2012... bring it!

things i'm thinking about for the new year...

1. restarting the maker's diet and following hard core. no more sugar for me at all. its going to be hard but i already know it is so worth it.

2. by the end of january, i will have achieved inbox zero in my yahoo email. thats right. it seems impossible but i think i can do it.

3. we have four bookshelves in our basement. they are a mess. i will tackle one per month and reorganize and clean them out so by the end of april (and jakey's first birthday party) they will be beautiful and clean and neat.

4.there are indoor triathlons in january, february. march and april at local ymcas. i will sign up for all of them, and continue to PR at each one. by april im going to have to really work hard to shave more time off my total but i think i can do it because...

5. i am signing up for a running group through a local store with the goal of running the river run 10k. i have run a couple of 10ks back when we lived in la. i think my best time was around 56 mins (i'd have to look it up to be more specific) so i definitely want to pr in the may race.

6. i had this goal once before, but i want to try a new recipe at least once a week. i can be a side or salad - it doesnt have to be a main dish, but i get tired of cooking the same thing all the time. a bonus goal would be to blog about it so you all can join in the fun!

7. I've been obsessed with pinning things lately, and have done a few things based on things ive pinned. 2012 will be the year to really accomplish these things. at least one new craft type project per month based on my boards. a blog about those would be a nice bonus too.

8. you can tell that i havent been blogging as much lately, but jacob is getting to an age where i have a better handle on being his mom and working from home and keeping up with all the housework all at the same time. so i want to be better about this in the new year, but im not sure how to quanitfy this goal. i know i want to post more book reviews and more posts about jakey's day to day life, because, lets face it, my kid is the single most interesting thing in the universe.

9. we hope to be home owners by the end of the year. actually by august when our lease on this townhouse expires, but you cant really rush these things. :)not really a resolution, but something i am definitely excited about this year!

what are you going to do this year? something new? something hard? same goal as last year?

end of year book round up

as i suspected at the beginning of this year, working a job for 50-60+ hours a week until the end of april and then being a mom to a new baby, moving, and continuing to work at home really cut into my reading time this year.

as close as i can tell, i made it through 261 books this year. that's almost 200 less than my best year, 2009. :D

here are some highlights: (if you want to see the whole list or see my ratings and mini reviews, join me over at shelfari.)


room by emma donaghue
unbearable lightness by portia de rossi
anna and the french kiss by stephanie perkins
divergent by veronica roth
skipping a beat by sarah pekkanen
sisterhood everlasting by ann brashares
secrets of the baby whisperer by tracy hogg
the last little blue envelope by maureen johnson
stories i tell my friends by rob lowe


i also read installmants in series by the following authors:
george r r martin
carrie ryan
holly black
tamora pierce
kelley armstrong
susan wiggs
meg cabot
jenny han
kim harrison
maggie stiefvater


overall, it was a pretty good year. we haev an ipad and i read a lot of free books on the kindle app in the middle of the night while feeding jakey. a lot of those books are free for a reason, and did not make it anywhere close to this list. it was a good move to go from the groton library to the wichita public library system too.  lots of new reading material since the last time i spent time reading here! :D

christmas day

we woke up christmas morning to a sleepy baby. while jakey snoozed away, my santa made coffeecake and we opened our presents together. shortly after we finished, we heard the baby waking up. he wanted to be part of the action. he came out of his room to open his stuff. he  was wearing his reindeer jammers we got at hannah banana for like $3. i love that store! (because how often is a kid going to wear reindeer jammers. prolly not very often.)

after we opened all our presents we got dressed and drove to topeka for the shane christmas celebration. jakey sat on santa's lap for the first time. he wasnt in love with the idea, but he didnt scream in terror either so thats a bonus.

after dinner, we went to great grandma and grandpas for MORE pressies and food. this kid is good to go on toys for a few years! or at least until his birthday in april when i know he is going to get a ton more stuff!

christmas the second

 we celebrated with my family on christmas eve. after going to church at noon, which was awesome because it fit so nicely into jakey's sleep schedule, we went to my parents' house for snackies and pressies. both my brothers and max's girlfriend kayla were there too. after several rounds of gift opening and oohing and aahing, jakey woke up and was ready to play!

 he is still a little scared of the horse because he is too short for the stirrups. but how fun is that? the horse shakes his head and neighs and swishes his tail. i kinda wish they made them in my size.

