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My Musical, Manly Men

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This was a moment I so loved day before yesterday. Samuel and his boy playing the piano. I know I have several pics and little videos of them playing together, but I never get tired of them. I love this picture so, so much. I wanted to share. Káel seems like he is trying to sing now as he pounds the keys...just like his daddy. My little musical, manly men...

Life In Transition

I think after a woman experiences birth, it can make the things in life that at one point seemed huge, confusing and unconquerable look like a little mud pie instead of a tar pit.

It's pretty incredible having the love, support and admiration of your man when you're feeling vulnerable, weak and completely out of control. I was looking back through some of my labor pics and found this one. There I was, on my back porch surrounded by the trees, realizing I was going through transition as I had just puked up the spaghetti my family had tried to give me. My body was gearing up for a long 10 hours being stuck in completion due to cervix issues. To me this picture epitomizes who my husband was and is for me. I just needed him to hold me for a moment. Somehow it tethered my brain to reality, this wasn't going to last forever and I would know normal and happy again. haha. Sometimes there was nothing more he could do than hold my hand or rub my back. Still, that's what works best for me. If I'm going through something rough, sometimes that will calm my heart more than a lengthy talk session or turning on the tears.

I thought I'd share this little snippet today. When I found this pic it kinda re-inspired my heart and said so many things to me in regards to things I've been walking in and exploring in my own heart with Sam. Love is such a good thing.

ABC's

Samuel recently found the most amazing, simple toy for Káel. A package of foam, bathtub abc's. He LOVES them! He'll chew on them, throw them everywhere, put them in the bowl then out of the bowl, talk to them. It's one of the most entertaining things to him right now. The past few days, I'll find him sitting in the same spot that I had left him several minutes before, just playing away with all the brightly colored letters and numbers. Bathtub ABC's are a big yes!

We've so been enjoying having Sam home these past few days. Like I mentioned before in a previous post, Sam is job hunting right now and what that means to me is that Káel and I both have extra Daddy/snuggles for the time being. With his previous job, even when he was home, he would always have emails and phone calls that he had to respond to non stop. Even though it's tempting to kinda freak out, we both have a super big peace in our hearts and are just enjoying each other and this little window of extra family time. We know something even better is right around the corner. Sam's using this down time to study and mess with some more editing/special effects programs that he'd been wanting to learn (he's a video/producer/editor guy) but didn't have the time to delve in to them.

Right now, I'm in heaven. Sam and I are lounging in bed while Káel is entertaining us by squealing and talking into the mirror here in our room. I love my little family so much! I have to share with you, I've been looking at name books again. Uh-oh. haha. We're not planning on having another little darlin' for at least another year but, that still kinda makes me excited for when we do. So, why not look at names right? ;) I have a few names that I am SO excited about... Oh! Did I mention I'm planning another baby shower? Yep, one for this summer. Yay! More on that later.

I'm gonna go jog in a few minutes and do some free weights. I'm trying to tone this post baby body for a beach trip that I'm going on with some of my girlfriends in a few weeks. Yay!

I hope you lovelies are having a fabulous start of the week! It's a fresh day...hmmm, I wonder what adventures we'll find on this pretty Monday? Time to attack the last remaining dimples and cellulite on this baby momma. ;)

Would so appreciate a click-a-roo below here from ya! Thanks loves!

Tunes & Such: Falcon & The Punches

Ok guys, I just found my new favorite band. They are called Falcons & the Punches. I found them randomly on Facebook just a while ago and wanted to share my weekend treasure with ya! They are simple, easy listening and have a sweet amazing texture to their folk sound. Check them out and enjoy! Káel seems to enjoy them just as much as I do. :) Happy Sunday dears.

Plans for the Weekend

Are you excited for the weekend?! I'm stoked for it! Some girlfriends and I, who are working on launching an amazing project are doing a photo shoot/video shoot on Saturday! Today I have to decide what I'm going to wear. I'm gonna boho it up with head wrap, tons of curls and some awesome textures. The thing with me and dressing myself is that I'm usually always super spontaneous with what I wear. It kind of evolves into an outfit rather than a planned set of threads. So, basically I'm gonna tear my messy closet up and lay out all my favsies and play. On top of that Sam and I are gearing up for our garage sale that we'll be having in a couple weeks.

Little update on my mini-mister boy: he's scooting and taking one crawl step at a time now! He seems much more content to play in one spot since he figured out how to sit up and scoot around. I have a victory story to tell. Káel had been hanging on to his 4 am feeding even though he eats like a horse before he goes to bed. So, last night instead of giving him his bottle at the first fussy cry, I waited a minute, gave him his pacifier and turned on his little fish tank. He fussed for a couple more minutes but then fell fast asleep for anther 2 hours. He had his morning bottle at 6:30 then went back to sleep til 8:30ish-9. Yes!!! I was expecting a few nights before he would sleep all the way through without a bottle. We'll see how tonight goes, hopefully well like last night.

