Valentine's Day 2012

I don't love Valentine's Day, but I don't hate it either. I just really like holidays. I do however love our Valentine tradition of a picnic in a park. This year we got all fancy.
Evan's mom bought us a picnic bag and my mom bought us heart plates. I didn't cook this year, since I was still adjusting to having a little person live with me. Thus we had Subway and drank Powerade out of our fancy (plastic) cups. Autumn had milk, but she slept through most of the festivities.After our picnic Evan had to work the night shift at the E.R so Autumn and I hung out and watched The Biggest Loser...our favorite past time.
As soon as Evan got back from Michigan Autumn got really smiley and "social"
Evan and I decided that we will continue to celebrate Valentine's day with our children, since we love them too. Our Anniversary is just for us though:)

Year of the wedding part 5

Evan's older sister got remarried on February 3rd (while Evan was still in Michigan) making this the fifth wedding I've been to in the last 10 months. Charlie is a great guy and I couldn't be happier for Sara.

"The Brady Bunch" as Charlie lovingly called his new family. We now have 10 nieces and nephews!

Autumn before the wedding...not too thrilled. Luckily I started pumping so I was able to feed her during the wedding AND be a witness. After the ceremony we all went to Olive Garden. While I was changing Autumn's diaper in the bathroom a lady came up and touched Autumn's hand and face (gasp!). I was a little annoyed, but my annoyance quickly turned to rage when she said, "Oh, sorry I shouldn't have done that, my hands are dirty." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I wanted to chop her hands off.

That night I picked Evan up from the airport finally! Autumn didn't even cry! We are so happy to have him home. He came home and I just thought to myself, "ok I can do this, I can be a mom." I cope much better having his support. The next day I even went to the grocery store all by myself (first time I went grocery shopping since he left!)

Evan started his E.R rotation and started with nights. I really liked him working nights. He'd leave right when Autumn was cluster feeding, so I'd just watch The Biggest Loser on Netflix then go off to bed a couple hours before Evan got home (Autumn thought her midnight bedtime was too early so she now goes to bed no earlier than 2 AM, although she now sleeps 7 hours straight.) Then we slept in all day. Evan is now working afternoon shifts which is kinda lame when we sleep so late.

One Month

Writing this post is a good reminder to keep up with my blog since I already can't remember what Autumn was like three weeks ago when she turned four weeks old! Alas I will try...Evan left for 2 separate audition rotations in Michigan when Autumn was only 3 weeks old and was gone for almost 3 weeks. So I took a ton of pictures so I could E-mail them to Evan. Around the time my dad left Autumn developed reflux. Poor little thing (and poor me). She would get so upset after each feeding and when she would spit up she would cry. Luckily I learned she liked to be held while I bounced on the exercise ball. So I did a lot of bouncing strengthening muscles I didn't know I had. Once I could get her to sleep she would sleep at least 5 hours (she started doing that around 3 weeks). She is a night owl though and wouldn't go to bed until at least midnight. It is hard to be a single parent. I just slept-all the time. And fed Autumn, so it was a good thing the ward started bringing me meals because it was hard to remember to eat.
Here Autumn is on her way to church for the first time. I teach the CTR 7 primary class, so I asked my dad to do the lesson just in case Autumn got hungry. And hungry she got. Fifteen minutes before church was over she wanted food and she wanted it fast, so I raced her home leaving my father to finish the lesson. I'm a sucker and hate to hear her cry. I give her whatever she wants when she cries. So that's why after my family left I became a home body. It stresses me out to hear her cry while we are driving, because there is nothing I can do for her. (oh, did I mention she hates the car and just CRIES the entire time she is in the car? She doesn't mind the car seat, just the car)I tried to get some cute sleeping baby photos, but as soon as I set her down she woke up. Oh well she looks cute and is getting bigger all the time. She still is obsessed with her tongue and loves to stick it out! (It doesn't help that daddy tries to communicate with her by sticking his tongue in and out three times to tell her he loves her. Sometimes she sticks it back out three times, or two, or four so she loves him, she loves, and she loves him too.)
1/26/12 was Autumn's one month "well child" doctor's appointment. I was really nervous to take her, because the office is kinda far away and I hate talking her anywhere in the car since she cries. Luckily we made it to the office just fine, but as soon as we were ready to be seen...Autumn got hungry. It was really hard to talk to the doctor while she was crying. Luckily for me she was already screaming so when she got her shot it didn't faze her one bit. The doctor also prescribed baby Zantac for her reflux which has been working great. The doctor's office has a nursing room, which is awesome so I nursed her before leaving and the ride home wasn't too bad. Also If you notice in the above picture her diaper is too big. That is because I ran out of Newborn size diapers, so I figured she is technically no longer a newborn, and just a plain ole infant we'd move up a size. Bad idea ,when diapers don't fit right things come out of them. Alas since I still hated the car it took several days before I bought smaller diapers.

