Back to work

I went back to work today! I subbed in the art room at Hudson High School. It was nice to get back into the classroom and finally start earning some money, but I quickly found out that the internet doesn't hold my interest for 5 hours! There was nothing for me to do since all the students were just working on their art projects, so I really just had to make sure they were all alive by the end of the period and I spent a LOT of time on the internet. :) I asked my Facebook friends for book suggestions because I have a feeling I will have a lot more time to read now that I'm substituting. Most teachers plan a movie, work day, or test when they know ahead of time they'll be gone, and most teachers have pre-made sub plans in case they are gone last minute that don't require much from the sub, since the sub might not have any background in the subject they are teaching. I'm not going to complain, though. I LOVE to read and I LOVE getting paid even more! :) I did miss Owen, though, but they called me today pretty last minute, so I didn't really have time to think about it too much, so leaving him wasn't TOO hard. And he was home with his daddy, so that made me feel better than leaving him with a babysitter, I think.

Ryan just got back from his annual golf trip in Arizona, and while he was down there, Owen, the dogs, and I spend almost a week at my parent's house. It was awesome! Owen got more attention than he knew what to do with I think! He just loves to talk and loves to listen to you talk to him. He's such a smiley boy. He even got to spend some time with my grandma while I went to a movie with my parents. And he slept really well, except for one night he just couldn't settle down when he would wake up. And since he's been sleeping so well at night, for the last two nights, he has been sleeping in his own room. I always kept him in our room since I'm nursing, but now that he's been sleeping for at least 5 hours at a time, I decided its about time he gets used to his crib. I think he likes it, especially the cool mobile that hangs above him. He loves mobiles and ceiling fans and the mobile above his crib plays music, nature sounds, or heartbeat sounds, and also has a projected light show. He likes to talk to the animals on it before he goes to bed. It's the cutest thing. :)

Here are some pictures of Owen getting spoiled my my mom and dad:

My dad with Owen

Mom reading him a bedtime story - Milk and Cookies

My mom getting him squeaky clean

He had his 2 month doctor appointment on Wednesday. My little baby isn't so little - 13 lbs 8 oz! Chunky monkey!! He was talking and flirting with the nurse, too, until she came in and gave him shots! Poor baby cried and screamed harder than he ever has in his life. I think it probably was worse on me than it was on him, though, but I held it together. And I know it's all to help keep him healthy in the long run. Luckily, he didn't develop a fever or anything afterward and went back to his happy, smiley self soon after and we don't have to do back until the end of April.

Well, I think that's all. Now we are just waiting for the arrival of his new cousin!

Sleep!

Owen is the best little boy! He is sleeping at night!!! I don't want to jinx anything, but for about the last week or so he has been sleeping 6 OR MORE hours at a time at night! I am very happy about that and hope that it continues. I was going to try to give him a bottle before bed, but I usually don't have one, so I haven't been doing that and he still sleeps that long! The only thing is, I don't usually go to bed until about 11 pm and so he doesn't either and then we get up later in the morning. When I go back to work, I'm going to have to start going to bed earlier, and so I hope I can get Owen on that schedule as well.

The three of us spent Valentine's Day weekend in Coralville with Ryan's mom and stepdad. It was nice to be able to see them and get a little mini vacation. Also, we haven't seen them since the weekend after Owen was born, so we sort of celebrated Christmas too. Owen got clothes and a book and balloons, Ryan got some comfy pants and Tommy Bahama shirt, and I got matching comfy pants and zip up sweatshirt from Victoria's Secret! We spent Saturday at the mall and then went out for a couple of drinks, and then back to the hotel restaurant for supper. I had prime rib and Ryan had a ribeye--it was SO good. So good, in fact, that we went back the next morning for their brunch buffet. YUM! We also went down to the hot tub on Saturday night and had a couple of drinks down there. It was a pretty fun weekend.

