Farm Call

Today we had the vet out for a farm call. He did a quick inspection of the sheep and goats and wrote us a health certificate so that the animals would be legal to cross state lines. All the animals got ID tags with our Scrapies ID so at least that much is ready to go!

Santa

Today, mom and I carved out a small chunk of our crazy schedule to go get Elliot's first Santa picture. Because I'm a bit of a crazy person, I opted to sit in the picture with him instead of letting Santa with his touching every kid with every god knows what kind of disease gloves hold my baby. Look, I'm all for germs and early exposure and working that immune system, but not with my 4 month old and not right now. We don't even have a good pediatrician picked out in Greensboro yet.

Anywho, here's our Santa pic. We tried to get a smile out of the little guy, but did not succeed. His smiles are frequent and easy but fleeting so by the time the photographer got back to her camera, El was back to his default face. Oh well, he's still his adorable self. 

The day was a bit of a kerfuffle. Everything that could...I don't want to say go wrong exactly, but everything we tried to do ended up being more complicated than usual. El managed to fountain my mother with pee THREE times during one diaper change, the last of which called for a costume change on his part. While we were out, he pooped twice. We arrived to the Santa place while they were out to lunch, and mom didn't inform me until halfway through the day that she had an engagement that evening. So by the time we got half of our to do list done, we had to run home. I nursed a very hungry Elliot then ran out and did chores in about 10 minutes flat. Afterward while mom and her husband did their thing, Elliot, Rialey and I finished our errands for the day.  

My poor baby. By the time we were finally heading home for the last time, he had had it and started crying in the car. I pulled over twice to try and soothe him to no avail. I even tried driving (carefully down back roads) while dangling my cell above his head playing an app that has shiny balls rattling around. Nothing helped, but I did get pretty good at fishing out a dropped pacifier and shoving it back into his mouth blind and backwards though.

Respite

My absolute favorite part of these crazy days is getting to sit down every couple hours with my sweet boy to nurse. When I was pregnant, all my baby dreams involved nursing him, and I'm so blessed that our nursing relationship is working so well for the both of us. Elliot has an excellent appetite, and I am so far keeping up with his needs. At night he nurses himself to sleep and during the day, it's the one surefire way to calm him. For me, it's a time to stop, breathe, gather my thoughts, and just enjoy this fleeting time with my little one.

Leeloo banana

I have this silly habit of sticking produce stickers on the dogs' foreheads and then declaring them a Mexican tomato or a California kiwi for the day. Well, this morning my mother decided this big old "organic" sticker should not go to waste so she turned Leeloo into an organic banana. Leeloo was not amused.

In other news, we are working towards getting all the sheep and goats legal to cross state lines for the big move. We got an official scrapies ID number and ordered ear tags for everyone. The vet is coming out later this week to fill out the necessary paperwork. Many of the goats are LaManchas who don't even have ears to tag so we'll be putting the tags on their newly cleaned collars instead.

I've also included this bonus pic of the Elliot monster just because. 

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas

Today we took a little break from packing and watching the Saints beat the Cardinals to trim our tiny tree. I've never been one to decorate much for the holidays, but we decided to put in a bit of effort since this is Elliot's first and our last Christmas here on the farm.

My life in boxes

I hate packing. I hate packing for trips, and I especially hate packing to move.

I have a love-hate relationship with my stuff. There is too much of it, and I hate getting rid of it. I think a lot of people feel this way, but it's really brought to the forefront when you have to literally lay hands on everything single thing you own and somehow make it fit into a 15 foot truck.

On top of having to pack up everything, I am also trying to hold down a farm and raise an infant with just my mother for help (and a big help she is, don't get me wrong). This is a crazy time in my life. Thank goodness I don't have to hold down a real job at the same time. As it is, I feel like I am chipping away at a granite mountain with a butter knife here.

The baby needs almost constant care. I hate that I have to feel guilty spending any extra time interacting with my baby boy beyond feeding and diaper changes. If I had my druthers, I'd spend every second of the day gazing into his beautiful little face and striving to make him give me his rare and precious giggles. Stealing away even a few hours to put things in boxes some days feels like an complete impossibility.

If all goes according to plan, in 10 days it will all be over. We'll be stuffing all this stuff into moving truck number 3 and saying goodbye to our farm here in Louisiana. When we get there, I'm not doing a damn thing beyond the essentials for at least a week!

Elliot is 4 months old!

Elliot turns 4 months today. The little guy continues to grow like a weed and delight us with something new every day.

He now rolls over onto his belly at every opportunity and can hold his head and chest up to look around. He still hasn't figured out how to roll back, but I think it's mostly lack of interest. This little dude wants to move!

His manual dexterity continues to improve. He can hold things, flail them around, and bring them to his mouth to chew. If his pacifier falls out, he can often replace it.Yesterday he started sucking his thumb really for the first time, an action we are trying to discourage with limited success.

His head control is great. We can now carry him around one handed which makes life around here a lot easier. He is also working on sitting up and loves to sit upright in our laps and look around at the world.

He's a happy baby most of the time. He loves to be held and cuddled. The gas gets better every day as long as I am careful with my diet. Right now he loves to hear his own voice and will squeal and screech with delight with the occasional actual giggle thrown in. He knows his name and will turn to look and almost always smile when called.

He's over 16lbs now and still wanting to nurse every couple hours. At night he will sleep for 4-5 hours at time before rolling over, reaching out, and smacking me awake to nurse.

Being his momma is still my favorite thing in the world. He's by far the coolest thing I have ever made, and he gets cooler every day!

My Son the Alligator

It's 5 in the morning and my life is in chaos. Anthony and I had our first son, Elliot, almost four months ago. We are also smack in the of a giant move from South Louisiana to North Carolina. For some reason this seems like a perfect time to take on a new project.

I did a 365 photo project years ago. It lasted many years, and it has been wonderful to look back and see my life documented. With the new baby and the new farm, I am looking for a way to keep a record of these crazy, fast changing times. 

The parameters of this project are simple: a picture a day. At least one picture per day. It may be one quick cell phone shot or a series from a photo shoot with the "good camera." Maybe an occasional video. I may share my thoughts on the day, I may not. 

For my first pic, I thought I'd share what early motherhood looked like laced with a bit of TMI. I use this bouncy chair to park Elliot while I do things in the bathroom. Well having to interrupt an early morning feeding for him with an urgent toilet trip for me meant rousing a sleepy baby to bring him with. Of course now he is wide awake. 

Elliot thought this would be a great time to practice being an alligator and roll, roll, roll. 

I feel the need to point out that the little guy is not actually falling out of his chair. Just hanging awkwardly and flailing. Now I know why almost all baby seats come with seatbelts. Cue the tantrum!