Stocking Up

According to the supposed weather experts, much of the Midwest, including KC, is about to get hit with a giant snowstorm of epic proportions.  They're saying things like, "measured in feet, not inches", "blizzard conditions", "bitter cold", "historic", and "one for the record books".  Normally when a big snowstorm is predicted, we end up with just a few inches.  Nonetheless, I figured it was a good idea to stop by the store on the way home today.  I didn't exactly buy jugs of water, canned food, and battery-powered radios, but I got enough food to ensure we don't have to venture out of our house in the next couple days if we don't want to do so. 

Patient, Up To a Point

Today Joshua and I did some tummy time.  While he didn't roll over, he didn't seem frustrated about it either.  He was mostly just content lying on his tummy and looking around, although after awhile he seemed to start to wonder why I was putting him through the exercise.  Here he looks up at me as if to say , "Okay, we've been doing this for awhile, and I'm bored.  Don't you have something else we can do?"

In Enemy Territory

Tonight we went to Lawrence to Andrew and Julie's house to watch the game. It didn't go well, and there were several people in attendance rooting for the fake fat birds, but Joshua took solace in knowing that his dad and his Aunt Julie were on the right side along with him.

A Cooperative Lunch Partner

Today I had lunch with some friends who I used to work with at Sprint. Joshua came too and was great the entire time. Here he is with Tricia. Apparently he wanted to spend more time with her because he cried the entire way home. But at least he was super good in the restaurant.

Kindermusik

I would like this post to be about how much fun we had at our first Kindermusik class. Instead, we didn't have that much fun. It started at 9:15 in the morning which is very early in the morning to be anywhere for either of us. We prefer to sleep until 9. So Joshua fell asleep about half way through the class. And so far he is kind of shy. I wouldn't have thought a baby could really be shy because you always hear that it kicks in around 8 months or so, but he does not smile much for other people and he also is very quiet in larger groups. So he mostly kind of sat there clutching my hands until he fell asleep. We are trying again next week in the 10:30 class. That seems a little more reasonable of an hour anyhow and there are fewer people in that one so maybe it will go better. In the meantime, here he is at home greatly enjoying the shaker we got at class.

The Yellow Glow of Progress

When I travel for my job, I often need to rent a car.  I try to stick with the same company every time so I can build up points, and Hertz is my company of choice.  Most airports have their rental car center off-site, so you need to ride a shuttle to get there from the airport.  So because I rent a lot of cars, and because it's almost always Hertz, I spend a lot of time on Hertz shuttles.  Recently Hertz decided to replace their entire fleet, and tonight I rode in a brand new shuttle in its first day of service.  Although this excites no one else, it made me happy.

I'm Gonna Work the Straw

Most of my business trips involve an airplane, but every now and again I get to go on a local trip which is close enough for me to drive.  Today I had a customer meeting in Wichita, so I drove there this morning and drove home in the evening.  Here I am hoping a crazed driver doesn't veer off the highway and kill me while taking this picture.

Eating Cotton

Two of Joshua's current favorite activities are grabbing things and chewing on things. Occasionally he's able to join these two activities into one by (sometimes accidentally) snagging something with his fingers and then guiding it towards his mouth. Since he's usually wearing a shirt, that tends to be what ends up in his mouth. Here he makes a futile attempt to stuff the entire thing in his face.

Unnecessarily Complex

Joshua's a growing boy, and the latest thing he's grown out of is the shoulder-strap setting on his car seat.  It seemed like something that would be a simple change, but it turned out to be a lot more complex than I realized.  Meghan reminded me that the nurse at the hospital was confused by it, and she sets those up every day.  Anyway, I finally got it set.  It's now on the highest setting, so at least now it'll last us until he outgrows the whole car seat.

Step One: The Garage

Since we have decided to put our house on the market, we need to start decluttering and cleaning things out. First we need to do the garage so we can move things from other areas of the house. Here are Jason and Joshua working on it.

Bumpin'

Tonight we were invited to dinner at our friends Steve and Donna's house.  Donna made a great meal complete with her amazing lasagna.  Our other friends, Kevin and Megan, were also invited.  Here Kevin asks Joshua for a fist bump, and Joshua excitedly obliges.

Hands-Free Baby

Meghan has a wrap that she really likes, but for some reason it just doesn't work for me.  So I ordered a carrier which I'm hoping will be the solution that allows me to be able to carry him around while still getting things done.  It'd be userful in everything from quick shopping trips to work around the house.  Here I am in my first trial with it.  You can't really tell, but he's screaming his head off here, which I'm really hoping was not an indicator that he hates the carrier, because that'll be very disappointing.

Hopefully a trait he outgrows

Joshua absolutely loves not wearing pants. He loves changing time because he gets to kick pants-free for awhile. So I usually try to give him some diaper-free playtime during the day. He loves it. He kicks and coos and it may be his favorite time of day. Here he is enjoying diaper-free time. I put him in legwarmers since it is winter and all.

What'chu Talkin' 'Bout?

While walking in downtown Chicago to my hotel today, I passed a tall building. I looked up and noticed that it extended into the fog and that it was quite a bit taller than the rest of the buildings around it. I then noticed the sign on it and realized I was standing in front of the Sears Tower, though it's actually no longer called that, as it was renamed to Willis Tower in 2009. I snapped this photo with my phone. Not surprisingly, since it was the tallest building on the planet for a couple decades, I couldn't get the entire building in the picture.

