OMG a follow-up

And here is what your state is awesome at, if you don't like focusing on the negatives....

http://hypervocal.com/culture/2011/the-united-states-of-awesome-your-states-good-at-something/

Yeah, I'm a Nerd and Hubby is too...What's your point?

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/26/why-your-state-sucks-the-great-american-map-of-fail/?xid=sflow

ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS! We definitely live in the "best" of the "worst" states. :)

Cross Country Skiing

I first got into cross country skiing three years ago, when Nick's coworker retired and moved to Arizona. Cheap skis! Yay! It quickly became one of my favorite things in the world and I've sloooooowly gotten better. Mostly in the past I just skiied on my grandmas farm and at local parks. This year I'm branching out more and have found two ABSOLUTE GEMS to ski at:

Firestone Metropark

Chapin Forrest

These offer much more challenging terrain than farm fields and trust me, going uphill is SUCH AN ARM WORKOUT! In fact my arms are so tired from today, I can barly type. ;)

What is so great is that Nick has gotten on board this year with the obsession too. The last couple years he would go with me if I begged, and he would hate it. Not sure why he loves it so much now, but he does and he just ordered himself BRAND NEW SKIIS!! They arrived today; so I'm thinking he's going to want to try them out this weekend! Yay!

Winter Hike

(thanks to Theresa for the pics!)

That kid is undoubtably the love of my life (sorry, Nick, hehehe).

Today my job (you know the one I dont even go to) made me cry

Well I got my period this week for only the 2nd time since getting pregnant in Oct 2009. And the first time it was so light it didn't really count. Well this time it returned with a vengence. Stomachaches, cramps like no tomorrow, and it is very heavy. I think the hormones have done a number on me because I've already cried twice today and I never really cry.

I'm sort of upset with it returning because my mom always says it is based on how much baby is nursing from you; and trust me Blaine nurses a lot. He has never even had an ounce of formula in his life and he is 17 lbs.

Tiredness is getting to me. Husband being gone all the time is getting to me. He is out of state for the 3rd time in the last 4 weeks. Last night I got mad at him because he hung up the phone so he could go to sleep at 9 pm. Seriously?

First off baby officially will not sleep more than 3 consectutive hours at night. I'm up 5 or 6 times a night with him. The sleep regression started around Christmas and I'm not sure how much more I can take. He has never slept all night long yet and I hate reading about babies that do. I have a friend who did the "cry it out" method to stop night wakenings and after 4 nights her daughter wasn't waking up anymore. That is sounding more and more appealing every day. However, listening to him cry for an hour, six separate times each night; don't think I can handle that!

But my concern is, how do you tell if the baby really needs you when waking up at night?

This morning baby woke up at 6:40 AM still crying with exhaustion and I looked at the clock, exhaused myself, and realized when I'm back to teaching in 2 years I'D ALREADY BE AT SCHOOL AT 6:40 AM and then I broke down in tears. I really don't want the next year and a half to be plagued with the dark cloud of impending doom (ie returning to work). But it just got to me today.

Flash forward to 10:00 AM. Baby is really realllly needing a nap and again all methods are failing (nursing, rocking, swaying, carrying, singing). I cry again. Finally just bundle him up and take him outside to the greenhouse. His new happy place. He stares at plants and laughs at the flowers and really calms down. Bring him in and he falls asleep. Gah.

So yeah, there you have it, motherhood is not all giggles and smiles! Not that I thought it would be, but still. :)

Video: Stub Legs Pulls Up

It is no secret Blaine would rather practice standing and walking than crawling. The best he's done at crawling is a weird scootch / belly inchworm thing that took him about 3 feet. Oh well. This past weekend he's figured out how to pull up to a stand by holding onto objects instead of someone's hands. He's got the shortest little stubby legs! They make me laugh. My sister had those when she was little too and ended up taller than me.

How Solids are Going

Somedays are better than others! But I'll tell you one thing; that kid is darn stubborn and is VERY good at sealing his mouth shut! Now that we have to give him a vitamin everyday (including fluoride since we have well water) it is VERY interesting because he REALLLLY pinches his mouth shut at incoming things. Keeps this thing called parenting a daily challenge!

