Merry Christmas

Last Saturday Brad had his office Christmas party.  We had a great time and I loved how we could bring kids too.  We had an amazing meal and finished the night off with presents from Santa.  Brock was given a Leapfrog Puppy named Scout.  It can be completely customized and it says his name and sings his favorite songs.  Thanks Santa Baldry ;)

Here is Brock's first picture with Santa Claus.

 

Merry Christmas!

Advice please!

So if anyone in the blogging universe comes across this, please give me some baby advice.  My darling little Brock is 5 1/2 months and STILL wants to eat around 4 times every night.  Brad has gently pointed out that it's starting to wear me down.  I knew this already, I just thought I was doing a better job of hiding it.

Brad and I are going to Mexico January 4th and my sweet Momma has agreed to watch Brock for the week.  Love her.  I'm nervous about it.  Not because I think he will be bad or I'll miss him.  I just feel bad that someone will have to get up and feed the little rascal 4 times a night.  I know what it's like and I feel bad making someone else to go through it.

I've known about this trip for quite a while and have prepared the best I could by pumping a freezing enough for him for the whole week.  Yay for me!  I refer to those little frozen packets as "treasures" because they are so valuable to me! And because it takes a lot of effort to stock up on 8 full day and nights worth!

In order to make everyone's lives a little easier, I've been trying hard to sleep train him.  I try and keep his naps shorter, started him on rice cereal & oatmeal cereal in an attempt to keep him full longer, and last night I let him "cry it out".  He only cried at 3:30 for an hour before falling asleep again. He woke up at 5:00 and kept talking to himself. I eventually fed him at 5:30. I'm doing it again tonight.  Other than those things I don't know what to do. 

Seriously, any advice is appreciated.

Besides wanting to eat so often Brock is pretty cute these days. 
He is still in the 99th percentile for weight. (Obviously. The kid eats 4 more meals a day than the average kid)
He has finally become okay with tummy time in short bursts.
He smiles and laughs all day long.
He falls asleep within 10 seconds of putting him down. (my favorite)
Recognizes Brad and I now.
He likes to hold onto anything.  I think his favorite are the strings on hoodies
He plays with toys now
LOVES his jolly jumper.  Brad looks at it as early jump training.
He tries so hard to talk and has a fake laugh too. 

I am excited to head down to Lethbridge tomorrow for Christmas.  Brock and I are leaving Brad during his finals week so he can focus all his attention on studying.   

If anyone wants to play we will be back and forth between Raymond and Coalhurst from Dec 12 - Jan 3.

I can't be the only one.

About 3 months ago I got a phone call at 3:30am. The call came on my cell since Brad was working in the Yukon. Anyway, it was my landlord asking me if I had water in my basement. I completely zoned out and kept thinking, "are you kidding me?! You call me at 3:30am to check that?" I got out of bed and went downstairs and sure enough I had 4 feet of sewer water. I hate clutter, so I had the majority of our possessions down there. Awesome. We lost a bunch of our things but it was all stuff that could be replaced. The fun part was cleaning it out with my darling cousin Chelsa who skipped work to spend 10 hours hauling wet and mud covered things out of my basement and onto the front lawn. Every three hours I had to stop to feed my 4 week old baby. It was an experience I look back and laugh about now.

I was reminded of this yesterday morning. Brad left for school at 7:00am and told me he started laundry and asked me to switch it over. I went back to sleep, happy that he is kind enough to do things like that to help me out. I get up with Brock at 8:00 and my phone rings. It's that dreaded call where you are assigned to speak in church in 4 days. Easy. Especially since I get up so many times at night to feed Brock that I feel like a zombie all day. Speaking makes me so nervous. Really nervous. I almost passed out last time I gave a talk and I feel sick to my stomach if I have to say a prayer in church. Ridiculous, I know.

