A big week for my baby!

I was supposed to post this last week but somehow never got around to doing it…

WOW, my little man has learned so much this week and if I don’t write it down I’ll forget it even happened and then when people ask me when he’s all grown up “when did Emmett start doing ‘X’?” I will actually have documentation!

Monday and Tuesday were pretty low key days for us but Tuesday evening we did have a playdate at a library with our new playgroup.  It proved to be more than helpful purely because two of the women actually recommended lenders to us to use so that we can rent our condo out and get another loan to purchase a house.  Anyways, it was Wednesday that Emmett really exploded with all things new.

1. Emmett learned to share.  We were sitting in a circle, mommy, daddy and Emmett and we started putting our hands out when he picked up puzzle pieces and asked him “Emmett, can I have the puzzle piece?” then gave it to the person sitting next to us.  It was really cute and he shared with ease.  This was sort of a huge breakthrough because EVERY time we go to book babies at the library he gets super attached to this one shaker toy and when I go to take it from him, he tenses up and throws a royal fit.

2. Emmett learned to ARMY CRAWL!

3. Emmett learned how to pull himself up in his crib so it had to be lowered asap because he could also fling himself out of it!

4. He learned how to sit up in his crib (this was on Thursday after waking up from a nap).

 

The first day of the rest of my life

Doesn’t everyone say that at some point or another?  So seeing as how it’s January 7th, I decided to stick with my resolutions of making the most out of every single day so last night when the cleaning lady texted and said that she needed to come today or no day Chad asked me what time worked for me.  I usually say “Any time after 11am” because that gives me time to poop around the house all morning and give E a chance to nap.  I decided to have the cleaning lady come at 9am so that it would NOT give me the opportunity to waste another second.  So, what did we do?!  Well, E has been sleeping great lately so he slept til about 7:20am this morning.  When he got up, we got up and didn’t stop.  I made sure to make him some solid food today since he didn’t get any yesterday.  He ate a hearty breakfast of banana, applesauce, barley and cinnamon.  I also got my breakfast ready so that I could eat it after my run today.  After breakfast I bundled him up, got my donation clothes that have been sitting in the front room for over 2 weeks now, packed up the dog and we all headed to the park.  When we got to the park I decided to run 4 miles on my own then get the dog and finish up our exercise.  Sweet, 10am and already I have finished my run, the baby has napped (in the BOB) and the dog has had her exercise!  This NEVER happens!!  I swear I could have given up right there and been perfectly content with how my day finished up.  But I didn’t stop there.  Ok let’s stop the fun and excitement.  I have had these clothes forever so I finally drove over to the donation shop to get rid of them.  It felt so amazing to get rid of them but also I had a sense of sadness.  As my husband reminded me, “you aren’t sad to be getting rid of the clothes, you are sad to be getting rid of the clothes that memories are associated with.  You will always have those memories.”  It helped to hear that and I also had to remind myself that yes, I did get rid of those clothes and there’s a great chance I’ll never see them again but they will be enjoyed by someone else rather than just sit in my closet untouched.  At least they’ll be showcased in a second time shop if nothing else.  After the drop off we went to the Starbucks around the corner so that I could nurse E and get a coffee.  I love Starbucks because you know exactly what you’ll get every time.  I also love the ambiance of a coffee shop.  There is just something so soothing about a coffee shop.  Just so relaxing.  It’s the one place you can just go to and people watch for hours and never get bored.  In fact, I think I should add that to my list of things to explore in Denver.  Visit a new coffee shop with E every week.  It’s on the blog so I have to do it.  Anyways, after our Starbucks visit we went to the grocery store to pick up some food for E.  I wore the Ergo for the first time at the grocery store and let me tell you, unbelievable.  Love.  That’s all I have for this product.  Emmett seemed happy and we made faces and laughed at each other the entire time he was in the Ergo.  It was fabulous.  I’m sure everyone and anyone who saw me with my son thought we were insane but I didn’t even care.  When I look at that baby, all I see is him.  When we are together it’s just us with no one else around.  When we got home I fed him and tried to put him down but he just wouldn’t budge so we spent the remainder of our time together today cooking dinner for Chad and having Emmett hang out in the Ergo.

This evening I did something completely out of the ordinary and went to my first hot yoga in over 20 months.  I received a ton of hot yoga gift cards for my birthday and Christmas so I was able to go to a class tonight with my friend Taylor.  Um, can I just say this class is unreal?!  The room is heated to about 110 degrees and you just sweat for 90 minutes straight.  I am so excited to incorporate this exercise into my weekly routine.  Unfortunately, the classes are very expensive so I’ll be limited to one class a week but I’m really excited about it!  I’m hoping it will improve my running.

