So that saying, April showers bring May flowers… I think it goes something like this for north east Ohio:
April is cold and has some snow, while May is wet and slightly less cold.
Yep, no rhyming there. Cassie, I know you read this, come up with something clever woudja?
Today I’ve spent a little time changing the look of this blog, in an effort to revitalize myself and it. From pretty much day 1 of blogging, it’s been all about me. I’d like to switch gears a little bit and do some more topical focuses (though, yes, really this blog is still about me… unless Brian ever decides to pick up the pen)
My desire to change the focus of this blog has a lot to do with the fact that when I re-read my posts, I’m kind of bored. Are you bored too? It’s great to keep up with what has happened during the week, and I intend to keep doing that because I do believe a record of life is great for posterity (there’s my genealogy nerd coming out). Hence the re-naming of this blog: Real Life Isn’t Always Clever. Sometimes life isn’t perfect. Or exciting to read about.
But I also want to expand and talk about some of the other thoughts that roll around in my head some days. Here’s a snippet of some of the things I’d like to talk about:
Baby Sign Language – yep, I’m doing it.
Pumping at Work
Garden
Basement Re-model
Making baby food
Digital scrapbooking
I have been blogging since 2002. I have all of those posts transferred here (and privat-ized because this blog is intended to be about Brian and I and our family, not about me and before I met him). But I thought it might be fun to re-post part of my first journal entry to the Internet. I am only doing part, because it’s full of such incredible nerdiness.
First Entry…
Well then… here’s my first entry… it’s a bit strange posting on the internet for a journal and all. But anyway. Tonight I have fencing lessons at the local recreation center. I’m the only left-handed person in the class so I get to do everything opposite, but we have a lot of fun. I don’t really want to go tonight though, lots of homework *yummy*
Not much else I suppose… I created this so I could join the LiveJournal rpg, The Sanctuary, a Harry Potter based rp. Hmmm… here’s my character:
I had to remove this long part, for your sake, dear reader.
I also rp on Silklantern, and used to on the Santharian Dream… more later…
And that is the end. And no, I do not rp (or role play) anymore.
On Wednesday, Jameson had his 4 month (2 weeks late) appointment. He is in perfect health, still a little peanut in the 10th percentile for weight. He weighed 13.4 pounds and is 24-1/2 inches long. He even showed off for us, rolling over! I finally got to see him do it, but alas he is still camera shy so I don’t have video of him rolling to share just yet.
Doc said he is gummy, so no teeth yet! And I could’ve sworn he really was actively teething… guess he was just being cranky. My baby is still toothless for sure.
The doctor gave us the go ahead to start feeding him cereal. We asked about what kinds of foods to give him since he has this odd habit of “holding it in” for days. Not regular at all. So she recommended some oatmeal or multi-grain with more fiber in it.
Though, really, we probably could’ve started sooner… but I kind of like my little sweet baby. I have mixed feelings across the board when it comes to Mr. Jameson getting bigger. I love seeing him do new things and become more active, but sometimes I miss him when he was wee little, sleepy all the time (particularly on mom) and I was home just drinking him in.
Anyway, he has been sticking his tongue out at us for about a week now and knowing he has more control over it, it seemed appropriate to start teaching him the spoon on Friday.
He liked it the oatmeal plus milk… up until the point where he decided that the spoon wasn’t fast enough dangit! But on Sunday for his second try, he got really good at it and ate more. He also tried to chomp and grab at the spoon himself, so I suppose it might become his new favorite toy.
Saturday, Brian and I celebrated my 26th birthday. I am on the later half of the twenties now, which I suppose makes me old awesome. Brian will always be older though, so I don’t mind. Jameson got me Pinocchio which we are going to watch together, and a digital picture frame. Funny that we had gotten one for every other member of the family but never had one ourselves! I already put some photos in it.
Speaking of picture frames, I have a small pile now of black frames which I want to put up in the entry way or stairway, I can’t decide, in a method similar to this:
Or these others.
On Friday, work had a huge sample sale, and I accumulated some more picture frames for this purpose, as well as some other giftable items and craft supplies. One of these days, I’ll get around to crafting again. Just have to find that time. My next project will be a table runner and/or placemats. And maybe some new pillow covers? And some pants for Jameson. I have lots of sewing books, and somewhere I have that DVD which will show me for the 20th time how to thread my sewing machine…
I have pictures in my queue for editing! We had a great weekend, visiting lots of extended family and enjoying Easter dinner. Friday night we visited my aunt and uncle, cousin Carrie and Brian and their daughters. So I was curious as to what exactly Jameson is in relation to their daughters, and my guess was second cousins once removed. Was I right?
According to Cousin Calculator, Jameson and my cousin’s daughters are actually only second cousins. Removed references a generation difference:
“When the word “removed” is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations.
The words “once removed” mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your father’s first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. This is because your father’s first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals “once removed.” The one-generation difference has nothing to do with age, but rather with descendance from the same person.
Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger than a first cousin of your grandmother, so you and your grandmother’s first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.”
Therefore, my relationship to my cousin’s daughters is that we are first cousins, once removed.
Jameson sat in a borrowed high chair for the first time; not to eat, but just to sit with us as we ate salmon marinated in a honey and balsamic vinegar (plus a few other ingredients but we didn’t see the recipe). The fish was baked and was a little sweet. Very good. I forgot my camera though! I was very disappointed. They took a few photos though, I will have to see if I can get a hold of them.
On Saturday, we drove about 2 hrs and 45 min, Jameson’s longest car ride. He slept the entire time! We were so excited to see Brian’s grandmother in good spirits, talking and reaching out to hold Jameson. It is the best we have seen her in several years. We have some wonderful photos of Jameson and his great grandmother. I couldn’t help but be a bit of paparazzi, simply thinking that if my grandmother were still around, I would want a thousand photos of him and her together. We never know how much time we’ll have.
Sunday, I dressed Jameson in his Easter finest, and Brian was super pumped dressed to match him. We took some family photos, of which I only have one right now, but I have some great outtakes which I’ll be posting to flickr soon. We managed to get Sasha in the photo nicely, I think the only photo we have of all of us together, in focus (since she likes to move so much, of course!).
I don’t know if I have mentioned, but poor Sasha has been to the vet a lot recently! After the infection in her leg, she then got a hematoma on her ear, which I think is fairly common for dogs (could have been caused by her scratching her ear). We have opted not to do surgery on it though because of her older age and because antibiotics would be harmful to her already compromised liver. So it’s a big pocket of blood on her ear, but apparently smaller as far as hematomas go, and we’re just waiting for it to heal on its on. On top of that, she started limping again on Sunday so we have confined her again to the first floor. Brian had to sleep downstairs that first night but she’ll learn quickly again. We’re waiting a few days before going to the vet again; thus far, the limp doesn’t seem to be getting worse and actually seemed slightly better, we shall see.
Of course, the biggest, best news I have saved for last! On Sunday, Jameson rolled over, belly to back! I have yet to see it, and we don’t have it on video yet, but when we do I will be posting it (we have probably 20 minutes now from various 5 minute attempts of tummy time to get this rolling over on video, haha). His first roll was on Sunday morning while I slept in: Brian turned around while Jameson was on his belly and when he turned back, Jameson was happily on his back. He did it again later while Brian’s parents and sister were over for Easter dinner. None of us but Brian saw it though. For second I thought he’d do it once more after we put him back on his belly because he tipped himself but then he stopped.
Speaking of video, we have a lot of video captured on our video camera (as opposed to my camera phone which I used in his early days). However, we haven’t edited any of it. Brian’s been talking about exploring iMovie on our first ever Mac computer, but hasn’t had a chance yet. It won’t be long before I steal his thunder though and do it myself, haha.
This weekend is my birthday (and I will finally be on the later half of my 20’s), and Brian and I are having Brian’s sister Melissa babysit for us while we go out to dinner at a fondue place. I love going there because it’s always what I like to call a “slow” meal. Since Brian and I are very quick eaters, its always nice to go somewhere that forces us to slow down and chat a little. Melissa is excited because since Brian’s parents are out of town there’s no “competition” for Jameson’s attention. And a great time will be had by all!
TGIF!
This week went by fairly quickly though actually. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to share some fun news, I am crossing my fingers and toes.
Last Saturday, Jameson visited with his friend Jonathan again. Jonathan is getting so big; he’s also a very hungry little boy! He had 8 oz of formula/milk just while we visited that evening! Meanwhile, Jameson’s pretty casual about his eating (until he gets really hungry like at night). Oh, you would like to feed me now? Okay, I’m game.
Lisa has to go back to work soon, and I know that’s rough, so we definitely wanted to have a fun night with them before their routine changes again. I think sometimes that’s the hardest part. Not really leaving them (because sometimes it’s nice to leave them, really), but it’s just changing up the routine.
And on Monday we finally got to visit with Carrie and Matt and Jameson’s new friend, Nicholas. Nicholas is 2 months old but very alert. Him and Jameson had a little staring contest, it was funny to see them so aware of each other.
This week was also exciting for Jameson; he got to go in the exersaucer at daycare! The exersaucer is the round toy-filled fun standing seat. It helps them practice putting weight on their legs while being surrounded by super fun toys. So Brian put together our exersaucer at home and put a blanket underneath because even at the lowest setting he wasn’t quite touching the ground. Jameson immediately started reaching for the toys. I have a couple photos to post soon.
I also want to share my new favorite site, Pinterest.com. It’s like a bookmark in that you save sites you visit, but it’s all about the images. So I have some new inspiration boards, particularly for our basement which will eventually finish off, and also for Jameson’s first birthday party (it’s never too soon!)
Tonight we’re seeing Jameson’s great Aunt Carol and cousins. It will be a fun visit! And tomorrow we’ll be doing our longest drive with him yet, to visit his great grandma and more aunts and cousins! It will be a fun filled Easter weekend for him, full of family and up to 6 month clothing (since I finally washed it all haha). And maybe he’ll sleep through the night again? He did last night! but not earlier this week, so maybe it’s wishful thinking.
This past week, I realized that I haven’t taken as many photos of Jameson this month as in previous months. It must be because of going back to work, but it made me a little sad because Jameson is so much more active and aware now. I weighed him and he is about 12-1/2 pounds right now. One of the biggest changes this month since he started daycare is his “tummy time”. He will now stay on his tummy for minutes at a time, and his head is way up, about 90 degrees (though not consistently the entire time he’s on his belly). Some of his recent photos demonstrate this, but I love this one from his 4 month photo shoot this weekend.
The second biggest change this past month is the development of his napping schedule. I think I’ve talked about this a couple times already, but okay, it’s still not really a schedule, but at daycare he will sleep 2-3 hours at a time, and at home on the weekends he’ll nap for 30-45 minutes at a time. That may not seem like a big change at home, but he is napping in his crib!
Jameson’s bedtime is also gradually getting earlier. We’re working our way to an 8 o’clock bedtime. A couple weeks before starting back to work, we started him at a real bedtime and routine at 10. Since then we dropped to 9 after daylight savings, and now on most nights it’s 8:30. I’ve been avoiding an earlier bedtime, fearing that he’ll wake up twice at night, but the past two nights he has slept through the entire night (not just the 5-6 hours that doctors consider “through the night”, but a full 8-9 hours) Hopefully the trend continues and it wasn’t just because it was the weekend and he didn’t have as many naps during the day!
His photos on Saturday made him look so big! I put him in shoes, and a white button up onesie which my mom ironed for me last weekend when they were here. It was his “alternative” baptism outfit. He sat there with his little knee upright without my posing. And what a smile, right at me and the camera! He was sitting still enough there’s no blurriness.
Compared with his previous month photos below. I think I’ll have to do a little collage at the end for his 1st birthday party or something.
Can I just point out too, how my photo taking and editing is getting so much better? Look at how yellow the earlier photos are. I’m going to have to go back and re-edit some of those good ones!
In other news, Brian and I left his with Brian’s mom last Monday night while we went to the PACE Awards! Brian’s company didn’t win a trophy, but they did get a plaque, which is wonderful considering they go through thousands of applicants. There were a lot of engineers there, and we saw some great new innovations coming to the auto industry! A couple of my favorites (ie., I could understand what the innovation actually was) were the inflatable seat belt, which is effectively an airbag for the rear seat passenger, coming out on a Ford model. And also the high beam headlights which you don’t need to turn off because they automatically adjust the angles to avoid direct lighting in oncoming traffic, coming in a Mercedes model.
