I don't understand...

-- The people that buy their babies/children primarily monogrammed/personalized clothing. I understand buying a shirt here or there for a special occasion or holiday but I've seen people on IG that seem to only dress their kids in monogrammed clothing. It seems like such a waste of money! You can't use it for any potential siblings or really even sell or donate it (especially if it's initials) so what do they do with everything?

-- The people that buy MULTIPLE Starbucks drinks EVERYDAY! Not only does that much caffeine seem unhealthy but I can't get over how much money they must be spending. I remember a guy at my old job always had multiple Starbucks cups on his desk everyday.

-- The people that don't like pets. I can understand why someone may not be able to have a pet (allergies, not allowed in a rental, expense etc) but there are people in the world that just don't like animals/pets in general. I don't get that. Our pets bring SO much joy and love into our life I can't imagine not having them or at the very least liking them. I know some people prefer dogs to cats or vice versa but to just not like either is strange to me. I don't trust those people.

-- The people that are always posting vague updates on Facebook simply trolling for attention. Ex: "Why does life always have to be so hard?"

-- The people that post multiple selfies a day EVERYday. Posting one "OOTD" photo a day is fine (I guess) but I don't want to see 5 pictures of you in a bathroom everytime I open my feed.

-- The people (i.e. celebrities) that buy 20,000 sq. ft. homes, typically for only one or two people to live in. Hell even if you had 2 or 3 kids why do you need a house that big? You probably won't even see half of the rooms most of the time. Not to mention the expense to decorate and maintain such a large home.

SWW

Linking up again this week with Shannon for SO What Wednesday!

 

This week I'm saying So What If:

 

 

-I let my son watch videos on the iPad while I get dressed in the mornings. It's pretty much the only way to keep him still and calm so I can get dressed.

 

-I was thrilled when Kristian decided to stay home and watch the Redskins game Monday night rather than go hunting after work. I always prefer him to be home as opposed to hunting.

 

-I wish I could look at the budgets of some of these stay at home moms who blog/IG that are always buying new clothes for themselve and their kids or home decor or Starbucks everyday. How do they do all that on one income? Kristian and I both work and make good money and we still can't afford some of the stuff I see some of these women buying all the time.

 

-I was planning to do something really small for Hunter's birthday this year but after finding so many great ideas on Pinterest (aka the Devil) for a school bus themed party I now want to go all out again. Hopefully Kristian can reel me in from the madness.

 

-I wish I had a crystal ball and could see into the future to know if we will definitely have another child and if that child will be a boy because I have SO many of Hunters old clothes that I'm keeping just in case and I would LOVE to get rid of them so long as I knew I wouldn't need them again.

 

-I'm in the worst mood thanks to a certain visitor that is due this week. Seriously, I'm going back and forth between wanting to punch the wall and wanting to burst into tears. I should probably warn my husband to keep his distance for a few days.



End of Summer Beach Trip

We were finally able to make it back down to my in-laws beach house this past weekend. With so much going on this summer this was only the second trip we've been able to make but the weather was perfect and I'm so glad we were finally able to get down there again before the fall weather truly hits.

We left early Saturday morning and it was an easy 2 hour drive. Hunter napped for about half the trip and just sat quietly the rest of the way. He was such a good boy! This was our first real road trip in the new car and it's SO much nicer to travel in. We had plenty of room in the back for everything including the stroller and several of Hunter's push toys that he uses daily.

 

 

We arrived around 10am and it wasn't long before Hunter was checking out the sand and water with "Nana". **My mother-in-law hates being called Nana, she thinks it sounds old, we've tried getting Hunter to call her Grandma or MiMi but he keeps going back to Nana for some reason (he also calls my mom Nana). So my MIL just laughs now. Hunter is in charge.

 

I don't know how much Hunter remembers of our trip down for the 4th of July but he was definitely fascinated by everything and had a ball throwing the rocks into the water. 

 

Moxie's favorite thing to do is dig massive holes in the sand. I think the beach house is her version of Disney Land.

 

 

Normally Hunter doesn't nap or sleep well at the beach house but he actually had a great nap despite having slept in the car. I guess we were able to wear him out the first few hours we were there. My MIL had to lay down with him until he fell asleep but once he did he was out for 2 1/2 hours. I even managed a quick nap on the couch myself while the boys watched football. 