When I got home E was ready to eat and go to bed.  While he didn’t really nap today, we still had a great day and daddy had a great time playing with E while I was at hot yoga.  Now I’m settling in for my allotted TV time while also blogging.  I can’t help it.  I’m addicted.

Because I have to start somewhere

Just because I made us get out of the house today to have material for the blog, I’m going to blog about it!

Today was the first (out of many to come) day where I decided I’m done with the mundane.  I told my husband that we’ve got to be more proactive in making everyday count because I’m sick of looking back on days that have passed and having none of them stick out.  It could have been super easy today to sit around all day long while Emmett took intermittent naps and we napped and watched television.  But I’m done.  That’s ok to do every once in a while but we can’t make a habit out of it!  Geez!  Our son is 8 months old already and I have started noticing that he’s becoming more and more independent and while yes, this is a good thing, we can’t take for granted anymore days moving forward.  We have got to embrace and cherish each and every second we are with our BABY!  I use the term baby because while he is growing older, he is still a baby (thank goodness).  So what did we do with our little bundle of joy today?…

We first woke up and did our morning thing.  Now this, I don’t feel as though is ever a waste of time.  We wake up on most days between 7-8am and immediately get coffee and nurse.  This is quiet time and I rarely turn the television on at this time.  I drink my coffee and read blogs, Emmett nurses.  We did this routine this morning too.  This is something that I never ever take for granted because during my maternity leave I did this too.  I went back to work in August and this time was striped from me and all I could think about the entire 30 days that I had to work was how badly I missed my morning time with Emmett.  So this day started as it always does and I think I’ll keep it.  Emmett can usually only stay awake for about 2 hours after he first awakes so he was ready to go back to sleep at around 8:30-9am this morning.  When this happened I decided to squeeze in a run.  I decided on yesterdays run that I would, on the weekends, take a new route.  Because Sadie has been getting like no walks these days (more on how that’s going to change later), I decided yesterday that she was going to get a good long run in.  So I did it.  I took her 4 miles today and 4 miles yesterday.  The change that I made and decided that I would start doing differently was that on the remainder of my run (I don’t feel comfortable running Sadie more than 4 miles with me b/c of her back and joints) I would go someplace completely different than I normally do.  When I jog with Emmett, we have to go on smooth surfaces so most of the time we go on the same 4 or 5 routes so as not to jiggle his head around in the stroller but on the weekends Chad watches him and I run solo.  So I decided to just go where ever I felt like!  This is pretty cool because I pretty much lost all sense of where I was while I was staring at different houses I’d never seen and running on streets I’d never run down.  It was awesome!  I remember very distinctly that there was a run this summer I took downtown before anyone had awoken.  This run stands out to me because it’s a route I’d never run before.  Downtown, while people were just starting to rise.  It was exhilarating and I want to bring that back if even just two days a week on my weekends.  It’s so worth it and it is now going to be a goal for me.  So I did that to break up the mundane parts of my run.  It was helpful because while running I was also listening to my book on tape “The Happiness Project”.  What a rush!

After getting home I was starving.  I have pretty much been eating the same breakfasts now for about 2-3 months.  Today I broke out the eggs and veggies and had that for breakfast.  Afterwards I told Chad “We need to do something different today like go to a park”.  Chad thought that was a dumb idea as it’s cold out and E wouldn’t really get that much enjoyment from it anyways because, after all, he’s only 8 months old 🙂  So we got in the car and went antiquing/thrift store shopping.  We didn’t even buy anything but it was the fact that we were getting out and doing something totally different than we normally do on Sundays.  It was fun to get out because we talked to a few people and got some really cool ideas to use for our next house.  When we got home we had a date with our neighbors for visiting and dessert so we went over there and I got to hold their sweet baby Edie Grey.  She is so tiny and officially 1 month old today.  Emmett looks like a giant compared to her.  We only stayed for about an hour because Emmett was rubbing his eyes and starting to get a tad bit fussy so we knew he needed a nap.  He didn’t fight it when we got home but unfortunately the dog woke him up about 30 minutes in.  I did something I’ve been trying to do all week with that kid.  I thought he was over this and would never let me do this with him ever again but today he indulged me.  I picked him up, brought him out on the couch with me and snuggled with him.  He fell asleep on my chest and I basically died.  I used to be so resistant to let him sleep in our arms or with us because I didn’t want him to get used to sleeping with someone then not going into his crib.  Now I miss that he can just fall asleep in your arms and I’m now slowing realizing that time is buzzing by us and that my moments to enjoy my son sleeping on my chest or in my arms are slowly slipping away.  I want to cherish each and every last moment I can with him so today he slept cuddled up with me.  I can’t even begin to describe what my heart went through in these moments.  I didn’t want the time to end and I promise you, there will be more naps in our future where we are together, him asleep in my arms.

