Sweet Tater

It's nearly impossible for me to believe, but our Sweet Tater had his first "real" food tonight -- sweet potatoes! During a talk with Dr. Terry last week, we discussed Will's 90th percentile ranking in height and weight, and she said because we have such a big little man on our hands, we should go ahead with rice cereal on its own (not just in a sludgy bottle), then introduce a first food (preferably a veggie) by the time he reached his 5th month. Well on Saturday he took rice cereal so well -- swallowed nearly every bite! -- we decided to try the sweet potatoes tonight (a few days ahead of schedule). He grimaced at first, but literally after his second bite he became a baby bird and opened that little gullet for all the taties his Mama could scoop into him!

Yes, he's wearing his Saints jersey underneath the "Boys Are Just Better" bib.

Hasta la vista, sweet taties.

Hooray! Saints are winning and Will-Baby is full!

Monday Daybook

Outside my window... it's frosty-cold. And noisy. I can't WAIT to not live next to a jillion and a half college students. I know I'll have "city noise" when we move to the loft, but I'm really over always hearing the comings and goings of my neighbors, 99% of whom are in the 18-21 crowd. Yuck. No offense to college-age kids; I'm just...well past that kind of lifestyle.
I am thinking... of how I'm going to possibly get organized and packed for our big move in T-minus 14 days. Climb every mountain. Yikes.
I am thankful for... home. Even though I'm tired of this apartment (have I mentioned that yet?), it's still home and it's still where we lay our heads at night. I love my family and I love traveling, but I really hate living out of suitcases.
From the kitchen...

• Monday: Beef Noodle Bowl ('twas delish tonight)
• Tuesday: Omelettes with fresh veggies, baby bella mushrooms, and cheddar cheese
• Wednesday: Three-cheese Ziti with Spinach
• Thursday: BLTs
• Friday: Homestyle Chicken Pot Pie

I am creating... a plan of attack for unpacking in the loft. Will's nursery first (put together crib, plug in monitor, set up diapering station, etc.), our master suite second (put sheets on bed and towels on racks, etc.), then basics in the kitchen. All of that needs to happen in Hours 1-2. HA! I'm only half-kidding, because then I need my office set up so I can return to work in a timely way, then the living room so Will can watch Clifford with Jessie, so on and so on. Anyone want to fly in to Tri-Cities to help???
I am going... to do at least 2-3 more loads of laundry yet tonight. I hate the piles of laundry that are inevitable after a trip. (I just realized how domestic this whole post sounds. Not sure how I feel about that.)
I am reading... just my magazines at the moment. Though as I told Kate earlier today, if Southern Living features another family who "enjoys getting away to their 2,000-square-foot woodland retreat when life in the big city gets to be too much", I might toss cookies and cancel my subscription. Really, Southern Living, can we include more of our target audience next issue??? Anyhoo, I need some book recommendations. My latest pick-up at the store was a complete dud.
I am hoping... to figure out a great birthday present for my hubby. His birthday is Christmas Day, y'all! No pressure on me to come up with double the amount of fabulous gifts!
I am hearing... The Saints v. Patriots game on the telly. Now if the Saints go to the SuperBowl, some of that gift-giving pressure might be off, because Marty won't be able to concentrate on much else until the end of January. He's been a Saints fan all his life and they're still undefeated!
Around the house... I'm missing some essential baby-gear items. Time to buy an exersaucer, time to buy a highchair. Puppy is now eating at least 3/4 cup of rice cereal at night, and right now we're doing the "Daddy props him on the table while Mama scoops it in" thing, and that's just not working for us.
One of my favorite things... clean sheets. Coffee. Cookies. Online shopping. Life changes. Friends. You name it -- anything that's blessing me these days is my favorite thing!

My moment

My moment

My sister just sent me this picture that she took at my cousin's wedding in September. When I saw it, I think I gaped at it for a solid 5 minutes. Katie managed to capture quite the motherhood moment for me, in which I appear to be clean, calm, contented, and chic all at once. Wait...hold the phone...is that my white-trimmed Coach bag? And the wedding was in late September! Crap -- Labor Day/wearing white violation. I KNEW it was too good to be true.

Oh well, it was a good try.

Home

I've been thinking on the topic of "home" for the past few weeks in a way I've never done so before. From the moment we found out that Will was on his way, Marty and I have been talking about where to raise him and our other (future) children. We've talked about family, church, schools, communities, geography, politics, safety, you name it -- anything and everything that influences how you function inside and outside the four walls and a roof you call your home. The most obvious place to call home was, of course, Indianapolis; my family lives there and the only other option would be Mississippi, and Marty has stated vehemently more than once that he'll "never live in the swamp again." So, even before my first trimester was over, we fixed our trajectory on Indiana and never wavered. In fact, I felt true grief that circumstances wouldn't allow for me to deliver Will in Indiana, surrounded by family and friends and just...familiarity.

