Aaron turned 3 months last Tuesday. He is outgrowing his bouncy seat so we recently started propping him up in a Boppy on the floor. Right before I took this picture, he had been smiling and playing with Thom. But we can't seem to get him to smile for the camera. As soon as the camera comes out, he turns serious.
The same thing happened when we tried to take pictures of him smiling on his changing table. That is where we get the most smiles from Aaron. In this picture, Thom was gathering up his feet and hands like a pig over a spit. Aaron thinks this is a fun game and gives Thom big toothless grins when he does it (except when the camera is aimed at him).
Another favorite game on the changing table is the gear shift game. Aaron will stick his right fist up in the air when he is lying on the changing station and likes it when I grab his hand like a gear shift and make car sounds. First gear gets a little smile, second gear the smile gets bigger. By fourth gear he is all smiles and after fourth gear, I shake his arm back and forth and make silly sounds. He finds that downright hilarious. Afterwards, he squirms around, kicks his feet, and then slowly puts his fist back up in the air to play again. For awhile, I figured he just put his arm up in the air because that is what he does while lying on his back, but this week, I was sure he was doing it intentionally to get me to play the game again. Sometimes, he puts both fists in the air and I shift gears double-handed.
At 3 months, Aaron is much more interactive and alert when he is awake. He still sleeps about 16 hours a day, but when he is awake, he is more playful and has started doing new things. Like grabbing things. At least fabric. He grabs his own onesie, he grabs his dad's shirt or belt loop on his jeans when he is on the changing table, he grabs the cloth diaper we use to cover him during diaper changes to keep from getting sprayed. Pretty much any fabric he touches, he grabs. He also coos and jabbers more and cranes his neck to watch TV when it is on (not something we encourage, but maybe watching CNBC will make him a successful investor when he is older).
Last Sunday, we had lunch at the house of our friends Travis and Tara. They also invited our friends Mont and Jessica and their son Gabe. That is Travis and Tara's son Alex in his toy wagon. He and Gabe played with his toys before lunch while Aaron slept.
Lunch was delicious! Tara was trying out some new recipes from a cooking magazine she likes (Cuisine at Home) and everything came out very good. There were some spicy jalapeño poppers for an appetizer with a crunchy topping of tortilla chip crumbs on top of a cheesy filling. For the main course, there was grilled beef, grilled bacon-wrapped pork, a cold chicken salad with, I think, a cilantro pesto sauce, a bean dish, and some kind of sweet vegetable dish involving yams. And for dessert, there were homemade cream horns and brownies! We were spoiled with all the good food.
Cream horns are a favorite of Thom's from Ohio and he hasn't been able to find good cream horns out here in CA. Tara's recipe involved wrapping puff pastry around molds made from sugar cones wrapped in aluminum foil. She filled some with vanilla cream and some with chocolate cream. As much work as they were, they sounded simpler to make than I would have thought, so we are going to try to make some of our own. (And just in time for our experiment, Trader Joe's has a new puff pastry product in their freezer section.)
After lunch, the older boys played some more. Gabe is recovering from some ongoing digestive problems and is doing so much better. He even let me hold him and play with him for awhile while his mom Jessica was in another room with Tara. Before, he wouldn't have let his mom out of his site and certainly wouldn't have tolerated me holding him.
Aaron woke up to eat and then was up for awhile. He seemed to enjoy watching Alex and Gabe while their dads held them upside down. In this picture of him on his blanket, he was staring over at Alex and Gabe in the air.There are a few more pictures from lunch here.
Thom and I didn't make any plans for the 4th. We just wanted to hang around the house and relax. But at 3:30, I was feeling sociable, so we called up our neighbors and invited them to come over at 4:30 for wine, cheese and fruit from the orchard. Our neighbors Brad and Vicki were up for it and brought some snacks to share, and the neighbors on the other side of them, Hans and Renate were also available, after returning that morning from a 5 week vacation in Europe.
We sat on the back patio where it gradually cooled down from somewhere in the 90s. We had moved the table to try to get as much of it in the shade as possible, but even in the shade it was quite warm. By the time the gathering broke up at 7pm, it was starting to be rather pleasant out.
Aaron had just eaten before everyone arrived and was pretty tired. He sat out with us for awhile - mostly in Vicki's lap, until he got too tired and fussy and we tried to put him down for a nap. Since he's a little heater and is hot to hold in warm weather, we figured he was too hot and would be more comfortable inside with the A/C on, but he didn't like missing the party and kept crying in his crib, so we brought him outside again. He did a little better the second time and didn't end up going to sleep until after everyone left (and after another feeding).
Vicki brought Aaron Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance, which is a favorite of her granddaughter's - who is going to be moving into our neighborhood. Brad and Vicki's daughter and son-in-law just bought a house up the street. We are excited to have more young kids in the area. They have two girls, one 2 years old and one 10 months.
There are a few more photos from the 4th here.
Last week, I gave notice at work. I have decided to move on from the company I've been with for nearly 9 years. It was a tough decision, especially since I work with a great group of people. But since our small company was sold to a much larger company a year and a half ago, it hasn't been the same. I've lost a lot of my motivation and I'm not happy there any more. I debating just staying home for awhile with Aaron, but after being home with him for a few weeks, I realized I need to work to stay sane. Even if it is just working on my childengineering.com website and trying to generate some income through that and other online projects I had in mind.
However, an opportunity has come up to start my own business, and with Thom's support, I have decided to give it a shot. It's not a sure deal just yet since I need to investigate it further after I'm no longer employed with my current company, but I'm excited about the possibilities. If it works out, I'll hire someone to help out with Aaron and work out of the house. I was hoping to find something like this that would allow me to be home with Aaron, but still do software development. My last day is July 20th, so I hope to know within a few weeks if I can make it work. Wish me luck!
