8 Months

Happy 8 months my beautiful boy! 

You have accomplished a ton in the past month. I can't believe how fast you're reaching major milestones!

You are crawling and boy am I happy. I always suspected you would be a much happier baby once you started crawling. I was right! You are so content now. I won't go as far to say you're independent but you will play alone for extended periods of time. You love to chase Ivy around the house. It's far from her favorite game though! I can also leave your site without a full blown meltdown. These are exciting times! 

Pulling up is one of your newest skills. Actually, I think it has fallen after the 8 month mark but I'm a little late with this post. Pulling up does prove to be a challenge in much of the house. If you have on socks or it's a smaller piece of furniture you're pulling on, something/someone is bound to slide on the hardwood. You are still far from cruising as you think the only way to stand is on your tip toes. It reminds me so much of your Uncle Matthew. He walked on his tip toes for as long as I can remember. He may even still! 

You love to eat. Your favorite food is probably banana. It can't be cut up too small though or you get frustrated. You also enjoy strawberries, tomato, cucumber and pickles. You LOVE pickles. You get jarred baby food with the babysitter each day but it's clearly not your favorite. 

You are such a sweet boy and my how your little personality is starting to shine through! 

Tease

Life deserves so much more attention than this but here's what I can muster up. 

1. Connor is full on crawling

2. I'm 20 weeks pregnant and expecting a girl

3. I'm tired.....so, so tired.

4. My workplace has become hell on earth. For everyone. I think SB may be looking at a whole new staff next year...people are ready to walk. 

.......That's all I've got. Sorry.

Countdown

10 - The number of days I've been back at work. It's not getting any easier and I'm not enjoying it anymore. With the staff cuts and insane number of changes within the state and system I feel as if my head could explode.

9 - The average number of hours that Connor is away from home each day. It's too much time. I need to do some serious praying about priorities including our financial priorities for next year. I'm thinking I'll stay home the entire year because as someone so graciously told me, "being bored isn't a reason not to stay home." I've never thought about it that way but paste a selfish sign across my forehead.

8 - The number of days until we find out the gender of baby number two.

7 - One for each month of Connor's life. His newest skills are waving bye and sitting up. He's super mobile and into everything.

6(ish) - The number of children Steven and I plan to have.....just kidding! The number of months until Max or Alice is here.

5 - The average number of hours of sleep we were getting per night. Connor had another ear infection and he was not going to sleep or let us sleep. That's two ear infections in seven months. I hope tubes aren't in our future.

4(+)- The number of months pregnant I am. I seriously can't believe how fast our family is growing. It blows my mind that at this time next year we will have two babies!

3 - The number of days in our weekend. It was so nice to have Steven and Connor home all weekend. Parenting is so much easier with a partner. I can't imagine how single parents do it.

2 - The number of teeth Connor has cut.

1 - The number of meals I've eaten today. Gotta go make dinner!

I Chose This

Oh.My.Word.

Life is beyond kicking my butt right now. I'm exhausted, my head hurts, I've got a cold and my family and house are paying the price.

My house is suffering. Our house looks like a tornado blew through it. I'm afraid it's a permanent change. The exhaustion of returning to work, nursing a sick babe and being 16 weeks pregnant is more than I can bear. I can't seem to find the energy to start a load of laundry or sweep up the pet hair tumbleweed.

My marriage is suffering. You know how when you watch reality TV it's easy to choose whose side you're on? Friends, if my life were a reality TV show, you would be siding with my husband. Seriously, he's a saint and I've been far from it. (Not that he hasn't had his moments!)

My body is suffering. I knew returning to work meant returning to a sea of unwashed hands, fingers in mouths and contaminated surfaces. My first week and I scored a cold and passed it on to Connor. Poor kid.

The good news is that Connor does not seem to be suffering. He's very happy when Jesse brings him home and the change in his schedule hasn't seemed to phase him. PRAISE GOD!

I must remind myself daily, I chose this. I picked going back to work. I wanted to see if staying at home was really for me. I wanted to experience both worlds.

I like the stay at home mom world much better. We'll see if I'm singing the same song once (if) I get into the swing of things.

There's Something To That Expression

Hit the ground running......is that ever what I did today.

This morning was such a whirlwind that I didn't have time to think about what I was doing. I got up, got myself ready, woke up Connor to get ready, loaded him in the car and Steven left. I had 10 minutes after Steven left to get myself out the door. Somehow we managed.

School starts at 8 and I was there at 7. I prefer to do most of my planning in the morning because there are fewer people around to interrupt you. After school everyone wants to come in and talk and it's so hard to get anything done. I was very grateful to see that my sub had left plans for today. I refused to think about work my last few days with Connor and I went in blind this morning. If there hadn't been anything in my plan book it would have been a lot harder!

I requested Jesse text me throughout the day to let me know how it was going. He was awesome about keeping me updated. I broke the rules and peeked at my phone every chance I could during the day. Jesse even snapped a picture of Connor and Jackson hanging out together in highchairs. It was super cute!

My class was just like any other class. Good apples and bad apples all mixed together. I will say there seem to be more bad apples than a typical year. Oh well. They also need some serious discipline. I hope it's not too late to get them on track and implement my classroom management style.

I left school at 3:50 to meet Jesse at my house. He is so awesome! He brings Connor to me! This works out really well because I can't imagine being able to leave school any sooner and if I had to go pick him up we would lose about 45 minutes of quality time to the commute. His house is on Steven's way to work but very out of the way for me from school.

I couldn't wait for Connor to get home. I was surprised to hear that Connor had a good day and even took a 2 hour nap! Jesse said it was true and that he wasn't just being nice. I also told Jesse that if Connor starts crawling while he is at his house that I don't want to know. I want to think I'm seeing it the first time it happens!

Our last surprise of the day was from Michael. She sent me a super sweet text at the end of the day that she wanted to make us dinner tonight. It was so thoughtful of her. I was so exhausted and making dinner was the equivalent of climbing a mountain. It was much appreciated!

I would say it was a fairly successful day. Now we just need to fine tune it!

So Much To Say About Today...and Tomorrow

1. Connor is thisclose to crawling. He is up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Of course, this is on the carpet. On hardwood his limbs slide out from under him!

2. Connor cut his first tooth today. He was showing NO signs of teething....I even looked yesterday.  I checked tonight during bath time and BAM there that baby was. His bottom left tooth has cut through.

3. I'm so glad those things happened today and not tomorrow when I'm returning to work. It was like a little gift!

4. I burst into tears this evening an hour before Connor went to bed. I knew I was upset about my return to work but the tears truly caught me off guard.



5. Tomorrow is going to break my heart. I'm excited about returning to work but it kills me that Connor won't understand what's happening for awhile. I hope he adjusts to the new routine quickly.  It's the end of an era for us. There will be few days where it's just the two of us.

Happy New Year

My resolution? 

Easy.....

To survive 

This guy...

and this guy.....

Notice how I've already dubbed the baby "guy."

simultaneously. 

Pretty ambitious, huh?