Saturday, December 30, 2006

Robert's life

Christmas
It's been a crazy week or so! Robert thoroughly enjoyed all the new people and toys and well, everything and is now systimaically destroying the house (in response to the direction from Uncle Rob). He can get the bottle drawer open and the bottles out (new today) and got one of the latches of his daddy's tool box open today too. He's standing for longer and longer periods at the activity center that Clif and Hollie gave him and loves to push his wagon around. He seems to be talking some too, I'm hearing fairly accurage "dada, doggie and light (maybe?). Doggie is the only one I'm fairly sure of. He also loves the dishwasher. His schedule is all weird today-he slept a bunch last evening and stayed up til 11:30 and then slept until 10 this morning, napped from 12:45-2:30 and has been up since. So hopefully he'll be back on schedule tomorrow!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Robert's life

Robert's life

OK, OK, I know. Bad blogging mommy! So since I've found time today to pick up Christmas cards, address Christmas cards and write a Christmas letter I guess I should find time to blogg too. So what's new? Let's see. Robert is still into everything and then some. He got CD's out of the CD changer last night (oops-but not my fault-I was at work!). He's starting to get some seperation anxiety and is crying briefly when I leave him at the babysitters or at the kids club at the gym. When I say briefly I mean "whah, whah, oh, what does that toy do?" so not too bad! He's starting to play with other kids more (like at free play after story time) and to really interact and socialize. I took him with me to a contact lense re-check appointment today (I knew it would just be a few minutes) and he had a ball "playing" with an optometrist while I was in line to pay. He loves peek-a-boo and rough housing and makes very good car noises in addition to his pirate noises. Sigh, I guess boys come hard wired :)

Friday, December 01, 2006

Robert's life

Yikes!

OK, OK, I know, it's been a week and 4 days since I blogged. BUT my portfolio is in (that's where I've been-in portfolio writing land) and Robert is asleep (for now) and even though I should be cleaning I'll blog quick (and if you're good, I'll even leave a picture).

Robert is a wild man. There is no other way to describe it. Wes says that any day we'll find him on top of the coffee table. Already he's trying to open the drawer on the china cupboard, turning the knob on the CD changer, playing with the phone, getting stuff off the coffee table, eating MY FOOD, grabbing glasses/earings off of people's faces, and well, you know, just being crazy! Last night my Bible Study group went out to a local mexican place for supper and I ended up buying him his own meal (cheaper than getting quesadillas off the a la carte menu). He had part of a quesadilla, some cheerios, some rice, some taco meat and a bunch of water and was cute. Then we went to the local Christian book store to pick out our new study. He decided to roll himself across the room (never done that before), then was scooting a plastic kid's chair across the room (yes, walking, holding onto the chair)! He's still sick (juncky nose) and fussy, which is the other reason I'm not getting much done. I was debating taking him to the pediatrician today but he's still eating/drinking OK and doesn't flinch when I take his temp in his ear so I think I'll hold off for now. OK, the picture I'm leaving you is Robert of the sticky-upy hair. I'll try to update the website pics tomorrow.

Monday, November 20, 2006

9 months today!

Into Everything!
How is my baby 9 months old? I swear he was just a newborn!

Wow, what a crazy week! Robert has been pulling up onto everything the last few days and then sometimes he gets stuck (pulls up to the stairs and can't figure out how to get down...). He has also started pulling the wire cart that has plastic containers in it around the room with him. Yesterday he pulled up on the safety gate and talked with us... He can open cupboards and some drawers now (we have the cupboards locked now and he finds them frustrating!), is no longer facinated by the twanging door stoppers (what a shame, now he wants the tubing from the mini shower that's attached to the toilet that I use to rinse diapers off with).

Oh, and our house is in a constant state of disorder. Wes' mom and grandma showed up on a few minutes notice last evening and his grandma said "well, you can sure tell that there's a baby here, there are toys everywhere!". Yep, sure are!

