Thank goodness the cleaning lady comes tomorrow.

While I was at The Elephant Trunk today, I decided this blog would be titled "Is it jon-jon season yet."  Then I got home to find Jason's birthday gift from his mom and decided it should be titled "How to use your new skin care products."  Then...  I went to give Hardin his bath and left Jason to finish up dinner.  Sorry folks, this is a long one. 

Out of no where I hear the four letter S word.  Loud.  Then some laughter.  Then the S word again.  Louder.  Then he yelled up stairs and asked where the cord for the Shark was.  That can only be two things, the Shark steam mop or the Shark cordless vacuum.  Making rice shouldn't result in either. 

Once I got H dressed, I handed him off to daddy to tackle my kitchen that was COVERED in the powder packet from the box of Rice-A-Rone.  Jason went to shake the powder down to the bottom of the packet and it went everywhere.  You name it, it was covered in a chicken smelling powder.  Turns out J was still covered in it, so my clean baby also smelled like chicken.  Every surface in my kitchen smelled like chicken.  Pretty much the only thing that didn't smell or taste like chicken was the bland rice.

On to the other two blog titles, Jason's mom caught wind that he was having some dry skin issues, and he was worried about wrinkles.  She sent him a care package for his birthday that would make a Hollywood starlet jealous.  There is a product, and a tool, to exfoliate and moisturize every inch of the man's body.  As well as detailed instructions for the sequential use of them.  He loved it.

Finally, Saturday I was telling my amazing, mother-of-triplets, friend Jill about the most perfect shoes I found at my favorite consignment shop (see shoes on the right).  I told her the brand, and the perfect white leather and the perfect leather soles.  Great minds think alike.  She popped right over to the boy's closet and whipped out the shoes on the left, and gave them to me.  I should have known I could count on her.

If you think one kid in a jon-jon is cute, you should see two boys and one girl trips, that are always impeccably dressed in matching smocked jon-jon/dress sets.  They are rivaled only by Mama and Them, for the best dressed babies of all time.  Those two moms are simply inspiring to us newbies.  Between hand-me-downs from Boss and the trips, and his personal shopper Katie, H is going to be one well dressed little boy. 

I asked Jill where she found the perfect shoes, and she told me she has Elephant Trunk special order them for the boys because she doesn't like the new kind with white soles.  I try to limit my ET trips for my wallet's sake, but she had already given her sister-in-law her 2s and 2 1/2s, so I went to place an order for smaller sizes for Hardin.  I was thrilled to see they now carry them all the time.  No need to rush to order them just yet.  I picked up one reversible jon jon half-price, a pair of white leather Bobux that I can't wait to get on him, and headed to the checkout counter.

So started one of the funniest conversations I have had in a while.  If you ever want to get the southern grandmother's take on dressing children, go strike up a conversation with the incredibly traditional hysterically judgmental owner of The Elephant Trunk.  I'm probably what you'd call a half-breed.  I want to dress H in traditional clothing because I think it's adorable, and timeless; but I see the practicality of play clothes.  It's safe to say that woman yells "jeans" when she splatters a packet of chicken powder all over her kitchen.  And don't even get her started on shoe companies that "sell out" to be made in Chiiiina.  

We've got 4s & 5s covered.  Can't wait to for H to wear them!  Of course we will wash and fluff the laces first :)

Elvis is in the house.

This is Hardin's favorite face to make.  What's a little funny is that I make the same face (according to Jason, more than I should), but I can only lift the left side of my lip.  Hardin always lifts the right.  Maybe he'll be a righty after all.  The look is obviously much cuter on him.  

Note the little wrist bear toy.  He LOVES that thing.  He rubs all over it, looks at it, sucks on it and hits himself in the head with it.  I can't wait to put his other wrist toys on him, but for now, they are too hard because of the head hitting.  

I worked out. Am I skinny yet?

After my workout.  You can see that I still need to take down all my Christmas card kid pics off the side of the fridge!

You see that cute little baby?  He's not so little when you realize that at 15lbs, you need to lose at least 3, maybe 4 of him.  He's still as cute though! 

I heard a motivational speaker last week who said the biggest problem with my generation (he was in his early 50s), is that we expect things immediately.  You need something, you get online, do a little research, ask your Facebook friends for recommendations, order it, and it's at your house in two days.  We don't have to wait for anything, and therefore expect all aspects of our life to incur the same instant gratification.  As I sat there and listened, all I could think was "man, that is really me, REALLY me... and Hardin is going to be ten times worse if I don't watch it." 

I started Boot Camp today, and in the spirit of instant gratification, I came home and immediately looked in the mirror.  Like I was going to be skinnier today.  Surprise, surprise, same old me in the mirror.

I am hoping Hardin stays on the same schedule for at least a couple of months for me to get back in the swing of working out.  Right now, camp is at 6 on Tuesday and Thursday, which is right when H goes down for his cat nap.  He wakes up at 7:30, I am home by then, he eats and goes down at 8:30-9.  Therefor, I have no excuse not to go right now, and don't feel like a terrible mommy for leaving my baby yet again when I just got home at 5.  Saturday is at 8am, but I get the rest of that day with him!

