today has been exhausting

Beware of reading this post. It will probably be full of whining and complaining but I have to vent somewhere! I figure it's okay since this is a substitute for my "journal." 

I started working again a few days ago. Luckily, the company I work for has been amazing and offered to let me work from home part time. What a blessing! I'm so thankful. Today I had to go into the office to get things set up and for them to explain exactly what is expected of me. I started my trek down to Dallas at 10:00 AM (we left on time - go us!). It took us about an hour to get down there (which made me realize how much I do NOT miss the commute!). I brought Holden with me today because I'm going to wait a little longer until I introduce the bottle to him. Wowowow...my boss was so understanding (and he doesn't even have kids!). I had to take breaks to change him...nurse him...soothe him...all the while worrying that my boss is going to fire me. It's so much easier working when I'm at home. I can nurse & work, work while he naps, work while he chills in his bouncer, etc. Since I was working from 10:00AM-4:00PM, Holden only got about a 30 minute nap and our nursing schedule was all over the place! All of those components do not equal a happy baby. Considering all of that though, he tolerated it very well. 

Lucky for me he slept most of the car ride home instead of screaming his head off :). Oh the little things...then at home Holden had an exploding diaper which he almost never has, he peed all over himself and me when I was changing his diaper (yuck, it even went in his mouth and all over his face. I have a hard time not laughing at that though...), and earlier at Pinkberry he spewed all over me. I've been spit up on, pooped on, and peed on. At least those are really the only things that could come out of his body. I hit the trifecta! Phew, today has tested my patience. And now my husband's laptop (which I guess is mine since he passed it down to me) has eaten the CD I need for work. 

You know what could cure my grumpiness? A HUGE BAR OF CHOCOLATE. But guess what - I can't have chocolate!! What else could I have...maybe I'll make a cake. I need some dessert with a bunch of calories to munch on or maybe an old fashioned cry session. Alright, I'm done. If you read this post, I'm sorry. My next post will be back to happy Jen, I promise. You know, I just thought of what will cheer me up. The fact that Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, Vampire Diaries, and Bones are all on tonight.

I have to add at least some positive things in here so I'll list some current blessings in my life:

my sweet baby boy, Holden

my trooper of a husband, Allan

working from home (with benefits!!!)

conference this weekend!

the gospel
i had pinkberry today and got to see my friend, Heather!

the best family ever

a beautiful home

-Little Wife Power House

a weekend with the great grandparents

We had so much fun in Midland this weekend. It was Holden's first time on an airplane and I had nightmares of him crying the whole time and everyone on the plane going "ugh..." We got there bright and early - even had enough time to grab a Cinnabon! Yum! While GiGi was getting the Cinnabon, I went to a seating area to change Holden's dirty diaper. He was crying pretty loudly. Here's the conversation my Mom had with a guy in line:

*Everyone is looking over at us*

Mom: That's my daughter. She said everyone is probably thinking, "I hope that baby's not on our plane..."

Man: Yeah...*shifty eyes*

Luckily that was the worst of it. He was a perfect angel there and back! I nursed him on the take off and landing except on the way home Holden pulled away because he's a tough boy and didn't need to nurse on the landing! I'm glad it went well because now I won't be dreading the next plane ride. Here are a few pictures on our way to Midland:

We spent the weekend visiting with my grandparents, playing with Holden, showing Holden off to various visitors, playing in the rain (see below!), making our traditional trek to 7-11, and just relaxing in general. It was nice to get away from everything and just be able to be with family. I wish we could go more often. For the first time I noticed just how alike my grandma & mom are. They are both soooo stubborn! Neither of them will let anyone do anything for them unless you force them. Their personalities are so similar. No question that my mom is her daughter. :) Holden loved Midland! He can't wait to go back and neither can we. 

Here is a picture of four generations. Grandma, Mom, me, and Holden:

This picture cracks me up. Like father like son...both infatuated with the iPad...

-Little Wife Power House

"man, I'm hot!" - holden

the dallas arboretum

I love love love the Dallas Arboretum. Especially this time of year. The pumpkins are out...it's starting to cool down...happy, shiny people looking at all of the beautiful things there. It's a happy place! We got to go this morning with my family and it was Holden's first trip there post womb (weird?). Tom (my mom's boyfriend) even came out for the event! We chatted as we walked around and JR had a blast playing in the pumpkin village. My mom and Tom were out in full force sporting their fanny packs!: 

Allan and I got my mom a fanny pack one year for her birthday to match Tom and this is the first time she's actually worn it. I think she liked it!! She will probably never admit that though. It was so cute to watch Allan playing with Holden from afar.