is he the cutest ever, or what?

christmas part one

 the week before christmas all of jeremy's siblings got together with each of his parents to celebrate christmas. we started the day with brunch at jeff and barb's. after everyone had opened all of their wonderful gifts and eaten lots of food, we took a couple family pictures.

wrangling six kids to sit in front of the tree and smile when they all want to play with all their new stuff is a lot harder than it sounds. probably not as hard as herding cats, unless they are my cats, which will pretty much do whatever you tell them. all these kiddos are growing way too fast and thats all there is to say about that. there are two more cousins this year than last year, and the two oldest are in school! sheesh.

jakey and cora are the babies of the family, and they like to wear matching diapers. or their moms like to put them in matching diapers. either way, during part of the time at cherie's house in the afternoon, amy and i set up a fluffy giraffe bottom photo shoot with our babies. jakey and cora cooperated by holding hands. heart melting over here!

second verse... same as the first...mostly

i was a sickie again for the december edition of the ymca indoor tri series. however, i did manage to shave some time off two of the three parts of the tri as well as my overall time. i am super happy about that!!! 

NOV: Swim: 11:41 T1: 2:33 Bike: 23:22 T2: :03 Run: 20:03 TOTAL: 57:42

DEC: Swim: 10:35 T1 1:30 Bike 23:08 T2: :03 Run 20:53 TOTAL: 56:09

I'm currently in 2nd place in my age group for overall points. Jan 14, i'm coming for you!

feeling a lot like baby's 1st christmas!

 jakey was given most of uncle max's brio train set as an early christmas present.  he loves playing with it (and mom and dad are enjoying it too!). we set it up around the base of the tree and it looks so cute!

 last night we helped jakey open his first christmas present ever! it was a set of freezer cubes for baby food and i needed them because we just bough a huge bag of carrots at the store. :) i rationalized it by saying he needs practice before his first christmas celebration this weekend. also i wanted to be the one to give him his first present, even if it wasn't incredibly exciting for the kid. he was more interested in the paper anyways, as most littles are when opening pressies at 1st christmas and 1st birthdays. :)

thankfully (?) my sweet baby isnt mobile quite yet so i havent had to worry about tree destruction. next year will be a lot different i'm sure.

tri-ing something new

 all last week i was sick - sneezing, up all night coughing, generally feeling lousy. so naturally, over the weekend i particpated in my first organized sporting activity since pregnancy, an indoor tri at the south ymca. i have done a couple f regular tris in california, so this one seemed doable compared to the amount of energy and prepartion that goes into one of those. it is part of a winter series and i am happy to say, even post race, i fully intend on competing in the entire series. it is good motivation if nothing else.

my friend beka competed with me. SO glad she wanted to sign up and do this race - i totally would have skipped out if it weren't for her! her heat was before mine, so we didnt get to swim, bike or run next to each other, but we did get to cheer for each other.

 pre-race i was full of optimism and will power. there is no other way i could have made it through if i wasn't so stubborn!

after the race, i was ready for coffee and a shower. and a nap, but we all know that mommies don't get too many naps. coffee and a shower were at least achievable goals.

i finished (my goal) in under an hour (my secret goal) and came in third in my age group! (out of six, but still - i beat people!)

total time: 57:42
swim (500 m): 11:42 (second in my heat and right behind the man flexing in my picture. he was for reals though)
transition: 2:33 (i changed out of my swimsuit into running clothes. maybe next time i will alter this method for an easy way to decrease my overall time.)
bike (6mi): 23:22 (pretty slow, but it was my first time on a bike in about 2 years. and it was SO boring being on the bike in the spin studio!)
transition: :03 (basically wobbling from the bikes onto the track through a door)
run (2 mi): 20:03 (not too shabby considering i couldnt really breathe through my nose and my lungs were filled with phlegm. and i havent exactly done my best training lately)

looking forward to dec 4 - who's with me?

p.s. you can only do it if you arent in my age group - i dont need any more competition. ;)

campin out

 we went with our friends ed and beka up to fall river a few weeks ago for jacob's first camping experience.  it was beautiful weather, and didnt get too cold that night. he enjoyed sitting in his camping chair just like all the grown ups and was absolutely fascinated by the fire. he put his nalgene in his little cup holder and was happy as a clam.

 we were all decked out in our k-state gear - it was  a winning day ( i think it was the day we played KU). the scenery there was beautiful.  not something i would have expected in kansas!

