Absent Minded

I apologize for being so absent on here lately! 

I don't think I've ever slacked quite this much with blogging....

but we've been busy enjoying our Summer as much as possible! 

A few things we've been up to lately:

This Summer has been flying by, I feel like we've hardly done anything but at the same time we've done a good amount. 

I just don't want Summer to end! 

I love this hot weather, spending as much time outside as possible, 

how happy it makes me feel and going on adventures with my girl.

We still have lots of fun stuff to do, so unfortunately this blog will be put at the bottom of our list. 

I'll post when I can and I have lots of catching up to do, so there will be posts dating back to May and it will be slow going but it's better late than never!

Hope you all are enjoying your Summer!

xoxo

Roweyn's Last Day of Preschool

So Friday was Roweyn's last day of Preschool. Totally bittersweet! We've had such a fun time the past 8 months, we're sad to take a break for the Summer. It seemed like all the kids were finally getting so comfortable with each other, playing well together and then school is over just like that. 

The two photos on the left are Roweyn on her last day at almost 2.5 years old and the one on the right is of her on her first day at 20 months. She has changed so much! On her first day she still has so much baby in her and look how little hair she has! She has most definitely changed from baby to kid in the past 8 months. Still hard for me to believe!

Here is Roweyn's very first school picture! How cute is she?

I got this a couple weeks ago but haven't had a chance to post it yet, so I figured I would wait till now. 

This photo was taken back in March and even in two months I can see she has changed a lot!

After school, we got our boat in the water and took it out for a ride.

Roweyn wanted to play in the boat all day, pretending to drive. Then once we went out, she sat in Papa's lap and drove the boat with him. 

She loved it.

One of my favorite memories as a child was always being in our boat. I'm excited to be able to share that memory with Roweyn and hope it will be one of her favorite memories when she's older!

Lounging in the tube. I have a feeling this year we will be pulling her behind the boat in the tube and she will love it!

Never Before Seen Posts Pt. 1

So like I said in my last post I have been working on updating some older posts that have never seen the light of day but all have photos like from trips back in October, Halloween, Roweyn's Ramblings etc! I've been working so much on all of these, that I haven't gotten a chance to do many posts of recent happenings which there have been many of course!


I wanted to make a list of all of these posts in case you wanted to check them out! So here they are...with more to come!

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 34 & 35

October Photo Catch Up Pt. 1 

Apple Hill

October Photo Catch Up Pt. 2

Preschool Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 36 & 37

A Tall Pines Halloween

Halloween 2011!

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 38 & 39

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 40

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 41

Thanksgiving 2011!

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 42

Recently Enjoyed Christmas Fun!

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 43

P.S. If you have a baby girl in any of the sizes 0-12 be sure to check out the "Shop Roweyn's Closet" page at the top, underneath our banner. 

Twenty Three

Today I turned Twenty Three. 


I've forgotten how young I really am. I've always felt older than my actual age. After having Roweyn, I feel like I've aged even more, instead of feeling like I'm turning Twenty Three, I feel like I'm turning Twenty Eight. But I'm not Twenty Eight, I am only Twenty Three and I am still young and I still have many, many years in my life. (Not that Twenty Eight is old, because it's really not. ha) That's something I forget often, especially being a single Mom. I feel like I need my entire life put together now or it's not going to work out. I feel like the plans that I once had, that I once dreamt of, still need to happen the same way, otherwise I'm letting down Roweyn. Now I know that's really not the case, it's just hard to let go of something you wanted so badly because you didn't have it. I'm sure there are many people that can relate. Lucky enough for me, it is something that I can let go of, because it's not life or death and if it's meant to be it can still happen.

I'm excited for what this next year of my life brings. I'm hoping for some good change. I can't wait to spend every minute I can with Roweyn, just like the past almost two years, watching her grow, remembering everything I can. Life goes by so fast, and it's so easy to forget the little things and sometimes even the big things. It's very bittersweet. I've realized that my Mom must feel the exact same way as I do, especially today, seeing her little girl, now Twenty Three years old. I can't even imagine Roweyn 21 years from now, the same age as I am today. It will be here before I know it and that's just crazy to me!


