2 Months

2 months ago at this time I was cuddling a baby who was only a little more than 2 hours old. He proved to me that babies who follow "good babies" {who are now toddlers} can also be good babies - one of my fears was that after Eden, who was a good baby, I was in for a rude awakening. He had taken easily to the breast and was nursing relatively easily - is it ever easy in the beginning?! He's still nursing well, and can finally nurse in about 20-30 minutes, when it was 20 minutes per side before. This makes for great times in the evening when I have to wake to feed him in the middle of the night.

The amount that he's changed since he was born is amazing to me. We go to the doctor tomorrow for his well baby visit, so I'll have stats then, but I know he must be at least 10 pounds now! He loves to smile and he's starting to show us his personality that I'm excited to watch him grow in to and evolve. People have started coming to an agreement about who he looks like. They're saying he looks like ME! Well, like a Travis, not me. I've heard most that he looks like Uncle Parker, and someone has even said he looks like my dad.

Eden is still very much in love with him and she still loves to be a big helper with him. She will let me check for poop in his diaper before undoing it and helping with diaper changes. She loves to unsnap his jammies to help with changing his clothes. We just need to see how far she's going to try to take her helping and make sure we keep an eye on her as she's still exploring having a baby brother around.

Motherhood is...{17}

Humorous

Earlier this week Eden told me that it was too cold to go outside without her shoes on. It was a little chilly - not cold by any means. It had just rained, so there was a chill in the air. What is so funny about this comment is not that she thought she needed her shoes, but that she didn't have any clothes on. Really?! Eden was concerned about going out without shoes on when she was standing in the door naked! I love how children can put a smile on your face no matter what has gone on the rest of the day!

Pictures from the Week

April 20 - Eden and hunter taking a bath together. I love this tub because it gives her room to play, but I can tackle both baths at once!

April 21 - How my evenings go. Nurse the baby, put him down and then take time for me and read. I'm also addicted to the series that I'm reading, so I've been reading while I nurse him in the middle of the night instead of dozing while he's eating.

April 22 - What a cute baby! I love that he's getting some chunk to him.

April 23 - Eden sitting in her listening circle at story time. Please take note that she's wearing her dress up outfit because there was no way we were going to get out of the house without it!

April 24 - Daddy playing with Hunter when he got off work. Look how strong Hunter's neck is getting!

April 25 - Eden and Hunter watching TV together.

April 26 - What a big yawn for such a small kid!

April 27 - He just doesn't want to be a paci kid. He wants his thumb and I'm not sure I'll be able to change that.

8 Weeks Old

Another week has come and gone. I think I say it every week, but I can't believe Hunter is another week older. It has become a family event to try to get him to "talk" to us. The other day he was laying on his changing table that goes with the pack-n-play that we keep behind the couch. Eden was standing on the couch looking over the changing table and Lane and I were standing on 2 of the sides of the pack-n-play. We were all eager to get him to coo and talk to us. We were all laughing and giggling with him as he was smiling at us.

Lots of Smiles!

Lane might have gotten Hunter's first smile, but I've been getting tons since the first! I love having a camera that is fast enough to capture these sweet moments. Here are some of his most recent smiles this week.

Ahead of the Game

You heard me right! I started my running goal and I'm ahead of where I wanted to be by now! That means I'm probably going to shoot for 366 miles before the end of the year instead of just 300. Remember? I had decided on 300 miles because I couldn't really run before Hunter was born. I figured a solid 300 would give me about a mile per day once I was able to run again.

I'm happy to announce that as of today I've officially run 37 miles! Most of the mileage I have accumulated has been on our treadmill because I can run at nap time and not have to take the stroller out. I'll tell ya though, the miles that I've done with the stroller outside should count as 2 miles for every 1! That stroller added in with the slight elevation around here can kick my butt. And they do, every time I try to run outside. Anyways, I have 37 miles under my belt and I've been running for 30 days. {31 of my miles are from the month of April alone!}

If you're keeping track, that means I'm 7 miles ahead and I don't plan on slowing down any time soon. Actually, I can't slow down right now. I have that 5k to run in June and I've already paid to do it! That means that all of my runs from here on out need to be at least 3.25 miles so that I can stay on track for that race. I say race, but I'm not doing this to set any records or to be the fastest, I just needed something to work towards and this seemed reasonable.

