Again, sorry for the gap in updates. This should go live on Friday.
Things have been going good. Harrison's doing well. He's 4 months old now and has really started lighting up the past couple of weeks. It's amazing to see him learning new things. It's not uncommon for DeAnne or I to see something new happen and call for the other to come check it out. Usually, Harrison will decide at that point to not repeat whatever it was, but DeAnne and I have come to an understanding that the one who saw it is not lying and in a day or two, Harrison will be repeating whatever it was consistently.
Thanksgiving is next week. No major plans. DeAnne will be making her annual Black Friday shopping trip with her mom. Maybe with some time off I can actually get a blog post up two weeks in a row.
We're heading down to Mobile this coming Friday. We're going to head down when DeAnne gets off work and spend the weekend with Courtney and Edwin. We haven't been down in a long time and we're looking forward to seeing them. It'll also be interesting to see how Harrison does in a different environment. Hopefully we'll manage to remember everything we'll need.
For those of you that saw on Facebook, our cat Izzy is doing well. It's not much fun trying to give him a dropper full of antibiotics, but such are the things we do for the fur-babies.
If there's any interest, I may do a single post updating the Christmas shopping posts from last year. I never heard if anyone found them useful and no one ever used a link I posted to purchase anything, but I've already been asked by a few people at work about things such as Xboxs and Playstations. Let me know if you would like to see an update and I'll see if I can't get one put together.
--Paul
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday, November 04, 2011
Long Time Coming
I have to apologize for the lack of updates to the blog. It's been a crazy couple of weeks and the mornings just don't afford me much of an opportunity to blog anymore.
Harrison's doing well. He's growing like crazy. We had to go to the doctor on Monday and he weighed 16 lbs and 13 oz. He hadn't been feeling good all weekend so I took him in to get looked at. Turns out he has a double ear infection. This is the second ear infection he's had in 6 weeks time or so, so it looks like we're heading towards tubes. Tubes are pretty common these days, so I'm not terribly worried about it, but I hate that he's going to have to go through anything like that. We had really hoped and prayed that he wouldn't be sick like his mom and dad have been all their lives and while it looks like he been blessed to have avoided the major issues, he may still have to face the combined force of our allergies.
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So it's now Friday. I didn't have a chance to really finish the post until now. Harrison's doing better but DeAnne is still struggling. She's probably going to end up going to the doctor on Monday. This past Wednesday we went up to Birmingham and met with a neurosurgeon about her back. He wants her to do physical therapy and come back in six weeks. I was pretty happy with that order but DeAnne seems to think that surgery would be an instant fix and was disappointed that he wasn't going to cut on her. Crazy, I know. You can't tell her anything sometimes.
No major plans for the weekend. We're having another yard sale in Opp on Saturday but other than that, we're taking it pretty easy. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me at work and I need some down time. Between work and all three of us being sick at different times, DeAnne and I are both pretty run down. Hopefully next week we can recuperate some.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Harrison's doing well. He's growing like crazy. We had to go to the doctor on Monday and he weighed 16 lbs and 13 oz. He hadn't been feeling good all weekend so I took him in to get looked at. Turns out he has a double ear infection. This is the second ear infection he's had in 6 weeks time or so, so it looks like we're heading towards tubes. Tubes are pretty common these days, so I'm not terribly worried about it, but I hate that he's going to have to go through anything like that. We had really hoped and prayed that he wouldn't be sick like his mom and dad have been all their lives and while it looks like he been blessed to have avoided the major issues, he may still have to face the combined force of our allergies.
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So it's now Friday. I didn't have a chance to really finish the post until now. Harrison's doing better but DeAnne is still struggling. She's probably going to end up going to the doctor on Monday. This past Wednesday we went up to Birmingham and met with a neurosurgeon about her back. He wants her to do physical therapy and come back in six weeks. I was pretty happy with that order but DeAnne seems to think that surgery would be an instant fix and was disappointed that he wasn't going to cut on her. Crazy, I know. You can't tell her anything sometimes.
No major plans for the weekend. We're having another yard sale in Opp on Saturday but other than that, we're taking it pretty easy. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me at work and I need some down time. Between work and all three of us being sick at different times, DeAnne and I are both pretty run down. Hopefully next week we can recuperate some.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Friday, October 14, 2011
Just Because
Not really much to report on for this post but I promised to try and come up with two posts this week, so here's the second one.
Harrison seems to be much better. He's not all the way there but he's pretty close to being 100% again. He woke up early Thursday morning. It's the first time he's done that in a while and it definitely took a toll on DeAnne and I both. Neither of us were doing very good Thursday morning. In fact, when I left the house, I grabbed what I thought were my keys. My keys were in fact in my bag already and I grabbed DeAnne's keys, took Harrison to daycare and then went to work only to have DeAnne call me about five minutes after I got into my office asking if I had her keys. So I had to run back to the house and while not "late" to work, she was later than she likes to get there. Good start to the day, that was.
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A week or two ago I started using a service to make posts to my facebook page when new blog posts go up. I'm not sure that it's working very well though. I'm not seeing them in my feed and I'm curious if any of you are seeing the facebook posts in your feeds. If you could like the link or comment here and let me know if you're seeing it, I'd appreciate it.
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Harrison seems to be much better. He's not all the way there but he's pretty close to being 100% again. He woke up early Thursday morning. It's the first time he's done that in a while and it definitely took a toll on DeAnne and I both. Neither of us were doing very good Thursday morning. In fact, when I left the house, I grabbed what I thought were my keys. My keys were in fact in my bag already and I grabbed DeAnne's keys, took Harrison to daycare and then went to work only to have DeAnne call me about five minutes after I got into my office asking if I had her keys. So I had to run back to the house and while not "late" to work, she was later than she likes to get there. Good start to the day, that was.
