Did you say sale?

Hey mommas! I just found a great site for baby and kid bargains. It has flash sales from different designers with major discounts, and membership is free. You have to be invited to join, so here is your invitation...

http://totsy.com/join/carlakeahey

The other plus is that they are a green company. They plant a tree in your child's name for every purchase you make, they work to reduce their carbon footprint, and are mindful of their packaging.

Enjoy!

Hello. My name is Carla, and I am a laugh-aholic.

I need it! I gotta have it! There's nothing like hearing your child burst into laughter! Last night Everett laughed BIG laughs for a few minutes straight! I thought Eric and I would melt into a puddle on the kitchen floor! The only other time he granted us these wonderful sounds was back when I blogged about it a few weeks ago. So now we are constantly doing things to try to elicit his laughter - trying desperately to get that fix! It's easy to get those big smiles, and they are great too. But the laughter...oh, the laughter!!!

I am led to believe he may be an adrenaline junky like his father. (sigh) Spinning in fast circles and being thrown in the air have been the keys to laughing so far. But I'll do whatever it takes to hear that sweet sound. :)

Baby's First Snow

There will be no snow angels this year!



Perhaps he's upset because he doesn't have the ability to make a snowball yet. :)

Cute Noises

Everett is really starting to get talkative. Some days he is very quiet and others (like today) are the opposite and a lot of fun! He was a riot in yoga today talking up a storm. I captured a bit of his "talking" this afternoon.



We also had some fun with PhotoBooth today. :)



Twins?! AAAHHH!!





p.s. I should mention Eric is totally grossed out by and opposed to the above images. hahaha! :)

Dads Are So Special!

Eric has, from the very beginning, been an amazing dad. My favorite part of the day is when he comes home from work. He gets in front of Everett and a few seconds later, Everett realizes who is in front of him. At that point, you get the biggest, sweetest smiles from him. You can see hearts oozing from Everett's eyes to Eric's. Ok, not really, but just about. :)

I was incredibly lucky as well to have an amazing dad. Among the many things he taught us were to be honest, work hard, and be on time. Dinner was funny face time and summers were spent getting ice cream after reading a novel (and giving a book report). He is fun, funny, incredibly hard working, tactful, smart...I could go on and on.

This weekend, Eric was working overnight, so Everett and I headed up to see Grandma and Grandpa. Seeing my dad light up when Everett is around and Everett light up when Grandpa is around is very fun. (Grandma too, but this is about dads.)

We're on our way home today, and one of the things I'm really looking forward to when we get back is that initial hello between Everett and his dad.



*Follow up: When Eric got home today and exchanged hellos with Everett, it WAS the cutest greeting ever. HUGE smiles, giggles, and some really cute baby talk. This boy loves his daddy. And his daddy loves him. We are a lucky family. :)

Coming to Terms with the Sacrifices of a Mother

Hopefully, when Everett reads this post years from now he doesn't take it personally. I love you, Everett, with every corner of my being. Becoming a parent is the most wonderful and most challenging thing I have ever done.

(sigh)

The first sacrifice of a mother is her body. It expands, contorts, leaks, bears scars, sags, etc. It will never be the same. But this body also nourishes, loves, cuddles, comforts. There is nothing like a mother's embrace. This sacrifice was one of the easier ones for me.

The next sacrifice is sleep. First, it's hard to sleep as a pregnant woman. Then, there is limited sleep in the first few months of caring for the infant. Finally, when that has resolved and you think your long lost friend, sleep, is back...it is limited by thoughts, worry, and the desire to spend time to yourself. (I'm so used to not being by myself, that if I don't have Everett with me, I feel like I'm missing an appendage.) Of course, with those things come the indescribable feeling of a baby twisting and kicking inside of you, being needed and vital, and then the time and space to reflect and process. Everett's smiling face looking up at me in the morning, even if it is way earlier than I would like to wake up, is the sweetest, most precious gift he can give me.

Another sacrifice is your life as it was. I used to HATE it when people said to me, "your life is going to change." Well, thank you very much Captain Obvious for that newsflash. Of course it was going to change, and I knew that. I wasn't a 15 year old not thinking about the consequences. I was nearly 30, had thought about it a lot, was in a stable marriage, and was very ready. I knew we wouldn't be able to go to late dinners, parties, or be with friends as much as we were used to. But with that sacrifice we get bath time, story time, playtime, cuddle time. And those times are precious. We also get amazing new friendships with new moms, dads and babies, playgroups, trips to kid places, baby yoga, etc. And we'll get to be with our other friends more -- they'll have babies. :) And we'll figure out how to make it work.

