August 26, 2017

Oh, baby! (and Wednesday Weigh-in)

I write this post on about one hour of sleep...

It's been a baby-filled 28 hours. Brian and Becky have some friends visiting from out of town, and they decided to go to Detroit yesterday evening. They went to the Lions pre-season game and spent the night downtown. They'd asked Jerry and I to watch Luke overnight--and of course, we were thrilled! 

I haven't really taken care of a baby (at least overnight) since Eli was an infant, and that was 11 years ago. I don't even really remember much about the first year! But now, feeling like my kids grew up way too fast, I wish I'd taken more time to appreciate all the little things that I took for granted--even getting up in the middle of the night when the baby is ready to eat.

Becky dropped Luke off in the early afternoon, and I was so excited to spend the day with him. Eli loves babies, and Luke was pretty drawn to him. They sat on the floor together and Eli kept making him laugh by throwing tennis balls for Joey to retrieve.

I probably have 50 pictures of Luke's funny faces, but I'll spare you and just post three.




As you can tell, he doesn't drool at all.

Meanwhile, Jerry was power washing the deck--and holy cow, I cannot believe the difference. This is totally embarrassing to even post, because it shows just how bad the deck had gotten! We haven't stained it in YEARS, and I thought it just looked bad because it was old. Well, once Jerry started power washing, I realized that it looked so bad because it was neglected...

power wash

Shocking, right?

It was a gorgeous day outside, so we packed up all of Luke's stuff (for a baby, they sure do take up a lot of space! The carseat, the stroller, the diaper bag...) and we went to the State Park. Eli brought his fishing pole, so we found a spot for him to fish. I walked Luke around the small loop, and then we sat and watched Eli fish for a while.



It actually felt like fall yesterday! We wore long sleeves, and I was still a little cold. It makes me so excited for fall to get here.

When we got home, I cooked dinner, and then we were ready to chill for the evening. This was Luke's first overnight away from his mom, and I could tell he missed her. I was trying to give him a bottle, and whenever he saw my face, he started crying (that was the first I'd ever seen him cry!). Finally, I pulled up a video of Becky on my phone, and I played that for him. He stopped crying instantly, and started drinking his bottle. When the video stopped, he cried again; then I played the video again, and he was enchanted.

So, I basically just played the video on a loop while he drank his bottle, and it worked like a charm. I thought it was so funny that the video is what it took to satisfy him. He fell asleep at around 10:00, and I stayed up to watch an episode of The Walking Dead with Eli. I just recently let him start watching it, and he loves it--so we watch a little together each day.

When I went to bed, I couldn't sleep for anything. Lucas was in his pack and play at the foot of the bed, but I was constantly on edge, waiting for him to wake up (ridiculous, I know, but I'm not used to having babies spend the night). I never did fall asleep, and then at 2:00, he was ready to eat. Jerry told me that he wanted to get up with him (haha! That's how much we miss having babies) so he fed Luke while I unsuccessfully tried to fall asleep.

He was up again at 3:15, and then again at 4:15--and at 4:15, he was ready to start the day. He was upset until I turned on the light, and then he gave me a huge smile. So, we laid on the bed and played with his toys (and had another bottle) until about 7:30, when he fell asleep again. I took a quick shower and packed up some of his things for when Becky came to get him.

He was so happy all morning! He fell asleep while I was holding him just before Becky arrived. I didn't even move him--he just laid on my chest for an hour. I love baby cuddles!


After he left, I had about 20 minutes to get ready to go to a baby shower. My good childhood friend, Lance, is going to be a dad in November. I hadn't seen him in a long time, so I was excited to go to the shower and see him (and visit with my old neighbors/relatives--Lance and I grew up on the same block, so we know a lot of the same people).

The shower was really nice! I sat with my mom and three women from my old neighborhood, and it was fun to share old stories. On the shower invitation, Lance and his wife requested books instead of cards (which I think a lot of people do now) and my mom suggested I give Lance a book that he'd given me when I was about seven years old--The Jolly Postman.

When we were young, our moms (Lance's; Sarah's--my friend who lives in Arizona; and mine) would have a book exchange at Christmastime. There were six of us kids that would get together with our moms at a restaurant and exchange books (we drew names each year). Lance drew my name one year, and gave me The Jolly Postman.

It became my FAVORITE book for years. It was unique because it was a book with envelopes that had letters inside of them, and you could pull the letters out to read throughout the book. Anyway, my mom saved the book, and it was in the attic all this time. So, she gave it to me to give to Lance, and I wrote a note on the inside cover explaining to the baby that his daddy gave me the book nearly 30 years ago, and it was my favorite book.

Lance's mom gave him a gift from his (deceased) grandmother--a sweater that she had knitted for Lance when he was just two years old! It was in perfect condition, and it was gorgeous. When he was little, he always wore knitted sweaters, and I only learned today that they were knitted by his grandmother.


If you're curious about the apron, he and his dad were the "kitchen staff" for the shower--serving food and drinks and all that ;)

Anyway, the shower was super fun and I loved getting to see Lance for the first time in a couple of years. Usually, we get together at Christmas, but we didn't do it last year for some reason. Childhood friends are the best. And babies are the best. Despite my lack of sleep, it's been a great 28 hours or so. :)


I just realized that I missed posting my Wednesday Weigh-in this week. Now that cross country has started, and I'm getting the kids ready to go back to school, the days are flying by.


I was at 133.6 on Wednesday--still inside of that 131-134 range I've been in for two months(?) now. I feel like I've had to work a little harder at it recently, but that might just be because I've been more conscious of my weight. Each day that goes by where I don't run, I get a little more nervous about keeping the weight off.

For months, I didn't think about the numbers at ALL, and I really didn't care. Now, I still don't care much about what the actual number is (I'd like to stay below 145, but that's the extent of my goal); but I always have that nagging voice in my head about gaining 20, 30, 40 pounds back.

I measured my body fat on Wednesday when I weighed in, and it was 22.7%. I thought that was up a couple of percentage points from being at goal before, but I just now went back and looked--on this post from 2015, at 133 pounds, my body fat was 22.7%. The exact same!

So, I think I might just be a little paranoid because I'm not running. I'm still being pretty active on a day-to-day basis, but I haven't been doing exercise for the sake of exercise, and it has made me more conscious of my weight/body fat. I'm very happy that I've been able to maintain this weight without counting calories or points or anything else. My biggest hope is that I can continue to do so!

SaveSave

7 comments:

  1. Such a cute little guy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How do you measure your body fat?

    ReplyDelete
  3. You with your nephew is how I am with my grandson! I treasure every minute with him and hardly take my eyes off of him when he is with me. I am enjoying watching him grow up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Jolly Postman was my favorite book when I was a kid, too! I loved opening all the envelopes and reading the little notes. I'm so glad you posted about it because I could not remember the name of the book and I've been wanting to try and find it for my kids.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's so weird how not running can really mess with you! That's so me right now.

    After completing my very first marathon last October, I vowed to take a year-ish off. Instead, I've done Crossfit 3-5 times per week at a local gym. Even with those tough workouts, I still feel like if I don't run - I didn't really work out.

    I'm thinking my "year off" might end soon...


    pointfivekorean.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had the book "The Jolly Postman" when I was a kindergarten teacher! I love that book! I still have it for my own children! What a blessing being an Aunt is and getting to have baby snuggles again!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I remember the first time I kept my niece overnight she was 6 months old. My youngest was 13 at the time so it had been forever since I had taken care of a baby all night. My niece slept fine all night but I didn't sleep a wink. I just kept watching her sleep LOL

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive