Living the life

Oh man have I been living the life lately!! Never have I enjoyed my Christmas break so thoroughly!! 

I have loved every second. From spending time with family and having lots to do to spending my days at home with just me and my little man. 

I am just soaking up my days pretending to be a stay at home mom. Soaking them up like a shamu wash cloth. Ever seen one of those amazing things?? They are pretty absorbent!

As I have been soaking basking delighting in my days at home I have decided that I was born for this!!!! Seriously I rock it. 

My baby sleeps in!! Since he isn't getting woken up for daycare he sleeps in until 8:30 everyday! It's beautiful. I COOK DINNER. I'm still not cooking everyday but I am definitely cooking more often! I clean my house! I work out! I stay up and hang out with my husband! I do all these things and still have sufficient time to play with my baby! AND sometimes I even sneak some snuggle time during one of Js naps. 

I'm not saying that staying at home wouldn't get hard or mundane or stressful or that I shouldn't be able to do all these things while working...... but....... to me the grass is looking like a beautiful deep green on this side of things. 

I'm thinking of investing in some kind of robot. So I could teach through the robot while still staying at home. Sounds brilliant to me! 

Besides me, Woody and j have also had a great break

J had a stellar first Christmas and got spoiled by all of his wonderful grandparents and family. He thinks that life is pretty awesome these days with all his new toys. He goes from toy to toy to toy all day long. He got a little standing table and a walker and both have been helping him with his walking and standing (go figure). He is a champ at his push toy. He walks all around the house and gets the biggest smile. I love how he will go and find it himself and start walking around it's adorable. (Did I tell you how much I love hanging out with him yet?)

Woody is also enjoying having me stay at home. Because I cook I clean and I even will stay up at night and hang out with him! Seriously guys.... We're loving it. 

But alas come monday I will have to get up, I will have to wake my baby up, he will have to go to daycare and I will have to go to school. (I will do this because one of my co-workers recently threatened my life if I didn't return, and she's much stronger than I am so I have been sufficiently bullied into returning). 

But on the bright side J has a wonderful lady who I know loves him and I have a fantastic job that I have a love/hate relationship with. Mostly love. But hate too. 

I hope you have been enjoying your break as much as we have been enjoying ours! 

The life of my carpet

The story of my carpet lately has turned into a sad tale. Filled with towels and carpet cleaner and crunchy carpet that was accidentally missed..... (Well now you know)

We've had an unfortunate last couple of weeks. They have been occupied with things that should not be talked about in proper conversations. Since this is not that I'll tell you... Diarrhea throw up, pink stuff and of course water....and Gatorade. Blue Gatorade. 

The tale begins as many end.. The return home from a wonderful disneyland vacation (the fact that I haven't posted pictures is inexcusable..... I'll do that eventually). Sadly the combination of multiple babies and kids with a theme park did not bode well for the littles. 

J man and many of his cousins came home with a cold.

After many stressful nights I finally put my foot down and took the babe to the doctor. Turned out j had a double ear infection with his cold. Cue: pink stuff AKa antibiotics. 

The amount of wiggling, pursing of lips and spitting out caused a fair amount of pink stuff to end up on our extremely ugly and already dirty carpet. 

I'm not sure how long he was better for (like two days) before the diarrhea started. I'm sure you can all guess what (and how) got on the carpet this time. You got it. Pee. (You were thinking something else weren't you?) With all the diaper changes on a seriously wiggly baby it was only a matter of time before it took too long and the carpet paid the price.

Quickly following this the little man caught yet ANOTHER bug and the carpet was seriously destroyed.  I have never ever seen so much throw up. 

Not ever. 

I have nightmares about it

At this point in the game Woody and I were both sick and carpet cleaning was subpar. I am still finding crunchy pieces that I have to reclean..... Yeah I'll get to that later is usually my thought (jk ok maybe) 

Admist all the sickness and dirtying of carpet my little j still found joy in his journey and put the joy in mine as well. 

I hope on your thanksgiving break you were filling your stomachs instead of emptying them like us ;)

A little update

I love my life and my especially my cute little pirate!! 

J went to his first birthday party! His cousin turned 1! They will be good friends when they grow up

I'm Teaching my little J man to love to read!! The teacher in me can't help it. He is super good at turning the pages when asked!! Makes me smile every time he does it. But mostly he thinks they are fun toys... Progress

J has decided he wants to feed himself. Looks like he is really good at it don't Ya think?? He only eats a little baby food he likes things he can pick up way more!

As always he's a little monster!!! He gets around EVERYWHERE. he keeps us busy and Woody and I love it!!

Sadly it looks like J has gotten my super amazing immune system. AKA he's sick all the time!! It breaks my heart when he's sick. And the worst part is trying to decide if he's sick enough for me to stay home. Sigh... Times like these I have to remind myself that I love my job and am happy to help support my family. 

