To my little man:

To my little man:

     You are a rockstar!  I let you cry for an hour during the night without picking you up, it was so hard for me.  All I wanted to do was to come in and comfort you.  But in the morning, you still looked up at me with those big blue eyes and smiled.  You then let me drag you on a walk around the park where the birds were WAY too comfortable and got WAY too close to us.  And you let an older couple stop us for longer than I want to say, and you stayed pretty calm until the end.  You were hungry on the ride home and cried... and cried...and cried.  Because mom got lost, ended up in the Financial district, and it took us an hour to get home.  You cried for 50 minutes, and when you fell asleep for the last 10, I cried.    I tried to find a parking lot to pull into, but there was no such luck in the busy streets of San Francisco.  I felt horrible.  You then cried as I pulled you out of your carseat to take you inside.  I fed you, feeling like an awful mother for making you wait so long to eat. Your eyes got heavy, I thought you were asleep. But then the most amazing thing happened!!  You got the biggest grin on your face, milk was spilling from the side of your mouth, and you ever so softly started talking to me.  You were cooing in the most gentle voice, and looking up at me with love in your eyes.  It was just what I needed.  You taught me a valuable lesson today - one that I desperately needed to learn.  New moms make mistakes.  We are still learning, and trying our best.  When you cry, we cry.  But just as our love is unconditional for you, you have unconditional love for us too... even when we screw up.  Thank you for that my sweet little boy!  You knew just what your mama needed today and boy did you deliver.  I love you so much!  Thanks for choosing me to be your mother :)

The day my fire alarm went off for 2 and 1/2 hours

Today started out fine.  It was really cold outside, and Milo had woken up to eat at 7am.  So we decided we would take Jordan to school.  We got back around 8:30, Milo played for a bit, and went down for his morning nap.  At 10:30 we went with some friends on a donut walk.

This is only part of the group

We looked pretty silly walking our long line of strollers down the busy streets of San Francisco on our way to the donut shop.  I even had a guy ask me on the way if we were doing a flash mob.

After donuts we hit up a local park for a few minutes.  Milo was in heaven watching the other kids play!  I can't wait for him to be old enough to run around with the other little munchkins! 

After our donut walk we went to visit Jords at school.  Every Tuesday a Sr. missionary couple brings lunch for the students and we have institute.  I think this might be one of Milo's favorite things to do during the week.  He loves his dad!  And was talking to him the entire lesson.  (To the other dental students -- Sorry for being such a distraction!!!)  We missed nap time due to this - but Milo was hanging in there

Now this is where our day got a little more rough.  Just as we had gotten home from visiting Jordan, I put Milo in his crib for a nap.  Poor guy was getting pretty tired!  Not 5 minutes later i hear a loud BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!  FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!  Ugh our fire alarm was going off.  I ran in and grabbed Milo, took a quick peek around and headed out the door.  I ran him over to a friends house and asked her to watch him while I went and tried to figure out how to turn the dang thing off (no fire, no smoke, just a faulty alarm.)  I came back a few minutes later and was stumped.  I grabbed a bottle and the diaper bag and headed back to my friends.  I could hear our alarm a building away!  While I was there I called our maintenance people.  They said they would have someone over as quick as possible.  Well 30 mins went by, then an hour.  Milo was getting CRANKY!  He needed a nap.  And my friend, Ashley, has a few rambunctious kids of her own!  Milo was not able to fall asleep anywhere!  This is how he was feeling after now missing BOTH of his naps...

Not a happy camper :(

I was getting a little frustrated at this point.  I ran back over to my loud apartment, grabbed his carseat, and decided it was time for a little drive.  So where did we drive to??  The only drive thru McDonalds I have seen in San Francisco (20 minutes away...)

Oh ya - welcome to San Fran.  Fast food chains now have to charge 10 cents per bag.  (So do i pay the 10 cents or individually get handed my burgers and fries?? -- Just kidding, I only got a Diet Coke, because McDonalds D.C. is THE BEST DIET COKE IN THE WORLD!)  Luckily Mr. Milo fell asleep not 2 minutes after we started driving, and I drove that boy around for over an hour to keep him asleep.

After 2 and 1/2 hours someone was finally able to come fix our faulty fire alarm.  My friend Ashley came to the rescue again and cooked dinner for us.  What would I do without this girl!?!  Pictured up top is her 9 month old Isla.  Milo is her boyfriend haha.  Love that little girl.  

Ivory (Ashley's oldest) was such a good babysitter to Mr. Milo.  This girl cracks me up!  If you wanna read some of the funniest "what motherhood is really like" stories, go to ashley's blog

 johnnyandashley.blogspot.com

You will DIE!!

Milo had fun playing with his friends.  And we were finally able to go home. 

 Sadly, we came home to a disastrous house, and I am too embarassed to even show you pictures of what the living room and our bedroom look like....Between our adventures to the donut shop, school, and having a faulty fire alarm... there was no time to clean up.  I have been putting it off for the last 30 minutes by blogging...And now I am too tired to do it. UGH.

There's nothing I hate more than going to bed or waking up to a dirty house.  I'll probably just clean it tonight cause I'm a neat freak and can't sleep when my house is messy.

On a totally different note - I totally wanna do this with Milo before Halloween (...in 2 days haha)http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/disturbing-trend-pumpkin-babying
I can just picture his face now hahaha!

Catching Up

So I am going to try and get back into blogging.  Most of you probably follow me on instagram @amberswarbrick9 and know what I have been up to lately.  My beautiful family moved to San Francisco shortly after our son Milo was born.  My husband, Jordan, is here going to Dental School at UOP for the next 3 years.  I hope to track our adventures in San Fran as well as my favorite moments being a mom!  Check back to see what this crazy city has in store for us :)

Mr Milo is now 4 months old.  I have had to take him to the doctors by myself both times he has gotten his shots because Jordan is always in school.  For all you mommy's out there that have had to hold your child down while a nurse shoots him up with those nasty needles, I FEEL YOUR PAIN!  Poor little guy... I swear he likes his dad more on those days I have to take him to get those darn shots.  Luckily he is the happiest kid, and can give me this cute face just minutes AFTER being poked.

My beautiful mother is a frequent visitor in San Fran (even though I wish she would just move in with me...)  Here we are at Stow Lake (in Golden Gate Park) taking Mr. Milo on a little walk.  I can't wait till he is old enough to feed the ducks!!  It is a childhood memory I cherish, and I can't wait to make those memories with him!

Look at that handsome Smile!!

Mr. Milo with his cousin Finnely.  She is only 3 months older than he is -- and I have a feeling they will be best buds growing up!

The other day Jordan came home from school and was able to hangout with us before Milo went to bed.  He held his leg out like this for 64 seconds.  Jordan and I were dying!!  "When in doubt, leg out!"

Mr. Milo's first swim at my parents house back in Utah

For Jordan's week long break from school we were lucky enough to send a few days in Capitola with his family.  Jordan is an avid surfer and is insistent I become one too. 

I hope this blog will serve as a little journal of our time here in San Francisco.  Some things you can look forward to reading about include our adventures, friends, family, as well as the ups and downs of figuring out this whole "mommy" thing.  I hope to also post progress I make with getting back in shape after delivering a 9 lb 9 oz baby that was 22.4 inches long.  I'll be testing out recipes and workouts that I hope will benefit not only me, but some of my readers.

xoxo Amber