Pampered Chef

.... is so much fun. Just saying. :)

Here's a recipe we like:

Solid Foods

We started feeding David some "solid" food, or as I heard someone call it, "human" food. Ha!

He had avocado and didn't like that much. Now he's trying oatmeal with much more success.

We'll take him to the pediatrician for his 4 month check up and shots tomorrow. I'm looking forward to hearing how he recommends we continue to feed the child.

Laughing & Growing & Such

We have a good time laughing together :)

He's getting so big!

This week we started introducing food to him. He's quite the trouper.

Sometimes it takes him 1 hour and 30 minutes to finally go to sleep after we put him down. Sometimes it takes him 3 minutes.

He still has red hair.

Cloth Diaper Trial

Did I mention that I did a 3 week cloth diaper trial?

A website called http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/ does a 21 day cloth diaper trial. They let you try several different kinds of cloth diapers, use them, wash them, and then send back what you don't want for an almost full refund. They give you everything but $10 back.

We wanted to use cloth diapers because, in the long run, they save a lot of money. The kinds we ended up buying are all-in-ones that kids can wear up to 35 pounds. At first the mention of cloth diapers kinda scared me... "you mean I have to wash diapers? gross, why can't we just buy disposables and throw them away?" BUT I am already doing laundry every day so what's one

extra load? It hasn't been bad at all. And they don't stink any worse than disposables. It's one less trip to the dumpster, and two extra steps to the washing machine. NBD.

The diapers are SUPER CUTE on him and come in FUN colors. He has different shades of blue, green, yellow, white, red, orange. Yay! The kinds we have are BumGenius 4.0 One-Size Pocket, FuzziBunz One-Size Pocket, and Smartipants. (They aren't the old fold and pin system... they look like disposables and all you do is stuff

an insert and then snap or velcro them onto the baby... no folding required.)

BumGenius:

FuzziBunz:Smartipants:

I didn't think I would be such a supporter of cloth diapers, but I have been converted. Don't get me wrong, I do like disposables for certain occasions (trips, when all cloth are dirty, babysitting, etc.), but 95% of the time, I'll be using cloth.

Undercover Mama

Seriously, the best thing in my wardrobe right now! (I have them in black, white, and brown.)

2011 Predictions

Once again, I saw my friend Andrea's predictions blog and decided to share what happened last year and what may happen this coming year. (Thanks, again, Andrea for the idea!)

2011

January: Do a 21 day cloth diaper trial, see if we like it :)

February: Take a trip to CA... Biola homecoming and visiting the family

March: David's sisters come to visit us. Celebrate big David's birthday.... hm, not sure how yet.

April: Our baby will be 6 months old and definitely sleeping at least 7 hours a night. (Haha, we'll see if that happens!)

May: Watch our baby grow! (How's that for a cop out?)

June: Watch our baby grow!

July: Ryan & LeAnna's wedding in CA! Go up to Coeur d'Alene to find a place.

August: Move on up to Idaho (is it too early to be scared of the winters there?), Hopefully get to Reno for the friends reunion at the Riddle's.

September: Settle in in our new place in ID and buy a Cal King bed :)

October: Little David turns 1! I'd like to have a party for him, maybe kind of small depending on how many new friends we meet.

November: Head down to Thanksgiving in CA with David's family.

December: Maybe go down to CA for Christmas... we need to start saving money for all these trips. :)

Back to 2010

January - Pray for and get a raise or more hours at work. I expect hours to get increased anyway because tax season is starting. Got more hours & the raise... worked a lot. Sold my Camry.

February - Choose a home church. Sell my Camry. (If you are interested in buying it email me or David. It's a great car and I'll be sad to see it go.) (We chose the church South Jordan Community to attend. Great. Love it. Sold my Camry last month. Found out I was pregnant... surprise!)

March - Buy an older, yet reliable, used car for me to drive. Celebrate David's 27th birthday. I'll plan a special date & maybe we'll get together with friends. Yes. That is what we'll do. Oh, also, does softball season start this month? If it does, I'll find a team. (Didn't buy a car, celebrated David's birthday while having consistent, miserable morning sickness. Didn't play softball. Just worked a lot!)

April - Tax season will end so hopefully I won't be as busy at work after the 15th. And if softball season didn't start last month, hopefully it starts this month & I'll be on a team. (Made it through tax season & didn't play softball because of the tiny blueberry inside me.)

May - Go to northern California to be in Melissa & Josh's wedding. Maybe David & I will make a little extended vacation out of it. (I went to CA for my best friend Crystal's wedding shower, and while I was gone David moved our entire apartment! What a guy! We also went to the Jordan's wedding. :)

June - Go to southern California to be in Crystal & Brett's wedding. Maybe David & I will make a little extended vacation out of it. Possibly move if we can't renew our lease. (Went to So Cal for Crystal & Brett's wedding.I thought I'd be working less, but stayed up there at the 35 hour week range.)

July - If we have money left over from our travels, we'll buy a bedroom set. Cal King bed, here we come! (No Cal King Bed but we did go to Oregon for a family vacation and met up with the Swingrover's. Fun times. Merry Christmas.)

August - Work & live. (Just that, worked & lived.)

September - Celebrate my 26th birthday. David has planned "date days" for my birthdays the last couple years. I'm sure he'll come up with something good. :) (We went to the John Mayer concert for my birthday, had a couple great baby showers and my parents came to visit.)

October - Celebrate our 1 year anniversary... by going "away" somewhere for that weekend. Probably be baby hungry, even though our plan is not to get pregnant for at least another year from this month. (We went up to Park City for the weekend of our anniversary... was baby hungry for our baby to come. And that he did on 10-24.)

November - Celebrate Thanksgiving & experience random snow showers across Salt Lake City. (We celebrated Thanksgiving with my extended family in Salt Lake and survived the month being sleep deprived new parents!)

December - Travel to visit family for Christmas. Probably be baby hungry again. (Went to CA for Christmas and not baby hungry. We watched our baby grow so much in December! Holy Cow... he's like a little boy!)

I'll check in on this post a year from now with what actually happened in 2010!

So, I have a few reflections after being a mom of a 5 1/2 week old. I have always wanted to have kids, always wanted my main job to be a "stay at home mom". I still want more kids and I want my main job to be a "stay at home mom".

With that said.... this job is TOTALLY harder than I anticipated! Not that changing a diaper ishard, or bathing a baby is hard, but taking care of an infant on a couple hours of sleep is hard. :) I love my son. I wouldn't give him back or trade him in. No way jose. With each passing day, I can honestly say I enjoy being home and taking care of him more and more.

I am so grateful that David works from home... it's quite a blessing to be able to sleep an extra hour in the morning and know that David has his eye on the baby. Or if I need to take a shower and little David starts crying, David can calm him down and I can shave my legs. David still has to work while he's at home so I can't just pass off little David whenever I want, but for those few moments when he needs the attention of one of his parents and I can't give it, it's nice that Dad is here.

A couple of new moms have asked me if being a mom "is just the best thing ever"? My mind both times associated the word "best" with "always enjoyable" and "always fun". And I hesitated in answering. Let me restate: I love my son. I wouldn't give him back or trade him in!! Being a mom is not enjoyable and fun 100% of the time. It is tiring and hard, but it's 100% worth it. There have been many enjoyable and fun moments in the past 5 1/2 weeks of baby David's life.... and I am looking forward to sharing many many more with him!

Being a mom is just the best thing ever. :)