we played bocce, ate way too many smores and gorged on taco soup, and played hide the baby.  ok, we didnt actually leave him anywhere of course but he was awfully hard to spot in the foliage with his camo outfit and hat!

six months old

26 weeks... half a year... time is seriously FLYING by.

yesterday was jakey's six month birthday. he is a textbook baby (ask the baby whisperer what that means. p.s. if you are pregnant or a new mom she is a freaking genius.) therefore, every week when we get an email saying something like "your 12 week old should be rolling over" no sooner do i read the email than jakey starts rolling around. it is uncanny.

so, yesterday i got my email saying "at six months your baby should be sitting unassisted." we've been practicing sitting for a few weeks now, but until yesterday he wasnt very good at it. then, at exactly six months the switch flipped and he can sit for several minutes at a time without falling over. weird? yes awesome? also yes.

in six months we have gone from bringing home a little blob (adorable, but a blob) to having a small adult.  jakey likes to wear clothes that look like something daddy would wear, which means they look like something an old man would wear (he has a sweater with elbow patches and a velvet blazer, you guys. jacob, not jeremy.) he likes to be a part of the action, loves watching other kids play, and eats some real foods (so far sweet potato, avocado and banana. he will start carrots this week.)

it is amazing to watch him grow and learn everyday. i can't wait to see what today will bring!

my little punkin

last weekend, we went to the punkin patch. we took a hayrack ride to the patch, found a couple of big pumpkins, and petted some goats.  (and by petted, i mean we looked at them. my baby does NOT need those germs.) it was a lot of brand new experiences for the little guy all rolled into one big outing! he loved the goats, but i think was confused about why the big cats had horns. he also got to help me "drive" an old tractor (i think alice chalmers).

this friday night...

i got a text this afternoon from a friend inviting me and jakey to join her and her son for a trick or treat fair at edgemoor park. jeremy was on his way to topeka for a turkey hunt with shane, so we said YES!

i had my cat ears from CATS at the theatre, and we had planned on borrowing a yoda costume from them anyways. a little eyeliner and we were good to go!

the fair was awesome! lots of area businesses were giving out candy of course, but we also got a girl scout cookie, a krispy kreme doughnut, chicken and mashed potatoes from outback and coffee from starbucks! basically the mommies got to do a different kind of goodie gathering than the kiddos.  jakey came home with a bag of candy, but he obviously won't be needing it any time soon. guess i will have to help him out with that!

what a fun way to spend an evening - good company and good times!

florida trip

at the end of august my grandpa died after a long battle with dementia. we flew to florida for the funeral. thus, jakey's first airplane trip (or four to be more precise). he was an angel on all the flights, barely crying at all.  the four hour layover in atlanta both ways was a little more challenging, but we made it through. jeremy wasnt able to get off work, so i had lots of help from my parents and from uncle max. i was very thankful for my moby wrap walking through all the airports carrying a baby and my bags. no way was i checking anything after the last two horrible luggage experiences i have had.

while in florida, jacob got to meet his great grandma, all his first cousins once removed and lots of great aunts and uncles. i hadnt been to jacksonville for a few years so it was really nice to see everyone, even under the sad circumstances.

settling in..

we are finally settling in to our new house and life in wichita.  jeremy is still traveling a lot for work, but jakey and i keep up a pretty good routine. we both like knowing whats coming next. i respect that about my child. :)

we purchased a few new pieces of furniture and were gifted several others, and now we have just about everything we need.  there are a few finishing touches (like getting my academy awards marquee posters framed and on the wall - SO excited to finally have enough wall space to display these!) to do, but we got pretty overwhelmed with little projects that we tried to squeeze in every second that jeremy was home and kinda backed off for a while.

my current crafty project is my first attempt at making curtains.  i have bought the fabric and started cutting it to size. this will be the last thing we need in jacob's room for it to be completely complete.  it is the room that is closest to being done.  the living room is close too, but our idea for the windows in that room will involve some work on jeremy's part and is therefore very hard for me to do while he is gone. i am worried that these curtains are going to turn out weird, but practice makes perfect, right? after

jacod acquired some new items too, most notably an exersaucer shaped like a turtle (its hilarious)and a keekaroo highchair.  i seriously love this high chair. its wooden in stead of plastic, doesnt have any stupid characters on it, has all non toxic finishes, and coolest of all, will adjust to accomodate jacob as he grows.  adults up to 250 lbs can sit in this thing (with the tray removed of course). i love it.  jeremy brought it home from a boutique in kansas city. jakey is getting good at keeping himself steady and upright, and loves being able to see what im doing when im cooking or doing other stuff in the kitchen.

