Changing Table Confessions

A good chunk of my day is spent changing Dax's diaper - and we have lots of conversations while he's getting changed here are excerpts from

"How can I teach you French when I don't know the word for elbow, diaper, crib, onesie...wait I don't know baby vocab in French, where's my dictionary?"

"I hate reusable wipes...disposable ones are so much easier, yet I love cloth diapers"

"I don't need to accessorize anymore - I have spit up and burp rags for decoration now"

"It's 11am and this is our 3rd outfit today - you better not pee on me...dang it, at least it hit the wall and not me"

"my word you're going to be fighting off the girls when you're in school....i really hope you don't date the dumb ditzy ones"

Those are the main ones from today - there seems to be quite a bit of overlap each day. My little man is growing so quickly, there are days where I look at his sweet face and realize that he is growing up and maturing. I get emotional thinking about the day when he'll be 18 (not sure if the tears are more because he'll be all grown up or because I'll be 42), or the day when he gets married, or when he has kids. I wish I could slow down my thoughts, and truly enjoy this stage that we're in right now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my life as it is, I love my son, I love being a mom, I love being a wife, and I'm so thankful for everything that we have. But sometimes my mind gets ahead of where we're at, and I think too far ahead that I lose time in the present - make sense?

Pictures!!

Yes, my camera cable has turned up - just as I was looking online for a new one to buy, talk about good timing :)

Here's a little montage of our Christmas:

Christmas Part Deux

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Kalamazoo to be with Derek's family. Dax was looking daper in his little button down shirt and cordourys (pictures will be posted one of these days - has anyone seen my USB cord to upload pictures onto my computer??) and we headed out to a traditional candlelight Christmas Eve service. Now, I was a bit skeptical when I heard "traditional", because last year's Christmas Eve service was an abomination to Christmas. While I won't go into detail here let me just say the following: Eminem was played, glow sticks were used, and a computerized monotone voice sang Joy to the World - I shed a few tears after that service.

Anywho we headed out to church and it was great, the music was traditional, the sermon was about 10 minutes, and we even did a candlelight service that brought a flood of memories back from when my dad would do Christmas Eve services. We headed home and let Dax open up his first present - it was a book "Je t'aimerai toujours" (I will always love you). We went to bed, and woke up the next morning to a wonderful breakfast cooked by my brother-in-law. We opened gifts and Dax was pretty spoiled by his aunts and grandparents!! Thankfully he was given a lot of clothes that we will need to use soon, since he is growing like a weed and is outgrowing his 3-6 month stuff. Seriously, where did my 8 pound newborn go?? Derek gave me an awesome pocket video camera that I cannot wait to start using to get videos of Dax laughing and talking. I think the favorite present we received (we're dorks, I'll admit that right now) was the new Mario game for our Wii. The rest of the day was spent playing our new game in-between feeding Dax.

We also measured Dax while we were away, and his more accurate length is 24 inches. We'll reweigh him again soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if this little chunker is at least 14 pounds if not more. Next big holiday will be New Year's, and while I'm pretty sure he will sleep through the ball dropping, we will definitely take pictures to document it and show him one day when he's bigger. I will post pictures hopefully soon - I'm about to just buy a new cord online, I have looked EVERYWHERE for the stupid cord, even at both of our parent's houses and it is nowhere to be found.

All I want for Christmas...

Thanksgiving through New Year's is possibly one of my favorite times of the year. This year is extra special because we get to celebrate with Dax for his first Christmas! A lot has changed over this past year for Derek and I, and we're trying to adjust to all that has taken place. A quick recap: In February we discovered that we were going to have a baby, we took a last hurrah/belated honeymoon trip to Europe for 2 weeks, my oldest sister Jessie got married, we had a baby, I quit my job, and how we're here.

In light of the holiday spirit (which I am seriously lacking this year, sigh) I have decided to share my all-time Christmas wish list. I realize I will not be getting these items, but a girl can dream, can't she?

1. A real camera, the Nikon D90 would be AWESOME

2. Camera lessons and photoshop lessons to go along with the sweet camera - I'm sick of all of my pictures of Dax having massive red-eye and the colors being blah

3. A tummy tuck, with some liposuction - or my pre-pregnancy body and weight!

4. Removal of my sweet tooth

5. 2 extra arms - this would make cleaning the apartment possible

6. A new diaper bag in pink daisy thank you very much

7. Season tickets to MSU men's basketball, courtside or at least lower bowl

I'm sure there are other things I could wish for, like the ability to be an amazing parent, to not make mistakes while parenting, to know how to raise my child as a Christ-follower, and the list could go on.

