Day 6...We Got This!

Today Gabe started his day at around 7:30.  He watched a little of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV but got bored pretty quick and wanted to play.  I pulled out the box of toys that I usually keep in the corner of the living room and pull random toys for him.  This time I decided to give him the whole box and see what happened.  I went into the kitchen (which is just behind the couch) for 2 seconds, turn around to see what he's doing, and I find this:

 He managed to dump ALL the toys onto the floor, plus take out the bottom of the cloth box (that is what his foot is on.  And he chose to play with the ball to the right, which was not in the box...
This was another bit of a cranky day.  I wish those darn teeth would just come so I can have my happy baby back!  I can see them at the surface on the top and bottom, and he is chewing and drooling more than ever so they are close, but they are making for a fussy baby, and I'm not used to that!  He only slept for 37 minutes for his first nap today, but his afternoon nap was much better: almost 2 hours.
A friend came over during his second nap and we were planning on having lunch at a park near my house, but it was really hot, so we ate inside and when Gabe woke up we went for ice cream, and then we hung out for a while at the house.  We enjoyed watching Gabe be his goofy self.  :-)  When she left I tried putting him down for another nap.  He was tired so he didn't fight it too much, but he also didn't sleep long.  I wasn't expecting him to, though, so I got him up and we played for a little bit. I was sitting on the couch and he was standing on my lap, and he looked over my shoulder and something caught his eye: his car seat!  He recently started liking to play with his car seat.  He really likes the straps, so I put him in front of it and he had a grand old time trying to climb in and chew on the straps.

 I needed to fix myself some dinner, so I put him on the floor to play with his little kitchen that his Uncle John and Aunt Melissa gave him (which he loves), and he would be fine until I'd peak over the couch to check on him and he'd look at me and cry.  Usually, he'll do that if I leave the room, but this time he just cried when he saw me...how nice.  He would look at me, cry and throw himself back on the boppy pillow.  But as soon as he got back to his toy, he was fine.  So I would have this:

 And then two seconds later, this:

He is so crazy, but I love him so much!  After he had his dinner, we went to Wal-mart and I put him in the front of the cart like a big boy!  He wasn't too sure about it at first, especially riding on the bumpy parking lot up to the entrance, but once we were inside he started to enjoy himself.  He was a little wobbly, and I had a hand on him as long as we were moving, but he would hang on to the bar, and he had fun.  I'm looking forward to going out to eat when Tim gets back and trying him in a high chair.  It's just such a habit to keep him in his car seat, but he's actually about to grow out of it (the weight limit is 22 lbs) and he's big enough to sit in a high chair.  He's growing up so fast, but it's exciting!

He is a handful, like I knew he would be when he became mobile, but he usually stays in one general area.  He can belly crawl but he doesn't go for very long.  I tried to see if he would follow me down the hall, but he just got frustrated.  He almost "real crawled."  He would put one knee forward and one arm and then fall down.  It won't be long at all until we're chasing him around!

I haven't heard from Tim today.  They started their actual work today so I'm sure they were very busy.

At some point I need to get the oil changed in my car.  I don't want to.  I hate getting things done on my car.  Tim is so good and usually does it for me, but he told me "it would be nice" if I could do it before the end of the month because we budgeted for it this month.  So I guess I'll do that probably Wednesday or Thursday morning.  I go back to see Dr. Patty on Friday and we're having lunch again, and then Friday night is Bunco Night at the church!  Angie and I are planning it and she's supposed to call me this week so we can iron out the details.
So stay tuned for all the fun ahead for the rest of the week! :-)

Day 5...Still Alive! :-)

