Time flies when you're having fun.

That was then...



This is now...


I can't believe my baby boy is 5 months already. He is so much fun. JT and I couldn't be prouder or more blessed. He is a beautiful boy. He is full of personality. He's discovering his voice - that it can create sounds that go up and down, that can have different "textures", and (my favorite) that it can be loud and soft... especially loud! He's discovering new ways to move his body - trying really hard to roll, but there's more grunting than rolling that happens! I love it when I'm holding him upright and he lifts his head up high and raises his eyebrows, looking around at all he can see and observe. He is just so cute, you could eat him up.

I also love that nothing phases him. Well, okay, there's the obvious - lack of sleep, or wanting to eat (now!), or needing a poopy diaper change. But otherwise, he is happy. JT or I could be stressed about work, or our house being a wreck, or our yard needing some major landscaping. But he is completely unphased and content. Politics is of no concern to him. He is unconcerned also with what people think about his hair (which is finally growing in - except for the patch on the back that has been rubbed off.) He really doesn't care what he's wearing, or how many times he's spit up on it. A big smile offered is met with an even bigger, brighter smile in return - that is the only requirement. There are no other expectations. Oh, to know that simplicity. Oh, to have that contentment in my own heart and life. BP, you inspire me.

In other news...
This time last year, we were announcing to our parents that we were pregnant. What a joyous time that was. What a wonderful memory. Time really does FLY when you're having fun!

Grampa Boh's Gown: A Line of Mothers

I am such a sentimental person. Heirlooms make me happy - like old friends with decades, even centuries of stories to be told behind their worn appearance. Take for instance the corner shelf found in the corner of my front room. It's covered mostly with dust, but also a few other pictures and tchotchkes that I've collected. Someday this may belong to a granddaughter or grandson, he or she will put their own little items on it, and maybe imagine what I placed on it once upon a time. Originally it belonged to my great-great grandmother. I have no idea what she placed on it, but I imagine her youthful hands carefully arranging things in just the right place, at just the right angle, just as I have done. What treasures did she have? Just to imagine her makes me feel closer to my own history.

In this photo, BP is wearing a very special heirloom belonging originally to my Great-Grandfather's family - his christening gown. To imagine a grandparent or great-grandparent that small is so difficult and fascinating. To imagine a great-grandparent who I have only heard stories of, wearing that gown is even more thrilling. What dreams of him his mother must have had as she watched her baby boy be christened! And who took the time to make this beautiful gown for him - did she? What joy and love must have captured her heart as she dressed him that day.

By now, a few generations of mothers have lived to watch their children be baptized, and grow, dreaming dreams for them. Some of these mothers, my grandmothers, have since passed on, though the gown remains. Generations of mothers have beamed with pride and love as they've dressed their child or children in such beautiful handiwork. I am now in that line of mothers.

Menu Plan Monday ~ March 1st

Found this blog today (now that I'm getting into this whole blogging world.) I am working on my weekly plan calendar, and one of the days includes menu planning and the next day is shopping day. Not sure I will adhere strictly to the schedule, but gonna give it a try nevertheless.

Menu Plan Monday ~ March 1st

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The Oscar Meyer Wiener Song - Really ???

So, in the midst of the crazy fog that is the first weeks of mommy-hood, my brain hit a roadblock anytime I attempted to sing sweet lullabies to my precious child. That roadblock song, beginning with the famous lyrics "My bologna has a first name..." could not possibly be the first song my child would be exposed to by his mother. Seriously, I'm a musician... an elementary music teacher for goodness sake. Is that the best I could do?!

At first, I tried to fight it, and just ended up sitting there stumped, staring blankly at my sweet boy. That wouldn't do. The next best song that would occasionally come to mind was a simple early elementary song from my college days in elementary music ed. classes: Hop Old Squirrel. (Hop old squirrel, eidel dum eidel dum - hop old squirrel eidel dum dee...) Not bad, but not great either.

Finally I gave in to good old Oscar Meyer, and decided by changing a few words here and there we could make it "our" own. It's no longer Oscar Meyer, and there is no longer any wiener involved... and it now happens to be one of his favorite songs.

Feel free to sing out loud. ...to the tune of the hot dog song:

My little boy has a first name, it's B-E-N-J-A-M-I-N (you have to spell that REALLY fast)
My little boy has a second name, it's _____ (because this is a public space, we'll leave that part out. :)
I love to hug him every day (sometimes I substitute "kiss" or "tickle" or "play with" for "hug.")
That is why I shout and say
That Benjamin has a way, with his M-O-M-M-A!

BFF

Benjamin and Nathaniel are already enjoying their playdates together. Born only 2 days apart, these two are destined to be BFFs... or at least their parents think so. We call it an "Arranged Friendship." Our two families have a short history of doing big life events together - moving cross-country (packed in the same u-haul), starting jobs in the same area of University life, getting pregnant within 2 months of each other, but then having the boys within 2 days of each other. So from sharing a u-haul to sharing a hospital, our lives are intertwined. And we are so glad to be able to share life with such good friends.

Where is Thumbkin... as well as the pacifiers, burp cloths, and my mind?!

Since the birth of BP, I seem to have lost my mind... even more! Pregnancy brain was a real thing for me, but I have since learned that there is such a thing as "Mommy brain". I am now learning how to use a calendar more regularly, and trying to get organized so things like the pacifiers don't go missing as often. But it is quite a challenge. I don't want to lose moments, though, so I am also learning to prioritize. My mom always had a cross-stitched picture hanging in my room that my Granny had given her. It read: "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't sleep." For some reason as a child, I decided to memorize that. And it has become such a real thing for me now. My little one is now 3 months old. He is in the nursery, supposed to be sleeping, but is instead exploring his voice. I am enjoying every moment of this adventure - in spite of the new "mommy brain."

This blog will include anecdotes and stories, pictures and videos, so that my family and friends - especially those far away - can peek into our little nursery rhyme world. Where is Thumbkin... Here I am!