Perryn's First Haircut

Gary and I decided to buy a trimmer for a do-it-yourself haircut for the little guy. His hair was getting about 2 inches long from the base to the end. We got the trimmer this past week and we knew we were going to go for 4-month pictures today, so we wanted to do some trimming before that. At the same time we didn't want to do too much for fear it wouldn't turn out, so we ended up just trimming above his ears and a little off the back part that sticks up. Gary was the first to experiment with the trimmer on Sunday. Here's some photos.

Ready, Set, Go:



Dad wields the trimmer:



Mom inspects the job:

Nursery Photos

I just realized the other day that I never posted pictures of the (finally) completed nursery. Here's a couple shots:

Picture of the Day

Chillin' with Daddy

Ready for Bed

Perryn has been moving around more at night so we've taken the blankets out of the crib and started dressing him in sleepers. I think they are so cute...

Fence Project Complete

We finished the fence this weekend. Here's another photo of our work.

Bumbo Seat

Here's Perryn sitting in his Bumbo seat. I should probably remember not to take photos of him with a black background since you can't see his hair. :-)

Video of the day

Video of Perryn at 10 weeks old.

Picture of the Day

No particular story ... just a cute photo.

Picture of the Day

No particular story ... just a cute picture of a sleeping baby.

Special Blanket

Perryn has a great playmat that has provided loads of entertainment batting at the toys hanging down from above. Although he isn't actually rolling over (at least not from back to front), he does manage to push himself around and therefore he keeps ending up off of the playmat. So... this weekend I extended the play surface a little bit by laying this blanket at the bottom of the playmat with some toys on it.

The blanket was made by his Great Aunt Kathy and we really love it. :-)

First Experience - Exersaucer

I put together the Exersaucer that we got for a shower gift from all my co-workers this weekend. This is a photo of Perryn's first experience in it. He's still a little small for it, but it won't be long before it will provide hours of entertainment and he can make full use of the spinning, bouncing seat. A lot of the toys make noise too. He was pretty interested in the one toy right in front of him in this photo. I'm sure it was too overwhelming to take it all in, so he stayed pretty focused on one or two items. I also didn't leave him in there very long since he does have to sit up himself with not much support.

Weekend Project

Making a long story short, while still showing off our handy work...

The fence along both sides of our property was recently replaced from "normal mount, 8-foot, cedar" to "board on board, 8 foot, cedar". We kept all the pieces that were taken down so we decided to make use of them by re-doing the rear property fence and hence covering up the existing standard wood (spruce?) that was there. When finished we'll have board on board, cedar all around the property.

We worked on it this weekend and are well over half done of the total work involved (although only about half of the fence shown is complete). Yes, it was mid-90's while we were having all this fun. Whew, hot! :-)

Picture of the Day

Pool Update

Here's the latest picture of the pool progress. They did the built-in grill on Friday and the arbor on Saturday. The deck is also in progress. It's poured and just needs to be sealed which will make it look shiny.

Off to Daycare

Well, I'm back to work and Perryn has started going to daycare. This is a photo from the first day. It's been and still is an adjustment for all of us. Perryn didn't nap well the first couple days so on day 1 he was cranky all night. On day 2, he fell asleep at 6p and didn't wake up until we woke him up at about 9:30 to feed him and put him to bed. Thankfully he still slept a full night. That happened last night also. The poor little guy is exhausted.

The daycare has cameras so we can watch him during the day. It seems like he's doing fine there. They have a swings, bouncy seats and a big mat in the middle of the floor where he can lay on his tummy. Once he can hold his head up by himself, they also have exersaucers and bumbo seats. He has his own specific crib with a big mirror and a mobile. I was a little disappointed they don't have playmats with the toys hanging overhead because that's pretty much how he spends his awake time at home and he entertains himself for quite awhile on that. However, they do have a couple bouncy seats with the toys overhead and the swings also have mobiles on them, so hopefully he's getting enough entertainment.

