Welcome to 2012!

It would be an understatement to say that it's been a while since I blogged... I got a text this morning from my brother that said that he was "appalled at no blog posts for the last four months!" Yep- those were his words. I told him that my excuse is that I loathe posting pictures on my blog because it seems to take for-e-ver. But I decided to sit down and just do it! First I'd like to give a little update on each of us:

Randy- Still LOVING his job with the Family History Library downtown. Almost every day he comes home with a smile on his face and at least three stories to share with me :) I need to be better at not rolling my eyes at how excited he gets over finding (seemingly random to me) death records, birth certificates, connections to other people, etc. He is such a good dad and husband and always treats us well. We love it when Randy gets home from work and we especially love the weekends!

Emily- Going crazy with packing, trying to get Parker to sleep, trying to keep a clean house and get meals on the table. I feel like my life is pretty much the same every day- feed, change, sleep, repeat. But the stay-at-home life is getting easier.

Parker- Has two teeth!! He was unbelievably ornery for a week, and I realized a little too late that he was teething. He is on the verge of crawling, and can now sit himself back up after laying down. He is still learning how to sleep through the night, but usually wakes up at 4 or 5 am. We love to capture him laughing hysterically at random things, and hopefully I will be able to post a video of him laughing at paper. Or maybe him yelling at a spoon...

The biggest change of all is that we bought a house! We are moving this weekend, and I can't wait to get settled in our new place. I am excited that the kitchen is nice and big, and I won't have to use a 2x2 foot counter to prepare all of our meals! There are some fixes that need to be done, but all in all we are really excited.

His hair is getting so long! This was taken after I took his hat off, and his hair was sticking out in all directions. Such a cutie :)

I love seeing all of Parker's rolls when he takes baths! He was just chilling on the floor with his towel after his bath.

Halloween time- we got good use out of this costume. I think he wore it at least 3-4 times. What a good sport :)

2 years for us, 5 months for Parker!

I can't believe that Parker is 5 months old. A few weeks after he was born, I honestly didn't believe he'd ever get this far! He is becoming a little more mobile, and is grabbing things with his hands like crazy. He is so funny. His new favorite thing is to rock back and forth really fast while we're trying to burp him. I think it's his way of telling us that he wants to stand up!

He's still a healthy boy, and I am still learning about being a mom. My new thing is not to stress so much if he wakes up early from his naps. He used to take 2 to 2.5 hour long naps, and it was wonderful! Lately, he wakes up after 45 minutes. I really had a hard week last week, so I decided just to let him be up if he wakes up during the day. I already feel better :)

Randy and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary a week ago. We decided not to get a babysitter because Parker kept waking up screaming-so we thought it would be a bad idea. We ended up getting Olive Garden to go, and stayed home and watched the Andy Griffith Show. We didn't really see anything on Redbox that we were interested in, and we love the Andy Griffith Show, so we thought, why not?? Randy bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that had 2 cala lilies in it because they are my favorite. I stole my sister's idea and blew up 30 Helium balloons myself* and tied pictures to the balloons with reasons that I love Randy written on the back.

I love our little family and the time that we get to spend together. Even though sometimes I dream of the time when life was so much less complicated, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

*I bought a balloon maker because there was no way I could fit 30 helium balloons in my car. I was trying to fill up the balloons and Parker decided that he didn't want me to put him down and screamed and screamed. Randy got home from his business trip too early, so I ran outside with a screaming Parker and said "You need to watch Parker and you can't come inside for a few more minutes!" Luckily he was still surprised, and Parker still loves me :)

Confessions about Grocery Stores

When I wasn't married, I absolutely hated going to the grocery store. Now that I am married, I still hate going to the grocery store, but if I don't go, we don't have food. Therefore, I have found that there are some grocery stores that I kind of enjoy going to once in a while, and other grocery stores that reinforce my hatred of grocery shopping.

The store that I absolutely love is Winco. What a glorious place! I love all of their variety. They keep the store nice and clean, they have enough check stands open so you don't have to wait an eternity to check out. Their prices are also really good. Winco is awesome.

Harmons is another pretty good grocery store. Clean, great produce section, good selection... They are just a bit more pricey.

The absolute worst grocery store in the world is Walmart. Sometimes I don't mind going to Walmart for other things, but I HATE grocery shopping there. It's almost always crowded, the lines are forever long, and their produce and meat are expensive. For some reason, I don't like their selection either.

There is a Smiths by us that I don't like. It feels dirty, and for some reason it's hard to get out of their parking lot for me. They do have some good deals there, but I still prefer Winco.

There you have it. Winco is the best. If you haven't been there, you should check it out!

Shots, Sleeping, and Eating

Parker had his 4 month check up this week. He is huge! 18 lb. 13 oz. and 26.5 inches long. He is in the 99th percentile for weight and the 92nd percentile for height. He is doing great. At this appointment, Parker had to get his second set of shots. It didn't seem too bad the first time he got his shots, so I thought this time would be the same. I was wrong.

Parker wouldn't let me put him down that day without crying. He was needy, and I could tell that he didn't feel well. This continued the next day. The day after that, my mom babysat and Parker screamed the entire time. Poor little guy! I think he was exhausted and still didn't feel well from the shots. His week has just been off.

