Thursday March 5th 2009

It is 8:15 and I only have a few minutes as Marley will be waking up any second now and she will be hungry! She is sleeping so good...going down at 10 and waking up to eat only twice in the night (at 1 or 2 and then again at 4 or 5)and then sleeping until about 8 or 9. Talking to friends and reading, she should be sleeping through the night soon, so I think this weekend we will try putting her in her crib and seeing if she can get herself back to sleep without eating in the middle of the night. Its going to be so hard for us to listen to her cry and not do anything, but its what we have to do and supposedly it will only last a couple nights and then she will be sleeping through the night. I'll keep you posted on how that goes :)
Marley took her first plane ride to Oregon last weekend and it was a weekend of firsts! She rolled over and started talking (well "cooing" as they call it)! We even got a few laughs outta her :) The flight there was perfect. Well Marley was perfect...the flight wasnt! We bought a direct flight so that we wouldn't have to takeoff and land more than once but there was a fuel leak in the plane next to us at takeoff and as soon as we got in the air, the flight attendants were immediately sick because of the fumes that had seeped in through the vents. We had to emergency land in LA. Didn't phase little Marley though...she was so good. Seriously, we had so many people compliment us on our baby and how "she didn't make a peep". Unfortunately, the flight home was a different story, but only because the poor girl was exhausted and teething!
Oregon was great. The first day we got in at 11 and dad picked us up and took us to McMennamins in Oregon City for lunch. The picture above is of Marley spitting up on dad when he was holding her :) And then he put her to work at the office for awhile before we headed to his house for some down time before heading to moms house. We only went to moms for a little while but Marley didn't waste any time....she rolled over for her first time at exactly 14 weeks at moms!!! This was a great moment and we took a video of it too! Matt joined us and met Marley for the first time...that was really cool...I had been most excited for that moment! Friday we went over to Danielle and Jays to hang with the Hartgraves all day. Gavin adores Marley...it was so so so cute. JJ is older now and loved her too but Gavin was all about her! He even wanted to feed her from his boob lol! We had to explain why he couldn't which was hard to makes sense for a 3 year old, but he got it :)
Saturday we had a potluck at dads house and invited all of our friends to stop by to meet Marley and hang out. Paul and Ashley from college came with their son Camden who is 8 months...exactly 5 months older than Marley. He was a super cutie lil minnie me of Paul. The corvallis crew came - ang, blake & angela & ethan, lindsey & mike, Liana & dan came, Lani brought her kiddos and i met them for the first time...Lili and garret SO cute and big! they are 8 and 10 and she is my age! Bobbi and Madison came which was super cute because Madison says she is "like Marleys big sister" :) Some of Marges family came over...her mom Georgia and sister Christie. It was a great group of people...we had a lot of fun!
Sunday was a big day. We met mom and matt at Maryville nursing home to introduce marley to her great grandma lucy for the first time! Grandma Lucy is a very special person to me and always has been. Since I can remember, every good memory I have is with my grandma lucy! She is not going to be with us much longer so making sure that Marley at least got to meet her was very very important to me. To make it even more special, Molly Milan my godmother was there too which made me so happy. I remember sitting in mass that morning feeling overwhelmed with joy and happiness and most of all LOVE...Marley is so lucky to have the people she does in her life!!!!

Sunday February 22nd 2009

I am completely exhausted right now but I need to catch-up...hard to do with a little girl who is growing up way too fast! I just had the family over today for a brunch to celebrate Lori's birthday. It was a lot of fun! I have been baking all day long so I am super tired and FULL!
Marley is 3 months old! She is turning into such a gorgeous little GIRL. No longer a baby. She has a cute little personality, is mostly super mellow and chill, but is not afraid to show us who is the little boss when she is hungry! We went bowling again last night...she loves it! Everyone always comments on how alert she is. She certainly likes to study her world and take it all in. The past couple of weeks have been jammed pack with fun....G daddy joe and G mama marge came to visit for Valentines day and we had a lot of fun. We went to a couple really nice restaurants and ourlittle angel held her own again. We know that when we walk in people are thinkin "oh shit a baby!" but then we get nothing but compliments...its fun! We know to appreciate this time though because soon enough she will be crawling under tables and throwing food on the floor screaming her head off :)
Marley has discovered her hands just in these last couple of weeks and loves to grab any and everything and stick it in her mouth. We think she might even be starting to teeth. Its early, but our daughter does everything early so we are not surprised! She is starting to laugh too which is my favorite! She tries anyways! Its more like a cough but you can tell she is trying to mimic our laugh. SUPER CUTE! Her morning stretches are still the best ever! She takes her time waking up, stretching, moaning, slobbering....it always gives me flashes of her as a teenager who sleeps in until 3 in the afternoon and you still have to wake them up :)
Well, gotta go for now...Marley just woke up and wants mommy :)

