Currently

So yeah, I haven’t done one of these since August.  Oops.  I have  just been so busy with life and working full time and being a mama that I just haven’t had time to really blog.

That being said, I thought I would try and sit down and write out some updates!

C

During the Carrie Underwood concert...he bought me tix for Christmas.  He looks excited yes?

We made it through the offseason and the Arena Football League started up again this March.  Unfortunately, C’s wrist injury from a few years ago is coming back to haunt him.  It’s been causing some pain and he has also had a pinched nerve in his neck from it. Confusing I know, the human body is so interconnected.  Because of this, the team put him on IR (injured reserve).  This means he can’t play and even if he gets better, he must sit out at least 5 weeks.  It’s been really difficult for him to watch his team play without him.  Hopefully, he should be back soon.  His 5 weeks is up this week and he is feeling better. Now we need a doctor to clear him!

In his free time he has been driving for Lyft and Uber, which he really enjoys.  Something about meeting new people constantly and instantly seeing the money he made for the day give him great joy.  It’s nice because he can do it whenever!  If I feel like going to bed early (which is like, always) he can go out and drive for a few hours and make money.

Noah

By the time this posts, he will be just a few days from being a year old. I can’t believe it.  Everyone says they grow so fast, but you don’t really believe it until you are living it.

We did a photo shoot recently to celebrate one year and also did a smash cake. It was amazing!  Noah loved it.  I can’t wait to share the photos with you. He took a little taste of frosting and enjoyed it so much that he picked up the whole dang cake to take another bite!

Right now he is in size 3 diapers and busting out of his size 9 month clothes (switching to size 12 month when they arrive this week) which is awesome because he is finally starting to catch up to where he should be.

He loves crawling and standing up on things.  He cruises the halls in the house in his walker with ease while I am getting ready in the morning. He’s gotten great at backing up and turning around when he hits the end of the tile, it’s quite funny.

He isn’t talking yet, just lots of babbles and dadadada.  I know he understands us though, because he listens.  Every once in a while he will copy something we say though and its incredible.  I’ve heard him babble “peek a boo” and even caught “happy birthday” on video!  Too bad they were all one time deals though. No solid words yet. I’m trying not to get too worried about it.  Every baby does these things in their own time!

Momma is so proud of being able to breastfeed for a full year, but she is also very tired.  I am beginning to work on stopping pumping at work.  I am hopeful we will be able to still nurse in the mornings, evenings and weekends, but we will see. We are now working on transitioning Noah to more big boy foods and meals, instead of little snacks here and there.  It’s quite a confusing process for me and stresses me out honestly.  I just want to make sure Noah is getting all the nutrition he needs! He is so easy going that he doesn’t fuss much if he is hungry (we had a lot of problems early on with that) so it’s hard to tell what he needs.

Me

As I mentioned I am working on stopping pumping milk for Noah during work hours.  It has been a rough year breastfeeding and I honestly hate pumping with a passion, so I am proud I have kept up with it through our goal of one year.  As much as I hate it, I am really having an emotional time with the transition, which is very odd to me.  I thought I would be so happy to stop this.  I guess even if you don’t like doing something, once you’ve done it for a full year it kind of grows on you.  I just hope I am making the right decision about it and I’m not thinking selfishly. Noah love’s his momma milk!

Noah is still not sleeping through the night and it is really affecting me.  I spend my days exhausted.  Once I get home from work, all I want to do is eat dinner and go to bed. I hate it.  Last night I was in bed by 8:45pm.  That’s pretty embarrassing for a woman in her early 30s!  He has started to sleep a pretty long stretch, but usually still wakes up anytime between 430 and 545.  The problem is, my alarm goes off at 615! If he wakes up at 545 to eat, I don’t really get to go back to bed and get more sleep (even though he does) before my alarm goes off. So basically, I am waking up every day very early.  I have never been a morning person, so it’s very rough!

(Ok though this updated was about me….it’s still kind of about Noah.  Imagine that. Mommy life!)

Books 

Since Noah was born I haven’t gotten to read nearly as much as I used to.  Since the last updated, these are some books that I’ve read:

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

I Like You Just the Way I Am by Jenny Mollen

Cartwheel by Jennifer Dubios

I am currently reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.

Unfortunately….I just didn’t love any of these books.  Pretty Girls was good and kept my highly interested and wanting more, but it was also VERY disturbing. I wish the subject matter was a little different, I would have liked it a lot more. The Paris Wife was soooo boring and took me forever to get through.  I really wanted to like it, but it was not for me.

TV

Well….we still have a DVR full of shows that we need to catch up on!  I’m not sure we will ever get through them.  Right now my must watch shows are Scandal, Nashville and Grey’s Anatomy (C doesn’t watch this one).  I’ve also done some guilty pleasure watching of LA Clippers Dance Squad!  I was a dancer once upon a time, so I enjoy seeing the behind the scenes things that make these teams work. It’s not the best quality show, but I still like watching it!

Any new TV shows I should add to our list?  What about awesome books you suggest?  I have less time for both of these things now, but I still want to watch and read the best! 

Currently

Hmmm….when was the last time I did one of these?  Must have been months and months ago!