 

My MIL said this was her favorite moment of the whole weekend. Post nap snuggles. He sat like this for probably 10 minutes and she was in Heaven. She said it reminded her of holding my husband when he was a baby. 

 

 

Late afternoon Kristian and his dad decided to take the boat out and fish. We debated taking Hunter out but we weren't sure of his reaction and the boys really wanted to spend some time fishing so we decided to pass on the trip. But we did let him check out PaPa's boat before they left. He was completely fascinated by it and all the buttons. 

Hunter is now the 4th Generation of men in the family to be on that boat.

 

After the boat left Hunter kept saying "Bye Bye Dada Boat". And continued to refer to it as "dada's boat" everytime he saw it.

 

While the boys fished we took Hunter on a walk around the neighborhood and he got to meet some of his grandparents neighbors. My MIL said she loved showing him off.

That evening we ate dinner and watched football. Hunter can now lift his arms and say "Touchdown" so he's ready for football season. In the past he's never slept well but this weekend, he slept great, he went to bed without any issues and slept fine throughout the night. He slept on a crib sized mattress (minus the actual crib) on the floor between two full beds in one of the bedrooms. Then Kristian and I each slept in one of the beds on either side so if he did decide to climb on one of the beds in the middle of the night we would be there. Even though he went to bed about 45 minutes later than normal he still woke up at 6:30am. Guess he was excited to play with his grandparents again.

Everyone thinks Hunter looks like his Grandpa and I tend to agree.

 

One benefit of getting up early is the beautiful sunrise over the water. It's so peaceful early in the morning. Definitely one of the best times to be there. 

Hunter and Nana once again checked out the sand and rocks and even watched as the ducks came swimming to shore.

 

We left around 10am and had another easy drive home. Hunter and I both napped a bit in the car and we spent the rest of Sunday grocery shopping, watching football and just hanging out.

 

I really think Hunter loves the beach house and I think next summer he'll get even more enjoyment out of going down there.

Five on Friday

T.G.I to the freakin F

 

Why do short weeks always seem so long? 

 

 

 

Here are the 5 things on my mind this Friday:

 

-I'm thrilled that my alma mater ECU has won it's first two football games! Next week they play my husband's alma mater VA Tech. Typically they lose this game but I actually feel confident this year and Kristian is actually worried. Love it!

 

-I think we've decided on Hunter's Halloween costume this year but I'm keeping it under wraps for now because...well it's more fun that way. I will give two clues- it's not store bought and like last year our dog Moxie will have a costume that corresponds with Hunters costume.

 

-This morning, for the first time, I actually used the gas rewards I had earned from our grocery store when filling up and saved $.50/gallon! Not sure why I haven't done this before (yes I do, laziness) but now that I drive an SUV I need to save money on gas anyway I can.

 

-I'm excited for Fall shows to start back up, especially Scandal (favorite show), Revenge (started to suck but the finale drew me back in) and Glee (I'm interested to see how they will deal with Corey/Finn's death).

 

-Funny story- we always ask Hunter what sound something makes ex: "What sound does a dog make?" and the other night Kristian asked him "What sound does mama make" and his response was to put his finger to his mouth and say "Shhhh". So apparently I do that a lot...not that he ever listens to me.



Sleep

My child is a good sleeper. I'm not saying that to be all braggy braggy but to preface this post. Hunter sleeps through the night and has been consistently for a while now. Sure he may wake up once and need to be tucked back in but it's rare. My biggest complaint is that he typically wakes up between 6-6:30am which basically sucks on the weekend.

So why am I writing about sleep? Well, because despite the fact that my child sleeps through the night I do not. From basically the moment I got pregnant I haven't been able to sleep well. During pregnancy it was due to needing multiple bathroom trips and not being comfortable. Then of course came many, many months of being woken up multiple times by my crying child. But now? Now I just can't for the life of me sleep well.

I usually go to bed around 10pm and wake up at 6am (during the week). So I should be getting 8 solid hours of sleep. When you add up all the time I'm actually asleep for I would say I get maybe 4-5 hours if I'm lucky. I have no trouble falling asleep but inevitably I wake up or am woken up by something/someone a couple hours later, which then results in tossing and turning for several hours before finally falling back to sleep about an hour or so before my alarm goes off.

