How Sweet It Was...

...To be on maternity leave.  But like one of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs says, "All good things must come to an end sometimes."  And today, my maternity leave ends and I go back to work. =(
I have been dreading this transition for quite some time now.  I know that everything will be ok.  I can tell myself over and over again that Jillian will know how much I love her.  I try to convince myself that I am doing the responsible thing, the right thing, by showing her that you can be a strong woman who can balance a career with a family. 
But all the reasoning and all the convincing doesn't change the fact that my heart is breaking at the thought of not spending every moment with my Jilly Bear.  After all, she has been my constant companion for almost 11 months now, since she was conceived, grew in my belly, and came out to grace us with her presence.  All day, everyday, I have loved every minute of soaking in my sweet baby girl, and I have cherished all the freedom of getting to spend so much time with Julian too.  I just wish I could split myself in half so that I could still be home with Jilly and Juli always and go back to work.  I never could have imagined that it would hurt this bad.
But, when I wake up tomorrow morning, I will do what I need to do to make it a good day.  And I will continue to do that everyday, and hopefully, it will get easier.  I am sure that we will get into a routine where I can enjoy time while I am at work, but more importantly, really treasure time with Jillian and Julian.  My heart is happy to know that she will not have to go to daycare just yet as she spends some days with her Daddy and some days with her Mami Mari, who is graciously coming in town to take care of her. 
I have so many sweet memories of my family that will carry me through the long 8 hours until I get to come home to hold my Jilly...

...like early morning baby conversations or watching cartoons...

...and mid-morning naps with Jilly and Daddy...

...and late morning trips to the park...

...and early afternoon naps on Mommy...

...or naps with her monkeys...

 (what can I say, she sleeps a lot!)

...and mid afternoon play time...

...and some of my favorite memories, late afternoon picnics with Daddy!

Oh, How Sweet It Was...

Healthy Baby Girl

Earlier this week, I took Jillian to go get her 2-month check-up at the doctor.  As every mommy knows, the 2-month mark is the first time they get a round of shots so I was dreading it.  But Jilly seemed to be in good spirits before we went, kicking and smiling as usual.  Julian had to work during this appointment, so it was just us girls.  I promised her that if she was a big, strong girl, I would be too, meaning I wouldn't cry. After all, I had to be strong since I was flying solo.

The doctor checked her eyes, ears, mouth, stomach, hands, feet...and everything checked out well.  They took her weight and her height and here's how she measures up:

Weight - 12 pounds, 11 ounces - 90th percentile

Height - 22 inches - 55th percentile

She has gained over 3 pounds since she was born and has grown 2 inches!  She is such a big, healthy baby!  But then it was time for her shots (cue the dooms day music)...

She fell asleep while we were waiting for the nurse to come in.  And then they gave her 3 shots and an oral vaccination.  And though she cried for about a minute, she quickly calmed down.  I put her in her car seat and we headed home.

Jillian held up her end of the bargain by being a big, strong girl, and I am proud to say that I did too!  I didn't cry at all.  When we got home, she slept for 3 hours.  Then, she woke up, ate, and cried for the next hour and half. =(  Poor baby!  But after a little Baby Tylenol and Tiger Balm, she calmed down and was back to her normal self.  All in all, I would say that Jilly did a great job with her first shots...let's hope she keeps this up when it's time for her 4-month shots!  Julian and I are so grateful to have a healthy, happy, big baby girl!

Life as a House

"I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big. It didn't even need to be beautiful. It just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life. I built myself a house."  

-Quote from the 2001 movie, "Life as a House" 

Julian, Jillian, and I went to our selections and pre-construction meeting last week.  At this meeting, we got to select all the finishes that are going into our house - cabinets, carpet, trim, paint, stone, granite, flooring, everything! 

It was so much fun to go through this process and to pick out everything that we like.  Julian and I make a great team as we agreed on nearly everything.  And every once in awhile, this little one provided her input, too!

At the pre-construction part, you walk through all the floor plans to make sure that outlets are where you want them or the tile is angled the way you want.  We also got to meet our superintendent, Thomas Pack, or T-Pack for short.  He is our go-to guy and we are really looking forward to working with him.

After the meeting was over, we went out to our lot and you can imagine our surprise when we saw the Sold sign in the yard, along with a sign with our names on it!!! 

At this point, they actually break ground in 2-3 weeks.  We will probably go by our house as often as we can so we can watch and track the progress on our house.  So be on the lookout for blog picture updates as we go through Life as a House!!!

Happy 2 Months, Jillian!

