The Great Day of Thanks.

So I've pretty much come to the realization that I just don't get around to blogging as much as I used to...and that's just the way it is. Oh well. I guess that's life when you have a baby.

The boy is getting bigger and bigger by the day. He is seriously so much fun. I fall more and more in love with him as the days progress. And he becomes more and more pleasant too! He is a little monkey these days - always into everything. He moves so fast. I've decided that I'm not in any hurry for him to learn to walk, even though it seems like it's just around the corner. I'm pretty sure that when he learns to walk, he probably won't want to be held much anymore. At least that's what I've witnessed with other people. I enjoy holding my baby.

We spent last week with my family in Ruidoso. We stayed in a log cabin out there. It was such a fun vacation for us. I forgot how nice it was to just sit around and do nothing. I don't get to do that very often anymore. Not since the boy came along. Here's a couple of the highlights:

- We celebrated my brother's 22nd birthday out there. We bought him a Transformer's watch, the 3rd season of Spongebob Square Pants, and a Snuggie. Yes, a snuggie. Then we hid them around the cabin and sent him on a scavenger hunt to find all of his presents. It was hysterical. Justin punished us by putting on Spongebob every time the TV was not being viewed.

- My son and my sister's son got to play with each other. It was so fun to watch. Those boys are so funny together.

- Beautiful 3 story cabin in the woods with a view of the mountains. Peaceful. Relaxing. Wonderful.

- Lighting a fire in the fireplace during the evening the first couple of nights. So nice. We had to stop lighting a fire because my brother had an asthma attack. Boo. But my brother's health is more important than a fire. Ha ha.

- Doing a lot of nothing. We really haven't had a vacation since before the boy was born. It was definitely needed.

We had such a great time. Once holiday down, two more to go.

Fall time

I just want you guys to know that Fall is my favorite time of year - the change in weather, leaves changing colors, the State Fair, the Balloon Fiesta, Pumpkin Patches, Thanksgiving. I love it all. So now you know. Consider yourselves informed.

Yesterday the baby turned 7 months old! I can't believe that time has gone by so quickly. As the days go by, this boy fills our hearts with more and more love. I LOVE this little guy - but I do admit that sometimes he makes me want to pull out my hair. Life is busy. He is crawling these days. I've baby-proofed the house and he loves his new found freedom. My life has recently gotten so much easier because of his new found mobility. Such a relief. He is also getting his first tooth! It has taken forever to come out, but I can finally see a little white dot on his lower gum where his little tooth is breaking through! He was such a little booger a couple of weeks ago when this tooth first started working its way up. He's not nearly as fussy now as he was a couple of weeks ago...except yesterday. Yesterday he was stubborn when it came to napping. (I'm pretty sure it was due to teething) He was SOOO tired but he refused to take any naps, despite all my efforts to get him to sleep. Eventually I got him to take a couple small naps yesterday. He also went to bed really early last night. And got up late this morning. That's what happens when you refuse to sleep. You know what else he's doing these days? Pulling himself up to the standing position. He's been doing this for about two weeks. It's so exciting, yet so nerve wracking - at least the falling part is for me. He also walks like a little speed machine when we hold his hands and walk with him. It's hysterical to watch how fast his little legs go.

Last weekend we took him to a pumpkin patch. It was such a fun thing to do with him. He totally had a blast, even though he had no clue what was going on. We took him from place to place at the farm showing him the goats (that tried to eat me), and the bunnies, walking through the corn maze, watching the pumpkin cannon (which scared him to death...poor kid), on the hayride. He even got to play in the dirt for the first time. It was so funny to watch him. (our backyard is landscaped with rocks) Next year will be even more fun when he's older. I'm looking forward to it.

I have a confession. My dog, Brody, is driving me nuts. Absolutely nuts. This dog has an excitement level larger than I can handle. He makes me crazy when I walk him. I've read books, I've watched videos, I've read articles all on dog training. I've yet to find anything to work to keep him under control. And in the process I am going crazy. So we've decided that desperate measures must now be taken. We are going to take Brody to private dog training lessons. Seriously. We've got to figure out how to deal with him or else he will have to find a new home. I'm very optimistic about these lessons.

You know, it's kind of weird. Now that I've had a kid, it seems like he is the only thing I have to talk about. When someone asks how I'm doing, the answer always depends on my child and how he is doing. If he's doing good, then I am too. If he's having a hard time, I am definitely having a hard time. Now I understand why parents talk about their kids so much - because that's usually the most interesting thing to talk about.

Currently

Life is busy these days. (Seems like it always is) But I do like to keep you guys in the loop with what's going in our lives. So here's an update ;

The baby turned 6 months old on Monday! Amazing, because there were times when I never thought we would make it this far. Yesterday he has his shots, and so today he is feeling a little droopy. He weighed 14 pounds 2 ounces, and is 27 inches long. I have a long and skinny child. Just like me...and my family. He is doing so much better these days. He still has a temper. He is still a little booger. He still fights going to sleep, but now he doesn't scream for hours during nap time. He takes naps consistently every day and only cries for about 10 minutes at the most when I first lay him down. It makes me so happy. He can do all those lovely baby tricks like rolling over, laughing, etc. Now he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks. He almost has the crawling thing figured out. But for now he scoots all over the place. It's so funny. And cute.

I have lost all of my baby weight and then some. So exciting. I totally love being thin again. I'm also no longer tired from having a baby. I finally feel better. Normal. Such a nice feeling. It took a while to get to that point because he was such a bad little napper, every time I started to take a nap, the baby would wake me up. It totally made me nuts. And sleep deprived. I really really really hope our next child doesn't fight sleep as much as he does.

Last week I had the most embarrassing moment of my life. At my dr's appointment I asked my doctor if she was pregnant. She wasn't. SO TERRIBLE. I recommend never doing that. She wasn't very happy with me after that. Not only that, but I also managed to create the world's most awkward checkup. That was really terrible. But in my defense (not that I really have much to defend, because I don't). I heard a rumor that she was pregnant/trying to get pregnant....and when she came in, she was slouching over and looking at him in the stroller and propped her clipboard on her stomach. It just created the illusion of a small baby bump. Anyway, I definitely learned my lesson and will NEVER ask someone that again. Never. So much for a good patient/dr. relationship.

We have settled into our new house. We like it a lot. We love the neighborhood. There are plenty of parks and walking trails that encourage you to exercise. I love it. I still haven't finished unpacking. It bothers me. Oh well.

So those are the basics for now. I take oodles of pictures of the baby regularly, but I recently posted some of my favorites on facebook. Most of you guys have facebook, so you can see them there. :)

Yay for August!

Ok. It's August 3rd and we have all survived. All three of us are still alive, in one piece, and still love each other. Ha ha. July pretty much proved to be the most difficult month of my whole entire life between packing, moving, and dealing with Levi (just to name a few of our struggles). But we made it. Moving was chaotic and so fortunately for us, we have great friends and family that helped us move and unpack and take care of the baby. At one point, I was so exhausted, I felt just as exhausted as I did after I had given birth (minus the swelling). He also reached the point to where he had had enough too. A couple of friends watched him while we were packing and moving. At the end of the week, he had a complete melt down when he woke up at a friend's house. He spent the rest of the day with us and was fine. Ha ha. He made it clear how much he missed being with his mom and dad. And we missed him too!

So now we are in our new house. We like it. We love the neighborhood. There are things we miss about the old house, and a lot that we don't. Although we like it here, there is still a small amount of adjustment. That's ok.

The baby continues to get cuter by the day. He is turning into a rolly-polly and rolls over all the time. I don't like it when he feels that he should roll over when I'm changing his diaper. Speaking of changing diapers, the other day Joel was changing the baby's poopy diaper, and he stuck his hand in his poop like three times. Hysterical - because I was not the one changing him. Ha ha. The baby also has learned to growl, and makes his growling noises all day long. So funny. We have also been seeing a Pediatric Gastrointestinal Specialist to help deal with the baby's feeding issues as well as visiting a feeding clinic. Both have been tremendously helpful and not only is he eating better, but also sleeping better. In fact last night he slept from 10:30 pm to 7:15 this morning!! yay! so exciting. I'm really looking forward to him dropping that late evening feeding so I can start going to bed earlier. And speaking of sleep, I have a little boy who fell asleep on my arm while I've been typing this blog, so I need to go and lay him down for his nap now.

I really don't have the time to writing this. I have way too much to do right now, but there is so much going on here, that I thought I should update on what's been happening with us lately.

The baby is still quite the handful. There are days when that little boy drives me nuts. (just to be honest). We recently took him into a specialist to do a swallow study, which allows us to see what is causing his reflux, and how exactly it effects him. We learned he has a difficult time swallowing thin liquids, due to his forward tongue thrust. So we've learned how to work with him. He is still incredibly difficult to deal with these days. Feedings can be quite stressful. We have a pediatric GI specialist appointment next week to see what can be done to help him.

