My New Toy

Goodbye Nokia, Hello Sony Erricson!
My contract ended with Cingular and I had the option to upgrade my phone. After doing some online researching, I went to the store to check out my options.

Went in thinking I'd get a basic phone. I'm not a fan of flip phones, as they are difficult to hold and I find myself always altering the volume/turning on the speakerphone whenever I so much as look at them.

There aren't a whole lot of bar phones from which to choose. But, I got one with quite a bit of bells and whistles---the Sony Ericcson 810i. The salesclerk told me what they had in store was the 800i, which had slightly better reviews than the 810i--most importantly in call quality. But, online it was the 810i--methinks the clerk didn't realize this...I decided to try the 810i anyway. I've been using it all of 2 hours and I love it. I'm hooked. I can take videos, pictures, listen to the radio, and talk on the phone. The manual even gives instructions for taking self-portraits. And I can transfer it all effortlessly to my computer--both these pictures of Aunt Lore' and baby Josephine were taken using the phone.

Den is amused because he'd be trying to figure out how to upload his outlook to the phone and I'm playing with all the other features--I figure I call the same 5-10 people and pretty much have their numbers memorized...

Course I'll need some time to see how the phone works, but it's camera is more powerful than our canon we bought in '02. I still have to learn how to use it--oh did I mention it has an option to take 'burst' photos--you press the shutter once and it takes 4 photos in quick sucession. I really hope I like the phone quality, because I'm already addicted to the other features.

3 months and one day

I truly think it's because Josie is a better sleeper and I have regularly scheduled childcare that I am able to appreciate Josie so much more--and don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hand her off to nearly anyone, including Eddie.

Babies are just not my thing. That said, I was so proud of Josie lifting her head today. She's not had a whole lot of tummy time--certainly not as much as her brother got, but she seems to be doing well--I don't know if you can tell, but she is almost kind of smiling in this picture.
I was looking at old pictures of Eddie at this age and boy, was he a smiler! But he wasn't the sleeper Josie is.
The picture on the red pillow is while Cookie was playing with her. Cookie can really get her to smile--until I break out the camera. She is such a sweet, easy going baby--we really lucked out!

Sometimes I see my sister in these photos of Josie. She is much clingier to me. Eddie barely ever cared who held him. She is grabbing all sorts of things, including her own clothes. And really sucks her hand, thumb, or whatever she can jam in her mouth.

Den gets home tomorrow. Yay! I cooked dinner two nights in a row and on the third night, make my guests deal with serve yourself cold cuts (hey, I had all the trimmings for a good sandwhich).

Superman!

Cookie wasn't here today (Tues.), so we took Eddie to the park. While we were getting ready to go, he went upstairs to get his shoes. Let me first say that he is okay.
David and I were talking in the living room when we heard a thud. We look over to the stairs to see Eddie flying through the air, arms outstretched like Superman. David conjured that descriptor and it's perfect. He flew off at least 5 steps and it's a miracle he wasn't hurt. I laugh now when I look back, but let me tell you, I almost threw Josie on the floor to get to him. I felt awful. I should have been supervising him on the steps, etc. But he is fine and it was a good lesson for me.

Fortunately he is still interested in doing the stairs alone, so it's not like he's got a fear now. Again, the pictures here are AFTER the fall, so after about 5 minutes of crying, he was fine. I should have taken a beer, cause it took me another hour to recover.

Technically this was Josie's 3 month birthday, but more about that in another post. When she will take a nap, she does a nice morning nap (seen here) and a nice afternoon nap.

I'm really challenged about how to deal with other kids taking Ed's balls when it appears he's not playing with them because he has so many. I think one solution is to only allow one ball, but that can be difficult. I'm trying to explain to Eddie that when he takes his balls to the park or the front yard, other kids are going to want to play with them and he has to share. If it were one ball, it would be much easier to handle.

