Sunday, February 14, 2010

knock on wood

i can't believe i'm actually tempting fate like this but here it goes...
as i was watching Cash down a full burger-cheese, oranges and potatoes tonight i thought to myself Cash is an incredibly healthy boy. he's never thrown up or had diarrhea or had an ear infection.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Cash likes

Cash is amazing us every day. Now he will tell us if he likes something. the best part of this is that he says things like, "I like mommy" or "I like daddy".
He also likes to ride his bike and wants to be outside every waking minute. which is fine except he wants both parents outside and will tell you with gusto to get outside. the only problem is that it isn't always ok for Cooper to be outside so we have to make some tough choices!
Cash can open all the doors - front door, garage door, back door - so we have to keep extra eyes on him now.
Today Cash was riding in the car with me and he crossed his arms and said, "I'm mad!" and then he said, "I'm mad at you". but he had a big old smile on his face like he thought it was funny or he was proud of himself so saying something new so i don't think he was really mad - i don't even know if he understands the feeling of "mad".

Friday, February 12, 2010

papa-paparazzi

One of my New Years resolutions is to use my camera more. i use it a lot but i don't use all the settings or the computer editing programs that come with it. i'm slowly reading about how to use the manual setting and trying to be more creative with my shots. So if you are wondering why my flickr is so crowded, now you know.

Cooper at 2 months

Cooper had his 2 month check up today and is doing really well.

12 pounds, 12 ounces
23.5 inches long
38.7 cm head

He's happy and healthy and gets check marks for all the developmental milestones. Cooper is starting to sleep longer and has a pretty reliable internal clock.


Thursday, February 11, 2010

don't forget about me


Chandler gets left in the dust a little these days and that's sad i think. I even sort of forgot our anniversary. Hard to do - i know. He is an amazing daddy and i can honestly say i couldn't do any of this without him. he takes the lead role with Cash while I'm with the baby and he has watched the baby for a few days while i've been at work. he's awesome!!!
He has a job interview at a new school next week. we really hope that he can get the job since the school is in the same neighborhood as the old school and we wouldn't have to change too much of our routine if he works there. He got a new pair of pants today and we'll pick out a nice shirt and tie for the interview on the 18th. I know he'll do great and the principal would be a fool not to hire this amazing man. He is kind and patient and smart and funny and genuine and fantastic and...

...AND STAY OUT

ok, i know i owe everyone an update but things have been a little crazy around here to say the least...

In the past 4 weeks - scratch that - in the past 8 weeks we've had a lot of guests. That is to be expected with a new baby but this got a little out of hand. Although I enjoyed every minute of everyone's visit. We've had Grammy twice, Grandma and Poppy twice, Sarah and Allison and even Pop came to visit! I've tried to keep the sheets on the guest bed clean but i think i lost track at some point. Grammy was an AWESOME help and we love it when she comes because we get to have a little break and she doesn't judge if the house is dirty! She came so I could spend a very long week at work for Market. That was hard and i couldn't do it without Mom's help. It was especially hard because I really felt like Cooper was so young and we hadn't quite "bonded" yet and to be away from him felt like taking a few steps back. We got through it and i think it helped me even more to see how much Grammy fell in love with Cooper.

I'll admit it, I was having a hard time with this little guy - until now. He was a really hard baby the first few weeks but i think we've got it all figured out and now he is eating really well, pooping really, really well and he's even starting to sleep on a schedule. We go for his 2 month check tomorrow (with shots) and I have no doubt that we will get an A+. I wouldn't have said that a few weeks ago when he would only poop every 7-8 days, had nose-hair-seering toots, painful gas bubbles, wouldn't sleep and was uncomfortable nursing. I think all our problems were steming from the nursing issues. Poor guy - it was like he was trying to drink from a fire hose. Needless to say that was an uncomfortable experience and gave him very painful gas and he wasn't eating enough at one time (he was just plain old hungry!). Cooper really turned a corner at about 7 weeks with a huge poop (the morning that i had to be at Market early) that opened him up and made him really happy. Now we feed him mostly from bottles. I still nurse him for a little "baby & mommy" time after i've pumped. He is starting to talk and coo and smile now and Cash likes to try to make him talk. He is really a great addition to our family.

Cash has also gone through a huge adjustment in the past few weeks. As mentioned in earlier blogs, Cash has realized that he can get up out of bed and walk out the door. This was just the beginning of some really ugly bedtimes in the Martin household. We (Chandler) were spending hours trying to get Cash to stay in his room and fall asleep. He was so tired, going to bed late, waking up early - not good things for a little boy who really needs and likes sleep. He was probably reeling from all the visitors and a new little brother. I hated to do it and its probably a controversial topic but we decided to get a child-safe attachment for the door knob that Cash cannot open. I was really worried to put this on the knob because I didn't want Cash to start getting into mischeif in his room since there were sure to be hidden dangers in there. Well, it has seemed to work. We put it on during a nap time one afternoon so it wasn't a scary thing at night and left the door cracked so he could open the door. Then we closed the door after he woke up and talked about how only mommy or daddy could open the door now. We've also tried to keep his dummy and blanket in his room more (this is a gradual thing since he was relying on it pretty heavily for the past couple weeks). The past 3 nights have been great. a little crying but nothing like what we've been going through. This morning was a really positive experience also, he woke up and started knocking on his door to let me know he was awake and ready to get up. The funniest part was that when i got him out he had shoes on over his pajama feet, a headband, hat and some other random items from his room. Cash is an absolute joy. He is funny and loving and curious and smart. We have the best conversations and he is really aware of everything.

I've been trying to keep up with work. they expect it, i like my job, i get paid. I try to go in for meetings when I can, i keep up with my emails and join conference calls from home. It will help me stay out of the office for a little while longer as well. I'm not sure how things are going to work when i go back full time - work will have to be patient with me. Maybe we'll all have to adjust what we consider "full time".

So now you know why i haven't blogged in a while. i've been a little busy ok~!