Embarrassing moments...

So I'm going to be Captain Obvious and state that it has been a few days since my last entry. Yep yep, tis true. It has been one of those weeks where every spare moment I have is spent either keeping the dogs from barking at the ant crawling across the driveway or just trying keeping my eyes open. It's been nutter-ific around here to say the least.

My parents were in town this past weekend. Man, they cannot move down here fast enough! I haven't lived with them for 14 years and every time we say good-bye I cry. Yep, still cry like a baby. We do our long, extravagant good-bye ceremony and wave to each other till we can't see their car anymore as they drive away.

When we found out they were coming to town we thought this would be the perfect weekend to dedicate Isaac at church. Monday marked Isaac's half birthday, which also happens to be my mom's birthday, so we thought this was great timing.

Mom and Dad were really excited to be a part of this special occasion and we got all of the details ironed out. And I wisely didn't tell them that they would have to go up in front of the church with us until they were well within Nashville city limits. Once I got it through their heads that it was just for 5 minutes, they were cool with it.

Isaac has become more and more vocal and continues to crack us up with his array of noises. One of them being his horrendously loud grunting while he poops. Yes, I went there...baby poop. When you have a kid your world seems to be consumed by poop. Has he pooped today? Is that the normal color? Oh yeah, he had peas last night. You get the picture.

Anyway, on Saturday night we were eating dinner and I started thinking about how Isaac might react to a huge crowd of people looking back at him. Would he freak out and start crying? Would he scream and want to hear his voice echoing through the chapel as Pastor Jim is praying over him? Oh no...what if he has gas. The scenarios kept filling my head, but I tossed them aside and thought, "This is a baby! Even if he spits up everyone will oooo and ahhh because he's a precious little baby!" No harm done.

So Sunday arrives and we head up to the front of the church after the announcements. Isaac was in a wonderful mood (seriously, he's pretty much always in a great mood, praise the Lord) and did such a good job. He was smiling, clapping his little feet together, looking out at everyone. It was great.

So we get to the part where Jim tells us our spiritual duties as parents when all of a sudden Isaac starts to grunt...REALLY loud. A grunt that sounded like what I would imagine a wild pig might make before it charges after its prey. It was deep, loud and loooonnng. Then the smell moves in. Oh heaven help me, the smell. I look over at mom and by the look in my eyes she knows, "Oh no...the kid has pooped." I'm standing there holding my oderous child, praying that I had his diaper on straight and that it didn't shift somehow and that green baby poop wouldn't be dripping down his leg, which has happend from time to time.

At this moment Jim looks up at me and says, "Do you think it's OK for me to hold him?" Oooohhhh boy. Isaac is happy as a lark, smiley and happy, so I say, "SURE!" I heavely debated mouthing "Sorry!!" to him as the plume of stink lingered his way. To my surprise, Jim didn't say anything or make a weird face. Isaac just laid there in his arms, looking lovingly up at Jim as he prayed. It was such a sweet moment. I swear there was a little tear in Jim's eye as he handed my child back to me and we headed to our seats.

I grabbed Isaac's diaper bag and headed off to the nursery to drop him off. Right as I exited the chapel, I kid you not, he ripped the loudest poot I have heard come out of him in a long time. It was like a big old exclamation point on the end of this morning.

After church I asked Marcus and my parents if they were nearly knocked out by the smell while we were up there and they didn't smell anything. Score!!! I guess he just wanted to share that lovely moment with his mama.

Thankfully the Lord has a fantastic sense of humor. I'm sure he was sitting up there in heaven, with a big smile on his face, and said, "That's my boy!"

The simple things...

Today I feel rather ambitious and productive. Quite the feeling for a Monday morning, that's for sure. When I have a lot on my plate for the week, I find myself almost anxious to get down to my office to get things going so I can get my 'to-do' list completed sooner rather than later. I'm not a fan of having things hang over my head, so my getter gets going pretty quickly some mornings. Thank heaven for strong coffee and my favorite creamer.

Our weekend was a sweet one. Poor Marcus had to work late on Friday and Saturday at the church, so Isaac and I hung out, took walks, napped, read sweet little kids books, and played. When he was born, I felt so uneasy and unsure of myself being alone with him. I know that sounds weird, but I felt so overwhelmed and didn't know what to do with myself...let alone a crying baby. Now, a mere 5 months later, I feel completely at ease and absolutely love my time with him.

