Best Valentine's Day Ever

I know, I know...Valentine's Day isn't until Sunday but I'm pretty sure mine has already been the best one ever because most of it came early this year. Here's why it's been the best:

1. We have Dylan to celebrate with, and what better way to feel loved than to have a newborn snuggling with you all day long (especially when he's sick)?

2. Shane surprised me with a new Flip camera. It's awesome and I now find myself videoing little portions of Dylan's day. It's so much easier to capture the moments since it's so portable and so simple to use.

3. Shane made me truffles at work on Tuesday. They were delicious...it was a little difficult to pace myself and not eat them all at once!

4. Shane surprised me this morning and told me he took the day off to be with me and Dylan!

5. Shane spent his day off cleaning the house and taking care of Dylan so I could get a few things knocked off my to-do list.

6. Shane wrote me the sweetest note, which now sits next to my bed and will be something I will read over and over again when I need a pick-me-up.

Shane is a very sentimental and thoughtful person, but I can't help but think that some of this early Valentine's love was prompted by an emotional breakdown that occurred at 5 AM on Tuesday morning... You see, the combination of sleep deprivation due to our sick little boy (some nights I only got about 3 hours), me beginning to get sick myself, and watching all of the items on my to-do list go undone because Dylan wouldn't let me put him down for very long during the past few days turned into an explosion. In the end, many tears were shed, a knee was bruised (we're still getting used to our new room arrangement), and a discussion was held regarding the dangers of bottling up our feelings, but all in all I feel much better having let it out.

And now thanks to Shane I'm not so stressed out about my to-do list. Our house is completely clean, except for the laundry (which we'll do tomorrow when our power costs less), and all I did was dust (prior to my dusting today, the surfaces in our house hadn't been touched since my mom left on Dec. 29th...I know, she would be appalled)! Shane did the rest. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband! Now I better make sure I actually give him his Valentine's card this year :)

Daily Dylan

This week's daily Dylan is a day late due to the illness that hit our home (that's right, Shane and I are now coming down with colds...it begins). Anyway, here are this week's pictures:

February 3

February 3 (I'm pretty sure he went through 4 outfits this day, but I only took pictures twice...)

February 4

February 5 (No pictures because he mostly napped all day)

February 8

February 8

February 9

As you can see, he's remained fairly happy despite being sick...he just needs a lot more love and attention. In fact, here's a little video of him smiling for Shane last night. As an early Valentine's present, Shane got us a new Flip camera. Hopefully this will encourage more videos of baby D.

(Note: There's no need to be concerned about Dylan's breathing...The reason he keeps gasping is Shane likes to blow in his face...)

(Post) Pregnancy Brain?

In case you missed it, a few of the Super Bowl commercials featured a bunch of screaming chickens... It was for the free Grand Slam at Denny's today. By the third one of these commercials on Sunday, the following conversation occurred:

Jessica: "Why are all the chickens screaming like women??"
Shane: {{Silence...stares at Jessica...}}
Jessica: "Oh...eggs..."

(For those who don't get it either, the chickens are screaming because of all the eggs Denny's is going to need. Hence, all the chickens are hens, not roosters...)

I used pregnancy brain as an excuse a lot while I was pregnant, but I feel like my brain hasn't come back yet... Can I still use the excuse??

(Maybe I can blame sleep deprivation because our little boy is back to waking up quite frequently at night...I know it's his poor little ears and it makes me so sad. I'm counting down the days until the antibiotics kick in!)

2 Month Stats

Does this look like the face of a sick little boy?

I didn't think so either. This is how Dylan woke up this morning after sleeping normally last night (Friday and Saturday nights consisted of waking/crying almost every hour, but last night he went back to his normal 1:30 & 4:30 wakings). He was so alert and so happy and his nasal congestion was significantly better. However, his breathing seemed a bit tighter, he was a little wheezy, and his cough still sounds bad (when he does cough, which isn't too often).

At the doctor today (for what was supposed to be his 2 month well-baby check up), I reported that he seemed to be feeling better...only to be told by the doctor that both of his ears are infected--something that has developed since Saturday--so his appointment turned into a sick visit and his shots were delayed until next week. The doctor was surprised that I reported he was so happy when his ears looked so bad, but I'm glad Dylan seems to be feeling better even if he isn't getting better. Hopefully the antibiotics will bring him back to 100 percent soon.

In other news, we got his 2-month stats at the beginning of the appointment. Here we go:

Height: 23 inches (50th percentile)
Head: 40 cm (50th percentile)
Weight: 15 lbs, 13 oz (Off the charts...literally...meaning ABOVE the 100th percentile)

We're just glad our little boy seems to be growing and developing well and we can't wait for this cold to go away!

Sleepy

We're hoping this is how Dylan spends most of his days (and nights) this weekend:

Even if all of his naps need to be taken like this:

Why, you ask? Well, Dylan officially has his first cold. It started as a stuffy nose (which I referred to last week when I took him to the doctor) but it quickly escalated from a minor stuffy nose to a VERY stuffy nose and cough from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon, which led to a very miserable night for Dylan (and Mom and Dad) last night, including throwing up ALL OVER me after a coughing fit. We took him to the doctor this morning and he said Dylan is still breathing really well so all we can do now is treat it like a cold and watch for any additional symptoms of RSV... Hopefully the humidifier, saline drops, nose sucker, and lots of extra love will help him recover quickly!

In other news, they weighed him this morning at the doctors office. He now weighs (drumroll please)...

15 pounds, 11 ounces!

