The Andersen (it's about) Times

I've been told by a few people (Gabby) that I am morally obligated to have a blog since I 1) have a kid and 2) live across the country from many of my friends and all of my family. It has also recently been suggested that not everyone I'm connected to on Facebook really wants to see a new picture of Kai every time they log on (thanks for the reality check, Yo). So I decided to finally give this blogging thing a shot. I guess that this means I'm either going to have to figure out a way to make our fairly mundane lives seem pretty exciting, or actually start doing some exciting things worth writing about.

As a quick introduction to the Andersen clan:

Yo, also known as Pappa (yes, I spelled that with 2 "Ps"-- it's a Norwegian thing) is keeping busy as a nursing home administrator, Young Men's advisor, and new dad. I should qualify that--Yo is not any old nursing home administrator, he is _the_ administrator overseeing the Facility of the Year. In fact, his facility did so well in the last year that it took 4 out of 7 awards given out yearly by his company. As if this weren't enough, the CEO of Foresight actually apologized to Yo because Yo's facility should have won 6 of the awards, but everyone at the corporate office worried that would be overkill. Well I say, overkill, overshmill. Bring on the plaques.

Speaking of plaques, the plaque that Yo should have hanging on the wall is "Father of the Year". Seriously. And I'm not just saying that because I want Yo to wash the car or take out the trash. He already does those things. I'm saying that because Yo comes home after a long day at work and the first thing he wants to do is hang out with Bubba. He plays with him, feeds him, changes his diapers, and makes him laugh like no one else can. It's about the cutest thing in the world. But enough gushing.

Carly, also known as Mommy, Wifey and the writer of this blog, may not be up for "Mother of the Year," but I finally feel like I'm figuring this whole parenting thing out. As proof I have written a detailed and color-coded (have you seen my closet?) schedule which essentially summarizes everything that I've learned about motherhood in the last 6 months. The only thing I'm wondering is why no one gave me a handy (preferably color-coded) schedule to follow the day we took Kai home from the hospital?

Don't worry, I may be a wee bit OCDish, but I didn't write the list for my own sick gratification, I wrote it for the lovely Hanaike gals who have agreed to watch my little monster in the mornings while I work.

Yes, I am working again. As of two days ago I am the Assistant Administrator at St Francis Pavilion--emphasis on assistant. It is strange (and for the most part refreshing) showing up to work and not being anyone's boss. I'm working 20-30 hours per week so I still get to spend lots of time with my buddy, Kai.

Which brings me to the star of this blog:

Kai--otherwise known as Bubba, Buddy, BooBoo, and Monkey Butt (nicknames we promise to drop well before his adolescence). Kai is our lively, funny, happy, growing baby boy. In fact, he just turned 6-months-old last week. In the last month or so it seems like Kai changes literally every day. Some of Kai's latest achievements include: eating sweet potatoes and rice crackers for the first time, sitting independently, making new sounds every day (like baba, mama, kuh, and guh), jumping (sometimes hours at a time) in his bouncer, and growing two bottom teeth (they just broke through his gums today!).

Since I'm celebrating my first Mother's Day, I've been thinking about how life has changed since Kai came along. The real question is, how hasn't life changed? It's almost hard to remember what we did before Kai seeing as that the majority of our time is spent accommodating his needs and schedule. (Did I mention he's on a schedule, you know, the pretty color-coded one displayed on my fridge--what, a few times? My bad!) When I asked Yo what we used to do with our free time, the first thing he said was, "What's free time?" and then he said, "I think we watched a lot more TV."

While giving up bad, reality TV might not feel like much of a sacrifice, I've realized that being a mom (or dad) often means giving up a self-centered life. Heck, we all know new parents don't get to sleep when they want to, but why didn't anyone tell me we don't get to eat or even go to the bathroom when we want to, either?

A year ago, when Yo and I began sharing with our friends that we were having a baby, I remember a number of people telling us that we would be amazed at how much love we could feel for one little person. Well, they were right. There are times when Yo and I could just explode with the love that we feel welling up inside for our little boy. But what nobody explained to me is how that love that we felt the day that Kai was born would just grow, and grow, and grow. It's a good thing that our adorable babies grow-up to be snarly, eye-rolling teenagers or I don't know that I could bare the idea of Kai ever leaving my home.

So yes, motherhood has been a lot harder than I ever thought it could be (apparently I'm not a completely sane person going on 5 months of sleep deprivation), but it so much more rewarding than I ever thought it could be, too.

I hope that this with this blog I will be able to capture the good, the bad, the ugly and maybe even the beautiful of our lives as parents. Welcome to the Andersen Times!