I finally decide I can handle it and I go to change the laundry at 11:00am. As I walk downstairs I think to myself, "wow that laundry detergent smells strong today". Oh, maybe that's because the the entire brand new 5 liter blue liquid jug was spilled all over the brand new cream colored carpet. Delightful. Brock is at this stage where he wants to be held and played with ALL day. Which is normally just fine with me but I had a different priority at the moment. So I spend the next 2 hours soaking up laundry detergent and scrubbing it out with one arm and holding a squirmy baby in the other! I'm pretty sure a tear or two slid down my cheek in the process.

I had appointments to go visiting teaching at 1:00. As I was scrubbing the carpet I thought about the message I was sharing that day. "It's always better to look up". That put things into a better perspective. I laughed and left to go do my visits. The sweet lady I saw spoke in church last Sunday and told me she was given 4 weeks notice. Lucky! When they were over I went to Safeway to rent a carpet cleaner. Got home set it up and it doesn't work. I call the trouble shooting dept. They walk me through things step by step and eventually say sorry Miss but you need to take it back and get a new one. Of course. Why wouldn't that happen today? I sat down and laughed at my day again.

Its really easy to focus on the silly little things that wreck your day but ultimately, it always better to look up, ask for some help, laugh and carry on.

 Sister Hinckley said it best, "The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."

Hook 'em Horns!

 I love watching Brad and Brock play together.  Since Brad spends most of his time at school or doing homework, I try to capture little moments like this whenever I can.  And yes, that's his uncle Morgan in the background playing basketball on tv.

 

Just getting him started young on cheering for his favorite team.  Hook 'em Horns!  

Is it bad that one of my biggest wishes is that he will play football for the Longhorns one day?!!  Anything is possible, right?

Brock

It really is amazing to see how babies change so quickly.  My new favorite things about Brock are his latest discoveries... his hands, how to grab and hold things and his tongue.

He will hold his fists up and stare at his hands for hours.  If I hold something in front of him he will grab it and try to eat it.  I'm curious to see if he will be left handed because it seems to be his dominant hand at the moment. 

In the last week he has been sticking his tongue out all day.  Maybe it's because I've never spent time around a baby before Brock, but it just seems funny to me that someone this little can stick his tongue out on purpose.

I am thankful for...

I am thankful for these two.  I just love them!

Grandma's, Grandpa's and Brock

First horse ride with Grandpa!

                                                      Camping with the Erickson's

I stayed with my parents for almost 2 weeks while Brad was working in Medicine Hat and Taber this summer.  Every night I would laugh as I'd lay in bed because Dad was in the next room with Brock and I'd hear him say, "Ok Brock, this is the last time I going to teach you how to sleep!"  Sheesh. 

                                           These two doing what they do best.  

                                                           Waterton

I Love Fishing!

I really do love fishing, but I grew up in the worst place for it.  Luckily it was Auntie Carol & Uncle Gary's 40th Anniversary camping trip last weekend and Brad and I were able to make it. 

B.J. kindly took us over to the far side of Hilda lake to fish and I caught one on my first cast.  Second cast I lost my hook - dang it. 

It was a sweet afternoon to be on the lake with my favorite people.

Rocket Pop

A rocket pop! This just happens to be one of my favorite things. Another favorite thing is baseball. And lucky for me, those two things went together when I was a kid.  I remember watching Landon play ball and my Dad buying me a Rocket Pop.  Not sure what it is about Rocket Pop's, but I was pretty sure they were the coolest thing in the world. Anyway, I bought this delicious thing from the ice cream truck. 

I unfortunately took it for granted that the old ice cream truck would always be around but this wasn't the case.  I never saw the dang truck again.  Sheesh.  To be honest, I've had my eye open for one ever since.  I think I repel them. It wasn't until last month that I saw my second Ice Cream truck.    I actually heard the music as I was sitting on my couch.  My mom happened to be up helping me since I had just had Brock.  I couldn't let this opportunity slip by.  Since I wasn't walking around very good yet I begged my mom to go buy me one.  I sat there laughing as I watched her sprint down the street after the truck.  Three minutes and $4.00 later I had my second Rocket Pop! I was one happy girl.

I've since learned that they sell rocket pops in almost every gas station for only $1.69.  I still appreciate my moms effort and I still love ice cream trucks.  I don't even care that they play creepy music.