No caption needed

This guy thinks he's hilarious. So much for a five minute shower while he hangs out in this thing.



(can we just say mom of the year? I win!)

Amanda

Time zone

It's 2am...


This guy still thinks he's in Hawaii. Oh, time zone change you are kicking this mama's behind!


If you are wondering. Yes, I did work today less than 12 hours after landing. Tired is an understatement:-p

Amanda

after all this stuff

After Watching dad jump into the falls...


Hanging out at the beach...


Some more hiking...


Eating the most gigantic shave ice...


Hanging out with cousin kenz...


Baby gymnastics while waiting for kenz...


This little guy can't even hold his own bottle! Exhausted!


Amanda

Nature and some other random things

Due to the nature of my job... I am going to miss many milestones of my favorite little man. Sadly, I've already missed a few things and it only gets worse before it gets better. Only for a little while or maybe a long while, not sure. Anyways... A guy that I work with gave me some good advice. He said you can't beat yourself up over missing milestones, it's the job. He suggested I make a list of things, crazy firsts that can be controlled by circumstance and not developmental things.


Such as:
1. Dathans first roller-coaster
2. Dipping his toes in the pacific ocean (check that one)
3. First plane ride (again check!)
4. First hike to waterfalls.


I know the roller-coaster thing is a long ways off but in the next few weeks I am going to make a list of "firsts" that I can be sure him and I get to experience together...

Maybe some of you might come up with some good ones? Make your own list?

Here's my little guy who thinks that crawling on your knees is lame.


Did I mention we are in Hawaii! Since the time change we have been waking up at 4am, not much to do around here at that time! My niece Makenzie and my sister live out here... So beyond jealous! At least we have a free place to stay.
We hiked our first day here.


We did some island hopping and we hung out in the first class lounge.


Then we hung out at the beach a little...


Met up with some friends...


And no vacation is complete without a race? Right? Our friend Emily... Winning the women's race no big deal!


Go Dad!


He is always making friends at the post race festivities.


Vacation. So. Relaxing.

Amanda

Thanks to drew

A couple of weeks ago my photo was in the news paper along with this article.


At first I felt uncomfortable with this article because I knew that there are so many other moms that deserve "mom of the month"... There are many more amazing stories but for now here is mine.
Amanda

Fire Fighting

Uncle mike is a firefighter in the Air Force....



Dathan got to tour the firehouse and try out some of the gear they use! Mike works at the firehouse where the Presidents plane is parked. I hope the President knows he is in good hands!


This little guy has some very cool aunts and uncles...

Amanda

I thought I had more time

One night he's sleeping peacefully in his crib...




The next night I catch him up to no good...




I was expecting D's next milestone to be sitting unsupported, like all those baby charts say. He skipped right over that and went straight to crawling and almost standing? What?!?!? When I say "skipped" he can't sit by himself, I see all the other six month old babies in the church nursery hanging out, sitting around looking at each other. And where is my kid? Crawling/scooting wherever he can. Someday we'll get the sitting phase. Today is not that day. If he is like his dad... Never;-)




If you count the bumbo as sitting, then I guess he does.




He would much rather his friends be in the chair and he can be free.
I thought I had more time before he became mobile:-/
Not the most flowing post. I know.
Amanda

And this is my afternoon

In love with my afternoon...


Amanda

Neglecting you

Blog, thanks for your patience. I've been neglecting you.

I am not sure how full time working moms do it. And by do it I'm talking about work, keep up with the house, husband and devote your time to your little ones. Somewhere things have to lack? Or am I just not capable? I'm leaving the house at 4:30am and coming home exhausted:-/ I end up in bed by 7:30, then Drews home around 8:30. I say hello and fall back to sleep.

Mom, with 5 children... How did you do it? I'm officially putting you in my Super Hero book, you know, right there with Superman.

The good news is that this "full time" stuff is a season! It's been 7 weeks and I have 1 week left! Then I go back to my preferred 1 day a week. This has been a real eye opener to how blessed I am to have a husband who is on board with me not working a 40 hour work week. Also, where I was lacking in housework he was picking up most of the slack. I think he will be happy to have his wife back. Did I mention I'm grumpier than usual?

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks...


First time in the highchair, no food yet... But we are practicing!


Just being the little stud that he is!


Opening his first party invitation... From a girl!?!


Running with daddy... Always happy to do that:-)


Hanging with dad... Watching The Tour de France.


Hanging out with Opa and Aunt Marcy at Dads Triathlon.

I promise blog... I'll catch up. One day.

Amanda

4 months?

This little guy is 4 months... Where did time go? I realize I have been Mia for a few weeks, started working and life is just passing by!



Stats: 12.5 lbs (10%), 26 inches (95%) and his head I can't remember but it's in the 95%! Long and lean just like his dad.

Little buddy you're rolling front to back and back to belly. You love smiling and giggling. You love your toes and anything you can get your hands on to put in in your mouth.


