One more week of Baby turns into One Last Day!

Only one more week has now turned into one last day of my little sweet baby Jack before he turns ONE and will from then on (for a while at least) be considered a "toddler".  Where did my sweet little baby who for the longest time only wanted his Momma (and I secretly loved it and wouldn't have it any other way) go??  It really brings a several tears to my eye when I think of how extremely and so unfairly fast this past year has gone.  So many memories made and firsts witnessed.  Each day I would look at him and decide that "this" was my favorite time with him, he only became more and more fun as the days went by, and I can only hope that the fun continues as it has been.   He's perfect in every single way and I wouldn't change a single thing about this past year.  His little personality is so precious and I've cherished watching it develop and grow into his own.  He's such a curious little George getting into everything, keeping me on my toes for sure!  He is now copying everything I do and I seriously can't get enough of it......its too stinkin cute!  He winks (which is adorable and I WISH I could capture it in a picture), he sticks out his tongue, everything is "uh-oh" or "ooooo".  He's now walking and getting better and better at it each and every day....his little waddle kills me and I could watch it for days!  He sneaks up behind me when I'm on the ground doing something (usually cleaning up a mess) and pats me on the back and hugs me the entire time......melts my heart <3  He just crawls or walks over to me just to give me a hug and put his head on my shoulder for a minute and then is on his way to do something else.  He gives the best open mouth kisses EVER.  I can't get over the looks he gives me when he's about to do something he knows is naughty as if he is waiting for me to come after him and then he giggles because he thinks its a game.  His endless games of peek-a-boo are hilarious.....he loves it and is constantly peeking from behind or from around something to get me to laugh.  Oh and even though he keeps me up night after night and sometimes I feel as though I will never know what its like to sleep through and entire night again.....I don't even care (well in the moment I might care a little).  If he's in our bed because its 4am and I know he'll be up for the day two hours later at 6am, and he wakes up and looks over at me and smiles because he doesn't have to cry for me to come get him, and then rolls over and hugs me after doing a big stretch....it just doesn't get any better than that!

On Sunday we were downstairs reading books and playing with toys while Daddy ran some errands, Jack looked up at me and I said "say ma ma" and in the sweetest littlest voice he looked at me and said "ma ma" and then "ma ma ma ma" and smiled and got all excited because I got all excited.........I couldn't believe it and was so super excited because this kid NEVER says it!  He has said it a couple of times but not in a very long time and I try seriously every day to get him to say it.  I have to admit that I got a little teary eyed because it was just the cutest thing ever and I will NEVER forget that moment and the look on his tiny face.  

I am so proud to be this little guy's momma, he makes it so easy to love him.  All he wants is love and in return he gives it back even greater.   My little Jack is seriously the best and I for the life of me can't even remember what life was like without him.  He has turned our lives upside down and inside and out....but.....only for the better.  Johnny and I love him to pieces and are so very proud to call him ours. 

Summer Time Life - the past few weeks!

Soooo I took a little hiatus from blogging.  Mainly to avoid frustration from my computer not allowing me to upload any pics to my blog!!!  I'm pretty sure its on its last leg so I don't want to push it.  So I gave up, threw in the the towel, and said to hell with it!!  Yep, that was my attitude.  BUT then I missed it and know that I'll kick myself later on in life for not keeping up with the Jack updates....knowing full well that I'll want to look back and see what life was like during the summer of 2013.....so its time to get back at it!!