As always being a mommy is the best!

Free At last

** WARNING ***

 this post is about breastfeeding..... read at your own risk ;)

Well ladies and gentleman... the time has come and my little man is on FORMULA 

dun dun dun

GASP! Foooorrrmmmuulllaaa???

Hahah oh breastfeeding... everyone has so many strong, opinionated, different views.

In the beginning I told Woody 6 months breast feeding and that's it! Because I totally understood how formula is expensive and that it's good for your baby to get the mommy milk BUT I'm going to be totally honest....

I thought breastfeeding was weird. 

I didn't like the idea of it. I didn't like that it would always be me, or having to worry about feeding in public, or I just didn't think I'd like it.

But the little man came and we had some serious ups and downs with the breastfeeding business.  I was lucky that he did not have any real issues with it. I had plenty of milk. And it was not as bad as all the horror stories say it is.

Over the summer, J and I got to be PRO at feeding in public.  Seriously, I just didn't care anymore.... especially since I went to the beach and basically every time I fed him it was in public. So we got over that real quick.

I decided that breastfeeding was AWESOME. It was super easy, and quick. And I didn't have to worry about packing milk or anything. 

  

Then I went back to work and I could only pump once a day.... Things got tuff real fast. My boobs hurt, my milk got low J hated eating in public (because we stopped practicing) I hated pumping, we had to eat right after day care which never worked with his schedule (but I was always full)  

And the list goes ON.....

Because my milk was so low J had to eat half and half. And he didn't like eating straight formula so it got to the point that I had to pump so I could mix it with formula (while I'm home!) and then feed him....

So think how awesome it was to eat out and about, I had to bring Breast milk and formula and worry about thawing Breast milk, how full I would get etc. 

It was awful

So I decided I was done (judge me if you want, whatever!) 

And we slowly made the switch to formula. (Which stopping nursing was so painful like SO painful). But now I'm done

Cue hallilujah music

Well mostly done (I still leak at times). And truth be told I love it! I love being able to snuggle j while he eats. I love not worrying about how full I am or my lack of milk. I love not having to pump, or thaw Breast milk. 

basically good decision!

So.... 

Breast feeding. Surprisingly I enjoyed it. 

Formula. I enjoy it!

You can't go wrong! Whatever works for you and your babe!

The whispers of my heart

Dearest J

I love you more than I ever knew was possible. Every time I look at you my heart swells. It swells with love for every exaggerated face you make, for how easily you put a smile on every face, for your excited flapping arms and your anxiety to move. You fell asleep in my arms tonight and I realized it had been months since this has happened. Oh how you have grown!! You are such a little man now. I love these precious moments with you as you are now. Your joy and excitement about everything in life reminds me of how life is meant to be lived. I try to soak up all our moments together and lock them into my memory as best I can. But at the same time as I look at your little boy face, and I am excited for you to grow. I am excited for all of the milestones we have ahead of us and am excited to be by your side as you go through all of them. No matter how big you get you will always be my little boy. 

I'll love you forever. I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living my baby you'll be.

 

To be a mother

I love my little baby. And I find joy in being his mother everyday. 

But every now and then I have a moment where I truly feel like I'm a mother. 

My poor little baby had a rough night. He just could not sleep and he was a little bit on the moody side. 

After trying and failing to get him to go back to sleep I decided to take him out into the family room. 

I laid on the floor and watched as J had the time of his life with a box full of goodies he found. He'd play and then lay his head on me, sometimes he'd lay on me and just chat and every now and then he'd give me some kisses. 

And even though I was exhausted and was more asleep  than awake for the first hour I found that I really enjoyed my early morning play date. As I watched my little man, who got no sleep, enjoying life I felt such a surge of love for him and the gift of being his mom. 

I'm so grateful for him, for his contagious smile, and his easy demeanor. 

Being a mom means you take the good and the rough (I'm hesitant to say bad). It means you get to be the one to comfort the baby in the middle of the night, because you're the one he cries for. You're the one he reaches for. It means that even when you're sick or tired your baby still needs you and you still need them. It means being exhausted but loving the extra snuggles you get in the middle of the night when you feed him, because he no longer sleeps on you in the day. It means giving all you got and receiving so much more. 

I'm so grateful to be a mom. And I love all of my rough times as well as my good times. 

Now don't go thinking I'm totally crazy, as soon as 8 rolled this morning around I had Woody take a turn while I went back to sleep. ;)

How does she do it?

I miss my summer life. Like really. I. Miss. It. 

I was seriously struggling. I was stressed all the time. I felt like I was not being a good teacher, not a good wife, not a good mom. You know how it goes. 

