Baby's 1st Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving went better than I expected. When I first found out G wasn't going to be here for the holidays, my first thought about what I wanted to do for Thanksgiving was to order pizza and watch all the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends. Honestly, that would have been a pretty awesome night. I didn't do either of those, and I ended up having one of the best Thanksgivings ever.

Ryan and I started the day running a 5K. Now I haven't run more than a couple miles since my last 5K in July and I was really, really out of shape (not to mention I wasn't just running, rather pushing a stroller and running). This Turkey Trot had more hills than they advertised. I really didn't think I was going to make it. Luckily, I have two amazing friends who stayed at my pace and encouraged me to the end. I ran in it a little less than 34 mins! Not a bad time considering how out of shape I felt. I thought it was going to be closer to 40 minutes honestly. I considered it a win. That, and Ry Ry slept the whole time. That is a blessing. Although, if he started crying on the run, it may have encouraged me to run faster.

My running buddy! Keeping me fit.

After our little run, I managed to shower and scramble a somewhat put together look for Thanksgiving at my house. I had 5 other people come over and bring tons of food. I think the BEST part of hosting dinner is all the leftover wine :) Anyway, we had good food, drinks, and then played games until midnight. That's right, I was up at midnight, and not because Ryan woke me up to be fed. It was much needed. G and I had another couple that we always did game nights with, but they PCS'ed back in the spring, and we haven't had much of a social life since (that, and the baby kind of got in the way as well). For me, I need socialization, and staying up with people I barely know playing games was so much fun. It truly was a happy Thanksgiving.

I have an obsession with baby prints. Ryan's hand/foot print Turkey :)

Now that the holiday season is upon us, I've been Christmas shopping like crazy. I started early mostly because I had to send G's box out yesterday for it to be there before Christmas, and of course, I'm a shopaholic so I've picked up other things for people on the way. However, long shopping days aren't easy at all with a  little one. First of all, why don't malls have shopping carts? The only thing that makes shopping doable for me is a shopping cart so I don't have to carry him. I know, I know, you're thinking, "Why not use a stroller, Mols? Duh!" I would if it wasn't the mall. They pack so many things so tightly into those stores that my stroller can't quite maneuver around. And there isn't as much room for all of my shopping bags AND my diaper bag. Carts are much easier. Okay, and the real reason? This is embarrassing guys, but I can barely lift my stroller in and out of my trunk. You have to put it in a certain way so the tires fit and my little arms and frail shoulders and back structure keep failing on me. I also have the Ergo carrier, but how am I supposed to try on clothes when he's strapped to my body (I'm a shopaholic, so obviously I have to browse for me as well)? I'm not going to take him off and lay him on the dirty floor in a tiny changing room stall. Mom problems.

With that being said, I've been trying to get some shopping out of my way a few times a week. It's hard to hit multiple stores because the little guy only sleeps for so long. And I don't want him cooped up all day in his car seat. That's no fun. There have been many times where I find myself carrying him around the store with one arm, and pushing the cart with another. You'd think I have guns of steel by now, but I don't. I have TERRIBLE posture. My body is hunched over. I'm trying so hard to straighten out when I'm not holding him, but he's so incredibly heavy and I'm so weak that he's slowly crippling me. I can't wait for daddy to be home and take over the carrying on weekend outings. That may revive me. That, and I'm going to try to get back into yoga.

Baby cheeks! My little turkey face.

I need to get into better shape, especially now that there's snow out there. On Sunday, I decided to run to Red Box to return my movie (that's usually where I run to anyway, I think it's a little under 2 1/2 miles roundtrip). It snowed the day before and the streets were plowed so I didn't think much of it. I hit a sidewalk that wasn't shoveled. It wasn't shoveled and it was a busy road and I didn't feel comfortable running on the shoulder. What'd I do? I pushed my stroller through 4 inches of snow until the next block where I could take a backroad to my destination. It was exhausting. Worst exercise ever. That block felt like... well, maybe only .25 miles. I'm not going to exaggerate this one. My legs felt like jello. And it was only at the beginning of my run so I still had to go to my destination and back. Exhausting.

