Friday: thirteen weeks and other numbers

0: "official" birthday pictures taken. They'll be done when we get back.

1: number of times Isaac woke up in the night

2: shirts that he wore today that had monsters on them

2: the number of boat rides Isaac has taken

3: number of months old Isaac is

5: number of times Isaac fell asleep in my lap today

8: the time I got up this morning!

Thursday: another nice day

Today was another beautiful day. Isaac and I went shopping for the afternoon. Besides that...we relaxed.

Isaac had a crab on his shirt and it worked really well to suck all the crabiness out if him...he was pretty happy today

Wednesday: another first

Today was Isaac's first time in a pool. Although the pictures below are a bit misleading...the hat came off quickly and we went to the hot tub so we could have slightly warmer water. (not hot tub temps...just a bit warmer.). Isaac seemed to tolerate it then. He didn't seem to love or hate it.

Then we went inside and took a nap. After Isaac woke up I gave him to Ben and slept another two hours...I must have really needed some sleep.

Tuesday: first flight

Today was Isaac's first airplane ride. It went pretty well. He enjoyed the airport and watching people. Just as we were about to board he fell asleep. But he didn't stay asleep...he probably only slept for 45 minutes. He was pretty good until bedtime, when he lost it. There wasn't too much of the flight left, and the airplane was really loud, so it wasn't too bad.

Monday: first day on the new job

Today was my first day on the new job.  However, my "boss" made it pretty easy on my by sleeping most of the day.

We wore the same type of shirt today...I guess the best way to describe it is long-john material

He was also so tired that he fell asleep while rubbing his eyes.

I'm also in the middle of packing for vacation.  I think we'll manage to get everything in a suitcase, backpack, and diaper bag.  Flurry is sleeping on the luggage.  I'm not sure if she's there because she wants to come with us or because I took up the whole table.

Sunday: nap

I took a nap today.  I had a headache (again...what is it about Sundays?) and got up for Isaac more during the night than usual.  I think he might be going through a growth spurt...it is about the right time for it.

Anyway, while I was napping Ben and Isaac spent some quality time together.  And cleaned the kitchen.  It was a nice surprise when I woke up.

Saturday: this and that

It was a nice day today...relaxing, but we still got stuff done.  Isaac took a four hour nap in the morning, which was kind of crazy. 

Isaac had some happy time with Ben.

 They played flash games.  I'm not a huge fan of flash games, mostly because I don't enjoy most of them (not because I don't think they should be played) so I was a bit disappointed the boys were ganging up on me.

In the 2.5 weeks of work I ended up with a lot of extra milk.  But after being so worried about not having enough ready for daycare I was just hoarding it.

Isaac had a very rough night, mostly for unknown reasons.  One known reason is that I accidently dripped about three drips of cold water on his chest while he was taking his dip.  Oh my.  You would have thought that I was torturing him.  But before the dip and after getting his clothes off he was in a good mood...so he laid on the counter for about 20 minutes, looking at the underside of the cabinets.  Apparently they were interesting.

P.S. Thanks to a youtube video we watched two days ago, Ben and I had the ticky-tacky song stuck in our heads all day.  It's especially hard to get a song out of your head when someone else is singing it all the time too.

Friday: 12 week present

Isaac turned twelve weeks old today!

For his birthday, I will be staying home with him full time.  I've never pictured myself as a stay-at-home mom, but that's the plan!  It was a nice last day at work.  There was a going away lunch and people said they would miss me...it made me feel good.  But not good enough to stay. :)

Thursday: walks

Isaac got to take two walks today.  I think it's funny because he can't walk.

Here we are...I'm at least smiling. :)

Isaac spit up (a lot) on my skirt last time I fed him and it stinks.  I should change, but that would mean going upstairs and I'm feeling lazy.

(oh, and last night we were so close to only getting up once.  He slept for five hours (I think a record!), but then couldn't pull the second stretch quite long enough.)

Wednesday: schedule

Isaac isn't on a strict schedule, but he is on a loose one.  For some reason, that schedule was completely blown out of the water.

