunt Ebeth!

So grateful. I can't wait until the day my little men bring me burnt toast and a Coor's Light at 6am. I will gladly crack it open to wash down the toast. And give them kisses all over their chunky cheeks.

To me, every day is a cause for celebration...for every day is Mother's Day now!