Cheesy studio pictures. Check.

Oh my goodness.  Today was a funny day.

I set out this weekend on a mission to get cheesy studio pictures of Hardin.  I had them at 3 months, so did Jason.  I didn't want to pay a lot for these pictures, so we headed to the old JCP today.  I got my wish, I mean I REALLY got my wish.

Cheesy studio pictures. check.  I am so glad we did it.  I'm not going to lie, I think every Georgia girl has JCPenny pictures, and therefore, I thought it was a must for Mr. H.  I did actually really like a few of them, and ordered a couple of the normal ones, but the rest are just hysterical.  They take your perfectly normal pictures and make these silly little photo montages.  It is too much.  I know we are completely spoiled by having an incredible photographer as a great friend, but now we appreciate Miss Shauna coming to our house and taking natural photos even more! 

I wish yall could have seen how hard Jason was laughing at all this.  Especially when they made him lay down on the floor in his white sweater and put the baby on his back.  Not to mention I look like a beached whale with bad roots when they made me lay down and J hover above me.  The "photographer" literally had to stop our session for me to fix my eyeliner, because it was running down my cheek from cry-laughing at Jason.  I wish you could have seen the entire blooper reel.  The pics they posted online were the best of the train wreck pictures.  In the majority of the ones with Jason, he was staring to the side looking at the computer screen pop up of the last photo taken.  Laughing of course.  Oh what a funny day.  Best 50 bucks I have spent in a while.  And I've got the pictures to prove it. 

I learned my lesson for the next child.  When they have you go through and pick your favorite pictures on the computer in the studio, pick your favorite bloopers as well.  That way they will be on the internet for all of your friends and family to enjoy.  If your in the mood for a good laugh, message me and I'll send you my login to JCP to view all the pics.  These are pictures of my computer screen, clearly I don't need to be spending $4.99 a sheet to order 8x10s of these gems.

After our photo shoot we headed to Justin & Cat's to visit with them and our adorable niece and nephew.  HP and Lillian operated like clock work, as soon as one would wake up it was time for the other to go down, so we didn't get any pictures of them together.  Cawley on the other hand, hammed it up for the camera while holding H.  Especially cute because he's sporting his brand new daddy-did-it hair cut, and although you can't tell, no pants.  He's been pantsless for a few months now.  Evidently it makes potty training smoother if he has easy access.  Oh what fun we have to look forward to with a boy!

This is exactly why I want another baby in a few years.  Could you not just eat'em up?!?!

This is what I woke up to yesterday.  How cute is that?  I had his hands covered but he snuck that little thumb out :)

My name is Hardin.  I have blue eyes.

Three months!

Smile just wasn't happening tonight.

The H-man is three months old today.  That was the longest blink of my life.  Seriously.  I had him, blinked, and woke up this morning.  Whew...

Outfits from his 1 day and 3 month pictures, makes me want to cry.

We celebrated by taking a 2 hour nap in the glider together.  I haven't done that in a couple of weeks because he has been doing so good in his crib, I didn't want to mess with his mojo.  I enjoyed the nap more than him, he squirmed around the entire time.  I think he's gotten used to his wiggle room. 

Love my feet.

He gave me my first little scare yesterday.  I got home from work and mom suggested I check his temp because when he woke up from his nap he felt warm.  It was 99.5.  His pediatrician told us to call anytime it's above 100.4, but I almost called anyway.  We kept an eye on him for a little while, nothing changed with his temp and he was just a little extra sleepy.  We decided to see how he did through the night and call in the morning.  This morning it was 99.3, and a few hours later it was 99.0.  We're down to 98.9.  As long as he's down again in the morning, we'll chalk it up to a growth spurt or something, and skip a trip to the pediatricians office to pick up germs. This is also the reason for the so-so three month pictures.  Neither of us were up for a 100 snap photo shoot.

Arms out!

Only other big event of the week was his suprise swaddle breakout Monday night.  I was beginning to fear I was going to have to swaddle him until he was 2.  I put him down and he started squriming to suck on his hand.  After about 10 minutes he was successful in getting his hand to his mouth, and his swaddle blanket to completely cover his face.  I snuck in and pulled his arms all the way out.  He started flaling around and woke himself up.  I re-swaddled him, but him back down, and the same exact cycle happend again.  I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  But, this time he stayed asleep once I pulled his arms out and folded the blanket down.  Mom put him down for his naps Tuesday in a sleep sack, no swaddle, and he did just fine.

