My first meme!

So we had an ice storm this past week.  We never have ice storms or snow storms.  Or anything like that.  So it was really interesting to experience - and I hope we never experience it again!  Through the whole thing, I had a lot of fun poking fun at us and our inability to keep the world from stopping because of a little ice and snow.  Of course, we don't have the infrastructure or equipment to take care of this, so it was inevitable for it to be a problem.  And it wasn't our fault.  But it was still fun to poke fun.  I live-tweeted the snow storm and took lots of photos of our house and yard.  And I made this meme, which I posted on the news facebook pages and on my company page.  I thought it was funny.  ;)

25 Things I Like About Myself

I think this is such a great exercise, especially for people like me, with self-esteem issues.  I'm going to try to do this and see if I can actually come up with 25 of them in one sitting.  ;)

1. I think my eyes are pretty.
2. I like my hair.
3. I think my singing voice is very good.
4. I am creative.
5. I am a good writer.
6. I am a good photographer.
7. I am good at my job.
8. I am a nice person.
9. I am generally well-liked.
10. I am entertaining in a crowd.
11. I am a pretty smart cookie!
12. I am sympathetic.
13. I am trustworthy.
14. I am a positive person.
15. I am generally a happy person.
16. I am a great mom.
17. I am a good wife (who wants to change that to great!)
18. I am a hard worker.
19. I always try my hardest to achieve my goals.
20. I am ambitious, but not aggressive about it.
21. I am a good listener.
22. I generally stay away from drama and gossip.
23. I have a nice laugh.
24. I am musical.
25. I am a good daughter to the best parents in the world. 

That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  So there are some things I like about myself.  :)

Dear Nathan (16 months old)

Dear Nathan,

Hello sweet boy!  Now, when I say that to you, you can say "hi" back!  You're learning more and more words, and you can point to some body parts when we ask you where they are.  You can run, jump, march, and climb.  Oh boy, can you climb!  That's your absolute favorite activity right now.  You love to slide down the slide at the park and you still love to swing.

Cheese is still your favorite food, and you like to drink juice (which is unsweetened apple juice that is really watered down.)  When we ask you if you want something to drink, you say "drink."  And then we ask you to choose what you want and you do!  It's super cute.

Over the weekend, we took you back to the zoo that we all went to when you were six months old.  What a difference!  You liked it then, but you LOVE it now!  It was so much fun watching you interact with all the animals.  You really had fun with the goats.  You fed them zoo puffs for like an hour.  And laughed your head off when they licked your fingers.  It was awesome.

Daddy and I are making lots of plans for your future, little one.  We are not confident in the school system these days, so we are very seriously planning to teach you at home.  I'm having a great time daydreaming about our lesson plans and about community activities we can get you involved in so you can make friends.  I honestly can't wait until it's time to start.  I always wanted to be a teacher!  And of course, the best part of that is that I will get to be with you every day.  I'm looking forward to that so much.  I feel like I'm missing so much of your younger years by being at work, but I know it's just so that I can be part of your education later.  And that helps me get through our current situation.

We are also hoping you can have a sibling before the year is over.  It's taking longer than we expected, and we may have to get some medical help to make it happen, but we are trying.  I'm hoping for a sister for you.  I think boys need a little sister to pick on and to protect.  But a brother would be awesome too!

I think that's about all for now.  I love you, buddy!

With all my heart,

Mommy

2013 Year In Review

After the whirlwind of 2012, we were looking forward to a peaceful, quiet year.  We did not take into account that our tiny 4-month-old would become a toddler in 2013, basically ensuring that we would never have peace and quiet again!  :)  So here's the yearly recap.

January
Great 4 month doctor's appointment!  Jon and I signed up for Color Me Rad - our first 5k!  Nathan ate his first baby food and loved it.  His favorite was sweet potatoes, followed by carrots.  He also loved green beans.  I spent the month learning all about my new job and getting ready to really run with some fun projects at work.

February
Our big project this month was getting the dead dogwood trees in our front yard cut down.  We were excited to get that done so that we could plant some fruit trees.  Nathan continued to grow and be completely adorable.

March
Nathan's first trip to the zoo!  He loved the goats and enjoyed watching the monkeys.  He was skeptical about the birds.  ;)  We also celebrated his first Easter, and he got to pet his first bunny!  We actually went all over town trying to find an Easter bunny that didn't look like a pedophile.  We were unsuccessful.  So we went with a real bunny instead.  I'm okay with that.  :)

April
What a month for us!  Jon and I did our first 5k.  It was Color Me Rad, and although we walked a great deal of it (because I was having foot issues due to wearing terrible shoes during pregnancy.) it was still a great accomplishment and I'm really proud of us for doing it!  And we were super colorful at the end!  I would recommend a color run to anyone who is thinking about it.  We had a lot of fun.  Other April highlights included: getting a new boss - and a new friend.  Nathan's big accomplishments in April included sitting up in a shopping cart for the first time, getting his first tooth, and being silly for the video camera.