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A week or two ago I started using a service to make posts to my facebook page when new blog posts go up. I'm not sure that it's working very well though. I'm not seeing them in my feed and I'm curious if any of you are seeing the facebook posts in your feeds. If you could like the link or comment here and let me know if you're seeing it, I'd appreciate it.
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We may actually not have much going on this weekend. It's probably the calm before the storm. November is looking like it's going to be crazy. The big goal for the weekend is to get the grass cut. I'm not really sure when the last time I cut it was and it's looking pretty shabby. It's going to take a while to get it done and looking good and I'm probably going to have to sweep up the clippings after I'm done. It'll be a long morning, but once I'm done, I'm hoping it won't need it again until the spring.
--Paul
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Infectious
I took last Friday off so that I could take Harrison to the doctor. He woke up with a snotty nose and crusty stuff around his ear. He had been acting kind of off all week and we figured it'd be better to go ahead and take him to the doctor instead of trying to ride through the weekend and him get worse. Ear infection was the verdict. He's pretty young to be having one already and that kind of concerns us. DeAnne had to have tubes as a child although I was fine. Hopefully he doesn't have his mother's immune system and allergies.
Saturday, Harrison turned 3 months old. We celebrated by taking his 3 month old pictures. They went pretty well considering he wasn't feeling the greatest in the world.
As if being sick for pictures wasn't enough, we had baby dedication service at church Sunday morning, so he was sick for that too. He did pretty good there too though other than getting hungry while we were all standing up front at the end.
The other major event on Sunday was that the antibiotics he's taking for the ear infection took hold. On the way home from eating lunch, he blew out his diaper and got all kinds of good stuff all over his car seat. I had to strip the car seat and briefly considered just taking him to the sink in the kitchen and using the little spray nozzle to clean him off, but in the end opted for the traditional methods. DeAnne was privileged enough to get to miss this little episode as she was off shopping with her sister.
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Harrison seems to be improving a good bit. He was pretty happy this morning when he got up. Thankfully, despite being sick, he's still sleeping through the night. It's hard to believe that either of us were ever able to function when he was getting up twice a night and that entire time now seems like some kind of weird, hazy dream. Sleeping through the night is definitely nice and we are very thankful that he's sleeping so well. In fact, now that he's three months old and doing so well, we're going to be moving him from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room. I just have to move the motion monitor to the crib and we'll be good to go. It's going to be kind of strange not having him in the room with us, but we want to move him to his room before he gets too used to being in the room with us.
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Saturday, Harrison turned 3 months old. We celebrated by taking his 3 month old pictures. They went pretty well considering he wasn't feeling the greatest in the world.
As if being sick for pictures wasn't enough, we had baby dedication service at church Sunday morning, so he was sick for that too. He did pretty good there too though other than getting hungry while we were all standing up front at the end.
The other major event on Sunday was that the antibiotics he's taking for the ear infection took hold. On the way home from eating lunch, he blew out his diaper and got all kinds of good stuff all over his car seat. I had to strip the car seat and briefly considered just taking him to the sink in the kitchen and using the little spray nozzle to clean him off, but in the end opted for the traditional methods. DeAnne was privileged enough to get to miss this little episode as she was off shopping with her sister.
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Harrison seems to be improving a good bit. He was pretty happy this morning when he got up. Thankfully, despite being sick, he's still sleeping through the night. It's hard to believe that either of us were ever able to function when he was getting up twice a night and that entire time now seems like some kind of weird, hazy dream. Sleeping through the night is definitely nice and we are very thankful that he's sleeping so well. In fact, now that he's three months old and doing so well, we're going to be moving him from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room. I just have to move the motion monitor to the crib and we'll be good to go. It's going to be kind of strange not having him in the room with us, but we want to move him to his room before he gets too used to being in the room with us.
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Looks like I might actually be able to get two posts in this week. This one is going to go up Wednesday morning and I hope to have another for Friday morning.
--Paul
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Troubles (Can't Bring Me Down)
Friday afternoon was met by a new level of diaper explosion. We got home from daycare and I picked Harrison up out of the car seat only to have it drip down my hand and onto the floor. I had to strip and wash the car seat and DeAnne somehow got the boy clean without giving him a bath. I don't really know how she did it, but the clothes he had on had to go straight into the wash. Mind-blowing is probably a poor choice of term considering the situation, but I'm having difficulty coming up with a better description.
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The yard sale went really well. The family did good overall and considering we basically went down to the storage building and packed up a bunch of junk at the last minute, we did good, coming out with about $140. It was a pretty fun day hanging out with the family. Harrison seemed to enjoy sitting outside and with the weather being so great, it was hard to not stay outside all day. He got fussy towards the end of the day but it was mainly because he didn't take a good nap all day. There was just too much going on and too many people passing him around. He slept through the night though so it worked to our advantage there at least.
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Sleeping through the night is awesome. Except when the diaper doesn't hold up through the night. Then you kind of almost wish he would have woken up just long enough for you to change the diaper before it reached the point where you had to strip the bedding and the baby and wipe him down as best you can in the morning when you're already running late.
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There's been a good bit of new music to have come out the past couple of weeks. Two of the albums I've picked up are "The Reckoning" by Needtobreathe and "Vice Verses" by Switchfoot. Both are pretty incredible albums and I highly recommend getting both of them, especially the Needtobreathe album. If you don't already own all of their stuff, do yourself a favor and go get it. They're probably one of the best bands out there right now.
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DeAnne's back continues to hurt, possibly even getting worse the last couple of days. We're trying to see if we can get her appointment with the specialist in Birmingham moved up. Thankfully, Harrison has decided to start sleeping through the night on a more consistent basis. He's made it through at least two or three nights out of the last five. However, he's also gotten clogged up along the way. The last dirty diaper we had was Monday night. It's now Wednesday morning. Hopefully he'll go today. We've given him gas drops and sugar water. Prune juice is next on the list if something doesn't move at daycare today. He's also had some crusty mess in his ear off and on the past couple of days. Hopefully it's not the start of an ear infection.