Because every good moment must come to an end, it was time for us to go purchase what could easily be the best purchase I’ve ever made.

I’m going to say it now, this small piece of fabric is going to change the course of my life.  Big statement?  Yes, it is.  But I have no doubt that this will change my life.  I found one that was $50 on craigslist last week and was hesitant to purchase it.  I kept looking for a better deal then finally realized that I didn’t want to wait any longer.  If I kept waiting then Emmett would outgrow it by the time I get a great deal on one.  They are usually $120 so I feel like $50 was a pretty good compromise.  The second I put it on I felt like I was in heaven.  This thing is so different from the Bjorne.  Because the baby is so close to you, your back doesn’t die every time you try and wear your baby.  Soooo what does this mean?  Snoopy gets more walks and I’m going to start making more dinners for my little family because I’ll have a baby who can nap ON me and I will also have two hands and a back that doesn’t hurt all the time.  I’m so excited I can barely stand it!  After picking up the Ergo, we went to Chipotle for dinner.  It’s getting a bit challenging to take E out but I have figured out that as long as I bring puffs, peas and cheerios with me, he is busy and entertained.  He sits quietly and enjoys just being a part of action.  After finishing our dinner we packed up and headed home.  I sat in back with Emmett and sang songs to him because for whatever reason he really doesn’t like the dark.  And ya know what?  I really love being back there with him.  Any extra minute I can sneak in with him I’m happy about!  I love that little boy so much and singing to him was just another highlight of my day today.  I want to start doing more of that too.  I am not sure whether or not he likes when I sing to him but I enjoy it.  We had a rough time putting him to bed tonight but I don’t even mind that anymore.  It just means extra time to stare into his little eyes and rock him to sleep.  I get to feel his little body slowly give into sleep as he becomes heavy in my arms.  Sometimes I just sit and rock him well past the time that I need to because I know that I can’t get that time back.  No regrets.  I will never regret rocking my baby 30 extra minutes.  Never.

As challenging as it was getting him to sleep tonight, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Not an easier night, not a night without him, not a single night.  I hope to have many more of these posts and while it may not seem like we did much today, I was happy.  It wasn’t monumental or really even noteworthy but because I took advantage of every minute I could with my boy, I can go to sleep tonight knowing that I didn’t waste a single second today.

Resolutions

Now, I’m not one who is big on New Years resolutions or anything like that but I was talking to my husband last night at the bar where it was just the TWO of us.  Yes, that’s right, we had no boy, no dog.  My mom so graciously offered to watch Emmett so that we could go see Silver Linings Playbook and then go to a bar of get a coffee or whatever afterwards.  Anyways, we aren’t big into turning down an offer from someone to watch our kids so we took her up on it.  I’m getting a bit off track here but after the movie when my husband and I were chatting it up after a pretty strong beer, I told him “I want to blog more”.  I want this to be my “resolution” of sorts.  But what in the world am I going to blog about when I don’t really do anything?!  Well, I have decided to change all that.  Right now I’m listening to an audio book for our book club next Friday night.  It’s a book that I chose because I didn’t really know what book to choose.  It’s called The Happiness Project and so far I’m really getting into it.  It’s basically a book written by a women who wants to make her life better by becoming happier.  She goes through explaining little by little how she did this during the course of a year.  She takes 12 months and categorizes areas in which she can improve her happiness.  I’m loving it so far and I have realized that while I’m very content and happy with my current situation, I can do better.

My life has become very mundane and really, it usually is.  There are those few exceptions like getting a boyfriend, moving from KC to CO with him, finishing school, starting a new job, getting married, and having a baby but really, those are just markers and milestones.  It’s almost as if once the events take place like the obtaining of a title on a relationship or the move or the marriage or getting the job, etc., the mundane sets in.  I want this blog to hold me accountable to do something outside of the norm. everyday.  If I don’t do something then I have nothing to write about and I enjoy writing.

