Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Currently: Summer Edition

I last did a Currently post in January, so I think I need a summer edition! I'll include some photos of our trip to New Hampshire this past week. We stayed in the North Conway area, where I haven't been for about 8 years. It's beautiful!

Nh2

reading The Pearl that Broke It's Shell by Nadia Hashimi. So far I really like it even though I'm just completely depressed by the way women are treated in the book. I may complain, but I'm grateful to live in a time and place where my greatest injustice is the fact that I have to be pregnant and can't leave that to my husband. 

loving swimming outside! 

thinking about how to bring the relative calm and balance of summer into my working mom life...

Nh5

feeling some mix of happy, overwhelmed, tired, grateful, motivated, unmotivated…all the feelings, usually at different times throughout the day

anticipating the August breakdown and hoping maybe it just passes me by this year?

inspired by all the beauty in my backyard (well, technically speaking this area of New Hampshire is a 2 1/2 hour drive away, which it turns out feels a lot longer when a baby screams the whole time, but I always need a good reminder that I don't need to get on a plane to see beautiful things)

watching the construction vehicles outside and thinking if they wake up Max I might have to kill someone (seriously, I do not watch TV right now at all- I need to get caught up on my favorite summer shows Rizzoli and Isles and Unforgettable)

sad that summer cannot last forever

working on my "summer job" (creating an internet resources bibliography) and starting to think about the school year ahead

looking forward to being back at the Cape in a few days

grateful that I am able to spend so much time with Max and Eric right now

Nh7

listening to a steady stream of country music

wishing that summer could be as long as the school year! 

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Max is 6 Months Old!

It's both easy and impossible to believe that Max has been here for an entire half of a year. You would think after teaching kindergarten for so long I would not be surprised when a child is able to acquire new skills in seemingly one day, but babies make five year olds look slow on the uptake.

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Just a few weeks ago someone asked me if Max was sitting up yet and I was laughing saying that any version of sitting is just so low on his list of priorities that he will probably just skip that milestone all together. Of course, only a few days later he suddenly starts sitting up. I mean, sure there is some falling over happening, but he went from not even thinking about sitting, to sitting for 5 seconds, to sitting for minutes at a time in maybe a week span. Last time I wrote he was just starting to roll from back to front, now only a few weeks later he does this a million times a day. He has even started turning over and sleeping on his tummy sometimes, which often results in one arm being stuck in the crib side. What a crazy/amazing kiddo. 

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These days it's not just Eric's swinging that makes Max laugh. He laughs at people smiling at him. He laughs at himself when he falls over. He laughs at anyone disappearing and reappearing. This weekend my brother had his dog at the Cape and Max found Rosie hilarious. 

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Max has been a lucky baby the last month because both Eric and I have been home with him most of the time. We have done a lot of fun things including lots of walks, birthday parties, and even Max's first boat ride.

Maxboatride

I have also really been trying to work on some of the things I wasn't able to do while I was at work. For example, I set up a nap time routine with him: diaper change, sleep sack on, read a book, country music on and then ideally I would just rock him and he'd fall asleep (well actually IDEALLY I could just put him in the crib and he'd fall asleep...). In all reality he needs me to nurse him most days to actually fall asleep. This habit would be a lot less of a bad idea if I wasn't going back to work in like a month. Oops. Oh well, guess who is going to have to deal with this problem? Future Kelly. 

Sleeping: I'm slowly moving bedtime earlier so a good night for Max is about 8:45pm to 7am. Some variation of this happens many nights but definitely not all. He seems to be more aware of his own location these days so the first days we go home he wakes up in the middle of the night, then back at the Cape, then randomly he will just wake up early for fun. Basically he does what he wants and I can't complain because he is way better than most babies. AND, did I mention the child actually naps now? WOO. Usually about 3 naps a day, 2 longer and 1 cat nap. 

Feeding: Max has started to nurse MUCH quicker now. He went from each feeding being about 40 minutes to about 10 minutes in a matter of a week basically as soon as I started being home all the time. Thank goodness for this because I introduced him to solid foods a few days before his 6 month birthday and now it feels like the child is either nursing, napping or eating solid foods during every moment of the day. We are at a transition period with eating which has pretty much rid us of the feeding schedule. Actually napping + eating solids + still trying to nurse = huge free for all. 

