Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Zzzz...


The first couple of days after Beth and I brought Neve home from the hospital, we tried to switch diaper duty at night. That didn't last long, though. Apparently, I'm a much deeper sleeper than Beth and she was finding that trying to wake me up in the middle of the night was just as much work as changing Neve herself. So basically since the first week that Neve has been in this world, I haven't had to do much baby duty overnight. I have offered on numerous occasions to take over, even saying that I could feed Neve with a bottle at night once in awhile, but Beth has been great and has done it all herself.

I do know it's a chore; Neve certainly doesn't look like this at night when she wakes up crying...


That takes a lot of hard work getting Neve to look like that. Lots of hair brushing. Just kidding, I've probably brushed her hair less than the amount of fingers I have on one hand. I'm sure you can tell that from most of her pictures.

Anyway, so lately I feel like the only time I have to myself is after Beth and Neve have gone to sleep late at night (well, that and Sundays for an hour and a half when they're at Mommy and Baby Yoga). So, for the last couple of months I've fell into a bad habit of staying up late at night doing things like watching movies, reading, writing my blog, playing Words with Friends, etc. But lately I really feel like staying up late and having an irregular sleeping pattern has really taken a toll on me. I do know that Beth has it much worse having to wake up numerous times during the night out of necessity to feed Neve. But hey, this is my blog and I'll cry if I want to.

This picture doesn't fit here, but Neve is playing her own form of Peek-A-Boo with me...


I have noticed if I make an effort of going to bed early and read in bed, I fall asleep quickly. So, I just bought a Kindle Touch (with the help of a very generous Amazon gift card for my birthday from my in-laws that was supposed to go towards a food dehydrator. This is probably the first my Mother-in-law has heard of that. Sorry Becky :) but I do really like the Kindle!). I had told myself in the past that I never wanted a Kindle. I really do love the feel of books in my hands while I'm reading them. But I wanted to get something that was very easy to read in bed without making a lot of noise. So, I've been trying the Kindle and it's been great so far. I've gone to sleep at the same time as Beth just about every night since I've gotten it and I actually fall asleep a lot sooner. So, hopefully my sleep schedule will become more regular.

I've also figured out a way to have the best of both worlds (in my opinion) regarding books. I "borrowed" the Kindle ebook from the library (which is so cool that I can do that online and not have to pay the ridiculous prices of ebooks) of the same physical book I am reading (A Storm of Swords). So, I read from the physical book most of the time and at night I read from the Kindle using a nifty light.  I also actually have a Kindle app on my phone so I can switch from reading the physical book to reading on the Kindle to reading on my phone (which I never actually do) fairly seamlessly. Crazy, huh?


Neve promptly had a blow-out after I took this picture today. I think those pants are a little too tight...


Wow, I just now noticed that it looks like she's giving me the bird. She must be smarter than she lets on sometimes. That must be payback for all of the embarrassing pictures I have saved up for her potential boyfriends.

What's out of place in these pictures I took of our yard today?



You got it, nothing! That's just my quirky neighbor taking advantage of the unbelievably warm weather and getting an early start on his "float" for the Mardi Gras parade. I love living in the city!

Have a great night! Thanks for listening to my rambling. Off to bed fairly early again...yay!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Happy Half Birthday Neve!

I can't believe Neve's been in this world for 6 months already. It seems like it has just flown by! But I also can't remember what it's like to not have her around. Here's to the last 6 months...

August 2, 2011 ~10am Neve was almost exactly 2 1/2 days old in these pictures, and she was already smiling! We knew it was smiling and NOT gas! Little did we know how happy of a baby she would be...



August 30, 2011 ~5:30pm Just a few hours before Neve turned 1 month old. She looks so skinny. Well, she's still skinny I think. But just today we were at the hospital helping Grandpa out and someone looked at Neve while she was sleeping and sarcastically said "Well, you sure don't feed her enough!" I think she was referring to Neve's fat cheeks! The cheeks only started to bulge just a month or so ago. The chunky cheeks were non-existent at 1 month...



