Learning Curve

I need help moms!

Mason is 4.5 months old, well close enough, but I am starting to teach him how to be comfortable in his crib so that at 6 months I can hopefully wean him from my bed to his own bed at night. I have been trying to put Mace in his crib for 1 nap a day for the past few weeks, but I haven't been consistent with it. Problem number 1. But there are times that he just wakes up only after 1 hour and screams his scared to death scream. How do I make him less scared? Also how do I put him to nap without having to nurse him to sleep first. That is a bad habit to get into, I know, but I don't know how to knock him out. Today was the first time I didn't have to nurse him to sleep first but he fell asleep in his car seat while I was talking to a friend outside helping me with the Christmas lights. I just transfered him from the car seat and put him in the crib, he did one wail then was out. I have know moms just put their babies in the crib and the baby will fall asleep within a few minutes sometimes with crying sometimes with out. How do I do that??? For night, when he hits 5 months old I was going to have him sleep in his pack and play at night, which is still in my room, to get used to not sleeping with me next to him. I am slowing teaching him or should I just do things like a band-aid and just do it in one fell swoop?

Please moms any help you can give would be great. I really am trying to slowly get him used to his crib because daddy said "NO BABIES IN BED!" And I don't feel comfortable with him in my bed once he start crawling, because I don't want him to crawl right out. THANKS!!!

Turkey Take Over!

I finished a little project, that I totally copied my mom with by the way, but I made 30 turkeys on Sunday. Not real turkeys silly, but yummier turkeys. I made them for the ladies I visit teach and their fams. It was a real fun project that is super easy! Just take oreos, 2 per turkey, a Reeses peanut butter cup, candy corn, whopper, butterscotch chip, melted butterscotch frosting and red frosting. And assemble. I just made a little assembly line which made it very easy! I also used ziploc bags for the frosting and the melted butterscotch for the feet. I love them and the people that have gotten them love them and it would be a fun project with your kiddos! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

~I love the face of these two, "Um, what is gonna happen now?"~

4 months

Mason is 4 months old today! CRAZINESS!!! He is weighing at a whopping 16 pounds 11 ounces (75-90th %) and he is 24 inches tall (25%). I am so happy how healthy he is and how strong he is. This little guy loves to stand and do squats all day long. He is already working out his leg muscles so that when he is big he can leg press as much as his momma! (just shy of 400 lbs by the way)

He loves to smile and giggle and is really starting to do the belly laughs. He always gets the hiccups though when he giggles and it is really cute for him to do a giggle then be interrupted by a hiccup.

He loves to do tummy time, still in the middle of the night when he should be going to bed. He gets a kick out of seeing me lay next to him and his head is higher than mine. The doc is super excited by his development and still thinks that he will be mobile very soon. SCARY! I am starting to think about how to baby proof my home and what needs to be done.

He loves to talk to Daddy on the computer. He loves to get nice and close to the camera so Daddy gets a view of his forehead or just a super close up of his face. He loves to look at the computer and the TV and sadly my cell phone when I am using them! He is already such a technology baby. He wants to hold my cell phone and when I put it away he keeps looking for it to play with it. I think it has something to do with the red case more than the phone itself.

He loves to coo and gurgle his spit and just talk to me. He now "talks" with me when he puts his head down for bed, after the tummy time, but he will coo and then wait for me to respond then coo then wait. It is the cutest thing!

He is very strict about his bed time and nap times. He is out cold by 9 am for his first nap, then by 1 pm for his afternoon nap and 5:30ish for his late afternoon nap. And if I am not on my way up to bed with him by 7:30 for reading he basically loses it. He knows his nighttime routine and loves it and is always asleep by 8:30. Such a smart little guy. I could go on and on about how wonderful he is and how much he has changed my life and how much I love him. I just wish that Matt was home to get to know him in person and see him everyday. Almost 7 months left for Matt to come home and it will be here before I know it.

I thought it would be fun to post the "silly" pix of Mason from his photo shoot. Enjoy!

~Cue music: I'm too sexy for my hair~ 

 ~I call this the "Mr. Collins" from the 6 hour long A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. When he is waving to his wife, Charlotte, just to show Elizabeth that they are very much in love. Charlotte just kind of blows him off. It kind of is a freaky look~

 ~You want me to do WHAT?!?~

~"HeHeHe! I am finally on this quilt!" After months of looking at it hanging on the wall Mace was finally allowed to lay on it! I think he is having way too much fun!~

200

This is my 200th post ever! In 4 years 200 posts is pretty good, for a person that doesn't journal. I have always told Matt that this was my electronic journal. I feel like there should be a cake, but alas cake would not help shrink my hips back down.

My new word that I hate is: frustration. I am tired of being frustrated with myself and the lack of movement my body has made since I had Mace. When I think about the lack of weight loss I get so frustrated and upset then all I want to do is emotional eat. Which is not a good habit to get in to. My goal is to stop being frustrated and do something about it. I can't go back in the past and change how much weight I gained, and really I didn't do that bad but basically everything I lost prior to Mace I got back and it is stuck. So I am going to move everyday. I am already eating better and cut sugar out and eating more whole foods and healthier snacks. My goal is to do some exercise everyday, and housework doesn't count. That means some sort of workout dvd or outside and walk. That is my goal to get my butt moving to get it moving out of here! I will get back to how I was and will be even hotter because I am a mom and I am amazing! Time to get moving!

