week in iphone pics, w.3

I've been so busy with JC's party that I've hardly had a chance to check my e-mail, let alone write any blog posts. My mom and my brother came into town on Friday and I've been spending all the time that I can with them while they were here. I managed to throw this post together real quick. I promise I will post about JC's party in the next couple of days. It was so much fun! I can't believe we survived his first birthday party. I'm ready for the next one! Here's our week via iPhone.

Having fun climbing on mommy and daddy's bed, learning that cat's really love string, guitar time with daddy, and cake pop-ery.

A's vs Giants, Where's daddy going??, waiting for daddy to bring Chipotle home

Sleepy time, enjoying an early birthday present

At La Bou after getting his hair did

Whoa this bib is way too big, why go to the zoo when you can go to Best Buy

Diaper time!

Grandma Stella's here!!

C'mon ride the train, choo choo

Linkin up with Amy at a good life, you should too everyone's doing it

JC's First Haircut

Yesterday was a big milestone for JC, he got his first haircut!

We took him to the same barber that Charles has been going to since he was a little kid and he did a great job! He's one of those barbers where you can just sit in the chair and you don't even have to tell him what you want, he just does it. We were literally there for maybe ten minutes total.

I was a little weary about the old school contraption that we had JC sit in while getting his haircut but luckily there were no accidents to report. I had to stand there and make sure he didn't fall out of it but that's ok.

After hearing a couple horror stories about first haircuts, we were definitely worried that JC was going to be terrified, especially of the clippers. But Barber Dave (who is very tall) used them very lightly so they barely made any sound at all. This guy is a pro. This is definitely not his first time around the block.

JC's hair wasn't that bad but it was getting a little long around his ears and in the back. It was starting to resemble a mullet. So, we decided to go ahead and get his first haircut so he could look fresh to death at his birthday party.. IN THREE DAYS! But who's counting.

He even got to enjoy his first lollipop. Giving a baby a lollipop may not have been "Parent of the Year" material but he survived. And enjoyed himself immensely. I was covered in hairy coconut goo afterwards but it was worth it to see how excited he was about that lollipop.

All in all, it was a lovely experience. JC was calm, cool and collected. Not a single tear was shed, unless you count the ones that appeared when his lollipop was taken away.

<3 Melissa

wednesday wishes

I wish I had a baller craft room like these

Source: debeecampos.blogspot.com via Ivana on Pinterest

and

Source: thestoriesofa2z.com via Melissa on Pinterest

But instead this is what my craft "areas" look like

They do look extra bad right now because I'm in the middle of crafting it up for JC's birthday party and I was in the middle of crafting it up for my friend's baby shower also when I took these pictures. But my yarn is always shoved in the corner of my closet, almost inaccessible. I can hear it crying right now. One of these days I'd LOVE to redo our office and make it a "his & hers" space that we can both use.

I wish I hadn't discovered Pinterest.
Oh man this place is addicting, to say the least. It's so perfect for me because half the time if I bookmark a webpage, it's because there's a cool picture on there that I want to remember or reference again. But I'm not very good about organizing my bookmarks so the chances of me finding it again are pretty slim. With Pinterest I can pin to my heart's content and actually organize everything so I can find it again! Perfect! It is has already come in handy with wedding idea organization. If you already have Pinterest, follow me. Mostly so I can follow you and stalk your pretty pictures.


If you don't have Pinterest yet, leave me your e-mail and I'll send you an invite. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
I'm linking up with Bright Wishes, if you haven't already checked it out I highly suggest you do. :)


<3 Melissa

cake pops!

So I've had nothing but cake pops on the brain for the last couple weeks. Ever since I saw Little Miss Momma's tutorial, to be exact.

The big day finally arrived. Here are my little cake pops in waiting.

Forty-one little cake pops all in a row. Well forty cake pops all in a row, plus one little guy off to the side.

The equivalent of one or two cake pops may not have made it before this little monster got a hold of them.

