Maverick is 2 months old!

I'm starting to freak out that I'm beginning to forget what Maverick was like when he was "little" and he's only 2 months old!! Ha ha! Everyone always says they grow too fast, and now I know why. I don't want to miss a minute of it! At the same time I love watching his personality and motor skills develop everyday.



(I try to get the same frame size with each picture, but inevitably it's a little off)


He totally smiles intentionally all the time now. I've heard that it's a bit too early for smiles to be intentional, but he has to be smiling on purpose. I'll start smiling really big, then he'll stare at me all buggy-eyed for a minute--then get the biggest grin on his face. I love it!




Maverick also looooooooooooves to be in some sort of sitting up position, or being held so that he can use his legs. I'm telling you--this kid's gonna walk before he crawls. Something tells me that he's not gonna like all those "in-between" stages. I think he's gonna be an all or nothing kinda dude, just like his father. The doctor even told me that his head and trunk muscle control is pretty advanced for his age. Oh lordy! Watch out!



Speaking of the doc, here are his 2 month stats:
Weight: 11 lbs 6 oz (45%)
Height: 23 1/4 inches (65%)
Head circumference: 39.2 cm (30%)
-The doc detected a belly button hernia, which isn't awful, just something to monitor. His abdominal muscles didn't quite finish growing together. It will more than likely heal itself, but if it hasn't by age 4, that's when a minor surgery may have to be done. The important thing is that it isn't painful for Mav or anything.

For whatever reason, Mav loves his changing table. If he's fussy, all you have to do is lay him on that thing and its better than a pacifier. (Hence, the reason why the changing pad is on the floor and not the actual table in the picture below) My kid is so quirky! I wouldn't know where he gets that from! Ha!



-Maverick is also sleeping really well at night. Most of the time I only have to get up once or twice during the night.
-He wears size 1 diapers now.
-He wears size 3 month clothing (or sometimes labeled 0-3 months)
-He makes new noises all the time, but still has his "new baby" cry. I love it when he cries because it's still very quiet and cute. (of course I don't love it, you know what I mean!)



It is so hilarious when people ask what his name is. We see only 2 reactions:
"Maverick? That's awesome!"
--or--
"Maverick?...that's original..." (spoken very slow and high pitched)

I love his name, and I think it already suits him well. I almost cried when I saw his name on his first prescription slip, and even more so when his social security card came in the mail. It's like he's an official person now. :)

Show Us Your Life and the 24 hr Flu

Okay, so I missed last Friday's topic. But I was too busy having fun! So I'll go ahead and skip that one. Besides, I can't offer much insight to last week's topic because it was "Diet and Weight Loss Strategies". Ha!! The closest thing I've come to a diet was a few years ago when I decided to take the "Special K Challenge". And it worked great--that is--until my diet consisted of more than cereal and yogurt.

This week's topic is "Where do you shop? Online? In-Store?"

I definitely wish I shopped more online. The finds are amazing. I am way jealous of my sister-in-law Johanna and her "super internet guru powers". She always finds the coolest stuff for the greatest prices online.

I'm not sure if this question is meant for clothing, groceries, or what. But I'm gonna go ahead and take it as all of the above. As for groceries and other everyday essentials we try to avoid "Wally World" and all its fluorescent glory. There is just something a little crazy about being able to have your hair done at the same place you can buy lawn fertilizer and a flat screen tv. We love to support the local shops. But I do have to admit it is wonderful to have a place to run to at 3 am when you are in desperate need of cold medicine and toilet paper. Okay, okay, and the occasional People magazine and Snickers bar.

As for clothing, I must give credit to my husband Robbie. Before we got married I was totally skeptical of shopping at the mall for clothes. Sounds pretty ridiculous for a girl, right??? I just always thought I could never afford clothes from any of the stores. Having been in clothing retail for a long time, Robbie showed me the tricks of the trade. Here are a couple huge ones:
1) Always pay attention to the window displays. When those change, that means new stock has come in and a ton of clothes have gone on clearance.
2) Clothing seasons are divided into: Winter 1, Winter 2; Spring; Summer; Fall 1, Fall 2. These are pretty much the same for every store and is indicative with the aforementioned clue #1.

With that said, my favorite places to shop for clothes are:


The GAP usually has pretty terrific sales, but most important for me: they have pants that fit me perfectly. For whatever reason, the clothing industry feels that if you have a larger waistline you must be at least average height, if not taller. Such is not the case for me. I'm 5'2'' and I am larger than a size 6. 'Nough said.


Okay, so this store can be very, very, very pricey. But they do have annual sales that offer some spectacular deals that you just have to be vigilant for. I love this store because their blouses fit me well, and they have a great petite section. (again, kudos for them for not defining petite as only being a tiny waist size)



And now, completely changing topics: 24 hour flu. The past couple weeks has been a whirlwind at my house with going back to work after 3 months of bed rest/pregnancy leave; and a visit from my friend Lexi and her 2 kids. I should have seen it coming!

You would never know by this picture that I was ready to hurl at moment's notice:

Marcy, Lexi, Shannon, Me

This was the last night all of us girls were together before Lexi went back home. We were celebrating Marcy's birthday, and Olivia's 1st birthday (the daughter of Lexi) who happen to share the exact same birth date. I was so excited because we were going to have my favorite pizza and Lexi made peanut butter gooey butter cake bars!!

Unfortunately not even an hour into the party my stomach starting hurting super bad. Not nausea, but like sharp pain. Ugh!!!! I stuck it out in the corner of the living room (sans favorite pizza and peanut butter gooey butter cake bars) so I wouldn't get any of the babies sick--cause at that point it felt more like food poisoning than flu.

