4 months and Christmas

So it's a little bit late but Parker turned 4 months on the 23rd.  I cant believe it.  I swear it was yesterday when I was writing his 3 month post, but here we are with a few updates:

He has officially rolled over both ways, and does it all the time.  Will someone enlighten me on why we want them mobile?  Because for as cute as it is to see him roll over, I curse the name of whoever decided baby mobility was a good idea every time I am trying to change his diaper and he rolls over to grab the sleepy turtle.  He has gotten up on hands and knees twice now and then gotten scared and rolled back over.  He has started rice cereal and loves it.  At his 4 month appointment this morning, the doctor said that we should start to thicken it up and then if he continues to do well and we are so inclined we can start him on stage 1 Gerber veggies.  I can't wait.  I think I am going to try out making my own baby food and see how I like it.

The doctor said he and his wife did the same thing - for about a week.  Then they realized how much cheaper and easier it is to just buy the Gerber jars.  I have a feeling that will be me too, but nonetheless I will try.  Parker has mastered the reach and grab with toys and has recently started to reach for those cute chubby things at the ends of his legs.  He hasn't quite grabbed one yet, but he likes to look at his feet and reach for them.

Christmas Eve

Christmas was great, we had so much fun the last three days.  Our Christmas Eve hors d'ourve buffet (meatballs, jalapeno popper dip, pizza mushrooms and garlic and herb goat cheese) was a huge success.  We played spoons and Egyptian Rat Slap with everyone and got to watch Gloria trying to bite the spoon out of Christa's hand and Christa leaping over the table to swipe one.  It was hilarious.  We had a great time at my parents yesterday filled with snark, sarcasm and lots of laughs as always.  The kids made out with awesome presents.

Christmas Morning

Love-Hate Relationships and Monday Mornings

Love:  sweet baby gummy smiles
Hate:  sweet baby gummy mouth trying to bite off the food-knobs

Love: watching our dogs play together in the backyard
Hate: looking out into the backyard to find the dogs playing together with all the dirty diapers from the trash bag I quickly set down to tend to the baby for 5 minutes before taking it outside

Love: sweet baby hands grasping for toys and holding my fingers
Hate: sharp baby claws on sweet baby hands stabbing the heck out of me

Love: the fact that I got to go shopping by myself for an hour and half this weekend
Hate: the holiday crowds I had to fight through to do it

Love: Watching Elf
Hate: that the song "I'm here...with my dad...and we've never met...and he wants me to sing him a song...so I'm here now...and I'm singing...and I love you...I love you....I LOVE YOU" always gets stuck in my head for at least a week

Love: getting a paycheck
Hate: coming to work on Monday mornings

Nana's 80th Birthday Party

Yay for Friday's

yesterday was freaking MOLASSES!

I have been so exhausted the last week or two.  Parker has decided he no longer wants to sleep through the night and has been waking up about every three hours STARVING.  Then he will eat a full meal and fall back to sleep for a few hours.  When he doesn't wake up hungry like a hippo, he wakes up from the discomfort in his poor, drooly teething mouth.  Having been spoiled the last few months with full nights of sleep, it is throwing me for a big loop.  When I get him out of bed (or rather when my wonderful husband goes and gets him out of bed) and nurse him in the middle of the night, I prop myself up with a few pillows and use the Boppy (greatest invention known to man) and fall asleep.  But its not good sleep, because I am propped up with my head thrown back and holding a baby who is nursing like he'd like to take the food-knobs with him.  But because I am asleep - if you really can call it that - I don't put him back in his crib right away, so I end up laying in that position for a good two hours at least twice a night, which kills my back.  When you add this lack of sleep to all the holiday and birthday stuff we have been doing - it makes for an exhausted mommy.

Last night it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Gloria came over to have us help her with her new phone - yes, she has joined the ranks of the iSlave with her new iPhone.  I could hardly focus and ended up laying down in our room around 6pm and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the night.  Needless to say, my house is a freaking disaster zone and the OCD part of me has a small anxiety attack every few minutes.  Mike is usually pretty good about picking up the slack and getting the house cleaned while I am at work, but with Parker's general fussiness and getting over his own sickness, he just hasn't had the energy either.

Thank goodness we don't have the girls this weekend so we can just rest a little (although Saturday is going to be a pretty busy day with Mike doing pools and Nana's 80th bday party, but my parents are coming to visit Saturday morning and they can help with Parker and we will have Sunday at least).

On a brighter note...the other day, for the first time in years, I actually wanted to listen to Christmas music.  And to top it off there are a ton of Christmas crafts that I am excited to do...hand ornaments (thanks Patty at Make It Cozee for the great tutorial)...Baby feet Christmas trees...Baby feet reindeer...cardboard Christmas trees...Christmas card holders...oh my.  I don't know if its having a baby in the house (who absolutely LOVES the Christmas tree) or the fact that its not 85 degrees in December for once but it seems I have found my holiday spirit - I feel like the Grinch at the end of the movie when his heart gets all big. I've already watched Elf twice (best Christmas movie ever) and I might even let Mike watch Ernest Saves Christmas without bitching the whole time...(might being the operative word)

Late Monday (err...Tuesday) mornings....

