What?! We can have a life?

Last night we went to the Herndon Festival! Caelan got to meet his two new friends Lorenzo and Luke. (Well- he's met Luke before, but didn't remember it.) We enjoyed a fun evening with friends and music and, I must say, it was incredibly nice to get out and "do something".

Mommies feeding babies

Lorenzo and Luke

Daddies chillin'

Napping Rocks our World

As most people know, this whole "baby thing" has been tough on Matt and I. I'm not going to pretend that having a newborn isn't tough on all new parents, but IT IS REALLY HARD on us. I'm not sure if Matt and I were just completely unprepared for this or if our little Caelan is a difficult little man. Either way, this has been more difficult than going to graduate school full time while working AND planning a wedding!

With that said, today I've gained a little perspective. This morning I decided to be a little selfish. Caelan and I went to "Mommy Bootcamp", which is an hour long workout with other moms. I have never felt so out of shape in my entire life. The class kicked my butt! Here's my perspective: Caelan slept almost the entire time. For those of you who are closest to Matt and I, you know what a HUGE feat that is! FINALLY- Caelan is learning to nap. The best part is that he fell asleep on his own (without jiggling or shhhhing from me)! I can't tell you how this little change has helped so much. Yes, yes - his smiling at us has helped. His finding his fingers so he could self-soothe has helped. His general ability to feel more comfortable on this Earth has helped. Nothing, though, is quite as significant as the fact that he is less sleep-deprived because he has started to learn to nap.

Remind me of this post when I start complaining that I can't leave our house because the baby is napping... :)

Tummy Time

One of Caelan's favorite activities, tummy time. He hates it. But it has to be done. This was taken while Laura was having a well deserved, overdue "day off".

Grandpa Friday

Every other Friday Grandpa Nickels comes to visit. Today was Grandpa Friday. We went for a long walk and Caelan fell asleep! This is a great feat since he has a really hard time napping throughout the day. Currently, my days are tediously spent trying to get Caelan to nap. Some have said that maybe he's a short napper...good theory...that, however, is not the case since he gets really pissy when he doesn't sleep!

Anyway - Caelan and I really enjoy when Grandpa comes to visit because I, especially, tend to get cabin fever throughout the day. Caelan enjoys talking to grandpa about all things like: his feet, the weather, our walks, and how mommy and daddy are making him sleep in his crib now. We certainly look forward to Grandpa Fridays!

After a looooong night, he's finally happy! It's a little long (3:00)...

It gets better?

This picture was one of the last pictures ever taken with our camera. We were on the way to the Ashburn 10K, when we asked someone to take our picture. He was nice enough to take the picture, and then dropped the camera while handing it back. And now it's broken.

After opening it up, taking it apart, and putting it back together again, I delivered the bad news to it's family. It's in a better place now. One free of people who'll be so careless with it. So now we have a new camera.

In other "great" news, Laura took Caelan to the doctor and he wasnt gaining weight as fast as they expected him to. So now it's back to supplementing with formula....again. The doctor even lovingly told Laura she may want to give up breastfeeding, because the pressure and stress was taking such a toll on her.

And on top of THAT, my company terminated our health insurance for no reason, Madison is losing fur on her chin (we think it's just feline acne), and Caelan still demands to be held when sleeping instead of using his not-so-inexpensive crib.

Everyone says it gets better. So that's this week's mantra. Like last week. And the week before that. And last month. But, I guess, looking back, it's MUCH better than the first few weeks. So I guess "getting better" really means "it improves, but then you have other stuff that starts to come up and you have to deal with that."