Just Say Julie

Jackson is working on his molars right now and I swear those things are going to be the death of us.  Teething has turned my happy baby into a fussy, clingy mess.  And I'm secretly happy for it.  You see, even though it was exhausting at times, I got my snuggly baby back at least for this weekend.  Now that Jackson is a toddler, he no longer wants to snuggle with me.  Bedtime consists of a sippy cup of milk and then straight to bed where he will either go right to sleep or fuss until he falls asleep.  I try to snuggle a bit and get him to settle down but he has no interest in it and squirms until I put him down or take him to his room.  Sunday morning Jackson fell asleep in my lap and I didn't want to move because I already miss all the times that he fell asleep on me and I just loved holding him.  I look at him now and I see him growing up so fast right before my eyes.  He isn't my tiny baby anymore.  He is curious and into everything.  He's a bit of a dare devil but h

A couple of months ago (before his birthday), I received an email of baby tips for my toddler and I refused to believe that Jackson could be considered a toddler at that point. He wasn't walking yet. He wasn't a year old yet. In my mind, Jackson was still very much a baby. Chris disagreed with me. I even went to Twitter with the question of how to determine if my baby was in fact a toddler. Most agreed that I was OK to still consider him a baby. (He will always be my baby.) Well, that is all changed since my two criteria for defining a toddler have now been met. I first started getting reports of steps from daycare about 2 weeks ago. Then I saw 4 steps myself that Saturday morning as J shuffled toward me. He would have gone further but Maverick created a roadblock by laying on the floor in front of the couch where I was sitting. Since then, we have seen a few tentative steps here and there. Not enough to call him a full on walker yet but we know we are just on t

I am in a rut, a wardrobe rut. Every morning I throw on a pair of jeans, a shirt of some sort, shoes that somewhat match, and I head out the door. That is my uniform and there is very little variation to it. My office is casual so this attire is perfectly acceptable there. However, dressing this way makes me feel unprofessional. I also think it makes me appear younger and less experienced than I am which sometimes causes people not to take me seriously.(I once had a co-worker tell me he thought I was 22 which is why he was shocked I had a master's degree. I was 32 at the time.) So I am trying to figure out a way to get out of my rut. I think that requires a history of my wardrobe post college. My early career (1 year post graduation...we will skip the 2 jobs before this) landed me doing bookkeeping work at a local CPA firm in Mobile. I worked there 4 years before leaving to finish my degree and move to Texas. It should come as no surprise that a CPA firm had a pretty f

At 8:10 AM on July 20th, I tweeted, "Y'all, my baby is one today.  I cannot even process this thought!"  Later Chris pointed out that Jackson wasn't officially 1 until 10:33 that evening but still.  Jackson is 1!  He is a toddler, not a baby.  He is standing on his own and trying to walk.  So of course we had to celebrate this occasion, not once but twice.  We were in Alabama on Jackson's actual birthday so we had a party there with some of my family and our close friends. (Remind me to never again plan an out of town birthday party, particularly one that involves assistance from my mom and aunt.) My great aunt and uncle with my mom and me Jackson with our neighbor Jackson and my dad Jackson with my brother and nephew The smash cake with Larry and Bob candle The decorated high chair Jackson really just wanted the candle He wasn't so sure about the icing or the cake  The weekend after Jackson's birthday we

We spent the week of Jackson's birthday in Mobile with my parents.  I wanted to make sure they got to share J's birthday with him and, since my mom really can't go anywhere right now, we decided to bring the party to them.  As with every trip home, a certain amount of nostalgia comes into play.  I miss home.  A part of me will always reside there.  But I'm not sure I want to live there anymore. Chris and I seriously discussed moving while we were there this time.  I think I feel the need to be home more so now that I have Jackson and I want him to be close to my roots and because of my mom's condition.  I struggle with this because I want to be there but my life is in Austin now.  We would have to start over on everything if we moved back to Mobile.  We would both have to find jobs and a place to live.  We would need a vet and a doctor and schools for the kids.  And we would need to find friends.  I am still in touch with some of the people I hung out with when I

I turned 35 on the 11th. That in and of itself may not seem like a big deal. However, 35 has always been a cut off for me. A line in the sand if you will that said my childbearing days were through. My mom had me 2 before she turned 36 and had her tubes tied during the c-section. I'm pretty sure that's where my magic number came from. 35 and it's time to stop. Chris and I talked about children a lot when we were dating. At first, we were both on the fence. He wasn't sure he wanted more kids and I wasn't sure I wanted any at all. I told him I would know if I was supposed to be a mother if I had a baby before I turned 35. If I wasn't pregnant by then, I wasn't supposed to have kids of my own. Jackson was born 9 days after I turned 34. All while I was pregnant, we talked about the next baby. I enjoyed being pregnant for the most part so the idea of having another baby wasn't a crazy one. But then the delivery was so rough that I wasn't sure I wante