I worry sometimes that I won't know when to do things, help him transition or adjust for him growing at the right times.  This reminded me to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.  My sweet little boy will let me know when he's ready for a change. 

It aint always pretty 'round here.

Hardin- Happy 3 Months buddy, WE LOVE YOU! 

I figured out how to make him smile!

Turn off the camera. 

Seriously, the little stinker is way to curious about everything around him.  As soon as you put anything in front of him he goes into examination mode.  Add the fact that the camera is black (none of his toys are black), makes noise, has a flash that pops up sometimes with lights, and you have a baby that will not smile for the camera. 

When the Canon is resting, he has started smiling so much more.  He's certainly not what I would call a smiley baby, and the smiles only last a split second, but he flashes them around all the time.  Said smiles are ADORABLE. 

I set out on a mission yesterday morning to get some goofy smiley pictures this weekend.  Two days and 156 pictures later, this is what I have to show for it.  Enjoy. 

HA!

Love the blue eyes and rosy cheeks.

This is where he sits while mommy and daddy eat at the table.

He is so much bigger in his swing these days.

I FOUND MY FEET THIS WEEKEND! 

Drum roll please...

These were the only two smile pics of the weekend... at least they are priceless!

Half Smile

AND... this weekend was the first time he reached for me to take him out of his crib.  It was so sweet.  SO. SWEET.

Friday night lights.

Friday nights have sure changed around here.  I absolutely love staying at home with my hubby and sweet baby boy... I just wish he didn't sleep so much!  I know, I know... in a year or so I will eat those words, but for now, I just wish he'd wake up for the last meal of the day so I can love on him a little more before hittin the sack. 

For the record, I never thought I would love one of these silly little video things as much as I do.  I didn't even buy one until I moved H into his big boy crib.  I found him in there one morning with his swaddle blanket on his face, and just about died.  I ordered this thing the second he went down for his next nap.  I also practiced swaddling super snug.  Since then I have spent no less than 2 hours a day looking at it, and I check it at least 3 or 4 times during the middle of the night.  Who knew it would be such good entertainment...  the little noodle is a noodle in his sleep as well!

Handy Man

Children are the hands by which we take hold of Heaven

-Henry Ward Beecher

I never know what the boy is thinking, but I imagine it is a little something like this...

Hmmm... I wonder if it will fit?

Might as well give it a try...

SUCCESS!!!

One at a time son... one at a time.

Back to the same old grind.

Before work.  Must. Get. Hair. Cut.

Today was my first day back at work.  No bueno. 

I'm going to make a very conscious effort not to complain about it, or seek pity for doing what so many wonderful women do with grace every single day.  But whatever you do, do not mistake my lack of grumbling for anything more than what it is...  my mission to remain positive.  I miss my sweet boy SO MUCH and think about him every single minute I am gone.  So much that I can't elaborate anymore without completely losing it, so just know that I miss him as much as anyone can possibly miss someone... and then a little more. 

I do wish I had the type of career where you could save up some money, take a couple years off and come back right where you left off (if such career actually exist), but that's not the case.  If I were to be gone for a few years, I'd come back to a twenty something (we'll call her the-new-me), sitting at my desk, for a fraction of what I'd want to be paid in 5 years.   There's no use in getting older if you're not getting more experienced.  So therein lies my reality, back to work for me! 


Made it home to snuggle @ 4:45

Over all it went as well as could be expected.  I only teared up about 10 times.  Cried once when I called to check on him and heard him singing.  Sobbed once when I typed the paragraph above just trying to think of a way to put in to words how much I miss him.  There will also be a ban on country music in the mornings implemented immediately, so as to prevent anymore crying spells. Special thanks to Zac Brown, I am neither divorced nor drive on I-20, but that song did me in this morning. 

Jason was off for MLK Day, and survived his first day home with the baby all to himself.  H man was very good for him, and I think J really enjoyed it.  Mom starts "work" tomorrow, and I tell you this puts Christmas Eve to shame for her.  She's so excited and I am so excited for her.  Before I had him I thought it was going to be a burden for her to come watch him, but now that I know how much fun he is, I'm not worried at all.  Jason's generally off to work in the mornings before I get out of bed, and gets home around 3 most days.  He's also works from home Wednesdays, so mom will be caring for Hardin Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from around 8:30 when I leave, until 3ish when Jason gets home.  Between the three of us, I'd say the little guy is going to be just fine.

