The baby wait.

I haven't blogged in over two years. Having a two and a half year old and being perpetually exhausted has been hard on me. 

My house isn't clean, projects seldom get completed, and I honestly don't remember the last time I made a full home cooked meal. Despite all of this we are blissfully happy. 

We are currently awaiting the arrival of our next son and the wait is starting to get to me. I was due the 23rd with an original due date of the 25th. I know I'm barely overdue but patience has never been my virtue. 

So I do my best to enjoy these last few days where I'm a mother of one. I know these days with him as my only are almost over and there's a sadness in knowing I'll have to divide myself between the two soon. 

And so we wait. 

I had a baby and fell off the face of the Earth.

It's been awhile since I've written anything. I'll be honest, I didn't have my life together before I had a baby and now it's even less together, but I have a cute kid to show for it. Being a mom has changed me and yet I'm still the person I was before. I just don't get to devote as much time to myself or my thoughts.

Currently, Desmond is napping in his swing that's he's almost outgrown. He's 6 months now and the last time I posted was in June, so allow me to photodump the last 10 months of my life.

I went into labor on October 4th at 4:30pm, handled it like a champ. Got to pushing and couldn't push my massive 9lb baby out my tiny hoo-ha. After a failed home birth (I still hate saying that.) we drove to the hospital where I was given an epidural to help me rest and then a few hours later Desmond was pulled out of me using forceps.  I was given the option of forceps or emergency C-section and at the time I thought forceps was a better idea. It still took me 6+ weeks to heal so I'm not sure what would have been the best choice.

But I got my baby, and he's awesome sauce. Here are (a crap ton of) photos from his first 6 months.

Month 1

Daddy picking up Desmond for the first time to bring him to me

Meeting baby for the first time

Holy crap! I'm a mom!

Tired little family

Daddy's hand

Leaving the hospital

First time in the swing

Napping on Mommy

Napping on Daddy

I love napping!

Month 2

Baby videos with Daddy

Playing PS3 with Mommy

Family nap time

Opa, and cousin Jaxsen hanging with Des

4 Generations

Getting bigger!

Month 3

Christmas Elf

4 Generations of Hooper Men

All the Hooper Men together

Des and Grandpa Hooper

Des and Grandma Hooper

More naps with Papa and the beginning of his beard

Month 4

Snoozing with Opa

Super Hero Baby. At some point in time he lost all his long baby hair.

Month 5

Meeting Abuelo Wally for the first time

My dad, Desmond and I

Updated family photo

Month 6

With Grandma in the Gnome Sweater I made him

Snoozing on Grandma

Confused with Grandpa

With Grandpa and Grandma Hooper

Hold a baby and taking a picture is hard!

Papa reading Green Eggs and Ham

Impromptu Easter Photos

Fin.

Our Babymoon

Collin and I decided to take a weekend trip and have a 'Babymoon'. It's a little something to help you celebrate each other and have a romantic moment before the baby is born. We went up to Spokane and ate some amazing food and stayed at The Davenport Hotel which is where we were married. We love it there so much!

On Saturday night we went to Shogun and had yummy hibachi steaks. The whole table was really social and we all got to know each other a little bit which was really nice. There was even another pregnant couple there due a few weeks before us. Sadly, the food and entertainment were so good we didn't take the time to take pictures. Oops!

My parents had a giftcard for The Davenport (which isn't really their 'thing') so they were awesome enough to give it to us to use. Collin was able to get us a beautiful room that included a $75 credit to be used at the hotel, which was beyond perfect because we had planned to have their Champagne Sunday Brunch the next morning.

When we checked into our room I was greeted by a lovely bouquet of flowers that Collin had waiting for me. It was smelled wonderful and was so sweet!

The room was beautiful and had three windows which gave us a great view of Downtown Spokane. 

We woke wonderfully refreshed on Sunday (even though I had not one but two charlie horses in the middle of the night) and got ready to go to brunch. I managed to take a 23 week belly picture before we went down, but I didn't take any pictures at brunch. I was too busy eating all the delicious foods!

We sat for two hours and ate until we couldn't eat anymore. I think Collin had 7 mimosas. It was a celebration so why not? They were free and he has always has a designated driver. I even celebrated a bit and had a mimosa of my own. My midwife gave me permission and it was wonderful. Our waiter was awesome and had a great sense of humor. He even gave Collin a mimosa to take back up to the room with us. Collin felt like a true baller. LOL

Since we were married at The Davenport on a Sunday and served brunch at our reception, going to their brunch is like having our wedding meal all over again! We love that we'll be able to take our son there when he's older and let him eat all the yummy things that were at Mommy and Daddy's wedding.

I made sure to take some pictures of the hotel's beautiful flower arrangement they had in the lobby before we checked out.

I seriously love it there and can't wait to go back again! Lucky for us my parents live in Cd'A and I'm sure that once Desmond is born they'll be happy to take him for a night so we can enjoy a romantic evening together. It couldn't have been a better weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend

So I've been really lazy about blogging lately. I wish I could say it's because I've been SUPER busy getting things ready for the baby and having lots of adventures but mostly I've been napping on the couch. So here's a photodump blog for you viewing pleasure of our Memorial Day Weekend.


Collin and I took a trip to Seattle to visit his mother's side of the family. Since his Mom passed we haven't visited them nearly as much as we should so we took the long Memorial weekend to rectify that. 

Our first day there, Saturday was absolutely gorgeous for Seattle. Pretty gorgeous for anywhere really, mid-80s and sunny. I started the morning taking pictures in Collin's Uncle Clay's garden.

Then we drove north to Mount Vernon to visit Collin's grandmother and then to Whidbey Island/Deception Pass to go on a hike and visit his mother's resting place.

Her couch was so deep I was having trouble sitting in it for the picture. Being pregnant makes for some awkward photos :-)

The next day we were absolutely exhausted from the day before and decided to keep it simple. We walked to get some coffee and found this awesome blue flowering tree. I'd never seen anything like it. There were millions of tiny blue flowers and bees everywhere. I love listening to the hum of bees in flowering trees/fields. Reminds me of working with canola in college. 

After some quick discussion we decided to take the day and drive down to Tacoma to visit Collin's grandfather too while we were in the area.

Collin's grandfather, Wayne, is one cool man. He's a WWII vet who loves music, computers and cameras. We always have so much fun when we visit him. There's always so much to talk about. Collin took the opportunity to take some pictures of his Grandpa's old cameras.

And I took the time to take some pictures of his Grandpa's flowers.

And I made sure to play piano for Grandpa Hooper. If I don't automatically do it he always makes sure to ask and I'm happy to please. 

We ended the trip with a family photo and a trip to get Chinese food with Collin's sister Marney. I didn't take any pictures though.

Grandpa, Grandson and Great-grandson (in utero) pretty sure I'm 23weeks pregnant in this picture.

It was a lovely trip and we were happy we were able to get over there to visit while I was still pregnant. Can't wait to visit again soon.