Living with the Bakers: December 2014

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Meeting Santa for the First Time

Easton and I met Blaine downtown at Bass Pro Shop one day last week after Blaine's school to take his first picture with Santa. It was a pretty sweet deal because it was all free and there was hardly anyone there at the time we went.

HAHAHA Look at Easton's eyes. I HATE fish. They creep me out. Looks like I passed that on

Speaking of Christmas,

I've been reading tutorials online and practicing using my camera and learning all it can do.

I'm still trying to figure it all out, but here are some rough trial runs that Easton's put up with.

I messed with the functions because I wanted the bokeh effect with the Christmas lights, but then I couldn't really get it to focus on my subject. But hey, I'm working on it and thats what matters!!!

And now for our "awkward family photo" of 2014:

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Easton: 5 Months

I can't even believe my baby boy is already 5 months. Looking back on his pictures from just a month ago, he's already changed so much. On the 12th (his actual 5th month birthDAY), Blaine and I went on our first post-baby date and left him with our friend. It was hard to not be with my little constant companion, but I'm glad we did it.

Here are some new things we've noticed about him over the past couple of weeks.

He has found his feet! Whenever I change his diaper or whenever he lays in his swing, he'll hold onto his little feet and it's so cute.

His hands, though, are ALWAYS in his mouth. ALWAYS one, sometimes both simultaneously. I absolutely cringe when people touch or kiss his hands. Somehow, I worry less when Jake does it. And his hands automatically hold onto his ears as a relaxing, comforting position before he sleeps or while he eats.

He tries to grab everything! At Thanksgiving dinner, he tried to grab my food and burned his hand a little bit (not seriously, just hotter than he's probably felt before and it caught him off guard). If it's near him, it's going in his mouth. He doesn't really hold on to toys too well (or at least too consistently), but he definitely reaches for them--especially the ones that make noise and hang above him.

He still rolls to his left to sleep and lays on his tummy (or face) but I don't have to wake up and roll him back over anymore. No, he hasn't decided to roll tummy to back again, he just wants to stay on his tummy all night.

He's also using his voice much more. He's always been a talker, but he's recently discovered his ability to shriek at high pitches (probably to communicate with Jake). He also forces out bursts of yelling to send you a message--like "pick me up" or "you know I don't want to be in my carseat after dark."

He wants to sit up so bad, but he's just not quite there yet. There's a lot of weight to support.

He is still very good and easy to put down for naps on his own, but night time is usually a little different. His bedtime varies, and more often than not, we cuddle while I feed him and he falls asleep in our bed--everyone loves their parents' bed. My siblings and I still prefer to go lay in my mom and dad's bed when we can. (Blaine and I actually HATE our bed these days, but thats another story)

And just yesterday he made the switch to forward facing in the stroller. The past few days he's been fussy when we go on our walks with him laying down in his carseat locked into the stroller facing me. So I've been (safely) turning him around so he's using the carseat upside down and looking out and he's liked that so much more. So I finally took out the carseat and strapped him in to the actual stroller like a big boy. Jake is increasingly aware of him on walks now that they are on eye level and look at each other as we walk. Jake has also displayed more protective behavior around Easton, which I love.

He is such a happy boy and we love him so much. He FaceTime's his extended family a lot, so it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference when he goes to visit them over the holidays.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Where's Blaine Been? (Thanksgiving, Birthday, Boards, etc.)

Do you remember Blaine? It's been a while since he's made an appearance on the blog. It's been a little while since he's made an appearance anywhere besides school, really. This semester has been winding down with tests and projects due, and finals start today.

Some days, Blaine has left before Easton woke up and has come home after Easton has gone to sleep. So sometimes Blaine will get him out of bed and just hold him while he watches TV and relaxes.
Jake runs to the door and then jumps on the couch as soon as he hears Blaine unlock the door or the truck pull up. And Easton smiles as soon as he sees him. One time I was feeding him and he was falling asleep, but as soon as he heard Blaine's voice talking to Jakey, he woke right up.

Last week, he didn't have any food one of the nights that he was working late on a project in the lab, so Easton and I made the 15-20 minute drive after dark to visit him and bring him a homemade chicken salad sandwich. (We rarely go anywhere at night since Easton doesn't like his carseat once the sun goes down.) The doors to the school lock after a certain time and we couldn't get a hold of Blaine, so we hung out in the car for a little while and eventually returned home with our food. And of course, as soon as we got home Blaine called and said, "I just saw my phone! Are you still here?!" Poor guy...

Besides his regular school stuff, he also had to study for Part 1 of the National Board Exam. He studied all day everyday during Thanksgiving Break and then took the 8 hour test on Black Friday.

PLUS-His birthday was the day before that, on Thanksgiving...

As you can probably imagine, it's been rough being Blaine lately.

This was the first Thanksgiving in our 6 years together that we weren't in Montana. Fortunately, a nice family in the ward invited us and a bunch of other "Oklahoma transplants" over for Thanksgiving at their house. I made my mom's DELICIOUS sweet potatoes, which sound like a vegetable but are really more of a dessert.

There was a TON of food. Someone made this cute little turkey appetizer that was so cute.

Easton fell asleep at the table--and not even because of the turkey. Although I did have to stress to Blaine that the cream on top of the pies was NOT practically the same as breast milk.

So Easton ate both hands, instead of the usual one, for Thanksgiving.

E watched all the other little kids playing with toys and just watched, wishing he could join in.

He did attempt to play with a fire truck though.

Any Floridians should recognize these Pilgrim salt shakers from Publix 's Thanksgiving commericials. My mama sent me them this year as a reminder of home... plus, I used to make her draw me pictures of pilgrims when I was younger.

(For real, though. I've always been the same--love fall, pioneers, etc.)

So did we do ANYTHING for Blaine's birthday, you ask?

Well we put a waterfall of streamers outside the bedroom door so he would have a proper birthday entrance when he woke up Thanksgiving/Birthday morning.

We made sure he came home to some birthday balloons when he got home from taking the boards... which Jake was probably more excited about than he was.

And we went out to dinner that night.

But wait, did he get any presents, you ask?

Why yes, yes he did.

First of all, his wife and son and puppy surprised him with a fabulous new hunting bow (for FREE, thanks to rewards credit cards)!!! I made sure to get the best one, so I secretly consulted with a fellow hunter... his dad.

As amazing as that present is, though, he also got one other quite wonderful one as well from my grandparents. This year instead of giving gifts, they're sending "treasure boxes" of some of their old stuff. Since my grandpa was an orthodontist and Blaine is the only other one in the family to go to dental school, they have a special bond.

(Excuse his appearance,

he was in early in the morning and he was in FULL ON study mode for the big test)