Merry Christmas!!

It's a quiet morning in the Clark house with Trey sleeping; Randy watching the Bulls game on tv; and me sitting in the man chair, drinking coffee, eating leftover coffee cake from yesterday's brunch, playing with photos, and blogging...

Six months old and getting close to sitting on his own...

all 16 pounds 2 ounces and 26.5 inches of him.

We have had a great holiday so far.  Yesterday was our annual Christmas Eve brunch with family and friends.  I think it was year four for our new tradition, and Randy and I love hosting people at our house with yummy delicious food and drinks.  Randy makes his killer Bloody Marys and I have a pot of glog on the stove.  People bring scrumptious food (Julie's kringles are always a hit) and visit with each other in our home.  It starts off the Christmas Eve/Christmas festivities with a bang and it is so much fun!!

 Julie, Dad, Trey and I on Christmas Eve

 As usual, the baby was more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift...

People have been saying that Trey looks like my dad.  

Do you see the resemblance?

 Happy Boy

 Reach, reach, reach!

Some Bronco dinnerware...getting ready for big boy food in style!

We spent Christmas Eve night with Julie and Tim at their place.  Julie made a yummy clam chowder and we ate gingerbread leftover from the brunch (thanks, Jason!).  Trey has a short shelf-life in the evenings, so we were home pretty early and sadly in bed by 9pm.

Randy's parents got into town last week, spent Friday night with us, and then headed north to Anacortes and Seattle.  They come back this afternoon and I am looking forward to a few days with them before they head back to Southern California.  Hopefully, their house was safe from the flooding.  I am thinking that some haystacks are in order for Christmas dinner, and I might try to squeeze in a house project tomorrow before they leave.  It's tradition, after all!

 Grandpa Doug and Trey

 Great Grandma Julie and Trey

 Trey, Great Grandma Julie, Grandma Carmen, and Randy

 Grandma and Trey checking each other out

Happy baby, happy grandpa

Almost six months old...time sure does fly when you are having fun

Okay, loyal readers: disclaimer at the beginning...I don't have any photos this week.  Our computer has been on the fritz and we got a new hard drive from Apple.  For some reason they didn't put Iphoto back on our computer so right now we don't have a way to work with our photos.  And, actually, now that I think of it...we've been so busy this week, I don't think we have any new photos anyway.  If you're interested in hearing about our week, read on.  If you would rather see pictures, skip to past posts or come back in a few weeks.

This week we got hit by the sickness.  It wasn't as bad as some people have had it, but we got the first taste of what it feels like to take care of a baby when we are feeling under the weather.  Needless to say, Trey has had some very mellow and relaxing days over the past week.  I think he has a little bit of what Randy and I have, but so far it doesn't seem too bad.  Fingers crossed...

I spent four days at work over the past two weeks.  For two days Sandy (and my dad) watched Trey, and for the past two days Randy has been at home.  Both of them have experienced how tricky it can be to get sweet Trey down for a nap.  They also both got to experience how much fun it is to play with Trey all day and spend some quality time together.  I, on the other hand, got to experience the beginning of what it will be like to be a working mom.  Some thoughts that have crossed my mind in no particular order:
How early am I going to have to get up in the morning in order to get to work on time?
How late are we going to have to eat dinner so that I get to hang out with Trey before he goes to bed?
How on earth are we going to keep this house clean?
Women who pump while working should win awards.  Monetary awards would be nice, but Mother of the Year awards would suffice.
Wow, do I hope that my time home with Trey while working part-time will be worth it since my reduced income is going to make the next 9 months pretty damn tight.
Crap, my wardrobe choices are a lot fewer thanks to the baby weight.
When am I going to have time to exercise so I can increase my wardrobe choices?
Facebook is a lot more interesting when I only have time to look at it once or twice a day.

Fun things to share from this past week or so...
On Saturday Randy and I went to a baby sign language class put on by Tiny Talkers.  I think it's great that babies who sign supposedly start speaking earlier and have higher IQs, but the reason I went is so that Trey may be able to communicate some of his needs/wants/feelings to us before he can talk.  I guess we are supposed to start with three signs (the teacher suggested eat, milk, and more).  We haven't started yet...maybe next week?

We also had a babysitter on Saturday night so we could attend Randy's OHSU work party at OMSI.  Normally, Trey goes down pretty easily at night and I assured our sitter that she would literally be able to sit while we were gone since I was leaving after bedtime.  (Insert laugh here)  Saturday was the beginning of Trey's difficulty with bedtime and it's gone downhill since then.  My friend Stacy soothed him until almost 9pm when Trey finally passed out in her arms of fatigue.  Randy and I ended the night sitting at the bar at Breakside Brewery having a beer and some adult conversation.  We have had babysitters before (Aunt Julie) but we have always been out with groups of people.  This may have been the first time since Trey was born that it was just the two of us.  Nice.

