jennanddave.com

I've been feeling very uninspired lately, hence the lack of updates. Things have been happening, big things, but I haven't felt able to make them sound remotely interesting so what I'm going to do is just list out a couple of them. Last Friday, Henry slept through the night. The entire night. I woke up at 6:15AM and wondered why everything was all bright and shiny. Turned out our bedroom was awash in morning sunlight. Apparently I slept the entire night as well. The relief and joy was quickly replaced with panic as I started to wonder why he had slept the entire night. I had one leg out from under the covers, when I heard Dave say "I hear him moving around in there." Back under went the leg, and relief once again spread over me. He hasn't done it since, but wow, that was a good night.

The other big thing is we had our roof replaced. It looks gorgeous. We also had the gutters replaced at the same time. Those were two things we thought we'd be able to afford ten years from now, but as it turns out, it wasn't an unreasonable amount of money. We're slowly starting to feel less and less like the Clampetts of the neighborhood, and that's priceless.

Posted by Jenn at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The current bane of my existence is the left Hurry Up Spring Armwarmer. In total, I have knit four of these armwarmers. I knit one but didn't like the colorway, so I scrapped it. I knit a full pair for my mom in a green and blue colorway (her two favorite colors) in Noro Silk Garden. I picked up a couple of skeins of Kureyon so I could knit myself a pair. When I made my mom's, I didn't realize that you're supposed to flip the chart so that the two are mirror images of each other, so I decided to make that adjustment on mine. Big mistake (by the way, I just spelled "mistake" as "misteak". Hee!). If I had done any snooping around online, I would have come across the many people who decided to just knit the chart the same as the right hand. I had to rip everything out after knitting up 15 rows because it wasn't coming out right. I figured out what the problem was, started knitting again, and it was coming out beautifully. I picked it up last night, and finished the whole thing while we watched "Signs" on TV. Only one problem occurred during all of that, and that was that the adjustment to the pattern for the left-hand thumb gusset turned out to be something I didn't like (it offsets the ribbing pattern by one stitch) so I dropped and reversed the stitches to fix it. I wove in the ends, closed up the thumb gusset hole, and slipped that baby on my arm. Something wasn't right. I'd started messing up the chart pattern again towards the end of the armwarmer. I decided that it wasn't a big deal, it looked good anyway, then went up to bed. And tossed. And turned. And freaked out about mean aliens. I should never watch scary movies regardless of how funny/serious they are, and no matter how totally cute Jaoquin Phoenix is. Especially if they have aliens in them. Henry cried around 1:30 and I nearly jumped out of my skin it startled me so much. Finally around 2 or 2:30 I was able to get to sleep. This morning I woke up knowing that I would have to rip everything out to where my mistakes (again, "misteak") started so that's what I did. I figured out (again) what I did wrong (again) and fixed it. I was feeling very pleased with myself whilst admiring my work and realized that actually, I started screwing it up just below the thumb. Once again I figured it looked all right and who would notice, but as I was thinking it I took the needles out and started ripping. Also, I hate unweaving ends. So, now I've knitted back up to where the thumb begins, which is exactly where I started out last night. This time I'm triple-checking every row, and I'm definitely not going to watch any scary movies.

Posted by Jenn at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Today Henry is seven months old. To mark the occasion, I thought I would catalog some of the changes that have come about recently, and note some things that haven't changed. One of the things that has changed is he has a full head of hair. You can't see it from afar necessarily, but when you get up close, there it all is. This happened almost overnight. For the first six and a half months of his life, most of the back of his head was bald. He is now officially on his way to having a head of hair that will drive the ladies wild. Unless he decides to perm it.

He still loves playing with his feet and will rip off his socks and stuff them into his mouth any chance he gets. He loves being on his changing pad, probably because the ease of access to chubby baby thighs and belly means he gets lots of raspberries and tickles from whoever happens to be changing his diaper. Henry's starting to experiment with his voice a bit. His fusses go from a regularly pitched "wah" to a high pitched one that he probably won't be able to hit ever again once he's gone through puberty. It's ridiculously cute.

Mercifully, I can report that his sleeping habits are only about four thousand billion times better than they were a few months ago. He takes a morning nap for two hours, and then after lunch he takes another nap that lasts anywhere from one to two hours. We put him to bed at seven pm, he wakes up between 11 and 1, guzzles six ounces in under two minutes, then falls back to sleep until seven am. I think he wakes up and plays during the long stretch, but that's only because the other night we heard his mobile go on. He doesn't fuss for someone to get him until around 7AM.

