a move, a sickness that won't go away, a little teether, and giving thanks regardless

Ugh. Where do I begin? The good news is that we moved! We are all out of the old house and into the new one. We love our new house. It needs a lot of work, but we feel like it's a great, great house to raise our little family. Aaron commented that in the first 48 hours after moving in, we'd already met more neighbors than in the 6 years of living at our old house. We were especially thrilled to meet the family nextdoor. They have a little guy (Gunnar) who is a month younger than Neko. We haven't met Gunnar's dad yet, but Gunnar's mom (Devon) is very nice and bubbly. We also met the young couple across the street, the young couple behind us (a firefighter and a private school fundraiser). They are living with their parents while they remodel the house. It looks amazing. She invited us inside to see the work they are doing on it. And finally, the people across the street are older and very nice as well (a teacher). Marissa came over the other day, and we took Neko on a walk to let Aaron sleep. We walked over to the community garden at Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning and from there to a really nice park. I felt ecstatic. No hypodermic needles or creepy lurkers! Just quiet houses with children playing and people walking their dogs. Such a drastic difference from our old neighborhood. Thinking of this reminds me that the toll this move has taken on us has been totally worth it. Also- I got home yesterday in less that 30 minutes. Amazing!!!

**Aaron's been such a good sport. Putting up blinds so that we could have some privacy. Working hard to take care of his family, even while sick. I'm so thankful for my awesome husband.

I hope Neko looks back on this blog post and thanks us. Ha. He's such a little sweetie, we'd do anything for him. He's had a rough few nights (and, in turn, so have we). I'm not sure if he's teething (he drools a lot and chews on everything) or if he caught the virus Aaron had, but he's been up every 30-45 minutes for three nights. Aaron went to urgent care on Sunday night after his two-week cold turned into projectile vomiting. He got and IV for rehydration and some medication. Now I'm sick too. Such is life in the winter with a little one, I suppose. We are just trying to take care of ourselves and focus on what's good in our life. I won't bore you with the details of our plumbing disasters (flooding in the kitchen, still no sink in our bathroom- thanks Home Depot- you SUCK!), but suffice it to say that things have not been easy around here. Whenever I feel distressed, I watch videos of Neko giggling, then I start giggling, and I feel better.

*Clearing junk out of the old house.

What's new with him? He may be teething (as previously mentioned). He seems to have a little girlfriend, named Taylor. We got him an exersaucer (the new and improved version of what our generation called a "walker") because he likes the one at school. I dropped him off yesterday, put him in the excersaucer next to Taylor, and they just stared at each other and smiled. He's really noticing when we eat. He is fascinated by it. We'll probably start solids around Christmas. Aaron wants to make some baby food, and Melisa gave us a good book full of recipes. We like listening to our "Daddy Plays" lullabies. We have the Beatles one, the rock and roll songs, and the Christmas carols. They are really quite good. Liz, Irena, and Scott: Let us know if you'd like us to burn you some copies.

*Dachshund pants are from Kayla. So cute!

In spite of all of the madness, we were able to give thanks over the holiday. Aaron's parents very kindly drove out to help. They watched Neko in their hotel the day before Thanksgiving, (moving day), since his school was closed. It was so extremely helpful! On Thanksgiving Day, Aaron and I had to go back to the old house to get more stuff out (why do we have so much crap???). At about 5PM, we started wondering what we should do for dinner. Penny called several restaurants (all were closed). I finally thought of Mimi's Cafe. They were open, and they were selling traditional Thansgiving meals to-go. Score!! Aaron and I left Neko with his grandparents and ran out for food. It was surprisingly good, and we were all very thankful.

That's about it for now. Apologies in advance if you don't get any Christmas presents from us this year... We are so overwhelmed, I can't even think of it until we have a working bathroom, an unpacked house, and a healthy family. Happy holidays.

