We’re Winners in my Mind

Well we didn’t win! Overall, I was pretty disappointed in the Baby’s Best Friend contest. They had a lot of technical difficulties with voting which eventually made them have to choose a winner alternatively, basically through the editorial team voting. We made the finalists, but didn’t win (I actually kind of felt one of the photos was taken really poorly, so I am surprised by that particular pick). Oh well! We’re still winners in my mind 🙂

I spent today learning more about Lightroom, so assuming I have time in the coming weeks, expect some higher quality photos from me with better skin tone. I spent a while reading about skin tone and downloading some free pre-sets to help my photo editing.

One thing I learned today was a feature of Lightroom 3 which is “Skin Softening” on the adjustment brushes of the Develop tab. I used it on our most recent creative photo today for April Fools! Jameson thought he would play an April Fools joke on Sasha. Luckily, we caught him before his plans went awry.

The alternative to this April Fools picture was putting him on a turkey plate 🙂 I didn’t think he’d lay still for that!

Today I got the supplies to make his Easter basket. I am hopefully going to photograph him in it this year. He won’t be getting any gifts cause he’s too young to appreciate them (we asked the Easter bunny to skip our house this year), but I’ll take some fun pictures of him anyway. I’m going to do the same project that mine and my siblings Easter baskets were made from! I had a hard time finding supplies, since they’re discontinuing the loopy chenille, so what I could find, I bought a few of (you know, for future children so they all can match. I’m obsessive)

Jameson’s is going to be mint green with white inner ears. I found a medium brown wicker basket which I think will work nice. If it doesn’t work out… well, I always have mine from when I was growing up! It’s yellow and will work for Easter photos!

The other day, Jameson started reaching out to grab Brian’s nose! I even got a few pictures of it, which hopefully I’ll have time to edit and post tomorrow. Have a nice weekend!

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14 Weeks vs 3 Weeks

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 🙂

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We Don’t Need Mittens

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.

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Thanks A Lot, Dude.

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.

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So Far, So Good

Today is Friday, so my third official day back at work. So far, so good. Jameson had some great days at daycare, the ladies love him (though I think they may say that off all the new babies!). He finally poo’d at daycare on Wednesday right before I picked him up (phew, glad I missed that). He’s been doing good the past couple nights staying up til 9.

Last night in particular was great! It was his first night of no feedings during the night. He woke up and made some noises around 4:30 and we popped his pacifier back in and he was good! Usually he cries outright for food in the middle of the night, so I thought maybe with the mild fussing we would be okay with a pacifier, because I really didn’t want to get up to feed him at 4:30, that would have put me way off sleeping, I would’ve just stayed awake after that.

I don’t expect we’ll have a change to sleeping through the night all the time now because he is nursing and they still digest quicker, but maybe we’ll see some more of these, that would be nice.

This week at work pumping has been okay — they have rooms for us, which is nice, though the first day I wasn’t on the schedule so I was jumping around to the other one across the building to do it. I have been feeding him at lunch, though today is the first day that I’m not going to do that since he’ll want to eat around 12:30 and I will be going out to lunch today. The whole thing is just kind of annoying, but not inconvenient yet because I haven’t had meetings. We’ll see how next week goes!

Also next week I have training at Baldwin-Wallace on Thursday and Friday. I am not looking forward to finding a place to pump at a college campus. I guess I’ll probably end up in the car, which is fine, but so far as I know we only get one long break so I may have to escape in between.

Jameson will be 3 months next week! I have all kinds of pictures to take. I have a cute outfit for St. Patrick’s Day that I may take pictures of him in this weekend so I can post it on St. Patty’s haha. Then he’ll wear it to daycare on Thursday. So cute! He is starting to get so much hair, I love it.

We’ll I am going to run now. I will be posting pictures this weekend of his first day at daycare in his cute outfit.

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Last Day as a SAHM

The acronym means Stay At Home Mom. Today is my last day of relative freedom (relative because of course there’s a little baby who needs me all the time :)) Today we are dropping Jameson off at daycare in the afternoon while Brian and I go up to Cleveland for lunch at Melt for a super unhealthy but tasty extravagant grilled cheese sandwhich. I’m pumped! Then after I will get my hair done and a manicure. So after they cut my hair they’ll straighten it, which will make getting ready for work pretty easy for a couple days til I wash it again.

