I have definitely had more lows than highs this time from my last post, so this post is more about real hardships and less sunshine and rainbows. But part of it too is my learning what to do and how to get over those lows instead of just staying in that horrible state of mind.
Happy Independence day!
What our Fourth of July holidays used to look like was very different from how it looked this year. We got to spend it with this little cutie, but we really didn’t do much to celebrate. (What can you do in a world ravaged by disease?) We went swimming and grilled so it was a good day, but nothing that festive or exciting.
He's a big boy!
Here is a before and after picture that we re-created.It’s crazy how much he has grown!
Our nightly TV ritual after dinner
Our evenings together have transformed from what they used to be as well. We always watch a show together at night, and it used to be just us and the dogs and now little Cooper joins in as well. We don’t watch TV all day and so at night he is mesmerized by the television LOL I’m not sure if it’s killing his little tiny brain cells Or how TV affects babies but.... we do every night.🤷🏻♀️
Sometimes he is really Wiggley and wanting to move around, so he ends up in really weird positions on top of dallinLOL
Cleaning the Grout
I took out some of my anxiety about coronavirus on scrubbing the grout LOL it was very effective actually. I found it really satisfying to scrub it and see such a huge difference
I had no idea how dirty our grout was! This is the product I used and I would highly recommend it. Once I ran out, I used to make sure that Shelly told me about that is baking soda, water, lemon juice, and vinegar. It was just as effective.
Welcome to life with Harry Potter, kid
Is 3.5 months too early to start introducing a child to the magical world of Harry Potter? I didn’t think so of course. So we started and we only have the last 2 left.
Some may make fun of me for this-but watching Harry Potter has giving me courage for going back to school in a few weeks. Like if the whole Wizarding community can still go to school when there’s an unknown monster in an unknown chamber of the school who is slowly petrifying students and they may die, then I can go with the risk of coronavirus LOL
Before poop and after poop
Scroll down quickly if you are squeamish… This is the before and after of the magic of spray and wash. I guess that’s as close to magic as I can get as a mere muggle. He is stopped up for a while and then he explodes and my mom said I used to do that.(Now you see what I’m talking about though about his poops defying gravity! Maybe he is a wizard!)
There's a stark contrast in our life with poop stains as well. The 'before' version was little-to-no poop stains lol
The 'after' version is that we have poop stains on sheets, wash cloths, towels, changing liners, his clothes, my clothes, Dallin's clothes.... literally everything. just so. much. poop.
My J dawgs
The before and after of our first kids it’s kind of sad to think about. Time has gone by so fast and they’re already seven and nine. (well almost, Jake turns nine on the 27th.) Whenever we see signs of them aging it makes us sad because it’s hard to imagine our lives without them.
They both think that cooper can share his toys, blankets, play mat, etc. lol
"Cooper Jane" (as Dallin calls him. or "Coop Nasty")
He has a list of nick names about a mile long. We love how quick he is to smile nowadays. He such a happy easy-going kid.
We got the water mat out for him and he seemed to like it
Before and after paralyzing fear surrounding a certain subject
Feast your eyes on the peaceful slumber
Sleeping baby photos… I don’t know what it is about sleeping but it gets me every time. It’s just so dang cute. LOL I have so many pictures of the dogs and Cooper sleeping it’s kindof dumb. Look! he even fell asleep on Dallin's face! haha
Cooking
Still sorta trying with the cooking shenanigans. We loved these 2 dinnershttps://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/95/cf/9495cf65770d2430063fe06ce3ff491e.jpg
https://www.thecountrycook.net/crock-pot-chicken-and-gravy/
More of the Kid
He likes flying, he smiles every time he gets a new diaper, and he Likes to pull his upper lip in his mouth and suck on it lol
Before and after carpal tunnel
You can see below the Before and after of using our new hand massager. He really likes it!