During his brief nap times the last 2 days I have managed to write a curriculum vitae and 2 clinical exemplars for a nursing portfolio that is due Dec 1. I trust I will get it done! RMH is starting a clinical ladder program and if I can get it all done and become a "Clin 1" I will get a lump sum of $1,500 which would be rather nice :)

Anyways, Robert's napping so I'd best get some housework done before it's time to take him for his 9 month appointment! I'm anxious to hear what he weighs and whether we can start him on wheat! Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Robert's life

Robert's life
Well, Robert officially pulled up to standing on Friday! I was so proud! He hasn't done it all the way to standing again but does pull up to his knees to play with stuff on the sofa. He's also getting harder and harder to contain during church and I'm probably going to have to start leaving him in the nursery. You would think that since I run the nursery I would leave him in it but I really don't (unless I'm the nursery worker which I am every 3-4 Sundays or so). We took him antique shopping today and he really enjoyed the oldies music they had playing at the huge antique mall we went to (in Verona) and looking at all the colorful stuff. I had him in the ergo and he did fine (used it as a front pack so I could keep an eye on his hands!) The other big munchkin related news is that I'm going to stop pumping every morning (which I was doing to develop a stash). Lets just say that my chest freezer basket is overflowing so I probably don't need to still be creating a stash. I'm still pumping at work of course and if I miss a feeding during the day just not extra. I'm really happy that he's so far not had any formula-and I don't forsee him needing any in the next 3 months, he is just as happy with rice chex and water if he needs something while I'm at the gym etc.

OK, other news. Our good friend Philip was in a head on car accident on Saturday and was airlifted to UVA (tertiary medical center) which caused us great concern until we heard that he was stable-lots of broken bones but nothing life threatening. Wes was able to see him that evening-went with our pastor and his wife while I stayed home with Robert. Please keep him, his wife Sarah and their baby, Logan (5 months) in your prayers! They're going to have a long road ahead of them. Philip was scheduled for surgery today to have rods placed in his ankle and femur and hardwear in his arm.

Well, that's all from here. Wes entertained munchkin this evening long enough for me to finish my book-which was very good- Jennefer Weiner's "Little Earthquakes".

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Robert's life

Growing Up
Robert is growing up on me and it makes me proud and sad all at once. If I have time I sit and hold him while he naps (OK, I read!) and just look at him and marvel that he's so big and yet my baby. He's working on cruising and pulling up and thinks he can stand/walk. His newest trick is waving bye, but he waves towards himself instead of away. I was unloading groceries from my trooper today and he was babbling away and I looked at him and realized he was talking to "the munchkin in the mirror" (which is what we call his reflection in the car mirror we have for him) and waving to "him". He was saying baaaaaaaaaheeeeeeeey" which sounded kind of like bye to me, but was probably an accident. It also kind of looks like he was signing milk to me earlier today (we've been working on baby sign language with the videos "signing time" (www.signingtime.com) so I guess anything is possible-but milk isn't one we've done much with, so who knows.). Well, I've got pictures for you today, so I'll stop now and just let you look at them!

Wesley climbing

Margaret climbing

And Robert being cute (as usual)

Monday, November 06, 2006

Chinese Food!

Eating Out!
We decided on the spur of the moment yesterday to go out for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. I was unusally disorganized for some reason and didn't have the diaper bag packed right and had no food/no bib/no spoon/no snacks/no cup. What was I thinking? So anyways we decided to see what Robert would eat. Well, he likes rice and fried rice (picked out the egg and peas), small peices of chicken/pork that I shredded for him, broccoli (just the flowerets), small peices of stir fried green beans, bananas and peaches from the desert bar and he got into the sugar from my small bowl of Chinese doughnuts. He had a ball but the waiter was not amused. I did clean up the area under the highchair pretty well and we left a nice tip. Thank heavens he drinks out of a cup with a straw and was able to share my cup and drank a bunch of water. By the end of the meal he was quite adept at grabbing a hand full of rice and eating it out of his palm. Of course this was the day when everyone we knew was at the restaurant so everyone got a good look at our rice covered munchkin! At the end of the meal I took him outside and dusted him off and he looked surprisingly good! I was just so impressed at how well he does with table foods and how much he actually gets into his mouth (and how well he likes ethnic foods). I can't wait until he can have wheat/eggs/dairy and he can eat more or less what we do!

Saturday we made apple butter with Wes' extended family. Actually, they made apple butter, his cousin Kim and I watched the babies and had a good time. Oh, and Wes and I climbed a tree, I'll post a picture.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Robert's life

Busy Mommy!

Last week I was too lazy to blog this week I've been too busy! It's been crazy with work and meetings this week. Robert still does really well at meetings (if I take lots of snacks) and so far no one seems to care. I've become a co-chair of a hospital wide policy and procedure commitee and so we'll be doing weekly meetings for a while. Our new nurse director is bent on changing everything this year so lots of changes going on! Which is a good thing.

