You can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want... but if you try sometime, you find you get what you need.

So, here we are 2 weeks back to work... and I have to admit, it's really not been too bad. The way our schedule is working out I'm able to spend a lot of time with the baby, feed her, play with her... and still get enough sleep to go back to work that night. The worst day of all of them, has to be Monday. Jas has to go into work early, so I only get about 3 hours of sleep. It's barely enough to be a functional human, and I definitely wouldn't operate heavy machinery or a car with that little sleep- but for my purposes it's really not too bad. And, I LOVE being a nurse. I hate to admit this, but I would even do it for free. It's a lot of fun to me. I loved being an ER nurse, but L&D is really cool, too. Who wouldn't want to help people welcome a new addition to the family? It's pretty fabulous, and the fact that I get paid to do it is like icing on a cake. I know I'm a freak for saying that, but whatever.

Amazingly, Ev has taken to that new weekend schedule pretty well. It seems like one night on each of the last 2 weekends she has been a little bit more challenging, but in general, she's done great. She even slept for 11 hours straight Saturday night (and Monday night!).

Sleepy girl

And, just for the record- Evelyn is totally cool. She's a ton of fun to hang out with. I love to watch her take in everything around her. She's such a sponge right now! She loves to go outside and look around. One of our favorite past times is walking up to Wisconsin Ave., popping a squat on a bench and people watching. I think she likes it because everyone stops to tell her how cute she is, I love it because it's an easy way to keep her occupied without having to be constantly moving.

Bundled up for a morning walk

She's also learning new tricks. Monday morning she rolled not once, but twice! She was on her Rainforest playmat (which she ADORES btw), and she rolled from her belly to her back! Crazy town. {I would however, like to point out that she has yet to replicate this since, but I'm hoping one of these days she does it again, and again so I can catch it on video}. She has also started lifting up both of her legs. She can almost reach her feet. So neat to watch her grow and change. There are definitely times that I miss my little teeny baby, but the older she gets the more rewarding raising her becomes.

Playmat! I swear she would spend all day on this thing. 

Love the look on her face, minus the brightness at the top

She is 3 months old now! So we did a lovely little photo shoot. She seems to enjoy picture taking quite a bit more now than she did at 1 month old.

1 month on the left, 3 months on the right

She has big, beautiful, blue eyes! And thank goodness she grew some eyelashes. When she was born they were pretty sparse, now they're really nice and long.

In the evenings we always take a nice long walk as a trio. The other night, we were walking over by Georgetown University, and saw this mama deer and her baby. They were so close. It was wild. So, we crouched down for a quick pic. 

During the day, Ev and I take quite a few walking trips. Lately, we have been walking up to see Jas during lunch. It's a nice opportunity to visit during the day- and the exercise is good. I've lost over 35 lbs since I delivered, and I attribute this mostly to diet, light exercise (this child is happiest outside, so we walk A LOT), and of course breastfeeding.

We also take lots of pictures during the day. I just snap away. She likes phone when she can see herself in it. So sometimes we do that, and I don't even take a picture. 

The dog loves her sister. So much in fact that she will come up and try to lay on her. She just wants to be as close to her as possible... so here we go. Thankfully, Ev doesn't seem to mind. 

Dog: 1 Baby: 1 Mama: 0

Enough of the fun stuff... I'd like to take you on a little journey to a dark, dark place. I had to take the dog to the vet, she was overdue for vaccinations, and heart worm med refills, etc. So, I got elected {being the one at home (this was before I went back to work)} to accomplish this. Managing a baby is a full time job... managing a baby and a dog that loves to socialize and act a fool any time she's around other dogs- is insanity.

The pic below is one that I quickly snapped and sent to Jas from the vet's office. I'm lugging around this baby and all her gear, who is hysterical... and the dog is wigging out, panting and drooling all over the place, in desperate need of consoling, but I can't put the baby down because as soon as I do she starts to cry. Then the dog's pulling on the leash, and I'm trying to balance all this stuff. The baby is continuing to cry, the dog is losing her mind. I even wanted to cry. It was a nightmare. After this horrific experience I was in need of some anxiety meds, Jack Daniels, therapy, horse tranquilizers, but I settled for a piece of pie that Jas brought home to me because of my hellish day. I guess my guilt trip card sympathy pic worked... I will keep that in mind for future meltdowns.

Baby: 1 Parents: 0

Another particularly bad day was just 2 weeks ago. We met up with our friends Adam and Jordan for lunch in downtown DC. Evie was an angel during the whole lunch. She didn't make a peep, slept most of the time and when she was awake she was a cherubic angel. Well, since she was being so excellent, Jas and I decided to head out to the IKEA for a few items we'd been wanting to get for months, but didn't want to take a whiney infant to. So, we get there, Ev is great. I put her in the Moby wrap and we start heading through the store. We check out some things upstairs and then we head downstairs to pick up our items. Evie had been great until we got downstairs and then... all of a sudden and completely out of nowhere she LOST HER FREAKING MIND! We are talking MAD hysteria. And if you've ever been to IKEA you know that place is a maze like no other. So, in my panic I move over to a corner out of the main aisle and try to nurse her {picture me crouched down in a side aisle, legs burning, nursing cover over top, borderline flashing people [I think some little kid that was creeping around may have actually gotten a view], red faced from embarrassment, screaming baby that won't latch-insane}. Well she ain't having any of that. She is HYSTERICAL. We're bouncing, we're shushing, we're cuddling, and she is red faced, tears streaming down her face, hysterical. The entire store is looking at us and we hightail it out of IKEA. I think they were thinking we must've beaten her or something. The cry was shrill, and angry and just insane. We literally walked out of the store with nothing. Who goes to IKEA and leaves with nothing?! The Garee's. Welcome to my new normal.

Baby: 2 Parents: 0

Fast forward to this week, Jas, the baby and I were out walking, and we decided we wanted to stop and get something to eat. There is this little restaurant not far from the house that has some outside seating. Since the baby seems to do so well outside we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to eat out- and keep the baby content. Ha. WRONG! Just as soon as we sat down she began to fuss. We left our menus and stopped at Subway (of which, the Subway guy knows us by name- OMG). Le sigh. I know this is only temporary... but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to being able to go out to eat or shopping, as a family.

Ugh, but she's so damn cute. I mean, check her out in this swing. She's got the "number 1" sign up... perhaps this is her way of communicating that she's the boss. I dunno. But I wouldn't put it past her.

Little bug in her bouncer that she barely likes. We bought it after she was born thinking she'd love it. No, not really...not so much. But I guess she doesn't hate it. Unforunately, it's kind of big though so it does take up quite a bit of real estate in our not so large home. We'll see how much longer this thing continues to make the cut.

Moving along, the great debate continues to be- who does Evie look like more? I feel like the older she gets, the more she looks like Jas. However, in the side-by-side comparison below, I'm on the left and she is on the right... you can definitely see our similar features. The nose is pretty uncanny, as is the chin (double chin included).

I suppose that's all from us for now. I did this "Keeping up with the Garee's" style- because there sure has been a lot going on since the last time I blogged.

Until next time...