He Eats!

After we discovered that one of the things that could be keeping Sawyer up at night is his terrible reflux, we tried giving him Zantac as prescribed by our pediatrician.  It made Sawyer so grumpy and irritable I could only give it to him 5 days before I stopped.  He was happy enough with his reflux, thank you very much.

So instead the doctor suggested we try introducing some solid foods since the thicker it is going down, the harder it is to come back up.  4 months is the earliest you can start babes on solids, but as he isn't sleeping or nursing well, we gave it a try.

And the verdict is.....HE LOVES IT!  He shook his little hands and waved his wee arms and he demolished two small bowls on his first try. Next up: fruit and veggie exploration. 

{cousin Lincoln models good eating}

{this is the "yum mama give me more! fast!" look}

4 months

Sawyer's Stats: 27.5 in long (still 99%ile!), 16.5 lbs, I still squeeze him into 3 mos onsies but only 9 mos pants will do!

Basically, he's one long kid with one big head and two very blue eyes.

Sawyer LOVES to observe and takes great interest in the world and people.  He has very expressive eyes. At times it seems he is looking into my soul, or letting me see into his, the way his deep baby blues look at me.

He loves to be outside.  Sometimes when he starts getting fussy, all I have to do is grab some toys and a blanket and head out to the patch of lawn in front of our apartment.  He'll settle down immediately and take up chewing on toys or watching cars pass by.

But every superhero has his kryptonite, and right now that's sleep for Sawyer.  He is back to waking every 2 hours like a newborn, sometimes to eat, sometimes to fuss, sometimes just to be held. It's been pretty challenging for me to get up with him and then not be a mama zombie during the day, so we're going to talk to our doctor and see what we can do to help him.

Back to being a superhero.  At 4 months Soy boy can roll onto his back, then back onto his stomach, and he loves to have us support him so he can stand.  If that's not mama bragging, then this is: the pediatrician said he has very advanced muscle tone, at least a month or two ahead of schedule.  I said he gets that from his mama :) (I'm not so sure if the doctor laughed......) And just like at 2 months, he took his vaccination shots like a champ.  Just jab, jab, deep breaths, cry for 15 seconds, then snuggle mama.

He's amazing, and I ask myself every day how did we ever get so lucky, or so blessed?

The Process of Turning a House into a Home

The other night as I was bouncing Sawyer to sleep I said to Jeffrey, “I love our home.” To this he replied, “I thought you hated it here.” And it’s true, (at first I thought a good title for this post would be “From Hellhole to Home,” but that sounded too harsh…) for the past 12 months that we’ve lived here I’ve found plenty of things to grumble about.

But I know why.  We moved so quickly and unpacked so hurriedly and became so busy that we never settled in to this apartment.  With mishmash décor on the walls and furniture placed anywhere it would fit, the feeling just wasn’t right. 

I read once the account of an older man reflecting on his days as a military man in Vietnam.  His battalion moved around so frequently that he never took the time to unpack his things. He was miserable, until he realized why: he didn’t have a home or the stability a home brings.  So from that day on, no matter whether his troop would be stationed somewhere for a week or a few months, he unpacked his belongings and set up a home for himself.

This story resonated with me because I deeply value having a home; a place of peace and safety where we can feel cozy and secure in our love.  We’ve never lived in a truly “nice” apartment, choosing instead to rent well below our incomes so we’d have money to save and to spend. However, I’ve always worked hard to make our apartments comfortable, cute, and clean.  Every apartment, that is, except this one.

So last week I rolled up my sleeves and rearranged, redecorated, and refurbished.  To me, it’s not just putting pictures on walls or frivolously spending on cutesy this and unnecessary that, it’s the process of establishing a home.  It’s putting down our roots and making our mark on life.  It’s creating stability for our family.  It’s walking in to a space where you want to stay.  It's thinking to yourself when you leave that you can’t wait to return.  It's one day, when there’s a moving truck parked outside, loaded and ready to go, being able to say not only, we lived here, but we loved here.

 And that's how a house becomes a home.

Photos of our third love nest will be forthcoming, hopefully soon after we return from our vacation (!!)

Weekend Mirths: Lamb and Wool Fest

 This weekend we traveled to Thanksgiving Point to see the lambs at the Lamb and Wool Festival.  Jeffrey and I dream of retiring to New Zealand to raise sheep and grow lavender, so we thought we'd go do some "research" on lambies and such.  We packed a picnic lunch and brought our little lamb along for the fun and, true to form, he stared bright-eyed at everything in sight until his eyes got too sleepy to take in any more.

Excuse us...