These days I'm in full on BIRTHDAY mode, I mean when did first birthdays get to be such a big HUGE deal???  I'm pretty sure Pinterest is the root of all of this birthday madness :)  Pinterest is taking over my life....just kidding.....sort of!  Too many good ideas that in my mind are easy and I think "no problem" until I set out to do them and then quickly find myself thinking "what the hell was I thinking"??!!  So I've  settled on a Where the Wild Things are theme and will somehow work that into a raging backyard bash, and I say that because with 85 people invited so far it better be nothing less!  Yes that's right, I said 85 people.....my anxiety is already through the roof, and every time I think about it I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach reminding me of how unprepared for this I am.  Actually I'm pretty on the ball, I've been making to-do lists for weeks now and slowly checking things off....its going to be GREAT.    The craziness in my house right now is actually all of the home improvement projects we are forcing ourselves to get done before the big day.  Right now (and for about a week now) I have NO counters.  The new ones are supposed to be getting installed this weekend (FINGERS CROSSED).  However can I tell you how incredibly difficult and inconvenient it is not having any counter space with a baby??!!  NOT fun!  Needless to say this is when owning a restaurant comes in really handy :)

In Jack news all I can say is....where has my little baby gone???  He's such a little man now, in the past few weeks he has gotten taller, taken his first steps, has really developed quite a little temper at times, and is learning how to seriously use his lungs to the max!! 
He took his first step on Father's Day, he didn't really know he was doing it though....I was coaxing him with a spoonful of whipped cream :)  Then he went for like a week without doing it again and then one day he decided that he was going to walk across the room to Daddy from Mommy.  He JUST began taking a few steps here and there on his own yesterday though.  I caught him walking from the middle of the kitchen to the pantry and then he took a few steps towards me while I was on the other side of the room.  So its only a matter of time now until he's running all over the place.

Chubby thighs & Daddy's little helper

Jack is now eating mostly everything we eat.  I'm trying to decrease the amount of actual baby food I buy now but its still so convenient especially when we're on the go all day to throw a yogurt pack or smoothy in my bag, love those things and boy do they come in handy!!  Even better since he can hold and suck on on it, feeding,  himself.....so self sufficient now! 

Look at this baseball tummy, and such a big boy standing all on his own!
 

Helping Grandpa & Daddy fix the sink...

A little pool time with Mom!

First cupcake, and he LOVED every bite...look at that smile

Turned 11 Months and this time getting a decent photo of him with the chalkboard was nearly impossible!  He just doesn't stop moving!

Went to the beach in Canada, the water was so warm and low that he could just sit and splash around!!

Playing the piano with Uncle Chris while Mommy gets some work done downstairs

Peek-a-boo I see you!  Such a curious George 

Loves seeing himself in the camera on my phone...

Only Monday!

The weekend feels so close yet is SO far away!  It's only Monday and this is how I feel already......today was an incredibly busy day for Jack and I.  We had to be at the business early to drop off a huge order of supplies this morning.  We are preparing for a the largest catering event yet (tomorrow) and I want everything to be PERFECT!  After hanging out with the gang and waiting for my grandparents to arrive who just got back in town from being snowbirds in Florida, I decided to give them a call and go to their place instead.  At that point Jack as getting restless and customers were starting to come in and I didn't want him making a scene.  So needless to say we ended up spending the ENTIRE afternoon at my grams!  Jack got to play with his cousin Declan which was super cute to see them interacting with each other.  Each took their turn using the other as a shoulder to lean (stomp) on in attempts to sturdy themselves when standing up....too cute!  After eating an obscene amount of puffs (most of which were off the floor) both boys got cranky and overtired so we headed out.  Stopped back at the business on the way home to check in and feed him really quickly since he woke up and wasn't having his car seat at that moment.  Headed home to meet Daddy and then I headed back to the business to close up shop and get things ready for the next day.....PHEW!  That was  a lot, I'm exhausted and can't wait to crawl into my comfy bed :)

One year ago today was my baby shower!!!  Seriously how scary is it how fast this past year has gone by!!!! It was SUPER hot that day as well.  We had just moved into our house, literally 3 weeks prior and did a CRAZY amount of work in preparation for family coming and staying with us for my shower.  I thought we were going to kill each other! 

HERE is my baby shower post from a year ago.  

 

 

It's ridiculously HOT today.....90degrees hot to be exact!!!!  I couldn't believe it, I had to take a pic and Instagram it as proof.