So, it seems to be going pretty well. The teachers might seem a bit unorganized, but if that's their only fault, I'll take it. I'm already starting to see which ones are the "good" teachers that you can tell just love babies and which ones might just be more interested in collecting a paycheck. Overall though, I think it's a good, safe place for him to spend his time.

Photo with Special Blanket

This is a photo I snapped of Perryn with the blanket that Memere (Gary's grandmother) made for him. We took it and blew up a print for her for her birthday.

Another Closeup

Here's another closeup. Gary took this one while Perryn was sitting in his lap. I love the facial expression.

Closeup

Here's a photo I took on the changing table that I really liked.

Picture of the Day

This is Perryn learning to sit up on the couch.



And this is Perryn falling over.



I promise, I picked him up as soon as I snapped the picture. :-(

Tummy Time

Picture of the Day

Perryn seems to really enjoy when daddy sings to him and daddy seems to enjoy making up songs to sing. The latest one is "The Diaper Song" which he sings when he changes his diaper. Here's a photo of daddy singing to him on the couch.

Pool Progress

Stonework
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

They finished the stonework on the pool today. Here's a photo of it. We also got an email from them that projects the end of June for completion. I was actually thinking it might be sooner because they seem to be zooming along, but I'll take that. We'll be able to enjoy it for most of the summer. Yay.

Picture of the Day

Rachelle and I have different priorities when it comes to dressing our child. If it were up to me, he'd be wearing a diaper and a t-shirt. Simple and functional, because, let's face it, he's not trying to impress anybody. Rachelle on the other hand delights in playing dress up with him. Every event represents an opportunity to dress him in a cutesy baby outfit. And thanks to the generous support of many loving relatives and friends, she has many from which to choose.

Case in point: We made plans to bring him to his first baseball game. We were both looking forward to it. I was looking forward to getting out of the house for a while, enjoying a warm spring day, and eating a hot dog at the game. She was excited because it meant she could dress him up in his little baseball uniform outfit.




Truthfully, I do get a kick out of watching Rachelle and Perryn together. It warms my heart to see how much she loves that little guy. On the other hand, I hope her penchant for cutesy outfits passes before he reaches his teen years.

Picture of the Day

Sometimes, Perryn likes to spend time in his bouncy seat. The seat comes with two rattle toys that can be mounted on either side of him. We call them "Mr. Bee" and "Mr. Panda." He'll just sit there, transfixed on those toys, reaching out and batting at them every so often.

Occasionally, he manages to swat one of them such that it spins around on its axle, facing away from him. He *really* doesn't like when that happens. He cries and cries until you come over, and turn it back to face him, and then he settles right back down.

I imagine he's thinking something along the lines of "Hey! Don't turn your back to me!"

Here he his engaged in a staring contest with Mr. Panda.

Picture of the Day

I gotta say, sometimes babies sleep in the weirdest of positions.

Picture of the Day

We gave Perryn a bath the other week. Afterwards, we dried him off and combed his hair, as usual. Usually, we just kinda comb his hair down flat, but this time I parted it to the side.



Rachelle wasn't too fond of the look. She gave him a pompadour.

Perryn's First Party

Party
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's a picture of Perryn enjoying a beverage at his first party. It was a pool party we went to on Saturday. He did very well other than one episode when something scared him and he started screaming.

First Baseball Game

First Baseball Game
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

We took Perryn to his first baseball game last night. We have season tickets for the local team and we've been to a few games ourselves, but this was the first one that we took him to.

He did really well... he was sitting in his car seat most of the time sucking on a pacifier. We took him out of the seat around the 7th inning to have a bottle. He was startled a few times by loud cheering or the announcer, but he didn't really cry until the very end of the game.

The people sitting next to us were very nice and took this photo of us. I think the woman really enjoyed watching the baby more than the game - lol.

It's a Start

Pool
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

They started the pool and have been working on it for about a week now. They just gunited on Friday. I can envision what it will look like now. I can't wait to see it progress. They gave us a timeframe of 8-10 weeks so we should be complete sometime in June. Yay!

Smile?