So here they are, in all of their glory... the final product!

I've got to thank the fiance and his mad photog skillz for making these look super great. Because while they may not have been as pretty as the ones in the tutorial...

Baby man loved them all the same.

<3 Melissa

week in iphone pics, w.2

Here we are again with another week in iphone recap. And without further ado...

The crazy weather as we left for our disaster date, baby toes, hangin in the back seat with my main (cranky) man

 Bath time and some craftin' about to go down

Jammin' out to his little table

 Yogurt beard and creeper Elmo

Baby + broccoli cheddar soup + bread = really big mess

Just checking his inbox, mommy going to the store ALONE?!, Charles being the biggest nerd I know (he's OBSESSED with his cast iron pans and apparently has been collecting data for some kind of scientific report about the temperature the pan reaches in certain spots... nerd alert!), and my attempt at making some tissue paper pom poms for the baby shower tomorrow! (Ok, I guess I can't talk too much crap about being a nerd...)

I linked up to a good life, you should too

wedding planning frustrations

Ugh.

That's how I feel about planning a wedding. If I was ballin' out of control, it could be a different story. Because apparently, once you attach the word "wedding" to something that typically isn't "wedding" related, doors start closing. In your face. Hard. And if the word "wedding" is already attached to something, then it will cost about 2343234 times more than it should.

I haven't talked about it at all but the fiance and I are in the midst of planning our hopefully soon-to-be nuptials. We have a pretty clear idea of what we want our wedding to be like. Normally this would be a good thing. Unfortunately in our case, it is making it much more difficult.

We don't have a date set yet because we haven't found a venue. In our eyes, the venue and food are the most important aspects of our wedding. Both of which we want complete control over. We got the idea when we first got engaged (May 1, 2010) that we should have our wedding on the Mendocino coast. For our babymoon, we took a roadtrip from Northern California, up I-5 all the way to Vancouver, B.C. and drove all the way back down the coast. Charles proposed on the way up so by the time we were driving back all we could do was talk wedding plans. As we drove along the Mendocino coast I knew it was perfect. We had talked about having a beach wedding but I didn't want the stereotypical ON the beach, feet in the sand kind of wedding. Mendocino is pretty much all rocky cliffs with beautiful overlooks onto the ocean. Perfect.

We got the idea that we could rent a house that was on one of these cliffs and have the ceremony and reception there. It would perfect. We could make our own food and party as late as we wanted to. And then, everyone could just crash at the house when we were done! No one has to buy a room or pay for anything. A lot of these houses we've looked at have several bedrooms, some with multiple beds in each room so everyone would be able to crash somewhere.

Problem is, no one wants us to have a wedding at their house. I mean, if you are already renting your house out for vacations, how much more trouble would a little wedding be? We'd clean up. We are responsible people. We have a baby for Christ's sake. Half of our friends have babies. We aren't going turn your house into a nightclub. I feel like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley in the Herlihy Boy skit from SNL. LET THE BOY SLEEP IN YOUR HOUSE! FOR GOD SAKES! HE'S ALREADY WATERING YOUR PLANTS! Points if you get the reference.

With that, Charles and I have decided that unless some miracle happens, we are going to plan on the wedding taking place next year. Probably in late March or early April, as soon as it starts getting nice on the northern coast again. We are also opening it up for possibly taking place in Lake Tahoe if we still are having trouble finding a suitable venue. We are kind of on a time crunch because we really want to start trying to have a little brother or sister for JC. Since we didn't plan on having JC, I'm not sure how long it will take. I'd like to start trying sooner than that but I really want us to be married before we start trying. And I don't want to be pregnant at my wedding, I want to have fun and not be uncomfortable because my ankles are swollen and my back hurts.

As much as I joke about eloping or just going to the courthouse, I know I will regret not having the wedding that I want. Shoot, the wedding that we deserve after already being together for ten years, living together for six of those years, and having an almost one year old baby!! I'm tired of "playing house" and I'm ready to do this thang.

