Clueless Mom: First Birthday: Teddy Bear Picnic

Well. It's over.

My first child's birthday party is officially over. I will never plan another first birthday party for the first time! How did it go in one word? Perfect. Better than I could have planned--I don't know if I've ever had so much fun at a kid's party (probably because I've never had a kid before& it was my own!) but it was the most fun family weekend we've ever had for sure! Everything from the surprise arrival of my sister&brother-in-laws (they live in AZ, we had NO idea they could make it!!) to celebrating the end of the party with almond champagne& Jim Gaffigan, to laughing with friends and good food. Every moment this weekend was spent laughing with the people we love most.

                 

The fooooood

We had gouda-cheese/blue-cheese sliders with my mother-in-law's HOMEMADE sides of potato salad, spicy mac&cheese (with a non-spicy kids version!), baked beans! She is an AMAZING cook!

....And Bear Snacks of course

Some activities for the kids,

 

 (big kids included, his sister dared him)

                   (SO glad we had a son. Because my husband is the kind of guy that needs a son)

Our favors were puppy chow mix in ice cream bowls

& picnic plates to use & take home (had to add a little green-ness, I am an Austinite;))

& then the decor, which I made & was all REAL easy

Since it was, after all, a teddy-bear picnic, we layed out picnic blankets around the yard &tied them to beanie baby bears that I used to be obsessed with collect when they were cool popular

 

Then, we had guests watch a movie of Elijah's life Justin made for him

& after that was of course birthday cupcake time (first ingested dose of sugar ever)!

He got his birthday suit a little dirty, but that's allowed when it's your birthday

(he ate almost the whole thing)

Our surprise guests, sister&brother in law who flew in from Arizona!!

 

Beautiful grandparents--aren't they just cute??

 Some gifts he received included a sandbox, lawn mower, baby pool, bowling set, a Scout doll, drums, a swing, a backpack,  but I have to say, his favorite was

We had the time of our lives. Thanks to all who came & thanks Mimi, Paw paw, Abuelita, Kevin, Kelcey, Felix, Wes& Gina & family who helped cook&clean for me!

No Title Needed.

Clueless Mom: Bad Mom Week.

So I'm having a bad mom week. I have them regardless of what's going on in our lives (though I have yet to achieve any kind of normalcy since baby). However, lately, I'm having a *really bad mom week.

It started after the marathon. The next week was Easter , which hubs & I both had a lot to do for this year. Then, lil bit started teething. We found out he has FOUR coming in at the same time. Holy smokes, they don't warn you about this in the birthing classes. Baby wakes up every hour of the night for three weeks ---what the what!? (Ok, exagerating, not every night, but four weeks later, he's still not sleeping like he used to)And then we both got sick (for the first time ever for him, and my first time since pre-pregnancy) so you know it was bad.

Then we started the extreme-yard-makeover, which occurred during the teething apocalypse, which launched us into first-birthday planning and this week which is first-birthday week! I'm so exhausted. Like, I want to cry.

Which  brings me to my bad mom week. As mentioned, lil bit has been sleeping less and less...as in all last week he was sleeping 4-6 hours at night, with short naps during the day. This weekend, it occurred to me that maybe he was *overtired. To see if I was right, I started putting him down for his first nap at 7:30am, and YEP that was it. He slept for 3 HOURS (thank you Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child!). So basically--he's been completely sleep deprived for a month and it was my fault for pushing him to later naps and overstimulating him! He was even getting little dark rings around his eyes! Mom of the year award goes to me!

Furthermore, this past week I've been so exhausted&just don't have the energy to come up with playtime activities. I'm out. I get so excited for Fridays when he finally has Gymboree and someone can teach him things. Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do to have fun with your baby during the day? I'm running out of ideas....if I hear baby Einstein music one more time I will scream. (house rule is whenever one of us is sick we get to watch as much tv as we want. Sleep deprivation counts.)

Plus, I forgot to feed him his dinner bottle yesterday AND I left a glass on my desk which he broke this morning. Get it together, clueless mom.

On a good mom note, I've finally finished his first birthday present from me! Me and Justin are both making him gifts for his first bday and here's mine:

I

I can't wait to see Justin's! He's going to 'unveil' his gift to lil bit at his birthday party!

One True Thing: Mother's Day!

 It's officially my very first Mother's Day!


So weird that I am now, forevermore, a mother and nothing can ever change that.


