Triumph of the Shopper

I have some meaningful posts coming, but I have to take a minute to share my joy. How much did I pay for the items pictured above? $28.01, not too amazing. How much did I save? $65.28. Now that probably says more about the outrageous prices at our Albertsons than my ability shopping the sales, but I am still proud. Then I went back last night for diapers and pedialyte and spent a little over five dollars and saved $11. Hooray for remembering to use coupons. :)

Some random pictures

Looking handsome in his church clothes. Too bad it's getting too hot to wear them anymore. :(

Terrible mother that I am, I didn't get any pictures of Quinn on his blessing day. So I fudged a little and took pics today. Holy cow he has grown! He barely fit in the thing! I only got a few pictures before the camera battery died and he spit up all over himself, but something is better than nothing, right? I certainly hope so.

Quinn has always been a pacifier baby but in the last week he has discovered his hands. He sucks rather noisily and tries to jam his entire fist in his mouth. If I had one word for this pic it would be "caught" because 1) I'm not loving the idea of a thumb sucker, 2) he looks like he's up to no good and 3) he's wearing stripes. I just love him!

Baby Parts

I just love them!

Baby Week

I have decided that the last week of March 2010 will forever be known as Baby Week to me. In the last week, two friends have given birth, one brought her adopted baby home, two more friends and a family member announced they are pregnant and another friend began steps to make her dream of motherhood come true. I love it all. Today I leaned over to Troy in sacrament meeting and said, "I'm so happy!" He asked why and I said, "Because Dustyn and Kamie have a baby!" (they are the adopting parents). I just couldn't hold the excitement in any longer. Dustyn and Kamie are on my mind most today, but I'm so excited for all these babies, both newborns and future. All this makes me so grateful I have a baby of my own. What a happy day!

Baby Laundry

The funny thing about having a baby is that I always have clean clothes. Quinn creates enough laundry that I have no choice but to do my own. I really don't mind the extra laundry that having a baby creates. Folding it is no problem. The problem is that it takes so much longer to get started and to make the change from washer to dryer. Why? Stains, that's why. I have to pre-treat the poop and puke stains and then check the effected pieces before putting them in the dryer to make sure they came out. The ones that didn't get treated again and saved for another batch. It takes so much longer to be thorough!

Six weeks old

My boy turned six weeks old yesterday! I remember that during the first week I thought six weeks would never come, yet here we are. Obviously he is quite different than he was six weeks ago. Highlights include:

• he's a white baby now instead of a tan one (icky jaundice)
• he doesn't require near as much wrestling at feeding time
• we don't have to keep mitts on his hands to prevent scratches, lip pulling and eye gouging
• he occasionally enjoys his baths
• no more lumps on his head!
• his cry is a little more manly
• every now and then a real smile will eek out
• if he wants to, he can keep his head pretty steady when sitting up
• he survived his first cold
• he's a chunk -- at his monthly check up (two weeks ago) he was over 11 pounds

There are a lot more, but I won't bore you with the details. Here are a few more of my favorite pics.

Can you tell he just ate?

We get this and similar looks a lot, but I posted this to show off his budding leg rolls.

It's hard to get a non-blurry picture because his hands move so fast.

I just have to get this out . . .

I've spent the last week feebly trying to get my house ready for all the company that will be here for Quinn's blessing next week. You really can't tell that I've done anything. One of the big projects was getting the girl things put away so you could see the floor in Quinn's room.

Let me start by saying that I love my son and wouldn't trade him for anything. Yet as I was putting all the girl clothes away, I was kind of sad. I don't know how to explain it. Going through the clothes and remembering how I felt when I was pregnant with "her," I started missing her. It's not that I wish I had a daughter rather than a son, but I think that because I thought my baby was a girl for five months, I became attached to that idea. That is who my baby was.

When Quinn was born and we had a boy, I wasn't bothered at all. I love little boys and didn't really think about my girl again until this week. Now my little girl's existence fits in a 45"x35"x7" vacuum sealed bag and it's a little hard to take. It's not that I'm really mourning over her, but in a small way maybe I am.

Strangely enough I feel like I had two babies. I have a hard time associating my pregnancy with Quinn. When I think of the ultrasound pictures I don't think of Quinn, I think of my girl. It's really weird because that girl never existed, but packing up those clothes and writing about it now, I'm kind of sad--maybe the best way to say it is that I wish I had both my babies. This probably sounds super strange and I don't think anyone will really understand me unless you've been there, done that, but I wanted to record how I felt. This is my official goodbye to my girl.