Advice please

Every morning (that is if it isn't raining) Decker and I take a walk in the park that is right around the corner from our house. It's been a really nice part of our routine and Decker seems to enjoy himself. (For those of you wondering about the stalker, I haven't seen him since the stalker day... plus I now have pepper spray) So I've been going on this walk so I can get some exercise and more energy, oh and possibly lose some of this baby weight that I've been "holding on to" for the last 6 months. I've been very consistant and so proud of myself because sometimes I'll go for a few walks. I just am having a hard time with controlling what I eat and also even though I go on all these walks I should probably get my heart rate up more. I feel a little to embarrassed to start running. (I hate running outside I am more of a treadmill person) My question is is what gives you motivation to workout and eat right and any other tips that you have for me I need! My body is obviously so different since having Decker. I feel like all my excess weight goes right to my stomach and booo I hate it.

baby love

For the last two nights Decker has had a runny nose and a little cough. Since he sleeps on his tummy he has a hard time sleeping, just like any person with a cold. Andrew always take weekend duty which entails putting his binki back in and the night time feeding.

Deck was having a really rough night on Friday and I knew Andrew was really tired so I was helping him out. Deck decided it was a nice time to get up at 2 and decided to talk and hang out in his crib until 4!! Little stinker. Finally he started crying and Andrew asked if I would take him (which I take him quite a bit due to Andrew's deep sleeping and I don't mind for the most part) Since I was already awake from his cooing and awing in the crib I was a little perturbed, but said I would.

I went and got the couch ready like old times and felt this was all too familiar. As I got Decker and he snuggled up close, he finally feel asleep on my chest and I just sat there and loved on him. and loved on him and loved on him! All the annoyance I was feeling just disappeared and I thought to myself this is what moms do. I love it and even though the no sleep is hard I am mom and I would make my bum numb every night just for my sweet baby!

I'm baaaaaaack!

Ok so as we can all tell the last few weeks were a little rough if you couldn't tell by my blog! Good news is I feel GREAT again! Bad news is.... oh there is none. YAY! It just so happened that I wrote that blog on Sunday and on Monday is was like a new fresh start. It was such a great week. Sorry that you had to experience the crazy Jessica! Decker is doing much better as am I. This last week on the 24 actually happened to be my golden birthday! (that means the day that you are born, when you turn that age it's your golden birthday) In case anyone was wondering.

Usually my friend and I have a weekly dinner on Thursdays because both our husbands work late so we take turns cooking for each other. It's something I look forward to because it's just us and the kiddos. I love getting to know her better and it makes me more appreciative of our friendship. This week Andrew had decided to take Thursday and Friday off, so that meant no Thursday night dinner with my friend. I was a little bummed but she called and asked if I wanted to come over on Wednesday instead(her turn to cook) I of course thought that was great because I knew Andrew would be working late as well as her husband. It was a really enjoyable dinner and I learned some new things about her and it was just so much fun. We jut laughed and laughed all night and luckily Decker slept the whole time! I also got a great cake and happy birthday sung to me! It was a great kick off to my b day. Thanks my friend!

On Thursday Andrew let me sleep in and Decker and Andrew woke me up with a slobbery kiss and a card... the card was sweet and contained my birthday present from my parents and Andrew.... tickets to Lion King on Broadway!!!! I've been dying to see it! I also got wonderful texts and phone calls from friends and family. I also got a plane ticket home from some pretty special people. They know me all too well. Thanks everybody for the gifts, cards, and text/email. That day I also got to go get my hair done. It was a nice salon, pricey, but I haven't been to one since I was like 14,( thanks to my wonderful sis in law.) It didn't turn out the way I would've liked but that's ok I kind of fixed it.. sorta. It was nice and relaxing to have Andrew here.



Friday we went into the city with our friends and went to FAO Schwarz and then walked around the city and ate at Chipotle... it was freezing but fun. Her is us on the train going into the city.








Saturday Andrew and I got ready and took Decker to our other wonderful friends house. She and her husband and their two little girls, watched Decker for 6 hours!!! YIKES I know. We headed off to the lion king and it was magical I mean beyond magical like the most amazing Broadway EVER! I was nervous to leave Decker... not because of my friend's ability to watch him but it was my first time leaving him for that long. He survived and I hope my friend survived!!! A HUGE THANKS TO HER!!! Her daughter and her also made me some amazing cookies (that I still need the recipe to.. hint hint) I have the most amazing friends. I feel so lucky and blessed. I mean lets just be honest I could not ask for more wonderful people in my life. Thanks everybody for making my birthday so special.

