Friday, December 30, 2011

Ode to Ootie

Somebody has a birthday today!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTY!
She is a great friend, wonderful person and all around super cool gal. 







LOVE YOU LOTS!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Brody 3 month video

Back by popular demand or at least by a parent's tiny bit of obsession...Brody's 3 Month Video!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I love that Brody was baptized this past Sunday and that we had family there to share in the moment.  I also love that he was wearing a family heirloom.  The gown was made in 1949 for my dad by my great grandmother.
I love the Santa sack that we ordered for Brody from Pottery Barn kids.  We of course are getting the large sack and I can't wait to see it.
Speaking of Christmas I am loving that it is right around the corner.  I feel like I missed last year since I was so sick from being preggo.  I love all of the holiday movies that will play on television.
I love that I have lost a couple more pounds!  Only 13 more to go until I am back to pre-nugget weight.  It's definitely coming off slow but I am trying to stay positive. 
Last, and this might be why I still have 13 more pounds to go...I love the new Arby's Philly cheese steak sandwich.  I try not to eat fast food often but we tried this last night and it was yummy.  The peppers were still a little crisp like they hadn't been sitting under a heat lamp all day.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Spooks, smores and more!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!  I took off half a day from work to take the little man by a local bank's Boo at the Bank.  He was so good and kept flirting with all of the female employees.  Here is the pic they took that will be for their costume contest.  Of course I am bias but I think he is the cutest:
Our little Dinosaur (he's not that scary)
Our neighborhood has a massive amount of trick or treaters (around 300-400).  We had tons of candy!  Speaking of candy I really think each year they go up in price.  We made a fire in the backyard to make smores and hot chocolate. 

Yum Yum

B looked so cute in his costume!  He was even giving the "thumbs up" while his daddy was holding him:
Of course after all of the fun with the festivities little man was so tired.  He passed out on the couch and did not budge at all for awhile:

So we made it thru our first holiday as a family (I don't count Labor Day).  Looking forward to Thanksgiving and this Christmas!!!





Monday, October 17, 2011

A Great Weekend

Happy Monday everyone!  O.k. I know for most of us that statement is a bit of an oxymoron.  We had a great weekend...gorgeous weather and my dad and step-mom came to visit on Saturday.  I was so glad that my dad was able to spend time with B.  He hasn't seen him since August so you can imagine he was amazed at how big he had gotten.  Here are some pics of the proud grandfather:


Of course B had to charm everyone with his grin.  Personally I think he gets that from me. :)

Here we are together.  I obviously didn't get my height from my dad. 

We all went to eat for lunch on Saturday and Mr. Man was especially good.  Sunday we went to church, visited Bill's grandmother at her assisted living home and then met our friends Ashley and Andrew for dinner.  If you don't have a newborn you probably think my weekend sounded uneventful but when you're toting around an almost 12 pound mini-human completing all those outings with no massive meltdowns was a good accomplishment.  Monday already...here we go again!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I'm becoming one of "those people"

Oh no!  It's happening!  I am slowly becoming one of "those people".  You know certain parents with certain annoying tendencies (ones that I swore I would never do).   Here are just a few traits I've developed:
#1 I'm obsessed with pictures of my child.
Yep!  Every day I take an obscene amount of photos of Brody and I get so excited when someone asks to see a picture of him.  As I'm showing the pictures I hear a voice in my head saying "stop!  they only asked to see one picture" but of course I ignore it and keep scrolling thru picture after picture after picture.  In my defense I do try to delete all of the "bad" and duplicate pictures (because of course I will take 3 of the same picture).  When we recently received the proofs for Mr. Man's newborn pictures.  Which ones did we choose?  Well the same any obsessed parent would...all of them!  Rather than choose between the pics we of course just ordered the CD with all of them. 
#2 I act like a complete goober with my child. 
I sometimes find myself making silly faces and talking in a goofy baby voice to Brody.  I just wonder what Brody is thinking while I'm doing this.  By the expression on his face sometimes it's probably "what the hell is wrong with your face and voice?"
#3 I think my child is perfect.
You know the saying "nobody is perfect" well that phrase was obviously coined before my mini-human was born.  As I'm writing this blog I keep glancing over at him sleeping and even with the nasally snorting sounds and intense loud gas he is passing I couldn't imagine a baby being more perfect than he is.  OK you're thinking I have my "parent blinder" glasses on but judge for yourself:

