Good Bye Kitchen!

The demolition of our kitchen begins tomorrow. Our friend Corey (he finished our basement for us too) is starting the kitchen remodel tomorrow. I am SO excited, but a little stressed out too. There is never a good time for the entire kitchen to be tore apart, so I guess now is as good of a time as any. We figure it would be better to do it before John begins crawling, so we will live with the chaos for a few weeks. Our dining room is a disaster with all of our kitchen contents in there, but hey, it is temporary. Plus, we will have a beautiful new kitchen in a few weeks!

Things here are going good, just busy with being back in the full swing of work and daycare. Sorry, my blog has been lacking on updates :) John is doing great, this is such a fun stage. He is super smiley (despite his constant runny nose he has now) and seems to be doing more and more each week. He had his 6 month appointment last week and weighed in at 19 pounds, 2 ounces (75 percentile) and was 27 inches long (although I know this is wrong b/c he was 27 1/4 for the last two appointments we had when he sick. He would not lay still though to be measured, so my guess is still 27 1/2 inches).

John was sick the day after his appointment, so I stayed home with him. We stayed in our jammies all day, and just played and cuddled. He was much better by Wednesday. Other than that, not too much new. We had a good weekend here hanging out with our good friends Jami and Erik and their two kids. Tonight we went out to dinner to celebrate my brother-in-law, Doug's birthday. I used to hate Sundays, always worrying about the week ahead. Brad always called it my "Sunday Funk." It is different now though, because I have fun playing with John and hanging out. Not that I don't get stressed about work, but it just feels different now.

Anyways, speaking of Sunday nights, I need to get off the computer and finish getting bags packed for the week. Here are some recent pictures.

6 Month Pictures

Our Target picture experience was great!! Although on the way there, John had a major blowout in hs diaper, thus ruining outfit #1 (hence the plain white onesie). He was so smiley and the pictures turned out great. So here are just a few of my favorites...

6 Months Old!

I know I say this every month, but man, where has the time gone?! My baby is already 6 months old and it feels like it was just the beginning. The first two months seemed so hard and when I saw a 6 month old baby, that seemed SO old! Ha! So I didn't get very many good 6 month pictures because (1) John wouldn't sit still long enough for me to take one and (2) our camera is taking really blurry pictures lately. Not sure if that is because all of the movement or what. So anyways, I will try to take some more at another time, but this is what I have for now. I have a picture frame of all of these pictures and it looks so cute! The 6 month is the last picture on the top row...crazy that it has already filled up! I will have to take a picture of the picture frame...I love it!

We have John's 6 month appointment on Monday, so I will post his stats then. I am guessing he is between 18-20 pounds (hello Mr. Chunk!) and he was over 27 inches the last time we were there. I am excited to hear what the dr has to say about the next stage of introducing solids. He loves the fruits and veggies so far and it will be fun to start feeding him other things too.

School and daycare are still going good. I definitely have my good days and bad days where I feel just totally guilty. Brad was gone all this week to DC for his new job training, and John was teething (he got his top two teeth), so Tuesday he got his first "cranky" check mark at daycare. He woke up that night around midnight and was just whimpering. I went in once and then the second time he woke up I attempted to let him cry it out. I lasted 6 minutes. I have no willpower. But I knew it was because he was hurting, so I brought him in bed with me and he snuggled right in. At those moments I really don't care if it is what I am supposed to do or not, because being able to cuddle with him all night was the best thing ever. I miss him so much during the day.

We are getting his 6 month pictures taken this weekend. Brad had gotten me that package where we get his 3, 6, and 1 year pictures taken, but I decided to use the 6 month ones at 9 months instead since that will be Christmas time. That way, hopefully we can get some good ones for a cute Christmas card. So for 6 months, i am just going to take him to Target. My sister has taken Libby there and they have done a good job and it is pretty cheap. I'm sure they will be cute. I mean, come on, how can they not be. :) Can't wait to post them!

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday. I am proud of John and I that we made it through a while week of no Brad. I really don't know how single moms do it. I don't think I have had a free minute this week between playing with him, dropping him off and picking him up from daycare, feeding, getting bottles and clothes washed and ready for the next day. And repeat! I'm exhausted! This weekend I am getting a hot stone massage and pedicure on Saturday. I can't wait!

