Settling In

Two and a half weeks down...I think this will work out. :) Riley seems to do well at Kim's, she says he is getting used to all the chaos (5-6 other kids) and the best thing is that you can tell she really cares about him and is taking good care of him. He is always the last one dropped off in the morning and the last one picked up in the afternoon. Even with all the other kids there in the morning, she takes the time to talk to me about how he was the night before for me, when he ate, any extra details and she seems genuinely happy to see him. When I pick him up, there is sometimes one other kid still there, but either way, she is always holding him and he is almost always asleep in her arms. The other kids seem to like him, this morning when I walked in with him, a couple of the other kids' eyes just lit up when they saw Riley. And yesterday morning, Riley was asleep when we got there, so the one other little boy went up to Kim while she was talking to me and put his finger to his lips..'shhhhh'. Because she taught them that they have to be quiet when the baby is sleeping. She said they go around "shhhing" each other during the day even when he's awake. She said she holds him and lets him watch the other kids play and he seems to like it. I believe that b/c he just loves to watch things. He likes it when I just carry him around the house and he just looks around at everything :)
This week he has a cold, poor guy. Its mostly just a really nasty cough...that sometimes he'll cough so hard he throws up, which of course just breaks a momma's heart. But we've got him sleeping in his carseat (how fun of a habit will THAT be to break when he starts feeling better, haha!), doing saline nose drops (which he hates!) and running a humidifier in his room at night and I think its all helping. Also, he's up to 10 lbs! Yay for my growing boy!

Smiles!!


This being cute is exhausting!

So what else is going on in my life? Well, its spring! Ok, so its practically summer, but with all the rain we had this spring...it took practically forever to be dry enough to plant and we're in the middle of "spring planting" now. I shouldn't even say that it seems to be going well...because as soon as I say that, something will break or it will rain so much the river floods or something equally fun. So...I'm not saying it. ;) But have I shown you our new tractor and planter???
The planter is in "go down the road mode" in this picture. Ok, so that's probably not the technical term, but its the way you set it up to pull it down the road, otherwise its too wide to fit. You'd be running into cars, mailboxes...you probably wouldn't be the community's favorite person. So you basically turn it sideways to pull it down the road. And that is our BRAND NEW tractor. Yep, we are the very first owners of it. This is the first brand new tractor we've ever bought, so its pretty exciting. Its supposedly "Riley's tractor". But of course Daddy is going to be using it until Riley's big enough. haha

Hope everyone's having a fabulous May...almost June already...where is the time going?!?!

Two Months Old and Back to Work

Ok...I am now apparently one of those "once a month" bloggers. Oops. Well, I'm back to work on Monday, so I might have a bit more time (while I'm working hard of course) to keep up. At least maybe to a couple times a month. I have mixed feelings about going back to work. A part of me is looking forward to getting into some sort of a routine and a schedule again...knowing what day it is and such, you know? But a much bigger part of me hates to leave my little boy. I am so jealous of anyone who gets to be a stay at home mom. It was always my dream, but unfortunately, its just not feasible for us right now. Of course on a regular basis, Kelly is so sweet and tries to figure out a way for me to be able to stay home...but realistically, it will be a while. I am hoping for it in the next couple of years though. We'll see. In the meantime, Riley has a great sitter he'll be going to, who is actually a good friend of ours so I know she will take extra good care of my boy. Oh, and he will be the only boy there! Yep, the rest of the kids there are all girls. I went over a couple weeks ago (it is literally 5 minutes or less from our house) and the girls all seem really well behaved, so I am happy about that. Kim (our friend who will be watching him) is actually pregnant also and due in August with a boy. I'm very excited that Riley will have a sort of "built-in buddy" that way. I think they will have so much fun together. I'm also just excited for them b/c this is their 3rd and last child and first boy (their daughters are 16 and 8). Anyway, I know Riley will be in good hands...its just tough to think about being away from him all day, five days a week :( I am afraid I will be missing out on so much. Right now it seems like he is doing new stuff all the time. A couple weeks ago he rolled over, from front to back (of course he did it twice and now can't seem to figure out how to do it again, silly boy) and he is smiling at me and even sometimes smiling just randomly on his own. Yesterday he was smiling at a tractor pillow on the bed in his room, it was adorable. He can respond to voices and noises from other parts of the room, turning his head towards the new sound, and he is just always watching everything and taking it all in. I am so in love with this little boy...and I can't believe how fast he is growing. Two months old already. We had our 2 month check up and he is already up to 9 lbs, 1 oz and 21 inches. Which I know to a lot of people is small, but for a baby who started out just under 6 lbs only 2 months ago, it is GREAT! So things are going pretty well.

As you can see, he is VERY excited to be two months old. He gives it a "thumbs up"!

Riley says, "Do you like my hat? It fits perfectly, don't you agree??"

Yesterday was exactly one year since my miscarriage. The Kentucky Derby was on Saturday, and I remembered that last year I watched it from my couch in pain...this weekend is Mothers Day and I remember last year being upset b/c that was the weekend I had planned to tell my parents about the pregnancy. And I remember my doctor telling me that she wouldn't be surprised if I had a baby already at the same time next year. I remember thinking, wow, I would have to be really lucky for that to happen. Well, I am. I am beyond lucky, and beyond blessed. I look at my beautiful baby boy and am so amazed at the difference between last year and this year. Going through the pain, both emotionally and physically, of my miscarriage, while awful....was worth the final reward. I would not trade this perfect little boy currently asleep on my chest for anything. What a difference a year makes.