Anyway, this is supposed to be Robert's life, not mine! He is currently napping (yeah!), which he seems to do less and less of each day. We were out and about both tues and Wed morning before I had to go to work so he really hasn't napped well this week, but has done fine. I resisted the urge to dress him up for Halloween and take him anywhere, well for one thing I was working and for the other thing (to quote Dr Newsome): "they can't walk or eat candy, so what's the point". So he and his daddy went to the weekly supper at Wes' grandma's as Sheriff Taylor and Opey (since they were wifeless/motherless!). I found a pair of (small-they look like mice ears) elephant ears on a headband and wore them with my animal scrubs to work and the kids liked them :) All in all we spent $3.50 on costumes (sheriff badge and headband) so not bad! Robert is trying to pull up, is an expert at taking DVD's off the shelf, loves to pet the puppy, chase the puppy, get the puppy's bone (trying to teach Snoopy to chew and leave her bone on the sofa-never thought I'd ever WANT her to chew it on the sofa!), love to eat and to feed himself fingerfoods. This week I've been giving him little peices of cooked zucchini with olive oil and garlic powder and he loves it! Plus he's eating rice chex like they're going out of style. Oh, and he thinks the elephant ear headband is really funny!
That's all the news from here that I can remember anyways!

Friday, October 27, 2006

Robert's life

Lazy Mommy!
I have totally been lazy this week and haven't bloged! I've actually been off for over a week now (was called off Monday and work today and this weekend) and we've just been hanging out. OK, so he's been crawling and I've been rescuing him/putting stuff away and childproofing! He's still army crawling but now can open the nightstand drawers (both of them), is thinking about how to get back to a sitting position crawling and is doing an occasional creeping crawl/rocking. We went to story time at the library on Wed (which is more singing and playing than reading) and he did really well there and then we went shopping and then back home. It's going to be hard going back to work this evening after a week with him 24/7 except for an hour 3 times this week while I was at the gym. I don't think Wes is looking forward to it either! Other stuff from this week include lots of hugs (oh, they're great!), learing to crawl into my lap and eating yogurt (he really likes it!). He's so precious, I love being a mommy! Well, got to get stuff ready to go to work, we're meeting Kim (Wes' cousin) and her two kids and Nanny's and then I'm going straight from there to work so I guess I'd better get busy!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Robert's life

It's been a nice weekend here, a perfect mixture of fun stuff and getting stuff done. For fun stuff yesterday I went shopping with a friend and got a great pair of shoes and a mocha late :) and then we went on the Shenandoah Valley Railroad fall scenic excursion from Verona to Pleasant Valley and back. It was a lot of fun although 2 hours is a long time to contain a munchkin! Luckily we were able to sit in a dining car and he had a great time crawling back and forth between us, eating rice chex and rice crispies and looking out the window. Then we went to Crutchfield to see what they had on sale and then out to eat at Jess' 2. Today was church and Robert refused to nap and was clapping, singing and talking. He is SO cute when he claps and he's doing it all the time now! After feeding him I took him back to nursery so he could play and he had a great time. This afternoon we installed a new light over our dining room table (got it on sale last weekend-origionally $99 paid $12.50!), I bathed Snoopy, Wes changed oil in the van and closed up vents, I went though all of Robert's old clothes and put them into under bed containers (how has he outgrown so many clothes already?) and now I'm bloging quick while Robert takes a nap. Oh, and my new diaper bag came in time to take it yesterday and it is PERFECT! I love it.

Robert is in to everything, taking DVD's off the rack, dumping toys everywhere, and is just all over the place. Baby gates are a wonderful invention! He's a ton of fun :)

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Day off

Robert's life
Yeah! My first real day off in a week (I was off Monday but was crazy busy doing laundry/grocery shopping plus was at work for an hour or so for a meeting). It's been nice to just chill out at home. Grandma R came for a visit-the first time she's seen Robert since the beach and it was great to have her! Robert has changed so much since then! Today he managed to topple over the wire cart that I keep plastic containers in, move the hitch a few inches accross the kitchen floor and of course entertain mommy and great grandma! He's clapping a lot today, and thankfully started clapping along when I sing to him during diaper changes which for today anyways has kept him from rolling over during them!

I worked until 1:30 each morning the past 2 mornings and I am dead tired today! I'm looking forward to a good night sleep tonight! As soon as Bible Study is over I'm hitting the hay. Maybe I'll make it to the gym tomorrow!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Robert's life

In to stuff!

