Not sure what prompted me to do it, maybe I just wanted something shiny and new... Either way, this blog has scooted over to a new URL and platform: ShotwellWallace.Wordpress.com
I'm not quite tech savvy enough at this point to create any automatic redirects (anyone want to tell me how to do that?), so please bookmark, follow, add to your Google Reader, or at the very least take note of the new site.
Thanks!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Uncles!
Oscar got a visit from two of his uncles this weekend--Joey's older brothers Jeremy and Jason. Consequently he also had his first trip to Mongolian BBQ, enjoyed lots of uncle snuggles, and got to be the subject of some healthy debate about whether his eyes are from the Wallace or Shotwell side :) Oh, and we finally put him in his (still a little too large, but totally adorable) Colts jersey. Behold, the Wallace brothers (Jeremy in gray, Jason in stripes) and the two best looking Manning fans I know:
8 month photo 1 week late
Getting these shots is much easier with my fabulous photo assistant (aka my husband) by my side to elicit the best smiles. Also a big thanks to my mom for knitting the cutest little sweater ever! (Not pictured: the adorable matching blue hat she also knit for him, but trust me, it's adorable)
Friday, November 12, 2010
Flash(waaaay)back Friday
And for today's flashback we're heading to March of this year. It doesn't seem so far back when you think about it in terms of real time, but when I look at these photos of me almost 39 weeks pregnant it seems like a lifetime ago. Our little guy was born soon after these were taken, at exactly 39 weeks.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Mother Madness
Don't mean to get all 'intellectual article' today (made even more irritating, I'm sure, by a lack of Oscar photo), but I discovered a really interesting read that I wanted to share. It's basically about mothering, today's expectations, attachment parenting, and presents a strong opinion about it all by Erica Jong.
A couple of my own quick thoughts, then the link:
1. While I have personally chosen to nurse, use cloth diapers, and make most of our own baby food, I also relish the fact that I had the choice to do so. These were mainly monetary choices, as we found them cheaper options than the alternative in the long run. We're not all or nothing, though, and feel totally fine using disposables at night sometimes or while traveling. We also feel fine about store-bought baby food, esp. when it's more convenient.
2. I love the idea of attachment parenting, and understand the philosophy behind it, but also agree with Ms. Jong about much of the inconveniences associated with it and the expectations of the modern woman. Yes, I love wearing my baby, no, I do not wear him all the time (and do love our bouncy seats and jumparoo!). I've enjoyed co-sleeping, but this will change soon due to my son's own sleep habits, and he does have a schedule during the day. I think it's sort of a 'take what you want from each parenting philosophy and make it your own' type of arrangement, and it works for us.
Go ahead, have a read and see what you think: Mother Madness
A couple of my own quick thoughts, then the link:
1. While I have personally chosen to nurse, use cloth diapers, and make most of our own baby food, I also relish the fact that I had the choice to do so. These were mainly monetary choices, as we found them cheaper options than the alternative in the long run. We're not all or nothing, though, and feel totally fine using disposables at night sometimes or while traveling. We also feel fine about store-bought baby food, esp. when it's more convenient.
2. I love the idea of attachment parenting, and understand the philosophy behind it, but also agree with Ms. Jong about much of the inconveniences associated with it and the expectations of the modern woman. Yes, I love wearing my baby, no, I do not wear him all the time (and do love our bouncy seats and jumparoo!). I've enjoyed co-sleeping, but this will change soon due to my son's own sleep habits, and he does have a schedule during the day. I think it's sort of a 'take what you want from each parenting philosophy and make it your own' type of arrangement, and it works for us.
Go ahead, have a read and see what you think: Mother Madness
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Update + 8 Months Old!!!
Firstly: Happy (1 day belated) 8 months to my little man!!! (Haven't taken the 8 mo. photo yet...that will follow as soon as I can get my sh** together)
Secondly: Happy birthday to Emily, a new friend I've recetly met in Indy, and who I'm looking forward to getting to know better!
