Exciting Times

Wow so it has been a while. I guess I can't say I've been super busy, cause I don't really do too much - besides taking care of Rowan, Sean, 2 dogs, and 3 cats, and everything else - but nothing too out of the ordinary. Anyways. Lots of new things have been going on in our world, so maybe that's why? But here I finally get a few moments to sit down with my Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup and click away for a few about whats up.

We survived the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas were lots of fun, and Rowan really enjoyed ripping open presents. He got some great new toys from all of his grandparents and aunts/uncles, an awesome hat crocheted by his Aunt, an awesome book from his Grandpa that has the recording of said Grandpa reading, some pretty neat blocks too. We had lots of fun here at our house, getting a Christmas tree and putting perdy blue lights on it. All in all it was great fun, and makes me look forward to next year all the more (especially if Renee and Ryan come out :)).

Rowan Patrick got his first pair of shoes! He has been pulling himself up and standing at the coffee table in the living room lately, and since we don't have carpet his poor little feet were sliding about at times, creating the not so happy baby who was falling down and going boom due to slipping. So we were out at the store the other day, getting something else, and ended up getting him the cutest little shoes.

That little - well big really - thing we happened to be out shopping for was a bed!! We got Rowan a mattress and all the fixin's and he has started to take his naps in his own little bed in his own room! I have been super impressed with how the transition has gone, he has taken it like it was no big deal at all. Which is super cool. I'm just wondering how the transition for night time will be. But that I'm not even thinking about yet, so why worry? I'm not! Its great. He is actually in his room taking a nap right now - hence the blogging. It is super neat though, he is doing great with it, and there have been no changes at all in his napping habits - well except he is actually going to sleep easier now then he had been before, which is great! He is usually down in 5 minutes or less, which is really nice.

Another exciting event hasn't quite happened yet, but it is about to! This Saturday will be Sean and I's first year anniversary - I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. We are going to go to the coast - with Rowan of course - and go to the aquarium, and stay the night. It will be great. A good friend of ours will be staying here at our house with the dogs, so everything is taken care of! It will be our first trip as a family that we are doing just purely for fun. Not to visit anyone - which is fun, but not quite the same - or do anything in particular - except have fun! Rowan has never been to the ocean before, so I am excited! Plus he really likes fish, so I know he is going to dig the aquarium!

And since I am talking about dates, today is actually Rowan's 11 month birthday. Pretty fancy stuff. I can't believe how much he has changed and grown in the past year, it really is astonishing. Lately he has been walking with our help, and he is doing so good with it, getting better every day, I can't imagine my little baby walking sometime in the near future. It is insanity! But super wonderful.

Well that is all for now, sorry there are no pictures, for some reason it isn't letting me load any :/ So I will try back later when I can and put some in! Love you all!

Rowan Patrick update

So I found myself thinking, I often find one thing to write about, and that's what I do - write. I have decided to make a short list of the fun things going on with Rowan, an update list of sorts. So here goes!

• Rowan is eating solids - a lot! He loves them, and has quite a few under his belt. Here is the list of things he is currently eating: sweet potato, pumpkin, green beans, butternut squash, banana, pear, cantaloupe, apple, avocado, rice, and oatmeal! I can't believe it, 11 things! It sure has gone by quick!
• His first tooth has popped through! It is still about level, maybe a bit above the gum line, but it is through his gum's. It is his lower left front tooth, and it is very exciting. I call it his little shark tooth, cause it sure feels sharp - especially when he bites.
• He can sit up on his own! He is still working on the balance thing, gravity is a hard thing to figure out! So I still stay close when he is doing it, but he can sit on his own for longer and longer, and every day his balance seems to be working itself out. It is pretty amazing.
• He wants to crawl. Bad. He isn't quite there yet, but he has been trying, a lot lately. He can turn himself in a complete circle in one spot, and digs his feet and knees in the ground but still is plowing with his head. He just needs to figure out the holding his front and back up at the same time part, and then he will be off. And I will be in trouble! 
• He talks up a storm! Still no solid words, he does say nana when he is eating banana, or eating in general. I'm not quite sure that he connects it, or if its just fun to say, but he does! He also has been saying a lot of dada, baba, mama - usually when he is crying - tata, and a few others. Lots of loud AHHHHHHHHHS as well. Lots of noise - it's lots of fun. He also likes to sing along with music! It is great. 
• His first girlfriend was born on Sunday! 

Those are just a few I can think of off of the top of my head right this second - which is pretty good seeing as it feels like my brain has been on a year long hiatus. All in all Rowan is growing up too fast, but is a lot of fun. We love our little boy to pieces and often find ourselves wishing we could hit the pause button for awhile. But not so likely to happen, so we just try to enjoy it as it comes!