Thank you for listening to me rant. I will now go bury my sorrows in some yarn. Hmmmm warm fuzzy soft...

Is that... why yes it is a finished mama body, one finished arm and one arm in progress on JC's birthday present. The blue yarn is for a new project that I'm just starting. More deets on that later.

<3 Melissa

steppin' out sunday

So let me just say how awesome my fiance is. Ok, I might be writing his partially sucking up because we got in a minor tiff on Sunday while he was trying to be nice to me but of course, everything went wrong. But it really is the thought that counts and he really couldn't have accounted for everything that happened.

Back to sucking up... first thing Sunday morning, after I nursed JC, Charles took JC into the living room to play so I could sleep a little bit more. And he made breakfast for everyone. Awesome. That put everyone in a feel good mood for the day.

The day before, Charles had let me know that he wanted to take JC and I out on special surprise lunch date. I was super stoked so while JC took his morning nap, I got dressed in my Steppin' Out best.

{linking up to Steppin' Out on Harper's Happenings}

Hmmmm, really needed some jewelry...

Anyway, we all got ready and decided to head out despite what looked like a little bit of rainy weather. As we walked out the door, we were literally pelted by peanut butter M & M (typical fat ass using food as a reference for size) sized hail. That may not seem very big but it was really strange for this time of year. We thought about not going at this point but anyone with a baby knows that getting yourselves showered and dressed and then getting your kid ready and in a car seat takes way too much effort to just give up at that point. If I had known where we were going, I probably would have suggested that we just stay home. But, it was a surprise.

At first it seemed ok because we seemed to be driving away from the bad weather. It was crazy. There was hail and rain at our house but five miles away it was sunny and clear. I realized where we were going pretty quickly because Charles had mentioned before that he wanted to head out to one of the little gold-rush towns just east of where we live. But it is still at least a forty-five minute drive to any of these towns. We left the house at 2, hadn't eaten lunch yet and we had dinner plans with friends at 5. "Hmmm..." I thought, but I kept my mouth shut.

Then, JC started. He's JUST finally starting to officially cut his first tooth. You can see it and everything! But this means that sometimes, he's just not in the mood for most things and he won't hesitate in letting you know. Cue JC screaming and crying in the back seat for about 20 minutes straight. There was literally no where to pull over for hella long so as soon as we saw a little turn out, we pulled over and I gave JC a dose of tylenol and some baby orajel. But that only seemed to semi-help. I knew we still had another 20 minutes to our destination but I kept my mouth shut and hoped for the best.

Then Charles couldn't find the restaurant in the town he wanted us to go to. We literally drove up and down this tiny street 10 times before we decided that "This has to be it!" because do to the lack of any kind of sign, we couldn't determine what was what on this street. By this time, the weather had caught up to us so I knew we couldn't do any kind of shopping or walking around. I was a little irritated because we basically drove for an hour with a screaming baby just to eat. But, I didn't say anything as we walked up to what looked like a deserted restaurant in a deserted town.

We walked in to this restaurant only to discover that lightning had struck a transformer and cut power to pretty much the whole town. Awesome. They offered us chips and sandwiches but it was now past 3 at this point and we hadn't eaten anything. I know that means we probably should have just settled for it but we wanted something warm to eat on this cold, windy day.

Back to the car we went and that's when I couldn't hold my tongue anymore. I made some snide comment under my breath about how Charles should have checked the weather report before we came out, or timed it better, or something. Then of course, Charles got mad and we didn't talk for a few minutes on the ride out. 

I sat in the back with JC and kept him entertained with a pack of face wipes. When JC gets fussy like this, only two things will keep him occupied Katy Perry & forbidden objects. JC being happy and in a good mood definitely lightened things up in the car. We apologized to each other and decided we would adopt a "whatever goes" attitude for the rest of the way home. 

