Four to Score

So...I missed the four month mark by a bit. Whoops. I am sure anyone who reads this has simply been glued to their electronic device constantly hitting refresh since November 25th waiting for  me to post. I can almost guarantee Rowan will not ever care to read anything about his baby days considering he is Sel's clone and Sel is nostalgic once in a blue moon. I really have started to wonder lately if Sel produced Rowan via parthenogenesis and I actually had a sympathetic pregnancy. Not only does Rowan take after Sel in every physical way possible (minus the chin. That King chin snuck it's way in there) his personality is scary similar.

Right now Rowan is crazy busy. Not being able to move is driving him bonkers and giving me an amazing daily arm and core workout. He recently has mistaken himself for an Olympic diver and tries to Kamikaze out of my arms all day long.  He can roll both ways ( tummy to back and back to tummy) and seems to graciously acknowledge my applause every time he rolls.
His true roots with food have finally started to peak through. He still is very particular about his drinking environment, but he will eat "grown up" food anywhere, anytime. Watching him eat rice cereal is hilarious. He has to grab my hand the whole time to make sure I am getting it in his mouth fast enough and he starts to whine when he realizes the bowl is almost empty. Another reason I know my genes are practically null and void in this kid are those lightening fast reflexes and fantastic coordination. If he wants a piece of food making it's way to my mouth, he will grab it before I even realize what is happening. I like to think he is trying to help me lose the baby weight.

Real quick blurb about that. I am hungry allll the freaking time. I ate a whole peck ( check out my fruit lingo y'all) of Empire apples last week. I am admitting to that food grievance because it makes me sound healthy when in reality I simultaneously ate  an entire White Chocolate Coconut bar from Aldi within ten minutes. Luckily I went ahead and shared part of it with the trash can instead of my hips. (Sorry mom and dad! Thanks so much though for always giving me my favorite treats even when I am chubby).

Rowan is still sleeping in two hour increments. He also is sleeping in our bed almost the whole night. Go ahead and guilt me up and down about co-sleeping. I welcome you to come and do said guilting tomorrow night and then you, me and Rowan can have an all night chat about me being the worst mom to walk the planet. We tried the cry it out method and it was brutal. I am not tired enough yet to watch my baby in such misery. I am amazed at how my body has adjusted to a perpetual lack of sleep. The more I have talked to other parents about sleeping the more I have realized most parents just aren't going to sleep until their kids head off to college. It's crazy to me that we've been having babies since the dawn of time and no one has all the answers on sleeping, nursing, and the general task of keeping offspring alive. I guess every baby is just totally different and comes with his or her own unique quirks. I am reading a book right now called the no tears sleep method and have already noticed a slight difference in Rowan's sleeping. So here's to hoping and praying sleep makes its way back into my daily schedule in 2015.

He can sort of hold himself up by himself. It scares the goodness out of me because he banged his head on his crib right after I took this. Kid has got places to be apparently

What else? Rowan is still topping the charts in height and earning a respectable B average for weight (85 percentile). I am refusing to give up on some of his 6-9 month clothes because I love some of them too much. Rowan hates me for it. He understandably protests every time I try to squeeze his head and arms into clothes that are too small. I'll admit I probably need to accept defeat and move solely to the 9-12 months. I will just have to pray for another XY to come our way for the next baby.

Overall,  four months has been pretty stellar. Rowan is such a good natured soul and the sweetest  baby. I constantly want to just squeeze him and kiss that expressive, handsome face of his.
And here's this month's photo dump!

We are terrible people for not sharing

His Thanksgiving feast of rice cereal. He was only slightly upset that it was gone. 

Best view in Chi town

His fav person is still Sel

Aunt Jess has scrumptious hair

Rowan is super into screens. He won't look at anything else if there is a screen in the near vicinity. Also, how cute his he with his gramps?

Seriously, this kid CANNOT sit still for a second. I am in for so much trouble 

He LOVES when we force him to stop moving. 

ahahahahaha

He has started to give some seriously sweet hugs and kisses lately. 

Rowan has a huge fat crush on this cutie. 

Zoo lights

Baby Dating Profile

Name: Rowan
Nicknames: Row, Rowboat, Pumpkin Head


 I am a bit of a foodie. I like to appreciate my food in an almost silent atmosphere to allow a greater appreciation of the subtle flavors found in milk. Sound distracts my fine tuned taste buds. I also believe nothing tastes quite as divine as my own hands and feet.

I enjoy long walks around the neighborhood and know how to drive stroller shift.