Saturday February 7th 2009

Its almost noon and we are all still in bed! I remember telling Greg "I can't for the day we will be snuggling in bed with our daughter!" and here I am :) And it's even better than I imagined! I can't believe what an amazing little girl we have. Me and Greg are both on the same page as far as wanting to maintain our lifestyle and not holding back just because we have a baby and it feels so good that we are actually able to dot it. Last weekend we went for a 5 mile hike with Marley in the backpack and last night we took her bowling! She just chilled and looked around. Everyone always tells us how amazingly alert she is for her age. She really takes it all in and Im convinced that the more places she goes the more she is learning about her world! I was the proudest mommy last night because even after bowling we were able to come home and have friends over for some drinks and board games and Marley just kicked it and watched all of us. She never once demanded attention and was perfectly content with herself...even though we were right there. She totally holds her own! Our baby literally never cries. We are sooooo lucky because she is just happy and mellow and the most perfect little girl we could ever ask for! For now anyways :)

Wednesday January 28th, 2009

I know...bad, bad, bad mama!!! I need to write in here more! So Marley is practically all grown up now! She can totally hold her head up. Well for long periods of time anyways. She is still smiling more than ever and she has been making cute little noises for the past couple weeks now. We had her two month check-up last week and she weighed in at 12lbs 2oz and 23 1/2 inches long. That means she has gained 5 lbs and grown 3 1/4 inches!! She had to get her first shots which was so hard to watch. She was a good girl though...cried for a minute and then was okay. Besides being in the 90th percentile for both height and weight, the doctor said that she is developing perfectly and seems to be especially alert and ACTIVE for her age!!! We clarified that the pooping once every 5 days is okay. At least shes consistent I guess right! The doctor said that just means that she is soaking up all the nutrients that she gets from me and there isn't a whole lot of waste. I guess that could be seen as a good thing :) I am trying to eat healthy for her, but sometimes it's hard to eat enough calories to make breast milk so I have to eat bad stuff that has more calories and fat! Yeah, I make it sound like hard work dont I:) It is actually. You so badly want to diet right after you have a kid, but you CAN'T! So I have been eating like a pig but working out like a dog too!!! Marley and me go for a walk everyday! Usually at least 3 miles ans sometimes 6. I have also been boxing again and doing this pretty hardcore medicine ball workout! I am so lucky that my husband stays home with Marley in the morning so that I can go to the gym....i really missed boxing and all my friends there!
I took Marley to the beach with my friend Alison and her daughter Madison who is exactly 3 months older than Marley. Amazing that we live in a place that is 80 degrees and sunny in January! Marley looked so cute!!! She is such a good baby too. I swear I can take her anywhere! Other babies cry and then there is my Marley always just chillin with a smile on her face :) We go home to Oregon in exactly one month and I am SOOOOO excited for everyone to meet her for the first time! Especially my grandma Lucy...I LOVE my grandma lucy and want so badly for Marley to meet her great grandma! I will definitely take a picture of the 4 generations and post it on my blog! I also can't wait for Marley to meet her cousins and all my friends kids that she will grow up with. I am mentally preparing myself for this trip to put lots of thoughts into my head of moving back. We have really grown to love where we live but knowing we have to fly home for Marley to be with family is hard. Especially now that I have seen just how fast she is growing...every week is a huge milestone! And yes, I will admit that the free babysitting sounds fabulous :) Funny thing about that is we have so many people offer to watch Marley so that we can go out, but we can't think of anything we can't do with her or that we would rather do anyways. We have talked about wanting to go mountain bike riding which would be nice but then we realized we could go for a hike instead and bring Marley in the backpack! I just started putting her face-forward in the baby bjorn and she loves it!!! I like it because I can water the plants, do laundry, whatever and she is totally happy! I think we are going to try to go for a hike this weekend actually since the race we were all going to run in in Laguna is sold out :(

Wednesday January 14th 2009

It's now 6:48 AM. I am typing this for the second time now, as I just lost my entire entry with one wrong click of a button. Times like these I really miss my good old fashion hand-written journal! I started writing about an hour ago at 5:45 and this was after getting home from the gym. Today I got there before it even opened! Marley actually slept from 11 to 3 so 4 hours straight was the most sleep I have gotten in a long, long time!! I fed her and was wide awake so went to the gym. I had my 8 week checkup yesterday and Dr. Dunn gave me the full clearance to do anything and everything! I have already been walking everyday since 2 weeks after having Marley, but now I can box again and all that fun stuff. Nestor is my trainer and we have so much fun. I want to get back to my old schedule...going to the gym every morning from 4-6, getting home in time to make Greg coffee and lunch and then getting all my emails done, pay bills, etc...all before 8! I definitely need to manage my time more efficiently now that I have Marley and am working 2 jobs! I have decided to spend more time on real estate and as on Monday I started doing some Marketing consulting!! Funny how things work out....I am actually working for Don Williams who was the PR Director at Upper Deck. He got laid off last year and started his own PR agency. Last month Upper Deck lost the Yu-Gi-Oh licence due to breach of contract so Konami is now the manufacturer, distributor and marketer of Yu-Gi-Oh. Since I was the Marketing manager for this brand for so many years, Don recruited me to come work for him and pitch business to Konami. Long story short, I am doing what I know, what I love and what I am good at from home!! I am completely overwhelmed right now but I love being busy!! So thats my update....working out and working!!



