Is a genius. 

And he makes me very, very happy and oh so proud to be his wife.

Hi everybody!

It has been a while since I’ve updated with what has been going on in my life.  I’ve been busy.  Very busy.  Mostly with the mundane stuff like eating, sleeping, pooping and then doing it all over again.  A few new cool developments though.  I’ve learned how to roll over and my hand coordination is getting much better.   I love to practice standing holding onto someones hands.  Mom worries that I am not going to learn to crawl before trying to walk since I get so frustrated when I’m on my stomach. 

Tonight I got to hang out with Dad in my green sling.  Other than having to work hard to see over the top I really like this sling.

We were helping Mom put the upstairs living room back together after Grandma Tallent finished painting.  Here I am supervising Dad hanging a painting.  “A little to the left Dad, it’s hanging all wonky…Haven’t you ever done this before???”

After lots of hard work Dad was feeling kinda droopy so we went to the kitchen.

After getting a glass of water Dad felt MUCH better.  I’m sure he’s glad he has me around to make sure he remembers to refresh himself every so often.  Oh, how do I remind him of this if I’m not talking yet?  The answer is simple.  Drool.  Lots and lots of drool.  Nothing like a good drool soaking to convince someone they might need to wash up, and while washing up they remember that they need to drink.  It’s genius.  Really.  It is.  Babies as a whole are grossly underestimated I am here to tell you.

After a long day I start to get rather cranky so Mom usually takes me away to the bedroom for a final meal and then changes me into my PJ’s.  Usually cute PJ’s by the way.  Lots of pinks, purples and whites.  Can’t say that any of it is entirely practical or necessary from my point of view but it makes her happy and she says that it enhances my cuteness too.  What baby is going to argue with a cuteness enhancer??  After all, that is what babies are known for.  After eating I am usually out for the night.  She got a picture of me with one of my favorite pacifiers.  Mom says it’s too small for me now but I gag when I try to use the bigger ones so she still lets me use these.  Mom says this picture highlights my turned up nose to perfection.  I am not quite sure highlighting my nose is something I really should be happy about but oh well.  She’s the Mom.

Mom and Dad both say I am outgrowing my bassinet.  Maybe soon they’ll let me sleep in the big babies crib! And by the way…Mom can never decide which way to let me sleep.  Too many conflicting experts she says.  So some nights I’m on my back, others I’m on my side and still others I’m on my tummy.  I tend to fuss the most and not sleep very well when I am on my tummy so she doesn’t do that one quite as often as the others.  I show my appreciation as often as possible with gigantic grins.  She says she adores my smiles.

Goodnight all!   May you sleep as peacefully and long as I do. 

Noelle and I haven’t had very many pictures taken together since she was born.  Usually because I am on the other side of the camera! 
  Steph Clayton took this picture of us at the wedding and I stole, I mean, er, BORROWED it from her. 

Noelle was looking so adorable today on our trip back to TN from NC, and I was very bored so passed some of the time by taking lots of pictures. 

Little Funny Face

“Ooooo…Don’t look now but Mom has that Camera thingie out again!”

“It’s a big world out here Dad.”

“Toss me again!”

Getting ready to take a nap on the road with her pink rabbit dubbed “Snuggles”

It looks like she is more bald than she was before but actually she’s got more hair than ever!  It’s coming in a very light blonde that doesn’t show up in pictures (or in person for that matter) very well.  I love that it’s got just the faintest hint of copper in it as well! 

I am so proud of her.  She did amazingly well this weekend even though everything familiar was all messed up and we kept her up at all hours of the day and night traveling.  In spite of seeming to be in more of a “Mommy” mode than she has been on previous trips she allowed many people to hold her and even seemed to enjoy herself.  So thankful she’s been so easy! 

Finally asleep holding Dad’s finger.

So I just got back to the hotel here in NC from Brent and Anna’s Wedding.  Steve was a Groomsman.  The wedding was just BEAUTIFUL!!!!    Without me wasting time going on and on about it here are the pictures!

The Happy Couple.

Anna’s Sister the Maid of Honor

Steve with Noelle after the Ceremony

Anna’s dress was just beautiful, ALMOST as beautiful as she is!

The lovely Kat Fan was there taking pictures.  Here she is in one of her rare moments from behind a camera.  Noelle really liked her!  Showed her just how much by spitting up all over Kat’s beautiful outfit. Thankfully Kat took it in stride and wasn’t offended.

Luke and Sarah White enjoying Noelle.

Noelle and I before the ceremony.  She was Sooooo good all the way through.  Didn’t make a sound.  Other than spitting her pacifier with a well aimed “Thwap” right under the feet of the groomsmen as they exited the church she was almost perfect.  You can also see my new hair cut!  Courtesy of the amazingly talented Sarah.  I haven’t “styled” it yet but love it even un styled.

Little Sleepy Eyes.

It was a wonderful time and definitely worth the drive to come out here.  I wish Anna and Brent a wonderful and blessed marriage! 