Wow, between working and keeping up with Robert my internet time has been severly limited (and what little I've had I've spent trying to decide on a new diaper bag-mine is too small for lugging around blankets/toys/sweatshirts/food/sippy cup.... and I thought newborns needed a lot of stuff! I finally decided on a skip-hop-dash in uptown stripe (in case anyone is interested!)
http://www.mylittleducks.com/shdashstripe.html
Robert's toy of the day are the little springy things that keep the door from hitting the wall. I never dreamed they were so much fun, but they really are! And socks are a ton of fun too. (BTW, mom the socks you sent are AWESOME!). I weighed him yesterday at work and he is now 18.2 lbs and 29 inches. No wonder he's getting heavy! I don't carry him without a sling for very long at all-to the car or next door is about the max. Thank heavens the ring sling is so easy to get him in and out of! And the ergo is great for longer trips (like Walmart). OK, off the shopping/product reccomendation kick!
Lets see, new stuff that's going on. Robert has started eating rice chex and rice crispies and does well with both (and loves them!). He's also doing well with shredded peices of chicken off my plate. His pincer grasp is comming along slowly and he can move food from hand to hand and to puppy. He was feeding Snoopy rice chex yesterday and when he stopped she sneezed (which is her way of saying "please"-it's a command we taught her), and looked puzzled when he didn't feed her any more. I wonder how soon she'll have him trained. He is a major roller during diaper changes/dressing-undressing which is getting old fast. If you turn around to get diaper ointment he has rolled himself over and is crawling halfway off the (very low) bed to get the puppy. He's crawling better, starting to get his legs and arms in sync instead of just pulling with his arms and slithering and can get pretty much anywhere he want to get. He loves to crawl to the headboard of our bed and play with the metal inserts (leaves/acorns). They rattle well. Oh and shoes are facinating-his and anyone elses. If I want to show off his crawling I take my shoes and put them accross the room and watch him go for them. I think that the great shoe rack I got for the kitchen maybe wasn't such a great idea after all. He thinks of it as an all you can get buffet! Well, I'm hearing munchkin awake noises so I'd better get and get some stuff done before I have to go to work this afternoon.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Home again

Robert's life as a beach bum
We had a great trip to Ocracoke. I was joking with Wes that I'm never traveling to the beach without Wes' dad again. The weather was perfect even when there was an 80% chance of rain all day-it would rain at night, clear up by mid morning and be 80's and sunny all afternoon-he had spent the weeks before basically begging the weather to be nice and evidently it worked! It was wild. I had packed all cold weather stuff so I was a little on the warm side some days! Robert loved crawling off the blanket onto the grass and picking blades of grass (keeping him from eating it was a job!), eating his first mango (I thought I was giving him a taste, didn't realize he would finish it for me!) and generally getting into everything. He managed to pull the curtain rod and bend it and got the door latch open (standing on my lap)... He's doing great with self feeding, eating cooked carrot peices, banana stalks, the occasional green bean, peices of peach... He also loves mashed potatoes.

As much fun as it was to take him camping it was a lot of work! This probably has been the most challenging camping trip of my life and I have never taken so much stuff with me! Next year should be easier since he will be able to eat more table food/take showers/walk some etc. When he was younger it was easier since he didn't eat solids at all. This time it was just ridiculous! Inflatable duck bathtub, booster seat, baby food, spoons, bibs, toys, pump, bottles, sippy cups, straw cups....

Being able to pump on the road made it possible to get to Ocracoke on Tuesday evening. We made the 11 pm ferry (missed the 10 pm by 15 min!) and were in bed by 12:30 or so

Whoops, baby's up, I'll add more later and pics!

addition: The rest of the week was great, we hung out, walked on the beach, read (although even Roger out-read me, this was a not so great reading vacation!), shopped, went to Hatteras for a day and ate at the Captain's Table (which for Hatteras enthusiasts is where the Tides used to be). It's pretty similar to the Tides but I didn't think the food was quite as good-although the hushpuppies were better. However, it might have been because I was so busy feeding Robert. I ordered him mashed potatoes and they brought them out before our meals and he ate and ate... they were really good! We also spent an hour or so in a bead shop where Peggy made some earings. It was really cool and pretty cheap too! Robert for the most part took everything in stride, didn't nap as well most days but enough to keep from being too cranky. It was wild to watch him pull individual blades of long grass and to touch and explore. I've never seen a 7 month old with such great hand eye co-ordination. On the way home we stopped several places, at the outlet malls in Nags Head (had to look at the baby clothes at Gap!), the pottery in Williamsburg (to add to my Pistoulet collection at the Pfaltzgraff store and our cookie stash at the Pepperidge Farm store), for supper and bathroom breaks, anyways we were on the 9:30 am ferry out of Ocracoke and didn't get home until 10:15 that night! Robert fell asleep at 7 pm and slept all the way home, then played for 1/2 an hour or so and slept through the night! Anyways, for pics pertaining to this blog check out http://www.megley.com/photos/babyfurr/September