This morning I said goodbye to my mom, who arrived on Sunday--the day Joey left for his conference--to visit with Oscar and help a bit while I'm on my own. I wasn't prepared for how hard that would be. Who would have guessed that saying goodbye to one's mom would actually get harder the older you get? We had a great visit, Oscar and Lucy both thoroughly enjoyed her company, and thanks to her my home is cleaner, laundry is done, and I actually have some food to eat this week. Sadly, I also woke up feeling kind of awful today...here's hoping it's just exhaustion and will go away with a little bit of rest. Not good, though, when paired with saying goodbye and facing another 3 days before Joey comes home.
The sleep experiment continued...sort of. I slept on the couch the last couple of nights until Oscar woke up. He didn't sleep as long as that first night, but his nights have been a bit better than previously, so that's good. He's also been making sure I'm on my toes by puking in my bed two mornings ago, then puking during breakfast this morning. He seemed totally fine right afterwards and was happy all day, so I don't think it's an actual illness (fingers crossed), but it wasn't fun. We've also had some blowout poos and fussiness, all of which I'm hoping magically go away for the remainder of this week (HA!).
Because I've had too many posts without pictures recently, I'm tacking a few on here. Not that they have anything to do with anything specific, but enjoy :)
Secondly: Happy birthday to Emily, a new friend I've recetly met in Indy, and who I'm looking forward to getting to know better!
This morning I said goodbye to my mom, who arrived on Sunday--the day Joey left for his conference--to visit with Oscar and help a bit while I'm on my own. I wasn't prepared for how hard that would be. Who would have guessed that saying goodbye to one's mom would actually get harder the older you get? We had a great visit, Oscar and Lucy both thoroughly enjoyed her company, and thanks to her my home is cleaner, laundry is done, and I actually have some food to eat this week. Sadly, I also woke up feeling kind of awful today...here's hoping it's just exhaustion and will go away with a little bit of rest. Not good, though, when paired with saying goodbye and facing another 3 days before Joey comes home.
The sleep experiment continued...sort of. I slept on the couch the last couple of nights until Oscar woke up. He didn't sleep as long as that first night, but his nights have been a bit better than previously, so that's good. He's also been making sure I'm on my toes by puking in my bed two mornings ago, then puking during breakfast this morning. He seemed totally fine right afterwards and was happy all day, so I don't think it's an actual illness (fingers crossed), but it wasn't fun. We've also had some blowout poos and fussiness, all of which I'm hoping magically go away for the remainder of this week (HA!).
Because I've had too many posts without pictures recently, I'm tacking a few on here. Not that they have anything to do with anything specific, but enjoy :)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
this is what desperation looks like...
2 full grown adults having a slumber party on the hard living room floor--complete with pillows borrowed from the bedroom and blankets underneath and on top--with a deliciously comfy king-sized bed sitting empty in the room next door. let's not forget the video monitor glowing brightly and the baby resting in the cosleeper next to aforementioned king bed.
This was my crazy experiment, thought of at the last minute while watching TV before bed last night. Having tried just about everything else, I figured that it might be worthwhile to see how long Oscar could sleep if we just never entered the room. The result? Our little dude lasted until about 3am or so (regular time, before we set the clocks back). Then woke up to eat, slept more, and woke up to eat again once before waking up at about 5 or 5:30 (gotta love daylight saving time).
Success! Sort of... With this evidence in hand I'm going to continue the experiment with Joey out of town--he left for a conference today and will be back Friday--and try sleeping on the couch tonight until our man wakes up. If he continues to sleep well without anyone in the room we get to begin the process of officially transitioning him to his crib. Which will be infinitely more difficult for his co-sleeping-loving mom than for him. Stay tuned for more from our sleep adventures :)
This was my crazy experiment, thought of at the last minute while watching TV before bed last night. Having tried just about everything else, I figured that it might be worthwhile to see how long Oscar could sleep if we just never entered the room. The result? Our little dude lasted until about 3am or so (regular time, before we set the clocks back). Then woke up to eat, slept more, and woke up to eat again once before waking up at about 5 or 5:30 (gotta love daylight saving time).
