Three Countries, Three States, and Back Home

We were gone for three weeks. And you know what I learned during those three weeks? Traveling is exhausting. And when you have a baby with you? Three weeks is a really. long. time. Don't get me wrong! It went by really fast and was so much fun! (The flights, not the best. But I expected that one.) But babies change so much. When we left Waco, Logan was [mostly] immobile. He liked pulling himself up (but was still a novice at it) and could only kind of crawl backwards. He had no teeth and only a little bit of hair. Oh. And his pants were all a bit long on him. Every single thing I just mentioned has changed. He is an expert at pulling himself up. He crawls forwards very well. He has two teeth (not all the way in, but they're still there) and lots of much-lighter-than-when-he-was-born hair. His pants are the perfect length now. And he's started blowing raspberries. And drinking from his sippy cup [yesterday]. And eating solid foods without gagging at each new texture. How can so much happen in such a short time? We have to get him a bigger carseat too! Crazy growing, changing kid.

But more happened on our trip than the ever-changing Logan. To start with, Indonesia was wonderful. Even though it was the first time I've gone back to Indonesia and didn't think of it as "home," it was still familiar and comfortable, even though so much has changed in the last six and a half years. If possible, it's more crowded and less organized than before. Hah. But it's also wonderful. I had KFC nearly everyday. [At least I tried to.] I didn't get a picture of my KFC, because once I had it in front of me, I had no self-control. Every time. We had KFC for breakfast (chicken strip and scrambled eggs on a tortilla), for lunch & dinner (two pieces of chicken and rice). I wish American KFC could figure out how to make their chicken as good as Indonesian KFC. We also got sate (satay) with sweet soy sauce (I'm not a peanut sauce fan); mie goreng (fried noodles); kue putuh!! (steamed rice flour filled with brown sugar and topped with shredded coconut); roti cane/canai susu (fried bread (?) dipped in sweetened condensed milk); Chinese noodles made by a good friend of ours; and nasi tumpeng (yellow rice shaped into a pyramid surrounded by chicken, eggs, potatoes, and other such sides). We took Logan to the women's prison in Bandung. They loved him! He met new people everyday and seemed to love it! He really liked all the jilbabs (head coverings the Muslim women wear)! They were so brightly colored and had pretty patterns! Hah. He did not, however, like the call to prayer. There are so many mosques that it seemed extra loud and long each time it went off (five times a day)... the worst one being the 4:15 am. Thankfully, he got used to it after the first few days and didn't wake up every night.

I would also like to talk about the wonderful pampering I experienced. One creambath, one full body massage, one 45 minute foot massage, and one 1.5 hr foot reflexology (that also included a back/head/shoulder segment). And I spent $10 or less for each of those things. And then Travis and I got to go out on a date to watch Night at the Museum 3 at the "Velvet Class" theatre. It was a bed, you guys! We got to watch a movie at the theatre on. a. bed. With pillows and a blanket! And food service, if we so pleased. It was the absolute best way to watch a movie. I don't know that I can ever watch a movie in a regular theatre seat ever again. I've been far too spoiled. Oh. And did I mention that it was only $12 for both tickets? For a bed!!

Oh yes. And Logan survived all the plane rides without a single blowout! Yay!

Here are some lovely pictures from our trip:

Nasi Tumpeng! It was so good! (My mom was given the honor of cutting the top off and presenting it to someone. Traditions.)

Logan on Christmas morning! He was as excited about his stocking as the gifts inside.

Logan with Daddy on Christmas morning! He always smiles for pictures with Daddy...

And with Mommy! In case you can't read his shirt, it says, "Gift to the Ladies"... isn't he though? Hah!

This was my dad's first time meeting Logan--his first and only grandchild! It was fun to see them together!

The kue putuh man came by on Christmas day to give me kue putuh! I told him to come back and he only came back once. Sad. But still delicious!

I was really terrible at taking pictures while we were gone. We basically took pictures on Christmas day and the day we left. Pathetic. Hopefully my dad and sisters took more pictures that they'll be happy to share with me. :) After Indonesia, we spent almost a week in Wisconsin with Travis's family. It was freezing! We went from tropical weather to bitterly cold weather in a matter of days. And it's no secret that I prefer the tropical. Hah. But we survived. There was snow. Lots of snow. I was hoping to get a picture of Logan in the snow, but the windchill was often in the -20s, and I didn't feel like torturing my poor baby boy. Or myself. Hah. We'll have to get snow pictures another year. (Unless it snows in Waco this year... which would be pretty crazy, but it can happen.)