I work out everyday and can lift my large head to about 90 degrees. I also try to stand for about 5 hours everyday to strengthen my quads and glutes. My philosophy is if you don't use it, you'll lose it.

If I had to pick an all time favorite acitivity , it would probably be taking a bath. I am still figuring out how to avoid dumping water all over my face when I play with cups while bathing. My least favorite activity, is having to put on clothes. I have actively been seeking a community that allows me to be free from the societal pressure to wear clothing.

Even though some of my friends theorize that I pull out other people's hair from an underlying insecurity that I am bald, it's not entirely true. I think a good strand or two of hair can really spice up a snack of fists.

I still live with my parents, but only because they need so much help. I have even started to sleep way closer to them than before just in case they need something in the middle of the night.

Speaking of sleep, I believe you can accomplish so much more in life if you skip out on sleep. I am a doer and how much can you really get done if you sleep longer than 45 minutes at a time?

I love girls! I have a few close guy friends (my dad, my two grandpas), but I generally prefer to hang out with the opposite sex.

I could play all day if I didn't have so many other responsibilities (eating, napping, being forced to wear clothes). I believe anything can be a toy from a string of Halloween lights to my moms hand. I know every rock and tree and creature has the purpose to be played with by me.

I've been told I am a bit of an extrovert. I enjoy watching people and especially love being around those of my same age group - especially girls. Girls are the best.

 Though my dad is definitely a favorite, I just can't be without my mom. If she leaves the room for just five minutes to use the bathroom, a rabid pack of wolves will probably try to eat me in her absence.  I've heard chicks really dig guys who love their moms so I guess you can really dig me baby chicks.

I Have recently discovered a love for reading and gnawing on books. My current favorites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and " Where's Baby's Belly Button". The profound meaning found in "Where's Baby's Belly Button" gets me every time. Every. Single. Time.

I've heard my best feature is my heart melting smile. I actually get compliments pretty much everyday about absolutely every part of myself (mostly from my parents-they are just so grateful I am around to take care of them) . It's almost tiring to hear how cute I am every single second of every single day, but that's what someone with a face like mine has to learn to live with.


Looking for:

My ideal match would be someone who didn't try and distract me while I am eating. I want a free spirit who believes that all things can and should be shared and jointly slobbered on. My perfect match would have plenty of hair who doesn't mind letting me take the occasionally fistful. I also want someone who can accept me for who I am; a person who from time to time will manage to soil themselves all the way down into their socks. If you think we could make this thing called love work, message me ASAP.

Photos:

My sweet vintage ride 

Exercising my legs

Enjoying a well seasoned big toe

Off-roading in the Andes

No Mom Left At Home

Sometimes someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. And that’s not a choice we want Americans to make.“


I know the internet is already booming with clever written retorts to Obama's statement, but I wanted to chime in a bit too. I have actually been giving the stay-at-home life a lot of thought lately so the President's timing couldn't have been better. Thanks Barrack for being so in tune to my inner thoughts. And no, I really don't care if he misspoke or not, he just set up a good stage for me to jot down some thoughts.


I did not want to be a stay-at-home mom most of my life. I have a journal entry from when I was 14 vehemently declaring that I would never settle for "settling down". I was worth so much more than being tied down to a husband and kids. I was going to become somebody that history books wrote about. At 14, I was pretty sure I wanted to be an actress. At 16, I think I was looking at being a world renowned marine biologist. By 18, I was dead set on entering the medical field and would likely be the one to cure cancer. Age 20 brought talk of traveling the world and studying different cultures. Now at the ripe old age of 24, I can't think of a better dream than the one I am already living. I am so grateful that I have not remained a stagnant being for the last ten years. My expectations of greatness at 14 and 24 are complete opposites. The  perception of my self worth at 24 is infinitely greater than at 14 despite the fact that I am tenderly holding a 3-month-old instead of a Nobel Peace Prize. I made a human being! I still can't get over how incredible my body is for pulling off such a miraculous thing.


I worked full-time for a fairly short blip on my life' timeline (assuming I die in 20+ years and not tomorrow...). I started working full-time every summer from the time I was 16 until I graduated. After graduating, I flocked with a good chunk of my peers to a typical 8-5 life. It didn't take me long to acknowledge that my career choice might not be what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I started researching grad programs again hoping for some inspiration. I distinctly remembering staring blankly at all the offered programs and not feeling the least bit interested in anything offered. Or at least not interested enough to sign up for another few years of schooling and student loans. I went through a rough patch for a while trying to figure out my life's purpose. My poor husband could tell you alllll about that fun time I had trying to "find myself". Now that I am in the thick of sleepless nights, piles of dirty laundry, bodily fluids like nobody's business, and a life completely owned by a tiny being, I can honestly say I want to do just this for the rest of my life. This staying at home thing is enough for me. I thought I was going to long for the structure and purpose of working, but I haven't even felt a little bit like I wanted more than this. I have days that I want to high five myself for making it through the last 24 hours with both Rowan and I in one piece and I have days where I feel like  a freaking super hero for having accomplished all my to-dos. My personality perfectly matches this SAHM thing and I count my lucky stars all day (and sleepless night) long that I even have the option to pick between working and staying home.