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Robert's life

Beach!

We're in high gear getting ready to leave for Ocracoke this afternoon. We're hoping to leave around 3 pm and make the midnight ferry to Ocrackoke! Wes' parents are going to reserve us a campsite near them (they left Friday so are already there). Robert was fantastic yesterday, playing hapily while I worked and napping well which really helped! He's still not crawling well but I guess in a couple weeks I'll wish he wasn't! He certainly loves to roll over during diaper changes! And he's learned how to push Snoopy away when she's kissing him! Well, we'll be back late on the 9th, probably with lots of pictures!

Friday, September 29, 2006

Jam and Jelly

Robert's life
It's been a fun week, I worked 2 days and then I've been off 3 so I feel like I'm on a mini-vacation (and after working 2 more days I'll be on a real vacation-we're going to the beach!!!!!!!!!!!) I've also been making freezer jam and cooked jelly this week-so far I've done 2 turns of strawberry/bluberry freezer jam and one of grape jelly (with lots of help from Wes' mom!). Yum. Robert is still scooting around and talking a blue streak. Even the nursery workers at the gym commented on it. They said he talked non stop today! They decided to cancel the stroller class but I'm going to a class called deep definition which is an hour of strength training. Yowzers its hard!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Houston, we have takeoff!

A Crawler's Life!
I think that life as I know it is going to change. Robert took off comando crawling yesterday afteroon (started backwards and today is working on forwards) and hasn't stopped since. He crawls in the crib, off the changing mat, across the bathroom floor before his bath, out of the bouncy seat, accross the kitchen.... he is so proud of himself. Guess who is now limited to the floor or crib! I made strawberry/blueberry freezer jam yesterday and had him sitting on the floor playing with a mixing bowl and a spoon (liked the spoon but didn't care much for the bowl), the next think I knew he was all the way across the kitchen and I realized he must have crawled backwards and couldn't get back. After that I started watching him more closely and sure enough he's moving. YIKES! At least all this work has made him super tired and he's sleeping 8:30-8:30 (waking up once to eat around 5) and back down for a 2 hour nap at 10:30!

Monday, September 25, 2006

oh where is my baby?

I swear in the past week I've lost my little baby! He must be under this big boy somewhere but I'm not sure where. First of all he's starting to get mobile. Not really crawling yet but definitely getting around-scooting and rolling. Add that to lots of independent sitting and being able to dump his basket of toys on the ground and todays latest which was that he fed himself banana sticks (a banana cut into long thin peices and covered in baby cereal so it wouldn't be so slippery). He actually managed to get them to his mouth and in his mouth and chew and swallow! I am so impressed. He is also continuing to hone his skills in the doorway jumper and can glide back and forth the whole width of the doorjamb (or all but) and reach the stuff on top of the speaker so we had to put them up. Oh and non stop talking: dadadada and even a few mamas! Oh and of course his first really good scooting was to snoopy (who loves the finger food results but isn't so sure that a mobile baby is what she wanted!).







Thursday, September 21, 2006

Robert's life

Wow a whole week!
I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. Oops! I've been really tired lately, first with a cold and then with some very long evenings at work (getting off at 12-1 am getting to bed around 1-2 am) coupled with a baby that gets up at 7:30 for the day. Today he slept on and off until 8:30 (he gets up at 5 to eat) and I got to bed at 10 so I feel better. Mom came Tuesday evening and left this morning and it was nice to have her. I think she got her "munchkin fix", feeding cereal, giving baths etc. We had lunch Wed at Sunnyside to celebrate Grandpa's 92nd b-day. Robert insisted on eating and ate 1/2 a banana! Yikes. He doesn't usually eat lunch. He's definitely getting more and more social, loves to see himself in the miror, will play happily on the floor for 30 min or so by himself and for longer if I sit next to him and read. I'll have to post some pics soon.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Quiet Week

