This post is late. In fact, I have many posts that are currently "late". Time has slipped away from me and I realized today how little blogging I have done in the past month. I promise I will (try to) keep up!
M.D. is 10 months now. 1st birthday party planning is in full effect. Steven and I say every day, "Look at how big he is!!" Every milestone is skipping by us. We don't have a little baby anymore...he's turning into a big boy!

Name: M.D.

Age: 10 months

Weight: 19.5 lbs
 
Length: 29"

Eye Color: Bright Blue

Hair Color: Blonde

Favorite Food: Anything & Everything
Strawberries & Cheerios are the absolute favorites!

Favorite Toy: Musical train..hands down.

Favorite Game: Chase (he "chases" us, we "chase" him) :)

Teeth?: 2 on the bottom, 3 1/2 on top (ALMOST has the 4th on top...in fact, it probably came through while I was writing this post..it's that close)

Mobility: Crawls "normally", pulls himself to stand on EVERYTHING, can climb up the stairs.
 
Likes: Talking, crawling, exploring, playing with things that are not
intended to be toys, dogs, other kids, snuggling, singing, reading books.
 
Dislikes: Sitting still, being taken away from something he wants to play with (but shouldn't be playing with), his lifejacket.


This month's chair picture was the hardest thus-far. This boy does NOT want to sit still anymore. Here are some of the ones I got. It was....interesting :)

This years' birthday was by-far the best I've had in a long time. There is nothing like celebrating your first birthday with your child. Last year I was 7 months pregnant on my birthday. I didn't feel like doing ANYTHING because I was starting the stage of pregnancy where you are just sick and tired of being pregnant, and all you want is to have that little baby in your arms (not in your belly causing heart burn and frequent bathroom trips). This year was awesome. I woke up to M.D.'s GIANT smile and snuggles. We took a quick trip to Target because M.D. was out of formula. A little note on Target that I observed: People are WAY nicer at Target in the morning on a weekday. Usually when I go to Target it's right at the time when everybody is getting off of work. Everyone is tired, in a rush, and crabby. Wednesday morning when I went with M.D. everybody was in the best mood. We were stopped multiple times so people could coo over baby M.D. and he hammed it up for them with big smiles and lots of "Dadada".
We spent the morning at the Mall of America with M.D.'s Nana. I attempted (and succeeded) in my first poopy diaper change in the car. I can't STAND the bathrooms at the Mall of America. I liken them to airport bathrooms, which I have had no respect for since I flew to Arizona to visit my Grandpa and walked into the MSP airport to find a giant shit on the floor. Not from a baby, not from a dog, a giant adult human shit just sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor. Unreal. So, when we arrived at MOA I could tell we had a situation on our hands. It wasn't glamorous, but I got the job done with no poop anywhere but in the diaper. :)
This shopping trip was a huge event for me. I now know the true sacrifice of being a mother (note the hint of sarcasm coming...) you don't get to shop for yourself anymore. Honestly, before I had M.D. ALL of my extra money went to clothing, accessories, shoes, household decorations, etc. When my mom asked what I wanted for my birthday, I had one response: CLOTHES. I haven't gone clothes shopping since I was picking out stretchy maternity clothes during my pregnancy. While I am very thankful that I now fit in all of my pre-pregnancy clothes, the reality is that they are "old". It was so fun to be able to pick out NEW clothes that were in style THIS YEAR :)
When Steven asked what I wanted for my birthday I answered him the same as I do on every holiday: I'll pick it out. My tradition with Steven is that I will pick out/order/buy whatever I want "from him" for my birthday. He then just gives me the money to pay for it. It works out nicely because he doesn't just like giving me cash, but I know what I want and I like to pick something I know I will really enjoy (control freak?). This year I picked out an awesome bag that I found on Etsy.
I ordered this bag and I absolutely LOVE IT. It works great as a tote bag/diaper bag/beach bag/etc.
I plan on using it primarily as a diaper bag (duh) but I'm excited that it doesn't look TOO "mommy" so I will be able to use it as a large purse or just a tote when I no longer need a diaper bag (in 500 years or so).

