Getting used to things

Being woken up by my wife holding Max was the best way I could imagine to start my birthday. It's going to be a good day.

It's been really tough getting used to all of the new responsibilities we have. Trying to get all of the stuff we used to get done is a lot more difficult when you add in the responsibilities of taking care of The Bean. When I bring him home from daycare at 5'ish he usually wants to eat and play until Mommy comes home. Bobbie Jo will then be with him until his bath at 9, and then put him to bed around ten. Usually the time that he doesn't demand attention we choose to be with him anyway. That leaves us about 3 hours a day to do all of the things we used to have plenty of time to get completed (Make that 2 1/2 hours once we clean his bottles and get his stuff ready for "school" the following day. Trips to the bank, paying bills, mowing the lawn, doing laundry all vie for those precious few hours we have to ourselves.

We've been lucky and gotten to go out a few times in the last few weeks. We saw Tom Petty last Friday, and last night went to see CAKE at Fredrick Meijer Gardens. One of my favorite bands playing a great show the night before my birthday was pretty sweet. My Mom has been great coming over on short notice when we need her to help out and watch him.

I've taken today off to catch up on some stuff, maybe get some videos up, and try to organize the litany of pictures we keep taking of the quickly growing little dude. Maybe I'll get a haircut.

He's growing so fast. He smiles a lot, he's an incredibly happy baby. He laughs from time to time, and loves to talk to us, or any inanimate object that he thinks might want to hear what he has to say. He eats well, sleeps for about 8 hours straight at night, and has become less fussy. He's ben grabbing at things, he has a little blanket with a giraffe head he likes to rub on his face. He spends a good deal of time trying to figure out how to get both of his chubby clenched fists in his mouth at the same time. It seems like there is something new every day.

It's been a blast. And really, who gives a crap how tall the lawn gets anyway. He's only going to be this small for a little while.

Max Speaks!

At only a few weeks over 3 months, Max has spoken his first word.

That word, is "glue".

Being that we are pretty sure no one around him has said this word before, we think he might be reading his books while we aren't looking.

Or surfing the web.

8.64 diapers per day

After buying what seemed like a "lifetime supply" of diapers and wipes I thought I'd take the above picture. I figured when we ran out, I could do the math and post it here.

Here it is. That's a lot of diapers!

Midday Bath

Max usually gets his bath at 9:00 pm or so. Today, however, as his mom was checking the detailing job she had done on his bum (after a especially nasty "monster"), he peed in his eyes, hair, and ear. Everything was thoroughly soaked enough to warrant an early bath. This picture was taken between the changing table and the sink/tub. I thought that leaving his socks on was a nice touch.

I'll add this to the "Display at Max's Wedding" album.

A day to remember

Imagine going to see the Rolling Stones when Keith Richards comes on to the stage and announces that the Beatles will be a surprise opener. Tonight, that happened for me.

Tonight over 12,000 people showed up for the Barack Obama rally in Grand Rapids. Obama came on stage and apologized for not campaining in Michigan, and that he felt we deserved a special "treat". Tonight John Edwards (my original candidate) endorsed Barack Obama (my current one), in front of my very eyes, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I had hoped to bring Max along, but the logistics proved too tough. He'll hear about this day many years later though, when his Dad tells him how he was a part of history.

Daycare - Day 1

Today Bobbie Jo went back to work. As Max is unable to care for himself, we had to drop him off at daycare. It was tough. Real tough.
We've done the math, we've tried to figure out how to keep Bobbie Jo home. We can't. Not now. For now he goes to daycare.
We arrived an hour early so we could spend some time with him, and make sure the place was up to snuff. We played with him, and fed him before Bobbie Jo walked across the parking lot for her first day back in eleven weeks. She was able to take a break and visit him at 2:00, and I brought him over to see her when I picked him up at 5. We missed him all day, but it was great to see him when we got home from work. It's going to take a long time to get used to it, but that's the way it's going to have to be.

Hopefully tomorrow won't be as hard.

What a Mother's Day it was

Max had a fever and gas yesterday.
Mother's Day.
Bobbie Jo's first Mother's Day.

We've said time and time again how incredibly lucky we are to have a baby that fusses as little as Max does. He almost fusses "zero". Not yesterday. His gas was so bad, the blood curdling screams could probably have been heard down the block. And when he wasn't farty, he was incredibly cranky.

For her first Mother's Day, Bobbie Jo "got" to sleep in til 10. Went to Meijer's. Finished a few loads of laundry, and got ready for her first day back at work. Her fancy dinner was takeout from Big Bob's (the remainder of which she eats as I type this).

It's a Mother's Day she'll never forget.

Happy Mother's Day!

To nobody's surprise but her own, Bobbie Jo has proven that she is an incredible Mom, someone Max and I are so enormously proud of. Max and I appreciate all that she does for us and we hope she knows how much she is loved.

To our Mom's - we now understand better than ever before your incredible love for us. Max's arrival has helped us to understand, even better, how much we love you and how much you have done for us. We owe you more than we can ever possibly explain.

Thank you so much. We love you!

Progress Report

The boy is sick.

He caught the cold that both of us had, and has been very plugged up for the last 3 or 4 days. He's been real good, but he's kind of a mess when we wake him up in the morning. Bobbie Jo took him to the Doctor today. They confirmed that he had a "cold" and that we could count on 15-20 more of them in his first year of daycare. They weighed him, and he's just shy of 11 lbs.

He's sleeping really well, most nights he makes it 7 hours before he needs to be fed. After that 4 am'ish feeding, he sleeps until 8 or so. He's become very happy and even more interested in what's going on around him. His progress in some areas is astounding. I don't see him as a baby anymore, he's a little person. He makes noises that are obvious attempts at communication. He smiles at us when we wake him up. He's really ticklish. Up to now we would "play" with him for our benefit, it's obvious that now he enjoys it. He will smile at us, and watch us, but doesn't yet interact with us. He's not grabbing on to anything yet. We talk to him all of the time and while he may not be a fan of all of the awesome songs we make up for him, they sure make us happy -♫ "Whose feets are these? These are the bean's feets!"♫.

One thing is becoming very clear. Parents don't get many opportunities to do chores. We had Grandma Camille over on Sunday to "babysit" for him on Sunday so that we could get some things done. She sat in the driveway with him for 3 hours and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Bobbie Jo went to Meijer's to get groceries, and I vacuumed and did a lot of the little things that we had been neglecting. We could probably come up with the time for all of this stuff if we really wanted to, but it more fun to spend time with the kid. Family first.

Bobbie Jo goes back to work on May 12^th (this coming Monday). I'll be taking the day off so that we can both drop him off in the morning. We're both pretty beat up about it, but Bobbie Jo is taking it really rough. While she is excited to get back to work, she has been caring for the little guy for the last 10 weeks, and it's going to be extremely difficult for her to turn that over to someone else. We're terrified to think of the milestones that we might miss, and the bond that will be created between Max and his daycare folks. I have no doubt that the time we spend (and have spent) with him as his parents far outweigh that, but it's still scary as hell. We'd love to have Bobbie Jo go back to work part time, but unfortunately it's not in the cards right now. It's definately something we'd like to work towards, but who knows if we'll ever be able to make it happen.

Next week is going to be a big week. A really big week. We'll make sure to let you know how it goes.

Bad Parenting

Is this considered bad parenting, or do I get credit for playing together?