We ended up eating pizza at a place that is only 15 minutes from our house. But hey, we hadn't been there before and it was pretty good! By the time we finished eating, it was time for us to head over to our friend's house for dinner. We felt like fat asses but we ate dinner like an hour after we ate lunch. But what can you do? Sometimes you have to just go with the flow. It always helps when you have a happy, entertained baby also. 

Anyway, I'm sorry Charles for being an ass. I love you and please don't stop trying to do sweet things for me and baby man. We are so lucky to have you! You are the best fiance and daddy ever!

week in iphone pics

We did a lot of shopping this week...

JC reading in his new-to-him rocking chair, going grocery shopping for dinner, yummy guacamole from Eva Longoria's new cookbook which was actually better as a taco topping rather than as a dip

Ordered this off zulily mostly because I was curious, dudes it is no joke I'm not sure if I will ever be fit enough to do these workouts and not drop/permanently injure my baby and JC showing how awesome his stacking toy cone thingy is

Watching Elmo in the morning, helping mommy with laundry, and Dollar Tree party shopping

Playing with is Easter present before breakfast and shopping at Target

JC is my faithful little shopping buddy, I'm so glad he can sit in the cart now! I still have to put him in the baby bjorn when he's getting fussy but not very often.

Linking up with a good life.

can i give a shoutout to katy perry?

Anyone who knows my son for longer than a few hours will probably find out that he has a mad crush on Katy Perry. My sister and I may have facilitated this but we had no idea that we would create a Katy Perry monster.

When JC was born last summer, Katy Perry was EVERYWHERE. You couldn't listen to a Top 40 station for more than five minutes without hearing Katy Perry singing about melting popsicles or feeling like a plastic bag. I first noticed that JC liked the songs (particularly Teenage Dream and ESPECIALLY Firework) when the song would come on the radio and he would instantly stop whatever he was doing. He would get very focused and looked very happy. So of course, my sister and I exploited this because we love Katy Perry too.

I decided to show him the music videos and that's when the love affair officially began. Literally, anytime JC sees the Firework video or hears the songs he will stop whatever he is doing and come crawling towards my phone (because that's usually where it's coming from). This video is a mood changer and a life saver. I have used Katy Perry on more than a few hundred occasions to get JC to calm down when he is acting particularly fussy.

No one really believed how well this worked until I used it while we were visiting family in Texas. JC was not really enjoying a car ride late one evening and nothing was consoling him. No toy was fun enough, no faces mommy could make would appease him. So, out came my trusty iPhone and my beloved Vevo app. Cue up the Firework music video and the tears stopped flowing, the screaming subsided and JC's mouth was now agape in awe of this beautiful woman that he could not look away from. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to meeting JC's future ladies. I really want to see how much I've messed up my kid's idea of what his ideal woman will be.

I tell you this to explain the two pictures that follow.

Mommy wasn't able to take her shower during JC's morning nap because she was sleeping doing housework, ahem, so I had to do it after he woke up. JC does not tolerate this. He had just enough patience for me to hastily wash the shampoo out of my hair. By the time I was brushing my teeth (elapsed time at this point is prob 15 minutes) he was not having it. So Katy Perry, you came to the rescue yet again. I was able to finish getting ready in the time it took for Firework and Teenage Dream to run their course. This activity center thing should seriously have an iPod docking station. 

So in conclusion, I'd like to personally thank Katy Perry (because she will of course read this). My son will light up like I've never seen before when he sees your face pop up on my iPhone. This allows a tired mama a couple extra minutes to put deodorant on and throw my wet hair into a bun. When you and Russell Brand have kids one day, I don't know if it will work but maybe you could just recreate your Firework music video anytime they start acting up. You're welcome for the parenting advice. Oh and BTW, I don't think Sesame Street should have pulled your little duet with Elmo. I show that to my kid all the time too. A little cleavage never hurt anyone. 

countdown to JC's birthday party: 18 days!

