Jack's Room

Jack's almost six months old, and I finally got around to taking pictures of his room. I kept holding off because we weren't done with it yet, but John put up the remaining shelves and I hung some more pictures last week. I still need to fill the picture frame by his door, but this is pretty much the final product. It took us a while, but we've come a long way from when it was the cat/junk room less than two months before he was born.

Salsa!

Mmmm...

We got some jalapeños when we were visiting John's family last weekend, and John picked up the rest of the ingredients to make our own salsa. We both really like Chili's salsa, and I found some recipes similar to it online a couple of weeks ago. John tried the Pioneer Woman's recipe. It was good, but it confirmed that I don't really like cilantro. (It's a dark green, so big surprise there.) While I still like the salsa, I think we're going to try this recipe next time. The main differences are equal amounts of canned tomatoes and Rotel, and no cilantro. :)

I'm excited that we can now make our own salsa. Plus, we've discovered that Mission tortilla chips are really good and cheap too. They even have an extra thin version, which I prefer.

And since John likes to cook and I like to bake, I'm going to try posting more of our recipes here – especially since the holidays are quickly approaching. I don't know why I haven't done it sooner. I might even bring out some family favorites that we've made the last few years. For my next baking adventure, I'm going to try making peanut butter cup cupcakes for John's birthday in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how that goes.

Cereal, Pears & Teeth

Jack's not too fond of baby cereal (oatmeal or rice) so far, so I let him try pears today. He's still not too sure of that, but he liked it better than plain oatmeal or rice. He would much rather eat Mara's cereal. (Don't worry. I think he's more interested in the sound the bag makes.)

I think we're going to move on to real foods much sooner than expected since he doesn't seem to want baby foods, but we're going to keep giving him some to try.

It looks like a tooth has finally broken through. If we look close enough, it looks like we can see the top part of the tooth poking through on the bottom left side.

Jack had fun playing with his bouncer after I fed him. He was especially interested in the sun hanging on it.

Saying Good-bye

Mara attended a graduation pool party for the kids at her old daycare today. One of the moms wanted to do something since the kids never got a big send off to kindergarten. It's amazing to think that most of the kids have been together for four or five years, and who knows when they'll see each other again.

The kids enjoyed playing in the pool and on the swingset and just having fun. We were even able to get a group picture of most of them (some had already left by the time we took it). I also took a picture of Mara with Gracie (whose parents hosted the party). Too bad I didn't think to get the picture earlier when Logan was still there. They were the original three who started at the daycare with Ms. Gail in June 2005.

Taking a break from the busyness

This week has had a lot of ups and downs as well as milestones. It was nice to have a couple of fairly low-key evenings.

Thursday, August 26

Jack's hair is coming in, and it insists on spiking at the back. It's pretty cute even though it's sometimes hard to see his blond hair. You can't tell that he had to go see the doctor this morning because he was having a hard time keeping anything down. Luckily, he's not sick. Probably just bad gas or a virus that's already past the contagious stage.

Friday, August 27

We stopped by Babies R Us to look at new carseats for Jack. We planned on using Mara's old convertible for Jack until it expires next June, and then we were going to buy Jack new convertible seats. However, BRU currently has a deal going on right now where you can bring in old baby items (like carseats) to get 25% off a new item. So, we're looking at getting Jack's new carseat sooner rather than later since he's about to outgrow the infant carrier/carseat, which also used to be Mara's. He looks so small in it now, but we know that won't last for long.

Cereal finally!

Jack has been wanting to try food for some time now, but we held off because his doctor thought it would be better to wait until he's six months old. He's had tastes here and there, including mashed potatoes, sweet tea, and lemon, but he had never really had baby food. He gets so excited when he sees a plate in front of him that he starts shaking, so we finally broke down and gave him his first taste of cereal tonight, two weeks shy of turning six months old.

He was already unhappy by the time we got the cereal ready because he was hungry and ready for a nap. Once I gave him his first taste, though, he was much happier. He seemed to really like it. We started off with a fairly runny consistency, but Jack seemed to want it a little thicker. He seemed to eat it much better once we added some more cereal to the mix.