It will be fun to take pictures of Dax's 2nd first Christmas and show them to him one day when he's older. Even though he won't remember this time, and gifts aren't really appropriate, I still feel slightly guilty that we didn't really get him anything. We gave him a stuffed snowman that he received at my parent's house, and he will be getting a couple of books in French and a new swaddle-me blanket at Derek's parent's house.

What is the one gift you are hoping for this Christmas?

2 months old!

On Friday, Dax turned 2 months old, my how the time has flown by!!! We celebrated by going to the pediatrician for his 2 month well-baby checkup. Boy has my little boy grown, he's put on almost 5 pounds since he was born, coming in at an impressive 13.2o pounds! They measured him, but I'm pretty sure the nurse did it wrong, she said he was only 22 7/8" long, but he was 21.5 at birth, and he's about to move into his 9 month sized clothing because he's too long for his 6 month sized stuff. Derek and I will remeasure him later this week for a more accurate length. I have some cute pictures of him that we've taken recently, but our usb cord for our camera has gone on hiatus.

Dax has really started talking more, smiling, and laughing. He loves playing on his playmat, we frequently find him staring at himself cracking up. He loves talking to himself, and batting the toys on his playmat. Bathtime is still one of Dax's favorite things. He smiles the entire time, and gets pretty upset when it's time to take him out. He is still sleeping 6-7 hours at night (way to go Dax), and is a very content and happy boy. While we've had some struggles nursing lately, he's been getting better, and is still eating like a champ. He's obviously gaining weight, and our pediatrician thinks he's going to be a big boy. She tried to convince us to look into baby modeling for him - she said he looks like he's 4 months old, which is how old the Gerber babies are. The older Dax gets, and the chubbier his cheeks become, the more he starts to look like my baby pictures - at least with how chubby he is :) He is still 99% dad and 1% mom at this point. Pictures are coming soon - as soon as we find our camera cord!

Holiday Cards

This will be the first year that Derek and I are sending out a Christmas card. We decided to combine our holiday greeting card with Dax's birth announcement, mainly to save on the cost of doing 2 separate mailings. We wanted to do a picture card with several of the pictures that our photographer took. I contacted my friend, Sara, who does amazing digital cards - invitations, annoucements, holiday, etc - and she's also a great photographer too! She has an Etsy store for her creations, Less Ordinary Designs , and she can customize pretty much anything and create an amazing card for you. Her prices are inexpensive ($15-20/design), and she'll send you the file to print at the location of your choice. This is the design she pulled together for us, I can't wait to get the prints so I can mail them out :)

News Announcement (you may want to sit down for this)

....I am officially not going back to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would put enough exclamation points to show you how happy I am about that, but there would be about 5 pages of them and I don't want to lose any readers because of that :) Derek and I have spent a lot of time praying and wrestling with finances (yes wrestling, kind of similar to lassoing a bull I suppose) to see how this will work. Let me tell you, God is a miracle worker. This summer when I was looking at our finances to see if it was possible for me to not return to work and it was impossible. Our expenses required 2 incomes. I did the math a gazillion times this summer and nothing worked. A few weeks after I had Dax we sat down again, after lots of prayer, to see what was possible. Somehow God waved his magic wand, and with a little cutting here and there, it has become possible. We are both really thankful and I feel so relieved to know that I will be raising my son. I have another post with a picture to show off the awesome birth announcement/Christmas card that my friend, Sara designed for us. She does great custom design work (and is an awesome photographer too, she did our engagement and wedding pictures!!) and has super reasonable prices! More on her later :)

Breastfeeding Woes

If you don't want to read about breastfeeding, then you should stop reading now :)

I have been exclusively breastfeeding Dax and intend to do so for an indefinite period of time, but that's not the point of this post. When Dax was 2 weeks old, he ended up getting a bottle of expressed breastmilk due to reasons that I won't elaborate upon here. We continued to give him 1 bottle of breastmilk a day, Derek would give it to him at night while I would pump.

