Quarterly Update

Or biannual update (ha!... It's been a while.)

Well, my son had a birthday.  It's been a whole year since this happened.

The party was awesome, and I made a delicious and very cute cake.   Also, of course, a very cute and delicious mini cake for Bennett to destroy.  Unfortunately, he was tired by the time we got to cake,  he was almost uninterested and very clingy.  The plan was to put him in a chair to eat, he just screamed.  So I guess plan b was my lap.  That was fun.  Also, the cute bow tie I made for him to wear while eating cake was promptly ripped off... (but not before a photo was taken!)

See?  Cute bow tie.

The cake got cut before we got a good photo.  *sigh* oh well.

Getting cake on mom.

We also moved from Lehi.  I don't know who remembers how I felt about going there in the first place.  Well, it turned out to be not so bad.  We made some good friends there.  And I was sad to leave them.  But we moved to Layton, so we're closer to our families.  No, Steven didn't get a new job.  Yes, it's quite the commute, but he rides the train, so it's not so bad.  (I'll let him refute that if he wants to...).  The plan is to get lots of school work done on that train ride so there can be another degree holder in this house (sooner?).

Right after we moved, we went to the air show at Hill.  We love the Air Show.  It was convenient that we lived closer so we didn't have to get up an some unholy hour to be there on time.  Seriously, these guys are so cool, and I'm excited for them to come back.  Also, my child is adorable, and you know it. ;)

I LOVE his hat

Rockin' his patriotic shades

Posing in front of the Thunderbirds

EVERY time I see these guys fly, I am amazed at how precise they have to be in order to make such 

Someone didn't get a morning nap.  He just passed out in my arms on the way to the car (we were on a shuttle bus)

On the Fourth of July, we went to our ward breakfast.  And then headed to stake out a spot for the Layton Parade.  I have like ONE photo from the whole day.  Awesome.  Also, Steven WAS there, we just ended up with zero photos of him...  After the parade, we headed home for lunch and a nap.  We grilled some chicken (just the 3 of us) and I baked a spaghetti squash (yum).  And after dinner went to my parents for some s'mores.  We put Bennett to bed at his usual time and figured we'd catch what we could of the Layton show from our yard.  It wasn't bad, and considering all the cars parked on our street/in our neighborhood, I'm actually glad we didn't have to fight with the crowds of people.  I figure there will be plenty more fireworks when my kid doesn't require to be on such a schedule.

I think that's all I'm going to add for now.  I think that there was more that happened between March and May, but I'm not sure what.  :)

Things My Paper Route Taught Me

If you didn't know, Steven and I started a paper route about 2 weeks ago. We had both delivered for the Standard Examiner when we were kids, and thought "how hard could it be?" Well, I guess we found out how hard it could be. Here is the list of things I learned during our 12 days of delivering newspapers:

~My husband is kind of an irrational/illogical/*grumpy* man in the middle of the night… (love him anyway)

~Believe it or not, it IS possible to get car sick while you are driving.  Ugh.  Who knew.  Thank you, Sea Bands I guess… oh, and yay for wearing contacts in the middle of the night!

~Wait, people still take a paper EVERY DAY?! Whatever… it pays well I guess.

~JK, $800 a month is not worth filling up the gas tank every 4 days, being a zombie mom, and having to go to bed when my kid does...

~Delivering 4 papers simultaneously is slightly (ha) more complex than just delivering one paper.  I never thought I’d miss the days on my bike…

~It’s harder to recover from getting no sleep when you’re 25 than when you’re 15.  First Sunday on the route, 3 naps were had and church was attended sans shower.  No joke.

~NO ONE is up at 3 in the morning.  Except your paper carrier who may or may not be contemplating whether it is worth the paycheck to keep getting up at insane hours of the morning just so you can have your paper on your driveway (or porch-extra effort, mind you) by 6 am.  

~Because no one is up at 3 am, when you are driving around at said times, don’t be afraid to drive on the wrong side of the road if you have to.

~While I’m not grumpy at 2 am, I do get grumpy during the day if I have been up since 2 am… just ask my poor primary kids.

~When they say it gets easier, they mean it. I actually got done on time the second day that I did the whole route. But that wasn't enough to keep me on the route.

~Doing the whole route on Sunday, however, was enough for me to quit the route... (see also thing number 4)

~I married a wonderful man. When we decided to quit, we called and they said we still had to do one more day. Technically it was my day (we had split the days). But Steven said that he would do it so I could sleep. Even though he had to be to work that day. I just love him so much.

~Even when I'm exhausted, and I hate what I'm doing, it's really hard for me to quit. I just don't want to be a "quitter." I've only ever quit one job before because I hated it so much. And if you know me, you know I've had lots of jobs.

~I need to find another way to make a little extra cash...

