the promised job info (+ some daycare stuff)

So. Joey has officially accepted a position with IUPUI in Indianapolis. Yay for new jobs! I'll take a minute to be mushy and say that I couldn't be more proud of my awesome husband, considering not only what an incredible researcher he is, but also that he managed to survive the process of job searching in academia. This is not an easy task, people, and he did his best to not only keep himself sane, but me as well. He'll be starting this fall (Sept. 1, I believe), and I'll be following him down to Indy shortly after--probably the beginning of October.

First, a word about this job search: if I could keep anyone from ever having to interview for academic jobs within a month or two of having a new baby come home I absolutely would. My only savior was that my entire family lives in A2 with me, and my mom and sister graciously split their time so that I literally did not have to spend a single night alone in my house. Joey was overly exhausted from research, travel, and the baby for an entire month +, and I was exhausted from...well...being a new mom alone. Joey was a rock star, and managed to land a sweet job during what we all know is a pretty terrible economic time.

I've told my manager and director about this move, and am resigned to the fact that I will not be able to keep my job when I leave A2. This is sad, but hey, also a part of life. We've received some wonderful help in shopping my resume around, and fingers crossed I'll find something before too long. Our lives are a little crazy right now, with getting ready to list our house (next week!), researching apts in Indianapolis, looking for a new car (since we can't very well live apart for a month with only one), me going back to work (temporarily), and taking care of our little man.

Speaking of which, he's been doing fabulously at daycare. I've had an easier transition than I expected, and they love him at Tutor Time. He's been taking bottles like a champ, and since the folks at daycare are cool with cloth diapers he hasn't had to adjust in that area at all. He's napping in his crib there, and has shown no indications while at home that much has changed. He's still a happy little dude.

Whew! Apologies for such a long post--I'm adding a photo at the end just for good measure. Now everyone's caught up :)

4 months...and some other stuff

Our little guy is 4 months already, and we took some good shots of him in a cute pirate onesie from Josh and Shelley (thanks, guys!). Hard to believe that he's more than halfway to the half-year mark. His teething is still in full swing, drool and all (they say that teeth tend to first show between 4 and 6 months, so I guess we're on tooth watch now). He was sleeping great for a little while, and then in the last week or two has decided to revert back to waking us up just about hourly--ugh :( He doesn't seem to need to eat every time he gets up, though, so we try to just soothe him back to sleep with some rocking or a pacifier. Here's hoping that doesn't last forever (cue all experienced parents laughing at that remark).

The other 'stuff' mentioned in the title post is that Joey has accepted a job! This is both super exciting and super stressful for us, and this past weekend has been a mad dash of getting things done--we've discovered that this has been significantly more difficult with a little bean around. I'm holding off on posting anything online about his job until I get back to work and have the chance to speak to my manager about it since it definitely affects my job as well. I promise more info soon, though, as well as updates about how our first week of work and daycare goes. This week is a big one: 4 month doc's appt and vaccinations on Monday, back to work in the mornings T-F with Oscar in daycare those mornings. Then the following week I'm back to work full time. Wish us luck!

Adventures in Daycare and Teething...

Sounds like fun, right? Not so much... Yes, 3 months is early for teething, but Joey and I think that he's probably going through some type of 'pre-teething.' He won't be cutting teeth anytime too soon, but my dad put it best when he said that Oscar might have 'itchy gums.' He's been fussier than usual lately, but we've been trying out Hyland's Teething Tablets (yes, hippie homeopathic drugs) and honestly they seem to make a difference. He's also become quite the drool-master. It's actually kind of gross, but I guess that's what being a baby is all about.

Now what to say about daycare...? I'm heading back to work in mid-July (yikes!) and realized that it was really time we figured out that whole daycare thing. I'm kind of freaked out about it and anticipating having some trouble when I have to leave him all day in the care of someone else, but also looking forward to getting back into a different daily routine. We looked at a number of different places, and fell in love with a home-based daycare called Country Peas (cute, right?). It's one of the VERY few accredited home-based daycares, has a fantastic teacher to kid ratio (1:2.5) and the woman who runs it is awesome. Sadly, it's out off of Ford Rd. and a bit too far from our house :( So we checked out a center called Tutor Time, and ended up liking it way more than we thought we would. They have a better ratio than most centers we saw, affordable (which is relative when speaking about childcare, since nothing is really truly affordable), and we also like their teaching philosophy. We visited, weighed our options, and put a deposit down on Tutor Time. It's much closer to both our house and my parents' houses. Now I just have to work on the idea of not being home with him all the time.

I don't really have photos or videos to go with the title topics, but I do have some fun videos that were taken in the last month: one of Joey conversing with Oscar first thing in the morning (Oscar has become quite vocal and it's super cute); and another of Oscar dancing to a video of the Safety Dance that came on VH1 Classic :) Enjoy.

3 months!!

I've said it before (many times), but man time flies. Sorry it took so long to post these...the little man has been awake a lot during the day and a little cranky to boot, so getting them edited has taken longer than expected. I finally got a few through super-fast and dirty post-processing (so not as good as they could be, but better than the originals). I'm posting them here so that everyone can bask in the glory of my gorgeous son :) He's been 'talking' more and making all sorts of cool noises. I've got some cute videos, too, so I'll try to get those up here before too long. Here's praying for some good naps during which I can be a little productive...

