St Patrick's Day

Hooray for St. Patrick's Day!  It has survived another year as my favorite holiday.  Maybe that's dumb.  I'm not Irish and I don't drink.  But I love green and I think it is a fun holiday and I've loved it and gotten super excited about it every year for the past...probably 15 years!  This year wasn't as elaborate as last year, but that's okay.  We wore lots of green and my dad got lots of Harvey time while I spent a majority of time in the kitchen baking yumminess.

We had a little photo shoot before we headed to the McBride's for dinner.

 Dinner consisted of corned beef and cabbage and veggies - done to perfection by Nikki.  I took some Irish soda bread and dessert - green velvet layer cake and lucky charm treats.  Woah.  Everything was delicious!

It was another great day with great food, great people, great color :)  Next year I need to step up my leprechauning duties!  I can make the whole month of March even that much more exciting with a kid!

Last of the visitors

My sister Kathryn got to come up for a few days during her off week of work.  I picked her up from the airport last Wednesday and then my dad flew in on Thursday.  It's nice that the airport is 4 minutes from our house!  They were so happy and excited to meet the little man.

 The day my dad flew in we met Tanner for lunch at this little local BBQ joint called Bubba's BBQ.  It's in the basement of the cattle auction.  The food is absolutely amazing.  There's like 3 things on the menu and it smells like manure when you're walking in (and faintly even inside), but it's totally worth it!

PS just about that picture with Tanner, is it's so fun to have a little baby and have people want to see him and to show him off.  That is all.

Also while they were here Tanner and I had to go to Fargo to pick up my car that was getting fixed.  We live in a bad state to own an Audi where the closest dealer is 7 hrs away.  Anyway, it sucked we had to leave while people were visiting but it actually worked out because they stayed home and watched him so we could make a stress free, super quick trip of it.  We caught the train in Williston that left about 7:30.  We got a sleeper car, which was more like a sleeping closet.  Tiny.  Two seats facing each other and then a top bunk that pulled down and the two chairs pulled together to form a bed on the bottom.

 Tanner was kind enough to take the top bunk so I could pump during the short night.  That picture doesn't do the tiny-ness of his sleeping space justice.  Needless to say he didn't sleep a whole lot.  We got into Fargo at 4am about and they had dropped our car off at the train station.  That was awesome so we didn't have to wait till they opened, etc etc.  So we just hopped in the freshly serviced car and made our way home.  We got back to Williston at 11:30.  So not too terribly long to leave my dad with the baby.  And the train was kind of a fun adventure.  I would do it again.  We got dinner even included with our sleeper ticket and met some nice people coming back from a ski trip - Anna and Patrick.  I shamelessly showed them pictures of Harvey :)

Sunday was the first day we took Harvey to church and the first time I had been for the full 3 hours since he was born.  He did awesome and it was really nice to be back.  My dad sneaked a couple pictures of him in sacrament.

We played some games while they were here and my dad made steaks (something I never make so it was a real treat for Tanner!). My dad is an awesome cook.  And it was great just having family around.  I dropped Kathryn off at the airport Monday and took my dad this morning.  Now it's just us - for a long long time.  No visitors on the horizon.  Sad.  But luckily we get to go home in a month! Grandpa will be happy to see him again :)

One month

So the part about time flying with kids hasn't been any less true with this one.  And Tanner probably will make fun of me trying to take "one month" photos like I'm a real photographer or something.  I'm not.  And not trying to be.  I really just wanted a couple of his whole body and little tiny feet because I haven't taken pics yet and they are already so much bigger than in the beginning.  So these are a few from his one month photo shoot on March 11, 2014 :) 

 

 But seriously, how cute are those tiny legs and toes?

I also need to blog about one month to just have an excuse and a place to put a ton of other "non-professional" photos that keep getting taken of him.  We really just can't help ourselves. 

My mom made that awesome monster quilt, so we were trying to get some pics of him on it before she left.  He didn't cooperate as well as he could have.  Oh well.  I love love love that quilt! He does too.

Tanner's mom, "Mimi" knitted this blue blanket which he also loves.  She and my mom are so talented, which is working out nicely in mine and Harvey's favor!

 I think these pictures are cute.  Especially his face on the left.  So sad.  He can escalate pretty quick from totally happy to extremely ticked off.  It's bizarre to me.

