Jackson: 2 months!

Oh, what a difference a month an make!  This month was all about the smiles, as many of the following pics will attest to!  It took me so long to catch a smile on camera, because the second Jackson saw the camera, he would go into scientist mode and just study the camera all stone-faced.  Once he started smiling more frequently though, and once Jared and I figured out what would make him smile, it got a lot easier to catch on film!  I love this time of babyhood!

 A few other 2 month updates, and then I'll just pop in a reel of pics:

• Eating/sleeping: Still nursing every 3 hours or so; nighttimes are better, especially once James finished his bronchialitis meds and got back to a more normal nighttime routine.  This month, he actually gave me one 7 hour stretch!  Granted, I still woke up every 2 hours since I set my alarm just to check him, but it was nice to be able to just check for breathing and immediately go back to sleep!  Otherwise, he will give me 4-5 hours at night pretty consistently between feedings. He probably drinks a 2 oz bottle of formula maybe 3 times a week, just at moments where he needs a little extra and I'm working.

•  Growth:  At 2 months, Jackson is 12 pounds 9 ounces, which puts him at the 75%.  He is also just shy of 25 inches, which puts him at the 97%!  He is SUCH a big boy!!!  I can't believe how fast he is growing.

•  Clothes: I officially packed up all the newborn clothes this month, and we switched over to size 1 diapers, which are still fitting him just fine as he enters month 3.  

•  Random Developmental Things:  Jackson has figured out how to stuff his fists into his mouth fairly effectively.  He doesn't use a finger to suck, just the whole fist.  He coos and "talks" to us all the time, often accompanied by smiles!  He has this funny little giggle that pops up when he is sleeping:  It feels just a little bit like his breath is getting caught in his throat, so he will giggle to get it back....the funny thing is, he will be smiling at the same time!  Just a few nights ago he giggled in this manner, except I did not feel like his breath was catching at all, and he was right in my arms.  Such cute sounds!  

•  Jackson started laying on his playmat this month.  He likes staring at toys-doesn't really try to bat at them yet, but gets very focused on staring at them.  He holds his head up very well, though he doesn't tolerate tummy time too well yet-only lasts about 5 minutes before getting frustrated.  When he is on his back, he will arc his head way up until he is in a half roll.  I always wonder if he gets neck aches from it!

•  Jackson love his binky, but he is also still pretty content without it. I love moments where he is just content on the bed and he'll drift off to sleep with no help.  That happens with him more frequently than I remember it happening with the other kids.
• This month marked Jackson's first real bath! For the first 7 weeks or so, I really just sponge bathed him, washed his hair in the sink, and that's it.  I was partially wanting to preserve that new baby smell, but also not seeing the need yet to do a real tub bath.  I change that up this month though and Jackson officially got his first bath!  Such cuteness....I'll put a separate post about his first bath.

That's really it for now, Jackson remains cute as ever, and I'll just tag a bunch of other cute pics down below for everyone's enjoyment!

Tidbits

Last night we were at McDonalds for ice cream and playtime, as the kids had really earned it while I was interviewing teachers.  I had already bugged the employees for 5 hot fudge sundaes, extra spoons, and ketchup packets since their dispenser was out....I didn't feel like asking for extra waters.  So I sent Karianna up for a single water cup to share amongst the five kids.   She filled it up, and actually allowed Sara the first drink. After Sara finished and handed the cup back to Karianna, Karianna gave the contents an analytical look. She then turns to me and asks, "Is the water this putrid color because of Sara's backwash?"  It was SUCH an awesome use of the word putrid, I had to crack up laughing, as did the couple sitting behind us.  Love that girl's vocabulary!

I am getting super busy with work, to the degree that I think I might be a bit insane for accepting so many projects.  I am still working 29 hours a week for WGU, and I'm loving doing that....its EO that's upping my anty.  I am still teaching about 5 hours a week, but I have to keep it that low for the other things.

1. Recruitment/Hiring Team:  I am officially running teacher interviews on my own.  I interview up to 20 teachers a week in a group interview setting via webcam.  It is fun, and I am loving doing it.
2. Demo Sessions:  Apparently we are chasing after a lot of contracts, and I have been asked to teach a lot of demo sessions so the potential clients can see how things work.
3. Assessment Team:  I am currently reviewing all of our assessment questions that each student takes when they start with EO to ensure alignment with common core standards.  
4. Beta Platform Testing:  We are getting ready to roll out a new online classroom called "Beta".  We are in the testing phase, and I was asked to be part of the cohort of teachers to train in the new room and test it with a group of 100 students.  I do love being involved in the transformation of online education! 