Greg's job is going awesome! Not sure if I have blogged about what he does. Greg works for One Source which is the largest electrical distributor in San Diego. He was doing outside sales but was offered a promotion to Project Manager of a new hospital that is being built about 6 months ago. Although outside sales was nice because of the flexibility, Greg took the promotion not only because of the pay increase, but because it offered job security for the next 3-5 years. In this economy, that is like gold! Well of course Greg is kicking butt and exceeding everyones expectations! His CFO told him he should expect a bonus of 30% of his salary in March which is very exciting and this position is getting him great exposure to a lot of the big wigs throughout the industry since this hospital is the largest construction job ever in San Diego!! Greg is also starting to run more and more. We are actually going to run in a race together (with Marley!) on Superbowl Sunday in Laguna Beach. Well, pretty sure we are. We need to register! More to come on that later.
Here are a couple new pics of Marley. In the last week she has really started to focus on objects and seems to be sooooo curious. She has started to "coo" i guess its called. I call it talking :) I can tell she is going to be a very smart girl! Her 2 month check-up is next week so we will know where she is on "the charts"! My friend Jamie is coming over Friday to take some professional pics of her, so I will have those up soon!!

Wednesday January 7th, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2009! Crazy.
Well, of course tons to catch-up on. I am going for the short style today. Sold my first house a couple of weeks ago! May have already wrote about that but just in case. Got my real estate license while I was Marketing Manager at Upper Deck so that I would have something to fall back on if I ever wanted to be a stay at home mom....and sure enough it paid off! In addition to real estate I am also going to start doing some Marketing consulting! I am very excited. I love being a stay at home mom, but I miss marketing and people and making $$$$! The other good thing about working again is that I will be back on a schedule! I have started going to gym at 5 am again, so I get home at 6:30 and while Marley is still sleeping I am able to catch-up on emails, facebook and other social networks and MY BLOG!!! I need to figure out a way to print this blog so that I can start making printed versions so that Marley can read some day. Yes, MARLEY.....




My life is MARLEY now. This morning she pooped for the first time in 5 days and I swear I had never been so happy! I went to the gym and told everyone :) Yeah, Marley has won my heart and I am all about her and loving every minute of it! Her first Christmas was nice...very relaxing and just nice. We slept in and made coffee, opened gifts, made breakfst and then headed over to Jeff and Nancy's house for Christmas dinner at about 1. Greg and I decided before Christmas that we would get eachother much and that was fine. Honestly, my favorite gifts I did receive were gifts that were really for Marley :) I love this photo album Greg got me to keep her photos in because it is organized by 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12 months. Greg knows how I LOVE to document EVERYTHING so that was great and he totally surprised me and made a book online called "Marley and Me" which was filled with pictures of Marley and me and everyone that was with us for the first week for two of her life! He definitely out did me this year! He also bought Marley this adorable santa suit that she wore christmas day :)


SO Marley has grown up soooo much in just this last couple of weeks! She is about 6 weeks right now and she has already been smiling for a couple of weeks. She holds her head up for long periods of time...especially when she is laying on daddy's chest and she want to stare at him :)She smiles all the time which is such a nice reward for all the hard work! Just as of this week, she seems to really be able to focus and track objects which is so fun to watch. Its nice to because we have all these great toys that she couldn't even see to care about before and now we are starting to introduce them to her and it is so fun to watch her reactions. Simple things like the one little bear that hangs off of her bouncer she can stare at for hours and laugh and try and kick with her little chubby legs...its SO cute! There is a video of her doing this on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1458804677&ref=profile#/profile.php?id=1458804677&ref=profile


We had our first trip to the beach on December 27th! Noah, Amanda and Cadence drove out from Vegas and stayed the weekend. It was both Marley and Cadences first time to the beach :) We went to Carlsbad and walked along the boardwalk and then took the girls on the sand for some pics (I have all these pics and a video on my facebook as well. The link is above.). Marley never opened her eyes once and was super fussy, but it was still fun to be at the beach with my daughter for the first time and it was such a beautiful day. Greg's not a huge fan of the beach and I love it, so knowing that Marley and me can go to the beach together now makes me sooo soooo excited!




New Years Eve was fun. We went next door to Becky's house and hung out with her, Brian, Susan and larry (a neighborhood party). All the dogs were there too...Simba, Spike, Molly and Harley. I wanted to have a few drinks so I pumped enough bottles so that I didn't have to breastfeed until the next day. Actually, I had the night completely off...Greg fed her every single bottle that night! That was fun, but I should have taken it easy. It had been so long since I had drank and I never drink white wine. I had 4 glasses of wine and was throwing up all night long and never got out of bed the next day except when I needed to pump and dump. I learned a big lesson, but a good one....I do not want to drink like that anymore! More importantly, I don't want to feel like that again. I always want to be "on" for my babygirl and being sick and unable to feed her or play with her was a shitty feeling!!! big time!