things i know for sure

1) i am tiiiiiiiiiiired.

2) i heard this song today and quickly decided that i will never get sick of it.  i think that makes me either dorky, old, or both.

3) my heart melts when my oldest son tells me daily that he is glad i am not in the hospital anymore.

4) i fear that the temper of that same child who melts my heart daily will be just as ferocious or worse the older he gets.  if it is this nasty when he's three, what will sixteen be like?

5) margaritas from matt's are just as delicious now as they were 10 months ago.  unfortunately, so is blue bell homemade vanilla ice cream {i should really kick that habit}.

6) my baby-baby has blue eyes like his daddy. 

7) i just mistook my dog for my husband by the sound of his snore.

8) going to target with two is possible. 

9) the baby bjorn is genius.

10) when i worry, it is usually for no good reason.  most things turn out just fine.  i am feeling anxious right now and i cannot pin-point the cause.  i need to channel my inner bob marley.

what do you know for sure?

go mavs!

greatest hits

my week in pictures:

1) celebrating my momma's birthday.  burgers and beer on a patio one night, home-cooked family dinner another night.  we love you, mimi.  happy birthday~~~

2) seeing this picture and realizing that this must be what i look like to my children.  a lady in pajamas with a camera attached to her face.

3) chocolate donut mouths make for sweet kisses.

4) the most ill-planned trip to eat at the brand new in-and-out burger in frisco.  first of all, due to construction it took us forever to just get on the tollroad, then our newborn decided he needed food immediately, then we got to frisco and couldn't find the damn place, then we saw the line to get in wrapped around the entire restaurant.  we had low blood sugar and road rage.  even though we didn't get the burger experience we were after, we did find some old locomotives for ben to climb on.  see?  that's me looking on the bright side.

5) a popsicle picnic.

6) ben's end-of-the-year program at school.  he wanted no part of twinkle, twinkle, little star, but sang the hell out of the itsy, bitsy spider.

7) these eyes.

8) those snuggles.

9) bath time.  which means the baby cries, but the reward is slathering him with yummy smelling baby lotion afterwards.

10) figuring out how to handle them both, at the same time, successfully.  it helps that they are super cute.

11) having a baby means people want to cook for you, which is awesome by the way, especially when it's my grandmother's smothered chicken.  she can make brown gravy in a cast iron skillet like nobody's business.  i asked her if she would make this for me more often if i kept having babies.  i'm considering it, people.

12)  who is 3 weeks old?  THIS GUY!

13) summer haircuts.  we all got one.

14) saying goodbye to oprah.  we'll miss you, opes (like that, jessica???)

{image via mighty girl}

how was your week?  chris' parents are in town and we are so excited.  so, i'll catch y'all on the flipside.

until next time, 

xoxoxo

who was i kidding?

i haven't had long hair since high school.  bill clinton was president.  i pulled it back in scrunchies, for pete's sake.  so someone tell me why on earth i decided that 32 was the perfect age to revisit those long locks?  growing out your hair sucks.  so since i am no longer pregnant, yesterday i allowed myself to chop it off.  that way it is no longer a hormonal decision, but a rational one.

it's friday, i'm in love

click here to see why.


when you are done looking, promptly move to dallas (if you don't already live here), have a baby, and book melissa for portraits.  ok?  ok.

greatest hits

things have slowed down tremendously in the two weeks since crosby was born.  the days are blurry and the nights are blurrier.  but there really is no sweeter time than the first few weeks home with a new baby.  time is spent getting to know one another and deciding things like whose ears the new baby has.  here is a general idea of how we have spent the week:

1) eating sushi.  as delicious as i remember.

2) introducing friends to our new roommate.

3) couching with crosby with an occasional nap thrown in.

4) a patio picnic with this cute baby and his mick jagger lips,

and his big brother (who loves to water the plants).

5) lots of family time.

pretty exciting, huh?

life is slower right now, but it's so, so good.

how was your week?

until next time,

xoxoxo

this and that

it's time to clean out my reader.  again.  

i hope you also enjoy these things that have recently caught my eye.

1) although my marriage proposal was the best, best, best ever, this one might just take a close second.

2) my friend jessica is a bad-ass.  she lives in chicago and somehow, someway, magically managed to get her hands on two tickets to OPRAH'S LAST SHOW!  she blogged about it here.  oh oprah, how we will miss you.

3) the artist, annie terrazzo, paints on newspaper she finds on the subway floor.  why, you ask?  because it is free.  read more about it here.  thanks for the eye candy, alice.

4) in chicago, i was awestruck by 'the bean'.  i can only imagine how i would feel walking around this beauty.  yet another reason to go to paris.  read more here.

5) artist yeondoo jung recreates pictures drawn by his children.  so clever.

via.

6) cute, cute, cute.

