How Little Boys Grow...

1 hour

1 week

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

 

It's crazy how the time flies! I'm digging the cheeks in each picture so far...

Where we are, Where we are Going!

Well the last few months have been crazy! I expect to spend some time over the next few weeks playing catch-up. But for now I thought an update on where we are right now and what will be happening in our near future would be a good idea!

In 37 days we will bid farewell to Arkansas and our little apartment that has been home for the last two years. It has been a wonderful place to live while we finished up school, but now we are moving on to bigger and better things! At this point we are trusting in the Lord's provision of a job for Jonathan as a mechanical engineer. While we don't have one lined up right now, we know that God will open the right doors at the right time. Until then we are walking forward in faith... Dallas bound!

Our current plan is to move back to the Dallas area May 31. Our primary search area for jobs has been in the Metroplex, although we have submitted applications other places as well. We figure that moving to Dallas will help the interview process, since Jonathan would be readily available.

This has been a crazy time, and I never thought it would actually come! I officially gave my notice for my job today, which makes this all feel a little more real. Only 4-5 more weeks of watching the precious baby girl that I have had the pleasure to watch since January. Crazy!

So our countdown is thus...

• 15 hours of work on my internship and one 5-page paper(then I'm officially a college graduate!)
• 2 regular class days for Jonathan
• 4 days of finals for Jonathan
• 10 days until graduation
• 30 days of working at Gates for Jonathan
• 37 days until we move to Dallas

... Big things are headed our way! We can't wait to see how this crazy adventure goes!

Behind the Scenes

This is mainly for my mother, but I thought it would be cool all the same.

So I have spent the last several days editing David's 5 Month photoshoot. Now I think I will share just a few before and after photos. This is always a scary thing for a photographer, because I feel like sometimes we are judged if we know that we have to pull an image up in PhotoShop in order to make it sellable. I have had people tell me both ways actually. Some say shoot to edit, while others say that editing removes all honesty and skill as a photog. Well... I agree with them both at different times. But when I am taking pictures of my son, I kinda like the edited ones better! So I choose to shoot to edit.

As you can see, I don't do a lot of crazy adding or subtracting here. I really just use PS to highlight what I deem to be the important aspects of the photo. Sometimes that means lots of cropping, but sometimes that just means playing with the shadows and luminosity.

Got any favorites?

Playing Catch-Up

Well, I fail at keeping a normal routine during the holidays. My last post was before Thanksgiving, and it is now two weeks after New Years...

So let's get up-to-date, shall we?

Thanksgiving
Mostly spent with my family, as that is the only time that the entire extended family gets together. We usually host about 65 people at my parent's farm. This year was no exception. David and I went down the weekend before in order to welcome (and meet!) baby Aubrey, who was in the states for the first time. We had a lovely visit with both families even though I was plagued by migraines for several days.

As soon as we got home from Thanksgiving, I came down with a cold. Or allergies. Not sure exactly. Anyway, I was sick for an entire week! After a week of being sick, I noticed that I had a weird lump in my gum just above a crown that had bothered me during pregnancy... Not a good sign. I called the dentist Monday morning, and Monday afternoon David and I flew back to Dallas. After being passed around by several dentists and specialists, they determined that the tooth had a fracture and couldn't be repaired. Out it came! Scariest 5 minutes ever. Seriously. That was worse than childbirth! At least the perception of the tooth extraction was worse. I didn't actually feel any pain. I was numb for that. Just goes to show how scared our culture is of dentists. To all the dentists out there, I'm sorry! I know most of you are actually nice people!

Christmas
What a crazy adventure Christmas was! We had to go down four days earlier than we planned because I had to have a follow-up dentist appointment. That meant that we got to be at the airport when Aunt Kristen came in from Thailand! We had a large greeting party at the airport for her. It was her first time to meet and hold the babies, and it was very special for all involved. All of these people were crammed into a very full, very happy house, and we all had a blast! Lots of babies and 6am play dates... After about nine days however, David started to get a little overwhelmed by all the activity, so we packed up two days later and headed back to Arkansas.

