90 days

1 day old

 

3 months old

Today we are celebrating Olivia. She is 3 months old. She is growing up to be such a happy baby. She loves bath time and eating time of course. Once she realized that she could smile and giggle that is all she wants to do. She is starting to explore her fashion sense and dress with items that are not pink. We are thankful to God that she is healthy and growing. 

As for me, well this would be a long post to try to explain all the things I've gone thru in the past 90 days. I will just keep it simple. I am living my life in a way to make my daughter proud every single day. That doesn't mean I don't care about the things I used to. Trust me, the shoe collection is still growing as well as the makeup and clothes. Now I can also add a tiny version of that to my collection. 

Shopping for Olivia is so much fun, and I wish I could always dress her. I know the time will come when she decides what she wants to wear. She will go thru phases just like I did. Baggy jeans (check), oversized tees (check), crop tops (check), mini skirts (check). Dad is not looking forward to this. In the meantime I will enjoy this time when she has no say on the matter. Some of my favorite brands to shop for Olivia are Old Navy, Baby Gap, and Carters. All these stores are always running discounts (40% off, 50% off), and if you sign up for their reward programs you can really save some cash.

I joke around that Olivia leaves the house looking like a baby model with all the appropriate accessories. Me? well I go for the homeless look most of the time. Did I take a shower? MAYBE....Am I wearing the same clothes I wore to bed? maybe...maybe not. 

Now that she is a bit older I do have more time to get ready and spend time doing my makeup/hair, if I choose to (Or If I know I will taking a selfie that day..:)). oh the important things in life. 

I talked to my dad 2 nights ago, and he asked me about Olivia and her sleeping habits. I told him that she has been sleeping since she turned 2 months old, about 10-12 hours at night. I said: yay! we are done with that. I feel like I can relax a little. He laughed and told me: Trust me, you are never done. I am still at it with my youngest child being 28. It suddenly hit me, that is so true. That is what i want to give to Olivia; what my parents have given to me and my siblings. I want her to understand that family is everything. No matter where you go, what you do, your parents will always be there for you. Every time my parents come visit or I visit them. It never fails, when it is time to leave the waterfalls start. I cry more now that I used to when it is time to say goodbye. I miss having my family close every single day. I want to give Olivia that, the feeling that there is no place like home. The best feeling is to be surrounded by the people that no matter how many times you have failed them. They will never fail you or abandon you. My parents have given me that example and I will live the rest of my life following it for Olivia. 

Thanks for reading, 

Different kind of celebration

 Life gets kind of crazy sometimes. Tim and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary last Friday October 23rd. Usually I try to plan something fun for us to do, spend time picking out the perfect gift and writing the perfect card. Not this time, before I knew it it was Thursday 22nd and I had completely forgotten to do any of those things. (By the way I knew Tim had forgotten too, so I am not the bad guy here).

Well, this anniversary was definitely different than any others we've had. For once we have the most perfect gift we could have ever given each other and that is our daughter. With that being said, there are a lot of things that you can't do with a baby, especially at night. I have been working hard on getting Olivia on a schedule so I am not risking it. So far it has worked great for us because she has been sleeping 8-10 (sometimes 12) hours every night since she turned 2 months.
We love going to the movies, getting dressed up (I love this part more than he does), and going to a nice restaurant. Other anniversaries we've planned to go on a road trip and visit a city we've never been.
This time, it was a bit different. We went to a park that is close to home, and that we have been to many other times. No fancy restaurant, no dress and heels (weird), no movies; just the three of us going on a walk, like we have done hundreds of times. Olivia slept the whole time, and we spent our time remembering so many things that we have gone thru together. Good times and not so good times (hey everybody has those). We spent time talking about the future, planning and dreaming about all the things we want to do together as a family.

When we got home, I started thinking about how at first I was a little bummed that we weren't going to be able to go on a "special-date" for our anniversary. Then I realized that there will be many other opportunities to do those things later on. It doesn't really matter where we are, as along as we are spending time together as a family.

Relationships are hard, any type of relationship. Both people have to work very hard at creating them, they don't just happen.
Anniversaries are a reminder of a commitment to someone. I once read this somewhere and excuse me but I don't have the author's name. It said something like:
"In relationships the little things are the big things. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other a safe place in which to grow. It is not only being with the right person, it is being the right partner".

Hope y'all had a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Road Trip Fun

I absolutely love road trips. Any excuse to go on a long or short drive: SIGN ME UP!. Once Tim and I drove close to 2 hours from the University to Little Rock, AR for Starbucks. My Oh My how things have changed.

