So....we are now moving forward with the moving process. And we are moving...... 15 minutes away! That's right! We are staying in Dallas! We feel really good about it and are looking forward to building a life here. After living in 500 square feet for almost 3 months this is one of the few times in my life that I am actually happily anticipating the moving process. :-)
The new apartment is roughly double the size of where we are currently living. The downsides are a tiny oven, its older and has older appliances (but really- who cares?) and no washer and dryer connections. The washer and dryer are the biggest things I'll miss but I'm willing to sacrifice that for the space. Plus this apartment is the exact same price as the place that we are currently leasing. Unfortunately the larger of the two bedrooms with the larger closet is not the bedroom that has the private bath. Garrett and I will take the smaller bedroom with the smaller closet though and use the large closet in Ethan's room for miscellaneous storage, art supplies, etc. We'll have to child proof it of course! ;-) We have a bit of time before we have to worry about that though. :-)
Here are a few pictures from the past week! By the way.... he had another growth spurt and now weighs 15.5 lbs!
Ethan trying his hardest to get his entire fist into his mouth. It was funny to watch. :-)
Playing with Daddy
Smiley baby showing off his Totoro bib that his Grandmommy and Aunt Morgan picked out for him in Japan.
My little 3 month old! He's now at that chubby "Gerber baby" phase.
One of his new favorite activities- Blowing Raspberries! He gets so excited about it!
Spending some time in the sling! For some reason it really calms him down when he is having a fussy day. Dose this look like a boy who was recently inconsolably fussy? Swaddling has the same effect for him but the sling gives my arms a break. And on fussy days he gets plenty of holding!
Video of Ethan cooing/talking:
So....any bets on how long it'll take to pack/unpack boxes and setup house while tending to a newborn?
Ethan, when you were one week old we could not even imagine having a 3 month old but time has flown by! You have grown up so much and are full of smiles and are so expressive! I wonder if you will be a ham like your Daddy.
You have gotten pretty good at sleeping through the night! Most nights of the week you will sleep for about 5 hours sometime between the hours of Midnight and 6 AM. You now sleep in the co-sleeper inside your bed. Sometimes you will spend a few hours in the bed with us but most of the time you are in your own bed now.
As for eating you are pretty unpredictable right now. You usually eat 4 ounces but sometimes you only eat 3 and there are a few random times where you will eat 5, 6, or even 7 ounces. Also, you sometimes only go 2 hours between bottles and then other times you will go 4 or 5 hours. Most of the time you eat 4 ounces every 3 hours though.
You LOVE your bouncer! You get so excited as you bounce yourself and make the animals on the toy bar move! You also love your gymni and the wind chime toy that hangs from it.
You are pretty good at holding your head up now and you like to sit up and see the world. I often catch you trying to sit up when I am holding you in a reclined position or when you are laying down. You are doing your baby crunches and working on those abs!
Happy 3 months Ethan! You are getting to be so big!
Yep, that's right, Momma's got that camera in your face again!
Wearing Daddy's shoes for what might be the last time! They still fit but for how much longer I'm not sure!
Showing off your dimples. Daddy was surprised to see that I can make this face and get those dimples too!
After I left College Station I followed my Mom back up to Abilene to stay for Easter and Garrett drove in on Friday night to meet up with us. Saturday we looked for Easter eggs treasure hunt style! It was a lot of fun. My dad is pretty good at coming up with hiding places and writing out clues to lead you to them! On Sunday we went over to the Chamness' house (Hailey's parents) for Easter lunch.
Here's Garrett after having to spend a week away from Ethan and I. He looks glad to have his baby boy back!
Sweet sleeping bunny... I mean baby. :-) He loves being swaddled! He can be super fussy one moment and then moments after being swaddled he will be all smiles!
Baby's first Easter! Getting him dressed for Church.
Ethan asleep in his car seat. He slept all the way through Church and through most of Easter lunch. My dad said that the reason Ethan was sleeping so peacefully in Church is because it wasn't that long ago that he was with the angels and that the singing makes him feel at home. Definitely choked me up a bit. :-)
Uncle Adam and Aunt Hailey with their nephew Ethan! Adam wanted to know why Ethan had shoes on. I'm pretty sure Hailey understood why!
Wow....so much has happened since my last blog post that it's hard to know where to begin! I'm sure I'll end up forgetting something. It has been an emotional topsy turvy few weeks!
First off, there were all of the emotions about going back to work and Ethan starting daycare. Just as soon as I had worked through those....
I quit my job. I found out that Hubby's job contract got extended another three months, so it no longer made sense for me to go back to College Station to work until the end of his contract. So then I had to adjust again to the fact that I would now NOT be going back to work... (I'm so fickle)
So we then gave our apartment complex notice that we would indeed be moving out at the end of the month (our short term lease is going to be up) and we started looking for a larger apartment. But then....
My husband was contacted by a recruiter at a big animation company in California. Three interviews later we are now waiting for the outcome. We have been told that we should know by the end of the week. So apartment hunting has been put on hold!
In the meantime...while I was in College Station working for my first and last day of work I also spent a couple of days tying up loose ends (eye doctor, pediatrician appointment etc) and packing boxes. Not sure where I am packing for...I just know that we are moving- Somewhere!
I just can't wait until the dust has settled and we know where we are moving to, have an apartment and have our boxes at that location. I am tired of feeling transient and am ready to feel stable again. I know its only been a few months that things have been up in the air (all of Ethan's life) but I'm ready for the permanence that I felt when we were in College Station. When I went back for my last day of work it felt sooo good to punch the "Home" button my GPS and navigate back to College Station. As soon as I arrived in town everything was familiar. And when I walked through the house it brought tears to my eyes to see our household goods setup. It felt weird at first since its been two months since I've been there, but as soon as I walked into our bedroom and saw our wooden "M" on the wall it just felt like HOME. I can't wait to have our new home setup again. I'm tired of camping out with limited kitchen goods in our 500 sq ft apartment. :-)
We are truly blessed that Garrett has had multiple job interviews and even more so that he is currently employed at a company where he looks forward to going to work every day so I'm not really complaining about the job choices facing us. I know that no matter how things work out, they will be for the best and we will be happy. The part that is driving me crazy is the back and forth with all of the decisions, the emotions that come with it and waiting for an unknown outcome. We may not even have multiple choices and it may be a moot point, but we have had to play "what if" and run through the scenarios just in case because our time frame that we have to work with on making a decision is pretty small.
Meanwhile, Ethan is oblivious to all of the decisions his parents are making and is busy working on what babies do best- GROWING!
He is now 12 weeks old and 13.5 lbs! I had a piece of paper that had his length written on it, but I've misplaced it during the packing. All I know is that he is 75th percentile in both weight and length and in the 50th percentile for his head circumference. And he has filled out! His once skinny little baby legs are now chubby! Its super cute. :-)
Also, Ethan has started sleeping through the night a few times a week. One time it was in his own bed. Well, co-sleeper placed INSIDE his crib. That's right, we faked him out :-)
Ethan has also started giving what we call "full body smiles". Yes, it really is as cute as it sounds. He gets so excited that he curls his whole body up while he gives a big gummy smile. Trying to capture it on film, but I don't have it yet! Maybe I should try the video camera...
Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks!
Spring has sprung! Trees at our apartment in Dallas.
