Project Baby: 45 Weeks Old

I've been meaning to write this post since last week and am now writing it on the 46 week old mark instead. C'est la vie! Honestly, this past week was one of the most strenuous and stressful of my life! Not only have I been getting very little sleep because of Harrison teething, but I also am preparing to finish out the school year and take my students to Germany in a few weeks. On top of all of that, normal household duties and being a mom, I also was dealing with an exchange student situation AND had to tell one of my students he could not go on the Germany exchange with us. Okay, so I've had more stressful weeks, but this one just FELT like so much was crashing on me all at the same time. So, honestly... I don't have much I remember about what happened at 45 weeks old, other than the following point below. Enjoy the pictures, though! :)

• Thank goodness we live in Washington because Harrison seriously loves to catch the water that drips from our roof. He loves water and rain! He laughs when the water drips on his hand and he tries to catch it in his hand! This guy!

Mom... I see you have the camera! I want to get it too!

Loves grabbing and shaking lamps, fake trees at church, etc.

Was SO angry that he couldn't get the suitcase open... that messy post-eating, sad face cracks me up!

Mom helped him get it open!

Loves the dishwasher!

Post-nap Sunday walk... so sad!

Trying to grab the tree leaves!

Trying to grab the water drops from the roof... can you see the water dripping off of his hand?

Smiles

This guy cracks me up. Any time a flash happens, he smiles for it, even if he was just sad. He loves camera flashes! Future model?

Project Baby: 44 Weeks and a 10-Month Birthday!

WOW! Where did the time go and how did my little sweetie get to be 10 months old?! I'm in shock that he's able to do so much. It truly is amazing to see how fast they go from hardly able to do anything to moving around everywhere, trying to talk, and understanding so much!


This week:

• Harrison's grandma got back from Japan on Thursday, May 9th. This week was the first week he's been at her house in over two months! That meant that mom was back to pumping milk for Harrison for the first time in 9-10 weeks. Bummer. Harrison did okay back at her house after Monday. Monday, he decided he was going to only take a 40-minute nap all day long. I think it's because he was so excited to explore grandma's house since he hadn't been there for so long and the last time he was there, he wasn't crawling! (Thankfully, this week, Evan's new job goes to working evenings so I can nurse Harrison again and Harrison can be at his own house all day long! Evan's mom is going to come and watch him at our house during the 2ish hours between when Evan leaves to work and I get out of school. Such a blessing!)
• I don't know if I mentioned this in the past few weeks, but Harrison is fully out of his bath seat. He started to realized that we were keeping him confined and would cry and try to open up the latches once I put him in. I decided it was time to stop. He LOVES his bath time still! And by bath time, I mean play-with-the-faucet-and-occasionally-splash time. When I want to wash his hair, I take a shower with him at the end of his bath. When he gets under the water, I call it his "warmies." I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but he has been so sweet laying his head on my shoulder when I have him under the water in the shower with me. He NEVER used to be a cuddly baby so this turn of events makes me really happy.
• On that same note... sometimes Harrison will nuzzle into my neck/shoulder when he's not in the shower only to bite into me or wipe his dirty post-meal face on me. Ha! This guy cracks me up.
• Have I ever mentioned how bad I am at keeping Harrison clean when feeding him? Yep, this kid is ALL boy who loves to eat rocks, dirt, play with cars/wheels, get SUPER messy, and HATES when I try to clean off his face and hands with a rag or wipe after eating. The past few days I have resorted to  stripping him down to a diaper before feeding him to keep the amount of laundry down!
• I love when Harrison finishes nursing in our bed in the morning. After he's done, he tries to roll over (usually gets stuck in the covers) and crawl over to get his dad. He also will roll over to lay on his stomach and pretend like he's going to sleep. He does this a few times where he will crawl a few steps and then lay his head back down, then crawl a few more only to lay his head back down again. It's really cute. He will crawl on us also and then lay his head down on us. It's so funny! Love this boy.
• We moved Harrison up to size 4 diapers yesterday. He's been soaking through his 3's during the night sometimes and has been really getting too small for them. We've been waiting to move him up to the next size until we ran out of our Costco box of 3's, though! :)
• Harrison is such a fast crawler nowadays, especially when we open the fridge or a child-proofed door! He loves crawling everywhere and "walking" around holding onto the walls, cupboards, etc. Something he also really loves is pushing chairs, our step stool, or the piano bench around on the wood floor. He uses them as walkers. I kind of hope that he's walking before we go to Germany (4 weeks from today! YIKES!) for 2 reasons: A, so Evan can see him learn to walk. B, so I don't have to carry him everywhere in Germany. We'll see how it goes the next 4 weeks!
• Harrison's four teeth in the top front have all poked through and are working their way out. I can tell they bug him off and on. He FINALLY slept through the night ONCE this week, even though he woke up a few times to cry that night and put himself back to sleep. He averages waking up minimum once a night, but Friday night he woke up every two hours. I was so exhausted yesterday!

So excited for the new fireplace gate! Anything new is exciting to babies.

Totally failed at taking 10-month pictures on his actual 10-month birthday, but Evan snuck into his room after I put him to sleep to take this with his shirt on him. HA! Shows how busy we've been lately!

This guy is a wily one... we could hardly get his teeth brushed let alone try to get a decent picture of his dad brushing his teeth... it took 10 pictures to just get this ONE semi-decent one.