Yesterday I just did not get to this - Hulu Plus on the xbox and a 'Once Upon a Time' marathon (our new favorite show, its really awesome, btw) with my hubby kept me otherwise engaged - so I am going to back track a bit.

Yesterday was December 12th and this day has been a really special day for me over the past few years.  December 12, 2008, Mike and I met on a plane to Nashville, TN and have been together ever since.  December 12, 2010, we found out about Parker and our lives changed forever.  December 12, 2011, Parker rolled over - I know this really isn't high on my 'life events' list but nonetheless its a first for Parker so I thought I'd include it.  Mike was able to get it on video for me, and he did it again when I got home from work.  He is just getting so big - 16 weeks today - and I cannot believe its been that long. It is such a double-edged sword: on one hand I will miss the tiny baby that just lays in my arms and smiles but on the other hand I am so excited for all the things that Mike and I get to share and teach him.  He figured out the mechanics of grasping toys a few weeks ago and now he's rolling over...before I know it he will be walking.

Today I am teaching 'Great Works of Art' in Hailey's class - her teacher convinced me to volunteer for it when I was on maternity leave and this will be the first time I do it since I have gone back to work.  It's pretty easy, I just read a script about famous artists and show them a few famous pieces and then they get to try to do their own.  It's definitely a bird's eye view of great works of art, but I am happy that the public schools make an effort to introduce the kids to the arts.

The Aftermath

Last night was such a success.  Somehow I managed to get everything the important stuff done - with the help of my amazing husband and mother-in-law of course, I couldn't have pulled it off without them.  Maybe someday I will actually be able to keep a secret from Mike and pull off a surprise party...there's always his 40th.  Mike's closest friends and family came and we had a really fun night.  Mike got a few really awesome gifts including a kindle and from his dad he finally got the coon-skin hat and cap gun that apparently he was promised 25 years ago.  It was really sweet.  Poor Mike is still sick, though he managed through last night with the help of dayquil every 3 hours - and because he was helping me get everything ready at the house he still has pools to do today.  Our house is a little bit of a disaster - the inevitable aftermath of house guests - but it was worth it.  I realize now that we absolutely suck at taking pictures, I think there are a few somewhere, if I ever find them I will put them up.

How is it Friday already?

I seriously cannot believe that it is Friday already. I stayed home from work yesterday to take care of sick baby and sick husband. I don't think I have ever felt more helpless than when Parker is crying bloody murder for no apparent reason and nothing seems to calm him down other than to hold him with a big warm blanket and a really tight hug all day long. He finally fell asleep for a few hours around 1 in the afternoon and so I spent that time getting the house ready for the party Saturday night.

ahh - THAT'S TOMORROW.

The type-A angel on my left shoulder has been furiously arguing with the lazy-ass angel on my right about getting the house put together and decorated just right for Mike's 30th shindig but I just have to continue to remind myself that it is our friends and family coming over and if my house is not immaculate, they are all kind enough to judge me silently. And in any case, I am sure that Gloria will come in and quickly rearrange all of the decorations to make things look right anyway as she always does.

Mike still feels like crap but this weekend is going to be so busy he really isn't going to have a chance to get better any time soon - read: OMG he is going to whine for the next 5 days! I love him, but boy can he whine when he's sick. And that may sound like a complaint (and it kind of is) but in secret reality, I love it when he's sick because he just wants to cuddle!! Hopefully he feels better by tomorrow.

I still have a bunch of stuff to do: I need to go to the store to get the ingredients for my home made salsa, I have to then make the salsa, we need plates and cups because I am going to be the opposite of eco-friendly in the attempt to eliminate loads of dishes, I need to go get the stuff for drinks...I need a day in between Friday and Saturday, that's what I really need.

If having a baby has taught me anything so far...it's how to let the small stuff go - read: ignore the Chocolate tumbleweeds drifting across our living room floor even though people are coming over...

Monday Mornings Seem to Come Too Fast

Another Monday morning has graced us with it's presence. Another week has completely flown by with little more than a 'hey, how ya doin'? Gotta go.' Another year has almost done the same. It's December 5th and I look at the calendar for the rest of the month and realize that with how busy we are, it will be January before I realize it. Tonight we are going to get our tree. Wednesday is my holiday party for work. Friday we are going ice skating at the Mission Inn with Dennis and Gloria and Christa, Todd and the boys. Saturday morning we are decorating the tree (I spent the weekend decorating the rest of the house), Saturday afternoon Gloria is taking Hailey to some tree thing that she has told me about at least three times but I can't seem to remember to save my life, and Saturday night is Mike's 30th birthday party. Then next Wednesday is his actual birthday, so we will have our traditional birthday breakfast in the morning and probably have Dennis and Gloria over for dinner. It's also Belle's (my sister) 16th birthday on Wednesday. Then Friday is Dennis's birthday, and Saturday is Nana's birthday party. Then the next week calms down a little bit except for last minute Christmas shopping and then its already Christmas Eve. We will do Christmas eve and probably most of Christmas day at our house. We won't get Hailey until the afternoon. Then the day after Christmas we will go to Palmdale to celebrate with my parents. The next day is Parker's 4-month check up. And then we have a few days until 2012. Geez it's going to be a busy month.

