Happy Birthday America!

I love Independence Day. It is my 4th favorite holiday, but it's a close contender for 3rd. I was expecting to be a little stressed because we had things to do and Friday was productive, but not very restful. But no, we ended up having a great day!

We ate breakfast with the ward. They had tacos with the pancakes, eggs, and fruit, just in case you weren't sure we were in Texas. I would never have had tacos for breakfast, but I found myself wanting seconds. Go figure.

Then we went to my cousin's house. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find it, but we didn't have any problems. And we had tons of fun there. Really yummy food, games, and kids running around = fun apparently. We also went swimming. I haven't been swimming for years due to the fact that I don't really like water or water sports, and playing around in a pool is not my idea of fun. But I have been told it's the only way to survive Texas summers, especially for the first few years. So we packed up the swim gear and went. We even bought swimming diapers for G. He wasn't sure what to make of everything, but I think he ended up enjoying himself.

So happy birthday America! I'm glad we could celebrate you by doing American things--eating, talking, lounging, and forcing our children to try new things. I even made pies. And what's more American the pies? Well, me. And I'm glad we have all the freedoms we do in this country. It'd be hard to raise a kid somewhere where I knew he wouldn't be able to do what he wants and what he's good at when he grows up. So thank you to the original freedom fighters, and thank you to everyone in the military helping us fight for freedom now.

My Hands Upon My Head I Place

Not only is that song tons of fun to sing with kids, but it highlights my favorite G part this week, the hands. Not only are they ridiculously small (I don't know how they make them that small), but his little joints are just lines and his fingers plump out on either side. His knuckles are just dimples in his puggy hand. The lines on his palm are deep enough to catch pieces of lint in, but he normally gets them caught in between his fingers. I'm not sure why he always seems to have lint between his fingers since he doesn't open his fingers very often. Or why the lint is always blue. But I love that he likes to grab things, especially my fingers, and especially when he's eating. I'm in love, but you already knew that.



Pics of the house to come after we clean up this weekend.

Chubby cheeks

My favorite part of little G this week is his chubby cheeks. When his face is relaxed, they make such cute jowls. When he smiles, he has a little dimple that is just icing on the cake. And his little cheeks jiggle so cutely, take a look -

Me time

So my philosophy on motherhood so far is "take care of you, so you can take care of them", meaning, of course, that no one can give endlessly, you need to have something to draw from. I have found that I get really cranky a) when I'm really tired, or b) I haven't had any time to myself in awhile.

I try to have some time all my own every day, even if it's just taking a little longer in the shower. Sometimes I read, sometimes I blog. Sometimes it's really hard, especially when the little guy doesn't want to sleep, or when I have lots of housework, or when I crash cause the little guy doesn't want to sleep. It's hard right now cause I don't have any friends, parts of the house are still in conflict, and G seems to have a sixth sense that tells him when I'm not around any more.

So my gift to myself this week is time, just the knowledge that things will get easier, I will be able to have all the things I had before, and I will eventually feel like I did before my hormones exploded last year. In the meantime, I always have this:

He's cute even when he's mad and crying.

Favorite part of the week

So, there are just so many things to love about Baby G and my favorite thing about him keeps changing, so I thought I'd start posting the favorite part of the week every week. This week, wrists. Here's why:

A Day in the Life of a Mom

Being a mom is hard work. Today I was spit up on, pooped on, kicked, scratched, bitten (toothless gums can still hurt), yelled at, and head butted. Not all of these were on purpose, and it certainly wasn't the worst day I've had. I only had to change outfits once, and there wasn't any vomit today. Though nap times didn't go so smoothly, I still managed to get some unpacking done. But still, this makes bond closings seem like a cake walk.

However, though I didn't get a nap today, I did get plenty of smiles, some with dimples. I got laughs and cooing, both still pretty new. And I got the little guy asleep on my shoulder, my favorite thing. Plus I got to hold him through one of his naps cause he wasn't sleeping well on account of his congestion.

So, all in all it was a good day. And I did know before hand that being a mom is not a job for the light of heart.

(sorry, the picture that is supposed to be here didn't load, but we'll have high speed internet soon.)

And as implied above, we did close on our house. And after a few days of camping out on the floor, our stuff arrived and now we are putting everything in its place, which is actually quite fun.

Limbo

No, not the limber-testing pole, but the waiting zone. That's where we are. Well, technically, we're in a hotel, but still we don't know anything permanent. What on earth am I talking about? The house, of course. First we were going to close on Friday, then we were going to close on Monday, today. But we found out right before business closed on Friday that we couldn't do that. So now we're set to close tomorrow . . . maybe. Maybe in the afternoon, but most likely after business hours . . . or Wednesday . . . or you know, whenever. Apparently, it's not up to us, nor will anyone talk to us in a timely manner.

On the upside, (since I'm an optimist at heart), at least our stuff hasn't come yet. And we did get a call from them saying they could deliver tomorrow, but they'll be just fine delivering on Wednesday. This means we didn't have to worry about them coming early before we closed. It also means that we won't be in the house for a week without our stuff. It also means that if we had been able to close on Friday like we originally planned, we wouldn't have had our stuff until Tuesday at the earliest. So there is an upside. But I'm still not a homeowner . . . yet.

Anyway, here's the little guy in living color:

Bonus points for anyone who can tell me what's on the TV in the background.