At the park a woman showed up with 4 kids and one more on the way. They appeared to be about 2 years apart and the 2 middle kids made off first with Ed's purple spiked ball and then with his beach ball, leaving him with none. I thought he was going to spontaneously combust and set about to get at least one ball back. Any thoughts, besides bringing just one ball, of how to deal with either Eddie and the balls, or what to say to the kids who think he couldn't possibly play with 10 balls at once? Obviously he has to learn to share, but balls are almost kind of his security blanket.

One bite per shot

Den is on a business trip this week--his longest one yet (since Josie was born) at 4 days/3 nights. Uncle David and Aunt Lore' agreed to come up and help out--it didn't take Eddie but about 3 seconds to start having fun with Uncle David. Hope he doesn't tire Uncle David too much by the time Den gets home.

It doesn't look like it as much in the picture, but we really had Josie smiling--as I type, Aunt Lore' and Uncle David are making noises and silly talk to make her laugh some more. She is really filling out with that cute baby fat.

I cooked tonight. Yikes! Sloppy Joe's all around. To get Ed to eat tonight, he had to take one bite of his sandwhich for every shot Uncle David took with the basketball. Worked really well.

It's just after 9:30, Josie just drifted off to sleep and I'm right behind her...I'd better enjoy the good sleep now (my neighbor says that because she sleeps from 9:30-5am ish, she sleeps through the night). Only thing is, sometimes we see her at 3am too. I really think she is teething--she is drooling like a fountain and putting her hands and anything else she can get in her mouth. Fortunately not fussy yet, we'll see how her teething manifests itself...

Both sides

These pictures are from last week. Cookie broke out the finger paints for Eddie after he tried to finger-paint his breakfast. He made quite a few masterpieces, available unframed to visitors.

On Friday, he decided to play in all the shoes mom had left laying around. He even took the shoes off my feet. The shoes in this picture were lined up so they would be on the 'right' feet and he still put them on the opposite feet.

For dinner, Ed asked for a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich--with the peanut butter on both sides. I realized this meant on both halves of the sandwhich. Den interpreted this to mean one slice of bread with peanut butter on both sides. This explains why he was grousing over how difficult that would be to accomplish.

More often than not, Ed wants to either eat at his picnic table or the one in the kitchen. Second choice is to sit on a regular chair at the table. He does not typically want to sit in his 'highchairs/booster seats'.





Eddie is reading 'What do we do with the boo-hoo baby' to baby Josephine. Fortunately she is not usually a boo-hoo baby. He often asks to hold her and have her sit next to him.

11 weeks--She's MOBILE!

Josie was playing with her activity gym and started pushing off with her feet, scooting herself right off the gym surface. Our days of her being where we leave her are limited, if not over.
She still doesn't completely hold her head up --she gets tired after a while (Ed did around 10 weeks), but she seems perfectly strong enough to do so.

She is also trying to roll onto her side. I don't remember when the full roll-over is supposed to occur, but she sure is giving it a whirl.



These pictures were all taken on Tues. when she was actually 11 weeks. Ed wanted the purple ball...

She is also cooing and laughing, but still makes you work to get a smile. She is starting to grab onto things too, which is fun. She also finally took her first nap in her crib. Never did use the bassinet (but it is getting good use as a clean clothes repository). She seems to be getting a lot more rugged--and bigger!

People say she looks like me--I can never see that kind of thing this early. Ed definitely looks a lot like Den as a kid and has for a while, so we'll see.

Ed is still doing really well with her. He is big help--literately. We did some laundry this morning and previously when he would "help", it was used loosely. This morning he pulled the clothes out of the dryer and put them in the basket and then put a basket full of wet clothes in the dryer--with no help. Never too early...

He is still obsessed with balls and animals.

No, THIS was the best night ever

Snapped a couple pictures before g'parents Ohio left for England earlier this week. Eddie is still asking about both g'parents being around since the baptism weekend two whole weeks ago. Maybe he'll be more sucessful in getting them to live closer.