We went to lunch at R&D Kitchen afterwards and I got their Carnitas Sandwich (yum!) then we were off to Pinkberry. OOoooooOOo my goodness. Pinkberry is heaven in a cup. GO if you haven't yet! The one we went to was at Royal & Preston (luckily right by the temple since Allan & I needed to go). All in all, we were spoiled today by GiGi. Thanks GiGi for the awesome day! I'll leave you with this action shot I love of me and my baby boy.

-Little Wife Power House

holden's first immunizations

WE SURVIVED! Huzzah! Today was Holden's two month check up with his pediatrician which means we started his immunization schedule. To say I wasn't looking forward to the shots would be an understatement. I was SO nervous for him! It's terrible to see your child in pain and shots=pain. I found myself wishing all week that Allan would somehow miraculously be able to take off of work and go for me but alas, Friday came and no such miracle occurred. 

We got there and they took his "stats." He is 24.5 inches tall (a 2 inch increase from last month) which puts him in the 92nd percentile! He's definitely taking after Allan in the height department. He weighed in at 12 lbs .5 oz (I was right on the dot practically!) which puts him in the 54th percentile. Last but not least, his head measured in at 15 inches which puts him in the 11th percentile. My baby's got a small head :) Then we met with the nurse practitioner, Christie Duffy. She is GREAT. She makes up for some other people in the office I'm not too fond of :). She loves children, you can tell. She is so sweet with Holden. She cuddles him and is really patient. 

I told her about my concerns with his skin. I mentioned before that he has sensitive skin. WOW, does he have sensitive skin. I have to do so many things daily just to keep irritations at bay. She looked under his neck and told us to pick up some Lotrimin and apply twice daily for a week. For his ears, olive oil will apparently do the trick! Who woulda thunk! She also recommended shea butter or coconut butter for his dry skin (everywhere but his neck), calendula cream for his cradle cap (which has gotten soooo much better. I was already doing this one - yay! I did something right!), flax seed oil & probiotics for me. She also recommended I try cutting a few things out one at a time to see if that helps his skin. Sheesh - I already gave up milk and chocolate!! Now I have to try eggs and wheat! What am I going to be able to eat?! It's all worth it though if it helps him.  

She left and the nurse came in to give him his two immunizations. That is what I love about this pediatrician. They do not overload children with 5-6 immunizations in one visit. I think that's just too much for a little baby to take. They do 1-2 at each visit. I LOVE that! Holden took it very well. He didn't even really cry with the first and only did for 10-15 seconds with the second. Once I picked him up he was a happy camper and he's been that way since. What a blessing! He made it so easy on mom :) Here's my tough boy:

He's down for another nap so I'm going to go reward myself with a bath while I read Frankenstein for our book club! 

-Little Wife Power House

****UPDATE***** Holden is sure feeling the after affects of the shots. He has been crying for hours. It's so hard :( :( :( Hurry up, Dad, with the baby tylenol!! 

happy 2 monthday, holden!

Today was a big day for my son - he turned 2 months! He's growing bigger every day and I just can't help but think how much I want him to stay a little baby. Too bad they have to grow up but I know the future holds fun things for our family! We had the Guerrero's over for dinner (roast, carrots, and potatoes - yum!) and Angel Food Cake (I can't eat chocolate due to Holden's sensitivity to it...worst sensitivity ever!!) Angel Food Cake is so good and SO easy to make which was good since I was definitely feeling under the weather today. 

He had just woken up from a cat nap so he was a little out of it. We are so lucky to have him in our lives. We grow to love him more every day! 

Holden was sure loving some aunt/cousin time with Lori & JR. He was laughing up a storm! Someone was just telling me at church on Sunday that most babies this young don't smile as much as he does. What can he say, he's living the good life! 


-Little Wife Power House

a trip to the anderson's

Today we lounged around most of the morning then Holden told us he wanted to see his grandparents so off we went! We got there and right off the bat the cuties (Adelle & Carrie) wanted to show off their skit they had been practicing. Boy were they good! It was about a day in the life of Garfield. Their dad was video taping it and I bet they'll get a kick out of it when they get older. Here are the actors: 

I played "You're Bluffing" with Grandpa, Carrie, Adelle, and Allan. It's a really fun game. Adelle creamed us! She's such a smart girl. She can even tell you what "cumbersome" means! How many 6 year-olds do you know that can do that?! After the girls left we played "Bananas" - somewhat like scrabble but different. I've definitely expanded my game repertoire since marrying into the other Anderson family. Kirsten came home and played with Holden while we finished up our games. He was LOVING his Aunt Kirsten - look how happy he was:

She's so sweet with him. He's lucky to have so many people who love him so much. We came home and didn't do much else. I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to look at picture frames because I'm close to ordering the ones I want of his newborn pictures but it didn't work out. It's nice to relax a lot on the weekends anyway because Allan is SO busy during the week. Only 14 weeks left in the semester! I'm not counting down or anything...I'm excited to have my husband back! Bed time for Holden means Super Mario for mom & dad :). Goodnight all! 

