Sometimes at the end of a day I look back and think..."wow, I got nothing done!" This has been one of the hardest parts of becoming a mother. In reality, I got a lot done. I fed my child (around the clock!), bathed him, changed him, cared for him, entertained him, cleaned up after him, and the list can go on and on. But I no longer have the luxury of time for other things... "me things," which I suppose is all part of becoming a parent. So when I feel like nothing got done, I have to work really hard to remind myself that actually a lot got done.
That being said...it is no wonder my blog has taken a backseat. As my title to this post suggests, we have made it through the holiday season and moved to a new (temporary) assignment all with a new baby!
My first two months of motherhood looked like this--
Thanksgiving
Granmama was still in town for Thanksgiving. Thank God! Because not only would we, as new, sleep deprived parents, not have had a Thanksgiving dinner...we probably would not have even eaten that day. We also got another visit from Jed, Sarah and Zoey that weekend.
Doctor's Visits
Our little guy had some routine check ups, extra weight checks, another EKG, and visits to the lactation consultant and mama's doctor. Elliott's heart is just fine, praise the Lord! Feedings are going smoothly and he has gained plenty of weight. And mama is healing just fine from the surgery. We have been blessed with great health and good healthcare, and we definitely try to not take that for granted.
Meeting Pittman Family/Uncle Ob's Graduation
Congratulations, Uncle Ob on completing Basic Training and heading on to bigger and better things in the Army! Elliott is fortunate to have such awesome male role models. He got to meet his Grandma, Papa, Aunt Dixie, Uncle Ob, Amanda, Uncle Jer, Aunt Abby, and 6 cousins (who love "Baby Elli" very much) for the first time.
Newborn Pictures
I just had to share a few!
Uncle Robert & Aunt JoAnn's 60th Anniversary
We traveled to Tuscaloosa and met with a lot of family to celebrate Uncle Robert and Aunt JoAnn's 60th Wedding Anniversary! What an amazing milestone to celebrate with an amazing couple. It has been such a wonderful opportunity to get to know our family down south while living in Alabama!
Christmas
Even if I shared hundreds of pictures from Christmas, I would not be able to convey just how wonderful of a time we had. It was the best Christmas we have had! Elliott's first Christmas spent with his cousins....who were all much more excited for the Christmas festivities than he was...was a blast! He slept through all the spoiling Aunt Abby and Uncle Jer did, but Zack and I enjoyed the heck out of it for all 3 of us! It was a great last visit with the family we are so sad to be moving away from.
New Year's
Between Christmas and New Year's we had to pack everything we wanted to take to Albuquerque before the movers came. We also suffered from the flu! But...thankfully we had wonderful hosts for our last couple nights before the move. The Martis graciously had us over for New Year's. We enjoyed good company, great food, and fun games! Plus we got to take Elliott to the Gulf for the first time--it was freezing!
Reno
Elliott had a successful first plane ride! We got to spend a week and a half in Reno. Elliott met Uncle Bugs, Great Grama Marti, my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and some very special friends. Granmama hosted an open house for everyone to come and meet Elliott. We had the best time with some very important people in our lives.
Road Trip to Albuquerque
Uncle Bugs is very brave! He road tripped with Elliott and me all the way to Albuquerque. We stopped to see the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon along the way. Elliott was quite the sleepyhead. He was never awake in the car. I'm serious...17 hours on the road and that kid was maybe awake for a combined total of 30 minutes! Best Baby Award definitely goes to him! That is the only way we all survived and made such great time!
Albuquerque
We spent our first few days in Albuquerque with family in town! We got to explore our new home with Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Bugs. We checked out Old Town, the tramway, restaurants, the Botanical Garden/Aquarium, and just enjoyed visiting and playing games. Since we've been on our own we have seen friends, explored shopping and base, and done a lot of hiking!
We really miss our old house...
...it's hard living somewhere so temporarily. But we're making the most of our time in ABQ.
In all of this I learned to be flexible and so did Elliott. We have been blessed with a pretty easy, very happy, chunky little babe, and we love him more than anything in the world.
In the meantime, we have had less time to devote to these little girls. They both turned 2 this past week, and their horrible mama kind of forgot... So, please visit Hadley and Hazel's first birthday blogs and remember the times they had a good mama.
