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33 Weeks

Justace understands the word "no" and "stop" He does not like these words but he understands them. The other day Josh and I were sitting on the bed watching Justace crawl and play on the floor. He headed straight for the power cord full of wires and reached out to grab one. Josh very sternly said, "No, stop!" He immediately stopped what he was doing and stared from the wires back to Dad and back to the wires like but but but I want to play with them and then instead of going for them he just sat there and melted into a big puddle of tears at not getting his way. I laughed and laughed and laughed and couldn't believe he understood what Josh was telling him. Now every time I say the word no to him he gets very angry or begins to cry.

I'm glad Justace is getting more time alone with Dad now. Josh is really good at making him laugh and playing games with him while I'm better at the nurturing and comforting him when he doesn't feel good or is crying or upset about something. Between the two of us I think we make a pretty good team for Justace.

I have story time every night before bed with Justace. He doesn't really pay much attention anymore though. Now I put him on our bed with me and I give him a small toy but he is more interested in crawling around or trying to grab the book from me and eat it then he is in what I'm reading to him. I still plan on doing it nightly anyway even if he isn't really listening just because it's a good habit to get into and because in a few months I'm betting he gets more interested in the books I'm reading than in trying to eat the books.

Since I started working Josh has been a huge help at home now. He gets up at least half the time if not almost all the time if Justace wakes up at night to feed him and get him back to sleep again. He keeps the house clean and he cooks dinner every night. I'm very grateful for this because on my long work days I am able to just come home and relax and go to bed without worrying about dishes or dinner or anything at all.

32 Weeks

I'm not sure why but for some reason this blog isn't allowing me to post photos. I had some I wanted to post since I'm pretty far behind on that but I guess I can't yet again. Anyone wanting to see photos will just have to view them on my facebook page I guess until I get this figured out.

Justace sits pretty well on his own now and Josh said the other day he came in the bedroom when Justace was in his crib screaming and he was standing in the crib holding onto the bars, very upset. He eats small finger foods and parts of our dinner when we eat at night now. He has also figured out how to open drawers. He went to our desk and opened our bottom drawer all on his own the other day.

Still need money in order to do a lot of the things on my resolution list. Been doing pretty well at keeping the house clean though. This week was awful here. Temperatures below freezing and driving on icy roads. We had so many slide offs called in and I had to drive about 30 mph the whole way to and from work all week even though the speed limit on that road is 65. I got stuck at the grocery store because I couldn't get my car to go over the hill coming out onto the highway so that was frustrating and once temps got high enough for it to snow again I found drivng through snow in the dark on ice roads is awful! When we move out or get a different house we will have a fireplace! And I so want a jacuzzi tub too!

People love winter here because they go up North to Island Park and go skiing and sledding and snowmobiling. Some go ice fishing. All this sounds like fun and Lt. Quail took me up to Island Park and drove me around the area since we cover that area and it's gorgeous up there but I looked into it and you have to have thousands of dollars to do all this winter stuff people do. It's not cheap so for us poor folks here there's not a lot to do but stay in and read books or watch movies and avoid the below freezing temps outside.

We got a new bed frame for our bed and a dryer for our clothes. I've been having to go to the laundry mat and I hate doing that so it's really nice. Plus our bed frame has drawers on the bottom for storage which is very nice. We can put our clothes in them so we don't have to worry about taking up room in our tiny bedroom with a dresser. We put ours in there and Justace's in the closet so we now have more room in our bedroom for him to crawl around play.

Goals update Week 1

Week 1 did not go so well but the ultimate goal is to reach these goals and make them habits by the end of the year so I still have 51 weeks to turn them into habits. I'm having a hard time balancing work with all these things and also some of them require spending money which we do not currently have.

Josh and I have not really been off at the same time this whole week so there hasn't been an opportunity for us to spend any together time. However, he will be quitting this next week so we should be able to now. My first date idea for us to try is a tasting...haven't decided yet of what...but we will pick something either chocolate or wine or beer or ice cream or cheese or something and we will have a tasting of all the different kinds and find out what we like and don't like. Of course this will take money so it will have to wait until my next paycheck.

I have not been working out because I do not own any workout clothes. All I have are jeans and work clothes and PJs to wear so I need workout clothes or at least pants, and also $15 for the gym here in Ashton. So again waiting on that paycheck. However, I have been doing squats and pushups and situps at work when it gets slow.

I have not been journaling daily and honestly think I will only do most of these goals on my days off because working 12 hour days really doesn't leave a lot of free time for things other than eating and sleeping betweens shifts.

I can honestly say I have been praying a whole lot so I'm good on this particular goal. However, I do need to probably work on memorizing a verse a day or a verse a week as well.

I have not written and will need to start this up probably this next week when I get some days off and some free time. Also, I was going to scrapbook today but realized I am out of scrapbook paper to use so I will need to pick some of that up as well.

I don't really have too much of a problem taking a photo a day but it's more taking the time to post those photos online that I am slacking on. I need to try and get on at least once a week to upload all my photos instead of allowing them to sit on my camera.

