Look who's talking

Just for fun...here is another video of Michael. I have these grand visions of editing my clips in imovie along with photos and music, but this will have to do for now. Enjoy!

Baby Faces

I thought this was a funny sequence of Michael's faces.




Gosh, when did he learn to use those eyebrows? Or should I say, who did he learn that from?

Just call him Johnny

...as in, Johnny Jump Up!

My mom ordered Michael this jumpy from Amazon.com and had it sent to our house! What a lifesaver-Michael loves it! We have the perfect door frame for it between our kitchen and dining room where he can jump while I putter around. It also works well in our laundry room doorway but I haven't really been doing too much laundry lately! (need to get on that!)



He's checking out his new friends!

I took a short 30 second video-enjoy!

No. 10

...snow days.

Today my district called it's 10th snow day for the year. I think that is a record or something. It's been a week since I've been to school and Michael has been to daycare. We ventured out of the house today to get a couple of groceries and the roads were pretty snowy, however it was nice to be out.

Let's hope this weather improves soon! It has already been a long winter and I will probably be going to school all of June!

Rough night

We've been having some rough nights of sleep lately. I'm not really sure what it is...but it is getting pretty tiring!

I've been trying to have Scott get up and try and soothe M back to sleep. Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't and I just end up with two cranky boys on my hands.

I've loaded up my amazon.com cart with a ton of infant sleep books, so hopefully that should give me some perspective and hopefully some solutions. Luckily, you can buy most of the books used for just a couple of dollars...maybe that should be a hint or something?

Speaking of books, we are studying Romans in my small group bible study. I printed some questions off last night and we had a really good discussion, probably our best ever! It was really fun and gave us a lot to think about. I think we are going to take a class as a group during Lent which should be a nice change of pace. It has been so fun getting hooked up with this small group...such a blessing! They even listen to all my stories about things I heard on NPR or saw on TV since those are pretty much the only things I do these days. :o)

Here is the link for the bible study I found online, just in case you are interested!

Discoveries...

Michael has discovered his cute little tongue and has lots of fun sticking it out at us.



Luckily, we aren't too offended when he does it.



Who, me?

I would never stick my tongue out at my mommy!

Busy Baby

When mom was here on Monday she set up M's playpen for him so he could keep himself busy. He loves it!

Nothing like a little over stimulation, right?

Heck, I'll take it-if it means he will nap in his swing afterwards!

More Ice...

I ventured out to snap some photos-it was pretty slippery! My poor, poor trees...we just had them planted this fall-remember? I tried to shake some of the ice off the branches, but all that resulted was a raining of little twigs. Any ideas?

ICE (and Weekend Recap)

(images: dmregister.com)

It's been an ice storm across the whole state for the past two days. The good news is that today is another snow day! Yesterday was one too, but it was my normal day off. So today I get one too!

It started raining at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday night (I know this because I was awake then!) and then it froze Wednesday morning. It got pretty warm yesterday and lots of it melted off, but then it refroze again overnight. I'm so happy we are all safe and warm at home! The last time we had ice, we lost power for a couple of days so we've had our furnace cranked just in case. So far, so good!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we were in Muscatine for the weekend. Scott was trying to help his mom install Windows 7 on her computer and get everything updated. It was a nice excuse to visit them for the weekend. Michael got to spend lots of time with his grandparents!

We had a really great car ride there and back thanks to the new development of Michael taking a bottle. He was even doing so well that we stopped in Iowa City and had dinner at Chili's! Scott hasn't taken me out for dinner in a long time!



It was a very relaxing weekend. There wasn't a TV in the bedroom I was nursing in, so I got a chance to start on a book mom gave me when M was first born. Maybe I should stop watching TV? Imagine all the great stuff I would get done!

Scott's parents recently moved out to the country into this big old house (over 100 years old). It was an orphanage at one time. How cool is that?





They have done lots of work to it and I would have fun making it all country and shabby chic. Their property has lots of out buildings including a chicken coop. If I lived there I would totally be like Martha and raise all those crazy types of chickens.



On our way home we stopped in Williamsburg at the outlet mall to see what deals we could get at the Carter's outlet. We got three outfits for $25! This one was super cute and fits well. Can you believe this little guy is wearing 9 month clothes pretty consistently?

We got home to Scampy who had found a new bed in my Christmas wreaths. How cozy does he look?

That felt good!

Today was the first day in while that I was home and had the day to myself. Let me tell you--it felt great! I actually got things done and got to have Michael to myself!

This past weekend we were at Scott's parents and so it was busy from Friday-Sunday with getting everything ready to travel, traveling, and just being out of our routine. On Monday I had an inservice at school so my mom came on Sunday night to watch Michael during my meetings. I was so glad she could come because after the rough start to daycare, I didn't want to leave him with a new stranger. I think they both had a really great time! Tuesday was a morning of meetings on top of my normal teaching day so I was out of the house early while Scott got Michael ready and dropped him off at daycare.

So today...I was pretty tired! Mom got my off to a good start by leaving my house very clean (thanks mom!) and so I did a couple loads of laundry today and finished taking down the rest of my Christmas decorations, which was followed by an hour long intense vacuuming session thanks to all of my super dried out greenery. Michael had a great day playing and took a couple good naps. I told myself I would read a couple pages of my book while he slept, but I ended up snoozing for two hours with him! I guess I needed it!



Michael likes his new toy hanging bar that my mom hooked up for him.



Those hands are always in his mouth!

How is everyone out there doing? Surviving this crazy January? Got your holiday decorations down yet?

NYE

20 days after the new year is not too late to post about our New Years Eve, right??

We had a great time and I have been meaning to post about it, but other things kept getting in the way, like the whole going back to work/daycare/bottle thing.

We hosted our friends and had our first party in the basement. We watched the ISU football team beat Minnesota in the Insight Bowl and then had a great time. We all managed to stay up until midnight with minimal yawns! (except for Michael of course....he slept the WHOLE night and missed out on everything-which was fine with me!)

Nate and Kylie joined us on their way back from their vacation in Branson and brought us chocolate from the Russell Stover store! Yum! We enjoyed games of spoons and Egyptian ratscrew.

Mini-pizzas.

What card is it going to be??

(and check out that shiny countertop-wowzers!)

Just a small sampling of the tons of food we had. We were stuffed!

The ping pong table was sooo fun, although Scott and I need to get some practicing in so we can school our guests when they come over! :o)

Some of our friends were surprisingly good at the sport and our tree didn't get too damaged in the chaos!



Everyone stayed over and the next morning we had a great breakfast...and we heard the report that only one person threw up in our new bathroom! :o) It was funny because seriously we are not really that big of party-ers...but we did have a good time! (My friend Joni brought over an extra large bottle of wine she knew I liked...just because she thought I might need it!)



Michael was up and in full force at breakfast, and was enjoying his conversation with Susie!

We had such a great time and loved seeing everyone. We will have to think of an excuse to do it again soon! :o)

Into the Mystic...

It has been super foggy here in the mornings....which hasn't gone away all day. It feels like a magical world and is so pretty unless you are driving in traffic and can't see who is coming!

Michael is 3 Months!

Happy 1/4 Birthday, Michael!

Your little personality is really shining through. You are a very happy baby and you love looking at people's faces and giving them a big smile along with a long "story".

As demonstrated in the above photos, you love to chew on your hands and fingers!

You are becoming more aware of the world around you and as long as there is something exciting going on to watch, you are a happy baby! Your increasing awareness has also attributed to your distraction during feeding times and you don't want to sit down to eat if there are other interesting things going on!

I am amazed at how your little hands that used to be curled in tight little fists are now open and ready to explore everything! You are starting to grab things and are getting stronger every day.

You have very happy feet and love to kick your legs. We need to get you a jumpy seat soon!

We had Michael's photos taken at Portrait Innovations. We were in and out with prints in hand in an hour. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Mom vs. The Bottle

First of all, thank you all so much for your nice comments about Michael and the bottle! It was so reassuring to hear from you and it helped me feel much better! Sometimes you just gotta let it out, right?

Trying to find a bottle that Michael liked was a feat in itself. He originally would take the little Medela bottles that came with my pump when he was first born. But did you know that babies suck reflexively until they are about two months old? So it doesn't even really matter what type of bottle-they will take pretty much anything? At any rate, we weren't really giving him bottles too often because I would only be out for a short bit if I left him with anyone.

So we tried the Dr. Brown's bottles, the Breastflow bottles, even a Nuk bottle. We ended up going with the Playtex Drop-Ins. I like them because I can just use the little milk storage freezer bags right in the bottle without having to use an actual drop-in liner. Less waste is good, right? We are now the proud owners of three bottles and multiple nipples for this brand, along with about a dozen other bottles and all their paraphernalia. Which I also think is a ploy by big business just to get you to buy everything in the store. So new mothers take this advice: just go to Target now and buy every bottle on the shelf, because that is what you will end up doing anyway!

Michael vs. the Bottle

First of all, look at this sweet little face!!


This has been a rough week at our house. After Tuesday's rough day at daycare, we decided to have bottle bootcamp at our house on Wednesday to try and get Michael to take the dreaded and feared bottle. The morning was pretty rough; he would fuss and cry and we'd have to give it a couple of tries before he would latch on. Gradually as the day went on, he would accept the bottle more and more willingly until he took it right away and went to sleep when Scott gave him his final bottle of the day. Finally, success! I can't tell you how much of a relief it was!!

A relief, yes-but also it made me a little sad. He doesn't even need me anymore! He doesn't even like to gaze up at me when he's taking a bottle!

Why do I have to feel so guilty for every thing I do as a parent. I stay home and I feel guilty because he isn't getting used to being in someone else's care. I feel guilty I am not making more money. I go to work and I feel guilty that I am leaving him in someone else's care. I feel guilty that I am not doing a better job of keeping our home neat because I am out of the house all day. I am breastfeeding to try and give my baby what people say is best, and I feel guilty because no one else can feed him. I teach him to take a bottle, and I feel guilty because maybe he is losing out on bonding time.

Argh!!!! Why do we do this to ourselves? Why can't we just stop with the mommy guilt?

Drool master

"That one touched the ground!"

Seriously, it is out of control!

Winter Wonderland

It was the most beautiful morning yesterday. I whipped out my iphone and snapped a couple photos on my drive to school-did I mention how much I love that thing?

(and I did slow down to a crawl while taking these...it was on a very deserted county road-a bonus for going to work after the morning rush!)

I also snapped some of the tree in front of the school. This was all when my day was getting off to a great start-I had my coffee, Michael and I had a great morning, my plans were all ready for the day, students sounded great....then after rehearsal I got a call to come pick up Michael from daycare because he was refusing to eat and was screaming.

I left school right away (thank you, awesome administrator for letting me leave on my 2nd day back!), picked him up and he was totally fine the rest of the night. He was very social during my small group bible study (flirted with the group of retirees near us-what is it with older people and babies?) and even took two ounces out of a bottle.

We'll see it how it goes from here-it can only get better, right?

Weekend Wrap-Up

On Saturday we braved this:

...to take a day trip home to northwest Iowa to see my family and help celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. How ridiculous is that snow? I feel like as soon as we left central Iowa, it was so snowy! At one point we had to wait while the huge road snow blower went through and carved out a path for us. We probably didn't take the best route on the way there but still it was an adventure!



Michael was so excited to meet his great grandma for the first time! This is her first great grandson, so she was excited to meet him too! I thought grandma looked great, and I was glad we made the trip back home to see her.

Grandpa also had a great time showing off his grandson to everyone!

Before we headed out of town, we stopped to see my friend Brianne and her daughter Kadence. We've been friends forever and it was nice to see her and see how big her daughter has gotten. Kadence was born just a few weeks before Michael and it is fun to see how similiar they are! It makes me sad sometimes we don't live back home; how fun would it be for our kids to be in the same class just like we were??

It was so nice being at home that I wish we would have stayed longer, but I played with the orchestra at the 8 a.m. service on Sunday so I wanted to get back to our house.

All things considered, Michael did very well during his first long car trip. He only had one meltdown on the way home and as soon as we stopped to nurse, he was fine for the rest of the trip. It is nice that he likes to "play" and can be easily distracted by toys with lights and music!

I'm glad it is only a few hours to my hometown; when I was growing up we had to drive all the way across the state to get to my grandparents. It was an all day ride in the car and those Hardees we took pit stops at across Iowa are icons of my childhood. However, I am glad we made so many trips there-they are special memories to me and hopefully Michael will have them same ones of visiting his grandparents, no matter how near or far they are!

Show us your life- New Year Resolutions

Ah...that time of year for reevaluating your year and setting goals for the next one. Last year I feel like I was pregnant for the WHOLE year, so needless to say- I am looking forward to a year without being pregnant!

Here are my new year's res's:

1. Establish a cleaning routine to maintain order and sanity in my house



Having a baby really limits my time and energy I have to dedicate to my home, however I still want to keep it in tip top shape. So, I want to establish some sort of routine/schedule for cleaning and organizing to help me out. I will keep you updated on how this is going!

2. Improve my health

I am doing weight watchers to try and lose some of the baby weight (and pre-baby weight), as well as doing *some* sort of exercise every day. Right now I have been doing workout videos on netflix watch now and it is pretty fun! This is a far cry from my pre-pregnancy workout regimen, but we'll see how it goes! Optimism never hurts, right?

3. Savor every day


Gosh, the past three months have gone by so fast I am scared to think how fast the next year will go by. At this time next year, I will have a little toddler on my hands! And I bet you it will be here in just a blink of an eye. Days go fast, so make them last! :o)