Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

When I became a mom I knew my life would change, but I thought the old me would come back once my head came out of the “newborn” cloud.

I thought I would be able to pick up right where I left off. That everything would be the same. 

Boy was I wrong.

Lately, I feel as though I need to take a break to stop and look at the person I’ve become since Babes and Buddy entered my life.

Sure, I’m me, but I’m different. 

I live for my family. To see them smile, laugh, play, and grow. It gives me more happiness than I dreamed possible. I feel so blessed and so fortunate to have such an amazing family. Life is good and I’m savoring every moment of it.

I love the outdoors. I’ve never been more excited for the spring to arrive than this year. Babes will be balancing on her two wheels, Buddy will soon be running after her, lunches at the beach, hikes on local trails, kayaking in the river, the possibilities are endless and I can’t wait.

Cooking dinner is great, but it’s not the most important thing. Sometimes I say, “screw it,” to the dinner plan so the kids and I can cuddle up in bed and watch Cookie Monster eat the letter of the day. After all, pizza, chinese and sushi are only three nights a week.

Date night. Husby and I began date night four weeks after Babes was born and we never turned back. It was pivotal in helping us navigate the waters of going from two to three and now to four. He’s my husband and my best friend and I wouldn’t want to spend my Saturday night with anyone else.

I’m becoming my mother. She was spontaneous, silly, and full of fun. We still laugh about jokes that are over 10 years old. Yep, she’s that good. And she keeps it coming! But, now, so do I. I turn on oldies and swing dance with Babes in the kitchen some mornings, jump up and down rapping about boogers to Buddy, and have a ball the whole time. Who doesn’t love being a kid again? 

And I’ve come to accept the craziness. After the first one, things died down around month 4. We were on a routine, I began blogging, life picked back up. Silly me expected it to be the same again. Laugh now. Sometime last month I came to peace with the fact that my life is permanently insane. My kids nap, maybe, for one hour at the same time. The rest of the time, I’m dealing with “Mama,” this, laundry, “waaa-raspberry-waaa,” and let’s not forget the “oh crap!” whenever I’ve forgotten something important, like Buddy’s six month check-up.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I’m not quite sure my blog will be the same. Sure, we still have the same sense of humor here in H.I.T. world, but it’s different. Things have changed. I’ve changed. And hopefully, you’ll all like the changes just the same or more. 

After all, we do.

Meet the New Cast

The votes are in and I'm happy to welcome Buddy to the blogging world!

Thanks for all your help guys.

It’s been a while since we introduced all the players, and with some new faces in the mix, I’d say it’s also about time to do it again. Here goes:

Suburban H.I.T.

Yep, that’s me. Pretty much your typical Martha Stewart wannabe Mama with baby mama drama. Ok, so I'm not really that typical.

Husby

My unsuspecting amazing husband. He had no idea what he signed up for when he married me. Good thing he has a sense of humor!

Babes

She is the spitting image of me as a child with all the spunk and sass of my husband. Killer combination, that will be TONS of fun when she enters the teen years terrible twos. She’s just learning to talk and we’re learning patience and how not to laugh in front of a toddler.

Buddy

Don't be fooled. This kid has us wrapped around his little fingers. A true mama's boy with a quick temper to boot; he's got some fire under his diaper. We can’t wait to watch his personality develop...

Mary Poppins

Our loving au pair who instantly became part of the family. She survived endured drove 20 hours with me and our two screaming adorable children in a car and decided to stay she still likes us. Enough said. She's a rockstar and we never want to let her go. we want to keep her forever and ever. we love her.

Well there you go. Welcome to Suburban H.I.T. 2012 - more kids, more laughs and hopefully more fun.

Rock the Vote

Before I can introduce the newest cast of characters, I need some help.

What on earth should Baby H.I.T. be called on the blog?!?!?!

We have a few contenders:

My brothers immediately nicknamed him Dr. Tre - a take on the name Dr. Dre. He was also called Master P (as in popper) for a while, but I know a friend of mine calls her little one by that moniker.

I have always called him my little Snuggle Bug. He loves cuddling up into that crook in your neck, gazing into your eyes and falling asleep. It's absolutely adorable until he won't sleep in his crib alone...or when he's older and his friends make fun of him. 


With the kids born so close together (I swear, we planned it this way!), we had some help taking care of baby boy while Babes adjusted to life with a less than focused Mama. She would always ask how her Buddy was doing and he would just smile at her loving voice.