So, it's been kind of a crazy week. On top of it all, Emma was having stomach problems earlier this week and then yesterday one of the cats had a hairball issue. I guess the animals were feeling left out and decided they had to throw in on the chaos.
--Paul
Friday, September 30, 2011
Trippin'
So as I mentioned last week, I had to go up to Minneapolis for a business trip. The trip went well; we got everything done we had hoped to do and we were even able to come home a day early. The only real hiccup with the trip was that our luggage didn't make it onto our connecting flight in Atlanta on the way up. We had a pretty short layover to begin with and while we were on time landing, there was some kind of gate snafu and we ended up taxing around the airport for around 20 minutes. Once we de-boarded and checked for our connection, we barely had enough time to briskly walk two concourses down to where the connection was leaving from. We got to the gate about the time they were beginning to board our zone. We kind of assumed it would be a stretch for our luggage to make it on the plane and when we landed, I already had a couple of emails saying our bags didn't make the flight. We checked with the counter and the lady was able to tell us that they were on the next flight up and then set it up to have them delivered to our hotel that evening. When we got back to the hotel from eating dinner, the luggage was waiting on us.
While things in Minnesota went well, things on the home front quickly went downhill. Namely, DeAnne's back went out on her again. She had mentioned it hurting some the Saturday before I left, but during the week, it took her completely down. She went to the doctor and he gave her some stuff to calm it down and then ordered an MRI. We got that done Monday morning and got the results Tuesday afternoon.
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The MRI showed that DeAnne has spinal stenosis. She's going to need surgery, it's just a matter of when. Be praying that the pain she's in currently will subside and that we'll at least be able to put off surgery until around Christmas so that she doesn't have to miss much work.
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No sooner than I posted about Harrison's sleep patterns than he blows it all away by sleeping through the night Tuesday night. He went down about 9:30 and didn't budge until about 4:45 the next morning. DeAnne and I were both pretty excited. In fact, I bragged on him so much that he had to show me who was boss and proceeded to get up twice on Wednesday night. Oh, well. Like I said though; maybe we're getting closer.
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The only plans for this weekend is the yard sale that DeAnne's family is having at her grandmother's house in Opp. We've got some stuff we're going to take over there but we haven't really had time to dig through all the stuff we have in storage to see what really needs to go.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
While things in Minnesota went well, things on the home front quickly went downhill. Namely, DeAnne's back went out on her again. She had mentioned it hurting some the Saturday before I left, but during the week, it took her completely down. She went to the doctor and he gave her some stuff to calm it down and then ordered an MRI. We got that done Monday morning and got the results Tuesday afternoon.
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The MRI showed that DeAnne has spinal stenosis. She's going to need surgery, it's just a matter of when. Be praying that the pain she's in currently will subside and that we'll at least be able to put off surgery until around Christmas so that she doesn't have to miss much work.
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No sooner than I posted about Harrison's sleep patterns than he blows it all away by sleeping through the night Tuesday night. He went down about 9:30 and didn't budge until about 4:45 the next morning. DeAnne and I were both pretty excited. In fact, I bragged on him so much that he had to show me who was boss and proceeded to get up twice on Wednesday night. Oh, well. Like I said though; maybe we're getting closer.
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The only plans for this weekend is the yard sale that DeAnne's family is having at her grandmother's house in Opp. We've got some stuff we're going to take over there but we haven't really had time to dig through all the stuff we have in storage to see what really needs to go.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wow
This post is actually being written over the course of several days during different chances I've had to get to it. It's crazy and it's probably going to be long, but this is the new format I'm probably going to be faced with if I intend to keep blogging. I'm probably going to start writing blogs ahead of time and then scheduling them to post automatically when I'm done with one. If I can build up a few, then I'll be able to miss a day or two and it not be a big deal. It's just going to take some work to get it rolling.
Harrison hasn't so much changed the morning routine as the combination of having Harrison and DeAnne working has changed the morning routine. We usually get cracking around 5:15 instead of my old 5:45 and DeAnne's old 6:15 and whereas I used to start getting dressed and walking the dog at 6:30, I now have to be getting in the car at 6:30 if I'm going to get Harrison dropped off and still get to work by 7:00. DeAnne and I have talked a little about me changing my work schedule. PowerSouth lets us set what time we come in and leave so long as we're putting in 8 hours of work each day and the schedule doesn't change every day. We may try me going in at 7:30. The only downside is that I would have to work to 4:00. I know 30 minutes isn't a huge change, but we're so used to both of us being home by 4:00 that it would pretty drastically alter our routine in the evenings.
Of course, I'm not so sure that any of this is an issue once Harrison starts sleeping through the night. We've gotten close a couple of times, but he's still getting up about once each night. His schedule does seem to have changed some the past couple of nights though. He was going down around 9:00/9:30, getting up around 2:00/2:30 and then getting up around 5:30/6:00. The past couple of nights he's gone to bed around 8:00/8:30, gotten up around 11:00/11:30 and then again around 4:00, although today he made it all the way to 5:00. The new schedule wouldn't be awful as long as he can stretch that last stint out to 5:00 or 5:30. I think we're on the cusp of making it through the night, we're just not quite there yet.