Our dogs have been surprisingly mellow since we got home. I think Sabre is sick. If he doesn't start acting like himself soon, I might just have to take him to the vet. He threw up last night and has been lying in his crate most of the day. Tatum hasn't seemed sick, but she's also just sleeping all day. Silly puppies. I can't tell if they're just recovering from all the fun they had while we were gone, or if they don't sleep well when they're not with us. They've done this before after we board them (not the sick part, just the sleepy part), so who knows. But on the positive side, it rained a lot a few days before we got back, so our backyard is a bit muddy. Usually that would be a terrible thing, but with sleepy, lethargic dogs, it's quite manageable.

This post has taken most of the day to write. The joys of a mobile baby. And a baby that will only nap if I nap with him. Sometimes, when he's actually distracted by something and enjoying himself, I avoid eye contact. Because if I look at him, he often decides that he's no longer having fun and we have to find something else to do. Something less calm and more work. Hah.

And it's time for a diaper change. Happy New Year, friends!

I'm never going out with the baby again. [or until tomorrow, at least.]

On those days when you're about to leave the house with the baby [alone, I might add] and you only grab a onesie as you're walking out the door--no pants because you're just sort of planning for the "worst case poop scenario," you're basically asking for it. You're asking for that not-well-planned-for worst case poop scenario to happen while you're at Old Navy. And you know what? It did. Literally as soon as we got there, I had to go straight back to the bathroom to change my precious little boy. But what did he do as soon as I placed him on the changing table? He screamed. And not like, "I hate having my diaper change" crying... it was "I'm dying/in pain/being tortured" screaming. And of course, as soon as I take his pants off, poop is everywhere. Everywhere. [OK, not everywhere. But in the moment it felt like it.] I have to strip him down [more screaming] and somehow get all the poop cleaned up. And guess what? I'm down to about seven wipes. Why? Because this exact same thing happened yesterday at the bank. And I was, as previously stated, ill-prepared for another similar situation. I was miraculously able to conserve my wipe usage and had just enough to clean everything. I put the thank-goodness-I-grabbed-it onesie on him, and put him back in his carseat which resulted in--you guessed it!--more screaming. I quickly and not efficiently at all rinsed his clothes, washed my hands, and picked him back up. Then I proceeded to push a stroller with one hand and hold a very sad baby with the other while trying to find inexpensive short sleeved t-shirts as quickly as humanly possible. I found three t-shirts and two pairs of pants for Logan [because clearly we're lacking those], and hightailed it out of there. We're home. Logan nursed himself to sleep and I'm praying [truly genuinely praying with all my heart] that he will sleep for at least an hour and a half. It was a rough day... and this particular part of it was less than an hour long.

Just for the record, I've rinsed out three poop-covered onesies and pairs of pants since yesterday. My husband, just yesterday morning, said, "He really doesn't have poop explosions that often..." And I officially beg. to. differ. But you guys. We leave for Indonesia on Saturday. We will be traveling for over twenty-four hours straight. It's bad enough imagining that Logan will scream for a good part of our rather long flights. It's something else all together to imagine endless poop explosions on an airplane. Please pray that my sanity will still be in tact by the end of this week. I've imagined so many horrible scenarios for this trip, I don't know that it's good for my health to travel too much with this child. Sigh.

On a side note, I really love being a mom. And I love my son. I just don't like poop. Rather, I don't like cleaning poop off of clothing.

I've packed one bag. It can still hold about fourteen more pounds, but I don't know that we can fit that  much more in the bag. Nor do we have that much more stuff to pack... and still two and a half more suitcases we can fill. This week is kind of dragging on. It's only Tuesday. I really need to not be anticipating this trip anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond excited about visiting my family and my childhood "home" [by "home" I mean country]! And I can't wait to get some amazing Indonesian KFC and roti canai and kue putu. And possibly go to a movie for less than in a movie theater that puts American theaters to shame. [Most Indonesian movie theaters are so incredibly nice. Only a select few American theaters are nice. True story.]

So much for an hour and a half nap. He's awake. But at least he's happy and awake. :) And he's pretty cute. Hah.

You know what sounds incredibly wonderful right now? A big glass of cold water. Ah. Merry Christmas to all!

