Son-day crash

Wowza.

What a week.

Well, the last couple days anyway. I want to start taking him on a dedicated field trip on Thursdays. Most of the time that will mean the Zoo because the zoo is awesome and I have a zoofriends membership and the zoo is awesome.

I also started including an art project into his week. This week was handprint art.

which was cool

He did better than I thought he would. I put him in one of my old shirts. He thought wearing "daddy shirt" was pretty cool.

it was also adorable

Saturday was crazy busy. I had to get up early to make cookies for the bake sale, shop the craft fair (I got something awesome, photos in a week or two), then head to Norman for a birthday party. Was a ton of fun and for the most part Jo did well. At the party, Jo started getting very fussy, but it was almost an hour past his nap time after a day of running around. Honestly, I don't blame him. I was tired and cranky too.

Today, we acknowledged the children's ministry volunteers at church. Jo really didn't do much with that (the older kids did). So we made sure to thank his teachers privately. He's really been doing well at during sunday school and at the MDO (or so I am told).

So we are very tired today and likely tomorrow may be a bit of a recovery day because Tuesday is State Fair day with Mommy (who will finish her 5th 12-hour shift in a row tonight). We are VERY excited she will be home for a couple days). The other day Jo said "where's mommy? she's working." to himself.

What a Son-day!

One of the most interesting things about being the SAHD is how much more time I get to spend with Mo. This is unexpected because part of the way this works is she works and extra 12 hour shift each week. (I spent a year doing 50+ hour weeks, it's tough and she's amazing). We kinda assumed that this would mean we either wouldn't see each other as much, or potentially even less.

But here's the thing. We only have to worry about her schedule. Jo and I are available more or less whenever she is. This means whenever she does have free time, we are good to go. We don't have to juggle my schedule or daycare or anything.

The only thing getting in the way is her homework. She is in her last year of this masters degree and it's no joke hard work and takes up some time. When she is done, we will be golden. For now, we do what we can.

But, the other day she woke up with Jo and got him fed so I could grab a couple minutes of sleep and shave in peace. When I was ready I told her I was ready to take Jo so she could get going on homework. Then this happened.

"I got that done when Jo was eating breakfast"

"What?"

"It's done for today, I got it done."

"go shower, we're going to the zoo. High five."

Then we went to the zoo.

And everything was awesome forever. 

DST Son-day

I think I may be past the hump of "waytomuchgoingonkillmenow". I got the priority cases under control (for the moment). The independent study students are about done testing kids. My group project is moving forward. I'm still busy, but I'm past the 'over-busy' part. I think.

I have a sleep debt that is killing me. Last night I paid a bit of it off, but I don't expect to get out of the hole at least until after Christmas.

Yes, I know, I will count you at some point.

We had a TON of fun with Halloween this year. We took Jojo to haunt the zoo this year. It was SO BUSY! It was like the 3rd night of it and the line circled the entrance. There had to be like 1500-2000 people there. Some of the costumes were great. There was a Beetlejuice that was just flat-out impressive. Also, just before the entrance was Darth Vader next to a star trek officer. That was kinda awesome. There was also a lady who was just...well...her costume would be perfect at certain Halloween parties where kids are not welcome. Oy.

The booths were great. Sonic, Wal-Mart, and Dr. Pepper were impressive. I carried Jojo through most of it and the crowds were nuts, so not many pictures. We didn't collect candy this year because Jojo won't eat it and none of the rest of us need it.

"Guys, I'm 10 months old. You understand I don't care, right?"

We had fun, but next year are going to go a little later. That way the crowds will have a chance to disperse a little. We were planning on doing the Story Book Forest at Arcadia Lake, but we got tired and didn't.

Finally, we did get some photos done in his costumes. Sadly, the young lady who did the last two photos sets is no longer working at the studio we've been going to. The lady who did this set was fine, but just not as skilled. She also had a pretty intense energy that overwhelmed Jojo (and me). Rather than motivating Jojo's personality out, she just kinda filled the room with her own energy and Jojo wasn't nearly as expressive. I don't blame him. We needed the photographer to be at about a 4 to 6, she was rocking at an 11. Exhausting.

Still, I'm not disappointed. We got some good photos, not the quality I am spoiled to, but not bad at all. Here's a few of them. 

Revival Son-day

Okay folks, seriously.

Ihavebeensobusy. 4real.

