More Easy Wall Art

While my mom was visiting a couple of weeks ago, we planned an outing for the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  I woke up, excited to try a 'grown-up' outing with August, but was met by a truly rainy, overcast day.  Bummer.
Rather than just sit at home and bemoan the weather gods, we decided to whip up a quick piece of wall art.  I pinned this saying a couple of weeks ago, and knew I could paint it in about 10 minutes for August's nursery.
To make this wall art, you'll need to follow these incredibly detailed and precise instructions:
1. Find blank canvas in basement and unwrap it.
2. Pour some leftover chalkboard paint onto a paper plate.
3. Trace saying in pencil on canvas to make sure it fits.
4. Paint over pencil with said paint and thin-ish brush.
5. Wait to dry.
6. Hang with thumb tacks.

It couldn't be easier.  What saying would you put on your walls?

Netflix Entertainment

The breastfeeding continues here in Roswell!  August and I have both gotten much better at it, and each 'meal' takes less time (about 30-40 minutes).  Let's be honest, though- it is still a time-consuming task.  I know I should be focusing solely on my handsome little man, but I have gotten into some great TV series on Netflix and Hulu over the last 13 weeks while nursing him.  If you're looking for some new television inspiration, take a look at what has me laughing, crying, and rewinding these days.

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The Good Wife started airing a few years ago, but it's just been added to HuluPlus.  Usually I can't get behind shows that center around infidelity, but this seems to portray it in an honest light (so far).  Julianna Margulies plays the titular character, Alicia Florrick, whose state attorney husband was busted with prostitutes and using government funds for his own purposes and sent to prison.  She stands by him, and also returns to the workforce by taking a job as an associate at a law firm.  The show is both a courtroom procedural, so each episode focuses on a different case, and a study into a marriage that has been truly tested in the media.  It feels like a grown-up drama.  All seasons available on HuluPlus.

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Let's remember that this is a judgment-free zone!  This CW comedy is mindless entertainment with great wardrobe choices.  Zoe Hart is a doctor leaves her NYC home to be a general practitioner in the small town of Bluebell, Alabama.  There are love triangles, truly mediocre actors, and corny plotlines involving an alligator named Burt Reynolds.  The first two seasons are on Netflix, the current one is on Hulu.

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How I Met Your Mother is my go-to show these days.  Ted Mosby is narrating the story of how he met his wife to his children, so the whole show is told through 'flashbacks' to the 2000s and 2010s.  His core group of friends are there for him throughout all of his misbegotten adventures in dating, and sometimes add to them.  There are 9 seasons, 8 of which are available on Netflix, and each one is better than the last.  Admittedly, there are a couple of long-standing plots that I could do without (Robin and Barney have never felt right to me, and Ted can be a bit 'woe is me'), but Lily and Marshall are worth watching.  I'm a sucker for anything Jason Segel (Marshall) does.  

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Yeah, this show about a fantasy football league may not seem like my cup of tea, but the humor slays me.  The League follows single man Pete, plastic surgeon Andre, married couple Jenny and Kevin, lawyer Ruxin, and deadbeat Taco through 5 seasons (four of them available on Netflix) of crude and lewd shenanigans, with a side of football.  It's on FX, so you know some of the humor may be a bit out of line, but that's the best part!

August's Baptism

On Saturday, we baptized David Augustine Diego into the Catholic church.  Oh my goodness, he could not have been a better behaved kid during the 20-minute service, which took place at a church close to his abuelos' home.  The same priest who married us led the baptism, which was intimate and lovely. 

Belen took some wonderful pictures of the ceremony, which I'd love to share with you!

 We prepped the little man with a quick bottle before and during the beginning of the service.  I love that he's started guiding the bottle with his own little hands; it melts me.
PS How adorable are his pudgy little fingers?!

 Proud parents.  (We're just glad there's no spit-up involved, and we're wearing matching shoes.)

 August's godparents are the very excited Pablo Diego (JP's dad), and Auntie Haley, who took over some of the feeding duties.  He will be a lucky kid to be spiritually guided by those two.
And how cute is Haley's face here?  She looks very matter-of-fact.

