What Do Head Injuries and New Houses Have in Common? (Oh, and Consider This Your 7 Month Update)

I am done with whole the "Top 5 List" thing. It's getting too hard each month to think of topics. I DO, however, want to continue with the updates on Gunnar's monthly "birthdays".

The title of this post pretty much sums of two of the biggest events that have happened in Gunnar's seventh month of life. Number one, we bought a new house! It is only two streets away from our current house. We love our neighborhood SO much, and are pretty sure this is where we want to stay long term. We also LOVE our current house, but we feel like once Baby #2 comes along (and Baby #3, if I get my way) we will need something with a little bit more space. So a few weeks ago, when the salesperson who sold us our current home, called us to let us know that a deal had fallen through on a house a few streets away from us, and that he could give us a really great price on it if we moved forward quickly, we decided to go for it. The house is about halfway complete, and will be done in late July or early August. We are very excited, but surprisingly, very sad to be leaving our current house. We have loved living here, and it's the house that Gunnar was born in, which makes it very special. I am so sentimental, even about things that are dumb to be sentimental about, so I KNOW I am going to cry when we have to leave, but I am looking forward to making lots of new memories at our new house.

So what does all that have to do with a head injury? Well, last week, when we were still in the decision making process about whether or not we wanted to buy the house, we strapped Gunnar in his jogging stroller, and took a little walk over to the house to check it out. We were standing on the back patio (which is perfectly flat, no slope whatsoever) with Gunnar next to us in his stroller. We'd been standing there a good ten minutes talking, and we turned our heads for one second to look at something in the side yard, and when we turned back around, Gunnar's stroller had somehow, on it's own, gone from a standstill, to careening off the side of the patio. Neither of us could catch it in time, and Gunnar ended up flat on his face, on a piece of broken brick, with the stroller on top of him. It was the most horrible looking thing Nason and I have ever seen. We had to lift the stroller off of him, and there he was, lying face down in the dirt. We rushed him to an urgent care clinic, and he ended up being perfectly fine. He barely even had a bruise the next day. Nason and I, on the other hand, were traumatized for at least the rest of the week. It ended up being a minor injury, yes, but it still taught Nason and I how FAST accidents can happen. Good lesson to learn, I guess, and luckily we learned it with not-too- horrible of a consequence.

One more notable event, that is not reflected in the title of this post, is that I think we are done breastfeeding. (If any guys read this blog, sorry if that's TMI). I am actually pretty sad about this. I had orginally intended on just going through month 6, and then stopping, but when six months came, and it was still going smoothly, I thought, "well, I may as well keep going another six months). However, nature decided for me I guess, as I recently discovered I have next to nothing left, in regards to milk supply. Sad. Just one more thing for me to feel sentimental about!!!!!!!! I was washing my pump parts today, and I actually got sad thinking it may be the last time I have to wash them!! Ha ha. What a dumb thing to be sad about!!

Here are some pictures of our new house, as well as my sweet 7-month old:



Gunnar and "Joe Joe"




Head Injury : (




Handsome Boy!




Front of House




Backyard




Kitchen

"Mommy, I'm Bored!!!!!" is starting early around here....

Whenever we're out and about places, people always comment on what a good baby Gunnar is. They say, "He's always so happy! It seems like he never cries! He's always so content!" etc. etc....and they would be both right AND wrong in their observation. Gunnar IS always very happy and content when we are out and about, surrounded by plenty of people, and with lots of things going on for him to watch and listen to. However, when we're just hanging at home, it's a little bit of a different story. He's not BAD, but if he's not eating, sleeping, being held, or being walked in his stroller, there's a really good chance that he's fussing.

He has, what I think, is a pretty decent amount of toys, and they seem like fun toys, as baby toys go, but he seems to get very bored with them, very quickly. Sometimes I have him play alone on the floor, while I get things around the house done, but most of the time, I play WITH him, and even then, he is very unimpressed with these toys. For the longest time, he wasn't old enough to play with toys, then he finally reached the age where he was, and he enjoyed them for all of like two weeks, and now he seems to think he's OUTGROWN the toys, and wants to move on to more grown up activities.

