Bike and Big Boy Seat!

As promised!!!  

So much!!!

So much has happened since I last blogged..where to begin really?!?!

Archer and I had a trip planned to Iowa for 6 days mid March.  The night before the flight (I was so nervous about how he would handle the airplane/so many people being around/the change in schedule) Archer would not go to sleep...was SCREAMING!  I went in to pick him up around 10:30pm (we were set to leave our house at 3:30am) and he was warm.  I took his temp and it was 100.5...GO FIGURE-the night before we leave!  The next early morning my little guy had two bottom teeth!  They poked through, but seem to be in a standstill-they are still not completely in so I imagine they continue to bother him as gnaws on everything in sight!

Our flights were awesome, and Archer was a CHAMP!  He would sleep the entire time on the plane, play on the layover, and then sleep again on the next flight---what a sweetie!  

Our trip was wonderful!  It was so good to see my side of the family-and they are all so wonderful!  Everyone drove to my moms house on Saturday for a big get together which was so kind of them all to do!  I had an awesome time hanging out with everyone-and we are so thankful for such a wonderful trip!!!  (Colin missed us badly!)

While we were gone Colin lost his job.  Long story short...it was for the better!  I got hired last weekend for a position I had been watching at a hospital here in town where I will work 3 nights/week from 7pm-7am (self-scheduling thank goodness) and so it will make the transition so much easier on all of us if Colin is home with Archer!  I'm not sure how long Colin will stay home with Archer, but def. for a month or two while we get accustomed to me working. The nice thing about it is I will miss out on bedtime 3 times/week but that is really all.  I will be home around the time Archie wakes up, and then I will sleep for 5 hours or so while Colin and Archer play/nap.  I will also still be able to nurse Archer when need be which is such a relief for me!

In Archer news...let's see...he sits great, it would take a lot of force to knock him down-he has; however, started to lean forward while sitting so he ends up on his tummy and then scoots around-basically he crawls with one leg!  He gets to where he wants to go though so it keeps him happy.  Two nights ago he got up on all fours and rocked back and forth and suddenly it hit me...it wont be long!!!  He has started eating solids more readily and LOVES teething biscuits!  He also really likes to feed himself, go generally when we are nearing the end of his dinner we will strip him down and give him his bowl and spoon.  It creates quite the mess, but that is what bath time is for!  

Oh yes, we also are getting Archer's "big boy" car seat in the mail tomorrow!  We have been waiting for so long and finally there was a wonderful sale that we couldn't resist!  We will see what he thinks about it and I will be sure to post pictures!

Archer has also been sleeping "through the night" more so now than ever before.  The other night he went to bed around 7pm and woke up at 6am.  I am not thrilled at all about the new 6am wakeup call, but I will take what I can get!  

Colin and I have been on a vigorous search for a tandem bike!  We both have too many bikes already in our garage and we have a baby trailer and also a baby seat for the bike, but have always thought he was too young.  Last summer (during the end of my pregnancy...and really throughout the entire thing) the best form of exercise I could get was biking...WE MISS HAVING LONG BIKE RIDES TOGETHER!  So...we were at the park the other evening when a couple our age with a son six days older than Archer pulled up on their tandem bike with their baby boy in his car seat in the bike trailer!  WE HAD NO IDEA THAT WAS POSSIBLE!  It makes perfect sense though!  Then there was a lady there with a bike seat so we put Archer in and took him for a spin to see what he would think...he LOVED it!!!  HORRAY!!!  The Kimbles can FINALLY be a biking family again!  I will let you know how it goes when we get set-up and post pictures of that also!

WHEW!  I start work on April 20th!  One week of daytime orientation/classes from 8am-4pm, then two weeks of day time orientation on the unit (3 shifts/week from 7am-7pm) then I will complete my orientation at night.  I am soooo not ready to leave Archer and not ready to work at all, but I am thankful that I have a great degree in a field that offers so much flexibility (pay is not bad either) and that Archer will be home with Colin for awhile.  

Alright, I need to get in the shower before the little guy wakes up from his nap!

P.s. Archer has been a bundle of personality lately and very, very attentive to mommy (he watches everything I do while I am not holding him)! Colin thinks we need to fix that, but I ADORE it and remind Colin that soon he will have the little man to himself all day...he needs to be his mommies boy for now!!!!

Working Mom...

HOORAY...school is out FOREVER!  Ok, maybe not forever, but at least for the next five years!  I finished school on Monday the 2nd, and I have a job interview on Monday the 9th...there is indeed still great need for nurses!  The unit that I am interviewing on is a brand new 10 patient medical floor (not sure how crazy I am about that..but we will soon find out).  I am planning on working nights so that my time away from Archer is absolutely minimal.  I have a great friend Ellen here who has offered to babysit Archer while I am sleeping, etc. but the details have yet to be ironed out.

In other news, Archer continues to grow and thrive.  It is so awesome to see him grow and change daily!  He has been battling a cold for about a month now which is super annoying!  In the last couple of days it seems to be almost completely cleared up, but this past week was a different story.  It started I suppose on Monday night when we went to put him down for bed, he SCREAMED which was very unlike him.  When we picked him up he was fine, but screamed when being put down again. We decided to let him stay up a little while longer and tried again...still no luck!  Finally the exhausted baby boy fell fast asleep on my chest, on the couch.  We slept there until about 1am when I woke up and decided to put him in his bed, once again he awoke and started to scream, so in between mom and dad is where Archer slept for the night!  He woke up the next morning with a giant smile on his face!  The next day I decided to take him to his pediatrician to see if there was anything going on with his teeth or throat (he sounded really raspy!)  Turns out he was fine and also a whopping 20lbs!