So, kindly take your opinions to the poll in the upper left corner of my blog and help a Mama out.

What nicknames do your children have?

Mommy Mush

With the addition of our second child, my brain was replaced with a pile of mush.

I forget everything.

Even when it’s written down, I forget it. Post-it note on my coffee mug? Slips my mind. Red ink on my calendar? No way I’m remembering it. Lipstick on my mirror? Hard to wipe clean and I still forget it (probably because I’m cursing myself so much while cleaning the oily smudge off the mirror).

Here’s a sample of some of the things I’ve forgotten lately:

• Putting on my shoes. I was out the door before our amazing au pair (more on her later) mentioned I was forgetting something important. I remembered. 
• The baby monitor. It gets left behind everywhere - my closet, the bathroom, the laundry room.
• Placing the nipple in the bottle. The baby didn’t think milk all over his face was nearly as funny as I did.

I only remember these because I wrote them down. In 3 different places.

Welcome to motherhood with more than one child.

What funny things have you forgotten lately (if you can remember any of them!)?

Why, Hello There

Here's what we've been up to the last half of the year...

We welcomed our son on July 26, 2011

Two days later, we brought him home to a less than thrilled Babes.

We enjoyed beautiful fall weather...

But still couldn't get the kids to get along.

Babes and I went on our first trip alone together. She was perfect!

We went trick or treating.

And by Thanksgiving, a miracle happened...

Now, we're one big happy family...

With two little kids in cahoots.

Happy New Year! Looking forward to seeing you again real soon!

Baby H.I.T. Nursery Reveal!

Initially, we were planning on keeping the sex of baby number 2 a surprise, so I developed a unisex nursery theme. But after staring at the sonogram of our baby for over 45 minutes, I had to know the sex...

I was beyond excited when the technician said, "boy."

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't figure out what would be his nursery theme. Then, over dinner while on vacation in Anguilla, Husby mentioned what he thought would make a great theme.

It was perfect!

I present...the new nursery for Baby H.I.T.!

and After:

We loved the idea of a nautical nursery, but it seemed cliche and overdone. That's when Husby thought it would be fun to design a pirate-themed nursery, complete with a treasure map mural on the wall. I loved it! It allowed us to create a soothing alcove for our baby that would be a fun enough theme for him to grow into.

Many of the main pieces are from Pottery Barn - fortunately for us, they launched a nautical room about a month after we came up with our theme - talk about perfect timing! The pieces that inspired the mural were three simple canvases I found at HomeGoods for $15.99 a piece. We had them framed and they fit the room perfectly. The ship wheel was a $30 find from Amazon! And we recycled the Serena & Lily glider we used in Babes room - we just re-stuffed the back cushion.

Being a deal girl, I was super excited to tell Husby that our nursery came in WAY UNDER BUDGET! We used Amex points for furniture, my dad and mom helped hang the curtain rods, and many of the room accents were found at places like HomeGoods and online sites like Zulily. We pieced together our bedding set since we couldn't find something that matched the theme and it saved us a ton.

Now that the nursery and attic are done, I'm busy nesting in organizing the office. Still no movement, so we'll just have to wait and see when Baby H.I.T. plans on joining the party...

T-Minus 2 Days to 37 Weeks

And we're doing everything we can to keep this little guy cooking!

He's making quite the fuss these days. Here's a brief update:

- We're experiencing some pretty strong contractions throughout the day. Fortunately, rest seems to keep them at bay so I've been resting up a storm.
- As of last night and all day today, I'm now experiencing consistent lower back pain. When this happened with Babes, I went into labor two days later.
- I can't figure out if walking is uncomfortable or just difficult. Either way, I'm not doing much of it these days.
- The pressure is downright painful when I move around - just another reason why I'm laying down most of the time.
- As of last week, I began dilation and effacing. My next appointment is on Thursday, so we'll know about any more progress soon.
- I still have baby clothes sprawled all over the floor of the new nursery, but Husby has the room on lockdown until Thursday.

Husby keeps begging Baby H.I.T. to stay in until tomorrow afternoon - he has a big meeting tomorrow morning that he kinda needs to be at. I keep telling him to stop jinxing himself by asking Baby H.I.T. for favors.

We've alerted the tree that it looks like labor is coming soon in hopes that it would stop things (like when the minute you bring your car in to get fixed, the problem goes away), and we've had no such luck today. Maybe this post will help slow things down a little...

Until then, we'll keep you guys posted! Wish us well :)