Sleep is good

Libby met her great-grandma Burke today! One great-grandma down, two to go... She did pretty well for being in a different and new place with lots of people around.



Last night she slept for 6 hours!! It is the longest she's ever gone. Of course, she ate all day today to make up for the missed feedings at night but it is well worth it.


Libby and Mommy in an outfit Grandma Helen gave her.


Libby looking kinda upset but doing alright...


So relaxed this morning while Mommy and Daddy got ready to leave the house.

I had this sore on the back of my leg that I didn't think too much about until today. I thought this morning that if it didn't get better I would try to see a doctor sometime this week. Well, after all day it looks a lot worse. I called a nurse hotline and she said it was probably a spider bite and to go to Urgent Care in the morning. So, it looks like I'm in for a fun Memorial Day. Good thing Mike has the day off so I don't have to drag Libby along.

TLA

Long Weekends

Thursday is my new Friday - with my new job I work 4 days a week during the summer with every Friday off from May until mid-August. What really is the bummer about the whole deal though are the extended hours during those days - 7:30am until 6:00pm. Really long. But, getting the chance to have an extended weekend with Tricia and Libby is well worth it.

The long weekends are nice, but I've yet to actually have a completely free-from-work 3-day weekend yet. Last weekend I worked at the high school state track meet on campus for our office for a bit on Friday; this weekend I'm doing the same thing on Saturday afternoon (when it's supposed to be like 95 degrees...I couldn't imagine running that day); next Friday I've got a sales person wanting to take me to lunch. So the earliest non-work related weekend I'm looking at is 2 weeks from now.

Hope everyone's Memorial Day is safe and enjoyable. Until next time...
MK

Can life be normal after having kids?

If life can be "normal" after having kids, then ours is becoming more that way. I have finally figured out how to get out of the house in under 2 hours in the morning. That includes feeding Libby, getting her dressed, showering, and feeding myself. She has started to sleep about 5 hours at a time during the night which we think is excellent. We hope she'll be sleeping through the night before too long.

I still marvel that Mike and I made something so perfect and beautiful (not that I'm biased at all)! She is still "perfect" in that she doesn't have any of the imperfections that come with age and time. She doesn't have any scars or things that happen with experience yet. Her skin is still smooth and she is still innocent. I hope she will stay that way for a long time. She doesn't need to be exposed to things that will cause her to become jaded and prejudiced until she's much older. It's one reason I think I'd like her to go to school where I work (I know it's a long time off). The kids there are sheltered for lack of a better word. For the most part, many of them come from homes with involved parents and they are just very innocent.

Anyway, here's the most recent picture of her. It was taken on Thursday. I just love this outfit! Too bad she spit up on it before Daddy got home to see her in it.



TLA

We're a growing family

We bought a new-used car today. I needed something newer really badly. My old car (a 1987 Nissan Maxima) was still in excellent condition but was just too small for me. I had to have Libby's car seat in the middle of the backseat which killed my back. Also the stroller took up pretty much the entire trunk of the car which meant that I couldn't even go grocery shopping if I had that in my car. Not to mention that putting the stroller in the car took almost more upper body strength than I have because the back of the car came up in the back forcing me to first lift the stroller up then lower it into the car. Anyway, I got a 2006 (it was a program car) Toyota Camry. I really like it and it has so much room in it that I can't even begin to describe it. I could pretty much live in the trunk it's so big - even with the stroller in it! Libby's carseat also easily fits into the backseat with tons of room. We could have 2 people riding in the back in addition to her if we wanted! It is a bit of a change though because my Maxima was much much smaller, but I think I can deal.



My old car was/is in such good condition that the guy that handles the financing at the dealership was thinking about buying it for his daughter before she goes to college. I think that would be great for someone in college. It really was a great car but now with Libby it just wasn't practical for my anymore and I am happy to have something that works better for us.

Mike is wanting something newer now too. It's easy to always want more than we have, I guess. Don't feel too bad for him though. We also got a used riding lawnmower today too and that's his toy. There was a neighborhood garage sale today and we got a heck of a deal on that too. Our yard is pretty big and it takes about 2-3 hours to cut the grass with the push mower so this was a needed purchase as well.

TLA

Are Pigs Flying?

Your eyes are not deceiving you - Mike has decided to post again! It is pretty bad when the last time that I posted was the day that we brought Libby home and tomorrow she turns 1 month old. Thank goodness that my better half has kept the communication flow going with her updates, otherwise this would be a boring blog and we'd lose all 4 of our readers!

