Santa, what big eyes you have!

Because we weren't busy or stressed out enough over the holidays, we decided to make an appearance at Tyson's daycare festival the week before Christmas. Even though it's a great fundraiser and super fun for the kids, we probably would've skipped the whole thing if it wasn't for a little boy's excitement over a cameo appearance by Santa himself. At first Tyson was kind of scared to sit on Santa's lap but Jason, myself and the elf photographer that quietly claimed to be the wife of St Nick (Santa is a polygamist I guess) convinced Tyson that is was a perfectly safe place to be.

...and a week later we were presented with this picture.

I have titled this photo 'heebeejeebees' because that's what this crazy eyed Santa has given me.

Luckily we had Nolan with us. He immediately engaged in a staring contest which seemed to keep Mr. McCreepy in line.

Well hello my name is Tyson...and I love to do drawrings...

For most of his life, Tyson has gone to daycare two days a week. The teachers at this place have had Tyson painting/drawing since he was an infant so every week I have a new pile of stuff to go through. Usually it's just a bunch of scribbles but recently, his drawings have started to take the shape of things that can sometimes be identified. Last week I stumbled upon these...

Me: "um, Jason what do you think this is? Is this a...oh my god is this a girl in a bikini?...or a naked girl? Next to a giant tentacle-less jelly fish?"

Jason: "Really hon? Do you think perhaps you're overreacting a little bit?" (looks at the drawing) "...huh."

Me: "No you're right, I'm probably exaggerating. On to the next one."

"shit"

A letter to my son (part 1)

Dear Tyson-

I know your world has been rocked. The world where you consumed all of my thoughts and actions. Where you deliciously ate up every second of my attention. The world where you received endless praise and/or consequences. For three years we had each other all to ourselves and now we have to share. Sometimes that stinks. As loving as you are towards your new little brother, I see the frustration during the times when his needs come before yours. I'm betting that there are times when you feel less important. There is nothing less true. While I truly didn't think it was possible, having another baby has made me love you more than ever. You are the boy who made me a mom. You tolerated my mistakes as I stumbled (and continue to stumble) through life as a new parent. You were the first to throw your little arms around me and whisper 'I love you' in my ear. You were also the first to simultaneously pee in both my face and yours. You have challenged me physically, mentally and emotionally. Even though it seems I have a million memories already stored in my brain involving you, I know that there are a million more that have escaped. That's why I'm writing this letter. I hope I never forget your instant excitement over anything new. I hope I always remember the way you say things like "I for-almost-got" instead of 'I almost forgot.' I hope I never forget that wearing an apron and chef's hat will definitely make the pizza taste better...

that making a stethoscope out of a breast pump is perfectly normal...

that hauling our winter gear out for the season can actually be fun...

when dressing up like a dragon is super fun on halloween...or just tuesday...

that household chores don't have to be boring...

that this seemed like a good idea at the time.

Te amo Tyson.

A girl and her pimp...

Tyson wasn't the only one excited about Halloween this year. It's one of my favorite holidays and we are lucky that our neighborhood (and my that I mean my next door neighbor) throws a great grown ups only party every year. I always have a number of great costume ideas but since 80% of them involve Jason dressing up like a girl, most are usually vetoed. Though my husband is typically a bit of a halloween scrooge, he can always be talked into having a great time as long as he can wear his pimp suit. As for my costume, I was exactly two weeks post partum and not about to squeeze myself into anything but sweat pants. So naturally I went as Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch's character on Glee).

And even though I ended up looking more like a sporty Ellen DeGeneres, I still had a great time.

Other great costumes included Wayne and Garth...

A couple of characters from Fargo (the movie, not the town)

Papa Smurf and Smurfette...

as well as some other randoms.

At the end of the night (and by that I mean my end of the night which was about 11pm), Jason had decided his pimp suit would probably make an annual appearance....awesome. If anyone has costume ideas for me that doesn't involve dressing up like a hooker, I'm all ears.

My milkshake brings no boys to the yard...

*disclaimer*- this post deals with breast feeding. Translation: dad, just look at the pictures and skip reading to avoid learning too much about your daughters boobs.

So after Tyson was born, I struggled (and by struggled, I mean constantly nursing/pumping while sitting in the same chair weeping and scaring the crap out of my husband) for 6 weeks trying to make enough milk for my hungry baby. This time, I was determined to have a different and more positive experience. I talked to lactation consultants before Nolan was born, started taking herbs, basically anything I could think of short of giving my girls a daily pep talk. Things started out great but at Nolan's 1 week appointment, we quickly learned that we were headed down the same road. His weight was down almost an entire pound and he was extremely jaundiced (24 on day 8 of life for those of you who are interested in the numbers). I was completely disheartened but still determined. So week two began with a bili blanket (a special light to help decrease jaundice) ...

and the pump. After a week of pumping my brains out around the clock, I sought help from a doctor who specializes in breast feeding problems. Ultimately, I found out that I am physically unable to breast feed and no amount of medications/herbs/interventions can change it. In layman's terms, my boobs have a tumbleweed rolling through them.

