We're all still here!

You might not think so based on total absence of blog posts for the first quarter of the year (I think in quarters now at my new job...and I didn't work last weekend for quite possibly the first time EVER, save for my "break" in DC, whaaaat?), but we're all still here kicking it! Here, watch Holden grow up kinda fast...

And I just saw that the poor kid had on long-sleeve stripes for pictures three months in a row...sorry, baby, those Carter's onesies are a wardrobe staple for you. I'll try to mix it up a little bit.

Already ten months old!! He's allllll over the place right now and is SO much fun. Less fun? Constant ear infections that refuse to be solved by every antibiotic known to man, so on Thursday my poor baby has to have a teeny bit of surgery and get ear tubes. As an excessive worrier, I plan on being a little bit of a hot mess come surgery time, but hopefully this will get us on the road to a healthier little guy who doesn't have fluidy goop clogging up his ears.

Lack of blog posts due to general life craziness, but we also added streaming to our Netflix subscription, which caused me to lose hours of my life to things like House of Cards and An Idiot Abroad over the last couple months. Oops. Resolve to not binge-watch everything just because I can.

Happy spring!

And a very merry Christmas to all...

...and to all an incredibly short Christmas summary in the form of very few phone pictures. We're pretty tired around here. But for all of the best reasons. Except for a lingering cough for our poor sick baby; that is not one of the best reasons. Sigh. Almost there. I'm extremely grateful for all of my helpers over the last week and really miss them. Love you, family.

Presents are pretty cool, Dad

We bought chocolate chips with the intent to bake goodies...but so far they've only served as a toy for the baby.

Story time with Auntie Manda!! Please also observe the proximity of the cat to this situation and chalk it up to a Christmas miracle.

Christmas is exhausting, y'all. Also, I'm totally about to outgrow my space egg swing. Yeeps.

Go away, germs...and bobcat

Poor baby Holden has a double ear infection (both ears!!) AND the flu. So basically that's where the last few days have gone. And having a sick baby is just one of the worst things ever. The end.

In completely unrelated news, there's apparently a tiny little bobcat who thinks our patio furniture is basically where it's at. Whaaaat?!?

So I called animal control, who promptly came (arrived 15 minutes later, so impressed!) and scared him away...and HE. CAME. BACK. And snuggled up in the cushions again. After Bob* dashed off again, Craig rearranged the cushions to make it a little less inviting. And hopefully that's all it takes?? Because I don't really want to have to figure out how to keep a little bobcat away - we have enough going on INSIDE the house.

* obviously the bobcat's name is Bob. duh.

Auditioning for his nativity role

I give you...the next great shepherd in a local production of the nativity. Also, that lasted WAY longer on his head than I thought it would.

So the "every day" thing didn't work out...

...you know, posting every day? optimism and all?...but we're back on track! I got thrown for a bit of a loop on Monday when I officially became a person not obligated to go to work at around 4:30 PM. Whaaaaaaaaat, you say? Well, after going back from maternity leave right into busy season and getting a true reality check in "nope, this is not for me anymore EVER," I worked on finding a new job where I might actually have a life and DID and put in my notice and then found out that notice = leave pretty much right now, so that's that!  And my new gig doesn't kick off until January 5th, soooo...I'm currently not working but still getting paid and it's basically amazeballs.

Totally productive things I've accomplished in the last five days:
 - Finishing up Christmas shopping...mostly
 - Wrapping a chunk of that Christmas shopping into pretty packages
 - Going to the grocery store and buying things that enabled me to cook a real dinner in the form of chicken pot pie
 - Baking banana muffins
 - Baking milk chocolate-dipped hazelnut sandies for the 2014 Cover-to-Cover Project: Holiday Cookies
 - Excessive loads of laundry
 - Successfully shoved approximately 25 pills down Cleo the kitty cat's throat and kept her alive while Momma Dale was out of town

Totally self-indulgent things I've blissfully enjoyed in the last five days:

 - Took myself to the movies at 10:15 in the morning - Mockingjay and a giant bag of popcorn for the win
 - The aforementioned baking is also because I just like to do it
 - Starbucks grande latte pretty much every day
 - Friday lunch with Carolyn with no care about how long we sat and chatted because there was no job to hustle back to

And the ultimate combination of productive/indulgent = EXTRA HOLDEN TIME.  He's still kicking it at daycare for a chunk of the day so he can maintain some kind of routine while I run around, but I've been picking him up early and enjoying every extra minute I can steal with this sweet baby. They allllll say it, but of course he's growing up too fast.

