bye, bye bassinet

I have been dreading last night for quite some time now. I am ashamed to say my 20lb. 4 month old has been too big for his bassinet for a while. But he sleeps so dern good in it! I mean, how many mothers of infants can say their baby sleeps all night? I can! & I don't mean most of the night, I mean all night. Like, 9pm-9am. Oh yeah. That kind of all night.

Oh, I remember the old Colby. "He's going to sleep in his crib" I would proudly proclaim with my giant pregnant belly & no parenting knowledge what-so-ever. Little did I know that after 9 months of toting him around & 30 gruesome hours of labor {followed by a c-section} you get pretty attached to the little booger. That coupled with the fact that anyone who really knows me knows that I am a bit clingy & smother-y {luckily not quite to the point of Alicia Silverstone}.

The husband says its the LET ME LOVE YOU!!! coming out in me. 

Heck, I cried when they took baby boy out of our hospital room for his bath!

So back to the point here... once we got home with our bundle of joy there was no wayyy I was letting him out of my sight. We had not purchased or registered for a bassinet but luckily my aunt had given us a hand-me-down bassinet for Momma & Daddy's house. It quickly moved to our house & is where baby boy has been spending his nights for the past few months.

Here are a few photos of baby boy in his bassinet. {sniff, sniff}

a week old, his first Aggie game {A&M vs. Texas}

Jackie learning to be a big sister {sob, sob}

look at my little turtle, always popping that head up

"You need to move him to his bed since he sleeps so well, you know?" said the husband numerous times. I would quickly change the subject, run to the other room to "clean" {HA!} or make myself have some type of a coughing/sneezing fit, anything really to make him forget what he had just asked me to do.

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous.

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.

                                                                --  Elizabeth Stone

So last night, I honored my husband's long time wish. Baby boy slept in his crib in his room by himself. {sniff, sniff} Yes, my heart slept all alone in another room.

Oh, how am I holding up you ask? Terrible. Awful. The husband held me as I sobbed next to baby boy's crib. He pulled me away as I sized it up & checked the weight limit to see if I could sleep in there with him if I had to. I am fairly sure I screamed "he might as well be in college!!!" at one point. I snuck in there by the light of my iPhone atleast a dozen times before being told to stay in bed. So then I used the old "I think I heard him make a noise" excuse a couple of times before retreating to my own bed with the harsh realization that he was okay without me.

{sniff, sniff}

Then I came down with a case of the what if?'s...

 "what if I can't hear him?"

 "what if he's cold?"

 "what if he's hot?"

 "what if he's scared?"

It got a little out of control. I thought I was going to have to be institutionalized. But alas, {I love using that word, makes me feel important} the husband kissed me & said "it'll be okay" & we he says that, I realize it always is. The baby creeping {as we are now calling it} had ceased for the night.

He woke a few times wanting his paci, but all in all, he slept well. Me? Well, pretty good considering I was without a heart {yes, I can get a bit dramatic}. He woke up at 7am ready to snuggle with Mommy. We laid in the big bed & read a few of his books before both falling back asleep until 8:15.

Here are a few pics of his beautiful nursery.

that's my hope chest from my grandmother being put to good use

this was a changing table but since he was never in his room, I converted it to a dresser

this is usually where we read

someone hand me the tissues, please!

I have learned something from this experience. That all those mommies who said enjoy every moment, they'll be grown before you know it, yeah, they know what they're talking about.

{colby}

goin' bananas

I thought today I would practice taking detailed pictures of things & blogging about it,

so my test subject is

{ drumroll, please... }

bananas

I just love 'em. When I was expecting baby boy, I absolutely could not get enough of them. I had bananas for breakfast. I had bananas for lunch. I even hoarded them in my purse for those nasty afternoon sinking spells. Heck, my nick name as a child was Colby-Nanner.

So let's just say me + bananas, we go way back.

So this brings me to my question. Have you ever eaten a banana sandwich?

Just in case you've lived a sheltered life & haven't ever enjoyed one of the best sandwiches on earth, I am going to show you how-to make one.

Start with some loaf bread. I prefer white bread for this sandwich.

Then add a good slathering of mayonnaise. That's right, I said slathering. & I love Bama mayo. Pretty sure you can only get it in the South. When I lived in Texas, I pretty much had my Momma send me a jar every month. It is so much better than any other mayonnaise on the planet. Don't judge me. Hey, it's Bama light, that means you can use twice as much. Right?

Now for our ingredient of the day. Bananas! Take one of these bad boys & slice it up into little bite-sized, circle shaped pieces.

See? Place the banana pieces on one side of your slathered bread.

{ hint : I add a pinch of salt at this point. Gives it a little extra zing. }

Close the sandwich up & slice it in half. Now, here comes the great sandwich debate. Rectangles or Triangles? I slice my sandwiches sliced diagonally. Growing up, Momma always sliced mine on an angle, so I guess this is my way of rebelling. But I like symmetry. Symmetry makes me happy.

 { I'm silly, trust me, I know. }

Now pair that perfectly prepared sandwich with an ice-cold Diet Coke & your chip of choice

 & you've got yourself one heck of a lunch!