Both my mother and mother-in-law worked while they had little ones around. I applaud them more than I could ever say. I also applaud my co-workers who had to wade through the difficulties of having kiddos and working full-time.

 I have seen the Dayquil/Nyquil commercial over the past few days and laughed a little thinking about it. If you haven't seen it, a woman knocks on the door asking to take a sick day. The camera pans over to her "boss" who is an adorable little toddler. It's true what they say in the commercial that moms and dads don't get to take sick days. You know what is kind of worse than a stay-at-home mom not being able to take a sick day? A working mom who has to portion the amount of sick days she will take for herself and the sick day she will take to tend her sick kids. The odds are she is probably going to have to tough out the days she would normally call in sick for herself so she will have enough time off for when her kids get sick. Being a working mom is haaarrd. Harder than I could imagine. I have intense bouts of anxiety at the thought of leaving Rowan with anyone for longer than a few minutes. Working moms have to leave their kiddos with someone for hours a day and trust that  those caretakers will love their littles enough to take exceptional care of them. Working moms are amazing! I am so grateful for the women of the world who are able to juggle all that they do.
I honestly don't think one way of life is ultimately better than the other (working moms vs stay-at-home moms) or that one is inherently more difficult.  Both paths are going to be hard and both are going to see their fair share of incredibly joyous moments. If there is one thing I have learned from the last 3 months of being a parent, it's that everyone is unique, everyone's child is unique and everyone is going to have their own way of running the family show.  I wish there was less shaming that seems to come from either side and more support for people who are braving the tremendous task of raising children. Parenting is hard enough all on its lonesome and could certainly do without the worry of criticism from fellow parents. If we tell our kids to play nice, I feel like we should probably do them a solid and show them how.

Anyway, I know that the next ten years will likely bring a few paradigm shifts of their own, I am  100% sure that the center of my world will be forever constant. Rowan and Sel plus any other littles we will throw into the mix are my constant variables in my life equation. I can't imagine a better adventure than the one I am on right now.

 (Ps Sel came up with the title for this post and had a whole bunch of clever things he thought I should address in it. Kid needs to get his own blog so he can dazzle the internet with his charm and intellect)

Triple Threat

Rowan is three months old today! It's been the craziest month of his WHOLE life (which encompasses an impressive 90+ days). 

We decided to fly to Utah to visit his great gramps very last minute about three weeks ago. We bought some tickets and I googled things to pack when traveling with a wee one. I was a lucky duck to fly out with my mom instead of  braving Row's first flight on my lonesome. I was anticipating a very tiring trip, but Rowan did amazing! I wanted to give him a gold star sticker, but he would probably just try to eat it and choke.
Rowan is about as far from a vanilla personality as possible. He is extremely expressive and will absolutely not do something until he is good and ready. This should have been apparent to me from the beginning when he refused to get out of my uterus until he felt like it. He loves to exert his independent personality most when eating. If he doesn't have his optimal eating conditions, there is nothing on God's green Earth that will convince him to eat. It's the best when I can hear his tummy growling and he is very obviously hungry, but will continue to arch his back as far as possible to get away from me. I thought I would be pretty comfortable nursing in public settings, but Row makes it almost impossible due to his acrobatics. He is still chunking out a little each day (we are starting to fit into 9 month clothing over here), so I am pretty sure he is getting what he needs. Maybe I make cream instead of 2%?  I was feeling really sad about his apparent dislike for being near me, but I have started to notice he might not think I am the absolute worst person in the world. We have been visiting a ton of family recently and he loves to ham it up with them for a bit. Whenever he starts to cry and promptly gets passed back to me, he just quiets down and cuddles into my shoulder. Heart melting moments happening over here. He manages to be an incredibly sweet kiddo whilst also being one stubborn little dude.
He is really close to rolling over if he could just figure out his arms. I usually cut off tummy time when the vein on his left temple starts to pulse a little bit too hard. He was doing fabulous at sleeping before we left on our trip. He went through a bout of waking up every 45 minutes for two nights and I was pretty sure I was going to be institutionalized after that. I was so tired and crazy that I forgot which side of the road to drive on. He has finally gotten into a bit better sleep pattern which I am sure will vanish when we fly his poor self across the country again.
This has also been a rough month for me being away from that handsome dad of his. Three weeks is three times too long to be away from a face like that. That balding baby of mine is waking up! Who knows, maybe I will have time this month to write about something non-baby related? Here's the three month picture extravaganza