Speaking of the bigness of my boy, we had a doctor's appointment yesterday (he's the one who gave me the tips on trying his no 4 am feeding thing.) where we found out Forest boy is in the 99% percentile in height at 31 inches and at 20lbs. he's in the 70%.

I have a long solid little fella.

Well, I'm going to go start the searching my closest process for tomorrow, maybe go window shop with some lady loves then head over to Sam's work. It's his last day today and some friends of his there are throwing him a little party thingy. Our life is an adventure as always and it will be interesting to see all the amazing things that will unfold.

Take a look at a couple of the new sponsors we have for this month. I'll be doing a cool post on some of them this coming week and telling you about some fun giveaways!

Have a fabulous weekend dears!

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Sista Time

I had so much fun with my little sister, Tiffany when she came to see us a couple weeks ago. We spent the week exploring Charlotte, getting mani/pedis while talking for hours about everything, playing with Káel and all of us watching movies to close the night. The last day she spent with us we played with some henna that we had found in NoDa and watched girly movies and a few episodes of the show, "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," (uh...caa-raaazy) while it set.

She has been one of the most beautiful gifts to my heart ever! We weren't raised together, my dad who raised me, had her before he married my mom when I was about 7. Last year, she found us on facebook. Yes, I love the internet. She surprised my heart by being totally all embracing of me as her sister, like full on. I was so excited! It's like we grew up together in a weird sort of way. We think the same way, process situations the same way, and we like the same free spirited things. She is IN LOVE with her little nephew, which makes my heart soar. Our hearts connected so strongly to the point that I found myself in tears when I got in my car the day after she left and heard her cd mix that she had made. I missed her already. She's a gem and I love her. Here are just a couple pics from the last day she was here. I put some henna feathers on each of our arms and some leafy doodles on her feet.

Hey There: VIDEO

Baby Food Makin' Momma

Would you like to know what my latest obsession is? Making baby food. Yep. I love it!

My journey with baby food has been interesting. Like everything with me and motherhood, it has been an evolving process of me thinking beforehand that it would be one way and then it panning out to be a completely different experience. I started off wanting to make my baby's food mostly because I thought it sounded cool (just being honest) and of course because it is good for him. In the mix of me finding my rhythm of momminess, I made a couple of homemade meals and then decided to go with "Earth's Best" jarred food for a bit, because I felt overwhelmed with lack of time. THEN, we ended up spending a butt load of money on jarred food because my little handsome boy eats like a horse. Between 1 can organic formula a week and organic baby food... Good night! It was pricey.

One jar of baby food is cents shy of a dollar, and my baby was eating 2-3 jars per meal. I got out my baby food maker, motivated to help my family funds and make things I actually liked the taste of. I fell in love with making baby food and have been for a couple months now. It's so much cheaper, and the nutrients are richer, since your food is fresh and then instantly frozen. It tastes much better, too. Sam and I would eat anything I've made for Káel so far.

Yesterday, I paid $1.69 for a bag of sweet potatoes and it made 18 jars of food. $1.69 would have bought almost 2 jars of earth's best baby food. I still buy jar food if we are gonna be out and about for a few hours. But, in general, making your baby food is so much more cost efficient. I have a Beaba baby food maker which steam cooks AND blends it up for you. But when I want to make large batches I just steam my veggies/fruits on the stove top then use the Beaba like a blender. I love it! I took some pics of my creation process last night. :) Enjoy.

The Beaba is on sale today on GILT if you guys are interested.

Sick Little Bear

Yesterday was a rough day in our house. My little handsome was a very sick little bear. He had a fever, snotty nose that wouldn't stop running and a little cough. Poor little fella, he was so uncomfortable all day long. Momma snuggles were the only thing that seemed to help him. He just laid on me practically all day long. For a little stinker who moves non stop that showed me how much he didn't feel 100%.

Night time came and his fever got a little higher, I started to kind of freak out. He went to sleep but up chucked his bottle. I cleaned him up and wiped down his crib sheet. THEN, about 10 min later he threw up his dinner of solid food. Avocado and banana were EVERYWHERE. All over his crib, in his ears, all over his clothes. He seemed so exhausted and miserable. I carried him in our bedroom while Sam cleaned up his crib and changed the sheets. I gave him some water which he gulped down. My heart was breaking. My stress/worried level was through the roof. Yeah, I know it was just a little cold bug but, Káel's never really gotten sick other than a stuffy nose one time. I made a barricade of pillows so he wouldn't roll off our mattress and sat there rubbing his little back as he started to pass out. Our good friends the Clark's saw our twitter and called to pray for little buddy, which meant the world to me. Thanks guys.

He slept the rest of the night other than flooding his crib with pee. (probable from all the water.) Sigh. Oh dear goodness. Sam and I changed him, his clothes and his crib bedding AGAIN. It was just a rough night for all of us. When I woke up around 7:30 to get Káel I was met with buckets of smiles. No more fever, still a runny nose but my little adventurer seems to be doing much, much better.

The one and only thing that was good about him being sick was the fact that he snuggled and cuddle me so much. There is something magical about me being able to comfort Forest boy and make it all better by holding him close.