This is us at the Lion King but the lady we asked to take a picture was not to technical savvy I guess because this was the best out of 3. Enough said there.










So look at these sweet pictures of Decker. Awe my little boy turned 5 months on the 25 and it was only his 2nd time in the city and he was such a good boy. (I know you've probably seen this on Facebook but some haven't so here ya go)

just sayin it ain't always easy

Our week has involved fingers, fingers, fingers, drooling, crying and more fingers.... my poor baby is one cranky little bug. He is teething and it's REALLY affecting him. When I was pregnant everyone was like "oh everything will be great with your baby." He'll be the best, then I had Decker and yes he is the best because he is mine, but he was sooooo NOT easy and everything was not "great"! Then everyone said "oh it'll get better" and it took 3 1/2 months for it to get somewhat better. Then everyone said "oh teething is not bad at all", and now we're back to it being bad. My baby does nothing easy and I've come to accept that. I just wish people didn't assume that everything would be fine. It has been really hard and Decker has probably never felt good a day in his life. I feel like because everyone else has good babies that I'm not a great mother. Yes I understand that I have no influence on what is wrong with Decker such as GERD and the teething, but everyone else makes it seem like it's so easy to raise a child and that because it's easy for them it's of course going to be easy for me. It makes me frustrated and somewhat angry. I feel like I have had a much harder time with my baby then most moms, but I could be very wrong and people reading this could get mad for that comment but it's just how I feel. This last week has been one of the worst for Deck and I and it's one of the first times I really wished we lived back in Idaho. I'm glad it's a new week. Bottom line is don't listen to anyone about how "easy" things should be because not every baby or situation is easy. Well now that that's off my chest I do have to say that I love my Decker and I'm hoping that he will be my hardest baby(if I decide to have more right?!?!) He's so sweet and lovable. I couldn't be more happy with my high maintenance baby! he fits right into our family, I mean lets face it, I ain't no low maintenance girl.

This coming Friday my little boy will be 5 months... hmm where did those months go. I am sad that he is getting so big but loving this new exciting phase he's in. He is talking all the time, smiling and laughing, teething(which I don't love), and growing hair! Yay I can't wait to style it! I'm just lucky for my boys!!!
XOXO

to move or.... to move... oh wait it's too expensive!

For a while now Andrew and I have been looking at other cities and states to live in (when I say states I mean New York or Connecticut.) We've also been looking at other places in Jersey. It's just so frusturating because we can only live so far from Manhattan since Andrew has to go in everyday. We love our little apartment and to be honest it isn't little and it's fairly inexpensive for the east coast, but there are a few negatives of living here.... like parking, you have to circle around the block several times and if you're lucky you're able to find a spot on the same block as your house, as opposed to 2,3,4,5 blocks away. There is the resurant right next door that we share an alley way with. They are so noisy all the time when taking out the trash and what not. They wake up Decker due to screaming at each other. Then there is the main street we live on that has horns honking at all hours of the day and night, the garbage truck that comes at 4 am every morning and stops literally 8 times in front of our house since everyone just chucks their trash out from their door. We have no natural sunlight in our house and sometimes it's a little depressing. We have no dishwasher, but that's more of an annoyance then anything. We don't have AC :( The fact that no one speaks English in our community so it's hard for me to make friends and find other parents that want to do stuff. Our front door doesn't work anymore so I've resorted to going around back through the laundry room, you think oh that's not bad but when it's freezing and I have a 30 lb baby/car seat and there is snow up to your mid calf in the back alley so you have to tromp through it.. yeah it's bad! It also takes us about 25-30 minutes to go anywhere. We can't shop at local stores because either you pay super high prices, or you shop with some pretty scary people. To add as of late, the construction upstairs with the banging and the hammering. All while Decker is napping. Awesome.

