Oklahoma is O.K.!

The Last Post...

Well, as you may have guessed from the paucity of posts over the last few months, things have been pretty busy.  I'd like to think I'll be better about keeping everybody updated with pictures, etc, but in reality, life isnt getting any less busy. 

We'll be letting the subscription on this blog expire, so no more updates after this one.  You can still keep tabs on us through Facebook, however.  I don't update my page, but David does a pretty good job with keeping Jack's newest pictures up.  So feel free to send him a friend request; he wont mind! 

In the meantime, take care, and send us a note when you can!

Love,
David and Meredith

Man its been a while!

Wowzers, its been a while since I posted.  Of course we've been taking a ton of pictures still, so we have a ton to post.  Yes, since getting our new camera, there's been no shortage of pictures.  I love the quality of pics it takes, definitely some nice ones for the wall as well as the scrapbook.  If only I had the time for that!

So in the world of work news, I have now started the plastic surgery portion of my residency, so I'll no longer be rotating in general surgery rotations.  Very exciting!  and stressful! It's such a steep learning curve.  There's certainly been some ups and downs so far.  I love the work, but it's so tough working so much.  I'm so glad I have David to help make things run smoothly at home.  And only 2 more years!

Jackson is now 6 1/2 months.  He just started rolling over back to front, and sitting up by himself.  He still tips over occasionally.  He also wants to crawl, but he's not quite there yet.  We recently got him an inflatable kiddie pool, and we have some pretty cute pictures of him in it. 

Well, I guess that's all the news for the time being.  Things have been so busy, but I don't have much more to tell.  My family is coming out next week so Im sure nwe'll have more pics of Jackson with Grandma & Grandpa. 

We love our new camera!

Curse you, Suzanne Brumfield.  Curse you, Jamie Sampson.  Curse you Suzanne for the awesome pictures you took out here. Curse you Jamie for your amazing talent and awesome website.  For those of you don't know, Meredith has become addicted to Jamie Sampson Photography (see link to right.  We don't know Jamie, but she is a celebrity in our house).  While there are much worse hobbies to have, Meredith wanted to get a fancy schmantzy digital camera to have a hobby of good photography while getting great pictures of our family.  (I prefer her hobby of cooking.  Why can't we do that more?)

Anyway--we got a new camera.  (I was going to complain about the price, but then I thought she'd remember my golf clubs, greens fees, shoes, balls, and the like over the last few years.)  So here we are.  With this camera that has more buttons than Air Force One.  It does thinks like aperature and ISO and exposure.  My favorite button is FULL AUTO.  But the pictures it takes are ridicu-awesome!   We've been having some fun testing out the settings--but the coolest thing is the rapid shot.  It takes like 6 pictures per second--perfect for trying to catch the little dude smiling. (the picture above was one of 5 shot in rapid succession).

Check out the album to the left.  Mark and Amy (Meredith's sister's husband's sister and husband) got Jackson the cute scrubs.  He looks great!  Ready to join mommy in the OR! 

So--while the camera is pretty big and bulky, we are extrememly pleased with the quality of images.  Now, how to store photos to the tune of 100 MB per day...

Spring and Kings

Wow, I can hardley believe that it's springtime.  I can't even describe how giddy I get around this time of year, looking forward to being outside in the warm weather and seeing flowers bloom.  In fact, I just looked through my old posts to see when I wrote about having rosebuds last year.  I can't believe it, but it was March 23rd!  Now, I think it will be a little later this year because our cold weather lasted a little longer.  I just can't wait!!  That was also when we planted vegetables last year, which made me realize that I better get cracking on it this year.  I still have the skeletons of last years tomato plants in the wire cages.  I am salivating thinking about that delicous tomato salad and tomato/basil pasta and pizzas that we enjoyed.  THis year instead of lettuce, I think we will plant jalepenos. The romaine never did a very good job last year because it got too hot too early I guess.  Besides, we use a lot more jalepenos.  Maybe some green peppers too?  I'm thinking about mixing some more vegetables into my flower garden this year.  I have some bare patches where I moved stuff around or there were annuals in previous years.  Any ideas for vegetables that look okay in a garden?