Learning to Crawl: Not as fun as you may think

Time is absolutely moving at a faster pace than it ever has before. My baby is already six months old. We've been living in this house for almost that same length of time. Thanksgiving is over. We're going to Indonesia in less than a month. [Less than three weeks, actually.] And 2014 is coming to a rapid end. What happened? On January 1st of this year, I felt Logan's little kicks for the very first time. How can that have already been nearly a year ago? It was a big moment for me because after a horrible first trimester, I needed to be reminded that I was carrying a brand new, precious life. I needed to feel the little flutters to help me realize that it was all going to be worth it in the end. And it was worth it. I mean, I saw a picture of Travis and me a year ago, and I'm pretty sure we look a lot older now, but it's been fun. Exhausting. Crazy. Wonderful. I was anticipating so many things this year... it's hard to believe they've [almost] already happened.

On a less serious/contemplative note, we went to our first family football game last Saturday. I was really excited about it up until we hit the game day traffic. And the stairs. And more stairs. Really steep stairs. And the absolutely repulsive smell of beer. (I would apologize to those of you that like beer, but it really truly smells horrible.) People were in our seats, so we had to ask them to move. Logan lasted about an hour before he was exhausted. I took him to the family restroom to nurse him (less for modesty's sake, more because he's so easily distracted and will, therefore, refuse to nurse) and he fell asleep in my arms. The toilet didn't have a seat cover, so I was standing up, holding a rather heavy sleeping child. (Nursing standing up is not as wonderful as you may think either...) And since he fell asleep nursing, I was still completely exposed, with no extra hand to cover up. Plus, I knew it would be infinitely louder outside the bathroom. But once my arms felt like jello, I carefully texted Travis to come help me. Logan woke up as soon as I handed him off. He took a twenty minute nap during halftime. We opted not to park at the stadium for $50, so our cars were two miles away at my sisters' apartment. (They dropped us off before the game...) Long story short, we didn't get home till almost 9:00, and Logan screamed for the last ten minutes of the drive. Sigh. Needless to say, next time we'll pay for parking, we won't climb to the nosebleed section but will, instead, sit at the lovely couches on one of the main floors, and never ever again will we take a six month old baby to a college football game. Of course, I'm not sure there's much of a chance I'll be going to a game again period. Watching football on TV at home is better in nearly every way. Some might disagree, but you're wrong. Hah! ;)

Other than the game (which was still a good experience to have under my belt), our Thanksgiving was lovely. Logan is a hit with the extended family--and he loves to be around lots of people. We're thinking he might be an extroverted baby. Does that change? Could he be an extroverted baby and then an introverted kid/teenager? Who knows. Oh yeah, and I'm just going to put this out there: if your baby doesn't poop for three days while you're on vacation, be prepared for a lot of diaper changes when you finally get home. And stain treatments. Hah.

I no longer babysit. Logan wasn't a big fan of missing his afternoon nap and made sure we all knew it by screaming for the entire 2+ hours I worked each day. I tried leaving really early and just driving around town for thirty minutes so he could fall asleep... but he never would. No nap for Logan made for a stressful afternoon for everyone involved, and an even more stressful evening for me. As much as I wanted to make it work, it was definitely for the best that I stop. He naps every afternoon right around when I would need to leave for work. OR he's still sleeping and I'd have to wake him up. Tatum woke him up today with her way too loud squeals of excitement about playing outside and it was a long hour and a half before he'd go back to sleep. Oh yeah, and this whole "learning to crawl" thing is one cruel joke. Logan falls on his face so many times, I'm thinking of having pillows installed over our floor. Not really. But the face-plants really are hurting my heart. His poor painful cries are a bit more than I can handle. Why didn't anyone tell me that crawling was so heartbreaking at first? Here I thought it was going to be cute and fun and we'd laugh and take videos. All lies. He loves to try to get to Sabre. (Tatum used to be his favorite, but then Sabre let him grab his fur and nose and paw. His love is rather conditional.) He desperately tries to crawl to Sabre... it's precious. I genuinely believe he'll start crawling just to get to that dog.

I have an affinity for passive voice. My apologies to those of you who don't like it. ;)

This Includes My Top Five Baby Items (I know you're dying to know what they are!)

