Goof Off

We painted the young man's room today. Madeline wanted to help so badly. She wasn't allowed. "Fine, when it's time to paint my room yellow, you guys aren't going to be allowed to help," she fired back. Such independence.

I would do several things different next time I paint a room. First, clear everything out of the room. I halved it, and used a tarp to cover the part of the floor where we were painting, then moved the tarp when that section was finished. This became more trouble than I thought, mostly this technique was to try and get around the big couch that remains in the boy's room.

Second, put the painters tape all around room, following the same stretch with large overlaps so it will pull off simpler.

Third, start during the afternoon instead of the early evening, especially in the bedrooms upstairs, the light is poor because there is only one can light.

We did the prep work well, the plastic fixtures around the electrical outlets and switches were removed, and we did use painter's tape.

Even with the painter's tape (which we need to get thicker tape for the base boards) the base boards have blue paint over some spots. I'll get the Goof Off and clean that up then we're finished.

Two Month Well Baby

We have a two month well baby that went for his two month well baby checkup. The doctor says Jack has great head control. He's "big" so we need to make sure he's clean between all the rolls of skin he has on his legs, chin, belly, arms . . . just about everywhere really. This child weighs 15.1 lbs and 25.5 inches long. We've been very curious about that weight. He does like to eat. He's a charmer now, too. He's smiling a lot more. He seems to do this for me when I'm changing his diaper. He does this for his mom whenever she wants him to. Dad is just a little jealous about that part.

"He looks like you"

"It's so weird to look at him and see your eyes," Misty told me the other night. Visually, it's fun to look at the child and see which features he has from the different sides of the family. Jack is still new, so I'm sure some of these things will need to take off, we've organized him as follows:

• His hair is brown, so he could have had that from either
• His eyes are already looking to be brown, he received that from his father
• His nose and lips he gets from his mother
• his ears, mom and dad both think the ears come from themselves

He's still such a sweet little baby. He coo's at us now and we try to get him to smile. He's started looking at people now, although I admit he is mostly looking at his mother.

He still loves to look at light, today when I brought him inside after we spent some time relaxing on the patio, he looked at the ceiling and started to cry when we came inside. Still looking at the ceiling and still whimpering a little, it was like he was looking for the sky, "Where'd that blue light thing go, old man! I liked that part."

Still a very loud eater, still a grunter, and still a little chunk.

No Tears, Ever

Jack screams when he's really unhappy, mostly he grunts when something isn't going his way. I've noticed he likes to be in the same position. By far, his favorite position is to lay on his belly, but he gets used to anything. When you take him out of that though, say to transfer to someone else to hold, he grunts a little, sometimes yells, but never have there been any tears.

So he couldn't cry even if he wanted to, today. Misty picked him up from the day care at work and his eyes were puffy and runny, like symptoms from pink eye. She took him to the urgent care facility up the street to see what the diagnosis is, and it's a blocked tear duct. Poor guy.

However, he was weighed in again for the visit. He's clearly getting ready for a professional eating career, he's up to 13 lbs, 8 ounces.

One Month Well Baby

Our one month old baby went to the doctor's office for his well baby appointment this day after Labor Day. It is so freezing in this place, somehow he managed to get through it all without frostbite anywhere.

Old Jack is weighing in at a mean 12 lbs 7 ounces and 22.5 inches long. That's a lot of weight gain after his one week old appointment (3lbs and 3 ounces). He is getting chunky, too. His legs look like drum sticks, his cheeks are so puffy.

Claire gets sick

Claire doesn't do travel well. She was sick twice on her cross country trip, once just before getting to our house, and she slept all day yesterday. Poor thing. Even though Claire was sick we had a great time.

Friday, the girls had a sleep over at a friend's house for her birthday, the remainder of us went out to eat at the Sunset Grill. There was a live band and the food was great. All the girls picked the rib eye special.

I'm not sure Jack knew all the attention was about him. He slept most of the weekend, but everyone had a good time holding the new little guy.

While Claire recovered from a brief pool adventure, Grancy, the girls and I went out for a walk/bike ride on the trails in the nearby park. Grancy and I practiced our close-up photography taking skills, which are greatly enhanced through macros on the cameras.

Saturday night we had a gourmet dinner at home and Jack's Birth Day celebration cake for dinner.

Sunday came way too early and Claire and Grancy had to leave early for the airport to get back and get ready for work/school tomorrow.

Jack Sees Angels

There's no other explanation for it. Jack never looks at you. I understand that the baby's vision isn't as keen as an adult's (I would put myself in an exception, I have terrible vision), or a young child's, so he never really looks at you. I think it's funny that he seems to acknowledge I'm here, but then he looks right past me, and I think I know why.

He is looking at angels. Maybe he sees them? Mom thinks this might be his guardian angels and I would say that he has two of them. One to protect him from the affection one sister gives him, and the other guardian to protect him from the other sister. They are very affectionate, they love their little brother.