OK because I can't just show you one pic (refer back to my first statement) here are some other cute pics of the nugget. 

And another one...

Alright I will stop with the photos. 
So if you see me out in public you have been warned. :) 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Ode to Sarah!

This post is dedicated to my friend/ZTA sister Sarah!  Woo Woo it's your birthday! Hope you have a wonderful day - eat some ice cream cake! 







Monday, August 15, 2011

Baby Boot Camp

We are almost 3 weeks into this whole parenting thing and people have been asking me how things are going, are we getting sleep, is the baby crying alot, etc.  The best way I can describe the situation at Casa de Parnell is a little like Baby Boot Camp and our little bundle of joy is the drill sergeant.
"I said to feed me NOW stupid!!!"

Sometimes when Brody is dictating his orders you could close your eyes and possibly envision R Lee Ermey.

O.k. maybe that was a stretch and of course it's nothing like the first scene of Full Metal Jacket but let me explain the comparison.  Basically like the military enforces a strict daily schedule on its recruits during boot camp so does our 7 lb mini human on his new "recruits" (aka parents).  It is an ongoing learning project with plenty of cause and effect or actions and consequences.  Here is an example...
Cause:  A military recruit is late to formation or roll call. 
Effect:  The drill sergeant makes him do push ups. 
Cause:  Laying a just fed baby with the hiccups flat in the bassinet.  
Effect:  You get to clean projectile spit up off of the baby and bassinet.    
In boot camp there is no such thing as an alarm clock to wake you instead the drill sergeant takes care of that by making loud noises such as banging a trash can beside your head.  Same goes for us, since becoming parents Bill and I have not used out alarm clock.  Instead Brody will alert us when it is time to rise and shine and jump into action.  Now before you start to think I am complaining, I'm actually doing the opposite and am really pleased with how things have been going.  Brody is eating on a schedule...every 3 hours during the day and then every 4 hours at night.  Bill and I are a team in this endeavor and seem to have developed a pretty good system.  During the day I run this ship (i.e. make sure the house chores are done, get showered, dressed and put on make up, keep the baby alive, etc) and then at night Bill comes home and takes the reigns so I can get a little reprieve.  Don't get me wrong - we've had our moments of frustration especially in the midst of one of Brody's massive meltdowns but for the majority of time we have been really good.  I have a theory that people sometimes expect way to much from a newborn and in turn are disappointed or start to doubt their parenting abilities.   Right now Brody has three modes:  sleeping, eating, crying and understanding that has helped keep sanity in the forefront.  To sum it up we may have a little live in drill sergeant but we're both really happy that we decided to enlist in the parenting branch of service. Because even though you may hear this often at loud decibels:
to change me, feed me, swaddle me...

The dictating person actually looks like this:


And how could you not want to do whatever this little guy orders?   


Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Girls (minus two) meeting Brody