So here's to not worrying so much about the future, to focusing on what's right in front of me and to remembering and cherishing every moment I can with my family.

Source: yesandyes.org via Ash on Pinterest

Source: lh5.googleusercontent.com via Ash on Pinterest

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 31 Pt. 2

If you missed Pt. 1 check it out here....

After Preschool, my Mom and Tayelor picked us up to start our road trip up to Trinity River where we were meeting my Dad at his friends cabin right on the river for the night. Roweyn slept for almost 3 hours (Preschool really wore her out I guess!) and woke up when we hit a very windy part of the drive. We had to stop about 45 minutes before we got there to get some food at the grocery store, and right when we pulled into the parking lot, I turned to look at Roweyn and she had thrown up all over herself. :( I felt so bad she got car sick!! I wasn't feeling that good either but it didn't really occur to me that Roweyn might have been feeling the same way. So then we had to clean everything up and go grocery shopping which put us about an hour behind schedule, but we made it there with no other problems and it was SO nice to finally be out of the car!

There was no cell service there which was kind of nice for once, so I took the majority of my photos with my camera so I wouldn't kill the battery on my phone. We made dinner and had a quiet night at the cabin Friday night and then on Saturday after we cleaned up and did some laundry, including Roweyn's yucky clothes and her car seat, we headed down the road to the river for a couple hours. The water was freezing even though it was in the 90's outside, I couldn't get in past my shins. haha There were some shallow little holes dug up on the sand right at the edge of the water which made the water pretty warm so Roweyn had fun playing in them.

After the river it was time to make our way to Humboldt County to see all our family and go to my cousin's wedding reception which was the main point of our trip.

Sunday was my cousin's "Hoe Down" Wedding Reception. It was so fun and so easy going, totally non traditional which made pretty cool. If I ever get married I imagine mine will be pretty similar. We spent the day outside, eating, exploring and listening to the music while spending time with all our family that was there. That second photo is the view from their back yard. So pretty! The next is the great band that played and last is Rowe hanging out on the hay bale with her Papa. She had a lot of fun playing with my Dad and making him chase her around everywhere.

She found some big logs to play on, and now that I think about it I don't think she stayed still for more than a minute or two the entire time we were there. When it started to cool down and get a little dark out we decided it was time to head over to see our other side of the family at my Aunt's where they were having a Birthday Party for my Uncle.

The next morning we packed everything up and headed over to my Grandma's to say goodbye to her. Roweyn loved exploring her garden.

Lots of flowers to touch, smell and hit which is what she thinks is so funny in that photo on the left, she then proceeded to lounge on the deck for who knows what reason.

Our drive home went pretty smoothly, I think we made two stops, one for lunch and one for dinner. Its about a 6 hour drive, give or take. Apparently Roweyn was really worn out because she was out cold that night. ha I kinda really love that photo of her.


It was quite the week for us and both trips went by so fast which is pretty typical, there never seems to be enough time, I'm just glad we were able to go though.

Roweyn's Ramblings Wk. 31 Pt. 1

We spent our Labor day lounging around in Tahoe. I'm splitting this into two parts because we had sooo much going on, I don't want to bore you with all of it at once. ;)

Roweyn loved eating her breakfast on the deck while watching the boats drive by on the lake. 


We played some ping pong with the girls. Roweyn had a blast trying to play and every time we would serve she would throw an extra ball onto the table and try to hit the balls with the paddle. My moms cousin took some photos of us and Roweyn kept posing holding a paddle up in the air. Its funny how she totally knows when we're doing a group photo and knows when she should pose, it's the only time she'll actually do it. If it's just her she won't hold still.


We worked up an appetite playing so we made some lunch and played on the deck. I couldn't help but take this photo of her sitting on Cyder. Ha! I promise she's not hurting her. Totally wouldn't let that happen. 


