Spring evening and baseball

Tonight me and Auntie Fe are going out to see a baseball game. We will be having peanuts and cracker jacks and at least a few beers for me! I think the name of the team is the Beavers--they are not pro but the game is outside and we will be in an open air box--woo-hoo!

Jason will be spending the evening caring for Niko sans my help. I hope he is ready :)

I have not managed to do much today. I could of gone to the new mommie's group at Providence but didn't really feel like it. I'm feeling like a homebody today. It's actually supposed to be the last nice day until the rain comes so I should probably be spending it outside but I haven't made it out there yet either--unless you count standing on the porch with Niko for 2 minutes or getting the mail in.

Niko is sleeping in his swing again. Thank Heavens for that beautiful mechanical miracle. Without it there would be a lot of tears and a lot of undue stress. Also thanks go out to the rechargeable batteries which keeps our little miracle running.

Mommie

Crazy hair day!

I'm having one heck of a crazy hair day--even so, I'm still completely adorable. Watch me while I do the robot :)

Niko

Time is flying by!

We got a voice mail message from Jo and Barry yesterday and they were singing Happy Birthday. I couldn't figure out who the birthday wishes were supposed to be for-- I was going through in my mind Jason's birthday, my birthday and then it dawned on me that it was Niko's 2 month birthday. I couldn't believe it--has it really been two months since this little guy was born? I was pretty ashamed I didn't know it was his birthday but also sad because I realized how fast our time together is going by. Before I know it it will be August 3rd and I will have to go back to work. It will be tough to give the little guy to strangers to care for him. It doesn't seem "normal" or right for me to do this.

Niko is just now waking up from his nap. We have got him on a pretty good "schedule" of sleeping, eating, playing. This just gets repeated throughout the day until it's time for bed. It's pretty loose but it allows me to know if he gets fussy what he might be fussy about. If he gets fussy and we are playing then I usually know that he is tired and needs a nap. If he is fussy after waking up from a nap then I know it's time to feed him, etc... It also gives Niko a routine that he can depend on. When he goes to daycare I'm not sure how this is going to work. I need to start thinking about how to communicate his schedule and also figuring out how much and how often he should be eating at daycare. It's hard to articulate these things when it just "happens" at home.

Ok my little man is cooing. It's time to get him out of the swing and see if he's hungry!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Niko and Mommy and I had a great Mother's Day today. Niko and I were up and out of the bedroom pretty early. This gives mommy a chance to sleep in on the weekends. He slept with me holding him in the Baby Bjorn and really seems to like it. We sat on the porch for an hour and talked with YaYa and Poppie. They had a great vacation to Key West and are now waiting for the post office to open up Monday so they can get the Niko Video we sent them for Mother's Day. We were also able to see the baby birds in the nest on the porch get fed by their parents. When mommy came down she saw the gift that Niko got for her and loved it. It is a happy garden gnome holding a lollipop and he is in the back yard. Niko wants to get his picture by it with mommy every Mother's Day to help keep track of how he grows. We agreed that is a great idea.

The morning slipped by pretty quickly and soon Kayla, Emily, Keri and Steve were here. We hung out for a bit and then hit the road for the Heathman Hotel. We met up with Kaiden, Dawn & Doyle as well as Anna, Nicki and Dan (of "three part harmony" fame) for the Sunday Mother's Day Brunch. It was a beautiful and delicious spread in a gorgeous setting with fabulous friends. We couldn't have asked for more (except Keri thought it was too expensive). Niko slept most of the time but did get up at the end of the meal to eat. He didn't want to be the only one left out. I am pretty sure that we all ate too much and alas we had to say "bye for now."

When we go home Ang, being the wonderful Mother and Wife that she is let me take a nap for a couple of hours while she and Niko hung out. Now Ang is relaxing with a book while Niko sleeps, Daddy types away and the garden gnome sits with his lollipop in his hand.

To all Mothers out there--I salute you--Thanks for all you have done, all you do and all you will do in the future.

Love, Daddy

busy bees

Niko and I have been busy this week. We decided to sleep in today. We didn't get up until 10:30. Nice, huh? I've got him in the Baby Bjorn right now and he is struggling to get out. Our friend loaned it to us and I love it! Niko seems to like it too but he is just antsy right now.

I will have to write more later--I need to entertain this little guy!

Mommie

Weekend

We had a good weekend at the Haballips house. Saturday we went to Keri and Steve's for a Cinco de Mayo party to celebrate Keri, Jason and Tricia's birthdays. We had some really awesome food and got to visit with friends. Tracy was there with baby Skylar and we were able to compare baby notes. It's nice to have a friend also experiencing motherhood for the first time.