This morning Ed wanted yogart and applesauce for breakfast. Then he requested spoons that happened to match the bowls --in pink and green. It cracked me up. This picture of Josephine with daddy is after her first ever time sleeping through the night. She slept from around 10pm till 5:50am. As she was calling for us, I let Dennis know what time it was. I still had to ask if she had woken up and maybe I'd not been fully awake, but no, she slept through. Just the night before she'd slept from 10ish til 4ish and I thought we were doing well. I'm sure this won't last, but I'll enjoy while I can!

Eddie's buddy Lizzie came over today and we let her hold baby Josephine. She will be getting a little sibling at the end of the year and is pretty excited about it.

Have a nice weekend...

10 weeks old

G'parents Ohio are back in town. This time they are headed to England and wanted to fly out of our airport as an excuse to visit the g'kids and get a direct flight. They have essentially been here at least one day per week over the last 3 weeks. It's been really nice -- for everyone.

Today g'ma and I took the kids to the park. It's my new favorite park as it's nice and large and fenced in. G'ma was pushing Eddie on the swing when she started doing what we called 'underdogs', where you push the swing and kind of run under the swing, or at least close to run under the swing. G'pa said he called them 'run unders' when he was a kid.

Eddie thought this was the greatest thing and asked for them again and again. I think Eddie has made g'ma younger because I never would have thought she'd go for it so many times. Note the 3 balls Ed brought to the park.

I know for Josie's 10 week updates I should have more pictures of her, but Eddie sure was photogenic today. Below is what she did at the park and what she is doing right now.

Eddie climbs into the car (most of the time) by himself and then more easily climbs into his carseat. He then likes to buckle himself in. He is so much fun right now. Josie is smiling a lot more and getting to be more interactive.

Having g'parents here and lining up help for this work trip as well as two at the end of the month and beginning of July got me talking with g'ma Ohio about why so many women (and some men) around here stay home with the kids. Jump ahead in the conversation to how it used to be more common to live near family and how much easier it is to have g'parents and and other family around who can help (and who you want to have help) . Win win situation. Our friends and neighbors regularly comment how lucky we are that both sets of g'parents are willing and able to help out when they visit.

Nothing else exciting that I can think of for Josie's 10 weeks. Just amazing to me that she is 2.5 months old.

The Number 10 and the Letter H

Thought these were some cute photos. Den left today for Orlando. He's doing a body slammer of a 7am flight today and then to minimize time away, arrives back at the airport around 11:30 on Thurs. So it's 3 full days--pre kids it would have been a Mon-Friday trip.

So the number 10 corresponds to a friend who had a baby on May 10 weighing over 10 pounds and another friend who had a baby on June 10 weighing over 10 pounds. Beware the mothers who go into labor on the 10th of the month!

The letter H--what we resemble at about 5am. Josie starts out in her bouncy seat to sleep, but as last night, if she wakes too many times, I get so tired we just lay her between us. Somehow for a child who can't really 'move', she rotates her body so that the three of us make a letter 'H', with Josie taking up most of the real estate and Den and I holding on for dear life to the edge of the bed. Eddie did the same thing--makes me really want a king-sized bed.

This past week

Oh as a note to my last post, the rotovirus vacine is given orally, which is why I wondered if it was the culprit.

I've been trying to make this post all week. Everyone is asleep (for now), so I'm typing fast.

After having both sets of g'parents around all last weekend, Eddie asked several times for them, inquiring about where they were. It was cute. Sure wish they lived closer...

Dennis and I thought we'd call Josephine by the name Josie. Eddie calls her baby Josephine, which is what we often wind up calling her. We've both also almost called her JJ, then there is Jo, and everyone's favorite, J-Lo. I'm glad she'll have lots of options from which to chose when she is old enough to voice an opinion.

We were out shopping for strollers today. We are in that weird stage where Eddie will run off in stores (and everywhere really) and it would be nice to have him buckled in somewhere. Problem is, soon enough he'll outgrow this stage and do we want to be stuck with a double stroller, or even a new stroller? There are now a lot more choices than there used to be, but it's a bit overwhelming.

