Uncle Larry and Aunt Jackiet with the Drakester

Gavin, Lindsay & Lacey, and Drake.
Uncle Brian and Aunt Lindsay, and Lacey still being stubborn in her Mommy's belly.
Uncle Joe and Drake
Me with Gavin and Drake
Grandpa and Drake
Eric with his Mom and dad, all playing with Drake in his bouncy seat.
Grandma rocking Drake.
Drake on his very first plane ride.
Mister Chunky Cheeks

Home again

We made it home from Buffalo yesterday, and had a wonderful long weekend. It is always so awesome to get up there and visit with family and friends. And, we had nice weather while we were there, so it made it even better! This is a busy week, because it's my first back full-time. We'll see how it goes, but I can safely say I'm not very happy about it. I'd just rather be here at home, hanging with my big guy. Still no word on the Cary situation, and I'm getting impatient. What will happen, will happen; I just need to quite trying to control it.

Lindsay is due with Lacey on Wedneday, and Bridget is due with McCall 4-16. I am so excited to meet my two nieces!!!!

And I'm not sure if I mentioned it yet, but Drake laughs now. It is so absolutely adorable! I haven't captured it on video yet, but hope to soon.

Busy Busy!

Well, going back to work has cramped my style. I have lots less time to snuggle Drake, blog, and surf facebook. I worked two days last week, and then two this week. I go back fulltime (3 twelve hour shifts a week) next week. The adjustment was hard to say the least. I'll spare you all the details, but one of the hardest things I've ever done was leave Drake to go to work. I bawled my eyes out. But, we've all managed to adjust.

We are flying up to Buffalo this evening to spend the weekend with Eric's family, and we are thrilled to get to see everyone. Lindsay is due any day now, and we are really hoping Lacey comes while we are there!!! But if not, at least Drake will get to meet Gavin. And I know there are plenty of others that are waiting to meet the Drakester and hold him!

Drake laughed yesterday, and again this morning. He is my big boy now, no longer a teeny baby. It's amazing how much he has changed in less than 12 short weeks. Oh, and he slept from 10pm to 6am last Saturday night, and then again last night. WOO HOO!!! Not so much the nights in between, LOL.

Well, I gotta get going on my errands, cleaning, and packing. Our flight is at 8:05 pm, but we want to leave at 5:30pm to allow plenty of time to eat at Chili's. It's our airport tradition. I always get the chicken fingers and a beer. We anticipate everything taking longer with having Drake, so hopefully that will leave us enough time.

Have a good weekend!

Drake Photos

Who would've known.....

By a simple phone call to Timewarner cable yesterday, we now save $42 on our cable bill each month. Ten dollars of that was by cancelling the HBO we rarely watch. The rest of the savings was by just asking what type of promotions they had currently. I'm excited!

Now I've got to cancel the weekend paper we never read.

Then I'm cancelling the YMCA membership that I never use. Eric plays basketball there, but he's just going to have to play at the neighborhood park until we are out of debt.

They are little things, but it's part of being dedicated to being responsible with our money.

Drake has dropped a nighttime feeding, and it is glorious. He'll eat around 8-9, then go down until 1 or so. He eats and goes right back to sleep. Then he'll usually sleep again until 6am. And from then on, he is WIDE awake for a few hours. But that's when he gives his biggest smiles of the day, so I don't even mind being up that early! As he grows and gets bigger, the pediatrician said that 1am feeding will continually push itself back. I can already see the changes happening slowly. Please don't bother leaving me a comment telling me to try formula at night, because it's heavier on his stomach. And please don't suggest adding cereal to a bottle. Those options just aren't for us, especially at two months old. I hope to breastfeed Drake until a year, when he can just switch to cows milk. And I don't want to start cereal until 5-6 months. His cheeks just keep getting chubbier every day, and I love kissing them. I'll post some recent pics later. Check back with us!

Dave Ramsey Update Week 1

Okay, I'm going to be using my blog to kinda keep myself accountable about my money. I LOVE to spend. Anyone who knows me at all isn't surprised by this statement. However, having a child has been a reality check. Combine that with this crappy economy, and I am suddenly super motivated to be debt free. I know that coming here and being able to brag about my accomplishments will encourage me!

Step one in the Dave Ramsey course is to put $1000 in an emergency fund. Eric and I met with our financial advisor today. My plan was to put $1000 from my checking account into a money market or something he recommended, to start our emergency fund. However Eric pointed out that we have checks from our home equity line of credit, and it's not maxed out. Eric wants me to in essence consider that available money as our emergency fund. But just until our credit cards are paid off. So, I'm putting that $1000 to my credit card. I called to ask for a lower interest rate, and those jerks wouldn't give me one. Our financial advisor Justin tells me Chase offers a 0% interest on transfers, so I'm going to try that next. That gives me $400 left in my checking account, and I just happen to have 4 weeks until I get paid again. So, I have $100 cash to spend each week. I hope to spend even less than that!