Colin is gearing up to go back to the police academy...not happily!  I imagine for a loving, passionate guy being around a group of men that talk endlessly about tazoring could be awfully tiring!

Oh yes, Archer is now sitting perfectly without help, rolling almost anywhere his fat little body can go, and trying a variety of fruits and veggies.  By far his favorite is sweet potato, followed by peas and surprisingly he is not found of fruits really of any kind (besides the prunes he was giving to hopefully help him poo).  

Hope all is well!

The Kimble

a few pictures...

Archer LOVES the dogs suddenly, and they do not seem to mind him (thankfully).  Also, we had an outing with our dear, dear friends Ellen, Eliza, and Eliza's grandma today, it was soooo beautiful!

oh yes, and I know my pictures are sideways (I cannot figure out how to flip them on Colin's computer)

long night...

HORRAY!!!  Last night Archer slept from 7:30pm-5:30am (for a quick feed) and back to sleep until 8:15am.  Now...if only I could have also gotten some sleep!  The entire time I was waking up, checking the clock, and then checking the baby.  Also, for the mom's reading this that have breastfed a babe-I was rather uncomfortable!  Needless to say, Archer was about a foot taller when he finally did decide to wake up this morning!  Oh yes, and he had peas mixed with his cereal this morning and thought it was the most delightful yet!  

Love the Kimbles

p.s. Attached is a picture of Archer in his playpen.  I modge podged some baby faces for him (he LOVES looking at faces...this kid could be held in front of the fridge for hours happily) and he usually talks nonstop to them.  On this particular day I put him in his playpen to unload groceries from the car and this is how I found him 10 minutes later...who knows how long he was under there, but he wasn't complaining!

Where to begin...

It has been so long since I have posted anything!!!  It seems like so much has happened and changed...

Colin and I had our FIRST DATE (just the two of us) since Archer was born.  IT WAS INCREDIBLE!  We used a gift card from my Aunt Joc to go to Applebees...rather interesting experience, and then we went to Target to shop for highchairs (which is a gift from dear friend Tyne).  I cannot explain how nice it was to just be the two of us, even for a few hours!  We did spend a majority of the time talking about our little man and about issues that could come up in the future and what we would do.  Our friend Chris is double majoring in English and Marketing and had tons of reading to do (he lives in an apartment with 2 other guys) so we asked him to come read over here while Archer was sleeping---we will do this again weekly hopefully!!!

Also, I have been doing my clinicals on the weekends and overnight, 7p-7a.  It is really nice to not have to go in until Archer is almost ready for bed (I don't feel like I miss as much) and then I get home as he is waking up.  I generally feed him and then go to bed, and wake up the next time he needs to be fed.  This has done WONDERS for Colin and Archer's relationship...now suddenly I am asking Colin what Archer likes, or how to do certain things for him.  Just last night I put Archer to bed and he was sort of fussing and Colin said, "he needs his butt pat for a minute or two" so I went in his room to pat and he wasn't calming down, so Colin came in to settle him.  The boys have had many adventures also!  Last Friday night Colin took Archer to a Mardi Gras parade downtown (Archer wasn't found of all of the noise so they stood back a block watching).  Last night we went to the mall to pick up a few "business casual" clothes for Colin when we were walking and Colin was holding Archer, suddenly Archer grabbed onto Colin's face (one little hand on each cheek) and just started starting at him.  This lasted for nearly two minutes and he just stared, smiled, and cooed.  Colin's heart melted I am pretty sure, and I teared up a bit-it was so sweet.

Colin continues to stay super busy at work!  He is so great at what he does, and soooo patient!  Lately he has been getting really anxious to go back to school (I don't blame him) so we are trying to figure out how to go about all of that.  There are lots of options to consider, between schools and exactly what he wants to get his masters or phd in.

ARCHER on the other hand is beyond wonderful.  I honestly did not anticipate loving him more DAILY, but that is what continues to happen.  As I type this he is in his excersaucer spinning around pulling all of his toys into his mouth (seems like yesterday I put him in there for the first time and he just flopped around...unsure of what he was supposed to be doing).  He is soo fun, and so responsive!  He now goes DAYS without pooping (our record was 11 days...eight days ago).  We started offering him cereal in the morning again three days ago and he seems to really enjoy it now!  He actually holds onto my hand with the spoon in it and brings it to his mouth for each bite and back into the dish for more.  He seems to be a bottomless pit..but because he is still so little and young, I tend to really limit the amount he gets (which results in an unhappy baby when the food goes bye bye).  

Sleep...hmm, good and bad!  Archer used to be a champion sleeper..and then we bumped his bedtime up to 7pm.  It is really nice for Colin and I to have to much time together, but it results in me getting less sleep.  For the last few nights Archer has been going down at 7pm, waking around 1am, again at 4am, and then for the day at 7am.  Colin asked when Archer will "sleep through the night" I replied, "when I get tired of getting up."  As of right now, I am ok with how it is going.  During the day we get two long GLORIOUS naps (morning and early afternoon) and then a short, hour long afternoon nap.  It works for us, and we all feel rested...so we are doing ok!

Ok, well speaking of naps, the little guy is ready to go down and now staring at me from his excersaucer with a very unhappy face!  I hope all is well!

Love the Kimbles

change in plans

So long cereal!  I think we started too early for little Archer, he doesn't seem that eager about it and it seems he isn't catching on just yet.  We have decided to put away the spoon and try again in a month or two.  Boy...it sure was cute trying though!