Sunday, August 31, 2008

Train horns and videos!


We had a fun day today. First, we went out to the campground where Mallory works and listened to the train horns. Every Labor Day a group of people comes up with real train horns installed in their RV's. We stayed at the office while Mallory took Chris to go see, and it was still SO loud! Connor wasn't terribly impressed, but I think he'll love it next year. We were in a little bit of a hurry, so they didn't get to actually take a carriage ride, but we got a picture anyway.


Then we played in the excersaucer again, and he LOVED it! He was bouncing around and hitting the toys like crazy. I got a video that I'll upload tomorrow.


I don't want to overload the blog with videos, so if you're interested then you can always subscribe to my youtube account! Click Here for my profile page. So far it's a bunch of Connor videos and some cloth diaper stuff for my cloth diapering group here online. I'll be updating it as I get new videos, so keep an eye out!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Bathtime!



Connor LOVES bathtime. The girls helped me tonight and we had a lot of fun. Megan played camera person and got some great shots. She got a video too, I'll put it at the bottom. She's not great at that part, but it was fun anyway. We have a hammock style thing that goes on the tub, two of them actually. But he kept sliding down and within minutes he was frustrated and wanted out. But then I just laid a blanket down in the bottom and let him lay flat and now bathtime is his favorite thing to do!
He's becoming more and more social as the days go by. He smiles all the time and is a total wiggle butt. I think I'm going to have to get some of those mesh bumpers for his crib because he wiggles all over it. I have some standard bumpers, but "they" are saying that bumpers are a suffocation hazard now. I figure millions of babies have survived them, but when you weigh the risk of suffocation to the risk of a bump on the head or a stuck leg, I think the bump wins. But they make mesh bumpers now so that we don't have to worry about him wiggling his way through the bars and hurting himself.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Unfair schedule and a video!

Connor sure has made an interesting schedule for himself since I've been working mornings doing training. I feed and change him, then give him to Chris so I can go to work. Then he falls asleep and stays that way for 3 1/2 hours until I get home, when he wakes up to be fed and changed again! No fair! Next week I start my regular evenings though, so we'll see what he does then.

Here's a cute video I got of us playing this morning.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Going back to work


Well, I started work yesterday. (She gave us Monday off) It turns out one of the Kindergarden teachers wants to work with me, so that's GREAT news. I'll get to learn with a pro. I'm much less nervous now. I start with the kids on Monday. Tomorrow we'll be going through our curriculum (aka playing with the toys) and Friday we'll do our lesson plans. I'm starting to get excited.


Not alot has been happening on the home front. Connor is getting used to being with Daddy during the daytime, so his schedule is all out of whack. It's going to be hard for me to get used to giving up the control over his daytime schedule, but I know Chris will do a good job. He really is in love with this amazing little person, and it's really neat to watch.




Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Back to the grind


We still haven't figured out how to get the video off the camera, and it's really frustrating. Mallory's boyfriend seems to think he has a program that will grab it, then he'll put it on a flash drive and bring it over. I hope it works, I got some cuuuute video of Connor and some really good stuff of the girls too.


Today is officially my first day back to work. School starts next Monday, and this week is filled with training. Today I work 8 to 3:30. I'm not ready. I work for an after school program, and last year I was with middle school students. NOT easy. Well, this year my boss plans to move me to kindergarden. Also NOT easy. I would say I'm nervous, but that would be lying. I'm scared out of my mind.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

We're back!


We're back from camping and we had a blast. Connor had a great time, but it was a long couple of days for him so we've spent most of today trying to help him sleep. I can see in his eyes that he is sooooo tired, but with all of that excitement he's having trouble falling and staying asleep. We just had bathtime, a lotion massage, and a nice warm bottle, so hopefully he'll be able to stay asleep for a few good hours. I got some pretty good video, so tomorrow I'll work on figuring out how to get it on the computer and then I'll post some.

Joe asked about our experience with hospital staff, doctors, and family members in regards to leaving Connor intact. While I don't want this blog to be an anti-circumcision blog, I don't see the harm in revisiting the topic one more time to answer these questions. I have heard some real horror stories about hospitals and doctors pushing parents to circumcise or even trying to do it against the parent's wishes, but we didn't experience any of that.

