Simple Moments

It is moments like these that make you really stop and realize how good your life is. I have to admit that I have had more of a complaining attitude about life in general lately and I am grateful that I was sent this simple reminder of how much I love my family.
Seth loves sitting on the porch and watching the cars go by. He was having a particularly bad day when Justin took him out to watch. I happened to walk past and thought how big my little boy looked sitting next to his dad and how fast he is growing up. I can't believe he is almost six months.

5 months

Some firsts

Well lets be honest everything Seth does is new to him but what is new to us is taking Seth with us on these outings. We have now taken Seth to two Real Salt Lake games. The first one was raining and very cold but Seth loved it seemed to stay warm in his coat. The second game was a cool spring evening but again he enjoyed looking around all night and Grandma was there to help entertain him. Justin has been very antsy to get the boat out and going and Saturday turned out to be the perfect day. I was kind of dragging my feet because I knew it was going to be a little more work getting Seth there and my brother was bringing his kids. Luckily Taisa and Andrew came to help out and we enjoyed a nice day at Utah Lake. I stayed behind with Zeke and Seth the first run and they were so funny checking each other out, wondering why the other one had the toy that they suddenly wanted and both of them were rolling into each other and almost ontop of each other all the time. Zeke has started scooting so that made for some fun times keeping him on the blanket and in the shade as well. I think Seth is right behind him. He pulls his little butt up and stares at the toys but he is not quite sure yet how to scoot it up to his arms and go forward. He mostly just ends up turning around in circles. Over memorial day weekend we played tough love and let Seth cry himself back to sleep instead of getting him. The first night he cried for two hours, second one hour and the third 45 minutes. Then he started sleeping through the night. With the new skill of rolling from his back to his stomach that he learned this last weekend he keeps rolling into the rails on his crib and that is waking him up again. More tough love and some long nights but I hope that we are continuting to make progress on the sleeping thing. I really appreciate it when he does. We are hoping to go camping sometime soon. We will see how that turns out.

Crazy Life

Life has been pretty crazy around the Bridge household lately.
1- Because Spring has come and with it a variety of household and Yard work responsibilities. Justin has been working like crazy trimming trees, tearing out bushes, builiding flower beds and expanding the vegetable garden area.

Hack job on the cherry tree that was out of control. It doesn't look great but at least now we can reach most of the cherries. Bushes around the tree

Bushes gone and a huge limb sawed off. The neighbor asked us if we were done cutting and did we realize how long it took that tree to get that big?

Before with the bushes

After with new retaining wall and flower bed area on both sides of the porch. I transplanted the rose bushes and grass from the back yard. I planted a ton of petunias last weekend but don't have a picture of them yet.

2- I returend to work at Kids on the Move after a very fast 12 weeks of maternity leave ended on April 12th. I had a pretty rough week leading up to going back. There were lots of tears shed over what I imagined to be missing my child doing all these wonderful things without me each day. My friend Marci assured me if he did them during the day he will do them at night but I know I am still missing some special moments. Justin was still in school until the end of April so thankfully Annette saved me again and volunteered to watch Seth during that month for us. A big thank you to her and her family for letting her. You saved us a ton of money and I felt so much better knowing he was in good hands. Justin is now playing the role of stay at home dad and finishing up one more computer class over the summer. He is a great dad and I am glad that he is able to build that bond with Seth. Each day is still hard to leave but I love my job and when I get to the homes of my families I remember why I like being an SLP and even better an SLP for an early intervention program. Kids on the Move is great as well and has allowed me to flex my schedule as needed to be there for Seth as well as my job. My hope is to be able to drop to 30 hours sometime soon so that I can be home before 6pm. Then maybe I won't feel like the nights go too fast.

3- Seth had his fourth month check-up and is continuing to grow to be a big healthy boy.
Stats: 16lbs 9oz, 26in 90th percentile for both. His personality is continuing to show through as he develops. He loves attention and is starting to respond to games like peek-a-boo. His eyes will get really big when you make the ahh sound before stating boo and then he has big smiles and sometimes laughs. He proves to be stubborn because while we know he can roll from his stomach to his back, some days no matter how many times you put him on his stomach he just won't roll. Then the other day Justin left him on his back and came back to find him on his stomach so apparently he is learning new skills in secret. He loves the rings and will grab for those out of any toy put in front of him. He loves being sung too, my preference that seems to calm him down or bring a smile from him is you are my sunshine. Dad likes to sing the counting song from Seasame Street. I also vaguely remember this little angel that started sleeping all night at two weeks. The week I came back to work he decided it would be fun to wake up anywhere from 1-3 times a night. Of course Justin snores right through it and I gave in and started feeding him each time because it was the fastest way to get him back to sleep. I read babywise and other books before he was born so I know I am doing it wrong. However, judge not lest ye be judged :)

Ready for church. Which he hates by the way. This kid has a sense about it being Sunday. He can go from being the happiest baby ever until we leave and then he ends up crying and fussing most of church. Which makes it really fun for us.

Just a random note, Justin's brother John purchased several bee hives to start collecting his own honey. He placed one of them in our back yard. Here are pictures of them working on the hive.

Tummy Time

I'll show you what I think of tummy time.

Heathers Amazing Pictures

Thanks again Heather for taking these wonderful pics. Bridgephotography.com

Blessing Day

On March 28th Seth was blessed in the Westland 1st ward. Justin was nervous before giving the blessing but he did a great job. (the specifics are in his journal). We were lucky to have friends and family in the circle. Grandpa Scott, Grandpa Brian, Uncle Eric, Uncle Cory, Mark, Brandon Bath, Brandon Peterson, Alex, and Tim and Bishop Zander. Here are a few pics from that day. His amazing Aunt Heather has taken better pics in his outfit when I get those back I will post a few.
Grandma Kristie made his outfit. Thanks so much mom.

Happy Family Cousin Zeke and Seth.