I told myself I wouldn't 'miss' Christmas again this year. You know how life always seems to get so busy in December and you don't get to slow down and enjoy Christmas-y things until Christmas Eve? I thought this year would be different...Well, we got our tree up the day after Thanksgiving and downloaded Christmas movies into our Netflix queue, but our early celebrating ended there...haha. We got our lights up and had our 3rd annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party the second weekend of the month and I thought we were on pretty good pace, but then life hit! We were swamped with end of the semester papers and exams and on top of that, Nick and I both got the stomach bug - yuck! My visions of going to Christmas programs, driving around looking at lights, and casually Christmas shopping (because I would have TONS of time to get it all done) were thrown out the window. With that all being said, we still had a wonderful first Christmas with Carter and if we had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn't do anything different :)
We drove to Florida with a carful of gifts, baby supplies, suitcases, and a dog. Needless to say, it was pretty crammed! We left Ft. Worth around 5 am and pulled in to Tallahassee 16 hours later...Carter did really well traveling. He only fussed a few times but hey, I would too if I was strapped into my car seat all day without knowing why! It was SO great to see all of our family, but Carter had a really hard time adjusting to being in a new place. The poor guy did not sleep while we were there! I'm talking MAYBE 45 minutes cumulative of a nap each day (when he is used to 4-5 hours) and waking up 3 to 4 times each night (staying awake for an hour at a time!) Needless to say, all of this made little bit FUSSY, nick and me exhausted, and I felt like I spent most of my trip in a back room trying to get Carter to calm down. Therefore, we weren't able to visit as much as we would have liked and really didn't get a chance to see anyone outside of family...sorry! We decided to drive through the night coming back and were able to shave 3 hours off our drive time! And wouldn't you know it, as soon as we were back in town, Carter was napping like a champ during the day and only waking up 1-2 times at night...
While we were in town we were able to celebrate Nick's sister's birthday, Nick's mom's birthday, visit Santa, spend Christmas Eve morning with my parents (we treat it like Christmas morning with stockings, pancakes, and presents), Christmas Eve night at my grandparents, Christmas morning in church at FBC Tally, and the day after Christmas with Nick's family (Nick's mom got the stomach bug Christmas Eve - poor thing - so we treated the day after Christmas like Christmas morning with them...). Our friend, Lea Marshall, took some awesome pictures of Carter one day and we were able to venture out to play disc golf one afternoon with Ian and Caleb Pitts. It was a good trip, but definitely not a relaxing one (I guess traveling with kids never is...) so it was good to have some time off from school after we got back in Texas.
We celebrated our 'Sroka Christmas' Monday, January 2. Nick had the day off from work so we stayed in our pj's all morning opening stockings and gifts. I said we should do Carter's things first so he could take his nap while Nick and I exchanged gifts, but Nick said I had to open one of mine first...he got me a tripod so we could videotape all of Carter's first Christmas morning!!! He's so thoughtful :) We had such a great morning as a family of 3 (well, 4 including Sidney) and I am so thankful for the life God has blessed me with.
Here's what was going on with Carter this month:
-at his 6 month check-up he weighed 18lb12oz and was 27 1/4 inches tall (and his head was off the charts at 44cm in circumference!)
-he started eating baby food fruits (pears seem to be his favorite)
-he is sitting up!!! he's still a little wobbly but can sit up on his own...
-he is standing holding onto our hands. his little (well, not so little, haha) legs are getting really strong!
-he is starting to look a little bit like me and not completely like nick
-we absolutely LOVE this age! he is still small enough that he's a baby but big enough that he is really starting to interact and engage. his laughs are contagious and his personality is really shining through :)
We drove to Florida with a carful of gifts, baby supplies, suitcases, and a dog. Needless to say, it was pretty crammed! We left Ft. Worth around 5 am and pulled in to Tallahassee 16 hours later...Carter did really well traveling. He only fussed a few times but hey, I would too if I was strapped into my car seat all day without knowing why! It was SO great to see all of our family, but Carter had a really hard time adjusting to being in a new place. The poor guy did not sleep while we were there! I'm talking MAYBE 45 minutes cumulative of a nap each day (when he is used to 4-5 hours) and waking up 3 to 4 times each night (staying awake for an hour at a time!) Needless to say, all of this made little bit FUSSY, nick and me exhausted, and I felt like I spent most of my trip in a back room trying to get Carter to calm down. Therefore, we weren't able to visit as much as we would have liked and really didn't get a chance to see anyone outside of family...sorry! We decided to drive through the night coming back and were able to shave 3 hours off our drive time! And wouldn't you know it, as soon as we were back in town, Carter was napping like a champ during the day and only waking up 1-2 times at night...
While we were in town we were able to celebrate Nick's sister's birthday, Nick's mom's birthday, visit Santa, spend Christmas Eve morning with my parents (we treat it like Christmas morning with stockings, pancakes, and presents), Christmas Eve night at my grandparents, Christmas morning in church at FBC Tally, and the day after Christmas with Nick's family (Nick's mom got the stomach bug Christmas Eve - poor thing - so we treated the day after Christmas like Christmas morning with them...). Our friend, Lea Marshall, took some awesome pictures of Carter one day and we were able to venture out to play disc golf one afternoon with Ian and Caleb Pitts. It was a good trip, but definitely not a relaxing one (I guess traveling with kids never is...) so it was good to have some time off from school after we got back in Texas.
We celebrated our 'Sroka Christmas' Monday, January 2. Nick had the day off from work so we stayed in our pj's all morning opening stockings and gifts. I said we should do Carter's things first so he could take his nap while Nick and I exchanged gifts, but Nick said I had to open one of mine first...he got me a tripod so we could videotape all of Carter's first Christmas morning!!! He's so thoughtful :) We had such a great morning as a family of 3 (well, 4 including Sidney) and I am so thankful for the life God has blessed me with.
Here's what was going on with Carter this month:
-at his 6 month check-up he weighed 18lb12oz and was 27 1/4 inches tall (and his head was off the charts at 44cm in circumference!)
-he started eating baby food fruits (pears seem to be his favorite)
-he is sitting up!!! he's still a little wobbly but can sit up on his own...
-he is standing holding onto our hands. his little (well, not so little, haha) legs are getting really strong!
-he is starting to look a little bit like me and not completely like nick
-we absolutely LOVE this age! he is still small enough that he's a baby but big enough that he is really starting to interact and engage. his laughs are contagious and his personality is really shining through :)
oh, and if you remember, in October I posted a weight loss goal of '15 by Christmas'....I made it! I actually had lost 16 pounds by the time Christmas rolled around and have lost another 2 since then - wahoo! I think I'll set a new goal of 5 more, but for now, I am enjoying where I am :)
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