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.

1,000 Origami Cranes

There's an ancient Japanese legend that someone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will have one wish granted by a crane. The act of folding 1,000 cranes is called Senbazuru. I've always loved origami and have always wanted to do this. I have decided to make 1,000 paper cranes for my little baby baking in my oven. I'm putting all my hopes and love into each one and will hang it in the baby's room. I hope it's something they'll think is cool and hold on to.

When I was in high-school I just happened to buy a box of tiny origami paper. It was multicolored and seemed like a great deal. Later on I found a crane pattern on the bottom of the box. Now over a decade later I was able to put two and two together and realized that all those years ago I had purchased my own Senbazuru set of 1005 sheets of tiny origami paper. In my defense all the writing on the box is in Japanese so I really had no idea what I was working with.

Sadly I used quite a bit of it before I realized what it was for so I'll have to supplement from my regular origami paper collection and make some full sized cranes.

So far I have 36 tiny cranes (35 in pale pink, 1 medium pink). Ever wondered what 35 paper cranes look like? Wonder no more:

35 pink paper cranes = 3.5% DONE!

If I keep up this pace I could be done in a month. That's my goal.