Success! Sort of... With this evidence in hand I'm going to continue the experiment with Joey out of town--he left for a conference today and will be back Friday--and try sleeping on the couch tonight until our man wakes up. If he continues to sleep well without anyone in the room we get to begin the process of officially transitioning him to his crib. Which will be infinitely more difficult for his co-sleeping-loving mom than for him. Stay tuned for more from our sleep adventures :)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
sleep? what's that??
A lot has been going on around here, and it's a busy week already. As you can probably guess from the title of this post, Oscar has chosen this very busy week to not sleep AT ALL. Yup, fun stuff. A bit about what we're up to:
1. I started work this week. (I mentioned a bit about my new position in this post.) I'm a little stressed out since this involves a whole new skill set within the online marketing world, and it's been a while since I've felt like a fish out of water. It's additionally stressful figuring out how to effectively and efficiently work from home without a dedicated workspace, and with an infant around 2 days/wk.
2. Oscar started daycare this week. Even though we've done the daycare thing before, starting up again after being home together for a month is a little difficult...
3. Joey got to go on a fancy dinner date on Mon. with a visitor/speaker at IUPUI (who happens to be a dude, so I wasn't too jealous)
4. We're doing our first round of house visits tonight--I'm super psyched since looking at houses may be one of my most favorite things ever. I'll have to update about how the house search is going later.
5. Lots of Lucy appts: daycamp, vet, grooming
6. There's also the matter of Oscar's twice-weekly swim classes, which we've decided to skip this week in order to give everyone a break due to what I can only refer to as...
SLEEPOCALYPSE. As in, the end of sleep as we know it. Now, many folks already know that our little man has never been the best of sleepers. We've chosen to cosleep with him in our room, and with all of the transitions that happened in his early months we also chose not to move forward with sleep training, cry it out, and didn't even really attempt to do much night-weaning. So I tried my best to refrain from bitching about sleep since I figured that once we put some effort into changing his habits we could get things squared away. HA.
We bought the 'No Cry Sleep Solution' book and started in on some of the suggested solutions. We couldn't even stick with it as long as it said you should, because before we got to the 2nd set of sleep logs Oscar started waking up more and more frequently until a couple of nights ago when he woke up when we came to bed, and then didn't to go sleep until, oh, about 5am. We abandoned the various sleep techniques in favor of 'whatever works' so that we can semi-function during the day until we can have a chat with his pediatrician to rule out medical issues (such as food allergies, reflux, etc.). This type of non-sleep has continued the past two nights. Our ped appt. is Friday afternoon. Wish us luck...
1. I started work this week. (I mentioned a bit about my new position in this post.) I'm a little stressed out since this involves a whole new skill set within the online marketing world, and it's been a while since I've felt like a fish out of water. It's additionally stressful figuring out how to effectively and efficiently work from home without a dedicated workspace, and with an infant around 2 days/wk.
2. Oscar started daycare this week. Even though we've done the daycare thing before, starting up again after being home together for a month is a little difficult...
3. Joey got to go on a fancy dinner date on Mon. with a visitor/speaker at IUPUI (who happens to be a dude, so I wasn't too jealous)
4. We're doing our first round of house visits tonight--I'm super psyched since looking at houses may be one of my most favorite things ever. I'll have to update about how the house search is going later.
5. Lots of Lucy appts: daycamp, vet, grooming
6. There's also the matter of Oscar's twice-weekly swim classes, which we've decided to skip this week in order to give everyone a break due to what I can only refer to as...
SLEEPOCALYPSE. As in, the end of sleep as we know it. Now, many folks already know that our little man has never been the best of sleepers. We've chosen to cosleep with him in our room, and with all of the transitions that happened in his early months we also chose not to move forward with sleep training, cry it out, and didn't even really attempt to do much night-weaning. So I tried my best to refrain from bitching about sleep since I figured that once we put some effort into changing his habits we could get things squared away. HA.