Jameson had his first day of daycare yesterday, for a half day in the morning. We took some pictures of course, cause it was like the first day of school lol! Brian was all dressed up for work (he didn’t take off work yesterday, so it was a real trial run) and Jameson was spiffy in his favorite outfit, jeans and rock ‘n roll t-shirt. I’ll post the pics soon. It was a lot of work getting him ready, but some of that was because of me. I will have to get up a little earlier to make it in time for work. Also I was trying to get my pump ready to go, since I intended to pump in the car since I would be out all day til I picked up Jameson. I didn’t end up pumping, but getting all that ready was a pain.

The ladies at daycare said that he did great, that he a very easy going baby (which of course I already knew). I told them he does tend to get fussy in the afternoon, so we’ll see how he does today since he’s going to spend the afternoon there. He ate all his bottles and enjoyed watching all the activity. I know, because when I stopped in at 11, he barely noticed me, he was so intent on watching everything since it was all new. I think that’s the most activity he’s ever been around, and I think he’ll probably really enjoy it. There’s one other small baby there, and maybe one other that’s not too far off from his age. The other really small baby is 3 and a half months old but she only weighs 8 pounds! The ladies told me the the doctor has told her mother to add formula to her milk because she’s not gaining enough weight (they call that “failure to thrive”). And I thought Jameson was small for his age!

While Jameson was at daycare, I went shopping. I found the most ADORABLE outfit ever from Target. It’s a onesie, a jacket and pants all covered in elephants! The onesie says “mommy’s peanut” on it. I lovvve elephant outfits. I almost bought this outfit too, but I couldn’t spend all that money on him. I thought it would make a cute Easter outfit, but I think I have some other clothes that will fit. We still have almost two months before Easter and who knows what size he’ll actually be in! He’s still in 0-3 most of the time, but the sleep ‘n plays are starting to get too short on him, so we may have to move those up sooner rather than later.

I then went to Hobby Lobby where I found the coolest frames ever! For Christmas this past year, I made Brian a perpetual calendar with no days of the week. Anyway, I used a flip photo thing from Kohls as the base, but these are even better since they’ll hang. I bought all they had, which was just two, so maybe I’ll make one for myself too. I also bought a few frames to put on my desk at work. Then I went to the dentist, which was fine (still no cavities, yay!) but I found out I have the “remnants” of pregnancy gingivitis. Ew. So to clear it all up I need to be extra diligent about brushing and flossing.

I stopped to see Jameson then who pretty much ignored me and then went over to get a free shirt from Ann Taylor Loft. They sent me a “we miss you” coupon for free $20 with a $20 minimum purchase. So I bought a $20 shirt, which was free. Score! Then I stopped by Little Tikes with Jameson to show him off to friends and co-workers. They all think he looks like Brian 🙂 It was a very good day.

In other Jameson news, he hasn’t poo’d since Friday late afternoon/evening. He’s usually an every other day kind of guy, so I was getting concerned, but now I’ve read up on the inter web that sometimes they can go up to week without going. He’s very unlikely to be constipated since he’s exclusively breastfed. Thought last night we thought for sure he was going to go since he was fussing a bit, turns out he was just overtired!! I think maybe we’ll have to move up his bed time. Now that he’s getting used to this schedule of getting up earlier, he’s usually fussing by 8 o’clock. As much as I love him up til 9, it’s not a happy time for him if we’re forcing him to be up and he’s tired. So 8 may become the new bedtime. I’m going to wait til after DST starts though and see how he does, since for a little while 9 o’clock may feel like 8 to him. He’s still doing really well at only getting up once, and I’ve eliminated the extra feedings in the evening and he’s still sleeping well. He always gets a feeding right before bed, but no forcing extras in between. I think this is probably as good as it’ll get until he’s either on formula or starting solids.

The plan is right now to start weaning him to formula (which, knowing him, the easy going and easy bottle feeding baby that he is, he won’t even notice), sometime in his 6th month. Brian is going to San Diego for a conference around our anniversary, so there’s talk of me going for a couple days too, and it would be great to be done breastfeeding by then. I already feel guilty about, lol. It may be a little rough, we’ll see how things go. Plus I do really like losing the weight so easy! I broke into the 130’s for the first time in a couple years earlier this week. Another week or so and I should be a solid 139, which would feel really great.

Picture time! Last week I took some fun photos of Jameson and Sasha. She is really good with him. We spent some time on the floor on Sunday together, me in between Sasha and Jameson. I think she would lick him all over like a newborn puppy if we let her, haha. We’re still super careful since she doesn’t know her own strength, even around us, but she’s doing really good. I posted one of the photos up on “Baby’s First Year” a website part of Babble.com as part of their babies best friends contest. Voting starts on March 16th, so I’ll be posting a link to vote then!

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Squirmy

Jameson has been really squirmy the past few days! He’s really starting to move around a lot and always wants to be moving. He’s also been sleeping a lot better — 4-5, even a 6 hour stretch one night. He is usually only getting up once a night right now. I say “usually” tentatively since he could lapse back to old habits any time! But I’ve really been enjoying the extra sleep. His bedtime is officially 9pm, and though he’s sleepier earlier than that, I think that he’ll adjust even better after Daylight Savings Time begins. Next week, we’ll be waking him at 6:15am to eat, and my hope is that he will eventually sleep solidly from 9-6. That would be a-mazing!

He’s grasping, involuntarily, at all kinds of things now. His giraffe toy on his activity gym is easy to grab, as is necklaces, shirts, and of course, hair!

On Sunday, Hollie, Jeff and their girls came over to visit. They were cute, as always. I edited the photos but for some reason on this laptop they seem a little cool colored. I may go back and tweak them some. Anyway, the girls are getting so big, particularly Allison (the youngest). I first met her when she was about 1 — she is turning 5 now.

Crazy to imagine the time going by and Jameson turning 5 too. I had a dream last night that he just went and sat up all by himself. Using only one arm! hahaha But really, I think he’s going to be a quick learner, he is getting really good at holding his head up.

Yesterday we visited the daycare and got the scoop on what all we need to bring. I’ll be dropping that off tomorrow after my massage that Brian bought me when he was in Mexico. Should be lovely! And Aunt Carol will be watching Jameson while I’m away. He should be good for her though, he’s very happy most of the time now, and he’s actually really started liking his swing this week. I think the swing is new enough that it’s still very exciting for him and the swing plus a pacifier calms him right down when he’s upset.

Sasha went to the vet on Friday and her bloodwork showed some liver issues, so she’s on a liver health pill and will get bloodwork done again in 3 months. But she’s officially a senior citizen now which is kind of sad. But she’s still as perky and smart as ever. Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks never met Sasha 🙂 She’s even learned to hover over her water dish and wait a bit for us to wipe off her face! We’ll see if that lasts though after I go back to work and no one’s here to do it during the day though.

Well, I am off now to go visit Lisa and Jonathan again!

Oh, and for those wondering, I did successfully make dinner on Monday, though I had to feed Jameson in the middle and so Brian did the last couple tasks. But it came out great as usually and we doubled the batch for tasty leftovers! Here’s the recipe:

A Healthier-for-you Restaurant-Style Zuppa Toscana

Brian adapted the recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Restaurant-Style-Zuppa-Toscana/Detail.aspx

1 (16 oz) package turkey smoked sausage (like turkey kielbasa)
3 potatoes, cut into 1/2- to 1/4-inch slices
2 large onions, chopped
6 slices bacon, chopped or crumbled
1 Tb minced garlic
2 cups kale or escarole, washed, dried and shredded or cut (approximate, Brian just buys one bunch and uses it all)
2 Tb chicken soup base (or 5 bullion cubes)
2 quarts water
8 oz heavy whipping cream
2 Tb olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. Place sausage links onto a sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes or until done, turning once. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut at an angle into 1/2-inch slices. Set aside.
3. You can either cook onions and bacon together with olive oil, or I baked the bacon at 400 degrees F separately to eliminate some of the bacon fat and grease splatters 🙂 Cook onions in olive oil over medium heat until onions are almost clear in a large saucepan (I used a big pot and added everything else to this to make cleaning easier). When bacon is cooked, remove from onions if they were cooked together, crumble or cut and set aside.
4. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1 minute. Add chicken soup base, water, and potatoes, bring back to a boil and let simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are softish.
5. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve.

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Happiest Baby

Jameson is just a great baby recently — and when he is grouchy, I am starting to get a clue as to why! Usually, he is grouchy when he is overtired or bored. Of course, when he is hungry also, particularly at night.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xcmuOeTxAM]

Last night was a great night for us; the past couple nights we have been putting him to bed at 9. This seems like a great time because he is already getting tired, but I don’t think I’ll feel like he is going to bed right away when I get home from work. Also it gives me like an hour or two of alone time or time with Brian, which is nice. Anyway, last night we gave him a bath and this time I got in the bath with him so he could experience more water while Brian did the washing. It was fun, I think we’ll enjoy bath time. Then I fed him and we put him to bed drowsy but awake. I had to put his pacifier back in about 4 times, but he was asleep by 9:20 and he slept until 3:30!! That is almost 6 hours of sleep. I went to bed a little after 10 and got 5 hours! Just great. I hope we can keep it up! To top it off, it was storming like crazy (apparently both Brian and Sasha had trouble sleeping) and neither Jameson or I woke up (at least until he cried). This is much better than our usual, which is him getting up every three hours. Maybe we can get this down in a couple weeks and start working on better naps!

On Friday we went to see Lisa and new baby Jonathan. He was a little less grouchy than last time we visited and since it was daylight, we got some of the cutest pictures of the two of them together. He still has a big set of lungs on him while Jameson is still just starting to discover his. Lisa and I talked baby the entire time. I’m going over again this week too!

Lynne dropped by last week also and we got some cute pictures of him smiling at her.

Hollie and the girls visited yesterday and Maria is coming over today to meet Jameson, so the next post should have some cute photos of them! Tonight I am also going to attempt to make dinner, like one of the soups at Olive Garden, so that should be interesting! Last time Brian made it we took a photo, here’s what it should look like if I do it right:

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2 Weeks and Counting

Today Jameson turned 10 weeks old! But I haven’t edited those pictures yet, so I’ll show off from last week’s 2 month photo shoot!

I have just 2 weeks left at home with Jameson and I’m trying to decide what I want to do before I go back to work. Jameson and I have been to the mall and gone on a couple walks. He’s been out to lunch and dinner a couple times now too, and went with me to the eye doctor on Tuesday. I’d love to take him to the outdoor outlet mall near by but that will depend on the weather. He’s also met most of my friends now; Lynne stopped over just yesterday and Matti and Cassie came by earlier last week. That only leaves a couple people who haven’t met him yet. He’s been a very social baby while I’ve been off work! 🙂

So last week Aunt Holly and Grandma stopped by for a quick overnight visit! Jameson was in a much much better mood than during Grandma’s last visit while Brian was gone for work, so that was great!

Also last week on Saturday he visited his future BFF Jonathan, just 3 weeks old. Jonathan was born premature so he’s still wee little like Jameson was. Jameson looks sooo big compared to him. Also a lot more active. Jonathan has a better set of lungs on him though! haha

I took some photos of Jonathan for Lisa and JP’s announcements, which I’m actually pretty proud of. We didn’t have any natural light since we went over in the evening so they are a little indoors-y looking, but we got some great shots even with him being a bit grumpy that evening!

Lisa has some lovely furniture, so when I go back tomorrow to visit Lisa maybe I’ll get a few shots of Jameson looking cute on her couch, plus a few more of Jonathan in some nice natural light. I’ve run out of fun places here at home to take photos of Jameson, haha! Though this week I put him in his monkey hat for a few extra fun photos; I think I got some smiles out of him too so that’ll be cute once I edit them!

A couple people mistook Jonathan for Jameson on fb which was funny. Guess I just take a lot of pictures of Jameson so it’s natural to assume 🙂 But I for one know that Jonathan doesn’t look a thing like Jameson. All babies don’t look alike to me anymore! Speaking of other babies, our friends Carrie and Matt had their new son Nicholas a couple days ago! He’s got a cute nose, he looks exactly like Matt. They live nearby so Jameson has another future BFF now!

Next week on Tuesday we’re taking him to the daycare to visit with the teachers and get details on what he’ll need for his first days. Work is getting more “real” by the day. It’s funny but I think maybe I’m more possessive of Jameson now than I was at first. It’s going to be hard leaving him, so I’m glad Brian will be dropping him off at daycare, at least for a little while until we get a schedule going (Brian has a flexible start time for work).

I just had an extra moment to edit a couple of today’s photos, so here’s a sneak peak!

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