And the ULTIMATE indulgence that hasn't happened and just won't...sleeping in. I have a baby now, so that's just not in the cards, and for those of you who really know me, you know how I am about sleep.

Ummmm...I could get used to this. Which is dangerous. But I'm also excited about my new work path, and so I'm going to soak up every minute of the next three weeks and then jump into a fresh start. Happy holidays, y'all.

Dad, Dad, what did you bring me??

So Craig isn't traveling for work nearly the way he used to (thank goodness!!), but he's spent two of the last four weeks in Florida - which means single parenting on this end, yeeps! Fortunately Holden's a pretty cool kid and tries to keep things pretty easy breeze for his mom...except for this congestion/crud that I think is basically going to take over our lives FOREVER and keeps him (and in turn me) from having a good night's sleep...but we survive. We're both glad when Dad gets home, but I think he may have set a new precedent on this last trip that Holden will come to expect..."Dad, Dad, what did you bring me??"

Holden + new Mickey Mouse doll (thanks, Dad!) = grins and giggles

My little helper

It can be a bit of a juggling act to get everything in the door each night...diaper bag from daycare, pump bag, purse, mail, phone, random assorted crap that often includes a travel mug (source of that much needed morning coffee boost)...oh yeah, and the baby! Don't forget the baby! So tonight Holden was my little helper and held onto the travel mug for me as I hauled us all inside. According to the grin below, it was a really awesome and exciting adventure.

Thank you, my little helper. No, you don't yet get an allowance for helping out. I fully expect you to carry the travel mug in every day now.

Also, my baby is currently rocking some highwater pants because he has crazy long legs (that I swear grow another inch overnight) and is also kinda skinny, which makes it a little tricky to find pants that are long enough but don't slide off. Baby leggings for the win! Obviously those are all dirty, which is why his baby sweatpants have inched up to his knees. At least his socks are still on - minor victory.

Thankful

Come Thanksgiving you used to find me taking pictures of pies. Now I pretty much just take pictures of my baby (it can't be helped, his adorableness attracts the camera!), so I really don't have any Thanksgiving shots to share with you that don't feature Holden in some form or fashion. Oh, but rest assured there were pies. This time only three for the six (and a half) of us, an extremely reasonable ratio.

As we scarfed down turkey and cornbread dressing and allll the other good stuff last Thursday, I paused for a moment and felt especially thankful for my amazing parents this year. I'm also really thankful for pie, but having a baby is kinda a big deal...and while coconut cream pie would have helped, I don't really know if I would have survived those first couple of weeks without my mom and dad by my side. Maybe more details on the survival of the early days will be provided a little later, and maybe not - I got a little teary just thinking about it now, so apparently six months later the waves of exhaustion and newborn terror are still palpable. So for now I'll continue to pause briefly and say thank to my parents. For everything. Absolutely everything.

Holden enjoying some naptime with Grandpa over Thanksgiving weekend...

...and doing the same thing six months ago when he was almost a week old.

Can you believe how much he's grown and changed?!? Me either.

So, I disappeared...

...into a world of busy season and baby and LIFE and heeeere I am, alive and well!! And in the spirit of playing catch up, I'm going to try to blog every day in December. Just putting that out there while I'm feeling a small burst of optimism and motivation. So it may not actually happen, but I'm going to try. Some days it may just be a picture of Holden, which is probably all you really want anyway.

And in the interest of not trying too hard right off the bat and hurting myself, we're going to start on a light note with some silly faces. I like to call this Holden's "little old man lips" look; he's been sporting it quite a bit these days, probably as a side effect of figuring out these two teeth he has. He's entirely too much fun and giggly and happy, so I try to soak up as much of it as I possibly can. Rock on, little old man lips - I love you.

