Eating out and shopping

Dust and I have done a lot of eating out this past week. A lot of it had to do with his parents staying with us. We took his parents to Zarda's, Applebees, Sweet Tomatoes and Chipotle. Dust's mom cooked us a roast for Saturday supper. I felt like I should have been a better hostess and cooked more meals. But, I did just have a baby 4 weeks ago. And, they were here to help and see the baby.

Dust's parents left this afternoon. We decided to go shopping at Best Buy and Babies R Us. I used up a gift certificate. Dust didn't find what he wanted at Best Buy. He is going to order it online with his gift certificate. He wants an old X-box game that wasn't in the store. For supper we had Winstead's take out. The new orange cream shake is yummy!

help

I have a hard time asking people for help when I need it. I usually begin in denial that I actually need help. I always try to do things myself first. Then pride seeps in and I am unable to ask for help. I feel bad asking people for help. I hate to bother people.

As time goes on, I hope that somebody notices that I need help. If someone else sees the need and offers, I have no problem with accepting help. I am thinking back to when I was teaching Stars. I needed help and there were several people that noticed it. Many people would look into my class and say, "Golden, is there anyone helping you?" Sometimes my answer was, "Yes, they are chit-chatting down the hall." Anyway, I finally had to quit. I usually come to a breaking point with my need for help. I let it go too long, and become an emotional basketcase.

I really want to change. I am going to try to accept help. And accept that it is ok to ask for help. My help with the baby is arriving tonight. I know Grandma will be thrilled to hold NJ while I take a much needed nap. : )

over the weekend

NJ had his final weight check on Friday. I had to keep taking him to the doctor until he regained his birth weight. Last Monday he was 6 lb. 1 oz and Friday he was 6 lb. 4 oz. I am glad to be done with those doctor visits and glad that NJ is gaining weight.

Also on Friday we had a new front door installed. It looks a lot nicer than the wood door with the window we had. We also got a new storm door. The main door is stainless steel, white, with a silver doorknob. NJ slept through all the noise of putting the door in. He was fussy however when I had to pay the guy. A woman from church was over at the house and she held him for me. She had brought supper over for us and had come to sit with me for awhile.

Dust and I took NJ to Chipotle with us on Saturday for lunch. This was our first visit to a restaurant with the baby. We took the stroller in and pulled it up by our table. We also took NJ to Home Depot with us. On Sunday, NJ got to go to Target. We were down to one diaper left!

please pray for my daddy

I got a call from my Mom around 5 pm today. She said that my Dad had been vomiting all day and had pain in his lower left back. They had a doctor appt. at 3 pm and a urinalysis showed that he is passing a kidney stone. My Dad was given a shot for the pain and was sent to the emergency room. My Mom said that the emergency room was packed. She wanted me to start praying. She said that she was unable to use her cell phone while there and that she would call me back later when they knew more.

It is 8:20 pm right now and I haven't heard from my mother yet. I will call soon and leave a voicemail because I am sure she had to turn her cell off. My father has never been admitted to the hospital before and he is very rarely sick at all. This is very weird. My Dad has hardly ever taken a sick day at work. I wish I could be with my family right now.

giving your kids attention

Dust and I just watched the movie "WinterPassing". It was very melancholy. It was about a girl whose parents were both authors. They neglected her growing up because they were both doing their own thing. The girl was an actress who desparately wanted attention. She slept around looking for the love that her father never gave her. The story was about her coming to terms with all of that after her mother passed away.

The story got me thinking about how important it is to give your children attention. The girl in the story complained to her father about how he never attended any of the plays she was in. I thought about how my parents went to every concert or play that my brother and I were in. They were very supportive of everything that we were involved in.

I know also that there needs to be a balance between "making your kids your life" and having a life (job, hobby, etc.) of your own. I know some stay at home moms make their children their life and that can be both good and bad. What happens when the kids are grown? The key is finding that balance.

building muscles

Yesterday and today I had to journey out of the house with the baby by myself. I had practiced getting NJ in the car seat and loading the car seat in and out of the base. I didn't have any problems in that area though. The hard part was carrying the car seat from the car to the doctor's building. NJ had a doctor appointment yesterday and I had one today. The parking lot was packed and both times I had to park out farther than I have ever had to in the past. My doctor commented to me that I would be building muscles that I never knew that I could have with carting the baby around. I said that I really should be building my muscles anyway.

I didn't do much exercising while I was pregnant and I am supposed to be taking it easy right now. I have noticed that I have lost all muscle tone in my legs. My legs are basically skin and bones now that I am not swollen from pregnancy. I think my whole body is in lethargy. I want to slowly get my strength up again.

Regarding the car seat---I should have put it in the stroller. Duh! It didn't occur to me until I saw another lady with her car seat/stroller in the doctor office. It would have been hard to maneuver up the steps to the building though. I always seem to make things harder for myself. : )

learning as we go

Dust and I have had some sleepless nights this week with little NJ. The night of the 4th I got maybe 2 hours of combined sleep. Last night was a whole lot better though. I slept for a few hours after Dust got back from Homers. Then I took the next shift so Dust could go to sleep. If I can get at least 2 or 3 solid hours at a time, I can deal with things much better.

Here are some things that I realized this week:

• Our friends were right about not being able to complete a tv show or movie without being interrupted by cries, dirty diapers, you name it!
• I totally understand the family bed thing now. NJ slept with us in bed one night. I had made up my mind before he was born that we would not do that.
• Always get a burp cloth on before you start burping the baby. : )
• The vibrating baby bouncer is a good bowel stimulator for baby. (He had gone over 24 hours with no poopy diaper)
• There are some weird tv shows on at 3 am. Last night the science channel had a show about a hick town were people were turning into zombies.