a blessed woman

I have an amazing husband. God has provided me with someone I can trust 100% to look after and love me while I'm on this earth. Its an amazing feeling. 

As you know, we are trying to sell our house. We have been praying pretty much every day that if it is in Gods will, it will sell quickly. Oh how hard it is to be patient! We've been dropping the price lately cause the activity level has been low, and as a result had a showing last night. (It was one of ten for the people who looked at it, so we're not holding our breath, but we do have a really clean home now!) 

Back to my first thought. Jeff has been finding/God has been providing extra work lately on top of his regular job. He has been working so hard for us and i am so thankful for and proud of him. So as you can imagine, he's been a little extra tired. But does that stop him from helping me out at home?? nope! I was cleaning all day yesterday in preparation for this showing we had. It seemed like i was really getting a lot done until i looked at the clock and it was 5:50pm. Our showing was at 6:45, Jeff worked 'til 6 and our connection groups spring picnic was at 6. Roman was requiring my attention, and as i was rocking him i realized there was still some massive cleaning/hiding-of-junk to be done (not to mention i was still in my pajamas...). Panic mode sets in. I text Jeff that i am freaking out. He comes home and what does this guy do? He starts hiding everything i didn't get around to! He was SUPER FAST too! The house looked amazing! 

Jeff is such a hard worker. His work ethic tops the charts both inside and outside the home, and it challenges me to step it up on my end. He makes me want be better and I love him for that.

thanks babe.

This morning Jeff and I dropped Roman off at my mom's so we could run to the salon for me to give jeff a quick haircut. When we got back to my mom's we put Roman on the floor on his back and he did the cutest thing! He brought his feet up (as far as his fat little legs would allow), reached for them, rolled to one side and put them down again. He did this until he did a complete 360! it was hilarious and awesome to watch! it is the closest thing he's done to rolling over. I wish i would have taken video, but that would have been one long video. 

Oatmeal has gone really well! He enjoys eating it more than at the beginning. It's so cute how he opens his mouth cause he knows what's coming now. Tomorrow we're going to make a run to the grocery store (hopefully it doesnt plan on raining while we are out) to pick up some avocado! that is the next thing to try! i've made a list/plan of action for introducing new foods and when and for how long. Okay, really i just picked some and stuck them on my calendar so i wouldn't forget. :) But i feel more organized this way. I cant wait to use my new magic bullet BLENDER. ;) it should be awesome! I'm enjoying this whole solid food thing more now. But i'm still trying to figure out how to nurse and feed him real food at the same time. It's a bit tricky, and i dont really know what i'm doing, but i hope it works! If anyone has any suggestions, i'm open to them.

that's all for now. i've got nothing left in me for the day. good night!!!

yes, i would love some!

Today was a big day for the Barton's!! Jeff, Roman, Maverick and I all woke up this morning knowing things were about to change. Okay, well roman and maverick probably had no clue, but Jeff and i did. 

We woke up about 7:30am and ate some breakfast! Roman had is very first bowl of oatmeal this morning and kind of loved it! We sat him in his high chair and let him play around in that while i got it ready. he does this new thing where he loves to hit everything (okay, he's been doing for a week or so now, but still new-ish). he just slams his hand on anything and everything. so he did that for a couple minutes while i prepared his breakfast. And Jeff got the camera ready and gave roman a little pep-talk about what was about to go down. 

I decided to use Earth's Best, primarily cause it was certified organic and no gei's and made with whole grains; but also because it was less expensive than the Gerber brand by, i think, almost 50 cents! (which i found kind of odd).

So i mixed (with some milk i had pumped right before) according to the package's directions and here is what it looked like:

looks delicious

At first, Roman just thought he was going to be able to play around with his spoon. LITTLE DID HE KNOW there was delicious goodness on the end of it! He gave kind of a funny look with the first bite. A look to suit this thought, "ugh! what the heck!" but soon after he was leaning forward with his mouth open wanting more. It was a great time! 

