Life Since Baby

Hi All -
Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been caught up in spring cleaning (crazy, I know) and that has chewed up what little free time I have had. But let me tell you it sure feels good to have it done (well, "in progress" would be more like it).



Things are going well with Jack. He's quite the sleeper... during the day. ;o) I still get about 6-7 hours of sleep at night (in 2-3 hour spurts) but he does the majority of his hard core (read: restful) sleeping during the day. Part of me thinks I should wake him up more during the day so that he will sleep more at night, but I'm trying to hold off because it gives me a lot of one-on-one time with Henry which he needs right now. At our last weight check, Jack was up to 9lbs 5oz. He was 9/2 when born and 8/6 when we left the hospital. Our next appt is in early May.



Henry is doing pretty well, all things considered. His little world is starting to return to normal and that is helping immensely. He did very well in the beginning, then regressed a little, but as I said things are on the upswing now. His new word is "pie". LOL. He learned that while we shared a piece of grandma's home made rhubarb custard pie (and it helps that one of his favorite books mentions a pie as well). I wrote all of his words down the other day and there are about 26 total so far that he is saying. I'll share them the next time my computer and list are in the same vacinity. :o)



Here are a few pictures for you... First we have Jack, at about five days old:



And here is Henry at about 2 mos old for the sake of comparison:

They look quite a bit alike. Jack seems to have a darker complexion than Henry. He must get that from my Mom and Grandpa (whom he was named after), as the rest of us all seem to be a bit pastey ;o). Although I seem to remember Henry's earlier pictures making it look like he had a darker complexion as well due to the after effects of his jaundice (which Jack has as well, but not nearly as bad as Henry's was). Jack also has darker hair and eyes (so far).

EDITED TO ADD: This is a total afterthought, but look how unhappy Henry is in his Bears outfit!! Now check out this post (bottom picture) and look at that big grin on his face when he wears his Packer jersey. ;o) lmao!

Stampers... stay tuned for some new cards soon! I have them loaded, just need to find time to post them. Same goes for more movie set pics!

Johnny Depp to film in Oshkosh!

For those who don't know, he's filming part of his next movie, Public Enemies, here in Oshkosh! The city is buzzing as set crews are in town altering the fronts of various buildings on Main St. Signs are coming down, and are being replaced with new store fronts, new paint, etc. It is very cool! We got out and took some pictures on Sunday so I thought I'd share them. Here are some of the sites that are being used:


The Exclusive Company building (a cd/record shop) is being transformed into an old fashioned Walgreen's drug store. All of those pop outs that say "Drugs" at the top are wooden additions to the existing building. Here is a side view:





Here is the front of the building:





And here is the signage that is waiting to go up:

We also have a town square (a.k.a. Opera House Square) with a HUGE sundial in it. Here is an aerial photo of the area:

And here is the structure that is being built around the sundial. I'm not sure if it's going to be a storefront or what. We drove by again today and no additional progress has been made.

This is the back of the same structure. Apparently they will only be filming it from one side!

They have also transformed our local coffee shop (called the "New Moon Cafe" as noted on the small white sign) into the "Skalsa Restaurant". There are more shops being transformed beyond these, but I couldn't get any good photos from the car and couldn't get out with two babes in tow!

I'll take more pics and post them if anything exciting happens. Maybe I can even get a picture of Jack Sparrow himself! (CHRIS... the real thing! No fake Halloween pirates! Can you even imagine?! )

They are also filming at our old First National Bank building, which is across the street from this restaurant (the exclusive co., restaurant, bank, and sundial are each on one of the four corners of the same intersection). I believe they are also doing some filming at the Grand Opera House, but can't find any info to back that.

Jack is here!

Baby Jack arrived on Thurs, March 27 weighing 9lbs 2oz. The nurses thought he was a big baby, but he looks tiny compared to Henry who was 10lbs 9oz!

We're enjoying our time with our new family member and are trying to get into a routine here - slow but sure!

Henry is doing well adjusting to his new role as big brother. There have been a few jealous moments but overall things are going well.