You sleep like a champion in your crib, sleeping 8:30pm-9am if we let you!


You're into lights, fans, and pockets.


You rarely cry, thank God, because it breaks my heart when you do. Bath-time is not calming for you, like everyone tells us it should be. Bath-time is like giving you an expresso before bed.


When daddy sings or plays airplane you make daddy so happy with your screams of delight! You have some amazing little "friends" and I hope you grow to love them as we love their parents.





You are amazing little buddy, our little snuggle muffin:-)
Love
Mama

lost

We got lost on a trip this week. Well, I mean we took the extreme scenic route. So in the midst of being slightly annoyed at our 45 minute turned 2 hour drive... Drew suggested a hike and pulled off on a trail head. I didn't have the shoes for it, but my heart was there.





Isn't his face hilarious?

Oh, and how about Dathan and tummy time. This next picture is his usual tummy time picture. He isn't a fan of it, usually he just puts his head down and goes to sleep.


Then I turned on the news...


3 months... And I have to bribe him with the news (and sometimes the travel channel)? He is for sure his daddy's little guy!

~I know I still have part 2 of California to post... But I'm trying to figure out how to post a video with the blog app!

Amanda

The story

This post has been in the making for about 10 weeks. Yeah my little guy is 3 months old. Crazy. The story you've been waiting for (or maybe not?). What had happened was...

The morning of the 15th I got makenzie on the bus in our usual fashion, slower than pond water. My neighbor suggested wawa coffee, I obliged and went with her. I ran (waddled) to the house for some money and I had to blow my nose. I blew my nose and wouldn't you know I "peed" my pants (clueless at this point). Changed clothes and headed to wawa. Around 2 that afternoon I blew my nose again and there I went again, I had survived the entire 9 months without losing bladder control and twice in one day?!? What? So, I then start to think back on my day and realized baby D had not moved in about 2 hours.. He usually moved constantly. I started to go into panic mode thinking maybe my water broke and I didn't realize and now there no fluid that's why he stopped moving. I call the doc and she says to head over to the hospital to get the baby's heart beat and fetal movement checked out. I assuming I would be back after a quick check from the doc, head out the door... Yep drove myself.
Doors unlocked: check
Can of tomato sauce open: check
Tv still on: check
All lights on: check
Overnight bag left at the door: double check
Forget to call Husband:check and check.
I really thought I was coming back that night, the hospital had other plans. As I drove to the hospital I felt the baby move then 3 times, figures. I get there and I get put in the triage room, I tell them that I felt him move and if they could just check the heartbeat and send me home that would be great. After 2 hours of monitoring and them checking to see if my water broke the nurses came in to let me know I would be staying. Wait?!? What?? My water had broken and I guess I was having contractions about every 6-7 min? I was really clueless, I didn't even know I was having contractions.
The nurses said I should call my husband and let him know. Oh jeez! I forgot to call him. So I call drew and the conversation goes something like this..
Drew- "is it time?!? Should I come get you??"
Me- "now Drew don't be upset, but..uhhh I drove myself to the hospital"
Drew- pause for silence "well, I guess it wouldn't be our story if you didn't drive yourself. I'll be right over"
Me- "umm there's more, I left everything on at the house and the overnight bag... So we need all that stuff"
Drew- "awesome ok"
About an hour later Drew makes it to the hospital and I'm just getting into the room. Makenzie went to my neighbors house after school and her mom was returning the next day, the 16th. Talk about Gods perfect timing. Makenzie was given a chance to see her baby cousin and have her mom come home on the same day.
Since my water had broken almost 12 hrs (possibly more) earlier the midwife decided that since I had been having contractions and had not progressed they were going to use pitocin to induce. For the record that stuff is not fun. Instead of contractions lasting a minute or two I had about a 2 hour contraction from about 1am-3am. I finally asked the nurses if this was normal, apparently not! So they lowered the dose and I went back to having regular contractions. Thank the Lord! Around 5am I decided it was time for some pain meds, I had been in labor for 14 hours (that I knew about) and it was time. As I asked the nurses for the Epidural, a woman walks through the hospital doors screaming. From the time she arrived until delivery was 7 minutes, she had priority over me.
Around 8:30am I finally got the epidural, it wasn't the relief I had been expecting. I still had a lot of pain in my back. After talking with the nurses they determined I was probably having "back labor" hence the back pain.
So the next 2 hours everything was numb... Minus my back.
Now during all of this, drew was a champion coach. He really treated the whole thing like a really long endurance race. He at one point (to keep me occupied) was telling me how he felt he had been training for this for 9 months and he was on the starting line of a championship race and so excited to compete. We're runners, can you tell? He also drove to the local CVS an hour before Dathan was born to get me some jelly beans. Why I needed jelly beans I will never know? But he didn't ask questions, he just went.
Drew arrived back at the hospital just as the midwives were telling me that I could begin pushing and that our little boy could be here as soon as 30 min or as long as 3 hours.
And panic took over me. Full fledged hyperventilating panic. I wasn't ready. I thought I had a few more hours. I had stuff to do. I was not prepared. After drew calmed me down and assured me it was too late to do anything else. The nurses and midwife came back in and we began to push.
More panic... Drew and I were birthing class drop outs. Ha! I didn't know how I was supposed to breath? Drew had watched some videos but he was so excited he was having trouble explaining it to me. Lucky for us those nurses have done it thousands of times. They explained and I was back in the race, err I mean back to labor.
We started pushing at 11:10am and little Dathan was born at 11:36am on February 16th.
He was immediately put on my chest and I could see his little eyes wide open and feel his wrinkly little body moving. Drew could not see that he was alive and was waiting for Dathan to cry, like in all the movies. Drew told me later that he thought they were not telling him that something was wrong, turns out little Dathan needed some time to let us know his lungs were good to go. And did/does he ever!
It took me a few minutes to grasp that I was a mom and that little Dathan was our little boy. It honestly took about 5 minutes to get through the shock of what had just happened, but once I did my heart melted and I've been madly in love ever since. What an honor to be Dathan's mom.