It's been a quiet week at Lake Harrisonburg. Nothing really new here except that Robert can now sit and play for long periods without falling over and has become quite the enthusiastic eater. He is also almost grown out of his carseat so I've been working on installing his new convertable car seat (convertable in that it can rear and forward face). Work has been good, time at home has been good, and it has just been a nice week.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Photo Shoot and a lazy weekend

Friday afternoon I took Robert to the mall for an impromtu 6 month photo shoot. I had a good coupon and he was in a good mood so I decided to see what happened when we got to the mall. If he was happy and they had a slot great if not then whatever. Well everything worked out great and we got some good pics. Saturday we had nothing planned and did pretty much nothing exciting. I made baby food and went to the Farmer's market for a while with Peggy and Nanny and Wesley mowed. Sunday we had a picnic for ex-Rocco employees after church which was fun and then just hung out and relaxed. I've gotten Robert's cold so it was so nice to have a lazy weekend home!

Friday, September 08, 2006

Big boy!

Robert has really grown up this week! He's sitting better and better and has learned to walk himself to the end of where he can go in the jumper and then swing back (repeat ad nauseum). I was going to take him to a park yesterday to see what he would think of the baby swings there but he fell asleep. Maybe this afternoon! He also refused to eat his peaches mixed with oatmeal this morning (the peaches were rather tart-I didn't think to taste them before I cooked them/pureed them) so after a few bites I gave up and fed him some carrots, he ended up eating almost a full 2 oz jar (I buy carrots because of the nitrite levels-jarred are grown in areas with low nitrite levels), he would start to cry if I stopped. And when a friend came over for supper last night he was in his booster seat playing with the toys and while we were talking I looked over because he was being so quiet and he was just sitting there with his head cocked looking at her. He listened for the longest time. And he's getting really good and pushing himself against something to scoot. Oh and he has figured out how to get stuff off the bookshelves by walking himself using the jumper and then grabbing them--or the dog. Snoopy has been really tolerant of having her ear chewed, eyes grabbed and tail grabbed. I'm really pleased with her.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

First Cold

Robert's life
Well, at 6 months of age and in the middle of summer Robert has gotten his first cold. I'm a little confused about where he got it, he started Sun night, so probably not from church, and I haven't had any patients at work with colds. Anyways, he is a little miserable, especially at night but it hasn't stopped him from talking non stop.

Sigh, sorry Heather his first word wasn't He-ther but rather da-da. All day long it's been dada dada. I tried to tell Wesley that he wanted him to change his diaper (almost worked).

Mommy: "Robert who do you want to change your diaper, mama or dada?"
Robert: "Da-Da!".

So today instead of saying mama today it is ba-ba.

Robert (in the bathtub): "Ba-ba!"
Mommy: "No, Robert, ba-ba (the big stuffed lamb) can't take a bath with you, she doesn't like water."
Robert: "Ba-ba! Dada! Ba-ba"

Wesley called this morning and Robert was talking up a storm. Oh, life is funny! All the work mothers get and no mama. But lots of good hugs!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Home Improvement

Crazyness
It's been a crazy couple of weeks here but the upstairs has really made progress! Wiring and insulation are done and drywall is almost done (yeah!) Hopefully we'll have a place to put guests come Christmas! Robert's face is almost all better and he's back to his happy self. Dad only hurt himself 3 time and none required more than a bandaid. We had a nice lunch with the Smiths today before I had to go to work. And although the rain was dreary it made working a lot cooler. Well, I don't feel like I'm making a lot of sense so I'll leave ya'll now and go to bed. But a few more pics :)



Monday, August 28, 2006

Camping!

We had a great time camping this weekend with Clif and Hollie. I had Robert in his Bumbo (chair) and the bumbo on a picnic table bench and he fell sidewase and skinned his forehead. Poor guy. I felt so bad. I should really know better and especially after taking PALS (the first link in the chain of response for kids is prevention of injury!). He was somewhat cranky all weekend (despite tylenol for shots/face pain) and today has been napping like crazy so I'm thinking he was just tired but there was too much going on to nap well! It was very different camping with a 6 month old versus a 3 month old! He is definitely more aware and more active. He's used to being able to blow off steam in the jumper or exersaucer and we didn't have either with us so a couple of times he was laying (lying?) in bed kicking furiously and flapping his arms. Poor guy.