Oh the joys of Sundays...Gabe's schedule always gets messed up on Sundays.  He got up at 8-something and so I decided to switch his first two feedings again and gave him cereal and fruit with a bottle so I could just give him a bottle at church, since that is easier.  I had to wake him from his morning nap to go to church, and he was tired but unable to sleep at church because it's just so uncomfortable in my arms. ;-)  I was planning on sitting towards the middle where Tim and I usually sit or even more towards the back because I knew I'd have to take him out eventually to feed him, but when I got there and was headed to my row, Angie's daughter, Tia, who has an almost two-month-old motioned for me to sit next to them on the SECOND row.  I did, and Gabe was fine during the singing (he always is..he loves the music) and during announcements, prayer time and communion he was a bit squirmy, and got a little upset when he saw Tia feeding her baby a bottle that is exactly like his.  He actually tried to grab it a couple of times.  During the sermon he started to get tired and fussy and it was almost time for him to eat so I took him out.  But there were lots of noisy kids in the nursery, and a family in the cry room trying to get their daughter to sleep, so I fed him in Tim's office and he wouldn't let me hold him so I put him on the floor for a little bit and then went out to the lobby and the people in the cry room weren't there any more so we sat in there for the remainder of the time and listened to the speaker.  Shelley wasn't preaching, it was a man who the church supports in Russia giving an update about the work there.  Gabe and I are used to the cry room. :-)  We go there every week.  One of his feedings almost always falls during service, and he's not a quiet calm baby anymore who will take his bottle and just fall asleep in your arms.  He is so active and now getting more vocal I feel bad keeping him in the service, and for some reason have a really hard time leaving him in the nursery.  If there aren't any other kids there I will sometimes leave him, but like today I could tell it was pretty busy and I just don't feel comfortable leaving him there when the nursery worker has her hands full.
After church he had a nice nap and then ate some yummy green beans and played.  I posted a video of him trying to stack his cups but getting very distracted and silly.  I used my laptop to record it and the camera is in the front so he could see himself on the screen and was totally not paying attention to me.  But it made for an entertaining video!  Next time I think I'll tape a piece of paper over the screen and maybe get a good video of his talent.  He had just done it very well right before I decided to record him.  The little stinker...
Later we skyped with Mimi, and she got to witness a temper tantrum.  He had got a hold of my camera, and was just looking at it, but then he put the string in his mouth and spit up at the same time, so I cleaned it off and said he couldn't have it any more and put it on the table, and he got really mad!  There was crying and flailing about and it was just so attractive.  He didn't get the camera back though!  He was doing it more because he was tired, so after a few minutes we hung up with Mimi and tried to go to bed.  I knew it was too late really for a nap because it was already 5ish and he still had two feedings to go.  He refused to sleep and wouldn't stop screaming so I fed him a bottle early, and tried putting him back down but that didn't work so I got him up and he played until GG saw me on Skype, so we Skyped with her (well, she saw and heard us, but her camera and microphone weren't working) until he got fussy again and I gave him a bath, fed him his last meal of Pears and Oatmeal and a bottle, and he went to bed with no problem.
I have been taking notes about when he eats and when he naps and for how long to see if I can figure out a pattern, but so far there hasn't been one because we keep having interruptions.  I wonder if this not waking up till after 8 thing is going to be a normal thing.  He actually wakes up a little after 6 but I go in and put the pacifier back in and he's asleep again.  He does definitely need a morning nap and afternoon nap, but it's after the 3rd feeding that's hard because it's really too late to be napping because it's so close to bed time, but he gets tired, so I have to try to keep him busy so he doesn't get cranky.  And he fights the nap if I try to put him down anyway.
Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a friend at a park, but I'm making sure it's at a good time for Gabe when he'll be awake and will make sure we're home for his nap.  Oh, and I gave him mangoes for the first time yesterday and he seemed to like them. 
Time for bed for this tired mommy so she can rest up for another fun day with her crazy boy!

Day 4...How Many More??

Today was good but a little tiring.  Gabe woke up at 6:30 and was ready to eat, so I fed him and he went back to bed pretty quickly, and slept till after 9!  So that was nice since I didn't get to sleep till midnight-ish.  But he was back to his normal 45-minute naps and refusing to sleep any longer than that, and he was Mr. Cranky Pants a few times today for no reason.  He also wanted me to be with him pretty much all the time.  Right now he's in his swing and is content with his pig toy, but pretty much all day if he was awake, I was holding him or playing with him, cleaning up spit up every few minutes because he does NOT sit still!  I am honored that he enjoys me so much, and I enjoy him, but being the ONLY one around to entertain him gets pretty exhausting.  Plus, my wrist has been hurting more today.  I've been trying not to use it as much, but I have to use both hands to pick up Gabe, and there's not many tasks that I can do with only one hand.
We went for a walk this afternoon and that was nice.  Gabe had fun looking at everything.  I put him in the big stroller without his car seat so he could sit up and face forward.  He enjoyed watching cars go by and just took everything in. 
Oh, and we had a couple of "fun" changing sessions.  When I was trying to change his clothes because he had spit up all over his first outfit, he kept trying to flip over to his stomach.  It was pretty annoying.  He succeeded a couple of times and would just sit there on his hands and knees and I'd flip him back over and fight to keep him on his back while I finished clothing him.  And then the last time I changed his diaper he did the same thing.  You know, it's really difficult to fasten a diaper when the child has his butt up in the air.  I actually raised my voice a little and he didn't like that, but it didn't stop him from trying to flip himself.  I eventually won, and stood him up and he was as happy as could be...weird child.
We have about an hour before bath time and bed time, and I think he's getting tired of his swing so I'm off to see how I can please him. :-) 
Oh, and nothing got done about my room...I just looked at all the stuff and thought, "There's no where else to put it!"  So I just left it and maybe will try again another day. :-)