So all in all...super, super busy, to the point where I might have to give something up if I can't figure out how to balance it all.  Thankfully, Jared is mostly done working with Burlington (though he is still "on call") and can be home to help a lot in the evenings.

On the topic of WGU, just an example of how they value their employees.  During our team meeting this week, I won a 25 dollar VISA gift card from our team's monthly drawing-my name went in twice because I evaluated over 200 tasks in the month of December, and I won. Woohoo! Yesterday, I got a package in the mail-my team supervisor had sent me a general thank you card as well as a necklace with a large owl pendant.  It is quite beautiful and the owl is WGU's mascot.  So considerate, I don't think I have ever worked for a company/school that has made me feel so valued as an employee.

Huh.  I thought I had more random pieces of info to share....eh.  I'll post this now and see if anything else comes to mind-then I'll update accordingly!

Babysitter

I have been working on letting Karianna babysit more frequently in the last 3-4 months.  Most of the time, that means watching the baby while I teach or take care of an online meeting.  I was conducting a group interview with 9 potential employees tonight, and asked Karianna to babysit Jackson from 5-5:30 when Jared would get home.  She's done this many times before, so I wasn't worried.  She did great, and Jared took over as normal when he got home-the baby had pretty much slept the whole time.  I was anticipating being done at 6:15 when Jared would have to leave for work...that didn't happen though, the interview ended up going until 6:50!  I knew Jared had left, so I rushed out as soon as I could, expecting the baby to be wailing and the other kids to be destroying the house.

Not so.

All the kids were either sitting and watching The Magic School Bus, or coloring.  Karianna was just coming back in from the hall, and the baby was nowhere to be seen.  Before I could get worried, Karianna told me the baby had started screaming a few minutes after Jared left.  She said she unbuckled him from his bouncer and rocked him until he went back to sleep.  She then took him into her bedroom since the family room was too loud.  She successfully laid him in her bed, tucked him in, turned off the light, and cracked her door so she could hear him if he woke up.

It was so responsible of her, I was super impressed!  She handled the situation just fine, and I am still surprised that she didn't try to come get me.  Just super impressive, and it was the first time I really got the impression that she would be able to handle other peoples' kids sooner than later.  I was so pleased, I ended up taking the kids to McDonalds for ice cream and playtime.  Awesome job to my pre-teen!

7 weeks!

Lets start this quick picture reel with a segment I like to call "Baby or Doll?"  

 Okay, I realize this doll is on the side of creepy, but Jared and I were cracking up about how similiar they both looked from certain angles!  Jackson is at that stage where he looks like a doll with his huge eyes and clear (finally!) skin. See what I mean?

 Okay, so just some quick pics from week 7!

 This was the ending of a smile-weird as it looks!  I am trying to hard to capture it, but the second Jackson sees the camera go up, he stops what he's doing and just stares at it!

This was after a breathing treatment, he looks zonked out!

Bronchialitis

Poor Jackson.  He was bound to get sick from all the sick people in our house....

It started with James and Jared coming down with fevers on Christmas Day.  JD followed suit, and Jordan threw up that night as well.  I thought maybe it was "one and done" type of stuff, but nope.  The sickness lingered to no end, and everyone caught some degree of it-the coughs just do not go away, and in James' case, neither did the fever.  I finally took James into urgent care Saturday morning when he woke up once again with a high fever. It was only during his bath that morning that he flipped out when I touched an ear-that was the first time he had expressed ear pain.  The doctor confirmed my suspicion a few hours later-ear infection for him.  Easily treated though, and I was glad to find a way to get that fever to finally go away!

Jackson came with us to that same appointment as he had started coughing 2 days earlier. It started as a simple cough.  I hooked up the humidifier and he started living under it quite a bit, as I get worried about RSV stuff; the kids were basically banned from hanging around him, sad as that made them!  Jackson was in good spirits regardless, just coughing every now and then.


The cough got worse a day later.  He was up that 2nd night coughing a ton, and it had gotten deeper, more gutteral.  I could feel slight wheezing in his chest, and I felt like he was laboring a bit.  Though I always questoin whether something like this really necessitates a doctor visit, his age made it unavoidable.  Thus we went in at the same time as James.  I'm glad I read the signs right, as he was diagnosed with bronchialitis, which can go to RSV pretty quickly.  We went home with a nebulizer and are now giving Jackson breathing treatments every 4 hours with albuterol; he's on a daily dose of prednisone as well.  If you were to look at Jackson, you might not know anything was wrong unless you heard him cough.  The meds are messing with his sleep, and they are making him look a little puffier; other than that, I'm pleased so far with how much they are helping him-hopefully we can kick this stuff sooner than later!

 Winking to let me know its really okay!

 After the treatment is over, he tends to look a little drunk.

 And he usually falls asleep very quickly.

 Doesn't he look huge?????

 At times, he will just fall asleep.

Random!

Several months ago, Karianna gave James his first tattoo,right on his belly.  Ever since them, James has been infatuated with putting either tattoos or stickers on his belly.  I blew his mind when I put four spiderman characters on his belly the other day.  He is obviously proudly showing it off in the following picture, making him look like a rival for Santa Claus...ignore the parts of that wall that are patched and ready for paint!

 Another James-he went down for a nap with a few pretzels left in his baggie.  I went to get him up and he was sleeping with his hand still in the empty baggie....he was clenching it in his hand as well.

 I don't have a ton of pics of Jared with the baby, so I made him take some the other day!

 Everyone relaxing on one of the last few days of winter break-I came home from grocery shopping and found this.  James so rarely watches movies, I was surprised he was in the mix!

 Cuddling with his favorite big sister!

 Hmmm, James seemed to have more pics in this reel than anyone....But I had to add this one because he totally looks like Joran here!

A Good Start to the New Year

This is a brag post-just being upfront with you...if you don't like these types of posts, feel free to move on.  I am posting this though because I love what I do and I take great pride in being good at it-its a huge confidence booster for me and makes me feel like I am magnifying the gifts the Lord has given me.  Thus, onto the post...

I got confirmed to teach this morning at 9am; I verified I was teaching at 8:51am.  I honestly had not thought that session would confirm, and was surprised it had.  Unfortunately the baby was awake, and I had no time to feed him-he was due to eat at 10:30.  If I was lucky, he would stay happy until then....Thankfully, the other kids were still in bed, having had a very busy and late New Year's Day; given that some of them are still coughing up a storm, I knew I could have them stay put until I was done teaching.

So I crossed my fingers and logged into the classroom.  I had 3 students, which is the max, and 2 of them logged in right away, the 3rd logging in about 20 minutes late.  I was off-teaching online with three kids, which requires a lot of dexterity and multi-tasking, while managing a baby in my lap.

Okay, the baby wasn't really in my lap, he was wrapped up in a blanket on the pillow next to me.  In any case, he was well within earshot of my microphone, which is never a good thing, but I had no other choice. The first 15 minutes were touch and go honestly, as the baby was already getting fidgety, which tends to be his pre cursor to fussy. He still supplements 3-4 times a week, so I whipped out his bottle while asking my 12th grader to describe the steps necessary for dividing two fractions. Jackson gulped that down, and thankfully went into his post-eating drunk phase, just in time for my 3rd student to log in...has he remained fidgety/fussy, I think I would have been done for.  

And that's how the last 40 minutes of the session went:  James was zoning in and out of sleep right next to me while I managed 3 students, one of which ended up with audio issues, ranging 4th grade through 12th grade.  It was not easy, if I do say so myself, and after I was done, I thought I had still run a really good session despite the baby next to me. 

The icing on the cake came about an hour later when I checked my email to find an observation/evaluation my team lead had done on that very session.  When I saw that email, I immediatley started to prepare myself for a lower score than I am used to.  However, when I opened it, I realized I had gotten a perfect 3.0.  That's my 6th perfect score in a row 

That made my day.  

Thanks for letting me "brag" for a moment.  Its funny, I don't even feel like I am "bragging" when I type that, I just feel blessed that the Lord watched out for me in that silly moment and still let me do my best despite the challenges.  I feel grateful.  So for many reasons, it has been a good start to the New Year.

New Year's Eve 2013

I have to admit...we are boring.  

We pretty much did nothing for New Year's Eve....everyone had been someone sick over winter break, and by the time New Year's Eve rolled around, I didn't want to go all out and make everyone sick again.  So we laid low and just hung out as a family.

The extent of our excitement:  we took the kids and their bikes to Shepherd so they could ride around the track.  They actually love this, and it is safer tha riding up and down our busy street.  

Can you spy Jordan?

  Half the kids actually went to bed for a few hours, and then I got them up at 11:20ish to make bds in the front room and watch a movie until midnght.

 We went out at midnight to set off some firecrackers-it was SO loud in our neighborhood, I have never heard that much commotion on New Year's Eve before!

 We also toasted with ginger ale, and I had all the kids say something they wanted to do or get better at in 2014.  I wish I could remember what was said, but even I was tired....

 James loved his ginger ale, which I was surprised at!

 And his hair is crazy.

That's about it!  We went to bed quickly, and thoroughly enjoyed the first day of 2014 with the Lautenschlager's the following afternoon-I forgot how fun playing Clue can be!

Happy New Year!