"The View From Here": February 21-27

Yesterday was a super busy and somewhat crazy day....I had to do a presentation at a meeting in the morning for my online job. I made and delivered a meal for a woman in my Moms group who recently had a baby. I worked (at the online job) for three hours in the afternoon while Jacob napped. Then, Jacob woke up from a long 3.5 hour nap with massive diarrhea that resulted in me having to change his cribsheet & his changing pad cover and throw him in the bathtub. Thankfully he has been pretty happy while having a bit of this stomach bug that is going around so he played in the tub while I made dinner. Then, not long after Keith got home, I had to rush out and get to a Moms group meeting that started at 7pm. I didn't get home until after 10pm and then realized that I wanted to get this blog post out every Monday. After staying up til almost 1am, it still didn't get done! Oh well, better late than never I guess.

Here is our "View From Here" for Week #2:

Monday, February 21:

I honestly cannot even remember what we did last Monday! Apparently it was quite a busy day though because I have no pictures or videos! I know one thing that I did - I accepted a new job with Mobile Insight, the company that I have been working for from home for almost a year.

The new job is Project Coordinator and I am still in the process of figuring out what that means, but for the most part, I will be assisting one of the Project Managers in getting new clients onboarded with the company. It is an ever-growing company and I am excited to start doing new and interesting things. The downside, if there is one, is that it will require me to work Monday-Friday for 3+ hours each day (versus the two or three days a week I was working before). The majority of my work will be done when Jacob is napping, but there might be some projects that require evening or weekend hours. Of course, more work means more money and who couldn't use that? But, also more work means more stress and less time to get other things done. I am hoping that I can get into a good groove and accomplish everything I need to get done.

Tuesday, February 22:

One of Jacob's daily activities is to climb up and sit on the activity table while he plays. He also like to "pose" for the camera sometimes now. Notice how his head is thrown back and he is saying "Cheese"! (Also notice that he is Bib-less....I forgot to mention it last week, but we have been without bibs for almost a month now! Hallelujah!! His drooling has finally subsided enough that it does not require him to walk around wearing a bib all day!!)

A view of my "office" on a typical day.

Working from home is great!

Poor Pierce had the stomach flu for almost a week last week. Tuesday afternoon, they were in the neighborhood and Pierce had to use the potty so they stopped at my house. He and Jacob watched an Elmo video while Katie and I visited for a little while. Jacob climbed up and sat right next to Pierce!! I love how much these two adore each other and I am excited to see how that evolves as they grow older!

Wednesday, February 23:

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to find my recently delivered Valentine's Day present waiting for me on the counter. Keith had told me that something was "on its way" but I didn't know what it was. I was overjoyed to see that he had made a travel mug for me with pictures of Jacob and me on it! It took him a lot of time to pick out the pictures and create the photo montage and I love what he wrote on it!

A few times now, Jacob has woken up from his nap and had part of his clothing removed. One time a few weeks ago, he almost completely undressed at my parents' house while he was supposed to be napping. On this day, he just got one arm out. I'm guessing this is a glimpse at what is to come in the future since he thinks it is really funny!

Thursday, February 24:

My friend Lauren recently turned me on to the Pioneer Woman's Salsa recipe. I have made it three times now and it is so easy and so tasty! Here are some pictures from my recent salsa-making adventure (I used the blender this time because my food processor leaked the other two times and it worked great!!)

Friday, February 25:

We had really nice weather on Friday (mid-60s) and of course, Jacob loved it because we could play outside. That kid would swing for hours! When I told him that we had to go in for lunch, he completely lost it. I had to bring him inside kicking and screaming! :( Of course, this picture was taken when he was having lots of fun!

After Jacob went down for his nap, I went into the playroom to clean up and saw that he had lined his cars up on the windowsill while the window was open. It made me smile!

That day, even though the weather was really nice, it was super windy. We are talking 50-60 mph gusts! It was scary at times and around 3pm, while Jacob was napping and I was working, the power went out (Thankfully it came back on around 6pm before it got too dark!). Jacob's usual routine is to watch an Elmo video in the afternoon after his nap so we had to get the portable DVD player out. He loved it! He even asked to watch it on the DVD player the next day! :)

Saturday, February 26:

Keith had to work his once-a-semester Saturday shift so Jacob and I were home by ourselves all day. We had some fun playing with his cars and he showed off his knowledge of the many different cars that he has!

Sunday, February 27:

Back in the beginning of January, I took Jacob to my friend Jeanne's house to get some of his curls cut off. It was just getting too long for me! Thankfully Jeanne is a professional hair stylist so she has experience with cutting kids' hair. Unfortunately, it was not a very enjoyable experience for anyone - Jacob screamed and cried and kicked! I was hoping to do a blog post about it, but it is probably better not to re-live the whole thing!

Recently, I have been thinking about cutting Jacob's hair myself. I have been cutting Keith's hair with clippers for many years now, so I figured how different could it be? I had no idea what guard number to use with the clippers and unfortunately I didn't do any research beforehand. We decided to do it on Sunday morning and as you can see from the pictures, I cut it VERY short! A lot shorter than I had wanted it. But...oh well, I guess it will grow back!

Here are some BEFORE pictures:

And the AFTER pictures:

Keith took a video while I was doing it (don't mind that I am in my pjs!). As you can see, Jacob really didn't fuss much except when the hair got in his mouth. I feel bad that I was hurting him because the hair was pulling, but he did so well! I am very proud of him!! It is amazing what an Elmo video does to keep his attention!!

After I cut Jacob's hair, I cut Keith's hair.

Here is a picture of my two boys with their freshly cut hair!