Birthentines

So, Andrew's birthday is on Valentine's day and I totally stole the title of this post from my friend Kali whose birthday is also on Valentine's day. Her husband came up with it.

I try to make Valentine's day more about Andrew's birthday than about getting stuff for me. We decided that we are going to try not surprising each other with birthday presents but instead pick something out and just go get it. So we went to Sears and Andrew picked out a miter "chop" saw. He was so excited that he got right to work when we got home. He's currently cutting wood to make a potato box. The next power tool he wants is a table saw because you can do just about everything basic with those two tools.


I made a pineapple upside down cake with fresh pineapple for his birthday. It was seriously yummy. Though we've decided that most recipes for pineapple upside down cake require more liquid with the pineapple than the they actually call for.


Andrew tried really hard to surprise me with orange roses, chocolates and a card. It started out as a good plan... He got up with Peter on Saturday morning and went to the store and picked everything up and I never knew. But he hid it in my craft room which I had decided to organize that day. So I saw the flowers and the grocery bag sitting there, but I didn't peek. Then later that night I was going to enter our receipts into Quicken and asked Andrew for his and he said that they were in his wallet. So I get them out and start entering them and I see the receipt from that morning for the flowers and such. His timing did surprise me though. I was expecting to see them out that morning before church, and then after church. He got it all out at dinner. The card is signed Love Andrew and Peter (he thought it was sparkly). The new Hershey's Bliss chocolates are really YUMMY!

No Longer a One Car Family

Last weekend we went out looking for a minivan and found one and bought it! Hurray for having my own car again. :) We got a silver 2006 Kia Sedona and I love it. Originally we test drove a 2008 Sedona because that's what they had out at the lot and it was nice and all that we wanted except for the price tag and we told them so and it turned out that the day before they had traded in a 2006 that was practically identical to the 2008, color included, except for the miles and the price and the tires. Since they had traded it in the day before they hadn't had a chance to detail it yet, so they did it on Monday and delivered it to our house (I liked that better anyways).

It is so much fun to drive and we're getting excited about all the stuff that we can haul around in it. For example Andrew is going to build more planter boxes in our backyard and we can now fit more bricks and supplies without crowding the backseat of our car.

I think Peter likes riding in the van better than riding in the Altima because he's up higher and can see out the windows better. It's a lot easier to put him in and out of the car and it's also a lot easier to feed him and change his diaper when we're out running errands.

My minivan

The other side of my minivan

Funny story... We back our cars into our driveway and the first time that I parked the van with the Altima in the driveway already I came really close to hitting the solar powered lights we set up.

I mean REALLY close

I stopped here without getting out and looking.

That's crazy close.

You Know You're Married to an Engineer When...

... you start having thoughts like this:

The other day I was thawing some milk for Peter. The way I do it is, I get a bowl of water and microwave it for a couple of minutes then put the milk bag in to thaw it/heat it up. When the milk was thawed the water was cold, naturally. So, the thought that came to me was, "the milk took the water's energy, that's why the water is now cold." Seriously!?! Andrew has gotten into my head. :) It took him long enough; I mean we've only been married 4.5 years now.

When I told Andrew this story earlier tonight I said, "Do you want to hear a funny story?" Then told him what I wrote above and he said, "That's awesome! But what's so funny?"

Peter's 2 Month Appointment

Peter weighed in at a whopping 12.8 pounds and is 23.75 inches tall! My little boy has grown so much. The nurse calculated the percentages for the wrong age so I found a growth chart online and found the real percentages. He's 75% for both height and weight and he's 50% for head circumference. She calculated the percentages for a 6 week old instead of an 8 week old; her percentages were 85% for weight, 90% for height and 70% for head circumference.

***Addition*** I forgot to write about this funny story from Peter's doctor's appointment. The doctor had me hold Peter up so he was looking over my shoulder so he could look into Peter's eyes. Andrew says the doctor looked into the first eye just fine but when he tried to look into the other eye Peter wasn't going to have any of so he kept both of his eyes tightly shut. The doctor tried to get him to open the second eye for a minute or so and then just gave up.

Peter last Friday (2/20/2009).
The pants are too long and the onesie is now too short (they came together).
It seems Peter has the Gardner long torso and short legs.

Peter just chilling.
If he gets bored with aquarium mat and doesn't want to sit in the bouncy chair he hangs out on a blanket in the living room. He likes to watch the fan.

