Prodigy

Well folks, I believe we may have a prodigy on our hands. Last night Mario and I tried out a local Kindermusic class to see if we would be interested in enrolling him in the fall. For those of you that don't know what that is...its basically exposing kids as early as newborns to music and rhythm. He LOVED it!!! He went straight to the leatherhead drum and began beating on it over and over and over. Of course, Mario is thrilled. He always wanted to play drums. Now, I guess its true...you live your unfulfilled dreams through your children. I am really interested in teaching the classes and starting them in the fall. I think these opportunities were made available for crazy people like me. I guess I need an extra shove of someone telling me I can do it. So if you think its a good idea and if you have a baby you would like to enroll let me know...that would definately let me know it would be worth it!

On The Move

Well folks Dalen has officially turned his gears in overdrive as opposed to reverse! Thursday he began crawling forwards and he is still getting the hang of it, but moving quite gracefully. He moves an inch and collapses but he is getting around pretty well. It hit me all at once. Before I know it he will be walking and I just know it will be quite disasterous. He has already been caught for chewing on cords plugged into the sockets. If babies could only understand the feel eletric shock. Of course then words would not do that justice; he will be more curious to experience it, I am convinced.
We will be heading to South Carolina for the funeral of Dalen's great grandmother on Friday. Please keep Mario's family in his prayers and Mario, as well. He will be speaking at the funeral and you just never know when there is a lost soul needing to hear about Jesus. Please pray he is used.
Also, enjoy one of baby Dalen's newest videos...taken from my cell phone camera. Gosh, what would i do without it. I just KNOW this child will make his voice heard in this world. He is a loud one.

The Value of Life

Today has been a thoughtful one. Mario's grandmother passed away last night. She has been sick for some time now. Though this time is a difficult time, it has made me think and become so very grateful for the family we still have left. Dalen has the incredible blessing of know all of his grandparents and almost all of his great grandparents as well. I also had this amazing blessing and still have all of my grandparents living. I am so thankful for this rich heritage I find gracing our lives daily. Though today we grieve, we rejoice as well.

A Brave, Brave Move

My girlfriends and I decided we were long overdue for a girl's night out.  If you know me, you know there is nothing better than a bunch of young women going  out for a night of immaturity. I LOVE IT!  A group of 11 of us pack in two cars and headed to Chattanooga for a night of fine dining and fun.  After eating at Blue Plate (southern cooking with a contemporary atmosphere) we headed to Coldstone Creamery and a nice stroll downtown.  After heading back to Cleveland, the gals convinced me to stay my first night away from Baby Dalen.  What a brave, brave move!  I felt far from being alone snuggled closely to Paige.  I am glad I FINALLY spent the night away from Dalen.  When I got home this morning I was greeted with the sweetest smile from Dalen.  I am so convinced he missed me.  ;)

Never EVER LAND!!!

The search is still on. We heard awful reviews about the methodist parent's day out program I was considering. I learned a VALUABLE lesson....when in search of child care, ALWAYS check places out. The 3 of us also toured another program close to work. It would have been really convienant but it failed mom AND pop's expectations with a BIG FAT F-. NO i am not being overly picky. So for now these few places have been chucked to the never ever pile and they will not be considered again.

So here we are at work together again. As I glance over to see Dalen with his frizzy mohawk and full mouthed with his new croc he loves to chew on, I realize maybe its not so bad after all.

Motherhood is the pursuit of acheiving multitasking perfectly!

Long Blinks

What a long day! I feel as though today has drug out for years and its only 2:30. Yesterday I woke up with a pretty sore throat and a somewhat stuffy nose. Today was a whole different story. My throat feels as though I ate a bite of hell, it burns so bad. My body feels like I have been beaten with a baseball bat I am so achey and my nose feels like it has the whole world stuffed into each nostril.
After waking at 7:00 a.m. with Dalen, it was my one desire just to get a little more sleep. Just like 30 minutes or so! He has a cold too. My child is pretty much perfect with the exception of one flaw...he doesn't sleep....EVER! I mean the occaisonal nap here and there but they last like 10-15 minutes! I read kids his age should be sleeping 12 hours a night and napping 4-6 hours in the day. He may nap a total of an hour and a half and STILL doesn't sleep all night. If you are a mom reading this please no suggestions...we've tried EVERYTHING and another failed attempt would only make me feel more hopeless.
He did go back to sleep for about 15 minutes around 9:15 and I realized this child does NOT nap he just blinks for a very long time.

Fancy Smancy

This is technically my first blog. The before this one was more like a intro...so here goes nothing. Well, obviously you all know I have a son. You may not know that he does go to work with me. I work at my family's business, A Moment In Time, as a certified wedding planner. At first, it was amazing! Toting Dalen to work with me and being with him all the time was great. Now, he is starting to try to crawl and he is SUPER active. It's making things tough! I took it upon myself to look into Mother's Day Out programs to maybe be able to actually work my whole shift and still allow Dalen to be a baby. My first choice was First Baptist's program. I have had several girlfriends work there and my cousin is over the program. Their program is full and it doesn't run in the summer. I was super bummed! I have heard GREAT things about their program. I found another at a Methodist church in town...I know NOTHING about this program. It's SUPER scarry to send your 7 month old to a place you know nothing about and to people you don't know. After calling every church in town to check out programs I realized something....I think "Mother's Day Out" is just a fancy smancy name for day care! I don't like the feeling of sending Dalen to day care....at all! I mean Mother's Day Out just seems so carefree, great and fun. Day care is the place you hear of kids leaving with cold's, cuss words, and stranger Joe's kid's newest bad habits. So here I am...Mother's Day Out or Mother's Day In at work trying to juggle work and baby...not an easy combo.

"HOOD"lems

Well, here I am on blogspot.com! I heard about this place through my great friend Abby Fletcher who began blogging not too long ago. I stalk her blog everyday and I am always enlightened. I tried to have a blog about me a few months ago, but who am I without my husband and son? So I thought I would try and enlighten your days as well with our life experiences as rookie parents. Here is a little about us...
We were married in 2006. Ten months later I left work twice thinking I was coming down with the flu. Little did I know I was with child. I have never cared when I got pregnant and always wanted to have a big family young and God gave me that desire and boy was it the best surprise I have ever recieved. My husband and I endured the nine months of pregnancy (any husbands reading this know why I included him in the endurance part) and after five short hours of labor and a 20 minute delivery Dalen arrived. He was 6 lbs. 9 ounces with a head full of black silky hair and a spitting image of Mario. He now seems to be a combination of us both. We are loving parenthood and our marriage is stronger now than ever. So here is a little intro. to our fun, exciting life!