About time!

Finally a good forecast

Little Man's progress

Andrew and I looked back on some of the first videos we took of Grayson. It is amazing how much he's changed in 9 months! Besides how much stronger and more expressive he is now the main thing I noticed was his eyes. In the early videos he definitely looks like someone who woke up but hasn't found their glasses yet. He's looking in a direction, but you can tell he's not really looking at anything specific. These days he's intently focused on things even from across the room. He'll spot one of his favorite toys and you can see him decide to go get it- and then he's off!

Three Things: July 18

1. G is clear of his ear infection!

2. Blue Bell

3. My parents and inlaws - even though they don't live in the same town as we do, both sets are great supports for us!

Three Things: June 21

1. My new alarm clock- G's babbling! He has been waking up about 6:30 am and talking to himself until I go in there.

2. Almost 3 weeks off of work starting Thursday- I can't wait

3. Diet Dr. Pepper. I keep trying to quit it. I keep loving it.

Please, no pictures

Father's Day

This is a great article, if nothing else to remind me how lucky I am that Andrew is the type of Dad who doesn't need to read it!

Father's Day

Three Things: June 17

Yesterday's three things:

1. Date night with the hubs

2. Grayson's AMAZING mood - so cheery!

3. An amazing chili relleno. I'm trying to figure out how to replicate - quinoa and butternut squash

Three Things: June 16

Three things I'm thankful for today:

1. That my turn for the new Sookie Stackhouse novel finally came at the library, and for the husband that picked it up for me.

2. My new running shoes- nothing feels as cushy as brand new sneakers.

3. A puppy that wants to be in the same room as me, even when she's tired.

Triathlon Results

So I did the triathlon last weekend. I really enjoyed it, although I really should have trained for it. I loved the all women aspect and how much fun it was. I think I'll do it again!

Friday

Here's what I actually got done:

• Paint the half bath - yes (although it isn't put back together completely yet)
  
• Paint the pantry shelves- no
  
• Work on weave pole training with Chuy - no
  
• Open a college savings account for Grayson - yes, but it isn't funded yet
  
• Make and freeze some baby food - no
  
• Buy a baby gate from Lowes - yes (I cheated though and did this on Thursday)
  
• Buy Adirondack chairs from Home Depot - yes
  
• Weed the front garden - no
  
• Menu plan for all of June - no
  
• Make slipcovers for the chairs in the front room - no
  
• Look for fabric for new pillow covers in the game room - no
  
• Bathe Chuy - yes (again, on Thursday)

However, I also:

• Returned somethings to Nordstrom's Rack and Old Navy
• Went on a bike ride with Andrew
• Went out to dinner with a friend
  

Nursery Redo

When we were told we were having a girl, my sister came from Atlanta and very sweetly painted the nursery. I picked a pinky lavender.

Then she came out, and was a he.

So I had to repaint. And buy new crib sheets. And rethink the purple and pink wreath hanging above the crib.

Here's the girl nursery aka before:

And here's the after:

Friday

I have Friday off from work, but the daycare is still open. I have FAR too long a list of things I would like to do with that time, especially now that Andrew is taking half a day off.

So in my 4 hours, I would like to:

• Paint the half bath (I haven't picked a paint color yet)
• Paint the pantry shelves
• Work on weave pole training with Chuy
• Open a college savings account for Grayson
• Make and freeze some baby food
• Buy a baby gate from Lowes
• Buy Adirondack chairs from Home Depot
  
• Weed the front garden
• Menu plan for all of June
• Make slipcovers for the chairs in the front room
• Look for fabric for new pillow covers in the game room
• Bathe Chuy

41 days to go

In 41 days I will be doing my first triathlon. It is a sprint distance and I'm hoping to finish in under 2 hours.

Swimming: aiming for 30 minutes (1/2 mile)
Biking: aiming for 40 minutes (12 miles)
Running: aiming for 35 minutes (3 miles)

That gives me some time for the transitions...which I hear are the trickiest part.

We'll see how I do! I know Andrew and Grayson will be there to cheer me on no matter what!

Big Laughs

Grayson and I went to Dallas for Easter.

He laughs a ton, but it isn't easy to catch on film. My mom got a great one.

Amazing

Also, how does he not break his ankles?

Hungry Monkey

All the books say the best thing for Grayson's language development is to be read to. That's nice in theory, but you try to get between our three month old and his nightly snack. His attention span is even shorter than most of our books (and baby books take about 3 minutes to read). I still try to read one board book to him a day when he gets home from daycare, but we've started something that has turned into one of the best times of the day.