He loved riding the rhino until he didn't 

Loving all over our beautiful new landlord

Momma Mia turned Rowboat into a football

His kisses might even be better than his Dad's

He obviously loved the pumpkin patch. He actually did love his little pumpkin feet though

It's rough to be adored 

Eating Indian food with Miss Stylish Maori over here

Selfies with the cousins

Great Granny Lout and Great Pop Pop

Pumpkin patch with cousin Macy

Reading during our three hour car ride

Loving Grandma Warden

Aunt Sars

Two by Two

I feel like a broken record player this year in my constant phrasing of "I can't believe how fast time is going by". Rowan is officially two months old as of today. I really thought I was going to post more this month on topics other than my offspring and then I started laughing at myself thinking I had the time to blog in my"free time". All kidding aside, Rowan is the perfect little man. He is such a talker! He loves to coo and babble back at me and anyone else willing to get up in his face. It is my favorite part about him right now. He is definitely a morning person and throws around his best grins as the sun is coming up. Rowboat is also diligently pursuing his dream of becoming a baby version of King Kong. At the ripe old age of 8 weeks, he is already in 6 month clothing and size three diapers. I swear that he grows a half an inch every night. In fact, he barely fits in his bassinet which is a major bummer considering how convenient and fantastic it has been. At his two month appointment today, he weighed in at 14 pounds and 26 inches long. He is 82% for weight and is completely off the charts for height. The nurse actually measured him three times because she didn't believe he could be as big as he was.

 Other really awesome part of Rowan's personality is how he is whipping me back into shape. I started running the day my doc gave me the go ahead. It helped that Rowan has yet to be upset on a walk and we had been cruising the parks and neighborhood since he was 2 weeks old. I also discovered he will get fussy if I have him next to me on the playmat while I walk on the treadmill, but loves it when I run on the treadmill at a speed anything over 5.8 mph. He's pretty specific about what he wants my fitness level to be. He'll just sit there and stare at my feet. I think he is a bit envious of people who can walk and stand on their own. He has been trying to stand a ton lately which has started to prove difficult when I try and put him in his car seat and he's all, "Nah mom, I'll just walk wherever we are going." 

Even though Rowboat is such a fantastic baby, he has his days just like anyone else. He still is struggling with eating which makes me wonder if he actually belongs to Sel and I.  It's also crazy how one day he will be totally fine nursing and the next, he hates it. I think part of it is he just gets upset that I am not letting him observe the world for twenty torturous minutes. That, or I am somehow producing arsenic. 

This month has been crazy busy and exciting for all three of us. Rowan traveled half across the country (a fourth across the country potentially?) to visit his aunt and uncle in Missouri. The trip was planned on a whim and the drive was kind of miserable. Row really did great all things considered, but road trips with a newborn aren't exactly a breeze. We also were amazingly lucky to get a visit from my grams. It was all too precious to see her and Rowan love all over one another. Also, we have been doing so many fun things with the fantastic friends also workin the mom thing. It's so nice to have multiple activities during the week to keep both Row and I entertained. We are seriously the luckiest to be surrounded by such incredible people.

Finally, I just have to say that I have the best job in the entire world. After some budgeting, saving, and a huge leap of faith, we decided I won't be going back to work. I struggled for a bit deciding, but then I realized I am just not strong enough to leave Rowan with anyone else. Maybe someday when he is getting into everything and asserting his independence, but right now I would just be a hot mess leaving him. I think working mom's are super women for juggling all that they do. Right now I am just trying to soak in every glorious and certainly not glamorous moment being Rowboat's mom. I have been feeling so guilty lately that Sel's job seems way harder than mine. He has spent the last month studying 12 hours or more everyday. That bearded man is going to make a fantastic physician someday and certainly makes a fantastic med student/father/hubby right now. 

Okay, I won't keep boring you and will just flood this post with some pictures from his amazing newborn photo shoot.

 Fair warning about our outfits; I have never been a style star. I used to wear my dad's XL M.I.T sweatshirt with spandex to school and think I was some sort of trend setter. I was also sleep deprived and Sel is absolutely no help when it comes to caring about clothing. Just ignore the fact that I am in polka dots, Sel is in flannel and Row is naked.