#MOMLIFE

Well I kind of fell off the wagon for a while with my blog. Mom life is keeping me on my toes. Jasper and I have both been fighting a cold and cough the last couple of weeks, but I think we’re on the tail end of it now. It’s way more pain to watch your baby be sick then it is to actually be sick yourself. And at this age there’s just not much you can do for them besides lots of love, which is never in short supply. We just had his two month appointment Monday and he is doing great! He now weighs 12 pounds, 15 ounces and is 24 inches long (he’s getting so big!) He also got his first round of shots and it absolutely broke my heart! But it didn’t last long, and he was ok again.

And yet again…it is now 5 days since I started this entry with the first paragraph. This growing baby boy is keeping me on my toes! As I’m typing this, one handed I might add, he is sitting on my lap staring at me smiling. I’m pretty sure he thinks I have a funny looking face. It’s amazing how easy it becomes to do anything and everything one handed: fixing a bottle, typing a blog, making popcorn, changing over the laundry, I mean the list is a mile long!

The last few weeks have been busy ones. And I’m not including what all’s going on in my head 24/7.

We made a weekend trip down to Stillwater, OK to see Pake’s Aunt and Uncle; it was a fun and relaxing trip, just needed to be longer!
I forgot a burp rag on my shoulder for part of the day; either no one noticed, or no one wanted to break the news to me, not even my husband.
I stuck my son’s toes in my mouth (this may be weird, I don’t know) after my husband changed his diaper and let him get poop on his feet and “forgot” to wipe it off.
We learned the millions of different uses for baby wipes.
We went on our first date night since having Jasper.
Pake’s parents came for the weekend (I have awesome in-laws).
I had a girl’s night with my mom and sister for my mom’s birthday.

I know I’m forgetting things but can only remember so much without writing it down.

The two best friends, Petey and Dobby, 2019

My sister, mom and I out for my mom’s birthday! 2019

I’m going to go in to a little depth on a few of the above events. Let’s start with baby poop and let’s not excluded baby pee. Isn’t it weird that after you become a mother it just doesn’t matter. Like oh the baby peed on my shirt, oh well, it’ll dry (probably not as big of a problem for girl moms but boy moms you know what I’m talking about)! Same with poop! Oops stuck my finger in poop, just wipe it on my pants and then I’m like oh guess I could’ve used a baby wipe. I mean I’ve gone as far as having my baby pee on my pillow right before bed and just flipping my pillow over, which as I’m typing that out, I’m like wow Tayla that’s disgusting. Oh well…

Now let’s talk about baby wipes! I have no idea how I’ve made it through my 26 years without these! I’m pretty sure we only use them for the baby 25%-50% of the time. They are so handy! We seriously use them for everything. Need to take your makeup off, baby wipe. Need to clean the toilet, baby wipe. Need to wipe down the counter, baby wipe. Need to clean the car, baby wipe. I’ve even used them to clean the dog!! We will never not have baby wipes in our house.

Over all, life is going better than I could have ever imagined. Pake’s business is booming, I love my job and the fact they are working with my schedule, and most of all we have the most beautiful baby boy there is (of course I may be partial). I’ve also started on another one of my goals; I’ve started working out in preparation for a couple 5K races mid-year! I’m excited!

Hope everyone has a great first week of February!

Monday, Jan. 14th, 2019

Started the morning off by going to town with Pake to get material for his business (really I went because he promised me food and coffee). I knew where I wanted to go and exactly what I was going to order–breakfast is my favorite meal. They were closed!!! I was pretty disappointed, but not completely discouraged………. yet. There are only two restaurants that serve breakfast in town, so naturally we were off to the second. Guess what?! It was closed too! What is this world coming to! However, I was promised food and coffee and did not plan on leaving town without it. Gas station breakfast it was…

After getting home, Jasper went down for a nap and I did some housework–I’m serious, it’s never ending…ever!! It’s funny to me how when I want Jasper to take a nap so I can get some things done and he finally does, I’m so happy, I do a little happy dance. But after its been an hour or two and I’m running out of things to do (or I’m just tired of cleaning) I will just sit and stare at him sleeping, trying to will him awake with my mind. I’m ready to hold and cuddle my baby, dang it! He needs to wake up and wake up now! And it’s just a repeating cycle every day.

After finally waking up, we took the evening to hang out and have a Jurassic movie marathon! I mean who doesn’t like Jurassic Park?! Please don’t tell me if you don’t, I don’t think I can handle it. A little off topic, but if you’re looking for a binge worthy tv show on Netflix, I would recommend either You or Sex Education. I will say Sex Education is not for children, but I found it quite funny. Things I do when my baby just wants to be held…binge watch Netflix show or old Disney movies, either or.

Tomorrow’s the day…I leave my baby to go back to work. So many mixed emotions. It’s only part time, two days a week for 5 hours a day, and I know Pake is more than capable of taking care of him, it’s just I won’t be here. I mean what if he needs me! On the other hand, I’m ready to get back at. I do love my job and so happy my boss is willing to work with me. And it will be good for all of us! Pake and Jasper need some more bonding time without mommy hovering all the time. If you can’t tell, I’m trying to convince myself that everything will be fine. Everything is going to be ok. Mom is going to be OK. I hope…

Just one more thing before I go, I’m sure all of you have heard of the movie Birdbox on Netflix with Sandra Bullock. I really don’t understand the obsession people have with it. Don’t get me wrong, I watched it and thought it was good (still a little confused by it), but come on, every other meme on Facebook is a scene from this movie. Not to mention the article I saw about some teen somewhere participating in the Birdbox challenge–driving while blind folded?!! You’ve got to be kidding me?! This can’t be real, and if it is, all I’ve got to say is that the human race is not meant to survive…I can’t even…

Hope everyone had a good start to their week!! Here’s another picture of my puppies!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Jan. 11th, 12th, 13th, 2019

Since our weekend was anything but extraordinary, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are getting lumped together in one entry.

