Another Baby Post?! Yes!

Having my kids 4 years apart definitely has some advantages.

For instance...

I am writing this blog post right now while my 4 year old dutifully "entertains" her little brother.

In reality, she just gives him his paci when he starts getting fussy, and is laying next to him on the floor in the living room while watching Disney Jr.

Did I also mention that while she is "babysitting", I scrubbed our entire guest bathroom down?!

I also made myself a cup of pumpkin spiced coffee this morning, had an English muffin, and got to catch up on my recorded shows.

Oh yeah, and D also had apple cinnamon waffles.

When D was a newborn, I could never get anything done for the first few months of her life.

I relied so much on my husband to do little tasks like cleaning and dinner.

I will admit that little man is not as great of a sleeper as D was.

Which is why we spent the majority of our weekend catching up on much needed sleep.

Hubby and I enjoyed a few glasses of peach champagne last night after dinner.

Oh, and those grapes in our glass are the famous "cotton candy grapes".

And yes...

They really DO taste like exactly like cotton candy, and they are absolutely delicious!

The cutest thing in the world is catching our little guy laughing in his sleep.

He has the cutest little laugh ever.

I wonder what he's dreaming about that could be so funny.

I found this article about newborn laughter that I thought was interesting.

Check out the sweet mosquito bite that my daughter got above her left eye.

I thought it was a shiner at first that she got while playing with her friend next door.

On closer examination, it's just a bug bite.

I'm always paranoid that when she's in school, someone will assume that we are abusing our child and call CPS on us, so when she has a little bruise or an injury, I sort of freak out a little...

I've heard too many horror stories of that happening to totally innocent parents.

My mom left this past Saturday.

I'm kind of sad to have seen her leave.

Especially cause I feel like I might have been a grouch the entire two weeks she was here helping me out.

The lack of sleep, caring for a newborn, and the post partum hormones made me grumpy, and I didn't get to really spend as much quality time as I would have liked.

She was a great sport though.

She cooked every single meal for us while she was here, and cleaned every single day.

In fact, on her last night at our house, she was up till 10 in the evening slaving away in my kitchen and cooking.

She wanted to make sure that we had a few more meals for the next couple days after she left.

I also did not pay for a single grocery the entire two weeks she was here.

She wouldn't let me.

Nick and I took her out to eat lobster on one of her last nights here, and we had to fight with her to pay for dinner!

Best.

Mom.

Ever.

Can you believe that we have been in New England for almost a year now, and we had never had fresh Maine lobster?!?

Me either.

Glad we checked that one off our bucket list.

It was delicious.

Now, I'm off to go feed my fussy newborn. :-)

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

The Liebster Award

I got a really sweet comment on my last blog post from Laura at Going Green:Our Army Adventure telling me that she picked me for the Liebster Award! 

I've been following her blog for just a few weeks now, and I've been hooked.

She's an army wife blogging about her life in the military as a newlywed!

She blogs about everything from resources to helpful tips and advice for military families, all while sharing a little bit of her personal life as well!

Here's an explanation of the Liebster (that I copied and pasted from her blog).

A Liebster award is passed around in the blogging community through bloggers with under 200 followers.  

 When you get nominated for one, you graciously acknowledge who sent it to you by linking back to them, you answer the 11 questions the blogger came up with for you, and then you nominate 11 other bloggers and send them your 11 questions to answer in return.  And the cycle continues… 

So here are the questions Laura asked:

 
1. If you could have dinner with any famous human, who would it be? (explain, you know you want to anyway) 

I could name a ton of famous people I'd like to have dinner with, but right now, I would pick the Marine Corps' General James Mattis. Our newborn son is named after him, and I explained briefly why in this blog post. General Mattis is more than just a man with "witty sayings" and "cool catchy phrases". I would love to have dinner with him and pick his brain.

  

2. Be realistic, where do you see yourself in a few years? (a few could be 2, 10, 20, whatever)

I honestly don't know! Being married to an active duty Marine, you can never really predict where you want to be in the future. I just got out of a 10 year career as an active duty Marine to become a stay at home mom, and recently just gave birth to our second! I'd love to continue being a stay at home mom, use my GI Bill to finish college, and raise healthy, God loving children!