I found him using the diaper bag as a stepping stool so he could reach better....such a smarty pants!!  A couple weeks ago I caught him standing on top of my breast pump trying to pull magazines off of the bedside table!!!  How do they learn this stuff?!

Sunday shopping with me at Target, seriously how thrilled does this kid look!!  Hahaha

It's Been TOO Long!

FINALLY able to blog again!!  I did a stupid thing about 2 weeks ago, I was closing the top of my desk and accidentally sliced into the power cord that charges my computer.....ugh!  So I've been chomping at the bit because all of this stuff has happened and I haven't been able to document it in my blog.  So for starters we now have hardwood floors in just about all of the downstairs now!!  YAY it looks AMAZING and I LOVE them :)  I'm going to do an entire separate post on them though as I took a million pics and feel its best to keep them all together in one post.
In Jack news the past two weeks have been so much fun.  My baby is 10 months old today for starters.  Last night while giving him a bath I was thinking about how fast this past 10 months has literally flown by.  Its just not fair.  I could stare at him all day and it still wouldn't be enough.  I sort of got teary-eyed (I'm a big sap) because my own life has changed so much since he came into it.  He is now THE most important part of my life and I love him so much it hurts, seriously!  .......OK sentimental moment over.....

This is my MOST favorite face of all time <3

He is now crawling, like officially on his knees crawling all over the place.....and doing it really FAST!  I'm still adjusting to how quickly he can now move.  It happened on May 8th where he crawled across the room, stopping and going, for the first time.  He was SO proud of himself because he would get all excited each time he did it, he knew he was doing something new and great!  Before this he was doing a mean army crawl, he was seriously a champ at it so I knew crawling was right around the corner.  Thank God to, because his shirts were filthy by the end of the day.

On May 5th he said "momma" for the first time!  It was more like momamamamama but that was enough for me!!!  He still doesn't say it that much, baba is his favorite for sure!

April 25th we had to lower the crib because he started pulling himself up which was adorable....only thing is that he couldn't get himself back down.  I think he can but once he's up he just wants out at that  point.  We lowered it down 2 notches and then realized after about a week that it needed to go down to the very bottom because he is tall and was making both of us very nervous!  I need to get one of those crib rail pad thingys (or whatever they are called) because he gnaws on the crib rail and I don't want it all chewed up......
     Speaking of teeth, he's got 6 now!  4 on top and 2 on the bottom.  Everything is just progressing WAY too quick for me, he's getting too big too fast.

Games - It just amazes me that a baby "just knows" how to play games.  Last week I started to chase him and say "I'm going to get you" over and over and he turned around and started to crawl away from me at top speed and was laughing and giggling uncontrollably!!!  How did he know that was how the game was played....we'd never done that before....I'm choosing to believe that I MUST have the smartest baby around :)
He also has started playing peek-a-boo with me rather than the other way around.  It's flippin ADORABLE to watch him hide his little face behind something and then peek out around it in hopes that I'll scream PEEK-A-BOO !  I just love him <3

Mother's Day was a bust, for me at least.  I guess my husband didn't get the memo that one's FIRST mothers day EVER is supposed to be special (at least it was to me).  I didn't expect much, a card and a happy mothers day first thing would have made my day.  I did get a donut and some cookies later that day when he went to pick up dessert to take to my mother's for dinner.  Most importantly though I did spend the entire day with Jack which is what the day is all about regardless so in the end it was a success ;) AND that afternoon was very nice at mom's with her and my grandmother....always good to get together and get some group pictures.

My first Mother's Day :)

All the Mommas on Mothers Day :)

Grandma & Jack

........Just because this face CRACKS me up!

HELLO Hardwood Floors!