He's been doing pretty good at only waking up once (or getting really close to it).  I think I'm going to be up twice tonight. :(  Some of our issues might be due to the fact that we're not swaddling him between 8pm-11pm, and tonight he kept waking himself up.  Since his schedule was all messed up, he was hungry too early.

Tuesday: Resignation

Last week I put in my resignation at work.  I didn't know when my last day was going to be since my manager wasn't in the country, so I wasn't ready to tell the Internet.

My last day is going to be this Friday.  Hurray!  I'm excited and nervous.  Excited to be with Isaac more, hopefully not be so exhausted, go to story time at the library, and hopefully have a slightly cleaner house.  But I'm also nervous about not having an out-of-the-house job.  What if I go crazy?  (Ben would say that I'm already crazy, so I mean stir-crazy.)

I did look to see if there was a part time option, but the company I'm at apparently doesn't do that.  While that seems very odd to me, it did make my decision on what to do easier.  I'm toying around with trying to sell some quilt patterns (and maybe quilts) but haven't completely decided yet.  (I don't think I'd make much, but maybe enough to support my quilting hobby.)  We'll see how things go.

Monday: five question friday

I'm taking these from another blog

1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess?

Yes, but it depends on how likely I think I am to meet someone that I know and how much I care at the moment.

2. Do you finish a book if it's boring or you don't like it?

I usually have to really not like it to not finish it.  Well, to purposefully say that I'm not going to finish it.  I semi-regularly decided to quickly read another book, fully intending to go back to the first, and then don't.

3. Beach or mountain vacations?

Mountain.  I'm a tree lover.

4. What thing/event says "winter will end and spring is right around the corner" to you?

The spring smell

5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation?

Both.  Three cheers for vacation.

Sunday: hmm

Today did not go nearly as well as yesterday.  Everyone seemed to not be feeling 100%.  But we did make it to church and even sat in the sanctuary for the first time.  And we watched "Spy Kids" this evening.  The name makes it sound dumb, but it was actually pretty good.

Saturday: getting bigger

Today was a really nice day.  It was beautiful outside and Isaac was in a really good mood.  We got tons of smiles.

I also took the newborn inserts out of his car seat and put the next size of clothes in the dresser.  I'm keeping some of the older stuff because it still fits (like pants and jackets) but the sleepwear and onesies were starting to get too small...they were right on the edge.  And we finally put away his newborn socks that were way too small but stayed on his feet so well.

I also hung a few things for him to play with while Ben and I worked on the garage for a few minutes.  Mabel is still his favorite...it kept being slid way over when I would come in to check on him.

Friday: 11 weeks

We've made it to 11 weeks!  When I say Isaac is 11 weeks it doesn't sound like very long, but it feels like he's been with us for a long time (in a good way).

To celebrate we met some neighbors, took a walk to the lake's beach, and splashed in the tub.  He was splashing up a little storm!

The last two days Isaac has been waking up early, so I've changed him into clothes and turned off the light on the way out of the bedroom before handing him off to Ben.  I get to see the cool glow-in-the-dark planets.  And I noticed his wipes were glowing, which scared me a bit.  Tonight I realized they were glowing because I put the glow-in-the-dark stars there because I recently found them and haven't had a chance to put them up.  Phew.

Wednesday: Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day!

I was afraid that I wasn't going to have any pie to eat today, but then a random person at work offered me a piece of pumpkin pie.  While I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie, I couldn't pass it up today.

Then we went out for dinner and ice cream with the family to celebrate Travis' birthday.  It was a beautiful day out!  I think it got over 80 degrees.  Isaac got to wear short sleeves (without a jacket or undershirt) for the first time tonight.

Also, we noticed that Flurry had managed to get into one of the still-packed boxes in the basement and haul a toy upstairs.  The toy is a beanie-baby that looks a lot like Ben.  She likes to bite it on the neck and kick the torso.  Maybe I'll get a picture one of these days.

Tuesday: tired

Oh my, I'm exhausted.  And it's almost not worth going to bed because I'll just have to get up to feed Mr. Isaac.  We'll see.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

But besides that, it was a really good day.  And Isaac gave us a lot of smiles at night.

