Days Like Today

Being a parent is such hard work. I love Bean more then life itself, but there are days where he is so angry and fussy and I am so exhausted that I count down the seconds till bedtime.

But then there are days like today. . .

He wakes up like this.

After he finishes nursing he's all smiles. We cuddle in bed for a bit while he chews on the remote and I watch the random channels/menus he changes the t.v. to.

Then we go downstairs and I get breakfast ready.

After gobbling up his fruit and oatmeal he sits, smiles and plays with his toys in his high chair while I eat my oatmeal.

Normally after we play for a while he gets super grouchy and is ready for a nap. This morning we decided to push it a little and run some errands with Grandma. I thought for sure he would be a huge grump, but instead he was still all smiles, catching the attention of every passerby. I'm not joking when I tell you we got stopped several times by random strangers telling us how cute he is.

We got to the knife sharpening place before it opened so we went to a restaurant next door for a cup of coffee to wait till it opened. Bean just sat in his highchair like a perfect baby and gnawed away at the spoon I let him have. No fussing, no crying, just contentment.

Bean finally got to go down for his nap after we got home; although it wasn't easy. He didn't cry at all but instead played and laughed (of course) in his crib for 15 minutes before sleep finally took over.

Right now I'm sitting down stairs clicking on the baby monitor every five minutes waiting for him to wake up so we can go have more fun together.

Days like today are so fun and easy, and I am so thankful that I am able to stay home and spend them with my little guy.

I hope he wakes up soon!

A Year Ago Today (ish)

This is maybe a few days early, but knowing how consistently I blog lately I wanted to post it while I had the time.

August 25th 2010

August 18th 2011

What a difference a year can make! Life is so amazing.

Diapering Update

Well I figured it was time I posted a little bit about how cloth diapering has been going.

All in all it is going awesome! Hubs and I both love it. I would say the only down side we've encountered is it is a little more work. You have to take the time to do laundry, line dry the shells (some you can put in the dyer) and then stuff the diapers. At night we are still putting Bean in a disposable. We did get some hemp doublers so we could diaper him at night, but the one night we tried it he screamed his head off. I'm not sure if it was the diaper, but we haven't been brave enough to try it since.

The majority of our stash consists of Bum Genius 4.0's, a few Fuzzibunz, 1 Rumparooz, and a couple Sun Baby 4.0's.

The Bum Genius I think are our favorite, they fit Bean's legs and belly nice and snug. Honestly though they are all great diapers. BG's, FB, and the Rooz are all comparable on price, but the Sun Baby's are a great value! 12 diapers for 60 bucks is awesome! The only thing I'm not sure about is how they will hold up. They don't seem quite as sturdy as the more "mainstream" diapers, but so far they've been functioning as well as our "mainstream" diapers and holding up just fine.

Soooooooo, that's the gist of it so far! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a message in the comments!

7 Months

It's time to write another one of these posts again!

I have no idea how much Bean weighs since he doesn't have a doctors appointment this month, but if I had go guess he's probably around 17 lbs.

-Sleeping - He will only do 10 hours a night. We've been trying to keep him up later in hopes that he will start sleeping later, but it hasn't been working. Our Bean is an early bird. He goes bed around 8 and is always up at 6:30. Napping is still hit or miss. Sometimes he will nap 45 minutes, other times 2 hours. It's hard not having a set schedule, I'm hoping he will get into one soon.

-Eating - Still eating the same stuff last last month, just a bigger variety of veggies and fruits. Proud to say we are also still breast feeding. My initial goal when we first started was to make it to 6 months, now I'm hoping to make it to 12 months (recommended by the AAP). I love breast feeding so much, but I am also looking forward to stopping. I miss having my body to myself. I want to be able to have a drink with out worrying about it effecting my milk supply, or be able to eat what I want without worrying if it'll make Bean gassy, grumpy, etc. I also want to stop having an appetite like a horse because I need so many calories. (and I'm also hoping my. . .ahem. . .assets will shrink a little when I'm done, they too big for my liking. None of my clothes fit.)

-Motor/Strength - He can sit pretty well independently now; although he still face plants every once in a while when he goes to reach for a toy. He is pushing up into a plank position with his arms now, and just today (although I'm not sure if this should be in his 8 month post since it's past his 7 month birth day) he can prop himself on all fours and rock a little bit if I put him in that position. He can't quite get into that position on his own yet, but I think crawling is right around the corner. Also, if you prop Bean up next to the coffee table or a toy he will stand as long as he has something to hold on to. So strong!

-Play - He's getting more into big boy toys and books. He won't sit in his swing any more, and he prefers his jumperoo instead. He loves to sit at the piano and bang on the keys; he will even "sing" when he plays. Any toys that he can sit or stand next to and smack around he loves.

Parenting is such a crazy ride. Most days I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel like I have the "keeping the baby alive" part down, but I know there are things that I need to be teaching him but I'm not sure how or when to do most of it.

Ever see the movie Parenthood with Steve Martin? I just love this quote.

Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster.
Gil: Oh?
Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!
Gil: What a great story.
Grandma: I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.

So true!