Danskin 2009: I survived..kind of about the same as always

John mentioned in a previous post that I raced in the Danskin last weekend. This was my third time doing the Danskin and the second time it has happened around a life altering event. My very first Danskin, and my first triathlon in general, occurred two weeks before John and I were married in 2002. My good friend Melany was the inspiration for the start of triathlons, and biking and swimming in general, and we had a blast racing together,along with my other good friend Christi. The second time I raced Danskin was in New England in 2006, where I raced it with Melany's sister Sarah (who was living in Maine at the time) and my friend Shan. I came out of this race so proud of my bike time since I had been racing bikes that year and felt like I had really flown on the bike (I borrowed my friend Caitlin's time trial bike, which was especially fun). My first triathlon was during the year I had joined the Master's swim team in Seattle (also inspired by Melany) and so my strongest leg was definitely my swim. So that brings us to the third Danskin, just a mere 15 weeks after I had given birth, following 50 weeks of exercise that all occurred at or below a heart rate of 145 beats per minute. So I was prepared to be happy if I just finished this race, in fact ecstatic, and I was. I was even happier that despite the fact that I had only run 2.5miles at most so far, I managed to 'run' the full 2.9 miles. I say run since this is the slowest I've ever been in my life, but it was still a huge accomplishment for everything my body has been through in the last year. Despite the fact that I know I should be happy about this race, I can't help but be a little bummed that there is only a 6 minute difference in my race times between my very best fitness (2006) and my very worst fitness (now). I suppose it make sense, when a race is so short the accumulated difference in time due to a slower pace won't be as dramatic, but still..it makes me wonder if I've ever actually been in good shape? Or if there's no point in even training?? In fact, more depressing is the fact that my swim this year was the fastest it has ever been, and I only swam three times prior to the race! I'm attributing this to extra buoyancy, but really, mentally I would have been happier to have been a slower swimmer as opposed to a better floater due to additional baby weight.

Despite my mixed feelings about my performance and my annoyance with the sheer size of the Danskin (3500 people this year=1.5 hour wait for the port-a-potty before the race), finishing the race with a friend is an absolutely fabulous experience. This was Megan's first triathlon and hugging her after the race reminded me of my first experience with Melany and Christi, and I was just as happy this year to have 'survived' as I was that first year. Doing this race and writing this post has also reminded me of how much my general lifestyle has changed in the last (gulp) 7 years, I would definitely say for the better. I'm also reminded that John, just like he is in every other part of my life, is as supportive as ever. I'm very thankful to have the physical ability to compete in an event like this, the support of my family, and the best of friends to do it with.

I'm not sure what got into us tonight

New Pictures

This weekend, Kristen did the Danskin Triathlon. I don't have any good pictures from the race, but I have a few of Davis during the race. We are no longer using his car seat in the Bob stroller, so he can now sit up and see the world.

Here, I think he is concerned about what he sees (me):

Grandma and Grandpa took care of Davis for most of the race. Davis seemed to need to be walked in the stroller for the entire race, so afterward, all 7 of us (Davis, Grandma, Grandpa, Kristen, me, Domino and Lilly) all had a long afternoon nap.

Here are Davis, Grandma and Grandpa before the race:

We've been spending a lot of time with Davis on his tummy. He is doing better at rolling over and getting quite a bit stronger. Using disposable diapers makes it a lot easier than the cloth diapers which are about three times as bulky. In this way, having the dryer go out and being unable to wash diapers was a little bit of a blessing.

Here, Kristen is supervising the little guy on his tummy. The idea is to get him to lift head and reach for the toy:

It seems to be working, or Davis is just determined to progress regardless of what we do. He was able to roll over front-to-back and back-to-front last week while in a disposable diaper. I've uploaded a video of one of his first rolls to picasa web albums.

Davis seems to need a lot more stimulation than he did a couple of weeks ago. The mobile in the crib is entertaining him for shorter durations of times. Today, Grandma and Domino cleaned off the bouncy chair and tonight we tried him in it again. A couple of weeks ago, we tried him in it, but he was not quite strong or tall enough for it. Today, he had a blast in it. He grabbed and played with the toys and was much better at sitting / standing in the chair. I love his facial expressions.