If you read my blog often you have heard me refer to "the girls".  If you are new to the blog "the girls" are 5 girls:  Abigail, Kristy, Natalie, Sarah and me.  We started our friendship while attending UTM and joining the same sorority.  After graduation we all moved to different places:  Abigail to Atlanta then to Africa and now back to ATL, Kristy to Franklin, Natalie to Knoxville and Sarah to Memphis.  Even though we aren't in close proximity and only see each other a handful of times each year we have been able to keep our strong bond with one another.  The thing that I love about our friendship is that on paper we are all different.  In fact if there was a website like match.com that paired up friends I don't know that they would've put our group together but to me that is what makes it so special.  We are each strong opinionated individuals and sometimes we can get on each other's nerves but underneath it all there is this strong bond that no matter what especially when one of us needs something we are there no questions asked.  We have seen each other through some of life's best and worst moments:  marriages, birth of children, loss of parents, etc.  They have helped to fill a void in my life and that's why I often don't refer to them as "like family" but "my family".  I don't think I will ever be able to tell them how much their friendship has mean to me in my life.  This week half of "the girls" came to visit and meet Mr. Man this week.  I can't wait for Abigail and Natalie to meet Brody this fall.  Here are some pictures from Sarah and Kristy's visit:

Sarah and Brody (Sarah is preggar with a little Moskette)


Kristy is definitely a natural.  She has lots of baby experience.

Cuddling the new addition to our group

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Wow! That's Really Weird...

"Wow! That's really weird" the first thing I said when seeing my child as he entered the world. Throughout my pregnancy I wondered what I would say the moment I saw my son - surely it would be something profound and dramatic like in the movies....nope not me. As I saw the doctor lifting him from my body all I could say was "Wow! That's really weird" followed by "Look at that cone head!" As you can imagine the statements got a quite a laugh from everyone in the room. Leave it to me to take a perfectly good potentially mushy sappy moment and turn it into a joke. Any who, it has been one week since I delivered my son but it seems so much longer.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about the labor but here is a very brief synopsis.  Bill and I checked in to the hospital to begin my induction on the morning of Tuesday, July 26. We were supposed to be there at 6 a.m. but in true Bill and Beth fashion we were running late arriving about 6:15 a.m. We settled into the room, started IV but didn't start the induction process until 9:00 a.m. The labor clock officially began but we were cognisant that induction can be a really long process and potentially could take 2 days before I delivered.  I just remember how the entire day I was extremely calm and at peace. Even with a few moments where things weren't going as planned; I never got nervous or anxious about what was occurring. Fast forward from 9 a.m. to midnight. My good friend Ashley was visiting, typical me was freshening up my makeup (Bill has video of me taking off my oxygen mask to put on more mascara - pretty funny to watch). After Ashley left I told Bill to turn out the lights because he needed to rest and there was no telling how long it was going to take. One hour later when the nurse checked me she said I was complete - dilated to 10 and fully effaced. She said she would go ahead and start to get everything ready in the room. I woke Bill up and told him it was time and to tell his parents who were in the waiting room that there had been good progress but not to tell them I was going to begin pushing (I had several friends that had to push 2-3 hours and didn't want them worrying on pins and needles for that long). At around 1:30 I began to push and at 2:39 my baby boy had arrived.




Pictures taken right after delivery

Morning after delivery - we were so happy to finally meet Mr. Man.
Our little boy

It's no secret how much I hated being pregnant.  You really have no control over what is occurring with your body and there are so many restrictions on what you can or can not do.  For those of you that know me well, I am quite the control freak so I think that fact combined with all of the bad symptoms made pregnancy even harder.  Maybe because of this I just didn't consider labor to be that bad.  The main thing that I think helped me is to just listen - listen to your body and listen to the medical staff because their goal is for you to have a safe delivery.  
Things that surprised me about labor and delivery: 
  • How amazing the medical personnel was.  Don't get me wrong I didn't expect them to be bad but I seriously had the BEST doctor, day and night nurse.  They really tried to make sure I was as comfortable as possible, were so supportive and did a great job at explaining things.   
  • How much of a cone head babies have right out of the womb - really I had never seen a "fresh" newborn and as Mike Myers would say in his best Irish accent "That cone head was freakin' huge man"!
  • How gruesome things can be.  No matter how many books or experts tell you until you see some of the things that occur "down there" there's just no way to fully prepare yourself.  For some reason the movie SAW pops into my head.  (Sorry to be graphic but this is a post about Labor and Delivery).
  • How your body kicks into gear and can function without sleep.  After Wednesday night when our last visitor left I realized I had not slept in 48 hours and I wasn't even that tired.
  • How great staying in the hospital can be - really I don't understand why some are so eager to leave quick.  I had someone come and take my food order for the day each morning and they delivered snacks throughout the day.  If I was in pain a nurse would bring medication.  When I needed something or needed someone to watch Mr. Man all I had to do was call the nursery to come pick him up.  Speaking of the shower - it was bigger than any I had at my house!   
But alas all good things often come to an end..so after 48 hours in the hospital we were finally released to come home and begin adjusting to our new life.  How are things going?  Surprisingly really well.  I think partly because I have always been a "glass half empty" kind of person so since I was expecting the worst I've been pleasantly surprised.  Don't get me wrong - we've definitely had our share of nerve rattling moments during massive meltdowns but so far neither of us have packed our bags and jumped shipped.  We even survived the first bathing experience:

Motherhood for me may have started with a typical quirky Beth comment but it has definitely evolved into each day being filled with plenty of amazing moments. Stay tuned...

Monday, July 25, 2011

I'll Take My Baby Well Done Please

Yep Mr. Man is now "well done" or in other words over due. I must admit I was a little disappointed this morning when I realized that I had past my due date but it wasn't until I opened the What to Expect app on my iPhone that it really sunk in. How could it not with it being so bluntly put in the countdown...see picture below. Oh also pay attention to the baby tracker which has now gone from watermelon to pumpkin. Damn app!
Ok I was mildy irritated but wasn't fully pissed off until I read the daily digest which normally provides a decent amount of information and insight into the pregnancy. The daily digest today was about making sure the dad is fed before and during labor. Seriously!  I have the responsibility of pushing a 6-9 lb "pumpkin" out of my body and I am supposed to be concerned about the stomach of the person that is half responsible for putting me in this "delicate condition".  Needless to say I think I may now have one less app taking up space on my iPhone...one more offense WTE and you are out of here!
**Disclaimer:  I realize it is not totally sane to devote an entire blog to ranting about an app on your phone but when you are carrying a well done pumpkin you tend to loose a little bit of sanity with each day that passes.**

Sunday, July 24, 2011

"D Day" has arrived

Well the day has arrived.  July 24, 2011 my official due date and according from the What to Expect App on my iPhone "Today is the Day".  But as you can probably guess I am not blogging from labor and delivery.  Nope, I'm sitting in my house still baking a baby.  I can't blame Mr. Man for stalling his entrance into the "real world".  If you stop to think about it right now he's got it pretty good, probably the easiest he will ever have it in his life. 
So I thought maybe if he knew some of the things we were looking forward to it might help him decide to make his entrance.
So baby boy here are some things I am looking forward to:

1) Seeing you the first time. 
I really have no idea what you will look like.  I think you will have dark hair like your Daddy.  I do want to see the feet that have been stretching out and crushing my ribs for the past month. 

2) Hearing you cry. 
Now I know once he arrives I will dread ever making this statement.  But I wonder what you will sound like.  If you're anything like me you will have quite the set of lungs to wail out fairly loudly.

3)  Introducing you to your new family and friends. 
I know I am not alone in the anticipation of your arrival.  We have been so lucky during this pregnancy to have a wonderful support system and there are so many people eagerly waiting to hold you.

4)  Holidays 
Your Daddy is already planning his annual Fall Fest.  Don't worry I have nixed the hay ride idea until you are a bit older and bigger.  From Halloween to Christmas, I can't wait for us to start some great traditions with you.

5)  Seeing Bill as your father. 
Parenthood is a scary thing but one thing I know for sure is that you are going to have the best Daddy.  He is planning to read to you every night before bed.  You two will have some fun outdoor excursions together.  When you are older I am sure he will even introduce you to his love of chocolate and hot wings. 

