Leo Wants More Milk!

Apparently, Leo was not getting enough milk from Mom so he had to take matters into his own hands, literally.

The Nursery

I have never posted pictures of Leo's Nursery... I have been waiting for the final decoration. My dear friend Marcie told me she was making a cross stitch for Leo and we just got it. It is amazing and she is amazing. I is pictured below... so talented and that wall was just waiting for it. Thank you Marcie.

I wish I were crafty and domestic enough to make the bedding and all the crafts, but we did the best we could and we like it so I guess that is all that matters.

Pounds

Leo's initials are Lbs so my brother-in-law came up with the nickname Pounds. From what everyone was telling us, I thought he was really putting on the pounds. People kept telling us how chubby he was. Well we went to Leo's 4 month appointment and apparently he isn't so chubby... he is just short and has chubby cheeks that I love. At his four month appointment he weighed 13.6 lbs which is in the 25th percentile and he was 24 in long which is in the 10-20th percentile. So it looks like Leo got his mom's height genes and everything else from his dad. Everyone says he is looking more and more like Allen. He loves sucking his fingers, our fingers, and anything else he can put in his mouth. Although the charts say he is small, to us he is getting so big. It is so fun to watch him discover the world.

An Oregon Fan at Auburn

My dear friend Marcie came for a visit a couple of weekends ago. Marcie lives in Oregon and her son is an Avid Oregon fan and she is a pretty big fan too. Needless to say there was plenty of trash talk that went on before the National Championship game. Well, we know that outcome of the game :)

Jimmer's Last Stand

We love BYU! We love BYU so so much! We also love Jimmer Fredette. We love BYU Basketball. Before we left BYU we wanted to get the Sabey Baby some Cougar paraphernalia but we didn't know Sabey Baby would be a boy so we needed to get something a little gender neutral. Here is Leo sporting his BYU hat.

This is right before the BYU - Gonzaga game. Leo had to get some extra sleep so he could watch the game. What a great game.

So right after BYU won the game and was officially in the sweet 16 I sent a message to my sister that said, "Meet me in New Oreleans, New Orleans, Meet me on Thursday!" The message was kind of a joke, but Wedenesday before the game my Brother-in-law called and said, "what if we really did go... would you want to go?" YES! So Wednesday night about 6:00 we decided to go. Unfortunately, Thursday is Allen's clinic night so he couldn't come. So Thursday morning I met my sister and and brother and their kiddos in Montgomery and we were off to New Orleans. This is a picture at half time... we are still smiling because we still have hope...

Leo's first BYU game. He never likes to smile for the camera... I don't know why.

This is us right before over time... we are both a little bit stressed and anxious. Actually Leo was asleep and all the cheering woke him up :)

Even though the game didn't turn out the way we wanted, we had a fabulous time with the Phillips Phamily. Thanks for taking Leo and I to New Orleans.

Leo loves to Pray

Leo is already setting a good example for his parents. He prays all night. This is his new favorite sleeping pose. it is pretty darn cute.

Enjoy the Moment

Allen and I have a play list of music that we call Sunday Smoothies. I have found that I enjoy listening to them a lot more than just on Sundays. I like quiet times listening to my Sunday Smoothies and thinking. This week I thought to myself, "motherhood doesn't come as naturally to me as I thought it would." I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I had no idea I would stress so much. Someone last week told me that they don't want to be the mother of a teenager. I thought to myself, "I think I will be better at being a mother of a teenager than a baby." Hence I chose the career of being a junior high teacher. It may not come naturally to me, and I sure do stress a lot, but I really love it. Everything is new and I don't know what is normal and I get all worked up worrying that I am going to do something wrong, but there are days like today when Leo and I just play and play and smile and giggle and I feel grateful for this learning process.

A friend wrote this to me and it meant the world to me... "My best advice is, Heavenly Father gave His child to YOU. He has given YOU the prerogative to take care of His, and your, child. No matter what the books say, you know best. Ask Him and He will help you. And if you can't get your baby to do what you want He'll give you the patience to deal with it." I feel grateful that Heavenly Father gave this little one to me. This week I received a children's book from a friend called, "Love you Forever" by Robert Munsch.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Forever-Robert-Munsch/dp/0920668372

I have read to Leo a few times and every time I do I cry. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. As I read it I felt grateful for my little one. Yes it is hard, but he is my little baby and I love him so much. I also felt grateful for my mom who I will love forever!

This week a friend who desires something so righteous wrote to me. I just wanted to share a part of what I wrote...

"For me, being a mom is really hard. And I know it doesn't seem fair for me to say that since that is what you want more than anything. And it is what I want, but no one ever told me how hard it would be. It is so great and amazing, but so hard. It is hard to find the balance between husband and baby and try to find any time for myself. Leo is not a very good sleeper and I feel likeI spend most of my time trying to get him to sleep or sleep through sleep cycles and the sleep deprivation is wearing on me. But that being said, I love being a mom. I love special moments that I share with Leo. I love seeing how much he is growing. Allen and I were talking about infertility the other day I told him it was the hardest thing I have had to go through but I am really grateful for it too. I feel like I appreciate Leo more than I would have. And I feel like Allen and I had a lot of time to learn and grow together that we wouldn't have had if i got pregnant right away. I guess the point of me writing this is we have to enjoy the moment. Yes I wanted to have a baby and it hurt that I couldn't have one, but I got to spend a lot of time with Allen. And now I wish Leo slept better, but because of it I get to spend a lot of special time with him. I wish I got more sleep at night, but I get to have quiet time with him. So wish what you will, but enjoy what you are doing."