Joel's mom had a minor heart attack a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that everything is ok, and she is doing much better.

We found out on July 1st that we have to be out of our house at the end of the month. The owners have decided that they would like to put this house back on the market. I have no idea why you would want to do such a thing when NOBODY is buying houses these days. Quite the stupid move, if you ask me. So we have been scrambling to find another house. We would like to buy, but probably won't be able to quite yet. I'm sad about it, because that means we have to move at least 2 more times before we get into a house. I HATE moving. I found a house yesterday and put in an application. I'm pretty sure we will get it.

On top of all that, I am STILL so tired. So tired. So these next two months will be spent packing, moving, unpacking, and taking care of a fussy baby with reflux. I'm so frustrated. I'm so stressed. Sometimes I feel like it can't possibly get any worse. I know it can, and sometimes it does. Some days I feel like I am on the verge of losing my mind. But I still have it. For now.

My Hands are full.

I haven't written a blog in 20 days! That's probably the longest I've gone without writing a blog. At the moment Levi is sitting on my lap as I write this. He can hold up his head now - he's a little wobbly, but he still does a great job. Every once in a while I have to stop typing to adjust him because he'll slump over too far. It's funny. He also coos and smiles. So cute.

Tomorrow the baby will be 2 and a half months old...or 10 weeks - whichever you would like to call it. I'm not going to lie. I've had my hands full with him and these last two months have been so hard. Levi is a strong willed, fussy child. At his two month check up, the pediatrician wrote on her notes "difficult temperament". I just had to laugh - because it's so true. On top of the fact that he's so strong willed, he's also had his issues. He's struggled with breast feeding for quite a while. I've gone back and forth between the pediatrician and lactation consultant several times. I think that this week we have finally figured out his issue - Levi's stomach cannot handle dairy products. I've been on a strict no dairy diet for several days, and Levi has been doing so much better and so much happier while he eats and afterwards . Such a relief. I'm still not completely sure that dairy is his issue, but I think it is...I'll have a better idea by the end of next week.

Even though we've made a lot of headway on his feeding issues, I'm still not out of the woods yet. Levi is a TERRIBLE napper. Like the worst EVER! I spend about 2/3 of my day fighting with him to get him to take a nap! I've read and read and read about causes of napping problems, but the biggest issue is that he just doesn't want to take a nap - no matter what I try. Some methods work for a while, but in the end, they stop being effective. Sometimes, depending on his mood, when I try to sooth him by stroking his forehead, he'll turn away, and move his head back and forth, so I can't calm him down. (How in the world can a child so young have such a strong opinion??) It's really funny, but not when he's doing it. I've tried every technique in the book. Some of them work on him sometimes, but nothing really works consistently. Yesterday I tried putting one of his hats down over his eyes so he couldn't look around, but he was able to move his head back and forth until he could see again. Little stinker. The thing that works the best is putting him in the swing and covering the whole swing with a blanket...but I can't let him sleep in there all the time. What am I going to do when he gets too big for the swing?? So I have reached the point to where I have decided to stop fighting him on this issue. The pediatrician said to not worry about it too much because he gets enough sleep at night. (He does take naps during the day, but they are short - 45 to 60 minutes).

One more confession - secretly I feel jealous of first-time moms who have calm, easy-going, laid back babies and I hope that their next child will be the complete opposite! Ha ha. That's so mean. But it's true. (I apologize in advance to all who fit in this category if I have offended you.)


One month old. He's really not as red as he looks in the picture.


Sitting in his jumperoo that he is waaaay to little for. The thing swallows him.


Crossing his eyes is his best trick. Ninja skills.

I hate to admit this...

but this baby has been such a little toot. That's right. Over the last week or two Levi has decided to become an insomniac. Nap time has become the most miserable part of the day for me. For the most part he still sleeps well during the night time (thank God, I couldn't handle this at night as well), but his nap times during the day have been a nightmare. He absolutely refuses to sleep! I've tried everything - swaddling, not swaddling, rocking, singing, patting, rubbing, white noise, music, etc, etc, etc. Nothing has worked. I've checked my milk supply (which is fine), it's not gas, it's not that I need to extend his wake time either (he gets grumpy after an hour of being awake). I'm at the point to where I am letting him cry it out, because I feel like I am out of other options. He has reached a new level of screaming in the process - which is miserable to listen to. AND if that's not bad enough, today he has screamed through most of the 3 naps that he was supposed to take. At some point this kid has got to wear out, but it hasn't happened yet. Suggestions and advice are welcome!!!!!