{I chose pretzels 'cause I am trying to cut back on my calories, as evidenced in my use of Bama light mayo} & feel free to substitute the massive amount of mayo with peanut butter or even some marshmallow fluff.

Well, was that a good "How-To"? I'd like to think so. I would like to give a shout-out to my lovely assistant on this project.

Miss Jackie. I paid her in banana slices. She didn't really like them, but she felt like she was getting something she wasn't suppost to, so she gobbled them right up.

& to keep with today's theme of 

bananas

Sweet baby boy will be trying bananas for the first time today! I think he will probably take after his mother & devour them. Well, if you've seen a picture of baby boy

{ check out the About Me section }

then you are probably thinking that it looks like he devours everything I put to his lips. He is my little chunky monkey. Ha! Get it? Monkey? Bananas? Sorry, I get carried away at times. It's the only child in me.

But for now he is napping. & there is a giant laundry basket lurking in my living room floor.

Eeekkkk!

Okay, I'm going to tackle this mess.

No more monkey business.

Ha! :)

{colby}

the weekend

ahhhhh... the weekend!

I mean, who doesn't love the weekend? Well, I suppose people that have to work don't. But you get where I'm coming from. The husband was off work & my Momma watched baby boy for a few hours. We had a much needed/overdue date!

So I woke up Saturday morning with a little extra pep in my step & took baby boy to Momma & Daddy's house {aka : Nana & Grandpa's house... although baby boy can't talk yet to verify that this is in fact their names}. I came back home, watched The Pioneer Woman & took a long hot shower. Then I actually dried my hair. Mommies {especially stay-at-home mommies} out there, you realize what a big deal this is. I remember the days when I used to dry my hair everyday. Get spiffed up. But now it is in a pony-tail 98% of the time because baby boy loves to tangle those long fingers of his in it & yank. HARD. What's really the point of blow-drying hair that's going straight into a ball on top of your head anyways? So after drying my hair, I put on real clothes. Not a spit-up stained t-shirt with a pair of baggy sweats. Real, cute, adult clothing. I was ready to paint the town.

{as ready to 'paint the town' as you can be at 11:15am on a Saturday}

Lunch consisted of Mexican. Yummm. I could literally eat Mexican everyday of the week. After annihilating some chips & salsa, I had flaming cheese. I am salivating right now just thinking of it! For those of ya'll who have never had flaming cheese, it is heaven on earth, covered in cheese. Chicken, steak, shrimp, onions, peppers, tomatoes all cooked together with the yummiest cheese of all time & served to you still bubbling {& sometimes flaming} still in the skillet. Yum. The husband didn't enjoy his as much as I did. As you may already know, he is from Texas. Texans prefer Tex-Mex. & we don't have any of that around here. So, I made up for it by promising him a big popcorn at the movies.

I ain't been to the show in I don't know how long. We spent twenty-two bucks & I snuck my own drink in! So expensive these days. That's probably why I don't go to the show often. The husband had eaten his popcorn & drank all of his drink before the previews even started. We watched 21 Jump Street & it was really funny. Vulgar but funny. Plus it has Channing Tatum in it.

Then we went to the grocery store & bought big juicy steaks to grill out with my folks. We had a campfire & I made my signature Corn on the Grill. I am still new to this being a blogger thing so I neglected to take any pictures. I know, right? I also got up this morning & made Cream Cheese Squares for my parents for breakfast. Did I take a single picture? Nope. 

But I promise, I will get better!

 & I must toot my own horn a bit & say that those Cream Cheese Squares were de-lic-ioussss. We were basically burned our mouths because we couldn't wait ten minutes for them to cool. Oh yeah, they're that good. A recipe tab is my goal for this evening. I should clean the house instead of working on here. It is a mess... But hey! I guess that's kinda my thing now, huh? Sounds like a good excuse to me!

 {colby} 



my first post!

Hey ya'll!

I have been promising my husband for weeks now that I would follow my dream to start my own blog and now, I've DONE it! I'm so excited!

I will be learning as I go here, so bare with me! {or is it bear with me?}

After much thought, I titled my blog Bless This Mess! because most of the times our lives feel like "organized chaos " minus the organization!

The house is a wreck 87% of the time.

I usually always have spit-up on me.

The dog sheds.

Did I shower today?

Did I shower yesterday?

These are just a few of the many messes in our lives. But you know what? I wouldn't trade a minute of it! Our family motto is "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all".

{PS -- expect to hear many of my southernisms}

My goals are for this blog are :

1) Chronicle our daily lives

 {our familes & friends are spread out over 1,000 miles!}

2) Since I am a stay-at-home mommy, sometimes I don't have an adult conversation all day long, so this is the perfect platform for me to share my thoughts, fears, hopes, struggles, and triumphs! So instead of hitting my husband with a thousand random & {sometimes} pointless thoughts as soon as he walks in the door from a long day at work,

 I can hit you with them!

Brilliant, right?

and last but not least...

3) This will be my creative outlet. My hobby, if you will. I can set goals for myself. Tackle projects. I've always felt that you're more likely to succeed at something {no matter what it is} if you share it with someone.

So join me on this journey! I promise, it will be entertaining!

{colby}