Crazy Socks & Writer's Block

These blocks were my favorite toys as a kid. I built many, many houses for my ponies, Barbies, and animals. My favorite thing was making elaborate house designs with crazy entrances so that my ponies could have the most secure entrances.  My mom got two more bags of these waffle blocks for Aaron  me to play with:) Remi kept an eye on us.  We had a lot of fun together, and then Tanner helped us make some upgrades. Aaron wanted to keep taking down the tower and I let him after I finally finished the house. It was a fun afternoon!

Changing Aaron's clothes and his diaper has become one of my least favorite activities. He fights me the whole time and just rolls over or kicks and won't let me. It's just so much fun when we're out in public and he has a poopy diaper and he wants to roll all over the changing pad.  One night we really struggled to get him into these Tigger pajamas. Why did anyone think it was a good idea to put buttons on baby pajamas? Especially for the older ages? When they can fight you?  I laughed and laughed while Sammy wrestled with Aaron trying to get him dressed. They had to move to the floor and then I had to stop taking pictures and hold him down. He's such a little stinker, but he sure is cute.  

Aaron loves to do yoga. He's really good at it. When he was so close to crawling, he'd get stuck in positions like this.   Now that he is crawling, he keeps up his yoga.  My favorite is when he comes up next to me in the bathroom and starts doing yoga next to my feet. 

We finally took Aaron swimming! We originally wanted to go on the Fourth of July, but Sammy got out of work early the day before and it was blazing hot and Aaron was bored so we went then. He was pretty hesitant at first and clung to my arm so tightly he was pinching it. I hate that he's scared in those moments, but it makes me feel so good that I can comfort him. I walked around with him in the three foot section so that about half of him was submerged. He kept making funny faces and didn't really want to play in the water because he was busy holding onto me as tightly as possible. I sat on the steps with him so that he was only a little in the water and he still wasn't sure of that. There were a few kids in the pool and he watched them very intently. I had a hard time not laughing at them because there was a teenage girl hanging with some preteen boys and she was trying to appear as cool as possible. The kids were Latinx and she kept throwing random spanish phrases at t...

I have been slacking on doing monthly blog posts with milestones, but I feel like 9 months has been such a crazy one that I need to commemorate it. First, with Aaron being in my belly for nine months and out for nine months. (I know pregnancy is forty weeks long which would technically be ten months, BUT two of those weeks are before the baby is even conceived so I don't think they should count.) At his nine month appointment Aaron was 27 3/4" long and weighed 16lbs 8oz. He finally doubled his birth weight!  He cried so much during his appointment. He was upset when they got him naked, something that he usually loves. Then he started bawling the moment his doctor walked in the door because of stranger danger. We had to do his whole exam with him on my lap and he cried more than he does with shots. I learned that he has an umbilical hernia and he showed me how to push his intestines back in to make sure they're okay.  His first teeth showed up the day after he ...

I've thought Aaron was teething so many times in his short life, that when he actually cut his first teeth I didn't even notice. On July 2nd I noticed his gums were pretty swollen, but he wasn't grumpier than normal or acting weird, so I made a comment to my mom about it. She was watching him while I had an appointment and when I came out she told me she was pretty sure he had cut his teeth. She tried to get a picture and this is what she got.   You can kind of see the little white bumps in this one. I put my finger in his mouth though and there were definitely teeth! I felt so silly that I had missed it. They came out more and more that week and became more visible. I absolutely love them and I understand why parents keep some of their kids teeth when they fall out haha! (My brother told me that it's okay if I keep a few but entirely creepy if I keep the whole set.) His favorite thing to do is crack the teething wafers on his new teeth, it's so loud whe...

I've really come to love the fourth of July with Sammy. We usually keep it simple with good food, go swimming, read good books, and then have fun with family and friends. One of my favorite things about Sammy is that he is also not a die hard fireworks fan and is totally cool with staying in on the fourth.  This year we went swimming the day before but went for a long walk as a family in the morning admiring the million dollar homes nearby. My favorite thing is to point out all our favorite features of each house. Let's be real, I'll probably never have a home like that, (and at times it seems like we'll be in apartments forever haha) but it's fun to dream!  After our walk Aaron went down for a nap and I was able to get some writing done. Then I made some guacamole and we waited for Aaron to wake up so we could head to my parents for lunch. Lunch was SO good and we introduced Aaron to a lot of different foods.  We played for a bit and when Aaron got tir...

I get to see one of my best friends only once a year. That's what happens when they're going to medical school in the caribbean. I was so happy we got to meet up again and she got to meet Aaron! It's so funny to think that we first met seven years ago and just how much we've changed since then. We had so much fun freshman year and I know I say it over and over again, but I'm so grateful she's a part of my life.  We got empanandas and Aaron had some of mine and loved it. He immediately loved Joice as well which made me so happy. He's always warmed up immediately to my best friends when he meets him and I feel like that's because they're good people and he can just tell. (It makes me secretly feel a little vindicated when he's grumpy towards people that I also get bad feelings about.)  He had to play with Joice's phone.  Then eat her bracelet when he was still hungry after his empanada. He was totally fine with Joice holding hi...

In trying to get over my birth trauma, my therapist suggested that I try to focus on sensory memories. Those traumatic moments I can remember so viscerally that it takes me right back into that moment. I can remember what I felt, what I saw, what I heard, what I smelt. She challenged me to remember those same senses for the happy moments as well. That first hour I was with Aaron and his weight on my chest, how warm he was. His perfect newborn smell.  Stroking his soft wrinkly little hands and wondering how they could be so small and perfect.  There is research that shows when we focus on our five senses in a moment, we can remember it better like we are reliving it. So I've been really working to try and stay in the moment when I'm making memories and all those senses.  I want to remember what it's like to go get Aaron for his first feeding every night after he's had a bath. How he smells like lavender and his hair is so soft against my cheek as I try to comfor...

This was one of the first outfits that was bought for Aaron and it made me really excited to have him. There's something about physically holding baby clothes that makes them more real. So I was pretty excited that he finally fit into it. Sammy originally wanted to find his own outfit that matched it, but that never happened. He wore this outfit to church, and then after church I wanted to get some silly pictures. There's this picture of Sammy in eighth grade that cracks me up and I was trying to copy it. I think I succeeded. He hated the sunglasses on his face, however he did enjoy holding them. Don't they look so similar? He also looked pretty cool dressed up as a skater boy. I told him he was the only skater boy who ever liked me haha!

I've been taking Aaron to story time at the library recently and it has been so fun! First off, it makes me super sad to see how much effort is put into these story times by my house versus the story times at the library I worked at. At our library they read a few books, might sing a song, and then would do a little craft. But, if the LA who usually did those wasn't there, there either wouldn't be a story time, or the staff would fight over who had to do it. Once I volunteered to do it and had no idea what I was doing. I picked a few books that I liked and that was it. The kids HATED it, and now going to actual story times I know why. The books I picked were way too long, and we didn't do any activities. There were usually only two or three kids as well. But at our library, they sing to all the kids, there are puppets, she teaches us how to help them with their balance, gives us diaper changing songs to try and make that a little more fun, we learn sign language, ea...