Ahhhh I can't believe how fast this party is coming up! I feel immediately organized and completely unprepared all at the same time. Basically, I have a lot of ideas but I'm unsure how it will all work out together.

First things first, JC's birthday present(s) from us. Keep in mind that we did not buy JC a Christmas present because the pressure to give him the best present ever was too much for us. I've started making him this ADORABLE mama monster and baby monster set. I promised I would share some knitting adventures so here ya go.

{linking up to 'I Spy-Handmade Edition' on Little Miss Momma}

Those would be a pair of mama monster feet. I'll give complete project deets once it's all finished but I'm using the leftover yarn from JC's Where's Waldo halloween costume. Sorry all the links are from ravelry, if you don't have an account. Even if you don't knit, if you like perusing some awesome stuff, make an account. I'm sorry ahead of time for the incredible waste of time you will encounter. Anyway, I'm actually a little bit farther along on this than I was when I took this picture a couple days ago. I've kind of lost my knitting mojo for the last month or so. I just haven't had any time but I'm trying to make some. Besides this, I'm still not sure what we will be getting him. Maybe something like this, or this? I know he would have the time of his life with a cardboard box but I really want to get him something special. 

I guess the other big part is kind of combined, at least in my mind, decorations and food. Charles is in charge (heh, Charles in charge) of the main food but I am in charge of what really matters, dessert. We are going to have his party under a big gazebo in a park right behind our house. The gazebo has four tables, all of which I plan on using. One table will be at least mostly dedicated to desserts. I plan on making some toadstool-esque cupcakes like the ones found here and my big undertaking will be creating S'more cake pops like the one's found here. These should both go well with the overall woodland theme of JC's party. I'm still looking for a creative way to display both of these items. I also found a few really cute figurines at the antique fair on Sunday to use to decorate the dessert table.

Sorry for the 2341243134 toys in the background. I only spent about $14 for all of these and I think they will add a unique touch to the decorations. I have already purchased this banner for general decorating purposes. It's unbearably cute. I will also attempt to create some tissue paper pom poms to hang up around the gazebo. 

I'm still hung up on what to have for favors for the kids that are coming. Surprisingly, there will be quite a few little ones but they are vary widely in age. A favor for a five month old will not do for a ten year old. I'm probably going to make a special onesie/shirt for JC. Basically do an applique like this one but make a big number "1" or something like that instead of a bunny. I want to haul JC's high chair out there too so he has some place to eat his cake (ooo that reminds me, I'm not sure if I'm going to make him a special cake or just give him one of the cupcakes...) so I'm debating about whether or not to decorate that too with a special banner or something. 

Sorry, this post kind of just turned into a stream of consciousness of my party planning brain. This is the first big party that I'm going all out on since I am able to devote a little more time to it. Luckily I'm doing a lot of it myself, so it shouldn't be too expensive. If you care, I will be keeping everyone updated on any new party planning activities/crafts and I will definitely do a comprehensive post after it's all said and done. If I make it that far and don't have a panic attack.

mother's day recap!

Tuesday is our family's Monday because Charles has Sunday and Monday off as his weekend. This weekend was so awesome, I was so sad to see Tuesday come. Charles worked all day on Saturday shooting a wedding for a co-worker of his so we didn't see much of each other on Saturday. We were both pretty tired at the end of Saturday and I was worried we would be tired on Sunday. Luckily, Sunday was pretty much perfect.

We planned on visiting the antique fair which we haven't made it to since I was pregnant. It happens every second Sunday but our weekends usually fill up pretty fast so we always forget about it. But since it happened to fall on Mother's Day this month, I made sure we made plans to attend. I'm so glad we did because I found a couple really cute things for JC's room and some decorations for JC's birthday party also. I've been on the lookout for a little baby sized rocking chair and we found the cutest one for $10. It is painted navy and it looks like it was obviously distressed to show the red paint underneath that. I might end up refinishing it (quite a task considering I have never done such a thing) but it's really cute the way it is so it will buy me some time. I'll prob end up refinishing it when JC goes to college. I also found a guy at the fair who sells mint vintage car ads. PERFECT for JC's room. He had like 4 boxes full so I only peaked through one and I found a really cute ad to frame and hang up in his room. I guess this guy is there for every fair so I need to make sure I hit up his booth next time we go.