This is the actual coloring I picked out. The shop, yellowbluebag, allows you to choose your exterior chevron color as well as an interior color. I went with the light gray exterior and the dark gray interior.  All of these bags are made-to-order so you have to allow a little bit more time for her to create your bag before it will be shipped. It's usually 7-11 days per the website, I received my bag within 11 days. You can tell it is very carefully crafted and it's very sturdy which makes me excited. Usually when you buy tote bags that someone made they end up being flimsy and cheap looking. This bag is awesome. It has lots of interior pockets to sort the contents of the bag (in my case: pacifier, toys, cell phone, etc) and 2 exterior pockets which will work great to hold M.D.'s bottles when we go out.

I also had the stroller straps added because I can't stand taking him somewhere in the stroller and having to put the diaper bag under the stroller. It's a nightmare trying to dig anything out that way. When you add the stroller straps she also puts on a key fob which is worth its weight in gold when you think about trying to find your keys in a big diaper bag while holding a squirmy child.

All in all I am very happy with this purchase/birthday gift :) Check out yellowbluebag shop for more of her items, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

This weekend M.D. and I took a short road trip with Grandpa John E and Uncle Mark to my Aunt Luanne's house. There, we met up with some of my other uncles as well as my cousin Bridget, and my Grandma Lou. I know that everybody says their grandma is "the best" but they have not met Grandma Lou. If they had, they'd know she is cooler than literally every single other grandma out there. She also has the BEST stories. Like, roll-on-the-floor-laughing, hilarious stories.
The main reason why Grandma Lou has such great stories is because she had 9 kids. Yup. No joke. 9 of them. With her and Grandpa John plus the 9 kids they could have played full court basketball against one another AND had enough people to have an official "referee". 9. Kids. Holy. Shit.
The best part about Grandma Lou's stories about raising 9 kids is that they are completely relatable, but then they're also on a whole different scale...because you have to times them by 9. :)

One of my favorite stories is her first official "Mom" story. My dad was the first born, John E. When they brought him home from the hospital, Grandma Lou says that her and Grandpa laid my dad on the bed and just started him. She said she just kept thinking, "Okay, now what are we supposed to do!?" It's hilarious, because it's true. Steven & I brought baby M.D. home and I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, they just let us leave with this baby! I don't know anything about babies!" Clearly, we figured it out, but there is a certain level of panic that set in!

Then there's Grandma Lou's stories one kid dropping the other when they were a baby, catching the kids smoking/drinking/etc as teens, so-and-so got in trouble for this-that-and the other. The best part...they are always told with a smile and a laugh. She can do that now, she says, because they all survived. So now it can be funny :)

This weekend's story was of a dog the kids had for a few weeks when they were little. John E, Uncle Fran and Grandma Lou ALL remember the story differently. It was hilarious. Nobody can even agree on what dog it was...and it was their only pet, ever.

My cousin Bridget and I were laughing together about the incredible stories Grandma Lou tells us. They're always new, every time we see her. She literally has had enough different, hilarious stories to entertain us with new ones constantly for the past 27 years. It's awesome.
I told Bridget I wonder what Grandma Lou would be like if she had never had any kids. Anybody who is a mother knows that there is a switch in who you are when you become a mom. It's not always huge, it's not always something people around you even notice, but it happens. It's like a fork in the road. Maybe your new road doesn't stray too far from your old one, but over time it will continue to separate from the old path until it is impossible for you to even guess what your life would be like had you never had kids. I already see it with M.D. I wonder what kind of person I'd be like had I chosen to never have kids. Not just not have them right now, I mean NEVER. I'll never know, and I'm happy for that. I know this is the right path for me :)
Back to Grandma Lou...we decided she'd probably be a lot less laid back. Isn't that funny? I think  of myself as high strung BECAUSE I'm a mom, but I don't think anybody could survive raising 9 kids that way. Grandma Lou told me that when she had her 9th child, she was in the hospital and the nurses brought the baby in to stay in her room. Grandma said, "Nope! Take her to the nursery! I've got her for the next 21 years, you can handle her for the next 24 hours!" :) This is why my grandma is awesome. I remember being in the hospital with M.D. being the paranoid new mom that I was (and still am sometimes) and they would take M.D. to the nursery for various tests and thinking, "If he is away from me too long will it cause him psychological damage?!" By the 2nd night in the hospital, with little to no sleep, I was asking them to take him for a few hours so I could rest!
I look forward to many more lessons from Grandma Lou.
If she survived raising 9 babies, she must know everything :)