Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from my little gnome! 

(Who was surprisingly okay with wearing this beard, by the way.)

typical sunday.

My boys.

(all three of them)

grooming fails and baby grins

So...I took Simon to get groomed at Petsmart today.  This has been his first grooming since becoming our dog, mind you.

It didn't really work out.

They called me after his bath and nail trimming, that when they were trying to trim the hair around face he basically had the dog equivalent of a nervous breakdown.  He was showing signs of "major stress" so I went and picked him up.  He's super clean, but still a bit shaggy.  His face is a little more groomed but now uneven..ha.

Look at that face!  Little chubby cheeks is giving me a smooshed little grin.  I have been trying very hard to get a photo of him smiling but every. single. time. I hold the camera up when he starts smiling he goes straight-faced.  Rude.

So...that little photo above is the closest I have :)

scattered thoughts for [wednesday]

+ I used to want to buy too many things for myself.  If I saw something wanted to wear or put in our home, I would buy it.  Good news: I no longer do that!  Bad news: It's because I've focused my consumerism on Eli. Gosh, baby stuff is too cute, and I kind of want all of it.

+ This morning Eli and I ventured over to Rookwood Commons, to Joseph Beth Booksellers, where I often took little girl (of my previous nanny job).  Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 10:30 is story time at the bookstore and while I did not take Eli to story time (yet...I will when he's old enough!), he got to meet Miss Audrey, who is my favorite story time lady :)

+ It has been really warm this past few days in southern Ohio/northern Kentucky which has been really nice for drying clothes outside!

+ Rob bought me my first domain!! If you recall I once said long ago that I desired to turn this into a *real*-ish blog, with more of a purpose and less random.  That hasn't happened for two years, and as soon as I come up with a blog layout, Rob is going to put it together for me!  We'll see when I get around to that...

+ There are so many projects and crafts I have floating around in my head but I just can't find the time/energy to execute them.

+ For lunch I am eating soup from a can.  I frequently eat soup from a can.

+ It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is playing in our DVD player right now.  Eli doesn't care, though.  He fell asleep in his swing.

+ While I really love fall and all fall-type things, I am really looking forward to the Christmas season.  Christmas is my favorite.

+ Soon I will be joining the smartphone community!  I have an iPhone 5 coming my way! (Hopefully, eventually).  We ordered it last month but because it was on back order and it may not ship out until November 2.  Ridiculous.

+ I just realized my child has the same hair as Linus Van Pelt.

well...

Intense.

These are just some photos we took on Eli's 2 month marker :)

shots, shots, and more shots.

Photo taken last October.

Thursday, Eli had his checkup and round of shots.  Friday, it was Simon's turn.  What I initially thought was going to be a physical exam and a rabies shot (he was due in the beginning of September...oops) turned out to be three different shots, some blood drawn for a heart worm test, and I have to bring back a stool sample  some time in the next ten days (fun).  So what I thought was going to be a $50 vet bill turned into a $150 vet bill.  Oh well, it's the least we can do for the little guy.

I also found out Simon weighs 18.2 pounds.  Eli will probably surpass him by his 4 month check up, which both amuses and disgusts me.  Why do babies grow so fast (...especially, it seems, my baby)?  Our vet also said Simon is two years old.  Up to this point we were unsure, as he was a stray before he went to the shelter, although that is what the shelter guessed his age to be around.

Anyway...hey!  I [kind of] made a post about something other than Eli! Ha.

2 months!

Today my baby is 2 months old!  Eli weighs 14 pounds and 3 ounces, and is 24 3/4 inches long.  He is so, so big!  At this point he is already wearing some 6 month clothing!  He is looking healthy all around and had to get two shots today, one in each leg.  The first shot he recovered from quickly, but with the second one he cried and cried! There were even little tears coming out of his eyes :( It was a pretty rough morning and he has been pretty sleepy ever since.  

Also: I have really relaxed on the whole BabyWise thing.  I just wasn't getting the hang of it.  I know I probably didn't give it long enough but scheduling and organization is not my forte.  I am still using the principle of eat/wake/sleep but not rigidly.  He has been going to bed around the same time every night, but the first feeding comes at different times every day (a BabyWise no-no) and he goes anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours between feedings so there is obviously no schedule there.  I do think he's discerning a bit from night and day now as his naps during the day are pretty short and he sleeps for longer chunks at night, but as a general rule he still wants to be fed twice at night.  A couple nights ago he slept for 5 1/2 hours straight and I thought I hit the jackpot!

Some of Eli's favorite things at 2 months:

Baths

Being talked/sung to

Tummy time in his activity gym

Pacifier 

Bouncy seat

Looking at light (we call him moth boy)

Stroller rides

Being outdoors

Car rides

Being held by someone standing up

(apparently this is way, way more desirable than being held by someone sitting down)

He is such a sweetheart and so mild mannered!  He hardly ever has temper tantrums and when he cries out it's almost scary because it happens so rarely.  He's more of a 'yeller'.  He kind of yelps and calls out when he wants something or doesn't want something (ex: going to bed).  It is crazy to think how we ever lived before Eli was here!  We love him so much!

someone hates naps.

hint: his name begins with 'e' and ends in 'i'.

