This should NOT be this hard!

We are trying to introduce solid food to Garrett. To say it isn't going well would be a horrible understatement. Isn't introducing solid food supposed to be a fun time? Full of laughs at a silly baby who makes a mess and gobbles down a bowl of oatmeal? This is not us at all... I supposed it had to happen at some point. We breezed through breastfeeding, bottle feeding and formula. Never had a colicky baby, or a overly cranky one. He is always full of smiles for everyone, so naturally our time has come.

He HATES solid food. I have tried twice in the last two months and stopped because he just wasn't into it, okay because it was a battle to get him to even open his mouth. I started again last week because I was getting nervous that we would try after we went to the 6 month appointment, he wouldn't like it, and then I wouldn't have an appointment to talk over concerns with the pediatrician. Sure enough it has turned into a battle again.

I say turned into, because he started out fine. The first night was hard, which is to be expected right? Then we had a couple more okay nights and some not okay nights. He seems to like applesauce and plain oatmeal. He will suck a banana out of one of those mesh bag feeder things like it is going out of style. All of the sudden in the last couple of night he has REFUSED to eat. And the worst part, it frustrates me so bad that I have to make Brian try because I can't even handle it. Oh and to stick a knife in the gut and twist it...the daycare reports that he eats like a champ for them. Riiiiiggghttttt...so it's me then????? I know, I know, its not me blah, blah, blah.

No but really, am I doing something wrong? I try really hard not to force it in his mouth. Sometimes if you make him eat the first couple of bites then he eats the rest like "oh, this is what we are doing, okay!" Tonight we tried carrots. He sort of gagged his way though the cereal in the few bites I tried to get him to eat in the 15 min we were sitting at the table for dinner. Then two half bites of carrots, more like licking of the lips, some major gagging and he starts PUKING!!!! everywhere!! I mean wide open gag and formula pouring out! Ughhhh!

What are we going to do? I need some major advice! If you have any please let me know!!

Picture Dump

I am still alive, I have no energy to blog. I used to do most of my blogging at work, now I am too busy to even check my personal e-mail most days. Anyway, because it is what most of you want, here is a photo dump. All of Garrett. Each of these could be their own blog post but alas, I do not have the time. Hopefully I will find a good balance and start blogging again. Now for the fun stuff!

After bath time, notice my shirt. It has water spots all over it. This is a nightly occurrence, anyone in the bathroom during bath time gets soaked from all the splashing:

Watching daddy shovel after the first big snow storm of the year:

Five months:

Helping mom with laundry. We pretty much have a full on sitter now. I still put the bobby down when I am busy doing things so he doesn't slam backwards on those occasional falls:

Spa Night! Garrett had HORRIBLE cradle cap. With his hair you couldn't really see it but finally I got grossed out enough to do something about it. I took olive oil and rubbed it onto his head and then back combed pretty much everything out. If I would have known how well it was going to work I would have tried it way earlier. I also to the opportunity to cut the hairs on the back of his neck. The baby mullet was getting out of hand:

And to close, how can you not just want to squeeze this everyday?

Uhhh...

I feel like our family has been hit by a tsunami and we are trying to tread water until we figure out what the hell to do. Here is the past 6 days:

Friday: Find out in the evening that I got the promotion I applied for. Yay!
Saturday: Work and find out that I HAVE to be at work for a meeting Monday morning. Scramble for a babysitter for Monday.
Sunday: Church, sleeping on the couch and small group.
Monday: Work until 1pm, catch up on cleaning at home that has not been done very thoroughly in weeks, and monitor work e-mail all afternoon to deal with things that I did not have time to handle while I was at work.
Tuesday: Work until 3, which includes leaving an hour late. Feel guilty about picking him up from daycare an hour late. Brian has a meeting at 7pm that lasts until midnight
Wednesday: Brian leaves for meeting at 5:30am, get Garrett ready, go to work. Leave work a half hour late (feel guilty). Do the hand off with Brian as he heads out the door for a meeting at 6:30pm.

This all includes Garrett getting up at 5am every morning since Monday because of the time change.

