Jen's Blog

Sheep Dog

If Gary and I ever get a dog, maybe we'll get one of these.

Termites: RIP

We finally had someone come out and get rid of the termites this morning. After having 5 or 6 different companies do inspections and give us estimates, we decided against tenting the house. While this would have gotten rid of all termites in the walls, it would have been a huge project (involving removing all food, plants, medicines, shampoo, soap, lotion, and baby mattresses from the house, staying somewhere else for 2 nights, and boarding the cats for several days. Also, the tenting would have possibly killed some of the outdoor plants that are next to the house, and the workers probably would have broken at least a few roof tiles.) Instead we went with a company that does an in-depth local inspection (the exterminator drilled small holes in the wall near where we first saw the damage to check for further infestations) and extermination. Two hours after he showed up, the job was done!

and some video footage

I uploaded some short video clips to YouTube this morning. I need to find a quick and easy video editor before I upload too many more. For now you'll just have to suffer through a few extra seconds of Elliot.

-Elliot playing with oven mitts

-Throwing rocks on Easter

-Elliot's interpretation of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"

a couple of recent photos

This one is from March; Elliot loved wearing his sunglasses.

And this one is from last Friday, which I took towards the end of dinner.

35 weeks

I haven't written much about my pregnancy because it's been very uneventful. I had my 35 week check up last Friday, and so far everything looks good. The baby is head down (and expected to stay that way), weight and blood pressure are good, and the baby's heartbeat sounds fine.

Gary and I are currently working on plans for what we'll do when I go into labor. Last time all we had to worry about was getting me to the hospital. This time we've got Elliot to contend with, as well as the expectation of a shorter labor. At least this time around I won't be concerned with bringing a huge bag with me. We brought so much crap with us to the hospital with Elliot, and in the end what Gary really wished he had was a sweater.

We are working on our short list of names, but don't even ask about it.

My friend Joana just brought over the bag of newborn onesies and t-shirts we had lent her (plus some cute girl stuff), and after my appointment last week I bought a simple long-sleeved outfit for coming home from the hospital. When my mom was out here we sorted through all of Elliot's clothes, getting rid of about half of them. Going through his 0-3 month outfits made me realize exactly how much he's grown! Not only were the outfits tiny, but I could remember when they were *big* on him!

We're still not sure about sleeping arrangments yet. All we know is that she'll sleep in our room for the first few months. I have a Pack-N-Play (PnP, portable crib/bassinet/playpen), but I still need to get sheets for it. And I'm researching co-sleepers (similar to a PnP, but it attached to the side of the bed for easier access), but I don't know if we'll get one.

letters and numbers

Elliot has been learning more of his letters, and is starting to recognize numbers, too. His counting ability seems to have gotten worse in the past week, though. He now always skips 4 and 9, I think because he is in a rush to get to 5 and 10 (which he usually says with gusto, since they are often the finale in the sequence). Last night during dinner I counted to 5 with him over and over again, and while he would say 4 after I said it a few times, when it came time to count to 5, it was always "one, two, three, five!"

Elliot's favorite letters are M and W, since it's fun to flip them upside down and convert one to the other. I don't think he knows N or Z yet.

He's starting to see letters all over the place and point them out to us. He gets very excited when he sees them in new places. Last night he kept pointing to his sippy cup and saying "U! U!" At first I didn't see it (I was looking at the words printed on the cup and there was no U), but then realized he was pointing to a character with a smiling mouth, and indeed it looked just like a U.

haircut

Gary and I took Elliot to a salon yesterday for his first professional haircut. We've cut his hair before (well, I should say Gary, not we, as I only distracted Elliot while Gary wielded the scissors), but it was starting to look pretty scraggly in back, and we've wanted to take him somewhere for a haircut for over a month.

Overall Elliot took it pretty well, considering the lady who cut his hair had 2 inch long purple fingernails and he was teething. (Side note: Elliot now has 13 teeth.) I think either one of us could have distracted him alone, but it was good that we were both there. I took some pictures and Gary spent all his time handing things to Elliot to play with (keys, a flashlight, his watch). We should have had it cut shorter in front, but it looks so much better in back now.

(And where are the pictures? Good question...my camera is still in the trunk of Gary's car.)