Speaking of challenges, his night wakeups are approaching the out-of-control mark. Last night he woke up at 12 AM, 3 AM (thinking it was morning), 4 AM, 5 AM, and 6 AM (thinking it was morning). He was so tired by 7 AM that he slept from 7-11 in my bed with me. We were both exhausted!

6 Months

I could talk about all his current skills, his size, and how much he's changed my life but I'll just summarize by saying:

Blaine, I just want to squeeze you all day long everyday and kiss your smooshy cheeks 1000 times every minute. The End. Love, Mommy

Sledriding!

Nick and I are sort of obsessed with winter things. Sledding, icefishing, skating, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, you name it. And I did all of those items while pregnant last year!

Lots of people wish winter away, but we cry when we hear the drip drip drip of melting snow.

Speaking of drip drip drip it was in the upper 30's today :(. So yeah, definitely some melting going on, but it was warm enough to get baby out and do some sledriding with him for the first time! We have a baby hill that goes down beside our house onto the frozen pond so it is perfect for little ones! Blaine liked it but I think he will REALLY like it next year!

Mommy's Favorite Milestone

Blaine has learned to do lots of new exciting things over the last 6 months, but I think this was my favorite. And it is WAAAYY harder to sit on the Bjorn unassisted than the Bumbo. LOL. Oh and while I was taking the picture he peed. :)

On the night-time EC front, as discussed before, normally I don't even bother to put him on the potty because he is too upset and just wanting to eat in the midnight hours. Well last night I decided to try something new. He woke up at midnight dry. I nursed him and he fell asleep. This is normally when I would just transfer him to the crib still asleep. I decided to take him to the potty. He woke up, peed, and I put him back into bed with his eyes wide open. He fell asleep no problem. Same scenario, same result at 4 AM. I did this because I knew he had to pee but more importantly, he needs practice falling asleep without my boob in his mouth. ;)

At 6 AM he woke up for the day (tired because it was wayyyy to early for him). So I can't complain, it was a 1 diaper night!!

Pray for Gabrielle

If you are a mom then you've probably seen the facebook / baby center / blogs about "Praying for Scarlett", a baby with a brain tumor.

I want to bring your attention to a lesser known baby girl who needs prayer also, Gabrielle. I first ran across her mommy's blog several years ago when Amanda was beekeeping and living rurally in western Canada. Well now she lives on a boat (!!??) with no electric (!!!) and just had newborn Gabrielle, who was born with a heart defect. Yesterday's post very nearly stoppeed MY heart. Very scary stuff.

Sign Language

It seems like baby sign language is all the rage and 6 months is a great time to start. We've already started:

milk

potty

all done

more

I'll be honest, more often than not both of my hands are occupied and it is tough, but I try my best to get some signs in there when I remember to.

Which are the most important signs for everyday life that you guys suggest I learn and teach Blaine?

P.S. If you were wondering, after the most frustrating sleep day yesterday, Blaine only woke up 1 time last night and is currently in the middle of an hour and a half nap (??!!!). Crazy.

Sleep Update

Kind of unreal how long it has been since I've blogged about Blaine's sleeping. BECAUSE I HAD FINALLY FIGURED HIM OUT! [and when I say figure it out, the kid still didn't sleep through the night OR take longer than 30 min naps but it hadn't been a total struggle to GET him to fall asleep].

Then some weird funky sleep regression came and slaped me in the face. Last week he woke up 5 or 6 times a night all week long. Now this week he's back to 100% resisting naps. When I reached the HOUR AND A HALF mark of trying to get him to sleep, I surrendered and stuck him in the crib to cry. He fell asleep in less than 10 min. But then woke up 20 minutes later still looking EXHAUSTED. So perhaps we are at the point of trying "cry it out" again. It worked again for bed time. The normal methods weren't working so I stuck him in his crib awake and he cried and fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.

Sickness? Teething? Growth Spurt? Wonder Week?

Who the heck knows. But he's been tired and grumpy more than I'd like to remember over the last 2 weeks. It is weird he'll smile and giggle but then it will turn into a whiny cry. He just wants held 24/7 and has a zombie look in his eyes more often than not.

Again, I knew parenthood wasn't going to be a breeze but for some reason things like this just make me feel like a failure. There is a problem that I'm not exactly sure how to fix and all the books out there do nothing more than provide conflicting advice and make me question what is right for my child.

