Chicago Parent Magazine

6:51pm



I wanted to let everyone know that I have recently been accepted as a blogger for Chicago Parent Magazine! I am thrilled to be a part of such a great community of parents. I never thought that I would get this far.

So starting this month, you will be able to see some of my posts over on ChicagoParent.com. I will keep blogging here, as well.

Brynlee has been growing so quickly, that I can't even keep up. It's hard for us to tell, because we are around her everyday. I was going through some older pictures of her, and couldn't believe how small she was just a few months ago. Now she looks like a monster!

My wife went back to work December 30th. Luckily, we have great family that can help us with babysitting. They come to our home to watch her, and THEY DON'T CHARGE! How jealous are you, now? We are blessed.

Brit's mom takes Mondays.
I take Tuesdays.
My aunt watches her on Wednesdays.
I have her on Thursdays.
My mom does Fridays.
And then Brit has her on the weekends.

It all works out really well for us. Sometimes my schedule changes so we have to adjust, but it looks like I will be able to keep this setup pretty regularly. We aren't as concerned about how high child care costs are as much as we are about the quality of the care. My aunt spent a LOT of time with me when I was little, so my mom likes to credit her with most of my learning. I am excited for Brynlee to get the same treatment.

My wife surprised me with a fantastic Nikon D5300 (the newest camera they have!) for Christmas. So now I am able to take my photography to a MUCH higher level. Trust me, I have a long way to go, but I have been working on my skills at every chance that I get. (Not as many as I would like. We have a three month old, remember?)

We also bought a new computer, since my laptop that I used to blog from, died. I still have to recover all of the images off of the hard drive, but until then, this new computer is working great. iMac anyone?

I look forward to all of the new adventures that this year should bring! Remember to keep an eye out for me at ChicagoParent.com.

Week 32 Day 3 - Sumo-Baby

9:51am


We finally got a few better pictures yesterday. Still not great. Still not photo-frame worthy. But a better idea of how she looks.

We stopped at my mom's afterwards. My wife and her decided to dig out my old photo albums from when I was a baby, to compare. It is a lot of fun to see old pictures of yourself. I don't remember a lot of them, so it was nice to see them again. Actually, I don't know if I have ever seen some of the newborn photos. Maybe I just don't remember, which happens to me a lot. At first I thought that she looks just like my wife, but after seeing my baby photos, she does look a lot like I did as a baby.

Baby is pretty chunky already. My wife said, about me, to the ultrasound tech, "Look she has your chin!". The ultrasound tech responded, "Which one?". She already has a little double chin! My wife was pretty chunky too when she was born. She looked like a little sumo-wrestler. Don't worry, she will tell you the same thing.


My wife has had a lot more energy lately. Which is good. For a while there, she didn't want to do much of anything. That's changed and she is up to going places, and getting things done.

I think we have some 32 week baby bump stickers around here somewhere. I'll have to get those out so we can take some updated pictures!

Week 31 Day 1 - Sorry, You're Going To Have To Wait

10:27pm



I promised pictures of the crib. I lied. It's late and we just got home from my parent's house. Sorry, but you're going to have to wait until tomorrow. I am off and will write up a good post with lots of pictures! We had another "re-do" for our original 3d ultrasound today, because the first time she was hiding her little face. This time wasn't much better, unfortunately. She is very stubborn, like her mother. (Shhh....)  Tomorrow I will put up some pictures.


Our crib turned out awesome! I love it. We both love it. She will love it. If she even remembers it. I was thinking about that earlier. I don't remember my crib from when I was little. Does anyone?


Here's a little preview!

Setting up the crib