During Grayson's last nursing session of the night we nurse on the bed and Andrew sits on the bed with us and reads out loud. Since Grayson can't see pictures anyway while he's nursing we read from a real book. Our first book is Hungry Monkey, A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater. It's great because a) it's funny, b) the eating habits of babies and toddlers have become much more interesting to us in the the past few months, and c) it's well divided into chapters that take about 15 minutes to read out loud.

It is already a really special time to me. Sometimes Chuy gets on the bed too and then we've got the whole fam together. I love that Grayson goes to sleep listening to his dad's voice and cuddling with his mom. It gives Andrew and me a shared experience and something to laugh about together. I think it is something we will all look back on fondly and I hope we figure out a way to continue it for many years- even when the nightime snack changes to warm cow's milk and the books switch to Dr. Suess for a while!

There are recipes at the end of every chapter, so we are trying out two this week- wish me luck!

Little G

He keeps getting cuter!

Guest Bathroom

For the guest bath, I had a lot of trouble deciding on the wall color. I wanted it to be pretty light since it is a small room. I have some samples up and I'm thinking I really like "seaglass" a light blue/green. Once we add brushed nickle accessories and a new mirror we will pretty much be there!

11:14 am to 11:21 am

We live next to a field, and thus have field mice. So far we have been successful at keeping them out of the living areas of our house, but they are definitly in the backyard, garage and occasionally the walls of our house. We have put up traps, baited the traps, and put peppermint oil in the attic and garage to try and discourage them, but our only success so far has been our terrier. She's caught two- here's the most recent:

11:14 am: I'm on a conference call where the partner has not shown up yet; we are all talking while we wait for him. I decide to take the juice container to the recycle bin

11:15 am: Hear rustling in the lawn refuse bag. Go inside, call Chuy to come out. Mouse runs from lawn bag to underneath AC unit

11:16 am: Chuy and I go check the garage to see if he's gotten in there- nothing. Back outside, Chuy tries to dig under the AC unit to get at the mouse.

11:17 am: Mouse makes a break for it. Chuy catches mouse. I scream. I worry slightly if the neighbors can hear my shrieks, but can't stop them. I hang up on the conference call

11:18 am: Call Andrew, no answer. Shrieking continues as Chuy parades around the yard with her kill.

11:19 am: Andrew calls back. I shriek into the phone at him that he must come home now and get Chuy to drop the mouse. He explains he has a meeting with the CEO in a few minutes. I do not find that to be a good enough reason not to come home this instant. We hang up.

11:20 am: I get a hold of myself (slightly) and go get two cookies. I trade Chuy two cookies for one mouse and try to contain it without looking at it.

11:21 am: I send Andrew this picture. I start to breathe again.

Half a bathroom, full redo

I want (eventually - don't freak out Andrew) to work on all the bathrooms in our house. I don't like to touch anything until I get a full vision of what I want, and the easiest way for me to visualize what I'm thinking is to make mood boards. My main problem (besides time, money and energy) is that I used to make my mood boards in Visio, but I don't have Visio anymore. I found a website that you can make online mood boards with pictures from the web (and it remembers where you got the picture from) but I forgot the website. So I'm working in Powerpoint. It's okay. I don't adjust to change well, but I'm trying.

The half bath downstairs plan: Take out a linear towel rod that has no obvious purpose, paint the cabinets the darker color and the walls the lighter color. Replace the builder standard light fixture, mirror and faucet with oil rubbed bronze items and add a roman shade (I still need to research to make sure we can get light and privacy with the shade). Here's my moodboard:

Favorite thing

My favorite thing, possibly ever, is listening to Andrew read to Grayson.

Baby Products

When Andrew and I found out we were pregnant, I immediately started researching every product we would need for the baby. I wanted to know what we would need and wouldn't, and for the things we would, which ones should we get. Here's what's been crucial so far:

Second car- With me traveling all week for work and Andrew within biking distance of b-school, we had been living with one car for the 2 1/2 years we'd been married, and it had worked great. Then we put a car seat in our Subaru Impreza Outback. It had to go on the passenger's side with the passenger seat pushed up to an almost ridiculous level. With two people (or 4 a few times) + baby it was...crowded. Then try adding a dog. I think we lasted 2 weeks. We got a new car and my knees thanked me (since I was the one on the passenger's side).

Carseat- We got the Chicco Key Fit 30 with two bases. Thank goodness we got the 30 (meaning it goes up to 30lbs) because we had a big boy! He's likely to hit the normal max (22lbs) well before a year. It's easy to install correctly, and with two bases either one of us can pick Grayson up from daycare.

Pack and Play- We got a very simple model with out a lot of bells and whistles. I'm really glad we did because it is pretty easy to pack up and not that heavy. Also, I'm sure I would have used some of the extras, but we didn't miss them. Grayson slept in the bassinet attachment for the first 2 1/2 months in our room.

Swaddles- They recommend swaddling to help babies sleep better on their backs. The nurses in the hospital can wrap a baby up in any blanket, but for us it was difficult. The velcro swaddles were much easier, especially in the middle of the night!

Boppy- This was something I wasn't sure about, but went with. It's great- I used it to learn to nurse in the hospital and still use it for nursing now. It was also great in the hospital for Andrew and my parents to hold Grayson and have arm support - my room had a bench and a chair, but nothing with arms!

Stroller- I wanted something lighter, but still full featured. We ended up with one that worked with our carseat- awesome for the early days and for when G falls asleep on the way somewhere. We love it! For sun, we have this, and it works great.

Bottles- I wanted glass since it's better for freezing and non reactive (even though most plastic bottles are supposed to be much safer these days). I also wanted silicone nipples. We ended up with Dr. Brown's and have been very happy. They are supposed to reduce gas, but since they are the only ones we've had I'm not sure if they do or not. I was worried about them breaking and did a bunch of looking around for protectors. I had these for a week or so, but it took more arm muscles and time then I had to get them off and on. Then I found these. They are perfect- insulating and protecting!

Diapers-I really wanted to go cloth, but it was something I was really unsure if I could handle it. I'd heard horror stories, including one about a couple who lived off solar heat, built their own house, grew all their own food, etc. who just couldn't handle cloth diapers. There are so many types and options out there, and they all have people who love them and who hate them. I picked one that looked good and hoped for the best. We actually had a lot of trouble with them at first. The newborn size did not fit below his navel like it was supposed to, so we had to use disposables until his cord fell off. Then he grew out of the XS two weeks later and in the meantime they leaked a lot. I did a diaper trial, where I could try out a bunch of different types (amazing by the way, love the idea and the website we got them from). However, I didn't like any of the diapers.

Andrew and I had a long talk about whether or not we could do this. In a last ditch effort, I ordered the small size of the cloth diapers we had originally tried. I love them! They are great- they work just like disposables except you wash them. They don't leak unless I let them go too long, so now I just keep an eye on the clock and change him after two hours even if G hasn't asked for it. At night we use what we call the oompa loompa - a diaper cover and a stay dry envelope with two hemp inserts and one microfiber insert, and it lasts from 7 pm - 5 am. He looks a little bottom heavy in it, but it works. Also key to our success - a diaper sprayer and a good travel bag. I know a lot of people who use bum genius diapers like the one size, but we found them really bulky, so we went for the sized diapers.

Pump- I actually did no research on this. My workplace is pretty progressive and so to encourage women to come back to work after a baby they provide a hospital grade breast pump. The one I got works great so far- 15 minutes and I have enough for two feedings! From what I've read a good pump really be a hard thing to find, so I feel very lucky.

Hands Free Pumping Bra- I don't know who pumps and doesn't have anything better to do with their time then sit there and hold the containers, but I guess those folks wouldn't need this. For me, it's been a game changer. Pumping works best for me when I'm not too focused on it, and it's hard not to focus on it if you have to hold it.

Dinners

Thanks primarily to an extra freezer, my parents, and my in-laws I took about 2 months off from cooking after G was born. I cooked a lot of things ahead of time, and both sets of grandparents took over while they were here (and made some extras to freeze as well). Once they left, Andrew started clearing out the freezer day by day, and it all lasted until a few weeks ago.

So I'm back on kitchen duty. I had a pretty good system before, but it needs a few adjustments now that we have the little man.

Since we got married I've learned that I need to cook 4 dinners a week. The pattern that works best is a grocery store trip on Saturday morning, cooking on Saturday and Sunday, eat leftovers on Monday, cook Tuesday and Wednesday, eat leftovers on Thursday, and go out to dinner on Friday. The only problem with this is that I hate eating leftovers, but it has to happen.

Somehow, whenever I go out of town without Andrew, this all goes out the window and I worry he won't have enough to eat. I will leave for 3 days and cook him enough food for a whole week. Then I get all disappointed when there is still food left when I get back, even though he's taken his lunch every day to work and eaten at home every night.

Now that we have Grayson, I'm learning to love the slow cooker and that the "hands on" time of a recipe is very important. Last night I made mushroom pot pies, and although they were ok, they took FOREVER to make. The other day I started to make a pasta dish and G got hungry, so Andrew had to sub in partway through. In two weeks I will go back to work and I'm sure the slow cooker will become our primary dinner mechanism, so I will be looking for recipes!

Grayson

Here's a little of what's been keeping me busy lately!