Visitors

My mom came to visit and help me with Autumn and basically acted like my nanny (too bad she couldn't be my wet nurse as well!) She got here the day before Evan's birthday and left last Thursday. Luckily my dad also came to visit and got here on Wednesday and left last night. Now we are on our own! Last night went really well. I slept on the couch so I could hear Autumn when she was ready to eat (we can't sleep in the same room because she is SO loud grunting and such).

Grandma PattieGrandpa Brian (I love this picture)
Three generations
When my dad was here we ventured out. We visited the site for the future Gilbert Temple. (The picture attached to the fence is what it is going to look like.)
After which we headed to the Mesa temple. We snapped this picture and then Autumn was done with our adventure. So I sat in the Mother's lounge in the visitor's center (first time I've used the mother's lounge for it's intended purpose).

Autumn

Not much to say...Autumn is eating really well and poops like a champ and LOVES when I bounce on the yoga ball with her (thanks for the idea Chelsey Ball) she also enjoys her swing.

Evan's big 30th Birthday

What?!? A post not dedicated to Autumn? Yes, there are other Norbys. However here is a picture to tide you over while I talk about Evan. She doesn't like to wear clothes, and that's why she is crying.Since Evan's last birthday I've been brainstorming things to do for his big 30th birthday. BUT then we had a baby two weeks before his birthday so we had to go low key. Alas there was still a theme...I'll let you figure it out.
Evan has made a goal (or perhaps it is more of a "bucket list" type of thing) to visit all the Best Buys in Arizona (except the Sierra Vista location). There are a few in the west valley we haven't visited yet. So after Evan was done babysitting our niece and nephews (I know on his birthday-what a great guy) I told him we were going on a secret adventure. We drove and drove and drove to Surprise, AZ and walked around Best Buy. I know how boring that may seem, but Evan sure was thrilled.
Then it was off to Peoria, AZ. Autumn and Grandma stayed in the car this time.
Then on our way back to the freeway I said, "we should probably stop for lunch." So we did. I had invited our beloved medical school friends to meet us there for lunch. Oh how we miss them.
Last stop Thunderbird PHX Best Buy. As you can tell it was a long day.
On to the party!!! Evan's sister and her family joined us for a little fun. We played the famous Norby family blindfold-straight pin in hand-pop the balloon game. And yes our tree is still up. Evan's mom kept their tree up when Evan was young so that she could put his birthday presents under the tree as well.
Evan prefers brownies over cake. So we had the traditional birthday brownies, but I also made him this cake so he could blow out the candles.
The Best Buy employees were not that impressed with my creativity...30 1$ gift cards for his 30th birthday.
He blew out all the candles on the first try. (look at my cool new drink canisters Evan got me for Christmas)a gift from Autumn ;)
another Best Buy gift CARd...cute right?
Autumn 2 weeks old...Dad 30 years old. Both wearing matching green outfits (yes Autumn was in a different outfit earlier-she likes to wear multiple outfits a day:)

Obsession

So week one was really fun. We have this cute bundle of joy we got to show off. Week two is a little different...I'm exhausted. No way to sugar coat it. The sleep deprivation has caught up with me and Evan. Evan's mom went home...thus leaving us all alone. AHHH!! Evan still continues to be a big help, but he's tired too. The other night I asked him if he would like me to wake him up so he could help with Autumn in the middle of the night. He said "Yes" and expressed that he liked to help. So when I nudged him awake and said, "do you want to change her diaper or do you want me to do it?" he responded, "No. That's OK you can." When I told him about our conversation in the morning he denies ever waking up. LOL!

One thing is for sure Evan is smitten with our daughter. He is constantly running to grab the camera and takes multiple photos a day of our sweet little daughter. Here is evidence that she is not too impressed by the cameras!

I'm pretty sure that means...enough pictures!

Autumn still loves her tongue. She isn't awake as much as she was the first week of life. So these pictures really don't accurately depict what we've done the past few days (which is mostly sleep and eat). Although she does spend a lot of time on the changing table...mostly because she likes to pee as soon as we're about to put a fresh diaper on her!