Father's Day

      I am proud of how well Brian has adapted to being a father. He jumped right into it like he had been doing it his whole life. There is a quote that my online mom's group was talking about today "Any man can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a dad." While I agree that any guy can be a sperm donor not all guys step up to that challenge. A point was brought up that this quote shows that society thinks we should treat guys who "stick around" to be a dad (married or not) with the utmost respect when in fact they are doing what they should be doing. Mothers who "stick around" don't get special recognition because it is expected, so why isn't it expected that all of the dads stick around. It seems to be okay for the dads to wander off and do whatever leaving their child behind. 

       Brian is an amazing father. His love for Colton is aparent  in all he does and you can see Colton's love for his daddy as he lights up when Brian is around, not to mention that Brian was the only one to make him laugh until today! It's nice to know that I have a husband who I can rely on to actually be there to raise our kids with. There is no way I would have made it through these last 11 1/2 weeks sane without him and look forward to the many adventures that lay ahead of us. 

Happy 1st Father's Day Brian!!! We love you! 

Whirlwind of a Week

Colton and I have had quite the busy week. This was the last week of school (I'm still on maternity leave) so we went up to school Monday afternoon for graduation practice. Then most of the day Wednesday and today. Tuesday we took a road trip to Richmond to visit family. Colton got to meet his great-grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousin. It is exhausting trying to get myself and an infant ready and out the door at an early hour. Between showering, getting myself ready, feed the baby, pump, get bottles ready, pack everything I need for pumping (I have left bottle caps numerous times!), get the baby ready, get out the door. Oh yea, and maybe grab something to eat! I have no clue how I am going to get everything done when I go back to work in August. Showering at night is going to be a switch for me, but it will definitely save time. I will only have to get up an hour and a half before I need to leave versus 2 hours. Everyone loved Colton, surprise there! My students love him to pieces, surprisingly even the boys wanted to hold him. Thankfully, tomorrow we have nothing planned!

 1st pic with our new camera (I broke our other one..oops)

 Love at first sight

 GiGi & Gramps

 Aunt Denise

 Uncle Chris

 Nap time!

 Nani & Grandpa

 Feeding time

"So how do you like being a mother?"

This is a question I seem to get quite frequently since Colton was born. I sit and think about how drastically my life has changed since this tiny human being who is completely dependent upon me was born. I really want to answer the question with the following:

Well, you mean how do I enjoy...

• being puked on
• peed on
• pooped on
• changing outfits multiple times a day for the previously mentioned things (both baby and myself)
• giving yourself completely to another
• not get more than 3-4 consecutive hours of sleep
• my nipples bleeding and sore to the point of having to go to a dermatologist to get help (sorry for the TMI for some)
• rarely having a hot meal
• having any meal for that matter
• rushing through a shower in hopes that he won't fuss or start crying
• making funny sounds to entertain
• planning outings around pumping/feeding
• oh did I mention functioning with little sleep...

The answer to that question is... I would not change my life for the world!

Time flies

I have been planning on writing a post since Monday... it's definitely now Friday. Time sure flies when you have a baby. I've actually been spending part of my week at work helping my students get ready for graduation next Thursday. It's nice to see them, but I sure don't miss teaching them right now! I enjoy what I do, but not some of the drama that goes along with it. Last weekend was super busy for us. Friday night Colton went to his first Relay for Life. As you know finding a cure for cancer is super important to me because it has had a major impact on those I love.

Me & My Buddy

 Our Lil Family

 Two Peas in a Pod

Sunday was spent with friends at the local Blackbeard Pirate Festival.

Erin & I seeing what trouble we can get into

 Colton was a mini sleepy pirate

 The 4 "wise" men

My big boy holding his rattle

Colton is smiling and talking more every day. This week has started to laugh. Of course he only does it with Brian! While I love that he loves his daddy, I would like some laughs too!! Oh well, one day it will be my turn for the laughs. Well, we are off to a busy weekend of more fun.