Sunday we hung around the house and did some cleaning, gardening and relaxing.

Niko did really well going to bed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He is starting to get the hang of the sleep thing.

I missed his tired signs this afternoon and totally paid the price: Major Meltdown! He got overtired and just bawled and bawled. Finally I got him quieted and put him in the swing on high--he fell asleep about 20 minutes ago. I feel so bad for not getting him to sleep earlier. It was so obvious that he was over stimulated and tired. I guess it was a good learning mistake-- I will try not to let that happen again.

It's beautiful here in Portland today (and not to jinx it but I hear it's supposed to be nice all week!) Niko and I went for a walk earlier today and I was sweating my toosh off. I came back and put on shorts and a tank top. Little Niko got changed into a duckie onesie which he has been in all day. I'm loving the nice weather. Hopefully it is here to stay!

I'm going to sign off now. Jason just came in from the hot tub and now it's my turn while Niko sleeps.

Lovely Friday!

Well Friday was a great day for Niko and I. We got up around 8:00 and started getting ready to go to the Providence New Mommy group. It didn't start until 10:30 but I wanted to make sure we could get out of the house on time. I got Niko all ready and then put him in front of the bathroom door in his car seat so I could take my shower while still watching him :) I'm learning a few tricks so I can still find time to take a shower every other day!

Both Niko and I really enjoyed the New Mommies group. It's two hours long and yesterday there was about 20-25 women and their babies. We sat around in large circle and the facilitator brought up discussions and everyone chimed in with questions or comments. We talked about co-sleeping, pacifiers, breast feeding, bottle feeding, lovies, lots of stuff. It was really interesting and I met some nice ladies and their little ones. Niko was really good the whole time, he stayed awake most of the time but the couple of times he tried to nod off other babies squeals promptly woke him up with a start! He had some pretty loud gassy noises too which was pretty funny to the Moms around me. I was getting nervous I might run out of diapers as I had to change his diaper three times within a 30 minute period!

After the group we came home and had a nap together. Then at 4:30 I went to get a massage with Marika. That was so nice. It was the first one I've had since giving birth. It was very relaxing and I look forward to the next one. It's such a nice treat to give myself. I would like to start giving Niko some baby massage before bed each night. A mother at the group meet up said she does this and it just relaxes her little girl and makes her content. I have a couple of books that have baby massage in them I just need to find some time to read up on it.

After the massage I came home and Auntie Fe came over with a bottle of wine to share with us later in the hot tub. She wanted to get a massage as well but couldn't find a place to get in so the hot tub became the next best option. Before the hot tub we went out to eat at Kinta which is a really good Asian restaurant where you choose which veggies you want to go into your meal. I really enjoyed it and we'll definitely go back. Felicia had a really yummy drink called a Pink Tiger. I've got to find a recipe for that on the Internet because it would be a perfect concoction for this summer out on the back porch.

We came home from dinner and got into our swim suits. Niko was parked in his stroller by the hot tub and we all jumped in. I was in for about ten minutes and a half glass of wine when Niko woke up and was hungry. Ahhh....duty called and I had to get out.

We had a very nice day and night together and we called it a day. Niko went to bed like a perfect angel. He was asleep in 5 minutes and didn't wake until 2:30 for a feeding. It was wonderful.

Well I see my laptop battery is getting low so I better wrap this up. I will write more later.

Mommy

Rough Night

Well, I admit I was pretty full of myself yesterday--getting Niko to take two naps in his crib. I was so proud of myself for recognizing the tired signs and getting him off to sleepyland. I was equally puffed up about getting him to sleep in his bassinet at 9:40 last night with no problem. He looked like a little angel in there sucking away on his little pacifier. Unfortunately at 10:15 all hell broke loose! I tried to get him back to sleep from 10:15 to 12:00 with no success. I didn't want to resort to the old "props" of having him fall asleep on my chest, or jostling him to sleep but finally at Midnight I gave him over to Jason ready for anything that worked.

Jas stayed up with him until about 1:30 and got him to finally go to sleep. I didn't talk to him about it yet today but I think he fed him and rocked him in the glider for most of that time. I was relieved to get some sleep. I was up early with Niko yesterday and didn't have a nap. I was ready to rest so it was great that Jason took Niko last night. I guess it just goes to show that Niko is still boss around here!

