Friday, October 20, 2006

Playing Hooky

Dear Jacob,

It has been a glorious day so far. This morning I played sick and stayed home with you and Daddy. We slept in a little bit, and then I fed you breakfast. You played with your toys while Daddy studied and I cleaned up the kitchen. Then I went downstairs to exercise. You fell asleep and had a little nap while I finished up and Daddy and I showered. Then I got ready and came to work. It was nice to have a fun, lazy morning.

So it has been kind of hard being at work since I told them that I am going to be quitting. I have been giving other people my work assignments, and so I have less and less to do. In some ways I guess I feel like I am already gone… but I still have to come to work and sit around in my office. Today I taught one of my last bibliographic instruction classes, and I don’t have too many more reference shifts to do. It will be strange not to work anymore.

So this week Daddy and I picked most of our tomatoes because it is starting to freeze at night. So we have a couple of boxes of green tomatoes that will ripen up in the next couple of weeks. We probably won’t have to buy any for at least another month. We also picked all our peppers, so I’ll have to plan some meals that use them in the next week.

Last night you and I did something a little out of the ordinary. When I came home from work with you I got a phone call from my friend Cari. It seems that one of our college roommates, Melissa Chipman, is having a rough time so they wanted to have a little get-together. She got married this year, and is filing for divorce even though she is pregnant. What a tough situation. After I let Daddy know what I was up to, I took you with me and we drove up to Sandy to visit her. You were a little concerned about being someplace new and kind of whined and cried a little, but eventually you warmed up to everyone. It was good to see Melissa again, and I’ll have to make her a blanket for her baby boy when he is born.

I put you in your pajamas before driving home, and on the way I talked to Daddy on the phone. By the time I got home you were asleep so I put you in bed. Then Daddy and I talked for a while and then went to sleep.

Today after work I plan to get started on your Halloween costume. I decided to make it myself, since I could make something that I wanted and it would be less expensive. I hope it works out.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Baby Blanket Afternoon

Dear Jacob

Today while I was at work I got a call from the Young Women’s President in our ward. It seems that there is a couple (the Limbs) in our ward that found out last night at 10 p.m. that they get to adopt a baby girl… and they can pick her up this afternoon. They have been trying to adopt for a while, but they didn’t expect it to happen so fast! Consequently, they didn’t have anything for her at their house.

So I decided to leave work early and make them a baby blanket. Daddy came early with you, and then we went and picked up some flannel at JoAnn’s. We went to lunch together, and then I went home with you and worked on the blanket all afternoon. Later that evening we all went over to their house to take them the blanket. We also got to see the baby, who they are naming Brooklyn, and she was very cute. They let me hold her, and it’s hard for me to believe that you were once that tiny!

After we ate dinner, I went next door for the book club that I am a member of. It was fun to hang out and talk with the other ladies in our neighborhood. Next time we are meeting at our house, so that should be fun. By the time I got home, you were already in bed asleep. You still sleep with your arms straight out; flying through your dreams.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Leaving UVSC

Dear Jacob

Well, I did it. Yesterday I told my boss that I will be quitting in two weeks. Even though I have wanted to quit and I think my boss expected it to happen sometime, it was still kind of hard to actually do it. So my last day of work will officially be October 27th. After that I will be staying home with you. I know that I will miss the people that I have worked with for the last two and a half years, but I also know that it will be worth it to stay home and raise my little boy.

This afternoon at work I sent an email to everyone letting them know that I will be leaving. Many of my coworkers said they are happy for me because they know that this is what we have wanted for our family.

When we got home from work this afternoon you had fallen asleep in your car seat. Of course, as soon as I brought you into the house you woke up. We have had a hard time getting you to take naps lately, so we’ll have to work on that. We played for a while, and then we went outside for a walk. It had been raining earlier in the day, but the weather cleared up long enough for us to take our afternoon stroll around the cemetery. You were pretty tired and promptly fell asleep, which was good. I usually call members of my family while I am walking with you because it makes the time go by faster while I am getting my exercise.

Then I took you home and fed you your dinner. I worked on making some cards while you played on the floor downstairs. When Daddy came home we headed out to Chili’s because we decided to celebrate me quitting my job, and your daddy accepting his. Plus your daddy also said he had some exciting news. It seems that when Daddy tried to give his two weeks’ notice for his job at UVSC, his boss basically asked him not to go. It seems that he doesn’t want to lose all the knowledge and skills that Joe has acquired in his years at UVSC. So they want to pay him double time and have him do some work from home in the evenings. We talked about it, and we’ll see how it works out. The extra income would be nice, and I think Joe would enjoy working on some projects and special assignments for them.