September 30, 2011 ~11:15pm Too Cool for Two (months). This was taken just about an hour after Neve was exactly 2 months old. This was a bad hair month...



October 31, 2011 ~6:45pm Neve was channeling her inner gnome for Halloween just 1 day after she turned 3 months old...



November 30, 2011 ~11:45am Daddy's All-Star at 4 months olds...



December 29, 2011 ~3pm There's that round face!!! I think Neve had just woken up or just finished crying, but decided she wanted to smile instead...



January 30, 2012 (TODAY) ~11:30am Happy 6 Month Birthday Neve! This was taken today before our day got hectic. I'm pretty sure Neve was yelling "Yii Yii Yia Yia Yia Yii Yii Yii," which is her new favorite phrase. Beth thinks she is singing. Maybe she was singing Happy Birthday to herself...


Have a great night!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

How Many Fingers?

How many fingers can I fit into my mouth?

One...

Too easy, I can defintely fit two...

Alright, let me give three a try...

Forget three, I'll go straight to four...

OK, this is getting a little harder. I'll just try the thumb...

You know what let's just go for gold. Both Hands!

Yay! I'm a winner. And NOT a...
Loser


Have a great night!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Crazy Hair

I'm pretty sure Beth changed her hair color in between our first and second dates. I think Neve is going to be exactly like Mom and (self-inflicted or not) have some funky hair. Even now, unwittingly, Neve has the craziest hair...


She even knows it...

"Come on guys, Check it out!" -Neve

 OK, the hat hair in this next one is my fault. The hat was a little too tight and needs to be retired...


OK, that last one is NOT her real hair. But I have no doubt that it will probably be her hair color at some point in her life!

***Just like her Momma***

Have a great night!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

New Gear

I'm used to getting excited about getting new camera gear or electronic gadgets or newly released books (like Bernard Cornwell's latest book in his Saxon series... that I got in the mail today... Yay!) But... baby bottles? Is it weird that I'm excited about some new baby bottle parts that we bought yesterday?

The baby bottle gear that I got were these new medium flow nipples (as opposed to the slow flow Neve has been using) to use with our Tommee Tippee bottles. I fed Neve with the Tommee Tippee bottles for the first few months of her life. But once Ollie got a liking to the taste of breast milk (and before I realized this and was diligent about putting the bottles away immediately after using them) Ollie ate all of the Tommee Tippee gear. So we switched to Avent. But since I have the age old guy problem of not putting things away right after I'm done using them, Ollie ate those nipples too. So, I've been using Medela bottles since (that are actually convenient since they match Beth's pumping system). But, they're kind of boring and Tommee Tippee bottles are much cooler, so I'm excited to use them for awhile! Of course, until Ollie terrorizes them. No, wait. That's not going to happen. I'm going to put the bottles away immediately after using them! Hmmm...


Here's just a few of the pictures that I've taken over the last week...



And I have to mention...

Neve has been blessed with a new cousin last week... Vera! They haven't met in person just yet (not for a few weeks), but they have exchanged pictures and even Skyped together! Here are the 3 cousins or the "3 Graces" as Grandma likes to call them...


Have a great night!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Banana Poop.

Neve had a dreaded blowout today. Since I've switched to using all-in-one cloth diapers (as opposed to prefolds), blowouts have become rare. But besides being a blowout, this poop was a little weird... it had these little dark strands in it. I initially thought that maybe Neve had got into some of Beth's yarn, however unlikely that might have been. I also thought they could have been some kind of worms. So, it worried me just a little bit. I took 2 pictures and since I have my trusty Eye-Fi memory card that uploads pictures online automatically for Beth to see, I knew that Beth would be able to help me figure it out.

