WATLINGTOwN

Noah: I love you because...

2010-11-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

your laugh is infectious & always puts a smile on my face*your speech is improving daily and we are really starting to communicate better*your dimples are so sweet*your big wet sloppy kisses right on the mouth*you love to wrestle*you sit up in your bed quietly each morning and patiently wait for me to get you*you don't fight us on nap/bedtimes anymore*you come up with your own words for things*you patiently wait by the window waiting for dad to come home each day*you always say "thank you mommy, pease mommy"*you get sad if you see other children cry*you play so nicely with your friends*you get so excited about everything*you cheer when we arrive to places you recognize*you love to dance & sing*you're outgoing like your mom*you're a jokester like your dad*you love animals*you love to swim and anything beach related*you hold my hand*you want a hug after time outs*you always say you're sorry*you're interested in everything*you are willing to try anything new!

most of all because...you are mine <3

Has it really been a year?

2010-06-20T19:08:00.001-07:00

Yes, yes it has. I can't believe I haven't blogged in a year! Basically it comes down to only allowing myself one vice and well....of course that is FB. The true time suck, so there you go.

But here we are...10 days into having a 2-year-old and boy what an interesting ride it has been!! Everyone always says, "oh the terrible twos" and I think, "yeah right!" This is not something that I have to worry about because I've basically been living it the past two years! I don't think there has EVER been a time that I didn't have a wild man on my hands so who cares about two??!! Well yet again, I was wrong! In the past two weeks, I've seen a marked difference in my sweet adorable child. The playing is getting rougher, the tempers are getting longer and the manipulation is in full swing...wow, what the hell did I get myself into?

I really prefer not to use the term "terrible twos"....I prefer teachable twos....basically he just has to learn. This is the beginning of Jason and I sticking together and becoming a unified force against our very strong-willed child. Of course, he is so sweet and those moments that are rare that he wants to give lots of hugs and kisses, I store away and hold on tight forever. The thought that there will be a time where he doesn't want to hug and kiss me all day makes me want to cry just writing it. I'm supposed to be the most important person in his life forever....*sigh* of course that is not the case. But for now I can work on molding him into a well rounded, loving and most of all kind and considerate member of society. He's already one of the funniest people I know so we must be doing something right....

Happy 2nd Birthday Noah Carter

Noah: Your dad and I love you more and more each day!!

Grand Cayman

2009-05-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

IAI's motto - A Great Place to Work.

And a great place it is! Jason's company decided that to celebrate their 10 year anniversary, they would take all 300 employees and a guest to Grand Cayman to celebrate the occasion. It was a great weekend of relaxing in the sun and drinking and eating all day. It was paradise really. And Jason made my 30th birthday extra special by treating me to a couple's massage on Saturday and then a swimming with the dolphins excursion on Sunday. Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done!

I still remember when Jason was deciding between 3 job offers after getting his clearance and IAI wasn't the highest offer but there was something inside that just kept bringing me back to this company. I just felt like they were family oriented and really cared about their employees and I think nowadays that is hard to find. We definitely made the right choice and we are so appreciative of this amazing gift they gave us.

Noah - Almost a year old

2009-05-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

Noah is searching for Serenity. Quite the determined little guy.

Christmas, New Years, Vacation...wait what?

2009-01-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

So after Jason and I got engaged, I made the decision to remember every moment and enjoy each step of the way because I knew that time would fly by and my life would be changing forever and I kept that promise to myself. Now having a baby....whole different story. I keep reminding myself to enjoy every stage but I still think I'll probably be an awesome mom once Noah turns 3 or 4 and we can communicate much better with each other.

Christmas came and went before my eyes and it turned out to be a great time. The weekend before Christmas we headed to Richmond to the Green Annual Yankee Swap with all of Jason's extended family and did xmas with his mom and George. Then we went to Xmas Eve Services - our first time at the "Family Service" instead of the candlelight which was so special to share that with Noah and he did really well the whole time. Afterwards, we headed to the Sinclairs for our traditional Tafrawe/Sinclair xmas eve service dinner. Then Christmas morning we were with my family and it was the first year we weren't trying to visit 3 families in one day which was the best present I could ever ask for. For the past 7 years, we typically just run around everywhere and it's completely exhausting! Finally, the weekend after, Jason and I hosted all of my extended at our house and it meant so much to be able to do that for my grandmother since she can no longer live on her own in Fredericksburg and has moved in with my parents.

