CHANGE WITH ME

Spring is here. Time for a Change:

www.anewdayrises.wordpress.com

New look, new name...same neurosis.

Please change your links, bookmarks, ect.

Looking forward to catching up with you over at my new place.

Sleepy

We are 'sleep training' Jack right now.

I use the term loosely because I think it's more us being 'trained' than him. It's funny, before I had a kid I thought I was an expert on child-rearing. I just figured if you were firm but fair and followed through, your kid would do what you wanted. Oh how naive I was. I may only be five months into this parenting gig but my world has been blown away with what I've learned about babies and their opinions.

My child has opinions; lot's of them.

Anyway, back to the sleep training. Basically, Jack is large and in charge at nearly 20 pounds, and there are a couple of nearly 1-year-olds we know who weigh about the same and sleep consistently through the night. So, I don't think it's a nutritional need in the middle of the night, if anything, it's habit. He wakes up at the same time every night no matter what time he goes to bed.

The hard thing about getting him to drop his middle of the night feed is that he isn't a baby that can be soothed with rocking or snuggling especially when he is mostly asleep anyway. When we go into him it seems to wake him up more and then it really pisses him off when no boob is offered.

So, we just lay in bed, gripping the blankets, trying to keep ourselves out of his room while he works it out. Not fun. Granted it's almost never more than 10 minutes, but at 1am, ten minutes kind of feels like an eternity.

Last night he slept until 6am with no crying. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself by talking about it on the Internet.

Abs of Mush

I went jogging yesterday.

I'm sore today.

I only ran one mile...

Please don't judge me.

I walked an additional three miles plus the one I ran.

I still only jogged one mile.

My abs are sore.

My quads are sore.

Too bad it's cruddy weather or I would attempt it again...

Every Day is New

In the last 10 days Jack has started rice cereal, found his feet, rolled over and sits unsupported.for short amounts of time...and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.

He's also really found his voice and his happy shrieks and babbling can be heard anywhere in the house.


I'm really enjoying this stage of babyhood. He loves to play on the floor exploring his toys and putting everything in his mouth.



Jack seems to have gained a bit of independence in the last couple of weeks as well. He is happy to play with his toys or sit in his booster seat or johnny jumper while I get things done around the house. He loves tags, so any of his toys that have a tag enthral him. He will diligently work until he can get the tag in his mouth.

The nonstop travel and busyness don't seem to have an end in sight but that's okay because it's all good stuff. Lots of family coming and going which we love.

I had a bad stomach flu last week and I think along with my insides the last of my brains seeped out with it. I have no energy for blogging or writing in general...

So, if I'm hit and miss the next few days, you'll know why!

We've Been Busy

We spent the weekend at White Pass with the same great friends who went to Utah with us.

We snuggled by the fire, read books, played with the kidlets, and ate way too many cookies. Libby has a good excuse to eat cookies...me not so much!

At one point on Friday, Libby and I looked at each other over the top of our books and asked if the other wanted to venture outside...you know, just to be able to say we left the condo that day...we decided against it and settled on making tea and eating more cookies. (On a side note, it is so awesome to have a fellow book nerdy friend! Love it!)

The guys skied a bunch, but the moms decided icy slushy snow just wasn't our thing. I was on deadline this week, so the weekend coming early was a blessing. I got my work done and didn't have to worry.

Amy snapped this cute photo of us, I love that Jack looks like he has no neck (or body), just a floating head. I didn't exactly pack appropriately for him, so we had to get a little creative in keeping him bundled up.

Hope your weekend was as relaxing and restful as ours was!

Edible

Couldn't you just eat him? I think I'll dip him in chocolate and have him for dinner. I need to scan some pictures of Aaron as a baby because more and more Jack is starting to resemble him. (I think it's in their facial expressions more than anything).

They certainly share one clear character trait and that is stubbornness. And it makes me laugh because I can't believe that just shy of 5-months, this kid has a stronger will than I do.

I thought before I became a mother that children were 90 percent nurture and 10 percent nature. Not so. I think best case scenario it's 50/50.

Take for example that my child is perfectly capable of rolling over from his tummy to his back and vice versa. When he's on his tummy, he pushes himself up on his arms and even rocks to the side but once he feels the pull of gravity he pulls himself back to his stomach. Or, when he's on his back, he can roll up onto his side and reach for toys but he refuses to actually roll all the way over. And of course, now I have something new to obsess over. Doesn't the universe know I'm still busy obsessing over a bunch of other stuff? (Which by the way, it looks like his tummy issues have resolved themselves for the most part...yea!)


I realize that I'm putting all these expectations on Jack's behavior that are completely inappropriate. He'll roll when he wants to and it's no big deal when he does it. But for me, who internalizes and stews on everything, it's hard not to have a reason and then a solution to this 'problem.' I like to fix anything that seems broken, whether it's a relationship, a work issue or a baby who doesn't want to roll over. Anne Lamott writes in Traveling Mercies that there are really only two prayers, Help me, Help me, Help me and Thank you Thank you Thank you.


I feel like I'm praying a lot of 'help me' right now. Help me not be such a stress case, help me not put so much pressure on my child already, help me be the kind of mom who can relax and enjoy the moment, help me not miss out on the joy that he is because I'm too busy worrying...the list goes on and on.

So, now that I've written out all my help me's, I'll finish this blog post with a few thank you's. Thank you for a boy who laughs and shrieks and talks all day long, thank you for sunshine and warmish weather, thank you for big blue eyes, for tulips on the verge of blooming, thank you for a husband who loves our son, good friends and the reminder that it's not my world to try and control.

Gratitude

Jack and I had a great weekend in Bellingham loving on soon-to-be-born Baby Lim and her mama. The college roommates have a tradition of gathering for a girls weekend to celebrate upcoming weddings or babies.

It always cracks me up how we can all pick up where we left off as if we were just living together yesterday. There is lots of laughing, a little bickering and that wonderful unspoken understanding that friends who really know each other just have.

Thanks ladies...now send me your pictures so I can post them on my BLOG!

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And as thankful as I am for my friends, I'm really grateful for my hubby. Why you ask? Well, as I was sitting on Snoqualmie pass in an awful snow storm waiting for avalanche control to finish up, I thought to myself, if Aaron was here I wouldn't have to drive...

There is so much I take for granted that my husband just does. He drives in the scary weather, he maintains the cars and almost always pumps the gas. He mows the lawn (I've never mowed a lawn), fixes the plumbing, calls the repair man when we need it and pays the mortgage. I wouldn't know up from down if he disappeared. I know I could do all those things, but I'm so thankful I don't have to, and even more thankful that I get to be married to my husband. He's the best (to me!).

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Aaron spent his free weekend knocking back projects around our house. He's so funny, I always encourage him to just relax and kick back whenever I leave town and instead he busies himself around the house fixing and tweaking things. Apparently, he is relaxed...

Anyway, he took a hand sander to our hardwood floors and re-verathaned then and they look fantastic! Several years of dog nails, high heals, and one to many times of dropping food on the floor and they were looking a little rough. Now, you can slide across them in your socks and Rem keeps slip sliding around as he tries to round a corner.

He also rotatiled a garden space in our side yard, so I'll keep you posted as things start growing.