Oh, did anyone happen to catch NBC's new series "Kings" the other night?  I thought it looked interesting because it sounded like the premise was what if America was an absolute monarchy.  Well, it's actually a modern-day version of the story of Saul and David, starting from David and Goliath, and Samuel annointing David as King.  Its very interesting.  Of course, they do take some artistic license, most notably in that Jack (the modern Jonathan) is gay, and not a very nice guy at all.  I'm sure there will be many more things that irritate in future episodes, but for the meantime, its kinda cool.  I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.  Of course, just like all movies/TV shows based off literature, "it's never as good as the book," right?  If you missed it, you can go to NBC.com and watch full episodes. 

Oh, and we're getting a new digital SLR camera so I can take even more pictures of Jackson.  Its scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so be prepared to be bombarded with cuteness!!!

Yay, VIDEOS!!!

Guess what!  I finally figured out how to load videos to the page.  Check out "Jackson Live" to the right (just below the weather window).  Some take a while to load.  I have not figured out how to edit them yet.  Sorry!!

Jackson is 4 months old!

Today Jackson is 4 months old!  I can't believe how time flies.  Or how fast he is growing and changing!  In the last two weeks, he has started laughing and talking (in his own way) and reaching for and grabbing toys on his floor gym and bouncy seat.  He has gotten soooo drooley.  Maybe he's teething? And I guess he has also hit a growth spurt, because he is no longer sleeping "thru the night." (That was a nice 2 weeks though!)  Now we're back to 2-3 hr stretches.  Oh well. 

We also tried giving Jackson cereal for the first time-- quite humorous!  He did a pretty good job, even though most of it ended up on the bib. 

This past week we got to enjoy having Meredith's sister Suzanne and her son Garrett out for a visit.  Garrett is now 4 yrs old, and we all got to enjoy taking him to Build-a-Bear, the Zoo, Yamoto (Japanese hibachi restaurant), Bricktown, and the playground.  Check out all the great pictures of their visit. 

So Much to Tell!

Well, last week Jackson turned 3 months old!  He is growing and changing everyday.  There has been so much going on, which is why I haven't been able to post for a while.  So now I will try and tell you about everything, so this will be a very long post!

WORK
This month I have been back at the VA on a general surgery service, so my hours are back to poopy resident hours (65-80/wk).  I'm tired!  And I miss my baby.  I actually kinda miss being pregnant, because at least then I had him with me all the time.  I'm pretty much late to work every morning (not a big deal when you're the boss of morning rounds) because I always procrastinate leaving him.  Oh well, it won't be forever...

3 MOS OLD
Jackson turned 3 months on February 10th, and we moved him into his nursery that weekend.  He did much better with the transition than I would have expected.  Of course, we still miss hearing him sigh himself to sleep in the cradle next to our bed, but it's nice to have our room back.  Jack goes to bed really well... he loves staring at some Christmas lights we put in his room to soothe himself to sleep.  And now that he likes baths (instead of screaming thru every one), he has a nice bedtime routine.  Speaking of bedtime, he has also started sleeping thru the night (10pm to 4am).  I am actually a little bummed, because that was like 25% of my time with him when he'd wake up a 2 to eat.  Oh well, it is nice to have nearly uninterrupted sleep again. 

DEDICATION
Last weekend we had Jackson's baby dedication at church.  He was adorable in a  polo and light blue overalls from Kohls.  Of course the original outfit we got him was even cuter, but that's a long story...  We went on a parental double date with some friends (3 kids under 4 yrs old, dinner at Chick-Fill-A, and playing on the playground at the mall).  While at the mall, we went to Children's Place to find a dedication outfit, and got this adorable orange checked shirt, argyle sweater vest, white pants, matching socks, shoes, and a little hat.  It was perfect, except that we spent $65.  Ten minutes after walking out of the store we came to our senses and decided to take it back and go for a more reasonable outfit we'd seen at Kohls for $14.  Of course, the hat was so cute, we had to keep it.  And we at least took pictures of Jackson before taking it back.  Thank goodness he's not a spitter!