I've been trying to write this post all weekend but its been a shit show around here lately. We decided to rip up the god awful carpet downstairs and start laying hardwood....I can't even begin to express how happy this makes me!   Johnny got the home improvement bug and who am i to stop him :)
However my fingers hurt so bad right now because I decided I'd be nice and help pull a million staples out of the floor after ripping up carpet in the front living room. One thumb is seriously bigger than the other due to swelling....ouch!   BUT I can now say the downstairs of my house is starting to resemble what I've been envisioning since the day we looked at it!!. So BIG props to my hubby, who decided laying hardwood flooring was how he wanted to spend his weekend. AND thanks to my Dad for helping :) So now the dining room is done, with the exception of molding which still needs to be tacked on.....but its GORGEOUS!!!  I'm in love!

 This is my dining room with the finished flooring

 

This is why I have a blister on my thumb!!

Jack and I at his 9 month check-up at the pediatrician.....such a happy guy :)

went tot he market to get some avocados for the restaurant, first time riding in the shopping cart like this...he thought it was pretty neat!

swinging in the backyard....Gotta love it when the sun shines!

Week from Hell

This has been an absolute week from hell for me and I CAN NOT wait for it to be over!!!  Tuesday started off as a normal Tuesday,  swim class with Jack at 9:30, stopped over at the cafe to visit the crew (plus my husband was working), loaded the car up to head home and get ready for a food show we got invited to that afternoon......only to get into a car accident while pulling out of my parking space!  I was parallel parked in front of the cafe (which is close to a corner), and as I was pulling out (as I do every day!!) a big Denali plows into me!  I honestly don't know where to put the blame, I looked and didn't see him, he said he didn't see me.  I think when I looked he wasn't there and then must have turned the corner right as I turned back around and started to pull out.  I guess in attempt to make myself feel better I could chalk it up to just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It totally sucks though because my brand new Jeep (1 year old) which I love is now not drivable and sitting in a garage somewhere waiting for the insurance companies to battle it out.  The worst part about the whole situation is that I had Jack with me in the car.  Neither of us were injured and he wasn't even phased the slightest when it happened (thank God!).  Me however, I feel like the worst mother EVER and can't believe I let something like this happen.  Had I been hit a few feet back on my vehicle then it would have hit his door.  This is what scares me the most.  I seriously couldn't live with myself if anything had happened to him.  I was a blubbery emotional mess all day yesterday every time I even thought about the possibilities.  Having kids really changes your perspective on EVERYTHING.  Anything and everything that happens is so much more important now.
On top of all of this I am SO embarrassed about the whole thing....it happened right outside my business, I had regular customers inside who saw the whole thing.  My hair dresser came down later in the day and said that I was the talk of the street!!!  GREAT!! NOT what I wanted to hear.  Customers were calling the cafe asking if I was OK!  Serious craziness I tell ya!  I am very grateful though that people are so concerned with our well being and like us enough to care so much.  There really is something to say about doing business in a small town, everyone looks out for one another!!
On the other hand I am SO sick of dealing with insurance companies, rental car companies, and body shops that I'm ready to scream.  And it really doesn't help that nobody ever seems to have a clue as to what's going on!!  Makes ya wonder how they manage to do any business!

In much happier news - Jack is now doing the army crawl BIG TIME!  He inches his way around everywhere and everything.  Yesterday I caught him sucking on a doorstop that sticks out of the wall.  He's discovered the dog's water dishes, and has a crazy infatuation with the swifter....weird!  Speaking of which, I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone keeps their floors clean, especially with an infant rolling around on them constantly!  The baby is not the cause but when I pick him up from inching around and see how dirty his shirt is I know that Ive yet to win the battle of having clean floors!!  I seriously sweep and swifter EVERY day at least two to three times a day....no joke!  And yet I'm amazed at how dirty they still seem.  I have two little Yorkies but didn't really think they contributed that much to my problem, I'm starting to think otherwise.  This weather (muddy/yucky/rainy) really hasn't helped the situation either, just hoping when the ground dries up it gets better.  The floors I'm mainly talking about are kitchen and eat-in area (laminate) and front foyer/hallway (old white-ish-grey tile) both of which I hate and will be replaced someday.  If anyone has any advice I'm all ears :)
In the mean time here are some happy moment pics from this week....

look who I caught giving himself kisses in the mirror...ha ha ha

My baby is 9 months old!!!

first stroller ride of the season, a little chilly but worth it!

