Some thoughts...

It's incredibly hard to believe that our little guy is already twelve weeks old. I seriously remember every detail of his delivery so vividly, it seems like yesterday. In fact, today, I found the tablet I was using to keep track of my contractions, and I got all sappy and saved it. Why? I have no idea. But I could not throw it away since it was the very beginnings of the welcoming of our precious babe.

I go back to work in just a few days, and WOW did the past twelve weeks fly by. It's been tough at times - certainly didn't feel like "vacation" but wonderful to be able to see him grow right in front of my eyes.

If I'm being completely honest, I feel like a terrible mother some days. I lose my patience, get frustrated, and wonder when in the world things will get easier. Usually, it is the days the napping is of no interest to him, when he screams in the car when I am alone and can do nothing to help him, when he gets up so much during the night. I have to wonder if there is SOMETHING I am just plain doing wrong. We've tried a lot, I can assure you of that. And I know I'm not a failure at this mother thing. But I certain don't have it all figured out...not even a little.

I'll do the full three month update next week, but he is much more smiley these days, which makes it hard to stay "mad" at him when he doesn't want to sleep. He is sitting supported pretty well in the Bumbo. He's our little chunky boy, though it does often drive me crazy when EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON. that asks me how old he is follows my answer with "wow, he's a big boy." Yes, yes he is, bye bye now. In fact, just the other day, I overheard a woman say to her grandson that he was "pudgy" and "probably doesn't need his bottle." I was so sad/annoyed/angry, I should have said something to her. It's people like that that make a mom feel like a failure.
I'm excited to go back to work, but know I will miss Carter (and my time at home with Seth). I'm slightly nervous to get into a routine of work and baby duties, but like everything else, know we'll figure something out! Seth's mom comes next week which will be soooo nice during my first week back as we adjust.

Well, that's all for now! Carter and I are heading to the family cabin this weekend so I'm sure I'll have some posts after that. In the meantime, continue to pray that he will soon fall into a routine of sleeping so that his mommy and daddy can get some rest before he goes to daycare college. :)

Yard Sale Finds!

Seth and I felt an extreme need to get out of the house on Friday morning, so we decided to hit up some yard sales and see if we could find any toys for Carter for when he's a few months/years older. We only went to about five but we found some great things. We were so happy with all the great things we found on Friday that we went to a few more on Saturday morning. We were seriously pumped after day two of all of our ridiculously good finds. Here is a wrap-up of what we got:

- A GARBAGE bag of jumbo legos in all colors in perfect condition: $3 (THREE! DOLLARS!) - All I did was chlorox them all in hot water to disinfect!

- An electronic toy with shapes that you hammer through holes and it says the color and shape: $1

- A tool box with a little drill, hammer, screwdriver, saw, etc.: $1

- A Fisher Price dump drunk with a big bucket (also filled with those jumbo legos): $3 (I realized when we got home that the reason they filled the bucket with legos was because there was permanent marker all over it, but oh the magic eraser cleaned it up PERFECTLY and it looks as good as new!)

- A little kid's step stool for in the bathroom that is nice and plain: $1

- A country mirror with hooks for the basement (Finally somewhere to put our Christmas stockings!): $5

- A pogo horse (you know, one of those horses on a stick that little boys ride around): $.50

- A play table that has tons of colors, shapes, animals electonic buttons, songs, etc.: $7

- A purse for me!: $2

- Picture frame for all the pictures of Carter: $.50

- A brand new Infantino grocery cart/restaurant high chair cover: $8 (I've always wanted one of these but refused to pay $50 for it!)

- A cute "Locally Grown" onesie: $1

- An infant positioner (one of those things that goes in the crib and has pads on either side of his ribs to keep him from rolling -- except in our instance, it is to make him feel like he is still being held haha): $2

- An adorable Old Navy outfit with the cuuuuutest brand new plaid sneakers for Carter in the fall: $3

Hmm, I think that's it...but wow, we got him some awesome toys for when he can sit up/walk that were SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper at garage sales than we'd ever pay in the store.

In all, we spent $38 but got some great stuff!!!

Watching what we say

Today, the HVAC people were here for our yearly maintenance on the a/c. When he walked in the door, Bentley of course attacked the poor man (and by attacked, I mean with kisses). The poor dog is clearly deprived of his normal attention since Carter arrived, so he treats anyone who comes to the door as a playmate.

We all small-talked about Bentley for awhile -- his age, mannerisms of boxers, etc. The tech asked how old he is and I said "he's 2 - so still sort of a puppy."

That's when Seth piped in and said "yeah, we have a two month old baby too, but we just put him down."

The guy's eyes got huge and he looked seriously confused. I instantly knew that he didn't know what our version of "put him down" means in our house (a NAP!). We quickly cleared up the confusion but definitely got some good laughs out of it. :)

Two months.

Carter, at two months, you:

- Still wear size 1 diapers (though for a week this past month, you went back to newborn so we could use some up!)
- Are wearing size 0-3 month clothing, but mostly 3 months
- Weigh 14 pounds, 3 ounces (97th percentile)

- Are 24 inches long (90th percentile)

- Have a head circumference in the 97th percentile (hey, at least you are proportional!)
- Make eye contact with your daddy and I consistently
- Really, really need naps during the day or you are cranky
- Nap really well sometimes (as in 3 1/2 hours well!) and really bad sometimes (as in 20 minutes bad) - very inconsistent napper you are!
- Like to play on your play mat
- Really coo a lot - you say "a gaa" and "a goo" all the time. Sometimes you say something that sounds like "owww"
- Don't really like tummy time
- Rolled over last week from belly to back (I bet it was to get off tummy time early) haha
- Smile a lot, often in response to people talking to you
- Still get up twice a night to eat, though you almost never finish a nighttime bottle completely because you fall back asleep
- Have been to two other states besides PA already (MD for Father's Day and NJ to visit Oma and Opa)
- Are on a new "routine" of eating, then awake time, THEN sleeping which is working better
- Eat 5 ounces every 3-4 hours during the day and, if we're lucky, every 3-5 hours at night
- Started going to bed earlier (around 8 p.m.) - it seemed like by keeping you up until 9 or 9:30 was just making you miserable...you were too tired to be pleasant, so the earlier bedtime has helped
- Have been taking an hour or so to go down at night. You like to be rocked to sleep, but we are trying extra hard to not get in that habit too much
- Sleep for about 3-4 hours at a time during the night on a good night...sometimes you even shock us and give us a 4 1/2 from the bedtime feeding at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m.
- Don't really have predictable fussy times as much as you once did, though still occasionally
- Go down to sleep for daddy much better than mommy
- Are teaching us every day about patience and unselfishness...we often pray for an attitude adjustment when we are at our whits end and remember all the people in the world who just simply cannot have a baby and would do anything to be up all night with a fussy baby
- Started to sit still while we read books and actually look at the pages. You also watched Baby Einstein Beethoven DVD and really liked it!
- Are super cute...mommy thinks you look like her (and so do some other people), but most people think you look like daddy (I think it's the blonde hair that's throwing them off!)

We love you lots and are looking forward to seeing you continue to grow and develop into a strong little guy who is full of happiness!!