Bonus Pictures!

Kate has a monopoly on the camera. Ergo I have a couple of new posts that will have to wait until this afternoon...one of the is a video...so you'll have to wait. Then again I'm guessing most people reading this are working during the day, so maybe you won't have to wait that long. Okay, on to the pictures. These are a few recent pics taken with my cell phone. Sorry if the quality is poor.

Lea's case of the Mondays...every Monday

Whenever the Sunday wraps up I find myself staring into the face of another week of sitting on the coach and attempting to get as much done as possible in an hours time. (I can't remember if I posted this or not. I only have about an hour or an hour and a half to get anything done during most normal days. This is during Lea's "good" nap. It comes in the morning, about 30 minutes or so after her first feeding. I've become skilled at quickly and quietly getting my chores completed. I've discovered that it's difficult to consistently get anything done while the kid is awake. Back to the joy that is Monday)

Yesterday reminded me of a quote from the legendary Office Space.

Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday and you're not feeling real well, does anyone ever say to you, "Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?" Lawrence: No. No, man. &%$#, no, man. I believe you'd get your %^* kicked sayin' something like that, man.

Okay that was gratuitous. I just wanted to post a quote from Office Space.

Let's examine the average Monday for Lea.

6 am- Wake up as soon as Kate (Mom) shuts the garage door.

6:05 am- Smile at dad time. (best part of the day)

6:10 am- First feeding.

6:30-7:00 am- Play time. (More happy baby time)

7:00 am- Sleep. (I hustle to get as much done as possible--attempting to make mom happy)

8:00 am- Awake. (Every other day she wakes up happy. Monday's naps typically end with shouting...and not from me)

8:15-8:30- I attempt to hold her off from eating right after her nap. 99% of the time I fail. Lea's shouting trumps...well...anything I do. So the second feeding commences.

9:00am- Drop off at daycare. I get to go lift. (Third best part of the day)

10:30ish am- Pick up from daycare. Screaming. Angry at dad. Angry at Jenn (daycare provider). Angry at the world.

10:35 am- I for some reason think since I failed to hold her off of eating earlier in the day, I would be able to successfully calm her down at this time. I wish I was joking. You can guess the result.

10:40 am- Feeding.

1:00-1:30 pm- Feeding. Getting grumpy.

1:40 pm- Angry after feeding. Refusing to take a nap. I get frustrated.

1:45 pm- Lea in car seat. I find a Target (usually Ankeny) that takes long enough to get to for her to fall asleep.

2:00-3:00 pm- I attempt to find enough to look at to keep me entertained while walking Lea around so she sleeps.

3:30 pm- Back home.

3:40 pm- Awake. More than likely angry.

4:00 pm- Feeding...again. For the non-parents out there, you do need to feed kids more than once a day. Crazy.

5:00 pm- Mom returns home. I rejoice. (Lea calms down for some crazy reason)

Yesterday was great. From 4-5 should slept for me as long as I rocked her mobile bed. If I moved, or went to the bathroom, she'd wake up. So there I sat, rocking the bed until Kate came home. Awesome.

This is why I get nothing done.

Couple of things

So post number 4 today.

Couple of things that I forgot earlier today.

While in the hotel Lea rolled over multiple times. The only catch is that she was on a bed, not the floor. The bed have a little give that allowed her to get over her shoulder. It was pretty funny. She'd roll over and get mad that she was stuck on her belly. I'd help her out, and she'd roll over again starting the whole process over.

The basement is finished. The carpet is in and looks great. Now we are waiting for our furniture to come in. It was supposed to be in on June, 6. It's now June 13. We wait.

Until next time. It's been real.