MISS JESSICA
So since I was heartbroken over putting Jackson in daycare, we placed an ad on Craigslist (true!), and found this wonderful lady named Jessica to watch Jackson at home.  She's a young stay-at-home mom with a 1yr son named Miles, and she's everything we could have hoped for in a caregiver.  She has tons of experience caring for multiple children, she loves reading and playing with her own son, she helps with some vacuuming and sweeping, and she never turns the TV on.  She just started this week, and when I called David to check on how things were going he said he hears lots of laughter.  We are so grateful to have found her!

JACK'S NEW TRICKS
Jessica is so thoughtful too, because her son was in daycare for the first 6 months of his life, and she hated missing some of his milestones.  So today when Jackson rolled over on his own for the first time, Jessica made sure she had her cell phone video on to capture it, and she sent it to me right away!  I hate missing out on that, but at least I get to see it right away even at work.  Other milestones Jack has reached include: holding his hands together, reaching up to push his pacifier back in his mouth or reaching to hold onto things, kicking and splashing in the tub, LOTS of smiling and singing along with us.  He's getting so big and chubby too... check out that double chin!

Well, I think that's about all for now.  I've posted lots of pictures under "Jackson 3 mos," and I'll try to post more later of his room all done. 

Snow Day!

Jackson got to see his first snow today!  Thanks to an Oklahoma winter storm, we have a lovely glaze of ice and dusting of snow.  Of course, its been wildly exaggerated to "Winter Blast 2009" with frequent live news feeds from the local station. 

Jackson is now 2 1/2 months...  Won 't know how much he weighs now for a while because his next Dr's appointment isn't till March.  He is getting to be quite a chunk though!  And a ham!  Check out his smiling face on the video we posted on You-Tube (just follow the link to the right below the Oklahoma weather widget).

I finally uploaded the pictures of Jackson's painting in his room.  It's definitely cooler in real life, because you can't see the metallic and the 3-D details, but you get the idea...  Now we just have to finish his room with the bedset, some shelves, and move the chair in.  We won't move him in there completely for another 2 wks or so, but I'll post some pictures when its done.  I also have to post some pictures of the ADORABLE knit "buddies" (boys don't have dolls!) that Gretta made for him.  One is a cowboy (for his room, of course!) and the other is a pirate, because we love the books How I Became a Pirate and Pirates Don't Change Diapers.

Alrighty, back to work! 

Jackson is 2 today!

Hooray, Jackson is 2 months old!  New pictures to the left!  Hello to all the family  back home!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great New Year, and a good time ringing it in!  David and I went to a friend's house, where they had rented a craps table, and we learned how to play.  It was pretty fun.  The next day was less fun, though, because we all got the stomach flu.  Yuck! 

We had a great Christmas too.  David got me a laptop which I was really needing for work.  It's TINY!  I love it.  In fact, I'm using it right now to type this post while laying in bed with Jackson.  It even has a card reader built into it, so it's even easier to upload millions of pictures of Jackson. 

Speaking of which, our camera was sent out being repaired for the last two weeks, so I apologize for the lack of pictures.  We just got it back a few days ago, hence the coming barage of photos.  I do realize I posted like 20 pictures of him looking exactly the same, but he is so cute I just couldn't stop! How about that adorable grin though?  Those are still hard to catch on camera.

Jackson turns 2 months old tomorrow.  I can hardly believe it.  He's getting big too!  He has his 2 month appointment on Monday, and I expect him to be every bit of 8 and a half pounds.  We'll let you know exactly how big later.  We are so grateful that he's been so strong and healthy.  Hopefully we can get him through the winter with no infections like RSV.  We're trying to get the vaccine for him, but so far the insurance wont approve it. 

Jackson's nursery is coming together...I just finished painting a 4-canvas painting for him that is based on James Taylor's song Sweet Baby James.  I used some texture paste under the paint, so it's kinda 3-D-- very neat!  And I painted some of the lyrics of the song into the picture too, like its part of the scenery.  I just took some pictures this evening of it, but I haven't uploaded them yet.  Keep checking the latest photo albums to the left soon to see it!  I can't wait to have the whole room done, although he won't be sleeping in there for another month or so. 

Okay, well I guess that's all for now!  I'll keep posting lots of pictures, and I'll write when I can.