January came with a lot of changes.  Here is a quick rundown:

We Broke Our All-Time Record for Longest We’ve Been Parents

Baby Burrito Bowl turned one month old on January 17th and 65,000 minutes old on January 31st.  Pretty impressive work in such a short amount of time.  This month was dominated by having this new living person with us.  We used to just do whatever we wanted.  Now, we don’t hardly ever do that.

Every day was much like the day before, except a little easier.  We learned how to better soothe her, what works and doesn’t work as far as getting her to sleep, how she likes to be bathed, when she’s about to poop, etc.  Every day was a learning experience and I don’t see that train slowing down anytime soon.

She’s reached a few baby milestones and it’s been a lot of fun to watch her grow and change so much.  Here’s a few things she can do that she couldn’t do last month:

Hold her head up– Her head no longer flops about her shoulders like some sort of tube man on a used car lot.

Make eye contact– For the first few weeks she looked through us.  She could have cared less who we were. She was here for one thing: Milk.  Now she actually looks AT us, but she still just wants milk.

Fit into clothes- Last month she was so teeny-tiny that she barely fit into her newborn outfits.  This month she’s got several chins and is quickly filling up her outfits, even outgrowing a few.

Smile– She smiles at us when we sing to her, act excited about anything, or play with her hair.

Show a little personality- She continues to become more and more of a three-dimensional person.  For the first few weeks she was a standard issue baby, albeit a totes adorbs one.  She seems to be getting more and more opinionated with each new day.

Poop in a baby toilet (we’re potty training doing the Elimination Communication Method)– We’ve been trying to do the EC method as much as we can.  My siblings did the EC method with their kids and it helped them not have to change nearly as many toddler diapers.

This is critical as baby poop is only mildly disgusting to clean up, whereas toddler poop is among the worst things humans have ever created.

The basic idea is you try to get in touch with your baby and notice when he/she is about to poop or pee.  Typically this happens right after a nap or anytime it’s super inconvenient to change a diaper.

When you think they need to use the potty you hold them on this baby potty and either grunt or go “Tssssss”.  Despite not speaking any language, babies seem to know that means it’s time to go potty.  The first time we ever stuck Baby Burrito Bowl on the toilet, she immediately peed all over the toilet and floor.  A real success.

As the month went along, all three of us got better at this.  She still goes in her diaper most of the time, but we’re catching her earlier and earlier.  With any luck, we’ll completely avoid the dreaded toddler poops.

Sustain a 30 second fart- She has the ability to expel gas with the efficiency of a 300lb Welsh farmer.  Because she only drinks breastmilk, her farts don’t smell but she has woken us up numerous times with her flatulence.  Very impressive and one of the things I’m most proud of her for.

We also had a few non-baby related happenings:

We Gained Lots of Money that We Lost

January was a great month for the stock market, mostly because December was such a terrible month.  Really, we’re more or less back to where we were in November, but it feels like we’re full steam ahead after “losing” so much money in December.

We didn’t panic and sell when the market was down and we won’t get too excited now that the market is heading back up.  We’re investing for the long run so what the market does day to day doesn’t change anything for us.

Related: Oh, Man! The Stock Market is Going Down. Wait, Yeah it’s Going Down

I Took a Hiatus from Social Media

During the month of January I gave up social media with mixed results.  See my article about why here:

No Social Media for a Month!! AAHHHHHH

and my recap here:

7 Things I Learned From My Month of No Social Media

We Were Visited By Friends and Family

Over this past month we’ve had several different visits from friends and family members.  My mom was here from Montana for the birth and was able to successfully keep us all sane while we adjusted to our new no sleep/extra human in the house lifestyle.  My dad came and met BBB later in the week.

Mrs. Burrito Bowl’s dad visited from Michigan for a couple weeks as well as her sister from Montana.

More of our Montana family would have met her by now except we keep telling them we’ll come see them soon, but then we keep not getting around to actually going back to Montana.

We’ve also been the happy recipients of several meals and baby clothes from our kick ass Portland friends.

We Contemplated Our Future

My work is going well but eventually we want to move back to Montana.  We also would like for me to have a job with insurance so Mrs. Burrito Bowl can work per diem and maybe not at all once we produce more children.

I’ve considered switching up from a career of building houses to a career in law enforcement.  My only hang up is I don’t particularly enjoy enforcing any laws.

I think I would be a really good cop though because I’m fair and can see both sides of just about any argument.  Maybe that would make me a poor cop?  I don’t know.

If I did decide to go that route we’d either wait until we moved back to Montana before I pursued that, or we’d pursue it now and delay our return to Montana, possibly by a year or two.

We Exercised Once

I vaguely remember being in shape.  I’ve gone to the gym exactly one time since Baby Burrito Bowl was born.  I came home with swole muscles and the stomach flu.  Pretty exciting trip. Since then we’ve done several half-assed kettle bell workouts and we go on walks almost every day.  We’ve even gone on a couple real hikes in the woods.  We’re staying active but not to the degree we were pre-baby.

This is a pretty big change for us since we used to go to the gym 4-5 times per week.  My dad bod is coming in nicely.

I need to get back in the swing of working out.  Not going to the gym for so long has really driven home the importance of habits for me.  Each day is basically like the day before so, if I make the habit to go to the gym one day, I can go almost every day.

It’s tough though, because after I get off work the last thing I want to do is be gone from home for an additional hour, leaving Mrs. Burrito Bowl at home with the baby for even longer.

Anyway, that was January for us!

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