Lea in Galena

I need everyone to call my wife and tell her thank you. She allowed us to impulsively set off on an adventure this past weekend. I've been climbing the walls this summer for something to do. Grad school is done and babysitting has commenced. In a previous post I stated that I was going to be playing video games and reading all summer. My daughter has put a kink in my plans. She is not always happy just laying between feedings. Sometimes she wants to be held, sometimes she wants to be paid attention to, sometimes she's angry and has no reason for it. Lately she's been eating like a horse. (I feed her, she gets mad, I feed her more, she gets mad, I feed her one more time, and she gets happy)

What I'm getting at--I've needed something to do that will include the kid. I took her to the mall this past week (ran into a former student which was cool. Come on former students, randomly walk around malls in Des Monies so I can run into you) which went very well. Lea loved the mall. Happily jabbered the entire time. Flirted with the salespeople. It was great.

So Kate and I (spurred by my good friend Dr. Jesse's suggestion) have been discussing taking a vacation with Lea. Thursday night we were deciding when we should embark. Kate offhandedly mentioned that this weekend would work (she had Friday off). Being an wannabe impulsive person, I jumped on the idea. To shorten the already too long story, we decided to take a test-vacation. Short distance, weekend in length, collect data of how Lea does, results would allow us to gauge how she'll do with a longer trip.

In short, Lea did fantastic. We took her to Galena, IL. The trip was only three hours long, and she slept the whole way. We kept her in Dubuque, IA, which she was fine with. We took her to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium on Friday. See picture below. We then spent most of Saturday in Galena. She was happy for the entire time, expect our choice of lunch. She wanted the entire restaurant to know who she was. Once we left and got her outside she was happy again. Lea got to see President U.S. Grant's house and loads of goofy little shops in Galena. We were very happy with our munchkin--and I didn't even mention that she slept 10 hours straight both nights in the hotel.

Our conclusions: we will be talking a longer, multi-state, multi-stop trip. We are very excited.

The following are pictures from our trip. They are in reverse order, and I'm too lazy to correct them. Deal with it. I know you're only reading this to see pictures of the cute kid.




Picture of the family taken in front of the mighty Mississippi. (taken by stranger)




Lea and I in front of President Grant's house.





Lea and I in front of a statue of Mrs. Grant. The representation of Mrs. Grant is not flattering.



Lea and I about to get eaten by a mammoth catfish. The catfish looked even bigger in person.

Lea at 4 Months

Friday Lea had her four month well check. She's (more or less) doubled her birth weight (12 lb, 5 oz), and continues to stretch (24 and 3/4 inches). The doc was pleased with her following her percentiles on the dot. He did pull up her BMI (which I hate--I mean look at me, I'm short..err average height...and stout. BMI tells me that I'm going to be dead in a month or two. BMI tells me I should weigh 160 lbs. Are ya kiddin' me. Stupid BMI) and just laughed, "Well, she's tall and skinny."

She also received her second round of shots. This time I was prepared for her reaction. No laughing by me. Kate (Momma of Lea) mentioned that I laughed to the nurse. The nurse made mention of some people laughing because they are nervous. I stated that I did not laugh because of nerves, I laughed because it was funny. Sorry, point being shots went well. Lea took them like a champ and was laughing at her ladybug friend by the time we left. (Lea's ladybug friend hangs on her car seat. It has replaced the ceiling fan as her best friend in the world. See previous post--Lea talks to her ladybug nearly the entire time she's in the car and she gets loud. Can't wait 'till she's a teenager. Awesome)

Lea Jabbers

I'm posting on three topics to today, the first of which goes along with the video above. I almost forgot about this post until Lea began jabbering away at her hangy toys on her activity mat. About three weeks ago the jabbers came on full force out of the little one. She didn't start "talking" three weeks ago, but she really hasn't shut up since then. The above video is just a snip-it of her chattiness. You might need to turn up the volume a bit to hear her over the TV. The "talking" starts around the five second mark. To interpret for the public, she's giving us a grumpy chat--probably hungry, needing a diaper change, or both. Usually this kind of speak is followed by hollering. (me hollering at Kate to pick up her kid...because she's only mine when she's an angel)

Basement's nearly complete

So we know that no one really cares about the none-Lea posts, but we're going to continue to share the photos of the basement finishing progress. So there! While it has been sitting idle for the last couple of weeks, the electricians are coming on Monday and the carpet is getting installed on Wednesday. Hooray! The man-cave will be here soon!