Anyway, I don't want the poor guy to be bored and unstimulated all day, so I've been racking (wracking?) my brain trying to think of ways to interact with him that His Highness will find satisfactory, and today, I came up with two ideas that seemed succesful:

1) Sitting on the front porch- we've sat out in the backyard quite a bit, but he seemed to enjoy this more. We were able to watch the cars and trucks go by, the neighbors jogging, the work crew next door working on the house, etc. He was very fascinated with picking the leaves off of the plants out front, too.

2) A game I coined "We're Going on an Adventure". We started at the front of the house, and the goal was, in each room, to find something interesting to explore. So in Nason's office, we dialed numbers on the phone, and listened to the dial tone. In the kitchen, we took apples in and out of the bowl. In his bathroom, we turned the water on and off in the sink, and let him dip his toes in it. In the living room we smelled candles. In his bedroom, we looked at the pictures on his walls, and named each person. In our bedroom, we played in front of the mirror. In our bathroom, we flushed the toilet over and over, and watched the water swirl around. In the dining room, we opened and closed the blinds, and stared out at the neighbors house next door. Oh, and I should mention...as we walked from room to room, I sang "We're going on an adventure. We're searching for something cool" to my own little tune. Ha ha. Sounds dumb, but he liked it a heck of a lot better than playing with his (apparently) crummy toys.

So.......those are my two ideas for the day. Anyone else want to toss out some creative ideas of things to do with a six month old???

Gunnar's Six Month Pictures

IF you are interested in seeing Gunnar's 6 Month Pictures:

www.andreafosterphotography.com
"enter site"
"proofing"
"Gunnar123"

If you're not interested, then ignore this post! : )

Mother's Day Weekend in Houston

We took a little roadtrip to Houston this weekend to spend some time with family. Gunnar still does SO good in the car, and I'm hoping that that trend will continue at least into next month, since we have a trip to Padre planned, and that is a six hour car ride. Anyway, our first stop was at the rehab center that Nason's grandma is currently staying at, while she recovers from a back injury. Nason was SUPER close to his Grandma Dorothy growing up, and I know it really brightened up her day to get to see him, as well as little Gunnar.




We spent several hours there, eating lunch, visiting, and of course taking tons of pictures!



After leaving Grandma Dorothy, we headed over to my Aunt Debbie's house, and stayed the night with her, my Uncle Sean, my cousin Sara, and Sara's little boy Dylon. The next morning was my first Mother's Day, and Nason and Gunnar did a great job of treating me good! McDonald's breakfast (it's mainly their Diet Coke that I get excited about), and surprised me with my gift: a full day of "girl time" with my friend Krista...we're getting massages, having lunch, and spending the whole day shopping, while our guys watch the boys. We are both sooooooooooooo excited.

Later that day, my mom, dad, brother, Kristin, and her boyfriend Fidel all drove in from Austin to spend the day at my aunt's as well, and Nason's parents came over and joined us too. It was great getting to hang out with both mom's on Mother's Day....I'm so glad our families mesh so well! Kristin's boyfriend Fidel put on a little "concert" for us, and impressed us all with his musical prowess. He is REALLY good (yes that's right Fidel...I'm being nice to you on this blog, even though you and Kristin apparently get lots of laughs in about me and my napping blog entries).



All in all, a fun day with the fam!

Big Six

I feel like my blog is boring, because as I scroll through past entries, I see SO many words, and SO few pictures. My problem, is that I already post a great deal of "Gunnar pics" on Facebook, and so there's no point in posting them here too, because anyone that reads this, most likely is my Facebook friend as well, and has therefore already seen the pictures. Not sure what the solution is...post less pictures on Facebook? Designate half of my pictures to Blog, and the other half to Facebook? Quit overthinking it, and just post all pictures both places? Who knows! Who cares??? Anyway, time for a six month update.

Top Five Ways that Life Has Improved Around Our House Lately:

1) Gunnar NAPS!!!!!! (You had to know I would make mention of naps in some form or fashion, right? The topic of napping seems to have dominated this blog. Who knew I would ever talk or think so much about naps.) Anyway, Baby Bootcamp finally paid off in a big way, and Gunnar takes two naps, every single day, hardly without fail. The naps range from 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours, and its as simple as setting him in his crib, giving him his "paci" and his blanket, and the kid is out. Moral of the story: If you have a problem-napper on your hands...unless you have PHILISOPHICAL issues with letting a kid "cry it out"...and I know many people do, and that is totally legit, and you are, of course entitled to your opinion.....but unless it's a philisophical issue, JUST DO IT. If the problem is just you are just having a hard time with the emotion involved with letting your sweet little baby cry (like I was) GET OVER IT. They will only cry for a few days, and then they will realize that naps are awesome, and that they were crazy to fight them for so long.