Monday: sanitizing bags

So since I'm working, I'm pumping milk for Isaac to eat when I'm not around.  (Eat?  Drink?  Anyway.)  The bag is a nice black that kind of looks like a laptop bag.  The milk storage bag is black and looks like a little lunch bag.  But the microwavable sanitizing bags?  They are bright white and yellow with "Medela" all over them.  It means that if I want to try and be discrete I need to stuff the bag in the carrying bag between the bathroom and the kitchen.  And hope that no one is in the kitchen.

For all the work they put into making the process as discrete as possible, they completely failed in this area. It isn't really a problem, but still a little annoying.

Sunday: dominion

So recently we found an online Dominion game.  While it isn't the same as playing with the cards, it is a lot easier to set up and take down and you can play will people several states away.  Today we had our first official dominion party.

Eight of us played Dominion and hung out using Google's hangout.  It was a lot of fun.  Oh, Isaac joined us too.

Google hangout also has a button that lets you add masks to the person in the image.  Isaac got to be a cat.

Saturday: bears

Isaac was wearing a bear outfit today, so I thought for a picture we should get him with all of his bears.

Some extended family came over for dinner and to meet Isaac.  It was a nice evening.

Friday: Isaac's 10 week birthday present

Isaac turned 10 weeks today!

I think it's funny how one part of his body can be moving super-fast and the rest of it just being still.

For his birthday Isaac decided to only wake up once last night.  Once!!  I woke up at 4:30 and wondered if I had forgotten to turn the monitor on.  (It's happened once or twice, but we can still hear him from our bedroom...just not very well.)  I thought about it for a minute, and then remembered that I had heard it right before I went to sleep.  About thirty seconds later the monitor went off and Isaac was asking for food...I wonder if the monitor woke me up too and I just took a while to realize what was going on.

Hurray!  I also had accidently made his bottles a little larger than normal today, but he drank all of it.  So I'm hoping that he ate enough during the day that he can sleep well tonight too.

Side note: I don't know how to spell accidently, but spell check is only giving me dumb options for possibilities.  So I won't be fixing it.

Thursday: book giveaway

I was contacted to read another book!  Who can resist?

This time it was Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I'll give you an abbreviated summary of the front cover...because otherwise you'll stop reading this post:  prohibition era, bad husband, wife runs away, new old love, children mysteriously sick since being toddlers, vineyard, evil Prohibition agent.

I enjoyed the book.  I liked it much better than the other book.  There were some things about the plot that were very easy to guess, but enough things that I wasn't really expecting to make it interesting.  And the best part?  The blocks for the patterns that are mentioned in the book are in the front cover.

Like last time, I'm supposed to pass this book on so someone else can enjoy it.  Let me know if you're interested!

Wednesday: work

I know...it's the subject on everyone's mind.  How did Amanda's first day back at work go?  Did Isaac enjoy day care?  Did Ben's day go well?

The answer to all of those is...ok-ish.

I dropped Isaac off and only got a little choked up in the car...not bad at all.  I actually enjoyed the morning at work.  It was the part of my job that I like.  I fed Isaac over lunch.  Again, it was nice to see how everything in the room works.  And of course see Isaac, although I didn't get any smiles.  Then the afternoon.  It didn't go all that bad, but I'm not excited about some of the projects I'm going to work on.  And somehow I was getting all the meeting notices and accepts/declines for meetings for my manager...which meant that I had received over 700 emails while I was gone and 675 of them were unimportant.  But I still had to go through all of them and figure out which were which.  It got old in the afternoon.

Then I went to pick up Isaac.  I realized I had no clue what he did during the day and that saddened me.  The "story time" and "tummy time" boxes where checked, but I don't know how long they were for or how engaged he was in story time or if he managed to actually hold his head up during tummy time or if he just cried.  I do know that he didn't nap very well compared to how well he has been.  The smiley boxes were checked for morning and afternoon, but that isn't very helpful either.

So, stay tuned.  We'll see what happens in the future.