And an honor to be Drew's wife.

Yeah. We did it.

We, me and D flew 2,721 miles. Alone. It was his first flight (outside the womb) and the boy flew like a champ. It's safe to say though the short car rides to and from the airport were on the rough side, but on the plane (sitting in my lap) he was a natural. If he wasn't sleeping he was flirting with all the lady stewardesses. I'm so in love with this little guy, do I feel a future pilot in the works like his momma? I was so nervous that he would be "that" baby, the one where all the rude comments come out and everyone stares. But nope he wasn't... I mean everyone starred, but because he was so cute (that's what I tell myself).


I am a veteran flyer, I've flown all over so the experience wasn't new to me. It was new to have a baby tagging along. I was given some good advice from some other moms, but I didn't really take any of it. The only thing I slightly (only slightly) regret is not taking a stroller. Ha! During an unanticipated layover in Phoenix, this girl (me) had to use the bathroom! Not so easy when there isn't a place to put the little guy down. Without going into detail... Let's just say I got my squats with weights workout in for the day. If it were appropriate I would have done a you tube video tutorial on how to use the bathroom while holding a baby. Ok sooo not appropriate. Onward.
So the whole trip to our destination went fabulously. I write this post as I sit waiting for D to wake up from his nap so we can seize the day or at least seize every 45 min he's awake.
Your probably wondering why anyone would fly willingly alone with a 2.5 month old? Truth is like I posted before, family is everything. We came to surprise my little brother who wrote and is directing a play out here in...


He was bummed no one could make it, the play was really important to him.
I could make it but the cost was crazy. Drew gave me a budget and if I could make it work. We could go. The rest of the family chipped in to make it work... Hear that mat! The whole family was in on this! Ha! Alicia helped pay for the ticket, mom used some of her points from previous stays in hotels for the room (which means dad gave up a hotel night for their annual vacation). Arielle's graduation is Saturday and she gave up us being there for it. And mike drove two hours to and from his house to help finish the nursery, an absolute must be done before we left! Most important Drew without his wife and baby for a few days;) So the family helped make the budget/surprise work. Crazy love you got mat!
Ok~ tons more to this post but let's make it a two parter, maybe even 3. I've got video on how we surprised him and some other stuff.


With that happy Friday from the West Coast.

Gym manners

The other day I went into Gymboree, it's like a play gym for little humans. I wanted to check it out for Dathan in the future. So there I was observing a class, when little D ripped one, in better terms he farted. Yep! And if you've ever heard him you would understand. This little tiny human specimen can put a grown man to shame, I thought his dad had some doozy's. Ha!

I thought nothing of it, had a lighthearted laugh. But. Then. I. Looked. Up. Every mom in the place was staring. Wait a minute, don't tell me you ladies never heard your kid fart? Oh wait, did they think It was me? Seriously?

C'mon people. My kid can't help it and really you thought it might be me!?

That's when I turned to the group and said "we must have missed the manners class all your kids got at the hospital" haha.

The room lightened up a little... I'm still not sure if they knew who actually passed the gas.

Social butterfly

This weekend D got to meet a ton of family and friends or he slept while they met him.
The really big one was meeting his great Grammy or as she has requested to be called Grammy Great! Every Monday they "talk" on the phone, but they had not met in person yet.

"Grammy Great"



His cousin Sophia, who was born very shortly after Drew and I were married! We told her to smile like a princess... I would say that's a princess smile!


Sophia's Mimi


D spent a few hours "playing" with his cousin JJ. JJ shared all the toys in the room and then also taught D how to share his binki, D didn't seem to mind sharing. Ha!


And our friend Carter went for a walk with us...umm hello doesn't he make that hat look cute!


Grammy (who is awesome but not "Grammy Great" haha this could get confusing for him someday!)


And after that long weekend he was exhausted!


Happy Monday!