Standing

Standing has progressed like sitting. He used to be able to hold on and was wobbbbbbly but now he can hold on to something and stand there very confidently, even lifting one hand and still balancing! His new game is to beat on the laundry basket like a drum. It is so funny!

Still not crawling and I think it is because he is just not interested in it at this time. I think it will happen on a day he is REALLLY mad because that seems to be the only time he gets anywhere close!

Brrrr and Sarah Palin's Alaska

Brrrr right now it is 6.3 degrees outside and I'm sitting under a blanket watching the finale of Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Love. That. Show.

LOVE IT.

I can't believe people hate it. Who cares what you think about Sarah Palin, anytime you can watch a show about Alaska it is pretty much amazing. I especially am liking it because I think her family is interesting and funny, plus lots of places they go I can be like "BEEN THERE!"

I've probably mentioned this on my blog before but not recently: We went to Alaska on our honeymoon! Very memorable and definitely a place I want to take our kids some day. One experience I hope to never re-live: being followed by 2 grizzly bears while over two miles away from our vehicle.

In 15 days we drove 2500 miles just within the state. I only took 3 showers so it wasn't a normal honeymoon but I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Can you see Nick? We are hiking near Harp Mountain (our last name).

In my (free) I-pod touch I have a weather app and like to keep an eye on temps in some Alaskan and Montana towns.

Quick temperature check:

Wasilla...10

Fairbanks...9

Bozeman, MT....7

Nome.....27

Talkeetna....13

Tonight Ohio is competing with the best of 'em!!

Thought of the Day: Plants

So I was watching The Weather Channel and they said the best way to improve air quality in your home is to have a house plant. "Well duh" it seemed. But although we spend hundreds of dollars to heat / cool our greenhouse during the whole year, and I can enjoy flowers even in the dead of January, I DON'T HAVE A SINGLE PLANT INSIDE MY HOUSE!

Problem fixed! Although I'll still run the humidifier to help baby get over his SECOND cold. boooo :(

I'm a Big Boy**

**or so I think, my mom is actually just surrendering to my horrendous nap issues. but hey I'm cute! :)

Blaine sleeps fine in his crip at night, will even fall asleep unassisted, so I have no problem letting him sleep in a big bed during the day. The problem is he is getting way more mobile and I don't want to have to remain perched right outside the bedroom watching him / waiting for him to wake up. Once he wakes up he's a rolling fool.

So we dropped his bed to the floor, put up the matress rails, and wall-ah, big boy bed for a 5 month old! I also think this will be way better because when the transition does come, it won't be an issue at all! I have a friend who recently moved her 2 1/2 year old from crib to big bed and it is becoming an issue because he thinks bed = party, not sleep.

In other news, I decided January 10th will be the day we start solids. Here he is playing with his new spoon (Christmas gift from his girlfriend!). Think he'll know what to do? LOL. The kid was born to eat!

Video: Grandma is the Funniest

I think my mom could make Blaine laugh even if she would scowl at him. This is one of my favorite videos. (in my all time fav video he is naked so I'll have to keep that one to ourselves haha).

Look What Santa Brought!!

Yes those would be TWO new deep freezers and a new pantry storage shelf area!! Yay. Because we store all our beef, pork, chicken, and veggies for the whole year, this was much needed! Our old freezer was 46 years old and showing its age via freezer burn. :(

Nutrition

Well pretty much my whole blog-reader is filled with people's entries about their goals / resolutions. I've never made a resolution before and I've never had the want to lose weight before.

UNTIL PREGNANCY OCCURED.

I stayed very active during my pregnancy hiking / biking (even on my due date) / gardening and everyone said I looked small for being as pregant as I was. Heck even the doctors said my baby belly "measured small" and were dumbfounded when a 8 lb 11 oz babe popped out.

I was told that by breastfeeding the pounds would disappear with no problem and I figured combined with running, I'd be back to normal in no time.

I WAS NEVER MORE WRONG.

I haven't even lost one pound since August 10th and I've been running since September. I think what it comes down to is what I'm eating. I am starving ALLLL THE TIME and I definitely have a sweet tooth. So my 2011 goal is to eat much less dessert and much more healthy food. Keep up the running and dedicate at least one nap to some sort of exercise. I have 13 more pounds to lose to get to my prepregnancy weight and I'm going to post that number all over the house to remind myself not to stress-eat so many reeses cups! :)