Today, our sweet baby girl, Jillian, is two months old!  So what has Jilly been up to this past month?  Well, she is still such a happy baby and we get to see her pretty smile everyday.  She smiles when she wakes up in the morning, like her Daddy!  She smiles when she is about to eat, when Daddy comes home from work, and when Mommy talks to her! She smiles up at the fans that we have in our house.  Mr. Fan is her friend and she loves to talk to him, too.  Jillian is good at carrying on a conversation as she coos all day long.  And she has even laughed for us twice, once while Daddy was swinging her up and once while Mommy was being silly!  She also really loves going on walks outside, either in her stroller or in the Baby Bjorn.  It is so great to watch the curious, content look on her face as she discovers the world around her.  We are very blessed to have our little angel baby here with us for the past 2 months and we can't wait to see her through many more month-days to come!  We love you Jilly Bean!

My Monkey is still bigger than me, but I am getting bigger everyday

I love chewing on my hands!

Goodbye till next month!

Casa de Acosta!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Must be the luck of the Irish, or maybe some luck from our little Leprechaun...

...But today, Julian and I signed a buyers agreement and put down the earnest money on a house!  We are going to have a house built in College Station!  We are so excited that in a few short months, the Acostas will be in a house all our own!

Our house is being built by Stylecraft Builders and we have gone to see the model home a million times already to make sure it is exactly what we want.  Every time some of our family comes into town, we take them to see the house, and every time, they love it just as much as we do.  It has everything we have dreamed of in a home and that dream is now becoming a reality!

Look how excited Jilly is...or maybe she fell asleep from all the excitement!

We can't wait till the house we are standing in front of is our Casa de Acosta! 

6.5 hours!

6.5 hours...that's how long Jillian slept last night...that's how long Mommy slept too!!!
While the rest of the world is complaining about daylight savings and losing an hour of sleep, I woke up ecstatic this morning! Do you know how long it's been since I slept 6.5 hours straight?! I seriously can't even remember how long it's been since I did that. And I'm not just talking about since Jilly was born...even when I was pregnant, I was awake every 3-4 hours with needing to pee or needing to turn my big belly over to the other side. If I had to guesstimate how long it's been, I'd say it's been about 3-4 months!
Clearly, this is a big deal to me...so much so, I just had to blog about it. And after the day I had yesterday, this must have been Jilly's way of making it up to me. You see, we had a crappy day yesterday...literally! The first thing Jillian did yesterday was poop while I had her diaper off. So I did laundry. Then she pooped out the top of her diaper, so I gave her a bath...which she proceeded to poop in. Then I put her in a cute outfit to welcome her Grandma Julie, Auntie Shell, and Uncle Joseph...but she pooped on that too. And if that wasn't enough, the last thing she did last night was poop out of her diaper one last time...so believe me when I say, it was a crappy day! But, my family was here and Grandma Julie offered to rock the baby to sleep. Now, I've always thought that my Mom was a "baby whisperer," and I don't know what she did last night...all I know is that my child slept for 6.5 hours after Grandma Julie put her down! Thanks Grandma "Baby Whisperer"!
But today is a new day! We slept so well, that I just had to tell Julian about our night. So I woke him up to tell him about our 6.5 hour feat. He  asked me how I felt, and I told him I felt so good, I could run a marathon!
For all you moms out there, I know you empathize with me right now. And for everybody else, just know that good quality sleep is a sacrafice you make in order to have a precious lil' one.
OK, enough of this, I'm off to run a marathon (in my dreams)! =)

Happy One Month, Jillian!

Today, it has been one month since our baby girl, Jillian, was born! And what a first month it has been! Jillian has blessed our lives in so many ways in just this one month of life. We have spent our days watching her grow and develop. She is such a good baby, and really only fusses when she gets hungry or when she is fighting sleep. The amount of time that she spends awake and alert is steadily increasing. And she has just begun to find her voice, with little baby "oohs" and "aahs" that just make our hearts melt! She loves to nap on mommy's chest or when daddy bounces her to sleep. And though we know this won't last forever, we cherish her being this age and this size so much! We love the smell of her after a bath, when she wraps her hand around our finger, and watching her discover the world around her.

This has been the best month ever as Julian and I have grown so much as a couple and as daddy and mommy! We can't wait to see what lies in store for our family in the time to come. Happy One Month, Jilly Bear! We love you more than words can ever express!

This is my FAO Monkey!

He's still bigger than me!

Our Cute Lil' Monkey Girl

Who is that over there?!

...And Jilly fell asleep during her photo shoot!