Before Olivia was born and even now people tell me: if you are having trouble putting her to sleep, just strap her in the car seat and take her for a drive around the neighborhood. She will be sleeping in no time. OK, easy enough....except for the fact that she absolutely HATES IT. She loves the car seat as long as we are not in the car or moving. That makes for road trips or any kind of trips well lets just say..unpleasant.

When Olivia was born, my parents came to stay with us for a month (THANK GOD). My mom and I decided to go grocery shopping with Olivia for the first time. It took us close to 4 hours. She would wake up half way from the house to the grocery store, and the crying would start. I am not talking about just a cry, this was a full meltdown. Her tiny face would get bright red, she would start sweating, tears would start rolling down and my favorite is: huge saliva bubbles coming out. We would drive back to the house and as soon as we would pull up to the driveway, it would stop. Well we did this for maybe 4 times before giving up.

Needless to say I was a little nervous about our trip yesterday to go visit Tim's family in Clarksville, AR which is where we also went to school. Clarksville is close to 1 hr and 45 minutes away from where we live now (an eternity with a baby). To my surprise she did not cry once! Maybe she knew I was freaking out the night before, couldn't sleep thinking about it (many of my sleepless nights and many more to come..I hear) or she was entertained by my singing skills (or so I want to believe). Anyone that has heard me sing is shaking their heads like: nope that was not it.
The whole trip she was so good, we went to visit Tim's family for the first time and then we stopped at the University to walk around and visit with faculty members.

It was so nice to be back and to bring Olivia to the place where 10 years ago, Tim and I met in old testament class. There are so many things I love about my school. The University is pretty small and because of this, you get to know everyone. This is by far my most favorite thing. It feels like a family. We were able to go into any building and say hi to professors and visit with people that we spent 4 years with. It was a great feeling to catch up with everyone. Our 15 minutes to swing by the school turned into 4 hours and it was amazing.

We were away close to 12 hours yesterday, which If I knew that was the plan, I would have been worrying myself to death. First time ever we have been away for that long. Once I relaxed and enjoyed the day, so did Olivia. Best part ever, when we got home it was a bath time, feeding and she slept for 12 hours straight. Guess what? So did I...Poor thing she had a rough day, exhausting day, and by poor thing I am referring to myself.

Thanks for stopping by, please share your thoughts with me or just say Hi!
Thanks for reading!

The best of all hoods *MOTHERHOOD*

Today was the perfect day to be out here in Northwest Arkansas. It is 70 degrees and sunny! So we decided to go to the pumpkin patch and enjoy some time outside. And by some time I mean like 2 hours max because there isn't a lot you can do outside with a 2 month old (excuse me...2 AND A HALF month old baby) TRUST ME! the half part counts when you are a new mom. You are most definitely counting!
I didn't grow up here in the states so when FALL comes around I am ALL ABOUT IT! Give me everything fall, leaves changing, temperatures dropping, sweaters and scarves, all types of food and beverages with pumpkin in them, and of course PUMPKIN CARVING! Yeah I know, I am 30 years old and I still want to carve pumpkins. I have to make up from all those years I was denied of such fun fall activities living in my beautiful El Salvador where is usually 90 degrees all the time. Plus this is Olivia's first pumpkin patch outing, and I know she won't remember, so this was more for me and dad.
2 and a half months already! Wow! I can hardly believe it. I have to say that again, or write it: Olivia has been with us for 10 weeks. Growing up I was never the type of girl that dreamt about being a housewife or being a mom. Now that I am both is like I am re-discovering the person that I am supposed to be, integrating my old self with my new one. And believe me it is hard work! My daughter is my biggest blessing because she is teaching me things about myself that I didn't know, and teaching that not everything goes the way you plan it. That is a hard one for me because I am a big planner.
I remember the first couple of weeks of us being home, I had the biggest meltdown. Why? because I had planned the day: First I will do laundry, then I will cook lunch, then we will take a nap. Sounds like a plan? Ok, great! Except that newborns and babies do whatever they want, whenever they want to. So Laundry time turned into a crying baby and soothing time, Lunch time turned into putting the baby to sleep time because she has been crying and now she is tired, nap time for me turned into deciding wether I should do laundry, eat or sleep and by the time my food was ready to eat, Olivia was up and crying because it was her time to eat. WOW I thought to myself: this is going to be wonderful (oh wait you can't hear my sarcasm thru writing). The truth is: It is incredibly wonderful! It is also the hardest thing I have ever experienced. My daughter is my biggest blessing because she is helping me become a better version of myself, a more patient and understanding, a more loving and compassionate, a stronger and more caring version of myself. Friends and Family have told me: Olivia is such a lucky girl to have you and Tim as parents, and I think I am the lucky one to have her and reshape my life into the person I was destined to be.


Thank you for reading, and please come back and check back with us. Any thoughts, suggestions or just plain ol' hi messages are welcomed from everyone!