If that wasn't enough a week later we left after celebrating New Years alone at home to go to Aruba with Jason's family to get away from the cold! It was a wonderful time and so great just to get away and have help with Noah but vacationing with a baby can be pretty stressful. It was great to get out one night and have Jason's mom babysit so Jason and I could actually *gasp* eat a meal together! This never happens anymore so it was a real treat. Noah did better than expected flying and I only ended up in tears on the last flight home when Noah was screaming in first class - yeah that was fun:)

Sadly, we have not gotten to celebrate Christmas with the Watlington side of the family yet but we are very much looking forward to them coming to visit next week for a few days and I love being with them. We're just ummm extending the holidays and making it extra special for Noah's first:) I'll try and post some pictures soon but as for now, Noah is awake and not pleased I am not holding him.

ahhh yes....as MOPS would say....the adventures of mothering!

Noah -The First 6 Months!

2008-12-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

The first 6 months with Noah have been such a blessing, joy, challenge and fun all wrapped into one. The best Christmas present we could ever have! It's still so hard to believe he's been here with us since June - the time has flown by and here we are at Christmas! It feels like he has always been with us. Jason and I are so grateful for all our family and friends who have supported us and been so wonderful to Noah. I feel so blessed to have so many friends that have babies around the same age as Noah and to experience being first time mommies together! Here is a recap of the past 6 months:

Got Milk?

2008-11-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well...for most of you that keep up with us on a regular basis know that Noah has desperately been struggling with acid reflux and what a battle it has been! His first couple months were wonderful. He barely EVER spit up and I thought we were the luckiest parents in the world...well I spoke too soon. Around month 3, it started to affect him more and more and he would literally just vomit a good portion of each bottle after each feeding. About a month ago, we went and saw the doctor and she started out the conversation by saying well just try the rice cereal and see if that sticks to his stomach better and I in turn said "ok that's fine but I'm also not leaving here without some sort of prescription - this is the whole reason why I made the trip over here."

Well the rice didn't work and the zantac has been a nightmare. Whoever the idiot was that designed peppermint medicine when apparently babies don't like that flavor really has made my life difficult. Literally, the first time we tried to give him the zantac (syrup form with a syringe) he LITERALLY shot it from his mouth over to the door across the room. It was actually quite impressive. Needless to say, he hates the medicine and we can barely get it in him or not much and we've tried to put it in the bottle but still no change. So today I took him back over to the doctor and said we need to do something new- this isn't working and Saturday he cried and cried and cried and cried and cried....get my drift. Yeah for 12 hours straight, nothing could calm him down and add teething on top of that. It was a sad day...for all of us. So all that to say, I now have a prescription filled for prevacid which is a dissolvable tablet that goes under the tongue. So please, please pray for us that we start to see a change....definitely for our little guys sake and for our sanity.

We've done zantac, maalox, rice cereal, gripe water, tylenol, similac soy, enfamil A.R Lipil and now back to square one with our regular enfamil. You know- there's only so many baby products out there!

Serenity & Noah

2008-11-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

So....the good news and bad news. The good news...Serenity doesn't seemed bothered by Noah. The bad news...Serenity doesn't seemed bothered by Noah. For the past 8 years, Serenity has been my child, my calming effect, my joy..my well... serenity. And first, bringing a boy and now a baby into the picture has left her less than thrilled with my life choices since she is fast falling in the ranks. Of course, this isn't true and every spare minute I can wrap her up in my arms with lots of hugs and kisses I do to reassure her she is my baby. I know it's a sickness really to treat your pet like a person but I don't care...she was there for me when I felt like no one else was so it is what it is.