--Paul
Harrison hasn't so much changed the morning routine as the combination of having Harrison and DeAnne working has changed the morning routine. We usually get cracking around 5:15 instead of my old 5:45 and DeAnne's old 6:15 and whereas I used to start getting dressed and walking the dog at 6:30, I now have to be getting in the car at 6:30 if I'm going to get Harrison dropped off and still get to work by 7:00. DeAnne and I have talked a little about me changing my work schedule. PowerSouth lets us set what time we come in and leave so long as we're putting in 8 hours of work each day and the schedule doesn't change every day. We may try me going in at 7:30. The only downside is that I would have to work to 4:00. I know 30 minutes isn't a huge change, but we're so used to both of us being home by 4:00 that it would pretty drastically alter our routine in the evenings.
Of course, I'm not so sure that any of this is an issue once Harrison starts sleeping through the night. We've gotten close a couple of times, but he's still getting up about once each night. His schedule does seem to have changed some the past couple of nights though. He was going down around 9:00/9:30, getting up around 2:00/2:30 and then getting up around 5:30/6:00. The past couple of nights he's gone to bed around 8:00/8:30, gotten up around 11:00/11:30 and then again around 4:00, although today he made it all the way to 5:00. The new schedule wouldn't be awful as long as he can stretch that last stint out to 5:00 or 5:30. I think we're on the cusp of making it through the night, we're just not quite there yet.
--Paul
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Great White North
It's not actually white up here yet, but I'm in Minneapolis for the week doing work for a hardware upgrade that we have coming up. It was always hard to leave DeAnne before, but it's been really hard to leave her and Harrison. Things went really well yesterday and if they continue on at the current rate we may get to leave early.
The one really interesting thing that's happened on this trip was that our luggage didn't make the connection in Atlanta so when we got to Minneapolis we didn't have our bags. It worked out though. Delta knew the bags didn't make it and had them brought to our hotel. It took a while, but when we got back to the hotel from dinner, they were waiting on us.
Maybe I'll be able to blog this Thursday and hopefully it'll be from home.
--Paul
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
MeMaw
This past Sunday, my grandmother, "MeMaw", passed away. She was 75. She'll be laid to rest next to my grandfather, "PePaw", in Mobile this afternoon around 11:00.
MeMaw was many things: a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife and widow, friend, sister, aunt, an adopted mother to many and most of all, a Christian. Both of my grandmothers have always been great pillars of faith in my life. Without either of them, I'm not sure where I would be now.
MeMaw loved with a heart so big, she couldn't contain it. There were countless times I've met someone who knew her only to hear them tell stories of how she did things for them when no one else would; how she took care of children who needed taking care of; how she gave of herself so others could have.
Giving may be her biggest legacy. She wanted nothing more than for her children and grandchildren to have a better life than she had had. She worked long hours in a sewing factory when my father and uncle were young just to provide them with opportunities that she had never had. It was a trait she instilled in her sons. It's a trait that my father has instilled in me. To give all of one's self for your family to prosper, for you children to have better than you had.
She was proud. I remember that for many years her van had a front license plate that read: "Let me tell you about my grandchildren." She wouldn't just tell you about her grandchildren though. She would tell you about her boys, her grandchildren and anyone else that she had considered a child to her through the years. She was proud that her sons work as hard as they do and have done as well as they have to provide for their families. She was proud of her grandchildren and the things that I and my cousins have accomplished in our lives. She was proud of the things that the Lord had blessed her with and she was happy to share every blessing she could with anyone she came into contact with.
She could cook. I know no one's ever had a grandmother that couldn't cook. MeMaw came from such humble beginnings that she never wanted anyone to go without food. I don't know of a time I didn't step foot in her house when she didn't ask me if there was something I wanted to eat. She had two great specialties: sweet pickles and pound cake. Personally, I've never been a fan of pickles, but I've been told hers are some of the greatest ever made. And while I can't attest to the quality of her pickles, I can boldly declare that her pound cake is quite possibly the greatest thing ever made by human hands. I firmly believe that the Lord imparted MeMaw's pound cake recipe to her so that she could share a little taste of Heaven with anyone she came into contact with.
It's been a little over two years since MeMaw was first diagnosed with cancer. After surgery and treatments, she was given a clean bill of health and she had a good life for the next 18 months or so. After the beginning of the year this year, her health deteriorated quickly and she spent the past 6 months or so struggling just to eat, sleep and be comfortable. After my grandfather passed away, she missed him terribly and has never quite been the same without him. I have no doubt that they are now standing together worshipping the Lord in Heaven. She's finally at rest; no pain, no suffering, no tears and while we who are left behind mourn our loss, I have no doubt that all of Heaven rejoices at their gain. I rejoice with those Angels and Saints knowing that my grandmother is finally home.
This past Christmas DeAnne and I announced our pregnancy to each family as we had Christmas with them. We gave each of our parents a set of baby booties. When my dad opened his set, it took MeMaw about half a second to realize what they meant. I don't think anyone across all of our family caught on as quick as she did. I also think she had possibly the best reaction and the biggest smile. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the last time I ever saw her that happy. I really think she held on as long as she did in part to be able to see Harrison be born. We took him to see her as often as we could and you could tell that it always brightened her spirits to see him. DeAnne and I took video of our parents opening those booties and MeMaw happened to be sitting next to Dad as he opened his. I wanted to share that video with you all so that you could have a memory of MeMaw that was made of pure joy.
--Paul
MeMaw was many things: a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife and widow, friend, sister, aunt, an adopted mother to many and most of all, a Christian. Both of my grandmothers have always been great pillars of faith in my life. Without either of them, I'm not sure where I would be now.
MeMaw loved with a heart so big, she couldn't contain it. There were countless times I've met someone who knew her only to hear them tell stories of how she did things for them when no one else would; how she took care of children who needed taking care of; how she gave of herself so others could have.
Giving may be her biggest legacy. She wanted nothing more than for her children and grandchildren to have a better life than she had had. She worked long hours in a sewing factory when my father and uncle were young just to provide them with opportunities that she had never had. It was a trait she instilled in her sons. It's a trait that my father has instilled in me. To give all of one's self for your family to prosper, for you children to have better than you had.
