Jack Goes to Daycare

It's been a tough week for Mommy this week.  I started back to work on Monday.  Work hasn't been too bad... while I feel slightly guilty for being gone for almost all of busy season, everyone has been very understanding that this is a week of adjustment for me and have taken it relatively easy on me at work.  I can assure you, I am grateful.

Jack's daycare experience started last week while I was still on maternity leave.  Jack and I both stayed at daycare from 9-12 on Tuesday through Thursday, and Friday he stayed all by himself until noon.  The daycare has infants through preschoolers and an accredited education program for all of them.  Granted, for a 3 month old, this just consists of exploring the world around him and ensuring that he is properly stimulated with touch, feel, movement and language.  Still, its nice to know that they are focused on his development when I'm not around.  For infants, the child-to-teacher ratio is 4:1 and there are 3 classes of infants.  The first 2 are full with a max of 8 students and 2 teachers at any one time.  Jack's room just opened, so for right now he spends most of the day with one teacher, Ms. Juanita, and one other girl, a sweet 6-month-old named Abigail.  For now, Jack is the youngest, but another girl who was born in December will be joining Infant 3 in March.

Anyway, the first week went well.  I was nervous because Jack wouldn't take a bottle from Ms. Juanita when I was around, but the minute I left on Friday it was apparently no problem.  Thank goodness.  This Monday was the hardest day, for sure.  I woke up around 6, fed Jack, tried to snooze for a couple of minutes, showered and got ready, got Jack dressed in his cute airplane shirt and Gap jeans I had just bought (WHY didn't I take a picture :( ) and fed him one last time, while Tommy prepared all of his bottles and we managed to get out of the house just before 8:30.  Phew!  The routine is starting to get easier already, but it definitely adds some time to our mornings.

I dropped Jack off, and didn't even make it out of his room before I was in tears.  Jack, of couse, was fine.  Everyone comforted me and told me I could call as many times as I needed to.  I was proud of myself for only calling once - I had to make sure he was eating :)  I have managed not to cry anymore, and Jack doesn't appear to mind daycare at all.  He usually has a big smile for me when I drop him off and another for Tommy when he picks him up in the evening.  Definitely makes it easier when he is happy!

Each day, Ms. Juanita sends a sheet home with Tommy showing when/how much Jack ate, when they changed him, when he napped and commenting on how the day went.  I look forward to reading them each day when I get home from work.  Here are his comments from this week:

Monday: "Jack napped well in the crib today.  He had a very good day today.  He has a favorite toy already - the green/blue stuffed dog."
Wednesday: "Love Jack's shirt - it's so cute.  He was in a very smiley mood today - he's such a flirt!"  (thanks, Grandma for the Snow White Lil' Sleepy onesie he was wearing)
Thursday: "Jack had a good day.  He is such a happy boy.  Everyone loves his smile!" (so does Mommy!)

Today we all stayed home because of the snow - very challenging to have 2 parents trying to work from home with a 3-month old!  Yea for the weekend!

Kudos to you if you've made it all the way through this post - I wanted to be sure I had it all documented.  As a reward - here are a couple of photos:

Here's what happens after a long day of work/daycare:

Finally, thanks Uncle Austin for the "I'm a PC" shirt - Jack is being brainwashed by Microsoft already! :)

3 Months

Last week, Jack had his 3 month birthday.  He doesn't have his next pediatrician appointment until 4 months, so I don't have all of his stats.  Using a very scientific method (ie. weighing myself on the scale with and without Jack in my arms), we've determined that he weighs about 14 pounds.  From what I can tell by looking online, that puts him in the 50th percentile, right where he was last month.  Height and head will have to wait until next month, but I can't believe my little boy has more than doubled in size already!  Here's my big, smiley boy at 3 months old (we finally had to take the newborn insert out of the carseat this month):

And here are his 2 month, one month and 3 day old photos.  He's growing so fast!!

This has been a busy week in the Mhire household.  Jack started going to daycare and Mommy started back to work.  I think such important events deserve their own blog post.  Stay tuned!!

Crawfish Etouffee Recipe (Finally!)

Sorry, Maggie!  This recipe is WAY overdue, but here is Tommy's Momom's delicious crawfish etouffee recipe, as dictated by Tommy:

2 pounds fresh peeled crawfish and fat (most of the time, we just use frozen crawfish - defrosted and RINSED)
6 onions, chopped fine
1 stick of margerine
2 TBSP ketchup
1 cup celery chopped fine
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups cold water
Wyler beef bouillion cubes
Tony Chachere's to taste

In a large pot add stick of margerine and onions, season onions with Tony Chachere's - just dust the top of the onions untill they're covered.  Sweat the onions on medium heat until they're starting to wilt, then add the celery.  Continue to sweat until everything is soft and almost liquid.  Add 2 1/2 cups of water, ketchup and 2-4 beef bouillion cubes (watch it with the cubes - they're salty - don't add if it's aready too salty).  Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/2 cup of water and add.  Taste - if it's too bland add Tony Chachere's until it tastes seasoned enough.  Once it tastes seasoned enough for you, bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium - add crawfish and simmer for ~15-20 min.

