I gotcha carried

Notice the quote underneath our blog title? That's my Aunt Sharon's maxim. I loved it so much I had to put it where I'd read it everyday! If I had the time, I'd cross-stitch it, frame it, and put it on every wall of the apartment.

Well, as I've mentioned before, Caleb has been doing really great just lying around and playing with things like his bear blanket and his feet...

However, sometimes I feel like he's constantly on the floor. When I cook-he's on the floor by the kitchen, when I do laundry-he's on the happy hippo gym in the bedroom, when I shower and get ready--he's on a towel in the bathroom, and when I play with him--he's usually laying on the boppy which is, once again, ON THE FLOOR. I give him tummy time every day--but usually he only likes it for 5 minutes, give or take a few.

I must admit: even though my child is getting happier and more content, he is by no means an "easy child". (Is there even such a thing?) If Caleb decides he has been on his back too long, we'll hear it. Goodness sakes, the neighbors THREE APARTMENTS DOWN will hear it and as plain and unoriginal as my meals are, it takes a little longer than 2o minutes to prepares some of them.

My magic trick is picking him up and carrying him around. I do it because a) he loves it, it's nurturing and it reduces the chance of SIDS, and b) 95% of the time he'll stop crying.

I've gotten quite good at shoving him on my hip and doing everything one-handedly but I'd rather not look like an "S" for the rest of my life. I'm left handed so I usually put him on my right side so my left is free to do whatever. Unfortunately, my back starts complaining if I do this too much.

So, I haul out my slings and get back to my cooking.

This day he was fussy all day, so I carried him around like this so he could watch what I was doing and forget he was crabby. You can sort of see us through the flash.

My least favorite task is grocery shopping. I have to somehow manange to carry the groceries and Caleb's carseat and walk back to my parking spot hundreds of yards away. I could leave everything in the grocery cart and take it to the car but in some ways, I feel like I'm going to vibrate his brains out if I do it for too long. I left Caleb's carseat in the car this past Friday and went shopping with him like this. I was excited to use this sling again because he grew out of it a while ago but now he can hold up his head! His legs are crossed in front of him; this is called the kangaroo hold.

I'm going back to work in 2 SHORT SHORT WEEKS! Kyle will be taking care of Caleb while I work part-time. I was sort of freaking out and giving him all kinds of tips on what I do during the day with Caleb. (As if he really needs do everything exactly the way I do it.) But, it made me feel better to show him how I do everything, including the slings! :)

One of my favorite carriers I own was purchased this past Thursday at a garage sale. We hooked it up yesterday and took a nice long bike ride to a nearby lake. Caleb snoozed almost the entire way.

And finally, not related to babycarrying at all, I took these pictures this morning as Kyle and I were making the bed. Can you find the baby? There he is!