2020 Week 2

Time for my weekly photo dump!

This week was basically a whole lot of nothing. The mornings tend to be the longest part of the day for us, so to break it up a little, we went somewhere each morning Mon-Thurs. Whether that was shopping, the grocery store, visiting my mom, or meeting up with Ty and his mom for lunch, we got out of the house early and were back by nap time each day. It was just a week of "normal."

I've been very sentimental and emotional lately about this year of maternity leave that I'm taking. I started crying just yesterday as I told Ty how much I appreciate this time, and that I thank God literally every single day (multiple times a day) for the opportunity to stay home and take care of Bryson. I'm not saying that every single moment is wonderful...but I'm so thankful for all of it. I'm trying not to take a single second for granted.

I recently read a story about a baby who was just about a week younger than Bryson, who died of SIDS while at an in-laws house over the holidays. I started following their story, and my heart broke for them. They just buried their baby yesterday, and this is what his mom said after:

"If I could say one thing, here it is. Take all the pictures. Forget the laundry. Forget the dishes. It really doesn't matter. Just love your babies. Breathe in their scent. Memorize their smile. And love them really, really hard."

And you know what? I do take a ridiculous amount of photos/videos of my baby. And I let the laundry sit in the washer sometimes until it needs to be rewashed. And I neglect the dusting, vacuuming, and dishes. And I'm not sorry about any of it. I prefer to spend my time playing with my baby and making him giggle. I love to snuggle him for his morning nap while I kiss and smell his little head. There's always time to get those things done when he's sleeping.

I officially go back to work in August, but I'll have to start preparing much earlier than that. Yeah, it seems far off, but the rest of my time off with him will go so fast. So I'll continue to take as many pictures and videos as my phone can hold (my cloud is completely full...I get notifications every day that my phone hasn't been backed up in weeks because there's no more room!) And I'll post them all here...because babies don't keep. He'll only be this small for so long. I shouldn't feel guilty for how smitten I am with my son, and how much I love him and want everyone to know it. So here you go:

He is beautiful.

His first big boy robe! It ties in the front and everything!

I can't leave out my other son, Bubba! Still fluffy and ornery as ever. 

Bedtime bottle with Daddy.

18 weeks in my belly versus 18 weeks out of my belly. Out is so much better!

We got this water mat for him to play on, but he just wanted to watch TV instead!

Bryson loves to be naked! I read in a baby book that babies should get some time each day to play naked, so they can work on making smooth movements without the hindrance of clothing. So we do this every night before bath or bedtime, and he loves it. This night, I wanted to take a picture and I put my phone on selfie-mode so I could see better. This was the first time he's seen himself like that, and his reaction was so cute! He just didn't know what to think about that squishy baby he saw!

I let the water fill up in the tub so he could splash around a bit. 

Bedtime Routine: bath (couple times a week), lotion, jammies, bedtime story, bottle, swaddle, and snuggles!

I just had to share this because it's too funny not to! My dad asked if Bryson's leprechaun hat would still fit from his newborn pictures. I pulled it out and tried it. Apparently his brain is growing!

On Friday, Bryson wasn't a huge fan of napping in his bassinet, so we napped like this. No, I didn't get a chance to tackle my to-do list, and I complained about how my arm was asleep...but I don't care. This was so much better than anything else I had to do that day. He won't nap on me forever. 

Ty was flying his helicopter around the living room and Bryson was mesmerized!

Still working on Tummy Time multiple times a day. He continues to dislike it, but we're working on longer stretches. There was even a time he fell asleep on his tummy this week, which means we're moving in the right direction!

I hung out at Ty's cubicle while I waited for his lunch hour to start, and my mother-in-law showed the baby off around the office. The three of us went out to lunch and Bryson was very well-behaved!

So that was week 2 of 2020. Nothing out of the ordinary...no fancy plans. But it was the perfect week just the same.

xoxo, wife (& mommy)