It was fun to get dressed up, and we met with Brian’s client and his wife, some other co-workers who I have met before, and his CEO and his wife. It was wonderful to be able to talk about Jameson (actually having something to talk about).
Jameson did great, and Becky successfully put him to bed without us for the first time. When we left he was giving his grandma all kinds of giggles so I knew he would be fine. He woke up when we got home for a feeding, and slept the rest of the night. The latter half of last week was a little rough on me though for lack of sleep since we got home so late. It was nice to sleep in on Saturday while Brian took Jameson, and I let Brian sleep in on Sunday. This is usually how our weekends go these days, taking turns.
This weekend, Brian has off on Good Friday and will be brewing beer (he says this batch will be a citrus-y IPA); on Saturday we are hopefully going to visit Jameson’s great grandma and more extended family who he hasn’t met yet; and Sunday will be a relaxing day after church for Easter. I am getting two pansy baskets in memory of Brian’s grandpa and my grandma. If it’s nice, I have been thinking about planting lettuce in either a basket over the railing of the porch or in a pot if their roots need more space. I got the idea from a recent Better Homes & Gardens issue. (like this but a little different).
Also, hopefully this week we will finally get to meet little Nicholas; our friends had their baby over a month ago now and due to a series of unfortunate illnesses (us and then them!) we haven’t been able to get together. Hopefully tonight will be the night!
Jameson had a great weekend (and we did as well!). On Saturday, we visited my grandma’s house which we are still cleaning out as its for sale, and Jameson got to meet his great-great aunt Dee (my grandma’s sister). It was really nice to see her, though it is still unfortunate that he never got to meet his great grandmother and being in her house made it a little sad.
He was in a great mood this weekend, even though he didn’t nap very well at all on Sunday! On Saturday, he mostly slept in the carseat because we were on the move so much, first during shopping on Saturday morning and then to grandma’s and back. Sunday he only slept for five 30 minute naps! Usually at daycare he sleeps in a 2 or 3 hour chunk, twice a day.
I think Jameson loved seeing all those people smiling at him on Sunday! He saw both his grandmas and grandpas and his aunts, and his great aunt and uncle! It was disappointing that my brother couldn’t make the trip, since he missed a lovely family photo with Jameson and his family. My dad hadn’t seen Jameson since he was born so it was great he got to see him.
He didn’t fuss much at all, and he slept right through the baptism, waking up at the end of the service. What a little angel! He wore his little bonnet, which was almost too small for him, so it was great that he was able to wear it. Pastor Mike made it fun like usual, and invited the congregation’s children up in aisles so they could see. Pastor Mike even integrated Jameson’s baptism into the sermon, which was really good this week. I was proud to have family with us and see what a great friendly church we attend! Jameson got a certificate, and a keepsake candle and medallion.
I have a better photo of his hat close up, but I didn’t post it to flickr, so here’s one farther away with Pastor Mike. This is the hat that mom made out of my baptismal handkerchief, and gave it to me for his baby shower.
I am so happy to have a nice family photo of just us too; every photo of the 3 of us has been with him sleeping. He was actually alert in this photo, looking around. These photos in the church were hard to edit; the lighting was so weird! I finally got some natural looking skin tones though.
Earlier that weekend, there was some drama on my part trying to decide what he should wear! I had a sweater outfit for him but of course, the weather didn’t cooperate and it was going to be 80 that day! So he wore it that morning but we changed him when we got home. He had little red cheeks most of the day, he certainly wasn’t used to that kind of heat. But I don’t really know why I was so concerned about what he was going to wear, things worked out just fine. Seems like I am often concerned about things that end up fine, particularly where Jameson is concerned. I did buy him a spare outfit which I had mom iron (yes, a baby shirt was ironed). He’ll wear that for his four month photos on Saturday. I can’t believe he’s almost 4 months!
It was so nice though that it was warm. We had the windows open and had a family lunch with spiral ham, pasta salad, baked beans and appetizers, with cheesecake for dessert. Later, we went on a walk while Brian fixed brakes on his car. A great end to a great day!
Tonight, Brian and I are driving 3 hours away for an awards dinner/ceremony for his work! They have been nominated for an award. It is a black tie event, so I am really excited to get dressed up. Jameson will be staying home with Brian’s mom and she is super excited to babysit. It’s the farthest we’ve ever been from him, and the longest we’ve both been away at one time, so I’m sure I will be nervous but it will be good to be away for a little while. Can’t wait!
22 Days Old (newborn size clothing)
14 Weeks Old (up to 6 month clothing)
What a difference! Jameson didn’t want to pose all curled up for this most recent shot. Even sleepy, he doesn’t fold up anymore. Still cute, but not quite as bendable anymore, haha.
I finally got my iMac figured out. I printed some photos at Sam’s to check the colors when printed, and everything is accurate but it’s a touch dark, so I will adjust my screen a bit more and it will be perfect! Whew, that was a pain in the neck. And I still need to go and transfer all my old photos.
This past weekend was pretty uneventful. Jameson continued to have a couple rough nights and I think we have finally determined why. I think he is starting teething! On Sunday, he refused to breastfeed, which is very unusual for him. Even when he’s not hungry he usually loves to nurse; we haven’t had problems since after his tongue tie was cut around 2 weeks. He only wanted to eat from the bottle. Later that night, we tricked him into latching on with the bottle and again with the pacifier. Finally he latched on himself at the late night/early morning feeding and has been good since then. But on Sunday evening I felt around his mouth and discovered a sharp little tooth under the gums! I read that teething is the most common cause of trouble with breastfeeding. At least things are back to normal, for now.
I bought him a Sophie the Giraffe, having heard lots of good things about it. Since Jameson still doesn’t grasp (regularly, anyway) more than his burpcloth or bib or mom’s hair and shirt, the giraffe should be fairly easy for him to hold onto to suck if he wants.
My co-worker’s son likes his a lot.
Recently I’ve been comparing Jameson with her son, who was born on the same day. My friend and I found out we were pregnant the same day, had the same due date, and ended up giving birth on the same day. Her son was 15 pounds even yesterday, and Jameson is only 11-1/2 pounds! She also talks about how close he is to rolling over, grasping things, and even almost sitting up himself when set there. I can’t help but compare a bit, since Jameson isn’t quite that advanced (even though I know Jameson is well within the milestone range and milestones can happen really early and really late, particularly things like crawling and walking). I’m sure Jameson will rollover in his own good time!
He’s a cutie pie!
This week, we are visiting our friends who had their baby a little over a month ago. We wanted to visit earlier but Jameson got his cold. I am excited to see another new baby 🙂
Recently, I had my first incident of unsolicited advice. People say they get it all the time out shopping, and maybe it’s because I don’t shop much but I haven’t really experienced any until now. Brian and I were going through the check out at Giant Eagle and the checkout lady said something along the lines of “he should have mittens to protect that little face”. Jameson had scratched himself again, but really, I haven’t used the mittens I bought him more than once. Brian said that Jameson pulls the mittens off. Okay hun, at least you’re making it sound like our little man is a genius!
We’re still recovering from our cold. On Saturday we visited the doctor because Jameson had a cough that was getting worse. Turns out it was just continued drainage and cold symptoms, and Jameson is feeling a lot better now. He weighed 11 pounds 5 ounces! Which is actually a little smaller than I thought he’d be.
I thought Jameson was home free, but we had a troubled night’s sleep last night. (For Brian and I anyway; Jameson took it all in stride) Jameson got up every couple hours last night, not crying for food but just fussing. I think he was waking up from his congestion and needed his pacifier back in to fall asleep. Regardless, he woke up in the morning extra cheerful! Today daycare is only going to let him take two hour naps also, in case he has been getting too much sleep there. I do have to keep reminding myself how lucky we are that he only gets up once at night, but tonight I will just be grateful as long as he returns to his usual once-a-night self.
This week has gone by pretty quickly, which is great. Regarding work, I have (hopefully) some good opportunities coming up, so we’ll see how things go the next couple weeks. The worse that can happen is that nothing changes, which all things considered wouldn’t be a horrible outcome.
At Brian’s work, things are going well. We are attending the Automotive News PACE Awards Dinner in Detroit in April, which will be fun. Even more fun is that it is a black tie event and so this weekend I will be out in search of my first nice dress since prom (wedding doesn’t count, those dresses are on a whole different level). I am very excited, both to shop for a nice dress and to have an evening out with Brian without Jameson, though I am sure I’ll be worried about him as well. Brian and I haven’t been out without Jameson much at all since his birth and it’s been dinners nearby. This is quite a ways away, but I’m sure things will be fine.
Also coming soon is Jameson’s baptism! I have an array of cute outfits, depending on the weather. I can’t believe that it was so nice last weekend that we were able to go on a nice walk on St. Patrick’s Day and now it’s about 18 degrees outside (and no, Jameson has a furry car seat liner and doesn’t need any mittens). At least I don’t have to worry about him growing out of anything. He seems to be growing longer instead of thicker, so the separates in 0-3 months continue to fit him fine. He did however have is very first 3-6 month sleep ‘n play on last night! I put him in the cute navy elephant PJ’s that I loved in the newborn size. I couldn’t help but buy it again. This weekend, I will take a photo of him in it so we can see how much he’s grown.
Speaking of photos: I have been having problems. We purchased a Mac computer for the first time (we were previously PC people). My photos looks very different on the Mac. The problem is that when edited on the Mac and looked at on the PC, they actually look bad. When edited on the PC, I already know they print fine and look great. I am not sure how to resolve this, since I already did the basic calibration on the Mac. I think I will do some experimentation this weekend. Hopefully I’ll post more photos soon if I can figure it out! I have some cute 3 month photos to share.
My first full week back at work, and I already had to take PTO and missed out on the training at Baldwin-Wallace that all my fellow Solutions Analysts were able to go to. Really?! Jameson gave me his cold earlier this week, which I believe he caught at daycare (I saw a little girl with too-rosy cheeks coughing in there!). My cold seems to be much worse than his though. He’s already starting to get better, less snotty and with just some extra coughing here and there now, probably from drainage. Mine however is in full throttle, giving me a fever and swollen neck on one side. I thought for sure I had a sinus infection. The doctor says its a virus (though I’ve never gotten a fever from a cold before). No decongestants for me cause of the nursing, so I’m on tylenol for the fever only. It’s just miserable.
Jameson stayed in pretty good spirits throughout his cold, sleeping okay up until last night when he was up every hour after his 2am feeding. Lucky for me, Brian took the monitor and I didn’t hear a peep. However, we did have one little mishap with the cold, which caused him to have to stay home on Wednesday. He vomited on Tuesday and daycare had to send him home. So Brian worked from home on Wednesday. Apparently, Jameson wasn’t too bad for him, though for some reason he just doesn’t want to nap good at home like he does at daycare!
I asked earlier this week how he naps so long (thinking that he really likes the swing or bouncer there), but lo and behold, they put him in his crib for naps, and he sleeps for hours at a time! Amazing. I had bought him a little mobile for daycare, and I am going to take it home with me this weekend to see if I can get it to work it’s magic at home too. Apparently he stares at it for a bit, sucks his pacifier, and ouuut! They must be good. Or maybe he’s sucking down more food from the bottle and he’s happier? He’s at around 4oz per bottle there.
He’s also already doing tummy time much better. I feel like so far, daycare is awesome. He loves it there, and I get to pick up a happy baby everyday. I just wish I had more time after that to hang with him. The hard part isn’t him being there, it’s bringing him home and only having a couple hours.
He looked adorable yesterday in his St. Patty’s Day onesie which said “1 Lucky Kid!” I took his picture this past weekend to be prepped and ready. Thank goodness I did, cause it was hard enough to do his 3 month photos after work on Wednesday. He’s getting big! I am going to weigh him tomorrow on our regular scale (me without him, then me with him and check the difference).
We went on a walk yesterday because it was so nice out, even though I wasn’t feeling too great. It was nice to get some fresh air. Brian and I are supposed to have a date night this weekend, we’ll see if I’m up for it. Tootles.