4 months old: our wild-haired giggler

Neko is four months old today. Insane. He's chatty, and giggly, and sweet. We love him so much. We've had a rough couple of weeks, but hearing his laugh almost always makes things better. I ended up taking a half day off today. I just needed a personal day with my little guy. It was so very nice to pick him up early, to spend the afternoon napping and playing together.

We've been dealing with the negotiations with the seller of our new house (trying to get him to fix the roof and other things) along with a very stressful situation at work, which escalated this week. And, as if that weren't enough, on Wednesday we came home to find that the diaper pail had been dragged into the hallway and emptied out. Half-eaten dirty diapers were plastered all over the floor. Annabelle also decided to snack on an expensive pair of shoes that I had ordered from Zappos but intended to return. Not anymore. Thanks, Annabelle! Thursday night, after another ridiculous commute home, Aaron dropped us off and went to pick up take-out since our kitchen's a disaster, and he didn't have the energy to clean and cook after our rough week. He called me from the Thai restaurant to tell me that the car had been towed. Awesome...

Things are starting to get resolved, and I keep telling myself that at least some of this stress if temporary. Soon we'll be moved into a great neighborhood closer to work. Things will be better for all of us.

Neko's giggles and chatty voice always cheer me up. He's so verbal. He "talks" in the back seat as we drive home from school everyday. He sleeps in child's pose with his little butt in the air. It's adorable. He likes to watch videos of himself giggling. They make him giggle even more. He can grab his pacifier and almost put it back into his mouth. A step towards independence! Amazing! And he has the coolest hair in the world. Everyone agrees.

Also, Neko got his first birthday party invitation from another baby at school, Jameson, who just turned one. I was weirdly delighted. We weren't able to make it to the party, but still. It was pretty cute. When I went to pick him up from school today he was standing in an exersaucer. He looked so big! Our little guy is growing up.

first skate contest, rolling over, and sleep regression

These things are totally unrelated, but I realized that it's been a while since I've posted. We've had a busy and stressful few weeks. Since I last blogged, we put our house on the market, we found a house to buy, sold our house, and we are just waiting to close. It's been a whirlwind. So here's what's new:

Sleep regression. Of course, as soon as I posted about Neko being a pretty good sleeper, he started having some sleep regression. I read that this is fairly common around 4 months when babies' sleep cycles become more like adults. We also had to stop swaddling him because he can now roll over from his back to his tummy. He got so used to being swaddled that he doesn't know what to do now and it freaks him out a little. We've tried establishing new "sleep cues" and a bedtime routine. Aaron usually reads to him in the rocking chair, we dim the lights, put on the white noise and his Beatles lullabies. After a bit of crying, he usually passes out. But he's been waking a lot more to eat. We're all exhausted and thankful for the break.

*A picture of our beloved first home so that Neko remembers the house he lived in when he was born.

Aaron took Neko to his first skate contest yesterday. He got to meet lots of Aaron's friends, sit in Rob's VW van, and hang out with dudes. It was weird for me to be at home without them even if it was only an hour and a half. I didn't really know what to do with myself.

This little guy is so physical and active. All he wants to do is practice rolling over. He tries to crawl, but he can't seem to get it just yet. It makes him insanely frustrated, and he's so determined.

We love having him at home with us this week. It's been nice to sleep in a little and to play with him in the morning when he's happiest. We can't wait for summer. I don't think I've ever wanted it to be summer so early in the school year before.

random: nicknames and sleep habits

Nicknames for Neko: Bubba, Boo Boo, Little Mister, Sneako, Buddy

If our nicknames for our kid turn out to be anything like our nicknames for our dogs, they'll probably evolve over time.