I love that Tricia has given me pre-selected topics to write about. I've had those ideas in mind for a long time, but have not gotten around to writing about them. I think that the better topic that would translate to you all through writing is about our laptop woes. The Pirate Colonists of Grace Lane will just have to wait until I can get photographic proof...tough thing about that is that I don't want to be "that guy" taking random pictures of someone else's house. It's one thing if they were in our neighborhood and were out walking and I took the pictures, but for this house we'd actually have to stop the car, get out, take the picture, and be on our merry way. Like I said, without seeing this house you can't truly appreciate it.

I love our laptop, I really do. It was a great piece of machinery when I got it a few years ago, and miraculously enough, it's still up-to-date. Now, we've had some problems with it over the years - the clasp to shut it is broken, I couldn't power it up for a while, it's scratched - those are all minor issues. It's what happened to it shortly after it came back from it's last repair that's given us our white-trash laptop. What makes it WT you may ask? Well, the M key doesn't work (and that's a real challenge when my name starts with an M), the left arrow key doesn't work (no biggie in my mind), but the big kicker is that the space bar is out of commission as well. If I were to type this entry from our laptop, it would look eerily familiar to this: SoreeberwhenIbloggedaboutVeronicaarsandhowitwasagreatshow? (translation: So remember when I blogged about Veronica Mars and how it was a great show? - an aside...it's getting picked up for a 3rd season on the CW - it'll be on Tuesdays at 9/8 central...watch it!) Back to the gist...it's really impossible for us to do much of anything on that computer except surf the already populated drop-down menu that we've got up. We have to copy and paste M's and spaces to get anything done. Tricia sent my mom and email this way the other day. She's got more patience that I would with that computer!

Now, why is it WT? It's like what Foxworthy says - you know your a redneck when you've got more cars on blocks in your yard than actually run. Well, you know you've got a WT laptop when you have to copy and paste spaces and letters to make anything work!

Until next month... :)
MK

Is that a baby I see in the car?

Last night we went out for dinner and Mike got out of the car and walked away without a glance at Libby. It was almost as if he forgot all about her! It was really funny! I realize that just one of us needs to remember her but it's nice to walk in together.

TLA

Is that a smile we see?

Libby has started to show us the first glimpse of a social smile. She has just a few times very quickly smiled in what we think is a response to something we've done or said to her. It is really very cute to watch her smile when she's awake. So far most of her smiles have been during her sleepy states.

Last week Libby and I had one really bad day and I couldn't figure out what was upsetting her. Finally it occurred to me that she has a pretty nasty case of diaper rash and she was hurting from it. Everything says to try to let their little bottoms air out if possible but we don't trust our little girl when she's nakie. So we wrapped her in a warm towel and put her in her bathtub for about 10 minutes to let her air out. We thought she looked pretty funny and cute like that so here are a few pictures. The back of that toy has a mirror on it and Libbers just loves to look at herself!



I know it's been a long time since you've heard from my better half... I think I will have to guilt him into blogging. Maybe he'll blog about our white trash laptop or the people who live a few neighborhoods away who are Revolutionary War pirates...

TLA

I forget what it's like to sleep...

Libby is 3 weeks old today. It seems like a short time but oddly enough we can't remember what it was like before she was born. It seems like we've always had her. Although, I vaguely remember getting more sleep and being able to eat a meal without being interrupted.

TLA

Days of Unemployment

This will be the first summer since I was 13 that I haven't had a job. This will be a different kind of summer for me. I have a list of things I need to get done but am trying to space things out over days and weeks instead of doing it all in one or two days. It makes me think of the episode of Friends where Ross is on sabbatical and is living with Joey and Chandler and does all of his errands and chores in one day. This will probably take me all 4 months to master spacing out errands and things and when I get it down, I'll have to go back to work.

TLA

Rub-a-dub-dub

Libby got her first real bath last night. She did very well. She didn't cry or fuss at all until we took her out to dry her off. I really thought that she'd be more upset about the bath than she was. I guess she liked it.



On another note, Mike starts a new job on May 15th. He will be the Associate Director of Admissions at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. It's really excellent timing too for him to start something new. Wish him luck!

TLA

The NEW Center of the Universe

Libby is 2 weeks old today. She pretty much has figured out that the world revolves around her too. I think she has discovered that she is hot stuff and that she gets lots of attention everywhere she goes. People stop and look at her at the mall, Wal-mart, restaurants, you name it - they've commented on her good looks. Also, yesterday I heard her laugh while she was sleeping. It was very cute. I think that voluntary smiles and laughs are not far off. It will be nice to know when she's happy.

Here's a picture of the birthday girl with Daddy. Don't you think blue is her color?