However, a few hours after eating the oatmeal, he was throwing up. He's a sick little boy now, and we're going to take him to the doctor tomorrow to see if we can find out what's wrong. Strep has been going around her class, so hopefully it's not that.

ETA 8/26: It looks like it's just a viral infection or maybe just a case of bad gas. His doctor wants him to still try a variety of foods by the time he goes in for his sixth-month appointment on September 17.

August 14, 2000

I started here at Tyler Technologies, then called The Software Group, 10 years ago on August 14, 2000. Hard to believe it's been that long. A lot of things have happened since then, but I am pretty happy with where I am right now.

My department completely surprised me today for my anniversary. When I walked in, they had decorated my cube in crepe paper. I didn't know why at first. Sure, I had been out of the office since last Wednesday, but usually they don't do anything like this when someone has been out for a few days. When I asked what the occassion was, I was told it was for my 10th anniversary. Even though it was implied that more was to come, I was happy with just the decorations.

Our manager sent us a request for a status meeting for 3 p.m., so I printed my project report and got all ready for the meeting. It was supposed to be in a different conference room from our usual meeting place, so I walked with some other people from the department and was just following along until we got to the kitchen. When we got there, one of the IT guys asked about the cake. I was confused at first because I had no clue why he would be asking us, but then I saw it said, "Happy 10th Anniversary," and that it had my boss' name on the order form that was attached. I know I was blushing because I had been so oblivious to what was actually happening, but that's what makes it such a great surprise.

I was given an award for my years of service, which included gift certificates to the company store and a company gift place (Bennett Brothers). It's nice to be appreciated. :)

Here is a close-up of my award.

And here is the Information Development team at Tyler.

Mara's First Day of Kindergarten

After a long wait, Mara finally went to her first day of kindergarten. It took her a couple of minutes to wake up, but she was too excited to eat. We got ready to go, and all of us walked her to school, but not before we took a few pictures.

Because it's the first day of school, we were allowed to walk Mara to her classroom. However, from now on, we'll just drop her off at one of the outside entrances. When we got to her classroom, she put her backpack in her locker, and then the teacher had them sit on the floor to get the name tags that they'll wear for the first few days of school and to wait for morning announcements.

Before we left, I wanted to take a picture of Mara's class. Mara saw us still there and asked, "Mommy, why are you still standing in the doorway?" We took that as our cue to leave.

Last week of summer vacation

Monday, August 16

We celebrated Diane's birthday by going to Babe's tonight. We've only been there a couple of times, but it's really good food. The gravy reminds me of what my mom would make any time she fixed fried chicken or chicken fried steak.

Tuesday, August 17

Mara's been keeping her scooter inside recently, and she decided to tie a couple of cloths on it for decoration. Tonight, she was listening to some new songs I put on her media playing while going down the hallway. I also updated the header of our blog today, so now it includes a picture of Jack as well. I figured it was about time. :)

Wednesday, August 18

John has almost completed all of the backyard playset. It's been so hot around here recently that none of us have wanted to spend much time outside, but Mara wanted to play on her playset for a little bit before dinner. 

Thursday, August 19

The school PTA hosted an event where you could sign up for different things as well as purchase spirit wear and school supplies. Mara wanted to ride her scooter to the event, and then she insisted on trying out the bathroom sinks, which are in the hallway instead of inside the bathrooms.

Friday, August 20

We went to the Back-to-School Night for Mara's school so she could meet her teacher and see where her desk will be. She had fun playing with some of the toys and meeting a few of her new classmates. Before we went there, we came across a couple of vulture-type birds down the road from our house. 

Saturday, August 21

We went down to Burleson and spent the day with John's family today. We wanted to go down there one last time before school started, and today was the best day since John was on vacation. 

Sunday, August 22

Aunt Diannie made a quilt for Jack. It's really neat with ABCs on the front and The Very Hungry Caterpillar quited into the back. Thank you for the quilt, Aunt Diannie!