If he wants me to pick him up, he'll drop whatever he's got in his hands, look down at the floor, and then stick his arms straight out from his sides. When you walk towards him carrying his bottle, he gets really excited and makes weird coughing/hacking sounds. If you walk away from him without having given him his bottle, he bursts into tears. The same goes for all of the solid foods he eats. Today I gave him a mixture of potato and green beans and he grudgingly ate half the jar and by the last bite was gagging and making big faces. That was a first because he loves everything else he's tried (for the record: oatmeal, barley, and rice cereals; ham, chicken, turkey, beef; sweet potato, squash, green beans, peas, carrots; pears, applesauce, apple/strawberry/banana, banana, pear/pineapple, mixed berries, peaches, pears/blueberries). Lately he's really taken notice of Flash. This evening he sat on my lap while Flash pranced around and stretched out in front of us for lots of scritches and Henry was shrieking with laughter the entire time. It was hilarious. I wonder if Flash has forgiven us yet for having had Henry.

Posted by Jenn at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This: Last month we signed a contract to have a new roof put in, with the understanding that they would be starting sometime in March. Last evening at 7:30, we got a call saying they would be starting this morning at eight, and they did.

plus this: A few weeks ago we canceled our "Preferred Basic" cable and downgraded ourselves to "Basic Basic Cable", which means we only get 20 channels. Last night we were watching channel 21, trying to figure out what they were showing, when suddenly one of the characters lets loose a string of profanities which included the f word. Dave and I looked at each other like "Can they say that on cable now?" After some sleuthing, it turned out that as of yesterday we were suddenly getting HBO, HBO2, etc, etc. At nine, Titanic came on. Commercial free. I hunkered down for the duration. (For the record, we no longer have any of the channels; they fixed the glitch this morning. Sigh.)

equals this: Whilst slumbering peacefully in the wee hours of the morning, I dreamt that Leonardo DiCaprio was fixing stuff around my house. What's most surprising about this dream is the fact that while most people agree that Leonardo is quite cute, it's Billy Zane who floats my boat.

That was my kind of math. Ready for some more?

This: My parents came up for the weekend. We had a great time doing the following things: eating, shopping, knitting (me and my mom), volunteering at the Union County Library Auction (me and my dad), and drinking (also me and my dad).

plus this: Henry spent lots of quality time with his Grampy.

equals this: I went to smooch Henry's feet this morning and they smelled like, well, feet. Yuck. I'm fairly certain he must have learned this trick from his Grandpa. Although, I suppose he could have learned it from his dad as well. He's too young to be smelling like a guy.

Posted by Jenn at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before:

After sanding:

After:

Posted by Jenn at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In order to make diaper changing time more amusing, and for informational purposes, we classify Henry's poops with a particular title. Each one of the following denotes consistency and geographical location of the young man's bowel movement: Chunky Plunky, Dinky Plinky, Hasty Pasty, Roly Poly, Sloppy Ploppy. Last night we had a Sloppy Ploppy for the first time. He stank to high heaven so we took him up to his room to investigate the contents of his diaper. While Dave ran Henry's bath I pulled down his pants and noticed that I'd also pulled his diaper down over half his butt. I didn't see anything offensive and was wondering if he'd just had a highly potent toot as opposed to anything with any substance. That's when I stepped back and noticed a little pile of poo of the floor. I completely freaked out and yelled for Dave to come and while I cleaned up the floor, he uncovered the rest of the grisly scene. There was poop everywhere. He'd managed to blow out his diaper, something he hasn't done in a few months at least, not since he started solid food. For about thirty seconds there were dirty diapers, baby wipes, and clorox everywhere the eye could see as we tried to contain the situation. All I can say is argh.

Posted by Jenn at 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave and I decided to work on the house during his spring break. We have a list of things we want to get done, which I will share with you, mainly because I figure if I make it public, we'll be more likely to get things done, which I know isn't true because I love nothing more than to flaunt my laziness, but nevertheless, here it is:

- sand and paint three hallway doors
- finish the final wall in the living room (spackle, texturize the ceiling, paint)
- sand and refinish dining room floor
- touch up paint on the door in our bedroom (the one that leads to the attic)
- repaint hallway
- insulate door in Henry's room (the one that leads to the attic)
- rake yard
- wash dog
- repair caulk around tub

What have we done so far? We have finished spackling and sanding in the living room, Dave insulated the door in Henry's room, and we have to buff and put down two more layers of polyurethane on our dining room floor. The two things I thought wouldn't get done, seem to be getting done. Megan came over yesterday to look at the floor and after saying it looked great, asked us if we were totally proud of ourselves. We said no, only because even with the end being so near, we knew deep down that there was still ample opportunity for us to muck it up. We'll be proud a few days from now. Maybe.

In case you were wondering, we did go to the parade last Saturday. It was fun. I would show you pictures but through a series of typical Jenn and Dave errors and miscommunications, we ended up bringing our camera, but without the ever-useful battery in it, so we don't have any. There were lots of completely smashed University of Scranton students milling around, all of whom were hilarious. While we were walking to the parade, Henry was listing over the side of his stroller, fast asleep, which some guy pointed out to his friends while yelling about how even Henry had gotten an early start on the drinking. It was pretty funny. You probably had to be there to really appreciate it. We saw lots of bagpipers, stepdancers, and even the Philly Phanatic, which was great. Also, there were vendors selling headbands with glittery clovers bobbing around on the ends of springs. What can I say? If they had any adult-sized ones for sale, I would have definitely procured some. Apparently they think only kids appreciate that sort of thing. Sheesh.