Owen also got a Valentine's present from my parents. They were in Omaha celebrating my nephew's birthday over the weekend, and on the way back dropped off a card and his present. Here's a picture:

It's called a Bumbo and it's a seat for babies to sit in once they can hold their head up, but can't sit up on their own. He really likes it because he can look all around and I think he looks so cute in it. He likes to watch the dogs playing and running back and forth. I just can't wait until he starts laughing at the dogs. He's going to get a big kick out of them when he learns to laugh :) The only thing about this seat as opposed to his swing or bouncy is that he can't fall asleep in it. I think he wanted to the other day, but was working too hard to keep his head up. His eyes were pretty droopy, though.

I don't know if I've talked about those shoes he's wearing in this picture or not, but they were a gift from Ryan's aunt and uncle. They are his first tennis shoes and are awesome because they are VIKINGS!!! They're so cute!

Next week I am planning to take Owen to Hudson High School (where I did my student teaching) to visit my cooperating teacher and some of the other staff. I haven't been there since my last day of student teaching and I'm excited to show him off :)

Ryan is going to Arizona on his yearly golf trip on Thursday, so Owen, the dogs, and I are going to spend a few days in Elkader at my parent's house. Nothing better than visiting the grandparents!! LOTS and LOTS of help! :) And homecooked meals :) I'm even going to get to go to a movie in the theater! We do have lots of friends that keep telling us they want to babysit, so I don't know why we don't take them up on it, but give me another month and maybe I'll be taking them up on their offers!

Ok, well, keep knocking on wood, praying or keeping your fingers crossed that Owen keeps sleeping as well as he has. That's all for now, but here are a few more CUTE (of course) pictures of Owen:

SMILEY BOY!

Big Boy

Owen is already 7 weeks old! He's changing so much - he can hold his head up really well and is starting to smile and "talk". It's so cute to watch him talk to his toys and smile. I put together a little video of him talking to Ragnar and his toys and he has a few smiles for me too! :) This video is from last week when he was 6 weeks old.

The dogs are doing really well with him. Our lab, Ragnar, has been chewing on a lot of stuff lately, though. He was so used to getting a lot of attention, so I don't know if that's why he's chewing stuff, or if it just smells too good for him to resist - Gross! But he'll chew on dirty diapers, pacifiers, nursing pads and burp cloths with spit-up on them. I think it's pretty disgusting, but then again I'm not a dog. But as far as interacting with Owen, our lab and our chihuahua are doing great.

My mom came last Sunday and spent the night with Owen so Ryan and I could go to Ryan's work Christmas party. It was nice to get out of the house for a while by ourselves and we had a lot of fun, but I was happy when I got home to see my baby. It was really awesome that my mom came, too, because this was the first time leaving Owen for more than a couple of hours, and I'm glad it was with his grandma. It gave me peace of mind and whenever I started talking about Owen to my friends that night, they reminded me that Owen was fine. And the little stinker slept better for my mom than he does for me!! I think the trick is to feed him a bottle before bed so I know how much he's getting, and that way he's fuller for longer and gets more than 2 hours sleep at a time. I tried it last night and he went five hours. It was awesome. The night of the Christmas party I got about 8 uninterrupted hours because my mom was there, which was REALLY nice! I'm excited for him to sleep through the night (knock on wood, cross my fingers, pray to God!)!

My friends and me at the Christmas party

The time has been flying by and it's probably about time I think about starting work. I got my teacher's license about a month ago and my UNI diploma just came in the mail a couple of days ago. If I hadn't had Owen, I would have started substituting right away when school started up again after Christmas, but since I had him, I decided to wait a couple of months. It's going to be hard to go to work, but the nice thing about subbing is that I can say no if I need to. Ryan works at night anyway, so for now we wouldn't need to send him to daycare, but it's nice being home so I can spend time with my boys. When I start working, I'm not going to be seeing a whole lot of Ryan, which I don't like, but I gotta do what I gotta do, I guess. I'll definitely start subbing in March, if not before that.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to do a better job of updating from now on, but no promises!