Granny Rags

So since having my sweet little Rowan, I have changed my thinking about many things in life. Using cloth diapers has made me look to other "disposable" items that we use on a daily basis and throw away to sit in our landfills. I was personally lucky to not start my monthly blessing (aka period) for a full 6 1/2 months after little Rowan came. After the first few days, I found myself thinking, how many mothers who use cloth diapers for their babies, use cloth for themselves? Thus began my search for what my Mom calls "Granny Rags." I found during my first experience in 16 months the old conventional ways ("disposable" pads/tampons) to be rather uncomfortable, and started seeking out other solutions. This was where I ran into an amazing product line called New Moon, which has an amazing array of sizes, absorbency, fun facts, and too cute prints. You hear lots of women talking about not being able to wait for their "fluffy" mail (cloth diapers) to arrive, and I found myself not waiting for my Granny Rags to arrive! Well they finally arrived, of course after they were needed, so we must wait a whole month to find out if they work as well as they are said to - and they are said to work as good if not better than the "disposable" option - I am super excited! I know, a rather odd, maybe uncomfortable, topic for some, but what can I say? After having a baby, nursing in public, and just going through everything I have in the past year of my life - well it feels like no subject is out of reach!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well this past Friday was my 24th birthday, and I must say, it was one of the best birthdays I've had in a while. Not to say that my past birthdays weren't good, because they were, I suppose every year feels like its that much better than the last. It was especially fun because I got to spend it with my family, and this year I have a family all of my own! Sean, Rowan and I went to town, and did some shopping. Then we went and picked out my birthday present - a new rocking/reclining chair to nurse in! It is made out of the memory foam material so it is super soft and cushy, and I am in love. My old rocker was a hand-me-down that had much of its life crushed out of it by the time I received it, so this brand new one is like sitting on a cloud! Then we all went to my moms, and we made pizza. My mom and Jim got me a wonderful pizza stone, peel and cutter, and now I am on a pizza making craze! It is so much fun, so good, and such an easy great dinner! All in all it was a wonderful day, and it makes me look forward to next years!

Saying Goodbye

This past weekend my big sissy Renee came out all the way from Boston to meet her new nephew. I was super excited to have her come; I hadn't seen her since last June, and was only a few weeks into my pregnancy. It is amazing how much a life can change in less than one year. A year ago today, I wasn't pregnant, or married for that matter. Mom had just finished her chemo, and life was looking pretty good. I found out that I was pregnant a few weeks before Renee and her boyfriend Ryan came to visit for two weeks. It was a fun visit, but its always hard to say goodbye. Especially when you know how much things will be changing. She never got to see me big and pregnant, I wasn't really showing by the time she had come and gone. Less than a year goes by before she is back, and I am no longer pregnant but have an almost 2 month old little boy here with us! And now Robin is largely pregnant, due in less than a month, so at least she got to see that!
They plan on coming out for a good 2 week visit later this summer, which in our time doesn't seem like really too far away, but in baby time, it's light years. As she was getting ready to jump on her jet plane back to her big city of Boston and her man, tears filled both our eyes to think of how much change will happen in the mere months that will go by between now and then. Rowan will be anywhere from 5-6 months old when she returns next, probably crawling, and who knows what else he will be doing. Gwen (Robins little girl) will be almost 3 months old, and on the fast track of change like Rowan is already.
It is amazing, as our families grow older, and move on in life and the big world, how time can pass so freely when people are close without seeing them. But once someone takes the jump, and moves across the country, how much longer those periods of not seeing one another feel - maybe because of the lack of the option of just jumping in the car and seeing them shortly. It makes the time spent with family who live close more precious, because you never know who might be moving away next. And it is amazing, how hard it is to say good bye, even when the next trip is already being planned; even if they lived closer and you might not see them for as long a period of time; it's interesting how as we get older, saying good bye gets harder every time.

Five Weeks

I sit here in absolute amazement looking at the calendar; it has been five weeks today since my little bundle of joy joined us here in the great big outside world. I look back over the past weeks and can't believe that it has only been five, it feels more like fifty! How much he has grown, and changed already shows how much more there is to come in the future weeks and years. How much Sean and I have grown and changed as well. It is amazing to think on the past, how five weeks ago at this very time we were still at the birth center, possibly visiting with our families who had come to welcome Rowan into the world. That five weeks ago was our first night at home together as a family, the two new parents asking each other what he should wear to bed that night.  How I was terrified to even pick him up for the fear of hurting him. Amazement at how much we have grown together as a family, how this is my family.

I look at the past week and think of how much he has changed this week alone; looking us in the eye, starting his own baby jabber language, discovering his hands, sleeping so much better at night. How scooting is now an exercise event for the whole family to enjoy. He is helping us mold our family sculpture into being, how I am as a mother, and Sean as a father. It truly is amazing to watch all of our progressions, and how quickly they have occurred in only five weeks. Only 35 days.. amazing how much life can change, can progress, in such a short amount of space. It leaves me thinking of the future, and how  much more we will gain, and grow, in the weeks to come.

Poop Time

Never in my life did I think that I would have so many conversations about poop and pee. "Did Rowan poop yet?" has been a common question in our household over the past 2 weeks. It started out with him going a day without doing it, dropping a load. I was worried, checked my books, called my mom, and was reassured, that it was normal. I guess breast fed babies can go a couple of days without pooping. So then next day came around, and finally it came, the massive one. Yay! He pooped finally! The next day comes and goes, and the next, and I start to worry again.

We did bicycle kicks, tummy massage, anything that wasn't invasive for the poor little man. I finally called his pediatrician's office, and they told me it was normal for breast fed infants to not go for anywhere from 4-7 days. 4-7 days. Are you kidding me? Enter life now. Yesterday was day seven, so we decided to give him a bath to see if that would get things moving. And did it ever. And throughout all of this, I am constantly amazed, amazed at how much life has changed in the past 31 days, how poop and pee are now normal conversations in our house, and how exciting dumping a big load can really be.