 You can barely tell, but Haley is holding August's hand while he checks out his godfather; it was an interactive service!

 Sticking his tongue out; what a lovely child.

August loves his baths, so we weren't concerned with the water portion.
On another note, I want to frame this photo and hang it all over our house.  Love it!

A little unsure of the oil on his head, but holding it together for the camera.

 How sweet is that little face?!

 His papa took over some of the carrying duties, as well.  It was a team effort!

 The whole service was lovely.  We had close family friends and some family there, and Msgr. Maron had everyone stand around the font.  It felt like a little campfire, only a baptismal font instead of s'mores!

 We're so lucky to have people in our lives who care about being at our son's baptism.

 Such a good-looking group!

 I die.  This kid has me wrapped around his fingers.

 Looking like parents again...

 These wonderful folks drove all the way up from sunny south Florida (and missed the FSU game!) to be here this weekend.  Thank you so much, Daddy Man, Auntie Haley, and Karen!  It was great to have the Shelton family represented.

The Diegos welcoming another sweet baby into the church.

And, ahem, totally not a big deal (yes it was), but I ordered the first cake for my son last week.  How adorable is it?!  It was two layers, one chocolate and one vanilla, with chocolate buttercream between and vanilla buttercream on top.  You can't see, but there were also blue polka dots on the side.  It was so delicious!
I felt like a mom while placing the order.  It happens.

My Week(s) in Photos

 Such a sweet little pumpkinhead.  We've been getting a lot of use out of this beanie during the fall weather!

 I love this photo of JP reading a book in Spanish to August.  Such literate men!

 August now has a stuffed panda named Pogo.  His abuela got it for him when she heard how much he loves his painting of a panda.  So cute!

 August getting some lovin' from his Hein during her visit in mid-October.  They are quite a pair.

 The babygirl still gets cuddle time on the couch, generally while August naps in the pack-n-play closeby.

 It's not always smiles and giggles; August really did not like the trip to Home Depot for paint supplies. I'll post pictures of the painting project soon!

 His sweet cuddles in the mornings make up for it, though.

 My handsome men at a family lunch for Olga's wedding.  They are too much for this girl to handle sometimes.

When I saw this photo, I turned to JP and said, 'Well, we look like parents.'  Fitting. 

Post-Sunday morning run meal and catch-up time in the living room.  August looks like a little koala bear, doesn't he?

 Whereas here, he looks like a teddy bear.

 Oh my goodness, just a copious amount of Diegos at Olga's wedding last weekend.  It was so lovely!
P.S. JP is kneeling in the front row, and I'm wearing a blue knee-length dress on his left.

 Practicing his hand-eye coordination on the playmate.  He's getting good.

Sleepy little man in an adorable cardigan that is quickly getting too small.  I don't want to part with it yet!

Update on Life with August

One of my friends told me that, after she and her husband welcomed their first son last year, they looked at each other and said, 'Why didn't we do this sooner?'  That's kind of how I'm feeling these days with August.  I know people try to prepared me for being a mom and the overwhelming love and responsibility that comes with it, but I kind of thought it was overkill.
Not even close.
At nearly 4 months, I feel like JP and I have turned a corner with parenting, and it's awesome.  August is more interactive these days, batting the toys hanging above him on the playmat, smiling and gurgling with one of us walks into the room, holding onto his rattles and actually moving them himself.  So much of the first couple months is spent in survival mode that this new phase of recognition feels incredibly rewarding and sweet.

He's so talkative, and loves 'conversing' with us.  Or the ceiling fan.  Or the table lamps around the house.  This kid doesn't discriminate.

August is so endearingly sweet, even when he's grumpy.  If he's tired and needs a nap, he lets me know by rubbing his little eyes before burying his head into my neck.  I'm done when he does that; I just cuddle him in the nook of my arm and hold him for half his naptime.