Holden adorableness, July 2nd edition

I find myself taking a ridiculous number of pictures with my phone every day to capture these little moments with my kiddo...and as much as I love the "real" camera, it's WAY less convenient when I have a child in my arms.  So...here's a day in the life, filled with unedited phone pictures.  How very un-Erin-like of me, but I think this might be our new normal.  I love this little guy so much.

Ok, so this one is a phone pic from Craig - while I took Harrison to the vet, he played "tough guy" dress-up with our child, even slicked back his hair with baby oil and everything.  Oh dear.  ADORABLE.

Trying to get this guy in as many of his teeny clothes as possible before he outgrows them - today's adorable striped airplane onesie brought to you by Carter's, dangerous land of sales for tiny adorable things.

Did you know being a baby is really tough work?  Really, really tough.

Head kisses from Mommy!  Oh, Mom, you're so embarrassing.

Again, being a baby is REALLY tough work...so sometimes it's best to just take a break and nap on Mommy.  Ahhh, that's better.

Tell me a story, Mom, I'm wide awake!

The kid is wearing a onesie AND pants AND socks - this basically never happens because we're changing diapers far too frequently to bother with complete outfits.  Seriously.

Chillin' on the playmat for a change of pace - ooohhhh, lights and sounds and different things to attempt to hit with flailing arms!

I give you...dramatic baby.

I also give you...suuuuper baby!  He tends to get fussy at night before bedtime, but we've discovered that he really likes flying through the air as super baby during this time.  Craig has obviously been tasked with the super baby flying since it's just not in my nature to hold him like this.

Welcome to our world.  It's kinda awesome.

Hey baby!

One month ago, this tiny little person came into our lives and changed things forever.  Infinitely for the better.  Those first few weeks were anything but easy, but worth every minute when I remind myself what an important job this is - raising, caring, loving this little man.  Welcome to the world, Holden Michael Pendarvis.  Born May 29, 2014 - 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and 21 inches of perfect.

And I'm really not sure how we went from that little guy up there to this one down here who is already ONE MONTH OLD!  It's a bit of a blurry haze, really.

I'll try to capture some parenthood adventures here on the blog...but my boss is a little demanding these days and I tend to run a little short on time.  Priorities!

Due dates...just a suggestion

Due date, schmue date.  Come and gone and no baby in sight.  Well, I guess he's technically in sight since I'm sporting this bowling ball midsection thing, but...you know.  Does it look like he's worked his way downward at all?  Everyone keeps asking if he's dropped...well, I don't know, maybe...so then maybe not because should it be really REALLY obvious?  I haven't exactly done this pregnancy thing before.

So what do you do with a pregnant lady who's hit her due date and hasn't had a baby yet?  You take her out to dinner, preferably somewhere with awesome pregnant lady food like biscuits and fried chicken.

I love you, Babe's.  Although it's a little sad that I have limited tummy room these days.

We do have an induction end date in sight, which is both reassuring to KNOW Holden will be here within the next week and also a little weird to KNOW something like that.  Still hoping he decides to make his appearance on his own; I keep telling him it's ok to come out, but he seems pretty content to keep baking in there.  Stubborn kid.

Might as well get as ready for everything as I can!  The tax department is shifting to a new space in our building over the summer...so on Thursday I went ahead and packed up all of my stuff, which definitely felt a little strange.

And I was feeling mushy anyway since the sweet work gals got me flowers and a card AND cupcakes and took me to lunch at Uncle Julio's - talk about some of my favorite things.

So sweet!  I managed to not cry, which is a big accomplishment for the pregnant lady.

It's strange to think about having a completely different routine in the next week.  I mean, we know change is coming and we've done a million things to "get ready" for this ridiculously large life event, but I just don't think it's going to hit me until it really, really HITS me, like with an actual baby actually here.  It feels very real right now...but still just a waiting game.  Yeeps!!

Let's see if anything happens at 40 weeks and 1 day...last child-free weekend EVER.  Weird.

Sooooo pregnant

You know what's exhausting when you're 39 weeks pregnant?  EVERYTHING.

I'm rocking wet hair and flip-flops in this one...BECAUSE I'M 39 WEEKS and tired, y'all.

