Come-Uppance

I wonder why some people who do bad, I mean really bad things, don't get their come-uppance right away. I'd like to witness it :)

Did I mention I put up this post of Ashly and Jeremy's wedding on the main Whitney Lee blog? Well go look!

The family gave me one of the superman capes that they're wearing during the ceremony. I can't WAIT to put it on the baby!

Mark's Visit and More

As I probably mentioned, Mark came in from Vegas last week to visit with baby. I know he wants to be called "PaPa", but I have to admit that when I talk about him to the baby, I refer to him as "Grampa Mark". I don't know why; I don't even think I've ever used the word "Grampa" before! Anyway...a few snaps...

Completely adorable Longhorn jogging suit that Mark brought. Love it!

This kid can have so much fun with just about anything. He's playing with my 50mm lens hood :)

Shoes! He's finally growing into his cute shoes we bought a long time ago. Size 6 months my Aunt Fanny! He's 9 1/2 months, and they still kinda look like clown shoes. Love all of our Robeez shoes though :)

Show mama those teeth, buddy!






In other news, we finally got his Baptism scheduled for sure! It's October 16th at 10:00am if you wanna come :) Invitations will be in the mail shortly, but we had little choice on the last-minute date. I went to schedule it today (after finally getting all of the paperwork and classes done), and they only have 2 English-language Baptism days for the whole rest of the year. One being the 16th, and the other is in December right next to his birthday and Christmas (and we just decided that was waaaay too much to deal with).

Hope everyone's having a fabulous night!

Ugh

Lately it seems like there is some big happening almost every week. I thought this morning might be pretty routine, but no. We had a baby emergency, and I rushed off to the doc as Anthony rushed out for work. Son will be ok, but we spent (what felt like) an eternity in the sad-face waiting room at the doc office even though my kid didn't have anything that could possibly be construed as contagious. Anywho, we had to see a strange doc since ours only works afternoons. She was really nice, and after our diagnosis she offered to give him his flu shot since he was supposed to come in for that tomorrow anyway.

Excuse me, WHAT?! I have to be the one to hold him while he gets a shot?! NO! That's what Dad's are for!!! Don't you understand that I can't be seen as an accessory to pain?!?!

No, she didn't see that. They came in and stuck the poor little thing while he was already in pain and unhappy. He was on my hip and loving me, waiting for me to take him home...then STICK! Tears. His. Mine. Tears.

Picked up a prescription, headed home. FORGOT TO CALL MY MOTHER ON HER BIRTHDAY BECAUSE I WAS SO INVOLVED WITH BABY STUFF. OMG. I felt awful when she emailed me and mentioned her birthday. OY. I had taken her out this weekend when she was here, but nobody should be forgotten on their actual birthday :( Sorry, Mom. M.Y.Y. bunches!!! Hopefully that beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" on your work voice mail took the sting out of my forgetfulness :)

On an upside, I was incredibly productive this evening. WOO!

On a weird side, the kid has been avoiding his second nap of the day. Just having one morning nap is NOT cool to get a baby through the entire day. Today I decided to try giving him one nap in the middle of the day to see if that would last him. I don't know if he will make it to mid-day because he fell asleep on the way to the pharmacy...that skews my scientific results. But he did go down mid-day, sleep an hour and a half...and then he made it almost all day. He started getting super-cranky when Anthony got home, but I don't know if that's because he was separated from me or because he was too tired or both. We'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

On another upside, the weather was FABULOUS today. Thank you God for a glorious glimpse of Fall!!! That crispness in the air puts a skip in my step like nothing else. We rolled out in the new jogging stroller for a looooong morning walk to enjoy it. Hopefully we can do it again tomorrow!

Sleeping Late

There are so many beautiful parts to being a parent. But occasionally there are things I miss from my pre-baby world. One of them: sleeping late. Tonight I have a million things to do, and I feel like I have the energy to move mountains! But...if I don't go to bed soon then when my child gets up tomorrow I will wish I could crawl back in bed. I know one day I'll be able to work whenever the mood strikes me and sleep in a little bit when it's been a long night, but that time is not now. My boy sleeps an awesome 11-12 hour stretch at night, and that's nothing to sneeze at. I guess it's not too big a sacrifice to get up early since he goes to bed early.

My little man can stand up for a few seconds by himself now; pretty sure we got to 10 unaided seconds of standing time today! He is giving me quite the job of keeping up with him. I was trying to play on the floor with him, and he crawled behind me, used the back of my jeans to pull to standing, and then he tried to let go on the scary tile where I couldn't turn around fast enough to grab him if he should fall. I decided to pull him onto my back and give him his first "pony ride". He giggled so hard! It was the best sound ever; I love it when he's that happy! It's one of those laughs where he's happy in the moment, excited about doing something new, and secure in the fact that it's happening with his mama (because he doesn't like anyone else for very long still).

Anthony called me on my way to a maternity shoot this evening and said that the baby had been crying ever since I left. Sad :( I love being important to him, but it makes me sad when he's sad, no matter the reason.

On to happier things! My mom is visiting tomorrow, and we'll be celebrating her birthday early. Woohoo! I see lots of family time and a lot of gelato coming our way!

Also, we made a pit stop by the state while out running errands today. There are a couple people who really go out of their way to play with my baby and fawn over him when we come by (beyond the normal cheek-pinching), and I love it. Before I had a kid, I couldn't even see this side to my friends. But seeing them care about someone who you care about that much?...awesome. Thanks guys :) I love y'all!

Woohoo!