My brother John and I were hanging out in the kitchen last night talking about Noelle and babies in general.  We had just seen a one week old baby girl the day before and we both were very impressed by how unusually beautiful she is to be so young.  John was attempting to describe how most new borns look and it ended up coming out like this…

“They look unfinished.  Underbaked..no, not that. Squishy? No, not quite like that either..Like… like… <Look of inspiration coming over his face> Like a brand new car with no trim!”

I couldn’t stop laughing. 

Our little family.

Sweet Miss Jessi

The girls!  L-R Kalyn, Me and Noelle, Jessi

Whew, what a week. Whirlwind.  It started off nicely with a visit from our friend Josh.  Josh is one of the most interesting characters and thinkers I’ve ever had the chance of meeting.  I greatly enjoyed his thought provoking/sharing manner of speech.  Hope he enjoyed his visit.  Felt like we ignored him most of the time and left him to fend for himself as far as food and entertainment went for large chunks of time.  Ah well.

Later in the week Steve’s Mom and Dad came into town to stay for a few days.  They are looking for houses in the general area and thinking about moving out here.   They are really enjoying seeing Noelle again for the first time since she was a tiny new born!

To top off our week of company Tim and Kalyn also showed up!  It has been so wonderful to see them again as a very happy, married couple.  My memories of them are all wrapped together with my early memories of Steve and our parallel courtship/engagement days together.  They married a month before we did, and met each other for the first time at the same meeting that Steve and I met.  So amazing to see where we all are now compared to just two short years ago.

My thoughts are a tired, jumbled whirl.  Too many late night conversations with Josh on top of days too busy to nap have successfully turned me into a candidate for the pumpkin award.  Speaking of late nights Josh seemingly effortlessly revived my old coffee addiction.  I am now thankful I didn’t give away our coffee maker, and have a small stash of it in the freezer for those days when I feel like indulging.  Steve seems to be resigned to the fact that his wife can’t help her love of the dreadful brew.  As long as I brush my teeth after consuming he’ll be happy. 

I had my first “I want to just cry” moments as a Mom tonight.  When Noelle gets hungry we usually have a solid 30 minutes or so of distracting, talking etc where she will remain calm but after a certain point she gives up hope of ever getting food again and starts to cry hysterically and inconsolably.  Always (on the handful of occasions) before I’ve been able to nurse her within a couple of minutes of her hitting the “point of no return” but tonight was different.  Long story short she ended up hysterically screaming her little heart out for thirty solid minutes until I could get home to nurse her.  It was one of those situations where we couldn’t stop, and due to slow traffic ended up being a longer drive home than planned.  She could hardly breath, I know her throat is sore now and she seems to have a cough from crying so hard.  It absolutely broke my heart.  Her little eyes are red and swollen and the look on that tiny face when she was finally able to nurse!  I suppose with time and more kids I’ll toughen up but for now it was the singularly most emotionally traumatizing incident of my very short career as a Mom.

I need to go to sleep.  Our little one is sleeping sweetly and peacefully.  I am off to do the same.

This was a fun week with a couple of interesting new developments.  I figured out how to hold a bottle all by myself.  Dad thought that was really cool.

 The highlight though was getting to taste some food that wasn’t Mom’s milk.  She FINALLY gave in and let Dad give me some REAL food!  Dad let me suck on a fresh slice of peach.  It was soooo, so so so so good.  Can I have some more?  Please?  Please?

Mom looked my weight up on the growth chart this week to find out how I’m growing.  She was shocked to find out that I’m in the 95% range!  Dad was joking that I was barely bigger than a 5lb block of cheese.  Haha Dad.  Very funny.

<yawn>  Well, it is time for me to go take a nap. 

Until next time!

–Noelle

The first couple of weeks after Noelle was born were great.  I dropped weight like crazy.  This led me to the oh so false belief that it was only a matter of time before my pre baby body magically re appeared.  My body seemed to be obliging nicely even though I wasn’t being very careful with my diet.  I LOVE Breyers ice cream and I certainly haven’t been depriving myself any since her birth. Particularly since I found it on sale and stocked up. 

The past four weeks though have been depressing to say the least.   My weight loss has stalled and the realization that it is going to take being conscious and careful of what I eat (No formal dieting, I know that’s a no no while nursing!) but just cutting out sugars/excess empty calories would be acceptable and probably help nudge the scales down out of their current state of immobility.  Another thing that would be enormously helpful would be to start exercising on a new and more intense level.  Apparently gone are the days where I do Ab workouts for a few days and almost immediately notice a difference.  New management has taken over my body and is implementing all sorts of new policies that I really, REALLY don’t like. 

I simply cannot tell you how loathsome it is to this lazy individual to actually start doing all the work I’m going to have to do to whip myself back into good enough shape to comfortably (i.e. NOT squeezed in so tight they look spray painted on) ALL of my pre pregnancy clothes.  That is the goal and not an unreasonable one.  I don’t expect them to ever fit exactly the “same” since some things have unchangeably changed but to get back down to my pre pregnancy weight should be doable, especially since it wasn’t so great to start out with.

This posting is to motivate my lazy bum into gear.  Thinking about doing a three month workout plan/schedule and posting the results on here.  Something about making public statements makes me so much more liable to follow through.