January Update!

This year I decided to make a commitment to myself to document life more often. I have been terrible at blogging the past few years, and think it is important to document memories to be able to look back on later. I often scroll through the pictures on my phone and cannot remember the details of many of them. I have forgotten the timeline of milestones that Noah has been through, and it just makes me sad. So, this year I am going to (attempt to) document our life weekly/biweekly and maybe throw in a few random blogs about things I find interesting/ am passionate about (like my DIY laundry detergent, I know I’ve been saying I would share it for forever now!). Feel free to keep up with our shenanigans, or not… Here goes nothing!

January has been an incredibly busy and tiring month for us. We started the year with a house full of cooties. We had all just gotten over upper respiratory infections from December and then had another wave of colds come through. I’m praying that we have paid our dues and everyone stays healthy for the rest of the year. We also started having car issues and got some pretty crummy news that our transmission went out and needed to be rebuilt. Double bummer!! I have been trying not to let this month be a precursor for what our year will look like. I just keep telling myself that all the bad stuff is behind us for the year, and we are only going to go up from here.

Noah has been growing and learning so so much these past few months and really in the past month has expanded his vocabulary a ton. I am constantly in awe by how much he understands and picks up from what we say. He has the cutest personality that continues to blossom, and I can tell already that his heart is so compassionate toward others. He will do anything to make us laugh (even when he’s getting in trouble), but also knows when we are not feeling well and will give extra snuggles and love. He can be stubborn, which has been hard for me because I know he completely gets that from me, so I’m trying to show grace, but also make sure he knows it is not always okay. He loves to be outside! When he wakes up, he wants to go outside to play; he does not care what the weather is like or what time of day it is, he just loves the outdoors. It is nice that he is gaining independence and can go out and play while I watch from the kitchen window. He can climb like a maniac too! We are planning to build a rock wall in his soon-to-be toddler room, above the bed, so he can climb whenever he wants. I’m pretty excited about it! I could go on and on about how awesome this kid is. I just love him so much and have enjoyed each stage of development. Although, I think this one is my favorite so far. It is so nice that he can throw his trash away now, get things out of the pantry, and clean up his toys. Also, I am proud to report that he is most definitely a lefty! I’m pretty excited about that (and so are a few other fellow lefty family members of mine).

Noah's 2 Year Dino Birthday Party

The only upside of sickness is all the snuggles

Just a day in the life of Noah

He literally wears his hat EVERYWHERE!

Nehemiah is doing great too! (The more I say his name, the more I love it!) I can’t tell if he is more active than Noah was, or just that I feel it more because I have more time to notice it than when I was pregnant with Noah. I definitely started feeling him move sooner than I did with Noah. He is 24 weeks now and all is well. I cannot wait to see my two boys grow up together. Before finding out that he was a boy, I actually really wanted a girl; partially because I wanted all the cute bows and clothes, but mostly because we were set on a girl name. I was stressing about not having a boy name. I had spent hours looking for a boy name and decided that we were just going to have to have a girl because I did not like any boy names. I was actually talking on the phone with one of my best friends, and she was listing off names and said “Nehemiah.” And the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. I just needed to convince Daniel that it was a good name. He wanted Daniel Jr., but I wasn’t going for it. So I compromised and told him we could use Daniel as a middle name (hoping that would seal the deal).  After I had convinced him about Nehemiah, he said he didn’t like Nehemiah Daniel, so together we decided Cole was a fitting middle name. Neither are family names, but I do love the person that Nehemiah was in the Bible and the meaning “comforted by Yahweh.”  We also really like that it is not a super common name.

Nehemiah Cole Gonzales
20 weeks

Daniel is still working on his Ph.D. at Rice and continues to enjoy his research. I still only understand about half of what he studies, but I’m mostly glad that he is happy and likes it. He stays home with Noah when I work, and I love seeing the bond that he and Noah have. It kinda makes me jealous sometimes because Noah constantly asks for “Da-Da? Da-Da?” when he is not home, but I am so thankful that Noah has a Daddy who is such a great example for him to look up to.  They have lots of fun together. Noah knows that he can be rough with his Daddy and is more of a snuggler with me. I’m 100% okay with that.  