This morning Jason's alarm clock was going off every 10 minutes and he kept on hitting the snooze button. Niko started to cry because he was waking up and wanted to be fed. I started laughing when I saw Jason roll over and hit the snooze button when he heard Niko crying--the alarm wasn't going off--he was just trying to snooze Niko!

Niko is asleep in his swing right now. He only stays up for maybe 30 mins to an hour after getting up in the morning--then it's back to sleep for a couple of hours. I've got to get this "schedule" thing figured out before going back to work at the beginning of August. He needs to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. Of course he's only 6 weeks old so I'll cut him some slack for now!

I think we might try and get out of the house this afternoon. It's not exactly nice out but it hasn't rained in an hour or two so I'm holding out hope.

Mommy

Tuesday

About an hour a go I had Niko all fed, diapered, changed, had my stuff together and was just about to put him in his stroller when it started to pour outside. Not only did it start to pour but it also began hailing--and lots of it! Oh well, I guess the errands will have to wait. Niko is now in his swing taking a nap.

I was so proud of myself today because I got Niko to take a nap in his crib. I was able to get a shower in and also do a few chores before he woke up! I'm reading a book called "The Baby Whisperer" (a cheesy name I know). It gives some good advice for establishing good sleep habits in babies. By the way allowing Niko to fall asleep in the swing is not a good sleep habit :) I guess the swing acts as a prop and he may become too reliant on it in order to fall asleep. The same goes for holding him until he falls asleep or rocking/swaying him to sleep, nursing him until he falls asleep etc.... All of this, according to the book, makes him reliant on outside things to help him fall asleep. The book suggests looking for his cues that he is getting tired. When I see him yawn that's my cue to start the nap/bed time ritual. This entails taking him up to the crib, talking to him quietly, lowering the shades, spending a few moments with him cuddling and then watching for the additional sleepy time cues. Stage 2: Staring off into space for minutes at a time. Stage 3: Eyes lowering and then popping open again (will happen 3-4 times before he finally drifts off). The "baby whisperer" says to put the baby in the crib during stage 3. If he wakes and fusses or cries then reassure him with pats and sh, sh, sh sounds. She doesn't advocate letting a child cry himself to sleep though--which is good because I don't believe in that either.

It all sounds very reasonable so I'm trying to incorporate what makes sense to me into our routine. She also suggests an E.A.S.Y schedule for the day. This means Eating, Activity, Sleep and You time. I'm giving this a whirl too. It's supposed to help Niko by providing stability and predictability while still allowing flexibility. So far today it's allowed me to get a shower in--which means it's working in my book!

Yesterday Niko and I had a busy indoor day together. I did a lot of stuff around the house such as laundry, dust, vacuum, etc....Niko was busy staring at the walls, cooing and swinging. We make a pretty good duo. Jas had to work late so he didn't a whole lot of play time with Niko. He has been teaching Niko how to roll over from his stomach to his back. He can't yet do it on his own but he is trying and getting very close.

I just looked outside and it's raining again. I guess our walk is definitely out for the day. I could go to a mall or something and walk around with Niko in the stroller but I'm pretty content on getting some stuff done here. If this weather lasts for much longer though I'm going to start getting cabin fever.

Mommy

Monday Sauvie Island Adventure

Monday Auntie Fe, Jason, me and Niko took a trip to Sauvie's Island. We went to some of the wildlife areas and saw a bald eagle, osprey, wood ducks, purple martins and blue herons. We also found the beaches--which I never knew where they were. We also found the clothing optional beach but alas it was too cold to take a dip! :)

We took Niko for a walk along the beach but he pretty much slept the whole way. We were pretty tired after leaving Sauvies but were very hungry. We went up to Mississippi Pizza Pub and had pizza. Jason and I ordered a roasted garlic and pine nut pizza and it was very tasty. I realized after my third piece that little Niko might not appreciate my fondness for garlic though! I guess we'll find out when he gets fed today.

Niko is sleeping in the swing now with Love me Tender playing--kind of an odd song for a baby swing isn't it?

Auntie Fe bought us a G diaper starter kit yesterday. I put the first one on Niko today. We'll see how it stands up. It can't be any worse than some of the blow outs we've had with the cloth diapers. The diaper covers are adorable--I hope they work out. We might have to discontinue the cloth diaper service in the near future as most day care facilities won't deal with them. Also I don't know how much better it is for the environment if we continually have to be doing laundry to clean the diaper covers when they leak. Using cloth diapers might actually be using more natural resources than disposals at this point. What to do, what to do.

Mommie