So I guess the theme of this post is Enjoy the moment... even when it is hard... This is my goal...

Leo Burnett... The Company

Leo's middle name is my maiden name. My middle name is my mom's maiden name. It is just a little family tradition. Shortly after we named him, someone asked us if we named him after the company? What company? Well apparently there is a huge advertising company named "Leo Burnett." They apparently advertise for McDonalds, Visa, Kellogs, Allstate, Hallmark, and about 50 other well known companies. Check out their website here. About a month after Leo was born, we found out my cousin Doug Burnett was going to be working for Leo Burnett. He is working for the company... Not our son. Well Allen decided to email Leo Burnett and inform them about the new Leo Burnett just in case they wanted to use Leo in some form of advertisement. I thought it was funny that Allen would even try. I figured they don't care about college students naming their child. But to my surprise they emailed back. They said they were delighted to hear that we named our son Leo Burnett and although he won't be needed in any advertisements, they would be happy to send him something. So today Leo Burnett got his gift from Leo Burnett. Leo sent a book called 100 Leo's (quotes from the founder). And our little Leo is becoming more and more like a business man. He wants to be a found of a company too. He wore his first real big boy outfit to church on Sunday.

He was pretty happy about it too!

Thank you!

I just wanted to thank everyone for your kind comments. We weren't looking for sympathy or advice... we were just trying to be real. Before Allen posted, I seriously thought that I was the only women that had a baby that didn't want to sleep. I thought I was the only woman that found being a mom challenging. I know how silly that sounds, but I really thought that. A few days back I was reading this talk by Elder Holland on The Ministry of Angels. In the talk he spoke about mortal and Heavenly Angels. Although we weren't looking for advice, I just wanted to thank you for your comments. Each and everyone of you was a mortal angel to me. Your kind words lifted my spirits and gave me strength. There are some tough days... but there are so many more wonderful special days and moments that comes with being parents. We are just trying to figure out how it all goes. We have an amazing family and amazing friends! Thank you for showing us so much love.

Leo may not sleep through the night, but he sure can giggle. Leo truly is so glad when Daddy comes home! Last night was the first time he was really giggling. I love that in the video you can hear the whole family giggling together. I also love at the very end Allen says it is time to go to bed and Leo laughed. Is he laughing because he is laughing in our face... "yeah right I am going to go to bed!" or is he truly excited to go to bed :)

Life is tough.

I’m going to stick it to the façade.

Lately, and since Leo was born, Cameo has read several books on helping babies to sleep. This has helped somewhat, but I think it has done more harm than good. She has also commented on the superficial and optimistic nature of many people’s blog posts and Facebook profiles asking, “Are people’s lives really all nice and good and easy like they so often portray?” All of this has caused her to have often unrealistic expectations about Leo and being a full-time mom. It has been tough. Leo hasn’t learned to fall asleep on his own, wakes up twice during the night, and rarely takes naps longer than 45 minutes. Cameo also worries about me and taking care of me while trying to figure out and take care of Leo (which she does so well and I am often less grateful than I should be for her efforts).

For me, being in graduate school hasn’t been easy. Okay, graduate school itself hasn’t been incredibly hard, but it has been demanding (I am really enjoying it actually). The overall challenge is, however, balancing my life. Follow me here: At school, I hear all sorts of people saying things like “You need to make sacrifices in order to get the job you want in the future.” I could probably spend at least 12 hours at school every day (some days I actually do) in order to “get ahead” so that I can be competitive for jobs in the future. This requires me to spend less time at home and with my “Eos” (Cameo and Leo). However, my overall purpose in going to school is so that I can take care of my Eos. How does that work? I neglect Cameo and Leo in order to provide for them? And I’m even studying marriage and family! What am I then really providing for them? Should I spend more time at home to strengthen my relationships with my Eos now and consequently not do as well in school and risk not getting the ideal job in the future (which might make it so that I have to be away at home more than desired)? This is the dilemma that I have been feeling lately and it’s only weighing heavier as time goes on.

There have been times when both of us have felt neglected due to the demands on us.

I’m not writing this in order to get any sympathy or so that anyone feels bad for us but just to stick it to the façade and say that life is truly, really hard sometimes and that we make plenty of mistakes every day. Take that pretentious Facebook, sleep books, and all you too happy bloggers!

That being said, life is still sweet and we have both been drawn closer together as we look for the best ways of learning and growing and handling each situation and demand and challenge. Honestly, I can’t think of anyone that I would rather experience life with than Cameo. The Lord is still so good to me.

I love this BOY

Missing Daddy

Leo and I sent this to Allen the other day.

Christmas!