{my personal fave}

via.

good night story

sadly, i love profanity.  is that insane to admit on this blog?  those of you that know me well, know that i can have a filthy mouth at times, and that i come from a long line of filthy mouths on my mother's side of the family.  is there a profanity gene?  a curse word, used appropriately, can drive your point home, punctuate a sentence perfectly, or just make what you are saying much funnier. {i still giggle when i remember my sister at age 3 cursing the ice dispenser on our refrigerator; "shit, shit, shit!" my 8 year old self didn't find it funny until after i tattled on her.}

case in point, this good-night story.  omg.  effin' hilarious.  if you don't appreciate a potty-mouth like i do, you might want to skip this read.  but if you are a parent, this author says everything you want to say to your child at bedtime, but won't.  genius.

effin' read it.

sample text says:

The windows are dark in town, child.

The whales huddle down in the deep.

I'll read you one last book if you swear

You'll go the fuck to sleep.

here's another:

The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest

And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep.

I know you're not thirsty.  That's bullshit.  Stop lying.

Lie the fuck down, my darling, and sleep.

reserve your copy here.

greatest hits

*earlier this week, i began writing a post where i waxed poetic about my devout love for the readers of this blog.  it was very heartfelt, believe me.  however, when stupid blogger was out of service ALL DAY on thursday (my regular greatest hits day), my love letter to you somehow vanished.  so just know that i love all of you.  it says i have 21 followers but i know there are more of you lurking because of the comments and/or sweet messages you send me on facebook.  most of you i haven't seen in years, and somehow, someway, through this large (yet very small) blogoshere, you have become very dear friends.  so thank you for your kind words (it's the only way i know you are here) and thank you for reading my little blog.  you are the best, i mean it.

being that it was our first week at home with a new baby, our days and nights sort of blurred together.  here is a very general greatest hits for last week, written by a woman who has thought all day that it is sunday (although it is actually saturday).  let's just say my brain is a tad bit....fuzzy.

 1) visits from friends and family.

2) my momma's home-cooked meals

3) photo-shoots

(melissa is so, so good at what she does.  

check her out.)

4) adjusting to our new normal

 5) the two-besties welcoming another into their fold. i love those guys.

 6) crosby's first stroll around the block

 can you tell by his expression how much he loved it?

 7) kissing and sniffing and snuggling this one to death.  cannot. get. enough.

 8) trying to convince the big brother that the rules are still the same, our expectations are the same, and our love for him is the same.  his little world has turned upside down and it breaks my heart.  i find comfort in the fact that he loves his baby brother very much.  it's now us he's unsure about.

p.s. bad news: i cannot drive until wednesday (boring). 

good news: i can now tell my feet apart from my calves and ankles.

i put on a pair of non-maternity jeans (progress).

how was your week?

until next time,

xoxoxo

happy birthday, baby

a little over a week ago, this was my view.

 and now i get to look at his sweet mug everyday.

happy one week birthday, little crosby.

my bad

i think i have been blabbing my mouth about how i don't really think crosby and ben look much alike.

i take it back.

crosby- 1 week old

benjamin- 1 week old

things i know for sure

1) parenting my toddler is a lot more tiring than parenting my newborn.
2) i love nurses.  i miss mine.  patricia and casie were my favorites, and although i will never see them again, i will never forget them.
3) if the swelling in my feet and ankles doesn't go away soon, i need to either a) audition for a freakish medical reality show on tlc, or b) start to worry.
4) i am pissed my pain medicine makes me feel worse rather than better, because i still need it.  hydrocodone and i used to get along so well, now not so much.
5) i now utter phrases i never thought would come out of my mouth in a million years.  for example: "please stop licking your brother". 
6) i never heed the advice, "nap while the baby naps".  i blog while the baby naps.
7) my impatience will be the end of me.  just a couple of weeks ago i was more than ready to have a baby even though it wasn't time yet.  now that i have had him i am so, so, so ready to fit into my old clothes, stop swelling, hop on a treadmill, eat sushi, drink some beer, wear normal shoes, go on walks and outings with my three handsome men.  i am crawling out of my skin.  tick, tock, tick, tock.
8) turns out there was plenty of room in my heart to love both ben and crosby.  so much so i feel like it might burst.
9) ben will be a great big brother.  i can feel it in my bones.
10) rumor has it, cabbage helps slow down breast milk production.  i'll spare you the details, but i may never be able to look at cole slaw the same way again.

the end.

what do you know for sure?

my mother's day present

welcome to the world,

crosby nelson

born may 4, 2011

7:52 am

7 lbs., 4 oz.

love is:

catching that first glimpse,

holding your baby for the first time 

(after waiting very, very patiently),

daddy's hands,

little glances,

 meeting your sibling,

sharing your toys,

brotherhood,

sharing your best friend,

watching your grandfather hold his great-grandson,

a hospital picnic,

the oldest and best of friends making you forget it's time to take your pain medicine,

a nurse who so gently awakes you in the middle of the night to deliver percocet,

another nurse who helps you shower when you still can't feel your feet after surgery,

a fancy going-home-from-the-hospital outfit,

daddy's voice,

a homecoming,

homemade cards and little blue boxes,

"napping" as a family.

happy mother's day!  i hope yours is as sweet as mine.

p.s. 

we love you, mom/mimi and mom/nana 

(two of the very best mommas we know).

xoxoxo

*for more pictures of crosby's arrival, click here.  

a couple are from the OR, so be prepared :)