On a different note...

A couple of weeks ago Mace had his first professional photo session! He did really, really well. We were booked with an hour slot and we were done in 40 minutes because the guy already hit his max of pix to take. Mace did really well and we got some really great pix. Weirdly the favs among everyone are the ones including me. I did my hair and makeup just in case but I didn't think that they would turn out as good as they did. We did get some Christmas ones too, but I am going to save posting some of those until closer to Christmas and after the cards are sent out so you are surprised when you get it! So without further adieu...

~Grandma's Fav~

 ~Mason loves looking at Grandma's quilt!~

Pix Overload

I just spent some time updating my iPhoto app on my Mac. I have taken over 600 pix of my cute little kid since he was born. I love having so many pix of him available to look at. But I do have a lot of pix of the same thing trying to get that perfect pose. I don't want to delete any of them because they are so good, mind you I did delete photos that were blurred or didn't look right, so technically I have taken way more than 600 pix. At some point I will transfer them to another hard drive but Matt took them with him to Iraq so I will just have to wait until Matt gets home!

Things are going so well here. Mace is sleeping 8 hours solid at night and takes two 1 hour naps and one long 2.5 hour long nap during the day. And as you can see from the following pix he is a very happy boy, most of the time! Enjoy some random pix of my cute little kid. I will have more info on how Mace is doing later this week in his 4 month old post. Can you believe it, that he is going to be 4 months this week! He is just getting so big!

~Trying out his highchair for the first time! He loves it!~

~Cute little big feet~

~This one is for you Grandma!~

~Tummy Time, what movie am I watching, can you tell in the next few pix?~

Take 2

I really am not liking the time change thing this time around. Mason has his schedule and doesn't like it being messed with and what happens, the time changes messes with it. It has actually been a really long feeling day, since Mace woke up earlier than normal today and he has just been off all day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and we will be able to regulate his schedule again. 

I love my little mini-Matt so much! He just thinks I am the most funny thing ever. He is laughing all the time, and his face just lights up when he is smiling and happy. Life has been so much better since his colic stopped and his other problem stopped 2 weeks ago. I am enjoying watching him grow, sadly grow out of his clothing, and also learn. He loves reading with me and looking at books and every night we get to listen to daddy's voice reading to him and he is so good at listening to him. I am also trying to get him used to eating at the dinner table in his high chair. No he is not eating solids, yet, and probably won't be for a couple of months. I am really wanting to wait as long as possible before I start him on solids so at 6 months or later but I do want him to be used to eating at the table with me and enjoy being in his high chair. Also, same with his crib. I want him to be used to sleeping in there on a regular basis. He took his long nap yesterday in the crib and I want him to get used to the crib so that I can get him out of my bed when he is 6 months old. I have attached the proof of Mace being in his crib and high chair.

Matt is no longer in Iraq, his unit has moved to Kuwait. Matt is safe there and not enjoying the heat and the sand which he says is worse than it was in Iraq. We get to skype almost everyday, and his connection is better in Kuwait so Matt can actually see Mace move instead of just getting frozen images on the screen. Mace loves to look right at daddy, but I think he likes playing with the computer more. My little technology based baby! Glad that we still have some old laptops for him to bang on when he gets older.

This week my goal is to continue with Zumba, but more than just 3 times a week! I am actually really liking the dvd's. It is a great cardio workout and it is fun! So wish me luck this is round 2 trying to get a regular workout schedule with Mace. My hips need to shrink back down and I am hoping all the shaking will help out with that. That's all for now, I have to go wake Mace up so that he will sleep tonight!

Halloween 2011

Halloween is done and over with. I love the holiday, but sitting in the cold for 1.5 hours handing out candy and then with a wiggly baby didn't quite make it any easier this year. We get so many little goblins that it is a steady stream of them for 2 hours straight so it is best just to try and brave the cold instead of having your doorbell rung a million times. I ran out of my 7 bags of candy by 7:30. Then Mace and I went out with another family to go and visit our neighbors. I had fun with my first trick or treating experience, I didn't get that much candy only like 6 pieces plus a full sized candy bar and hot chocolate from one of our amazing neighbors. I didn't want that much candy anyhew, cause who is gonna eat it, me, the momma, and it is going to go straight to my hips which still refuse to shrink. Still working on it though!

I didn't take Archer with us because Mace didn't want to go in the stroller, he wanted to be held. And who could blame him, I was his personal furnace. So we walked around the entire neighborhood, 1/2 mile, with me carrying a 16 lb baby. Good workout for me. I just wonder how I was able to walk while carrying him inside of me because I was pooped from carrying him last night. Poor Nan, who is 36 weeks pregnant, enjoyed the walk less than I did as her baby was doing acrobatics inside of her the entire time. We had fun and Mace did get a lot of attention from all the kids! It is amazing how much children love babies. Also some of the moms asked if he was a candy to give away because he was just so sweet. HAHA! So here are some pix from Halloween. We were ASU fans. Even Archer got in on the fun. I got to wear jeans and an ASU sweatshirt. This is the most dressed down Halloween in 4 years. I am already thinking about next years outfits!!!