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

No fancy Valentine's Day dinner for us this year.  The 3 of us had our "fancy" dinner out at Chili's on Friday night.  On Sunday, Tommy made us some delicious cheese fondue and even made some yummy chocolate fondue just for me (complete with cheesecake, strawberries and pineapple) since he is allergic to chocolate.  He also picked up a bottle of the Melting Pot's delicious dressing for our salads.  If we closed our eyes (and blocked out the baby crying), we could've been at the Melting Pot :)  We had a wonderful day!  We even got a few photos of our littlest valentine:

Jack updates:

• He started sleeping in his crib last weekend (as opposed to the pack 'n play in our room).  He's actually taken to it better than I expected.  The first night, he slept for a record 6 hours!  I guess Tommy and I and the 2 dogs are louder than we think when we sleep!  Since then, he's woken up at 3am a few times, but overall he's been pretty good at sleeping from about midnight to 6 or 7am.
• He laughed!  Daddy still hasn't heard it and doubts me when I say I have, but he's done it more than once.  It melts my heart!
• He loves his play mat.  He is completely fascinated by the butterfly that plays music.  The butterfly is activated by motion and he hasn't learned yet to swat it with his hands, but he'll shake the bar the butterfly is attached to with his feet and keep himself occupied for 15 or 20 minutes.
• He is becoming quite the music lover.  His swing plays music and when he is fussy, the music will calm him down better than anything.  He seems to particularly enjoy piano music.
• He starts daycare tomorrow.  I don't go back to work until next Monday, but I start bringing him to daycare for 3 hours a day for the rest of this week.  I even get to stay with him the whole time tomorrow.  Still, I'm completely dreading it.  I know that he will be fine, and probably even have fun socializing with the other babies, but I want to cry whenever I think about someone else spending 9 hours with him every day instead of me, getting to see his firsts, his smiles and hear his giggles.  It's a choice we've made, and I still believe its the best choice for our family, but that won't make the next few weeks any easier.  Wish us luck!

And the blog entry wouldn't be complete without a few extra pictures of Jack. We take too many, but he's so cute!

Road Trip - Stop #2: Jackson, TN

We left the dogs behind with my wonderful sister and hopped back in the car for the 12 hour drive to Jackson on Tuesday morning.  We arrived around 7pm with a cheese log and crackers waiting for us and Mom's favorite chicken casserole ready to be popped in the oven.  My Grandma has lived in her current house since before I was born and I have such wonderful memories of this house.  I still remember long days in the car when we were little, getting excited when we'd cross the big bridge over the Mississippi River into Memphis because it meant that we only had a few hours left.  This time was a little different - we were coming from a different direction and this time I was bringing my son to meet his Great Grandma for the first time.  Still, there's nothing better than arriving at Grandma's house - it had been WAY too long!

We had a nice relaxing few days in Jackson, extended one day more than we originally planned because of snowy, icy weather along our route.  Great Grandma Rose and Jack became instant buddies and Jack spent most of the last day we were there cuddling with his Great Grandma in the rocking chair.  My sweet Grandma worked way too hard and made me all my favorites to eat while I was there - roast and homemade noodles, biscuits with sausage and gravy, waffles, caramel pie and of course cheese log!  We ventured out of the house a couple of times - to Target so Great Grandma could spoil Jack with some new clothes and a Johnny Jump Up (he's not quite big enough yet, but soon!) and Chick-fil-A for lunch, and a quick trip to Uncle Roy and Aunt Beth's house so I could see it for the first time.  It's beautiful!  Great Uncle Roy and Great Aunt Beth got to meet their Grand-nephew for the first time and were over often for dinner and to visit.  It was so good to see them!

Now for a few photos...

Jack meets Great Grandma Rose:

and Great Uncle Roy:

Just hangin' out:

Four generations:

As I said earlier, a couple of things didn't go as planned.  My 2 wonderful furry sons decided that they were angry at their Mom for leaving them in North Carolina and decided to make their mark all over the carpets in my sister's house (I did chip in to clean the downstairs carpets after we left!).  Katy also spent one night sleeping on the couch with Albert who had thrown up and refused to sleep in his crate.  Katy and Ian, I owe you big time!

The weather also didn't cooperate with us on the way home.  Snow hit on Friday, so we extended our trip an extra day and started out for North Carolina on Sunday.  We hit a couple of icy spots on the road between Tennessee and North Carolina, and Ian had to pick us up at a parking lot right off the highway so we wouldn't have to brave the icy side roads of Durham (his car had chains), but overall the highways were very clear and we made it safely back to Stamford late Monday night.  I took Mom to the airport on Tuesday to head back to Texas.  We were both ready to be home, but we had a great trip.  I can't believe I start back to work in a little more than 2 weeks.  Yikes!  Right now, I'm just enjoying every minute with my baby boy!

