Getting Big: 6 Months

 Where to begin?  This month Carter has changed so much!  Here's what he's accomplished:

Teething--I feel like he's been teething since 5 months on the dot.  First was the gnawing, crankiness, not sleeping. Now they're still not in, but he's actually acting fine?  I'll take it though.  It wasn't a fun couple of weeks.  They're taking their SWEET time.  He has these 2 big, white bumps on his front bottom row but they haven't come in any more and have just sat like that for two weeks.  He loves his binksicles as we call them (we freeze his binkies) and I hope those are helping.  Any time now! (This was written on his 6th month, but now that I'm late posting it, they've come through! They came through at 6 months and 1 week)

He is so good at reaching for things he likes and grabbing them.  Whether it's my hair, a toy, your nose, a spoon, you name it! 

He can sit up!  Only for a little bit, but he is totally balance sufficient on his own.  He's also learned that if he puts his hands on the ground that he can steady himself.  But he's not very strong, so he just slowly melts to the ground.  It's pretty funny!

He's learned how to play with his jumper gym.  He used to just look at it, but everyday I see him figuring out different components and actually wanting to reach out and play with stuff.  He's very tentative!  He's one to think before he dives into an activity.  You can see him trying to work it out in his mind.

The blender and food processor scare him when they're turned on!

He can roll!  He's only done a full roll (tummy to back) twice.  He did it a few weeks ago unprompted and that was that. I've been waiting for it again, and he's keeping me waiting!  However, he loves to roll from his tummy to both of his sides--especially when he's upset or reaching for a toy in his gym!

Speaking when he's upset--he gets so sweaty and hot when he's mad.  I hope for his sake this doesn't last!  That'd be an embarrassing tell tale sign to have :)

He is un-swaddled (well at least with his arms out, we still do it from the arm pits down).  This was more by our choice than his.  Every nap and bedtime we would swaddle him.  Mostly because he scratched so bad.  However, I was getting nervous since he was starting to roll and he wouldn't have his arms out to move himself.  I didn't want him smothering himself.  So, it's been a rough few nights so far, and we put socks or rubber bands on the ends of his shirts to keep him from doing too much damage.  I can tell he feels thrown off and not as snuggly and it's taking him longer to fall asleep but he's getting the hang of it.

Holding himself up with his arms!

His first sickness!  I'm pretty sure he's either gotten a cold, or a case of bad allergies.  He's been coughing, letting out the saddest scratchy/throaty whimper, having his nose run like a faucet and also being super congested and sounding like a 60 year old smoker.  Poor guy!  I hope he gets over it soon.

He has mastered the "throw your head back".  I almost dropped him the first time he did it.  Now when he wants to move, is bored, or upset he'll arch his back and throw his head.  It's a lot of weight and you really have to juggle to keep him in your arms.  Oh, boy!

He's figured out how to get bored.  While just about anything entertains him, he also gets sick of our apartment.  Both ends of the spectrum!  No joke.  I know our apartment is small and all--but at six months already?  He'll get super squirmy no matter what we do until I take him outside.  As soon as we're outside he is fine!  One time I was sick of walking him around so I got his little bath and sat it in the grass.  It was the perfect lounge chair.  I think he just loves looking around and is sick of our decor.

Can't hold himself up too long...starting his slow descent

He also loves walks!  This goes hand in hand with getting outside.  He is going to walk me to death.  It's nice exercise and I love the fresh air, but it's starting to get hot outside.  He can be sooo crabby and as soon as the stroller starts moving he is quiet and so content.  I swear he loves going on walk in the heat of the day too!  I hope this continues and that he'll always be active and outdoorsy!

He started eating solid foods (as posted below) and still isn't liking it after a week and a half.  So far he's only tried rice cereal and broccoli.  Because he had food allergies I'm only introducing one thing at a time (not mixing multiple things) and only doing one thing for five days at a time.  Better safe than sorry!  I'm a mean mom and am not allowing him to have fruits until he tries all of the vegetables first.  He does love holding his own spoon and banging it against his boopy to make a loud sound.  And I can tell he is SOO curious about food now.  He stares us down when we eat and every once in awhile he'll lean forward with his mouth open so I'll put in a green pepper, apple...etc. and let him taste it.  He usually scrunches up his nose, but I'm glad to see he's getting curious about something other than me as his main food supply!