We bought the 'No Cry Sleep Solution' book and started in on some of the suggested solutions. We couldn't even stick with it as long as it said you should, because before we got to the 2nd set of sleep logs Oscar started waking up more and more frequently until a couple of nights ago when he woke up when we came to bed, and then didn't to go sleep until, oh, about 5am. We abandoned the various sleep techniques in favor of 'whatever works' so that we can semi-function during the day until we can have a chat with his pediatrician to rule out medical issues (such as food allergies, reflux, etc.). This type of non-sleep has continued the past two nights. Our ped appt. is Friday afternoon. Wish us luck...
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween!!!
Despite not really having anywhere to go this year, and a kid who's a bit too young to appreciate trick-or-treating, Joey and I dressed Oscar up for the occasion anyways. Meet our little Halloween narwhal. Not sure what a narwhal is? I can assure you that yes, they do exist, and you should check out this Google image search and this informative and educational video. Enjoy and hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
the wedding went swimmingly...
As the title suggests, our trip to the north Georgia mountains (the town of Dahlonega, to be exact) went well. While the drive wasn't so fun mainly due to the length--10 hours--once we were there we had a great time. Oscar wowed everyone with his exceptionally sunny disposition, we saw some beautiful mountain landscapes, and our friends Jeremy and Jenny are now husband and wife after a lovely ceremony and reception. My favorite new Oscar nickname following this past weekend? Oscar the Anti-Grouch :) Sadly I don't have any photos to share, mainly because with Joey actually standing up in the wedding my hands were full with our little man most of the evening. You'll just have to take my word about the picturesque backdrop and Oscar's ADORABLE wedding outfit.
I do, however, finally have photos to share from swim class. Oscar's still loving the water, and since Joey came yesterday he was able to get some shots. I'll have to apologize for the quality, though. While Joey takes great pictures, he was a bit far away in the stands and I had to do some cropping in order to ensure that I wasn't posting photos of other people and their babies on the internet. Online photo courtesy...
Enjoy!
I do, however, finally have photos to share from swim class. Oscar's still loving the water, and since Joey came yesterday he was able to get some shots. I'll have to apologize for the quality, though. While Joey takes great pictures, he was a bit far away in the stands and I had to do some cropping in order to ensure that I wasn't posting photos of other people and their babies on the internet. Online photo courtesy...
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
thank you, internets
Apparently whining to the internet is much like making a doc's appt: as soon as you do, everything starts to clear up. Joey's feeling much better today, despite the open sores now on his tonsils (gross!). He's healing, the fever's gone, and we're set to head to ATL this weekend. Now that my husband isn't miserable and I'm not worried about him 24/7 things are sooo much better :)
Quickly (since it's almost Oscar's nap time) a few other updates:
- 1st swim class a success! Oscar was absolutely adorable in his way-too-big 12 month clearance swim trunks, enjoyed the water a ton, and we can't wait until the next class. Joey will come next time to take photos so that I can post some.
- I'm super excited for my family to come in the next few weeks: my sister for Halloween weekend, my mom on Nov. 7th, then Joey's brothers come the weekend after that.
- I accepted a job with a small SEM (search engine marketing) firm called EverEffect here in Indy. They don't have an office currently, so I get to work from home meaning that (I hope) I can spend more time with Oscar and get away with just part-time childcare for him.
- We have an appt. with a daycare today, so fingers crossed we like it--if so we'll have everything squared away before leaving town!
Quickly (since it's almost Oscar's nap time) a few other updates:
- 1st swim class a success! Oscar was absolutely adorable in his way-too-big 12 month clearance swim trunks, enjoyed the water a ton, and we can't wait until the next class. Joey will come next time to take photos so that I can post some.
- I'm super excited for my family to come in the next few weeks: my sister for Halloween weekend, my mom on Nov. 7th, then Joey's brothers come the weekend after that.
- I accepted a job with a small SEM (search engine marketing) firm called EverEffect here in Indy. They don't have an office currently, so I get to work from home meaning that (I hope) I can spend more time with Oscar and get away with just part-time childcare for him.