Sacrifice

I LOVE my son.  Being a mom is way more than I ever thought it would be, and I believe that it can only truly be understood by someone else who has been there.  I love that I can be there for him all day, every day (a luxury not all mothers enjoy).  I love that I get to watch him grow.
I have to start with that because I am going to complain a bit now.

It is likely that my child will never know how much I went through to get him here... as I'm sure most of us are unaware of every struggle our mothers went through... but this has to be said:  I AM SICK OF MY HAIR.  Everyone tells you about how you'll get beautiful pregnancy hair.  And oh, it was gorgeous.  I even heard it would fall out (though I secretly hoped it wouldn't happen to me).  No One told me I'd get lovely baby hairs all around my hairline that would stand up and do whatever the heck they pleased.  For months.  And months.  UGH.  Are they EVER going to grow out?!  (I suppose natural logic should have told me that the hair would grow back, but hey, I'm claiming mommy brain on that one.)

Here is the part that hurts the most to think about:  I want more children.  This is going to happen again.  (and again, however many kids we decide to have...)  So just so everyone knows: my hair is going to look horrible for the next several years (because it is likely that when my hair starts looking normal, the cycle is going to start over...)  I'll affectionately call it "the 'chia-pet' years."

But I DO love this kid, I guess he's worth it ;)

Odds and Ends

I realize it's been a while since I updated the blog, so today I will attempt to do so while Steven works on homework.

First, holy mobile child.  Pros: He doesn't cry as much because I can put him down and he can follow me.  He is SO stinking cute when he crawls (and climbs) that I can't help but encourage him.  Con: He can now get into pretty much everything that is near the ground.  I still haven't really baby-proofed the apartment.

Christmas was fun.  We actually made it back home this time!  (in hind-sight, this fact is so much more exciting than I thought it was... more on that later.)  Last Christmas, there was a mondo snow storm that prevented us from traveling back up to Logan, so we stayed at my parents house that night.  No big deal since we were just us, but I prayed really hard that it wouldn't blizzard this time because I just didn't want to try and stay anywhere with Bennett.  We didn't get much in the way of gifts this year, but that's ok; we've got each other and when I think about it, that's what is most important to me.  We got a few things for Bennett, but his favorite things Christmas morning were the bows that topped his presents.  He did not care about what was under them one bit.  I think it will be fun next year when he can/will actually open his presents.

My kid says my name.  Haha, well he says momomomomomomomom..... I think it's so stinking cute!  And while I can't prove that he associates the word "mom" with me, he sometimes does look at me when he says it, which makes my mommy heart melt.

Speaking of melting, remember when I talked about Christmas and being able to go home?  Well, it turns out that our child can't handle sleeping in someone else's bed (cue total melt down).  My cousin came home from his mission this past week and spoke yesterday.  We took the opportunity to visit our friends in Logan, including staying with some friends there over night.  That was THE longest night of my life. (Including the night I was in labor, I swear!)  First, the kid hadn't had a good nap all day (driving in the car for hours can do that to you)  and he just did not want to settle down and go to sleep.  We ended up taking him for a drive to get him to sleep, but that only lasted until about 11 (the sleep, not the drive which lasted until about 9).  Then when he woke up again, I was able to put him in the crib (that belonged to another baby who was graciously letting him sleep in it) and he fell asleep for probably about 3 hours.  Steven ended up taking him for another drive at about 3 in the morning but Bennett woke up not long after they got back.  That was probably the saddest part: when I got him out of the car seat that time, he looked around and started crying again.  I think he was really hoping to be back in his own room with his own bed.  Well, then we put him back in the car seat to try another drive, but he fell asleep almost instantly and Steven ended up finishing the night on the couch with the baby in the car seat on the floor.  That night's "sleep" wasn't really good enough because as soon as we put Bennett in the car seat to leave at 10 he was out.  I just can't imagine how Christmas morning would have felt if we hadn't been able to make it home to our beds.  Because of that, I am grateful.  (I am also grateful we have friends willing to let us stay with them, though I'm not sure we'll be doing it again...)

This was the first time I got him to go to sleep... by laying next to him on the floor.  But it didn't last long, and that's when we took the first ride in the car.

Today, Steven and I have been married 2 years!  We went on a date, and my mom and sisters came to play with Bennett while we were gone.  I was a little worried because in the past Bennett has only been a basket case for my mom.  We planned on being gone for 4 or 5 hours and I really hoped he could handle it.  And he did!  He only cried for a few minutes when he left and he got upset just before we got home.  (haha, there are pictures to prove he was happy while we were gone).  I am now considering trying to leave him with people that live closer so we can go on dates more often (so they don't feel so monumental when they happen).  Which is SO awesome because before today, the last date we went on without the child was before the child was born... WAY too long ago.

I'm realizing that all these are really about Bennett.  But I guess that's what it is now: our lives revolve around him.  I can't believe he will be 8 months old in 6 days.  I feel like time is speeding by on a freight train, and all I can do is take lots of pictures and try to keep up!