work is going great for me, and we are happy that jeremy has a job but unhappy with the amount of traveling. we are able to reconnect with friends from high school and college and see a lot more of both of our families.  jacob will grow up knowing all his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and the rest of the extended family.  life is good.

five months big

jacob has done a lot of things in his short life... he has moved across the country, been on countless road trips, gone to a concert, started eating solids, slept through the night, and grown so much. i think about where we were five months ago and so much has changed. even looking at pictures of him from several weeks ago makes me realize how quickly he is maturing and learning.

i have the privelege of working for a doctor from home in order to stay with jakey. when i go into the office to work, i get to take jakey with me.  today we measured him.  he was 18 pounds on the nose (50th percentile) and 27.75 inches long (98th percentile). i'd say he takes after mommy and daddy with those stats!

he started eating rice cereal a couple of weeks ago.  the first couple of times i mixed it in a bottle with expressed milk, and he thought it was alright.  a few days in, after he grabbed my fork at dinner and tried to put it in his mouth, i decided to try the cereal in a bowl.  he started eating from that spoon like he has been doing nothing but that his whole life. it was pretty amazing to watch.  he barely even spits any back out.  and he LOVES it. he screams when the bowl is empty even when i make him a large portion. we bought an avocado at the grocery store today and as soon as it is ripe we will try that out and see what he thinks. hopefully i can get a picture of the face he makes when he tries it, whether it is a happy face or disgusted one.

he is an ace at rolling from his stomach to back, to the point where he refuses to participate in tummy time any longer.  he can almost turn from his back to front, but will only do so if he is trying to reach an object just over his shoulder.

he has been to a concert in lawrence (david nail) and a football game (trinity vs. independent). he loves other babies, especially his cousins.  he laughs all the time, especially at blondes. (this could be a problem later in life.) he is starting to really pay attention to the cats and LOVES to watch the fish in the tank.

i seriously love this guy. and he is the coolest kid around.

that totally made my thursday

on the way to work this morning jeremy said "do people whistle at you all day long?" i said "no" and he said "that surprises me."

then when he dropped me off he rolled down the car window and gave me a big wolf-whistle.

man i love him.

family photos

we were able to get jeremy and bryce in the same city for more than thirty minutes this past weekend, so we took a family photo.  good thing, because the last one was when jeremy and i still lived in california!

obviously there has been an awfully cute addition to the family since then... and i dont mean bryce's beard.  :D

cousin time!

now that we are back in kansas, jakey gets to spend more time with both of our families.  all of his cousins were a big part of our decision to come home. last weekend we all got together to celebrate two birthdays.  since our last cousins picture there has been an addition - that wee little wildcat on andrew's lap.

love these kids!

road trippin...

embarking on a 1600+mile, three day car trip with a ten week old baby is not for the faint of heart. thankfully my mom and i have strong tickers. for the move from connecticut to kansas, jeremy and max drove the uhaul and my mom and i took the car and the baby. thankfully jacob is a fantastic child and slept most of the time in the car. we had to stop every couple hours for him to eat and for us girls to stretch. the first day we were on the road for 11 hours through CT, NY (got lost in the bronx - what an experience!), NJ, PA, MD, WV, and VA. that hotel room was SO welcome! after we ate dinner we fell asleep and jakey slept for NINE hours. he has never done that before! we woke up in the morning and headed to nashville to see anna. we slept at her house that night. i got to rub the baby belly and see their house and all the fun projects she has been blogging about in person. very fun.

 the last day of the trip was the longest and hardest. the garmin took us through some backwoods way to get to wichita, which would have shaved considerable amounts of time off the trip, had a VERY important bridge not been out. so instead, we were lost in the wilds of KY and IL. thankfully my mom has a small obsession with maps and atlases, and was able to successfully navigate us back to civilization.

we finally made it home at 11pm on the fourth of july.  we were able to watch several firework displays from the highway between emporia and wichita which was fun - avoid the crowds, noise and bugs! jeremy and max were waiting for us at home. we have never been happier to be OUT of the CAR!

