On a roll

And this morning? Junior turned from his back to his belly - many times. Apparently he decided this weekend was the weekend for progress.

Junior makes progress

Today was a landmark day for Junior. He turned over from his belly to his back twice!! He almost turned from his back to his belly but his pesky arm was in the way.

He is sitting pretty good these days as well. He does have a tendency to kick his legs and then fall on his back or else lean forward too far and fall on his forehead, but if you keep his attention in the right place and don't get him too excited, he can sit for a good amount of time.

He still spits up very frequently and he is the slobber king. His latch is not the best, but no matter how I plea, he won't fix his latch.

He is the size of a six month old. I should start putting him in 9 month clothes so that he has a bit more space to breathe, but I'm in denial.

Time. I need more of it.

There are not enough hours in the day. Who decided on 24 hours anyway?? And who decided we had to work 8 of them? Eight sounds like a small number, but somehow that number gets s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d and I don't think I ever just spend 8 hours at work. And this is just my job-work. Not my home-work.

So this is a day from my recent "schedule:"

7am - Feed baby
7:30 - shower, get kids ready
8:30 - Leave house
9:00 - arrive at work
7:30 - leave work
8:00 - get home, pump milk for tomorrow while watching kids
9:00 - eat dinner
9:30 - Handsome's bedtime routine begins
10:00 - Feed baby while talking to DH or watching tv
11:00 - bedtime
1:00am - Feed baby
1:30am - Sleep
3:00am - Feed baby
3:30am - Sleep
5:00am - Feed baby
5:30am - Sleep
cycle continues....
(Baby feeding times vary on demand. Lately he's actually been getting up every hour. Don't know what's up with that madness.)

Did you notice how much "me" time is in there??? Yeah, none. Closest I get is about an hour between Handsome's bedtime and the time my body decides it has had enough and I just fall asleep. That time isn't even really my time as I am talking to DH and holding/feeding the baby at the same time. Work time could possibly be considered my time as I sit in my office alone, but I am working to support my family and I just started a rather stressful trial period for a possible promotion in a year and a half, so basically it provides no relief.

So when am I supposed to find time to go to the gym or practice photography? I need both of those for my own health, and I just don't get the opportunity. I keep seeing lessons for a 365 or 52 week photography challenge and I REALLY want to participate so that I can get better and I just can't find enough time. I see people that improve so much in one year and here I am going along at a snail's pace. I get about once a month where I can get a couple hours to practice. I tried to take a picture of Handsome last night and he thought it was funny to run away at the last minute. Yeah, Handsome, very funny. Then I tried to take Junior's picture and he started to cry because it was time to feed him. Then it was time to put Handsome to bed. When I finished there it was time to feed Junior again so that he would fall asleep for his longer sleep period. And at that point I couldn't take a picture of anything else because all the lights in the house needed to be off. GAH.

I know DH is having just as hard a time because he has the kids all day long and the few minutes that he might get he has to spend on school work.

Oh Lord how I need strength.

I spy something...

So this morning I was feeding Junior and Handsome sat next to me and asked to play a game. I knew he meant that he wanted to play a game on my phone, but it was nowhere near me and I didn't really want him to play a game on there anyway. So I decided to teach him how to play "I Spy;" albeit a modified version. So I would choose a color and he would have to find something in the room with that color and then it would be his turn. He would chose colors before he found something in the room that was actually that color and I would struggle to find something that color. In case you are wondering, there is very little pink or yellow in my living room.

So it was my turn to choose a color and I chose brown. We have lots of wood so I figured he would chose the coffee table or the tv stand. The first time I chose brown he chose the chair that was barely within his line of sight, completely ignoring the ginormous coffee table a mere foot from him. I thought I would give him a second chance to choose the obvious rather than the obscure. His answer: "My toes!"

This was the first time he showed any awareness of skin color. Now I wonder how long it is going to take for him to ask why people are different colors; and especially why Mommy and Daddy look different. He asked DH why his privates were big - meaning bigger than what Handsome had. DH said it was because he was older so everything was bigger. He is definitely starting to notice and become curious about more of the world around him.

Independence Day

Handsome went to see his first fireworks show on Sunday. We met a couple friends and sat on the lawn of the Pentagon to watch the fireworks in DC. Handsome was more interested in playing games on the iPhone than the actual fireworks display. He was not into the sitting still part either. Maybe it was because we were too far away, but at the same time he did say he didn't like the loud noise, so I'm not sure it would have been any better if we were closer.

I didn't get to see much as I was trying to keep Handsome near us and Junior decided he was hungry. So overall it wasn't one of my best experiences watching the fireworks. And on the way home Handsome peed in his carseat.

I'm hoping it will get better when Handsome is older (and Junior).

Darn Blasted Thumbs

Handsome is a thumb sucker thru and thru. He was sucking his thumb when I had my first ultrasound, found out how to get his thumb to his mouth within a week of birth, and sucks his thumb to this day. I never really worried about it because I sucked my thumb until I started kindergarten and never had any problems because of it. Handsome however seems to be more serious about it and now has his top front teeth coming out too far in front of his bottom front teeth. And he seems to have a permanent scar on each cheek from scratching there.

I was pretty happy that Junior hadn't found his thumbs yet. He would just stick his entire fist in his mouth or put it to his lips. In the last couple days though, he has found his thumb. Grr. It's not every time that he does it, but enough to see a trend.

On an unrelated note, I broke out the 6 month clothes for Junior. I should have done that a couple weeks ago but I was in denial. He's so tall!

Day 1: Success.

So yesterday was my first day back to work. It went SO much better than the first day back after my maternity leave for Handsome. I think it's because I knew what to expect and I knew that both Handsome and Junior were in responsible, caring, capable hands. And apparently since I had Handsome, I have figured out how to function on very little sleep. Last time I was in a complete haze for at least a month after I returned to work. Simple conversations were so hard to comprehend, much less trying to accomplish actual critical thinking.

Yesterday I was able to work with a clear head - well, as clear as my head gets - and I didn't cry a single time. Go me! DH said that Junior was a champ. Junior took his very first bottle. He was apprehensive as to what in the world DH was doing at first, but after a bit of milk dripped on his lips, he reached up and grabbed the bottle to try to get it to his mouth. After he finished his bottle he smiled and coo'ed at DH. DH said he smiled after every bottle and was in a great mood all day. He only spit up once the entire day. Junior has a terrible latch normally and I figured the bottle would be easier for him to take. I want him to have breastmilk for many reasons though, so I needed him to keep trying to get a better latch. I was a bit afraid that he wouldn't want to nurse when I came home after having the ease of the bottle all day, but he did. He did so well. So well that now as I'm writing this I'm starting to tear up. LOL. He did eat a lot while I was at work though. I pumped four ounces more than he ate over a 12 hour period and I was hoping to pump a lot more than he ate to help build up the reserves. Oh well.

Talking about reserves, our refrigerator sounds like it is limping along. If our freezer dies and all my milk spoils I will be SOOO upset. We have it covered under the home warranty, but I'm pretty sure they will only come after it dies, not prior to. If I had the money, I would buy a little freezer to put in the basement or in the back so that I would have a back up, but alas I don't have the funds for that.

So how many hours did I work yesterday? Eleven and a half. Nothing like jumping right in, right? I have tons of work that has built up, so I should get to it.

Oh, and DH said that Handsome did really well yesterday too. He was helping DH with Junior all day.