I can't wait to see where I am at the end of May!!!

Oh, and PS, I'm officially down 19.2 pounds and only have 20.8 more to go to my pre-pregnancy/goal weight! If I keep running and eating right hopefully they'll just melt off!!!!! Let's go ahead and say it, by the time I run the 5k I want these 20.8 last pounds gone! That means I have 53 days to lose 20.8 pounds. I can do it! I know I can, I just have to stay motivated, which means that you're going to have to put up with me bragging about my accomplishments!!!!!

Day of Rest

Sunday is supposed to be the day of the week that we have to rest. Right?! Not if you live in my house. Today was one of the most stressful days of my life recently. It all started this morning before I even woke up. Hunter started stirring around 6:30 so I was in and out of sleep. All of a sudden I heard something downstairs. I looked at Eden's video monitor and she wasn't there. Luckily we have an alarm set and we have child-locks on all doors to the outside, but there was a moment of panic. I found her in the living room looking for me and had a quick talk with her about not wandering the house in the mornings.

After we all got up and moving, Eden and I made a run to Home Depot - after Lane and I gave the downstairs a good deep clean. When we got home from the store Eden had TWO accidents within 30 minutes. Her accidents surrounded the discovery that Nugget had escaped the back yard and we didn't know when or how long he had been gone. We opened the doggie door so the dogs could go to and from the garage and the back yard. At some point Nugget went out into the back yard and got out through one of the gates that was open. We eventually found him, but we had to pay the Humane Society down the street to get him back. Ugh, to have to pay to get a dog that you already own!

Once both kids were down for a nap and we were able to take a moment to breathe, I went out to our computer to do something with pictures. I went to open the pictures on the computer and they weren't there. I looked in multiple places and there are at thousands of pictures missing from our external hard drive. Missing. Just missing. I don't know where they are, where they could have gone, but the files are "empty" according to the computer. Luckily I did find all but pictures from the month of January of 2012. No, I'm not happy that this whole month of pictures is missing, but I can say that it is much better than all of 2011 missing too.

All in all, I'm hoping to get my "day of rest" at some point!

Motherhood Is...{16}

Crying

Up until now I thought that Hunter didn't cry. I thought he just grunted and that was it. When we had visitors he gave us a taste of his cry, but only in the car. The other day I learned that he does, in fact, cry. I have a feeling that I didn't think he cried before because there were so many extra hands around to help us. He was held a lot and he was constantly being comforted by our visitors. That being said, he's still a great baby and doesn't cry a lot, but he does cry! I realized when I was trying to throw dinner in the crock pot before heading out to the doctor that I just had to let him cry. I had to get out the door, so dinner had to be started. He wasn't happy about it, but was all smiles once he got the attention he was looking for!

Fun in the Sun

April 14 - Hunter looks a little sleepy after his evening meal!

April 15 - Daddy and Eden at the tide pools. This was a lot of fun, so we'll probably be taking a lot more pictures here over the summer!

April 15 - Eden hanging out in the "caves" at the tide pools. This time we went at low tide, but it was freezing, so it wasn't quite as much fun as last time.

April 15 - Eden went towards this cave, but got scared, so she was only willing to pose outside the cave.

April 15 - Daddy and Eden chatting about the meaning of life!

April 16 - These are the pictures that I painted to put in our room.

April 17 - Eden had her picnic basket, her tea party and her "ABCs" outside and was playing so well by herself.

April 18 - Hunter had the hiccups, so Eden gave him a burp cloth because she thought he might spit up.

April 18 - While Hunter napped, Eden and Mommy had a picnic outside together.

April 19 - I took Eden on a walk to the playground and I remembered to take care of the kids' skin, but forgot about myself. I'm going to have to get used to the SoCal sun!