I am so excited that I got the dispatch supervisor's position at work. However, now I am now dealing with being incredibly busy at work (hence leaving late almost everyday) and feeling so guilty about the time that it is taking away from Garrett and Brian. I am hoping that it will get easier as I settle into things.

I have tomorrow off for Veteran's day, so Garrett and I are going to catch up on grocery shopping and errands that I have not had the time to deal with. I also have to get Garrett all packed up because he is going to my mom's for the weekend. I feel bad that I have been so busy and now we are "shipping him away" for the weekend. But it is something that we have had planned for awhile, and something that I know Brian and I need and deserve. My mom is going to pick him up on Friday afternoon from daycare and then we are going to go down to Gardiner on Sunday and get him. Brian and I are planning on doing some hunting on Saturday or Sunday morning and also celebrate my promotion on Saturday with a night out. I cannot wait but I also cannot imagine Garrett not being here to cuddle and hangout with.

I have a 5 month picture to post of Garrett, YAY for five months! I have not had time yet though to sit down and write a post. I think I am having a hard time because I feel bad about work being so crazy and I CAN NOT believe that he is five months.

Baby Gear Review Part I

So I have been wanting to do this post for awhile. We have some great baby gear and some not so great baby gear. Here is how I feel about the stuff that we use:

Playtex Drop-In Bottles: I sort of feel like a bottle is a bottle is a bottle. We don't mind these, but I also don't love them. My main thing is that the liners are another bottle part to remember to throw in the diaper bag (I have forgot, we were screwed) and they are another thing to have to remember to buy at the store. I have also seen people rave about them because you don't have to "clean" the bottle. Hello people, you still have to wash nipples and caps, and rings and the holder bottle thing! Formula is sticky and messy and gets everywhere either way, hence they need to be washed. If you are eco-friendly, (which we really aren't, I know shame on us, blah, blah, blah) they do create extra garbage. At the end of a full 24 hours at home we probably have gone through at least 9 liners. However, I refuse to try something new because I refuse to have more than one type of bottle to be digging for parts to and we don't have the money to invest in a whole new "system." So with drop-ins we stay! Chicco Car seat: I love it. I really love the pattern on it. It looks super comfy for Garrett as well. This car seat is definitely hefty though. The rating on it is up to 30lbs which is great but it means that it is also heavy duty. I see smaller car seats that other people have and they seem so flimsy compared to this one. If you don't mind heaving and ho-ing (hoeing? hoing? ho'ing? You get the point!) your baby around it is great. You could get the stroller that comes with it and then things would be much easier, especially when there is no shopping cart to just throw it into (like at the mall.)

Combi Flare Stroller: I got this because I wanted a lightweight stroller that folded up small to fit into the trunk and not take up a lot of room, and also reclined so that little ones that couldn't sit up could still use it. This stroller matches all that. I figured that if I could sacrifice not having a whole system where the car seat fit into the stroller for a couple of months then this would be the best overall purchase, which kind of worked. This stroller is great for the mall and walking on sidewalks but not on gravel. So I purchased a used jogger as well. Between the two we have been pretty well covered. The under basket in the Combi is realllly small and there is no cup holder which can be a pain. I love though that I can always leave it in my trunk and it doesn't really take up any cargo space.

Every once in awhile I curse and swear because we didn't get anything that the car seat can fit into, so I either have to lug the car seat around or take Garrett out. I thought about buying a frame thing with wheels to click the car seat into (they make them) but in the long run it doesn't seem like a good purchase. So I will continue to curse and swear and whine and make Brian carry the car seat!

PRIMO Infant Bath Seat: This, this lovely thing...I love it. Love, love, love it! I had a baby bath tub that I borrowed from a friend. I hated it, the angle that Garrett sat at was all weird and he would slide around the whole time. This thing is awesome. We just put it in the bath tub and fill the tub up to the level of the arms and away we go. There is plenty of room for him to kick his legs and he doesn't slide around at all. I think a smaller baby, like a newborn might slide around a little, but I am pretty sure that putting a hand towel in it and then the baby on top of that would take care of the slippage (hehe slippage!)

