I can tell you what I won't be winning.

The mother of the year award.  Jason won't be taking home the blue daddy ribbon either. 

It JUST hit us tonight that we have absolutely no one to watch our sweet boy next Thursday and Friday.  Originally, I was going to Colorado with my family for my cousin's wedding.  I made that decision when H still looked like the baby above.  Now that he's looking like the baby below, I rethought that decision.  It's over an hour to the airport, almost 4 hour flight, and then 3 plus hour drive to Steamboat.  That would be Thursday, and then we'd do it again on Sunday. 

My greatest blessing since having H has been my mother watching him every day.  I can't even tell you how good it's been on all of us, Gigi included.  But, it has made for a baby that is not too fond of a car ride.  I'd feel like a terrible mom for dragging him on that trip so I could party with my cousins.  Don't even get me started on how bad I feel or how sad I am to miss them AND my bro.  I do think I made the right decision though.  If you've ever been in the car with him for more than 30 minutes, you'd agree. 

Back to my original thought though.  Jason wasn't going to the wedding, because he is in his friend Jeremy's wedding the same weekend.  He leaves Thursday morning to go to Macon.  Mom and the rest of my family leave Thursday morning to go to Steamboat.  I already told my office I wasn't going on vacation anymore. 

So, looks like the Pack-n-Play is headed to the office Thursday.  I only have one closing, so that will probably be super fun for me and my girls at work.  Finger's crossed one of the folks I'm calling tomorrow will be free Friday!

Hardin, please know we would NEVER forget about you.  This is just 100% proof that Daddy and I take our absolutely incredible arrangement with your G for granted. 

Perspective.

I don't know if that's the most appropriate title. It probably should be "Humble Pie Taste Bitter."

If you ever want to guarantee a terrible night's sleep, write about what a sweet little sleepy head you have.

In all honesty, this was a terrible night for H, but I should be (and am) counting my blessings that this is the first time he has woken between the hours of 7:30 and 7 in a long time. Something hit him about 11:30, and it made us both terribly sad. He started chewing on Doug's ear, and then the screaming started. Tooth #4 has by far been the hardest for my sweet boy to cut.

I went in after a few minutes, gave him Tylenol, changed his diaper and started to rock him. Let's just say he's not a mama's boy tonight, because that baby wanted even less to do with me than his crib. I put him back in his crib with his friends, and he fussed for another 20 minutes. It took everything in my being not to go sweep him up. In all honesty, if I thought it would have done a bit of good, I would have.

Here's hoping my snaggletooth is no more tomorrow. It will also be nice for Jason to quit calling him Hillbilly Hardin.

Eight is Great!

 

Hardin, is eight months old today!  As always, this is the best age yet.  It is so fun to see his little personality at work.  He's constantly changing, but right now he is very curious, stubborn, physically strong, hysterically funny (he's always laughing at himself), a little clingy, a bit lazy, very silly, a lover of food, a sleepy head, and our favorite little thing in the world.  

Last night we went out for a friends birthday dinner, and on the way home Jason turned down the radio and said "I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life.  I just wanted you to know that." I couldn't agree more.  By time Hardin is old enough to read this, he'll know Jason is not the type to say stuff like that, so hopefully it will mean as much to him as it did to me. 

My mom asked for a framer of Hardin in this outfit.  G does an awful lot around here and ask for very little, so we try and oblige her request.  Hardin is not on board with this house rule yet.  All he wants to do these days is hold your hands and walk around.  When I sat him down to take a picture he greeted me with this face.  As soon as I stood him up, all smiles again.  Although my boy looks sad, I absolutely love this picture because that expression is Jason McWhorter to a tee! 

[If you use Blogger and have recently noticed a decrease in your picture quality... check out this article, http://www.betatemplates.com/2009/06/how-to-post-large-images.html#more.  I read a dozen articles and found that if you delete the "s600, or s400" completely, and leave the s1600 from early in the HTML, it works best.  Pictures are still lower quality than the original image, but no more total fuzz.  Now... to go edit over 100 post.  Awesome]

Good eats.

These pictures have nothing to do with the post, mom just had H dressed all cute when I got home today.  Plus, when H is eating, my hands are way too busy to be snapping pictures. 

For the past few weeks, I've been on what I call the Hardin diet.  Everything that I can eat, he can eat.  Lots of Chicken, fresh fruit, fresh veggies and Greek yogurt.  I've always liked the idea of baby led solids, and thought I'd introduce them as he started to gain interest.  Well folks, he's interested!

Every morning he eats his bottle and then shares my Greek yogurt.  He doesn't get too much of that, but he looks forward to every little bit I put in his mouth.  He gets a container of fruits or veggies for breakfast and lunch, and then he gets whatever we eat for dinner with his cereal.  He LOVES that part. 

For example, tonight I made stir fry with red peppers, mushrooms and chicken.  I cut his up into tiny little pieces and he sits and eats with us.  He "chews" every bite many times.  It's really quite cute.  His favorites so far are artichoke petals, chicken, plums (no skin), bananas, and tomatoes. 