I had a big, elaborate plan to write a lovely blog post while my sweet child slept the morning away. His nap, however, got cut from the hoped-for [at least] one hour into sixteen minutes. Sixteen minutes!! It's because I put him to sleep in the guest bed nursing him... and he nursed for at least thirty minutes before I unlatched him myself. And apparently sleeping without mommy is no fun. On the upside, he woke up calmly, making sweet little noises instead of screaming non-stop. (He only seems to scream if he wakes up in his crib. If he's in a bed, it's all good. Sigh.) Instead, I'm writing this in two minute spurts, moving Logan from one place to another and making sure the dogs don't get anymore dirt on him.

Logan turned five months old over the weekend. It's amazing how many changes occur in just five months! He's still toothless and [mostly] immobile, but for now, that's a good thing. I fear for my sanity (and my desire to continue breastfeeding) once those things change. Anyway, I thought I'd take this time to let you know which baby products have saved me from endless meltdowns. Because... well, why not!
   1. Nose Frida -- I never thought I'd actually use an actual, literal snot-sucker, let alone recommend one. But this thing is awesome! It really gets snot out of poor baby's nose (you can see it! Gross, but encouraging when you need to get snot out...) and you can clean the snot out! It's really great!
   2. Jumperoo -- Apparently there's all sorts of controversy about these things... but I decided not to read about it. Because, quite frankly, there's controversy about EVERYTHING related to babies. We were able to use the Jumperoos at a friend's house and at the church nursery first--so we knew Logan liked it. And we bought one at a consignment shop for $35 instead of a brand new one for nearly $100. It's been great! (He's in it right now, in fact. Jumping away! Though, I will admit, much like anything else, ten minutes is the longest he'll stay in there happily.)
   3. Ergobaby carrier -- It's expensive. It seems ridiculous. But once you try it, and you see how pain-free your back is and how comfortable baby is, suddenly it doesn't seem so crazy. And it's the only way to grocery shop with a baby in tow. Strap him on, and you've opened up both arms to push the cart and grab items. It's wonderful!
   4. Play Mat -- This has been our longest lasting item. (In that Logan hasn't lost interest in it yet...the swing and bumbo are old news.) He grabs the toys hanging down and tries to eat them. When he was smaller he just whacked at them, but it was good for his hand-eye coordination. And it's great to have a place to put him while I make lunch/dinner, go to the bathroom, sit without holding a baby... This is another thing we got at a consignment shop. They run like $50 brand new. Ours was only $18. :)
   5. Primo Eurobath -- It's big. But it has a nice "lounging" side for infants and a "sit up" side for older babies. Logan loves it! It has more support than most other baths (we used a different one for the first couple of months... then he outgrew it and got really irritated when we still tried to use it) and is better for transitioning. In other words, when he's too little for the bathtub but too big for the baby bathtub.

And there you have it. My first five "essential" baby items. Items that, I'm sure, will vary for each and every baby. But oh well.
 
Lately my time is spent putting Logan down for naps, feeding Logan, playing with Logan, putting Logan down for naps, and did I mention putting Logan down for naps? He fights them until he's basically cried himself to sleep. And then he sleeps for the shortest amount of time (see above) and we have to do it all over again in an hour or so. Since becoming a mom, my time has been a bit consumed by my baby boy. I knew I'd take on this new role, but I've found that in the process, I forgot about the other roles I hold. Becoming a mother didn't relieve me of my "wife" role or "homemaker" role (I don't know that I thought of myself as a homemaker, but a lot less cleaning gets done now, so apparently, I was), but I put those on the back burner. I talked to Travis about this the other day, letting him know that despite appearances, I'm working on balancing all my roles instead of focusing on just one. Despite always being a daughter and sister, I never felt those roles took specific effort. They were just always a part of me. Becoming a wife wasn't all that difficult, because it was the only "in the moment" role I had. Sure, I still talked to my parents and sisters and worked full-time, but day in and day out, I was a wife. Now day in and day out, I'm a wife AND a mother. And it's been hard to balance the two. Spending completely focused time with my husband is rare, but it's something I need to try to do more often. I really have to rely on God as I figure this out--because I really have no idea how to balance the two. But He gave me both these jobs, and He's going to help me master them. (And if not master, at least get better.)