A problem we have noticed is that when Garrett really gets moving and excited he pushes his legs against the bottom of the tub and lifts himself up. He has yet to get all the way over the middle "bar" but I am thinking it is only a matter of time. however, since we would never leave him unattended I just make sure I put a hand on him to hold him down a little (which is so fun when water is flying in all directions) so that he doesn't vault himself out of it.

More reviews to come!

Another One Bites the Dust

This is how I feel today. Another weekend down, another cold hits our house, another week of work looming....

Halloween was really uneventful for us. We went to church and then had small group and dinner with our growth group from church. They purposely held it somewhere that there would be no trick-or-treaters. By the time we got home we had missed all of the little monsters from our neighborhood, which was fine because the candy that Brian and I had bought last Sunday before we realized that we were going to be gone was pretty much gone. I let myself feel guilty about not getting Garrett a Halloween costume at all on Thursday because of the party at daycare. When it came down to it though I think it would have been a waste of money, I mean we didn't even go to any Halloween parties, no trick-or-treaters at the door...blah, blah, blah.

We got a cold from daycare last week. Garrett got sick on Friday and was already feeling better by Sunday, I think he might have an immune system of steal like his dad. I am hoping that my cold goes away as fast as his did, we will see.

I had an interview for a new position at work last week. I didn't say to much about it here because I wanted to wait to see what happened and I have co-workers that read this and all that jazz. I still haven't heard yet, hopefully tomorrow. At this point I want the job a lot but I would be fine with it going either way. I am just ready to know.

Peek-A-Boo!

Thanks Grandma Collins for the Halloween card! I loved it, mommy had to pry it from my hands before I stuck it in my mouth!

Dinning Room Curtains

For various reasons, including trying to run to the dryer half naked in the mornings, we really need something to cover the sliding glass door in the dinning room. I ultimately can't decide if I want some sort of blind system or just curtains. I hesitate on the curtains because, do people even do that? I can't remember last time I saw curtains over a sliding glass door. However I found this material that would be perfect, unfortunately it is in the form of a table cloth and a runner at World Market.

I would totally buy them and convert them into curtains and a valance but the cost of two tablecloths and a runner would be around $80. Which is not exactly thrifty in my book. I guess I will just have to wait for World Market to have a great sale!

The Best Costume EVER!

Text with Brian from today:

Me: I am the most horrible mother ever. We sent him to daycare without any sort of Halloween attire and the party was today :(

Brian: What do you mean, we sent him as the cutest baby ever :)

Riiight, obviously!
What would I do without my genius husband?

Crawling by Christmas

In light of Garrett's new little trick (see post below.) I am wondering if he will be crawling by Christmas. What do you think? Cast your vote on the right!

This Looks Bad

So I know this makes us look like the worst parents ever. I mean who leaves their wobbly kid sitting on the counter? But he is SITTING.BY.HIMSELF for the FIRST time! I thought that this was at least a couple of weeks down the road. Nope, he lasted a whole minute on the floor right after this. By the way I am standing right out of the picture and Brian has the camera, just in case you did think we were the worst parents ever!

All he needs is some chest hair coming out of that buttoned down velvet shirt, all creeper 70's style and he will be all grown up!

4 Months

Garrett,

This letter is coming a little late in the month. Today is October 20th and we actually took your 4 month picture only yesterday (mommy cheated and put the tenth on the sign anyway.) The last month has been a busy one.

On Monday October 19th you had your 4 month well baby visit. It was sort of a rough one for your dad and me. You laughed and cooed at the doctor and charmed everyone with your smiles. You are growing by leaps and bounds. You now weigh 14.01 lbs and are 34 1/2 inches long, this makes you in the 27th percentile for both height and weight which is rare for a baby to be in the same percentile for both categories. Dr. Harris said that you are a strong baby with good muscle tone and that you might be an earlier crawler. Unfortunately, we did learn that you have a heart murmur and a weak left eye muscle. It is hard to hear that your baby is not totally healthy but Dr. Harris said that we check these things at your six month visit and that there is a good chance that you will grow out of them. You got a second round of immunizations and they seemed to be harder on you this go around, you cried a lot in the doctor's office and then you were miserable in the afternoon at home.