He was sleeping in a bassinet in our bedroom but a couple of weeks ago I noticed it was a tight squeeze for him; the inner length for the bassinet is 24". So he is happily sleeping in his crib at night and napping in his swing during the day. He has really responded well to his bedtime routine. He really likes taking a bath, though he cries until he's dressed and swaddled. It's amazing how alert he is for story time; he sits all swaddled in Andrew's lap while Andrew reads/makes up alterations to "Are You My Mother?" I really need to take video or pictures of it because it is so gosh darn cute!

Peter last month (1/21/2009)
He has since outgrown the hammock and loves to kick in the water. We normally have a washcloth to prevent him from peeing all over us. We are pretty quick learners. :)

He is so wiggly and loves to sit in the bouncy chair and kick his legs. Also when we lay him on his back he wiggles so much that he now changes position. I went to get him up the other day and instead of lying lengthwise with the long way of the crib he turned himself perpendicular so his head and feet were pointed at the rails. I didn't take a picture because it was early and he was crying to be fed. Next time I see that I will try to remember to take a picture.

Peter started out with his head where his left arm is (2/24/2009).

Peter has also half discovered his hands. I say half because they make it into his mouth a lot more than they did before but he still doesn't seem to realize that they're his. He doesn't look at them he just eats them. He also makes cute little fists a lot.

Peter munching on his hand (2/20/2009).

"Put up your dukes"

Peter will also take a bottle, of my milk, from both Andrew and me, though he doesn't like the more common straight bottle nipple he prefers the orthodontic shaped nipples instead. We've got a bunch of the ones he doesn't like; it figures! :) We are trying to give him a bottle a day to help make it easier for him to be babysat and later on weaned and it also makes car trips during eating time so much easier (if we anticipate eating during a car ride). We are working on a daytime routine so that when he wakes up he eats, then he's awake for a while and then he sleeps and then we start it all over again. It seems to be working well so far. He only really cries when he wakes up and if I'm too slow to feed him.

This is the first time Peter took a bottle (1/22/2009).

Peter now, and has for a couple of weeks, follows us by turning his head. I will lay him on the ground and will stand on one side of him and make sure he's watching me and then I'll walk around to his other side and he will follow me with his eyes then turn his head once I make it to the other side.

Andrew's job when he gets home is to do tummy time with Peter.

It is so awesome that Peter has a cousin close by to share clothes with. I got a bunch of Shaun David's old clothes for Peter to wear. I also got a bunch of boy clothes from lady at church and they were mostly too big for him right now, but luckily for SD they were just his size. So now they are clothes swapping cousins. It's nice that at this age their clothes stay nice enough to swap.

Peter wearing SD's old "engineer" shirt for church (2/22/2009).

I Love My Baby Swing!!!

Baby swings are the greatest invention ever! Peter naps in his during the day and sometimes at night it helps him go back to sleep so I can go back to sleep. Most swings are battery powered and if you want a non-battery powered swing you have to pay more money. Andrew figured out a way to bypass spending the extra money. We got a battery powered swing and Andrew gerryrigged it to use wall power. It's awesome!!! I love my engineer husband!!!

What on earth is this?

A close up of the swing controls with the converter attached.

The swing all rigged up with power.

Peter sleeping in the swing. His arms are sticking straight out; it reminded me of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Again he's sleeping in the swing this time only one arm sticking out. Andrew said I should caption this picture with "zig heil" (sp)

My Baby Burrito sleeping in the swing. It has white noise to help him sleep.

Andrew's Birthday/Valentine's Day

Andrew's birthday is also Valentine's day. He always tries to do something for me but I don't really care that much about Valentine's day. I try to make it more about his birthday than Valentine's day. Andrew picked Sheppard's Pie for his birthday dinner. We found an awesome recipe in the America's Test Kitchen cookbook but instead of using lamb we use pork butt roast, which is from the shoulder not the rump, and it is delicious!!! I got two giant cupcakes for Andrew's birthday cake and put candles on one of them.

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Happy Birthday to you!!

Happy Birthday dear Andrew!!!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

I got him a gun case for his birthday. It hasn't come yet but he's really excited about it.

Andrew built a planter and planted strawberries and marigolds (to keep the crickets away) in it. That was my Valentine's day gift. I am super excited to have strawberries in our garden. Hurray for growing our own food!!!

My beautiful planter