new parents

Recently P told me a story that left me laughing for days. I realize neither of us previously had children and had absolutely no idea what we were getting into but I guess having girlfriends that told me about childbirth, I at least had the idea that our entire life was going to change and we would not sleep for a while. P on the other hand... told me the other day that he read somewhere that newborns sleep 18 hours a day (I guess that can be true in some babies but it isn't for long stretches and Austin NEVER did) and he thought he would have a lot of free time. He told me he got the entire Godfather series and was planning on watching it on his "week off". Immediately I started dying laughing and when I could finally speak I asked, "what were you thinking? Why did you think we would have so much free time?" He then told me about the 18 hour a day sleep schedule and he thought he would help with the baby a little, watch him while I slept (which never happened... I mean P was there but I never napped) and then have a lot of free time. He told me he also planned to reorganize his Swiss Army knife collection and the office. When I think of how clueless we were and where we are now, I'm proud that we are all surviving and nobody's had a nervous breakdown. 

Well I guess that's debatable. 

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne. 

Memorial Day

What a difference a year makes! This was us last year...

Totally carefree and living it up on the Cumberland River. 

Now this year...

Umm...ch ch ch changes...(confession: this is from last week and I unfortunately did not see the Abingtons since they moved to some foreign place called Alabama, but the picture added drama, no?)

Sunday night we celebrated quietly with a small cookout with family. Everyone was gone by 9. I realize he has been in our lives almost 4 months now but I am still shocked by how different our lives are and how okay with it I am. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the adults on Sunday night. Whoops.  

Originally I bought this outfit for the 4th of July but he is so big he is fitting into 6 month clothes so I thought I would just go for it :) 

Can't get enough of that cute smile :) 

haha, I love this picture! 

Can he stay this size forever?!?! 

Today Meagan was in town for her grandmother's 90th birthday party and stopped by. She has been all over the world and back so I really appreciated her stopping by...and so did Austin. 

(I'm loving this baby eye roll)

Austin showed his appreciation by sticking his hand down Meagan's shirt and then spitting up on her. P said was acting like a frat boy. Momma's so proud. Honestly, besides the groping incident, he was sweet and fun with Meagan and we were happy to see her :) 

Later we went to lunch at the Boathouse restaurant in downtown Franklin. 3 months ago when we neck deep in not sleeping, struggling to eat, unhappy baby land, I would have NEVER dreamed of going to a easy going, fun lunch... but we did it. I know today is Memorial Day but for this Momma it was still victory day! 

woot woot! Happy Memorial Day!

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne. 

lazy rainy day

I don't think I will ever have a lazy rainy day for the rest of my life. Well for the next 18 years at least. I'm okay with it. I love being a Mom more than anything else I've ever done so I'm okay with it but oh. my gosh. It is stormy and getting to be that perfect watching a movie weather and  I just had a flashback of being in college at the AOPi house with tons of girls watching a movie on a rainy day and smiled as big as I could. On one day in particular I remember playing trivial pursuit, watching about 3 movies, and finally accomplishing my biggest goal for the day of showering and getting ready to go out around 7PM. Seriously?!?!?!

 

 

Enjoy it now you youngins! Now P and I consider sleeping until 7 on Saturday "sleeping in".  In other news, I think I've solved the teen pregnancy problem, come stay with us for a weekend. Check, next problem, please.

 

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie Corinne. 

First Mother's Day

So I'm a little late about this but last weekend we celebrated my first Mother's Day. The weekend was really busy but nice. Sunday morning I got up and visited my Mom's grave. Although I was happy to celebrate Mother's Day as a new Mom, of course this was a difficult day too because it reminded me even more than normal of how much I miss that amazing lady. I wanted to take Austin there because he had not been there with me yet but it was during his wonderful long morning nap so I didn't wake him and just went by myself. As I was leaving, I passed Philip's car who had brought Austin to meet me after he woke up :) Very sweet! There was also this extremely country man who looked like Santa in overalls who would not stop talking to me there and it was so awkward. When we got home I got him all dressed up and we met Sharon and Ashley at Boxwood Bistro for a delicious brunch where we endured the diaper fiasco. Later Dad came over and hung out with us for a while and we snapped some of these. 

We also had our 3 year anniversary coming up and forever ago we decided to go to the Killers concert and dinner to celebrate. I had no idea it was Mother's Day weekend so we double booked holidays and asked Sharon to "work" on her special day. Whoops. She was gracious enough to come over and watch Austin so we were able to go out. 

Before we left to celebrate 3rd anniversary/ Mother's Day.

We waited forever for the Killers to come out and we soon realized how old we are. Egh, how old we feel. I mean I think even the best 22 year old would be tired getting up every morning at 5 while also taking care of an infant! 

Surprise guest Brad Paisley.  The killers were so good and actually played a lot of their hits and didn't bore by promoting a new album. Fun times and a wonderful anniversary. Of course whenever you hit any birthday/anniversary, etc. it causes you to look back. In our time together we've moved 3x, started 3 new jobs, both lost a parent, had a baby, and managed to still love being together. Here's to 3,000 more years :)

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corrinne.