- We have an appt. with a daycare today, so fingers crossed we like it--if so we'll have everything squared away before leaving town!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
there's always a bright side
To balance out the negativity of that last post, here's one of the many beyond-adorable photos of Oscar that I've taken recently. Eat your heart out, Gerber Baby.
the one where i cry a little...
I'll have to apologize ahead of time for all the bitching and whining, but that's kind of where this post is headed. In the past few months, Joey and I have managed to undertake just about all of life's biggest stress-inducing events all at once--Joey got a new job, I left a job, we moved to a new state, and if you go back about 7.5 months we had a baby, too. We managed to survive all of it and end up on the other side intact... Well, now I may have finally discovered the straw that breaks our camel's back: strep throat.
We had a lovely first weekend in Indy, with my parents in town to watch Oscar so that we could go to a football game. It was awesome. But we were also looking forward to our 2nd weekend, just about the only weekend we had in the near future with nothing to do but enjoy our new home together. We had planned some apple picking, maybe a farmer's market or two, and just hanging out. Cue Joey feeling sick early last week. Below is a list detailing what happened next:
- Fever Wed. night
- MinuteClinic visit Thurs: positive rapid strep test and penicillin prescription
- Still not well Friday
- Urgent care visit Saturday: 103.7 degree fever, antibiotic shot, pain/fever killer shot, new antibiotic prescription (Augmentin)
- Still not well Sunday
- Emergency room visit Sunday night when fever was still not manageable: they said to give the antibiotic more time, gave prescription for Tylenol 3 for pain
- Still not well Monday, starting to lose hope :(
So we missed our fun weekend, poor Joey feels totally out of control, and I've been taking care of Oscar, Lucy, and Joey for the past week. I'm exhausted. I'm also worried about my husband, and feeling terribly for him. We've had a hell of a time figuring out how to get to a doctor, because being new here we don't have a PCP yet and everyone seems to be scheduling new patient visits 2-3 months out. I finally got him in to an office (chosen only for the availability of immediate care) this afternoon.
Let's also talk about the fact that Joey's supposed to stand up in one of his best friends' weddings in Atlanta this weekend. That friend has chosen an emergency backup just in case, but we're still crossing our fingers that we can magically make him better in time. Wish us luck.
OK, I'm done bitching now. But seriously...could we all just ask Life to please give it a rest and allow me a breather? I could really use some sleep.
ps: One piece of good news...I just accepted a job :) More on that another time, but I'll get to work from home (and it's not a stupid work-from-home scam, either)
We had a lovely first weekend in Indy, with my parents in town to watch Oscar so that we could go to a football game. It was awesome. But we were also looking forward to our 2nd weekend, just about the only weekend we had in the near future with nothing to do but enjoy our new home together. We had planned some apple picking, maybe a farmer's market or two, and just hanging out. Cue Joey feeling sick early last week. Below is a list detailing what happened next:
- Fever Wed. night
- MinuteClinic visit Thurs: positive rapid strep test and penicillin prescription
- Still not well Friday
- Urgent care visit Saturday: 103.7 degree fever, antibiotic shot, pain/fever killer shot, new antibiotic prescription (Augmentin)
- Still not well Sunday
- Emergency room visit Sunday night when fever was still not manageable: they said to give the antibiotic more time, gave prescription for Tylenol 3 for pain
- Still not well Monday, starting to lose hope :(
So we missed our fun weekend, poor Joey feels totally out of control, and I've been taking care of Oscar, Lucy, and Joey for the past week. I'm exhausted. I'm also worried about my husband, and feeling terribly for him. We've had a hell of a time figuring out how to get to a doctor, because being new here we don't have a PCP yet and everyone seems to be scheduling new patient visits 2-3 months out. I finally got him in to an office (chosen only for the availability of immediate care) this afternoon.
Let's also talk about the fact that Joey's supposed to stand up in one of his best friends' weddings in Atlanta this weekend. That friend has chosen an emergency backup just in case, but we're still crossing our fingers that we can magically make him better in time. Wish us luck.
