One Year Ago Today

Uniform Project

This is one of my favorite websites. Great idea, great cause, enjoy it daily and give them some money.

UNIFORM PROJECT

Eliza

This is so incredibly beautiful. Makes me cry just thinking about it. I had to watch it twice.

No Sleep til...

Seriously I don't know. Sleep these days has been ROUGH. And I've done tons of research so I know it's normal for babies to sleep great and then totally change their schedules. But it certainly doesn't make things easy. And he's pre-teething (UGGHH), more on that later.

We had a pretty good thing going for close to 6 weeks. There were a few rough nights in there with a wake up or 2 but Hunter was pretty much sleeping 7-8 hours every night and an occasional 10 hours. But about 10 days ago all that changed. It started with 2 wake ups, then 3, then he was up every hour or 2, meaning 4-5 wake ups each night. It has made me pretty cranky, although it has been better the last few days with only 1 or 2 wake ups a night. I'm not holding my breath though.

It's just so weird because even as a newborn he wasn't up that much. Luckily he does go right back to sleep after a bottle or some soothing so I don't have to worry too much about crying and sleep training, YET. He goes to sleep on his own every night which is a bonus. So I'm praying it's the teething or a growth spurt because I really need some sleep.

Adam will get up and help every once in awhile, but it's hard because I'm a bit of a control freak and I'm afraid he won't stick to my night ritual. And that makes him fearful of helping. When I was breastfeeding all the time I had to be up and thought at least one parent should get rest so the transition to me needing help has been rough as well. I'm sure we'll figure it out though. Or maybe Hunter will start sleeping better. We shall see.

We also have some milestones approaching. Hunter will be 4 months on Saturday, he's getting so big. He's also started to "pre-teeth." I know this discomfort is definitely contributing to his overall crankiness and restlessness. And the good news is that he could be uncomfortable for 1-2 months before the tooth even cuts. Are you kidding me?

And up until today he hasn't really been able to soothe himself except for eating his hand and drooling everywhere. He just didn't have the coordination to get a teether to his mouth and keep it there. He will grab something and try to gnaw but usually loses control pretty quick and just hits himself in the face. Last week we got him a teething pacifier. But the darn thing was so big he could barely get it into his mouth. Couple that with the fact that he's not a good sucker and it just didn't work. Good in theory, but not for us.

So I was really thankful that he got the teether in his mouth today, and long enough for a photo. Sweet!

This Week in Photos

This is how Hunter spends most of his time these days. Hand in mouth, tons of drool.

But I guess 2 hands are better than 1!

So you probably can't tell but Hunter is wearing a Bob Dylan onesie here. And I know it's totally inappropriate, but it took everything I had not to Photoshop a joint into his right hand. It's almost too perfect. But I know if I did I'd just be jinxing myself for the future.

And here's his modeling pose, minus the drool all over the sofa.

We've had this mirror propped in our entry for awhile and I recently brought it to the living room for Hunter to look at himself during tummy time. For some reason now that it's in the living room the dogs pay so much more attention to it. Maybe it's the better light but both dogs spend a lot of time looking in that mirror. Almost as much as Hunter. My narcissistic family.

And I couldn't leave Ringo out. Here he is with all his stolen toys. The black and white toy is Hunter's toy moose cow named Moscow and the brown toy is Abbey's favorite giraffe. Both dogs have been so great about not messing with Hunter's toys. But I guess Ringo just couldn't resist that one. I'm sure Hunter will be taking their toys in no time.

Movies and Meatless Mondays

Hunter and I went to our first movie together today. It was fantastic. Monday Morning Mommy Movies is such a great idea. As soon as the movie came on Hunter was in awe. I think he was excited for such a huge TV. Much to our chagrin, the kid loves TV. He was fussy for a good 1/2 hour, but it wasn't too traumatizing since most of the other babies were as well. All us moms got up and walked around, bounced the kids in the aisles and changed diapers on the changing area set up in the theater. I will definitely be doing this again.

So Adam is very particular about what he eats. Even though his parents are very fit he still has a family history of high cholesterol and blood pressure. We try to watch sodium and cholesterol intake but now that we're on this health kick we've decided to eat a lot more lean meats and vegetables. But yesterday Adam decided he'd like to include a lot more vegan meals into our normal dinner repertoire. Enter Meatless Mondays (and possibly Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well.)

And now I have to give a shout out to Stone Brewing Company for having a meatless menu on Mondays. One more reason in a very long line of reasons to drink Stone.

I got this amazing cookbook from my friend Lem Jay for my birthday. It's called 'The Conscious Cook' by Tal Ronnen. And it's touted as vegan recipes for carnivores. I highly recommend it. Tonight we had Agave-Lime Grilled Tofu with Asian Coleslaw and M Cafe's Scarlet Quinoa Salad.

You'll have to buy the book for the tofu and slaw recipes, and believe me, it's so worth it. But here is the M Cafe Scarlet Quinoa Salad Recipe from the LA Times.

And here are some pics of little man from the past few days.

xoxo,

Lauren

A Dose of Cute

I've been neglecting the daily picture so here are some from the last few weeks.