She was proud. I remember that for many years her van had a front license plate that read: "Let me tell you about my grandchildren." She wouldn't just tell you about her grandchildren though. She would tell you about her boys, her grandchildren and anyone else that she had considered a child to her through the years. She was proud that her sons work as hard as they do and have done as well as they have to provide for their families. She was proud of her grandchildren and the things that I and my cousins have accomplished in our lives. She was proud of the things that the Lord had blessed her with and she was happy to share every blessing she could with anyone she came into contact with.
She could cook. I know no one's ever had a grandmother that couldn't cook. MeMaw came from such humble beginnings that she never wanted anyone to go without food. I don't know of a time I didn't step foot in her house when she didn't ask me if there was something I wanted to eat. She had two great specialties: sweet pickles and pound cake. Personally, I've never been a fan of pickles, but I've been told hers are some of the greatest ever made. And while I can't attest to the quality of her pickles, I can boldly declare that her pound cake is quite possibly the greatest thing ever made by human hands. I firmly believe that the Lord imparted MeMaw's pound cake recipe to her so that she could share a little taste of Heaven with anyone she came into contact with.
It's been a little over two years since MeMaw was first diagnosed with cancer. After surgery and treatments, she was given a clean bill of health and she had a good life for the next 18 months or so. After the beginning of the year this year, her health deteriorated quickly and she spent the past 6 months or so struggling just to eat, sleep and be comfortable. After my grandfather passed away, she missed him terribly and has never quite been the same without him. I have no doubt that they are now standing together worshipping the Lord in Heaven. She's finally at rest; no pain, no suffering, no tears and while we who are left behind mourn our loss, I have no doubt that all of Heaven rejoices at their gain. I rejoice with those Angels and Saints knowing that my grandmother is finally home.
This past Christmas DeAnne and I announced our pregnancy to each family as we had Christmas with them. We gave each of our parents a set of baby booties. When my dad opened his set, it took MeMaw about half a second to realize what they meant. I don't think anyone across all of our family caught on as quick as she did. I also think she had possibly the best reaction and the biggest smile. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the last time I ever saw her that happy. I really think she held on as long as she did in part to be able to see Harrison be born. We took him to see her as often as we could and you could tell that it always brightened her spirits to see him. DeAnne and I took video of our parents opening those booties and MeMaw happened to be sitting next to Dad as he opened his. I wanted to share that video with you all so that you could have a memory of MeMaw that was made of pure joy.
--Paul
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
And So It Begins...
Up early this morning to make sure we have enough time to get ready and get out the door on schedule. We went down to the school for about an hour yesterday to make sure DeAnne had everything ready to go and where she wanted it.
We had a good weekend for the most part.
Saturday, DeAnne met Sara in Baker and picked Liam up. (Harrison and I were at home watching the Auburn game.) One of Sara's friends from Utah came to see her and so we took Liam for a couple of days and then DeAnne's mom has him until Wednesday, I think. It was interesting trying to take care of an 18-month old and a 2-month old at the same time, but it wasn't terribly difficult either. Liam's a lot of fun and as long as he gets his nap in, he's a really good kid. He just really needs that nap.
Harrison wasn't feeling good on Sunday. He was running a low-grade fever and had a stopped up nose. A little Tylenol broke the fever but it came back Sunday night. Thankfully, he didn't run one at all yesterday and his nose seemed to be better, but he got stopped up a little early this morning when he got up to eat. We're thinking maybe the weather changing so drastically had something to do with it and hopefully he'll get past the nose thing after last night.
Pray for us, and especially DeAnne, today.
--Paul
We had a good weekend for the most part.
Saturday, DeAnne met Sara in Baker and picked Liam up. (Harrison and I were at home watching the Auburn game.) One of Sara's friends from Utah came to see her and so we took Liam for a couple of days and then DeAnne's mom has him until Wednesday, I think. It was interesting trying to take care of an 18-month old and a 2-month old at the same time, but it wasn't terribly difficult either. Liam's a lot of fun and as long as he gets his nap in, he's a really good kid. He just really needs that nap.
Harrison wasn't feeling good on Sunday. He was running a low-grade fever and had a stopped up nose. A little Tylenol broke the fever but it came back Sunday night. Thankfully, he didn't run one at all yesterday and his nose seemed to be better, but he got stopped up a little early this morning when he got up to eat. We're thinking maybe the weather changing so drastically had something to do with it and hopefully he'll get past the nose thing after last night.
Pray for us, and especially DeAnne, today.
--Paul
Thursday, September 01, 2011
One Post Kind of Week
It's been a week to say the least.
If you're friends with me on or DeAnne on Facebook, then you already know that I had a stomach virus on Monday. It wasn't the worst one I've ever had, but it still wasn't pretty. I spent the day quarantined in the bedroom trying to make sure that neither DeAnne nor Harrison picked it up. So far, they seem to have avoided it and I've not really heard of anyone else that we were in contact with over the weekend being sick, so I've been wondering if it was something I ate. Who knows? Whatever it was, it was bad.
So that kept me down Monday. Tuesday morning I was feeling better, but I slept late and went in to work around 9:00, so that's why there wasn't a blog Tuesday.
Backtracking a little, we had a good weekend. I don't think we did anything Friday, but Saturday we went to Opp for our friends Charlie and Erin Robinson's daughter's third birthday party. We haven't seen Charlie and Erin in years and it was good to get to see them and catch up. Their little girl is precious and it's hard to imagine that in no time, Harrison will be that big.