People always ask if he's a good baby.  I don't know.  I have nothing to compare him to so it's hard to say.  He for sure has his moments of unfreshness.  Some days are better than others.  I'm wondering if I've been eating something or things that he doesn't like.  I'm gonna try a week of no chocolate which might kill me and see if he does a little better.  I'm sure hoping it's not that, but it could be good for both of us if it is.
He has a couple hour period pretty consistently every late evening that it's hard to get him to calm down, but once he's asleep for real, he wakes up a few times a night to eat and then goes back to sleep.  Lots of times in the early morning and in my attempt to keep him asleep as long as possible I keep him in our bed after he eats because he still has a hard time being content for long periods in his bed or even laid down.  Oops.  Am I creating a monster?  I don't know.  All I know sometimes is I get very desperate for a little sleep and so if it's with him laying on me or on the bed...I'm okay with it.  That could and probably will change soon enough.  I'll work on it.

He sure hated his sponge baths in the beginning.  Probably just cause he got so cold or something.  I don't know.  It was traumatic for all parties involved.  Tanner and I tried a real bath for him for the first time a couple weeks ago.  He screamed for like the first 5 seconds and then he was in heaven.  Oh my gosh he loves it.  It's awesome.  But then he hates getting out and lotioned and dressed.  Seriously hates!

 

This was a bath about one and a half weeks later after he lost all his top hair.

Sorry little dude.  Also during his first month he got a visit from his Mimi.  I guess that could have gone in his "firsts" post, but she wasn't here when I did that so it goes here. 

She was pretty happy to meet him and hang with him.  We didn't do too many exciting things other than hold a baby and chat.  Tanner was on call while she was here and unfortunately got called a lot.  But I loved having all the time to talk and bond and get to know the mother in law a lot better.  It really was so awesome.  We played a few games as well, which we always like to do, and then that trip was over too quick.
Let's see...what else is there that is notable to mention about Harvey's first month of life?  He is smiling more while awake and cooing a lot more which I love.  He keeps the right side of his lower lip tucked under quite a bit which is so cute.  I don't really feel like we are in any sort of pattern with eating or sleeping or location of any of the above.  Maybe I'm being a bad parent already.  I realized with myself there's not a whole lot of consistency in life and that might be being projecting onto the kid.  Or maybe he's really just too young.  It's my first time.  I don't have a clue.  I just hope he turns out alright.  We've got another month before I go back to work so I think after another week or two I'll try to start making things more routine.  It probably won't hurt me either because I need to get back into a schedule and find some time to get some exercise and other things done.  As much as I have loved being home and not working and just hanging with little buddy, it has been amazingly difficult to have "nothing" to do and get absolutely NOTHING done.  What about all the craft things I was gonna get done and scrapbook caught up and books read???  Nada.  Oh well.  It's crazy how he has so instantly become the most important thing and how most of the things I love and care about don't mean quite as much as before.  Don't get me wrong, I still want to be me and do things I love but it all pales in comparison to his well being.  Weird. 

Anyway...more pictures...

We put the newborn clothes away about a week ago.  They looked tiny to me and this sounds dumb but it was weird to me that he really fit in them once.  Haha. Once.  Like 2 weeks before.  But ya.  He's getting big.  And that white outfit said 0-3 months and it barely fit him the first time we put him in it.  Oops.  That 0-3 month size is tricky.  Some of it is still so huge on him. And then yesterday we stopped trying to squeeze him into the newborn diapers. 

 The faces he makes kills me.  He seriously has the scowl down!  Luckily his smiles are becoming more frequent.  Although I think he's wrinkled forehead is pretty darn cute too.

We bought a lay-z-boy last week while Tanner's mom was here.  It has been a dream come true.  Especially when he decides to scream a bit at night, I can come out to the living room and try to give Tanner a little bit of rest time and then if he falls asleep and I'm too scared to lay him down, we zonk out in it and it's way more comfortable than propped up in bed.  Much easier on the tailbone too.  He's pretty stoked on the chair too, if you can't tell.  We also think it looks like a mischevious, "yep, I'll be stealing this chair from dad" look.

 

 Rozzi still isn't quite aware that a boundary should exist around Harvey.  He's already got a lot of huge furry heads to his face.  We're working on it. 

 A friend from work made him this hat.  Awesome.  We used it while trying out a walk the other day and he was angry.  Not sure if he was getting wind in his face or was too hot or just was mad.  That needs to change or I really never will get outside and will remain very post pregnancy overweight. 

So many pictures.  I do apologize.  Sort of.  It's fun that he's getting more expressive and doing things  that make each picture more unique.  And these darn camera phones make it infinitely too easy to snap a million pictures at any given time.  Happy one month, baby Harvey.