We Survived the Road Trip!

I guess that title says it all... We actually had a really great time and are happy to say that the trip was a total success. Oscar slept most of the way there and back, and despite our expectations for a really long car trip it only took the amount of time that Google Maps said it would (appx. 12 hrs). The little guy only got fussy in the car seat when he was hungry or wet, and otherwise was great. He spent a good hour or two crying that first evening when we got to the hotel, I'm guessing from just being sick of traveling, but then he slept fabulously that night and the rest of the nights we were there.

We introduced Oscar to the other wedding guests at a luncheon at my friend Logan's parent's plantation (AMAZING property, gorgeous house and grounds, and also the location for the wedding). Everyone absolutely loved him and were all gushing about how good he was being and how adorable he was. For the rest of the weekend whenever we ran into any other guests they'd ask 'where's Oscar?!'

We also attended the rehearsal dinner at the Ware River Yacht Club (delicious buffet dinner under a beautiful tent next to the club), got to hang out with my grad school friends before the wedding, and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful ceremony and tented reception on the plantation lawn. My mom had a good time riding her bike all over the place during the days, hung out by the hotel pool, and babysat Oscar Fri. and Sat. nights. She said he did really well, and we were super grateful that she was willing to come down with us to watch him. Overall we enjoyed our time together and are happy that Oscar appears to be a great traveler :)

Now Joey's off to another interview--this one at Dartmouth--so it's just the little man and I. Molly and Mom are coming over for the nights he's gone (I'm so lucky to have them here!), and we're all looking forward to Joey being done with these interviews. Below you'll see a couple of photos from our trip: Oscar in his carseat on the way down, babyville (aka our hotel room), and Oscar and mommy hanging out before leaving for the luncheon.

Snoozy McGrabhands

We've been trying to take more videos of Oscar as he's getting more active. Two of my recent favorites are shared here: our little guy snoring fast asleep on my lap on the couch, as we sit next to our crazy dog who has managed to fall asleep with her legs in the air, and another of one of his more recent accomplishments--grabbing and holding a rattle (with a little help from us).

Other than hanging out with the little man and trying to keep him occupied during his waking hours, we've been dealing with the recent heat wave...not so fun without central air, sitting in limbo waiting to hear from the schools Joey has interviewed at, and are currently getting ready for our first big road trip. We're headed to Ware Neck VA (near Gloucester) for a wedding this weekend. In order to attend the day-before activities--luncheon, rehearsal dinner--we're driving down EARLY tomorrow morning and planning on a 12+ hour drive. We're going with my mom (and taking her car since it's larger) so that she can watch Oscar during the rehearsal dinner and wedding. He'll come with us to the luncheon so that we can introduce him around. His packing list is enormous and we're both excited and apprehensive for our first trip out of town with him. I'm sure I'll have lots of photos and stories when we get back on Sun, but for now I'm buried under tons of laundry that I should probably get to...

Still alive and kicking...

Clearly I won't be pursuing a career as a 'professional' blogger anytime soon...sorry about the delay in updates. I need to get better at this whole remembering to post thing.

Our little man has been busy growing--at his 2 month doc's appt he was 13lbs 9oz! He also got his first set of vaccinations...not a pleasant experience for either of us. He's been smiling a lot more, now in response to us smiling which is really cute. He's super happy first thing in the morning, so one of these days I need to have the video camera ready to capture that cuteness. His sleeping is pretty varied. Some nights he goes for around 3 hour stretches (which is wonderful for him, he's not one of those kids that can go 4-5 hours yet). Other nights he gets fussy and will go for a 2-3 hour stretch once and then wants to wake up just about every hour after that. I'm assuming it has to do with a lot of things--growing (and being hungry more often during those times), development, etc. Doesn't make it easier, but we're getting the hang of night waking and soothing.

He currently has a bedtime of around 10:30pm or so, since we all go to bed at the same time in the same room. We're thinking about beginning to try putting him down ahead of us and gradually moving his bedtime back to an earlier hour. We have a video monitor so that we can keep an eye on him from downstairs. We tried this at around 9pm recently, and while he did wake and require soothing twice before we finally went to bed, it seemed to work OK (and I'm assuming will get easier as he gets used to going to bed without us in the room). We also need to come up with a good bedtime routine as he gets older. It's strange to think about my own childhood bedtime routine and how concretely I can remember it. Joey and I essentially get to choose how he'll remember this time, which seems odd but also cool. I'm sure a part of this will be a bath, since he LOVES it. I'm throwing some photos from a recent bathtime here, showing Joey holding a naked Oscar right before going into the tub. Seriously cute stuff, people.

Other than all of that we're just trying our best to survive Joey's interviews and also trying not to think about/stress over all of the stuff that will go along with him getting a job (such as moving). Oscar is doing some other sweet stuff now--discovering his hands and doing a lot more grabbing, holding his head up really well, looking around constantly and examining his surroundings, etc. I'm really loving getting to see every little development...so cool!