He is such a ham!  He is so social, and I hope this sticks.  He adores being around people.  For example, we were at the post office and it was soo busy.  He would sit and make this "huh" sound over and over until the lady in front of us would turn around and look at him.  When she would turn around he'd give the biggest grin and giggle.  Once she'd turn back around he'd start up all over again.  He musta done that 10 times.  He was entertaining everyone that was in front of us in the line!  I sometimes wonder why he was put as the oldest because he loves being around other people and could probably benefit from some siblings.  He's going to have to wait on that!  I guess I'm not enough entertainment for him.  Whenever we take him to church, or someone else's house he gets so excited for new people to look at.  He can go from being so tired/nap time to be wide awake and happy if he has new people to look at.  He's a gawker, but he just enjoys being around where there's lots of people and noises to watch.  I think sometimes people get offended because they'll come up to him and try to get him to smile and he'll just stare with his big eyes. It's not that he doesn't like you--he just loves to look at you! 

Falling even more...

That said, he also loves TV.  Especially Paula Deen.  Embarrassing, I know!  I know he shouldn't be watching it this soon, but I love to have the TV on when I'm home alone.  And no matter where I position him away from it, he'll crane his neck to see it.  I don't use it as a toy, or for him to enjoy, but I feel like I can't have it on without him wanting to watch it as well.  What to do?  Turning it off really isn't an option!  It's too lonely!

Trying to grab the camera!

He is still napping WONDERFULLY!  He usually is up for two hours and then naps for two hours.  We're finally on a schedule (starting at 7 am) and he is pretty predictable now which is nice.  He still takes 3 naps a day which is so nice for me!  I know I will miss these days once they're gone so I'm trying to soak it in.  He went for a period of about 2 weeks sleeping HORRIBLY at night.  I'll blog about that later, but it was awful and it reminded me how lucky I am that he sleeps for 12 hours at night.  HALLELUJAH.  He still will not nap or sleep anywhere but his crib, in his darkened room, swaddled.  Which is great and predicable.  It's so nice to have an exact formula that works every time.  However, I do wish he'd learn to sleep in his car seat so I could run errands or let him sleep at church, or other places when we can't get home on his schedule.  Every once in awhile he doesn't want to go to bed.  For the most part I can leave with him wide awake and not look back or have to go in.  Some nights he cries and whines for a bit.  But, I've found that if I keep going in, he gets all excited and acts like he wants to play.  Some people may think it's mean of me to let him cry until he settles down, but I realize I'm just prolonging it by continuing to go in.

He is getting more and more ticklish.  Especially on his thighs.  I know it's not very nice, but I do love to tickle him to coax that beautiful laugh out of him!  It's got such a snicker quality about it--it's wonderful sounding!

I swear he loves to sneeze!  After every sneeze he makes this "ahaha!" sound like he is so proud of himself and his face shows it as well.  And I'll be darned if he doesn't aim it for my face!

His hair curls no matter what now.  No needing to wet it down.  But it's getting awkward as well.  It's still pretty sparse on the sides and back and getting REALLY long on top.  Not sure if we should even it out or leave it.  Who am I kidding?  Claudy would kill me if I touched it.  So sometimes he looks like he has Einstein hair, and other times like it's a gorgeous wig.  It sure fluctuates!

Like I said, he is doing so much!  He is more and more fun every single day.  I enjoy being able to see him learn and grown and not miss a minute of it.  I can't believe it's been HALF A YEAR.  Time, please slow down.

Straight Thuggin'

Carter will not stop scratching!  It's his coping method, I swear.  Whenever he's upset, tired, or cranky his hands FLY up to the back of his head to rake his fingers over his poor scalp.  He'll draw blood!  Unfortunately, it only makes him even more upset.  Round and round we go. 

One morning I was so sick of holding his hands, or keeping him from it that I found Claudy's wave cap (similar to a durag) and put it on Carter.  It's nice because it's like a stocking and is snug and stayed in place even with him scratching.  It provided a nice barrier and a little protection.

He looked soo cute I had to take a picture.  You may think he looks like a straight up thug, yo...but then when you zoom out, he's really just doing this...scratching away...

And underneath his "tough" exterior, he really just loves his Grandmas and is a softie!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies from a BOX!

What is it about red velvet that makes it so...alluring?  If flavors were the cast of Modern Family, it'd be Sophia Vergera. 

Is it because it's pretty that it's so alluring?

Who know, who cares, right?  Let rocket scientists figure it out.  All I know is that I want to eat it!