This really has to do a lot with the passage of time.  After Emmett came, everyone kept telling me, “they grow up so fast” and “don’t blink because you blink and you’ll wake up one day and he’ll be 18”.  In the past I’ve never really noticed the passage of time and really have been ok with the mundaneness of my life.  I have been ok with going to a job I hate every single day for some reason.  But these past 8 months have really shown me that once you have a child, you don’t have a single second to spare.  You really do have to grasp onto every moment because if you don’t, the moment will flash before you and you’ll never ever be able to return to that moment again.  I want to start really embracing my time with my son.  I don’t ever want another day to go by and think “wow, that was a waste of a day.  I literally did nothing today.”  So, in an attempt to have a more fulfilled and preserved life, I’m going to make the most out of every day and my time as a stay at home momma worth it.  I want to look back on this time fondly and never regret a single moment.  I want to be able to look back and say “we took advantage of what little time we have”.  My son’s first year is almost up and I will never ever be able to go back to month 8.  So here’s to more cuddle times, more naps together, more singing, more dancing and more baby wearing then I ever thought possible.  Here’s to more reading, more holding, more kissing, more picture taking and most importantly more documenting because really, how can we fully remember a moment when it’s not documented?  I want Emmett to be able to look at this blog one day and be able to read about our time together.  I want him to know that I am trying my best and that at this point in time, there is no where else and no one else I’d rather be spending this much time with.

8 months

I love that I’m keeping this blog as a record for my baby’s development but I do with I’d keep it up more.  Maybe I should tell more people about it so that I’d actually have the motivation to write more!

Anyways, getting right to it.  My sweet, sweet, baby boy.  How much he has touched everyone he meets.  I swear I can’t bring him anywhere without someone saying how precious he is.  I’m sure most babies get it still feels good when people say it about my baby.  I’m so proud of him already.  Remember in his 6 or 7 month post I was saying how I was a bit worried about him?!  Nonsense!  This past month has been the most in terms of changes that I’ve experienced thus far with him.  I remember not too long ago, maybe the first weekish of December is when he started babbling.  It was music to my ears.  Granted it was about 3am but I couldn’t have been more proud.  His first babbling word was “mama” quickly followed by “nana”, “baba”, and of course his hero, “dada”.  The only one that has really stuck and he repeats day in and day out is “dada”.  We realize he has no reference to what he’s saying but it’s still fun to hear him speak.  He has also started to get up on his hind legs and move his little tuchy to try and crawl.  He doesn’t quite have it down and mama is just fine with that.  The more time I can get without him being mobile the better in my humble opinion.  Emmett has also developed quite the attitude.  He realizes that when he’s playing with something and you don’t want him to play with it that he wants it!  Try and take it away from him and he bundles up his fists and turns bright red and bursts out in a loud and angry scream.  Fun.  He also continues to have his infectious smile.  He still smiles and just about everyone who smiles at him but is starting to become aware of who people are.  He almost always smiles as soon as me or his papa walk into a room.  He also smiles at family and friends who we see frequently.  He isn’t as willing to smile at strangers as he once was though.  Even though he doesn’t smile at strangers like he used to, he still goes to anyone.  The one and only time I’ve ever seen him not want to go to a stranger is when we were out with my family and cousins on Boxing Day, the English Holiday, the day after Christmas.  We were at the pub with a bunch of people and a few we didn’t know (my cousins husband’s friends).  Emmett was being passed around the table like he usually is and when he caught a glimpse of one of the guys he didn’t know, he stared at him and then burst into tears.  It was really odd and we figured it was because maybe we all laughed or cheered or something at that moment.  It had to have been a coincidence.  That’s what we thought anyways until he did it AGAIN and AGAIN.  But that is the only time I’ve ever seen him cry at anyone.  Let’s hope it was a fluke?  We made the “stranger” hold Emmett and eventually we figured he was just tired.  Emmett did fine with him for a while then just got cranky and wanted to fall asleep.

As much as Emmett loves to babble these nonsense words, he also LOVES blowing raspberries.  Again, when he turned 6 months and wasn’t blowing raspberries, I thought there might be something wrong with him.  Turns out he was just more towards the middle of developing this funny little noise rather than towards the beginning.  Now he can’t stop and I’ve been trying to teach him “kiss” which is a rather gross surprise when he’s just been blowing raspberries for the past 5 minutes than gives you a disgusting slobbery kiss at the end.  Well, let’s be honest, it’s not a kiss in the traditional since but more like a bob into your face.

