Happy Birthday Levi!

A year ago, I was in labor with our child, not knowing if it was a boy or a girl.  Contractions started early, around 7 am, on November 10th, and we went to the hospital around 7 pm (I had high hopes of making it to Target before we went, but given the fact that I couldn't stand up for more than a few minutes, Chris vetoed that idea).

After almost 24 hours of intense labor in the hospital, we delivered our precious child at 5:26 pm on November 11th. They layed the sweet little thing on my stomach, and I looked at Chris to know that we now had a precious little boy!

What I have come to learn about our little guy is that he is funny. He loves to make us laugh. He loves to do things to get people's attention (shocking, right!?) He is proud when he figures something out. He has a personality that radiates in all that he does!

Levi is running around like a madman these days. He is wearing 6-9 months clothes (I guess he is a pretty small guy; who knew!) He is weighing about 19 pounds these days, and he jabbers about some pretty funny stuff. Some of my favorite things that he does is says MMMMMMMMMM whenever he wants to eat, and when Chris is ready to go to work (or anyone else leaves for that matter) he walks to the door, waves and says buh bye. It is quite cute. Love that kiddo. We are really blessed to have a such a great kiddo!

                                               Happy Birthday to our sweet boy, Levi!

              (and thanks to ms. Bethany Dunn for such great one year pictures of the lil' dude!)

Changing Times

I never realized how different things would be once I had a kid. Everyone talks about it, but I never really believed it, I guess, until I started thinking about what life was like before we had Levi. These are the little things I have come to learn:

1) First and foremost, my sleep schedule is not my own. I love sleep. I really do. And I cannot tell you how crazy it is to wake up one, two, or three times a night, and then have to get up when he does in the morning. Yes, this has definitely taken a toll on me. Not getting a full nights' rest for well over a year (I definitely woke up lots before we had Levi, it was a bladder thing!) has gotten to me. I used to be a light sleeper; now if I go to sleep before Chris, there is really no chance I will hear him come in!

2) Having a child means that one is no longer inconspicuous. Whether it is Target, Trader Joes, the airport, people notice you because of your child. I just got back from Sams, and I got at least five "how cute", "he's precious" and "how old is he?" Yes, my days of discreet shopping are surely over.

3) Cleaning the house becomes one of those jobs that is truely never over (maybe just more so than it was before). This morning, I spent a hour sweeping and mopping, and then organizing bills, bank statements, etc. After accomplishing so much in my kitchen and dining room, I went to the rest of my house and realized there are toys all over the living room and Levi's room, as well as just a sort of disarray in other parts of the house. Before, I would have said I would get it all clean. Now, I just simply do a few things and hope it doesn't destroy itself in the coming hours.

4) Chris and I used to go out a lot, whether it was to a show or a movie. I was thinking back, and I don't even remember the last show I saw. I think it was Blink 182, who came when I was pregnant with Levi. It was at the Journal Pavillion, so I decided it wouldn't be too loud to go with lil' dude in my tummy! 

Back before Levi, Chris and I probably used to see one or two movies a month, and now I am pretty sure I have seen 2 or 3 movies all year (Avatar, Iron Man 2, and Inception).

While things have changed, I would not trade my lil' Levi for anything. Now we may do things differently (like pizza and movie Date Nights on Fridays--in the house, but I look forward to it every week!) but I absolutely love having our little guy around. Watching him learn and grow and turn into this awesome little person is one of the coolest things ever. Definitely scary, considering the way we raise him determines how he will be, but what a blessing to have the opportunity!

Happy Monday!

Memories

Recently, I have been thinking about how Chris and I came to be and how we have grown as a couple.  This all came about because a friend and I were reminiscing about the first time we hung out in high school.  This one night, we randomly decided to go to a friend's band concert, and then we were going to get ice cream. Well, as God would have it, I ended spending the night at her house and we talked ALL night (with plenty of twinkies and starbucks frappucinos in hand.. the ice cream store was closed!). Any how, we were talking about this the other night, and we were talking about the boys that were in our lives (or lack thereof) and she said "we talked about Chris, right?!" and I remembered that at the point I had not even met him yet.

(and I wanted to post of picture of us, because we are just that fabulous!!!)

Anyways, it got me thinking about how Chris came in to my life, and how all of the events in our lives have come about.  Obviously I cannot remember all of them (I am pretty sure that would be significantly long post), but I figure I will post a few of my favorite memories, just so you can all walk down memory lane with me. :)

I remember after I met Chris for the second time. See, we went to school together in 8th grade, but he didn't remember me because at the time he was pretty preoccupied with his sister who was in Tucson undergoing treatment for Leukemia. Well, I suppose our second meeting left quite an impression on him, because he ended up getting my number from a friend and proceeded to call me EVERY night, and we usually talked for at least 2 hours a day. 

