the state we're in

Goodbye, summer…

Hello, fall!

I was a little sad to take down the wreath my mom and I made with Conley’s tiny socks shortly after he was born, but I was also pretty proud to have my fall wreath finished and hung by October 1st! 

Kendrick and I (but mostly Kendrick) painted our front door black a few weeks ago (this is a post-sanding, pre-painting photo).  It’s a huge improvement from the dingy maroon we inherited but never loved, and now I love how anything we hang on it just pops. 

Here’s hoping my pumpkins ward off any more 90° temps!

Can you just hear the belly laughs?

We can hardly believe little Conley’s been around for six months already!  In some ways it feels like a lifetime ago that this tiny baby was dropped into our arms (haha, if only it had been that easy ) and in other ways it feels like we blinked and he went from a red, wrinkly newborn to this miniature human boy who gives and takes and is actually fun to spend time with.  Kendrick and I still regularly marvel at the seismic shift that’s occurred in the past few months, not just in becoming a family of three, but in how C has settled in and become such a joy to be with.  We still have the fearful knee-jerk reactions when we think about pushing him beyond his schedule, but the reality is that he has learned to go with our flow so well that he can handle a lot more than we think.  We were so conditioned by those early weeks of struggle and tears that his flexibility and resiliency is still sinking in for us.  But it’s always a happy surprise when he impresses us again and again!  (Of course, the boy has his limits, but don’t we all?)

At his six month check-up, Conley weighed 18 lbs, 8 oz (70%), and was 28.5” long (98%), so he’s following his growth curve well.  Since my last post, we’ve added brussel sprouts to his diet (C rating: meh), carrots (bleh), super porridge (a brown rice cereal, double bleh!), and bananas (yes!).  We also just started introducing a sippy cup.  He loves chewing on it, but I don’t think he knows there’s anything inside yet.  We’ll get there.

He’s sitting up like a champ, but is still most interested in standing.  His doctor said his gross motor skills are very advanced after observing his standing and attempted “walking,” and remarked that he’s trying to be a little boy and not a baby.  I’m not sure how I feel about that!

We decided in the past month to try to drop his 10:30 “dreamfeed” and see if he would still sleep through the night—big success!  He now officially sleeps from about 8:00pm – 7:30am (or so).  He takes three naps a day and they can be anywhere from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours, depending on the day we’re having.

Another exciting thing that happened this month was Conley’s Grammy and Granddad (my parents) moving nearby!  They crossed the country to be close to this cutie and he’s thrilled they’re here!  He’s already had an ominous introduction to the geese down the street and he can’t wait to play in the lake near their house.  I see lots of fun times ahead!

Happy half birthday, to our sweet baby boy!  You are such a precious gift and we love you more every day!

Conley’s really starting to love the cats.  Sadly, the feeling isn’t mutual.

… and won’t remember that his first exposure to his favorite team was a 4th quarter meltdown that rivaled the Mavs’ performance in game 3 of the 2006 NBA Finals.  Otherwise, Conley’s first gameday was a roaring success even if he was asleep 20 minutes after kickoff.  As cute as the Cowboys were ugly!

I know I said Conley hasn’t had too much reaction to new foods, gobbling them up like it’s his job, and that’s mostly true.  But there was this one night….

I’m pretty sure this was his second or third exposure to avocado and he had been loving it.  I’m not sure what got into the boy, but he was certainly nothing if not clear!

On a related note, he’s in another “spitting moment” right now.  He spits when he’s excited, he spits when he’s mad, he spits when he’s trying to join you in a whistle.  I think mostly he spits just because he can.  Shouldn’t we all, really?

Whew. Why hello there, blog… I suppose it’s been a little while, hasn’t it? SO MANY THINGS have happened since I last blogged that I hardly knew where to start. My natural inclination in situations such as these is to make a list and work my way through top to bottom.

And then I feel remarkably lame for not documenting my goings-on with more regularity.

So, about that list.  As best I can remember, here’s what’s happened in my life since I wrote my last post:

• I refinished my garage with immeasurable help from my dad
• I visited villages in remote parts of Mali
• I had a photo printed in a niche NASA publication
• We had our house’s 60 year old leaky windows replaced
• We kept our yard green through an epically hot summer
• I quit my old job
• I started a new job
• I became a father and picked my jaw off the floor after Jen went through 51 excruciating hours of labor
• I went to a couple of great car shows
• I played an awesome prank on a coworker
• We took our infant to the Oklahoma panhandle so he had early exposure to his roots

So buckle up, because like any good list, this one is actionable.  The silver lining to having not written anything for months and months is that now I’ve got lots of stories and plenty of photos to share.

I did it again!  Sure is tough for me to get these up in a timely manner.  But here we are, five and a half months into this cute, little life, with so much to say!  From my perspective, there have been some big, exciting developments in the last month!, but I fully realize that these musings and observations are basically just mommy-navel gazing, so as always, I’ve included photos for anyone who couldn’t care less what my baby ate for dinner.  Here are the things we’re excited about around here.

Road tripping!  I’m happy to report that our little guy finally earned that Road Warrior merit badge he’d been working on.  A few weeks ago, we decided to brave the 8 hour trip to the Oklahoma panhandle to visit Kendrick’s grandparents.  We left Fort Worth around 6pm with the intention of getting a hotel around the halfway mark, but Conley surprised us by falling asleep at 9pm and, with him sleeping happily in back and hotels being surprisingly hard to come by (the It’ll Do Motel would decidedly not do), we pressed on and finished the drive in the early morning hours.  He slept until we arrived at 2:30am, at which point he happily greeted family and went quickly back to sleep!  (Big thanks to Conley’s Nala (Kendrick’s mom) for scrambling to set up his crib for our surprise early arrival!)  What a champ!  We had such a good time with family and loved getting to see Conley with all his great-grands.  It was a mutual love affair for sure.

Speaking of sleep, one half of this duo is abundantly grateful for the full night’s rest we’re enjoying these days.  The one month hiatus he took from sleeping through the night seems to be a fairly common issue that babies have around 4 months of age.  Of course, it’s hard to keep that perspective in the middle of it (I was already imagining getting up in the middle of the night to tend to my needy toddler), but we’re just happy to be on the other side of it. 

Right before he started sleeping through the night again, he began rolling over to sleep on his tummy.  The blankets I wedged around his body were no match for his superbaby strength so I finally surrendered and let him sleep however he pleased.  At the same time, he was getting angrier and angrier with his double swaddle so we started the swaddle-weaning process (which made me feel better about tummy sleeping).  We’ve had one arm out for a couple weeks now and he loves it.  Sometimes he seems to be alright with both arms out and I’ll often find him that way in the mornings, but when he’s having trouble sleeping (like when he’s gotten overtired) he still needs at least one arm snugly restrained.

In addition to the ever-tasty rice cereal, Conley is now dominating avocado, sweet potatoes, squash and peas (oh, peas! his favorite!).  We started mashed avocado right at 5 months and made sure to take video of his first exposure, but it was surprisingly dull!  Sure, he was still figuring out the mechanics of eating, but he’s taken all the new flavors and textures in stride, gobbling up anything we put in front of him.  Hopefully his easy (if insanely messy) eating habits will continue indefinitely.

We moved from a 3 hour to a 4 hour schedule right before our trip to OK and that’s been mostly great.  His tummy is happier waiting 4 hours in between meals, however, his waketimes and naps are not quite there yet.  He’s still generally happier staying awake for an hour and a half and then napping for another hour and a half, which leaves us some time to kill before the next meal.  So we’re still ironing out the kinks, but it’s given us much more freedom to leave the house now that we have larger chunks of time to fill, and he’s gotten two tons easier to go out with.  In fact, sometimes I think he’s happier out of the house because he has new scenery and stimuli to enjoy.  So I try to oblige several times a week now that I’m not terrified of being screamed at by strangers in Target (true—that happened).

It’s been an eventful month around here and Conley continues to get more and more fun.  His smiles and laughs come easily now (as do his fake laughs and fake coughs ) and even sleepy bedtimes are becoming pleasant and fun.  One of my favorite times with Conley is rocking him before I put him down to sleep.  We’ve found a happy position that allows him to see what’s going on around him while gazing sleepily into my eyes and sometimes trading quiet giggles with me.  It is positively dreamy.  What more could a mom ask for?

I feel like I have to put “recipe” in quotes here because this feels less like a full-on recipe and more like a fortuitous conglomeration of ingredients that happen to be in the same bowl at the same time.  It’s like running into friends at Central Market and having a great, surprise dinner together.  Nothing planned or over-thought, just easy, accidental awesome.

I made a few changes, partially due to preference and partially just taking advantage of what I had on hand.  The “recipe” is flexible and happens to be vegetarian but would be delicious with the addition of a simply prepared protein, too.  It’s a pasta “recipe” but I subbed quinoa because I’m on a kick (and it’s a perfect protein!); I had spinach on hand, but I would like to try the arugula next time.  And finally, I sautéed my garlic for a few minutes, per many reviewers’ comments.   I also went super-heavy on the fresh ground pepper at the end and, probably thanks to the quinoa, the result was almost risotto-esque.

If you have any room in your heart for goat cheese, please make this.

Goat Cheese and Arugula over Penne

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 ounces goat cheese
• 2 cups coarsely chopped arugula, stems included
• 1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces penne pasta (or 1 cup uncooked quinoa)

Directions

• Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
• Crumble goat cheese into a large serving bowl. Add arugula, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper.
• Drain pasta, and toss with goat cheese mixture.

I found the sweetest thing when I went to get Conley up from a nap recently.  Here he is on his tummy, peering over his bumper pad and between the crib rails to see who was coming to get him.  So cute!