News of all sorts

First, today was my first day back at my job. I worked 6 hours sorting through nearly 2000 emails, and it went better than expected, though admittedly I was hoping some of my problem accounts would disappear while I was gone and they didn't.
Next, Daniel had his 2 month appointment (that's right, he's two months old! crazy!). He's 11 pounds, 12 ounces- 50th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for head size, and 25th (!) for height. So, he's not exactly a big baby. But he's healthy. He has great neck muscles and LOVES to stand- for up to a minute or so, it's very impressive.
He got his second round of shots, which I think he handled pretty well at the time, though 4 hours later or so he woke up screaming and did nothing but scream as loud as he could for the next 4 hours or so. He had a low fever, Tylenol didn't help, he couldn't even eat he was crying so hard. It was a sad, long day. Poor baby. By about 8:30 pm or so he was back to normal.
On top of that, on Sunday he fell off a couch (I forgot how babies can logroll), and on Saturday he had his first fever/throw-up. So yeah, rough week for my poor baby. He's so tolerant though.
We had our first trip to Galveston Beach on Saturday with Becky, Tyler, and Kevin and family on saturday. It was a lot of fun- Daniel was agreeable and slept the whole time (which may have had to do with his fever we discovered that evening). A couple pics from the trip:




My sister Becky came down on Wednesday and leaves today. We have had such a good time- I think I'd only seen her once since my wedding. We've gone swimming and hung out at Kevin's house a lot. It's been so fun to see her fat baby and see where Daniel might be in a few months. Tyler is such a happy kid- his whole fatty body just emanates joy.

A couple weeks ago we went to a park with Kevin and family to ride little steam engines. I propped Daniel in between my legs:
and he seemed to enjoy the trip:

I had to hold a blanket over my legs to act as an awning for him to keep him from the sun (I can't wait til I can use sunblock on him).


This is Kenny's last week of summer school. Next week he becomes a full time stay-at-home daddy for a few months, and is going to tackle our back yard.
This weekend we're going up to Fort Worth to visit his sister Jeanette and family for the 4th- I'm very excited. Whew. I think that sums up most of our news.

The new (old) car

So, my dear little hyundai was totaled and has gone on to a better place, along with the BRAND new tires we had just bought for it. We got 5500 for the car from the insurance company... but we still owed about 3500 (those darn elantras depreciate quickly apparently). SO, we didn't have much to work with. We toyed around with the idea of buying a new car, and I fell in love with this:
A new "glacier blue" Honda CRV. We test drove it and actually seriously considered it. I don't know what drug we were on that deluded us into thinking we could EVER afford such a car.

After looking at what payments would look like, we went the other direction: Houston Craiglist. We had from Thursday night, when we found out from the insurance company how much money we'd get, until tuesday, when we had to return the rental car, to find the right car.
We found a '01 blue CRV that I really liked for 6k, but both of us felt that we could find something better. 2 days later, we gave in and told the guy we'd buy it. The next day he emails us and says he ended up selling it to a "higher bidder" (even though he had already arranged to exchange the car with us). So... boo. Our runner up, which I didn't like much at first impression, was a '98 Honda Accord with 98k miles on it. I had vetoed it when we first saw it.
Well, meet Morgan (after another old black man):


I've really warmed up to him. Really, for a ten year old car he's in great shape. And, as a honda civic, he's probably got another 100k in him. The interior is in great shape (original floormats even). The only exterior problem is some paint damage on his bum:

I don't think he's ever seen a garage in his life. The only other things I don't like is that it doens't have a boit-boit (keyless entry thingy), no LATCH (for easy and safe installation of a car seat) and it has no CD player (no tape deck, even). But, it has more guts than the Elantra, and the best news is it only cost $5000- meaning we have no car debt! (also means we will NEVER get to sod our backyard, or buy a dresser for the nursery...)
So in the end I guess it all worked out. It was a very stressful weekend though, and I'm grateful for a husband who knows a thing or two about cars (or, perhaps, for a father-in-law who knows a thing or two about cars:)).

The many faces of Daniel (and that elusive smile)

So, we finally got some smiles on Camera, as well as a lot of other goofy faces:

Thinking about smiling...

Getting closer!

There we go!:


So let's try for a shot without the spittle:

So close!

yeah, not so much. Try again later.


