Sunday, January 22, 2012

Five for Fridays

1.  First week of school.
2.  Breslin has been doing much better with his sleeping.
3.  Michigan State lost to Michigan.  Bleh.
4.  Super duper thankful for our wonderful daycare lady Mary. 
5.  Breslin is officially on the move; crawling everywhere.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

Five for Fridays

1.  Well we "sleep trained" Breslin.  The book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," really helped me get up the courage to do it.  It seems to be working, last night, it took Breslin about 1 minute to fall asleep at 6:45, then he slept until about 10:00, woke up for about 5-10 minutes of whimpering, then went back to sleep all on his own, woke up again at about 2:15, same thing, whimpered for about 5 minutes then went back to sleep on his own, finally woke up at 5:30.  No eating, no mommy and daddy coming in there to lul, pat, or rock him back to sleep..  he is doing it all on his own!
2.  Was able to get a bit of scrapbooking done this week.  Hopefully a little bit more this weekend.
3.  Getting serious about my half marathon training.  Have run every other day this week.  Sunday I go for 7 miles.
4.  Breslin is still working on that one tooth coming through... every day I swear it's about to come in... but it doesn't.  It's got to come poking through this weekend or else I don't know what.
5.  Breslin now crawls.  Every now and then he goes back to his army crawl, but he is getting more comfortable with crawling.
*Bonus: We got our skype up and running.  We have now skyped my mom and dad back in Michigan, my sister, Christina out in Florida, and Kari our niece (who is just down the road).

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Five for Fridays

1.  Celebrated New Years with the Williams... Sort of
2.  Flew back to California
3.  Breslin has been teething and his first tooth broke the gums, hopefully the second one breaks the gums soon (I don't know how much more of fussy Breslin I can take, makes me appreciate how good we have it most of the time).
4.  Breslin is not adjusting well to sleeping habits back at home, probably due to jet lag, teething, and him hitting the 'separation' stage.  Tonight we will go back and redo his sleep training,  :p  It's gonna be a long night.
5.  We turned the office into Breslin's playroom.  It is awesome!  Now we just need decor.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Sparty On!!!!

We had quite the cheering section for the bowl game.  We would normally go out to a bar to watch the game, but that is just not as easy with the little ones.  So we ordered Jimmy Johns, made cookies, chip dip, chips, soda, and beer and had a blast watching it in our basement!
Top: Mom, Breslin, me, Kisha, and Sean
Middle:  James, Rachel, dad, Christina,
Bottom: Kennedy, Colby, Dana, baby Hannah, and Lauren.
(Brady was there, he was just taking the picture)
Breslin read to cheer on #8 Kirk Cousins and the rest of the Spartans!

And this picture I will forever cherish, my dad sporting the green and white for the Spartans.  For those of you that don't know, my dad is a U of M fan, but he decided to support the many women in his life and little Breslin man and the B1G Conference and root for MSU for us.  (Now Im hoping he doesn't think that in exchange we will be rooting for U of M in the Sugar Bowl).

It was a game of ups and downs.  MSU was down 16-0 going into half time, and I had my doubts.... Our offense was struggling, but our defense was keeping us in the game.  It was a thriller of a game, that ended up going into triple over time, with the good guys (Michigan State) winning.  It was our first bowl win in 10 years!!!  Yup, the last bowl win we had I was 18, crazy, huh?  We will get to hold onto this victory for 9 months....  bittersweet, because now we have to WAIT nine months for college football.  In the meanwhile we have basketball!

Happy New Years

Breslin's down for a moment (which hasn't happened to often while we have been in Michigan) so I wanted to take the time to reflect on 2011 and look ahead into 2012.  Obviously a lot has happened in 2011 and of my 50 goals I reached at least half of them.  Once Breslin came along things kind of got side tracked.  I want to list some of the not so hot things in 2011 followed by some of the good things:

not so hot:  being in labor and sick while in labor for over 17 hours, the two weeks post baby recovery, being so far away from family and good friends and Breslin not able to being around them, not being able to go to the B1G Championship game, "losing" to Wisconsin in that Championship game, the loss of two students (1 former and 1 current) at the high school where I teach, the what seems like monthly devastation to my hometown of Williamston (one thing after another), another good friend moving away from us, and having to cut out dairy, eggs, seafood, shellfish, and nuts while nursing.

good:  even though I was in labor for over 17 hours that first moment I got to see, hold, and snuggle with Breslin I will cherish forever.  Having my mom spend the summer with us out in California, Christina visiting, and my dad's first ever visit to California since I moved out.  Breslin.  Las Vegas with the Williams for Michael's 21st.  Mary (our daycare provider).  Brady's family and our friends out in California.  Beating Michigan for the fourth year in a row in football.  Being there for it!  Taking Breslin to his first MSU football game (a win versus Minnesota).  MSU making it to the innagaural B1G championship game, and being champions of the legends division.  Getting to see all of my good friends back in Michigan every time I come out.  Lauren (one of my best friends) getting a job out in Colorado... (a little bit closer to us... I see a snowboarding trip in my future).  Getting back down to pre pregnancy weight and then some.

As I look back upon the year, it was definitely a life changer!  Breslin has brought us so much joy, along with some challenges (most of which come between the hours of midnight and 3 am).  Some days I wish I could be a stay at home mom and just watch Breslin learn, change, and grow.  I miss him so much when I am at work.  But I think it is also important for him to be around other babies, interact with them, and play with them.  Even though I miss him like crazy, it is important for me to keep my identity and continue to do what I love, and him see both of his parents working hard to support our family.  I am looking forward to this next year ahead in 2012, to watch Breslin grow, continue to love and support Brady as we embark onto our five year anniversary, and watch myself grow.  I want to be super involved in Breslin's life, but not lose sight of mine.  So with this, instead of 50 like I have done the last two years, I will dwindle it down to 10 things I would like to do in 2012.

1.  Snowboard/Surf a few times this year...  an active mommy is a happy mommy
2.  Run the Pasadena half marathon in February (I was going to do a time goal, but really, it's just to complete it with no walking or stopping during the 13.1 miles).
3.  Talk Brady into celebrating our 5 year anniversary in Kauai.
4.  Take Breslin down to Florida for his first Spring Break.
5.  Some sort of exercise 4 times a week.
6.  Figure out if Breslin is going to be an only child... or if we are going to try for a sibling.
7.  Scrapbook at least once a month. 
8.  Do a better job of talking to family and friends back home. (Try and skype with Christina once a week so she can stay in touch with the Brez man)
9.  Take Breslin to another football game & to his first basketball game (if there is one where we can get tix for).
10.  Once a month/once a week.... take an hour of me time (relax, read a book, lounge by the pool... just be...) and date night with Brady.  We do cherish our Breslin time, but I think we need to get back to a date night.

Monday, January 02, 2012