Likes: Max currently loves all kinds of attention and silly behavior. If you go up to him and smile/make a silly face, you will almost definitely get a smile back. He also loves his car walker, playing Peekaboo, my brother's dog Rosie, and MUSIC. Max also loves pretending to walk, dancing, being launched up in the air and basically anything that involves moving all around, seeing new things and doing stuff. Last weekend I upgraded our beloved Ergo to an Ergo 360. Now he can face out when we wear him and this is of course THE.BEST.THING.EVER. 

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Dislikes: He dislikes sitting still/in the same place for more than 10 seconds, being awake for too long, the car unless he is asleep, and when things are too big to shove in his mouth. 

 

 

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Last, but not least, I need to congratulate myself for making it to 6 months still breastfeeding. This was a goal I'd hoped to accomplish, but never thought I would. I always thought nursing really wouldn't be my thing, and since I have nothing at all against formula, I figured I would just switch whenever I was fed up with breastfeeding. Well, let me tell you, I have been fed up MANY times. I have been fed up when I was spending 8-10 hours a day on breastfeeding for the first 3 months. Or when I was sitting in a dusty closet trying to put together all the god forsaken pumping parts. Or when Max decided to go through a "fight the boob" stage and hit me instead of eating. Or when I was sitting in a  bar bathroom on my birthday using a manual pump while everyone else enjoyed their beer. Or when I carried a massive bag to a wedding reception so I could sneak away and pump. Or when I finally got a break from feeding the baby but I still had to PUMP. Or when I ended up in the hospital with a 104 fever because I had mastitis. Yeah, I've been fed up.

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But, there have been unexpected great things too. Like cuddling a cute baby multiple times a day. Or having an excuse to sit on the couch (especially after a long day of dealing with 5 year olds). Or having an easy way to get Max happy. Or the many wonderful books I have read while nursing. Oh, and did I mention it's free? In the end the good has outweighed the bad for me and so I have kept going even during the tough times. I read somewhere never to quit on a bad day, and so I haven't. Maybe I'll make it to 1 year. Who knows?

As always, thanks for reading my ramblings about Max. All professional photos were taken by Caroline. 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Four Years

Today is Eric and my fourth anniversary! You can read about our first three here: 

The First Year

Saying Goodbye to the Pacific Northwest

I Love Boston Project: Rockport, MA

We don't believe in gifts for anniversaries so instead we always go on a trip of some kind. The first year we went to Burlington VT, the second year we celebrated Amber's wedding in Canada, and last year we took a day trip to Rockport MA (then a few days later left for a big trip to Iceland, Germany and Austria.)

This year is obviously a bit different so we took this opportunity to leave Max for the first time over night and go to a hotel in Boston. Many people told us that we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves the first time we left Max but actually we just fell right back into old routines. We did fun touristy things during the day, ate a delicious dinner at night and then relaxed in our hotel room, mostly laughing our heads off without worrying about waking up a sleeping baby. 

Here are some photos: 

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Photo 3  25

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Photo 2  36

Photo 3  26

This coming winter Eric and I will have been together for 10 years, which is 1/3 of my life. I am so very lucky to have had this kind of support and laughter for such a long time. 

Our fourth year of marriage can be characterized with two single words: THIS GUY. 

Maxinhat

Max brought us both some of the greatest joys and the greatest challenges of our marriage so far. When you consider that I have been either pregnant/angry, feeling like crap, sleep deprived or at times massively overwhelmed for the past year, I guess it's a wonder we made it to 4 years at all. Ha. 

I'm looking forward to our fifth year of marriage, and our first full year as a family of 3 :) I plan to be a lot less miserable to be married to this year… at least let's hope! 

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Best of June 2014

I stole this idea for "Best of" from Caroline, just adapting it a bit. 

June was seriously such an awesome month. I didn't even realize HOW awesome until I tried to pick 3 top moments and it was completely impossible. It was definitely the top best month of 2014 so far… I wonder if July can beat it? 