During dinner you fell asleep, and after dinner we stopped at Lowe’s. We picked up some more insulation for our roof, which Daddy will probably end up working on again this weekend. Hopefully this will help our heating bill decrease this winter because it was pretty expensive to heat our house last winter. Grandpa Devereaux has been nice enough to help us out by purchasing some of the insulation for us. I can’t wait to go visit Grandpa and Grandma Devereaux for Christmas. They will be amazed at how much you have grown, since the last time they saw you was in July at your baby blessing.

Then we went home and put you to bed. We have started to put you in the next size diapers (size 3) at night. I think it helps you sleep because the diaper holds more and you don’t feel as wet. You have been waking up less during the night, and sleeping in a little longer in the morning, which is really nice.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Grass is Gross

Dear Jacob,


Why don’t you like grass? This afternoon I wanted to take a picture of you on your tummy in the grass. So your daddy tried to put you on the grass for me, and you freaked out. You didn’t even want to lie in the grass on your back. I guess it probably feels pretty strange to you… all prickly

Friday, October 13, 2006

Five Months Old

Dear Jacob

You are growing so fast! It’s amazing how many things you have learned to do in the last month. Tonight we took some video of you to send to your grandparents. We are going to try to take some video of you each month on your month birthday because it is a great way for us to keep track of how much you have grown, and share it with our families.

We put you on your tummy, and you actually rolled over for us on camera. We were so excited! You are getting much better at rolling over, and definitely seem to be doing it on purpose rather than by accident. You have gotten close to rolling from your back to your stomach, but you haven’t managed that quite yet. When you do we can watch you roll yourself all over the house. That should be amusing.

We also filmed you yelling and screaming. It was absolutely adorable. Then we sat you up in the rocking chair, and you started to play with your toes. You have recently discovered that you can actually touch your feet, and now you grab them with your little hands. Sometimes you get pretty close to pulling off your little socks! We also gave you a piece of paper to crumple and drool on. We got some great video, and I love to watch it.

You are getting better at eating rice cereal, and we’ll have to start you on some other foods soon. I guess the real eating adventure is about to begin. You seem to be such a hungry boy, but I’m sure it is because you are growing so fast. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say about you at your next doctor’s appointment.

One thing we can’t seem to get you to do is take longer naps. For some reason you don’t want to go to sleep, so sometimes that can be a bit of a struggle. But you still sleep through the night, so I guess we can’t complain too much.

Right now you seem to want to be able to sit up. When you seem grouchy sometimes all we have to do is sit you up and then you’re happy. You can’t quite sit up by yourself, but you like to sit on Mommy or Daddy’s lap. That makes it hard for us to get other stuff done, but that’s ok because you won’t be this little for very long.

I also noticed that you have started passing toys from one hand to the other in the past month. I just noticed recently, but your daddy says you’ve been doing it for a while. I guess I will notice more of those things when I get to stay home with you.

We love our Mr. Pants.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Daddy's New Job

Dear Mr. Happy Pants

Today your daddy called and accepted the position of PC LAN Technician for the Salt Lake City School district. It seems that UVSC has decided to hire someone else for the position here, which I am sure made your daddy pretty unhappy. He has worked really hard here for almost two years and has basically been doing the job that they were hiring for. So it is a bit of a slap in the face for them not to hire him. Sometimes it seems like everything here at the school is a bunch of bureaucracy and internal politics. Anyway, I am thankful that he already got another job offer because I think that helped to soften the blow. This new job will give your daddy an opportunity to learn new things and gain more experience, so it will be a good thing. The only drawback is that he will have to drive to Salt Lake every day.

So today I would have given my two weeks’ notice at work, but the director and assistant director of the library are not here today. It is Fall Break at UVSC, and there weren’t too many people at work today. Since I will not get paid for my sick leave, I decided to play sick and take the afternoon off to be with you. I went home at noon and ate lunch with daddy and then he went to work.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Job offer at SLC

Dear Jacob

It finally happened! Your daddy got a job offer today from the Salt Lake City School District! He called me at work, which I thought was odd since we had been sending each other instant messages all morning. Then he told me that he got the job. I am so excited! I just want to jump up and down because I am so happy. So today he is going to talk to his boss here at UVSC and see if they plan to hire him for the position that he applied for here. If not, then he already has a job offer to accept. We have been praying for your daddy to get a full-time job for a long time, and it has finally happened. I can’t tell you how wonderful it makes me feel.

So we are starting to try you out on some rice cereal. Last night we put some in your bottle, and you didn’t seem to mind at all. Daddy tells me that he tried to spoon feed you some rice cereal this morning, and you weren’t quite sure about that. But I’m sure that you’ll figure it out.

