Four Months Old

This is a couple days late because we were out of town on the day Dutch actually turned 4 months old.  He had his scheduled doctor's appointment today and got a couple shots.  He wailed right after he got them, but then stopped as soon as I picked him up.  What a hoss!  His height is 25.5 inches and his weight is 15lbs, 13 oz.  He's in the 75th percentile for both.  After we got home, he was fussy for a little while, and then took a 3 hour nap.  That had to have been the effect of the shots, because that NEVER happens!  Here are some of his 4 month pics.

   

Six Years and Counting

Meezy and I celebrated six years of marriage on Sunday.  And by celebrated, I mean we drove back from Mo Ranch, unpacked the car, and went to sleep!  Lol.  We were pretty tired from our trip, so we took it easy.  With all the amazing things we've done since we got married, it's funny to say that this past year was the craziest!  But, having a kiddo will shake up your life for sure.  Everything is different.  I think this past year has been the most telling for our relationship.  It really showed how strong we are as a couple.  If you don't have a supportive, loving spouse when you bring a child into this world, you will not have a good outcome.  Lucky for me, I hit the husband jackpot in this category.  I am SO glad Meezy is an amazing father, which makes me love him even more as my husband.  He helps out in so many ways, not just because he loves our son, but because he loves me. I'm a lucky girl, and I look forward to many, many more happy years with my partner.

Throwing down an old school pic from 2002!

Mo Ranch Trip

This past weekend we traveled to Mo Ranch in Hunt, TX for a mini family reunion of sorts.  I've been going to Mo Ranch with my immediate family since I was a baby, and in the past few years we've started inviting extended family to join us out there.  This year the attendees were my parents, both of my sisters and their families, my brother-in-law's parents, my aunt, and one of my cousins and his family.  I love doing outdoorsy stuff, and this is a great place to do just that since it's right on the Guadalupe River.  There's a water slide into the river, a rope swing, a large pool and a toddler pool, a rapids area, sand volleyball, tennis, a baseball field, a large playground, fishing, hiking, and great community areas for a big family to sit around and reminisce and share stories.  Here are some pictures from our fun family vacation!  Looking forward to going back in a couple years.

    

Father's Day Adventures

The first part of this post is going to be TMI.  You've been warned.  My son, like most men I'm guessing, can be quite predictable when it comes to his bathroom breaks.  Around my house, we say Dutch has a "morning constitutional."  Without fail, he sullies his diaper around the same time each day.  I don't mean like he just needs a diaper change, I mean like he cleans out his colon and there will be collateral damage.  When it's a day he's staying home with me, I try not to dress him until that event occurs, because his outfit would've probably gotten soiled if it was already on him.  When it's a day he's going to daycare, lots of times I have to alert the staff that he needs an immediate diaper change upon arrival (and possibly a new outfit), because it happens on the car ride over.  When it happens a couple days in a row, I start to feel bad and change him myself in the back of my car before bringing him in!  If by some miracle the event hasn't happened by the time I drop him off, when I pick him back up I get confirmation that it did indeed occur at some point during the day because I notice he's wearing something different from what he arrived in.  The guy just has some force behind his expulsions, no doubt about it.

With that said, Meezy and I took a trip to the grocery store in the morning on Father's Day to get a bunch of stuff for meals for the week.  Dutch hadn't partaken in the morning constitutional by the time we were ready to leave the house, so I packed an extra diaper and outfit in my purse because I figured it would happen on the car ride over.  Wipes were in the car, so we were set.  By the time we got to the store, I had forgotten that it hadn't happened, so I loaded him up in the Baby Bjorn and we started shopping.  He was facing out so he could see everything that was going on, and we were moseying along, filling up our cart.  As we got to the lunch meat section, it happened.  IT happened.  The sound resembled a very loud, forceful raspberry, and my immediate reaction was "Oh, no."  A quick glance over to Meezy's face quickly informed me that "Oh, no" did not begin to cover it.  I looked down and there was green liquid poop on my shirt, running down my pants, and in a puddle on the floor.  Meezy pointed me to the bathroom and I made a beeline for it.  That's when I realized that I hadn't brought in the wipes.  I grabbed a bunch of paper towels, wet them, and started the clean-up process.  Luckily I was wearing two layering tank tops, because the top one went directly into the trash.  Dutch's outfit?  Trash.  I cleaned him up, gave him a new diaper, and put him in the extra outfit I had in my purse.  I attempted some clean-up on my jeans, but water on paper towels just didn't cut it.  I got to walk around the store for the rest of our shopping trip with one pant leg that was soaked in water, with green streaks peeking through.  Classy.  In the meantime, Meezy had grabbed paper towels and handled the clean-up on the ground.  Thank goodness no one else noticed, or no one else let on that they noticed, because I would have been mortified!  That was a fun little parenting experience.

The other Father's Day adventures were much more gratifying!  Dutch rolled over for the first time!  He's done this in the past when he's been on a sloped surface, but never on flat ground.  Our friend Brian was over watching soccer with us, and I had put Dutch on the ground on his playmat.  He rolled from his back to his stomach, like it was no big thing!  Every time I turned him back, he would roll right over again!  It's funny how once kids learn a new skill, they just want to keep doing it over and over again.  It's also pretty exciting to see your son do something for the first time.  He did successfully roll from his stomach to his back on Monday, but he hasn't been able to consistently do that sequence over and over again yet.       

The last awesome part of Father's Day was the fact that Dutch slept for 9.5 hours.  Hoooooly schnikes.  That's the first time I've ever put him to bed at night and not had to go back in there until the morning.  Of course I still woke up multiple times out of habit, and to check on him, but still - we were pretty happy!  Here's hoping we get more nights like that in the future.