Another thing that I'm learning to do is trust my instincts with Isaac. I wasn't a big fan of reading a bunch of pregnancy books when I was pregnant and now I'm finding that reading books on how to parent your child is kind of...well...not for me. I know many parents depend on them, which I totally understand, but when I have tried things that these books suggest they don't really work for our son. I'm finding that what my gut is telling me to do and praying for wisdom and guidance on how to raise our son and what we need to do is far better than any book I could read.

Take for example my beloved sleep...which I miss oh so greatly. We have tried countless suggestions and tips that we have either read about or heard from other friends. But, like clockwork, Isaac wakes up at 3:00AM (seriously, on the button) eats and is asleep by 3:15. Marcus takes the 3:00AM shift and feeds him his bottle. Then he wakes up at about 5:00AM for another feeding, which is my shift. One morning I was so incredibly exhausted I just brought him into our room and nursed him laying down on our bed. He fell asleep beside me and we woke up at 8:00AM, his sweet little face with sleep still in his eyes looking up at me. I know some people would say that I'm creating a habit of him sleeping with us and would frown on that. And my reaction to that? Back off. I have never experienced such sweetness, such incredible love, and such earthly joy as I do in my child and husband. And waking up to both of them in my bed is, well, the sweetest gift I could ever imagine.

And if that doesn't follow what some book suggests, well, they are missing out on some of the simplest, sweetest joys of life with a child. And I thank God for that every day...even if it sacrifices an hour of sleep :)

Great friends...

Marcus and I are homebodies...to the fullest extent of the word. Granted, I wasn't always this way. Since marrying my husband I have morphed into this new creature and greatly enjoy staying at home reading, watching TV or just hanging out with my family. It's amazing how entertaining Isaac is...I could just watch him bounce in his little jumpy seat all day and stretch my face in weird ways just to make him laugh. Let's face it...we are simple, easy to please people.

But we have been making more of an effort to having people over for dinner and spending time with the dear friends around us. It's crazy how we rarely see some of our friends for months at a time even if we live in the same city. All of our schedules are insane, we are adding kids to the equation, and life just gets in the way. Last night we had an amazing time with two dear people, Jen & Chance Scoggins, and their beautiful daughter, Jaylen. We stayed up way past our bedtime laughing, telling old stories, talking about future plans, and just reconnecting. We had a great time and it was so good to spend some much needed time with them.

On a completelly unrelated note...

Summer is in full swing here in Nashville and oh boy is it hot! At casa dePaula this only means one thing...you will freeze at our house. I am married to a particular Brazilian who does not like to be warm...at all. The thing is we don't keep the air conditioner at a really low temperature. There is just something about our house that keeps the house cool...or in my opinion downright chilly.

So I'm sitting in my office in our basement absolutely freezing. It's July and I'm dressed like it's December. I must really love my husband...or I'm a complete pushover.

Oh...one more thing...

We captured a few pictures of Isaac the other day that are just too funny and sweet not to share. The first group we lovingly refer to as "Isaac vs. the green beans...and the beans won" album. The kid is so expressive and animated! Wonder who he gets that from?

The second few Marcus took and we tossed around the idea of submitting one of these into a "Beautiful Baby" contest. But then I felt like a weird pageant mom and backed away from that thought pretty quickly. At least we got some cute pictures of the little guy!

Jenn X 2= a lot

Isaac turned 5 months old on June 27th, which blows my mind on so many levels. Thinking back to how much life has changed in such a short amount of time is quite overwhelming and incredibly humbling at the same time. Yesterday I was looking though some pictures of when Isaac was just a few days old and I can't believe how little he was! Looking at those pictures also spurred on memories of how lost I felt for the first few weeks of his life. Lack of sleep mixed with a hormone filled body really made me question if I would make it through this. Without warning I would just start bawling and I couldn't explain why I was sad. My sweet husband was amazing through all of it and my wonderful mother just kept telling me, "I promise...it gets better!"

But just a mere 5 months later, I feel like an old pro. When Isaac cries, I know what's wrong and can fix it. Breastfeeding is a breeze and I don't nearly have a heart attack while we are giving him a bath.

