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.

Saturday: bedroom and picture wall

Our bedroom is cleaned up and we finally got our new bed lamps, so I can show you pictures of another room!  Bed lamps have been on our "to buy" list for about five years now.  We finally got some because the lamp Ben was using is ugly and Isaac took the one I was using.  (Which, when I thought about it, used to be Nathan's.  I traded him a desk chair for it right before I left for college.)  They are three-way touch lamps and we're quite happy with them.

The yellow wall is the bathroom.  It is all cleaned up to, but nothing too special.  A toilet, a shower, two sinks, and cabinets.

I put the picture wall back up!  I missed it.  Issac got featured predominantly in it...in fact, if someone in our immediate family wasn't in the picture, it got replaced.  (Flurry counts as a family member.) (Except for some elephants, and I expect to replace them shortly.)

I would like to get a few more pictures with our extended families, but don't have any recent ones.  There is also one of Ben jumping into a pool that I want to get, but couldn't find the disc when I was ready to order.

(BTW, how do you distinguish the family that we grew up with from the family that includes aunts, uncles, and cousins?  Because now I'd say that our immediate family is Ben/Amanda/Isaac/Flurry.  That would make, for example, Dad, Pat, Nathan, and Liz our extended family.  But then how to easily specify the next level of family...i.e., my aunts/uncles/cousins?)

Friday: 9 weeks (or 2 months)

Happy 9 week birthday to Isaac!  Happy 2 month birthday to him too!  So...we had a photo shoot.  Again.  Oh, and it was blue day today.  He has a lot of blue in his life, so it was pretty easy to point it out.

This is a rather poor picture, but it is the only one of its kind where he stretched out.  Maybe he really did grow two inches.

Blue monkey!

I wore a blue shirt too! (Again, a poor picture.  It's hard setting the autotimer, arranging Issac, and getting a quilt over our lap.  I wasn't going to try again.)

Isaac got tired...a good time to use the quilt.

Tomorrow is going to be a post that isn't about Isaac.  I've been trying to do it most of the week, but kept getting side tracked.  I spend most of my time with him and find him interesting (hence all the Isaac posts) but this is still my blog.  Amazingly, I've done a few other things this past week too. :)  I figure that if I tell everyone tonight, I will actually do it tomorrow and not get side tracked.

Thursday: shots

Today was Isaac's 2 month well child checkup.

He weighs 11 lb, 10 oz (about the 50th percentile)
He measures 23.75" long (about the 60th percentile) (There is a chance that this should be 22.75...the nurse measured starting at the 1" mark and I'm not sure she took off an inch.  I don't feel like he's grown two inches, but maybe I'm wrong.)

And he got his shots.  Two nurses each gave him one at the same time and then he got a third.  At first his eyes got huge like "what just happened???????"  Then he realized that it hurt and he got so red with crying.  Poor guy.  He calmed down pretty quickly, but this evening he had a hard time not crying.  Ben finally swaddled him and put him in the crib around 6pm, and with the mobile that calmed him down for a while.  Then he fell asleep while playing the dice game right before bed, so we just stuck him in the swaddle again without putting on his pajamas or taking a dip.  I usually don't mind waking him up, but not tonight.

Wednesday: Leap Day

To celebrate Leap Day, Isaac wore hippos.  I know, it's kind of a stretch, but in cartoons characters always leap across rivers on the backs of hippos.  We just don't have any leaping or hopping creatures for Isaac to wear.

It was a really nice day out today (58 degrees) and so we went on a walk.  I was hoping to walk around the lake, but we only got a short third done before Isaac started getting cranky (i.e., seven minutes).  It was probably good though...by the time we got home I could tell that I haven't exercised in quite a while.

It was also real bath day.  (His little bath tub isn't working right now because it floats because he doesn't weigh enough.  I can't handle a squirmy baby and a floating bathtub all at the same time.  But this method has proven to work very well.)