Christmas shopping with an infant....never again

Well the day started out so nice. We were going out to finish our shopping. First, we had to run to Joe's work to pick up the stroller that was in his car. As we're leaving a dear sweet friend of mine (who works with Joe) said how jealous she was that I was going shopping, and how she wished she could come. Well come to find out, shopping with an infant is not nearly as enjoyable as Christmas shopping with friends, or even just by yourself.

The first stores we went to were Bed Bath and Beyond and Five Below. AJ did so great and slept the whole time. So I grabbed lunch and off we were to Nordstram Rack. On the way AJ woke up and was hungry. "No problem," I thought, "I will feed him in the back of my tiny Sentra when we get to Nordstram." It was a little tight, but was working out well until half way through when I heard (and felt) my little monster doing his business. It was one of those ones that you know there is no way that it stayed in the diaper. Sure enough, it shot up to his neck. No worries, I knew it was going to be a hard to change him since I didn't have much room, but I always have a change of clothes in his diaper bag....uh, where is his diaper bag? Yep, I left it at home after I finished packing it. That's helpful. Luckily he was wearing two shirts and it didn't got on the top one or on his pants. Also, I had some diaper and wipes that were already in the car. Turns out the wipes are completely frozen, I mean like frozen solid, none of those puppies were coming undone. So I spend the next 5 minutes breathing hot air to try and get at least one wipe, while my poopie son is laying on my lap. I was able to, and finally got him all changed (a lot of work, and he was just smiling the whole time) then lifted him up to have him spit up probably half of what he just ate....luckily only a little got on his shirt and the rest got on me. Once we were done, I was cleaned and he was back in his seat everything else went great, but oh what an adventure it was for that half hour.

Only online shopping from now on.

3 months today!

Wow, I can't believe it has been three months since I had this little boogs. Time really does go so much faster when you have a munchkin. I took a few pics today to commemorate his 3 month birthday. Side note: As I'm typing this my sweet little monster is letting it rip, and it smells to high heaven...like father like son? :) I wouldn't normally put Joe out there like that, but's unfortunately he's not ashamed.

This is his favorite way to sleep, no joke. I'm hoping that when he starts to roll over we'll have a lot easier time getting him to sleep at night, on his stomach.
Here is a full body shot of my growing boy. :) I remember when he was all curled up in this little chair..he's getting so big!
Sweet face.
Nice nose shot. :) Notice the hands...always in his mouth.

I love this little man so much and as it only grows as each day passes. So grateful that Joe and I have been blessed with this little man.

Well got to go, diaper duty is calling me. It's a messy job, but somebodies got to do it.

Round 2

When I woke up this morning I was so excited to see a light little dusting on the ground, so I grabbed AJ and ran down stairs for some pics. :) I think we did a little better this time. Next time we'll get them with Daddy so they can be outside.
So it's not the best quality, but at least he isn't screaming, and you can tell there is snow outside.
Here's my Stud-muffin with his mini-me. Joe's all about the AJ standing on his own...at this rate the chub should be walking by New Years.

He sure loves his Daddy.

I love both these guys so much, they both make my life so interesting.

Blessed Momma

First snow

So I didn't imagine his first snow to be like this... First off, you can't even tell it's snowing outside (it is I promise), second, snow to me means happiness, holidays, joy...none of those things are portrayed in this photo. With how much I love the snow I would've hoped he inherited some of it, and although it doesn't look like he's very happy, I know deep down he loves it, I just know it. The next snow I'm going for a good pic I don't care how long it takes, and I'm going to call that one "his first snow."
This is how I find him a lot these days...hands in mouth.
AJ and his first Christmas Tree. (notice the hands)
I pulled them down here to get a cute one of his face...
But as soon as I let go...back to his mouth. :)

Love all the new things this boy is getting into.

Beth

Sick

Well we are all sick together for the first time, which is a "first" I could do without. While I think Joe has it the worst right now (poor guy), AJ and I are starting to catch up. It is a lot harder then I thought it would be to take care of my little helpless boy when all I want to do is sleep, but God has definitely given me much grace. As my sweet chunk monk is sleeping in my arms right now I can't help but be grateful. I wouldn't trade this for anything. I know the days of him sleeping in my arms so sweetly will be over before I know it so I want to take advantage of these moments while I still can.

Any ideas of what you would do to help when your little one was sick I would love to hear them.

Beth

Grateful

(pic courtesy of Naomi my sister-in-law. I thought his bib was only fair since it was my birthday.)

Yesterday was my 26th birthday (where is the time going?) and I had such a great day! Well first, Joe told AJ that it was my birthday so to be good. Of course I was sure he would listen... and then the unexpected happened (Ha!). While walking down the stairs to have some cereal he simultaneously spit up ALL over me, and pooped out the side of his diaper, both sides. Happy Birthday, Mom. I guess I shouldn't expect any less from my little boogs. :)

My wonderful hubby got me the Nook which I am super excited about! I know it will serve me well when I'm feeding AJ (I need to be redeeming that time better). So far I love it! Very easy to use.