Before he was born it wasn't even mentioned to me. I found this a little disturbing because that also meant my doctor wasn't making sure I knew how to care for an intact baby. But the hospital staff showed me so that eased some of my discomfort. Luckily I had already read up on it, but I'd hate to think about someone unintentionally hurting their baby because nobody told them how to care for him. My hospital doesn't do the procedure, so the only reason anyone even asked was so they could give me information on care.

At his first well baby visit when he was 2 days old, my doctor asked if we would be doing it. When I told her no, she gave me a big smile and said she was glad. She made sure we knew how to care for him and told me that since so many insurance companies (including state insurance) stopped covering it, more and more babies are being left alone and she couldn't be happier.

As for family, I got a lot of questions about our choice, and that was pretty much it. Most of the family says they would have made a different choice, but they admit that their reasons are purely social and cosmetic, and they respect our choice. I only had one problem so far, and that was with my old boss. I used to care for her son, and when she found out (through the grapevine, how lovely) that we left Connor intact, she actually cornered me in the grocery store to tell me what a horrible choice I was making. I gave her facts but she still kept telling me that I was making the wrong choice. In the end I told her that even though I didn't agree with a lot of things she did with her son, I trusted and respected her as a mother to do what she felt was right, and all I asked was that she give me the same courtesey.

I don't need people to agree with me at all. In fact, I love having people in my life who disagree with me, it makes things interesting and keeps us all learning. All I need is for people to respect my choices. Question me all you want. Test me. Ask to see my research. But at the end of the day, he's my son and I'm doing what my instincts tell me is right.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Going camping!

Megan bouncing Connor to sleep.


We're leaving to go camping in a couple of hours! I really REALLY need this! We're almost all packed, we just need to get the last few things, pick up the girls, and we're off! Luckily Connor chose this morning to sleep in, so I'm able to get all of the stuff packed that we didn't get around to last night.


We're not exactly hardcore campers. Chris and I bring the mattress from the hide-a-bed and sleep in the back of the van. We bring Little Debbie snacks and tunafish sandwiches. Connor will have his playpen to sleep in with a sheet over the top of it. Chris even packed the changing table that attaches to the playpen. I put my foot down at the bassinet attachment. But there's no way I could convince Chris that we don't need the portable DVD player and Lord of the Rings trilogy. We'll bring the Zune too, but it's battery will barely last for the drive there and back, so we'll be music free while we're there. Unless of course Chris decides to stop at Radio Shack and get the adapter.


But we love it. We go about 45 minutes into the mountains and our campsite has a beautiful little stream right next to it. There are tons of shade trees and flat earth. There is even a full sized bathtub that the water made, and someone redirected some old irrigation pipes to keep it full. There is a natural water slide about a half mile up the road, but then it's another half mile hike and that would be too much sun and heat for Connor. We'll make it up there one of these years, but in the meantime there's a small water slide that the girls found closer to camp.


We're only planning on staying one night, but we're prepared for two if we're having fun, which I hope we are. Here are a few pictures of our trip last summer:
Our campsite
The girls' swimming hole:
Sara in the natural bathtub

Mary Jane gets a long run for her leash. We would leave her free, but she would just chase squirrels all day and get lost.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Rockin' and Rollin'


Big news! Connor rolled over from his tummy to his back last night! It wasn't an accident either. He did it three times in a row. It was very exciting!

It's already sad to see him growing. I can still feel where my belly used to be. I got phantom kicks for a couple of weeks, but those are long gone. I still reach down to touch my belly though, and it makes me sad when it's not there anymore. He's spending more and more hours awake now, and he just smiles and smiles. I can tell he's going to start laughing soon. It's just amazing how fast 7 weeks have flown by already.

We're planning on going camping on Tuesday, and I'm really looking forward to it. We have a beautiful campsite up in the mountains and I think it will be a perfect getaway for all of us. We've all been at each other's throats a bit these past few weeks. The campsite is perfect for a baby too. Lots of shade so that he's not in the sun at all, and it doesn't get above 80 because the altitude is so high. At night it gets down around 60 or so, but we have plenty of wearable blankets for him to use. We have his playpen too for him to sleep in, but if it gets cold he can sleep in his carseat in the car with me and Chris. (We bring a mattress and sleep in the back of the van. The girls prefer a tent so it works out great)

If we do end up going, I'll be sure to take tons of pictures and bring the video camera. We have a video camera from my dad last Christmas and I still haven't used it. I really need to remedy that!