Speaking of sleep, we're on a much more manageable schedule (she said with fingers crossed).  The past few nights, August has been giving us 7-9 hour stretches of sleep, followed by an easy feed with me, a couple more hours of sleep, then waking up with a bottle with his papa.  Our night routine looks like this: bath at 6:30p, bottle of breastmilk after, asleep by 7:30p, wake at 3a-5a for meal with mama, sleep 2-3 hours, wake at 6a-7a with papa.  Compared to the 2-hour stretches we were getting a couple of weeks ago, this is heavenly.
I keep hoping that we'll get on a consistent schedule of activities each week, but we're still not in a perfect routine for the daytime.  The one thing we do each week, without fail, is hit up our nursing support group on Tuesday morning for a couple of hours.  Other than that, August and I entertain ourselves in various ways: reading board books at home, running along the Chattahoochee, lots of tummy time, singing Disney songs on iTunes Radio, and walking Mia around our neighborhood.  There have been a couple of days when we've gotten it together to hit up story time at our library, and we visit family and friends when the day goes smoothly.

I just love spending my days with this little man!  He makes me smile and laugh, and each day with him gets better and better.  It's amazing how far August has come in just a few months: he's holding his head up like a pro, making some consonant sounds, grabbing his Sophie and putting her into his mouth.  I can't wait to see what next month holds for us!

How My Breasts Saved the World

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Much can be gathered from the fact that the only book I've been able to sit down and read consistently is about a woman's 'misadventures' in nursing.  Lisa Wood Shapiro wrote her memoir detailing the immersive nature of breastfeeding throughout her daughter's first year, and I absolutely love her for it.  I feel like her story is my story.  

Ok, not exactly, but it doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties inherent with attaching a starving, living wet vac to your chest for several hours a day.  She details how naive many new moms are about the trials of breastfeeding, the opinions she faced from her family, and her own preconceptions of nursing.   Unlike this other book I read, though, Shapiro focuses on the nursing victories and community she developed.  

Ultimately, isn't that the only thing that gets us through the early weeks of parenthood?  Forget about the milestones like your baby lifting his head during tummy time and holding a rattle for the first time with his own hand; it's, as Shapiro notes, when you realize that you can nurse your baby without a fortress of pillows supporting you, and walking with your baby in a stroller by yourself around the block.  It's finding another new mom who is just discovering this new identity, and wandering down the path of nursing and motherhood together.  Being a first-time parent to a small baby can be a strangely isolating experience, and knowing someone else, even an unknown author, has gone through it and survived, is a reassuring thing.  

The (Not so) Little Man

Oh man, it has been a busy few weeks here in Roswell.  August has met some truly awesome family members and friends, JP and I went on a movie date (just us!), and we've started the 14-week sleep regression.  Don't let the pictures below fool you; August may nap during the day, but his nightly routine is totally off.  JP and I are going on as little sleep as we were when August was just 3 weeks old.  Hopefully this regulates soon, or you may get even fewer posts up here!

Let's just call this what it is: pictures of August.  There will one day be posts of recipes, books, TV shows, but for now, this little man dominates the blog.

 I just adore this photo, taken at 3am last week.

 August with his abuelo!  So sweet.

 Oh my good gracious, I just love this outfit on him.  Doesn't he look so grown-up?

 Last week's nursing group was very interesting for the little man.  Well, not so little these days, as he tips the scale at over 14 pounds!

 The cutest nose I've ever seen.

 He just loves when his papa comes home!  We've had some good smiles around here lately, which helps mitigate the sleeplessness.

 Our little dude bro.

 Auntie Jess came for a visit last weekend!  August took a nap on her; she was in heaven.  There is something so calming about a baby sleeping on your chest, isn't there?

 He'll be sitting up by himself within the next couple of weeks, so I'm enjoying being his support while he still needs me.

 Naptime with papa.

 August and I have instituted story time in the morning.  Currently, we're enjoying this tactile board book about fall.

 He just loves being held!  August and Auntie Jess got along so well; it warmed this mama's heart.

And here's the little man modeling a onesie made at his baby shower.  How cute is that iron-on print?  I love all of these onesies made my people close to us, even though he is outgrowing them faster than I'd like.  Stay small, little man!