Fat and Bald

Just like an old man, Cason is going bald and getting fat. So sad. Hopefully the new hair will grow in soon. Here's some of the latest photos to catch up. Most are from my cell phone camera so I won't be winning any photography awards but at least I have some photos!

Lets review....

Hair

No Hair.

There's just a strip of hair left down the center, like a mowhawk except it won't stand up!

As you can tell, our favorite activity is playing with our feet or putting things in our mouth. Earlier today he got his toes within 1/2" from his mouth but never got them in. So cute!



Yes, that's cereal he's getting in a spoon. "But he's not 4 months yet, it's against the rules". Oh well, he will live. He gets about a tsp. every day that i feel like giving it to him. Hopes are that he would sleep longer but I don't know that it's helped yet.

When he's not holding his feet he likes to look at them or kick things with them or kick people with them. I think he's quite impressed with what those little feet can do!

Boot Camp- The Schedule

For those who are curious, here is my daily/weekly schedule.

Morning
Quiet Time
Eat Breakfast
Pack Lunch
Start 1 load of Laundry
Unload Dishwasher

Evening
Wash Pump Equipment
Empty Dryer and Put clothes away
Check Den for Trash
Pick out Clothes for tomorrow
Get bottles ready
Sort through trash and deliver to proper place
Put clothes on dresser away


Sunday:
File Paperwork
Sterilize pacifiers
Go for a walk
Family Time 9:30-10:00

Tuesday:
Go for a walk
Family Time 9:30-10:00

Thursday:
Go for a walk
Family Time 9:30-10:00

Saturday:
Get everything ready for church

This is just my version, Mike has some other things on his list... but not near as much. :-) Some of these things I already do regularly, some of them I don't and need the reminder. This list will be posted where I can check it every morning and evening as a reminder. I'm sure there will be things that get added along the way but this is a start. What's not on here is Casons new schedule. I wake up at 6:30, get ready, wake him up at 7:30, play with him (while eating breakfast and unloading the dishwasher) feed him at 8:00 and I'm out the door to work. He still is getting up at some point between 3 and 5 to eat so this usually works out well. For the past 4 days we have been within 30 minutes of this each morning. I also have his last feeding at 9 and put him straight to bed. If he's not ready to go he goes in his crib to watch his ocean wonders machine. When he gets fussy DADDY gets to rock him to sleep (mommy is in bed or finishing her list!).

"Family time" on the list above is just some designated Mike and Catherine time where we are not allowed to watch TV (or have it on) unless it is a show we are both watching together. Again, seems silly to have to write this in but you would be surprised how hard it is for us to hang out anymore. We are both busy with work or Cason and if we aren't doing those things we want to sleep. I think we need some time to hang out, play wii, or talk about the next house project.

Have I done my whole list tonight? Well, not exactly. It's been a wierd week becuase Mike is out of town. So I'm going to bed and we will start fresh in the morning!

Back to Church- Update

This week I made it to church for the 9:30 service, with everything i needed (including Bible and cell phone), got starbucks, got Cason to the nursery and made it in the sanctuary before many of my fellow sunday school classmates (if you are 9 months pregnant i'll give you a pass). I should get an award. I didn't make it to Sunday School becuase I had to go feed him at 11 but we will get it down eventually.

After he ate we went to see mike off to camp. I'm headed to McKinney to stay with mom and dad so I won't get lonely.

More pictures soon, I promise!

Baby Boot Camp- Week 1

Somethings got to give. I'm quickly headed down the path of becoming an insane person and I would really rather avoid that. So, we are about to put our family through boot camp and shape this place up. Gone are the days of my sweet baby sleeping through car rides and being easy to tote around. It's no longer ok for my house to be a disaster and take-out be our only form of nutrition. How much longer can I use "I have a newborn" as an excuse?

I snuck away to a pedicure 2 weeks ago and had some much needed alone time. I took a journal and wrote down all the areas of my life which I felt were currently out of control. Then, I wrote down some way in which I could make it better. I'm going to slowly start implementing those ideas so that I can survive and be a nice person- currently I'm not doing either.

So, this first week we are working on schedule. I read 3 months was when you could start "sleep training" and 3 months came 2 weeks ago to it's probably about time I get started. Even through this holiday weekend, alarms will be set and I will be waking Cason up at the same time each morning, and putting him to bed at the same time each night, and feeding him on a schedule and closely watching his nap routine to see how it fits in. That way, whether I'm at work or at home, he will have some consistency. The rest of the plan is a bit harder. Since currently very little is getting done around the household, Mike and I are both going to have daily lists for morning and night. Maybe someday these things will become routine but for now, a list is what I'm aiming for. Since I can currently remember nothing my night list will include things like "pick out clothes, get pump stuff ready, gather everything needed for work"; and my morning list will include "make lunch (and take it with you), play with Cason, unload the dishwasher, start a load of laundry". All things that the average person can remember to do but I am struggling with.