Tonight is my final cake decorating class and I had one more box of red velvet to consume, er, uh, use.

I'm kinda caked out, so I decided to go the whoopie pie route.  This is a great way to get rid of box cake mixes and is EASY.

I followed the Duncan Hines recipe (no, this is not sponsored, but I wish it was!).  It was pretty hard to stir (plan on using your digits!) but it made a nice cookie.  It was a little hard, so make sure to only cook it for 7-8 minutes instead of the 10-12 it recommends.  Also, these naturally went flat, which made them nice for stacking and frosting.  I hate whoopie pies that rise too much and so they're all wobbly when you assemble them.  I also liked that a recipe actually called for MELTING butter.  Usually it has to use "room temperature" butter, which I can never do because I don't plan that far ahead and when a craving strikes, you gotta jump into action!

Duncan Hines Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Ingredients:

• 1 box Duncan Hines® Red Velvet Cake Mix
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter

Directions:

1. Melt butter; set aside to cool. Place cake mix, egg, cooled butter and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Mix by hand until well blended and dough is formed. (Watch out, this stuff stains!)
2. Form dough into a smooth 12-inch log on wax paper or parchment making sure it is even in thickness end to end. Wrap in wax paper; seal in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. (I did not do this...remember...cravings?)
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease baking sheets. Unwrap dough log and set on wax paper. Using a sharp knife, cut into 48 slices about 1/4- inch thick. Place on cool baking sheets about 2 inches apart. (Or, use a melon baller so you have uniform cookies and plop onto a cookie sheet like I did).
4. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in center of oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. (My oven may be hot because it's a million years old, but 7-8 minutes was plenty.  They would have been bricks otherwise).

Then, for frosting I didn't know what to do.  I'm sick of cream cheese frosting and buttercream.  So, I decided to try something new.  I got it from my go-to-authority: Pioneer Woman.  She got it from her site Tasty Kitchen.  It's called The Best Frosting I've Ever Had.  It was a little dramatic, but I did like it.  It tastes different and the best part is that it doesn't use powdered sugar.  Which is good for two reasons: for times you run out of powdered sugar, and because often times if you accidentally use too much powdered sugar to get the right consistency it takes just like powdered sugar which I don't like.  You don't have to worry about that with this recipe.  Kazaa!!  And, supposedly this is the original frosting that goes with red velvet, so it was really fitting.  Here's the recipe:

The Best Frosting I've Ever Had

taken from Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)
   
• In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (The author notes: If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.
  While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.  Take a whoopie pie/cookie and spread a generous amount covering the entire flat side.  Place another cookie on top and promptly eat.
  

Oh, crap...tomorrow's Sunday

I wish he looked like this every Sunday, unfortunately these were our professional pictures taken at 6 weeks.  Instead, he's usually still in his pjs or a onesie--real classy, I know.

I'm going to sound apostate to my fellow Mormons, but I just need to let it out!

I kinda feel like if you have kids you should receive an excused absence until they're like 3ish/primary age.

I know that seems like a far cry from what we're told to do (go to church every Sunday, for 3 hours) but church is so much harder with a baby!  And I know it will only get harder once they can army crawl under the pews, throw cheerios everywhere, stomp up and down the isles and scream.  So much to look forward to!

Thankfully we had Carter in the winter, so thanks to the RSV excuse  scare, we didn't take him until he was almost 5 months old.  That was sure nice.

Then came 9 a.m. church and we could bring him.  Oh boy!  Of course he NEVER sleeps good on Sundays.  I swear it's Satan keeping him up so that you're already tired and cranky before church even begins.

Then, no matter how little you get ready, or how early you wake up he needs to eat, or poop or something else right before you need to leave and so you're late.

Then, while you're there you are on pins and needles!  Maybe it's just me.  Maybe it's because he's my first.  And maybe I need a chill pill.  Maybe it's because I used to be so rude and complain and evil eye children who were misbehaving when I was childless.  Probably all of the above.  But I'm soo nervous that he's going to have a meltdown at church.

No one wants to be the person hauling a tantrum child out into the hallway with everyone starring.  I love being the center of attention, just not THAT kind of attention.