Stay tuned for pictures! Give me a week or so and I should have some loaded here. Just trying to stay on top of the household things in the mean time. :)

Waiting for Jack

Henry and his Papa were having fun with the Lego's the other day, and here is what they created. :o)

Only one and a half days before we get to meet the little guy!

The Nursery is Done!

My Mom and Grandma came over this afternoon, and Mom watched Henry so Grandma could help me finish up the nursery. I'm happy with the results. It's amazing things match as well as they do, considering we pieced it all together. The crib is on loan from my cousin Brandon, and the bed is new to us too - we had no idea what either piece looked like (what finish it had, etc.) but everything matches thankfully!


The pegboard in this picture looks so lost on that wall, but it really doesn't in person. I don't know what the deal is with that! I've had that thing for years, and am happy to have a home for it again. It is a hand made Amish craft that I found about 15+ years ago in Wautoma. The dresser was Darrin's prior to us getting our new bedroom set last month. It drives me crazy that there is no mirror with it (there isn't supposed to be, I just feel like it should have one), but I can always add a mirror to the room later if need be. The quilt on the wall is part of a bedding lot that I got on ebay. I have another one exactly like it that I quilted myself that I am saving for him to use, so we took advantage of the loops on the back of this one and hung it on the wall on a cafe (curtain) rod.

I bought those two pickets over the bed in Sept '04 at Gordmans and stowed them away in a closet this whole time. If you think about it, I wasn't even pregnant with Henry yet at that point! I guess I just knew I'd have a Raggedy Ann nursery at some point! I found the lamp at St. Vinny's a few summers ago and bought a new shade for it.

There are still two pieces of wall art missing. The cross stitch I am working on, and the latch hook my Mom is working on. Hers will go on that side wall over the bed, and mine will go on the side wall over the crib.

Now all I need is the baby! ;o) (2.5 days to go!)

Happy Easter!!

Who doesn't love a colored egg?! Even though I'm not a fan of hard boiled eggs, I've always loved coloring them and have done so every year (even as an adult prior to Henry!). Here are some from this year's batch. I normally buy Paa's kits, but ended up with a Dudley's kit this year because it came with some Sesame Street stickers (Henry is a big fan of Elmo, Oscar, and Cookie Monster). I figured they were all the same anyway but boy was I wrong. The Dudley colors are so much more vivid than the Paa's colors ever were, and they color twice as fast! Mental note for next year.... buy Dudley's!!

I boiled 30 eggs in all, colored 25 of them and turned the other five into deviled eggs to take to Easter dinner at Mom and Grandma's house today. It's the only day of the year I get to use this plate my Mom bought me, so I figure I'd better make the most of it! The yolk mixture is just miracle whip, yellow mustard, ground mustard, and celery salt with paprika sprinkled on top. Easy schmeasy.

This was taken shortly after Henry found his basket this morning. :o)

Henry loves balls... especially footballs and soccer balls (which I'm sure makes both Papa and his Godfather proud respectively!). This set of four also came with a basketball and a baseball... and all are soft, for minimal damage to the surrounding areas. ;o)

The Easter bunny also brought us some more Tonka trucks. Henry loves cars and trucks right now and is on a big kick of needing to go for a ride every day just to look around. He also loves to drive through the parks and look at the ducks and geese that congregate near the water (at South Park).

I just thought this was an adorable picture and had to share. He's opening a Pooh Easter book. Almost everything in the basket was wrapped because he enjoys opening gifts so much.

And here's Henry's Elmo egg for breakfast.... that he didn't like. :o) Apparently not a fan of the hard boiled egg, he opted for a banana and some cheerio's instead. And honestly, I can't say I blame him! I remember as a kid I would only eat the whites of the hard boiled eggs and would give the yolks to my grandpa. Nothing has really changed for me!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

One Week From Today!!

In case you haven't noticed, the "creepy fetus" to the left (as one friend calls it - lol), is off. The widget is based on my due date (April 6), not the c-section date (March 27th). If all goes as planned, baby Jack should be here by about 2pm next Thursday afternoon. I have to go in at 10am, and they are supposed to do surgery at noon... but this hospital (in my experience) is late with EVERYTHING so I'm guessing it won't happen until a little later.