I also think Hardin will appreciate a not-fat mommy.  I never had to worry about my mom.  She was skinny-mini until I was in high school, and still to this day is just about right.  My dad on the other hand, struggled with his weight his entire adult life.  I struggled watching him as long as I can remember.  You would think after watching him suffer through a heart attack, triple by-pass, and gastric by-pass, I would have gotten my tail in gear and not gained so much weight.  Sadly, I like to learn the hard way, and I let law school ruin me.  I've got to get back to my pre-law school weight.  Pronto.

Cheap Trick

I was googling how to use the new flash B gave me for Christmas (it should be here Thursday... I am so excited), and stumbled onto this cheap trick.  To diffuse light from my pop up flash and not blind my adorable little subject, it said fold over a white tissue and tape a piece around your flash.  It worked so well!  I could get right in Hardin's face with the flash and he didn't mind at all.  Normally he blinks and makes this crazy little face with the flash.  It's not so bright in his face either.  Play time was limited though, because my battery died trying to get a video of him yelling.  I think he has learned the range of his voice, and wants us to know all about it.  He's not fussing, just yelling as loud as he can!  It's so cute.

What's not cute is how much he is scratching his sweet little head.  The non-swaddle didn't last because the little stinker wouldn't stay asleep without the swaddle.  He also won't sleep without access to his hand, so we swaddle one arm out now.  Well, he uses that one little hand out to scratch his head all night long.  I have literally cut his nails every other day for a week now, but it is not helping.  He still scratches so hard he draws blood.  It makes me so sad because I don't know if he's itchy, hurting or just a nervous habit.  It doesn't bother him at all though, so we'll check with the pediatrician at his next well visit and pray he stops soon! 

Go Steelers?

We got tossed on the Steelers bandwagon via Jason's buddy Mike.  Jason lived with Mike when we first met, and I cannot believe it has been just two months shy of ten years since we met out at Lane Creek.  He sent Hardin these little Steelers socks and shirt when we had him.  A few weeks ago, I noticed J was watching the Steelers playoff game, so I put H in it and sent Mike a picture.  They had been losing but turned it around and won.  Of course it was all because of little man's support, so we had to put him in the outfit again today.  An interesting little tid bit is that the Steelers won the Super Bowl the year Jason was born, but unfortunately there was no repeat performance tonight.  And, TMI, I am almost positive Mr. H's little life began the day of the Super Bowl last year.

He is my dad made over in this picture.  His expression is Big Phil to a T.

 A few weeks ago for the playoff game.

Finally, if the sun doesn't start shinning around here soon I'm going to buy a sunny backdrop with beautiful green grass for H's pictures.  I'm so tired of seeing him against our beige sofa, beige glider, beige carpet and beige walls.  Our house has a lot of color, I promise, but you'd never be able to tell from Hardin's pictures!

Most disturbing pictures yet.

11.11.2010.................................................83 days later..................................................2.2.2011

I downloaded all of the pictures from my phone tonight and dang near died.  Again.  I noticed the picture below of him in his Farm Friends seat, and it dawned on me how much bigger he looks when I put him in there in the mornings while I shower.  A necessity wardrobe change was in order anyway, he is spitting up much more these days, so I put him in the same outfit and snapped a comparison picture.  Notice Mr. Cow's head is no longer in view!  The bath tub shots are even more telling of his hossness.  Not to mention that first picture was taken when he was 2 weeks 2 days... he was MUCH smaller than that when he was born!  I swear, he's still so tiny, he really is.  It's hard to think he was 1/2 his size a few short months ago. 

11.16.2010.................................................80 days later....................................................2.4.2011

A special thanks to Uncle B for walking me through photoshop (again!) over the phone to do the comparison pictures.  I'm sure Hardin will laugh so hard at this when he is older, but I still think it is absolutely amazing that I can pick up my cell phone in Winder, call B's cell phone in Hawaii, get crystal clear reception, and all for free because we have in-network calling.  Not to mention gChat and Facebook.  I know in my head that he's 4494 miles away, but you'd never know other than our lack of physical visits.  Crazy.  Well, you'd also know based on the care package I sent today...  his new phone AT&T would only deliver to his GA address, his mail and a case of Shiner Bock.  Evidently they make no good beers in Hawaii. 

Big H, little H, what begins with H?

And Hardin of course. 

Seriously, you can just call me Dr. Seuss.  I was always impressed with how well Cat could read to Cawley without looking at the pages.  I get it now.  I've been reading to him almost every day since he was two weeks (sorry for the first two weeks buddy, mommy was slacking), and I hardly have to look at the pages in some books.

Even with the plethora of books we have for him, I mainly stick to the Dr. Seuss.  I think the rest of them will be great when he is a little bigger and can pick out the different pictures on the pages, but for now, Dr. Seuss books have so much rhythm and rhyme Hardin just loves them.  There are also pretty long, which I like.  When I want to read to him for 20 minutes or so, I go through a book every two minutes of the one-sentence-a-page books.  I have almost mastered the rhyming pattern on a few of them, but still have a ways to go.  I've got the alphabet book down though... and Hardin talks right along, it's so cute!
 

Goof ball!

Classic H man face.

Angel face.