Before we left for the fair, I was given my presents. I got Eva Longoria's new cookbook that I briefly mentioned that I wanted (good listening skills daddy) and $100 to spend on myself. This is a pretty big deal because I really don't buy much stuff for myself. I'm in desperate need of getting some new summer clothes so I'm excited to go shopping!

After the fair, we met up with Charles's mom, stepdad, stepsister, her boyfriend, JC's cousin and Charles's little sister for lunch/brunch. That was really nice and delicious. I'm so surprised that JC was as perfect as he could have been. I was worried because he normally is only awake for 2 hours max in the morning before he takes his first nap. By the time we got to lunch, he had been awake 4.5 hours. But he was still super happy and not cranky. I think it was his own personal Mother's Day present to me. And I greatly appreciated it.



The only time he was even questionably "not good" was when his macaroni & cheese came out. He is a straight up crackhead for this mac & cheese. I should have taken a picture of his cheesy face but I didn't have a chance between shoveling food in his mouth fast enough to satisfy him. But I can't blame him for that, it's pretty damn good.

After that, Charles's mom, sister and I went and got mani-pedi's. It was nice to get out for a little bit and relax. If the day had ended there, that would have been great. But Charles then proceeded to make the best fettuccine alfredo with chicken that I have ever had. He made the sauce from scratch, used fresh noodles, and grilled the chicken on the grill outside. It was sooooooo gooooooood. Slobber, slobber, drool.

All in all it was a great day. Perfect first Mother's Day!

my first mother's day

While last year I semi-celebrated Mother's Day as a mama, I'm counting this year as my first official Mother's Day. Yes I was pregnant and technically a mother but now I have almost an entire year's experience caring for a growing infant so I think it's official. It really hadn't hit me until yesterday when I wished two of my friend's a happy mother's day and they wished it to me as well. It was probably the first time I've noticed saying it to people my own age. Not saying "Tell your mom 'happy mother's day' for me!" or saying it to "older" women. I guess that means I'm getting older! If you would have told me two years ago that I would have almost one year old now, I would have told you that you were smoking crack. To put it quite elegantly. As far fetched as it would have seemed then, it feels so completely natural and correct now. This is how my life is supposed to be. I don't really believe in fate, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. When I found out I was pregnant in November 2009, I felt overwhelming anxiety. "This isn't the right time." "We aren't married yet." "I wanted to wait a few more years." "We aren't ready yet." But the day I saw my baby boy's face for the first time, I knew that I was ready. I knew that we, as a family, were ready. I couldn't have been more ready. Charles and JC are the best things that have ever happened to me and I feel so blessed that I get to spend my first and every Mother's Day to come with them. Happy Mother's Day to all the mama's out there!! I'm so happy to be joining the ranks!

And here is a little video of JC today, giving kisses to some of his favorite people/animals and showing off his mad standing skillz.

happy cinco de mayo!

Oh man, how happy am I that I purchased this child's sombrero in Mexico seven years ago. This sombrero has come in handy a couple of times so it was totally worth stuffing this thing into my duffel bag. Oh trusty sombrero, you have seen your fair share of crunk fests but not this year. Instead, my little baby boy is enjoying your festive sequins and silver metallic thread. 

Might I add how nimble this kid is with a giant sombrero on his head? He barely seemed to notice it. I guess it's that Mexican blood flowing through his veins. He can't help but love it. Enjoy yourself a margarita or a taco or an oversized sombrero today. 

two months left!