She found that hat in a bin of toys and put it on herself then ran around with it for a while. Doesn't she look like such a big girl?! Gah she's growing up SO fast!!!


After a wonderful day and a half, we headed back home Monday evening and then I was back for a long day of work on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we headed over to see our best friends new baby, which I totally forgot to mention was born on Saturday while we were working. She is beautiful and I was having so much fun holding her for an hour and a half that I didn't get to take a photo of her!!

After we were done visiting we took a trip to Target and met up with another best friend for some hang out time while shopping before he left to go back to college. I bought a few toys for Roweyn since we were getting ready to take a road trip this weekend and wanted to make sure she would stay busy. I got her one of those magnet doodle toys and some color wonder books and markers and she picked out a little dump truck toy. I found some new boots for me which I was pretty excited about since my other ones are about 3 to 4 years old. And I found Roweyn a cute brown cardigan and some super cute striped knee socks!

We had a little picnic in our car before going home since it's about a 45 minute drive and then on the way home I picked up my very first Pumpkin Spice Frap from Starbucks and I gotta say, it was pretty good!!

The last photo above and the photo below are a little backwards but on Friday it was Roweyn's very first day of Mommy and Me Preschool!! I got a bunch of cute photos of her before school and some cute ones at school too! See her cute button name tag on her in the above photo? Love it! She had fun playing with the baby dolls, play dough, painting and playing in flour (they have a big tub thats filled with flour instead of sand). We also did circle time where we sang songs and met Chester the Raccoon, then we had snack time and after snack time we headed outside to play. After play time we came back inside for circle time to say goodbye and sing the goodbye song!

I'm so excited to be doing this with Roweyn. We've gone twice now and I look forward to it every week! So far Roweyn's class is the only one that isn't completely filled up and she happens to be the only girl in it. I'm hoping some more girls will join so she can meet some new girlfriends!

How cute is this photo?? I want to do this every year with her. :)

Pt. 2 will be back tomorrow with some more cute photos!

Happy 17 Months!

Roweyn,


You are already closer to18 months, than 17 months. I really can't believe how time flies. I swear just yesterday you were this little teeny baby, and yes you are still teeny, but really you are not even close to a baby anymore. You are most certainly a full fledged toddler! 

You are SO busy! I can't even try to keep up with you. As soon as I clean one thing up you're already into 3 other things. And they're usually things you shouldn't be in, you're now reaching onto counters and tables still taller than your head, yet you are still able to grab so much off of them.

You're becoming more and more independent. What the heck?! I thought I still had at least another 6 months or more before this stage hit.

You crack me up every day with the faces you make and the way you talk. I love that we can just look at each other and start laughing for no reason. You understand EVERYTHING we say to you and you are becoming quite good at expressing yourself and what you want. You say and do things that I have no clue how you learned and am just amazed by how smart you really are. You pick up on everything around you and you are so curious of your surroundings.

You have 16 teeth now! 16!!! All of them except for your two year old molars, which knowing you, will probably come before you're two. Your sleep habits have been pretty much the same for the last month or two. Sleeping in your stroller for naps, which you take at about the same time every day. And sleeping at night, you seem to show the same patterns but you usually have at least one to two nights a week where you are sleeping in till close to 6am in your own bed and then I pull you into mine for a couple more hours. You almost never sleep past 8:15 now and you always have a fun way of waking me up, whether it be, poking me in the face, patting my chest, talking or just trying to climb off the bed.

You still love playing with Cyder but have gotten much more rough with her and as much as Cyder loves you, she's not so fond of being hit or squeezed by your many hugs hundreds of times a day. And yet she just jumps up and licks you afterwards.

You're such an awesome kiddo. I am so so so proud to be your Mama and so extremely lucky. You are my everything and you mean more than the world to me. I loved you so much before you were even born, more than you can even imagine, and yet my love for you grows even more every day. I look forward to each day I have with you and am always so excited to see what you will do next.

Love you much!


