The First Weeks of this Parenthood Thing

We celebrated Elliot's 2 week birthday today by taking him on his first walk!

Yes, he slept through the entire thing.

These past 2 weeks have flown by. Elliot is awake more now than he was the first few days, but he still sleeps almost all the time. When he's awake, he mostly just looks around with those big ol' eyes of his. When he does cry, it is usually only for a few seconds, then he acts like it tired him out, and he falls back asleep. It's quite adorable.

I thought that the hardest part about adjusting to motherhood would be the lack of sleep and dealing with a baby that never stops fussing. Neither of those things have been a real issue- Elliot will sleep for 2-4 hours at a time, so I get in the sleep I need. I haven't slept through the night since halfway through my pregnancy, so I'm pretty adjusted to waking up in the night. However, the physical recovery on my part was much more intense than I had thought. It took a week and a half before I could sit normally, and I still get sore and uncomfortable pretty easily. Aaron was incredible (per usual) at taking care of me. There were a couple of particularly rough days where I didn't leave the upstairs level of the house leaving Aaron to do all the hunting and gathering. He wins the 2014 Husband of the Year award if you ask me.

Christmas was a quiet affair with just me, Aaron, and our little 5 day old baby. The Hays gave us a cute Christmas onesie and we put a little bow on Elliot's head and did a little photoshoot with our little Christmas present. We had ham, green and red jello, surprise rolls, and stuffing for dinner.

Once again, he slept through the entire thing.

We also got to video chat with my brother Max who is serving a mission. He is as eccentric and enthusiastic as ever. He told us that he had gained a bunch of weight, so we made plenty of fat jokes.

Mom: Do you like the ties I sent you?

Max: No... We aren't allowed to wear skinny ties in this mission. 

Me: Are you sure they aren't regular ties that just look skinny because you're so fat?

I was particularly proud of that one.

The next day my mom came! She was SOOOO excited to meet him. They hit it off quickly and she hardly ever put him down. She left her mark in two major ways:

1. Aaron and I are now completely hooked on The Walking Dead.

What better way to welcome a child into the world than by watching countless zombies hacked to bits? But seriously. I don't know why I resisted watching this show for so long- it's AWESOME.

2. We are the beneficiaries of three famous Kim Johnson Projects. We asked her to help paint the baby's room and told her not to get any more decorations when she went to Target because we already had super cute things from my baby shower. Of course she ignored me and came back with 5 options for additional wall hangings. Mom, I love you, but you are over the top sometimes.

One of those panoramic shots

This "Alphabet Modge Podged onto cute squares" project happened sometime in the middle of the night while I was sleeping 

Squares from the baby shower (Thanks to all involved!) and a nifty shelf for diaper stuff

On top of the super cute nursery, she also painted and hung a quilt in our guest room and hung a ton of frames in our stairwell. She really is a wonder woman!

Melony was awesome enough to come over and take some newborn photos. She had super cute props and I'm really excited to see how they turn out! Elliot was awake and pretty cooperative, except for the part where he peed on her blanket. Sorry again, Melony!

The sneak preview

Elliot refuses to let his arms be swaddled. I like this picture because he had his hand next to his eye like this in the last ultrasound I had. This kid LOVES his hands!