You are so much more alert and active then you were at 3 months. You learned how to roll from your stomach to your back and are working on rolling the other way. You can sit up supported and can even sit alone for a couple of seconds before you start to wiggle and lose your balance. Speaking of wiggling, oh my goodness, do you ever squirm! You squirm when we hold you which can be hard when I am trying to make to a bottle and hold you. Your limbs are pretty much moving all the time whether you are sitting or laying on the floor. We tried to feed you baby cereal but you would have none of it. You pursed your lips together so hard that I couldn't even get the spoon in your mouth and then every time you licked your lips you would start gagging like the taste of the cereal was the WORST thing that you had ever experienced (and maybe so far it is!)

This last month your Grandma Pat, Uncle Kevin, and Cousins Brando, Cole and Grant came out to see you. You did a lot of hiking with them and loved every minute of being outside. Your cousins were good at entertaining you. You loved the attention and watching the big boys run around. You also met Naisha, one of mommy's best friends we took you shopping and hung out with you at the house while you decided to be miserable from the shots that you received on Monday.

I always say this but, I can't believe how much you are growing. A couple of nights ago I was looking at you while you slept in your crib in your fuzzy green dinasour pajama's and I realized that you are starting to look like such a little boy. Sometimes as I am getting you ready for a bath or dressing you for the day we just stare into each others eyes and smile. These are my favorite moments, the ones where it is only you and I in the world, no other distractions.

I will love you always,



Mommy

Wow!

What is it about this picture that is so striking? Is it the look in the babies eyes, or maybe that he seems to truly be participating in such a deep ritual?

It really makes me think about how Brian and I are approaching religion with Garrett. We have started to go to church regularly and have even joined a small group. Joining a church is something that we have talked about doing since we started dating but having Garrett and wanting him to be brought up in a church is what really kicked us into gear. However, I have always though of it as something that we are doing so that when he is "old enough" he will be able to participate and to gain and learn from the experience. Seeing this picture though makes me think, is that the wrong way to approach it? Is religion something that from the beginning we should teach him to participate in?

A bone to pick with Martha

I like Martha Stewart in the sense that I like her magazine and the home design and DIY projects that she is always doing. I mean don't we all wish that we could have a beautiful craft room and were able to decorate our house exactly how we wanted? Oh and garden, cook, decorate, craft, entertain and still have the time to send homemade Christmas cards to everyone that we ever knew?

Here is the thing about Martha though, she doesn't do it herself. She has a whole cooperation that manages her houses and gardens, tells her what crafts to do for shows and articles, designers who set up and organize her craft room, staff that decorates her house(s) for holidays and arrange her dinner parties, cooks that cook for her. Oh, not to mention unlimited funds to use to do all of this.

I cannot keep flowers/plants alive, barely ever get dinner on the table these days for us non-the-less guests, and definitely do not have the funds to decorate my house to the nine's for every holiday or even the funds to do fun crafty stuff.

What I am saying is Martha is great and all but she is a fake, NO one can be that good all by themself!

Randomness

I have a whole bunch of random thoughts rolling around in my head but I can not seem to make a whole post so here is a whole bunch of randomness:

1. I had the last five days off, it was heaven.
2. I really don't mind my job, I just mind not being home with Garrett.
3. Garrett figured out how to roll from his stomach to his back this weekend. He now wants nothing to do with tummy time.
4. Last year on October 3rd I found out I was pregnant! So much has changed in one year!
5. Speaking of things that have or haven't happened in a year, I am getting Miss. P for the first time since last September...please just kill me now, it hurts!
6. My mom is coming on Friday to watch Garrett because his daycare is closed, it will be fun to have her around for a couple of days.
7. Brian's mom, brother and sister-in-law and their boys are coming out next weekend, we can't wait to see them!
8. Garrett found out how to make noise and "talk" loud, he is now the loudest and most talkative person in our house.
9. I need some good mom friends, well actually we just need another couple to be friends with. Our good friends moved to Kalispell in August and we are really missing their company.
10. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have some good news about stuff at work!

Work

I am not going to lie, working full time with a baby is awful, I hate it and it has only been three days.