It also seems like Parker is not being a very good eater this week. I know, I know, 18 lbs. 13 oz. what are you complaining about?? I just worry that my milk supply will start to go down if he doesn't start eating regularly again. This week he gets really mad at me after eating for about 5 or 10 minutes. The mornings are especially hard. Oh well. At least I know he's not starving.

Parker's naps haven't been very good either, and I decided to let him cry today. I know some of you might think I'm a bad mom (negative comments not welcome) but he NEEDED to sleep. Maybe now he will eat really well at his next feeding and will have a great afternoon nap. One of the hardest things about letting him cry is that we have neighbors next to us and below us. I'm sure they get annoyed with Parker's crying fits sometimes, but I don't know what else to do. It will be nice to be in a house one day where I don't have to worry about that. Here's what my mom told me earlier: "welcome to the joys of motherhood!" How true! But there really are true joys to being a mother.

Parker is also cuter than ever. We have to do all sorts of crazy things to try to get him to laugh. Things that are funny one day are never funny the next :) One time I sneezed while changing his diaper, and he thought it was hilarious. I continued to pretend to sneeze and he laughed and laughed.... I tried it again the next day and he just stared at me. What a funny guy!

Fitness

When I was younger (elementary, Jr. High) I was pretty physically fit. I LOVED running, and track was my favorite sport. I played basketball in Jr. High and woke up at 4:30 every morning to get to practice. It was a great way to stay fit!

So what happened to my motivation? I am not accountable to anyone. I don't have a coach yelling at me, and I don't have a team.I got busy in high school with music stuff, and then went to college where it seemed like I had ZERO extra time. I tried to stay active during the summers, but it still wasn't what I really needed to do. Now I'm a mom, and the time seems like it's even more limited, but I REALLY want to work out. We also get a bonus from our insurance if we work out for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, so that's more motivation!

I decided to write my first mini goal in my blog so that a few people out there in the blogging world can remind me of my goal (Especially you, Amy, since I KNOW you read my blog!). My first goal is simply to get out of bed at the same time as Randy and either put in my Pilates DVD, or do some resistance training. I've been doing a lot of research on work out DVD's since I don't really want to cough up the money to go to a gym right now, and there are a lot of really good options out there.

Anyway, here's to more fitness in my life!

Parker is Independent

It is amazing how different life is. I told Randy that I feel alive again, which is a really great thing.

The reason for the change? Parker decided he doesn't need our help putting him to sleep, and prefers to cry a little to himself and then sucking on his hand through his blanket. We were spending SO much time trying to rock the little guy to sleep... and he would just scream, and scream, and scream.... So one night, I decided to try setting him down because NOTHING was calming him down. I set him down, and he was out. I couldn't believe it! I decided to experiment the next day by putting him down while he was still awake to see if he would do it again. The next day was amazing! Every nap he went down by himself. Sure he cried for a few minutes sometimes, but other times, he just went to sleep without fussing.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is not to have to spend 30 minutes to an hour trying to bounce Parker to sleep! The only down side- I'm pretty sure I'm gaining some weight back because my exercise "routine" has been abolished :) But hey, I'll take the happy baby over the exercise routine.

We have also decided to put Parker on his tummy. I know they say you're not supposed to, but he WON'T sleep any other way. He is great on his tummy and holds up his head really well. He can also move it from side to side without any problems. So we feel good about putting him on his tummy. The first few times I did it, I checked on him probably every 20 minutes. Now I don't worry at all.

Life really is good, and is getting better. I actually feel like doing things now (like decorating his room!) and being more productive. Before, it was great when I could just get the dishes done, and then collapse on the bed. Parker is doing so much better, and so am I :)

I see the light

Having a baby has been one of the hardest experiences of my life. I had no idea how much everything would change, and just how difficult it can be. I have to say that I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Parker has been a difficult baby who screamed a lot. He would scream every time I tried to put him to bed, or sometimes just because he was hurting with gas. I would bounce him in my arms around the apartment, which was a great workout, but which also left me exhausted both emotionally and physically. I was at my whit's end.

I decided that I would rock Parker in our recliner to sleep, no matter how long he cried in my arms. I would just turn on a show to distract myself and keep rocking and telling him that I loved him. That way he could know that I wasn't abandoning him, and would give me some much needed rest. Guess what? It's been working! Yes he has cried, but only for up to about 15 minutes. It has gotten less and less. Today I rocked him to sleep and he didn't cry AT ALL.

I also decided that I have to change my attitude. It was getting to the point where Randy would come home and I would be in tears at least three times a week. Ridiculous! I wasn't enjoying Parker the way that I should because I was just so tired from all the bouncing! I know it might not last, but the last two days have been heavenly. I have loved Parker more than ever before, and it has been much more peaceful in our home.

He is getting so big!! 3 months old already! My cousin Kim had a baby just a little bit ago, and I saw him last night. It's hard to believe that Parker was also that tiny! He also giggled for the first time today, and it almost made me cry. It was the most wonderful sound that I have ever heard in my life. Today I love being a mommy :)