Thom started his family leave two weeks ago and the time has just flown by. His first week home, I worked from home a few hours a day, catching up on e-mails and doing some customer support. Thom was in charge of Aaron but I was around (most of the time), if needed.
The first Monday, while Aaron was still napping, I went out to the grocery store. I was only gone about an hour, but long enough for Aaron to wake up and decide he was hungry. I had left a bottle of milk with Thom that I had just pumped, so it was out at room temperature and ready to go. Apparently Aaron was pretty fussy and didn't want to take the bottle, but by the time I got home, grocery bags in hand, Thom was on the couch feeding Aaron quietly. It was a good test, and they passed with flying colors. We already knew that Thom could meet all of Aaron's other needs - it was just food that was the issue since they hadn't had a lot of practice.
By that Thursday, Thom could heat up a bag of milk and put together a bottle before Aaron was crazy hungry, so by this past Monday, I was ready to start going into the office. Of course, since I hadn't stocked the freezer with milk, the weekend before I returned to the office was when I had the first dip in my milk supply. Fortunately, over several days, I pumped just enough milk for two feedings on Monday, so Aaron wouldn't starve while I was gone, and I was able to pump enough at work for Tuesday. Fortunately, by the end of the week the milk shortage was over. Needless to say, I am starting to stock the freezer.
Thom is having a great time at home with Aaron. They are really bonding. Aaron is smiling so much these days and Thom is learning how to maximize the smile output. They have games they play on the changing table, which is oddly one of Aaron's favorite places to be.
The first Monday Thom was home, I only left the house to shop for groceries, but since Thom was taking care of Aaron most of the time, I didn't spend a lot of time with him. That evening, when Aaron was in bed, I was sitting on the couch watching TV with Thom and I realized that I missed Aaron. It was the first time in 9 weeks that I had ever missed him. I had left the house for 1-2 hours at a time without Aaron before, but had never spent enough time without him to have a chance to miss him. It was a good feeling. I needed that break.
This past week, except for Wednesday the 4th, I was out of the house most of the day. I didn't miss Aaron while I was gone, but I looked forward to seeing him at the end of the day. I'm glad Thom is able to have this time with Aaron. It gives him a chance to get to know Aaron better. It gives me a chance to go to work without worrying about Aaron. And it gives Aaron a chance to bond with his father.
My brother Jim got married in our backyard on Saturday. When we found out he was getting married a few months ago, we knew Aaron would only be 2 months old and figured that it would not only be fun to have a family wedding in our backyard, but it would be convenient to have everything we'd need for Aaron on hand. If we had gone somewhere else for a wedding, we would have had to lug a diaper bag with us and would have had to hold him the entire time. This way, we were able to put him down in his crib when he was tired.
Thom officiated my brother's marriage to his fiance Barbara. In California, anyone can be Commissioner of Civil Marriages for a fee. The honor is bestowed for a three day period for a specific couple. Jim served this role for our wedding, so Thom simply returned the favor.
Jim and Barb limited the guest list to their immediate families, which is part of what allowed us to hold the wedding at our house. Since Jim and Barb each have 4 siblings, it was still a good sized crowd. It was a simple, beautiful wedding and the weather was perfect. It was a little hectic as hosts with the baby, but my mom, sisters and sister-in-law helped out quite a bit.
Even my new niece Elizabeth helped out with Aaron. When I was putting on makeup before the ceremony, I had Aaron in his bouncy seat between the two sinks in the master bath. Elizabeth sat on the floor next to him, talking to him and using hand gestures. Every time I glanced down at him, he was just staring at her, enthralled. I had been worried he might have a melt down since he was really tired, but he seemed to be very taken with his new cousin. Barb even offered to babysit Aaron when she's not at work, and I can see us doing some reciprocal babysitting. Before Aaron was born, I remember Barb telling me that Elizabeth would be a big help with the baby if I babysat her kids, but until I saw it in action, I couldn't believe that a 6 year old could really help out.
I've included some photos in my blog that my Dad took. You can see the rest of his photos from the wedding here.
When I am not doing all of the things I chronicle on this blog (or blogging about those things), I spend time working on Childengineering.com.
It was an idea I had earlier this year when I was trying to think of a website I could start that maybe hadn't been done before and that would suit my interests and areas of expertise. But I was also specifically looking for something that might generate some income through ads and affiliate programs. Since I noticed that as software engineers, Thom and I approached parenthood a little differently than other parents (Thom had to research baby monitors to make sure we got one that wouldn't interfere with our wireless home network) I thought there might be a place for a website devoted to engineer parents.
My goal is to provide links, information, and product reviews that are of interest to other analytically-minded parents. I've hooked up Google ads on some of the pages and signed up for Amazon.com's affiliate program and link to products on their site when available to try to generate some revenue. Since I created the site with Google's free Page Creator program (yes, another Google plug), it was free to set up, aside from registering the domain name childengineering.com (which wasn't strictly necessary).
I still don't know if there will be significant interest in the site, but it has been fun to work on. I have found that I really enjoy writing book reviews. I've added one on a parenting book I just finished (Secrets of the Baby Whisperer) and a couple on children's books we own. It will be interesting to see if anything becomes of the site.
(By the way, I use Google Analytics to monitor traffic on the site - another free service by Google.
I also use it to monitor traffic on this blog and was interested to see that in the past month, I've had visitors from China, Australia, England and a number of states in the US - some of which surprised me since I don't think I know anyone in those states.)
Aaron turned 3 months last Tuesday. He is outgrowing his bouncy seat so we recently started propping him up in a Boppy on the floor. Right before I took this picture, he had been smiling and playing with Thom. But we can't seem to get him to smile for the camera. As soon as the camera comes out, he turns serious.