The final sacrifice I'll mention (there are more I am sure) is my occupation (for now). I have always had pride in saying that I am a nurse. When I say "I am a nurse", I feel like people immediately get a glimpse into the kind of person I am and hope to be. When I decided on nursing, I had an amazing feeling of clarity as if the puzzle pieces of my life fell into place and this is what I was meant to do. Well, I also knew I was meant to be somebody's mom, and I love this job too. I can't count down the hours until my shift is over. I can't leave crazy patients behind (sometimes I think I AM the crazy patient). I can't bring home a paycheck. But I do get paid in love and fun. When the time is right, I'll go back to nursing and will miss these days immensely.

The things I have not sacrificed: spirituality, our marriage and relationship, relationships with family and friends. These things have only grown in depth and importance in ways I would have never imagined.

Making Friends with Frank

Despite Everett's best effort at conversation with the cat this morning, Frankie Blue Eyes Lefty McPaw just wasn't interested.

Rolling over...and back and over and back and....

Last night was both hilarious and sad.  Sad only for its lack of sleep.  Everett went to bed pretty normally, but then started crying (when we were ready to go to bed) at 11pm.  We found him in his crib rolling around and frustrated.  "Yea!", we thought!  "He's mastered the art of rolling over!"  But then came the hilarious (and tiring) part...we would place him on his back, then he'd roll to his belly and start crying.  We'd put him on his back again, and he would, again, roll to his belly and start crying.  After doing this for a little while, he then started doing it himself.  It went like this:  roll to belly, cry, roll to back, pause...roll to belly, cry, roll to back, pause, repeat.  We were, of course, in the corner of the room laughing hysterically.  He eventually found a happy spot mostly on his belly and went to sleep.  As did we*.

*only after checking on him a few times worried he'd get stuck...though that wasn't very likely watching him go back and forth with that kind of gusto.

Happy 3 Month Birthday Everett!

Wow!  3 months came so fast!  When he was crying and crying and crying at 3 weeks, I was praying for 3 months to get here quick.   And it sure did.  And now I miss some of those 3 week times.  But really, this is much more fun.  Here's what we're up to. 

1.  It was time to put up the bumpers in the crib when I woke up to find him like this!  His head was originally placed at the top of the photo, so he has almost come full circle!!!  He is a little wiggler. 

2.  He almost has the whole rolling over thing down.  Front to back AND back to front.  Almost there buddy!  He just needs to lift his head over and it's pretty darn heavy.  So we're working on that.

3.  He babbles all the time and we love it.  We have conversations with him and make his babbles into whatever words they sound like.  And often they sound very close to the words.  Here's one such conversation we had the other morning.
            Eric:  Good morning Everett!
            Everett:  Gggooooooo aaaahm (good morning)
            Eric:  Did you sleep good?  What did you dream about?
            Everett:  Aahhmboooogah  (hamburgers)
            Carla:  Hamburgers?  How do you know about hamburgers?  You're the smartest baby in the world!
           Everett:  Ahy Nooooow (I know)
           Eric and Carla to each other:  I KNOW?!  Man, we've got to teach this kid some humility!

But seriously, how can the kid be humble when all we tell him all day is how cute, smart, wonderful, awesome he is.  Perhaps we'll have to modify our comments.  :)  haha!

4.  My friend, Kathy, had a fantastic idea and I'm totally copying it right now.  She's brilliant, I couldn't resist!  Check out how Everett has grown! I can hardly believe it sometimes!

5.  We have had a few big laughs and the little giggles are getting more frequent.  As I have written before, I love, love, love the laughter.  I can't wait to hear it more often.  Whenever Dad gets home from work, there are BIG smiles for him that we both love to see.  :)

6.  His bedtime routine involves a stuffed Bevo and Daddy singing the Texas fight song over and over.  He loves it. 

We're having so much fun with him and feel very blessed to be so lucky. 

We love you little Everett!!  We can't wait to see what this next month brings!