He came out of the chair right after this.

A video of him in the chair is also available in our picasa web albums.

A week of firsts

The blog has been silent for a bit as our days have grown more rich with both grandma and grandpa in town, but our home has not been silent! Davis is growing by leaps and bounds. This week we witnessed his first roll, his first cold, and his first almost whole night of sleep. Luckily, his cold has died down to just a stuffy nose, which is preventing him from sleeping well on a flat surface and nursing well, but all else is well. We took him to the pediatrician where she confirmed it was simply a viral upper respiratory infection and would take its course in 7-10days. She also made his parents proud when she said "These are six month skills!" Davis is quite strong and really wants to sit up. I think he also is learning faster since he has had, at minimum, three adults full time watching him and playing with him. We're a bit worried about what will happen when it's just us in September, but Grandma points out that daycare will provide a whole different sort of stimulation.

This week Davis also rolled from his tummy to his back, four times in a row! Of course, it seems now that no longer how long I leave him on his tummy he doesn't roll, but someday again. I was really surprised it was in that direction since I've really been working on showing him how to roll from his back to his tummy. Of course, perhaps this means that kids learn better in self-discovery mode?

We had our best night ever last night. He slept from 9:00pm to 2:30 am and THEN from 3:15 to 6:30. We had seen a couple of stretches like that first one, but then it's typically followed by a baby who wakes up every 30minutes to an hour for the rest of the morning, so this was HUGE. No expectations of course, just gratitude.

Favorite Song

Davis' favorite song right now is a great little number about counting and the food chain. Kristen learned this in her mom's group.

It goes:

3 little monkeys, swinging from a tree
Taunting Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, No you can't catch me

(whisper)
Along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
and snapped a monkey right from the tree

(repeat for remaining monkeys)

There are hand motions that go with each part of the song. He really enjoys the hand motions and the whispering part of the song and seems to anticipate the snapping of a monkey from the tree.

Grammie made up an alternative version of the song:

3 little squirrels hanging on a tree
Teasing Miss Lilly Cat You can't get me, No you can't get me!

Along stalks Miss Lilly Cat quiet as can be
and snatches that squirrel right out of the tree.

(repeat for reaming squirrels)

No little squirrels hanging on the tree.
One Miss Lilly Cat as happy as she can be!

Baby's first cold and mystery repairman

A couple of days ago Davis became quite fussy, at least by Davis standards. We took his temperature and it seemed normal. Then last night John and I realized he was coughing quite a bit and sounded really congested, so it's pretty official Davis has his first cold. It's heartbreaking, although he seems to be doing alright all things considered. I'm now working at home until I can call the pediatrician at 8:30 to see if they have a recommendation.

Another interesting story is that the heat on our gas dryer has gone out. A Sears repairman came yesterday to work on it. When I left him in the basement he said he would call when he was done. Davis and I headed to Yoga, but Grandma was here and she went to check on him and it was pretty clear he didn't know what he was doing. My mom wished him luck and he said "Yeah, I'm going to need it". Not much for inspiring confidence. Around noon she heard him leave (about an hour and a half after he started), but he didn't call. When she went down there the dryer felt warm, but there were extra parts in front of the dryer and blood on the dryer door. So I called Sears to make sure he hadn't died trying to get himself to the hospital. I never heard, but when John came home he found a receipt stuffed in the mailbox that made it look like it was a thermocycler that had gone out (or some such part) and the repair was complete. Unfortunately, the dryer still doesn't work, no heat. So what we can guess is that he cut himself during the repair but he was able to get the heat to work and so he left a receipt in place of a phone call, but that whatever caused the failure in the first place caused a second failure after he left. Another (I hope someone else) is coming tomorrow to give it another whirl. Yesterday marked a year to date for the dryer purchase and so John bought additional warranty coverage since the other thing the repairman said to my mom is "I've replaced everything I can"...I think the $150 spent will be well worth it in the coming three years.