A Beer and a Bath

Ah the weekend, its about time!!  Seriously this week was so crazy busy I never thought it would end.  Tonight is the actual start of my weekend since I worked all day today.  This is how I spent my evening....a beer and a bath!

He is getting a LOT more brave in the bath tub, he now flips over onto his tummy, and tonight he pulled himself up so he was standing and hanging on to the edge of the tub for the first time.....he was trying to reach the bottle of shampoo - the ONE thing I wouldn't let him play with ha ha

play time after a long morning of watching mommy make baby food.  I love his little eyebrows <3

Funny faces while eating, such a little clown!

Sunshine FINALLY

I am happy (and relieved) to say that we FINALLY got some sunshine and warm weather around here!  AND it even looks as though it might be here to stay! (by "stay" I mean no more white stuff).  Seriously it's about time, pretty sure I've reached my wits end when it comes to cold weather.  So needless to say it was a pretty busy weekend.   In fact we tried to cram so many things into a day and a half (had to be at the cafe for most of Saturday) while it was nice out that it ended up being more exhausting than anything.  For starters, I think everyone in town was at Home Depot buying supplies to start planting and doing yard work, Johnny spent the entire day outside planting trees along our fence in hopes of one day gaining a bit more privacy from the neighbors.  I took some pretty hilarious pics of this from the upstairs bedroom window but he would kill me if I posted them.  It was Johnny with our little 7lb Yorkie planting trees together in the backyard, SO funny!  In between mulching and digging he took breaks to spray paint the dining room table which seems to be a never ending project around here!!  Its still not finished, needs a top coat to protect and give it shine.  I hung out with Jack and cleaned, played, and tackled a project of my own....I decided to paint an end table that I have, wanted to add a pop of color in the room.  That is still in progress as well because the first color I chose I ended up hating so had to go pick something else out.  I really like it now though, just needs a final coat.  I will post pics when its all finished.

Jack has GOT to start crawling soon, Its going to be any day now I just know it.  Not that I'm trying to rush him or anything its just that he gets so close and he's trying so hard that I just want the little guy to accomplish his goal already..haha.  It'll probably happen on a day when I have to leave him with a sitter for a couple hours.  I had to do that today and I told her that if he does crawl then just don't tell me, or rather just push him down so he doesn't do it!!!  LOL  I would be so sad if I missed that, especially since I'm with him 24/7 for the most part!  He totally got on all fours yesterday in his crib but when playing on the floor he acts as though he doesn't know how to do that.  If he's really mad and doesn't want to go down for a nap he will push his arms out and get up on his toes like he's in a plank position and then flop back down.  Like I said, its only a matter of time.

In Cafe news I FINALLY found someone to work the days that I am there right now.  This way I can stay home with Jack and still pop in to visit whenever I want (but not "have" to be needed) I had to have the baby at work with me on Monday and it just wasn't happening, he's way to big and wants to be in my arms looking at everything that's happening the entire time.  THANK GOD for those little puffs and yogurt melts, they distract him and keep him quiet for a little bit :)  Yes I've resorted to feeding my kid treats to keep him quiet!  Thankfully he's a big hit with our regular customers and they love visiting with him, just doesn't allow me to actually get anything done while I'm there.

Here we are outside over the weekend enjoying some of the sunshine......bring on SUMMER, we are ready!!

First Frap of the season! Can I just mention how wonderfully convenient it is that there is a Starbucks at Target!!! 

I LOVE bath time with Jack!  He loves it so much and has become such an important part of our bedtime routine

Watching his best friends (aka the dogs) play on the floor :)

:)