Events/Activities:  

My 30th Birthday

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Boston Harbor Speed Boats: 

Speedboats

Hanging out with Katie, Cristina and Teddy on Katie's 30th Birthday and going to Walden with Teddy and Katie!

Katieatwalden

Meeting Sarah's baby Mira and Tiff's baby Wes

Bringing Max to the park/swings for the first time and having him laugh out loud at Eric on the swings 

Going out to dinner with work friends

The Zac Brown Concert at Fenway! 

Zacbrown

I clearly just need to look at this post whenever I'm feeling "woe is me" about motherhood. 

Workouts: 

It's really impossible for anything else to compete with swims at Walden Pond in the summer. It was a busy month and workouts definitely fell to the side, but I kept up with Walden swims 1-2 times per week and I'm so glad I did. 

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Music: 

everything Zac Brown...

Play It Again, Luke Bryan

Meanwhile Back at Mamas, Tim McGraw

Someday I will have something on this list other than country… but that day is not today. 

Books: 

I loved both books I read this month by Rainbow Rowell: Eleanor & Park and Attachments. 

I'd like to have a better reading month in July, so please recommend your recent reads! 

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Max at 5.5 Months and Motherhood

Usually around the turn of a new month I officially declare Max's 1/2 month birthday. Not that I celebrate this, I just start saying that he is 5 1/2 months, rather than just 5. Hey, at least I don't talk in weeks. 

Max5 5months

Max's newest talent is the ability to roll from back to front, which he mastered this past Wednesday (or at least showed us ha ha). He continues to love to put everything in his mouth. Eric calls it Max's game of "Can I Shove It In My Mouth?" 

He is also currently in love with his jumper that he is borrowing from his BFF Teddy. 

Max5 5months 2

Speaking of friends, Max gained 2 new ones in the month of June. Here he is playing with my friend Tiff's new baby Wes. By playing I obviously meaning hitting, because boys will be boys. 

Max5 5months 4

Max's other new friend Mira was born last week to my friend Sarah. Max and Mira share a few things in common though: they both came early with a sweet tan and both names begin with M :) Since Mira is a girl, Max decided to be a gentlemen (or a total flirt) and put his arm around her instead of smacking. What a guy. 

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Max also thinks if he looks the other way we won't notice him putting the moves on a 9 day old baby… c'mon Max. 

So Max continues to be both hilarious, and a delight. 

As for his mom? I'm a bit of a wild card. I think we can all agree that I went into motherhood with realistic expectations. I never once expected it to be all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, I have always declared that I wanted to miraculously be the dad so I could skip the whole pregnancy and breastfeeding aspect of parenthood. Clearly, nothing has changed my mind about that. I love Max. I love spending time with him, I love reading to him, I love making him laugh, I love seeing him accomplish new things. I do not love: losing sleep, having no time to myself at all, needing to put in 7x the amount of effort that should be required to get in a workout, having my "break" from the baby be carrying around a pump and finding a place to pump then washing the pump parts etc, trying to do research on the best way to do x, y and z and finding out over and over that there is no best way so you just have to try 67 things but also don't forget to be consistent somehow while doing 67 things because consistency is key… whew. I could go on, but I won't. 

I get it. It comes with the territory, if you want the good you have to put in the effort. There are so many things that I love to do that I don't love every second of the day every time (teaching kindergarten, being married, owning a house, even going on vacation is not sunshine and rainbows all the time!) But this will not stop me from throwing a minor hissy fit when I do all these things for Max and Eric watches him for one morning while I'm at work and he decides to choose that moment to roll over the other way. Sigh. The rational side of me knows that it doesn't matter who was there the "first time" he does everything because no matter what it is going to be so exciting the first time I see it. I also know that while I should be with Max quite a bit this summer, I still won't be with him every second of the time (nor should I be) so who knows what I will see/miss and that is life. 

So that is where I am. And if you are going to start your comment with "just wait" followed by any kind of negative comment such as "until Max is walking and you are even more exhausted," please resist. I need some positivity at the moment :) Please and thank you.