Daddy's boy

Sometimes John Henry is exactly like his daddy.

Graphic t-shirt - check

Camo shorts - check

Love of Auburn - check

 

Yep, definitely Daddy's boy.

I'm so proud

I am the first to admit I can be a clean freak.  It really only applies to the space within my own house.  I'm not one of those people that wants to clean other people's houses or is bothered if somewhere outside of my house is messy or dirty.  It's just a personal space thing.  As a parent, you wonder what random quirks you will pass on to your child.  Based on John Henry's recent actions, I may have passed on a little bit of my cleaning obsession.  He's pretty good about cleaning up his toys, putting his dirty clothes in the laundry basket, and wiping up his messes.  Nothing too crazy, just the basics of picking up after yourself.  However, he's really taking a liking to vacuuming.  I mean he really, really likes it.  He screams in delight when I pull out either of our vacuums (yes we have two) and wants to do it. We actually fight over the vacuum sometimes.  I don't have great pictures to document his new found love but I do have the two below.

Is it funny that I'm proud of the vacuum obsession and Jay is proud of John Henry's redneck look?  Jay calls this redneck vacuuming.

    

Daycare Fun

I've been pretty vocal about how much we love John Henry's daycare.  The actual facility itself isn't anything special but we LOVE the people who work there.  They have been great to us and they love our son without question.  Sometimes we worry that they spoil him too much but we quickly get over it.  Our favorite teacher, Miss Briana, has become a member of our family.  She stays with John Henry when we are out of town and will always come over and help us out in a second if we ask.  She's always playing with him and sends me pictures now and then to make me smile.  Here are some that were sent recently:

John Henry and his daycare buddy Brooks.  These two have been trouble since they were in the infant room together.  I have a feeling they will continue to create ciaos for the next few years...

John Henry hamming it up for the camera.

John Henry with his Miss Briana.  Or as he calls her, Bri.  

Maternity Photos

It's funny.  There are a few things I've done this time around that I didn't do when I was pregnant with John Henry.  I receive the weekly updates from babycenter.  I always have second breakfast with this baby.  I had maternity photos taken.  I wasn't going to do maternity photos but the opportunity came up and I really wanted to get a picture of John Henry kissing my belly. 

 

I was very nervous and didn't know what to expect.  Up until taking the pictures, maternity photos brought up the image of a naked celebrity, wearing a crazy over sized necklace, sitting in a awkward position, on the cover of a magazine.  None of that sounded appealing to me.

 

Thankfully that's not how my maternity photos were.  The pictures were taken by Stacey De Martini who is the sweetest and most prepared person.  She brought everything we needed and did a great job.  She had to work with John Henry and Lady and it didn't seem to phase her a bit.  It was funny, Lady wanted to be in the picture, John Henry did not.  So typical.

 

Below are some of my favorites:

 

 





This picture totally captures John Henry's mood.  He liked Stacy a lot.  He just didn't want to do the pictures.

The belly shot

At least someone kissed the baby!

 

Kissing our baby - at least the baby for the next 3 weeks.  Then he becomes the older brother.  So crazy!

Once the baby is born we're doing newborn photos with Stacey.  She had all these great little hats and I loved the one with the star on it.  The baby will wear it for one of the newborn photos.

 

Jay appeased me and jumped in a few shots.  He really does not like to be in pictures, especially posed pictures.  Thanks babe!

 

 

And here's the belly shot.  Or should I say crotch shot?  This is the only time we were able to get John Henry really trying to kiss the baby.  For the first time in my life I was too tall.  Oh well, at least we tried.  It's still my favorite picture.

 

If anyone needs a photographer, I HIGHLY recommend Stacey.  Her email address is staceyjdemartini@gmail.com and her phone number is 404-281-7913.  She's also on facebook (which I still know nothing about).

 

 

 

 

 

A follow up

As a follow up to my earlier post, yes, we consider 6 AM a normal wake up time for John Henry.  Let me be clear that we don't like it, but that seems to be the time his internal clock is set for every day.  You can put him to bed at 6:30 or 9 PM, and regardless he will wake up at 6 (on a good day).  I thought for a while that it was a phase and maybe he would go back to waking up at 7.  It's been 6 or 7 months so I doubt it's a phase.  I can only hope and pray that his current wake time of 5 AM IS a phase.  