Basically I needed to put more time into EVERYTHING. And I had no time for anything. 

Cooking dinner? Sure I planned dinners and then..... Got take out

Work out? Hm... How about Saturdays ok every other Saturday. Wait what's Saturday?

See my baby? Definitely. I played with J every second he was awake and at home. But that was like 3 hours maybe 4. And I just felt a serious ache for all the time that I was missing. 

Plus playing with my baby meant no chores, no working out, no dinner, no school work. Maybe a shower, MAYBE.... SOMETIMES

AND it is my first time with a serious church calling. And by serious I mean time consuming. All callings are of course serious

I was frustrated. A lot. And I complained and whined a little. Ok ok a lot. 

Something needed to change because I had to work. No way around it. 

I know some people can do it all. Have multiple kids, work full time, work out, have a clean house, make dinner.... But I was finding out that this was not my talent. 

I tried some things. Like asking woody to help, not making dinner (obviously) and just trying to cut back. But I still was struggling. 

Finally I realized the one thing that I had taken out and that I should not have. My scripture study. 

I started listening to conference talks on the way to work. It was a perfect solution for me. 

I have felt such a change in my life since I invited The Lord back into it. I am still stressed and I still don't have enough time but I'm happy. I'm able to enjoy my life way more. And to be PERFECTLY HONEST because I am less stressed, I feel that I a more efficient with my time and am able to get more done. 

When life gets busy it's so easy to cut out your personal scripture time -  it seems to be the first thing that goes. But it's the thing that we need the most. 

So spend some time with The Lord and He will help you accomplish all. 

Don't forget to smile :)

6 Months Old AKA 0 years

My baby turned 6 months old last week!!

WHHHAAATT????!!!

I could hardly believe it.. so I checked, I counted the months on a calendar, on my fingers, called and asked the doctor, and sadly it is true! He really is 6 MONTHS OLD

He is such a great baby. He smiles lots, babbles lots, and eats his toes lots.

Brighton tried to get J to smile.  J really loves Brighton and usually smiles for him, but he always knows when a camera is on, and he always makes me work for his smiles. 

After 6 months of life J is turning into a little man.  He is very interested in everything.  He is constantly looking around and easily distracted, especially while nursing

J is very interested in eating. He opens his mouth whenever I am eating and wants to take a bite! He really enjoys his rice cereal and baby food for like 10 bites.  Then he is bored and is ready to do something else... 

He has recently decided that blowing raspberries while eating is the best idea ever! This makes for some colorful raspberries!

He is an outside baby and loves sitting outside, walking, swimming, anything!

He has a new habit of smiling with his tongue out, he loves it.

I've recently decided that J has the perfect hat head, plus he doesn't have any hair so that's 

the only reason we will welcome the cold weather, beanies.

Even though it has been such a short amount of time, my little J baby has changed so much.  I have loved every stage so far and am loving that he now interacts more with me and his surroundings. 

Basically he's best the baby ever. 

And I feel bad for everyone else because he's not theirs.

Sleep training take 2

So I went on a vaca with my family. We went to Newport and it was tons of fun!! 

Sadly woody couldn't come so I was a single parent for the week. (Kudos to single parents, phew) But I have an awesome family so I had lots of help during the day...... But I was flying solo at night. Which was always the hardest part of the day. 

Of course j was sick or just upset about not being home and could NOT SLEEP. At night... 

He slept during the day of course. 

I was up about every 2 hours trying to rock the little dude to sleep and he ended up in bed with me every single night. As bad of a habit as that is, we were pretty snuggley and comfy! 

BUT I knew that it was time.... Time to.... Sleep train... Take 2 (GASP) 

So when I came home, woody and I basically just let the poor kid cry. And cry. And cry. And CRY! We'd go in and give him a pat, a kiss and tell him how sorry we were. And then he'd cry and cry and cry. 

We were lucky and it only took a few days, but those were some ROUGH days, I mean nights, 

no I mean both.  

I couldn't handle it and would leave. I'd go work out or go to the grocery store because my poor little heart couldn't take it! 

We'd even turn the monitor down so we couldn't hear him out of it and would just watch the lights on the monitor and hear him in the background. 

One night we just stayed up all night long. I mean there wasn't much sleep going on... at night

But I'm glad I did it. You know the kind of glad that only comes after the fact.... Like  after you've studied for days without even sleeping and you get an "A", or after going on a juice diet to lose some weight you're "glad" you didn't eat those delicous treats at the party, but you never want to hear the words "juice fast" again..... That kind of glad.

But now USUALLY not always but usually I can set J in his bed, walk away, and he will fall asleep!! Of course not tonight, because I'm writing about my success in sleep training, J would not go to sleep by himself. Figures. He's the boss. 

Ps why do I have so many sleeping pictures??