The not-so-wonderful before and after of our current world
The before and after of our society from 6 months ago to now is also a pretty wild transformation and not in a good way. No more birthday parties, no more browsing at the mall, no more going to the park, no more prom, even the smallest things have been changed about our day-to-day lives. Nowadays, it is a big outing for us to just go to the gas station. People rioting, bring mistreated, huge fights over whether or not to wear a mask, blue lives matter vs. black lives matter vs. all lives matter, people fighting over toilet paper in the grocery store, etc. I miss concerts, movies, restaurants, and school being normal. I miss interacting with people and not having to worry about the risks involved. I can’t believe how political and opinionated everything has gotten. It’s so polarized between the 2 sides, and no one can just agree to disagree and Move on. It seems so attacking. And it’s really dumb because isn’t it a sign of intelligence to be able to see both sides of an argument? People seem to be more up in arms about every issue lately and pretty in your face about opinions. I used to like browsing through Facebook to see pictures of old friends and what they're up to in their lives. But now there’s nothing on there except for politics, opinions, how everybody else is stupid. So I officially don't use any social media anymore because it was giving me anxiety and I have a hard time sleeping still. Dallin Was saying that no one really knows because it’s so unprecedented. It’ll be interesting to look back 20 years from now and see who was right and who’s wrong. But it definitely sucks to be in the position where you cannot choose for yourself how you want to react to the situation. The parents at the schools get to decide whether or not to send their students back, but for teachers you don’t get a choice. You either go back or you’re fired. So I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong, I just know that I hate feeling like I don’t have a choice and that no one even cared to ask. I also am so afraid for how on earth I'm going to run my classroom and how I can make the changes necessary. And I hate being talked down to like I’m stupid just because my opinion is different.
So I decided not to rant, and after a few days of sulking, I decided to just wear a mask and then other than that try to pretend like coronavirus doesn’t exist. Because I can’t stay in this place of fear when I don’t have a choice about going back to work.
Look at this big kid!
He loves his new sit-me-up! And looking at himself in the mirror lol
More house before and afters
This is our old master bedroom.
And this is the after! Dallin just installed our new ceiling fan and that was the last thing and it's officially done now! I love it so much, you can't tell from the picture but it's seeded glass. 
The backyard
Before
And after
AFTER!
Look how much those trees have grown in only 3 years in the corner
Kitchen living room area before
And after!
We would still love to get new floors... but we don't know if it's worth it.
Kitchen before
AFTER!
AFTER
I love our new decor Dallin hung on that wall for me.
It's taken us so long and it was all worth it because I love my house!
before and after a new Waze camera upstairs
The before version was us never using the upstairs, and now that we have a baby monitor he sleeps up there for every nap. He loves his crib! We just got a really cheap one but we love it!
Before and after being able to feel your leg from coop smacking it
Here's videos of him doing his favorite thing- slapping his right hand over and over again.Cooper is loud now
I'd hate to be like every other girl in the world and say that "he's found his voice".... so I'm going to word it differently. Cooper has gotten really talkative. lol
We swear we have heard him say the words "hi" and "boob" clear as day one time!
Hahaha "he's advanced" lol
he laughs rarely
Dallin has gotten him to laugh a few times and of course we never get it on camera, but because of that it has him constantly trying to get him to laugh again because it was so cute.
Turning my frown upside down
After I decided to stop wallowing, I started doing specific things each day that boost my mood and help me forget about all the horrible things. one of those things is working out everyday. This video was pretty funny!
The kid again
Cooper's first time in the bath tub! He liked it! He seemed so exhilarated!
My poor baby girl
This little girl was part of the reason I was in a negative funk as well. One day we came home from chick fil a and she was so excited she started doing that hacking/wheezing thing again and then she just fell over. It looked like she passed out or something. She was on her side with her back leg twitching. By the time I ran across the room to her she was back up in a sitting position and acting completely fine. I don't know if she had a seizure or a heart attack or if she just passed out or what's going on. So then because I was already in this horrible state of mind I went down the rabbit hole of "what am I gonna do without Josie/what if she dies" and I really just lost it. We called the vet and they said sure come on in, just to warn you though we had a case of corona on our staff. And that was the peak of my exasperation at this thing that's ruining everything. We can't even bring our dog in to the vet when we're worried about her. We are currently looking into another vet to bring her to since ours is so risky. But ever since she has been acting just like herself so that's a good sign.
G came over for a night swim and Cooper was asleep by the time we could take a pic. lol
It was sooo nice to night swim with our awesome pool light. It was nice to be social, not worry about anything, eat good food, and have fun swimming. We decided after that we're going to night swim more often cuz it's so relaxing and fun at the same time.
4 monthaversary
Here are his 4 month old pictures we took! It's so funny G got him that when I found out it was a boy and she got fall clothes in 6 month size specifically because we thought he'll be 6 months in the fall. But here he is only 4 months old and I barely squeezed him into this outfit! haha
Venturing out
We took him out back and chilled one night with the misters and fan on and it was really nice. We watched the sun go down and that was the first time that it was dark enough that he could look around and not have to have his eyes shut cuz it's so bright. He was so interested in everything and the feel of the misters blew his mind haha
Before and after cleaning
One of the cleaning things we tried was the toilet rings. Clorox wands don't even touch it. We found a new way to get the toilet ring out- bar keepers friend and fine grit sand paper! It worked like a charm.BEFORE
How do I leave them?
I was so worried about finding good care for coop when I go back. It's going to be a big adjustment because I haven't worked since the beginning of march- not just that but I haven't even left the house. I'm also not going back to a normal work environment. So there's lots to worry about in a situation where I would have already been worrying anyways. Anyway there's a lady who watches teachers kids named Marni and we FaceTimed with her. She's been doing this 14 years and my coworkers have her watch their kids and they're good parents so I'm kinda just going on blind faith here. I am still just a tad uneasy about it but hey- I can't do anything about it. Corona risk is going to be the same anywhere we put him. So lets just hope that it's a good fit for him, she is able to give him enough attention with 9 other kids, and/or that governor ducey delays school even more. haha
And I know what you're thinking "oh how cute classic first time parent worry wart..." We aren't that way or we wouldn't be doing this at all.
I'm going to miss being around Jake and jojo every day too.
Jake won't miss us doing diaper changes in his room during the day though. He wants to be left alone when he's napping lol
Before and after clothes situation...
I went through my whole closet and did a little fashion show for Cooper to see what fits me still. It's maddening that so much of it doesn't fit. I ended up only having to buy 5 things though and I think other than that I will be able to wear old stuff. This was me taking a picture of an outfit I got when I was 15 and sending it to a bunch of friends to see if it's still in style enough to wear. lolAfter my fashion show I had a positive outlook because it made me realize how I miss being able to dress up and not look like a slug all the time. So that part of it will be nice... the wearing a mask part though not so much....
RIP wipes
How do I make this picture into a "before and after"....Okay how about this-
Before I lived with Dallin I was able to keep wipes wet, and now the after version is this! hahaha he's going to hate me for putting this on here.
Poor guy has a curse. Many a wipe has been lost to the Dallin.
Coopster
We've had awesome days where Cooper slept 10 hours straight that night, and other sleep-regression type nights where we were wondering how we will survive. I was so tired I accidentally put the tin foil in the fridge. lolAdd yet another thing to worry about going back to work- sleep deprivation.
But we have found ways to laugh at the struggle. This article made us both laugh so hard. Especially #29 lol
Check out his leg rolls!
Before and after tap
One of my other favorite things to pull me out of my funk was learning tap dancing! I actually really like it! I always kind of backed away from doing hip-hop and tap just because those are the only two things I never learned. And Shelly made the suggestion of wine I just learned this summer while you have the time? And now I wish I would’ve learned it sooner! It’s so much fun! I got some tap shoes off of Amazon for only $16 and then I’ve just been learning from YouTube videos. Cooper likes to watch me practice
When I was cleaning the grout I backed into the carpet from the tile and one of the nails came up through the carpet and sliced my foot so that slow down my tap progress a little bit and it hurt like crazy!
I have had to not practice on the tile because while I was practicing I chipped one of them LOL I’m so powerful with my tap shoes!
Here is my performance of little routine that I learned on YouTube
I want to put him in baby modeling
He’s so cute. Constantly smiling at me. I think I’m his favorite person.
But then we also have times like this. When this happens I can’t wait to go back to work! Haha
He pushes his bottom lip out like a cartoon who’s sad
Before and after shelf
Remember how I told you that I’m really really picky? Well it was bothering me that the shelf didn’t match the frame and so I painted it black so here’s a before and after of that project
After
Spa night at home
Dallin was so thoughtful and made me a spa night. He got special bath salts and bubbles, candle and masks and I had a bath we did masks watched a movie and had a drink. It was really nice. I am so grateful for him being so thoughtful when it’s so difficult and we have so many limitations. Even though it was still just at home, it still felt like a special thing. This is a picture of Jake and Josie on the sides of my bath LOL they were freaking out because of fireworks outside. “ Hurry up and get out we’re being bombed!“ haha
The happy ending
If I have learned anything from all the TV and movies that I watch and books that I read, it’s that you need a happy ending. So the happy ending to this post is that the biggest before and after of all is how we have this kid in our lives now, and that’s the best before and after that there is. We are both so happy to get to live with him as our new roommate LOL he’s so cute and so fun and we wouldn’t want a life without him. He’s such a cool kid.
I hope you’re able to find the best “Afters” for your life, in this challenging time we’re in.