Love,
Mama

3 Months and Counting!

Roweyn is already 3 months! It's so hard to believe. Time goes by so fast when you're trying to enjoy every minute of it. Watching Roweyn grow and change every day is such a rewarding feeling. It makes me love being a mom more and more every day!

In the past few weeks she has really started to notice her hands and feet. She plays with her hands and loves to look at them and see what they can do. She sucks on them any chance she can get. She's figuring out that they can hold toys and she can put them in her mouth. She kicks her legs any chance she can get, especially when she is really excited.

She's been talking for awhile now but just in the last few days she has really started talking to me and trying to have a conversation. It's probably one of the cutest things ever. I was able to catch some of it on video. Check it out.

Super cute right? Her newest favorite thing to do is look in the mirror and talk to herself, thinking she's talking to another baby. She goes crazy, kicking and stomping her legs and talking up a storm. I love it! I can't wait to get together with some other babies to see what she does!! Here's another video of her that I took on my computer while she thought she was having a chat with another baby. Enjoy!

After this video was over she kept talking and talking. I just wanted to keep recording her! I can't wait to see what she does next so I can record that too!

Thankful On A Tuesday

It's hard for me to believe that Roweyn is already 8.5 months old. Where has the time gone? What have we been doing all this time? I guess the saying, "Time flies when you're having fun!" really applies here. Because really, these past 8.5 months have been all about fun! Of course there has been a lot of ups and downs, but we've gotten through all of them. Times when I felt like, "How the hell did that happen? and What the heck am I supposed to do to get through this?" I thought it would be really difficult to get through some situations and yet here we are 8.5 months later and going strong.


Roweyn has made me so strong. Knowing that I have her shows me that I can do anything. I've gotten through 13 months of cosmetology school without any breaks, while also being pregnant 8 months out of that 13 months. I graduated at 8 months pregnant and got my license at 9 months pregnant. While also being gone 11 hours a day, 4 days a week, driving 3 hours a day. The past 3.5 months I have been working part time and taking classes to really get my career going. Spending money I barely have to take these classes, but knowing in the long run this is what will really make my career and hopefully make me stand out more and get me to the goals I hope to make someday.


Having my family's support and Roweyn has made me more determined than I could have ever been. And I just want to say "Thank you" to my Parents, who have helped me in more ways than I could have imagined, to my Brothers for always being there, and to my younger Sister, who has gone from being the baby of the family to the very helpful Auntie. Without you guys, I'm not sure I could have done it.


Also Thank you to all of my friends who have been so supportive from the beginning and are still supporting me. 


I Love You All.

Time Flys When You're Having Fun!

So I told myself I was going to write more often on here, and yet here I am almost a month later posting again. :| oops! Well what can I say? We've been busy!


Between the last post and now not a whole lot has happened. Just been having fun with Rowe and keeping busy.


But last week we were gone all week. We went to Humboldt County to visit family. Rowe and I drove up with my Dad. It was the first time we were really on our own without my Mom for more than a day. We're not around her much during the day anyway but not having her there just in case was interesting. It gave me a chance to see how I can do on my own. And we did great! :)


We saw most of our family and some great friends! We were very excited to see Jen with Asa and her new baby Cain. So adorable by the way! Rowe wanted to play with him so badly!

We went to the Kinetic Sculpture Races while we were there which was a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know what the Kinetic Sculpture Races are...it was created by a man who wanted to show kids that you can still have fun even when you're old. Even though there was all different ages in the race. But basically people build a sculpture on top of bikes and then its a 3 day race starting in Arcata and ending in Fortuna. They have to not only ride on streets but also through sand dunes, and in the water and possibly some other obstacles I don't know about. They have to transform their bikes into basically paddle bikes. It's pretty cool. We got to watch most of them launch into the bay in Eureka. While most of them succeeded there were a few that didn't quite make it. It was a lot of fun anticipating which ones would float and move once they were in the water. Most of the time when we go up there its all about visiting family so this was a nice change. 

Rowe learned to pant like a dog when she got excited while we were there. haha It's pretty stinkin cute. She also learned how to stick her toes in her mouth and suck on them! Probably even cuter!