Well, to make a very long story very short, things have changed. Without going into great detail, my parents came down for an unexpected visit a few weeks ago, sat down in our living room, and gently suggested we perhaps not move back to Indiana. The reason why? Because in a couple of years, they won't be there. Neither will my sister Sarah and Garrett and their brood. Where will they be? It feels funny to say, but they're moving even further south than where we currently reside -- North Carolina! There are many, many, many reasons for this move, but the primary one is my nephew Ethan. North Carolina offers him the best chance for a mainstream education, the best therapy for his autism (they utilize something called the "TEACH method"), the best opportunity to learn and grow and achieve his full potential. He's simply not getting any kind of decent opportunity from Indiana's special education track, and the curriculum only promises to get worse, and downright awful by the time he's in 3rd grade. And because my parents are nearing retirement, and because they refuse to live without their grandchildren (by their own admission, so cute), they're seeking a big change and thus, the big move south.

Without missing a beat, without so much as a moment's worth of hesitation, we happily decided to make North Carolina our new destination as well. In fact, our compass spun so quickly I got a bit of whiplash -- and I suddenly had the clearest perspective I've ever had when it comes to "home." All this time, I've been keening like crazy to call myself a Hoosier again, and suddenly I realized, I don't even care about that so much, I just care about living near my family. But even that is secondary. In all of the conversations that ensued, I further realized that I just want to be with my Marty and our Will. I want us to have a family adventure all our own. In all the planning and plotting to provide Will the best growing-up situation and as a result, setting our sights on Indy, I never sat and actually had this thought -- and shame on me!!! Of course, I'd be lying if I said I don't want to be near my family -- I absolutely do and Marty shares that desire. So, in a couple of years, we'll pick up stakes and mosey on down the trail. But in the meantime...oh, in the meantime, we've decided to choose the best place for us to be right now.

And not only have we found a great place, I've also stumbled upon the greatest sense of contentment I've ever had. A scant 2 and half years ago, I was perhaps the most miserable person I knew. I was in a sham of a marriage, unable to have children, lonely at home and sad at work and depressed everywhere in between. I fixed a fake smile on my face for the world to see but cried constantly on the inside, knowing in my deepest soul that my life was nothing that I wanted it to be. And now here I am, those 2 and a half years later, married to the love of my life (just know that I type that with tears in my eyes, because this man is genuinely a prince among men), listening to my baby son coo in the other room, and looking at the pictures I'm about to show you. I'm just so happy, because I've found my true home, my family with Marty, and together we've found a physical home, those four walls and a roof that will shelter and protect and embrace us for this next chapter in our lives.

And so, without further ado, meet my loft in downtown Kingsport:

7-foot French doors that are our front windows (follow me, I'm going to slowly spin to the right around the great room)

The windows now closed so you can see the restored hardwood floors and the exposed brick wall


The area that will be our dining room


Kids, meet the kitchen of my dreams: stainless steel appliances, extra-tall espresso-stained cherry cabinets, custom concrete countertops, and the coolest pendant lights you'll ever hope to see hanging above your sink


Another view of the kitchen, and if you look up, you can see the exposed wooden beams/rafters


The view down the hallway (doors lead to master suite, Will's nursery, guest bathroom, and laundry closet)


The area that will be my office (excuse the presence of the leasing agent, who may be my newest friend; her name's Samantha, she's lived in Europe, she had a private Christian school upbringing [I kid you not], and she's already invited us into her loft [she lives here too] and she might just be the coolest chick ever)

Finally, the living area, with those majestic windows open again (we have 2 sets of 2).

So why did y'all go for a loft?, you might ask. Well, we tried to get a house. Tried several times to find a decent home to rent, but OH. MY. STARS. I've realized something. There are a lot of people in the world who don't live clean, sanitary lives. To put it simply, there are just a lot of GROSS people out there, and I'll be darned if I'm going to rent a house from someone whose basement smells like dirty animals. In our quest to find some new digs, I haunted Craig's List and we went on several jaunts to see places, and we (read, I) kept getting more and more frustrated. It wasn't just once that we drove away from a place with me in shock and/or tears! Then one night, we saw the ad for these brand-new lofts, converted from an old furniture warehouse. By the time we called, there was only ONE left. Marty went and toured that same day, and we signed our lease on Friday, the same day I got to see it for the first time. With absolutely no sense of propriety, I got to the great room and started jumping up and down in sheer joy. My greatest feeling isn't joy, however -- it's gratitude. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you, Lord, for bringing me home.

And thank goodness my blog is private, because I can share with y'all our new address (we move in December 1st):

The Conways

217 Broad Street, Loft 206

Kingsport, TN 37660

Now, one last and completely unrelated photo. This is Will with his beloved Dr. Terry, his pediatrician. I'm not kidding when I say that they love each other. I think the photo says it all.