We’ll start with Friday.

What a blah rainy day. After getting Pake’s brochures and business cards finalized and ordered, we took today to just hang out as a family. Pake has drill this weekend (army reserve), so it’ll just be Jasper and I (plus our 47 animals) holding down the fort. Since Pake has to get up early, the boys turned in early which gave me a chance to start my new book! Way out of my normal reading genre, but after reading book 1 I had to get book 2. The first book is called Year One by Nora Roberts; one of my favorite authors, the second is Of Blood and Bone. So, if you’re looking for that next good book, I recommend these!

Saturday

Pake left at about 4 this morning, so I had plans to get up early, take a shower and do a few other things before Jasper woke up. So, there I am, 6 in the morning, already feeling productive, making my coffee, and then I hear it…the baby. At first, I was like no biggie, I’ll feed him, and he’ll go right back to bed. Nope! The baby had other plans! For the entire day, I couldn’t put him down for more than 15 minutes without him completely losing his mind. Even putting him down to go to the bathroom was an unacceptable act in his eyes. Needless to say, the only thing I got accomplished was Netflix and chilling with my baby. He finally allowed me to put him down in his bassinet at about midnight. At this point, I didn’t care what time it was, I needed some “me time” before going to sleep as well. So, I took a nice long, hot shower AND painted my toenails before calling it a night at around 1 am. Some kind of day…

Sunday

Due to our late night, both Jasper and I slept in this morning. It was a much better day then the day before and way more productive! I finally finished painting the last wall in the kitchen and sort of got that room back in order. I got some much-needed deep cleaning done along with a ridiculous amount of laundry. Pake made it home around 5, we had dinner, put the baby to sleep and now watching The Mummy. Life is good.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Pretty much a recap of our weekend.
Pake, Petey, and Renzo

Thursday, Jan. 10th, 2019

Our day started with a trip to Wichita to get Jasper enrolled under Pake’s insurance. The trip was quick, but the wait time at the office was looong. We finally got back home around 3. On the way home, I got about an hour-long nap. It wasn’t one of those naps you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the world; oh no, this was one of those naps where you wake up wondering if you actually slept or just spaced out and you feel 10 times more tired than you did before your nap. So promptly after arriving home, Jasper and I took a nap to get over our car nap. Not a lot was accomplished today.

Let’s meet the rest of the gang! We’ll start with Rooster and Dobby.

We found rooster down at my mom’s house fending off one of her dogs. He wasn’t much more than a hand full but was full of attitude. He’d be about a year and a half now and weighs over 10 pounds. I don’t know how he’s so fat. He’s really more like a dog then a cat. Every morning he waits to be let outside (he doesn’t like the litterbox), and he’ll stay out until we call for him in the evening. Awhile back he came home with what looked like talon marks on his back and all we can guess is an owl or a hawk tried to carry him off. Luckily his chubby butt was too heavy to be carried very far! Even though he’s a pretty cool cat, he still has his annoying cat habits; like jumping on the counters when he thinks no one is watching or clawing the couch. The good outweigh the bad in his case.

Dobby, on the other hand, is a menace. Pake found dobby last summer, he was very little and almost dead, but don’t worry we saved him. I truly believe this cat has some sort of brain damage. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box. He’s Pake’s cat 100% and his goal in life is to annoy the crap out of me–he does it well. Now I love all animals, but he pushes the boundaries. He gets in to the trash and terrorizes the dogs because he knows they won’t retaliate, but if they do start getting to rough with him instead of just running away, he starts making this awful noise that sounds like he’s dying. Every morning he hides in the house, so he doesn’t have to go outside. I secretly think you wants to be an outside cat, but Pake makes sure he comes inside every night. Sorry I kind of got off on a rant. He’s an ok cat…sometimes.

To end the introductions, we have Elmer, Chubbles, Maui, and Nobody– the rest of the pot belly pig clan. (There’s also sugar and star, our two horses, but there more pasture ornaments at the moment.)

Elmer wondering why I’m not scratching his belly, 2018

So long story short, we took in Elmer and Nala (Nala is no longer with us), Napoleon’s parents, after their owner had to move and couldn’t take them with her. I mean what’s two more pigs, right? He wasn’t very friendly at first and honestly, I was concerned having a boar on the place. I even went as far as telling Pake if he ever got aggressive with us, we’d have to put him down. However, he turned in to the most chill pig we have! He now loves to have his belly scratched and has better manners then Napoleon. I am worried he’s going through an identity crisis at the moment though. He spends all his time out in the wheat feed with the cattle. I think they’ve excepted him as their own. He’s going to be heart broken when they leave. Hopefully he’ll convert back to his pig ways…

Left to Right: Chubbles, Maui, and Nobody, 2017

Now the other 3 came to be when we found out Nala was pregnant… She had a total of 7 babies, that’s right, 7 pig babies. This brought our total up to 10 pot belly pigs. We officially crossed over from being semi classy folks to being backwoods hicks with pigs sleeping under our porch. We were able to find homes for 4 of the babies, but the last 3 still remain. They’re more wild pigs that just happen to call here home and eat the food we put out. Other than that, they merely tolerate our present.

A funny little side note, every evening I holler “here kitty, kitty” to get Rooster to come in and all 5 pigs come running. I guess they think I’m yelling “here piggy, piggy”. I’m sure they’re disappointed every time I don’t have food for them. Poor piggies.