I seem to almost always be awake from around 1-3am. I hate the hours of 1-3am. And when I say awake I mean I feel like I could get up and clean the whole house or run a marathon. I'm WIDE awake. It doesn't help that since becoming a mother I've become the lightest sleeper on the planet. Every little noise seems to either wake me up or keep me awake. I even use a noise machine to help drown out other sounds but it doesn't help much. So the fact that my husband has a tendency to snore, our cat is like a vampire that sleeps all day and wanders the house all night AND that we have a wiggly little dachshund sharing our bed does not help matters. It seems there is always something or someone preventing me from getting sleep.

I guess one perk is that the thought of having another baby and going through the newborn up all night phase doesn't really scare me since I only sleep in 2-3 hour increments on my own as it is. I'm not really sure what to do about it. I've tried Benedryl which is hit or miss. Sometimes it will knock me out but other times it has the opposite effect and keeps me awake. And I don't really want to take Benedryl or NyQuil every night to sleep. I don't want to drink tea or even wine before bed because then I will be up all night peeing (I have the smallest bladder ever which also doesn't help).

So if anyone has any suggestions for helping me sleep, that would be great. Some people have recommended taking Melatonin and it's something I plan to look into. We've tried fixing Kristian's snoring with Breathe Right Nose strips, but those are also hit or miss.

Does anyone else have this problem? My crankiness is hitting an all time high and neither my husband or I are really happy about the situation.

SWW

Happy Wednesday!

 

Linking up with Shannon for So What Wednesday!

 

This week I'm saying So What if:

 

-I'm THRILLED we were finally able to sell my old car. We sold it ourselves via Craig's List and got $2K more than what Carmax offered us. We will be using the money to replenish our savings and the amount we took out for the down payment on the new car. I'm also happy we stuck to our guns about the price and didn't accept any of the low ball offers we got. It helped that we weren't in a rush to sell it. It went to a very nice couple who gave it to their 16 year old daughter. It's a perfect first car to have.

 

-I got a bit sad after they drove off in my old car. After all it's the car we brought Hunter home from the hospital in. I get way too sentimental over inanimate objects.

 

-I'm cancelling my membership to our local massage place. Not only do I need to save the money but it's actually hard to find a free hour on the weekends to go once a month. Plus I found out my favorite masseuse is no longer working weekends so I don't really want to go anymore.

 

-I'm already annoyed with Kristian going hunting and he's only gone once so far this season. Monday reminded me how much I hate when he's gone all day on Saturdays. It's going to be a long hunting season.

 

-I booked our fall family photo session and I'm stressing about what we should all wear. I always stress way too much over this. It should be interesting to see if we get any decent ones with a wild toddler who hates having his picture taken.

 

-We finally hung up all the pictures frames in our dining room to create our new gallery wall. It only took us almost a year of the frames collecting dust on the floor.

 

-If the first word my child says every morning when he wakes up is "Bus" seriously the kid is obsessed with school buses and now that school is back in session we see a ton of them on the way to daycare. He's constantly shouting "BUS" and "BEEP BEEP" from the backseat the whole way there. 

Labor Day Sans Pictures

We didn't do anything crazy or exciting for Labor Day weekend, the only reason I really even want to write about it is so I can remember the few things we did do since I think I took maybe two pictures the whole weekend.

 

-Friday-- got out of work early and we took a family walk, including the dog and the cat (who is tied to a leash and stays in the bottom of the stroller), to the park to try to wear Hunter out in the hopes he would sleep late Saturday morning. It didn't work.

 

-Saturday -- quick trip to Walmart for some odds and ends, followed by a trip to the pool, 2 1/2 hour nap (for Hunter, not us), then over to my in-laws house for dinner and football watching. Unfortunately for my husband VA Tech was crushed by Alabama. Fortunately for me ECU won their game. And I think Hunter wore his grandma out from having to chase him all over the house and yard.

 

-Sunday -- family trip up to MD to have lunch with my mom. Hunter ate a shocking amount of food but was pretty well behaved in the restaurant.

 

-Monday -- Kristian ditched us to go hunting with his dad and uncle, so Hunter and I went to the grocery store together, and then to the park after naptime. We played with his water table and pretty much every toy in his toy box. I was reminded how exhausting SAHM's have it during the day but I loved getting the extra time with my dude.

 

And now it's Tuesday and I'm hoping this 4 day work week goes by quickly.

 

Also, head on over to Kristen's blog and congratulate her on her very exciting and surprising news. Sorry I had to be so vague in my SWW post last week, THIS was the happy news that caused me not to be able to concentrate all day at work after finding out. So happy it's now out in the open!