I'm losing so much hair, I'm surprised I have any left. My sisters came for this past weekend and babysat Logan so Travis and I could go out on a date. It was sweet and wonderful! Brittany also cleaned the floor, which was almost as wonderful as watching my son. And she made us some banana chocolate chip muffins. I've eaten at least three every day. When she gets married, I hope the man she marries either works out a lot or has a really fast metabolism. ;) [Breastfeeding is my best friend when I want to eat a lot of food.] Travis put new baseboards in our living room/dining room this past weekend. My contribution to the whole project was as "painting assistant" (my official title) a couple weeks ago. [I only helped for an hour. Oops.] Travis did everything else. Measuring, cutting, installing, caulking... he's basically awesome. And the house looks so much better with baseboards! Oh! And transitions! Next project? Hm... fix our really wonky shower head? Not a top priority. I still leak when I nurse Logan. Is that normal? I'm getting really tired of buying nursing pads. And wearing them. I get to put "wife" and "mom" on temporary hold on Thursday morning to go get a manicure! I got a coupon for a free manicure at this local spa and I've only ever gotten a manicure in the states twice--and once was when I was thirteen and the other was for my wedding. So I'm excited. And grateful that the hubs is going to watch the baby. :) I long to make really delicious cake. One of these days I will. And frosting. Someday, guys, someday.

Tomorrow it's going to be cold. We're getting closer and closer to winter. And you know what that means? I need to get Logan some socks.

If I'd written this a few days ago, I would have had a cool title about shaving my legs.

The thirty minutes I had to write this just got cut down to twelve because my precious baby boy decided to wake up. After only an hour of sleep. I love being a mom, I really do. But the constant waking up multiple times every night is wearing me out. I know it's a normal part of motherhood with an infant, but I don't think I ever realized how much I relied on getting a decent number of continuous hours of sleep. You see, I probably get eight hours of sleep at night. But as it turns out, I don't just need eight hours of sleep. I need eight continuous hours of sleep. Or six for that matter! I got six continuous hours of sleep one night a couple weeks ago and it was magical. I felt so rested! But getting three hours, then two, then an hour and a half, then two...it's not the best. I did this way back (hah!) when Logan was first born, but I kind of looked at it like bootcamp. Just power through the first couple of months and then things will improve. And the depressing part is that they did! For about a month, he was sleeping eight+ continuous hours each night! I was on cloud nine. I felt like the most blessed new mom in the world. But then Logan decided it wasn't any fun to sleep so much. And here we are. He still wants to eat every two hours during the day, and will not go back to sleep at night without nursing. In fact, the last couple of days he's hardly been willing to go to sleep for his naps without nursing. And since his "awake period" is only about an hour to an hour and a half, he eats when he wakes up and then wants to eat again to go to sleep. No wonder the silly four-and-a-half month old baby is already moving up to 9-month clothes! (Not all clothes are created equal. He still fits in Carter's six month quite well. [Side note: I love Carter's. Soft, durable, cute. I. Love. Carter's.] But there are a number of other brands that he's even outgrowing the 6-9 month size... My breast milk must be akin to heavy cream.)

[If you thought a new paragraph meant a topic other than my baby, you will be very disappointed.] Logan is over 17.5 lbs., so I'm not sure how much longer I can carry his carseat with him in it. My arm muscles can't grow as fast as he is. (But my arms are getting much stronger! I'm like an awesome arms-only body builder. Except not really.) You know what though? I really really love my baby boy. I may cringe and my heart may stop when I hear him maybe possibly waking up on the monitor, but I still wouldn't trade my days (and nights) with him for anything. [OK, I might trade the nights for some sleep...but that's beside the point.] I'm talking in circles. It's the sleep deprivation. (aka, my official excuse for everything!) Oh yeah, and Logan's new favorite thing to do is grab my face. He especially likes to grab my lips with a death grip that rivals all death grips. It's so painful and he just keeps squeezing tighter until I'm convinced my whole mouth is bleeding. There's never actually been any blood, but boy does it seem like there should have been. He also loves to roll to his tummy. Though sometimes he rolls to his tummy even though he doesn't want to. Then he gets upset and I flip him back over... but we end up in a vicious cycle. Then it's usually nap time.

