Sloan turned 9 months old on Monday.  Normally, this kind of stuff doesn’t phase me…but this week entire week has given me heartburn.

Zach and I officially made plans and travel arrangements to go out of town [just the two of us] for our anniversary.  I decided that I should slowly start to wean Sloan in advance.  I figured I would just replace a feeding with a bottle here and there.  She only takes a bottle one time a week – when the babysitter watches her on Saturday nights – or when Zach puts her down if I am randomly gone.  I’ve heard horror stories about weaning babies from nursing, so I figured I would take it easy.  Sloan had a different plan, though.  She basically weaned herself after one bottle feeding.  After giving her a fast flow bottle of formula she didn’t care to nurse.  Not only that, but she has completely switched to formula, dropped an entire feeding, dropped a nap, learned to say “ma-ma”, and started standing all by herself.  All over the course of 48 hours.  I know I should have been relieved, but I was crushed.  Nursing has been something I have had to work really hard at from the very beginning.  If I am being honest with myself, this whole transition to bottle feeding was harder on me than it was for her.  It went WAY too fast.  I already miss nursing her, but she was obviously ready because by her second bottle she wanted nothing to do with me and decided that she was just chill doing it all on her own.

I think the hardest part was realizing she didn’t need rely on me for that comfort anymore.  Nursing was the one weapon in my mom arsenal that I had that never failed.  It’s been hard for me to imagine that this phase of her life [infancy] is over.
I basically smothered her the entire week – forcing her to love on me every chance I got.

Tuesday we drove down to Orem to check in on the progress at the Alder HQ.  Sloan’s favorite area of the entire building is the collaboration lounge.  She’s the best Junior Designer I could ask for.  Half of the way finding I designed has been installed.  I did all the directories for the buildings – my favorite application has been on the concrete walls.  It is coming together as planned and it’s such a relief to check these items off of my list to do.

Sloan slept the entire way home.  She loves the sun roof in Zach’s car [my car was being serviced] and zonked out watching the sky pass by above her.I am pretty sure Sloan has Zach’s balance.  She acts like standing is something she’s been doing for the last 9 months.
And since I was already on the brink of an emotional cliff [and it felt like Sloan kinda gave me and my boobs the middle finger] I thought I would pack up all of Sloan’s newborn supplies.  I managed to make it through the whole process without any tears, so I’d say it could have been worse.

Mid week Zach had a hockey game down in WVC.  Normally his games are at 10:30 [wayyyy past Sloan’s bedtime] but this week he had a match at 6:00.  Sloan got to witness her dad in his element and was completely zoned in.  If it weren’t for her little head darting back and forth from side to side I would have thought she had fallen asleep.  She loved every second of it.The icing on the cake was Zach scoring the game winner with 30 seconds left to play.  He’s a real ringer, that guy…
The rest of the week was packed full of work stuff.  I managed to clean my house – not like Sloan contributed at all.  She gets really slothful when it’s time to do chores around the house…Friday the girls in my family decided to have a ladies night since some of the men were on a Fathers/Sons activity.  We went to dinner at From Scratch and went shopping at City Creek afterwards.

We ended the evening at Baskin Robbins.  Never a bad idea.

Saturday we met up with Zach’s family for a reunion down in Riverton.  We shared lunch at a park and got to catch up with a few people we rarely see.

When we got home from our get together Zach and I got ready for our date night.  It was Zach’s choice – so he went all out and treated me to a corn dog from Hot Dog on a Stick and a movie at the Megaplex at the Gateway.

In all seriousness – I would spend an entire Saturday night just talking to Zach, nothing more, and be completely happy.  Date Night was a success, even Straight Out of Compton was a winner.  It left me wanting a Raiders hat in the worst way.  And I LOVE Ice Cube, so…you know.

Sunday after church we dined at home, just the three of us.  Zach scored some salmon fresh from Alaska from one of his clients and we barbecued it for dinner.  Sloan enjoyed her first taste of fish and to our surprise, didn’t hate it one bit.  

Nine months old?  She might as well be nineteen.  And hopefully she’ll still love me (minus the lactation).  

I have had some exciting stuff happening with work.  Progress is always so exciting for me to watch.  I am kind of all over the map these days in terms of what type of projects I am doing, but that’s what makes it so exciting!

All the custom light fixtures I had designed for the Alder Headquarters were installed this week.  Sloan and I drove down to Orem Monday to get a status update on all the new things happening down there.

We stayed a little longer than we had planned at the site – so instead of rushing home in time for nap time I thought Sloan and I would hit up the Traverse Outlets.  We grabbed a vanilla cone from McDonald’s and made our rounds.  We scored at the Nike Outlet and the Carter’s Outlet wasn’t too bad either.  It rained a little bit, but it didn’t phase us one bit.

This last week Badger and Rue launched their kid’s clothing line.  I did some graphic work for them – in particular I helped with their legging designs.  It’s been so fun to see these kinds of projects come to fruition.

I have also been working with a few local bloggers to create graphic content for their websites.  I have been doing a lot of printables lately for holidays and such.  If you see any graphic art of print media on Let’s Mingle Blog – chances are I helped Ashley out!  Her blog is so much fun and I love to see how she uses the printables I create for her.

Cinco de May printables:Father’s Day printables: For National Donut Day, of course…

Shark week wrapping paper:

I have also been lucky to have completed six new logos / branding projects over the past two months.  Some of the companies haven’t launched yet – while others are getting up and running.

The Broad Rebellion:

The Rogue Crew:Branding and signage for the Photo Booth Bus:

I have also been collaborating with a Utah fashion blogger for a line of new t-shirts, helping with a few different food blogger’s to create files for new products, creating new packing for some more products for Warrior Fuel Supplements, annnnnd a few wedding invitations here and there.  Things are so busy for me right now, but I really am so lucky.  I tell myself that every single day.  I am so lucky to be able to work from home.  I am more grateful for this opportunity now than ever.

Sloan’s been working really hard, too.  Working on crawling…

…mastering her pouty look…

Trying to steal scraps of food from her parents every chance she gets… (This was at our pizza party this week – Zach calls every night we have pizza a pizza party, by the way.)

…and getting better and better at standing on her own.

She also is babbling like crazy and has managed to learn “dada” and can repeat after us if we prod her enough.  I was heartbroken at the beginning that her first word wasn’t “mama” – more proof that Zach is the favorite parent already.

Thursday night Zach and I went out on a date and my mom and dad watched Sloan for the night.  Since I am still nursing, date night also means I can wear clothes that don’t have to be Sloan accessible.  I thought “I’ll wear my jumpsuit, since I won’t be feeding Sloan”.  Do you want to know what nobody tells you about jumpsuits?  You have to get pretty much completely naked to pee.  So there’s that.  We ate at the Copper Onion and elected to sit at the Chef’s table.  You smell terrible when you get home, but it’s worth all the action that you get to witness.

Saturday we went to dinner with Zach’s parents at Market Street.  Sloan managed to destroy a couple of menus, but other than that she was a total champ.

Sunday after church we had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner and my parents joined us later.  Blake and Britt brought a bubble gun for Sloan and she was in heaven for almost an hour on the front porch.

We grilled salmon and asparagus and I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I realize it’s not fall – but it’s always the right time (at least in the mind of a Fotheringham) for some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

We put Sloan down for bed and the six of us stayed up planning an upcoming family trip.  We rarely get to spend time together with all six of us – just because of work schedules, church callings, and such – so it was nice to talk and be together for a while.

Sloan has duped me.  I have moments during the day when she convinces me I can have a thousand babies.  She is the sweetest, happiest girl.  She sleeps really well at night, but lately has decided naps during the day are lame…so she has axed them.  So we have been working on taking short naps in her crib.  Slowly, but surely, we are making progress.  At first Sloan would only fall asleep in her crib if I was holding her hand.  I wasn’t complaining, though.

Then we graduated to sitting outside of the crib and singing songs until she fell asleep.  Practice makes perfect.  As soon as she shuts her eyes I use my Navy SEAL training to exit her nursery.

I also use that same training to run errands alone with Sloan.  We got so much accomplished this week.  She even nursed like an olympian in my car between runs to the party store, wholesale supply store, and grocery store before our adventure down to Provo.  I am still helping to design a corporate building down south and took Sloan along with me this week.  She slept the entire meeting and all the way back home.

This week my mom came along with Sloan and I to run more errands for her upcoming blessing.  We have quite the group coming – a million Hendersons and a slew of Fotheringham’s makes quite the crew.  I know I am already forgetting something, but we are just gonna roll with it.

Afterwards we went and visited her Gramps at my parents’ house for lunch.  Sloan loves sitting up like a big girl.  She is such a little show-off.

I’ve been working on some other fun projects here and there for work.  I am again, so grateful to be able to work from home.  I helped a friend design her business cards for Alt Summit, which was this week…

Thursday Zach and I went out, just the two of us, to dinner and to see American Sniper.  My parents watched Sloan.  We are lucky both sets of grandparents are so willing to tend her.  It does help that she is such a mellow baby.  I never thought I would be one of those moms who missed their child while they were away, but I am totally guilty in the worst way.  We both loved our time together, and plan to do it more often, but couldn’t wait to have her back, tagging along with us.

Back to napping – we are also getting better at napping in clothes, which is a huge step.  This child smiles instantly the moment she sees me after a nap.  She has bewitched me…

We had a family dinner date with some of Zach’s siblings at Brio on Saturday.  Sloan loves to be held by her aunts.  They are pros compared to her rookie mom.  My sister-in-law even showed me the delicate art of nursing in a public restroom.  Sloan didn’t skip a beat, but I was in uncharted territory.  I despise public restrooms.

We also did round two of church.  She was a champ and barely made a peep the entirety of sacrament meeting.

Sloan can keep playing up this angel baby routine.  She is going to have her parents wrapped around her tiny (but pudgy) finger.