Life has been a little stressful. Not only have I been trying to pack in as much as Ryan allows me into each day with appointments, shopping, company, cleaning, etc. but my dogs have been adding to my gray hairs (I still have only one and I haven't had to pluck it in a while! Maybe it got the hint that it's unwanted). My two boys aren't fixed. They aren't fixed and they are the sweetest little puppies (well, Denali is kind of a monster, but that's a different story). Lately, they've been hating on each other. These boys are father and son and they LOVE each other, so their aggressive behavior is bizarre. They would avoid each other at all costs, and when they got into each other's space, Denali would growl and a couple times, they actually attacked each other and I had to break it up. I first thought I'd have to get Denali fixed because maybe he's peaked and his testosterone levels are high and it's causing problems with Cato (they both were fine with Belle Belle). But the more I watched, the more I realized that Denali wasn't the problem. Denali was the one growling (because he's the vocal one of the three) but he was also trying to avoid Cato and stay by my side-even shaking. Cato was staring Denali down, and even getting up in his space and when Denali didn't back down, they'd turn on each other. Cato is the sweetest dog I know, so this was strange.

I called my vet for advice. All they told me was to get both of them fixed and, "It'll total to $400. Each." Um... great advice, thanks for talking me through this. I told them I'd wait through the weekend and see. They were on and off fighting for 3 days. I gave Denali a play date to give them space and that seemed to have helped. Also, when they found a common enemy (our neighbor shoveling the driveway), they suddenly didn't seem to hate each other. The last time they fought, I grabbed a ball and started playing, and then they just decided to be friends and play together and they haven't fought since. Seriously, weird.

My theory: they were stir crazy and didn't have enough play time. I was so busy last week prepping for thanksgiving that I didn't get to play with them, and I barely let them outside for long since it was cold outside and I didn't get to clean the yard so I didn't want them tracking poop inside. I think they were just cooped inside for too long and started feuding, as humans do too. I'm keeping an eye on it because I don't want aggressive dogs near a baby. Not that they'd turn on him, but maybe accidentally step on him or something. Also, I really don't want to fix them unless I have to. I still want to mate Cato out again and maybe give Denali that opportunity in the future. They are beautiful dogs and make wonderful babies.

Okay, enough of my crazy dog lady rants. Oh wait, no. One more. Belle has been adding to my stress because she keeps getting in the garbage then waking me up in the night to poop. As if I need to wake up any more than I already do. End rant.

Other than the fact that it's taken me an extra 4 days just to get this post in, life has been good. I love my baby. I just sit and watch him. He wakes me up at 3am and I'm so freaking tired and ready to sleep, and then he talks to me and coos to me and I don't want to sleep. He is precious. I look at him and think about him getting older and how it won't be long before I will miss that exact moment. I literally try to absorb my moments with him through my pores and into my brain. I never let myself fill in the sentence, "I can't wait..." because I can. I can wait for every little stage that he'll hit. I can wait for the next minute to pass us by. He's already growing so quickly right in front of my eyes. I pick him up and he's heavier than we was the day before. He went up a diaper size. He's almost out of  his 0-3 month clothes. In fact, he'll be 3 months this weekend. I had so many things that I thought, "oh, we'll worry about that when he's three months" and that time is already here. He gets to play with more toys (although I've already introduced every toy we have to him), we change the angle of his car seat to the three month level, and he looks so cute in his 3-6 month clothes.

To me, he's no longer a baby. He's such a little person. I know what he's trying to tell me most of the time. It's like the dogs-just because he doesn't talk doesn't mean he doesn't know and it doesn't mean that we can't communicate. We know each other so well. When he sleeps, I just watch his (not so) little belly go up and down with each breath. I look at his legs and feet and arms and he's just such a person. It's so crazy. It's almost as if he can just sit up and walk away lol. I'll quote Joey from season 1 of Friends, "He's so real." It's so obviously stupid, but it's true. I love it. And one of my friends is preggo and expecting this spring and I'm seriously so excited for her to fall in love with her little man. Motherhood is just awesome.

I think I've ranted enough for one day. I only have 4 1/2 hours to prepare for my dental appointment and someone drank all my coffee for the morning all ready. Hopefully I'll have some quiet time this weekend for his 3 month post and I'll actually be able to make something more interesting to read. Love to my readers!