Wal-Mart Wellness Center

This morning I made a list of all the things I had to do and it got me thinking. "Grocery shopping" and "make lunch" were on the same list wtih no distinction in difficulty whatsoever. I feel jipped. Making lunch takes no more than 15 minutes. "Grocery shopping", well, it's a bit more work to say the least. Here's what goes into my weekly Wal-Mart trip:

feed baby, immediately pack up baby (time is ticking), dog-proof the house (dumb dog), load up the car, drive into Sioux Falls, find a parking spot, haul car seat into store, hoist car seat into shopping cart, unbundle baby (so he doesn't over-heat), find toys for him to play with and ...

whew ... now we're ready to begin shopping.

shop for household items, shop for groceries (first dairy products, then meats, produce, frozen, and finally box and canned goods - it's very choreographed), proceed to check-out, unload everything out of cart, load everything back into cart, pay for groceries, soothe crying baby (he ALWAYS cries in the check-out line - who knows why), push heavy cart to car, load baby back into car, take all groceries out of cart and load into car (this is now the 4th time I've lifted these groceries), put cart away (I hate people who leave carts in the parking lot), start car and leave.

oh wait, we're not done yet. Brooks at this point may or may not be crying. On a good day, I've managed my time well and he's sleeping or happily looking out the window. On a not so good day, I've taken too long and now he's getting hungry. But before the outing is over I ...

drive home, park the car, bring baby, purse and diaper bag into house, make three more trips out to the car to bring in all the groceries. If Brooks is screaming I break to feed him, then proceed to move all my items yet one more time into their designated space at home. Put car seat away and ... DONE! If you lost count, by the end of my trip I have lifted/moved the same groceries six times. SIX TIMES!! No wonder I'm exhuasted after it all.

So when I say I've been "grocery shopping" please read into it everything I've just explained above. Thank you.

on the move

One Monday night at the gym all the moms gathered around to give their babies a nice massage. I look over to see calm, relaxed babies enjoying the gentle rubs. Then I look at my child. He's flipped to his tummy. Then he kicks his legs, lifts his head to look around, arches his back to get a better view and rolls back over. He grabs his toes, then eats them. He doesn't stop moving. So much for "relaxing"! Sheesh.

Then it got me thinking about all the moving our little 5 1/2 month old baby does, and he's quite an active little guy. Here's a slice of his day.

He reaches for mom. reaches for dad. reaches for toys. holds toys. rolls from tummy to back. lifts up head. rolls from back to tummy. kicks legs. rocks in chair. giggles when tickled. rocks in car seat. (he learned to rock himself). jumps up and down. stands up. flaps arms. sits up. grabs toes. eats toes. rolls to side. holds pacifier. rolls to other side. rides "bike". snuggles. goes to sleep.

whew. that's a lot of movement for a baby who doesn't even crawl or walk. All I can think is we better keep our running shoes on!

Happy Pumpkin Day

Saturday morning Chris decided he was going to make pancakes for breakfast, one of his favorites. But these ones had a festive flair! Happy Pumpkin Day.

Look mom!

Looks like somebody found his toes!!

Like puppy like son??

Ok, so for as long as I can remember our dog Charlie has had this strange habit of sucking on blankets. No really, sucking on them. He doesn't chew on them (because he gets in trouble for that), just sucks on them. He gathers the blanket between his paws, wraps his mouth around it and goes to town. It's so weird, but I guess if it makes him happy, who am I to stop him?

Well, being that Brooks is 4 months old and likes to put everything in his mouth, I knew this was bound to happen. Both my little guys sucking on their blankets at the same time. ::sigh:: Only in our house!

Butterflies!

This weekend Chris, Brooks and I had planned an outing to the corn maze on the north side of town. We packed the snowsuit, boots, hats and of course the camera. We hit the road and about 10 minutes away from home we realized we forgot the baby carrier ... crud. Well, I certainly didn't want to push a stroller through a muddy corn maze and carrying him would have been too much, especially for our wiggly little boy. So we opted for Plan B: the Butterfly House.

Right here in Sioux Falls, there's an Outdoor Campus run by the Fish & Game Dept and part of that is the Butterfly House. So we decided to check it out. I think Brooks was a bit overwhelmed by it. My poor South Dakota baby has hardly ever seen a tree before! So it was fun to see him explore. He touched the leaves, listened to the little waterfall and did the best he could to keep up with all the butterflies floating around. I think he had fun ... we sure did. Here's some pictures from the day. You can see more here.

my boys

I am impressed more and more everyday at how wonderful of a father my husband is. Yesterday he spent quite a bit of time with Brooks while I took my much needed Sunday nap and then went grocery shopping. Chris' project for the day was to put plastic on our drafty windows, and he decided that the boy should help. What a team!

I also found some other (older) pictures of Chris and Brooks. I am blessed with a wonderful family.

Chris' first fathers day. Brooks - 5 days old.

Brooks - 1 month old.

What a good snuggler.

Tummy time with Daddy! Brooks - 3 months old