I was thinking yesterday, and was so grateful because it was a year ago that Joe said we could get off birth control, and here we are a year later with the sweetest little 3 month old. Our whole life has been changed since this chunk monk came into our lives, and I wouldn't have it any different. What a sweet boy he is, and I'm so excited for the coming years.

Moms, I was wondering if you would give me some ideas of what you used to do or what you do now when you are feeing you little one. Trying to come up with good ideas.

Thanks!

Beth

Family pictures

The Sunday after Thanksgiving the Wethje fam got together for some pictures. Joe and I showed up a little early so that we could have a few taken as a new little family. :)
I love this photo, it shows my boys chunky cheeks so well... I have a feeling bulldog might become his nick name. I love how they rest on his shoulders.
Joe loves his little man. He's been working on AJ standing by himself. I try and tell him that 2 1/2 months might be a little young for that, but you can't stop him once he has his mind on something. Next thing he needs to work with him on is bringing mommy breakfast in bed. :)
It's funny to me how many pics I have of AJ, but since I'm the one taking the pics only a handful of them are of me and AJ, so I wanted a couple with just us two.
Here is the whole family! Family photos is a favorite time for many of the Wethjes....HA! Everyone did pretty good though and they were a lot quicker this year then they have been in years past. Love them all so much

Beth

Cooking Adventures

For some of you who don't know me I love to cook and bake. If we had a lot of money I would be cooking amazing meals every night and Joe would be a happy, well fed man, but we don't so Joe settles for grilled cheese and tomato soup, and the occasional chicken dish or salmon.

Anyway, I thought since I love to bake so much that maybe I could put it to good use and try and start a business selling candies, cookies and cakes...different things like that. So I went to the library to pick up some books about it.

A couple days later we were having some friends over so I thought it would be fun to try out a cool idea I had read about in one of the books. It was a chocolate cup that you fill with whatever you want, and I was going to fill it with fresh fruit.

Now to make the cup you have to melt chocolate and blow up a balloon so it's 4 inches in diameter and dip it half way in to the chocolate (by now you might have an idea as to where this is going). Well I had planned to try this out earlier in the day, but as many of you with kids probably know my plan did not quite work out. So with a half hour left till the guests arrived I decided to hurry (bad idea) and try to get it done. AJ also decided that this was his fussy time so I am holding/calming him down while trying to blow up balloons and dip them in scalding hot, melted chocolate. Well, to my great surprise,the second balloon I dipped exploded all over AJ and I. Joe had been out moving the cars so he walked back into the house to find a crying baby (not because of the chocolate, it luckily just landed on his clothes and didn't hurt him at all) the kitchen covered in chocolate, and his amazingly creative wife and poor son covered in chocolate. Needless to say he was not thrilled since we had about 10 minutes till the guests got here, and AJ still needed to be fed. Great, what to do. Well I quickly cleaned AJ up, cleaned the kitchen, decided to make chocolate covered strawberries/bananas instead, ran upstairs, changed, and then fed the screaming boy. Needless to say the chocolate covered strawberries were delicious, the bananas not so good (note to self bananas don't freeze well) and I have put my dreams of creative baking on hold. It was a really cute idea though and maybe someday, when Joe is gone, I will give it another try.

Well got to cut this short, my chunk just pooped up his back for the 3rd time today. No joke. Any ideas as to how to help stop this little problem. All ideas are welcome since the only thing that comes to my mind is duck tape.

Chef Beth

2 Month Shots

Look at this face. Who could think that this sweet little smiley boy could cause such a ruckus. Now that my little chunk monk is finally asleep I can go into a little detail about yesterdays adventures.

It started out a typical day. I was innocently going about my business, knowing that he was going in for his two month shots, but not knowing that we would come out of there a hot mess. :)

When we got the the Dr.'s they informed me that they would be giving him two shots and one vaccine orally. For some strange reason I was most concerned about the oral vaccine, that he wouldn't take it, because he had gotten a shot before and had done really well. Believe it or not he was a champ and sucked it right down. Apparently, he has no trouble eating anything and it definitely shows. They gave him the first shot and he whimpered and cried a bit, but did good. Then the nurse told me this was the bad one and he would probably cry for a while. So she gave it and he definitely cried louder, so I quickly picked him up and comforted him. On the way out of the office he fell asleep. I thought to myself, "Geez that was easy.." oh how wrong I was. He slept a good while then woke up hungry so I fed him, after that started the small cry's. It was such a sad thing so I tried comforting, but that was not happening and it escalated from there. So for the rest of the day if he wasn't sleeping or eating he was screaming. Poor, sweet, little, chubby boy. It really was so hard since I couldn't help him and all I could do was comfort. The night went about the same. We are now finally on the other side and I came out of that experience knowing that I should have Children's Tylenol in hand next time, as I've heard that from many mom's.

Is there any other mother advice? I want to be a little more prepared next time so it can go a bit smoother. :)

So grateful he's healthy though, and that we are in a place where we can take care of our boy and get him the shots he needs.