Tuesday: daycare and toys

This morning Isaac and I went to the daycare for a few hours.  We did it to time our morning routine and to bring all the supplies that he'll need.  And to just hang out and observe for a little bit.  I'm glad we went.

Also, Isaac scored a bunch of toys yesterday after going to Dad and Pat's house.  (Side note: I have decided to call everyone by their relationship to me.  So if I talk about Dad and Issac doing something, it is my dad, not Isaac's dad.  It gets a little confusing.)

A puzzle!

A whole bunch of rattles that Nathan and I must have used.  They all sound different.

Look at how strong Isaac is!  He can lift the dumbbell rattle!  (Actually, he held this one quite a bit.  I had to put it in his hand but I was proud that he kept hold of it.  He also tried to eat it.)

 More toys from our childhood.

This is Isaac with the rattle that I made him.  He can't hold it, but it makes a lot of different sounds, which makes it more interesting for Ben and me.

While unpacking I also found the sippy cup and utensils that I must have used as a child.  Needless to say, Isaac may be using them too because they don't do any good sitting in a box.

Monday: date night

Tonight was date night!  Ben and I went out to eat and then walked around the mall for a little bit.  Nothing super exciting, but it was nice to get out with just the two of us.

I also got a good nap in today.  It was very exciting.  Since tomorrow is my last day of not working, I'm hoping to get another good one in tomorrow. :)

Sunday: headaches

So remember those weird short but painful headaches I was getting a year ago?  They're back.  I remember them starting about a month before we moved and then they lasted through maybe part of April.  I'm wondering if it is an allergy of sorts.  The other times I remember them we were in Florida, and so that could have been in the March (or December) time frame.

Here is a picture of Isaac today.  We were trying to get Flurry to come close so Isaac could practice his petting, but it didn't work.

Tutorial: how to make a picture wall

Since this was my second time putting up a picture wall, I thought I'd share how I did it.  I learned a lot after doing it the first time.

.5) Obtain picture frames.  I would suggest getting more of each size than you expect to use in case you want to expand in the future or end up using more of one size than expected.  You can also optionally get the pictures, and again you might want to get more than you plan on using and then remove some if the shape doesn't fit well.

1) Get a large piece of paper or cardboard.  If you have a huge piece of graph paper that would be easiest, but I really liked using cardboard in the end.  It should be at least as big as the area you want to put pictures on.

 2) (No picture)  Figure out how to arrange the pictures.  It took Ben and I about three hours to do this the first time.  The closer you get the positioning to how you actually want it the better.  (For example, don't arrange the pictures with .5" spacing but then plan on putting 1" spacing between them.  It'll look different.)  TAKE A PICTURE when you're happy with it.  I didn't take a picture because I had the old wall picture that I worked from, but I referenced it a lot.  So I'll say it again.  TAKE A PICTURE OF THE ARRANGEMENT.

3) Draw the nail and picture locations on the cardboard.  This also takes a while.  Try to find a good place to start from.  Maybe somewhere in the middle.  Use a square to make sure that your lines are all straight and perpendicular.  Having good lines is going to be essential, so take the time to make sure they're square.  I started with one picture and then drew lines as required to find out where to put the nail for the next picture in relation to the previous picture(s).  Put the pictures back often to make sure everything looks correct.  I did the lines in pencil and then made little circles with marker where the cross hairs were for the nails.  I also did quick large boxes in marker to show about where the pictures would go, but didn't use the marker lines for any measurements.

This is the end result:

 This is a close up.  You can see all the pencil lines.

4) Hang the template on the wall.  MAKE SURE IT'S LEVEL!  We put one nail in and then used a laser level on some of the pencil lines to make sure it was level before putting a second nail in.

5) Put all the nails in the template.  Keep in mind that you'll be taking all the nails out to remove the template (although if it paper you might be able to rip it down).  The nails don't need to go all the way in.

6) Remove the template and put the nails back in the wall.

7) Hang the pictures!  You might want to refer back to your picture of where everything goes or template because it can be hard to tell...there seem to just be a lot of random nails in the wall.