Reassurance

I find that I am really concerned with milestones.You know the list of things they can do as they get older; make eye contact, coo, crawl, eat solid food, etc.  I think it's because I worry that my child may have some type of learning disability. (Not that he has done anything so far that has made me wonder!) I think it comes with the trait of being a teacher. I want him to be able to attend a regular public school and be able to focus and learn like the majority of kids in the classroom.

I talked to another teacher at my school and she told me she worries about the same thing. I didn't feel so alone when she said that. I do call the doctor a few times if my son has been awake for more than 2 hours. I worry when his poop isn't always the same color or texture. I think that 2 months appointments are too far away. Why do you have to wait every other month? I think I need to see the doctor once a month. I need the reassurance that my baby is "normal" and okay. :)

Apparently every baby is different. 

Anyways, last night our little Tomatillo rolled from tummy to back. An important milestone? I'm not really sure, but it's moments like these that reassure my worried heart. :)

It's too cute!

Blessing of Baby

 We blessed our baby boy! 

Blessing? If you're not too familiar what I mean by "blessing" our baby let me offer a quick explanation. Similar to other faiths (not just christians!). We take our child in front of the congregation and pray for traits and characteristics that could bless their lives.

I was actually pretty curious about why we do it and I did some reading on what other cultures do when their babies are born too. I thought it was interesting all the customs and traditions centered around a new spirit. :)

We invited our family and a few friends to come join us. We had a dinner first on Saturday and then on Sunday we blessed him. 

Aline made a lot of yummy food! 

My aunt Monique and Grandma

We had an ice cream sundae bar!

Aunt Kim was seen like this all night, holding the baby. :)
Who can blame her? He is darling!

It rained on our little back yard dinner. :( It was like a masoon! It was 

heavy and hard. Aline is wearing a garbage bag to protect her clothes from getting wet. 

I'm not really sure what Muriel is doing.

Both my Grandpas :)

Osi and Muriel (Again, what is Muriel doing?)

Grandma

                                                                 Grandma


                                                  Our little guy is pretty loved. :)

Muriel, Me, Tahia, and my mom

                                          Not everyone can have two beautiful sisters? ;)

"Normalcy"

So here's a quick post on Matt & I. We are regular "normal" people still, even though we do have a baby. So here is what we, regular people, have done.

Grill.

Regular people grill.

Matt got this beauty from his parents for his birthday. (THANK YOU!)
We have been talking about getting one and looking for a great deal, but finally his parents made the decision for us, by surprising Matt. They had the thing all boxed up, came over and said: "your present is in the car". They even wrapped it up for him! (I thought hiding it in the car was fine wrapping!)

So on Labor Day-- we grilled. Matt made veggies and I ate a hamburger. :)

Football.

  

Regular people like football. (This doesn't mean if you dont like football you are irregular.)

I made these velveteen cupcakes and cut out those Us out of sugar paper. (Not as easy as I thought it would be!) We have season tickets this year and went to the first home game of the season against Colorado. It was fun. :) It's funny when people found out we weren't taking our child they called our outing a "date". So here's my question... isn't only called a date when you dont have a child? Because pretty sure before we had a baby we went out all the time and I never thought those were dates. Were they? Or do you only begin dating once you have a baby because now you have someone to leave at home? Hmm.....

                                    

Canning.

Is this considered an activity that can label you as "normal"? 

Well it's harvesting time. 

I pickled beets! I pickled these over a month ago. I ate some yesterday and they were DELICIOUS!

 Saturday I made tomato sauce that I canned. This does look impressive.... but

Eh...not so much when you have the right Kitchen Aid attachment. All I did was cut the tomatoes in fourths and shove them through. It was SO EASY!

I made pickles! We purposely grew cucumbers for pickling.  I always wanted to make pickles! This was super easy too. I just bought some pickling mixture added vinegar and water and VIOLA. I think we even forgot that we were growing them until Matt stumbled upon them in our garden.

For me the thing about canning is I can't tell if it really worked until a couple of weeks later. I canned some beans and I left them on the counter so I could monitor how they were doing and although one of the jars were sealed tight it looks like I have some type of bacteria growing in the water. So I think that was a no go. So I have begun the monitoring phase. Let's see if it all turns out.

Another problem with canning is that I am so proud it's canned I don't want to open it. I have tomato sauce and today I almost bought some Ragu. I love the fact that my sauce is in a jar.... I dont want to open it!

Music.

Truth-- this was before the baby was born.

Truth-- I had to blog about this. I. Love. Josh. Ritter.

Remember when I didn't have a camera and I had to illustrate my summer experiences?  Well this summer I actually had a camera and I took REAL pictures of everything. :)

Red Butte Garden-- best venue ever

Snacks!

Friends!

Love!

As I finish up this post I have this song in my head "Lantern" by Ritter. Check it out. 

6 Weeks

4 Weeks Old

It seems like having a baby really takes up a lot of time.
I've thought a lot about blogging but it's really just been that--- thinking.

Here are a few quick notes and answers to commonly asked questions.

How is the baby? (I'm not sure if I want to disclose his name online--- probably but for now he will be referred to as Tomatillo.)

Tomatillo is great! He can sleep for 4-6 hours but that is when he is being held. If he is not being held he will sleep for 90 minutes and then awake and want to be fed.

He does the cutest stretching things when he wakes up. He extends his body and stretches his neck muscles. He also has this phase he goes through right before he "officially" wakes up. He'll make all these grunts and stretches for about 10 seconds and then he'll immediately stop and behave as if nothings happened. A few minutes later he'll do it again, stretch for about 10 seconds and then immediately resumes sleeping. He'll do this a few times and the last time he'll just scream if you haven't figured out that he wants you to pick him up. Do other babies do that? 

How do you like being a mom?
It's hard to define "mom". I feel like a "mom" is someone full of wisdom and experience who watches out for you. Yes I watch out for my son, but I dont think I've reached that wisdom and experience stage yet. I dont mind taking care of my child but the title of our relationship I am still unsure of what to call it.

I think I'll feel more confident of my role in a few years.

Personality?
Well actually no one has asked me this question but I am the one stupid enough to ask it to new mom's. No my child doesn't really have a personality. He likes to sleep & eat a lot. He does a lot of stretching and he likes to be cuddled. I don't think that makes him sound terribly unique.

I do have to admit, since I do have a baby I have become more self conscious on how people are judging me. I mean think about it. If you have more than one child you know what to expect from an infant. Me on the other hand---being a first time mom--- have no clue. I'm trying, I really am. However, I have this fear that while I am trying to calm my baby by rocking him and giving him a pacifier in public someone is looking at me and saying: "Dont you know that cry means..... you're doing it all wrong." I'm sure it's paranoia. If you see me doing something wrong, know that I am really trying. :)

I made him this little outfit! You can't tell but he's wearing the cutest shorts too!

He is smiling. (3 Weeks)

Family Reunion

Family Reunion! (August 5th)
We got together with my dad's side of the family and had a big lunch. My Grandma calls it a reunion but Matt calls it just lunch. Our baby boy was barely a week and we decided to take him out to meet the family. I also was itching to be free of the house and to be stopped being treated like I was sick.

Shauna and her family came to down from California

My Grand parents also celebrated 80 years of living! (They were born about 2 weeks apart)

My parents. I had to include this picture that look on my dad's face is priceless. :)

Not only adults but all kids want to touch this cutie..hence the reason I was there. No little hands that go up noses and drag through dirt and into mouths can touch him :)