3. What is the one thing that can instantly make you happy, like turn your whole day around?

My husband when he comes home from work, deployment, separation, or wherever. He can make any bad day seem not so bad, and he's the most thoughtful person I know. He's also the reason why I get to be a mom to two wonderful kids, AND stay home with them. If that's not something that can make me happy, then I don't know what can!

4. What is the news headline you’re following most closely lately?

Is it sad that I haven't been following the news at all lately? I read a little about Syria, but haven't kept up with it. Most of my "news" has been looking up things on caring for a newborn.

5. If the concept of a bank account/bills didn’t exist, what would you buy yourself?

I can only pick one thing?! I would buy a huge plot of land in central Texas (where I grew up), and build my dream house exactly the way I want it. I'm hoping this becomes a reality in a few more years after my hubby retires from the Marine Corps, and we can settle down somewhere permanently.

6. Chocolate, vanilla, or twist?

I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so neither...

7. How do you relax? Share your favorite tip…

I like curling up on the couch by myself with my favorite reality TV show (mostly something on Bravo or Food Network), and a glass of wine. To me, that is pure relaxation. It's good to just be alone with a glass of vino sometimes.

8. Tell me three things you love about being you. (no skimping, THREE!)

(1) I love my background as a Marine because there aren't too many people who can say that, let alone women.

(2) I love that I love to work out and eat healthy. It's a big part of my life, and I think I do a decent job of keeping my family and friends motivated.

(3) I love being a wife and mom. Out of everything I've done and accomplished in my life so far, being these two things are the two things that I truly love and enjoy the most! 

9. White or Red wine?  Or is liquor quicker?

I love chilled Pinot Grigio and vodka. I don't drink much of anything else.

10. What makes you feel most accomplished, or what do you feel has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

 Being honorably discharged as a SSgt after 10 years of faithful service from the Marine Corps. I could go on and on with this, but my experiences in the Marine Corps are truly the reasons why I am who I am today and the reason why I am where I am today. I did my last 5 years with a knee and hip injury that ultimately ended my career at 10 years...just in time for me to be ready to get out and move on to other things. The timing was perfect. God's timing is always perfect.

 

11. What inspired you to start blogging?

My daughter! I started blogging when I was pregnant with her. I realized I'm not very good at scrap booking or keeping up with baby books, but I wanted a way for her to look back at our life when she grew up. Blogging just came natural to me. It's turned into so much more than just talking about our everyday life. I love it!

So here are the 11 Blogs that I pick!

I hope y'all all participate cause I'd LOVE to know more about y'all!

(I went off followers on bloglovin', btw)

1. Kate @ Daffodils 

2. Ashley @ Raising Our Little Devil Pups

3. Kym @ Red, White, & Marine Wife

4. Jessica @ Battling The Homefront

5. Marcella @ The Life After "Trust Me"

6. Michelle @ You Had Me From Hello
7. Bri @ Tiny Texan
8. Kelsey @ Pardon My French
9. Allie @ My Marine and Me
10. Jen @ Jen and Her Marine
11. Ashley @ Love From Home

And here are my fabulous questions...

1. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
2. Where is your favorite place to go (vacationing or just hang out at)?
3. Is your life today what you thought it would be 5 years ago? If not, what did you expect it to be?
4. If you could have one "do over" in life, what would it be?
5. What are your top three favorite songs of all time?
6. What's one piece of advice you would give your teenaged self?
7. Who is your "go to" person in life for advice and why?
8. What is the craziest thing you've ever done?
9. Who inspires you other than your spouse or family members?
10. Who is your favorite celebrity?
11. What inspires you to blog?

I can't wait to read everyone's responses!!!
I hope everyone responds!!!
I'm nosey, which is why I stalk all of y'alls blogs.

My Superheroes

 Like Father, Like Son.

HIS Plans

I wish I could blog about something other than having a newborn around.

But when my life these days consist of having a newborn attached to my boob, that's all I really have to blog about.

I don't know if it's a boy thing, but man, does this little guy EAT.