(it's him.)

blah.

So, day one of the grand experiment went just okay.  Day two I kind of neglected some basic principles, because I was too tired, so...yeah.  Eli didn't nap at all until the end-ish of his second nap, which was around 3:45, then he woke up and ate for fifteen minutes (couldn't get him to stay awake any longer than that, no matter what I tried), and then he promptly continued into another nap which has been going on ever since.

Hmm.

Whatever.

Anyway, I have ordered a crap ton of things from the internet in the past week or so, and it has been delightful receiving packages in the mail everyday.  This, however, must stop.  Rob and I have been talking more and more about moving (in time, folks, in time), though if anyone wants to buy me this house that would be wonderful and fine and I would move in tomorrow.

I don't know what it has been about the past two days, but I feel like I have been hit by a bus.  I feel sickly and tired and have no motivation to do anything.  For dinner tonight we are having frozen pizza, if that is suggestive of anything.

Tomorrow the bookcase I ordered Eli should be getting and I am so excited about that.  It will be good to have Eli's room feel a bit more finished since he is actually using it now.  I think this weekend we are going to move Rob's junk out of there and put it who knows where until the basement is ready for it.  Speaking of!  Apparently my dad has drawn out a plan for the basement, and should soon be in the hand of his contractor friend.   Hopefully things start speeding up here.

love.

a grand experiment.

I had been recommended to read BabyWise by multiple people every time I would whine and complain about how little Eli was not sleeping (day and night).  Firstly, I ignored it, assuming the problem would work itself out and I didn't need some 'program' to get my baby to sleep.  Then, as the weeks progressed and I became more desperate so I ordered the book from Amazon, but never read it.  Finally, after Sunday night (where he slept a mere fifty minutes on his own), I broke down and seriously began *skimming* the book. As I began to realize that according to this sleep program I was failing to the extreme, I took note of some things to change about our day.  The biggest being how long I made Eli eat.

Normally, Eli only eats for about 10 minutes from one side.  He is uninterested in eating after that, and my pediatrician even told me that if he is eating quickly, 10-15 minutes for a feeding should suffice, and it is very obvious that Eli is getting enough to eat, so I didn't think much of it.  Lately, though, he has slowed down the rate at which he feeds.  I decided to try and get him to eat 10 minutes from both sides as a starting point (the book says 15-20).  I was surprised how easy it was to get him to do this.  We continued into a bit of playtime (BabyWise has you to implement a feed/wake/sleep pattern) and then I put him down to a nap.  HE ACTUALLY TOOK A NAP.  I continued the day with basic principles from the book and can I tell you, the day was so so so much easier?!  By the end of the day I felt I had drawn enough from the book to know how to follow a version of the program that would work for us, and I'm currently sitting in Eli's nursery (he had his first night in the crib last night...bittersweet) because he started fussing a bit at around 6:15 and I'd like him to sleep until 7.

So, today, October 9, 2012, I begin our grand experiment, a full day of the BabyWise program, and I am hoping beyond hope that it does wonders for everyone in our little family.

------>>> side note though: why doesn't anyone tell you this kind of stuff before you have the baby!?  I would have loved to have been informed that legit sleep programs existed before all the terrible nights where Eli got maybe one or two hours of sleep and we got even less.  Oh well, live and learn.  Obviously I will update later on progress.

first nap in the crib!

...well, for 20 minutes at least.

I finally cleaned his clothes out and put them away in his wardrobe!  And sadly boxed up many clothes that he no longer fits in...

!!!

Sheesh.

Well, here's some crib-napping cuteness...

...He is the sweetest.

schedules

I had my postpartum checkup today and everything is looking good!  In fact, I already went to the gym tonight, haha.  Hopefully that can be a regular occurrence so I can fit back into my old jeans.  It is sad how large my butt got during pregnancy.  I really really really want to wear my Levi's again.  Plus all of my skirts that don't have that forgiving elastic waistband.

Also, I am happy to report that the bed time schedule I implemented for Eli last week is starting to pay off.  Starting somewhere between 8:30-9:00 pm we give him his bath.  After that I feed him and burp him, and then we read a book.  Granted, Eli does not care that I am reading a book but it is something I plan on making a part of his bedtime routine for as long as he lets me.  After the book I give him his pacifier and lay him in bed (still awake).  Then I turn out the light and turn on his slumber buddy.  He is generally asleep within a half hour on his own!

Hopefully bragging about it won't jinx our system because he's slept really well initially (4 hours) after being put to bed.  The problem begins after the first middle-of-the-night feeding.  We'll work on that later.