Here's what's up lately...I've been hyper-aware of Holden's movements since his heartbeat was a touch slow last week...but at my doctor's appointment last Wednesday he was jumping around like a crazy bean and had a right-on-target heartbeat of 122.  And he's doing a really good job of kicking and punching in there, so I'm not worried about it - except when I get focused at work, pause, can't remember the last time I felt him do anything, and then frantically poke at him to make sure he's moving around. "Knock it off, Mom!"

As of last Wednesday, there's a whole lotta nothing going on down there right now.  So we'll see how the next week goes, but have already scheduled a date for induction since I'm not really interested in being pregnant FOREVER (which is how it feels right now).  A scheduled birth!! Yes, that appeals to the accountant in me, but I'd rather my body and Holden just come to terms with each other and do this thing. We'll see what happens. And my doctor reminds me that this could all change at any time. Yeeps.

Anxiously awaiting his arrival around these parts!!  And distracting myself by doing things like sewing curtains for bedroom (which Harrison may or may not approve of)...

...and snuggling with the fur children, who have absolutely no idea how much their worlds are about to be rocked even though we keep telling them a baby brother is coming...

...and approving betting pools at work on the birth of our child, which I don't think Craig was a huge fan of, but someone should at least have fun with this waiting game...

...and playing in the dirt by replacing last year's sad dead herbs with adorable new ones, plus a citronella plant that will theoretically keep mosquitoes away.

I also cleaned out the fridge and freezer - like, CLEANED.  I suspect I'm over-nesting.  But I have to do SOMETHING.  And yes, every activity is followed by a break on the couch because I'm just tired.  More tiredness to come in the near future, though, so I might as well get used to it.  See you soon, Holden!  We just don't quite know when!

Puppies, paint, and paying people for perfect corners

Remember how we reached "just need to perfect the chair rail...and the crown molding...and do eight million other things to really make this room a nursery" several months ago?  IT HAPPENED.  BEFORE THE BABY'S BORN!!!  That's really a major victory.

Here's that chair rail in progress, which we did finally get done in February:

And then there was this crown molding thing going on...you see that funky angle on the wall with the window?  That slope into the wall and ceiling business?  That makes crown molding kinda tricky.  We gave up and called in the pros, which was a really excellent decision.  Because then things started looking like this:

Sometimes that yellow just comes out really, really bright...I promise it won't blind the kid

Yeah yeah!  Totally painted walls and totally painted chair rail and beautifully installed crown molding AND then we could do cool things like set up the crib and make it start to feel like a baby room.  Major, major props to Craig on tackling the painting and ladder work and general furniture assembly.  I sure hope Holden appreciates all the physical labor his dad put into his room.

Then that's where mom steps in - time for decorating and sewing and putting things on walls and cute-ing up the place.  Remember those little puppy dogs I was working on?  I made an army of them...

...and overanalyzed spacing them out and practicing just the right stitch length to applique them to the background fabric...

...and finally, finally made it all come together in a crib skirt!  Huzzah!  Again, busy season really puts a damper on getting projects done, wah wah.  But at least it's done now!

Yay for puppy dogs!  Full nursery pics coming soon...because it's DONE, y'all.  Totally ready for a kid.  At least the room is ready...I don't know if that has any bearing on us really being ready...

Two-ish weeks to go...or possibly two days, who knows??

I feel kinda ginormous these days.  Although apparently not everyone thinks so, since the same people who told me I was "finally looking pregnant" are now exclaiming "oh, there's NO WAY you're due in two weeks, you're not big enough!" - so basically I can't win on that front and I'm just doing a lot of smiling and changing the subject.

Obviously still not sleeping incredibly well, or I wouldn't be blogging in the 6 AM hour on a Sunday.  Yeeps.  We went to baby class yesterday (both infant CPR and "all about baby," where they teach you very basic things like how to keep your newborn alive when you bring him home from the hospital) and learned that newborn sleep patterns are apparently established by the 36 week mark of pregnancy.  So when I feel Holden doing baby jazzercise and throwing dance parties, that's what we should expect when he's here for reals...theoretically.  That's scary.