I used disposable diapers while we were there because I would have had to spend time washing our cloth diapers and I wanted to focus on the fam. Not that washing cloth diapers takes a long time it just takes more time than disposables. They are so worth the extra time though. After using sposies for the week I pretty much hated that decision! ha They made Roweyn's bum irritated, they stink, there were blowouts (we've never had one in our cloth dipes), and you have to change them way more often than cloth! We're going to Reno this next weekend and I will definitely be using our Fuzzibunz cloth dipes!


We haven't seen any pink in Rowe's diapers for a few weeks now so yay for that!


I haven't gotten a job yet but I'm not too worried about it. When the time is right one will pop up. And I have something in August that I can do if I don't have a job in a salon. And it's actually pretty cool. So whatever comes up first I'll be pretty excited.


Now that we're all caught up on whats been going on the past few weeks I'll try to have another post up shortly thats mainly all about the new things Rowe can do!

Not Enough Time!

Lately I have felt like I just don't have enough time for anything. Time has just flown by since I had Roweyn. 4.5 months already?! Really?! Yeah, I really can't believe it either. With everything that has been going on with Roweyn health wise, I really just haven't had time for anything else. She, of course, is my first priority and lately my only priority. I feel like I have never seen days, weeks and even months go by as fast as they have been. 

I've been putting together my resume, because it is definitely time for me to find a job. Not really because I'm getting antsy of being home all the time, cause well really, I'm rarely home. Monday and Tuesday were the first weekdays in weeks that I didn't have to go anywhere. The real reason I'm ready for a job is because I unfortunately am running out of the small amount of money I have. Ha no surprise there though, right? So my resume is put together, but I've had absolutely no time to take it into any salons, the last couple weeks I was hoping to take it to a few places but going to the Dr one to three times a week for 6 weeks has pretty much killed any chance I've had. Plus I've been going to track meets, having play dates and going to play group.


Now that we've finally gotten this health scare with Roweyn under control I might actually have some free time soon. By the way, Friday was her last urine re-check and there was no blood in it. The Dr is pretty convinced that it's just uric crystal acid in her urine, besides the one time she had blood.


I was able to get my hair done today, got my roots touched up and put some more blonde in it! Now I just need to make a trip up to Reno soon for a hair cut...and possibly some more blonde. :) Hoping that I'll be able to make it up there the beginning of June.


Roweyn has decided to change up her sleep schedule. I'm thinking she might be going through a growth spurt, or she just decided to switch things up. She is going to bed earlier but then she wakes up 2 or more times between 4 and 8 am. And now she's not taking any long naps. Just a few 15 to 30 min naps throughout the day. So I'm pretty much exhausted right now and not getting much of a break from her. But I'm sure she will change it up again soon.

Busy Baby!

What a busy week it has been!! Last monday we took our first big outing to Roseville since Roweyn was born. We went with my mom and sister and it was such a good day! Roweyn did so well, I was so proud of her! I was worried that it would be hard to take her but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I went off on my own with just Roweyn for awhile in the mall and it was definitely a new experience but it went really well.


We were able to go on a couple walks during the week too cause the weather was so beautiful! On Friday I got a facial, my parents bought me a couple gift certificates to use after I had Roweyn and it was amazing! I went to bon bon salon and spa in gv and had it done by Leilani, she does all of this massaging besides the facial and its so relaxing!! My mom walked around downtown gv with Roweyn and even though she was in the same area as me it was hard to leave her, but I know I have nothing to worry about when she's with my mom. It's going to be so hard to leave her when I go back to work! I really want to start working but I really don't want to leave Roweyn. I don't know how moms do it after just 6 weeks, I am still so exhausted and Roweyn is going to be 2 months on Saturday! Time flys! I can't believe it's already been that long. We wait 9 months for her to come and it feels like forever and then she comes and it goes by so fast! Roweyn also got weighed on friday, she's now 9lbs 10oz!! I was just reading that most babies double their weight by 4 months. Roweyn is going to double her weight by 2.5 months! haha Can't wait to see what the doctor has to say at her 2 month check up next week! Saturday we went to Roseville again to go shopping for a crib. We ended up getting an amazing deal on a really nice crib and dresser!! We get it this weekend and I can't wait to set it up! Roweyn still has a few months before she'll be sleeping in it but its so nice to not have to worry about it anymore.