Crib transition: We did it. It worked out fine. I like taking naps with him next to me, but I've never been a good sleeper, so co-sleeping's not really an option for me now that I'm working. Also, I was sick of having the Pack N' Play in the bedroom. It takes up a lot of space. I'm glad the transition was so smooth. He seems to like sleeping in the crib just fine, and we use the baby monitor Scott and Irena got us. The humidifier and white noise machine help. He sometimes wakes and needs to be shushed for a minute, but that's no big deal. We've also started putting him to bed much, much earlier because he seems exhausted, and I read that newborns generally go to bed later, but once babies get to be about 3 months they often need an earlier bed time. I usually wake him up and feed him right before I go to bed, and he goes right back to sleep. On a good night, he only wakes up once (usually between 1 and 3), which means we get a solid chunk of sleep before that. Sometimes he'll wake up twice. It's a little rough, considering my day starts at 5AM, but we can't complain. He's a pretty good sleeper.

neko's favorites: likes and dislikes at 3 months

3 months old! Can you believe it? Neko is definitely much more aware of his surroundings these days. He notices our voices when we pick him up from school. He giggles a lot. He likes to be tickled, especially under his neck. He likes to be lifted up in the air. He likes to practice standing up. Miss Hannah (one of his teachers- our favorite) says that he is very, very strong!

He love his feet. He likes to be kissed. He likes kissing noises and tries to make them.

Just recently, he's decided he hates to be in the car, which is an enormous bummer for us since our commute is ridiculously long. He hates it. We hate it. Everyone screams and cries. It's the most unfun thing about my life right now. I cannot wait until these days of commuting and being trapped in the car for two hours with a screaming baby are just a distant memory. We feel terribly guilty for making him sit in the car for so long. It's downright horrible for everyone involved.

We met with a realtor last week. We're getting the mortgage approved with our bank. I've spent the last few days decluttering the house, packing boxes, cleaning, and looking at houses online. We're having photos taken next week, and the house should be on the market soon! We're crossing our fingers that someone else loves this house as much as we do, that we can find something as good much closer to school, and that no one has a nervous breakdown in the process. In the meantime, we're enjoying our little guy when we're not all trapped in the car together. He's our favorite thing in the world, and there is nothing better than hearing him giggle.

Here are some random photos I like from the past few weeks. Sorry, Instagram users, most of them are repeats.

**So few photos of me with Neko since I'm usually the one behind the camera.

breastfeeding and working. ugh.

I don't want to spend the whole year complaining, but I do want to document what it's been like to be a working mom while still attempting to breastfeed. Hard. It's been pretty hard. Trying to find time to pump at work is frustrating. My schedule is not conducive to finding 30-minute chunks of time that are adequately spread out across the day, since I teach three 99-minute classes in a row every other day this year.  Somehow, I've been able to make it work to continue breastfeeding.

**Some totally random recent photos that I love

He's always had enough to eat until one day this week. We think he had another growth spurt because he's just about 12 weeks old, and for two days in a row he ate almost every hour. On Thursday, I got a text message from his teacher saying that he'd gone through his entire milk supply by 1PM. I didn't get the text until school was almost out anyway, but it completely stressed me out. He had more than what would normally have been enough for an entire day. What the hell?

I rushed over to the daycare center as soon as school was out. On our hour-long commute home he started screaming bloody murder, and there was nothing I could do to get home faster because there was horrendous traffic on every single route (been using the Waze app). So stressful. Often times, I feed him in the car in the parking lot at daycare, which helps, but let's face it: an hour-long commute is a little too much for a 3-month old. I really wanted to wait until next summer to move, but I'm beginning to realize that we may need to pull the trigger sooner than later. We'll have to weigh the stress of moving against another 8 months of this horrible commute. We want to be able to maximize the time we spend with Neko every day.

My daily schedule looks something like this:
5AM: Wake up and shower while (hopefully) Aaron and Neko sleep in.
5:30AM: Feed the baby, change diaper, get him dressed and ready to go
5:50AM: Leave the house (together). We've been trying to carpool to save on gas and tolls.
7:00AM: Arrive at school. Aaron rushes to teach 1st period, and I plan my lessons, make copies, then pump before my first class.
8:45AM: Teach for 99 minutes.
10:35AM: Rush to the bathroom to pump, then eat, then back to teach until the end of the day (with no breaks!!).
2:50PM: Finally done teaching. Pump one last time, then head over to grab the baby.
4:30PM: Arrive home.
8:30PM: Pass out.
Repeat.