New Pictures

We didn't take a whole lot of pictures this week.


Davis in his carseat at the BBQ tonight. Driving to the BBQ provided a perfect opportunity for a much needed nap:

This really makes his feet look a lot bigger than they are. But he does have really big feet. He has feet as big as a lot of 1 year olds:

I'm not sure what this says about my parenting skills. Maybe I shouldn't be putting this stuff on the internet.

Grandma and Davis:

We tried Davis in his bouncer this week. We decided he is still a little bit small for it and needs to be a little more stable sitting up:

Pictures from this month are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/john.naegle/200907Davis

Weekend Update

Its been a while since our last post, and I apologize for that. I really don't know how to tie all these thoughts together, so here you go:

• Davis has two modes: friends and strangers. He is smiley, giggly and happy with friends and concerned with strangers. Apparently Kristen was the same way as a baby.
• Tummy time is going much better. Davis can really prop himself up on his arms. Instead of 30 seconds of tummy time, we are getting minutes.
  
• Davis rolled over for the first time on his own this week.
• We think Davis will really like sleeping on his tummy. He needs to be able to roll over more reliably before we feel comfortable with him on his tummy.
• Davis slept for 3 hours in the crib one time -- a new record.
• Sleep is getting a little easier. When he wakes up at night now, he mostly stays sleepy instead of getting very excited. This has made it a lot easier to get him back down to sleep. Getting him to bed in the first place has still been tough, but things are going better. We are still using the swing a lot and are very thankful to have it.
  
• Davis is reaching out for things a lot more. He has grabbed for toys, people and even reached out and petted / grabbed Domino a little.
• This was our first week, of 6, with Grandma taking care of Davis. They are doing really well together. Just like when grammie was here, I'm really happy that family can take care of him instead of daycare and they get this bonding time together.
  
• We have new glass doors between our office and living room. When our laundry was drying in the office with the doors closed, Domino tried to jump onto the rack from the living room. I'll leave you to imagine what happened.
• I hurt my back last week (I think a combination of riding too hard last week and straining my hamstrings and doing a lot of work in the basement). I was only able to ride to work one day this week. It is improving.
• Our weather was hot and muggy this week. I was really thankful for having ceiling fans and air conditioning.
  
• Kristen got a new netbook computer. Its super small, which works great for taking back and forth to school to use while pumping and on the train. Its been a great investment so far.
• Grandpa comes this Wednesday for two weeks. We're all looking forward to it. Unfortunately, he is somewhat allergic to the cats, which means a battle to keep them out of the second bedroom has been going on. If you have spent any time with our cats, you'll know they a) love going where they shouldn't and b) love sleeping on clean clothes / sheets / pillows.
  
• Our dryer broke this week. We can do about 1/2 load per day on the drying rack. The repairman from Sears is coming Tuesday and it should be under warranty (by about 5 days).
  
• I took the car to the shop twice this week and still don't have ABS brakes. I'm going to have to take it to the Honda dealer in Newton to see if they can fix it next week. The theory is there is something wrong in the master control computer. It has burned through three brand new left-read sensors so far. I think I've been to the shop now a total of 8 times for ABS work (only charged the first time at each place though).
  
• Next Sunday is the Danskin triathlon. Unfortunately, we have to go out and pick up the registration packets on Saturday, so that means at least 4 hours of driving with Davis this weekend. I'm super excited for Kristen though. She just amazes me.
  
• We went to a nice BBQ at Dave and Megan's tonight with Davis and Grandma. Good friends, good food, good conversation. We stopped for ice cream on the way home.
• Saturday we went to a first birthday party. It was like having a look into the future. I can't belive how much he will develop in the next year. Just amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
• One of our favorite songs with Davis is the Monkey Song. It goes "3 little monkies, swinging from the tree / teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me / no you can't catch me / (whisper) along came Mr. Alligator, quiet as could be / and snapped (make a clap) a monkey from the tree" There are hand motions that go with each part and you then repeat for 2 and 1 monkies. Yesterday at dinner, I was holding Davis while Kristen sang the song and I moved Davis' arms to the song. He absoutley loved it. He was just estatic.
• Kristen gave me a great haircut this weekend. It reminded me of something I asked her last time she cut my hair: Question: "How is my gray hair?" Answer: "Thinning". I think it is funny.
  