Still learning,

Beth

PujBaby and two month update

I wish I would've asked for this for Christmas, or saw it before my baby shower. I guess there is still time to get it on my list. http://www.pujbaby.com/products/view/11/Puj_Tub/

So practical and looks so easy to use. I don't mind the one I have now, but to fill and empty and clean, it's a little more hassle then I would like. This looks so simple and easy to clean. Gives me a little more time during my day, and time is a hard thing to come by these days. Also looks easy on the back. Would love to give this a try!

AJ turned 11 weeks yesterday which is hard to imagine. He is 90th percentile for weight (14 pds 13 oz) and 80th percentile for height. He needs to be a big boy in order to hold his own in this family. He has older crazy cousins, and a Dad that I'm sure will play rough. I can't believe how fast time is going...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I have some fun Black Friday shopping stories that I will be sure to post later this week.

Love,

Beth

Dedication and update

A couple Sundays ago we were able to dedicate AJ. It was such a sweet time, and a great reminder that AJ is here for God's glory. It was nice to have the pastors pray over us and for AJ's salvation.
Joe's mom was kind enough to take pictures for us. There were quite a few other kids being dedicated also.

A fun family picture...I look a little strange, and you can't see AJ's face, but at least Joe looks good. :)
Here is my sweet sleeping man. He always sleeps in the funniest positions. I just love those cheeks and that sweet little mouth. I still can't believe he's here. Can't wait to see this little guy grow up.
He was NOT happy about this picture. We went to Leesburg on Saturday, which was quite the adventure. AJ decided that he wanted to wake up and be hungry when we were the farthest from the car that we could possibly be. I hurried back with a screaming little man in a stroller, and I swear I have never seen so many slow walking people. You'd think that if you were walking and you heard a screaming baby behind you, you would be kind enough to step to the side....no such luck. Anyway, we got this had at Tommy Hilfiger and I wanted him to model it.

AJ had his 1 month appointment last Wednesday and he's doing well. He's over 11 pounds now, so 75 percentile for weight and height. Same as last time. He also got his first shot, and he was already so upset with the nurse that I when I turned around (I couldn't watch them give the shot) I couldn't tell when they did it.

Something that surprised me that I didn't even think of are things I can't eat because they upset his stomach. If it doesn't upset his stomach then it keeps him up all day and night.
1) Dairy
2) Broccoli (common I think)
3) Spicy food
4) Orange Juice (this also includes Sunny D which I love)
5) Caffienne - Obviously this has been a sacrifice...I would love a Dr. Pepper, Coke, or coffee in the morning. I have a starbucks giftcard that I've had for 6 weeks...normally they last me for a couple days. Yeah, it's a killer.


I'm sure there's more, and I'll come across more in the coming weeks. Luckily this only lasts for a few more months I think. It's worth it though. :)

Love,

Beth

Little AJ update...

He always makes the funniest faces...especially when he's sleeping. I love to just watch him.

He took a bath today. It went a lot better then it normally does, he didn't get upset till I took him out. Poor little man was so cold. :) He looks a little like a deer in headlights, makes me laugh. He's so alert now, it's fun to talk to him and have him staring back at you.


A few fun pics of AJ. He keeps growing a ton. He has his 1 month appointment on Thursday, can't wait to hear how our little man is doing. He is now in his 3 month clothes and some 3-6 month clothes... that will tell ya how big he is since he's not even a month yet. Ha! He still seems small to me though. Love my little boogs so much!

Hope you all had a great Columbus day!

Family Visits

So it's been a little while since I've updated. It's been a busy couple of weeks. First, my Dad, Em and my little Bro Eli were here for the weekend. We had such a great time relaxing with them. We took my dad to Red Hott and Blue, since he is a huge bbq junkie and Red Hott is definitely our fav place. Here are some pics from their time here.
We had a nice breakfast at Joe's parents.
What a sweet face. Love the onesie! :)
Isn't he the cutest little man. Love my little brother.
Can't get enough of these two. We miss them so much already.
My dad. Such a good guy. Miss him.
After they left my dad's brother Cody came by for a quick visit. We were documenting how strong little AJ is getting.
Next up is my Mom and brother Davy's visit. This is us on the metro. You can kind of see AJ, had to get a pic of his first ride. :)
Davy obeyed the overhead lady very well. Everytime he heard "please stand back and allow passengers to enter," he would step back as far as he could...even though there was no one there. I had to get a pic of it.
Davy and the Monument. Can't believe he's already 12. His birthday was the day they traveled here.
Davy in the Museum of Natural History.
Davy and my Mom.
Davy is a huge Airplane guy, so he was very excited to visit the Air and Space Museum.
This is us at the Baltimore aquarium. We really made it around last week. Got to see a lot of stuff. You can always count on a great smile from mom... :)

AJ and I in the sharks mouth...I had trouble finding his head in this picture. It's kind of squooshed down in the snugly.
The Rainforest room. We all had such a great time!
The day that they were leaving we went and visited The Adventure Park.
Both and Dave and Joe loved it. :) We had such a great time with my mom and Davy and wish they could've stayed longer...



And this I had to add because it was so stinking cute. Love these two boys so much.