I just have to remember to stop and smell the roses.

On another note, I got the horrible pictures printed as 4x6's and they aren't so bad of you don't look too close.

24

• 24: the number of hours in a day, far too few in my personal opinion
• 24: the name of a really awesome show that I can't watch too many episodes of or else I start to crawl out of my skin from all the suspense - ask Mike, he thinks it's hilarious
• 24: a decent sized pack of beer
• 24: the number of dollars Mike and I spend when we go nuts at a drive-thru and order way more food than we can should eat
• 24: the number of pictures we got on our view and share disc from Picture People last night that I am thoroughly pissed off about - I'll come back to this one
• 24: the number of years I have been alive starting today...

Yep, that was my long-winded way of saying that, yes, today is my birthday. As you can see, 24 is a pretty boring number, but it's another tally on the chalk board none the less. This morning Mike and the girls made me a wonderful birthday breakfast - orange cinnamon rolls, my favorite, it was awesome! The girls got me three really awesome pictures frames for my desk at work. 

Mike and I are giving each other an Xbox 360 for our birthdays (he wants one to play grown-up first-person shooter games, and I want one because its a blu-ray player and it streams Netflix for our bedroom - so excited ). Mike smoked a tri-tip and it was delicious as usual; he really is a great cook! And Dennis and Gloria came over for dinner and pie (the custard was AMAZING) and we had a great time and some great conversations.

So circling back to being pissed off about Picture People...I am really pissed off at Picture People! We went last night to get family pictures taken because I had a LivingSocial deal for several pages of prints that I got for $10 and last night was the last day that Shutterfly was having some ridiculous sales (we are getting our Christmas cards and a few Christmas presents through them). Since last night was a school night timing was really tight because - par the course - we weren't completely prepared for the pictures yet. We all had our sweaters and we got the girls dresses from H&M - which we got an awesome deal on because they were having a "buy one get one" knit wear sale when we bought them - but we were still sans belts to complete the ensemble. So I leave early from work, Mike picks up the girls, we go home, they do homework, I feed Parker, we all get dressed and head to the mall so we can get belts before the picture appointment. Of course Justice - which I usually try to stay away from because I think that the clothes they sell are usually ugly or inappropriate for 7 and 9 year olds, but in a bind I have no problem being a hypocrite - only has one belt in the right size. I buy one XS and S and just use a bobby pin from Hailey's hair to pin the belt at the right length so it doesn't slip off her hips. We check in at Picture People and they get us in a room for pictures almost immediately. The girl taking our pictures does a great job making Parker laugh and we actually get some pretty good family pictures (if you can get Mike and I to overlook our overall chunky-ness, yes, we admit it, we're pretty vain when it comes to those kinds of things) and the pictures of the kids together and individually come out great.

Then things start to go downhill.

First the girl tells us it will be about ten minutes before we can go through the pictures...more than 30 minutes later we are still waiting. The girls are bored, Parker is starting to fuss and my patience is rapidly approaching the bright red "Severe-risk-of-terrorist-attacks" level. They finally come out and we go through the pictures, we are really happy with most of them and we start to talk about what we want printed. I tell her that I have my fancy-shmancy LivingSocial deal, and she tells me that the deal is for one pose only for all prints. This gets marked as number two on the list of not-so-good Picture People incidents for the night. We move forward and pick a really awesome Christmas pose for our numerous prints and we picked a few others to print since we have the membership and get a free one when we go. We also add on the disc of images. I am on the fence about whether or not to get the high-res disc because we got it last time for Parker's first pictures and I was irritated that I paid $100 for 18 images, so I end up getting the view-and-share disc because I doubt that the quality will be that much worse...WRONG!! And here's number three: we get home and I get ready to go through the images to upload (remember, this is the last day for ridiculously awesome Shutterfly deals and I have been waiting to finish Christmas projects because I wanted to include these pictures but I have to finish everything tonight otherwise I won't save a bunch of money, and when you're on a budget that's a big motivator). Come to find out the images are such bad resolution that I can hardly use them for anything on top of the fact that there is the Picture People logo super-imposed on every single picture - SO LAME. If you try to zoom in at all they are completely pixelated and pretty much useless - what a waste of $35. So now I get to go back to Picture People this weekend while they still have my images on file and get a few more prints of my favorites and I am less than happy about it. Live and learn I suppose...

here's a few of the best and a link to see them all if you're interested: