Dewmocracy

Mountain Dew is having a promotion where they are testing out two new flavors of Diet Mountain Dew by letting the public try both flavors and vote online for our favorite.  The one with the most votes will become a new permanent part of their lineup.  As a fan of the regular Diet Mountain Dew, I wanted to take part, so I tried both Supernova (strawberry melon) and Voltage (raspberry citrus).  I liked Voltage quite a bit better, so I voted for it online.  The winner will be announced on April 5th.  Let's hope Voltage prevails.

Bowing to Wall Street's Demands

Because I work for a publically-traded company, the end of each financial quarter is a very big deal for us.  And because I work in Sales, it affects me personally.  My job isn't specifically to close the deals, so I'm not as stressed as some, but there is always a flurry of activity over the last couple days of the quarter which involves me to some degree.  Today is the second-to-the-last day of the quarter, and it's past 11:00 at night, and I'm still here at the office.  Hopefully we can close some deals, which will certainly make up for having to be here.  

Fun with New Toys

Today we had a meeting with our Parents as Teachers lady. While she was here giving me information about developmentally appropriate activities she let Joshua play with some soft blocks she brought. He really enjoyed swinging them around, chewing on them, and knocking over towers. We have very similar blocks, but last time I tried them he wasn't ready for them, so now I will get them out so he can play with them.

Avocados: Yuck!

Joshua finally was getting the hang of sweet potatoes by the end of the week, but today we introduced avocados and he was not initially impressed.

Draftin'

Although I like playing fantasy football more, because I'm better at it, I enjoy my fantasy baseball draft more, because it's in the spring and brings the promise of better weather and the hope that this fantasy baseball season will be the one that brings me the league title.  This year's draft was today, so here I am drafting with the help of my Chief Research Officer.

Date Night

Tonight we left Joshua with Peg, Ron, and Joanna and went out to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, Los Cabos. We also went shopping and went out for dessert. We can do most of those things with Joshua as well, and we do, but there is something really nice about occasionally having a meal where we have to care only about ourselves. We had a really nice time.

Now I can finally say I'm allergic to something

I have been taking an antibiotic for the last week or so as a result of the cyst I had. Apparently I developed an allergic reaction to it, as I had severe chills last night, and I woke up this morning feeling awful with my face swollen and with a rash on my arms, torso, and legs as well as having a fever and being extremely dehydrated. I went to the doctor, and they did some bloodwork and confirmed it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic and not something more serious. They prescribed me an antihistamine and some steroids, so I should be better soon.

Pain Rain

I was in Chicago this week for work, and it was bitterly cold there. Maybe not bitterly cold for winter, but definitely bitterly cold for March. I was assuming the weather would be better in KC when I got home tonight, and it was, sort of. It wasn't in the 20s like in Chicago but instead was in the upper 30s. However, it wasn't warm enough to avoid wintry precipitation, as I was pelted by sleet or some form of painful rain on my way to the car. Here I am as this evil rain tries not only to injure me but also to ruin my picture.

Crib Time

Ever since Joshua learned to roll over from back to front, he has gone to sleep on his own much better than he used to. We think it's because he is more comfortable on his stomach and now he can get into that position. We hope to transition him fully to sleeping in his crib in the next month or so. For now we are starting with naps mostly because that's all I can handle. It's going okay. It takes him way longer to fall asleep in his crib, but he will eventually so I consider that good overall.

Flying?

So this winter our house was definitely way too dirty. I really let it go for awhile. But now things are back on track and I am back to my FlyLady-inspired cleaning routines. This is me doing a "zone clean" of our entry way. I don't really use a lot of her specifics because we are apparently very different people (Seriously a lot of her steps involve dusting knick-knacks. Thankfully we have very few.), but I find the organization ideas helpful. And the fact that she calls herself the FlyLady reminds me of my high school business law and typing teacher who would say, "And in a minute here I am going to cut you loose and we are going to fly around the room" which basically meant that she was going to stop talking and we were going to do our work. But it still makes me laugh to think of that expression.

Sweet Potatoes

Today we tried sweet potatoes for the first time and, as you can see, Joshua was not terribly impressed. He seemed to hate it more with each bite really. We are going to try a few more times, but if he continues to hate them, we might wait another few weeks before trying anything else.

Strollin'

The weather was amazing today, which was a nice respite from a long winter of cold and drearyness.  I had been wanting to get outside, so I decided it would be a good day to take Joshua for a walk in his stroller.  We walked quite a ways, and he seemed to really enjoy it. 

Getting Her Fix

Joanna is on Spring Break starting this weekend, so she was able to take advantage of her break from school by coming to our house to stay with us for a couple days. She had been going through some serious Joshua-withdrawal, so she was able to address that void in her life. Here she is with Joshua as he appears to be doing a dance move.

March Madness

In our family, we really enjoy watching the NCAA basketball tournament and most years we fill out brackets and compete with each other. So it's only natural that now Joshua is a part of this. Here you can see him in his basketball shirt after we watched a game today. His serious expression may be due to the fact that his bracket is currently losing in our family's competition.

Purple and Green

Today is a big day, as it's St. Patrick's Day and K-State's first game in the NCAA tournament. I always wear purple for big K-State games, and I always wear green on St. Patrick's Day, so I had to find a way to wear both. I went with a K-State shirt and a string of green beads. Here's our family picture with a mix of purple and greens in our wardrobes.

Restaurant Redemption

Jeremy, Nathan, and I met up at D'Bronx for dinner tonight. We went there last year, and it wasn't all that great. But tonight I thought it was quite good. Since you pick your own ingredients for the pizza, I can really only blame myself for last time. With this improved experience, it'll probably find its way into our rotation a little more often.

Ridley Scott Would Be Proud

I normally wouldn't post something like this, because we're not actually trying to repulse people, but I'll make an exception this time.  So I apparently have a sebaceous cyst, which is a gross name, and the cyst itself is also pretty gross.  You can't really get a feel for the depth of it from this picture, but it sticks out almost a full inch from my body.  Disgusting, right?  Yes.  That is, unless you start thinking of it less as a subdermal sac of disgusting pus-like fluid and more like an alien trying to emerge from your stomach.  Then it becomes fun.  Will the alien come out?  What will it look like?  Will it be able to talk?  Will it be just like the movie?  See, not so bad now, is it?

When Sensitive is not Sensitive

When Joshua was colicky during the early weeks of his life, we switched to the most sensitive type of formula that Similac offers, Similac Alimentum.  At the time, there was a price war going on between a couple vendors, and we were able to get it for about the same price as Similar Sensitive (which is actually less sensitive than Alimentum).  He's not colicky anymore, but we've stayed on Alimentum because things have gone well, and it was just as cheap.

But recently the price of Alimentum went way up (back to the original expensive price), so we decided to see if we could step down to Sensitive. We switched a few days ago. The last two days Joshua has been extra fussy and generally very irritable and cries a lot. He often ends up looking like he does in this picture. We're not sure if it's related to not using Alimentum anymore or not. Perhaps it just coincided with him not feeling well. But if this keeps up for another day or two, we're going to bite the bullet and switch back to Alimentum, even at the higher cost.

Here Goes Nothing

We have decided to try solids with Joshua this week. We are starting with sweet potatoes. I am not sure how that will go. I guess we'll see. Today, in preparation for that, I made my first ever batch of baby food. What most people do is freeze it in ice cube trays and then thaw one cube at a time, since at first a baby can only eat a tablespoon or so. This prevents waste since food doesn't last long in the fridge. Here I am right before putting the sweet potatoes in the freezer.

5 Months

Today Joshua turned 5 months old. Unfortunately I could not get him to smile this time. He just learned to roll and therefore was quite irritated that I was taking him away from fun times rolling around on the floor to take a picture. And then he wanted to eat the bear and I didn't let him. Life is very hard when you are a baby.

Varying Degrees of Moving Success

Joshua is starting to become more mobile. Sort of. He's recently learned how to roll both from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy. That means he can get places he needs to go, but only if they are to his side. He wants to be able to go forward, but he can't figure out how to do it. Right now he stays on his tummy and he moves his little arms and legs as fast as he can (see the blurs in the picture on the right), but he doesn't seem to know why that's not good enough to allow him to move forward. He'll figure it out, but we're not necessarily hoping it happens any time soon.

Rough Day at the Sprint Center

Tony had an extra ticket to the Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center, and he offered it to me.  I was able to find a way to clear out my afternoon schedule, so I was able to head downtown to see two of the games: KU's and K-State's.  Unfortunately, exactly the opposite happened from what I wanted, as KU won their game and K-State lost theirs, which put us both in a bad mood.  Here Tony and I force fake smiles in front of the Sprint Center after the games.

In Da Club

 

My flight home from Milwaukee tonight leaves very late, so I have about four hours here in the Milwaukee airport.  Fortunately my status with Frontier Airlines and my ticket allows me access to the Best Care Club in the airport.  It's a separate area where they have comfortable workstations, areas to relax, TVs, snacks and drinks, etc.  So instead of spending that time out in the regular airport area, I can spend it in here.  I have plenty of work to do, so I'm able to use that time to be productive in a comfortable environment.

A Quiet Mardi Gras

Today was not the most wild Mardi Gras ever. Jason is out of town so it was just me and Joshua. I ate gumbo to celebrate, but that's about it. Joshua had a frustrating time because he can almost scooch along on his tummy, but not quite. He can almost sit for awhile, but not quite. And he can almost roll from his back to his tummy but not quite. So he gets really frustrated when he tries to do all those things but can't. Here he is with some Mardi Gras beads to celebrate the day.

Handmade

Yesterday our friends the Becks came over to meet Joshua and give him a gift. I forgot to get a picture, but we also decided that Angie would watch Joshua once a week or so for 3-4 hours so I can have some time alone in the house, which is what I miss most about my old life. It's really convenient because I met them when I carpooled with Darren and the reason we carpooled is we live very close to each other. Here they are while watching Joshua for the first time with the beautiful sweater Angie knitted for him.

The Consequences of Not Moving

We have decided we are definitely not moving anytime in the near future so we are working to use our space in a more efficient manner. This is a lot of work right now, but we think it will be worth it. Here Jason works on organizing the garage.

Technologically Advanced Baby

My grandparents were traveling through the area, so they stopped by to see us. First we had a delicious meal at Jack Stack, and then we came back to our house to hang out for a bit. Grandpa brought his iPad with him. Knowing he was going to be seeing Joshua, Grandpa downloaded an app called The Late Night Book, which was developed by a man from their home town of Cedar Falls, IA. The app is designed for babies and small children. Joshua was very interested in it, and he even interacted with some of the animations. Here he does his best to try to figure out how to make it work.

Something about two horn blasts means evacuate, or something

Today I went to visit one of our customers, Ford. Normally I visit them at their nice headquarters in Detroit, but this visit was to a team that works out of one of their plants just outside of Chicago. Unlike most of our visits, this was as blue-collar as it gets, so it had a completely different vibe. Before entering the facility, I was required to watch a five minute safety video, so here I am meeting that requirement.

Notre Dame

Today my sales rep and I had a meeting at Notre Dame.  We had some time in the afternoon before we had to leave town, so we toured the campus.  We got to see the main sights, including the Main Building with the famed golden dome, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, the football stadium (from the outside), and even Touchdown Jesus.  Here I am in front of the altar inside the Basilica.

Presenting

This week I'm traveling for work doing some presentations.  When I was in high school or even in college, I could never imagine being comfortable presenting and speaking in front of a large audience, but at this point I have no qualms about it at all and am never nervous about it.  Since I have to do it for my job, I guess it's a good thing that I was able to learn to be comfortable with it.

Lunch with Donna

Today we met Donna and Lexi out for lunch. It was nice to catch up and see how much Lexi has grown.