Weekend

Where did it go?!??!!? 

Mommy lessons II

1. If you have a new outfit, your baby will spit up on it. Austin rarely spits up but if I have a new outfit on, he definitely will. I even think about it when I'm wearing something new and then think, oh he never spits up and then bam...done. 

2. If you are having people over, the baby will be harder to put down. I used to think people made excuses for their kids but omg it is so true. My friend said they can sense your energy changing. Whatever the case, most nights I can literally just put him in the bed and when we have people over all the sudden he wants to stay up, see everyone, and then demand to be rocked to sleep. 

3. If you are going somewhere fancy, dress your baby in his finest clothes, he will somehow ruin that outfit. This Sunday we planned to meet at Boxwood Bistro for Mother's Day brunch. I had Austin dressed in an adorable outfit and we even made it on time! We strolled in at 11:29 when we are supposed to be there at 11:30. I was totally feeling like superwoman when it happened. He had the most epic dirty diaper... ever. He messed up his entire outfit, including these adorable croshay shoes when his quick little legs kicked into the...mess. All I had in his diaper bag was a little WalMart onesie that I keep in there for emergencies. So while every other child was dressed completely in their Sunday's best (Mother's Day best no less) my child was sporting a little cheap onesie that was almost too small sitting front and center in the first table as you enter this lovely restaurant. 

4. However much time you allow yourself to be somewhere, it will take 10 more minutes.

5. Witching. Hours. Do. Exist. Austin has actually gotten a lot better but his hardest time of the day is for sure 6-8PM. The other day P was able to come home early and Austin was being his sweet little happy self and P was so amazed. He kept saying, "he's so happy and fun today" and finally I said, "he's always like this" and then it hit me P doesn't get home until 6 so he doesn't get the fun little boy I get every afternoon.

6. "You look so good for just having a baby" will be said like 1,000 times, which is super nice don't get me wrong. But I often think not everyone knows I just had a baby so what then? Just kind of frumpy for my age?

7. Sleep outweighs just about every other "important" aspect of life. I have a stack of laundry in our room just waiting to be folded but every night this week we have been busy up until bed time and there is nothing that will keep me from my splendor of sleep. I used to not be able to rest with messes but now I barely think about it. I'm not so sure this is a good development but it is what it is.

8. "Last minute" plans mean the day before. I used to think this was like an hour before an event but recently friends asked us to go to dinner like at 9:00 AM on Saturday and I instantly thought oh wow, this is so last minute, I hope I can get someone. Then I laughed at myself because I used to get SO annoyed with people who had to be so pre booked but now I get it.

9. DVR becomes the only way you stay connected to the outside world.

10. You love everything about it. Not every minute but every part, even the hard are worth every free day I ever had. I just wish I could go tell skinny, fun, carefree Natalie to live it up just a little bit more.

Let that be the most powerful lesson. Those sans kids? Have a few more workouts, days at the beach, drinks, late nights, coffees on the couch uninterrupted, hours watching reality television because those leisurely days will be over and you'll weirdly be okay with it.


For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

3 years

How has it been 3 years?!?!

 

 

 

 

One of the funniest days EVER!!! I think everyone should be able to get married or really just have that big of a party once a year. It was so fun having all of our family and friends in one space! More importantly I'm very thankful to be married to my best friend :) here's to 300 more years :)

 

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.



3 month professional photos

This weekend a sweet student's Mother who is also a photographer came over to take Austin's 3 month pictures. Earlier in the week I looked all over for the perfect outfits that were not too stuffy, modern (I do not do the Ed Hardy baby look) and all boy. I thought we had found the perfect outfits and I was feeling super confident because not only were these outfits adorable, I also brought Austin to the mall with me to buy them and had not just survived but we thrived. No breakdowns to be seen. Amazing. Anyway, Saturday morning rolls around and I check my email around 11:30 (pictures are at 1:30). The photographer emailed me at 11:00 PM the night before and gave us some suggestions on what WE should wear. WE??? How had I not thought of us? She said we should somehow coordinate and attempt to wear solids. Umm....Then she says we will start taking pictures in Austin's diaper cover. WHAT? Diaper cover? I don't have a diaper cover. With now less than 2 hours I decided I could maybe get all of this done. I got dressed and ran to go shopping. I know I said I didn't have clothes, but I was also running low on make up, hair products, pretty much everything else. I ran to Target because I thought I could maybe buy everything in one place. I moved like the wind. Make up? Check. 2 new shirts and new jeans (that I even tried on)? Check. I even bought cleaning products and some other "must haves" all with in 25 minutes. I was on fire and just knew I could pay then make it to the Factory to buy an overpriced diaper cover at The Little Cottage. I got up to pay for said items and it happened... I left my wallet in the diaper bag which of course was at home....The day before we went shopping for the adorable outfits I had all 1,000 items of Austin's you need to leave so I put my stuff in the diaper bag as well and being in such a hurry to leave, I didn't check my purse and I was left with literally squat. All of that whizzing around and feelings of successful were for nothing. Feeling defeated I went home and thought I could possibly go back but finally decided to just make something work Tim Gunn style with what we already had. The photographer was a little late so we just skipped the diaper cover pictures and all ended well. We haven't gotten the pictures back but I will post asap! I've definitely learned that this baby brain stuff does exist and am waiting for my real brain to return any. day. now. That happens, right? Lie to me if not.