It's so fun to watch Roweyn's personality blossom. She's such a happy baby and loves to make faces, smile and talk to us. She's starting to become more interested in toys, she's not too sure about them yet but when she lays on her play mat she swings her arms at her toys and sometimes she's able to grab them. She loves to smile and talk to the octopus that hangs on it, its so cute!


Yesterday was kind of a hard day for us. Roweyn did not feel good, she had a tummyache and was fussy for most of the day. She had two short naps in the morning but then was awake the rest of the day till around 12:30 this morning with maybe a couple 15 min naps throughout the day. She didn't want to be put down at all and was having a hard time burping and would end up spitting up instead. She was super fussy and crying on and off from 7 to 12:30 last night. Yesterday was really our first day with her being so fussy but I know theres more to come. Today she seems to be doing better, hoping we'll both be able to get some rest! She's sleeping right now which is my cue to go lay down and try to sleep too!


Hope everyone has a great week! xoxo

5 Weeks Already?!

I can't believe Roweyn is already 5 weeks now. Parents have always told me to enjoy every minute of it cause time flies, but you never really understand that till it's actually happening to you. I'm definitely trying to enjoy it all. Watching Roweyn change every day is a lot of fun. She's finally starting to get some meat on her bones. Haha. Her thighs have started to get these cute little rolls on them. I wish I knew how much she weighed, she hasn't been weighed since her 2 week check up. Next week she's definitely getting weighed though. She's got to be at least 7.5lbs if not more. Her newborn clothes still fit her, but she's almost too long for them. She's still in newborn diapers too and by the looks of it, will be able to fit in them for a while longer. She's starting to make noises now and talk to us. Although it's not very often and I don't think she really knows what she's doing or how she's doing it yet. It's so fun to hear though.


Roweyn had a good night last night, so I was able to get some much needed sleep! But she still wont sleep anywhere other than mine or my moms arms. We put her down in anything and she's fussing and up within 10 minutes. We're both hoping this won't last too much longer. It's hard to actually fall completely asleep when we're holding her. It's funny though cause during the day I can put her in her swing and she will sleep for hours. I'm not sure why she likes it during the day but not at night.


She's still eating all the time. It makes it hard for me to do much of anything besides feed her. Although it's nice to be with her so much, I can't wait to be able to have a little more freedom. Like being able to go anywhere and not have to worry about feeding her before we leave and as soon as we get to the destination. I need to go to Roseville soon to pick up some stuff but I'm holding off as long as possible, otherwise the majority of my time will be spent feeding her. I also need to go to Reno to get my hair cut. Ha it's starting to drive me crazy! One perk about feeding her so much though is that my body is already back to where it was before I was pregnant. I do need to do some sit ups though to get my tummy tight again. It feels great to be bouncing back so quickly though. I always worried before I was pregnant that when I did get pregnant I would gain a bunch of weight and have a lot of trouble getting back to where I was. But I was lucky enough to only gain baby weight and the only thing that changed was my belly getting big.


Next week we have a busy week, doctors appt for me, chiropractor appt for the both of us, and then a WIC appt for Roweyn. I really hope the weather is nice so we don't have to run around in the rain. Rain always makes things more difficult.


I've had a sore throat and headaches for almost 3 weeks now. I'm finally starting to feel better. Sore throat is actually gone but the headaches are still coming and going. I'm hoping they won't last too much longer. I rarely had them while I was pregnant which was such a nice break! I'm hoping these headaches are just my hormones trying to normalize again and not the headaches that I had constantly before I was pregnant.


Anyways I can hear Roweyn trying to wake up which is my cue to wrap this up. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!


xoxo