The great memories I have of Chris include:

-talking to him for hours about animals, which he absolutely loves. To this day, we watch Jeff Corwin or any other nature show and he tells me a ridiculous amount about animals, especially snakes and sharks!

-when he asked me to prom our senior year, he walked into school after class was over without looking at anyone and he walked up to me (looking at the floor), handed me some flowers, and asked me if I would go with him. I had to say yes because he was gutsy (and shy too, which never happens with him), and also because too many people would have killed me if I said no!

-When we were dating, Chris always surprised me with phenomenal dates.  For our one year, he told me to dress up because we were going some place nice. He took me to the Melting Pot, one of the best dinners ever!

-One thing I have always loved about Chris is that he is romantic. He always loved surprises. He picked out my engagement ring by himself, which is so cute, because it seems like so many girls go with their future husbands to find that "perfect" ring. I guess I have always thought that if the guy really knows you, he will know what kind of ring to pick out. Needless to say, I love my ring. It is not flashy but it is absolutely beautiful and unique, very suiting for me somehow, and it makes me smile knowing that he picked it out with me in mind!

-After being married for almost three years, we still love to laugh. I can't tell you how adoable it is to be doing dishes or making dessert and hearing Chris say, "Levi, I'm gonna get you" and Levi shrieks and they both laugh and giggle. Gosh, it is one of my favorite sounds in the world. I always knew Chris would be a magnificent dad, but it just makes my heart and lips smile when I see/hear them together.

All I can say is that I am blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life. He is fun, caring, spontaneous, encouraging, and just all out amazing. I love my Chris Wright!

Peaches!

I love fruit. I look forward to summer, because all of the great fruits are in season, and also are reasonably priced!

One of my favorite fruits of the summer is peaches. I love peaches. They are so sweet and juicy and just absolutely tasty. Although I must say, every time I eat one, I think back to my Grandma's peaches in Alamagordo.

My Grandma used to have a peach tree in her yard that had the GREATEST peaches in the world. The way I remember them, they were huge, and they weren't at all grainy or bitter like some of the ones that you get in the store now. But it has been well over 10 years since I have had her peaches, so for a while I thought my memory was just exaggerating how great they were. But after talking to my mom the other day, she confirmed that those peaches were just as delicious as I remember them being.

Recently, Trader Joe's started selling these big 4 pound boxes of peaches for $5. Seriously, that is a great price on peaches, and I finally got us a box.

They are AMAZING!!!!!!!! It is only a little past noon, and I have already had three. They are what I remember peaches tasting like. I honestly can say I haven't had peaches this good in a while.

Summer fruits are the best!

(and I think I will be enjoying them all by myself, as Chris apparently is not excited about them. Maybe Levi will share them with me!)

laura on caffeine

So, tonight I can't sleep. I have a suspicion that it has to do with the fact that I had some Starbucks Java Chip Ice Cream for dessert tonight, and my caffeine intake is never that significant in any given day.

 Shame on it. Although it was tasty, so, I suppose that makes up for my lack of ability to sleep now.

I am also really excited because one of my good friends, Erynn, had her baby today. His name is Nathan James O'Brien, and I am absolutely stoked for them. They are going to be great parents. and I just can't wait to meet him. I have been praying for her all day too, because she had to have a c-section. Poor girl. But at least she is holding her beautiful boy now!

So, due to the caffeine high, I have been a little nutso this evening. I may have acted like a little kid who needs a friend to talk to, and Chris may have received all of this attention. I told him I would talk to Levi, but he was asleep, so Chris had to deal with me tickling him and sitting in his lap and trying to get him to have a conversation with me.

I definitely don't blame him for not indulging me.... who wants to have a serious conversation with a kid who is giggling uncontrollably at herself?

I went to bed in hopes of falling asleep, but to no avail. As soon as I laid down, this stupid song popped into my head. The worst part about this is not that I couldn't listen to it, it was that I had NO idea where I had heard this song, hence googleing and youtube searches came to NO avail. So, here I am, having to teach at 9 am tomorrow, and I can't sleep because I have some stupid song stuck in my head that I can't even remotely find. Awesome.

In the hopes of removing this song from my head, I decided to put the trailer for the movie Inception on. It has fantastic music, and I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for well over a month now. It releases on Friday, and Chris and I are going to have a date either then or Saturday to go see it. The music is so good. reminds me of Batman Begins or Dark Knight, and yes, happy times.


As much as I would like to tell you the former song is out of my head, it is not.

Guess I should have some Java Chip in the morning to be awake for my students huh?!