All in all it was a pretty victorious morning! We survived Romans first 'solids' experience with no spit-back-outs, throw ups, or crying. We only had a chance to do breakfast today. I'm not 100% clear on how often to feed him per day yet. But tomorrow he will get oatmeal for breakfast again! 

would you like some oatmeal?

I think i'm going to try it tomorrow. By 'it' i mean giving roman a taste of big kid food.

I'm not sure how i feel about this. Excited to embark on a new adventure with him, yes, absolutely! However. I have been nursing exclusively for the last 6 months and have loved every second of it. I'm so used to being Roman's only food source, the bond that Roman and I have from this, no one can break, and frankly nursing has saved jeff and i many pennies over the last 6 months. I just dont know if i can accept that he's growing up. ;)

Roman has shown signs he's ready for solids probably since he was 4 months, but i didn't want him to have anything until i felt his little body would be able to handle it better. 6 months is recommended now by most ped's, and though Ro isn't quite 6 months (he will be a week from thursday...which is another story for me), he get's frustrated when you eat in front of him and dont give him any. Like today. Jeff was eating a bag of bbq chips and roman was STARING him down and eventually let out a squak cause he wanted them too! His tongue reflex has been gone for quite a while (the one where he pushes it out before starts sucking), and he's just grabbing absolutely everything now! So i feel confident that he's ready, i just dont know if i'm ready. 

This must be how it feels to 'let go' a little bit, eh? I'm not good at letting go. 

you may not know it, but i'm a genius.

Well, my last post (before the videos) i talked about a new plan for roman's sleeping. Consider that plan squashed! After 4 depressing days of doing nothing but sitting in a rocking chair all the days long and a slight break down, jeff and i decided this was probably not going to work for us. Not only was i in a chair all day, i didnt talk to anyone in the 'outside' world. Which for me is practically torture. I prayed...oh how I prayed, for God to give me patience to see this through and for the wisdom to know if it's the 'right' thing for us or not. After my little emotional break down, it was apparent this was not our thing. I dont know what is, or even if we have a 'thing', but i'm sure that was not it! So, Roman and I are just going with the flow. I'm going to stop reading books on it and just see what happens. He's over 5 months now; I'm sure he'll figure something out! :) Needless to say, i've been filling my days up with at least one outing at some point during the day. Whether it's target to just walk around, or a friends for lunch, or a walk in the morning around the neighborhood, i will make it outside of my house once a day. Maybe not everyday, but definitely most days of the week. It's good mental health for me.

Another Roman trial is his gassiness. So i decided to cut out dairy to see if that helps cause i've read and heard that it makes a world of difference. It's been probably 3 to 3 1/2 weeks since i've done this very difficult task when that is pretty much your diet all together, and i've been asked if i've seen any difference in roman's little body. To that I usually respond with a(n), "eeeehhhhh, yeeeaaahhhh, maybe? I dont know really...'

And then, just today it dawned on me while i was out running errands. Since i've 'cut out' dairy, i've been consuming a LOT of bread. (you'd think that once you cut a large part of you diet out, you'd be losing weight or something....not me, cause i have been filling that void with BREAD!!!) :) I love bread. love it. love it. love it. But today i got to thinking. Hmmm, how is bread made? what ingredients are used to make it?

DUH!!!!!!!!!

Contains: wheat, soy and MILK!!!

I am an idiot! :) so NO. of course i cant tell a difference in roman's gassiness cause i haven't REALLY cut out dairy!! DANG IT!! i was working so hard to not eat it too! ugh. It takes up to 2 weeks for it to completely leave your system. So now i dont know what to do! bread is pretty much my livelihood at the moment. I really dont know what else to eat! and i dont really know what i'm going to do about it. oh man. what a predicament! (it's really not as bad as it sounds....just so you know).

I just thought i should tell you that i'm pretty much a genius. :)

more laughing

get ready to laugh....

jeffs shock slightly frightened roman (which explains my immediate response...)