I really love chicken. I don't know that I need any other meats in my life. Except breakfast sausage. I've been making pancakes and sausage at least once a week because...well, because I love pancakes and sausage. I also love chocolate chip cookies, and we're out of cookie dough. My hair keeps getting more and more straight as the weeks go by. I'm losing hope that my curls will ever come back. It might be time to simply mourn their loss, and move on. It only took me about eighteen years to like my curly hair. Hopefully I'll embrace straight hair a little bit quicker. Sabre pulled a box through his doggy door. He couldn't push it though, so he went out the door, then stuck his head back in and pulled the box through. He's too smart for his own good. Logan loves to watch the dogs walk around. But if they get close to his face to lick him, he starts swatting at them. And he's pulled on Sabre's fur a couple times. Luckily, Sabre doesn't seem to notice. Tatum, on the other hand, runs away if he even reaches for her. And from what I can tell, Logan seems to be more interested in Tatum than Sabre. He must know she's a little more skittish and wants to break her of it.

My eyes are getting itchy, which means it's time to rest them. Maybe next time I won't only write about Logan... but don't hold me to that. I'm not sure I have it in me.

My Husband Always Tries to Read My Posts Before I'm Finished.

A few weeks ago, I told Travis that my birthday gift this year would be the trip we're taking to Hattiesburg. I figured, it costs money to board the dogs, drive to Mississippi, and I plan on eating at all my favorite restaurants from my good ol' college days... so why spend money on a gift? Besides, I couldn't think of anything I wanted. But then, as the days went by, my trusty macbook started acting up. And by "acting up" I really mean "dying." It froze all. the. time. For the last year or so, I haven't been able to do a whole lot of multitasking because it was just too much for the old guy to handle. (old guy: macbook) I was able to deal with limiting my multitasking, but restarting my computer multiple times a day (restarting took a good 30 to 45 minutes each time) was pushing me over the edge. I frantically searched for my external hard drive to back up my computer (something I hadn't done in over a year!) and barely got everything backed up. I started backtracking my "I don't need a birthday gift" stance yesterday and asked Travis if there was any chance I could get a new laptop. I made every case I could... and he didn't say a whole lot (which really isn't all that unusual). About the third time my computer froze up in a thirty minute period, Travis left the room and returned a few minutes later with a beautiful new Macbook Pro. I cried. He wanted to wait till my birthday, but the old guy gave out a week too soon. And in the end, it was an even bigger surprise. So I'm now writing my first blogpost on my brand new laptop. It's just so wonderful. And you know what else? My old laptop won't come back on. I got one last backup last night... and then he died. Travis has tried to revive him, but I think it's a lost cause. He held on till he knew I was taken care of. ;) He was a good laptop. So thoughtful.

Also, yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my positive pregnancy test. Apparently September 27th is a big day for me.

Logan no longer sleeps through the night. (I can't remember if he'd given that up when I last wrote...) However, we officially moved him to his own room, because I found that he was spending more time in my bed than his pack n' play. (And technically he's only supposed to use the bassinet portion of the pack n' play till he's 15 pounds... he's almost 17 pounds. Oops.) I was just too tired in the night to stay awake, so I kept falling asleep while he nursed back to sleep... and neither of us was getting the good, restful sleep we really need. I'm slowly figuring out this whole "baby sleep" thing. He naps a lot. He takes a nap somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour and a half after he wakes up. After every nap. So by the end of the day he's taken about five naps. Or six. But he's a happier baby and he sleeps better at night. (One or two wake-ups instead of four or five.) I learned last night that Travis isn't allowed to help with nighttime wake-ups. He tried last night, but caved in when the little guy smiled at him. He smiled back! So of course, Logan thought it would be fun to stay up for a little while. It may be mean of me, but when Logan wakes up in the night, he gets fed and then goes back to sleep. I can barely open my eyes in the middle of the night, so smiling at him is less of a concern for me. Hah. Sometime during his nice long sleep last night, he figured out how to put his butt in the air and kind of get onto his knees to scoot forward. He can't move much at all, but it's a pretty impressive attempt. He's really trying to figure out how to become mobile. He doesn't like staying in one place. However, he's only [almost] four months old, so he's got some time. Though I do think our aspirations of an immobile baby on our international flights is far-fetched now. I think we'll be up and down the aisles a lot.

We have a new area rug in our living room. The dogs love it even more than I do. Hah. We've used our TV a few times...it's pretty small and hard to see. Maybe someday we'll upgrade. We ran out of rice. We went through ten kilos of rice really fast. It's the Asian in us. Travis doubled the chocolate chip cookie recipe (it's the absolute best ever!), so now we have a ton of frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer. And Magnums. They were on sale. And I need to get some sleep before my little one wakes up for his first (and hopefully only) middle of the night feeding.