Mr. Mom

I have to give a shout out to Jay.  He really is an amazing dad.  It's a quality that he and all of his friends share.  All the dads are hands on and very involved with their children.  However, Jay's role as a dad may be a little different than his friends because of my job.  We are 50/50 on some things (like taking JH to daycare and to the doctor) but he spends more play time in the evenings (since I have a fair amount of conference calls at night) and always gives John Henry his bath.  He also does 99% of the cooking in our house but that's because he's good at it and we would have to survive on Eggo's, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and baked potatoes if I was in charge of meals.

Apart from everything I've mentioned above, Jay gets a shout out because for the last 2 months our little devil has been waking up between 4 and 5:30 every morning.  And here's the kicker - HE DOESN'T FALL BACK ASLEEP.  Since his room is down the hall from us, we hear him crying (and sometimes screaming) and so we are all up.  Trust us, we've tried everything, including ignoring the crying.  But John Henry just cries until you come get him.  Be it 20 minutes or an hour.  And almost every single morning, Jay is the one that gets up with him and does his best to keep him quiet so I can get a little more sleep.  I can honestly say that Jay hasn't gotten to sleep in until 6 am more than 3 or 4 times in 2 months.  He's a saint and I don't think I would ever be able to manage without him.   

Lady the Labor Day Dog

It's Labor Day and that means we've had Lady for 5 years.  So crazy!!!  We adopted Lady when she was 3 months old over Labor Day weekend in 2007.  I always say it's one of the best decisions I ever made.  And it's a decision I made.  Not Jay.

The story is Jay and I witnessed an awful hit and run with a dog on I-75.  After seeing that awful accident we decided that we were going to adopt a dog and not buy one.  I had wanted a dog of my own for forever but Jay kept saying, "Wait until we have our own place.  Wait until we have a fence.  Wait until we are home more."  Well by Labor Day 2007 we had a home, a fenced in yard, and Jay worked from home.  Check, check, and check.  I did some research and found a few dogs I was interested in.  Here was the link for Lady:  http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/9042479

The morning we went to look at Lady Jay did say, "We are going to look but we are not bringing a puppy home."  I nodded but didn't seriously think he could look at a puppy and not bring it home.  Apparently he can.  We did go look at Lady.  She was scared to death and spent our entire visit shaking like a leaf in my lap.  It broke my heart and I was ready to take her home until Jay firmly reminded me that we were not coming home with a puppy.  I was upset.  Actually, the better word may be livid.  A quiet livid but livid none the less.  I had to hand Lady back to the rescue group and get in the car.  For the rest of the day I made my feelings known.  Later that day Jay left to watch college football with his buddies.  It was opening weekend and both or our teams were playing.  As Jay was leaving he told me that if I really wanted Lady I could go back and get her.  He didn't think I would do it.  Apparently he was wrong! About five minutes after he left I rushed back to the rescue group, scooped up Lady and we were back home within the hour.  I did wait a couple hours to call Jay to let him know that there was a small puppy sleeping at my feet.  

Needless to say, adopting Lady taught us something about each other.  Jay really will go visit a puppy and not cave in and bring it home.  I really will do something if you say I can.  It was a lesson we still remember today.  The bigger lesson we've learned over the past five years is that Lady is the best dog for our family.  We love her unconditionally and she is truly a family member.  Everyone said that our feelings and time for Lady would change once John Henry was born.  Yeah, not so much.  We love Lady just as much, make sure she gets her own time with us, and worry about her as much as we did before.  Lady will always have a special place in our hearts and here are some pictures of our first few weeks with her from 2007.

Our itty bitty puppy.  They said she'd be about 40 pounds full grown.  She's now 75.  Apparently it wasn't an estimated guess...

You would think Jay may have loved Lady slightly less since he wasn't completely ready to bring her home.  You would be wrong.  Within 24 hours of her being in our home it was clear that he was totally in love with her.

My sweet pumpkin.  Oh the days when I could pick her up!