Other than his bedtime routine and reading to him I haven't spent a lot of time really playing with Justace this week. I need to work on that. I get lazy and let him just play on his own and just read to him instead of playing with him.

I also have not been cooking or baking until today. I did make salmon tonight. It turned out too sweet because I ran out of dijon mustard for the sauce so it had too much honey compared to how much mustard it should have had with it.

I have done well this week I think at house cleaning. Our house was a pigsty and and in the past 2 days I managed to totally clean our bedroom and our closet and our living room. This leaves the kitchen and dining area for Josh to work on this week while I'm at work or sleeping. This week I will be pulling all night shifts so during the day I will be home but will be asleep as much as possible.

As far as beauty goes again I need money for this goal. I need to go buy all the basic stuff for me as far as face wash and hair stuff and things go. I have a beauty routine list written up but I need to go and buy the products I need for it.

I did send out 2 thank you cards this week so I am good there. I've really been keeping my eyes open for acts of kindness to do daily but I haven't really seen a whole lot of anything I can do. I didn't get to go to church yesterday because both me and Justace are uber sick and I didn't feel much like going and I didn't want to get anyone else sick.

31 Weeks

Justace can now sit on his own without supporting himself and often does when in his crib crying. I can't get him to lie down because he simply sits back up again. He responds to his name. He cries when he doesn't get his way and laughs when you are being silly or tickling him. I've given up on naps because he simply won't take them so I put him down in his crib for 2 hours every afternoon where he remains either sleeping or screaming but either way I leave him there. Although he is still eating mostly formula he only eats a bottle every 4 hours and I feed him cereal every morning for breakfast and fruit or veggies or a small portion of our meals at lunch and dinner. As long as its mushy he can eat some of whatever the adults are having and he loves that. I've also found its so much easier for me to get some time to cook dinner if I stick him in his baby walker and give him little yogurt bites to snack on. He's pretty content for 30 minutes or so there. His baths have been expanded to a full 30 minutes now. Only the first few minutes are actually spent washing him. The rest are spent watching while he splashes and plays and plays with his bath toys. He loves the water.

Resolutions

I hate New Years Resolutions. It's too much stress trying to keep them every single day and then giving up after I fail repeatedly. So I am just going to try and work on some things I hope to make different by the end of the year.

1. More date nights with Josh. At least once a month I want us to get a baby sitter and go out and do something together just the two of us, even if it's just dinner and a movie.

2. Work out of course although I haven't got this one totally down in the details yet. First, I need work out clothes since I don't have any. Then there's a gym here in Ashton and one in St. Anthony for Sheriff's Office employees only. I'm thinking either before or after work on my work days I will go to that gym and on days I have off I can go to the Ashton gym. I at least want to start running again and will probably need to lift weights a few times a week as well.

3. I want to journal more - hopefully every single evening before bed so I can keep a running tab on how my days are going this year and also have something to vent to about things without talking Josh's ear off, especially since a lot of the worst things at work I'm not allowed to discuss with anyone outside of work.

4. I also want to take a photo every day this year. There's a project called Project 365 that I want to be a part of. It's just that - to take a photo a day for 1 year.

5. I want to do 1 act of kindness a day if possible but at least 1 a week for sure. I need to do this and keep a gratitude journal this year to focus more on helping others and the things I'm thankful for in my life and stop being so negative.

6. As a part of the being more grateful resolution I also want to send out at least 1 thank you card to someone each week who has helped me in some way or who I am just grateful for being in my life.

7. I want to continue to keep up this blog although I will have less time for it now. I am going to make it a goal to write a minimum of one entry a week on here as well as updating photos once a week.

8. Now that Josh bought me a photo printer and photo paper for Christmas I have no excuse anymore to not work on my scrapbook so I resolve to create at least 1 scrapbook page each week until I am caught up on my baby scrapbook and after that at least 1 page each month.

9. I resolve to cook or bake one dish a week, either for church on Sunday if I'm not working or make something to bring to work and share with co-workers. I want to better my cooking so I will be in charge of making breakfast and dinner on my days off as well.

10. I don't have a problem with spending time with my son but with my job I don't want that time to fall by the wayside either this year so on work days I will for sure be in charge of putting him to bed at night at least which includes bath time and a story and cuddle and on my days off I will set aside at least 30 minutes a day to focus 100 percent on just playing with him and not on chores or my to do list or anything else but only playtime with my son. Of course if I have to work a night shift I will simply have to skip time with him but that shouldn't happen very often.

11. I resolve to keep the house clean. Right now it's a disaster area so it may take a while to get it cleaned but I will at a minimum every day do dishes, take out the trash and kitty litter, make our bed, clean our nightstand, clean the kitchen and bathroom counters and each day I will focus on one room of the house and spend at least 20 minutes cleaning and decluttering that room.

12. I have a problem with being way too tomboyish as far as my looks are concerned. Living here in the country that's not really a big deal because most girls here are very tomboyish and nobody really dresses girly or anything. However, I resolve to work on bettering myself in this area this year through makeup and hair and clothes. Not all at once because it would cost a lot of money but through out the year each week I will focus on adding one more thing to my beauty list and making myself more girly and pretty.