2008 05 12_Perryn
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Perryn was smiling at me like crazy, so I go get the camera and this is the face I get. :-)

I do still think it's incredibly cute, however I haven't been able to capture a smile on camera yet. I guess he'd rather smile at mommy and daddy's face than a big, black, scary looking camera.

Photo Upload

Just a quick note to let you know that I've uploaded a batch of photos to Flickr. These include shots from Perryn's recent visit by his Grandma Cote and Uncle Mike, and from his Pepere Cote.

Here's a link to all the shots that I uploaded in this batch.

Or, you may prefer to browse the photos based on the dates they were taken.

Perryn rides in his Jeep

Yes, Perryn has a Jeep.

More specifically, it's a Jeep-brand baby carrier. You know, one of those contraptions that let you carry your baby around on your front. They're supposed to be all the rage among the less-than-one-year-old crowd. So, I strapped him in the other day, expecting him to enjoy every minute of it.

It didn't go so well. He threw a fit immediately upon insertion.

Maybe being upright was just too much for him. Maybe he's still a little too small for it (you'll note that his face is kind of smooshed up against my chest.) Or maybe he just hadn't settled down after the diaper changing session.

Anyway, not to be discouraged, we tried it out a second time yesterday. He still seemed a little unsure about the whole thing, but he didn't resist too much.

And so the final test came last night when we strapped in for a third time and then took a walk around the neighborhood. He settled in just fine, and napped through most of the walk. So, we judge the baby carrier to be a success. But, yeah, he still needs to grow into it a bit.

Oh ... and there's one more side story to this baby carrier. I came home from work one day several months ago, and Rachelle handed me a present, all wrapped up. I opened it up, and found a baby carrier. That was how she told me she was pregnant.

PoD

Picture of the Day

Perryn playing with toys on his mat.

Picture taken April 20, 2008

Changing table

I'm thinking about putting a new changing table in the nursery.

Perryn

2008 04 04 Perryn
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Well, as I'm sure a lot of you can imagine, I haven't had a moment to update this yet. Here's a photo I just took of our newest addition to the family. He'll be 2 weeks old tomorrow.

We're busy and sleep deprived, of course. Unfortunately breastfeeding wasn't working out very well for us, so I'm pumping breastmilk and feeding it to him in a bottle, but other than that, things are going fine.

The actual labor and delivery went very well. I had absolutely no pain once I got the epidural. I was surprised by that. I had always thought that the epidural just helped with the pain, not eliminated it. Labor prior to the epidural wasn't too bad either. I had my first contraction at 3:30 in the morning. Perryn was born at 6:30pm, so I guess we'd call that 15 hours of labor. I pushed for 2 hr 15 min and we nearly had to use forceps to get him out, but we managed just in the nick of time. I did have a little more bleeding than normal, but it was easily controlled and all was fine.

And that's our news in a nutshell. :-)

Nursery colors

Painting the nursery
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's an additional photo that shows the three colors. Pardon the blue tape that is still up in this photo - obviously it's a work in progress. The darker blue and green will be added to the striped wall as well. It will be a bright room.

Gary paints the nursery

Gary paints the nursery
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's a picture of Gary painting the stripes on the nursery wall. There will actually be three colors when we are done.

8 months pregnant

8 months pregnant
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's my 8 month photo. Everything is still going well with the pregnancy. I have experienced heartburn for the first time in my life, but I guess that's nothing major to complain about.

One of Our Projects

Bedroom Trim
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here is a picture of one of the projects we've been working on. Gary painted the walls two different colors and we're in the process of putting up trim (this wall/corner of the room is done). We left the ceiling as it was.

We had pretty much the same thing in the old house and liked it. Since we have a softside waterbed, we had to do it before we setup the bed which we got done this past weekend. We've been sleeping in the guest room until now. It's very nice to have our bed back!!

Now that's a Balloon Animal!