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

local election day

Today were local elections in Brentwood. I have such fond memories of voting with my Mom and love to think about how seriously she took this privilege. Today I really wanted to take Austin to vote too so he will hopefully have sweet memories of voting like I do with my Mom. I went to pick him up from Sharon's house and it was right about when he needed to go down for a nap. He was starting to get really fussy and Sharon kept offering to keep him. I didn't want to say "I want to take him with me because that's what my Mom did" because out loud that sounds ridiculous. He is 3 months old. Obviously he will have no memory of this and if he missed this one election, no one would be the wiser. Deep down, this was really for me. A weird way to still feel close to my Mom. Austin continued to kind of cry off and on and I had almost given up and sweet Sharon offered again. I finally just said out loud... I want to take him because that's what our Mom did with us... and poof like magic he was quiet. I know this sounds bogus but it was like Mom just swooped down and helped him (and me). We went and voted (which took less than 2 minutes because there were a whopping 3 voters there!) and he slept the entire time. I had huge plans of getting a picture with him while voting but I didn't because I never. ever. ever. wake up him out of a nap. Long story there but once was enough for this momma. Anyway, after voting we went on a little walk and then I came home and snapped some of these. I have a really cute patriotic outfit that I bought for the 4th that I almost busted out but held some restraint since this wasn't a real holiday. Or the real story is that it is a 6 month outfit and didn't fit. 

I know I'm a bias Mom but I do love all this child's expressions! 

Sweet cousin Carly made this beautiful baby blanket! 

Agh, Mom voted for a republican!

 DISCLAIMER: I researched all the candidates and voted based on their educational platform... i.e. who was against charter schools and rezoning... and rest assured I'm not even sure they were repubs but they were pretty Brentwood Baptist-y on their bio pages so I'm gonna go with a yes. I've always claimed to be someone who would "reach across the isle" and vote for anyone as long as I liked their platform and after 12 years of voting, I finally proved it. I'm still me though.. pretty certain I will not be tuning into Rush Limbaugh talk radio anytime soon.

Happy election day! For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie Corinne. 

Tonight was a wonderful surprise to hang out with Papa and Uncle Ben. Papa is going on his annual trip to Chicago to see the Cubs play and couldn't be gone several days without having some Austin time. Ben had just done some tutoring and stopped by too. 

I don't really have many good pictures of Ben and Austin so I attempted to get one tonight.

This sweetness just happened.

 Finally I start doing the inevitable look at me faces Moms are required to do at all times.

I thought this was to get Austin to play nice for the camera. How soon I've forgotten that Ben turns into a total goob in front of any camera. I believe Ray and I totally failed him during his childhood because he is never ready for his closeup. 

 I mean he's not a bad looking kid, but come on!

I love every bit of this! 

"Anyone else looking at all this crazy?" Austin

Whatever they look like we are lucky to have Uncle Ben and Papa so close! Happy Monday! For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne. 

Cinco de Mayo

Thank God social media informed me it was Cinco de Mayo. I don't know how I forgot. Whitney and Travis pretended to be Nashvillians this weekend and stayed in town and came over to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with some fajitas deliciously made my the Waters and the Derby with some mint juleps made by Philip. 

We were sans babysitter this weekend so they were nice enough to come over and party at the Pratts. So on to today, I forgot it was Cinco de Mayo. Not that I have a huge affinity for this day. Honestly I don't know if I've ever really celebrated beyond going to Las Palmas or El Charro in Oxford looking for an excuse to drink. (Wow, life has changed!)  But with a baby EVERY day that is remotely important to someone in the world is the cause of a photo shoot. I was totally on my game for St. Patrick's Day and Easter but today fell short. I'm totally kicking myself for not having a baby sombrero.

Not Austin, but come on.. think anyone would notice if I just slipped this one in the baby book?

I started off getting my standard stares from the little guy. So I started making crazy faces and taking pictures with the camera not in front of my face, all artsy-fartsy like. 

His smile does exist!

I wish I could say this was all artsy on purpose! 

Somewhat (totally) uneventful but still a fun day at home with my boys. After going back to work, just staying at home on a Sunday and hanging out is all I ever want to do. Yeah, I know that sentence is super lame and I'm okay with it. Judge away. I know many of you were probably out day drinking with the best of them but my 22 year old self did her share of tequila shots and I'm still regretting them. 

Happy Cinco De Mayo! 

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.