Long story short; after a night of fever, chills, and vomiting it was the flu. I was sooooooooo terrified that I gave it to one of the sweet babies in the room the night before (including Maverick). During my bouts of consciousness I prayed extra hard for everyone I was in contact with not to get the flu. So far my prayers have been answered.

Poor Robbie quarantined himself with Maverick the whole night (he slept on the floor of the nursery). The next morning my mom took over as Robbie went to work, and that afternoon/evening Robbie's parents relieved her. A HUGE thank you to my mom and Robbie's parents for taking care of Maverick while I was out of commission. It was a relief to know that he was away from my germs, and that I could focus on recovering. I haven't had that much sleep since before Maverick was born!! Too bad it took the flu to get it. :)

Anywho, like I said--I should have seen it coming. I work in an elementary school (aka world's largest petri dish). Not being at work for 3 months and around all those germs constantly can be a hard re-adjustment when you jump back in full force. Pile that on top of lack of sleep with a newborn in the house, and you have a recipe for some sort of illness. Thankfully this flu was only 24 hours. In years past it's been the awful 3-5 day flu.

Enough of that sickness stuff. Bring on the summer and sunshine! I wonder how much it would cost to bribe that silly groundhog to bring a quick spring?

I can't wait to take Maverick outside for longer than the distance from the car to the store entrance, all bundled up in blankets. Oh to have him wear shorts and walk in the green grass!

Busy, busy, busy!

Hey 'yall! Don't have much time to write. One of my best friends is visiting from California with her 2 kids, so I'm busy having fun. Plus, this past week was my first week back at work. So much stuff to blog about!

Just wanted to say hi! And that I'll be back soon!




Here Grandpa, Maverick is wearing his camo jacket. All he needs is his deer rifle. :)





Maverick wore shoes for the first time ever today! This was his church outfit. The shoes are a bit too big...but I couldn't resist!

Show Us Your Life: New Year's Resolutions

Okay so I've never made any sort of New Years Resolution. Not because I don't think I could commit to doing (or not doing) it. But simply because I've just never really thought about it. So, when I decided to take a crack at participating in "Show Us Your Life" a resolution was kinda born out of that decision, since it's the first topic of the year.

1. With that said, I go ahead and say one of my resolutions is to participate in "Show Us Your Life" this year. I love to read "Kelly's Korner" blog (seen to the right on my blog list, BTW I read a lot of blogs-these are ones I'm personally connected to). Even before I had Maverick I could really relate to Kelly's blog. She seems like an awesome person and I admire her faithfulness to Christ. Obviously I've never met her and probably never will, but through the magic that is Blogspot I feel like I already have. I don't know if she was the one to create "Show Us Your Life", but it's where I first saw it.

Basically, every Friday there is a "Show Us Your Life" topic. It's a fun way to read how a gazillion people around the world live their life according to a shared weekly theme. Here's all the themes from last year. I'm not quite ready to have my blog published with the other blogs who do this, but I figure I can "unofficially" participate. :)

2. Next resolution: always make time to write in my diary. I've been keeping a handwritten diary since I was in 5th grade. This resolution is sort of proactive in the sense that until now I've been able to write in it relatively frequently, but with Maverick here now free time is especially valuable. It's been very hard to have the energy to write when I have the free moment now. Granted, it would be a TON easier if I were to type my diary (that's why blogging is so easy). But I think its a horrible idea to dehumanize my personal diary like that, so sacrificing a commitment to hand-cramped diary writing it is. But I love it!

That's pretty much it on the Resolution front. Boring, I know. But gotta keep things simple right? I gotta use the rest of my precious free time to read everyone else's. :)


One last note: I go back to work this coming Monday. Since I was put on bedrest at the end of my pregnancy it's been 3 months since I've been at work. I've been S-P-O-I-L-E-D!!! I am reeeeeeally dreading going back. Really. Really.

How could someone want to leave this face for even a few hours each day?

I really under-estimated how hard this would be. Not having a wonderful creature to take care of before made it easy to think it would be. But now that I have Maverick here all I want to do is nurture him all day. I'm very jealous of stay at home mommies!

It's not that Robbie and I didn't want for me to be a stay at home mom. In fact, before we began our family we both valued the idea. But unfortunately our financial situation is so that we absolutely need my paycheck. Can't even "cut back" some corners in order to do it. My income is necessary for the basics of survival. But, if that's what God wants for us right now then there is a reason for it. I'm just praying for His strength to get me through it.

Someone is waking up from their nap...gotta go!

Already over One month old?!

Maverick is already almost 6 weeks old! Such a small amount of time, yet it feels like an eternity too. (mostly when he's wide awake at 3 am) I'm already behind in posting his 1 month pictures, but oh well.

Here's what Maverick is up to these days:


-I sleep 16-18 hours a day
-I weigh about 8 pounds
(we saw a baby at the mall his same age, and Mav was soooo tiny compared to him)
-My favorite way to sleep is on Daddy or Mommy's chest
-I'm wearing Newborn size diapers, but really close to switching to size 1.
-I'm just about too big for newborn size clothes; now my 0-3 month clothes are fitting much better.


-I'm starting to "coo" and "ahh" more.
-I've already been to church twice!
-My favorite place to go is the mall. I like to ride around in my stroller while Mom and Dad shop.
-I enjoy more "tummy time" now, and I'm really good at lifting my head.


-I am really good at following faces and sounds with my eyes.
-I prefer to sit up (with help) more than lay down.
-I really love to walk around with Mom in my new Moby Wrap.
-I've already been to my favorite restaraunt (well...mom's favorite) El Maguey.