"All Heart. Grit. Grind."

If you've been following the Memphis Grizz, you already know the words of our defensive phenom Tony Allen. We have been LOVING our NBA's team success this year! Memphis is a basketball town, so it's been fun to have our team do so well. Unfortunately, our season came to an end Sunday night, but we are still proud of our team.

Brian was fortunate enough to go with some of his friends to one of the Round 2 playoff games against the OKC Thunder. He said it was one of the best sporting events he has ever been to. From some of his pictures, it looked like a blast.

Sunday, we went over to the Montesi "grindhouse" to watch the game. We figured we would probably only be able to stay a little bit with Preston. Turns out, the child was loving the watch party and we got to stay the whole time! YAY Preston! He was really one of the guys... it was so cute.

Also, have to take a minute to tell you about P's newest toy. We got a walker for him! Of course, he is way too small for it, but we had to put him in for a little bit to see how he reacted. His eyes got huge and he LOVED it.

We had to put a pillow at the bottom because his feet wouldn't touch the ground! I have to say, the child has pretty good head control for 3 months old.

We love watching his reaction to things; it is really special to see him experience new things.

Love that cute boy.

A few things...

First off, today is a special day. It is my best friend and P's godmother Robyn's birthday!

I can't really put into words what my friendship with Robyn means to me. We have been friends for 11 years now (wow, we're old) and I love her and her husband JMP with all of my heart. We met in high school at SBA. Growing up with brothers, sometimes I feel like Rob is the sister I never had.

Quick story - the day we brought Preston home from the hospital, I was a hormonal wreck. I couldn't stop crying, was scared out of my mind being home with him, and Brian had to go to Babies R Us off Winchester at rush hour to get me a breast pump leaving me home alone with my 4-day-old baby. (That is a story in and of itself... Brian running frantically through Babies R Us to buy a breast pump, nursing pads, nipple cooling gel, and milk storage bags... can we say Husband/Daddy of the Year?!) The first person in my mind to call during this chaos was Robyn. She picked up the phone, and I couldn't even get a word out I was so hysterical. She just said "I'm on my way." She came blazing over, and without me saying a word, she brought over chicken and rice casserole, unpacked our hospital bags, washed all of P's bottles and pacifiers, organized our living room, and somehow managed to calm me down while Brian was away. She was everything I needed at that moment. She'll be an amazing mom one day. Happy 27th birthday friend!

Also, for a little Preston development update. He is a rolling over machine! As soon as I put him down, he is rolling over. When he was about 2 months old, he started rolling from his tummy to his back. Right after his 3 month birthday, he started rolling over from his back to his tummy, then pops up for tummy time on his own. He will also scoot a little. He isn't even 11 pounds yet, and he can scoot from one end of his playmat to the other end. He already has his arms in the right position for crawling, but his feet are a little behind. The other day, I had him propped up on the Boppy pillow doing tummy time, and much to my surprise, he climbed right over the Boppy onto the playmat and rolled over. I am telling you, this child will be mobile sooner than we think! It's so cool to see him growing and developing. I ordered him a walker that will be here tomorrow (thank you Amazon Mom!) and I cannot wait to see him scooting around in it! The 4 month mark will be fun too, because then we can start giving him rice cereal with a spoon. Seriously, where is the time going?

The best is that he is getting close to really being able to belly laugh.He kind of semi-laughs now. He will smile really big and squeal. Here is a little video I filmed at 6:30 this morning. (Just have to add that pre-baby, I would still be sleeping. By 6:30 this morning, I had already nursed Preston, showered, dressed, put on makeup, blow dried and straightened my hair, and packed his bottles for daycare - my how things change! Babies = sleeplessness) Oh, and excuse Brian's shirtlessness in the video (probably another reason to go private on the blog!)



Look at those plaid shorts... could you just die?

Also, little reminder that we are going private next week, so if you want to keep reading the blog, let me know :) I also still plan on posting about our dining room, and also an upcoming, cross country trip we are taking with little man. He's isn't even 4 months old and we are already jet setting with him. Let me tell you, this kid has the life!

Little Announcement

After talking with Brian last night, we've decided to make our little family blog private.

By doing this, we can protect our pictures of Preston and our personal information. Nothing specific happened to make us go private, but the World Wide Web makes us a little nervous. When we started the blog, we thought only our moms and my friends in Nashville and Knoxville would read it. I think it's interesting that people we don't know find our life interesting. With that said, I am an avid blog reader and always get mad when people go private. I am scared to ask permission to look at their blog because they might think I am stalker. Look at me... the hypocrite.

