Thursday, January 30, 2014

Little Victories

Long before I became a mom, I loved a Matt Nathanson song called Little Victories. It's a quick, short song but the chorus goes like this...

...."and I'll be awful sometimes, weakened to my knees. but I'll learn to get by, with little victories"...

And so, in no particular order, some little victories
  • naps that last longer than 31 minutes
  • capturing "firsts" on camera
  • actually getting snot out with the "snot sucker" aka bulb syringe
  • changing a dirty diaper ONLY (not the entire outfit)
  • pumping personal record amounts


And then there are the BIG TIME victories, here are some
  • sleeping long stretches straight through
  • when nursing became just something we do instead of an epic, painful, event (which is so BIG that I know it happened at exactly 7 weeks old and not a day sooner) 
  • the first night of "sleep training" in which we decided we'd let him cry to start learning how to fall asleep on his own without rocking. It lasted exactly 7 minutes and culminated in...sleep! (I also know this happened on December 1st)

And just to re-visit how this post started, I find it important to mention that I first listened to and loved Matt Nathanson way back in 2002 before his songs were even close to being played on the radio all the time. It's sad to admit I listen to him less now than I did then as if he's too mainstream for me now. (note to self- future blog post about my hobby of finding the next big music thing before the rest of the world)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Real Hock's Stir Fry

Over the last few months, I've stumbled upon some random strangers blogs and become somewhat fascinated by what they are writing about their lives. Blogs can be a crazy inside perspective into the hearts and minds of whoever is writing them and an up-close and personal glimpse at their day-to-day activities.

When I first starting writing my blog, I imagined that if it was going to be anything at all, it was going to be REAL. I read a lot of stuff during the months I was pregnant, none of which helped me more than the articles or blog posts that carried the theme of "what no one else will tell you". 

One of my favorites throughout my pregnancy was: 

Lucie's List   (which, by the way, is SO much more than a great baby registry list. It is where I read that my delivery/postpartum room would be most accurately comparable to the scene of a homicide based on the amount of blood. No one had told me that until I read it there, then weeks later when Tyler arrived I laughed to myself upon finding it was oh-so-true.) 

Anyway, back to the point, the point being that I loved and lived off of reading what ACTUALLY happens. Now fast forward to life as parents of a 6-month-old, I still find myself reading through what other parents are writing about their life, their baby, their experiences, etc. Again, the real stuff is so much better than the "everything is rainbows and butterflies" facade. 

Guess what guys, Hock's Stir Fry has been, up until this point, mostly rainbows and butterflies. Guess what (again) Tyler does NOT always smile. We (Kevin and I) don't ALWAYS smile either. I know this might shock you but yes, Tyler cries. And more accurately, WE all cry. Well, not so much Kevin, but I probably have enough for both of us. 

There was the time when Tyler was only 4 weeks old that Kevin walked in the door after working all day to find Tyler crying his precious, little, intense newborn cry AND me crying my first-time mom that is a failure because I don't know why my son is crying cry. He did not, for the record, turn around and head back to work. He came in and did what dads were hard-wired to do...deflate most of the emotion from the room and get us back into a reality in which we could properly function. (note to self, discuss hard-wiring in future post)

There were some other times too...around the 1 month mark when nursing HURT and it had been 3 hours so he needed to eat AGAIN. Around the 3 month mark when HE WOULDN'T SLEEP and I NEEDED HIM TO SLEEP. Around the 4 month mark when HE WANTED TO ROLL OVER but couldn't roll over and I NEEDED HIM TO ROLL OVER so he'd stop being frustrated (fussy) all day. Etc, etc, etc. You get the point. 

The point is he has ups and downs, we have ups and downs (some related to him, some totally unrelated to him). The main thing we've found so far...the sun always comes up tomorrow. Except when it doesn't and the clouds come up instead. Either way, this is take 2 on our REAL life's adventures. 





Friday, January 17, 2014

Dislikes, continued

Ah, now I remember...