Road Trip - Stop #1: Durham, NC

From the very beginning of my maternity leave, I had 2 things I knew I had to do before I went back to work - visit my sister in North Carolina to see her new(ish) house and taking Jack to meet his Great Grandma Rose in Tennessee.  For a while, I was confused by the logistics of the whole trip - should I fly to North Carolina and then back to Tennessee?  fly part of the way and drive some?  how would I make it on the airplane with Jack, his pack and play, stroller and everything else he needed?  Tommy was going to be in Dallas for work for the week - what about the dogs?  Perhaps our final decision was the craziest of all - my amazing Mom would fly up to Connecticut and we would drive together to North Carolina and spend a few days there before heading off in the car again to Tennessee.  The dogs would come with us as far as North Carolina, where they would spend a few days hanging out with cousin Ripple.

Mom flew in on Thursday afternoon, we dropped Tommy off at the airport on Friday, packed up the car and headed out on Saturday morning.  Mom thought we were crazy for attempting 4 full days of driving with a 10 week old and 2 dogs in the middle of winter in the Northeast, and she's probably right, but it was the best way I could think of to accomplish everything.  Luckily for us, Jack and the 2 dogs are excellent travelers - all three slept almost the entire way.  Jack can now claim to have been in 9 states before he turned 3 months old (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee - and Washington DC!).  Our trip to North Carolina was uneventful (unlike the trip back, but more on that later) and we arrived in Durham 11 hours after we started, around 6pm.  Katy and Ian's house is beautiful and she's doing a great job decorating it - I'm really happy for them.

Ian's dad is a part-owner of a digital portrait studio, Portrait Innovations, and there is a location near Katy's house, so we decided to take Jack for his first professional photo shoot and get a few pictures of the cousins while we were there.  I love all of the photos and ended up spending way too much money because I couldn't pick just a few poses. Here are a few of my favorites:

After naps, we headed to Q-Shack for the yummy North Carolina BBQ I had been craving and across the street to Local Yogurt for dessert.  Who knew that frozen yogurt with Captain Crunch and strawberries would be so tasty?  Finally, it was out to the mall for a little shopping then home for a wonderful dinner Ian made.

On Monday we had a relaxing morning visiting with Katy's moms group friends at the local coffee shop before heading out to meet Ian for lunch at a panini restaurant, Toast, in downtown Durham near his office.  My proscuitto, mozarella and tomato panini was delicious!  We left Ian back at his office and headed on to LocoPops for dessert - yum!  The last stop of the day was Carter's to pick up a few things for Evan and Jack.  Mom and I left for Tennessee early on Tuesday morning.  Our visit was definitely too short, but we had a great time - thanks so much to Ian and Katy for the hospitality and for dogsitting my neurotic dogs (more on that later, too)!

2 Months!

I didn't manage to get the picture downloaded off the camera before Mom, Jack and I took our road trip to North Carolina and Tennessee (stay tuned for more), so I'm way too late posting Jack's 2 month photo.  We took Jack to his 2 month check up 2 weeks ago.  Dr. Berkun said everything was great!  In fact, Jack even seemed to be showing off for him.  When the doctor started to look at him, he gave him a big smile, and when he rolled him over, Jack pushed up higher than he ever had before.  Much to Mommy's dismay, Jack had his first 4 shots, 2 in each leg.  Daddy helped Dr. Berkun hold Jack's legs, while Mommy hid in the corner of the office and tried not to cry.  After he was poked in the first leg, Jack had stopped crying even before he was poked in the second leg.  After the second 2 leg shots, he stopped crying pretty much right after Mommy picked him up.  What a champ!  He was a little fussier for a couple of days after the shots, but overall, he seems to have reacted very well!

Here are his 2 month stats:

Height: 23.5 inches (70th percentile)

Weight: 12 pounds (50th percentile)

Head: 40 cm (50th percentile)

And here are the comparison photos:

Again coming home from the hospital (2 days old):

On his way to his one month appointment:

2 months old!!

Here are some of Jack's recent milestones:

• He tries so hard to mimic our expressions and the sounds we make.  He smiles so much and makes so many different noises - it seems like there's a different one each day.  A week or so ago, Mommy and Daddy both heard him laugh out loud in his sleep.  And today, he even stuck his tongue out in response to a silly face Mommy made!
• He found his hands! He loves to try to stick his entire fist in his mouth and makes himself almost crazy trying to find his thumb to stick in his mouth.  Strangely enough, he still won't take a pacifier.  I still haven't decided whether that's a good thing or a bad thing...
• If he gets enough to eat at night, he will regularly sleep 4 to 5 hours in a row.  He's still in the pack and play in our bedroom, but based on Dr. Berkun's instructions, we will try moving him to his crib this weekend.  Wish us luck!
• He has officially outgrown all of his newborn outfits and some of his 0-3 month clothes.  He has also moved up to size 2 diapers.  Mommy was really sad to have to take the tiny newborn clothes out of the drawers and closet, but luckily Grandma and Great Grandma spoiled him and Aunt Katy let him borrow a ton of clothes that cousin Evan's has outgrown, so Jack will have no shortage of clothes for quite some time!

Bonus Jack photo - how cute am I?!