The Boob Shark

It happens fast.
Eyes shut

Nose wiggling, sniffing sniffing
Fishing for food.
Breath gasping
Snout snorting
Head bobbling
Mouth open, shut, open, shut
All the senses on the hunt-- For my boob.

When she finds it she attacks.
The gasping stops
and turns to gulps
She settles.
She's happy--Content.
The boob shark found her meal.

If I'm lucky, when she's full--
She'll either be milk drunk
or give me this look:

The Challenge

I'm worried I'm going to be a bad example for my kids. I always told myself "when I have kids we have to have FHE (family home evening) EVERY WEEK," "I want to have family scripture study and prayer NIGHTLY," and "We have to make it to church ON TIME." Great goals to have, but how am I going to do that then if I can't do that now? I want to say I'm a bad mother and I'm not even a mother yet! Oh dear... That's good for myself esteem. Future kids I'm sorry... I'm trying to get ready and I'm glad you'll soon forget the bad example I'm being right now.

One of the most difficult things for me to do it wake up. I LOVE sleeping in. Even if it's just until 9 o'clock it makes a WORLD of a difference. I only have to wake up at 7am 3 days a week for work (the other two days I don't have to be at work until 1) and I HATE waking up for work during the week. It's horrible. Sundays, I try to get up by 8 so we can be at church on time at 9... How many times has that happened lately? ONCE!! It's pathetic. How am I suppose to be able to not only dress myself, but little people for church every week? I can tell now that sleep is going to be my ultimate sacrifice for parenting. Not getting fat, not stretching and ripping Lord knows what body parts. Not reducing my personal time, but SLEEP!
HELP!!
PS: sorry for the second post today, it wasn't my intent to hog your feeds. This was just a problem for me today as I struggled to put myself together before church and I thought you'd have words of wisdom for next week :)

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Today is my 4 month anniversary of starting this blog! Woohoo! It's also time to draw a winner for my 100th post contest. I got sooo much good mommy advice, and ideas for future posts as well as ideas for cute baby boy stuff to give away in the future. Random.org selected number 38 so the lucky winner is *drum roll please*... Pam from Hands on Learning Fun. Who is actually having a giveaway of her own right now so go check it out!

If you missed this giveaway, don't give up!! I have another one going on right now that ends in a couple of days! So enter away!

The Things I'm Going to Miss Part 4

I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will miss this precious thing more than anything else on my list. More than my slim figure, more than having late nights out with friends and oh yes, even more than sporadic sex. This cherished item I speak of gives me life, it gives me joy, it gives me an escape from this crazy yet sometimes unbelievably boring world I live in. It's a process no one... Especially not I, can live without, and I'm not sure I can cordially function with less of it. And if... No, when I'm forced to I fear those around me will suffer the wrath as I transform into a vicious beast. Oh yea, that's what happens when I don't get to sleep.

I have a love/hate relationship with sleep. I'm writing this now as I'm fighting to stay awake on one of my days off. I'm extremely mad that the sleep demon has taken over my body and it forcing me to be tired and take long naps all day. Naps are nice yes, but not on my days off. I like to go go go and sleep only gets in the way.

But that's my only complaint about sleep. Other than that I love it. And I mean it when I say: Please... Don't wake me up from my dearest dreams unless you have a bundle of chocolate covered strawberries in your arms. ...Can babies make those?

I was surprised how quickly I was able to jump out of bed and take care of my needy puppy when I first got him, but that instinct left just as quickly as I developed it and now when he whimpers at night I kick my husband out of bed.

Scared is an understatement of how I feel about having a child and loosing sleep. That and the fact that I hear it's more than just a loss of sleep it's like... No more naps? No more sleeping when I want? You mean, I have to do what the crying thing tells ME to? Well I brought the son of a gun into this world...

Do you know how often I sleep in until 9, 10... Heck, 1 if I want to?! I get to decide when I wake up and when I go to sleep and I LOVE it. To have that privilege sacrificed... Ugh. I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it.

A woman I work with just laughs at me when I tell her I'm tired. She just got back from maternity leave and frequently comes in expressing how few hours of sleep she got the night before. I get a migraine just thinking of being in that situation.

How do you get over it? I know you're going to tell me it comes natural but really, what if it doesn't? Do I really just have to say goodbye to sleeping whenever I want to? What if I invested in those nice Boss headphones? Could I pump enough milk so that hubby could wake up in the ridiculous hours of the night? Forget taking turns, I'd trade him a tubal ligation for waking up every night for the crying babies.

