Friday, December 16, 2011

How Blake is/has grown/growing

Weeks 3-4: he was the size of a poppy seed
Week 5- he was the size of an apple seed
Week 6- he was the size of a sweet pea
Week 7- he was the size of a blueberry
Week 8- he was the size of a raspberry
Week 9- he was the size of an olive
Week 10- he was the size of a prune

Week 11- he was the size of a lime
Week 12- he was the size of a plum
Week 13- he was the size of a peach
Week 14- he was the size of a lemon
Week 15- he was the size of a navel orange
Week 16- he was the size of an avocado
Week 17- he was the size of an onion
Week 18- he was the size of a sweet potato

Week 19- he was the size of a mango
Week 20- he was the size of a cantaloupe
THis is also when we had our sonogram and our little "cantaloupe" was chillaxin' in there with his feet crossed at his ankles, sucking his thumb the WHOLE time.  He looked incredibly cute and after having freaked out his mother because she never felt him, gave the ultrasound tech a run for her money trying to catch a good shot of him.  This is also when she (u/s tech) was able to determine he was in fact, a "he". He did NOT enjoy when she pushed a little harder on mommy's tummy to get a good profile picture.  However, we walked away seeing our little man moving and grooving up there and that's all I needed.  The 7 pictures are pretty cool too, though.
Week 21- he was the size of a banana
Weeks 22-24- he was the size of a papaya
Weeks 25-28- he was the size of an eggplant
Weeks29-32- he was the size of a squash (the squash picture that thebump.com uses looks more like a small pumpkin thatn this one, but I think this one is more relatable to the previous fruits)
Weeks 33-36- he was the size of a honeydew
Weeks 37-40- he was the size of a (small) watermelon
You never know what you will see or do that will totally change the way you look at an everyday item, like a fruit...

Rules for Blake

I just saw this online and wanted to share.

http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/

Save the drama for yo mama

I am apparently on a roll today.  I am so over drama.  One of the things I LOOOOOVE about my husband is his ability to just let things slide.  It's almost annoying sometimes. However I envy him being a dude and being to just let stuff go. 
I am a softie.  Yes.  I am big hearted as well. However, I will only take so much before I break.  When I break, it's not pretty, and it's even not prettier (huh?) being pregnant. 
I really haven't played the pregnancy card throughout the first 8 months (holy crap, when did I get here???) but I will now. 
I will be ugly if I have to and if you're unconcerned with my feelings, then I will be the same way back to you.
Consider yourself warned. (I know, scary, right???)