I enjoy writing it, and use it as my life scrapbook. I definitely want to keep blogging. So, with that said, leave a comment with your email address if you want to keep reading. Or if you aren't comfortable doing that, you can send me an email with your email so that I can give you permission to read - camifields@gmail.com. If we've never met, don't be afraid to email me.

My plan is to keep on blogging about Preston growing up, our trials through parenthood, our home makeovers (so many more to come!), and just our day-to-day life. I hope you keep reading! I'll go private sometime next week, so make sure to send me your info before then.

Thanks everyone!

My First Mother's Day

I am so proud to be sweet Preston's mom. At daycare on Friday, he made this for me:

It is PROUDLY hanging on our frig.

My boys have spoiled me today. I got beautiful new earrings and a new "mom" charm for my Pandora bracelet. And, Preston wrote me a really beautiful letter. I'll treasure it always :) Then we took some pictures outside.

Preston, you are the coolest kid ever and I love being your mom. You bring me and your dad so much joy and never cease to amaze us. I'm one lucky mommy.

I have now realized what a sacrifice my own mom has made for me. I don't think you really understand unless you have your own child and experience first hand what moms go through. I am pretty positive that I have the best mom ever and I am so glad we are close. Having Preston has brought us even closer. I don't know what I would have done without her the past few months. I have called her crying more times the last three months than in my entire life! Thanks for teaching me how to care for a baby, how to breastfeed, how to take some time for myself, and how to be a good mom. Happy Mother's Day Mom! And happy 1st mother's day as a Mimi!

Also, to my mother-in-law - thank you for always willing to lend a helping hand to us and for watching Preston for us on Wednesdays. You have been a big help to us this year and we appreciate that more than you know. Brian (and me too) is so thankful to have a close relationship with you. Happy Mother's Day and happy 1st mother's day as Mimzie!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Just when I started to figure it out at home...

I'm back at work! I haven't talked much about work on my blog, but I have an absolutely amazing job with even more amazing people. I work at the children's hospital here in Memphis. There are 13 of us in my department (Marketing and Communications) and we are a tight bunch. All of us women. Of the 13 of us, 9 are working moms with age ranges 3 months to 19 years. Preston and another department baby boy were born the same week, even! We had a huge year last year filled with national recognition, the opening of a brand new hospital, and a year that I am sure none of us will ever forget. It was one of those once-in-a-career years. My last day of work was Friday, January 28. I delivered Preston Monday, January 31. It's been 12 weeks, or three full months.

I came back to work with an awesome support system of other working moms. There is always an ear to listen to my paranoia, advice to be given, and concerns to be understood. I am truly blessed. I know that this is not a normal work environment. It made coming back easy. It made me realize how much I truly love my work. I already have my plate FULL of projects. Just like I like it!

I am working 40 hours a week. Four days a week Preston is at our on-site daycare (another amazing perk of my job). One day a week, he is with my mother-in-law. Our on-site daycare is just temporary until Preston starts at First Baptist Day School in August. Of course, I am nervous about leaving him anywhere anytime. Plus, I do miss him.

So, I'm back. Maternity leave is over. My taste of the stay-at-home-mom life is over. How am I feeling? Content and balanced. How is Preston feeling? He loves daycare. In fact, for a baby that needs as much stimulation as Preston does, daycare is GOOD for him. He is eating great, napping great, and the teachers loves him. Those teachers are amazing. They are baby whisperers. I don't even have to explain anything to them, they just know. Preston goes easily to them, and it makes my heart happy.

I had someone tell me once that daycare is a dirty word. Daycare is a great thing as long as the right place is chosen and you and your husband are on the same page with it. There is a line in the Baby Whisperer book that says that it is completely ridiculous to think that no one can take care of your child as well as you can. To think that is being over-baring and possessive. In some ways, I think I am the expert on Preston, but at the same time, I know that he can go to a place that loves him, nurtures him, and cares for him everyday. Rather than it scarring him for life, he can come out a better kid. Brian and I want Preston to thrive inside and OUTSIDE of our home. We want him to be comfortable around people, socialized, and independent. I am excited about daycare for him. We will work hard to teach him these things (and many more things!) in our home, but it is great to have it acted out at a safe place that we love.

Well, that's my rant on daycare :) I know this arragement isn't for everyone, but it works for our family.

Three Months Old

Saturday you turned three months! Wow, a 1/4 of a year!

You have the cutest, most mischievous smile in the world and you love flashing it these days. It seems like you are smiling all the time!

We aren't sure how much you weigh since we haven't taken you to the doctor in a month, but your daddy and I are guessing around 10 and half pounds. You are looking like such a little boy these days! Your hair continues to grow longer and blonder. I thought it might start falling out, but it just keeps getting thicker. You are wearing 0-3 months or 3 month size clothing. You are very true to size. You seem to be getting longer though. We keep waiting for you to get some fat rolls because you don't have any yet.

