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 :)