     

Happy Father's Day

Here's some photos we took to send to my father-in-law in honor of father's day.  It was also a good excuse to capture just how much of a mini-me my little guy is compared to his daddy.  Man, I love these guys!

My Little Preppy Boy

This past weekend we went to the wedding of my childhood best friend, Amy.  We grew up across the street from each other, so we spent countless hours together.  Her sister was my sister's age, so they were best friends as well.  It was a lot of fun!  What's funny now is that Amy married a guy with the same name as my husband.  Not just same first name, same middle name as well.  Smart girl!  I did a reading during the wedding, and the bride and groom were standing right in front of me as I read I Corinthians 13.  I glanced up occasionally to look at them, and I almost teared up when I saw the way Amy was looking at her groom.  You could feel the love in her eyes.  I wish them many, many years of happiness!

 

This was the first opportunity for Dutch to get "dressed" up, and boy does he clean up well!  What a cutie.  Check out my little preppy boy.

Are You Ready For Some Football? (The Other Kind...)

Last weekend, Meezy and I were invited to watch a soccer game at Cowboys stadium with our friends, Jonathan and Rose.  I was a little hesitant at first, just because going to Cowboys stadium can be a beating, and I'm not really a superfan of soccer, especially if the teams playing aren't the US or the Netherlands.  But, this match was between Brazil and Mexico, and Jonathan's family is from Brazil, and Rose's family is from Mexico.  So, that made it more interesting!  It's fairly ridiculous how much it costs to park around that stadium, but whatevs.  The process to get in was also kind of annoying.  They patted down every single person, which meant long lines in the hot sun.  Once we finally got into the stadium, though, we were very pleasantly surprised to find out where our seats were.  Just five rows up from the field!  It was by one of the corners, so we also got to see the players entering and exiting the field.  Not too shabby:

 Brazil's team heading to the tunnel

      No zoom used

The game was a lot more exciting than I expected it to be.  The fans are so enthusiastic, so you couldn't help but catch the fever.  Mexico's first goal was pretty damn impressive, and it was neat to see it up-close!  Going to this game definitely made me more interested in seeing another game in person in the future.  It's not the same to watch it on TV, but you can bet I'll be tuning in to cheer for Oranje in the upcoming European Championships.  Hup Holland! 

Like Father, Like Son

Everyone tells us that Dutch looks exactly like Meezy.  It's pretty accurate, except for the widow's peak.  Meezy doesn't really have one, but his brother does, so it's definitely a Meezy family gene.  Last time we were in Amarillo, I asked Meezy's grandmother for some of his baby pictures, so we could compare them to Dutch.  The resemblance is quite uncanny!  They aren't exactly the same age in these photos, but you can tell they're father and son:

I was looking through photos I had taken a couple years ago of Dutch's cousin, KC, and I realized that I had some from when he's wearing the same shirt that Dutch was wearing in his 2-month pictures.  (KC's mom gave us a bunch of his old clothes since her second child was a girl).  I grabbed one of those and compared it to a similarly-posed photo of Dutch.  See below:

Isn't that funny?  There's quite a resemblance there too, but my guy is definitely chunkier!  Lol.  Here are some other random pics from the last couple of weeks:

He wasn't feeling good one day, so when I put him on my knees so I could blow dry my hair, he fell asleep immediately.

A happier day!  Just cheesing with mom.

We took him swimming for the first time.  You're not supposed to put sunscreen on babies under 6 months, so we covered as much skin as we could with a wetsuit and hat!

By this point, he was clearly over it.  Haha.  His Aunt Jo got a kick out of his attire though!

Food for Thought

You can believe all sorts of wonderful things, but unless you model your behavior after those beliefs, you're just being a hypocrite.  A man is not a good person simply because he believes we should treat others as we'd like to be treated.  He is a good person because he actually does treat others that way.  I have to remind myself of this.

After Baby Bathing Suits

Dear men: You don't want to read this post.  It's for the ladies.  xoxo

Being just 3 months out from having a baby, putting on a swimsuit is not the first thing on my mind.  But, summertime means hanging out at my sister's pool, and we've got a family trip down to the Guadalupe River coming up.  So, it's a necessary evil.  I'm only a few pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight, so I knew trying on my old suits wouldn't be a horrible ordeal, just a little more fluffiness around the waistline than I'm used to seeing.  Little did I know my issue would not be the bikini bottoms fitting!  I tried on every single bikini top I own, and they are all now totally inappropriate for wearing in public. (Unless I'm going for the porn star look, then they are perfect).  This new problem just blows my mind considering what my body used to look like pre-baby.  I went to Target and Old Navy recently to try and find a new, inexpensive bathing suit, and I walked away empty-handed.  Let me just tell you that it's pretty disheartening when you try on the largest size they offer, and you still feel really uncomfortable.  Where do big girls buy their suits?!?  I posed this question on facebook recently, and my well-endowed girlfriends came to my rescue!  Here are some responses I got, along with a few others I stumbled across, in case any of my readers are also struggling to find family-friendly swimwear while nursing:

1.  Limericki  - lots of cute tankini tops available to give you more coverage     

2. Academy or Dick's Sporting Goods - more conservative, athletic options

3. Hapari - lots of full coverage tops available in multiple styles

4. JCrew - free shipping and returns on swim styles, so you can try a bunch risk-free

5. Athleta - sports-bra looking styles that probably provide good coverage

6. Swimwear for me - cute, classy styles

7. Lands End - got some good full-coverage tops, but beware, lots of floral prints!

And then, if you're looking for help with coverage not just on the top, here are some suggestions:

8. ModCloth - some pretty adorable, retro looks

9. Miracle Suit - supposed to make you look ten pounds lighter

10. Always for Me - specializes in plus sizes

I haven't decided where I'm going to order from yet, but I'll post a review once I do!