Emmett also LOVES to eat.  Surprise surprise.  Do you know who his parents are!?

He actually still has that same type of reaction where he gives us a really nasty looking face when he tries something for the first time.  This reaction will happen whether he’s had that food several times or for the first time ever.  He does eat any fruit or veggie we give him though.  I tired the whole baby led weaning thing this month again but I just don’t think my baby is cut out for it.  It makes me nervous and rather than gagging, which is what babies are supposed to do, he downright chokes.  Call me crazy, but I don’t think this is a normal reaction.  I have watched babies his age take right to baby led weaning.  I watch them pick up things like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc., and put them into their chubby little cheeks and chew.  Emmett on the other hand, takes the entire piece of food, puts it in his mouth and tries to swallow!  I’m just not that comfortable with him doing something like that.  So, I stick to small chunks of cut of food so that I know if he does “choke” at least he can get it down!

Sleep….Ah, this has been a bit of a challenge this month.  Remember when I was bragging about my boy who at 6-8 weeks was sleeping consistently 6-8 hours a night then at 3 months was sleeping about 10-12 hours at a time?  I’m really not sure what we did wrong but before we knew it we had 7.5 month old who was waking up 7 times a night.  What!?  It got so bad that when I would use my last resort, feeding him, that didn’t even work!  When he was about 5 months old I couldn’t go in anymore to put the paci in his mouth because he smelled me and expected me to feed him.  This last month I’d go in and pick him up and he’d fall asleep in my arms.  He didn’t want to eat.  He wanted to be held by a warm person and rocked to sleep and held the rest of the night.  Sometimes we’d do this 4 times before giving up and I’d feed him.  I think when I fed him, he would be milk drunk and that’s the reason he would go back to sleep.  Anyways, he started figuring us out.  If he cried, we’d come and get him.  The final straw was when we went to the mountains with some friends in mid December.  The kid woke up about 8 or 9 times one night and because we were not only sharing a room with him but also a house with 4 other people, we couldn’t, out of good conscience, let him “cry it out”.  So we gave in to him time and time again.  It’s odd, we were never tired the next day but I swear in the moment, you really want to rip the kids arms out.  Finally I turned to Chad and said “tomorrow night when we get home we are letting him CRY.  I don’t care how long he cries but we are not giving in!!”.  Chad readily agreed.  The next night Emmett did wake up right on queue.  We didn’t budge.  The crying when on for a little over an hour that night and eventually he cried himself to sleep. The next night was considerably less time crying.  It finally worked and we have basically sleep trained our 8 month old.  Let’s just hope this time it lasts.

Emmett is also huge into playing now.  My how he loves to play.  He love other kids, he loves toys, he loves books, he loves bath time, he loves diaper changes, he pretty much loves anything as long as you are talking to him.  He can keep himself busy for up to an hour in his exersaucer too which has changed my life.  Not only is it great when he takes 2 hour naps, he also now knows how to entertain himself when he is awake.

I’m not sure how it can get much better than this.  I know that everyone had told me that months 6-8 were the best.  I really hope I haven’t hit my favorite time yet though.  I hope it just gets better and better.  Every month I think to myself “this has been my favorite age” and then the next month it gets better.  I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone wouldn’t want to have kids.  This baby has only enhanced every single thing about my life.  He is my buddy and we go everywhere together and do everything together.  Sometimes I even think I’ll MISS running with him when he outgrows the baby jogger!  I even start missing him when he naps for too long!  Is that normal!?  The days that felt like they would never end are now distant memories.  The days now go way to quickly.  Sometimes I sit with my baby in my arms and wish so badly that time would stop.  It makes me sick to my stomach that the hour glass known as time keeps ticking forward and that we can never get a single moment in time back.  Having a baby has really changed the way I see life.  It is so precious.  Remember to always count your blessings and never waste a single moment because that moment you will never get back.

To my baby boy, I am so in love with you it sometimes hurts.  I can’t believe you are already 8 months old.  You have become my everything and the reason to wake up and make the most out of my days.  You are my little angle.  It is true what everyone says, you are growing up way too quickly and are far too independent for the likes of me.  This is probably a good thing though as you seem to have no fear of anything and it’s so much fun to see how curious you are with just about everything around you.   I hope in this new year to give you more experience than we ever thought possible.  Happy 8 months baby buddy!