Harrison went to daycare for the first time yesterday. He was only there from 8:00 to 11:30, but it was a lifetime for DeAnne. He's going to go for a whole day today. We're making a trial run. We got up and got going like we'll have to next week when DeAnne goes back to school. I'm going to take him and pick him up and DeAnne's going to try her best to stay occupied all day so she doesn't go get him early. He did good yesterday and I'm happy with the place he's going.
As to the weekend: We're going to have Liam overnight on Saturday. It'll be a fun little experiment to see if we can handle a toddler and a new born. Trial run for the next one, if you will. We haven't really seen much of Liam lately, so it'll be fun to have him over for a night. Maybe he won't destroy the house. We're going to have to spend Friday toddler-proofing as best we can.
I guess missing a day gets you a longer post. Should I consider going to one post per week or stick with two? Let me know.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
If you're friends with me on or DeAnne on Facebook, then you already know that I had a stomach virus on Monday. It wasn't the worst one I've ever had, but it still wasn't pretty. I spent the day quarantined in the bedroom trying to make sure that neither DeAnne nor Harrison picked it up. So far, they seem to have avoided it and I've not really heard of anyone else that we were in contact with over the weekend being sick, so I've been wondering if it was something I ate. Who knows? Whatever it was, it was bad.
So that kept me down Monday. Tuesday morning I was feeling better, but I slept late and went in to work around 9:00, so that's why there wasn't a blog Tuesday.
Backtracking a little, we had a good weekend. I don't think we did anything Friday, but Saturday we went to Opp for our friends Charlie and Erin Robinson's daughter's third birthday party. We haven't seen Charlie and Erin in years and it was good to get to see them and catch up. Their little girl is precious and it's hard to imagine that in no time, Harrison will be that big.
Harrison went to daycare for the first time yesterday. He was only there from 8:00 to 11:30, but it was a lifetime for DeAnne. He's going to go for a whole day today. We're making a trial run. We got up and got going like we'll have to next week when DeAnne goes back to school. I'm going to take him and pick him up and DeAnne's going to try her best to stay occupied all day so she doesn't go get him early. He did good yesterday and I'm happy with the place he's going.
As to the weekend: We're going to have Liam overnight on Saturday. It'll be a fun little experiment to see if we can handle a toddler and a new born. Trial run for the next one, if you will. We haven't really seen much of Liam lately, so it'll be fun to have him over for a night. Maybe he won't destroy the house. We're going to have to spend Friday toddler-proofing as best we can.
I guess missing a day gets you a longer post. Should I consider going to one post per week or stick with two? Let me know.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Another Week Down
Time continues to fly by. Harrison will be seven weeks old tomorrow. He starts daycare on Monday. Get ready for the tears.
The plan is to put him in for a half week next week to kind of ease all of us into it. He's going to go Monday, Wednesday and Friday and probably for just half days. Then on the next Tuesday, after Labor Day, DeAnne will start back to work. I'm sure everything will be fine, but DeAnne and I are understandably nervous about it all. Just pray that the Lord will give us peace about it and that everything will be fine. I'll let you know how it goes on Tuesday.
There's not much else going on. We're still getting up early. He was up at about 1:30 last night and then again at about 4:45 this morning. By the time I got him fed and changed this morning, it was almost 5:30, so I just went ahead and got a shower and got my day started. I guess that's just going to be the way it is until he starts sleeping longer at one time.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
The plan is to put him in for a half week next week to kind of ease all of us into it. He's going to go Monday, Wednesday and Friday and probably for just half days. Then on the next Tuesday, after Labor Day, DeAnne will start back to work. I'm sure everything will be fine, but DeAnne and I are understandably nervous about it all. Just pray that the Lord will give us peace about it and that everything will be fine. I'll let you know how it goes on Tuesday.
There's not much else going on. We're still getting up early. He was up at about 1:30 last night and then again at about 4:45 this morning. By the time I got him fed and changed this morning, it was almost 5:30, so I just went ahead and got a shower and got my day started. I guess that's just going to be the way it is until he starts sleeping longer at one time.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Up Early
Harrison decided that 4:45 was a good time to eat this morning, so as I type this, I've been up an hour already. He's doing really well overall though. He's still sleeping from about 10:00 to 2:00 and then he'll sleep from around 2:00 to somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00. You'll notice there's a bit of a spread on the latter. You just never know when he's going to be up. I think it mainly depends on how hard he sleeps the first time down. We've started giving him rice at night, but that doesn't seem to make a difference with the sleep time. I think we're just putting on more chunk. Anyway.
We had a good weekend. Sara, Mike and Liam came up so we spent the majority of our time in Kinston visiting with them. Mike's about to deploy again and he'll be gone until sometime around Christmas. He'll be flying this time, so he'll be in a bit more danger than before, so please pray for his safe return.
Outside of that, it was pretty laid back. I got up early with Harrison on Saturday and eventually he and DeAnne slept until about 10:30. She was glad for the sleep and I was happy to take care of things and let her get it.
Daycare is all set up and ready to go. We're actually going to send him three days next week just to ease us and him into it. It's hard to believe that we've got just a little under two weeks before DeAnne goes back to work and he starts daycare. It's going to be hard to leave him, but I'm excited for him to get to interact with other people and other kids or at least that's what I'm telling myself to make it easier on me.
See you Thursday,
--Paul
We had a good weekend. Sara, Mike and Liam came up so we spent the majority of our time in Kinston visiting with them. Mike's about to deploy again and he'll be gone until sometime around Christmas. He'll be flying this time, so he'll be in a bit more danger than before, so please pray for his safe return.
Outside of that, it was pretty laid back. I got up early with Harrison on Saturday and eventually he and DeAnne slept until about 10:30. She was glad for the sleep and I was happy to take care of things and let her get it.