These of course are just a few things that I am looking forward to with your arrival.  So get in the launch position, follow the light and shoot on out!!! 

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Would you like some cheese with this "Whine"?


Since I am on the downhill stretch of the pregnancy I’ve started to reach my limit on things that have annoyed me throughout the pregnancy.

Just thought I would list a few of them here...

When I would tell people my due date (July 24) they look at me and say wow that’s really going to be hot. Geez thanks like I wasn’t already aware of this. Guess I shouldn’t have purchased all of those maternity winter jackets.

Parenthood “know-it-alls” and the statements they make that begin with “you have no idea”…Usually something negative like: You have no idea how much sleep you are going to lose. You have no idea how messy your house will be...etc. Most of the people that say things like this have multiple children and I want to say if parenthood was so awful the first time around why the heck did you have more than one? This brings me to my next irritant which is all of the parental “advice” you get once people find out your pregnant. Now don’t get me wrong I completely welcome helpful tips but I am referring to the people that take their “advice” to the extreme and get angry at the thought of you not following through with their suggestions.

The judgment on the size of my belly. Some people say I am either really big or I am really small. Or the need to compare my belly to an object…My What to Expect app on my iPhone is guilty of this. It now tells me I am carrying a 6-9 pound watermelon. Thanks, I need to be reminded of that.

Feeling like a zoo animal. I now have so much empathy for the pandas at the zoo. What I mean is when you are far along in your pregnancy people tend to “observe” you and watch you like they would an animal at the zoo. If you happen to flinch or make a face they scare into thinking the baby is about to slip out and fall on the floor. If labor would only be that easy! :)  There was one morning I had to be at work early for a meeting and did not eat breakfast before I left home. The meeting had donuts, I was hungry so I went to get a donut. As I was walking back to my chair a man was staring and laughing at me. He even said “enjoy being able to eat like that for the next few days”. WTH! I hate to inform him I actually did get hungry before I was pregnant. For those of you that know me well, No I did not take my donut and throw it at his head. I simply smiled, ate my donut and then proceeded to go get another one!

Strangers approaching you and asking you personal questions. When are you due? What are you having? What are you naming the baby? I suppose it just baffles me that someone I will more than likely never see again even cares to know any details about my life.

The last one is going to sound mean but I can’t help it. It is really annoying the last few weeks of pregnancy when people ask you over and over in the same day how you are feeling. I am nearly 40 weeks pregnant the later part of July, and remember according to What to Expect I am carrying a watermelon. How the heck do you think I feel? I feel like the Easter marshmallow peep after you put it in the microwave. Don't misunderstand, I am glad people have concern and I don't mind them asking once or even twice a day but when it gets to be 4-5 times within one day it can be a bit excessive. :)

Ok I suppose that is enough complaining for one day.

Monday, July 18, 2011

What a difference a year makes...

It's always interesting to take a look back and reflect on your life and how it has changed in the past year.  Wow my life has really changed!  First, last July I started my job with the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce.  It was scary making the decision to leave my current job but I knew I was ready and up for the challenge!  I believe a person will never achieve great things without taking some risks.  I'm so glad I took the risk of starting my new career; it has definitely been a good decision!

Next, my physical appearance has changed since last year...can you see the difference?  :)

This was July 2010

July 2011 (39 weeks + 1 day preggo)

This of course brings me to a very big change in my life.  Bill and I are expecting our first child Brody any day now!  I discovered over the past 40 weeks that I am not one of the women that was "meant" to be pregnant but that's a whole different post entirely. 

The last major difference in my life over the past year is I lost my sweet step-dad Don in May.  This is something that is still really hard but I smile at the thought of him looking down on his "baby" about to have one of her own.  

I think it's good to reflect on the good and bad things that happen in our lives.  It helps us to evaluate where we are and where we want to be.  Even though I think reflection is important, I fully believe in the following quote "Never regret anything, because at one time it was exactly what you wanted".