May
I joined Coastal Chorale again, and it was the best decision I ever made.  I love singing with this group and it was great learning all the fun music for the summer show.  Nathan went to his first baseball game, and of course, he had to have a baseball outfit to wear for it.  We also bought him a cute Baybears baseball cap.  But he hates hats, so he never wears it.  ;)  He also got his first haircut at home.  We still haven't gone to a place to have it done, since he's such a wiggle worm.  I keep it trimmed for him for now.  A big milestone was reached in May - our little baby became mobile!  Yep, he learned to crawl - and life was never the same.  He also had his first bath in the big bath tub.  Followed by his first splash fight with mommy.  We celebrated my first Mother's Day, and it was wonderful.  Nathan had his first picnic at the beach, and Jon did a photo shoot with us so I would always remember my first Mother's Day.  Jon planted a garden in the back yard.  We were so excited to be able to grow our own veggies.

June
A 9 month old!  How did that happen?  Jon and I made pickles for the first time from the cucumbers we grew in our garden.  They were awesome!  Nathan didn't like his too much when he tried it.  ;)  He did, however, enjoy eating real food from a real plate this month.  His first real meal was baked chicken and green beans, followed by some applesauce.  He babbled a lot this month, and learned how to blow raspberries.  I started (and then stopped) the 30 Day Shred.  It was brutal!  Nathan started pulling himself up and bouncing around.  He also started biting me.  Just me - nobody else.  Jon's first Father's Day was this month.  He got a grill/smoker, which he has used 14 times since then (or so he said yesterday, lol)

July
Coastal Chorale summer show!  First vacation with Nathan!  Nathan's first trip to the aquarium in New Orleans!  Nathan's first road trip!  Lots of fun stuff happened in July this year!  Jon and my dad built an awesome book shelf for our living room and we got an aquarium to go in it.  We love having fish to watch, and so does Nathan.

August
I spent most of this month making things for Nathan's birthday party.  We did a lot of tests to find an egg-free cake that worked well and I finally found one that was perfect.  We made a banner for the wall and a cool chalkboard with all his accomplishments.  We made cute invitations and sent them out.  Other than party prep, nothing huge happened in August.

September
The Birthday Month!  We decorated the living room and dining room medieval style and I made a dragon cake.  We invited family and friends.  Nathan was crabby at first, but warmed up to all the attention.  I think a good time was had by all.  And wow - having a 1-year-old is so different from having an infant. He started really cruising the furniture and trying to walk around his birthday.  He also got his first taste of peanut butter.  He liked the taste, but wasn't sure about the consistency.  We also took part in a run benefiting ovarian cancer research.  We were on the team of a dear friend who was diagnosed the same day Nathan was born.  We moved Nathan to his own room this month too.  A year of sleeping in our room and we all slept better with him in his own room!

October
Our 2nd Anniversary!  We celebrated with dinner and a lovely moonlit stroll at Bayfront Park.  We talked about what a crazy two years it has been!  We made Nathan a knight costume for Halloween and he was adorable.  Nathan got to go to the Shrimp Festival for the first time.  We went to watch his cousin Hannah dance and then walked around and looked at everything.  We also took him to the corn maze, but didn't go into the maze with him this year.  We were afraid it would scare him.  The big thing this month was that he WALKED unassisted for the very first time.  And he hasn't stopped walking/running since.  ;)  Jon's grandmother passed away at the end of the month.  It was an awful time for him.  :(

November
Nathan started doing weekly art projects with Nana, so we set up a cool way to display them in the hallway.  I turned 37 (yikes!) and had a great birthday weekend.  Nathan got to go to Greek Fest for the first time - and the fair!

December
Christmas with a toddler!  We took Nathan to Bellingrath's Magic Christmas in Lights and he loved it.  He also loved riding around our neighborhood look at the lights on the houses.  He kept saying Ohhhh... yay! when we passed a pretty house.  He enjoyed the book-a-day advent activity that I set up for him and it really helped him learn how to unwrap gifts.  And now he brings books to us all the time, so we know he loves reading.  :)  We also had the Coastal Chorale Christmas show, which was just magical.  I love singing with this group and can't wait to get right back to it for the Snowbird show!

So that's the year in review.  Overall, it was a great one.  I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for our little family!