• We booked our tickets to go to Seattle. We'll be there from August 27th to September 6th (those are our travel dates). We are really looking forward to being there (not so much the travel). We have a direct flight out on Jet Blue and used some miles to come back on American Airlines with one stop (the Jet Blue return is a red-eye). We don't have a lot of solid plans yet for Seattle, but would like to go to our friend's wedding reception, celebrate our aniversary, see family and friends and relax. It sounds like there is a good chance that James, Stephanie and Melanie will be in Seattle also around that time.
  
• I'm probably going to get a webcam sometime soon. I discovered video-chat with James last weekend and really enjoyed seeing Melanie. We'll probably get setup with Skype and google video chat. We just have to get the webcam and figure out why the microphone didn't work.
• I haven't taken a lot of pictures this week. But I have some. Hopefully my next post will be some pictures of the little guy.

TMI Mom blog 'goes live'

Well, I finally decided on a name for the blog I started that contains parenting tips and local resources. I called it TMI Mom...I came up with the name when I was talking to our friends AJ and Susan. AJ always teases me for sharing way too much information (slang: TMI for too much information). AJ isn't the only one, it's a personality quirk of mine. I realized it was a nice double entendre with the fact that I started a blog to hold information for which I was receiving/reading/learning too much of to keep track of it all. I have enough posts and I'm happy enough with the layout that it went 'live' today. In other words, I sent it to people and I hope they like it!

Here it is: TMI Mom

Recent Pictures

Davis during some playtime in the living room:

Playtime:

Happy baby:

Domino discovered the pack-and-play:

Today in the crib:

Davis and Domino:

Davis and Domino posing in the pack and play:

Davis has really discovered his hand and has enough control to put them in his mouth whenever he wants:

Napping in the crib:

A rare moment when the hand isn't either flailing or in his mouth:

Sleepy baby:

More sleepy baby:

Getting a bottle:

Braintree Train

This week I have very consistently been catching the 7:34 bus from Arlington to Davis Square, where I hop on the subway to get to Kendall/MIT. Yesterday and today I had the same train conductor, and I know this because this man has a special talent. First, I must tell you that the red line train has two ultimate destinations, a train can either be heading to Braintree station or to Ashmont Station. It's typically written on the train and the conductor will also usually announce it. I've noticed conductors at rush hour usually don't bother announcing much about the destinations and that's reserved for off-rush hour traffic that is more likely to contain tourists. However, this conductor, I want to call him something, so let's call him George, he announces destinations in a big way. In fact at each stop he announced that the destination of this train is Braintree on average 30 times at EACH stop. So as we pull into the station it sounds something like this:

"The destination of this train is Braintree Station, this is a Braintree Train-braintree train-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-Brain tree train-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-Braintree trainbraintree-braintree-(BIG BREATH IN) braintree Trainbraintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-braintree-Braintree train"

Yesterday, when I heard it at the first stop I thought it was kind of amusing. Then by the fourth stop, my stop, I was a little aggravated. When it happened today, I decided to count the number of times I heard braintree:
Porter: 24
Harvard: 29
Central: 39
MIT: 28

Counting helped keep me from losing my mind. Monday, I plan on taking a stopwatch to see if I can correlate the number of times with the amount of time the door is open. There's a few possibilities that I and my officemates can come up with:
1) George has a bit of an obsessive-compulsive disorder
2) George got chastised for not announcing the destination of the train at some point in time
3) That train is missing the sign that announces the destination
4) George is bored with his job and has to entertain himself somehow

I figure I can support hypothesis #1 if I can find a pattern and correlation with the stop or day of the week. Let's just hope that my own OCD behavior will not have me riding on this train between Braintree and Alewife all day with George in order to get a whole lot of information.