It's truly exhausting, I'm perpetually behind with my grading and planning, but I love this kid so much, it makes it all worth it. I cannot wait for our summers together. Right now, Saturday mornings are my favorite. We're all together, Neko's such a happy boy in the morning. We sleep in until 7AM, listen to music, drink our morning coffee, and enjoy being a little family. Sometimes we even run out for a quick beer at one of the local breweries. It always feels like such a big deal when we make it out of the house together to do something fun.

annabelle and a wonder week

The week before my mom's visit was a very difficult week. It was a "wonder week" (week 8), which causes babies to be especially fussy. Aaron said they must be called "wonder weeks" because you wonder how you'll ever make it through them. Neko had been crying an ungodly amount, and I was extremely anxious about returning to work and putting him in daycare. We were one big emotional mess. On a particularly difficult day, Aaron and I put him in the car and took him for a drive when he simply wouldn't stop crying. When we got back home, I found a big pool of blood (and some vomit) on the nursery floor.

We discovered that Annabelle had been poisoned by the apples in our backyard. I had no idea that apple seeds contain cyanide. Aaron rushed her to the vet and spent four hours there instead of going to back-to-school night. He sat in the waiting room for an hour, only to find out that he needed to take her to an after-hours clinic across town. Meanwhile, at home, Neko was still screaming. I finally put him into his car seat in the stroller and pushed it around the backyard until he fell asleep. I cried and picked up all of the apples off the ground, all the while thinking, "Annabelle, pease, please don't die this week. I cannot handle it. Not this week." What a nightmare.

Somehow, we made it through week eight and lived to tell the story. But I was reminded that Annabelle won't be around forever, and I want Neko to know how much she loved him.

Last weekend, Aaron cut down the apple tree. Neko napped peacefully, and I helped Aaron pick up all of the apples. I am thankful for my little family, including both dogs. Annabelle simply adores Neko. She licks him, guards him, and very nervously attempts to play with him. She is truly his first best friend.

neko's favorites: likes and dislikes at 10 weeks old

I won't usually blog this often, but I feel like I have some catching up to do. There are so many things I want to document!

Some of Neko's favorite things at 10 weeks old are:

Being held facing out so that he can see the world. We got a couple of great baby carriers, including this one from Brenda. We also have an Ergo, which is quite a bit bigger and fits Aaron better. I also have a soft carrier, the K-Tan, which he currently hates. He screams when I put him in it. Maybe that'll change. Who knows.

Putting his fist in his mouth... This is perhaps his favorite pastime.

His Kermit doll. He's liked Kermit from the beginning, probably because he's so bright and high-contrast. But let's face it, Kermit's just really likable. Who doesn't love him?

Speaking of Kermit, we played a Youtube video of The Rainbow Connection for Neko when my mom was in town. He loves music. He loves it when we play records, he loves it when I sing to him, he loves it when Aaron plays the guitar.

He likes being on his changing table. He stares at us, smiles, goos and gahs.

He loves Annabelle. He likes looking at her. She loves him more. I think she loves him more than any of us. She guards him and tries to get in a lick whenever she can. He and Penelope don't seem to care for each other as much, but I couldn't help posting these photos of the two of them because, hey, they are great photos.

He loves the skateboard on the wall (the one with the face) and looking at the dinosaurs on the shelves.

Finally, he loves it when Aaron does this thing where he puts his hand on Neko's chest and shakes it. He thinks it's hilarious.

**Can anyone actually watch this video with sound?? I'm going to have to figure out how to upload it properly...

Oh yeah, dislikes? Wet diapers. Hates 'em.