And for at least one of the meetings I'm in the mother's lounge nursing him.  Which is a whole lotta fun since there are a million nursing moms in our ward and it's frequently full, so I have to go find a primary room that isn't used.  And then, when I'm hoping to still hear the speakers (since they have the audio pumped into the room) all of the moms want to sit and chat.  If I wanted to sit and chat I would come to play group!  I came to listen to church, but that NEVER happens.  And of course I don't have the cajones to say anything, so I politely talk back and just passively complain about it on my blog :)

And probably the biggest pain:  his napping!  As mentioned before, he is a FABULOUS napper.  When he's at home, in his crib, with his room pitch black, swaddled.  Bring in nose, music and lots of interesting people to gawk at and he's not going down!  He only stays up for 1 to 2 hours at a time before he needs a nap.  That's just his schedule.  So no matter when church is (9,11,1) it will always interfere with his nap schedule.

I'd be remiss without admitting he's been pretty great until his nap time hits.  And even then people tell me he's so wonderful.  His meltdowns are definitely easy compared to a lot I've seen.  But I still feel horrible.  I can tell he's tired, needs to sleep and all I can do is hold him.  I feel like taking him to church is torturing him.  He always looks up at me like "DUH!  You know this is my tired face...why aren't you letting me sleep devil woman?"

Then I feel like the fun doesn't stop once the closing hymn is sung because his whole day is thrown off.  He's like me and isn't too flexible.

Basically, I dread Sundays.

And I feel like I won't like Sundays for about 15 years!  Because once he's old enough to stay awake long enough, he won't want to sit still.  And once he even learns that behavior we'll have another one and round and round we'll go!

I kinda wish church would be broadcasted to your TV so you could suffer at home.

Don't get me wrong.  I love church.  I miss walking away feeling inspired.  But instead I'm a stress ball worrying that he's going to cry (even if he isn't) or that he needs to sleep, or walking with him to try and get him pacified when all he wants to do is nap, or I'm in the nursing lounge.  

So I feel like I don't get anything out of church anyways.  I sometimes feel like "what is the point"??  I shaved my legs and got in a dress for THIS? And then people tell me "you've got to set an example and get them in the habit".  Sorry--I don't think he'll remember or "get in the habit" until he's much older.  He's not going to remember going to church now.  But I will!  I'll have the scar tissue to prove we did it!

So, do I just need to put on my big girl pantyhose and realize church is going to stink for the next while, or do you have any tips to make it better?

Because right now, Sundays have gone from my favorite/relaxing/best day of the week to me going on Saturday night, "Oh crap, tomorrow's Sunday."

I Love You Like a Fat Kid Loves Cake

A wise philosopher once said: "I love you like a fat kid loves cake."  Wait, that wasn't the Dalai Lama?  Oh, just 50 Cent?  Oops...well...this is still a great sentiment no matter whose grill it came from.  And if I were to say this to my husband he would know it means deep, deep abiding love!

Does something taste better if it's "pretty"?  I can't necessarily say that it does, but I was more excited to eat this cake than I usually am (which is saying something!).  Although they do say you eat with your eyes first...

I just made a box red velvet mix and used store bought frosting.  I figured if I was going to try a new decorating technique I'd better not waste time gettin' to it.

This was SO simple.  Seriously, if you can frost a cupcake, you can frost this cake!  It probably only took around 10 minutes.  Here's the tutorial I used.

I do wish I had used homemade frosting because the store bought was a little too runny.  I would have loved the flowers to be a little more stiff.

And of course, you can't forget to take a picture of the insides.  Because it's what's on the inside the counts :)

*FYI--this took two things of store bought frosting.  3/4 of a canister to crumb coat it, and the rest to decorate and it BARELY stretched.  Talk about a lot of frosting.  Darn!

I'm LOVING cake decorating.  I'm afraid my waist won't.  And I'd love to give this away, but since me and little C have been sick, I don't dare.  Guess I'll have to finish it....or at least make myself throw some of it away :) I'm betting on the first...

Cake Decorating

I signed up for a cake decorating class for my birthday.  It's a beginners course (obviously!) and came with four classes.

I haven't LOVED the teacher, and most of the time I think I could have just gone through the kit and lessons myself, but it's been fun to get out of the house and work on a new skill.

This was my 2nd week cake.  It's not the best, but Claudy liked that a cake was dedicated to him.  And now I know how to do image transferring.  I think image transferring will be a great skill to have because you can basically put any image you want!  I see lots of fun possibilities, and hopefully more complex ones as well.

In case you can't read it I put the tagline "It's no tie, you're the #1 Dad".  I also made a poor man's Boston Cream Pie (since he's from Boston).