I won't lie, I was devastated. I preach the importance/enjoyment of breast feeding daily at my job and it seemed ironic that I wouldn't able to do it. Though it may seem silly to some, this is something I have to grieve. I am allowing myself to be sad but remembering that I am lucky to have a healthy baby...and lucky that we can afford the formula to feed him.

Luckily this face helps.

Nolan Dale

Meet the newest addition to the Haak House

Nolan Dale Haak

Born October 16th, 2011

7lb 1oz 19 1/2 inches long

It all happened like this. After a super fun bout with what I thought was labor on Saturday morning, I was convinced I was destined to go past my due date. That night I made the decision to take a sleeping pill (perfectly safe for pregnancy I promise) and within two hours I woke up in actual labor. Arrived at the hospital around 2;30 am and this little nugget was born a 5:23. Though extremely intense, I am lucky to have such fast and uncomplicated deliveries. I was completely shocked when someone yelled, "it's a boy!" but I'm really thrilled.

Tyson is pretty smitten too...

I promise I'm not actually naked in that picture

Here's to our new adventure.

A cowboy wedding

Jason's brother Darel recently got married and it was no surprise to anyone that he and Cassie were going to throw a great big cowboy wedding. Everyone in our little family was able to participate. Jason was a groomsman, Tyson the ring bearer and I got to play piano for the ceremony. As for the fetus, well...he/she just decided to have enough of a growth spurt to make the 12 hour drive extremely uncomfortable.

Tyson was so excited to wear his wedding clothes. The first thing he said was, "hey, I look like uncle Darel!" (he totally did).

He was a total trooper when he had to wait and wait for everyone else to get ready. (He was actually a trooper for the whole thing)

If you look closely, his belt says "Haak" on the butt. It was Jason's when he was little.

Of course, I remembered to get a picture of my two cowboys but forgot to get a family shot...turns out having pictures taken of myself at 34 weeks pregnant wasn't high on my to do list.

During pre-ceremony pictures Tyson found a few ways to entertain himself...

Of course the dinosaurs had to make an appearance.

And because I was too busy playing piano during the ceremony, I wasn't able to get any pictures of the couple. The only one I ended up with was from the reception.

Congrats Darel and Cassie!!!

temporary update

So this summer has disappeared almost as fast as my waistline and I still haven't improved my blogging frequency. We've been on the go quite a bit and this whole growing another human seems to have sucked some of my blogging mojo/energy up. We have one last trip to South Dakota for my brother-in-law's wedding and then I'll be free to start nesting. In the meantime, I thought I'd leave you with a couple of pictures from our recent trip to Minnesota. Tyson was able to play with all of his cousins (a rarity) and loved every second of it. I will include more pictures at a later date but for now this will have to do.

The youngest three cousins 'swimming'

Because even badass superheroes have fun jammies.

Scenes of summer

Our summer is flying by with a flurry of activities along with the joy of just hanging out outside (when it's not 100 degrees anyway). I know I will have many more things to post and talk about but for now, here's a few images of what we've been up to lately.

25 weeks

So here's the belly at 25 + weeks. I opted to crop my head out of the picture as taking a self portrait while maintaining a less than ridiculous face proved to be too much of a challenge. Other than some mildly uncomfortable reflux and some varicose veins that would make my grandma proud, it's been a pretty good couple of months. I haven't horked up my lunch in weeks and am probably at the most energetic part of the pregnancy. I still (and always will) think I should be able to do way more than I can actually accomplish but I really can't complain. Also, Tyson has finally stopped telling people there's a dinosaur in my belly. Cheers.

Still living in the land of dinosaurs...

Jason's mom, step-dad and sister traveled all the way from South Dakota last week. In addition to completing almost all of our 'before baby to-do list' in the house (painting walls, stripping the deck, some serious deep cleaning etc), we also made the 100 mile trek to Chicago for a day. Our first stop was the Field Museum which housed a very impressive dinosaur exhibit. You can imagine what kind of reaction we got from our dinosaur obsessed child.

Even being chased by a flying Pteranodon didn't deter him from plugging along.

Meeting T-rex Sue was the best part of the whole day...and other than a brief attempt at stealing Sue's tooth from an elderly museum employee, all went pretty well.

After wearing ourselves out at the museum, we headed to the Shedd Aquarium.

Of course, nothing truly lives up to a full sized t-rex (or your grandparents and aunt buying all kinds of fun at the dinosaur gift shop) but there was some pretty neat stuff there as well.

Best parts of the day= spending a really fun day with family.

=going to places I've never been (always up for new stuff!)

=watching the person I love most in the world have the best day in the world.

Two hundred plus three

Today marks my 200th post (coinciding with continuing coverage of Tyson's 3rd birthday). This little blog started out as a way for me to share pictures and stories for Tyson's grandparents/aunts and uncles to enjoy since we live far away from all family. Then my screaming ball of fury was born and it morphed into a place where I could write freely about how hard it was to have a really fussy kid so far away from home. For some reason, I could write about my struggles with much less guilt than verbalizing them. In short: this blog kept me from losing my shit.

Life is loads easier now so until the next little nugget is born, I can breathe easy and use this as a medium to brag about my 3 year old. I am a mother after all and bragging is what we do.

touche unknown author...touche