 

And here's a fun video of Gabe practicing his tongue trick. :-)

                                   

Day 3

It is incredibly too late for me to be up writing this blog, but if I don't do it now it may never get written!  ;-)
Today was a fun day.  Gabe slept in!  He never sleeps past 7-ish and I heard him crying a little around 6:15 so I went in and gave him his pacifier and he was out until 8:30!  I couldn't believe it!  So the down side was that his feeding schedule was shifted, so I gave him cereal and fruit with a bottle first (normally I just give a bottle), and he was fine with that, and he actually went down for a nap around 10.  I was thinking he would wake up in plenty of time for us to leave  at 11:30 for an appointment.  But I had to wake him up. I had gone to see my friend who is a chiropractor on Monday for a weird bump on my wrist that sometimes hurts, and she said it's probably a harmless cyst that is apparently common in women between 20 and 40, and it will probably go away on its own.  But she had to check my spine and found that I was out of alignment in several places, so she adjusted me and wanted me to come back today to check everything, and then we went to lunch.  So that was fun.
And then tonight my crazy friend Angie came over and we experimented with cake pops.  My aunt Mitzi and Grandma bought some silicon cake pop trays while we were at Hilton Head and they were really cute, so they gave me one of the trays and I found a great website that had an awesome recipe for beach ball cake pops.  So with these pops, the directions said to dip the pops in white coating and stick in a styrofoam block to let them dry.  Well, of course I didn't have styrofoam, and hadn't bought any, so we were trying to think of another way to stand them up, and we got a shoe box, which ended up working well.  But I was telling Angie about how on the website they put the finished pops in brown sugar to make it look like sand, and that sparked all these other ideas in her: We should make a whole beach scene!  We should make stick figure people and blankets for the sand!  No, we should put OUR heads on other people's bodies and have us swimming in the ocean!  We decided on cute beach clip art people and here is how they came out:

 Since Angie is a brunette, she said I was the one in the bikini...it's sooo me! :-)  We sure did have fun making these, but I think I've had my fill of cake pops for a while...they are cute, but the perfectionist in me says they're too hard to get just right. 
Gabe missed out on all the cake pop fun because he had to go to bed, but it was a good day.  He got one less feeding than normal because he started so late, so I'm going to see if he wakes up for a bottle or if he is able to go without.  His eating/sleeping habits seem to be shifting and changing, and it's a huge guessing game trying to keep up with him and figure him out, but I'm trying to just go with it.  I have nothing planned for tomorrow so there should be no reason to wake him up from any naps or interrupt his schedule in any way.  What I should do is clean my room...what are the odds of that happening??? Haha...my goal is to declutter our room some time before Tim gets back.
Speaking of the hubby, he called this morning and said they're doing well, and their training started today.  He said he should be able to call in the mornings and give me updates, so I will report anything of importance that he tells me. :-)
And now it is off to sleepy land for me!  I will leave you with a super cute picture of my little dude. :-)

Day 2

Well, today was much more uneventful than yesterday.  Gabe and I stayed home until it was time to take him to Angie's so I could go on my interview.  For lunch I tried giving him zucchini I pureed.  This was the second day trying the zucchini and I don't think he really likes it.  He would take it, but not open his mouth very wide, and it was pretty runny (I thickened it a little with cereal), and it would just run all down his chin.  So it may be a no-go for the zucchini, but I made a lot, so I'll keep it in the freezer and maybe try it again a little later. :-) 
He got two pretty good naps today before we left, which was good because he didn't sleep for the almost 4 hours he was at Angie's but he had fun taking a walk, bouncing in the exersaucer and just playing.  He fell asleep on the way home and went right to bed.  :-)
My interview went well.  It was with a 6th grade teacher from the school who was very friendly, laid back and talkative.  I think she did more talking than I did, which I didn't mind.  She seemed to like my answers that I did get to give and the next step would be interviewing with a director, or maybe a phone interview with the department head.  I guess they have a lot of openings and I'm being considered for either a middle school or high school math position. 
Gabe has some stacking cups that he LOVES to play with.  I give them to him usually after he eats when he's still in his high chair and he loves spreading them out and whacking them off the tray. :-) When we were on vacation in Hilton Head last week, my aunt Mitzi was holding him and teaching him to stack the cups together and he did a pretty good job!  Tim and I have continued to do that with him and he is getting really good at putting the cups inside each other!  He will even pick a cup up upside down, turn it around and put it in the stack.  I tried to get him doing it on camera today but of course he was being silly and not cooperating.  Hopefully I'll capture it soon and be able to show off our little genius. :-)  I don't know if this is something "advanced" or not, but I think it's pretty cool, so thanks Mitzi for starting it!
Well, I'm pretty exhausted so that's about all I have for now.  Oh, Tim and the youth group made it to Minnesota safely today.  Be praying for them as they start their training (for 3 days) and then start serving the people of Minneapolis.
Good night!