That's right folks. You know your baby is a chunker when even the doctor is making comments about how chubby he is and jokes about putting him on a diet... He has his 2-month visit on Monday (even though we saw the doctor today we figured an appointment on Monday couldn't hurt because if he's worse we'll need to see the doctor and if he's getting better he'll be okay to get his 2 month vaccinations), so hopefully we'll discuss Dylan's eating habits then.

The Ever-Expanding Boy

Today during his bath, I took another picture of Dylan to document his size at 2 months. Here's a comparison of the other bath time pictures we've taken so far:

{Click on the picture for a larger version}

The change from 5 weeks to 9 weeks definitely wasn't as dramatic as the first 5 weeks of his life, but he's definitely expanded even more. Look at those arms! At Shane's work, they joked that he has Popeye arms because his forearms are so chunky. I love the rolls, but they make bath time take a little longer since I have to get between all of them and then be sure to get them dry afterwards (Dylan's least favorite part).

Making Life Easier

Today, I was reflecting on a few things that make life these days a lot easier, some more trivial than others, but here they are:

These Veggies

{Image from www.thenibble.com}

These wonderful microwave steam packs are so simple! If it weren't for them, I don't know that we'd get any servings of veggies in our current diet since most days I'm planning dinner as Shane is pulling into the garage and Dylan is eating. I just put one of these babies in the microwave and have perfectly steamed veggies in 4-7 minutes!! (Green Giant makes similar ones that we love...especially the cheesy broccoli)

This Cleaner

{Image from www.amazon.com}

I don't know if it's the "Resolve Power", but this stuff works wonders...especially on lovely orange-yellow baby poop and spit-up stains. So far, there hasn't been a stain that this stuff hasn't been able to get out. Granted, I act pretty fast to get it soaking, but so far I've been pleased with the results.

These Goodies

Ever since our summer in Baltimore, I have LOVED Trader Joe's...so when one opened up just down the street from us last summer, I was so excited and have been exploring their many products ever since. Some of my favorites so far: dark chocolate covered shortbread stars (a holiday product, shown above), chocolate-filled Joe Joe's (TJ's version of Oreos), and their fiberful fruit leather (unsweetend fruit leather with ground flaxseed). I know, I know...two of those three options really aren't the healthiest, but they make a great afternoon pick-me-up on days when Dylan wasn't the best sleeper the night before!

This Blanket
{Image from www.bonnybabies.com}

We witnessed the beauty of the Miracle Blanket our family trip in California and received one from my brother and his wife in preparation for Dylan's arrival. It definitely has a learning curve (see here for usage instructions), but it's the best swaddling blanket and has been perfect for Dylan, who gets so fidgety when he gets tired and still isn't very effective at sleeping unswaddled (his Moro reflex is still very strong...which wakes him up).

This Girl

This is Emma Jane, and I've known her since the day she was born...literally (okay, okay, I don't really remember the day she was born since I was only a month old). And, for the record, I was one of the few people allowed to call her Emma until she decided that it was her name of choice during her freshman year of college, but I digress.

This girl is a very persistent friend, and just what I need right now. I get so wrapped up in my little world of Dylan (feed, burp, change, play, nap...repeat) that I forget that the world outside my house is moving on. I forget to return phone calls, to respond to emails...basically I forget that other people have lives and things going on that matter. Emma calls, and calls, and calls, and when that doesn't work she sends me messages in ALL CAPS on gmail chat, and when that doesn't work she leaves me voicemails threatening to call my mother...and she does all this in good fun because she knows I need to have human interaction with someone other than my 2-month-old (and maybe she needs interaction besides her 2.5 children of her own).

Regardless of her motives, she lets me blab on and on and on about Dylan--about my frustrations, my worries, my joys, my new discoveries--even though she's been through all of this twice before and probably under much more stressful and frustrating circumstances than I could imagine. She offers encouragement, advice, and her perspective and then distracts me by suggesting new books to read or planning an eventual reunion (she lives in TX, I'm in AZ).

{Interestingly, because she's always somewhere on my recent calls list on my phone, she received a surprise call in the middle of the night last night while I was using my cell phone as a flashlight to avoid waking Shane... Sorry Em!!}

This Boy
{See the resemblance?}

Obviously, I love Dylan and enjoy every minute of my days at home withi him, but right now I'm referring to Shane... I can't imagine raising Dylan on my own or with any less supportive of a husband. In the hospital, I didn't change a single diaper thanks to this man, which exemplifies his attitude toward taking care of Dylan--it's both of our jobs. As soon as he's home from work and on weekends, Shane steps up and takes on more than his fair share of Dylan duties. It's nice that he realizes that taking care of him during the day is still work, even if I don't leave the house to do it, and that I need a break sometimes. Every time Dylan cries in the night, Shane checks with me to see if he needs to eat or just needs to be comforted...if it's just for comfort he always offers to be the one to take care of it. Luckily, Dylan generally only wakes to eat (and goes right back to sleep), but I always appreciate the offer.

More than taking on his share of the work, Shane is willing to listen. When he gets home, he listens to my recap of the day (down to the contents of each diaper changed) because he knows I need to talk to someone. Those nights that I'm overtired and frustrated he somehow knows, wakes up, and cuddles or rubs my back, just to let me know that he understands...and lets me vent if I'm really wound up.

When my wonderful friends from Salt Lake came down to visit, they commented on how involved Shane is with Dylan. I realized how helpful he was before, but I don't think I realized how lucky I am to have such a loving, helpful husband.

These smiles

Don't get me wrong, I love my little boy and have loved every minute I've spent with him since he was born (and even before), but now that he's smiling, I love my days even more. He even smiles without me smiling first and now has added cooing to some of his smiles. It makes me melt every time and makes everything seem even more worthwhile.

There's my list for now... What makes your life easier?