This past week, Dax has been extremely fussy at night when I would try to feed him. Then on Friday night, we made our first mistake and could not get the poor boy to calm down, and he would not eat from me. So, we lovingly warmed up a bottle of milk that I had pumped, and Dax ate as if it was the last meal he was ever going to get. That marked the start of a 3-day (or maybe longer, I'll know tomorrow) scream fest every time I tried to feed Dax. What Derek and I quickly came to realize is that Dax was suffering from nipple confusion and had developed a preference to the bottle. After talking to a few people and doing some online research we decided to go cold turkey with Dax and eliminate all bottles and pacifiers for an indefinite period of time. This has temporarily turned my happy son who never cries into a screaming monster when it comes time to eat. I learned a trick though - if I can get him to eat while he's sleeping or just waking up, he doesn't put up a fuss. Today has been much easier, but I don't think we're out of the dark just yet. This would be mistake #3: we introduced a bottle too early. Next time around, a bottle will be introduced around 4 or 6 weeks instead of at 2 weeks.

Mistakes

Tonight I would say that we made our first official "mistake" as parents. We had dinner with friends, so before we headed over we fed Dax-a-roo, got him all bundled up and headed over. I'm still a little uncomfortable breastfeeding Dax (even with a nursing cover) in front of non-family members, so we took some breastmilk and a bottle, and figured that 5oz of milk would be enough for Dax until we got home. That was mistake #1 - especially since Dax has been eating about every 1 - 1.5 hours this past week. We arrived around 6:15, and Dax was fed around 6:45. By the time we were getting ready to leave around 8:50 or so, I could tell that Dax was starting to get hungry, but I assumed that we could make it home in time to feed him. That was mistake #2, our 20 minute drive home drove me to tears, Dax was crying like I have NEVER heard before. We got home, I promptly pulled him out of his car seat, pulled out the girls and proceeded to feed him. I forgot to mention that he had tears streaming down his face, his face was ready, and he was sweating because he got so hot from all of his crying. My little boy wanted nothing to do with food, he was so upset it took about 20 minutes to calm him down enough to eat and when he finally was calm enough to eat he went to town.

Lesson learned, next time feed the baby, it is NEVER a good idea to think/assume that a 2 month old can wait 20 minutes to get home. I'm now happy to report that Dax is sound asleep and will hopefully get a full nights sleep out of exhaustion from crying.

Winters' Family Thanksmas

This past weekend the Winters' Family celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas. Benj, Anna, Kyle, and Vas all flew in to celebrate, and we had Kelsey on Skype. It was a great time, here are some pictures:

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Vas with Dax


The Caramel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake my dad and I made:


It was delicious:


Another family photo:


Telling stories to Aunt Vas:


Snoozin' with Uncle Benj:


Talking to Aunt Anna:


Look Mom...no hands!


I took a nap with daddy


I read stories with Grandpa (if anyone knows of a good tool to remove red-eye let me know)


In our family, everyone has a handmade stocking. Over the past few years I have taken on the task of making one for all of the newcomers (and my parents, because they didn't have them), so I got to make one for Dax this year:


Dax in his new Christmas PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa


Hanging out with Grandpa and my new snowman from mommy and daddy


Check out my new reindeer hat from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Dustin


We had a great time and it was wonderful seeing everyone, but really sad to see them all go. I sometimes miss the days when we all lived in the same house together - we never had to spend any holidays apart.

Baby and Holiday Pictures

Do you like the new picture of Dax that I am using as my header? Me too. I've always wanted to take great pictures. In high school I took a photography class and would always try to capture artsy shots and images that would really stand out. I usually ended up with a roll of film full of pictures that looked like someone was trying to take an artsy shot instead of capturing something amazing naturally. Sadly, despite all of my efforts over the years to try and become the next Ansel Adams, I am still just your average jill when it comes to capturing those timeless moments. Since I am not anywhere close to being a professional, we decided to have a photographer come to our house and do newborn pictures, as well as family pictures for our Christmas card/birth announcement. When my dad found out that we wanted to get portraits done, he immediately recommended a woman from his church, Brooke Borton. She does amazing work, much better than a session at your favorite place in the mall. Plus, she comes at a time that's good for you, brings props, backgrounds, and takes amazing pictures. She took the one that is on my header and these 2:


This one is my favorite so far:


As many of you know, when I have had a great experience with a product or service, I am very vocal about that experience and will do what I can to spread the word. Even though I haven't seen all of the pictures yet, I am highly impressed with the sneak peak and know that the rest will be just as good if not better. If you get the chance, check out her facebook page , she's a mom who takes amazing pictures and is willing to travel :)