I hate the long days.
I hate that Garrett is literally in daycare from 7:30am to 5:50pm.
I hate that we get home at 6pm and he is ready to go to bed by 7:30pm. I actually got up early this morning, got ready and woke him up just so that I could give him his morning bottle and spend time with him.
I hate that I am almost in tears every time I think about it.
I hate the guilt. I feel like in the evenings that I am home with him I shouldn't put him down, because I haven't seen him and I need to be with him every moment, and he shouldn't have to play alone on the floor while we eat dinner or do whatever.
I hate that deep down inside I am afraid that he will bond more with his daycare provider than me. (This is the worst one!)

For at least a couple of weeks I will be getting home at 6:30...UGH!!! Hopefully I will get a more regular schedule where I will be working 7am-3pm Mon-Fri. That will be so much better. Even though I will have less days off I will have the late afternoons with Garrett.

Hilarious!

I found this online, is is way to funny! It comes from http://mompetition.blogspot.com/.

Sick!

The last week or so we have been taking it easy. I have had a lingering cold for two weeks as Garrett finally caught it. He was really bad Sunday afternoon till Monday afternoon. We kept him home from daycare today and he really does seem a lot better.

On Sunday night we put Garrett down around 8:00 pm and all the sudden at about 9:45 I heard him cough and gag (which he had been doing off and on all day.) When I went into the room he sounded super congested and was starting to cry. Between the crying and the gagging he was a mess. He actually started choking at one point, it was pretty bad. We put him in bed between us propped up on the Boppy so that he was elevated and we could be right there in case he started choking again. After two night of this I am glad that he seemed well wnough to have him back in the crib, I really do not like having him in bed with us!

To all you moms who bed share, kudos to you! I always think, "oh how fun, we can snuggle all night!" Instead it just stresses me out. When Garrett was really little and I was sleep deprived I would actually have nightmares where I was digging for him in all of the covers and I couldn't find him. I would actually wake up moving the covers around and flailing trying to find him. I would have to sit up and look around the room to figure out where he was. Once I dreamed that he fell off the bed and I woke up and started looking for him on the floor right by the bed! Ugh...between slept deprivation and the American Academy of Pediatrics putting the fear of a suffocated baby in you. I just can't handle it! So while I would have rather had him in bed with us to make sure he didn't choke, neither Brian or I got a lot of sleep. Besides, I miss cuddling with my husband when Garrett is between us!

Laughter

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy."

~James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan~

This picture is Garrett's first true laugh! Definately the best moment so far of being a mom, I am still smiling an hour later! I can't believe I caught it on camera. He looked really cute in his new bath seat so I ran really quick to the kitchen to get my camera, I came running back into the bathroom and leaned over the tub with the camera to get a picture, it must have been funny, cause he just let her go!

Oh ya, and the bath seat...the best baby purchase I have made so far! I think everyone needs one. The chair suctions to the bottom of the tub and it is curved to fit the baby. No more sliding around, and his feet are free to kick the water! I got it from Giggle.com.

Sushi!

Must. Have. This! Is a Sushi Baby costume! It is a little steeply priced, I am wondering if I am talented enough to make it?

Brian says not in a million years would he let me put Garrett in it, what a party pooper!

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for...

ICE CREAM!!!

I got this for my birthday from my wonderful Husband. Since my birthday was 11 days after I birthed a child it has taken me awhile to get to use it a couple of times.

What is it you say? It is an ice cream attachment for the Kitchenaid, aka heaven. When I told Brian that I wanted it for my birthday I didn't know how it would change our lives. The only homemade ice cream that I have had has been sort of icy and un-flavorful (Not a real word I know!) But I had read on various places online that homemade ice cream could in fact be amazing, and in fact, it is!

These are the recipes that I have tried and liked, with a little review of each (just in case you to would like a scoop of heaven.)

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream: My first attempt cooking with vanilla beans. This was really good, we even used some of it in root beer floats. I however thought that it was a little too creamy...I know that the PW changed the recipe so that it was made with only cream but it was to much for us. When I make it again I will use whole milk for half of the milk in it.