Well, I am off to bed. It is 8:45 and John is sleeping, and I am ready for tomorrow. See, I have this down now by the end of the week! Good thing Brad comes home tonight! Hope you all have a good weekend!

The Next Picasso??

This week John brought home his first "art project." They have been finger painting in day care this week, and here he is, so proud of his work :)


The ladies at the daycare told me he was the only one to keep the colors separate on the paper. Hmmm, just like his Daddy. We always tease Brad because he gets really worked up over bottle parts. The bottles we use have different colored tops and bottoms, so he lines them all up on the counter according to color. He will not sleep at night if we use a blue top with a green bottom on the bottle. Hehe.

This week has been going good at daycare so far! John turns 6 months this weekend, so I will post more than. Until then, enjoy the artwork from my talented son :)

Are You Ready for Some Football???

Unfortunately, John was not ready for his first football game. We went on Saturday to the Army/EMU game with Brad's parents. We all looked ready, all decked out in our Army gear. John looked SOOO cute, in his Army tee and hat. But, it was SO cold and windy, and we got there, sat behind the band, and I think it was all a bit much for him. Every time Army scored and people cheered, he would cry. So I think we stayed about 30 minutes. Oh well! We will try again next year!

We did have a great weekend though. Brad's parents were here and we celebrated his dad's birthday, and then they drove John and me to the outlet shops in Indiana where John and I spend the night at my parents cottage (Brad had a fantasy football draft back here). So we spent the second half of the weekend with my parents, Jenny and Libs, and my grandma.

We came back early today b/c I have students for the first day tomorrow. So, this blog is going to be short because I have a ton of stuff to get ready and I have to get in my quality play time with John before the week begins! So enjoy the pictures, and thanks to both of our parents for a great Labor Day weekend!

Bittersweet

Before I update you on our first week at daycare, check out our big boy sitting!!! He is sitting all the time now, and doing it so well! We are so proud of him :)

So we survived our first week (well, 3 days really) back at work and daycare. It is so bittersweet. I really do love teaching and it was good to be back with my friends at work and actually have conversations with adults about things other than babies, but I missed John so much! He did great though, and I couldn't be happier with how the week went. The mornings were smooth (I was actually earlier to work that I was before I had him), and he did pretty good all week. He slept and took naps, which I was the most nervous about, he ate, and played a ton. The three women than run the infant room are all great, and his primary caregiver, Miss Shelly, is awesome. I know she will take excellent care of him and love him. It is just such a hard notion that it won't be ME with him every day. I did okay the first day, I was so happy it went so well. But that night was hard. We had to let him cry it out for about 10 minutes and I was a wreck. All I kept thinking was, "he really is going to think we don't love him...we leave him at a new place all day, then we don't even come into his room when he is crying." But of course he fell asleep and when we woke him up in the morning smiled at us like usual. I am just feeling this tremendous guilt about leaving him at daycare. Everyone at my work has been great, at least they have all been through it too. I know it will get easier and I really could not be happier about the facility he is at.

He has been SO tired though. We have been waking him up at 6:15 each morning and even though he is napping there, they haven't been as long as they usually are at home. They told me he was really tired on Thursday (he had a pretty fussy morning) and when I got him home, he literally fell asleep on the changing table when I was changing his diaper. I mean, he was OUT. He has never done that before. I put him in his crib and he slept for almost 3 hours. He has been sleeping SO much better at home, thank goodness! I am so proud of him! He has been sleeping about 10 hours each night. We have to let him cry some nights, but usually only for a couple of minutes and then he is out. He has been turning and sleeping on his side and stomach, so that seems to be working. Whoo! I was so worried about going back to work and being so tired from him being up all night.

This weekend we are going to take John to his first football game. Brad's parents are coming tomorrow and we are going to the Army/EMU game. Brad is so excited to take John. He turned on the TV last night for the opening college football games, and John was GLUED to the TV. It was so funny. I don't think he blinked at all. He just sat there with his mouth hanging open, so we had to turn it off :)

Speaking of Brad, I am so proud of him. He got a new job at Booz Allan Hamilton, which we are both really excited about. He starts in a few weeks, so hopefully it is an easy transition.

Well, here are some pictures of John from yesterday glued to the TV...funny. Hope everyone has a good Labor Day!





This is his other favorite pose...he rolls and positions himself under the coffee table where he hangs like a monkey :)