So now that I've shared the negative I do have to say that I honestly LOVE our actual apartment. It is perfect for us and so beautiful. Hard wood floors, a huge laundry room(which is a big luxury here) Our bedrooms are the perfect size and everything is super nice. Our community is really safe, even safer then Idaho Falls. That's really saying something for the fact that right across the river is one of the most dangerous places in Jersey, let alone the entire country. Every night we get to throw our trash on the side walk and it's picked up in the morning. We have a lot of little parks in walking distances that are beautiful. I have a 2 really good friends here who I love and adore and am super thankful for. We have been experiencing a new lifestyle which opens our eyes everyday. We have great landlords who usually are really good about fixing things asap. We have heat! We have a beautiful kitchen and it's huge. The train is only a mile from our house and it's way cheap from here.

I'm just seriously having a hard time because yes I am missing the suburbs. I'm missing yards, soccer moms, nice people, english speaking people, a normal branch/ward, not sharing walls with people, a driveway/garage, and I'm sure the list could continue but I think you get the point. Everywhere that we actually want to live is just so expensive. I love a few places in Jersey but the taxes are RIDICULOUS! I guess this is the state to live in huh? I just can't figure out why the taxes are through the roof. Then I would love to live in the city but again for a place like this it's just way too expensive and we wouldn't have a car, but I mean really why would we need one with all the transportation. Then it would also come with some of the negatives stated above. There are other places in New York, but they aren't suburban and ahhhh I just don't know. I'm just really frustrated and discouraged. I actually like it here in the East and yes I miss Idaho but I think I would love it a whole lot more could we find a nice little house to live in with actual neighbors. Hmm I'm sure all 3 people that actually read this are probably bored of this post so I thought I'd just vent some of my frustrations. It looks like we'll most likely be in this apartment for a few more years... waaa! I guess that just means no more kids until we move because I am NOT doing the whole parking 3 blocks away with a toddler and car seat for a baby. Ok ok I really am done.

just a picture "update"

Sorry for Decker overload but I always say I'm going to post pictures and then I don't so here are a bunch! I'm not sure if you caught this but the pictures go from youngest to oldest... Decker is 4 months today and the last picture was taken today. Wow where did the time go?
He is starting to laugh and smiles all the time. I'm sooo lucky for this little bug!
XOXO

Test and Dr.'s appts

Can we just talk about this little boy for a minute! Who got 8 hours of sleep due to a certain someone... ME! Thanks to my Decker bug who is now only eating right before I go to bed and then around 4am.. woohoooooo. We decided to sleep train him (and if you have negative opinions about this topic, you can go ahead and keep them to yourself thanks) It was the best decision EVER. The first night he only cried 8 minutes and then was out like a light. He does so good at nap time and he is just getting better and better as the days go on. I am so proud of my little monkey. What a trooper.

This picture was taken on Friday after we went to go get Decker's barium swallowing test and also he had an upper GI test. They were concerned that a muscle that went from his esphogus to his stomach was straight instead of curved. If the test were positive then Deck would have to have surgery. The poor kid was starving and they took forever to get us in but he was such a happy boy and everyone was really impressed that he wasn't crying his head off due to starvation. Well they did the test and he was so good for them. We got to watch all the x rays and live motion of the barium as it went through his body. It was pretty cool. The test were negative and we found out right away from the radiologist doing the test. Luckily that means that Deck doesn't have to have surgery, the downside of this is that we still don't know what's wrong with him. We called the GI dr and he said to up some more of his medication and to add some rice cereal to his already gross formula. it's only been two days since we increased his dosage and we just began the rice cereal today so I hope he does well. We have ANOTHER appointment with the GI dr this coming Friday. Lots of test and Dr appt for only a 4 month old. So back to this pic, it was after the barium study and look at my happy little bug. Honestly for never feeling very good he is so fun and happy. He is starting to laugh which is precious. I adore him!

Well on Tuesday the 15, it'll be one year since we moved here.... WHAT!?!? Where did the year go? I am shocked that it has come and gone sooooo quickly. I am so proud of Andrew for all of his awesomeness and getting a job here. He is so dedicated to DirecTV and has really proved himself in a year. Everyone there is really impressed with him as they should be.
Yes things are crazy here and so different from what I am used to back in the west, but could I ask for a more blessed life, NO WAY. Andrew and I have the best family and friends. We have the best little boy and life couldn't be more awesome.. ok well yes I'd like a drive way but other then that we are so lucky! Here are only a few pictures but I still need to upload a lot from my phone.
XOXO