Couple of our new things over the last couple weeks:

Ed is now tall enough to hold the handrail at home going down the stairs---I need to see just how tall that is.

J seems to be getting on a schedule of sorts. Her brother frequently wakes her up first thing in the morning even though she seems to want to sleep in until 8/8:30am. She has almost developed an early morning (when Ed wakes her), then late morning nap and then a long afternoon nap (fortunately when her brother is napping), then she takes a 6pm catnap before her long stretch awake from 5/6ish till 9:30/9:45pm. No matter what I do, I can not get her to stay asleep much before the 9:30 timeframe. No biggie tho' becuase she will then sleep until 3/3:30am, and depending on the night, make it till her brother wakes her, or wake at 5ish. Such a change from Eddie. Any exhaustion (and there is a lot), is us staying up too late.

J seems to be really trying to roll on her side. Doctor was very impressed with how well she supported her weight on her arms and how well she could lift her head (he said similar things for Eddie too).

Last Sunday at dinner, Eddie cracked us up---he buttered his dinner roll (using the back of a fork).

Have a good week.

2 month checkup at 9 weeks

Josie had her 2 month check up this week (Wed.). She also had her shots (vacanations). Since Eddie was born they have come out with a new one called the rotovirus vacine. You have to start it at 2 months. It's not been out very long, but kids under age 3 have real problems with rotovirus (which is like a nasty stomach flu near as I can tell that is just much worse for the younger set).

I didn't really want her to get it, but now that Ed is in preschool and playing regularly with neighborhood kids who have kids in the public school system, I figure he'll be bringing home a lot more germs, so we decided to go for it.

I think it made Josie ill. She of course slept a bunch after (just like Ed had), but for about 6-8 hours after, whenever she woke up, she would scream in agony nonstop (stretches of 15 min. of constant screaming). It was AWFUL. She was burping constantly so I wonder if the vacine upset her stomach. She was also fairly swollen by the injection sites of the other 4 vacines she was given and had a slight fever. By evening she had finally returned to normal. I do not look forward to the next year of vacanations.

Otherwise she did great. She weighs11.1 pounds, which is 60%, she is 22 3/4 inches long (but I think the nurse lengthened her by 1/2 inch or so), this is 60% and her head is 15 inches, which is 35%. So she has a little head and chubby limbs--not quite the equal proportions her brother was, but she's still cute. She's quite petite, but seems to have long legs and big feet.

Baptized

Josie was baptized this past weekend, with most of the family there to witness. She slept through the ENTIRE thing, including the water part. Ed spent a lot of time in the back of the church with G'pa Ohio, being brought up when it was Josie's turn. The Priest went around to each family and then everyone was brought up to the baptismal font. I know my spelling is atrocious on this post...

The Priest had a cloth he used to wipe the baby's heads and he then got Eddie with it too, causing Eddie to laugh. He watched most of it, sucking his thumb the whole time. It was right during his nap time, so we were pretty impressed with how well he did.
THis is her getting ready. There were 5 kids at this baptism, and being the factory this church is (we were married there too and they have a lot of events/sacraments happening all year). Baptisms are conducted on a Sunday afternoon separate from the regular services.
All these babies were being brought in infant car seats with little hanging dresses being carried in with. It was quite the sight. Josie fell asleep shortly after we got to our pew. She wore family garments from both sides, as did Eddie.


The little hat was adorable, but she fussed pretty definitely shortly after this was taken and besides, it had to removed for the ceremony anyway.

One thing I learned from this was that 3 cameras to document is 2 too many. In all the group shots, people didn't know where to look, so everyone in most pictures is looking at different cameras. Oh well, it's the event, not the pictures. Was good to have a variety, but we should have been more organized about getting everyone to look at one camera--or only using one camera at a time. I always worry about inconvencing people or being a pain, so didn't want to say anything. Still got some really good photos.