fishin' trip

 about a month ago we took jakey out to guilford for his first fishing trip. he fell asleep and hung out on the dock with me while jeremy and max walked around the pond to try and catch something. max caught a turtle (i think thats because he was wearing a teenage mutant ninja turtles shirt) but neither boy caught any fishes.

 there was a veeeerrrrry friedly duck that hopped up on the dock with me and hung out within touching distance for about ten minutes. she even tried to eat jakeys blanket. the tail of it was hanging out of the car seat and she grabbed it, prolly thinking it was something tasty.

it was a fun trip until we got the news that bryce was in the hospital with head trauma. thankfully he is now recovering and back at home, but it kinda put an end to the free spirits of the day.

my water boy

jakey has loved the water since birth. as soon as his cord fell off and he could take a bath he has been showering with me and loving every second. he has had a couple of baths in the sink and sits there like a king in a hot tub. its no surprise that he loved being in the pool too!

being in the pool really wears a body out, you know?

we're coming home!

jeremy, jakey and i are moving to wichita! really really soon!

we gave our notice a couple of weeks ago and i am finished working this friday. saturday my mom, jakey and i are leaving groton and heading to wichita via nashville. jeremy and max are driving the uhaul and going a different route. by july 4th we will all be home, safe and sound.

the bad part is that jeremy has to fly back to connecticut and work for the rest of july.

the great news is that i already have a part time, work from home job. very happy about that. i miss my baby when i am working.

it was all kinda sudden, but we are happy that jakey will get to grow up with his cousins and family. and we are happy that we get to be near all of our family too.

soooo. how excited are you? cant wait to reconnect with all of my wichita/kansas friends. if anyone has a cute house for rent next door, let me know! :)

uncle max!

both boys in their plaid shorts!

uncle max has been staying with us since june 1 and watching the baby while i am working. so far so good - he even managed to change a diaper (and got the full fire hose effect, poor guy). he is quickly becoming a jiggling expert and jakey doesnt give him too hard of a time.

8 Weeks? You've GOT to be Kidding!

 i cant believe it has been eight weeks already since we had jakey. everyone who is a parent knows how fast the time flies. it is getting hard to remember the almost six years of life jeremy and i had together before this kid! he started smiling at people on his seven week birthday: me first, then daddy, then uncle max. he still hasnt smiled at rumpy or cricket. :)

also on his seven week birthday he slept 6 hours straight at night! he has done that one other time since, and i love it. otherwise he is pretty good about sleeping four or so hours, waking up, eating, and going straight back to sleep for a few more hours. i am getting over the zombie stage of motherhood, and very happy about that.

he got his first set of shots today and didnt cry too much. of course he only got two shots instead of all the usuals because we declined several of the vaccines. the doctor said that even the kids who get the rotovirus vaccine get rotovirus - what's the point then? he has been extra fussy this afternoon but sleeping most of the time thankfully.

he gained about two pounds in the last month and grew and inch and a half - 23.5 inches and 12 lbs, 11 oz. He is in the 75th percentile for height and weight. He talks and looks and does everything that a two month old is supposed to be doing!

parental visit: second set

shortly after my mom left, jeff and barb arrived! they came bearing k-state gifts, which are ALWAYS welcome in our little connecticut house! :) jakey loves wearing his k-state socks all the time. darci also sent some adorable little onsies with john deere stuff embroidered on them. LOVE!

we spent a lot of time with them exploring the area and trying some new restaurants (and some old standards).

it was great to spend time with them. we got to eat at mystic pizza, and barb amazed me by being able to tell me what year she went and saw the movie, who she went with and the plot.  That movie came out in 1988! i cant even remember what i wore yesterday until i do the laundry... (mommy brain at its finest).

the parental visit

 my parents arrived very very early in the morning on may 9 - our first baby visitors! we spent a lot of time just hanging out with them holding the baby, but we also made it out to eat on the water a few times. dog watch in stonington is at a marina and the sun was setting as we ate - beautiful!

 my mom bought jakey a mini swing. it took him a few days to get used to it but now he loves it. he also loves his sophie the giraffe. (seriously this toy is amazing - an international sensation!)

on saturday mark and lanelle brought carly and ava to come a see the baby. the girls were more interested in the cats than the baby but it was a wonderful time to catch up and hang out. 

 my mom spent lots of time holding the baby, smelling the baby, rocking the baby and changing the baby.  cricket got in on some of the action too.