OK, I'm done bitching now. But seriously...could we all just ask Life to please give it a rest and allow me a breather? I could really use some sleep.
ps: One piece of good news...I just accepted a job :) More on that another time, but I'll get to work from home (and it's not a stupid work-from-home scam, either)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
flashback...saturday
Sorry, Joey's crazy case of strep caused me to miss flashback Friday, so here it is a little late. FYI: still no fever or signs of strep in Oscar (thankfully), although he may be constipated and decided not to take more than 1 hr (total) of nap yesterday. Awesome. He seems to be on the same trajectory today, thanks to a 30 min. morning nap and some unusual fussiness. At least Joey's fever isn't hitting 101.9 anymore...wish us luck with the rest of the weekend :P
Thursday, October 14, 2010
7 months...a week late
Wow, this week got away from me. Can you believe it...Oscar man is 7 MONTHS!! Some cool stuff he's been up to recently:
- Eating like a champ (as you probably saw in the video), and he's added apples and carrots to his repertoire recently.
- He's really, really trying to move. He's making valiant attempts to pull up on anything and everything--but not quite succeeding all the time--and flopping around on the floor like he wants to crawl. Unfortunately for him, his adorable fat little thighs aren't really getting under him very well...the curse of short legs that many in my family are familiar with.
- He's got one little tooth rapidly shooting up, and the 2nd is almost through the surface.
Sadly, a milestone we're not psyched about is that he may be on his way to catching the strep throat that Joey's battling. We're on the lookout for fever :(
- Eating like a champ (as you probably saw in the video), and he's added apples and carrots to his repertoire recently.
- He's really, really trying to move. He's making valiant attempts to pull up on anything and everything--but not quite succeeding all the time--and flopping around on the floor like he wants to crawl. Unfortunately for him, his adorable fat little thighs aren't really getting under him very well...the curse of short legs that many in my family are familiar with.
- He's got one little tooth rapidly shooting up, and the 2nd is almost through the surface.
Sadly, a milestone we're not psyched about is that he may be on his way to catching the strep throat that Joey's battling. We're on the lookout for fever :(
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
flashback friday
Figured it might be fun to post a few pics of the little man from the earlier days every now and then. We've taken so many and so few end up on this blog that it'll be nice to share some of those other newborn photos with folks. [Side note: is that an obscene gesture he's flashing in one photo? Why yes, yes I think it is...]
Monday, October 4, 2010
Family Photos!
All images by Heather Saunders Photography
Thanks for taking awesome photos of us, Heather! If you're interested in seeing the whole set check out our gallery on Heather's site (passcode is A2 if asked).
Thanks for taking awesome photos of us, Heather! If you're interested in seeing the whole set check out our gallery on Heather's site (passcode is A2 if asked).
Thursday, September 30, 2010
quick update...
Everyone should be happy to learn that at the follow-up we had Tues. the doc thought Oscar sounded much better. Also,just a couple of days after starting the antibiotic his ears looked good, too. We discontinued the breathing treatments (for now) thank goodness, but we can always resume if the wheezing starts up again. We can also discontinue the antibiotics tomorrow. Hooray for healing!
Unrelated note: I'm about to head into my exit interview at work and am having very mixed emotions... Not going to go into it, but it's very strange realizing that my time with this employer is actually ending. It's also Oscar's last day at daycare here and they're all very sad to see him go. On the bright side, maybe we can kick this cold and get him fully healthy now :)
Unrelated note: I'm about to head into my exit interview at work and am having very mixed emotions... Not going to go into it, but it's very strange realizing that my time with this employer is actually ending. It's also Oscar's last day at daycare here and they're all very sad to see him go. On the bright side, maybe we can kick this cold and get him fully healthy now :)
Monday, September 27, 2010
cute or sad? probably both...
So remember that breathing treatment I mentioned a little while ago? Well, we're on ear infection #3, more antibiotics, and this time the nurse practitioner thought that the treatment we gave him in the office DID help. So we are now the proud owners of a brand new nebulizer, complete with a fulfilled prescription for albuterol. Have you ever seen anything so sad? (Or somehow kind of adorable?)
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