When I was rinsing off the diaper, however, it was very clear to tell that it was banana! There was even a big chunk of banana that apparently just went right through Neve. I called off detective Beth and breathed a bit easier (at least after the dirty diaper was cleaned). I won't gross you out with pictures of Neve's poop, that's reserved especially for Momma.

The culprit...


I think this was Neve getting upset when the banana was taken away. But maybe it was her knowing her poop was gonna be weird for Daddy later...


Neve hasn't really had a lot of solid food yet, so I'll blame that on my newbie Dad response. We were told by the pediatrician that it's time to start feeding Neve solid food gradually. We have decided that we're going to very slowly introduce Neve to foods since Beth is planning on breastfeeding for at least a year. But Neve has tried a few things... very small bits of sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, bananas, avocados, refried beans, melted chocolate and rice cereal and sucked on watermelon, carrots, apples and green beans. OK, these foods maybe aren't exactly the recommended foods to start with, but like I said we are very slowly introducing Neve and she's just had a tiny bit of each. The way Beth and I eat, Neve will have plenty of time to be bombarded with a wide variety of foods!

Neve enjoying some rice tonight...


Of course, Neve likes to eat toys too...



We haven't fed her any Hot Cross Buns yet, but she likes reading about those...


Have a great night!

Friday, January 6, 2012

High 70

I certainly did not think Neve and I would be hanging out here on January 6...

The weather was so nice today that Neve and I were hoping we could meet Beth for Neve's lunch at the Arch Grounds. Beth was a little too busy for that, but we did stop at Beth's work for a speed feed. And then Neve and I ventured over to hang out at the Arch for a bit. Although we couldn't see Beth, she was able to see us from her 9th story office as we waved.

After the Arch Grounds, we wandered over to Left Bank Books for a bit and then headed home for one last feeding before Mom came home.

It's crazy, but it was in the upper 60s today. It may have hit 70 degrees! Here are a couple of pictures from earlier in the day when we were hanging out at home with the door open!!!


Baby Book Side Note: We're playing with Neve right now trying to get her to sit up by herself. She's just sat up with no support for 7 seconds!

Have a great night!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Speechless

Do I really need words...


 I just want to constantly pinch those bulging cheeks and pull that ridiculously cute "mohawk" all day long!

By the way, the book we just finished reading in front of Neve is Lassie and the Daring Rescue, where we learned why Mr. Kent will always allow Lassie on his property!

Have a great night!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had as much fun as Neve did over the holidays. She got to spend a lot of time with both sides of the family...



She enjoyed opening her gifts...



And being read to...



OK, OK. Beth and I had a LITTLE fun too..


Who wouldn't have fun stealing their nephew's bike? ...Thanks Joshua!


With the New Year here, I made a few resolutions...

1. To exercise at least 4 days a week. Beth and I ran 3 full marathons in the 2 years before Beth was pregnant. During the pregnancy I started really slacking off. I actually ate a LOT worse than Beth and exercised a lot less. Did I ever mention that Beth ran a half marathon while pregnant? Since Neve has been born, we've both been slacking. Unless you count putting Neve to sleep by walking her around in the car seat... which is definitely a workout! (I've actually considered putting together a parody workout called the Daddy Workout or the Car Seat Workout...)

2. To only eat meat on the weekends. So, I'll be a vegetarian Monday through Friday night. I've almost been doing this already anyway. Since Beth is a vegan, we never have meat in the house and when I cook I normally cook vegan. But this resolution will give me something concrete to work with.

3. To write at least 2 or 3 times on this blog per week! This one is the only one most of you will really be able to check me on. Except Beth I guess.

I will try my best with these. I pretty much HAVE to do better than last year. Last year my resolution was to drink less soda. But then I got a SodaStream for a gift! I've probably actually drank more soda as a result, but I buy almost no soda in plastic bottles anymore. Which I guess is something. Here's to trying!


I'll send out more pictures of our holiday celebrations later in the week.

Have a great night!