My father came in today, part of his crazy trip around Texas. My little man took to him pretty quick (this is the first time they've seen each other since the babe was 10 days old), and they were both giggling pretty hard by bed time (pictures coming soon). Once the kid was snug in his bed we took off to pick up some dinner and some new wedding shoes for me, yippee! "New shoes" somehow morphed into new socks and new sole inserts. And naturally, that led to a new jogging suit and shirt. Well once we went that far we HAD to get the jogging stroller to go with it. LOVE IT. I can't wait to get out there!...just as soon as my kid is weaned :)

Things and Stuff

This has already been a busy week. I feel like I was out and about most of the day yesterday and today. My volunteering went great today, made possible in part by Cousin. I also got to stitch tonight, woo! Now tomorrow I have some serious errands to run before Mark gets here for his whirlwind visit. Thursday, more errands. Friday, photo shoot and prep for mom's visit. Somewhere in there I need to, oh you know, WORK.

Even though I got home right at 9 o'clock, I still missed my guilty pleasure, Teen Mom, because I clean forgot about it.

Photos from around the time of my mom and dad's last visit that I think I haven't shared yet...

















I'm in love with this photo :)






















Here's a pic from visiting Grandma Abke while she's been in town. She scared the crap out of the baby because of how loud she is :)

Volunteering

Lately I've been feeling bad about lapsing on my volunteer work. I tell myself that I stay up til all hours working and raising a baby so there's nothing to feel bad about. However, I'm going to dip my toe back in the water tomorrow and see how it goes. If doing volunteer work while trying to make a baby happy about life ends up making me miserable then at least I can say I tried :)

Ooooh and tomorrow is stitching (assuming nobody blows an ear drum).

Have I mentioned how glad I am that my camera is back?! I've been shooting a lot of video to catch up on all the stuff I couldn't film the month my camera was gone. Here's part of our pillow fight the other day...

Pillow Fight from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

Tired and hyper?!

My feet are tired, but my brain is wired! Just got home from an 8 hour wedding for Heather and Dave. FUN! Since my regular gals had the stomach flu I took Darcy and Susie with me (thanks girls!).

I feel like I want to do so so so many things right now! I'm home a lot earlier than usual; my brain is listing all the tons of things I could accomplish before I go to bed!

Watching the Texas v Texas Tech game in the background. The Horns had BETTER pull it out. It can be frustrating to watch us play sometimes.

In other news, Anthony's hearing still isn't back. But since he's got lots of drugs, he's taking this time to play up his condition. If I ask him to do something for me then he says, "Oh sorry, you're talking into my bad ear." Riiiiiiiiight.

Ok, going to go be productive now! And think about crazy wedding guys who jump into the dance circle and try to get their freak-on with my camera!

Hooray, weddings!

Anthony is 9 Months

Dear Anthony,

Today you're 9 months. Some of the changes you've made are very obvious and easy to point out, while other times it's little things you do, things that are hard to describe, which show me more than ever that you're growing up.

When I was cleaning the house during your first nap today, I heard you start giggling. You talked to yourself, as usual. And after a little while you started to giggle, but it was mixed with a nervous sound. This happy/nervous laugh when on for a bit, and finally I couldn't take it anymore so I went up to see what you were doing. Anthony, you were STANDING in your crib. You were holding on with one hand and trying to tentatively step away while holding your other hand out. MAN. This was insane. I looked at you with a shocked look, and you looked back at me. We both exploded into giggles, and you had that "please come get me" look on your face. We were both so proud and happy about your accomplishment, and we had to hug over it! I hope I never forget the pleased look on your face and the sound of your laughter when I discovered you. I've seen you pull up on other things in the house, but for some reason this was different because I didn't see the process. I left you laying, and when I came back you were standing.

The second nap you had today, you were not into. We had to run around getting your baby food from Lesley and going to your 9-month check up, and you decided that no second nap was needed for today. There was maybe a period of 15 minutes where you were quiet, but after some whimpering I knew you were done so I came back and there you were...standing in the crib and crying, holding your arms out over the bars for me. HEARTBREAKING. I ran and scooped you up, and you are instantly quiet when we get together...two seconds later, giggles. We are inseparable right now.

This evening I had your dad lower your crib to the lowest setting since you are now a standing man. He forgot to do this until you were ready to go to bed so I held you in my arms like a little baby (which you usually never allow), and I hummed to you while Daddy went to work on the bed. You were giggling at me humming, and even though my arms and back were numb with pain from your weight, I cherished every minute of it. I looked at you and tried to soak in absolutely every thing I could. To my surprise, after a few minutes you fell asleep. Your thumb-sucking slowed down, and it fell out of your mouth as you snuggled closer to my body. We haven't done this since you were about 3 months old, and it was amazing. (Of course you then cried when I had to lay you down, but we rocked a little until you got over it.) I had a hard time walking out of your room when I saw the lowered crib. *Sigh* You're getting so big.

Today we played around on the guest bed, and you seemed to understand exactly how to play with me. We pillow fought (you were mainly attacked!), and you would crawl away as I would chase you. There were so many insane laughs, and we just seemed to be on the save wave length. Loved it!

You usually only say "mama" when I have to leave or if you want me...not when I'm close by and prompting you to say it. You say "dada" a lot now. This morning when your dad left, the door closed, and you looked that direction and whispered "dada?". Precious.

After your visit with the doctor today we've got some hard decisions to make, but I know you're a happy little guy so you'll be fine with whatever we need to do. Every time I walk into that office and see parents with newborns I think about the first weeks with you. I had no idea who you were or what I should do with you. Motherhood was nothing like I thought it would be. Now I feel like nobody will ever know you like I do (which of course will change when you grow up), and I can't imagine not being your mother. I was meant to have you for my wonderful son.

I love you,
Mom