An Afternoon at the Park

After work and nap time, the little man and I headed to the park. It was a bit on the warm side - ok, it was damn hot - but we managed to have fun anyhow. 

He was watching some boys play basketball. Apparently they were hysterical. 

The hipster baby is done with swinging.

Eating is a messy business

Lunch with the Little Man

Who knew one little guy could have so many facial expressions during one 15 minute lunch?

A day at the Children's Museum

We headed to the Children's Museum with a friend and his daughters this weekend and had a blast. It's so fun that the little man is starting to be old enough to really have fun when we visit.

Like Deadliest Catch - Baby Edition

The little man drove a boat for the first time today!

Getting Back to Normal

Well, we're starting to get back to normal after the holidays. As always, I'm sad to see them go, but glad to have things get back to normal - especially with the little man around. It's taken about a week, but he's slowly getting back into the groove of naps and when to go to sleep at night.

January 8 - On the night of the 7th the little man decided that waking up every 30 minutes from 9:00 pm until 1:00 am was a great plan, so needless to say, everyone was exhausted by Tuesday night. Even Dodger was sleepy.

January 9 - The little man was diagnosed with reflux, and because of this got into the habit of napping in his carseat while I work. I began thinking that maybe part of the problems we're having a night stem from all of his naps being taken sitting upright, so I set up the pack 'n play, and we're working on napping in it. This picture represents one of the two 30-minute naps he took in in the pack n' play. Eventually I gave up, and put the carseat near the pack n' play and let him nap there. I guess I'll have to try again another day.

January 10 - The little man was in such high spirits this morning! He got closer and closer to rolling over, it looks like I could have a rolling baby on my hands any day now.

Puppy dogs and little boy socks

 January 5 - There's something about seeing a boy and his dad.

January 6 - Dodger, the sheepdog being lazy.

January 7th - I absolutely adore these little socks. I'm not really sure what it is about them, but I love them. 

365 Project

Once again this year, I'm going to attempt to take a picture every day in 2013. They might not always be great shots, but I'm hoping in the end they'll represent life.

So, here's the photos for the first four days of 2013:


January 1st - Admittedly, not a great picture, but hey we were all recovering from NYE. This meant no cute outfit, and no socks for the boy apparently.

January 2nd - Dude time with Dad.

January 3rd - The boy had the most epic of naps, during which he pee'd through his diaper, onesie, pants and long sleeved shirt. I got him upstairs and cleaned him up, but that was the end of his patience. He demanded to eat NOW, so we had a little naked baby time.

January 4th - My other baby, Brady. He's still adjusting to sharing me. Lately this has meant he climbs up in my lap anytime he finds it free.

He's here!

On September 17 at 6:30pm, the little man finally arrived!

And, while I know we're biased, we kind of think he's perfect.

We arrived at the hospital Sunday night to be induced, and by 3:30 am, contractions had begun. They weren't terrible, and I was able to sleep through many of them until about 5:45 am. By 8:30 my water had been broken and we were in full blown labor. Unfortunately, by 2:30 pm I had only progressed to 3-4 cm dilated, so we used an epidural. I slept for a few hours, and at 4:30 pm, I was still only 3-4 cm dilated. In addition, Nolan had not dropped at all, and his head was getting very cone shaped from trying to drop. Luckily, aside from a headache he was doing great. We decided that it was in all of our best interest to go for a c-section. At 5:45 pm I was wheeled into surgery, and after swapping out the epidural for a spinal block (because I could feel all of the pokes they were using as a test to see if I was numb enough), Nolan was born at 6:30 pm. 

On the way out of the OR, the doctor advised that I never again attempt to have a baby naturally, that I would be scheduling a c-section ahead of time for the next one. Apparently Adam and I make babies bigger than my body can handle. Oh well, at least I'll know what to expect...

Now that he's here, we could not be happier. He was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21.5 in long. In the days after his birth he dropped to 7 lbs 11 oz, but at his two week check up yesterday he was back to 9 lbs! I can't believe he's already outgrowing clothes!

Go Bag Update

Oh, and that lovely go bag I featured in a previous post. I used almost none of it. My Nook was useless since any time I wasn't in pain I was sleeping. The suckers were silly, I wasn't allowed to eat. I didn't want the tennis balls or any of the other massage tools anywhere near me. (Before the epidural the only touch I wanted my Adam rubbing my arm or back gently.) 

The only things we did use were Adam's snacks (though not many of those), the camera, phone chargers and chapstick. Once I was in the recovery room I used a few more of the items (laptop, slippers, night gown and toiletries), but if and when there is a next one I'll be packing a lot lighter. 

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll get better at posting more regularly now that we're starting to get in to a routine. Now, I'm going to go shower, since little man is finally asleep. 

Wait... spoke too soon... :)

Beer Cap Magnets & An Upgrade to the Calendar

Nearly every man in my family loves craft beer. I guess I shouldn't leave myself out, but since I haven't had one in nine months...

Some time ago, I decided to make a few magnets out of the cooler of the bottle caps. This led to Adam saving every cool bottle cap, and eventually every bottle cap that came in the house. So yesterday, to stave off boredom, I ran to JoAnn's and picked up some magnets and got to work. 

Sadly, they no longer carried the super strong magnets I used last time, but I made due. 

Yeah for a bunch more magnets! However the backs of some of them looked like junk:

So, I pulled out the blowdryer and heated up the backs of them. It did a decent job of smoothing out the backs, and an excellent job of getting rid of all of the little strings that hot glue can leave behind!

So, not perfect, but they look great on the fridge. If I make them again (and I have enough bottle caps to make about a hundred more) I'll do a little more searching for the stronger magnets, but these ones did a pretty good job. 

Also, I upgraded the calendar journal that I made yesterday. Instead of washi tape, I found a pretty ribbon to cover up the label from the cards, and reprinted the dates on some pretty scrapbook paper. 

Now I can't wait to use it!