Physically...doing ok, just low on energy.  And low on space for meals - Holden's taking up some room in there.  Although maybe not quite enough room - the doc thinks he might be a little on the small side (which she guesses at just by squeezing around and feeling him - not quite an exact science), so we're doing a sonogram on Wednesday to check on his size and growth and general condition of things in his own little personal biodome.  And my hips are killing me - side sleeping? Body stretching out and doing weird things to prepare for this whole birth business?  Yeeps again.

Milkshakes are delicious.  And so are soapapillas at Chuy's.  I'm kinda liking just going for it here in the last couple weeks...

Oh, and happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!!  I'm secretly hoping Craig will do something sweet for me today...but am also managing expectations.  He's big into logic and technicalities, and since Holden is still hanging out in utero, in Craig's eyes I probably don't qualify as a real mom yet.  We'll see what happens...but for now I might try to go back to sleep as a present to myself.

I'm definitely doing that "nesting" thing

I'm feeling pretty super pregnant these days...

...and am most certainly deep into this nesting business. I think my nesting instinct was somewhat hampered by this "busy season" thing that keeps taking over my life, mainly because I literally didn't have time to do anything, so I'm afraid now I've entered an extreme phase that's frightening Craig and the animals.  See the army of tiny clothes - probably should have left tags on some of those guys since Holden will likely not make his way through alllll of the clothes, and then a sane person could have exchanged them for different sizes.  But I NEEDED to wash them and dry them and hang them in perfect order.  I NEEDED TO.  Oh boy.

And then there's the baking...

Baking double batches of banana AND strawberry bread definitely counts as nesting.  And now we have wrapped mini-loaves hanging out in the freezer, all ready for us.  So...at least we have some frozen breakfast?  Because it's quite possible I might not actually make anything else.

And Harrison's favorite part of nesting - the warm clean clothes from my need to stay way on top of any laundry situation.

This week's winner of the "least helpful" award in nesting assistance - Harrison and his idea of helping with laundry.  Laying on warm things and pressing wrinkles IN while adding a light dusting of cat fur is NOT helping, Harry.  And yes, those are more tiny clothes that got added to the army of tiny clothes...they didn't get washed in the first batch and it was bothering me, imagine that.

More updates and ramblings on the baby front...

I'm pretty much over it at work.  Yes, there are plenty of things I can still get done, but since I'm just tired and super pregnant, I'd kinda rather be at home chilling on my couch.  A teeny part of me wishes I had stayed at Pdub just for the maternity leave.  If that were the case, Friday would be my last day of work...must not think about that and should probably focus on actually getting some more things done.  Also, I have this irrational fear that my water's going to break while I'm at work. Or maybe it's not irrational.  It could just be really gross, y'all.

I'm trying to squeeze in so many things in these last few weeks - lunches and dinners with friends, husband, or just myself (I took myself to lunch at La Madeleine yesterday and ate quiche and read my non-baby book - it was blissful); attempting to throw things in the freezer that will sustain us over the summer when I may or may not have actual time to cook; making things perfect that don't really need to be perfect at all but I'm anal and crazy; absorbing information so I feel "prepared" for this thing I don't think you can really be prepared for.  And any of these things that require any movement are just a little difficult because I'm ginormous. Bah.

I think I need to chill out.  I'm certain Craig would agree with this.

Oh, and I wear things in pregnancy that I never wore in my non-pregnant life - things like leggings and maxi skirts. I wonder if any of these style choices will stick.

My weight gain has been very on track for what it needed to be (minor victory!), which means I'm kinda just going for it in these last few weeks...to the extent I actually have room in my stomach since Holden's commandeering a lot of the midsection space these days.  Milkshakes are my current drug of choice.  And Craig picked up three more pints of Ben & Jerry's this weekend...

To aid in the nesting, we now have a GIANT freezer AND a fridge/freezer combo in the garage...a little too much storage space for right now, but I'm imagining it'll come in handy for a ton of things. Right now it holds the aforementioned banana and strawberry bread, ice cream, and the ice cream mixer attachment.  And probably some beer for Craig.  So basically we're set on ice cream.

And to close...remember how I was adamant that we talk about something other than the baby? I've pretty much gone to nothing but baby on the blog, haven't I?  HYPOCRISY!!