Maybe I'm really not cut out for this parenting thing.

(Maybe)

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Nightly Notion

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Another friend of mine told me she might be pregnant. I'll be crossing some more names off my list very soon... Jerks!

The Love Factor-- Things I'm Going to Miss Part 3

Well, it's Valentines Day. Happy Valentines Day! And I figure it's a good time to pose a question and concern I've been thinking about.

As I was babysitting two young girls last night so their parents could go out and celebrate Valentines Day, I thought how grateful I am that at a drop of a hat my husband and I can do whatever... Go out, make dinner together... And so on.

I got my dog Snoop last year for Valentines Day and I noticed how having a small puppy around kind of affected... Routines we'll say. It really bothered me. Eventually I got over it and things went back to normal but it was quite annoying at the time.

I think it's so important to continue to have couple time together, date nights and time to... Ya know, practice making babies and stuff.

It just seems that once kids come along that priority goes to the back burner for some, or it just becomes more difficult. What in the world do you do to fix that? Get ear muffs? Sedate the kids? Drive away and leave them for a night and hope they survived through the next morning?

I was reading a parenting magazine last night (funny I know, but it was just sitting there on the table ok?) And one of the articles was about women being angry at their husbands for not helping around the house, turning off the lights, understanding their children etc. To me it just seemed a little ridiculous and like a bunch of depressed and nagging women. I don't want that to happen to me!! I still want to be a happy woman and wife, as well as a happy mom. Some of the women complained that their husband's drive to have a love life went down and I kind of judgmentally thought 'Boy I wonder why!' That article is a discussion for a whole different topic but I'll use that part for example's sake.

Do you try to keep date nights together? How often? Right now every night is literally like a date night with me and my Boo and I wonder if it'll be a hard transition when we lose that one day.

This year we're keeping the holiday low key. I want a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, some chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite) and a movie to snuggle up and watch. What are your plans?

The Trip--Parte Uno

As we're waiting to board our flight from Austin to Orlando an older man approaches me an asks: "Excuse me miss. Do you happen to know what the abbreviation L-M-A-O stands for?"

I stared at him for a moment trying to figure out if he's being serious. "Yes," I confirmed. He waited for a more specific answer, so I gave in.
"Laughing My Ass Off." I told him.
"Oh," he chuckled. "So it's kind of an extension of Laughing Out Loud?"
"Yea..."

That's when I knew this was going to be an interesting vacation.

We arrived and went through the check-in process fairly quickly. Then it was time to strut my stuff and eat all I could.

The days and nights of being with the hub-a-lub 24/7 were NOT taken for granted. I'm talking no interruptions, made our own schedule, did whatever the heck we wanted with no worries in the back of our minds kind of FUN. Trust me, I did not take that for granted for one second.

We woke up early, ate breakfast, then strolled the streets of the Bahamas, snorkeled and kayaked in the beautiful blue waters.

We shopped, we talked, we ate, slept, then later we danced and ate some more. And this wasn't just any food. I'm talking four to five course meal ranging from the most delicious steak you'd ever sink your teeth into, to the most delicate and delightful lobster tail you'd ever taste. Oh, and don't forget the chocolate melting cake for dessert... My FAVORITE!

We did go to the gym... Ok I only went once, it was dreadful. But I did play dodgeball with the boys! Our team barely lost the matches 3-4.

Sunday, the second night was the Night of Elegance. I loved getting dressed to the nine and showing off my hunk. We stood out because we were so young compared to most of the other couples (no joke, I think the average age on this ship was 50), and we... Well, we stand out.

The first few days I didn't have an ounce of envy for the families I saw scrambling around. I saw kids running rampid, stress on mothers' faces. Things I can happily wait years to deal with.

But around the third night my attitude began to change. I scanned through the pictures from the few days before and stopped at this one. A picture we took during sunset on the Night of Elegance. "I look like a grown woman." I thought aloud. I feel and am very young but I was surprised at my happiness in the fact that I'm beginning to look as mature as I sometimes feel. Maybe it was the shadows, or the dress I was wearing. Or perhaps it was the handsome man I was posing with. Whatever it was, it made this the first picture I've seen of myself where I feel as if I look like I could be a mom.

That night I fell asleep dreaming of a child of our own.

The Things I'll Miss Pt.2

Need I say more?