What has Aftyn been up to?!

Recently, Aftyn has begun "feeling" her hair, and her ears. I thought it was cute when I caught her sleeping with her hands in her hair. I feel bad when she gets ahold of her ears - sometimes I find that she has scratched herself by grabbing them so hard.
Also, I thought only older kids put their hands down in their diapers when you change them. Not so! Aftyn has been doing it for at least 2-3 weeks.



Aftyn really likes her Daddy, but she's actually smiling at the light in the window behind him. Funny how much babies like light.

I would include a picture of myself with Aftyn, but at this point I spend a lot of my time in my pj's unless I have somewhere to go. I know, I need to remedy this situation and hopefully will shortly when she can start napping on her own and doesn't need to be comforted so much. Then I can try to make it a goal to get dressed everyday! :)

Just a little taste of how cute your new earrings are, Laura!

Just imagine how much cuter they will look on you!

A query for you . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqWo-GswzJY

I know I'm pathetic, cuz I'm just too lazy to figure out how to connect this to my blog so you could just click on it. But you should watch this video - it goes right along with my question and takes me back to when I was younger.

So, if people can talk in their sleep, can babies also cry in their sleep? Today while holding Aftyn and just getting her into what seemed a pretty hard sleep, she suddenly started crying in a way I hadn't heard before. She seemed surprised when I tried to comfort her, she opened her eyes sleepily like she didn't know what was going on.
Tell me what you think - do babies cry in their sleep?

Everything's better Wide

Guess What!?!? I have the most exciting news ever! WE FINALLY GOT A NEW COMPUTER! ! !

I am SO excited! Our internet is so dang fast, and now we can upload pictures and videos of Aftyn and our lives ON THE SAME DAY IT HAPPENS WITHOUT HAVING TO RUN TO WALMART AND PAY! ! !If you can't tell how excited I am, there may be something wrong with you. :) In fact, this is what Aftyn looked like 30 minutes ago.



And what does this have to do with being wide? Of course, our new computer came with a 19 inch widescreen monitor. Fun!

Are YOU Ready for the Digital Conversion?

You know you're good at procrastinating when after a year and a half of warnings, the digital conversion happens and you HAVEN'T gotten a digital converter box OR a newer tv. Or I guess I could just say that's what I meant to happen, because we're trying to cut down on the amount of television we watch. :) Right.

What else am I supposed to do at 2 am feedings or at 5 in the morning? I actually did break down and go buy a converter box, but after feeling disgusted because I didn't have the $40 discount from the government and I had to spend $50 for a box, I got lucky and happened upon a channel that was telling you what number to call to get your $40 coupon from the government. I called immediately when I saw this program, which happened to be on Wednesday. I was told my coupon would be mailed the 16th. The conversion happened on the 12th. Needless to say, we broke out all our movies to keep ourselves entertained until we can again restore television in our home. Sad, but we need tv! What would we do without The Office? :)

Now for your viewing pleasure, a moral question for you to ponder:
Yesterday, just as Reed and I were settling down to clean our bedroom while Aftyn was sleeping, someone rang our doorbell. I was the lucky one to answer. Upon opening the door, I was greeted by a teenage hispanic male. (The only reason the hispanic part even matters is so you can picture how he spoke. He had a bit of an accent.) This young man said to me
"Can I have a garbage bag?"
This seemed a puzzling question, since I wasn't sure why he was at our door, and/or why he should even need a garbage bag. I can't be sure my exact words, but I think I said something like
"What do you need a garbage bag for?"
He then proceeded to explain that he was mowing the lawn for MY neighbors, (that part seemed important to him), anyway, they had left and he had come to mow and they hadn't left any garbage bags for him. Which was why he was at MY door, because they were MY neighbors. :) In my head, this sounded like a personal problem, because I'm sure he was getting paid to mow, but I wasn't getting paid to give him garbage bags. So I generously offered him one medium sized garbage sack, which is the only size I have. Wasn't that generous of me?! I went and got the bag for this young man, and apologized at its size, to which he replied, "that's all right, that's okay" and then he took himself away from my front door. I guess I shouldn't have expected a thank you since one medium garbage sack isn't going to bag all his grass clippings. But still, it was more than he had to start with.

What would YOU have done? Would YOU have offered more than 1 garbage bag?

An update - Finally!

I could apologize for not updating for so long, but I feel like I've worn out my welcome with "I'm sorry" So, here's what I've been doing INSTEAD of blogging - I've been working on getting enough sleep, keeping my house relatively clean, learning all I can about Aftyn, and trying to get our dumb computer to keep working. Today, I got lucky enough that I had time AND the computer wanted to work, so YOU can get an update. :) I'm happy to finally get back into some blogging. I have missed having my creative juices flow.


A List of everything I have learned about Aftyn so far:

She doesn't like having her diaper changed, and always cries when you do it. :(

She also doesn't like baths, but I think its because the water might be too cold.
Just yesterday, we managed to have a bath where she only cried 2 short times! The
water was much warmer.

When going to sleep, she likes to be wrapped in soft blankets, and loves when the
blanket covers her face.

She is amazingly alert at least 2 times a day, for about 30 mins.

She is REALLY good at holding up her head when she is laying on your chest.

She generally only cries when she's hungry. She fusses a bit when she's tired,
but it's usually not a lot.

TMI - She is very tooty, as in she toots a lot. Sometimes when she poops and I'm
holding her, I'm afraid she's going to blow through the diaper onto my clothes,
because she does it with such force. Sorry, but its rather funny.

She doesn't like being naked, probably because she feels cold.

In other news, Reed and I are surviving new parenthood. Reed very happily watches over Aftyn whenever he has the opportunity, and he also voluntarily changes diapers even when he knows they're poopy. For the last 2 weeks, whenever Reed and Aftyn are in the room together, I most often hear Reed gushing about how cute Aftyn is. It is probably the most adorable thing ever. :)

I have been striving to get enough sleep - even if it means sleeping until 11 am. But I have learned that getting 8 hrs of sleep, when you add up 2 hrs and 3 hrs and 3 hrs is totally not the same as getting 8 SOLID hours of sleep. I have also been learning to be okay with that. I've also learned everything takes longer with a baby. For example, here's a typical day :
Clean my house - okay, only after I've fed the baby, (40 mins) gotten her to sleep (30 min.), put all the dirty diapers from her nighttime changings into the diaper receptacle, gathered her dirty laundry, started her wash in the washer, gotten myself through my own ablutions, wait a sec - its already time to feed her again?! Next time she sleeps, I get a little closer to finish cleaning one room. It's not easy taking care of 2 people, but it is very rewarding and I'm glad to make the sacrifice. Every time I lay Aftyn on my chest and she looks up at me with her beautiful eyes, and does her little head bob as she works at strengthening her neck, I have to laugh at how cute she is and I think how much more fulfilling my life is because of her.