{my favorite trick of Sawyer's- he recently figured out how to sling his arm around my neck and I can't get enough}

we have a big, fun weekend planned, that will hopefully include a 4-month baby photo shoot, some long walks, some wooly animals, and more.  So we're gonna go get started on that. 

Enjoy your weekend with your bestest buds!

Mothers Day Weekend Mirths

 It was a weekend of family movie night, family dinners, family naps, and basically, a whole lot of family greatness.  My first official mother's day was amazing thanks to my two wonderful boys.  Jeff made me buttermilk pancakes and Sawyer gave me plenty of slobbery giggles and nuzzles.  An adorable new hat and a sweet bouquet of flowers rounded out the day and the weekend.

I can't believe how much my life has changed since becoming a mother.  Motherhood has made me feel so complete and empowered, and the same time so lacking and even, at times, powerless. I've never been challenged this hard or this much, and it takes summoning up courage and strength from life challenges that steadied me before Sawyer to make it through some days.  And yet this is the most wonderful responsibility I've ever undertaken and I'm so happy to share my life with Sawyer and the man who makes it all possible, my Jeffrey.

 

Excuse me....

did you say I'm turning four months this weekend?

Golly!

Well I'd better go get my party hat on...

There. Let's partaaay!

Num Num

Nothing like a gnawing a good pair feet.

Weekend Mirths

Jeff had this really great idea.  To carry it out, we headed to Sweet Tooth Fairy to get dessert.  We left loaded down with 3 scrumptious cupcakes to eat as the finale to Jeff's brilliant idea.  Then as we drove away, all three of us watched as the finale splattered on the road and sticky frosting coated some lucky person's tires. Sad. Extremely sad.  Luckily, we were able to recover and after whipping up a dessert at home, we packed it up along with some dinner and drinks and our baby boy, and headed to our favorite spot on campus.
On our way up, Sawyer showed us what he's into these days: snuggling his little blankie and sitting up straight.

 

Once we arrived for our picnic dinner, we realized we hadn't been up to the balcony on the Joseph F. Smith Building since Jeffrey first decided he was good and ready to kiss me, and what with that sweet memory in mind and all, we had smiles on our faces for the rest of the night.

 

 Unfortunately, the smiles didn't last us the whole weekend due to a depressingly unsuccessful attempt to find mama bear an awesome pair of colored jeans for summer, and an equally depressing amount of time spent reading the most depressing book series, The Hunger Games.  I know, I must be crazy not to love it, but I have a hard time enjoying violence and teen romances in the first place, so this book just reinforced all that.  The fun part was that Jeff and I read the books simultaneously, so there's was lots of "where are you?" "can you believe that?" "what's going to happen?!?!?!?" And when it was all over the family had a cuddle fest to ramp up the warm fuzzies in our home and chase away all that depression. Phew.

Excuse us...

we're playing here.

Have a glorious weekend!

Baby Bellas and Sugar Snap Peas, aka Best Steak Side Dish Ever

I probably should have spent more time taking pictures of the pretty process of making this best steak side ever, since the little mushrooms in their darling, earth-friendly packing were so cute, the sugar snap peas were so fresh and green, and fresh herbs are always lovely, but I had two hungry boys waiting and there was no time for frilly cooking.  Just know it was a pretty process.

Also, I don't even like mushrooms and I LOVED this.  I blended a few of Jeff's favorites (butter, butter, and more butter) with a few of mine (lemon, fresh herbs, and parmesan) to make a side dish both of us very thoroughly enjoyed.


Best Steak Side Dish Ever

Ingredients:
1 scant Tbsp unsalted butter
1 carton baby portobello mushrooms (I forgot to look at how many mushrooms were there....oops)
2 C fresh sugar snap peas, stringed
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup grated parmesan
salt

Method:

In a medium-sized saute pan over medium heat, melt butter.  Add in mushrooms, and saute until just turning golden brown.  Stir in peas and season with salt (I like salt, so used a bunch...hehe).  When peas are almost crisp-tender, stir in lemon juice, parsley, rosemary, and parmesan, then cook until peas are crsip-tender and parmesan has melted.

Enjoy!

A New Friend

 

Sawyer is starting to want to chew on everything, which means two things: 1) everything goes into his mouth, and 2) lots of drool comes out.

Right now, little boy blue can't get enough of chewy, squeaky Sophie, and I can't stop laughing at how hard he's trying to jam her whole body into his mouth. It sure beats gnawing on your fingers (fun fact: he'll shove all his fingers into his mouth and chew, chew, chew until they get so far back into his mouth he gags himself) doesn't it baby boy?