I know the constant crying and attention to Noah annoys her to no end but each day I remind her that at least now I get to stay home with her everyday...I know I'm reasoning with a cat but hey, after this long, we have our own language...she knows my moods and I know hers:) My hope is that one day when Noah becomes mobile and starts crawling and running around the house that they will become fast friends...or she will at least tolerate him. We've overcome many obstacles: 1. Jason is allergic 2. My dad lost her when I was out of town 3. I thought the movers let her out so as you can see....this too shall pass and hopefully one day she will learn to love Noah. As I write this post, she crawls into my lap. I think I'm forgiven :)

Serenity the Cat

Noah -my favorite things

2008-11-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

*he's the first one I see in the morning*the way he repeatedly looks at me and says "ah goooo" * his little birthmark on the backside of his leg*the way he sleeps with both hands behind his head*how he falls asleep as soon as he goes in the car*his old man hair on the back of his head*the way he stares into my eyes and finally seems to know who I am*the satisfied coos he makes while drinking his bottle*and also sucking down the bottle to the last drop*the fact that he already seems mesmerized at watching football*all his baby fat rolls*the fact that he is a mini-me of his dad*the way his facial expressions make me laugh*the grunts when he's pooping-such a man*his curiosity as he explores everything around him now*his amazing grins*his rosy red cheeks*his mommy's nose* And of course that he's my miracle, my baby boy - a gift from God.

Weekend of Fun!

2008-10-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

Very rarely do Jason and I have free weekends - it always seems like there is something going on! So we thought after two weekends in a row of being out of town, we would finally have a relaxing weekend at home as a family- and it did happen...sort of:)

My best friend Jodi was home for the week visiting with her family so I knew that was on the top of my "to do" list and what an awesome time that was! I finally got to meet Makenzie Riley Potter and she was SO sweet! I started out the weekend by meeting Jodi and her mom for lunch at a new italian restaurant over in Ashburn and then went back to their house in Belmont to visit for the rest of the afternoon. Then Joy came by for a visit when she got out of school and finally all three of our babies finally got to meet - it was so special! Then that night, our old softball team had asked Jason if he wouldn't mind filling in to play so I left Jodi's and headed over to the fields to meet him and visit with everyone again. It was so cold out but Noah did great and was even forgiving since we kept him out past his bedtime.

On Saturday, we finally had the chance to lay around and do nothing which was great! Of course Noah diligently stuck to his new sleeping schedule (9pm-6am), so I was up with him bright and early at 6am watching the sun come up while Jason got a few more hours sleep. Thankfully, I took a nap later on since none of us have been getting a lot of sleep recently with a hectic family schedule. Later in the afternoon, my dad called to say that our relatives were in town visiting my grandmother at the nursing home and asked if my aunt and uncle could come meet Noah. So my parents and them stopped by for a visit and then we headed to dinner to celebrate my aunt's upcoming birthday.

Finally, Sunday we had been invited to two things so we were just hoping Noah would have another good day out since we knew we'd be gone quite awhile and he was super sweet again...as long as we were feeding him of course! We went back over to Jodi's parents house and met up with Joy and Brian so all the guys could meet the babies since they didn't get the chance on Fri. It was so wonderful being all together and sad that it can't be like this all the time. Jodi said "if I lived here we could have playdates every week" and her mom said "more like everyday for a sanity break" from our fussy babies:) My mom also stopped by to give Makenzie some presents and see Jodi also. Then we headed to the Sinclairs to watch the Redskins take on the Browns and thankfully won the game even though it was way too close for a game we should have won. Noah once again was totally spoiled and got to be held by his grandparents, Ed and Carolyn, John and Sherry (new grandparents to twin boys Jack and Ryan!) and Marjorie from church! Below are a few pictures to share from the weekend:)

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend! Jason and I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family and next weekend we're hoping to make the trip out to beautiful Harper's Ferry WV to see the leaves change and take the ghost tour through town in honor of Halloween!