Random Thoughts

I didn't think any of these were worthy of a full blog post, so here are a bunch of small snippets of thoughts from my week with Davis. I will probably also post some pictures soon.

You don't miss it until it is gone

Ever since Davis was born, we've been using white noise at night and often during naps as a sleep aide for Davis. We have a docking station for our iPod that we move between rooms, or position near the crib or swing at night. Last night, the docking station started making a strange crackling noise (very un-whitenoise like) and we decided to turn it off for the night and see what we could do about it in the morning. Kristen and I are both a little tired of the constant drone of the white noise, but last night was a lot rougher without the white noise. Kristen and I woke up more often to Davis' normal sleep noises and Davis didn't sleep as well either. Fortunately, the dock seems to be working bett

Week Summary

I've really enjoyed taking care of Davis this week. Kristen's mom arrives Sunday and she will be taking care of Davis for the next 5 weeks. It will be tough to go back to work next week and be without the little guy all day. We didn't get out of the house as much as I expected this week; it took me a couple of days to get comfortable, but we did go for a couple of walks. Tuesday, we went to the Arlington Farmer's market. Davis spent almost an hour in the carrier and we picked up some delicious farm fresh vegatables and eggs.

Yesterday we went to a sing-along at the Fox Library in Arlington. I learned / remembered a few songs and Davis was facinated by all the other kids and the trombone. Yesterday when Kristen took Davis to lunch and her Great Beginnings class at Isis, I went for a bike ride (homemade ice cream is an excellent recovery food) and did some shopping for dinner.

I've also made a lot of progress on my to-do list, including: paying medical bills, arraging to have the car worked on (mirror and brakes), recoving deleted files from old drives, and calling about some broken bicycle equipment. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to move by August 26th doctor's appointment -- the next available appointment was in Janurary so that has complicated my other todo list item: looking at flights to go to Seattle in August.

Today and the Weekend

Today, Davis and I are going to go meet Kristen at MIT for a picnic lunch and might spend some time in Davis square as well. We're aiming for a late lunch so Kristen and go to the gym at noon so we'll probably head out sometime after today's Tour de France stage ends. I would have liked to see the tall ships which are in Boston through Monday, but they are only open from 5pm to 10pm. Tonight we will do some grilling and might enjoy spending time together with Davis.

This weekend, we will probably got out to breakfast Saturday and then we are planning on going over to our friends Josh and Courtney's for a BBQ. They recently moved from Davis Square to Newton and it is going to be much harder to drop by and see them. The weather looks great and hopefully we'll enjoy some nice sunshine with Davis. Since Kristen is going to be working as a cycling instructor again, she has to go into school for a fire drill Sunday morning (more Daddy and Davis time!) and Kristen's mom arrives late Sunday.

I was seriously considering doing a bike race this weekend, but I don't think my fitness is quite good enough yet for it to be fun. A couple of more weeks of commuting with some hard efforts should get me there. There are a number of criteriums in the late summer and hopefully one of them is close enough for me.

Sleep

We've been working on transitioning Davis from sleeping in bed with us, to sleeping in his crib. We've had some success, but getting him down in the crib is a challenge. We're usually most successful when either Kristen nurses him or I rock him to sleep, then move him to the crib. Unfortunately, this only gets him to sleep for a couple of hours in a row instead of the 4-5 we can expect in the swing. We were using the pack-and-play as a bed-side bassinet, but we probably won't be using that any more as 1) it has a weight limit of 15 pounds and 2) Domino has discovered it is a great place to nap.

One thing I've found interesting is how consistent Davis' sleep patterns are, at least in the morning. We use a website, http://trixietracker.com, to keep track of sleep and bottles. They have a nice feature that shows sleep across different days. You can see that he wakes up at 6:00 am every day and has an 8:00 am nap:

Things I never thought I would say or do...

Motherhood has definitely changed me and I was trying to think of all the things I say and do now that I never thought I would. Here are some examples, I never thought I would...

