Things I Love

Every day I realize there are new things that I love about my life, especially my little boy. Here are some of my favorite things:

• The way Jake smiles and stretches when I wake him up.
• When I'm feeding Jake, he puts his under-side arm in between my arm and my side. While he's eating, he rubs my side and it's so sweet. With his other arm, he rubs it back and forth across my chest until he finds the perfect place to grab onto my shirt. He'll hold my shirt and try to pull it toward his face. Granted, these things only happen when he's calmly eating, which isn't every time. But, when he's calm, especially with his dreamfeed at night, it is pretty much the sweetest thing ever. 
• Jake is a master manipulator. When he's going to sleep for naps he usually cries. He just doesn't really like going down for them, but he's getting better at it. I'll let him cry for a few minutes before going in to check on him. I sssh him and sometimes give him his pacifier and about 75% of the time, he'll look up at me with these tired eyes and give a big, sweet smile. It makes me want to get him out of his crib and just squeeze him instead of making him sleep. Manipulator. It's a good thing that mommy knows that he has to take naps or else he'll be a crank. 
• How there are new and exciting things that Jake discovers every day. Yesterday, it was his feet. I put him in his bouncy chair while I was taking a shower, hoping he would fall back asleep. Instead he stared at his feet while kicking them around. He also tried to bend down to grab his feet. It was a good thing he was strapped in or else he would have easily been on the floor. 
• When he cuddles up to me and/or Bryce when we hold him. 
• Our grey cat, Will, sleeps in the baby's room while he's napping. He'll curl up on the recliner, on a blanket next to the crib, or in the baby's bouncy chair. If the baby starts crying, Will comes to find me to make sure I know Jake's upset. 
• I LOVE nap times. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Jake when he's awake, it is one of my favorite things. But, when he takes a good nap (which is getting to be more and more often) and I can actually get things done (like the laundry or dishes) or waste some time catching up on my TV shows and pinning on Pinterest, it is the best. Being a mom has this way of making you feel completely inhuman and definitely not like your previous "pre-mom" self. Having this little bit of time to be human again and not just a mom makes me feel more normal and like myself again. 
• Weight Watchers. I love it. It is the only diet that I know of that is readily approved for nursing moms because its not really a "diet". It is more about eating well, which I should be doing anyway. But with WW, there is a points value associated with every food and depending on your height, gender, and the fact that I'm nursing, I'm given a certain amount of points to eat for the day and then a number of cheat points for the week. Just having points associated with food makes it encouraging to eat fruits, veggies, and lean meat and discourages against eating junk. I'm one week in and I've lost those last 5 stubborn pounds of pregnancy weight and 4.5" total from my various body measurements.
• I really love dressing Jake up. I am a girly girl. If I have a girl next time, you can guarantee she will have matching bows for every outfit and she will probably wear cute, frilly dresses every day. But, I had a boy first (which I have always wanted) which means that I have to dress him up in cute boy clothes. He wears plaid button downs, striped thermal onesies, jeans, matching shoes, and so on. There are such cute boy clothes out there and you better believe I love dressing my boy up every day. Some days he just wears pajamas all day, but if we go out you better believe he's dressed up. 
• Holidays. I am so excited for the holiday season. I got my Halloween decorations out the other day and can't wait for Thanksgiving and especially Christmas. Fall and the holiday season is my favorite time of the year and it will be even more exciting to experience it with a baby.