-Little Wife Power House

WARNING: BRAGGING AHEAD

Don't say I didn't warn you :) I am one proud momma today! Last night we decided to try transitioning to the crib for a full night's sleep. I had been toying with the idea for a few days and finally decided to just go for it. I was nervous because (as I told you all before) Holden sleeps on his stomach. I may have checked on him throughout the night...at least I didn't sleep in there on the floor like I really wanted to! It was nice having our bed back but I really missed him. It's a little early (he'll be two months on Monday) but I really felt like he was ready. I also didn't want him to get wise on the fact that we were in bed with him every night (he never warmed to his Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper for some reason). He did great! He woke up once at 3:45, ate, and went right back to sleep until 8:30. What a good boy!! I, on the other hand, could not go back to sleep until 6:15. Blah. Oh well, I got to read some, take a bath, mess around online..it was kind of nice. Okay, I'm done.


GO HOLDEN!


Now I'm really done :)


-Little Wife Power House

lots of pictures :)

The two studliest men in my life:

He's all smiles during tummy time! Look at that strong neck!

I just love this shirt - especially with his stylin' diaper! 

We love to go to church :)

-Little Wife Power House

what a fun morning!

We started off the morning going through our normal routine. It was sad to say goodbye to Allan after the fun three day weekend but someone's gotta bring home the bacon, as they say. *WE MISS YOU, ALLAN!* Holden went to spa-de-la-mommy then he had to hit the gym (aka the play mat) for some tummy time:

We decided to go on a walk so I could get a workout in for the day as well! Still gotta work on losing those baby lbs! Whew - it was MUGGY out there! My glasses were fogging up...the camera lens was fogging up...we were having some problems. But nonetheless, we pushed on. It ended up being a really great walk around Savannah. We love those trails! We had to stop half way because Holden needed a major diaper change. Here is his face after the change: 

I'd say that's a happy face! Please note his double chin. I looooove it! It's so fun being home with him. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything in the world. We got home and he passed out immediately and that's where we are at now. I'm excited for book club tonight with Casey and Jennifer! We've read Catcher in the Rye, Catching Fire, and most have read Mockingjay. I just got it Sunday evening so I'm still working on it...we'll see if I can finish in time! 

-Little Wife Power House

meet mr. food face

I just ordered this and I think it's a genius idea. I know Holden isn't even two months old yet but I've always been one to plan ahead - way ahead :). Talk about a great way to make eating those "yucky" vegetables fun! Thanks NieNieDialogues for the great idea! Everyone check out her blog - it is amazing. I know Holden will have hours and hours of entertainment when he gets older! I can't wait. 

Get hers here or his here 

-Little Wife Power House

Holden's Blessing

We woke up and went through the normal routine - nursing, diaper change, bath time. It was actually a pretty relaxing morning. I even got to take a bath! Yay! Things got a little more frantic as we were approaching leaving time. Our goal was 12:00 noon (the blessing was at 1:00 PM twenty minutes away in Denton). My plan was to get to the church and have time to put him in what I like to call a "milk coma" before the blessing. It all worked out and we were right on schedule! What a miracle. There was one hiccup...my mommy brain completely forgot to dry clean his blessing outfit! How could I forget to do that with my ultra skin sensitive baby (another blog, another day)?! I felt terrible! But we had no other choice than to put him it. I figured it would be okay since it would only be about 30 minutes then we would change him right out of it. Boy was I wrong! His back/neck/stomach broke out and turned fire red, Poor little guy...I'm going to have to put on the hat of nurse mommy the next few days while his skin gets over these shenanigans. It was a beautiful day and we are just so thankful to have him in our lives! Holden looked like an angel. Not just "he looks so sweet" (although he did) but like a little spirit who was visiting us from heaven (see below).

-Little Wife Power House

he loves his monkeys!

It amazes me how quickly Holden will calm down when placed in his crib and having his mobile cranked up. It's fun to sit there and watch him work to follow the monkeys round and round. I also can get a few minutes of "me" time. Granted, it's constantly interrupted with me having to go in and wind it back up every minute or so. Why can't they just make mobiles that run on batteries and have an automatic shut off like the swings? I'm sure I'm not the first mom to think that so I wonder what's stopping them? They don't want to make things too convenient for us!


Thank you, GiGi for getting Holden his monkey mobile!


-Little Wife Power House