Daycare is all set up and ready to go. We're actually going to send him three days next week just to ease us and him into it. It's hard to believe that we've got just a little under two weeks before DeAnne goes back to work and he starts daycare. It's going to be hard to leave him, but I'm excited for him to get to interact with other people and other kids or at least that's what I'm telling myself to make it easier on me.
See you Thursday,
--Paul
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Going on 6...
Six weeks, that is.
It's hard to believe our little man is already six weeks old tomorrow. It's been amazing to watch him over the past weeks and see all the changes that have happened just in that short period of time. He's an awesome little guy, for sure.
No real plans this weekend either. It's kind of nice just being able to relax and enjoy being a family. We've only got a little over two weeks before DeAnne goes back to work and he starts daycare, so we're trying to enjoy all we can while we can.
I had to feed the bugger when I got up this morning and it's later than I realized, so that's all I've got for today. I think he may be taking after his daddy on his sleep pattern. He seems to be a morning person so far, which is fine with me. DeAnne says that he's usually really awake and alert in the morning. Hopefully that bodes well for being able to get him up and ready for school down the road.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
It's hard to believe our little man is already six weeks old tomorrow. It's been amazing to watch him over the past weeks and see all the changes that have happened just in that short period of time. He's an awesome little guy, for sure.
No real plans this weekend either. It's kind of nice just being able to relax and enjoy being a family. We've only got a little over two weeks before DeAnne goes back to work and he starts daycare, so we're trying to enjoy all we can while we can.
I had to feed the bugger when I got up this morning and it's later than I realized, so that's all I've got for today. I think he may be taking after his daddy on his sleep pattern. He seems to be a morning person so far, which is fine with me. DeAnne says that he's usually really awake and alert in the morning. Hopefully that bodes well for being able to get him up and ready for school down the road.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Same Ol', Same Ol'
Not much to report. We had a pretty quiet weekend. I was on call, so we couldn't really go anywhere. I did get the grass cut Saturday. Mom and Sid also came down Saturday and visited for a while. It's always good to see them.
Harrison is doing well. He's hit a new sleep pattern where he'll go down between 9 and 10 then he's up between 1 and 2 and then up again around 4 or 5. The first two parts of the schedule aren't that bad, it's the up around 4 or 5 that's putting the hurt on us. Just this morning, he started getting fussy at 4 and DeAnne tried to get him back to sleep but around 5 he woke me up and I got up and changed and fed him. By the time I got him back down, it was already time for me to start getting ready, so I guess today I just get to be up from 5 on. If we could just get him to tack another hour onto the end of that second sleep so that he was up around 5 or 6, it'd be really awesome. One day.
--Paul
Harrison is doing well. He's hit a new sleep pattern where he'll go down between 9 and 10 then he's up between 1 and 2 and then up again around 4 or 5. The first two parts of the schedule aren't that bad, it's the up around 4 or 5 that's putting the hurt on us. Just this morning, he started getting fussy at 4 and DeAnne tried to get him back to sleep but around 5 he woke me up and I got up and changed and fed him. By the time I got him back down, it was already time for me to start getting ready, so I guess today I just get to be up from 5 on. If we could just get him to tack another hour onto the end of that second sleep so that he was up around 5 or 6, it'd be really awesome. One day.
--Paul
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wha?
I'm a little out of it this morning. Harrison's still doing fine, but I've been having trouble at work with a server and I've spent two days fighting with it. That on top of waking up once or twice a night is starting to take its toll on me evidently. DeAnne's not much better off. For the past week, even when Harrison sleeps, she's not getting much herself because of her back hurting.
DeAnne went up to Montgomery yesterday to see her back doctor. He gave her a shot and ordered some physical therapy. Hopefully that will get the nerve calmed down before she has to go back to work next month.
I'm on call, so no plans for the weekend. If it's not raining, I'll be cutting grass Saturday morning, but that's just par for the course. Have a good weekend.
--Paul
DeAnne went up to Montgomery yesterday to see her back doctor. He gave her a shot and ordered some physical therapy. Hopefully that will get the nerve calmed down before she has to go back to work next month.
I'm on call, so no plans for the weekend. If it's not raining, I'll be cutting grass Saturday morning, but that's just par for the course. Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
1 Month
Yesterday marked Harrison's one month birthday. It's hard to imagine that a month has gone by already. I'm guessing all you other parents out there are just nodding your heads and thinking how I have no idea how fast it will go.
What might almost make me feel older than my own son being a month old is my nephew, Liam. Sarah and Liam came up for a few days and when I saw him yesterday, I was pretty floored by how big he's gotten. The last time we saw him was when Harrison was born and things were so crazy then that I didn't really get to spend any time with him. A year ago, he was barely bigger than Harrison is now. Now, he's this massive little man running around and starting to talk. It's insane.
I had a good time keeping Harrison last Thursday and Friday. We hung out, watched some Shark Week that he had already watched once with his Mom, played in the floor, slept and just had a good time.
At some point during the three days DeAnne was sitting in meetings, her back flared up and she's been hurting pretty bad since about Friday. Needless to say, we didn't do much this past weekend. She called yesterday and has a doctor's appointment Wednesday. Hopefully they'll be able to give her something to calm the nerve down and get her some relief. It was about this time last year when her back flared up. I guess we're just going to have an incident about once a year where she has trouble with it.
That's about all I've got for today. See you Thursday.
--Paul
What might almost make me feel older than my own son being a month old is my nephew, Liam. Sarah and Liam came up for a few days and when I saw him yesterday, I was pretty floored by how big he's gotten. The last time we saw him was when Harrison was born and things were so crazy then that I didn't really get to spend any time with him. A year ago, he was barely bigger than Harrison is now. Now, he's this massive little man running around and starting to talk. It's insane.
I had a good time keeping Harrison last Thursday and Friday. We hung out, watched some Shark Week that he had already watched once with his Mom, played in the floor, slept and just had a good time.