Trey laughed for reals for the first time, is almost rolling from his back to his stomach (I'm afraid this may happen for the first time on the changing table) and is doing a nice job of sitting on his own for a few seconds at a time or for longer with minimal support.  He also started eating some rice cereal and that has been a hoot!  He is such a rock star!

Randy's parents get here tomorrow night and I can't wait for them to see Trey!!!  They haven't seen him since the middle of August and he has changed A LOT since he was 8 weeks old.   Also, on Sunday we are having a holiday celebration with my family in Eugene.  I can't wait for Trey to meet more of my cousins!  And Trey will be six months old on Monday...seriously??

 Well, here's a special treat for anyone who kept reading (or maybe you just scrolled down to see the pictures from last week's post).  I guess I can download pics from my phone but still don't have Iphoto.  Anyways, here is Trey from last week...he has begun to explore simple kitchen items as new toys.

And this is what I came home to today...my dear husband reading to my sweet son from his fly fishing book.  God, I love them both so much.

Back to reality

Okay, I admit it.  I thought I was going to be bored.  Antsy.  Stir crazy.  Cabin fever.  You name it.   If you know me, this probably is not much of a shock.  While I was thrilled to have a baby, I was worried that staying home full time would be really hard. I was wrong. I have loved it.

I have been lucky enough to stay home full time with Trey for five and a half months.  In two days I go back to work and am able to work part-time for the rest of this school year.  I'm lucky.  It will be fine.  Everything will be okay.  I need to relax.  (Can you hear Randy's voice in there?  He hasn't told me to relax - that would be mean - but I'm sure it's crossed his mind.)  While I am sort of looking forward to going back to my job and having something else to think about besides napping and pooping (his, not mine), I am absolutely dreading leaving Trey.

Here are some of the things I have loved about being home with him:
- Seeing him all the time
- Having him smile at me when he sees my face
- Being able to meet every one of his needs (that I can figure out)
whenever he needs it
- Being able to feed him all day long whenever he needs or wants it
- Watching him grow, change, learn new things, develop new skills
- Watching how he reacts to certain things with either delight or discomfort.  For example, he LOVES his farm animal book with the fold out pictures.  He smiles every time I read it.  He LOVES the Eentsy-Weentsy Spider song and calms down whenever I sing it.  He LOVES to be bounced on my lap when I sing one of the songs from Music Together.
- Our relaxing mornings which include coffee, the Today Show if he is napping, reading books (both his and mine), staying in our comfy clothes all morning long, and cuddling on the couch or the bed.
- Taking him to music class and Book Babies at the library and watching him react to the songs and watch the other babies.
- Going on walks, meeting for coffee, or just hanging out with girlfriends and often their babies.
- Seeing him all the time

Randy, Trey, and I decided to spend Thanksgiving with good friends this year.  Our friends, Steve and Jen, are moving back to Wisconsin next week after ten years in Portland, so we wanted to spend some time with them.  Sarah and Neil Kopplin were kind enough to host dinner at their house and it was awesome!  The only downside of not having Thanksgiving at your house (or wherever you are sleeping since we are usually at my dad and Sandy's)??  No leftovers!!!

Randy and Trey hanging out at the Kopplins before dinner

Zander and Zoe, friends forever

Trey did a great job on Thanksgiving but started to fuss
right when we sat down to eat.
I put him in the Ergo and ate standing next to Sarah's new beautiful buffet.

On Saturday my family came over to our house for a second dinner.
Randy grilled the steelhead he caught (see previous post) and we also had some steaks from our cow.

Julie was sick so she hunkered down in the corner and stayed away from Trey.

Tango finds himself very interested in Trey.  When Trey is on the floor, Tango wants to be right next to him.  He also tries to lick him all over.  I let him lick his feet and the back of his head, but not his face or hands because Tango eats cat shit from the yard all of the time.  Call me a worried mom, but that is just gross.  

Some closely supervised dog and baby time.  Lately Tango has been eating Trey's toys.  He only chews on the parts that Trey has sucked on.  This infuriates me and causes me to have to do a sweep of the house looking for stray items before we go anywhere.  Yesterday everything seemed to be picked up, so Tango decided to eat one of Trey's burp rags.  SO ANNOYING.

Picking out our Christmas tree at the local ghetto neighborhood tree lot

Trey in his warm fleece suit 

Our visit with Santa last week.

The professional picture that they took is even cuter because he is smiling in it. 

It kind of trips me out a little bit that I have a son sitting on Santa's lap. 

 In this picture, I think Trey looks like he has more hair than he actually does.

This picture is from the going away party Sarah and I hosted on Saturday night for Steve and Jen.  We have been friends for a long time and they have been a big part of my post-college life.  I can't believe they are going.  Girls night out won't be the same without Jen.  

Maybe the blog will get more interesting with better stories as I transition from stay-at-home mom to working mom and Randy and I try to adjust to this new chapter.  Stay tuned...should be fun.