Everyone tells me that this course is the hardest one in the MBA (almost certainly designed to weed out the ones who do not really want it and should not be here - and it works because about 1/3 of the class is gone now). They better not be lying cause wow.

I mean, the class is not actually that hard. None of the assignments (in and of themselves) are all that horrid. The trick is I was kinda busy before I started the program, so...now I'm just always busy. 200+ pages of reading a week is no big deal. A 9-page report and presentation is no big deal. Having a wife in a masters program, a 10-month old, a full-time job, AND then add the above. That starts to creep into sleeping time pretty quick. When a lightning storm kills power and you lose 5 hours or so of work on said report...now we are into big deal range.

Regardless, it hasn't all been bad and hard and what not.  My mom and I celebrated out birthday on the 3rd (mom) and 6th (me). We went to Dave and Busters. My parents like going to D&B and like collect tickets. However, spending those tickets seems to be the worst part because there is nothing in the reward area that my folks actually want. It's weird, but I totally get it and I'm pretty much the same way. However, my folks had like 20,000 tickets or something. So, it's kinda out of hand.

For perspective, the giant stuffed animals usually go for like 8 to 9 thousand tickets. So they could get one...or two. But all they had was these truly horrid looking gorillas and a banana...a smiling banana. That's not happening. On our way out, my dad noticed a really cute set of stuffed bears (polar and brown) that were really cute, but not in the store area and no price listed. So he asked and it was (*shockingly*) well within the number of tickets he had. So he got it for Jojo.

How big is this bear?

bed-sized.

We also got Jojo a pair of little plastic frisbees. He obsessed on them for some crazy reason. In short, a good time was had by all.

Tomorrow, we plan to go pumpkin picking and get photos done of Jojo in his Halloween costumes. I said costumes. We got two. We love Halloween. I'm looking forward to haunt the zoo more than I'm looking forward to his birthday or Christmas.

I'll post way more photos on FB, but these are the costumes we got:

I'm not jojo!

neither am I!

Long-weekend Son-day

Mo is finally done with her three 7-11 shifts per week. It was a good idea on paper, and it got us to this point, but I am not sorry to see it go. She is back to doing just three 7-7 shifts.

We are going to start having my folks watch Jojo on Saturdays. That's cool, but it will be a transition. I am hopeful it works out well. But, we could not do it this weekend. My folks were busy. So Mo took a weekend off and I took a couple days off too. We had four whole days to spend together. We really did not know what to do.

We did a lot.

Mostly it was homework, sleeping, various and sundry chores and appointments. We did make time to spend with friends and family. We kept really busy and seemed to be driving all over town.

"One more word and I am turning this car around into oncoming traffic!"

We also took a trip to the Zoo with Jojo. We saw the elephant show. It was really fun. We even took the little guy to the children's zoo. He still can't walk and had no interest in the goats or other assorted petting zoo animals. The goats seemed mildly interested in him, but he just watched the other kids and adults. Mo wanted to let him play in the water a little but we really didn't bring water clothes, so this happened.

"I'm totally going to catch it this time, hold me still!"

Today we took him to the new doctor for a 9 month check up. He's healthy and doing fine. He's 30 inches or so and 20 pounds or so. He's big. The average height for a 1 year old is about 28-29 inches. The average weight is about 22 pounds.

Eventually, he will start using real words and not the near-constant and loud "babble-yelling".

Son-day at the Zoo

Mo only worked 2 hours last night. She was put on call, then then called in to do a couple MRI scans or something. Then came home. It was pretty cool because it meant she got some sleep and we got to have some family time. Since the weather was pretty good, we went to the OKC Zoo.

Those who know me, know I love the zoo. OKC has a great zoo. Recently, they built a new elephant exhibit and one of the elephants had a baby. We've seen the new exhibit, but have yet to get a good look at the new elephant. Until today.

That right there is a 100+ pounds of "aaaahhhh"

As per usual, Jojo slept through most of the trip. He did wake up and got hungry right on schedule. Important fact: there is only one bathroom in the zoo with hot water. Also, no matter what signs you see, there is no bottle warmer in the nursing center.

After the zoo, we went to BJ's for lunch. I was craving a good root beer and they have one. During lunch, Jojo was good and talked almost the entire meal. It was cute.

That right there is a 100+ pounds of "aaaahhhh"