Real Life
So now that the crazy holidays are over, real life has resumed. Jonathan went back to work (after being sick the week after we returned from Christmas!) and has now also started back to school. I am working now. Just three days a week. I watch a precious baby girl, S. I'm not sure her mom wants me sharing much about her on the internet, so we'll just call her S for now. She is less than 3 months old, so it's kinda like having twins a few days a week, except mine is a little older and self-sufficient. I'm not used to that. The baby that we see the most of is our cousin Alexa. Since she is older, David always seems like the "baby" of the two. Now he's the older one... Weird! I'm also starting to work on my final requirement to officially finish my degree in photography. After many unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable internship I finally petitioned for an independent project which was approved. Now I just have to do it. Many photoshoots coming this spring I hope!


More later...

Tummy Time

Tummy Time always results in 3 things...

Spit-up

Crying (and therefore a paci)

Sleeping

Oh well. At least he's cute!

Cloth in the ( hand ) Wash

So, I promised I would talk about our experiences so far with washing cloth diapers...

Initially I decided that there was no way I could even try cloth diapers because we don't have a washer and dryer. But after hating the disposables, I wanted to see if there was any way to use cloth. I mean, I wasn't having trouble using cloth wipes (I hate baby wipes!), so why couldn't I make cloth diapers work too?! I read a blog that talked about a 1 week hand washing challenge, and I was intrigued. If there was a way to wash by hand, I wanted to give it a try. 

Jonathan was less than thrilled when I told him what I had in mind, but somehow I convinced him to let me try. He told me he would buy me the real supplies if we decided to go this route. Until then, I had to scrounge for my supplies. 

The first two steps I don't have pictures of...

First I rinse each diaper in the sink as it comes off the baby. I don't really like to have dirty diapers just sitting around waiting to be washed. Plus, the pee-soaked diapers smell nasty after a little while! I think the disposable diapers must have some kind of chemical deodorizers in them. Gross! I don't want that kind of stuff on David's skin all the time!

Second, about half an hour before I'm gonna wash the diapers I put them in the wash bucket to soak. This isn't actually necessary since I do the initial rinse, but I usually do it anyway.

 Add about 1 Tablespoon of cloth diaper safe soap to the empty wash bucket.

Add HOT water to make the bucket about half full. 

This soap makes the water slightly cloudy. 

Add diapers and covers.

Plunge for 5 min with a toilet plunger to agitate.

Usually I take my ipod with me and just listen to a 5 min song. 

This takes a lot longer without the music.

I like to vary my plunging so that it gets the diapers really clean.

 Dump water and diapers

I like to wring some of the water out at this point.

This means less soapy water goes into the rinse water.

 

 Return the diapers to the bucket and re-fill with water.

Agitate for 1-2 minutes.

Repeat rinse until water stays clear of suds or cloudiness.

 

Dump everything out and wring it out one more time.

Once I convinced Jonathan that we were gonna do this, he made me a clothesline!!!

Before this, we would hang them over the bar in the bathtub.

Time involved:
Individual diaper rinse - 1 min each
Optional pre-soak - 15-30 minutes
Agitation - 5 minutes (this varies by how dirty the diapers actually are)
2 Rinse cycles - 4-5 minutes
Wring and hang to dry - 5 minutes

If you don't count the pre-soak I never spend more than 30 minutes cleaning the diapers. It takes at least 45 minutes to do that wash part at the laundry room. Plus I get a fabulous arm workout! I haven't noticed any changes yet, but I bet after a while I will have some killer toned arm muscles!!!


*Special thanks to my wonderful hubby who took this time to learn how to wash the diapers so I could hold a sick baby and take pictures of the process. You're the best J-man!*

Next up should be a post about which diapers work best with the hand washing situation, and what we are gonna do long term with diapering. Gotta say it here though, I'm in love!

Claire Comes

 My sister was initially supposed to be due 1 week after I was. I guess since David decided to come 8 days early, Claire just had to do that too! She was also born 8 days early, exactly one week after David. Sweet little Claire was 9 lbs even at birth. She decided to turn breech at the last minute, so this little angel had to be born by unplanned c-section. We'll take her however she comes though!

 Sweet little girl just sleeping away. 

 Proud (and amazing looking!) mom and dad with their newest little one.

What a good looking crew! 

Big sister and brothers are eager to help mom and dad with loving on little Claire!

She's so cuddly, who could resist it?!

This delicate flower is so photogenic, it's insane! 

5 weeks old here and still rocking the photography world.

*All of these photos are downloaded from facebook. I do not own the copyright to any of them. Check out Adriana Brock Photography! This little girl's aunt is an amazing children's photographer.*