I thought I’d give you a quick update as to what is going on in my life these days :)

C

Well its playoff time again Arena Football League! C’s team won their first game this past weekend and now they are off to play their game for round 2 on Saturday! His team will be up against the San Jose Sabercats who are pretty much the best team in the league this year.  It will be a fight to the finish for a win, but hopefully they can pull it off and make it to the Arena Bowl for the 4^th year in a row!

Noah

I still need to give you guys soooooo many updates on this little guy!  He just turned 3 months old last week and I can hardly believe it.  He is drooling like a mad man and learning to grab things these days. I’m shocked at how quickly his little life has gone for me.  As I am back to work full time, I cherish spending my evenings cuddling with him. Weekends are the best because we get so much time together!

Books 

Oh man, I have read several books since this last update! 

First off, for book club I read (but didn’t post on) Wild by CherylStrayed.  I didn’t think I was going to like this book, but I actually really did. I thought there was no way I could relate to an outdoorsy, hiking related book, but I dug right in. It was well written and kept me interested the whole time.

I also read Twisted Sisters by my favorite author Jen Lancaster.  This was one of her novels, which I don’t seem to like as much. This one was really weird….body swapping was involved.  Totally not believable in any sense.  I much prefer her memoirs!

Finally, while I was on maternity leave, when Noah was itty bitty, I would use his morning nap times to soak in the tub and read.  He would sleep away in his rock & play just outside the bathroom door in our room so I could listen for him and I would get swept away into a book.   For my baths, I choose to read some mind numbing teen chick lit.  Ok I say it like it’s a bad thing….but I totally loved these books!  I read the Fame Game series by Lauren Conrad, which includes the books The Fame Game, Infamous and Starstruck.  The books are from the point of view of a few girls that were chosen to be on a reality TV show (I’m sure based on Lauren’s own experience) and how they deal with the fame and life as a reality star.  Super easy reads and a lot of fun.  If you are into cheesy things like that, I’d highly suggest them.  They are actually a continuance of her first series L.A. Candy which I would suggest as well!

TV

Holy cow, it’s really hard to keep up with TV shows when you have a little one! I can't tell you how many times we've put a show on and then ended up playing or just plain staring at Noah and then totally missing what is going on in our show! Thankfully, it’s summer break for majority of the shows we watch, so we aren’t too far behind at the moment.  Two new shows we are watching though are Zoo and Bachelor in Paradise.  

Zoo really sucked us in during the first episode.  The premise of the series is just so unlike anything out there!  As we go along it has gotten a bit contrived, but we still enjoy watching it.  This does seem like a series though that definitely has an end date.  You can only do so many episodes trying to find out why something is happening (such as animals attacking humans…).  Eventually you have to find the answer.  Watching the characters try season after season to figure it out would probably get a bit old!

Bachelor in Paradise….what can I really say?  This show is just hilarious.  C loves watching it with me and thank goodness, because it comes on both Sunday AND Monday nights! It’s a reality love show that consists of cast offs from previous Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons that are put on an island to try and find love.  There is a game show element though and these guys and gals do some pretty nasty things to each other to stick around on the show.  The cheesiness and drama factor is HIGH on this one you guys!

That's all I've got time for right now, but that's just a snip-it of what is going on in my life!

Any new TV shows I should add to our list?  What about awesome books you suggest?  I have less time for both of these things now, but I still want to watch and read the best! 

Bon's Book Club - Unbroken

This month’s book for Bon’s Book Club was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I wasn’t totally game on reading this, but I had heard from others that it was really good so I decided to give it a try.  It’s a true story, so I do think that helped with the appeal for me. Also, it was recently made into a movie with Angelina Jolie as the Director. Here is a description from Amazon:

 

“In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.”

Ugh, I am not totally sure what to say about this book.  Yes, some parts of it were very interesting and it was really incredible to hear his story of survival, but man oh man did it seem like some of that dragged on.  I feel terrible saying that because this is a man’s real life we are talking about, but I felt the book maybe could have used a little less detail and gotten the same story across, especially in the beginning.

I thought the “voice” or “point of view” of the story was a little confusing too.  I never quite figured out who was supposed to be telling this story.  It seemed like it should be coming from Louis himself with all of the detail, but it was all third person as if someone were peering into his life the whole time and telling the story. To me that almost made it feel not as real.

One thing I did like about the book is that I learned a lot about that time period and the war.  I am not too into history, so it was interesting hearing stories from the point of view of the pilots during the bombing of Pearl Harbor or what POW camps were really like.

I guess if you have a lot of free time, this book may be worth the read, but it was a little tough for me to get through.  I can honestly say I am not even sure I will take the time to watch the movie.

Next up for Bon’s Book Club is Interpreters of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.  I have to decided not to read this book for two reasons.  One, it just doesn’t sound interesting to me at all and two, I am due to give birth any day now and I don’t want to strap myself down to a book! I have no clue what kind of free time I will have to read.  I have also already read the June book, Dark Places byGillian Flynn, so that really frees me up and I won’t have to think about making myself read if I can’t.

Have you read Unbroken? What are your thoughts?