Well, I'm off to call Chase!

2 Months!

Wow, my sweet little baby is already two months old. I cannot believe it. I've been so anxious to see what he weighs----10 pounds, 14 and a half ounces!!!!!! I was so happy, because it's nice to have concrete and numerical confirmation that I'm doing a great job feeding him. It is a true commitment to exclusively breastfeed a child, and it's one I love. But that doesn't mean I don't worry and stress that he gets enough. It's hard when you can't see or tell exactly how much they are getting. He's as healthy as can be, and I was happy to get a good report. And the ped says his thrush is gone:-) He was due for six vaccines today, and I don't have time for that soapbox. But long story short, I think that's absurd and I'm putting Drake on an alternative schedule. He'll never get more than 1-2 vaccines at a time. No combo shots. And we are delaying all non essential vaccines with really low risk of contracting the disease. He got the one to protect against bacterial meningitis. The one for H-influenza is on national backorder. He will get rotavirus in two weeks, and the Tdap/polio at 3 months. Hep B and A will be delayed until school age, as well as MMR. Anyway, I really don't want to go on and on about that.

I've got a busy week with lots of errands and nonsense to take care of. I go back to work 2 days a week at the end of next week, and start fulltime (3 days a week) the first week of April. It will be nice to get back to normalcy, but I am really going to miss being here with Drake all day. I am going to miss him SO much. I know I'll cry the first day I go back.

Eric is still working in Cary 2 days a week, and it may increase to 3-4 days a week soon. He is still trying to convince me to move, but I'm still holding out. I love Charlotte! However, with his job there, it will allow me to eventually stay home for the most part, so that is his HUGE bargaining chip. I just want to be room mom.

We head up to Buffalo the last week of March, before I go back fulltime. We are excited to introduce Drake to all of his NY family! We hope his cousin Lacey will be here by then!

Have a good week!

Dave Ramsey

On Sunday Eric and I are starting a 13 week series of classes called Financial Peace University, by Dave Ramsey. I first heard about it from my family in SC, b/c most of them are taking it. I'm excited about it! I can't wait to learn more about financial matters, and getting out of debt. I started finding money management interesting about 3-4 years ago, but now I'm quite curious. I want to know how to get out of debt, and stay out of debt.....so I can stay home with my kiddos. I only want to work 16-20 hours a week, so I can be room Mom. And soccer mom. So in any case, I'm excited about this course.

Drake and I are in Florence, but will be heading back to Charlotte tomorrow after Bridget's shower. I can't wait to spend some time with Eric in the nice weather. Tomorrow night we are going out for our friend Kim's birthday, and I'm so excited to go out with friends! It has been since last March that I've been out downtown dancing. And funny enough, that was also for Kim's birthday. My mom is coming to Charlotte to watch the Drakester for us, so we can go out and not worry about him.

We need to interview another nanny or two, and hopefully make a decision soon. So many things to do......

I sure do love this kiddo.

Drake's Smile and Snow

I finally captured that elusive smile!!! It was quite difficult. And watching it on video made me realize how silly I sound while I'm trying to make him smile. I don't really care though--I will do anything to see that beautiful smile! We actually took Drake outside in the snow. Enjoy the video!

And BTW, I'm still working on getting the Hawaii video to post on blogger; it's being difficult.

LOST VIDEO!

So, since I've started using this application called I-movie on my Mac, I've discovered old video taken with my old camera. It apparently downloaded itself with my photos, and has been hiding somewhere in my computer. I thought it was pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Eric and I went to Hawaii last January, for two weeks. It was heavenly! Here is some video:

I'm now addicted to recording and posting video. I can't wait to go to the apple store and learn about all the cool stuff I-movie can do. So, the video getting ready to go up has three parts. The first is to show the world Drake's adorable purple face. He has thrush, and traditional medicines have done nothing at all. We've resorted to natural old school remedy, recommended by the lactation consultants, and my midwife. It's called gentian violet, and it kills the yeast that causes thrush. It also stains everything bright purple, including Drake's face. So, that's the first part of the video. The second part is to show you how strong my big guy is! And the third is of this nonsense known as snow in March. I'm quite ticked about this weather. I want sun!!! And warmth!!! So anyway, that's the video. Enjoy!

Snow again?

What is this crap---it is March, and we are forecasted to get snow for the THIRD time this season. I am so sick of this nonsense....where is spring? I'm so anxious for warm weather, and so is Drake. We love walks, especially with Lucy and Linus. It's been raining all weekend, and I'm so ready for it to stop. Eric and I are getting ready to go to the mall, just to walk around and browse. We've got to get out of this house! I'm going to try and blog later about the Dave Ramsey course we are starting next week. I'm quite excited about it, so I can't wait to share about it with you all. And I really hope to shoot some more footage of my cutie patootie, and post it. Later!