Balloon Animals
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

What's New

Things are moving so quickly it appears I haven't had time to make an update in a while. So here's what's going on in a nutshell:

HOUSE - We moved the last weekend in January and we're still getting settled and doing lots of projects at the new house. There are still a lot of boxes around because we want to finish some of the projects before unpacking. For example, we're painting and putting up molding in the master bedroom and it will be easier to finish that project before placing furniture and unloading boxes. In the kitchen it will be easier to get the cabinet hardware on before loading cabinets since when we do that it will involve drilling and making sawdust mess.

OLD HOUSE - Gary has been busy painting the exterior and last weekend Roberta and I also helped. I figured with it being outside, it wasn't a problem for me to pitch in. I just stayed off the ladder and left that to them. We need to clean and do some interiror touch up painting and then we'll be ready to put it on the market and hope it sells quickly. :-)

BABY - We are 6 weeks from our due date, so they generally say that baby will arrive in +/- 2 weeks from the due date... which means we will be parents in 4-8 weeks. Yikes! Unfortunately the nursery isn't ready yet, but I figure the baby won't sleep up there right away anyway, so that isn't the end of the world. We have managed to do quite a bit of shopping and we finished our childbirth preparation classes. I also registered at both Target and Babies R Us. Those were 3 hour and 2 hours excursions, respectively. There's so many things to look at and choose! It was fun though.

During all our projects, we managed to squeeze in a little celebration for our anniversary. We went out to dinner at a nice steakhouse in Frisco and it was quite good. We also have tickets to the ballet this coming Saturday night. I figure we do have to take advantage of being sans child while that's still the case. :-)

I think that hits the highlights.

7 months pregnant

7 months pregnant
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's my 7 month photo. Things are still going well with the pregnancy. We've started buying some of the larger items for the nursery now that we've closed on the house. We found a crib and glider, etc. Lots of things to get ready, but it's fun.

Garage Project

Painting
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

We got lucky this past weekend and had excellent weather... which allowed Gary to tackle painting the garage floor. Roberta helped with the trim (had to be done with a brush) and also sprinkling the little flecks on the wet paint. The epoxy paint had quite a strong smell, so I stayed away except for quick peeks from the outside to check progress.

I think it looks pretty good and it's really nice to have it done before we move anything in. Cute paint clothes, huh?

We closed!

We are new home owners as of Friday. Now the fun begins... Gary has been busy sealing grout lines (we have quite a bit of ceramic tile, so that's not a quick project) and yesterday he started painting the nursery. I've been cleaning out construction dust from cabinets and doing shelf liner in the kitchen. There are a lot of cabinets, so that's time consuming also.

We're going to continue with projects for a few weeks and will hopefully move in after a few weeks, depending on how things go. We're painting a few rooms so we'd like to get that done before I move in since I shouldn't really be inhaling paint fumes. It's easier to paint empty rooms anyway, so I think it will work out well. We wanted to paint the garage floor with those cool speckled paint chips, but we're learning that it needs to be warmer for that, so that is going to be a pain. That would definitely be nice to do before anything is moved in there. I think it will need to be around 70 for at least 2 consecutive days in order to do that, so it's possible, but not sure how likely.

We'll be busy for the next few weeks for sure. It's exciting though.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Merry Christmas all! Here's a picture of us from last night.

It was a small event for us this year. My parents arrived in TX the first weekend in December, but unfortunately, they were notified on Monday 12/17 that their house had been broken into over the previous weekend, so they left the next morning. They had to go idenify what was taken for the detectives.

Gary, Roberta and I did our usual Xmas Eve tradition - homemade pizza. Gary and I are going over to Roberta's boyfriend's house for Christmas dinner today. His brother and family will be there also.

6 months pregnant

6 months pregnant
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's a photo of me at 6 months pregnant. I wore the same clothes as the 5 month pic on purpose.

Fireplace Completed

Fireplace Completed
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Here's a photo of the fireplace now that it's complete. The hearth has been added with a flagstone topper on both the hearth and the very top of the fireplace (not sure you can tell). And of course the cardboard has been removed from the mantle, so this is the actual color.

Latest House Update

December 8th
Originally uploaded by rkbk03

Things are really moving along now. The appliances are in and they were carpeting this weekend. We're expecting to close the last week of December.