I'll add pics to this post when Wes gets home, he has them on his camera.




Friday, August 25, 2006

Busy Times

Robert's life
It's been a busy couple of days with "Grammy" and "Gramps" Reinhold here. Dad has been working on our upstairs (yeah!) and mom has been helping with Robert etc. It's been cute to watch them with Robert, they can't believe how much he has changed. He's really interacting! They're headed to Montreat and we're headed camping! Thursday Robert had shots and a checkup: 16 lb, 10 oz, 28 inches and doing perfect. I'm aching to see him right now, I had PALS (pediatric advanced life support) class today in Fishersville and left at 6:45. Mom and dad had him for a while and then took him to my SIL's mom's house and then my SIL picked him up and still has him. They're going camping with us and are bringing him to us. I fed him at 6 am and haven't seen him since :( I want my baby!

Here's another picture.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Robert's life

6 Months

I can't believe Robert is 6 months old today! It has flown by, and I'm sure the next 6 months will fly by too! I celebrated by staying home with him (put myself on the wish list) and it's been fun. He goes Thursday for his check up so we'll see then what he weighs! I'm trying to think what's new with him! He has the funniest smile, he tucks his bottom lip in and puffs his cheeks out so he looks like a toothless old man. Oh and he thinks that Snoopy is SO FUNNY when she sneezes. He just laughs and laughs! He's sitting up pretty well on his own (30 seconds without anyone near/10-15 min with side support). He's rolling really well and even did a 3 way roll the other day (back->front->back) in about 3 seconds flat. He was pretty proud. Now if only he could crawl he would be happy. He spent 5 min trying to inch his way towards a peice of paper on Friday. Poor guy. Paper is his favorite toy. I guess I should stop letting him eat the grocery list while I'm loading the groceries ;) Right now he is helping Wesley play Bejeweled. He's waving his arms around and hooting like an owl. Hooting and shrieking are his 2 new noises. Well I guess it's munchkin bedtime so I'd better go. Oh, here's a quote from Wesley right now "keep those hands out of your mouth, they get gross in there". Daddy doesn't like drool much :)

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Robert's life

OK, MY life :)

A quick side note that has nothing to do with Robert. I won first place at the fair for 2 scrapbook pages! Apparently scrapbooking as a fair entry hasn't caught on yet and so not a lot of people entered. Wes won 2nd place for a photo of the fields behind our house.

Back to munchkin, he has decided that sleeping on his belly is nice and is presently asleep "spread eagle" in his crib. AND he slept until 8:15 this morning! That was a nice change from the 2/3 am wake up calls!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Robert's life

Pool, watermelon and rolling!

Sunday we went to Sarah's parents house for a BBQ. They have a pool and it was Robert's first time "swimming". He loved it! Then he got to try watermelon for the first time which was great for a while and then he got bored with it.

I'm begining to wonder why I wanted him to roll over. The last 2 nights he has rolled himself onto his stomach and then cried until I rescued him. Ugh. Last night he did it twice!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Robert's life

Grand Caverns

Saturday was RMH's fun day and we took Robert. What's not to like about free food, free funnel cake and free admission/tour of the caverns (normally $16 a person!). Robert slept through the first part (again in the Ergo) and then woke up and was, as usual facinated by the lights. It was a very fun time.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Robert's life

Hold a little tighter
A friend who I met at Bible Study who has since moved away called the other person who did Bible Study with us a few months ago to say she was pregnant again (had a baby while we were doing Bible Study) this was rather unexpected since she had had to be on fertility meds for the first one (actually her second pregnancy, no heartbeat at 12 wks with her first). We just got a call last night from her husband that she developed an infection and the baby (Robert Aaron!) was born at 20 wks and lived 10 min. I can't imagine what she must be going through. All last night and today I've held my Robert a little closer, kissed him a little more often and felt the fragility of life more intensely. Please keep that family in your prayers.