Coffee Ice Cream: This is my all time favorite ice cream so I was really excited to try and make it. The recipe calls for decaf coffee beans but decaff is weak sauce so I used the real thing. This ice cream was pretty stinkn' amazing! The coffee flavor is pretty intense. If you like a more mild flavor of coffee in your ice cream I would cut back the amount of coffee beans or cut back the amount of seepage (ya, seepage) time in the cream.

Chocolate Ice Cream: OH MY GANACHE is right!! This chocolate Ganache ice cream is sooooo good! This ice cream is best I have made so far, and that is coming from someone who thinks that chocolate ice cream is only so, so. It's perfect, that's all I have to say about that!!

So far I have only made custard based ice creams. Next I want to try a sorbet. I have some yummy peaches sitting on my counter and I am thinking that they are begging me to put them into a sorbet.

This ice cream maker is going to make me put all my baby weight back on!

3 Months

Garrett,

Here we are at three months, it seems like such a big milestone. You are no longer considered a newborn, and honestly you do not act like one! We have definitely past the stage where all you do is "eat, poop, and sleep." You love interacting with anyone in you line of sight, which is considerably bigger than it was. You react to my facial expressions when I am across the room. You get impatient when someone is not giving you enough attention and you get bored when you have been doing something for to long.

This past month you rolled over for the first time, you have only done it one other time since then but I am sure that you will get the hang of it soon. Garrett, you also slept through the night for the first time two nights ago and last night. Daddy laughed at me when I told him I was sad about it because it means you are growing up! Some of the other things that have happened in the last month: You started going to daycare part time, went on two camping trips, you have completely master control of your head, you discovered you have hands and then a couple weeks later discover that you can use them to put thing in your mouth, we stopped nursing (which makes me sad!), and moved you into your own room and crib.

We laugh more now than we ever did before you came into our lives and you demand smiles out of us every time we play with you. Dad calls you his "little buddy" and loves to get you to squeal and smile. Sometimes as I watch you sleep I am overwhelmed by the love that I feel for you. Being a parent is not easy. When it comes to parenting, I have second guessed myself and the decisions that we make daily more in the last couple of months than I have in probably my whole life. I know it is cliche but you are totally worth it!

Love,

Mom

Garrett's Room

I finally feel like Garrett's room is complete. I absolutely love it. I wanted it to feel like a calming and peaceful place. A place to read books and be rocked to sleep, a place to play quietly with toys some day (well he is a boy so probably no quiet playing!) The room sort of has a children's literature theme, mostly in the art. I wanted the room to be grey but the color I picked out had A LOT more blue in it than I thought. It is a gorgeous color and I have come to love it but it definitely wasn't the color that I had envisioned.

I had Brian take the video below the evening that I went into labor. All the sudden I wanted to get a video of me while I was pregnant and of Garrett's room before he came home. The video was taken at about 9:00pm, five hours after I had started active labor and about an hour and a half before we headed to the hospital. I remember feeling so breathless while talking because of the contractions! I am SO glad that I had Brian take the video. I think that I will treaure it forever!

Where to find stuff:

Glider: It is a Dutailier glider. I would have never paid the money for a new one, but it is really comfy and glides so smoothly.

Bookshelf: Made by my step dad. He is a carpenter and did a great job!

Black Containers: Bed, Bath and Beyond

Mirrors: Target

Table: I found it at a second hand store and painted it white.

Shelves on wall: Home Depot

Crib: Walmart

Picture above Glider: Crocodile Scales

Pictures Above Crib: Are by Noel Young, done for Hygge and West. They are my absolute favorite thing in the nursery!

Picture above Dresser: G is for Giraffe. An awesome gift from a friend!

Things on Dresser: My sister got the Taj Mahal for Garrett while she was in India. The piggy bank was a Baby Shower Gift. It matched the room perfectly!

Things on the Shelves: Left side- The Peter the Rabbit watering can is actually a vase that we got flowers in while we were in the hospital when Garrett was born. The Horse is Brian's from when he was little. Poor horsey is missing his tail and is cracked on the other side. I gave the fire fighters booties to Brian when I told him I was pregnant. Right side- Whinne the Pooh piggy bank was a gift from a family friend. The Peter the Rabbit collection of books was a gift from our shower in Minnesota. The change counter/bank is from Great Grandparents Chromy.

