The Sweet Reason for My Absence

This blog has suffered quite some abandonment in the past year and I want to sincerely apologize for that. Trust me, I really thought about it all the time, in fact every single time I am out and about I think about how I could turn my experience into a blog post.

A lot has happened in the last year though and I couldn’t think of a sweeter reason to neglect my blog… Let me introduce you to Nicolas Alexander Rodriguez, born on 1/11/11 🙂

Nicolas, 10 days old. Photographer: Gian Carlo Brand

To say it with the words on our birth announcement card:

“A baby fills a special place in your heart you never knew was empty.”

Here are some pre-Nicolas pictures (taken at 37 weeks, about 3 days before his birth):

37 Weeks - Photographer: Kamran Malik

At the Sanford Farmer's Market the weekend before Nicolas was born.

During my pregnancy I suffered from extreme fatigue (lol, like every expecting mom…) – even writing an email was so exhausting that I had to take a nap right after – not to talk about showing homes in the Florida summer heat – I had to try hard not to pass out while walking through those foreclosure homes with no AC! And then there is something called “baby brains”: everything in your life suddenly centers around the arrival of your baby. Needless to say, my beloved blog was forgotten and at the end of the day I just could not come up with the energy to write another blog post (even though I did manage to post 4 articles…I know, pretty lame!). But the good news is that I have not stopped taking pictures so I have a lot to tell you about some great places in the area…stay tuned!

So, my little Nicolas was born at Heart 2 Heart Birth Center in Sanford which I will feature in one of my upcoming posts. I am so happy to have chosen the birth center. The whole experience was phenomenal and I would definitely do it again!

This photo was taken 4 hours after Nicolas birth, just before we went home (see blog post):

Nicolas, just born.

Life has definitely changed and to be honest, I never thought it would be as challenging as it has been. I have learned so much in the past 6 months and I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband and daddy to my baby boy. Jose has helped me so much and I couldn’t have done it without him.

These are the pictures taken by the great Amanda Kern when Nicolas was only 10 days old:

Here is her blog post about Nicolas photo shoot.

So what does all this mean for Sanford365?

I am definitely planning on keeping this blog running. In fact, I just updated the design and am planning on reviving my writing as well. I have regained my energy after this looong break (yay!) and even though I realize it will be hard to write while raising a little boy I am up for the challenge. Luckily Nicolas has been a very good sleeper so I have my evenings “off” from motherhood. Apart from that I have stayed pretty active, even with baby. We are almost just as much out and about as before (minus late night activities of course) so I still have the chance to experience lots of new places and things to do in and around Sanford. And on top of that, Jose has volunteered to help me with it if he’s not out showing homes…

Since I am now obviously also interested in “kids stuff”, there will be a new section on this blog called Nico’s Corner where I will share the best things to do and places to visit with your little ones. I have already found some great activities and spots that I like to visit with my little angel.