We were having a slow evening on Peds. I was precepting a very experienced (telemetry) nurse and we had 2-3 patients. I forgot part of my pump parts so had Wesley bring them in and got to keep Robert for 45 min or so while they (Wes and his parents) had supper. It was a great interlude to the evening! He is such a happy baby, smiling, laughing and crazy. He's starting to laugh at stuff around him-not just at being tickled. And he's loving squash!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Mommy Tired

Musings on various topics
I was reading in a parenting magazine yesterday an article on the things no one tells you about being a mother. One of the points was the difference between tired and mommy tired. The writer said she figured that since she could handle all nighters, jet lag etc that sleep deprivation wouldn't be an issue. And it wasn't, it's the exhaustion from spending all day entertaining, feeding, walking, rocking, changing...and repeat! I totally agree. While I love this life there are still times when it's like, wow I feel like I just changed you/fed you/played with you! So worth it though. Robert has been gobbling up solid food this week, to the point that he now grabs the spoon and pushes it in his mouth (or ear) and I usually have to abandon that spoon and get another one because he won't let it go. He seems to think that peaches and oatmeal are fantastic together but not so sure about the avacado. But I guess he wasn't so sure about peaches at the begining either! So we'll keep trying. I should have done avacado today but I thought he hadn't pooped so I figured that the peaches would be more, um, moving :) Then I opened up the diaper bag to find a very dirty diaper from the baby sitter. Delightful present.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Robert's life

News Flash
I forgot in my earlier blog that Big Robert called while we were at the hymn sing to say that he and Kavitha are engaged! I'm thrilled!

Robert's life

Unexpected Weekend Off
Somehow I ended up with a weekend off (scheduled to work). It was my turn off on Sat and I found out Friday that Wes' friend Aaron was going to be in town and his church was doing their anual hymn sing (which I missed last year because I was working) so I put myself on the wish list for Sunday :) Sunday I ended up being off (not on call) so we went hiking with Robert and Snoopy. I know we haven't been since I was pregnant so it's been a long time since I've been hiking. Luckily I now have an Ergo and although tough it went fine. Robert fell asleep on the way down and we were able to use the sleeping hood. It was so much fun. And of course Robert loved the hymn sing and even tried to sing along. I saw "Here I am Lord" and wondered about requesting it but wasn't sure if people knew it (we were at a Methodist church) and someone else requested it. It was awesome.
www.ergocarriers.com

Saturday, August 05, 2006

working mommy

Morning After
One of the things I love the most about working is the look on your face when I get you out of your crib the next morning. You're always happy to see me but you seem extra happy on the morning after I worked evening shift. You have this big grin on your face and you make a high pitched squeal. Having you cuddled up in my arms after 16ish hours of being appart feels wonderful!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Solids

Starting Solids
Starting solids has certainly been interesting! So far you've had 5 days of oatmeal and 1 of peaches. You seemed to like the oatmeal pretty well after the first day or so. But you made the funniest face when you first tasted the peaches today, it was like, "what the heck is this?". You are becoming a neater eater though, or I'm becoming better at spoon feeding!


I've been spending a lot of time with you on the floor trying to get you to roll over more, and you now have done it 3 times this week! Twice front to back and once back to front (a first for you). To make up for all the hated tummy time I bought you a used "exersaucer wannabe" from a second hand store. You seem to really love it, peeling eyeball stickers and all.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Teething

Teething

After posting what a happy baby you are you then proceeded to scream on and off the rest of the afternoon, seperated only by peroids of fussiness. I can feel something different in your top gum so hopefully something is happening there. You screamed through supper so after supper Heather and I took a walk before Bible Study and you finally fell asleep in the sling and slept through Bible Study! I was scared you wouldn't sleep well last night but you did and you're now still asleep (after waking up at 6:30 and 7:30 to eat!).

Thursday, July 20, 2006

5 Months

I can’t believe it’s been 5 months since you came into the world and joined our family. In some ways it seems like just yesterday and in other ways it seems like you’ve always been here. Well at 5 months you’re getting to be quite a character. Laughing when daddy tickles you when he swaddles you at night and when mommy changes your clothes and makes funny faces. You have developed a sense of humor and it's fantastic. Flirting with everybody. Grabbing mommy’s food and glass. Sitting up in the booster seat playing with the activity center. Everyone says that you are such a happy baby and I agree. It’s a good thing or I wouldn’t be able to take you to meetings at work with me-we did 5 hours this week alone (are you destined for the corperate world? You already know how to sleep through meetings!) I love being with you and finally feel like I’m able to balance life again. Oh, and we started going to the MOMS stroller class which you like now that I got a stroller where you can see me! It’s good to meet other moms and get some exercise. Those classes are brutal (or I’m really soft, one). I can't believe you are already 15 1/2 lbs and 27 1/2 inches. Wow, what happened to the 7 1/2, 19 1/2 inch newborn I had? I was scrapbooking your newborn pictures the other day and am amazed at how small you were. Wow.