One of my favorite mommy blogs that I've come across so far (there are soooooo many really great ones that I'm sure I've yet to stroll across) is Harper's Happenings. And one of my favorite features on her blog is Steppin' Out Saturdays. Basically it's a link party where mommy bloggers can post links to their blogs where they showcase their style. It's very inspiring to look at other mommy's that manage to look cute at least once a week to get out of that pajama funk that a lot of stay-at-home mom's (and working moms too) fall into. I know I can definitely say it is hard for me to put in any effort in the getting dressed department, and there are a lot of days where I take a shower just to get right back in some pj's. But, as JC has adapted to a pretty predictable schedule, I manage to shower, get dressed, and do my makeup most days while he takes his morning nap. It really helps get the day going, even if I'm just going to hang around the house. It also makes it easier if we do decide to get out. All I have to do is get him ready because I'm ready to go. So anyway, I've lurked the Steppin' Out link party a few times and we went to a friend's baby shower yesterday so it gave me the perfect excuse to join in! So here is my entry for a Steppin' Out Sunday!

On me

Dress, Nordstrom Rack

Shoes, Old Navy

On JC

Shirt, hand-me-down

Jeans, Target

Shoes, Babies 'R Us

No need to adjust your screens, my legs are really that pasty. It's really bad. I don't know how JC is only half Mexican and he looks more tan than I do. Maybe he gets his GTL on while I'm sleeping. I will say, after seeing this picture, I spent some time sitting in the backyard reading Bossypants until I got too sweaty. 

Every time I put on a dress, I always say to myself, "why don't I wear dresses more often?? They're comfortable, flattering, and easy!" Then I have to nurse JC and I remember why I don't wear dresses. I literally had to take it off to feed him, so that really wouldn't work too well if I had to feed him out in public. But I won't have to worry about that too much longer because yesterday was JC's 11 month birthday!!!

Which leads me to my post title, LESS THAN TWO MORE MONTHS OF NURSING!!!  Yay!!!! I can't believe we've almost made it to one year. My plan is to stick to our nursing schedule as it has been for the past couple of months (first thing in the morning, after his morning nap, after his afternoon nap, and then right before bed) until he's one, then start dropping a feeding and waiting about 3-4 days before I drop another. So hopefully, we will be done weaning before he's 13 months old. 

As much as I am ready to have my body back to myself, I will really miss nursing my little baby man. It really has helped create this great bond between us. At first, I was a little bitter that I was the only one who could feed JC so I had to be the one to get up and take care of him every 2-3 hours and Charles got to sleep. But later, I felt grateful that I was the only one who could feed our baby. If we were out somewhere, it was nice to be able to step aside and have a nice quiet moment between us. After you have a baby, it's so weird to have them out in the world and no longer all to yourself, rolling around in your belly. Breastfeeding let me feel like I still got to have a little piece of him all to myself.

I never thought that breastfeeding would be as important to me as it has become. Before I got pregnant, I was pretty apathetic about breastfeeding or formula feeding. I was only formula fed and I turned out ok, right? Charles was actually the one who was really adamant about me breastfeeding our kids. I was like, geez ok I'll think about it! Then when I actually got pregnant and felt this little life growing inside me, I knew breastfeeding was the right choice for me. And really, we've been blessed with how well it has gone. I know a lot of people who have had problems with breastfeeding and I visited thebump.com message boards ALL THE TIME when I was pregnant and right after JC was born so I saw a lot of women having difficulties with breastfeeding there too. And there were times that I wanted to give up, when I thought it was too much work, hurt too much, or when I just wanted my body back for myself. But luckily I have a lot of very supportive people in my life and I knew once I muscled through the first couple of months, it would get easier and I would learn to actually enjoy it. Honestly, I still think that formula feeding is a completely fine way to feed your kid. It's really just personal preference and no one has any right to judge anyone else on how they decide to feed their baby. For me, I've found that breastfeeding has been so much easier and works perfectly for our family. 

So if any mamas have weaning advice, I'd love to hear it! Leave me a comment because I need all the help I can get!