Bedding: I made it myself! I used Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones for a pattern. The fabric was from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow collection. I also used the fabric for the valance, lamp shade (recovered a cheap one from Ross), and in some burp cloths.

Labor Day

We took Garrett on his second camping trip this weekend. Friday and Saturday were beautiful days. Brian and I got to go and play on some four wheelers while my mom watched Garrett. It felt like it had been so long since we had been out together and just played. We came home on Sunday afternoon and just vegged for the rest of the weekend. I actually forgot to bring the camera to the first camping trip so I was glad that I remembered this time!

Hanging out in grandma's camper.

Little gingerbread man! I decided that this was the best way to keep him warm. He is swaddled underneath and his legs are in one of the legs of the fleece sack. He definitely has room to grow into it.

Getting a diaper change on the picnic table.

So tired! Snuggling with mama during a movie.

New Chair

Look who got a new chair! Oh, and he is playing with my favorite toy (not his but mine, I think that it is pretty cool.) In case you didn't notice their is drool coming out of both sides of his mouth. He is worse than a basset hound. It is everywhere. I think that he is going to start getting teeth sooner rather than later.

Cool Video

Dooce.com posted this video today. It is pretty cool. It makes me want to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Probably the best movie ever, well besides Gone With the Wind oh and Anne of Green Gables. Wow I have good taste in movies!

Back to Work

I started back to work part time last week. Well sort of part time. I was only supposed to be working Tues.-Thurs. 8am to 3 pm but I worked Saturday for 8 hours and today for 7...I am not sure how it happened but at the moment I feel like I am working full time even though I am not working the normal 10 hour shifts. Work is busy because school is starting this week. Hopefully once it calms down I will actually only be working 20ish hours a week.

It feels good to be back to work. I actually don't really miss Garrett to much while I am at work and busy doing stuff. When I am spending time with him at home though I is when I realized how much I miss him and how much I feel like I never get to see him anymore.

It is weird though how easily we fell into a schedule once I went back to work. I feel like Brian has stepped up and we are splitting the "baby duties" more. I actually feel like we are closer as a family in the last couple of weeks. We are all more likely to be found playing on the floor in Garrett's room, laughing in the bathroom during bath time, hanging out in the kitchen during breakfast, or Brian feeding Garrett before bed while I put his laundry away. It is nice and I think Brian and I both savor these moments. Garrett is constantly napping for an hour or two when we get home in the afternoon's and then up till about 7:30 when we do bath, reading, bottle and then rocking. He is almost always asleep by 8:30. He is only getting up once between 12am and 4am, and then I am usually waking him up to nurse around 7am.

I am glad he is falling into such a nice schedule. With how busy we are I think I would go crazy if I felt like we were still all over the place with bedtime, feedings and stuff. Brian has had to pick up extra command shifts to cover for a lack of staff and he has meetings tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday. It is weeks like this where we really feel the stress of our jobs and neither of us can wait until Thursday night when we can just hangout and enjoy each other and Garrett.

The Weekend

So this was the first weekend in 7 weeks that we have been home all weekend with no obligations to do anything with anyone. It feels so good! As much as we love our family and friends I think that it is important to spend time just as a family, especially since Brian is always so busy during the week and I am going back to work part time starting this week. We definitely had a fun weekend. Here are a bunch of pictures of everything we did!

Last weekend we bought a large tent for future camping trips. We thought that we would try and put her up in the yard to see how it went. I love it, Brian thinks it is too big. It is a lot to set up and take down, their are a lot of pieces and stakes! I am really excited about the front room which is all screens when the window pieces are unzipped

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Playing with daddy.

Checking it out!

I think their will be plenty of room for me to crawl around in here next summer!

On Saturday we went to the Potato Festival (the "tater festival" we heard someone call it) in Manhattan, MT. The Manhattan fire department had a pancake breakfast and then their was a parade and a craft fair.

At the parade with mom.

Bath time with Daddy on Saturday night!

Look at all that curly hair!

This morning we went to church and this afternoon we put together our new chairs for the front porch. These were on sale at one of the local hardware stores. They need a couple more coats of stain but I can't wait to sit on them on the front porch and drink a beer!