For food, you eat about every three hours, although sometimes during the day you go 4 to 4 and a half hours without food. You are still all about nursing. It's one of your favorite things to do, which will probably weird you out when you are older. We do give you formula though, at least one bottle a day. You take any kind of formula very well (we've tried three different kinds thanks to samples being sent to our house) and even breast milk mixed with formula. We are very thankful for this! Maybe you won't be a picky eater :)

You are all about chewing on those hands. You recently found them the other day and love putting them in your mouth. You are not really taking a pacifier anymore. You love your thumb! Developmentally, you are doing awesome. You roll over from tummy to back all the time. Your mommy has seen you roll from back to tummy twice now. You also sit in your bumbo a lot and you look like an old man... ha! You also LOVE your playmat.

You still have your difficult moments though. You still have pretty bad reflux and cry and spit up a lot. We have to keep bibs on you all the time. Hopefully, we are getting close to the end of that. It's okay though, because right now, you are all about your mommy. You just love her! All she has to do is look at you and you smile real big for her. Mommy LOVES it and Daddy is jealous :) Your mommy told your daddy though that here in a few years, you'll be all about your Daddy and not want to have anything to do with your mom, so he needs to let her enjoy it!

Happy Three Months P! We love you!

Living Room Makeover

There's been some serious work going on around here. Remember what our living room looked like before?

Well after a lot of work painting the trim, painting the walls, scrubbing the floors and oiling the hardwood, searching for furniture deals...

It now looks like this!

SO much better.

Little disclaimer... our dining room chairs are usually in our dining room, but we are having Preston's baptism party soon, so we have it staged for that.

Here's a little breakdown. We used Wheeling Neutral by Ben Moore. The trim is like the rest of our house, White Dove, also by Ben Moore. Of everything in the room, I think I love how the fireplace turned out the most.

I like the contrast of the black and white. It is really the focal point of the room now. I cannot wait to have Christmas in this room with a fire going. By the way, see the beautiful canvas of the little man on the mantle? That was a Groupon steal for about $20 bucks. LOVE it.

Now for some of the stuff. We still need to hang more on the walls and we may end up rearranging the furniture, but for now it works.

The rug came from my parents. They weren't using it and had it in their garage, so they cleaned it up for us and surprised us with it. It's awesome and we (especially Brian) really likes the bold colors in it.

Couch came from Craigslist and is like new. We paid close to $100 for it... we were excited about that steal!

I got the fabric for the pillows at my favorite fabric place in Bartlett, Johnson's Fabrics, for 25% off. My mom made them into pillows for me.

Then we have the fabulous little coffee table.

I am excited about this, because it was my little project when Preston was napping. When I got it, it looked like this...

I paid $5 for it at an estate sale. Yes, $5! But it was in really bad shape, and I'm pretty sure that's bird poop on the top of it. I loved the bones of it though... the little brass knob and the wheels at the bottom of the legs. It was a cute little shape and had some nice trim on it. So I figured I would take it home with me and either refinish it, or paint it. I stripped the original stain off, which came off easily, then I painted three coats on it of Montgomery White by Ben Moore. We had a sample size of this from the living room so I just used what we had. It is kind of an antique white. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Then I sealed it with some polyurethane. The accessories on top are from the Pottery Barn Outlet.

Next is the beautiful antique sideboard.

My mom bought this a long time ago, before I was ever around :) It was painted white. My dad stripped the white paint and refinished it. It was in our house growing up. Recently, my mom painted some gold accents on to it and changed out the hardware. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this sideboard and it is awesome storage for serving pieces, candles, and linens. The silver tea service on top came from Brian's side of the family (we think it came from Italy). I am really appreciative of our families sharing stuff with us.

The two chairs we already had and we got them at Bassett a couple years ago.

Here's another shot of the room....

See the little cabinet to the left? We have all of our bar stuff in there. That was another great estate sale find. We got it for $18, refinished it, changed out the glass in it (I think for a grand total, we spent about $30 on it). It fits great in the corner.

We're happy this room is done for a while. One thing we still have left to do it spray paint the plantation shutters to match the trim. We also need to hang a few more things and add a few more accessories. But for now, we are just enjoying the room and looking forward to hosting parties and holidays as they come.

I have to give a shout out to my dad and Brian. They worked hard together to get this room done and we love it. It is awesome! My only real contribution was the coffee table, considering SOMEONE had to take care of the two-month-old through all this :)

I'll have a post on the dining room soon. It's done, but it's all set up for Preston's baptism party, so when it's back to normal, I'll post it.