I swear as soon as I get done nursing him, he's got his two little fingers in his mouth giving me the cue to feed him again.

My daughter was breastfed for the first 3 months of her life, and she did not nurse this much!

She nursed every two to three hours on the clock, while Baby M nurses every hour to hour and a half. 

My body seems to be recovering a whole lot faster than it did with D.

In fact, I feel like in a week or two, I'll be ready to hit the pavement again!

It's a promising sign that I will have my pre baby body back before the Marine Corps ball in November.

We had our first family outing at the Cheesecake Factory a few days ago.

I'm happy to say that Baby slept the entire time, and I was able to enjoy my meal.

I posted this pic on my Facebook a few days ago with the caption, "I never thought we'd have two kids...especially since I told him that I didn't want kids when we were dating. Now I can't imagine life without all THREE of them!"

It's true. 

At one point in my life, the Marine Corps was my LIFE.

There was no way I was about to have kids.

Kids would have ruined all my great plans that I had in order to make the Marine Corps my lifelong career.

It's crazy how God intervened, and made me realize that MY plans were not HIS plans.

This was the life I pictured for myself...

Building rockets for Marine Corps aviation...

 And deploying to the middle east...

This is the life God had pictured for me.

A wife following her Marine around all over the world, and a mama of two.

I personally like God's plan better.

I mean look at these two...

My spunky 4 year old with crazy hair (who likes to the selfies on my iPad)

And my handsome newborn...

Yup...

Life is pretty good.

Life With a Second Child

My whole pregnancy, I was SO worried about having two children around the house.

There are days when just my one 4 year old is a lot to handle, and the thought of her AND a newborn stressed me out a little...ok...a LOT.

I kept telling myself that God would never give me more than I could handle over and over again to calm my fears and anxieties.

Thank God that the above statement is true.

Honestly, baby #2 has been a breeze.

When D was born, I was a hormonal, stressed out, and depressed mama. 

I got the baby blues really bad right after I got home from the hospital with her, and it eventually turned into full blown postpartum depression (in which I was medicated for).

I hated breastfeeding.

I hated being alone with the baby.

*I had anxiety and panic attacks whenever I was left alone at home with her*

I had crazy feelings of guilt when I had to go back to work and drop off my 6 week old in daycare.

I had crazy feelings of guilt for being happy to drop her off, so that I didn't have to be around her.

I cried constantly.

I was a wreck.

 

Because my experience with D was so traumatic (everything from labor and delivery to bringing her home), my doctor wanted to be on the safe side, and he prescribed me an antidepressant to start taking as soon as I brought baby M home.

By the way, I never picked up the prescription.

Today Baby M is a week old.

I feel like this week has FLOWN by, and I desperately want to slow the time down.

This is a feeling I never had with D.

With D, the weeks seemed to drag on, and I wanted to speed up time to a point where she wasn't so "needy".

I don't know what's different with this baby, but I feel a lot more at peace.

I really enjoy the time I have nursing him.

D is such a HUGE help with everything, and such an amazing big sister.

My hubby has been a super hero dad

 Between going to college and helping me take care of baby while my body recovers from childbirth, I'm not even sure if he's really gotten a chance to fully "enjoy" his paternity leave.

I feel like with D, God was showing me that I am capable of making it through a "rough storm".

Looking back on it now, I can't believe that I made it through such a difficult time.

I look at D, and I can't believe how much she's grown.

It amazes me what a bright, cheerful, beautiful, smart, loving, and awesome little girl she has turned out to be. 

Her and I have been through more together in her 4 years of life that Baby M and I will ever go through.

We made it through deployments, separations, mama being active duty, and much more together.

Baby M gets a little break from the crazy Marine Corps life that I put D through:-)

At the end of the day, I am so thankful for the rough times.

It makes me appreciate so much more the time I am having with both of my babies right now. 

My hubby and I have prayerfully made the decision that we are done with two kids.

However, I am enjoying this stage of infancy so much with Baby M, I get sad knowing that he's my last "baby".

It almost makes me think that I could handle a third.

That is until I realize how much college is going to cost for 3 children.

Then I snap out of it :-)

 P.S. How 'bout them Aggies?!