• Be so excited about poop. "Yay! This one isn't green!" (We've been struggling with what might be a foremilk/hindmilk issue, milk separates and if they eat too much foremilk and not enough of the fatty hindmilk their poop will be green and they'll have increased gas and need to eat more often).
  
• Say "Ow! Don't hug me so hard, you're hurting my boobs!" (One of my friends is stronger than she knows).
  
• Say "My pubic bone hurts." This seems to disturb people, but really, it's just like saying my knee hurts isn't it? This is the only thing standing between me and a good, long, run. Oh, and about 42 weeks of lost fitness.
  
• Refer to myself in third person as 'mommy'. Not just to Davis mind you, but in general. Hopefully, I mostly curb this behavior at work.
  
• Yell "Domino, I swear, if you wake that baby up you're going to the sausuage factory!"
• Say "John, you pointed him down right?" Turns out with little boys you have aim them correctly so as to prevent diaper leaks.
• Open a diaper to double check that I pointed him down.
  
• Go to work with spit up on my shirt becuase "eh, it's not that much really".
• Tell Davis "Niiice one" when he passes wind. Hey, trust me, it's much better out than in.
• Tell another baby "Niice one" when they pass wind. I can be excited for everyone right?
• Tell anyone who will listen what very small thing Davis did that I think is the most amazing thing in the world. I always told myself I wouldn't be one of those people who can't talk about anything but their kids. I can talk about other things, I just generally prefer not to.
• Plead with God every night at bedtime. "Please God, just five hours of sleep in a row, that's all I ask for. Well, that's a lot huh? Ok, four hours, please just four hours of consecutive sleep? No, no, you're right, it could be a lot worse than three hours in a row. Please God, just three hours of sleep in a row."
  

Daddy-Davis time

I'm off of work this week taking care of Davis full time. Davis will be starting daycare on September 8th, so we are patching together care for him until then. My mom (Grammie) came for three weeks which ended last Friday, I have this week, then Kristen's mom comes for 5 weeks (her dad is also coming for part of that). That gets us to August 15th, so we'll probably plan to take some vacation time and hopefully travel back to Seattle for at least a week.

Today was my first day since Davis was born where I had full responsibility for him for the whole day. I really enjoyed the day. This morning, I made Kristen breakfast, then Kristen was off to work and Davis was off for a nap. I took care of some long lingering errands (a theme for the week) and watched the Tour de France on Versus.

Davis woke up smiling after 90 minutes and we some good playtime for about an hour before it was time for his first bottle of the day. After his bottle, he slept in my arms while we watched the exciting finish of stage 3. Kristen accused me of lining up my time off with the Tour, but if that was the case, I would have planned to take the 3rd week of the Tour off, not the first.

Davis woke up from his power nap and we had almost 2 and a half hours of play time before his next bottle. It then took him a while to fall asleep and I had to resort to taking him on a walk to Arlington Center. Fortunately, the raining weather of the last three weeks seems to be abating and we had a wonderful walk in the sun to Jam N' Java for an ice coffee before walking back along Spy Pond and past the Capital Theater. It was a 55 minute walk and a 53 minute nap.

After we got home, I transferred Davis to the crib from his car seat (a daring maneuver) and he is still sleeping after 40 minutes. If you've been following this blog, or talking to us, you'll know that sleeping in the crib has been a real trial for us and Davis, so this gives me hope that we are making progress.

Kristen should be home soon. I have a dinner of sweet-potato quesadillas planned, then I get to go out to Red Bones for a beer with a friend and former co-worker.

Tomorrow, Kristen and Mommy and Me Yoga in the afternoon and I'm going to try to take a bike ride up to the Lexington Farmer's market to pick up a chicken for beer-can chicken while she has Davis for Yoga and lunch. Thursday is a sing-along at the Arlington Library and hopefully we'll find some more fun activities and enjoy more of this sunshine that has eluded us for so long.

Happy Fourth of July

Kristen, Davis and I had a very relaxing, but busy Fourth of July this year. After fueling up on a blueberry pancake breakfast, Kristen when for a two and a half hour ride with Sonya while I watched Davis. We read some books, had some cuddles, watched some of the Tour de France, watched the mobile and had a short nap. After Kristen got home and recovered from her ride, we headed out to Wilson Farms in Lexington to pick up something to grill and ingredients for strawberry ice cream.