  • Tyler really dislikes having his nose wiped or sucked with the snot sucker, a not so ideal dislike as we are into day 2 of his first real cold/cough. 
  • Embroidered designs are also one of his greatest dislikes right now. He is now aware enough to see and feel clothes or blankets that have something sewn on to them, he has not quite realized that he can't get these items in his hands or mouth. It boggles his mind (and really frustrates him!) 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Likes & Dislikes

I just remembered that early on in Tyler's life I posted about his likes and dislikes. So here is the L & D, 6th month edition. 


Likes:
  • Baths 
  • Blowing bubbles and making other sounds with his lips
  • Jumping in his jumper
  • Rolling around
  • Tags. I don't know if you knew but tags on blankets and toys are far better than the actual attraction themselves. 

Exhibit A- 

And 2 seconds later- Exhibit B

  • He also has a new found appreciation for electrical outlets which before he could only see but NOW! Now they are just within reach. We'll be taking care of that this weekend.





Dislikes:
  • Avocado and Squash- the first two foods we've tried. He adamantly closes his mouth and won't even open it to smile, let alone get a spoon in. I think he's holding out for ice cream, I can't fault him. 
  • Rolling over when he actually meant to go forwards- which happens all the time right now as he is still a rookie when it comes to forward motion. 
  • And for some reason I cant even think of all the other things he dislikes although I do promise he is not Mr. Smiley Pants 24 hours a day...I'll have to come back and update this list...stay tuned. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

wordless wednesday

Found this gem while working around the house today...

And also, if there was a grading scale for "Wordless Wednesdays" and it was possible to FAIL, I totally would because the pictures I post are just crying out for their story (their whole story) to be told! 




This, you may or may not know, happened last Christmas. (2012...NO I'M NOT PREGNANT AGAIN...now breathe, and read on)

And so the story goes, Kevin and I arrived to my parents house in St. Charles at about 10:30pm after driving through a white-knuckle inducing snowstorm for somewhere close to 7 hours. I recall spending parts of that drive discussing how much more nerve-wracking the snowstorm driving was since I was pregnant and now considered "precious cargo". Wait, wasn't I precious cargo before? Well anyway, I digress. We mentioned during that drive how we would learn a new level of nerve-wracking when toting our to-be 5 month old in the same conditions in just one year's time and how totally crazy it would be that our back seat would be taken over by a car seat. 

So, picture us arriving in St. Charles at 10:30pm. We should be exhausted from that drive, right? NO! We were bouncing off the walls, internally, but doing our best to act normal. We quickly unpacked the car and then told my mom and dad there was a gift they had to open and no, we didn't care that it was pushing 11pm. We had wrapped up the above pictured stocking and new stocking holder as gifts for my mom and dad to open in order to drop the news. Dad opened the stocking holder gift first and made the assumption that I had gotten it so Kevin would feel a part of the family, after all this was our first married Christmas to celebrate. But no, we said, just let Mom open her box. (Side note- they still had no clue). Mom opened the box, saw the stocking, read what it said and........you know......what's coming.............promptly started crying! And screaming her excitement. She passed the stocking to Dad so he too could read it, choke back a little tear and smile his excitement! Hugs all around and then we spent the next hour talking about my first 11 weeks of pregnancy; there are just some moments which aren't easily forgotten. 


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Whoops...

I forgot I had a blog for the last month!!
And so, here's the short version of the lowdown:

  • Tyler's first Christmas was somewhat of a success. We found out he loves wrapping paper. We also found out he is somewhat alarmed by the decibel level of the Gerken Family Christmas...we'll have to use exposure therapy, it seems to work for other newcomers. All in all, at least he looks cute in his Christmas pajamas 

  • 2014 kicked off with a long night of sleep for Tyler and a party with some friends at our house. It was a good way to end our week long "vacation" and then we blasted into "real life" mode where we've spent the last week revisiting some semblance of order and routine. Tyler hasn't been totally on board with that yet but hopefully he turns it around soon!
  • We used the built in "New Year" momentum to start turning over some new leaves in our house- cleaning out clutter, thinking ahead to goals for the year, budgeting and a new spending system to reach said goals, you know...all the usual New Year stuff BUT this ones going to be different, for lots of reasons I'll contemplate getting into for future posts and we are excited about the new waves we're riding.
  • And to end on a high note, here's the little man all decked out in his "next size up" clothes for the first time today.