Note the spit-up above "Georgia," proof of his day's work.

Before I forget...

My little Noodle,

At 11 weeks, you are a completely different creature than the one we brought home.  Never in my life could I have fathomed how fast you would grow and change.  I can hardly look at your pictures from the beginning without tearing up.  I will never forget a moment of it, not one single second, but writing down my favorites will help jar my memory.  I'm sure for the rest of my life I will hear a sound, or see a baby, and it will take me right back to those first few weeks with you.  Here are a few things I just loved to love about you so far.  

I have called you noodle since the second day you were with us.  You looked and moved just like that, a noodle, linguine to be exact.  Your skinny little arms and legs were so wiggly all of the time.  Daddy and I just laughed and laughed when we had you on your changing table downstairs.  We would try and get you to stay still but you would go "surfing."  You'd hold your long arms out and it was like you were trying to get your balance while riding a big wave, if you can imagine that movement.  You still do it a little if you are naked, but mostly you just smile when we change you.  I know noodle is not the most masculine of all nick names, but it's yours for now. I could literally just cry that I didn't get a picture or video of your noodle ways when you were a newborn.

Your daddy is absolutely wonderful with you.  He was a little more mobile than me after my c-section, and changed you a lot at first.  In fact, I didn't change my first diaper for 3 days.  You could write a 30 minute sitcom from his commentary and play-by-play of each diaper change!  He always sings to you, with his own ever-changing lyrics to lullaby tunes, and talks to you like you are a kid, not a baby.  One thing he just can't get right is the baby lingo.  I thought he was just doing it to make me laugh for a while, but now I know he really can't remember.  He used to call a swaddle a snugly (pronounced slowly snug-a-ly).  Then, a few weeks ago, he told me he "swallowed you and put you up."  I looked at him, and just stared crying I was laughing so hard.  He meant to say he swaddled you and put you down.  I'm sure you will appreciate it one day, and then be too cool to admit it, and then appreciate it again...  your daddy is a very funny man. 

Your GiGi nailed this one on the head.  I was holding you one day at her house and she just gasped.  She said how much she loves it when you hold your hands like this picture.  That it means you are content.  I started watching you and she was so right.  Though you have gotten a little jollier, most of the time you are very serious, almost suspicious, of what's going on around you, but every once in a while you are not happy or serious, just content.  When you are, you always have your hands like this, or a little closer together.

You LOVE your hands.  When you were tiny, you would start sucking on them when you were hungry.  It was a frantic little sucking, and daddy called it your Hunger Dance.  At around 8 weeks, your Hunger Dance turned into an anytime-I-can-reach-my-hands dance.  When I get you up in the mornings, your swaddle blanked is soaked because you find your hands under the blanket and go to town.  Your left hand is always first and on top, so we are wondering if you are going to be a lefty like mommy (and half of daddy- he writes right handed but plays sports, including his beloved golf, left handed). 

You HATE pacifiers.  We (and by we I mean GiGi) spent way too much money on different types of pacifiers, and you met them all with a gag.  You would entertain the one in the hospital for a few minutes at best, but you didn't like it.  Soon you started gagging anytime we tried.  I'm talking, acted like we were trying to choke you to death gag.  Now, you will play with it for a minute by biting it, as long as someone is holding it, but I think you are just happy someone is playing with you, not that you have a paci in your mouth.  While I wish there was something I could soothe you with quickly, you make me work a little harder, but I am glad that will be one less habit we have to break.  I have a feeling we are going to have a hard enough time breaking the swaddle.  I tried yesterday, and that flew like a lead balloon with you.

You are hysterical to feed right now.  You get firey mad when it's time to burp.  It is the only time you make this strange high pitched squeal, and it is just too funny.  You tense up your body and wont let us bend you to burp.  So, you now bounce up and down, stick straight and squealing, to be burped.  

I've already mentioned how much you love to sing, but it is getting even better!  When I swaddle you before putting you down, you know it's song time.  You start singing before I do sometimes.  It is my favorite time of the day, one of my favorite times of my life to be honest.  What's a little funny is if you are crying for some reason, and I pick you up to sing to you, you start singing before you are done crying.  It's like you want to keep crying to tell me you are mad... but you just can't help singing, it's in your soul!  It comes out this sweet, loud, cry-sing.  And, as usual, mommy and daddy smile and laugh.  
The first video is of you singing when I first swaddle you, before I start singing.  The second is our nightly sing along.  I have to take the video with my phone from the side, because if you see it, you start examining the phone/camera, and won't sing!