Now that I am comfortable being a mother and meeting the needs of my son, it has hit me that I have not been taking care of myself as well as I should be. Yesterday when I was getting into the shower, I caught a good look at myself in the mirror...oh heaven help me. Granted, I know certain parts of my body will never be the same since carrying a child and I will never have my 25 year old body as a 32 year old woman...but dang...mama's gotta do something!!

I've never been a big eater or had problems with overeating. I opt for fruit rather than candy, I don't tend to eat huge portions, but since I've been breast feeding I find myself hungry ALL...THE...TIME. I know this is totally normal and needs to happen to keep Isaac full and healthy, and I am thrilled to do this for him. But where I lack discipline is in the exercising.

Oh how I hate to work out! If it weren't so muggy and hot here in Nashville, I would be all about going for long walks around our neighborhood, but Isaac is NOT happy when he is hot and uncomfortable in his stroller. I wouldn't mind getting back into yoga or pilates, but when?? Between taking care of Isaac, work and keeping the house semi-presentable, the time just isn't there. Our amazing church offers a free, once a month pilates class for new moms, but if there is one thing that I hate more than working out it is working out with a bunch of other people. Don't get me wrong, I love the women there, but it just isn't my cup of tea.

Does this sound like a bunch of excuses? Yes. As I type them out I realize I need to make this, my health, my mental sanity, and just some "me" time a priority. A half hour of exercise never killed anyone :)

The 4th...

I don't know why but I have never enjoyed fireworks. Never ever. Even as a kid I didn't enjoy sitting outside, fighting off massive bugs that get stuck in my bug spray mixed with sweat, looking up at the sky, oohing and ahhing over colorful explosions. Call the the Scrooge of the 4th of July, but it's true. Don't get me wrong, I am a history freak and I love what the 4th stands for and why we celebrate it. I just choose not to partake in the capping off festivities of minor explosions.

But it seems that our neighborhood is full of people who absolutely love the 4th and the one day a year where it seems to be acceptable to set off explosives. That love carried on well into the 5th of July (mainly late at night) where our neighborhood yahoos set off hundreds of fireworks. I am sure these people don't have small children trying to sleep. The idiots across the way from us nearly burned their apartment complex by setting them off a little too close to the building. Of course they did that last year as well and obviously didn't realize that that could happen again.

Why can't everyone just have an ounce of common sense? Seriously folks? Seriously.

When it rains...

So we are now among the 10 million people on the planet that own iPhones. Yep, it's official. Originally I agreed to get them because my sweet husband was nearly busting at the seams to get one, but I must admit, they are pretty dern cool. We still have a few bugs to figure out, but my braziliant husband will hammer it out and it will be running slicker than snot before we know it.

So a few posts ago I talked about how slow work has been. I know it's that time of the year and that things always pick up. Well they have...in a major way. My main client is pumping more and more work my way, which is great, but I'm trying to figure out how I will get it all done with my limited schedule. I'm officially working three days a week with two of those days watching Isaac and working at the same time. A tad overwhelming? Yes. But I know we will power on through it!

It's a holiday weekend and both Marcus and I will be working through it. I honestly forgot that it was the 4th of July! One tends to loose all track of holidays when self-employment is a part of ones life :)

What goes around...

My husband and I are a lot alike yet sooooo very different. We have similar senses of humor, (dang, the man can crack me up) we are both very driven and productive people, we have the same sense of serving others and being comfortably situated in the background rather than up front for everyone to see. But one huge difference that we have comes in the form of procrastination.

When Marcus and I were doing our premarital counseling, our pastor brought up a very simple fact but one that would make a profound statement: we were raised differently. Simple, no? But this little statement has helped me to wrap my mind around some frustrations that I have had (and I'm sure that he has had with me) within our differences. I am not a procrastinator. When something needs to get done, I do it right away. I hate having things loom over me, waiting to get done. Marcus is King Procrastinator. In the fullest sense of the word, the man puts so many things off and waits till the last minute to do oh so many things. But that is how he works and I love him the way that he is. Does it frustrate me to no end at times? H-E-L-L yes, but I'm trying to get better at just letting it go and accept that that was how he was raised. End of story, right? Not so much...

So I'm sitting at my desk, creating my 'to-do' list for the day and it has started to overwhelm me. Yikes! Deadlines are popping up out of nowhere and things have picked up...and fast. So what am I doing about it?

Writing a blog.