Sucesses and Challenges

I don't think I really ever take the time to reflect on all the good things going on in my life; instead I am usually focused on the areas that are stressed me out. I'm going to try to
somewhat often write about the areas that are a success in my week and what I'm really struggling with.

Success: Carter has decided to pretty much take potty training into his own hands. This morning from the point I changed his diaper until when he used the potty chair before nap he stayed dry.
Challenge: I really need to stop doubting his abilities to be potty trained and let him try wearing his big boy underwear if he wants to.

Challenge: I just can't seem to get on top of our house cleaning.
Success: Two more loads and I'll be caught up on laundry. This will hopefully free up some time so I can work on other chores.

Jackson: One month old

It's hard to believe Jackson's been in our lives for a month already. He's grown so much already (no exact stats yet until our appointment on Friday).

At one month you are:

• Just starting to grow out of your newborn clothes. Anything footed is too small, but most of the onesies still fit.
• Are breast and bottle feeding. You like to eat every two hours during the day and on a rare occasion will go as long as 6 hours at night.
• Just starting to smile when you hear your mommy and daddy's voices
• Starting to get more on a schedule. You usually take a morning, afternoon, and after dinner nap. Bedtime is usually sometime between 10 to 11pm. You're awake and ready to start the day by 7am.
• Refuse to sleep in your cradle. Your best sleep gets done in your bouncer or on mommy.
• Have already taken a road trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ballman, Great Grandma Ballman, Aunties Steph, Stacey, and Heather, Uncle Jeff and cousins Ben and Lauren.
• Hate bath time and having your diaper changed.

Jackson, you have brought so much joy to your family already. We love you so much!

,

Craziness

Last Monday was Tim's first day back at work since Jack was born. We went on our first (since Jack was born) play date with the Straka's. The boys had a good time playing with Cole and Lacey and I enjoyed getting out of the house. Tuesday was by far the roughest day of the week. It started off good with me dropping off Carter to play at my parents' house while Jack and I went to visit my co-workers and figure out when I will be going back to work. My co-workers loved meeting Jack and are very excited for me to be coming back in another couple weeks. Now for the bad part of the day. I had driven our new car. Not use to all of the new features, when we were ready to leave the mall, I threw the diaper bag, my purse and keys in the front seat. I was then going to place Jack's car seat in the backseat when I realized the car had locked. I took Jack back into the store so I could call my mom since I didn't know Tim's work number. She was able to come help us fairly quickly. Tim has the only other key with him at work in downtown. I then remembered with the extended warranty we bought we got free roadside assistance. My parents also have the same brand of car, so I tried using the number they had in the glove box for the service. After 15 minutes trying to look up our account, it turns out that there is several different numbers for service and that was not the one ours was through. I then call the dealer to get the correct number, which also is not able to look us up since our car is too new to be in the system yet. It would cost us $80 out of pocket to send someone out to unlock the car, which we'd probably be able to get reimbursed for (but they didn't know how long that would take) and they weren't sure how long it would take to get someone out there. During all these phone calls Jack decides he's starving, so I start breastfeeding him in the car in the parking. (And I happened to have about the worst shirt choice for this, so I was pretty much exposed to the whole parking lot.) At this point time decides to drive from downtown to meet us to save the $80. The rest of the day went much more pleasantly. Wednesday I decided I needed to be brave and go out again, so both boys and I took a field trip to Walgreen's and Rainbow to get my coupon deals. It went surprisingly well. Thursday we went over to my parents for dinner since Tim had work and class which means Tim is gone from 8am until 10pm, a very long day for me! Friday we just hung out at home. Saturday was another uneventful day. Sunday I woke up with the stomach flu. I haven't been that sick in a long time. Tim had to work, so I sent Carter over to my parents for the morning. Jack and I spent the day in bed alternating between sleeping and nursing. Luckily Tim had Monday and Tuesday off, so we've been recovering the last two days.