After we returned home, Kristen and Davis took a nap while I worked in the yard and prepared the marinade for dinner and sliced the strawberries for ice cream. We spent the early evening in the yard playing with Davis, grilling and eating outside and enjoying the first sunshine in Boston in a very long time. Davis went down for an early bedtime (hopefully) and Kristen and I have spent the evening relaxing around the house, hoping that the fireworks don't disturb Davis or the cats too much.

It was a great Fourth of July. I only wish we were closer to family to share sunny days in the backyard.

Here are some pictures from the backyard:

Davis and Mom playing Airplane

Airplane baby!

Enjoying time together:

Wheeeeee!

Enjoying the sunny day in the backyard.

Davis has gained a lot of control over his hands. He really enjoys grabbing his duck and chewing on it:

Davis getting kissed by Dad:

Daddy and Davis:

A (dead) bee I found in the yard:

New pictures of a growing boy

Today is the big 12-week birthday for Davis! Supposedly a lot happens at three months as they move out of the 'fourth trimester'. We've certainly noticed a lot happen in his physical and mental development in the past couple of weeks. He is very good at grabbing things now (in addition to toys he's great at grabbing mommy's hair and daddy's cheeks). He can almost roll over! He just hasn't managed to move the arm that ends up underneath him so he gets stopped by that. He's also getting stronger by the day and he can push himself pretty far up on his arms now. The picture below is him this week at our new Mommy and Me class (it's called Next Step). We're adjusting to the fervor of the new instructor and getting to know a new group of moms and babies (several of which already knew each other from the last class). We're still enjoying or Tuesday and Thursday afternoons together, although I'm finding it awkward to be a flexible working mom. We have a couple of friends like us and it's very easy going, but the moms who have to work full time we don't see anymore and the moms who don't work are hard to get to know since they can all get together anytime during the week. John and I are hoping to go on a picnic tomorrow with a couple of families..although we haven't done much to plan it yet!
Our continuing struggle with Davis is around sleep. Last night he managed to go 7 hours without eating! Unfortunately, he wasn't sleeping that whole time. After we moved him from the bassinet to the swing though he managed a solid four hour block of sleep. We haven't had more than two hours in a stretch this whole week, until last night. It's making things pretty crazy at work and home for both of us to be so sleep deprived (and I'm very worried I'm going to stick my foot in my mouth at work because of it, there was a pretty close call on Thursday at our group meeting). John and I are currently struggling with the decision to buy a bigger blanket and start swaddling him..we're almost at the point they recommend to stop swaddling, but it's pretty clear to us when he's in a position (like the swing) that prevents him from waking himself up that he can sleep for longer blocks of time. The problem is that swaddling has made him so mad in the past that it seems to prevent him from going to sleep, so what would be different now? (Other than that I have gotten recommendations for a different kind of swaddler that allows them to move more inside it). However, one difference is that John is getting the binkie to work!! Yay! That is how he managed to keep him calm when he woke up without me having to feed him (and honestly, does a baby who has doubled his weight by 3months really need to eat every two hours at night?)

The biggest news of the week is that Grammie left us yesterday to go home. We are very sad to see her go, it was such a blessing to have her here to get to know Davis so well. Davis loved Grammie and they had some good times together..unfortunately, not too many adventures outside since it rained almost every day since she arrived. The good news is she gets to go on to Pasedena on Monday to see her new grandchild, Melanie! We are so excited for her and we wish we could go as well. John is taking this week off for a whole week of nothing but Daddy and Davis! However, I'm still going to steal him back on Tuesday for yoga and Thursday for our mommy-baby group. I'm very glad that John will get this bonding time and it works out perfectly for our trying some new sleep routines (i.e. let mommy sleep so she doesn't get too crazy when she's at work). That's the news for now and I'll finish this post with a couple more cute pictures of Davis.