How quickly things change

It really is amazing how much life changes after having a baby. You can't really go out or do anything on a whim. Any outings must be carefully planned around feeding and nap times. Friday nights are spent on the couch watching Hairspray. Sleeping in is a thing of the past.

Lee and I went to some friends' house last week for a barbecue. (Just the fact that we got out with the baby for an evening was a MAJOR success.) There were lots of people, many of whom had children. A sweet girl and I had a conversation about how your twenties are really a difficult decade. There's just so much change. I mean, think about it, you go from college, so carefree and fun, to finding a career, getting married, and having children. It's like going from zero to sixty in ten years, less really.

On the way home, Lee and I talked about what a good time we had, and we laughed about how life is just so different than it was even a few months ago. Conversations at get-togethers are now full of things like breastfeeding, pumping, poop, height and weight percentiles. It's just so funny what we consider a good time now.

It's also pretty amazing, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I'd much rather discuss my breast milk supply than who I think is the cutest boy in my statistics class. :)

Happy...Thursday?

How is it already Thursday? Every week, I am a day off. I've figured out that I lose Tuesday every week, I have no idea why. But every Wednesday, I think it's Tuesday so Thursday I think it's Wednesday, etc. Today I called to make a vet appointment for the girls on Friday and the girl was telling me what times were available tomorrow. I told her that I wanted to come in Friday, not tomorrow (because I thought tomorrow was Thursday) and she told me that tomorrow is Friday! I felt dumb :)

I wish the weeks would go by this fast when I have to work! Of course that will not be the case!

I need a project. Like something crafty or home decorating-related. I recently discovered the world of digital scrapbooking. Has anyone ever done this? There are even websites that have digital scrapbooking kits, complete with 'paper', 'ribbon', little cutouts and everything else you would use to make an actual scrapbook! If you search enough, you can even find a lot of it for free. This excites me to no end because I LOVE scrapbooking, but I never do it anymore. I think the last time I completed a scrapbook was when I was in grad school, which was probably 5 years ago. I never do it anymore because I just don't want to get all of the crap out. It makes a huge mess. I buy stuff all the time though. I love the papers. But then it just sits in a back bedroom and I never use any of it. I think I'm going to get rid of everything I have and just start digitally scrapbooking. There is a specific software program that I am comfortable creating things in, and I don't have it on this computer, so as soon as I get it, I'm going to start something for Cooper. I'm going to upload it to one of those websites where you can make photo books, like snapfish or something, there are a ton of them so I'm not sure exactly which one yet. I'm really excited about this :)

So, Lee's high school reunion is coming up. Obviously it's in his hometown which is about 3 hours away from here. Unfortunately I'm not going to get to go with him. I really wanted to go. His high school friends are really fun and we haven't seen them in soo long. Probably since our wedding over a year ago. And one of the couples got engaged recently and I was looking forward to seeing them since that happened. I also really wanted everyone to meet Cooper. I mean, he's pretty cute so I like to show him off :) Very few, like maybe 2, of his friends from home live around here, so none of them have gotten to see him in person. But we won't have anyone to watch him while we are there. The reunion is supposed to have one thing for families, which we would take him to, and then one event that's in the evening that's not really for kids to come to. Pretty standard events for a reunion. Lee's mom is visiting his sister since she and her family moved back down to the lower 48 from Alaska. His dad will be home...but neither one of us feels comfortable leaving Cooper with him. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Hell, leaving him with his mom would be a stretch to be perfectly honest. My parents said that we could leave him with them for the 2 nights we will be gone but I am really not ready to be away from him overnight, let alone two nights. Oh well. It's far from the end of the world. But we all know I'm a huge baby and I'm going to have to pack up all of our crap and stay with my parents while Lee is away. That was one thing when it was just me and I really didn't have to bring more than a change of clothes, but with Cooper, it's going to require considerably more. But when you think about the following, can you really blame me?

1. about 3 months ago, a man was shot and killed about a mile from our house. The men who did this were found in our neighborhood.

2. night before last, less than a mile from our house, a man robbed a Subway at gunpoint.

There were 2 other things I was going to say, but my post-pregnancy brain has forgotten them, as usual. Anyway, needless to say I just don't feel safe here when Lee isn't here. I can't wait until the day we can move!!

Randoms

Because I can't seem to focus, here's a random list of things going on lately with us:

• Ever since Cooper was born, I canNOT remember things. Seriously, I'll be walking to do something, and on my way I'll forget what I was going to do! I'll be in the middle of a sentence and completely forget what I was going to say. It's so weird, and frustrating!