SO obsessed with the faucet in the bath. Even if he goes away from it for 10 seconds, he comes right back to play with the shower pull!

Look at those buns! He got big buns from his dad and I, poor guy! Their adorable now... hopefully they'll stay adorable in the future, right?! :)

 Yes, I stepped into the bath to get this one. All for the sake of art. Love this boy and his smiles!

I also tried to get several pictures of how his hair curls into ringlets when it gets wet, but couldn't because he was moving SO MUCH! He never stops! At least you can see it a little bit and also how much lighter his hair is getting. Single tear.

Evan and I have been SUPER busy with raising a small child, both working full-time, and yard work. That's why his 10-month pictures didn't happen until 2 days AFTER he turned 10 months old. C'est la vie! 

Loves playing with this hutch door! The knob is just at his height.

 This is the face I kept getting pictures of... he did not want to smile for the camera! He just wanted me to pick him up or else he wanted to play. That's why I got only ONE decent picture of him!

 Lots of outtakes

 I was folding laundry in our family room and Harrison thought it would be fun to use the table as a walker and then sit under it. Of course he moved from his adorable sitting position just as I took the picture, but you get the gist of what happened, right?

Typical eating disaster. Usually it's just mom he does this for, but no... Sunday it was daddy! Hence the reason we stripped him down to a diaper before feeding him!

Love that adorable, messy face!

My brother-in-law gave us these "jeans" diapers. So funny!

Step 1- Pull handle of the suitcase

Step 2- Cry after it fell on you, crawl around it and climb up on the other ones.

So long until next week!

Sunday Walk

Tonight, after dinner at Evan's parents, we took the kids on a walk. They all had fun!

On Motherhood

Last year, on Mother's Day I looked like this at 29 weeks pregnant. YIKES! I was huge! No wonder I had a 9 lb. 3 oz. baby 9 weeks later.

It's funny now thinking back to all my worries I had then. What I wrote was true. Life became more challenging, but I did roll with the punches and things have worked out. Somehow, they always do.

For obvious reasons, I've been thinking a lot about motherhood this week. Not only about my own mother, but about what I have learned since becoming a mother.

First of all, I want to say that I still stand by what I wrote last year about feeling left out of "The Mom Club". I think I am now overly sensitive to people who don't have but want children. I am overly sensitive to friends who are not yet married and want to be. Even though that post and the pain over the years seems more distant now, I still remember and I hope that I am always empathetic to others who are in the situation I was once in myself!

One thing I've thought often about in the past year plus is that becoming a mom is easy. We all know about the birds and the bees. We know the logistics of HOW one becomes pregnant. Being a mom to a child is easy. However, to me, being a mother is something completely different. Being a mother is the attitude we CHOOSE to have when raising our children. Being a mother is the example that we set daily for those children as we strive to be the best person we can. Being a mother is charity at its purest: loving a child unconditionally, giving up our own personal wants/comforts to make sure that child is safe and protected. Being a mother means seeing what is best and doing it for her family. Being a mother is not easy. Being a mother is a choice.

I know that I am not perfect at being a mother. Especially at the beginning, it was very difficult for me as I was dealing with hormones and jaundice and sleepless nights. I can say one thing, however: I love my child unconditionally. I do my best to put his interests and needs above anything else in my life. And I pray daily for assistance from my Heavenly Father to guide me in raising a righteous son who will be worthy to hold the Priesthood, who will be a positive citizen in any community, and who will seek to serve and love others as I hope he sees me and his dad do.

Project Baby: 43 Weeks

• We have really been working with Harrison the past few weeks teaching him to turn around at the top of the stairs in order to go down. He knows when we say "turn around" to turn around and go down and he does just that. NOW, however, he just wants to play on the stairs. He loves climbing partway up and just chilling out for a while, then climbing most of the way down and then back up again. Hm... I'm reconsidering the idea of putting a gate at the bottom, but I want him to learn how to crawl up and down the stairs safely. So far, no accidents yet!
• This week, we realized that Harrison thinks "splash" means to throw your hands up in the air and then put your hands down together hard... even when there is no water! It is so funny to watch him when we say "Harrison splash!"
• Harrison started doing this funny thing this week with his hands. He puts his hands together and then rubs the backs of his hands one hand at a time. It's cute to see!
• How did I almost forget to mention this?! We gave Harrison's bangs a trim this week. I cried a little bit, I'm not going to lie. His hair just kept getting in his eyes, though, and I couldn't justify my sentimentality any longer. SO, we cut his bangs. We probably should chop all of his hair, but it's so adorable and I'm still not mentally prepared for that yet!

Loves using the fan (and any standing lamps!) to hold onto and shake! This further proves Evan's theory that babies don't need toys.

I gave Harrison some curried pasta for dinner and let him eat it. It turned his jammies yellow and he was so dirty I just picked him up and put him straight into the bath!

Check out that slimy, curried hand!

Love this face! :) I wanted to get his dirty/face and hair but he was grabbing the camera as I did it. 

Love this shot!

Mother's Day morning... breakfast in bed!

Harrison decided that he wanted some too!

Big boy standing by himself in the window

 

We finally decided to chop his bangs after dealing with the hair in the eyes. Look how cute he looks with those long bangs, though, when we can get them tamed!

Loves mama's brush... we used it to try to get the unruly hair ready before we cut it!

Forgot to take a post-hair picture... but did snap this as we were getting him ready for church. Evan was working on family history and had Harrison on his shoulders... partially

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