As with most things, I have NO idea if this is too early or late, but it seems just about right for him.  Mom says none of us took to real solids this early, but made up for it in due time. 

A bit frustrated, but nothing a little Hardin can't fix.

I've been trying to ignore it and not write about it, mostly because I don't want to complain, but my stupid cyst is back. I discovered it right before I got pregnant and couldn't do anything about it until after having the baby. When Hardin was 6 weeks old, I had my first surgery to remove it. That lasted about 3 weeks until it started forming again. I had surgery in January to put in a drain and let everything clear out. Then a follow up surgery in March to take out the drain and put in a permanent filler.

Well, it's back, and worse than ever before. While I am extremely thankful it is benign and nothing is really wrong, it has literally been the biggest pain in the you-know-what as it is located where the top of my leg meets my seat. I've been dealing with moderate pain off and on for over a year, but late Sunday afternoon it turned to excruciating. I'm not sure what I did, but I couldn't move. Only lay flat. I used that as an excuse to cuddle up in bed and take a nap with Hardin. That helped much more than the Lortab.

I went to the doctor today and he took one look at me and said I needed surgery immediately to remove the cyst and resulting infection, and put in a new drain. So tomorrow it's back on the table for Tiff. Ugh. That will be followed by another surgery in 6-8 weeks to take the drain out.

The thing that bugs me the most, besides spending money, of course, is that each surgery has come with a 3-4 week ban on working out. Just as soon as I get in a groove with working out, bam, here comes another one. And you know how hard it is to get started again, but I will.

In other news, Hardin's top teeth are poking through! You can feel the left one and the right one is shining through the skin. He's been a little fussy and clingy, but nothing like the first two. Sunday we had an early morning play date with Mama and Them, and of course Julie and I spent more time talking than taking pictures. I sure do love a friend you can see once a year and feel like you saw yesterday. We got home and headed outside to take pictures because H was in the goofiest mood ever!

Happy 1st Fathers Day!

We celebrated Father's Day today because Jason is playing golf tomorrow.  I had a pile of files to drop off at my Athens office, so we packed up the babe and headed up for lunch and shopping.  It was the first time in our relationship I have taken Jason shopping with me to pick out his gift, but I have a feeling it won't be the last!  He got a yummy cologne and I hope he likes it for a while, because we both had headaches after smelling all that stuff.   

The highlight of our outing was my most favorite purchase in a long time, Hardin's new Atlanta Braves ball cap.  I've been on the hunt for a while, and it's just perfectly fitted with a little room to grow.  Oh I just love a little boy in a ball cap. 

The low light was the disgusting highchair at Five Star Day Cafe.  They only have one and there is no way that thing has been cleaned in the past decade.  His highchair cover is in the wash as we speak.  The food was delisious as always. 

To top off our day I cooked Jason a dinner consisting of a great salad, awesome seared jumbo scallops, and the worst grits he's ever tasted.  I always boil my stone ground grits in chicken stock but I was out.  I substituted beef stock and somehow they ended up tasting like beefy oatmeal.  Two out of three aint bad. 

Little baby Hardin, I sure do thank you for turning Jason into a daddy.  Other than watching you learn and grow, watching Jason as a daddy is my favorite thing in this world.  Happy 1st Father's Day J!

 

I need a wife.

While I was driving home today, I was thinking about my life and how content I am now. Finally. And Father's Day. And what a wonderful father Jason is. And how our lives now are a far cry from how they could have ended up after many of our mistakes. And how thankful I was for the blessings that landed us here. And how I'm really going to remember every second of this time because just like in all of our lives, times won't always be this good, but they'll get this good again if we try.

Then it hit me. I wonder if everyone I am happy with is as happy with me?

After evaluating how I am doing in my everyday roles, I decided I'm doing okay, but I need a wife. And I don't mean that in any disrespectful way. I think everyone could use a good wife, especially wives. In a little less than 5 months back at work, I am feeling pretty comfortable with my roles as mommy to Hardin, wife to Jason, and attorney.

But... My dry cleaning has been ready for pick-up for well over a month. It takes an act of God and complete abandonment of my staff to get my hair done. My poor mother has eaten less than desirable meals at my house during the day, out of necessity. I haven't picked out what I am getting Jason for Father's Day, much less purchased it. I'm out of so much stuff I've lost track. There are pictures to frame, gifts to wrap, clothes to iron, buttons to replace, hems to mend. You get the picture. All that stuff wives do with grace, without thinking a thing about it. Well it ain't getting done around here.


And I better not be bothered by it either, because I don't see that changing anytime soon. When the clock says it's time to go, I make a beeline for my baby. After we play, bathe, eat and get H down, it's all I can do to maybe go on a run, start a load of laundry and pour a glass of wine. Good thing I'm married to the most unobservant man alive, because he'll probably never notice how much I'm slacking in those areas.

Today was Hardin's first time in the big boy bath without one of us. He had a BLAST!