Monday Daybook

Outside my window... might as well be the dead of night, because it's pitch-black. I really hate the "falling behind" portion of daylight savings. I would so rather have daylight on the back end of the day rather than at 7:00 in the morning!

I am thinking... about several blog posts that I'm itching to write. I'm also thinking about finalizing all plans for November and ways to celebrate Christmas at home. That's right, we're staying HOME for Christmas this year! Marty and I decided it's very important for our children to wake up in their own home on Christmas morning, to run down the stairs in their footed jammies and rejoice at the sight of presents while Mommy and Daddy snuggle on the couch, sipping coffee and enjoying the lovely chaos of it all...sigh with me now -- "ahhhhhh."

I am thankful for... a young college student named Jessie. Who is my new day nanny, who starts tomorrow, Hallelujah! She is a doll, this girl, and she singlehandedly helped me go from worried like crazy about having a "stranger" in my house, caring for my son (even while I'm here) to stoked-excited at having some quality help. Jessie genuinely loves children and has excellent experience and credentials. Plus, we already dished on how much we love the Twilight books...I think this one's a kindred spirit. (My other favorite thing about having a nanny? I'm this much closer to actually living like Tori Spelling. HA!!!)

I am creating... a budget. Still. And at the advice of my dearest Kate, we bought Quicken, and may I pass the recommendation on down the line? It's a fantastic program; I especially love being able to hit the "Update" button and get current balances on all checking and savings accounts, plus credit cards. It's so cool, it seems magical.

I am going... to keep the kitchen clean daily. It's like a new obsession of mine. I refuse to go to bed with a single dish on the counter. Let's hope this obsession sticks!
I am reading... The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. It ties in with what I mentioned last week; there's a big ole blog post on this topic coming soon; I'm already drafting it.

I am hearing... "Jeopardy." Marty and I are self-admitted senior citizens when it comes to pre-primetime TV. We truly love a good episode of "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy," even though Marty can't stand Alex Trebec's attitude (I think it's funny).

Around the house... are baskets of clean laundry. I need to clean out my dresser -- I'm sick of piling clothes I use on top of clothes I ignore. It's time to purge!

One of my favorite things... Mrs. Smith's frozen pies. We've been enjoying Dutch apple and it's going to disappear tonight. I wish I could make a homemade fresh pie, but at this point in my journey of (still) growing accustomed to motherhood, in addition to my other roles, who am I kidding? It's going to be frozen pies for the Conways for a few years to come.

Will at 3 months

(Yes I realize I'm a month behind. I am determined to catch up; I can't keep everything straight in my head!)

This month marked many “graduations” for you, Puppy. (Oh yeah, Mommy calls you “Puppy” all the time now.) First of all, at the beginning of the month, you were still sleeping in your cradle in Mommy and Daddy’s room – if you can call it “sleeping.” Because you weren’t, really. And neither were Mommy and Daddy! One day, after getting up with you every 2 hours in the night, your sleep-deprived mother got pretty desperate and decided to institute some changes. Namely, I put fresh linens on your crib (in your room) and opened the baby monitor box and figured out how to use it. I also decided it was time to put some rice cereal in your night-time bottle. That night, you had a “ricey bottle” and a warm bath, then we put you in a comfy sleeper and read you some stories, then we laid you in your crib and tucked you in. Mommy prayed over you like I always do and turned on your “light show” (you have a projector mobile), then with you sucking contentedly on your paci, we snuck out and listened for any complaints on the monitor. There were NO complaints and you slept about 4 hours at a stretch that night – not as much as we wanted but a vast improvement! You seem to love sleeping in your nursery and you sleep better when we follow the whole routine, including the bath. We don’t do a bath every night, however, because I’m pretty sure that’s not good on tender baby skin!

You also developed something of a routine this month, too. Your bedtime is between 10 and 11 p.m. (don’t get used to that, kiddo), and you usually wake up between 2 and 3 a.m. Mommy also learned this month to only turn on a soft light in your room and nurse you in the glider, keeping you as much asleep as possible, and avoiding changing your diaper unless necessary. You adapted to this very well, and there have been several night-time feedings in which you didn’t even crack an eyelid. This has helped me so much, because I can put you back down in your crib, you squirm for a few seconds until you find a comfortable position, and then you’re back out like a light! Now, there have been some nights when you wake up when I lay you in your crib, and you seem offended that I’m not rocking you anymore. Well, it was hard, but I’ve learned to let you soothe yourself to sleep. You never get all that upset, and it just kills your Mommy as she listens to you on the monitor, but in a few minutes you’re back to sleep and Mommy is back to sleep that much faster, too. Then you’re usually back awake between 6 and 7 a.m., and Daddy pulls morning baby duty and feeds you a bottle, changes your diaper, then hands you off to me around 7:30 when he has to leave for work. I usually put you in your swing and we both doze until I have to get up to begin my workday. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, you’ll sleep from around 8 a.m. to 10:30 or 11 a.m.! That always signals a good day for me, because I can get some rest and then get my day started while you sleep in the sunshine streaming through the living room windows. It’s very peaceful!