I just used a vanilla cake mix, and then filled it with vanilla instant pudding (with only half of the milk it called for so it'd be thicker) and then a chocolate buttercream on top.  I love it because it's easy and you don't have to frost the sides!  And, I've tried to make a filled cake before and it was a lopsided mess and the insides squished out.  I did learn the proper way to do it in the class and it was a valuable learning experience.  I love filled cakes and am glad I can do this better now!

Now, I'm spending time researching cake decorating ideas on line (like I need one more thing to do online!) and wishing that we had more birthdays coming up.  

I don't actually love cake (more of a cookies and bars kinda gal) but I might be making a lot of cake just to decorate and practice.  So, if I live by you, and you like cake...let me know!  Because I may be needing to get rid of some.

Here's to learning new skills and having fun doing it.  My next goal is learning more about photography. I recently went to a class and learned the more you know the more you know you don't know.  I want to study more about lighting, aperture, color temperature, white balancing and the other million things that go into taking a good picture :)

The Ever Elusive Bachelors

Where to start?

I guess from the beginning.

I knew that I didn't want to put a husband through school.  I thought it sounded dreadful.  

Hence, I thought I was clever and dated older guys in college.  I didn't like the sound of dating fresh off their mission boys because then I'd be helping them with their Bio 100 homework.  No thanks!  I did not want to be a sugar momma.

When Claudy and I met, he said he only had 2 years of school left.  BINGO!

Ha.

Then he decided to not go to school the semester we got married.  Then that turned into him not going the next semester because he forgot to defer.  Then he decided to drop his business major and focus on sociology.

Then he decided sociology was too broad and wanted to do social work.  BYU dropped their social work program so he transferred to UVU.

UVU only accepted half of his credits so he had to start over as a sophomore.

FINALLY.  FINALLY he had it planned out that we, I mean, he would graduate this August.

And now he found out that he can't get into this last class he needs so we'll be going one more semester.

ONE MORE SEMESTER!

I know that may seem like a little thing to some people.  Sure, it's only 4 months.  But I'm at the end of my rope.

His schooling has been such a trial for me.  I am so not patient, and the thing I tried so hard to avoid has completely happened to me!

We'll have been married 5 years when he finishes his four year degree.  And he had been going to school long before we met.

Yes, there are worse things.  It's not cancer I have to keep telling myself.  And at least he's willing to go to school.  I am sure glad about that.  And he's persistent.

And it's not even his fault he has to go one more semester, but this was the straw that broke the camels back.

I seriously had a meltdown.  I wanted to march up to UVU and punch someone in the jugular.  August had been my light at the end of the tunnel.  I had been CLINGING to August.  I had pushed our finances to just make it until August when he could work full time.  Now what? 

I could finally get out of Utah and move in August.  I could finally get out of our nasty apartment in August.

Everything hinged on August.  

Not one more cold winter in Utah.  

Ug.

And he still wants to get a master's.  Which I am glad about.  But I just feel like we've been in school forever and we'll be in school forever.

I feel like all of the friends we made here have moved on.  We're the last ones here.  They're all buying houses, having real jobs and we're still here.  I feel so stuck.  So not progressing.  It seriously makes my heart ache.

For a non-patient person like me, the Lord has gift wrapped this trial because it has everything I hate all packaged into one!

And then after I calmed down I realized that this is life.

Life isn't supposed to always go as planned.  

Life is supposed to throw you curve balls.

And unfortunately, you have to learn to bend. It's just hard because I feel like I've already been stretched with the long road we've traveled and I feel all out of shape.

And then I felt really guilty.  I'm sure the Lord is like, "Seriously??  I provide a way for you to stay at home with your beautiful baby who is healthy, you have a wonderful husband and you're complaining about four more months?"

Once I realized all of my blessings it didn't seem that bad.

I realized I can be furious for four months, or try and enjoy my time here.

It still hurts me when I think about it.  I still ache to move on, but I'm learning to push it aside and to buck up.  There are much worse things and we'll be there...eventually.

So for all of you ladies whose husbands are done with school--go kiss their degree for me!  Maybe lovingly stroke it while you're at it.  Light candles around it.  I know I will when we get that blasted piece of paper!

And I'll continue to work on my patience.  I realize the grass isn't greener and if I always live in the "until August" mode of life, there will be many Augusts that don't come, and I better learn now to adapt.

It's just that adapting can hurt.  But it's good for me, right??