Summer Vacations

I love summer. I love everything from flip flops and shorts, rain, ice pops (especially after a hot yoga class!), and all the other great things.

Recently, we got to take not one, but two vacations with my in-laws. First, we got to fly to Boston, where we got to see the U.S.S. Constitution (what does U.S.S stand for anyway?) and we also got to see the Red Sox play in Fenway Park.

After that, we boarded a ginormous cruise ship and set sail for Bermuda. I was definitely nervous to be on a ship for that long, but it really was amazing.  There is so much to do on a cruise ship: casinos, 24 hour room service (never took advantage of that... shame) and endless amounts of shows and trivia games!

Once we got to Bermuda, it was absolutely beautiful.  Levi hated the water, but really loved sand, shown by the fact that he went face first into the sand not once, but twice! It was a great trip! Thanks to Steve and Elaine for the fantastic trip!

moving quickly

Today was a crazy day for Levi. Let me preface this by saying that he has been scooching his way around for a while now, and a couple of weeks ago he figured out how to move his hands and feet, but only for a few steps and then he would fall over and resort to his worm-like crawling!

Well today, out of nowhere, he just started crawling. Like, real crawling. He started at Grandma Wright's house (which she was super thrilled to see!) and then he was going all over the house today!

But that's not all. So, in his crawling around the living room, he crawled up to his car seat, and proceeded to try and pull himself up.... he was halfway successful, but given the fact that the car seat wasn't stable, he may have taken a tumble because he couldn't quite balance.

Well, it was a good first try.

Later, I put him in his crib, because by his crankiness I could tell he was sleepy. Well, he apparently didn't think he was too sleepy, because he cried and cried in protest. So eventually I went to get him, and he had successfully pulled himself up on the side of his crib.

I guess he is taking to heart all of those jokes about having to beat his dad who walked at 8 months. Silly kid!

I guess we will have to see what tomorrow brings! :)

Japanese Ham Sandwich

Well, today was a fantastic day. I got my papers graded at a very early hour, in time to take a nap and shower before going cake testing with my beautiful bride-to-be sister. We went to this cute little bakery and tried lots of mini cupcakes, which all were amazing.. good luck to my sibling only picking a few of those flavors for the wedding.

After finishing our errands, we both headed to the yoga studio, as she was teaching and I was taking. Something funny always strikes me in class. So, in one of the poses, something like padesasana (I have NO idea how it is spelled or if that is even the right one, but just go with me)you are supposed to step on your heals with all five fingers with baby fingers touching (be proud I remember how to describe that sibs!) and then you are supposed to try to straighten your legs and touch your forehead below your knee. This is what makes me chuckle EVERY time I go to class. At this point, the instructor says "you should look like a Japanese Ham Sandwich, no gap anywhere". I cannot help but wonder, what does a Japanese Ham Sandwich look like, that there is no gap anywhere? Do American sandwiches have gaps? Is there something entirely special about a JHS? I don't know, but I always wonder exactly what such a thing looks like, thus distracting me for just a bit from trying to touch my forehead below my knees.

Anyways, that is my great thought today.... perhaps I should find a picture of a JHS so that I can always have that picture in my mind while in class.. Hmm.

lil' wonderings

So. I constantly have these thoughts running through my head. Sometimes they are stupid questions, like if a girl marries a guy with a hyphenated last name, does she take both names, or just one, or quite possibly add her own and take all three?
Yeah, I know... these are the things I think about though! :) Let's see, the other one that really gets me these days is the whole "it's a girl/boy". If you know what "it" is, why does it continue to be "it" and not "he" or "she". Granted, it would sound a little bit weird to say, "she's a girl", but it just doesn't work for me. I was helping plan a friend's baby shower the other day and brought up this point to my fellow ladies, and they just laughed and told me I was ridiculous. They also told me that we didn't have to have "it's a boy" signs at the shower, so that made me feel a little bit better!
Anyhow, this week is going to be fun. Me and two of my girlfriends are throwing a baby shower for a good friend this coming weekend, and it is going to be a good time. I am in charge of food, so I am super excited to get some baking and things done later this week.
Also, I have a goal of completing my son's closet. You see, about 8 months ago, before Levi was born, I was entirely fed up with his closet doors. They were those 8 foot, fake wood, paneled doors that took up one entire side of his room. I ripped them off with the hope of getting new ones put on before he came. Well, it has been over six months and the room is still sitting in the midst of disarray because there are no doors. Finally, this past weekend, my father in-law went with me down to Home Depot and we were able to purchase tracks and doors, and he brought them all back to our house in his nice big truck! :) So this week, that closet will be tackled and completed... and pictures will follow!