• Our neighbors moved last weekend!!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how happy this made us! Last night we said how Friday (the day we knew for sure) was probably the best day of our lives next to the birth of our son. In case you don't know the story, they had 3 jack russell terriers that they would let bark for HOURS. And they would let them do it at all hours, including at 3am. And they would bark right outside our bedroom window and wake us up. After the baby was born, Lee went over to ask if they could keep it down because of the baby sleeping in our room, etc. Well the woman was a huge b and said that they could do whatever they want in their yard, and that she was sure that his (Lee's) wife made him go talk to them and that he needed to grow some balls. No joke. Then her boyfriend (she is in her mid-late 30's, and he's about 10 years older I'd say, so old enough to be adults) said that he was going to come over and kick Lee's ass! Haha, over the dogs barking! It was ridiculous. Then Lee came in and she started barking like a dog in her backyard!! I am dead serious. And THEN she went over to our bedroom window and started screaming at the top of her lungs for her dogs to come and bark. It was bizarre. It shook me up because they seem crazy and who knows what they would do after all that. So thank GOD they moved! It is so nice and peaceful around here now. Sorry that was long.

• We've had a few rough weeks with Coop. It seems like he's just never happy. I finally came to the conclusion that I think my milk supply is low and he just hasn't been getting enough to eat. I think it happened when I tried to get him on a little bit of a schedule. He had been eating REALLY often, like every hour to hour and a half and it was draining on me. Anyway, I've started pumping (which make me feel like a cow) and feeding him more often so hopefully that will help. We gave him a bottle for the first time last week and he totally downed 4 oz. in no time, and that was after he nursed for like 30 minutes. The kid can eat! When I pump I only get like 2ish oz so I'm pretty sure that's the problem. (He took the bottle like a champ! I was worried because he doesn't like pacifiers)

• I found curtains for the house! Yay the one thing I had to get done while on maternity leave! I found them on Overstock, but we're going to wait to get them since I'm not working. I'm REAL excited about it!

• I never knew how exciting fans, lights, and ceilings were until I had a baby. Apparently they are the most fascinating things to look at ever!

• I have my 6 week visit to the dr tomorrow. I am SO ready for him to tell me I can start working out. I feel gross. I gained SO MUCH weight during pregnancy. And I was already like 15 lbs. more than I wanted to be :(

• We think Cooper smiled last night. And this morning :)

He is 6 weeks old today! This is not a smile but it's still cute :) I wish I was this happy at 6am!

Skip Hop Duo

Jessica at In the Sky with Diamonds is giving away this awesome diaper bag! It is one that I really wanted when I was shopping around, but I didn't end up getting it, and I wish that I had. I would tell you that you should enter the giveaway if you are a parent (or even if you're not because I've heard that this is also great as a bag for whatever you need) but I want to win, so I'm not going to :)

Currently...

...this is the only way he will stop crying. Poor guy :(

On a positive note, see that in his mouth? We finally got him to take a pacifier! He won't always do it, but it's a step.

Narrowing it down

While I was still pregnant with Cooper, I would often dream of maternity leave and how wonderful it would be. Not only would I have my precious baby, but I would finally have all the time in the world to get some things done around the house. I had long to-do lists full of every tiny thing that we still need to do to our work-in-progress of a home.

Fast forward to today, one month in (gosh, he's one month today!! how is that possible?!) and I am laughing at myself and my impossible task list! I barely have time to eat a meal, let alone work on these projects.

So I have narrowed my list down to one thing. If I do nothing else, I WILL complete this ONE goal before I go back to work!

You see, when we repainted for the millionth time last time, all of the curtains for the living room and kitchen had to go. They didn't match anymore, at all. So, for the past year, our windows have been naked. In fact, Coop's window is the only one with a curtain! (I never did post pics of his room, did I? I should do that) I wouldn't hate it SO much if it weren't for the french doors we have in the living room that lead into the backyard. You see, the dogs LOVE to look out the doors, because the windows go all the way to the bottom. And those bottom windows are perfect for them to look out of. And they will. ALL.DAY.LONG. Literally. If we let them, they will just sit there and watch for birds/squirrels/who knows what. And they growl at whatever or at nothing. And sometimes they bark. And they think they see something that they HAVE to go out and chase so then they start running all over the house whining for us to let them out! It's annoying y'all.

So you know what we did about 6 months ago? We had had it with the annoying-ness of the situation. We were desperate. We NEEDED something, ANYTHING! to cover those windows. So we found some pictures, yes pictures (well one painting and once piece of hideous framed art) and we stuck them in front of the windows. This is what it currently looks like:

It's so embarrassing. Especially since people have been coming over to visit the baby. But this is the alternative:

And I just cannot handle that all day long. As it is, Zoe has still found a way to look out:
She's one smart puppy. Unfortunately for us! (See that open shelving to the left? Yeah, that's because we STILL haven't hung the cabinet doors that we ordered and have been sitting in the kitchen for about 3 months. Sheesh why can't we ever finish anything?!)

So this is the ONE thing that I will do in the 3 whole months I have off. I will find curtains for the living room! I've looked a little, and it's so hard to find the right thing! We are NOT ever painting again, so I want something that I really love because it's going to be around a while.

The good news is that this week, I've started working with the little man and we are now getting on a much more manageable schedule. I'm super excited about being able to leave the house without freaking out about if he's going to get hungry in the middle of Target or something, so we can actually go and look for curtains! I'm sure he will love it :)

For Cohen

Send Love to Cohen