(I realized that I don't have any pictures of Daniel. I'll do better next month.)

I started my next class for my RN and am so excited to be that much closer to finishing!! 4 classes left, then I’ll play the waiting game to get a date for my clinical practical exam weekend. Pregnancy wise I am feeling great! I feel like this pregnancy is flying by and we are nowhere near ready for our new addition! Since our savings took a big hit from repairing the transmission, I have decided to try to work as much as possible before Nehemiah gets here to rebuild our savings and maybe (fingers crossed) get a new car that fits our family of four. I have been spending a ton of time cleaning our house and getting rid of unnecessary junk. Maybe early nesting?? Regardless, it feels good to have a clean, clutter-free house. I have plans, in all my free time, to try to make a quilt for Noah’s toddler bed and make a few things for Nehemiah too. We’ll see if it actually happens.

24 weeks
Weight gain: 9 lbs
Wearing 50/50 maternity/normal clothes
Feeling tons of kicks, inside and out
Cravings: Olive Garden salad dressing and milkshakes/soft serve ice cream

So that’s pretty much our life, in a nutshell, this month. We are all in a good place and are looking forward to what this year has in store! This post turned out to be a much longer blog than I had anticipated… oh well!

"Resolution" #1: Shower more often

Is it bad that one of my top "resolutions" for the year is to shower more often?
You think I'm kidding...
Maybe I am...
Ok, I'm not.

Stay at home momma here. When you don't have anywhere to be, showering is low on the priority list. Don't judge until you've been there. Most days my shower consists of wiping sticky gunk and slobber off myself with baby wipes as I chase my toddler around the house trying to wipe him down before he gets it all over the furniture.

The truth is, I could care less about showering. Showers to me equal alone time, when I can't see my two-year-old sticking his fingers under the door or hear him yelling because his blankie came off in the bed. It is a time for me to reflect in silence, decompress, pray, blare Pandora, cry if I need to, and sometimes wash my hair.

It is important for us mommas to take time for ourselves to meditate and recompose so that we don't lose ourselves in our day-to-day routine.

I used to feel guilty for leaving Noah in his crib if it wasn't naptime, while I went to shower. I would crack the door to make sure he didn't cry, then stress the whole time I was in the shower because I could hear him crying. I ended my shower more stressed than if I had not done it at all; so I just stopped taking that time altogether. I then found that when evening came, I was exhausted, often grumpy, and didn't have any energy left to pour into my husband. As soon as he walked in the door, I would hand Noah to him and collapse on the couch expecting him to fend for himself because I "deserved me time".

As the new year rolled around, I decided to reevaluate areas of my life. Make commitments to myself. Purge the junk and bad habits and replace some of them with healthy habits.

A resolution often has the reputation for being made at the beginning of the year and once you mess up, well, you have to wait a whole nother year to try again. A commitment, such as in marriage, allows grace and doesn't have to be made at a particular time. My commitment to "shower more often" happened to be at the beginning of the year, but as I continue to evaluate my life, I'll continue to make more commitments throughout the year.

This week I started quiet time in our house. Noah no longer takes a late-afternoon nap, so quiet time is a good alternative that allows me the have "shower time" and him to learn to entertain himself for a bit. Let me tell you, it has been glorious. While he doesn't quite get the concept yet, he does understand that being put in his crib with a few books and toys means he doesn't have to take a nap, which has limited the crying fits. So far, I have chosen to shower every day (mostly because I am sick and the steam feels nice), but sometimes, if a shower is not actually needed, it may be me making a hot cup of tea (and drinking it hot) and reading or laying in bed and just enjoying the silence.  

I am mostly writing this blog as a way to reflect later, as "documenting life" is another commitment I have made to myself, but thought it was something that maybe another momma or two could get something out of as well.

Regardless of what "shower time" looks like to you, my encouragement is to make time for it. Maybe not every day, but I promise that by doing it your children and husband will thank you for it and more importantly you will thank yourself for it.

~Jess