I'm sure there will be more of these type notes to follow, and I realize they just don't mean as much to anyone but me, but you are just too sweet and cute and I can't help it :)

A boy's gotta eat.

We used to feed you naked so you would stay awake.

Hardin, You may want to skip this next paragraph between the ages of 10 and 25, but one day your wife and/or daughter(s) will want to know how you were fed. I always intended to breast feed you. I never even considered anything else. That said, I was totally unprepared for it! I really wish I had taken a class, or read a book, or at least talked to someone in depth about it before you arrived. You were born with a hearty appetite and latched on like a champ. Unfortunately, it took my milk ten days to come in. During that time you got exceedingly frustrated with breast feeding.

I'm still not sure we did the "right" thing, but the nurse at the hospital convinced us to give you formula your second night after seeing how frustrated you were. The following day, the lactation consultant said it was "just fine" as long as I kept nursing first. Well, I kept nursing (and nursing and nursing), and following up with a bottle, and by time my milk came in you were OVER nursing. You would nurse for maybe 5 minutes, and then completely loose your composure. I mean, pitch a fit like you would not believe. Today, I might could handle it, but those first two weeks I was not myself to say the least. So started the pumping cycle. I would pump, and feed you expressed milk. If you were still hungry, which you almost always were after the first few weeks, I'd give you formula after that. For the first two months you were about half-and-half mommy's milk and formula. Since around Christmas, you have been eating more formula. A few days after Christmas, I got fed up and decided to quit pumping and nurse you again. You were bigger and stronger, and it worked much better. I started nursing three times a day before giving you a bottle. As fun as that was, it only lasted three weeks :( Today was officially the first day I didn't nurse you at all. So, as unconventional as it was, I am glad you were able to get the good stuff for eleven weeks. I get a little upset when I think about what I could have done differently, but there's not a thing in this world I can do about it now, so I might as well just get'on over it. Lord knows you are happy and healthy and that's good enough for me!


You spit up sometimes so we protect your surroundings after meals.

In other exciting news, evidently some astronomers in Minnesota did a study and found that because of the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth, the alignment of the stars has changed. According to them, you are now a Virgo instead of a Scorpio. I have no clue what that means, or if these Minnesota scientist will be proven wrong, but a fun fact nonetheless!

A little healthy jealousy.

His eyelids look a lot more Mac when he is concentrating.

As I looked at the pictures of Hardin & Daddy for the 100th time last night, I got a little jealous that I didn't have any snow pics with him.  So...  we got'em all bundled up again and headed out for another 60 seconds.  That, and feeding the baby while watching Jason bake cookies, from the pouch of dry stuff, were the highlights of our day.  I've never seen someone sweat while baking cookies.  I'm also glad H was too young to understand his choice words.  When it was all said and done they were delicious, I laughed off every calorie I ate and then some, but next time I think daddy's going to volunteer to feed the baby and leave the baking to me!

As much as I have loved having Jason home because of the snow, I am a little sad that my last week with Hardin all to myself was not really all to myself.  We have one day left, weather permitting, Thursday, and I plan on enjoying every second as much as humanly possible.  I am even tempted to cancel the cleaning lady Friday to have one extra day...  but that'll never happen because I know she won't be able to get to us for two more weeks because of the snow.  So, Thursday it is, at least my tears will be limited to a day not a week!

Mommy will be getting a hair cut before going back to work!

3.5 minutes in the snow.

We skipped taking H out in the snow Christmas, but I just couldn't resist this time.  We got'em all bundled up and headed outside for all of 210 seconds.  He is all about zippers on clothes these days, and spent the majority of the time looking at daddy's fleece.  When he did look around, it was pretty bright so he gave us the stink face.  Two more years and this will be a lot more fun! 

I am literally scared to type this... like if I say it out loud it will go away... but he is doing AWESOME in his crib.  First night woke up once, second night twice, and the last two nights he slept 9.5 hours straight!

My the-rest-of-the-week resolution is to get some pictures of me with my baby!  I love having so many great ones with daddy, but I need to remember to take some with me too.

I am excited Jason was off today, and probably tomorrow, but I am really wishing this would have waited until next week when I go back to work!  

I absolutely LOVE this one of Jason...

and I absolutely LOVE this one of Hardin!