We also had to take you in for an unscheduled doctor’s visit this month (you weren’t supposed to go back until 4 months). You had a very uncomfortable-looking diaper rash that didn’t clear up with Desitin, and you woke up one Sunday morning with goop coming out of your right eye. The goop would appear every time you blinked, and boy, did it ever make you mad! That next day we took you in to see the on-call doctor, who gave us a medicated cream for your rash and told us you had an infected, clogged tear duct. She said it was very normal and told us to massage your tear ducts during/after bath time, but we’ve never had to do this because your infection cleared up almost immediately and you haven’t had any problems since. While we were at the doctor’s, they weighed you in at 14 pounds, 8 ounces (they didn’t measure your length, for some reason?). Everyone at the doctor’s office always remarks on how “healthy” you are – you have some fantastic chubby cheeks and thighs, Puppy!

Mommy finally had to pack away all your newborn and 0-3 months clothes. I couldn’t help but be a tiny bit sad about it; you were such a sweet little infant and your clothes were so precious. But that’s okay, Mommy is so glad you’re growing like you should! You also graduated into size 2-3 diapers.

This month you also seemed to become much more aware of your surroundings, and you take great interest in people who talk to you (close to your face). You really began to recognize your Mommy and Daddy and you practically squeal with happiness when you see that Daddy is home from work. You talk ALL the time, and Mommy and Daddy have a running joke about how we should have expected this, seeing as we’re both English majors (communication is our THING!) and we fell in love over the phone (talking, talking, talking!). You also love to look around and your face shows that you’re super-alert and just taking it all in. When people meet you for the first time, they either remark on your hair (it’s so long and naturally spiky on top, although lightening up a bit from coal black to a soft brown) or your eyes (Daddy calls them “gun-metal blue”), or both. You’re just a beautiful baby and although Daddy and I would think this anyway, it’s always nice to hear compliments from other people. We’re just so proud of you, Will-Baby!!!

Finally, Daddy wanted me to also mention how much you LOVE watching football! Actually, it's quite true -- I think you see the images of the men in their brightly colored uniforms running around and it really piques your interest. Either that, or you're just a football prodigy and you're already taking in the game -- now wouldn't THAT make your Daddy happy??? You always get decked out in team gear with Daddy during a Saints game. They're undefeated so far and Daddy insists that you're the good-luck charm enabling this to happen!

Our little punkin'

On Halloween evening, Marty and I took our little punkin' and his Aunt Katie out to eat and then to go "trick-or-treating" at Barnes and Noble (our little version of it anyway, since Will can't eat candy, obviously). Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Katie took turns picking out books and putting them into Will's bucket, and then the adults took turns pushing Will around in his stroller while we all browsed to our hearts' content (a family of nerds are we). Here's some pix of the cutest punkin' ever!

Monday Daybook

Outside my window... bright blue skies that make the deep colors of the (remaining) red and orange leaves really pop.

I am thinking... about an enormous life change (yes, another one). More on that to come. Also about how sad I'll be when my sister leaves for home this week.

I am thankful for... my heating pad. Not doing so great adjusting back to the delights of NOT being pregnant...ahem.

I am creating... a budget. Wish I could say it's going well, but I'm not talented with math or money. If only one could create a budget by just reading stacks of books, but NO. You have to use spreadsheets and calculators and numbers and all sorts of things that give me hives.

I am going... to call and schedule haircuts for myself and Mr. Conway. We're both sporting way too much hair these days.

I am reading... The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. And holy cow, do I ever have things to say. This book has inspired me to rethink some future goals; namely, I want to become something of an amateur expert on fringe/extreme religious sects within Protestantism, because I truly believe God has something for me to say/contribute to the Christian understanding of these "cultures."

I am hoping... to nail down a daytime nanny very, very soon.

I am hearing... sweet silence. Will is asleep, rocking in his swing. Aunt Katie is sitting on the couch, absorbing another book. I'm quietly tapping at my keyboard and enjoying the sunshine streaming in the windows.

Around the house... are plenty of groceries. I did one of those marathon trips to Wal-Mart yesterday to prepare for the coming week. And came home simply exhausted! Does anyone else get worn out by Wal-Mart?

One of my favorite things... our new Avent bottle-warmer. Ridiculously priced (just as expensive as our coffeemaker?!?) but it will definitely pay for itself fairly soon.