Black Friday Shopping 2011

So, my bestie, Sarah, mentioned Black Friday shopping several months ago, and I thought nothing of it.  Or what I did think was, "Ummm, yeah, I'm pregnant, I want/need my sleep". 
However, the closer it got, the bigger my tummy got and the more I bonded with my son, the more I thought of how economical it could be.
Her hubs ending up not really wanting to go again (lemme tell ya, my bestie, is a BF vet!!) so I said I'd tag along.
We left my house at 8:30 on Thanksgiving night and headed to WalMart.
All I can say is wow.
People were laying out on blankets, pillows and chairs from the home furnishings department.  There were huge balloons marking where certain sale items were, there were dvds and video games in the produce section for crying out loud. 
So after standing in line for a ticket for an xBox 360 with the kinect feature, we roamed the store for the next deal.  (Thankfully, she was able to coerce her husband into bring their son and they stood in line for 2.5 hours to get my family the xBox-God Bless Them!).
Sarah had a map of the store and where the goods were and we both had our lists of desired items.
The first stop was for a frame set for Sarah.  For the past three years she has not been able to get this particular frame set and she realllllllllly wanted it this year as they are re doing their living room.  While we were waiting for the friendly Wal Mart associate to cut into that great shrink wrap I meandered over to the toys to look for a few random gift item for my step daughter.  Luckily, with no injuries, she was able to finally get the frames! YAY.  Score one for the night.
Meanwhile her husband and son were still standing in line with my ticket for the xBox. Which, I guess, technically would've been score one, as they only hand out as many tickets as they have items, so as long as you can stand in line and wait (they do give you 20 minute bathroom breaks, however) you are guaranteed the item.
So we proceeded to make a perimiter round of the store.  We found some excellent deals on little kitchen gadgets, some tupperware (which I still need to wash...oops) and pj's for my step daughter. 
We made our way to the dvds and movies, yeah, the ones in the produce department, and even though they were very picked over, we were able to find a few good deals each. 
I had been eyeing a particular camera and was more than willing to stand in line for 2 hours to get it.  The lady next to me said her husband had researched a lot of items before heading out and this was a really good deal.  I also got a memory stick and a carry case for it. 
While I was waiting, Sarah went around the store again for other miscellaneous items and on our way to the check out, she picked up a great deal on a printer/scanner/copier and I snagged a BluRay player. 
We got done at about 1:30 a.m. and headed to IHOP to refuel. 
Next stop was the mall. 
We hit JCPenney first, and of course, were one of the first 250 people so got a Mickey Mouse snowglobe.
Didn't necessarily hit the jackpot, so to speak (I was reallllllllly wanting some great deals on clothes for Blake) but found a few good things and moved on.
Next stop was Bath & Body Works and I don't know what they had given those girls for breakfast, but I pray they never do it again.  They were entirely too chipper for 5:15 a.m. Again, no major deals, but I blame myself as I was EX.HAUS.TED by this poitn and didn't even know what I was looking for or at.
This is the point in which I tapped out.  My poor bestie.  I bailed on her.  She still wanted to go to three more stores, but they didn't open till 6 a.m. and I just couldn't do it. 
So she took me home and proceeded on her way.  She later said she found some good deals, but none of them seemed worth the sleep I gained.
We briefly discussed doing it again next year, on a bigger scale, in a bigger city, but I will have a 9 month old at home, and my husband will inevitably have to work the next day, so I am thinkign this may be out.  Even staying here in town may be as I slept until 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Yeah, I am thinking that isn't going to be conducive to properly caring for an infant.
My husband still thinks I am nuts.  He tells everyone what time I left and got back and gives me flack for it.  But I think seeing how jazzed his daughter is at Christmas that we got the xBox for a family gift, which will be totally unexpected for her will quiet him down.
Overall, it was a great time (especially after the Thanksgiving dinner we had at my in laws, but that's a whole other story) and I had fun with my best friend. 

Naming our son...

We had quite the time naming our son.  As I am sure most people do.
Being a teacher, I have several names that we just couldn't use due to negative associations.
With my husband having been married before, his daughter from that marriage has quite the extended family so that took several more names out of the running and I was honestly afraid we'd be one of "those" parents who left the hospital with a baby No Name. 
We had very different "styles" as far as what we wanted to go with.  But we finally narrowed it down to a few choices. Parker, Tyler, & Blake.
For middle names, we either wanted to use Dean in honor of my dad, or Paul in honor of my husband's grandpa.
So, one random Saturday night, we were headed out the door to go to dinner, and my husband looks at the list on the fridge and says, "I like Blake".  I had no issues with any of the names on the list, I just wanted to name our little one so I was more than excited when he finally voiced an opinion!
So, I agreed, we high fived and thus, our son was named.
That's right, that's how we roll in Noller Land.  We make stuff official by high fiving!!
I cannot wait to tell Blake this story when he is older. 

I need to be a better blogger...

Now that I've added my name to a list on my fabulous Feb. '12 mamas board, maybe I'll have more motivation to do better at sharing about our expanding home, and my expanding tummy!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

First Post. New to blogging.

So here I am.  Blogging.  Whoda thunk it?

I wanted a way to share my experience as a new mom and wife and figured, hey, why not the internet?

I don't know what to promise as far as how often I'll post, but I promsie to make it fun (mostly).

I will post stories, recipes, pictures, helpful tidbits of information & just generally (mostly) funny stuff.