2) Gunnar goes to bed at 7:30!!!! My life two months ago consisted of Gunnar NEVER napping, AND Gunnar staying up until about 10:30 or 11 with us every night. So basically, from 7 am until 11 PM....no breaks! That was craziness, for us, AND for Gunnar, who was in desperate need of more sleep. About two months ago, we started gradually moving his bedtime up little by little, and now we start his bedtime routine at 7:30, and he's in his crib by 8. We have our evenings back!!!!! Please don't think I don't enjoy hanging out with my little man, because I do. More than just about anything. However....it's really nice to have some time to do much needed things around the house, spend time with Nason, work out again, etc.

3) I've quit worrying about him (ok...as much): Swine Flu. RSV. SIDS. Weight Gain. The list of things I worried about for the first few months of Gunnar's life is endless. I'm a worrier by nature (this is an area that I am constantly trying to improve upon), and knowing me, I will continue to look for and find things to worry about all the time, but I do feel like he's old enough now that I can lighten up a bit, and just ENJOY him more.

4) I Have Time for "Stuff" Again: by "stuff" I mean: reading, working out, having daily quiet times, being involved in a Bible study, trying out new recipes, taking my beloved bath each night, having actual conversations with Nason, organizing my house, etc. The first several months of having a baby are such a blur...at least they were for me. I felt like I was just in pure survival mode. I didn't see how I would EVER have hobbies of any kind again, despite friend's reassurances that I would. Around month 3 though, I could see light at the end of the tunnel, at around month 4, the light got bigger, at around month 5, I slowly started incorporating some of those things back in, and by month 6, I feel like life is pretty much back to normal. Or, at least, our "new" normal.

5) It's warmer outside! Ok....I'm reaching. I can't really think of a fifth thing. However...our life IS better now that it's warmer....I've been taking Gunnar on two walks a day...once during the day, just the two of us, and once in the evening with Nason. Also, I don't have to bundle him up to take him out and about anymore. Ok ok ok....this one is stupid. I know. I guess there's really only FOUR "ways life has gotten better".

I'll try to make sure my next several blog entries have lots more pictures. Thanks for your patience : )

Look For Lots of New Blog Entries That No One Cares About!!

My friend Leah was telling me last night about a free computer program that takes your blog, and converts it into a book. I had heard about something like this before, but never really knew how to go about doing it. Last night, Leah gave me the rundown, and I am SOOOOOOO excited about turning my blog into a "scrapbook". I think I'll copy Leah's idea, and do one each year. I may just be the last one to know about this website, and the rest of you have already known about this for a while, but just in case you haven't, and you're interested, here's the info Leah gave me:

Visit www.blurb.com
Download "booksmart"
Work on your blog there
Upon completion, upload your book back to blurb, and then order your book! Leah's only cost her about $20.

Anyway....all that to say, since my "blog" is going to double as a "scrapbook/memory book" for me, there will probably be a lot of entries that aren't that interesting to anyone else, BUT are memory-worthy for me. So beware, and keep that in mind, when reading! : )

Easter

We had such a great Easter this year! The whole weekend was fun, actually. Friday night, we hung out with our good friends from high school, Patrick and Jil, and their little boy Jackson.

The next day, we lounged around the house all day, and then went to church that night with Nason's parents. We got Gunnar all decked out in Easter clothes, which I know is SO impractical, and yes, the whole time we were trying to keep his hat on, his socks up, his dress shirt pulled down, and his pants pulled up, but I don't care. He looked cute. Our friends the Losurdo's were there too, and their little boy "Joe Joe" is one of Gunnar's best friends. Gunnar and Joe Joe may not know it yet, but they will one day. Maybe they can hang this picture on the wall at the apartment they live in together in college.

After church, we went out to Nason's parent's house in Liberty Hill, and spent the rest of the weekend there. On Sunday, my family, as well as the Magee clan, joined us for yummy food, kite flying, an Easter Egg Hunt, and more yummy food. All in all, a great weekend!