Still cute, but no smile

THERE WE GO!

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How things have changed

January:

Now:

The update

My neck feels completely back to normal and life goes on. The adjustor comes tuesday, and we'll find out if the car is totaled... there are pros and cons to each (we nearly have it paid off, but a new, more family-ish car would be nice!)
There are a bunch of new pictures at my web album.
The car:


The rental:

The baby is getting fat- weighing nearly 11 pounds depending on my scale's mood (hooray!):

And smiley (though he still doesn't smile socially, just whenever the mood hits him):

We have a pack-n-play we love (thanks, Mom!):

All in all, things are going well. Kenny starts summer school tomorrow and I'm busy busy with being Relief Society Secretary at church.

A car accident and the silver lining.

My car is most likely totaled, but we're all ok. I was driving in our only car, a '03 hyundai elantra, by myself back from a baby shower, stopped at an intersection on the phone with my husband, when all the sudden, BAM, I got rear-ended and pushed into the car in front of me. I yelled into the phone at my poor frightened husband (I didn't swear, I'm very proud of myself) and scared the crap out of him, and got some pretty back whiplash. My engine seemed fine, though the hood was a little crumpled and the headlights were nonexistant. The back of the car took most the damage- the tow guy estimates the car is totalled because the frame is so bent (the frame is pushing against the back tire and shredding the tire).
We all hopped out, the lady behind me (the one who caused it) just sat staring forward completely spaced out, unresponsive... her teenage daughter in the back seat was crying, said the mom had had a seizure and asked me to call 911, which I did. Then the driver in front of me said he was going to get his car out of the way and just drove off... while I was watching him, the car behind me also took off. So it seemed like both cars had hit-and-run.
Seems to me there was something else going on with the lady who "had the seizure", as she drove all the way home without realizing there had been an accident til her teenage daughter made her drive back. Meanwhile I had been sitting in a parking lot with my totaled car waiting for the cops, wondering how Daniel was handling his missed feeding.

Edited to clarify: So yes, the lady came back and we got her insurance info.

Anyways, it was scary, my neck hurts something awful, but I'm feeling so lucky. Here's why:
-We're fully insured, they'll pay for a rental, and might even get a better car out of it (a better family car at least).
-It's the one week that Kenny doesn't have to work- neither of us have anywhere we have to be tomorrow while we sort it out.
-It gave us a reason to give Daniel his first formula (since I was 2 hours late for his dinner), and he took to it quite well. Hooray!
-I was still only blocks away from the baby shower, and the hostess was a good friend who picked me up, helped me clean out the car, and took me home.

And here's the biggest reason I'm feeling lucky:
I had planned on bringing Daniel with me but he had been abnormally fussy all evening so I didn't. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I'm SO glad he was fussy so I left him home and he wasn't in the car. I bet he'd've been ok in his car seat, but I would always have wondered- there's no way to say to a baby "are you hurt?"

Anyways, there's my evening's excitement. I'll post pictures of my poor car when we take some tomorrow.

To sleep, perchance to dream

Last night was WONDERFUL! We went to bed at 11, and woke up at 9- and Daniel only woke up once in between, at 5, for feeding, then went right back to sleep! That means I had 6 consecutive hours of sleep (from 11 to 5)! I can't tell you how wonderful that is. I wasn't getting that much sleep at once at the end of my pregnancy even!
We moved Daniel from his bed on our bed to the pack and play in the living room. I've had horrible difficulties sleeping, even when Daniel was sleeping peacefully, because I'd want to check him, or I'd re-wake up every time he mumbled or his breathing pattern changed. Still, having him in our room was good for the first month while we tried to establish a schedule. Some day we'll move him upstairs to the nursery.

Other fun news: Kenny decided to teach summer school for the month of June. It's only 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, and will pay about as much per day as he was making during this last semester.

Daniel now weighs 10 pounds! I'm very happy about this- I love fat babies, and this makes me feel like the many HOURS spent feeding him are extra productive. see, Daniel is a slow eater. It takes him 3 times as long to get his fill as it does most babies. We spend LOTS of time feeding, then waking him up more and feeding again.

We decided I would take one extra week of maternity leave at the end of the month- I appreciate all the time I can get! So I'll have 7 weeks total.
***Correction: 9 weeks total

I'll be back on later to post yet more pictures.