Jodi and Makenzie

Daddy and Noah

In Honor of Noah

2008-10-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Since my blog is primarily to share with family and friends about my beautiful baby boy, I thought it only fitting to start from the beginning. "And in the beginning God created man..." haha I'm sure just the beginning of my bad jokes :)

I never felt compelled to blog or really even share about my pregnancy 13 months ago because well quite frankly, my pregnancy sucked! I didn't really start to show until about 5 months so those first few months when I wasn't sharing, I just looked like I was getting really fat and at the same time having morning sickness EVERY day. Yes, that's right-my morning sickness decided to last for the full 9 months - fabulous! But on the positive side - those first few moments when Noah started to kick and I felt those butterflies in my stomach I just kept reminding myself at how awesome God's grace was to grant me this child and I decided to stop complaining.

At the 30 week mark of my pregnancy I noticed some bleeding but later found out false alarm but thankfully got me to the doctors office where they decided to hook me up to all those fun machines and realized that I was having contractions 2 min. apart although they were very small and I could not feel them so they sent me straight over to Reston hospital for observation and were very concerned because it was way too early for him to be born. Thankfully they got me on medicine to stop the contractions and even let me go back to work on mild bedrest.

Then I hit my 36 week checkup - June 9th to be exact. The doctor took me off the medicine and within an hour the contractions had started back up and my blood pressure was through the roof and I was entering preeclampsia. They sent me back to the hospital and this time said I had to stay overnight and that was it, I was done with work (I only had 3 days left-but had planned on it being a busy 3 days so pretty distressed to say the least)

The next morning my doctor came in and said she couldn't let me leave because at this point my body was headed towards toxemia - which can be fatal for both mother and child and so just like that she said, "you're gonna have a baby today" and they started to induce me! Of course I completely freaked out and water works started flowing because I was NOT READY and of course God was looking down at me and laughing and saying this isn't your timing -it's mine. But it was certainly difficult to realize I thought I had a month to go and there I was in the hospital with no bag packed, no clothes washed, no nursery finished and all I wanted to do was see my cat! I know the nurse thought I was quite odd on that account.

Without all the "details", the rest of the day went pretty smoothly. I feel bad saying that but it's really true. After all we had been through the past 9 months, baby day had arrived! They started the potosin at 9am, broke my water after that (while Jason was at home getting a bag together), rocked in my rocking chair for a few hours with my parents and Jason and my guardian angel of a nurse Katie by my side. My mom finally convinced me to call the anesthesiologist around lunchtime (don't try to be a hero Kim) when the contractions were so close together that I could no longer take breaks and they had me take a nap and rest up and sent everyone away for my body to "get ready." Around late afternoon, the amazing news came that I was completely dilated and ready to start pushing. And so we did...for 2 hours we did. I thought this baby would never come and I was ready to put him back! I knew the whole pregnancy that he was head down and REALLY down but what I didn't know was that he was face up and not face down which is much more painful and harder to get him to cooperate -one last bit of fun for me but finally at 7:34pm Noah Carter Watlington arrived safely weighing in at 6lbs 14oz and 20.5 inches. Here are some pics to share that special time. Of course look forward to many fun Noah posts in the future!

No Longer Spam

2008-10-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

So after entering the wonderful world of blogging, Blogger decided to consider my page a possible spam blog and locked out my page for the past week. I guess they received my not so friendly message at the help center. So I'm back and sadly you haven't gotten rid of me yet - of course you can always just close out the page but then what fun would that be!

Happy Blogging!

Here's to You - Bunco Ladies!

2008-10-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I've been an avid myspace fan for quite some time now (funny story how that came into being) and eventually joined facebook...just because. But had made it pretty clear that I was solely a myspace girl and didn't need another vice! But now that I'm a mom - yes I can hardly believe it myself - I have ALL this extra time on my hands...yeah right:)

So I was sitting at my monthly bunco group encouraging one of the girls from my Providence crew to "jump on the bandwagon" and join facebook also because well "everyone is doing it!" which led to my explanation behind the two sites and the main reasons why I like myspace better:

You can select music to play on your page-you cannot on facebook

You can change your background with different templates -you cannot on facebook

You can view people's pages that you don't necessarily want to be your friend-you cannot on facebook (unless of course you're one of those obnoxious people that makes your page private)

Which they all replied...you get should a blog then! So there you have it...I'm officially a blogger! So thanks for checking out my site and getting a glimpse into our family- Jason, Kim, Noah & Serenity (the cat)