2 months... a few days late

Time sure is flying! Colton was 2 months old on Wednesday. Sadly it also meant his 2 month check-up with shots. He was a trooper though and only cried for a minute until Brian picked him up. They allowed me to nurse him and he was happy. I didn't want to give him any Tylenol unless the shots bothered him, which of course they did. I had a cranky pants on my hands for about 30 minutes but then he settled down and continued to sleep. Colton now weighs 11lbs 11oz (40th percentile) and is 23 3/8in long (50th percentile)! At birth he was 8lbs 5oz (75th percentile) and was 22in long (95th perectinle). The pediatrician said that he is handsome and perfect (like we didn't already know that)! Here are his 2 month pictures... he is stubborn about smiling for the camera!

  Colton & Brian-- at the Pediatrician

 Poor guy doesn't know whats coming!

 Chilling in my crib!

 Telling mommy stories

 Is she done taking my picture yet?!

 Me & my little monster boy

 Two monsters!

Lucky loves to smell Colton.... and not just when he needs a diaper change ;-)



Moving Update

Many of you have asked about what is going on with us moving. The good news is... we aren't! Brian should have never ben given the orders to Fallen since I was pregnant and it is considered isolated duty. I know what you are thinking, so people who live there don't get pregnant? Yes they do, but they don't purposely move people to an isolated duty site mid pregnany. Brian is now working in Virginia Beach at Naval Airstation Oceana. The wonderful thing is that these orders are shore duty, which means no deployments!! Woo-hoo! However, we are still waiting to find out if he can re-enlist past next May. His paperwork was just resubmitted and we are back to the waiting game. Everyone (his chiefs & higher ups) doesn't see why he wouldn't be able to re-enlist, but we aren't getting our hopes up just in case. Brian likes his new station, but the commute sucks. It's about 50 minutes without traffic and if you know anything about having to commute through a tunnel, you know there is always traffic! We are just grateful to be able to stay here with our friends and close to family.
Keep your fingers crossed that the paperwork comes back quickly!!

Family Fun

We had a really nice 4-day weekend together. Friday we took Colton to Water Country for a little bit in the morning then relaxed at home the rest of the day. While Colton looked adorable in his bathing suit and rash gard he was extremely unimpressed with the water! I think it was a little too cold for his liking. We are going to keep on trying though and hopefully he will love the water as much as we do. Saturday was spend doing things around the house and running some errands. We ended the night at Buffalo Wild Wings where 10% of the proceeds went to a family to help with their child's medical bills. I went to college with this girl. Her son was born at 26 weeks with 2 brain bleeds. He is 20 months old and has already been through 7 surgeries and when he was 1 year old, he was diagnoised with Cerebal Palsy. This was just a reminder to us of how blessed we are to have a perfectly healthy baby! Colton was admired greatly on Sunday at church then we headed down to Virginia Beach to their annual Strawberry Festival. While it was hot, we had fun walking around and of course eating some yummy food! Colton slept most of the time and was a trooper with the heat. Monday was relaxing as Brian and I went on our first date night since Colton was born. We had a great time at dinner, ran some errands and then went for a nice walk. It was weird not having to get a baby in and out of the car or of course taking turns eating because inevitably, he likes to wake up to eat just as the food is being delivered.

Colton has really been developing his personality these past few weeks. He loves to smile and talk, but of course won't flash one for the camera very often! I decided not to go back to work for the last 2 weeks of the school year, so I will get to stay home until the end of August! Who knows, maybe we will win the lottery and I can stay home permanetly.... a girl can dream, can't she?

Here are some pictures taken these past 2 months:

Meeting Gramps 

 1 week old

 1 month monster

 Chilling in his chair

 Can't deny who the father is!

 Colton- 7 weeks- (1st smile on camera!) & his friend Jax

 Water Country (8 weeks)

 He was not a fan of the water!

 <3 this face!!

 More smiles!

I know there are huge gaps, but those pictures are on a different camera that hasn't been uploaded yet.