Pray for us, this isn't going to be easy. Of course, I eventually want to be flexible with Cason and not be driven by his bedtime or nap time, but until we get a basic routine established, I'm going to be pretty rigid.

Stay tuned for more tales of Baby Boot Camp.

Back to Church

It took me 10 weeks to start going back to church. My whole life, I've never missed church for that long. On Sunday mornings Mike has to be there at 8:00 so I don't have his help getting the baby ready and it's also one of the 2 mornings each week that i get to spend with Cason. He's really happy in the mornings and I love playing with him and watching him laugh and smile. So, getting up and rushing out the door didn't sound like a lot of fun. But I was missing church and my friends and I knew I needed to be there so here's a little bit about how the first few weeks have gone. By the way, I'm only trying to make it to Sunday School at this point which starts at 11.

Week 1:
Get up and get Cason ready. Feed Cason then I need to get ready. Cason screams throughout me getting ready and the whole drive there. Manage to get in the car with diaper bag, wallet, keys, and phone. Get to church, i'm late so i have to park really far away and haul the heavy carseat across the parking lot. Drop Cason off in nursery for the fist time (remember, he's been crying for the past hour). Walk 1/2 way to sunday school and realize I don't have anything in my hands. Where are my keys? Walk back to the nursery and search through diaper bag for keys. Found them! Walk 1/2 way back to sunday school and realize I don't have my cell phone, even though i had written my number largely on his sticker in case they needed me. Too embarrassed to go back in and check my bag for it. Made it through sunday school and pick him up. He was great, find cell phone in plain sight in my car.

Week 2:
Manage to get up and get both of us ready. Jump in the car and head to church early. Realize I forgot cell phone at home, turn around and get cell phone. Get to church, drop Cason off get to Sunday school and realize I don't have my cell phone. Don't know where it is. Probably with my Bible, which I don't have either. Notice my friend walk in with her 2 1/2 week old looking radiant, baby weight gone, and he slept peacefully the whole time. I go to pick up Cason and get a report that he was pretty fussy and did not like his bottle at all. I think the whole nursery heard him. So much for the cute travel bottle. So much for trying to give the illusion that my child is perfect and never cries. Find cell phone in plain sight in car... am I asking for someone to steal it? I think I should just watch church on TV.

Week 3:
Decided to try going again, postpone TV idea for another week. Get up and get both of us ready. Feed Cason right before we leave in order to avoid having to give a bottle at church. Manage to get both of us to chruch, get a good parking spot, and get him checked in to nursery. Remember cell phone but leave bible at home. Apparently he did pretty well but got fussy at the end. I can handle that.

I know that many of you more experienced moms are wondering "what is this girls deal?" I have no idea. I'm a perfectly organized person who is used to balancing lots of things. I can plan parties for 300+ people that cost more than I make in a year and I can't get my household in order enough to get to church on time with everything I need. What in the world!

Happy Fathers Day

For Mike's first fathers day he got a new toy:



I picked it up from sears on Saturday along with some burgers and fixins from Market Street and brought it home to surprise him. He loved it and then the conversation went something like this:

"Happy Fathers Day! I hope you like your new grill. We are having people over for burgers tonight so you need to put the grill together"

"okay cool" "um, the package says it takes 3 hours to put this thing together"

"yes it does"

"they are coming in 3 hours"

"Well, you better get started"

I'm a great wife. So thoughtful.

Well, he got it put together in time and the burgers were great. I think we will have a lot of fun with this toy.


Here's dad hanging with his little man.

And there's Cason tired after a long day.

I love my boys!

Baby Food Making

I saw this cool babyfood maker when i was pregnant and thought it would be fun to make my own babyfood. My parents got it for me for one of my showers and I couldn't wait to use it.

It steams the veggies or fruit then purees them to make the food. Last night I decided to give it a whirl with my friend Crystal who's baby Carsyn is 11 weeks older than Cason. She will be ready for solid food soon and I can just save mine in the freezer until Cason is ready.

We researched the best food for 6 month olds and choose to make Butternut squash, zucchini, apple, pea, and sweet potato purees. Here is crystal preparing the squash that has been roasted. Most of the items have to be steamed except the squash and potato which needed to be roasted (thanks to nanny Linda we had that ready for us when we started). So we started steaming and pureeing the veggies and putting them in ice cube trays to freeze.

Here's our finished products. HOw long do you think all of this took? 4 hours?


Wrong! We started around 6:20 and we were done before 8:30... including most of the cleanup. It was so easy and so much fun. I want to puree everything now. I just finished popping out the purees into plastic bags and I think that was the hardest part. My friend at work gave me some peaches from her yard and I think i'm going to make peach puree.

All you really need is a steamer basket and a food processor but the babyfood maker sure does make it easy becuase you can do everything in one pot and it's easy to clean up. A great web site is Nuture Baby if you want to see some recipes. At this stage, it's not really a recipe so much as "cut zucchini, steam, puree". Eventually it gets more complex.

If you need any babyfood making tips or want to join in the fun, let me know. It's more fun to work with a friend so we may be having babyfood parties once a month!