How We Anniversary #mawage #dweamwifinadweam

My husband and I are celebrating our 5-year anniversary today. And by celebrate, I mean he got me a very sweet, thoughtful card... and I texted him a prickture. I knew that art degree would come in handy...

This is how I imagine my husband's attorney will present the evidence if he ever decides to leave me.

Our friends will agree, there is a bit of a traditional role reversal in our household. My husband is definitely the more sensitive, emotional one. (He owned more romantic comedies than I did before we combined our movie collections). While I can tend to be more detached or zen about things. (Doesn't zen sound so much nicer?) That shouldn't suggest that I'm some sort of unfeeling robot. I got plenty of feels. I just keep them close to my heart most of the time. My husband knows this, and he's privy to the inner sanctum of my psyche. I'm sure it's why he still loves me after 5 years (6 if you count back to our dativersary).

A little over a year ago, in the spring of 2015, we took an even bigger plunge than mawage. (Honestly, marrying this man was one of the easiest decisions of my life, and I'd do it again in a second.) My books were doing pretty good, by indie publishing standards, so we both quit our day jobs and then bought a house near Lake of the Ozarks. I continued to write, and my husband became a stay-at-home dad/house husband.

I think we were both pretty excited about the transition, and maybe both nervous wrecks for a bit too. Sure, it sounds like a dweam come true. I get to focus more on writing without also juggling housework, a part-time job, and childcare. And my husband gets to spend more time with our kiddo and tackle the household chores, which, while no picnic, is a significant improvement over what he was doing--and without a jerk boss. Gotta love that! As awesome as that sounds (and totally is!) it was still a huge life change, topped with a new home and community, and well, you can understand our nerves. We were also spending a lot more time around each other. A LOT.

You know how some couples have their make or break moments on vacation? They're in unfamiliar territory, and they're spending more face time with their partner than usual. Whether it's in paradise or not hardly seems to matter. Whatever issues they've been avoiding somehow find their way into the open. Well, we moved to paradise, and our face time wasn't confined to a week or two. It wasn't a matter of surviving a vacation with our marriage intact. This was a huge lifestyle change.

It's been over a year now, so I can confidently say that my husband and I do, in fact, genuinely like each other. Of course we knew that we loved each other. But spending this much time in the same space, day in and day out, really pulls the curtain back. For better or worse. In our case, for better. I find that I love this man more and more each day. And he loves me too... despite my tendencies to address tender, heartfelt occasions (like our anniversary) with dick drawings. Luckily, he has a good sense of humor under those feels of his. ; )

Happy anniversary, honey! Here's to many more years (and pricktures) to come! ♥

Crazy Little Baby Man

I really thought I'd have all the time in the world to blog after I finished my degree a year ago. But about that time, my kiddo hit the toddler phase. Xavier was a phenomenal baby. He'd hang out on the couch with me and breastfeed in between me typing on homework, a novel, or the monthly real estate guide I design. Most of the time I was still able to continue working one-handed. He really was the sweetest, happiest little guy. Not that he isn't sweet and happy now. It's just that since he's figured out how to walk (and subsequently run and crawl and open things), I'm finding that I require more and more coffee... and hours in the day. If anyone knows the location of a vat of chemicals that could help me develop time-freezing super powers, hit me up. I've weened Xavi off the boob, so at least I don't have to worry about said chemicals affecting my milk supply.

I love my kiddo. I love that I get to work from home and spend all day with him. It's not without it's challenges though. Today, I woke up with a tiny elbow in my spleen. It took half an hour to balance my checkbook this morning, because a million kisses were in order. Oddly, I was entirely uninteresting once I finished with the checkbook and was ready to play. That baby radar is no joke. As I type this, Xavi is relieving me of all the mac-and-cheese on my plate. (I can count this as dieting, right?)

I solemnly swear I'm up to no good...

Things have been especially trying through Xavi's terrible twos because his language skills are developing slowly. Crazy, right? With as much as Paul and I gab, it's really a shocker. No, we haven't had his hearing checked, and we see no reason to. You can whisper the kid's name from across the room and he turns around. And he understands when we tell him no or when we play peek-a-boo. I'm not getting too worked up about his pace yet. I know several people who didn't start talking until they were three, and Einstein was four. It just makes it hard for him to communicate with us, and then he gets frustrated, and I get frustrated for him. He's developing just fine otherwise. He's very mechanical and his motor skills are spot-on. He's even started changing the oil in my car. Okay, not really. I'm hoping those motor skills come along soon though too.

I'd like to start blogging more, and hopefully before my kiddo starts preschool. I think I'm just a guilty person by nature. I can't seem to focus if I feel like I'm not making enough time for my little guy. Mix in the time I spend writing, reading, editing, doing graphic design, marketing, networking, and all the regular, boring activities like exterminating dust bunnies and scrubbing toilets, and well, you get the picture. That's how I end up blogging once a month (if that). I'm a little better with Facebook and Twitter, but not much. I need a set schedule. I need a New Year's resolution... that I actually stick to. I need one of those coffee enemas. Okay, that might be taking things too far.

Well, it's taken nearly two hours to do this blog, because after eating my mac-and-cheese, Xavi decided that I should be wearing him like a hat. I love this little guy to pieces. And if I have to get a Five Hour Energy IV to keep up, then that's what I'll do. Until it comes to that, I'll save nap time and the extra hours I should be sleeping for working on the novels, and continue to blog when I can... while wearing a Xavi hat and drinking beverages with questionable looking toddler backwash in them.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! And I'll do my best to check in again soon, hopefully with some new giveaways and freebies before Christmas! : )