At some point during the three days DeAnne was sitting in meetings, her back flared up and she's been hurting pretty bad since about Friday. Needless to say, we didn't do much this past weekend. She called yesterday and has a doctor's appointment Wednesday. Hopefully they'll be able to give her something to calm the nerve down and get her some relief. It was about this time last year when her back flared up. I guess we're just going to have an incident about once a year where she has trouble with it.
That's about all I've got for today. See you Thursday.
--Paul
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Daddy Day-care
The boys are hanging at the house for the next two days. Even though DeAnne's taking leave for the first month of school, she's going to the inservice days today and tomorrow. So, I'm taking off and putting in some quality man-time with Harrison. DeAnne's been gone five minutes. So far, so good.
I kid.
I don't really anticipate any problems. Harrison's a good baby and I've got all the major protocols down. Changing diapers, feeding and getting him to sleep. I think we're good to go.
One more easy weekend coming up. I got the yard work done Monday and Tuesday, so nothing to really do there. We really need to do something about our closet. Now that DeAnne's not pregnant, I'm sure there's a good bit of stuff that could be moved to storage. I know I've got some shirts I haven't worn in who knows how long that could stand to go to Christian Service also. Who knows if any of that will actually happen though.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
I kid.
I don't really anticipate any problems. Harrison's a good baby and I've got all the major protocols down. Changing diapers, feeding and getting him to sleep. I think we're good to go.
One more easy weekend coming up. I got the yard work done Monday and Tuesday, so nothing to really do there. We really need to do something about our closet. Now that DeAnne's not pregnant, I'm sure there's a good bit of stuff that could be moved to storage. I know I've got some shirts I haven't worn in who knows how long that could stand to go to Christian Service also. Who knows if any of that will actually happen though.
Have a good weekend.
--Paul
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Time Flies
Time is flying by it seems.
Harrison is now over three weeks old. He's not sleeping as well as he was a week ago. We're not really sure what's going on. My guess is that he's just decided that he's going to eat more often. Growth spurt, maybe? Who knows? Maybe he's just reached a point where he's more alert and awake more often. At any rate, it's kind of put a damper on our enthusiasm for his sleeping habits the past couple of nights. He did better last night, only getting up twice, but that's still a pretty big change from only getting up once like he was. He's still an awesome baby and we have nothing to complain about, we just seem to be getting a little dose of reality.
School starts back next week. DeAnne is going to be off for the first four weeks but she is going to go to the inservice days the last three days of this week. I'm going to stay home with Harrison and keep him while she's gone, but we're expecting her to be able to come home at lunch and then take him back to the school with her. It'll be a good test run to see how DeAnne does away from him and to see if she can get herself up and ready in the morning.
See you Thursday.
--Paul
Harrison is now over three weeks old. He's not sleeping as well as he was a week ago. We're not really sure what's going on. My guess is that he's just decided that he's going to eat more often. Growth spurt, maybe? Who knows? Maybe he's just reached a point where he's more alert and awake more often. At any rate, it's kind of put a damper on our enthusiasm for his sleeping habits the past couple of nights. He did better last night, only getting up twice, but that's still a pretty big change from only getting up once like he was. He's still an awesome baby and we have nothing to complain about, we just seem to be getting a little dose of reality.
School starts back next week. DeAnne is going to be off for the first four weeks but she is going to go to the inservice days the last three days of this week. I'm going to stay home with Harrison and keep him while she's gone, but we're expecting her to be able to come home at lunch and then take him back to the school with her. It'll be a good test run to see how DeAnne does away from him and to see if she can get herself up and ready in the morning.
See you Thursday.
--Paul
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Chill
The freezer is supposed to be delivered today. Hopefully it fits in the spot I cleared out the other night and hopefully we don't have any problems getting it in there. I guess we'll know soon enough.
In the midst of having a baby, NASA completed the space shuttle mission. One thing I'll always be able to remember about Harrison's birthday is that he was born the day of the final space shuttle launch. The shuttle program was literally as old as I am. The first launch was on April 12, 1981. Twentynine days before I was born. For as long as I've been alive, the space shuttle has been operating. I never got to see a launch. I've watched plenty of them on TV and the internet, but I always wanted to see one in person. Hopefully, it won't be long and we'll have a new generation of flights lifting off. Of course, private companies are already getting close to sending unmanned ships to the space station for supply drops. They expect the first of those flights to happen before the end of the year even. Maybe when NASA finally gets back into the game, we can take Harrison to the launch and he can have that memory that I never did.
Anyway. No major plans this weekend. I've got to get the grass cut at some point. It's approaching nightmare levels. All this rain has kicked it into high gear. I'm glad we're getting rain though. It's a lot better than being as dry as it was earlier. It was kind of nice not having to cut the grass though. Have a good weekend.
--Paul
In the midst of having a baby, NASA completed the space shuttle mission. One thing I'll always be able to remember about Harrison's birthday is that he was born the day of the final space shuttle launch. The shuttle program was literally as old as I am. The first launch was on April 12, 1981. Twentynine days before I was born. For as long as I've been alive, the space shuttle has been operating. I never got to see a launch. I've watched plenty of them on TV and the internet, but I always wanted to see one in person. Hopefully, it won't be long and we'll have a new generation of flights lifting off. Of course, private companies are already getting close to sending unmanned ships to the space station for supply drops. They expect the first of those flights to happen before the end of the year even. Maybe when NASA finally gets back into the game, we can take Harrison to the launch and he can have that memory that I never did.
Anyway. No major plans this weekend. I've got to get the grass cut at some point. It's approaching nightmare levels. All this rain has kicked it into high gear. I'm glad we're getting rain though. It's a lot better than being as dry as it was earlier. It was kind of nice not having to cut the grass though. Have a good weekend.
--Paul
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