Posted by Jenn at 09:36 AM | Permalink

Dave's spring break started today at 5PM. Now that it's 11:22PM, can you guess where he is? If you guessed at work, you're absolutely right. We threw "War of the World's" into the dvd player tonight (the most recent one). After it was over, I gave my full attention to recovering from the two-hour panic attack I experienced while watching it, and Dave went in to check on some cells. Whatever that means. Tomorrow is Scranton's St. Patrick's Day parade. Did you know it's the fourth largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country? To quote Dave's mom: "Scranton? Really?" My sentiments exactly. We're trying to decide if we want to go. I want to go, but it's a bit of a drive to get out there, parking's going to be a nightmare, and we'll have to get there an hour before the parade starts because that's when they shut down all of the streets around the parade route. And really, what's the point of going, other than to spend money on goofy green things like "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts, Mardi Gras style beads, and those headbands that have two glittery clovers on springs. Who am I kidding? That's exactly what makes it worth it. Dave is ambivalent. I haven't mentioned the four thousand bag-pipers that will probably be walking and playing in the parade. He's a sucker for bag-pipers. Perhaps if we're lucky there will be a sudden gust of wind at just the right moment, you know, to set the kilts a-flying and the glittery clovers a-wafting.

Posted by Jenn at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This weekend was slightly more relaxed than last weekend. Dave had a crazy and somewhat terrible week last week so on Saturday Megan and I took Henry out to the Lycoming Mall. We wanted to peruse the yarn selection at AC Moore and I wanted to go to Toys R' Us. Before we left I asked Dave what he was going to do while we were gone and he said "Oh, probably go in to work, etc, etc". I took great offense to this and told him he should stay home, drink beer at 2 in the afternoon, play video games, watch his movies, and generally take it easy. Which, I'm happy to report, he did. Except for the beer thing. I don't think he did that.

Thursday and Friday night Henry was fantastic. He woke up between 12 and 1AM, took his bottle, and then when he woke up at 3 and I was too tired to do anything other than flip him over from his stomach to his back and give him his pacifier, he knocked right back out again. Those were two glorious nights. In fact, they were so glorious, and seemed to be a natural progression from needing to be fed twice a night, that I got a little cocky and looked forward to a future filled with once a night feeding sessions until the day came when he would just sleep through already. Then came Saturday night. And Sunday. He was Cranky McCrankster both nights. I noticed today that his front upper gums are swollen so I'm thinking he's minutes away from getting front teeth, which could explain his early-early-early morning grumpiness.

Today we had to drive back out to Lycoming to return one of the two toys Megan and I picked out for him. It was a v-tech cordless phone that made all sorts of great noises (with the exception of the number 2 which would sometimes emit a zombie-like groan that was really creepy and thus was also the button he pushed most often) and flashed lots of lights. I thought about exchanging it for another one but decided that since this one broke within 24 hours of purchasing it, why bother. Did I mention I was the one playing with it when it stopped working properly? Probably not, because admitting that would be embarassing. Does "admitting" have one or two "t"'s?

Update: Apparently Henry looked deep into my sleep-deprived eyes last night and took pity on me because after a 10:45 bottle he slept til 6:30. Either that, or both Dave and myself slept through any early morning crying jags that may have occurred (something I've done before, much to Dave's general consternation).

Posted by Jenn at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today I spread out Henry's brand spanking new (and totally rock and roll; thanks Emily!) zebra striped fleece blanket on our living room carpet. I plopped Henry down in the middle of it, threw some toys down around him, and then chilled out while he sat and entertained himself. In case you're wondering, the toy nearest and dearest to his heart these days is a cell phone that Megan gave him. The phone has been a suitable replacement for all of our remotes. This means that the volume no longer goes all the way up and then all the way down, and the channel never mysteriously switches to channel 999 or 333 (thankfully, he never punched in 666; that would have been pretty creepy). Anyway, he's very good about sitting on his own, and does so with great confidence in his ability, leaning over and grabbing toys and then pulling himself back upright like he's been doing it all his life. However, because even Neil Diamond hits a bad note every once in a while, he became so engrossed with his cell phone that he toppled over onto his side and landed with a great, floor-shaking thump. He was stunned into silence for a few seconds then broke out into a completely distressed cry. I picked him up and walked around with him until he calmed down, then I sat down next to his blanket and settled him back amongst his toys. He sniffled a few times and then do you know what he did? He turned towards me and held out his arms for me to pick him back up. Me! To pick him up! I don't think I've ever felt more needed ever in my entire life.

Posted by Jenn at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)