Life Lately

Life has been very busy lately, and as I sit typing this, I realize I forgot to write Soren's 8 month post...woops. Work has been very busy for me lately, I've been putting in overtime and picking up shifts. I was also asked by my supervisor to be part of a committee that looks at internal policies and procedures to find strengths and areas for improvement... her invitation reasoning was because I have been able to identify 'system issues' quickly and work to improve them...lol. Hey, anything to get some brownie points with the boss, eh? I am excited and see the invite as an indicator that I'm doing well and am valued.

Along with my work being busy, the hubs has been completing orientation and such with his new school and is gearing up for registration in a couple weeks here. We're still working on getting some things figured out for getting it funded. For now though, he is stay-at-home daddy and is doing a great job! I think initially the change was difficult for him, especially given he's had pretty much no experience working with infants. There were a few S.O.S. calls I got at work, but since then, we've come up with a good plan and so far it's been working. I think the biggest thing was that Soren was getting bored in this environment and likes to be out and have a change of scenery (just like his momma). Once we've figured that out, Brian has been taking him shopping, on walks, to the YMCA, etc., and this has helped immensely. It's so fun for me to watch this amazing attachment forming between the two of them:



The last month has been CRAZY with the amount of things Soren is learning to do! On March 17th (8 months, 12 days), Soren was being a huge stinker in the bedtime hours. After a couple minutes of letting him cry (after 1 hr. of trying everything else), I went in his bedroom, and found this:

He pulled up on his crib for the first time! The next night Brian lowered the crib. Now Soren's been pulling up on anything and everything. He also has an attraction to any kind of cord. Because of this, we've had to build a barracade-of-sort during the day:
We're really needing to buy some baby gates, but funds are tight, so this works in the meantime.
We're finding that now he's mobile, we're quickly outgrowing this space. We won't be buying a house for a couple years, so we'll have to see what we're going to do when our lease ends in December.

Soren is also now using his walker, and I will guess that in the next 1-2 months he will be a walker.



We have also graduated from his baby bathtub, to filling up our regular bathtub. We bought a non-slip mat to put down, and so far he is loving all the extra space and bigger splashes ;-).


On March 24th (8 months 19 days), Soren cut his first tooth on the bottom. He's been pathetic since then, but today I'm noticing a little bit better mood. Baby tylenol has been our friend lately :-).

There's so many more things to update about with his growth and development, but I'll have to save some things for his 9-month post. 9. months. Wow!

On the move

It's becoming increasingly more difficult to get clear shots of Soren because he's so busy now! See what I mean?!?:





Unless, of course, he gets distracted by the TV ;-)

He Loves His Panda!

Momma, seriously?

Ooooh Look, what's this?

Ahhh I'm tired

Wait, he chose HER? (Bachelor finale on TV)

Oh hi momma!

The "5-Year-Plan"

Since hubs is now laid-off, we've been thinking alot about our future and what it may hold. One of the perks of such a big layoff (if there is such a thing) is that his company received a grant for a displaced worker program that has funds attached to provide education, job training, etc. to those who want it. Hubs and I have had many discussions prior to this point in our lives about him possibly going back to school to earn a second major in something a bit more promising (music education... bad.idea.). So now the plan is for hubs to start a Bachelors in Computer Science this Summer which will likely be 2.5-3 years before he's finished. Hopefully he can find work in the meantime while going to school. Although we view this layoff as a setback in many ways, our future will hopefully look so much brighter because of it and the Hubs will hopefully have more self-worth doing something he's interested in for more than 'just a job' factor. So for now, a house, a second baby, it's all on the back burner. And I'm okay with that...we're okay with that. We have a tough couple of years ahead of us but we're trying to be 'glass-half-full' around here while also trying not to be naive like our younger years. To have hope again...it's an amazing thing.