I am excited that I will soon get to stay home with you all the time. We will have a lot more time together as a family, and that will be really nice.

Monday, October 9, 2006

Bath time

Dear Mr. Soggy Pants

What a busy weekend! We spend most of Saturday out shopping. We got groceries and spent time looking at the home improvement stores for your dad’s projects. We also went to a bunch of other stores. We priced some high chairs, and looked for a costume for you but we didn’t have any luck yet.

Then Saturday evening I was about to give you a bath when you did it. You peed on me and totally drenched my shirt! I was holding your little naked body while your daddy filled up the baby tub. Apparently the sound of running water was too much for you, so you let go. At first I was startled as my shirt got warm and wet, but then we were both laughing so hard. It was hilarious.


Your hair has started to get a little lighter as it grows in, so maybe you will be a blondie like your mommy. Right now your hair is a very light brown, which is amazing since it was pretty dark when you were born.

Recently you have discovered that you can scream and yell pretty well. You’re not upset at all, just screaming because you figured out you can. Sometimes you’ll go at it for around a half hour, and it makes me wonder why you haven’t gone hoarse yet. You still smile and “chat” with mommy and daddy, however you have definitely discovered your voice can do lots of things. It will be exciting when you can actually talk to us.

Friday, October 6, 2006

Paper Not Plastic

Dearest Jacob

This week you have discovered that paper makes a pretty cool toy. You like to get a piece of paper in your hands and then crinkle it up and stare at it. You also try to put it in your mouth and get it all wet with your spit. Once this week when I was sorting the mail, I gave you a piece of paper, and you did a good job mauling it. Then when you dropped it, you got all upset. It made me laugh because you are so cute.



You have not been taking as many naps during the day lately. But you have also been going to bed a little earlier at night… so I guess it all works out. I have been trying to establish a bedtime routine so that you can know when bedtime is coming. I put you in your pajamas, and then read a couple of board books to you. We read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?” among others. I hope you grow to like books, because with both of your grandmothers working as librarians, I’m sure you will get a lot of them. Plus even though I work at a college library, I love children’s books. I especially love books with great illustrations.

Tonight is my Fantastic Friday activity at the church, so I will leave you home with Daddy this evening. I am going to make a sign for our wall that says: FAMILY- this home is filled with love and laughter. I am also making a church-related alphabet book for you. I hope they turn out nice.

Maybe this weekend we will have to go shopping and see if we can find a high chair for you… and a Halloween costume. I would make a costume for you, but I don’t really have the time right now. Maybe next year I can sew you a costume.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Jacob's Gym

Dear Jacob

You were so cute this morning when you woke up. Your daddy put you under your toy gym, and you were having such a good time. I just had to take your picture.


Yesterday Daddy had another job interview in Salt Lake City. I got off work early so he could go to his interview. I enjoyed spending the afternoon with you. Hopefully by the end of the week they will call back to let him know if he got the job. We also worked on your daddy’s resume for his job at UVSC last night. We’ll see what happens with that one soon too.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Conference Weekend

Dear Jacob

Friday evening went pretty well. We had a good time at the mission reunion, even though there were less people than at previous reunions. Joe and I ended up playing pool for a little while, and I really enjoyed that. It was also fun to talk to President Gardner and his wife. I liked the color of their walls, so we may end up painting our living room that color. We ended up getting home after 10 pm, but we had already changed you into your pajamas before we left. So we just put you in bed when we got home.

This past weekend was general conference. That means that on Saturday and Sunday we spend time listening to the counsel the prophets and apostles have for us. Saturday is also our day to get things done at home so instead of watching conference on TV, we listened to it while we worked in the kitchen.

Before conference I ran to the store to get some supplies, and your daddy worked in the attic. When conference started we made peach jam, peach butter, and apple butter with the fruit that one of our neighbors gave us. I was pleased with how well it all turned out. I was especially happy with the peach butter. We will keep some for our food storage, and maybe give some away at Christmastime. After conference we went out to dinner, and then your daddy went to the priesthood session of conference. I took you with me to a baby shower for Brancy Davis, and then we went on a good long walk. Then we went home and spent the rest of the evening with daddy.

Sunday we went downstairs and watched conference on TV. Between sessions we had a little picnic outside. Daddy made pork chops on the grill, and I made salad and whipped up some mashed potatoes with my Kitchen Aid. We ate at the picnic table, and put you on a blankie on top of it. Daddy let you try some of his mashed potatoes, and you didn’t seem to know what to do about that. We’ll have to get you a high chair soon and see how you like eating solid foods. Later that evening Daddy came on our walk with us. Overall it was a pretty nice weekend, but as usual it ended too soon.