Day 1

Well, today was the first day of Gabriel and I's little adventure of being home alone without Daddy.  It started off weird...I had to wake him up at 6:15 so I could take Tim to get the rental van for his trip. That was difficult because one, I never like having to wake him up, and two, turning on the lights usually lets him wake on his own, but it didn't this time, and gently stroking him and talking to him didn't help either.  He was OUT!  So I had to roll him over and he didn't like that.  I fed him and he quickly got in a good mood. 
We said our good-byes after Tim got the van and I brought Gabe back home, hoping he'd go back to sleep.  I changed a VERY dirty diaper, and tried to put him to bed but he was not having it.  After a couple of tries I got him out and we played until it was time for him to eat again.  By then he was really sleepy, so I put him to bed after he ate and he slept for over 3 hours! I couldn't believe it!  He normally only sleeps 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours (if we're lucky).  I knew he would need to catch up on the sleep he lost this morning, but I was shocked!  The great thing was that I made myself take a nap too.  (It didn't take much convincing...)  I didn't sleep the whole time he did, but I got more sleep than I thought I would.  I'm going to need all the sleep I can get over the next 11 days while Tim is gone!
The other cool thing was that when he woke up he didn't cry.  Usually he cries pretty quick after he wakes up, but this time he just laid in his bed and entertained himself.  After hearing him for a few minutes, I went in and got him and fed him.  I have been trying to introduce a sippy cup slowly.  He refused it at first, but the last time I gave it to him he drank a little from it but still wasn't too thrilled. (He liked banging it on the high chair tray more).  I decided to try it again today and he liked it!  He even drank most of the formula out of it! The weird thing was, though, that he didn't eat all of his baby food.  I know babies' appetites can change from day to day, but his hadn't really varied much (he usually acted like he was going to die if food was not constantly in his mouth at every meal).  So, having him slow down and not be interested in what I was offering was strange.  Granted, it was peas, which I realize is not very appealing, but he usually eats them right up.
 After lunch we went to Walmart, which went smoothly and as we were leaving it started to rain.  By the time we got home it was POURING and thundering and lightening. I got a nice second shower getting Gabe inside as well as the groceries. He needed a nap, but the intermittent, extremely loud, thunder kept waking him up so he didn't get much rest.  It wasn't too long before he needed to eat again, so I got him up and he played until dinner. He played in his high chair while I got paperwork ready for my interview tomorrow.  Yes, I have a job interview tomorrow for a cyber school job.  It's at 5 pm, and I am dropping Gabe off with a friend.
 Today was an interesting day but we got through it!  Tomorrow will be even crazier, but once that is over, it should be smooth sailing!  I'm looking forward to plans I have to hang out with friends, and hopefully relaxing and getting to read!  But now Gabe is ready for his bath and bottle and bed (hopefully!)!

Fast Forward 8 Months!

Well, Gabe came right on his due date, November 25!  My water broke Thanksgiving afternoon, right before lunch so we went to the hospital, and they checked me and sent me to labor and delivery.  Needless to say, Tim and I missed our Thanksgiving dinner plans (although Tim had a turkey sandwich, which was more than my ICE CHIPS) but we received something much more special that we are very thankful for: Gabriel Keith Baker. :-)
Now he is almost 8 months old!!  Time has flown by.  The first couple months were definitely hard but fun and then going back to work was another difficult transition, but I did it and Tim and Gabe survived together at home, and now I am enjoying my summer off with my boys.  Although for the next 12 days, it's just me and Gabe.  Tim left this morning for the youth group mission trip to Minneapolis.  They will be back sometime late afternoon/early evening on the 29th.  So it's me and the baby and I thought it would be fun to journal on here how each day went.
I am definitely not a blogger, and after Tim gets back I'm sure I will go back to not writing on this site but I thought I'd give it a try while Tim is away.

Let the adventure begin!! :-)