4 weeks to go

Four weeks from today I will be rejoining the workforce.

I am a little nervous about it.

Justin and I had discussed before Jacob was born whether or not I would return to work afterward and we decided that we would see where things led us. A few months ago we decided that it would be nice if we had a little extra income so we could be saving for a bigger vehicle. Both of us have small vehicles and even though mine is older, Justin's is a piece of crap.

So I made arrangements with my boss to teach 1 class that meets 2 nights a week this fall. The good things about me teaching this class are:

• Class doesn't start until 7:35 pm. Hopefully Justin will be home in time before I have to leave for school (however it is busy season).
• It won't be a lot, but it will be a little extra income that we can start putting aside for another car.
• I have taught this class before. Even though I will have to re-write exams for the semester, I am familiar with all the material and the final exam is almost all written (almost because last fall school was canceled for a week due to Hurricane Ike so some of the material didn't get covered and I may end up changing a question or 2 from the final so that info is on there).
• It will be nice to get out of the house without lugging a diaper bag around.
• It will be good for my brain not to turn to mush.
  

The bad things about me teaching this class are:

• After being assigned the class, I found out that Justin will be out of town the first 2 weeks of the semester.
  
• A couple weeks after that I found out that Justin is supposed to go out of town for another couple weeks during the semester, meaning Justin will be gone a fourth of the semester.
• I am super worried about being prepared for class every day the way I should be. I will have to make sure I am prepared at least a week in advance just in case Jacob doesn't nap or something else makes it so I'm not able to prepare for class the day of. I'm a procrastinator, so I hope that I am always prepared in advance.

I think what I am the most worried about is the fact that Justin will be gone and my whole purpose for teaching at night (as opposed to during the day) was so that Justin would here to take care of Jacob. The plus side here is that I have the best friends ever who have all reassured me that they will be there for me and help me out. It still makes me nervous though since I will need to leave for class around 7pm and I am usually putting Jacob in bed between 7 and 8 every night and this means his night-time routine will definitely hit some bumps those weeks when Justin is gone. I have to admit, I have really been thinking how much easier it would have been for me to teach during the day and find someone to watch Jacob than at night like this.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

7 months old already

It is hard to believe that our little miracle baby is already 7 months old. Here he is looking all cute:
It seems that it takes 2 people to get Jacob to smile when the camera is out. Since Justin is out of town and wasn't here to help me take the picture I couldn't get one with a smile. I think he is just too confused by the camera or something.

The past month has been full of ups and downs. Jacob is not doing well with "solid" food. We thought he was just having a problem with rice cereal, so after a few tries we moved on to oatmeal cereal. He just doesn't seem to like it. After a few bites he is totally done. But he really wants any food we are eating, so I think he just realizes that baby food is nasty. We will keep trying. We did have him try squash a couple times. Mixed reviews on that one.

Jacob is still rolling all over the place, and in fact he rolled right off our bed a few days ago. I felt completely awful about it, but he only cried for about a minute, was clingy for about a minute or two after that and then was fine. With rolling, he has learned that it really is better to be on his tummy than on his back. I am glad that I don't have to help him roll back onto his back all the time anymore.
Before it seemed that Jacob was rolling aimlessly, but now he rolls with a purpose. He will see something that he wants and he sets out for it. He has done a little creeping, but it is mainly by rolling that he gets where he wants.

Over the past month Jacob has started to make more sounds than just cooing all the time. The other day he said "ama", so I think we will hear "mama" from him before we hear "dada". Not that he will know he is talking about me when he first says it, but I will be excited nonetheless.

Jacob has also mastered another trick over the past few days:
He can sit up for a few minutes before he topples over! He usually just slowly falls over, but he has taken a few hard spills that end up with a bonked head and a screaming baby, so I decided to start putting the boppy around him to keep us both happy.

In the past month, Jacob has learned to nap pretty well (not counting the last few days when I don't think he has been feeling all that great). He typically only takes one nap a day for about 2 hours, however sometimes he will take an hour nap and then later take an hour and a half nap. I am loving that he naps and I am actually able to get a few things done around the house.

Jacob loves it when Justin comes home from work and he will lay in Justin's arms and tell him all about his day. He also loves to play with Justin by having Justin pretend to "eat" his stomach. He loves it more than blowing on his stomach, but he loves it best when Daddy does it (as opposed to when I do it) .

It is hard to believe that he is 7 months old and that he is getting so big. I looked at the first picture we took of him next to his elephant when he was 1 month old and was shocked at how big my baby is getting. Who told him he could grow up so fast?