Slow Motion vs. Fast Motion (...and Logan, of course)

In the last week or so, I've been paying more attention to which scenarios cause Travis and me to disagree or argue more often. You see, I felt problems were arising more often and I couldn't figure out why. As it turns out, there's one common factor to nearly every argument we've had in the last... probably since we got married. It only took me three years to figure it out. You see, I move in fast-motion a lot of the time. When I get hungry, I want food. right. now. And if I'm say, nursing or otherwise busy with my dear child, I might ask Travis to get me some food. If I ask him to get me some food and he says yes, it's as if I have an internal timer that, quite honestly, is not very long. So half an hour later, when my stomach sounds beyond angry, I express that anger towards Travis. After all, he did say that he'd get me some food. Travis's perspective, I've come to find out, is very different. When he agrees to get me some food, he never thinks it's an immediate agreement. He said he'd do it... he didn't say he'd do it now. Our new compromise is that if I ask for food, I have a very short wait period before the hunger takes over my mind... so if he can't or doesn't want to help right then, he needs to say "when I finish ___" or "I will in ___ minutes"... then I have a better idea when my food is coming. OR I can decide that he's going to take too long and I need to master the art of nursing standing up with one hand while making a sandwich with the other. ;) Or just learn to be more patient. It's all about compromise. My second example of "fast motion" is while shopping. I'm not a "let's go shopping for a few hours 'cause it's so much fun" kind of person. I know what I'm going to buy when I go out, and I want to buy it and go home. (I literally feel exhausted as soon as we've found the item I sought out to buy.) I'm a bit more flexible on this when we're at Target and I wander into the baby section... but grocery shopping. Blah. Travis, on the other hand, wants to compare prices for every item we need or just stroll along at a leisurely (ahem, slow) pace, while I feel as though we're tiptoeing through our mundane grocery shopping. Travis is basically the most laid-back person in the world. I mean, I was in full blown labor and he decided to take a shower. If a man isn't going to get into gear and move at a high speed when his wife is screaming in pain, I don't know that there's anything that will. So we're working on compromising our "fast motion" and "slow motion" personalities into a... medium motion. We'll see how it goes.

Logan giggles now. Not often. But when he does, it's the best thing ever. I'm sure in a few years, we'll go back through all our videos of Logan and wonder why we thought him lying on his back "cooing" for ten minutes was so exciting... but today, right now, it's wonderful. If his noisiness at 3.5 months is any indication of talkativeness later in life, he's going to talk our ears off. He's rarely quiet. It's pretty cute though. (Except when he's beyond exhausted and has decided that the best way to stay awake is to yell. Not cry or scream. Yell.) My poor little guy has a cold and isn't a big fan of the snot-sucker. It works really well... if he'll let us use it! He loves his door jumper and is determined to sit up all. the. time. Or pull himself to his feet (while holding our hands, of course). And the only things that work in getting him to nap now are the car seat (both in the car and out... though out of the car takes longer) and the ergo carrier (magic!). He used to fall asleep on his own in his cozy little swing. But then one day he decided swings aren't cool and pacifiers are gross, so we were back at square one. I'm pretty sure his preferences change daily.

I'm back to babysitting now. I watch a three year old boy, a seven month old girl, and my little guy. It's quite a party! A week ago Logan would fall asleep when the seven month old cried... now he stares around the room in utter confusion.... or joins in himself. The three year old says things so practically. He went to the Baylor football game a couple weeks ago. I asked him, "Did they run really far?" He answered, "No, they runned close together." He has a point. And while he was playing with his legos the other day, I asked him what he was building. He said, "A mistake." "What's a mistake?" I asked. He said, "I don't know, but Daddy knows." :) I'm guessing his dad was building something with the legos and said, "I made a mistake!" and now it's an official thing to build. It's fun! It's better on the days that the babies are calm and easy. Once Logan can sit up without help, that will be one less thing I have to do--support him while he insists on sitting.

In other news... we're going to Hattiesburg, MS (where I went to college) next month. I'm very excited. We have our tickets to Indonesia for December, the dog boarding is already paid for, and we have a used car seat to take along just in case it gets damaged. And our passport applications (Logan's and mine) have been sent off. Exciting things are happening. Life is good. God's blessings are the best.