2-month shots and grandma terry

Neko had his 2-month vaccines a little late while Grandma Terry was in town. As most of you know, Neko was very colicky in the beginning, starting at around 1-week old. It was horrible for all of us. We discovered that he had acid reflux, and he was put on medication, which drastically reduced his colic. Thanks to that, the 5 S's, and simply letting some time pass, (getting older helps mature the digestive system), things seriously improved. He stopped crying for three hours at a time, and all of us felt a little more sane.

Although he'd been much happier, sleeping much better, and crying a lot less, the vaccines brought on his fussiness, reminding Aaron and me how horrible it was at the beginning. Thankfully, we had Grandma Terry here to help a little. Also, the fussiness only lasted a couple of days. Neko adores his grandma, and simply melts into her chest when she holds him. She has a very calming effect on him. She fell in love with him as well and cried when he got his shots (poor Grandma!). It makes me so happy that they already have a good relationship. It's hard having family so far away but nice that she's recently retired and is able to come visit us more often.

At his visit, we discovered he's grown a couple of inches and beefed up a little too! He weighed 11 lbs 6 oz. Everyone commented on how long he is. These comments give me a strange sense of pride.
He's also quite strong and very active. This kid never stops moving. This is something Grandma noticed right after he was born.

While she was here, we took long walks every day. The two things I miss most about maternity leave are the daily walks and playing with Neko in the morning when he's cheerful, smiley, and chatty.

We are all hoping Grandma comes back soon!

first day at school

I dropped my baby off at "school" today. I've heard other working moms call day care "school," so I'm going to do the same thing because somehow it makes me feel better about it. It was insanely difficult. I've had a pit in my stomach for weeks just thinking about leaving him. I'd never been away from him for more than three hours. Yesterday, Aaron and I decided to stop by the place to drop off his stuff and chat with the ladies. It eased my nerves a little bit but not entirely. Last night was hard. I couldn't sleep. He only woke up once to eat (only once!) but I was up on and off for hours.

A few things that made it a little bit easier: My friend's 6-month-old, Cameron is there. Her older son went there too, and she raves about the ladies that work there. When we brought Neko in yesterday, I put him next to Cameron and introduced them. Cameron gave Neko a huge smile. Neko smiled back, and I thought, "Oh good! He has a friend." They just smiled and "gooed" at each other for a few minutes. Everyone needs a friend at school. This morning I stayed in the car, and Aaron brought him in for me. This way, I didn't have to cry in front of strangers.  When I got to work, several of my friends asked how it went and welcomed me back. I was genuinely glad to see them. I'm glad I have friends at school who have done the same thing, who know how hard it is, who are there to offer words of encouragement.

The ladies said he did great, didn't cry much at all. He ate well, played well, and slept well. They all love having a new baby there, so he probably got some good attention. Thankfully, it's a very small place, run by our school district, so all of the parents are teachers, some even work in the adjoining school and stop by throughout the day. Somehow, I find this comforting. I was so worried about making enough milk for him to eat. It turned out to be plenty.

Admittedly, it was nice to be in my element again and to have a little bit of "me" time; however, the best part of my day was picking him up, kissing his head, and sitting in the backseat, holding his hand on the way home.

and so it began...

Neko's just about 10 weeks old. I've been taking and posting photos of him pretty obsessively on Instagram.  My mom is out here visiting, and she reminded me that I need to write things down to remember them. I figured a blog about Neko would be the best solution. We sat around and brainstormed about names for the blog. Mom said, "What about Lucky Number Seven"? I asked, "Because he was born on the seventh?" (Seventh day of the seventh month, actually). She said, "No because he's the seventh grandchild." "Really? Is he?" I hadn't realized. But she's right! And so it only made sense to include "seven" in the title.

Mom will appreciate the blog since she can't download photos of Neko from Instagram. And maybe Neko will appreciate the blog when he's older. I know I will. So here it begins, a blog about my little buddy. Isn't he beautiful?