Of course, then there is the message that was left on my machine tonight while we were at dinner asking me to call about my "hospital admission scheduled for April 3". That was the original c-section date. The nurse supposedly changed it to 3/27 a week ago and cancelled the April 3 appt.... but obviously not. Why doesn't that surprise me? I am getting to the point of frustration/disgust with this healthcare facility that I am almost afraid to give birth there. :o(

Ok, enough of the negative Nellie routine. Everything will be fine.

If I just keep telling myself that, maybe I'll believe it!

In other news, we're picking up the crib this weekend, and I'm getting a pedicure Sat a.m. so I should be all set. :o)

Ready for Spring!

Although the temperature hasn't warmed up nearly as much as I would like it to, Henry has all but outgrown his winter coat! UGH! I didn't want to buy another one this late in the game, so I went looking for a warmer spring jacket, and found this one. It has fleece lining throughout, so hopefully it will carry us through all of these 40 degree days! It's super cute on him, but get this.... it's a 4T!! How did that happen?! I think part of it has to do with the fact that Oshkosh B'Gosh just runs small to begin with. I tried the 3T on him, and there was very little difference between that and the 4T so I went with the larger one. Despite the large size of the jacket, he is still wearing 2T clothes...



Here it is with the hood up. The hood is HUGE. Every time I put it up I hum "...trust the Gorton's fisherman..." to myself (from the fish stick commercial in case anyone is wondering). LOL!

In other news, the c-section has been rescheduled!! We are now set up for March 27th - only a week and a half away!!! It sounds like the surgery will happen some time around noon. We'll keep you posted!

A Few Cards...

I don't participate in swaps very often, but decided to sign up for a friend's "Girl You Rock" swap, where the requirement was to make cards to let your girlfriend know you were thinking of them (or something like that!). I went with this cute little skunk. You can barely tell from the photo (if you look at the bottom), but the black is stamped with the Print Pattern background stamp in Versamark ink. It looked *so* cool when the ink was wet, but after it dried you could barely see it. Ugh. Live and learn! It's still a cute card though! I colored him with chalks, and added dazzling diamonds to the white areas on his back/tail/head.



I wanted to make an Easter card for my Mom and Grandma, but didn't think I had any Easter stamps (must add to wish list before next year!). I was searching through my collection for daffodils or tulips or something else that would look "springy" when I spied this little egg in my Tag Time set. WHO KNEW?!!? lol! I used the smallest Karen Foster snap stamps for the sentiment and added dazzling diamonds in random dots around the eggs.

Plugging Along

No pictures to post today, but wanted to give an update on the pregnancy and let you know that I *finally* got some things listed on Ebay. I have a link to my auctions to the left. Check it out - you never know what you might find! I'm hoping to add more Tuesday night as well, so check back!

The pregnancy is going well. It's hard to believe it's almost time for baby Jack to be born. Yes, in case you didn't know, his name will be Jack. But the middle name is a secret - for all of us! :o) We still haven't quite decided on one, so I can't share that yet. The c-section is currently scheduled for Thursday, April 3 but my Dr. suggested moving it back one week to March 27th when I saw her this past Thursday because the baby is measuring 3 weeks over and I'm having a number of braxton hicks contractions, etc. etc. etc. We're going to discuss it more at my next appointment (March 13), so hopefully I'll know more then.

Meanwhile, we are frantically trying to get the nursery in order. The room used to be our office and my stamping space, but now we have laptops and have moved my stamping "room" into part of our bedroom. Our master bedroom is HUGE for those who haven't seen it - it's actually two separate rooms connected by an archway, so it's not really "in" the bedroom, yet it still is. It's kind of hard to explain. Anyhow, we still need to get some things out of the room and up to the attic but I'm hoping to be able to paint the room by next weekend at the latest. Then we either have to buy (or mooch ;o) ) a crib and we should be set. The nursery theme will be Raggedy Ann and Andy. We had originally intended that theme for Henry, but then changed to dinosaurs at the last minute so I still have all of the stuff we acquired for it.

So, that's what I know for now! Keep us in your thoughts, and pray I don't go into labor early... or at least not until the room is finished!