Girls Gone Child

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a scheduler. I never go anywhere without my planner. Yet in the last 3 weeks, I have went from a Type A personality who scheduled everything in my life, to a Type A personality who is confused as to why I suddenly can't schedule anything in my life. All while making myself crazy trying. But everything in my life now centers around the child. What about me? I am a firm believer that the center of attention should always be on (or at least really close to) me. (I kid, I kid!) I'm actually happy to share the spotlight with our new addition. He's an amazing little guy. After all, how many people can eat, poop, and sleep all at the same time? (Besides Daddy, of course.)

I won't lie though, the past few weeks have been tough. There has been one hell of a learning curve associated with a first born child. Did you know babies have cues? For example, whenever he is hungry, he starts to chew on his fist. Or he'll start opening and closing his mouth while rooting around, kind of like a baby bird. He usually only does that one when he 1) sees me, 2) hears me, or 3) senses that I have walked into a room. So pretty much all the time. My existence has literally been reduced to that of a human boob. Great. Oh, and just because he's yawning and his eyes are closing and/or rolling back in his head does NOT mean he's ready to sleep just yet. Or anytime within the next 4 hours.

This week was especially rough on the sleeplessness front. I am running on fumes. And before you start blaming the baby, let me tell you Greyden was fine. We had one night where he was so overtired he could barely keep his eyes open, but refused to go to sleep. I have never seen anyone struggle so hard to stay awake, besides the dog, who we refer to as Harley Party for that very reason. No, the sleeplessness stemmed directly from the Thanksgiving Party Animals that took up residence in my house last week. (That would be my parents, my brother, my sister, and my brother-in-law.) Apparently having a new baby in the family hasn't slowed them down near as much as it has me. It actually appears to have done the opposite and given them a reason to celebrate. A lot. I'm used to going to bed at 8:00 10:00. These people didn't even think about shutting down until 11 or later. Or even 3 am as I discovered early one morning when I was awoken by the sounds of a guitar and singing coming from the kitchen, courtesy of my husband, sister, brother-in-law, and a bottle of Crown Royal. But honestly I can't complain too much. We had a great time and I loved having them here. It was so nice to have an extra set of hands (or 10 extra sets as the case may be) to hold the baby while Mom and Kerry I did all of the cooking and cleaning. Okay, maybe they did most (okay, all) of the cooking and cleaning. They even decorated my house for Christmas and put up the tree. That would have taken me forever to do on my own, if it would've gotten done at all, so I am eternally grateful for their help.

Thanksgiving 2010 (aka: The Shagene Invasion)

Kerry & Greyden



Greg & Greyden



Andrew & Greyden



Baby's 1st Thanksgiving



A baby gift from my sister. Have I mentioned that I love her?




Picking out the Griswold Hockenberry Family Christmas Tree. Yes, it's from Lowe's. Because that's how we roll in Texas.



There is a tree strapped to the top of my mini van. Please kill me now.



Me, Mom, Dad, Greg, and Greyden. In the parking lot of Lowe's. Picking out Greyden's first Christmas tree. Not my idea of the perfect baby's first visit to a Christmas tree farm, but whatever.



Too pooped to party anymore: