Joe's New Bed

Joe is still not a fan of his crib :( We have broke him of the swing at night - now he uses his car seat!


The swing was not an ideal situation to us and neither is this. We'd love for the guy to realize his bed isn't that bad! We are pretty sure the main issue with the bed is that it requires him to be flat on his back. He doesn't seem to like that at all. He is a snuggler and loves to be curled up - preferably in someone's arms. The carseat and the swing both curl up his body just a bit and that is why we think he likes them so much!

On a funny note, the other night Amelia and I were watching Dora. She told me, "nigh nigh" so I asked her if she was tired. She wandered off and when I went to find her a few minutes later this is what I found:


It seems that she thinks the carseat is in fact a true bed! A bed for people of all sizes!

Then and Now: Bumbo

Amelia (left) and Joe (right) at almost three months old.

There are many similarities but also some distinct differences! Their eyes are what stand out to me as very different. No one can compete with Amelia's big and bright blue eyes!

Just Pictures

Christmas Day

Christmas morning Joe was the first to rise! Amelia eventually made her way upstairs to find that Santa had come! Santa used light-bulb wrapping paper this year and Amelia was so excited about it that she could hardly unwrap anything.


Amelia was excited about the wagon Santa brought her and Joe!


Mid-morning we got ready and went to Jason's sister's house for Christmas with his family. We had breakfast/brunch this year and it was really good!

Amelia and Joe dressed up for Christmas Day:


Even Cashew was fancied up!


Family photo:


Truthfully, I am glad Christmas is over and the new year is here! We, once again, let the stress of the holidays get to us. It probably didn't help that I went back to work (in a retail setting) just two weeks before Christmas! That's a hard time to get back into the swing of things.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day I worked my usual 8 hour shift. My day surprised me - it was pretty fun! I spent a lot of time in the electronics and entertainment department trying to put movies away but ended up helping guests all day! I was pleased that the ones who I had interactions with seemed to be in a good mood. I was even thanked by a few for working which I appreciated.

We stopped by a gathering of Jason's family briefly and then spent the night at my parent's house. Kim made stuffed peppers for dinner and we did presents around the tree. Amelia couldn't even get through present opening before she needed something opened so she could play with it:


Joe on his first Christmas Eve:


Family photo by the tree:

Girl's Night

Last Friday night was a little girl's night out at Acapulco! Marie was in town for the holidays and it worked out that several of us could meet for dinner. We were surprised at how empty the restaurant was. They are notorious for slow service (but the cheese dip is awesome and worth it!) so I was a little worried about it being Friday night and the day before Christmas weekend. I figure everyone would be eating out since they'd be cooking all weekend! This was not the case - we walked right in and sat down.

Amelia stayed home with her daddy for the evening. She's not that into mexican food and I also knew Joe would keep me busy enough while trying to visit and eat! He did pretty well though. He slept part of the time even!


I wish we could all get together like this a little more often - it was a good time!

2 Months

Last week Joe was two months old!


We had his check-up and he is looking great. He was 26 inches long (100th percentile) and 14 pounds 5 ounces (90th percentile). We have a fast growing, big baby boy!


We started having some sleeping issues. Joe doesn't like his crib most nights and spends the night in his swing in our room:


It is not an ideal situation or one that we are entirely happy with but it's what we have to do to get any rest. Since I started back at work last week and have been averaging around 3 hours of sleep on work nights (I get up at 3 a.m.) the swing has been a lifesaver. We keep hoping one night he'll realize his crib is comfy but so far it hasn't happened :(

These first two months have flown by - he'll be one before we know it!

Kitty Cat, Night Night

Amelia loves to take people "ny, ny." What that means is she takes you to her room and closes the door and basically holds you hostage. She will even go so far as to "block" the door with whatever she can find. She honestly believes that her sippy cup or step stool will keep you barricaded in her room!

She is always running around the house yelling, "kitty cat, night night! Kitty cat, night night!" Her father has let a kitty cat go "night, night" before. I on the other hand am opposed to it. Here she is seeking out a cat to go "ny, ny."

Searching for Tubing

Do you know what it takes to get these?


A LOT.

This afternoon our cats found the tubes to the breastpump and decided they looked like a fun toy and chewed them up. Sweet. I go back to work in the morning (well, in just a few hours) and definately need that tubing!

We went on with the day knowing that we would be in Woodbury this evening and we would stop in at Babies R Us and get some new tubing. Guess what? You can't buy the tubing there! They have every other replacement part you can think of except the tubing. We stopped in at a few pharmacies thinking they might have some for some reason. Nope.

In a last effort on the way home we stopped at the hospital. They have surgical tubing and that's really all we needed. A few feet of surgical tubing. They must have miles of it in a hospital! The triage nurse sent us to Target. I knew Target didn't carry it because I work there but just in case we went over there. They did not have it.

I called the OB department of the hospital directly and went through it all again and basically said, "I need this tubing ASAP and I know you have it. What do I need to do to get and I am more than willing to pay for it." They ended up putting me on hold and then decided they'd call me back once pricing was figured out. Well, they called back and we went and got it.

We expected just a few feet of surgical tubing. Instead we got a brand new Medela tubing set in the packaging. Apparently there was some confusion on what we needed and the nurses just found the whole thing hilarious because they have cases of what we needed just sitting there. I was not laughing so much but was happy to get what we needed and get home.

I go back to work for the first time since Joe was born in just a few hours and our adventures this evening/night have led to me needing to pull an all-nighter! Sunday is going to be an interesting day for me :)

Christmas Tree 2011

This past Sunday we went to the St. Croix Tree Farm to get a tree for Jason's sister's house! This year it snowed the night before we went - just like last year!

We brought a sled with this year for Amelia to ride around on and she loved it!


She also figured this year that throwing snow is fun!


While the tree was being trimmed our family snuck off to get a picture of the four of us for our Christmas card! All three of them turned out ok but this one was our favorite:


Thanks Auntie Liz for being our photographer!

The group shot this year wasn't as good as last years...


...the spot we chose had the sun right behind us! We'll have to plan better next year :)

This was the second year that I went to cut down a real tree and I am starting to think that once we are living in our own home I might want to give a real tree a try! We never had one growing up because cats got sick from eating the tree and needed medicine etc. For now, we will use our artificial tree which we hope to have up this weekend!