The past several months, I have been blogging about my new experiences as a mom--all the new experience and lessons that come with being a new mom. I've felt incredibly empowered the past 11 months since having my baby...he really has given me a strength and inspiration I never had before him and I've done things I never thought I would do because I had him (both good and gross heh heh)


Last week (while I was making decorations for his bday:)), I watched a Meryl Streep film--"One True Thing". I had seen this movie when it came out (I was like, 13) and thought it was just a depressing movie about cancer. Upon seeing again last week, I was so inspired to be a better mom.


You should *totally* see the movie--so I'm not going to spoil it for you--but the mother in this movie is just like my own mother, and just like my mother-in-law. (I am pretty similar to Renee Zellweger's character). There is a part in the movie where Renee is cleaning the toilet at her parents house, and is like, "Mom, I can't believe you did this. How could you have done this for all these years? I mean, didn't it drive you crazy to have to do this for us--without even a thank you?!"   Meryll Streep is completely speechless and confused, and is like, "What do you mean?......I guess, I dunno, I just, I dunno, I love my family...I've always loved my family...."


The mother character  doesn't even count the cost. She doesn't even understand the question, because her family means so much to her, her discomfort was never even a thought in her mind. Is that not like Christ?! Is that not like my own mother, who has done so much for me, like Evie, who has done so much for me, and they never once complain. They enjoy serving....because they do it for love.


Man. Thinking of the times my mom cleaned my toilets all these years....sat up all night with me...I complain so much when my own son doesn't sleep through the night. Brings tears. I still have far to grow. I want to love my family like that. I do love my son more than I can even show him. But I want to love my family like that. I want to go out like that.

Clueless Landscaper

Alright.
Confession time. Beyond giving baby the paci after it touched the Starbucks floor, (then feeling guilty, and promptly cleaning it off and giving it to him again....),  beyond wearing my jeans several times before washing, and beyond the six breadsticks I ate *before* dinner arrived at Olive Garden....

I confess I have never done yard work.

Ever.

As in, after trying to dig a hole with a shovel for ten minutes and making a mere dimple in the ground, my husband (and, unfortunately, my in-laws), compassionately removed the shovel from my hands and just asked, "So...you've never used a shovel...huh."

Well. My life as a princess is officially over.  (Was there really any question after the first night I brought the baby home from the hospital?)  But now, it's really over. I even have calluses on my hands to prove it. CALLUSES.

We are finally landscaping our yard! We bought our first home a year ago,  and for the FIRST time are touching the yard. And we aren't starting small

We have 'balding' spots on either side of our yard, so we decided to just haul out the old, and put in brand-new grass. Little did we know, due to really REALLY bad holly, we would have to rent a tiller, till the ground, remove the dirt, rent a uhaul to 'haul' it to dumpster, till land again, remove dirt again, and level the ground for the new grass

Lame.

So here's where we started (after tilling)

Yikes!
And by 'we', I mean I helped hauling the dirt and axing weeds, but my AMAZING father in law and AMAZING husband did  a lot most of the work. My MIL helped so much too, planning where we should put everything, picking out plants for me, teaching me why what should go where....basically, without Donevie, we would NOT have been able to get a fraction of what we got done, done!

So thank you, beloved and incredibly amazing parents-in-law! You are amazing in more ways than we can count!

While we were at the grass, we got some new flowerbeds too! I learned this is not as easy at it sounds. It's pretty dang exhausting, honestly, hauling dirt, axing roots...quite a workout!
Here's my new flowerbeds!

 Hostas, and the purple hydrangea's are my fave

 Japanese boxwood (all of you probably know all this, I tell you like you have no idea because until this weekend *I* thought a boxwood was a dog breed)

 front flower bed 1

front flower bed 2
(to the left is mexican heather, which I am stoked about ((again who am I?)) and the rosemary next to it! )
So now.
We are now watering the grass three times/day to maintain for next month until it attaches.
 Some hard work! (though it didn't help I was sick, baby was sick and baby has 4 teeth coming in still, but pretty sure it would have been exhausting nonetheless!) Four bruises, multiple gashes, legs full of bites& two hands full of calluses later, we are done with phase 1!

A hard day's work :) I must admitt, doing lawn work was very oddly, incredibly rewarding. There's something to be said for being out there touching dirt and experiencing the back yard! I think I will do it again. No, wait, I have to do it again....I just planted a bajillion plants. Oh well! Good thing I love it, despite how out-of-place I still feel in vegetation.

I feel like such a big girl now