An alarming sound

Today Jason replaced all the batteries in our smoke detectors. We have never had to do this before because our old alarms didn't have batteries, but we had to replace all of the actual alarms last year and apparently these new ones need their batteries replaced once a year. If you forget, they have an extremely annoying beep to remind you.

Hadley's Baptism

Today we went to mass with Jason and Kelli, followed by the ceremony for Hadley's baptism. Jason was very honored to be chosen as Hadley's godfather and it was fun to share in her big day.

Over Hill, Over Dale

Today I took Joshua to Lawrence.  Joshua wore his little West Point onesie that Mom and Ron had given to him for Christmas.  It's really cute with "US Military Academy - West Point" and the three little Army mules on it.  Here a West Point grad holds an unofficial honorary cadet.    

Getting in Some Family Time

It's been a very long two weeks of work for me.  I spent a lot of it traveling, but even a lot of the nights I was home had to be spent working too.  I think I might be done with that project now, or at the least I won't have to work on it over the weekend, so I was able to spend a lot of the evening tonight with Meghan and Joshua for the first time in awhile.  Here I get in some quality playtime with Joshua.

Should We Stay Or Should We Go?

We've been in our house for over 7 years, and although we like it a lot, it does have some flaws.  The lack of space in the kitchen is a frustration to Meghan nearly every time she cooks, the amount of storage is very minimal, and the layout isn't very family-friendly, which is of course a bigger concern now.  Recently we've been considering if it's worth it to move to another house.  We wouldn't leave the KC metro area, though.  We decided we're serious enough about it to interview some realtors and get an assessment of how much we could sell our house for.  Here Meghan poses with three of the five handouts we've gotten so far.

3 Months

Today Joshua turned three months old.  One of his new developments this month was learning to smile.  Here he shows off that skill.  We can't believe how big he is getting.

Boyz in the Hoodz

Since it was really cold today, I wore my favorite warm hoodie to work.  When I got home, I saw that Joshua had chosen to wear (perhaps with a little help from Meghan) his hooded shirt.  Here we are in our respective hoods.

Take this chore and shovel it

 
We got our first big snow of the year today. While it was very pretty as it was softly falling outside of my office window during the day, it was not so pretty as I was removing tons of it from my driveway and sidewalk.  Well, it's sorta pretty in this picture, actually, now that I look at it.  But whatever.  You get my (snow)drift.  (Sorry.)

Undecking the Halls

Today we took down the Christmas tree. I prefer to do it right after New Year's, but Jason has been away and I didn't want to do it alone. Joshua was cranky all day today so he slept while we did it, which was a welcome change from crying.

Ain't No Party Like a 1-Year-Old's Party

Today we took Joshua to Macyn Barton's first birthday party.  Nick and Cassie hosted a great party, and we had a fun time watching Macyn smear cupcake all over her face and learn to play her first piano by sitting on it.

End of a Long Week

Usually I look forward to Friday nights as the end of the week and a time that I can spend with my family.  Tonight, though, my Friday night is being spent at a Chili's Too (the mini version of regular Chili's) in O'Hare airport in Chicago.  Because I had to work five full days here, I'm having to take a late flight home tonight.  I look forward to spending the weekend at home before heading back here on Monday. 

W

I'm in Chicago all this week for work.  Fortunately, I've been able to stay in a nice hotel.  I love the Starwood brands (W, Westin, Aloft, Sheraton, Element, etc.), and I try to stay in their hotels since they are all part of the same network, so I can get Starwood points by staying in any of them.  The W hotels are my favorite, as I really like their upscale and trendy feel, but usually they cost more than I'm comfortable expensing to my company.  This week, however, the nightly rate was very reasonable, so I booked it for all four nights I'm here.  It's not fun to be gone all week, but at least I get to stay in a hotel that I really like.

Big Boys Still Nap

Today was the first day Joshua wore clothes that are sized 3-6 months, which makes sense since he is average sized for his age and he turns 3 months old next week. He is getting so big. I was sad when I was packing his 0-3 month clothes away. Here he is napping in his new big clothes.

Rolling

Tummy Time (Natalie supervises)	Gaining Momentum
Over the Hump	Resting

Today Joshua rolled over for the first time. I am always amazed when he does something new because yesterday he couldn't do it and today he can. He was pretty satisfied with himself. He had been trying to do it for quite awhile and he would always cry out of frustration when he couldn't. Now that he can, he is in a really good mood after tummy time.

A Successful First Day

I'm in Chicago this week doing a Proof of Concept with a coworker for a prospective customer.  Today we had a very difficult task to accomplish which was critical to the success of this POC.  We nailed it, so we're off to a great start for the week.  To celebrate, and to reward us for working on a company holiday, our VP (and his daughter) took us out to eat.

The Cat's in the Cradle

Tonight I did the end-of-year write-up for last year's blog.  Meghan and I chose our Top 5 posts and I did some other awards and stats.  You can find them as the last few posts here.  Meanwhile, even though it's been there for a couple months, it seems Alex just discovered Joshua's Pack 'N Play, as you can see him exploring around in it in the background.

Happy New Year's!

Today we rang in 2011 at the home of our friends, Jason and Callie. We had a great meal and then counted down until midnight. It was fun and a special New Year's with friends and family. Here I am with Joshua shortly after midnight.