Labor Day Weekend

Autumn is my favorite time of year so the long Labor Day weekend is always welcomed. As you can see, I've updated the blog to reflect fall hues. Iain, Callum and I have a variety of things planned this weekend and after an exhausting first week of the semester, I know I am ready for some down time. If you are traveling this weekend, have a safe trip! I'm hoping to add some new pictures and possibly some video of Callum. Our little guy keeps learning more and more new tricks- blowing raspberries at us is the newest talent. Nothing like being spit at by your son. Ha ha- it is cute though. But isn't everything he does?

Birthday Weekend

As mentioned before, Iain's birthday was Friday so I had asked Aunt Karen and Uncle Tedd if they would be willing to watch our lovely Callum for the evening. They kindly agreed and came over around 6 p.m. that night. Iain and I decided to spend our free evening viewing Iain's movie choice- The Mummy 4- at the Regal Cinema's in Hagerstown. Right before the movie, we grabbed a bite of pizza. Now Callum had had a nap earlier in the day but despite our attempts before going out, I couldn't get him to close his eyes. After we left, Aunt Karen and Uncle Tedd couldn't get him to close his mouth. Apparently Callum cried the rest of the evening right up until he finally fell asleep. I knew he was a bit fussy at night but we'd never had him behave like that before! Anyway, we really appreciate Aunt Karen and Uncle Tedd's patience with our little guy. I don't know if I would have been so good! Our newest adventure with Callum is to get him to sleep in his crib. We've had the Pack N' Play in both our bedroom and now his room for him to sleep in. He definitely getting too long for it and we want to transition him into his crib. Callum managed to sleep there last night but he had to be swaddled (yes, we are still using the swaddler). I think that weaning him off of this is going to be one of the hardest things of all. He just can't seem to relax with his arms free. I'm hoping that he won't be 5 years old and still sleeping with it. I did order the next size up meant for babies 15-22 lbs. but it was as big as a parachute. I sent it back. We keep saying that we're going to let him sleep without it but then he cries and cries ,and I'm tired so back into the swaddler he goes. We'll figure out something eventually I guess. On another note, he is rolling, rolling, rolling. Every time I place him on the floor on his back, he flips onto his tummy. It's very cute and he keeps getting better and better. I think that we will need to start baby proofing the house. Watch out cats! Callum will be on the loose soon!

Cat Situation In Our House

This is truly the cat situation in our house.

Shuster is the gray cat and Henry would be the black and white one. Can't we all just get along?

Happy Birthday!

I just want to post a HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my fabulous husband, Iain. Today Iain turns the big 3-1! I am so lucky to have such an amazing partner and friend. Iain is an wonderful father, caregiver and all around great guy. Happy Birthday Baby!

Update

The Burnetts continue to plug along with our lives. Things are going well although I will admit I am tired today. Callum is doing better with his sleep but is still up at least once but normally twice between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. I've thought about trying to put him to bed later but honestly, his internal clock reads that bath time is at 7 and his bottle is at 7:30. When we deviate from this schedule, he gets really fussy. Hopefully he will eventually end up sleeping from 8 p.m to 6 or 7 a.m. but this will obviously come on his timeline- not ours. Each day he gets cuter. He has found his hands and also his feet. Pretty soon I think they will be in his mouth. Callum definitely knows Mommy and Daddy and responds accordingly- BIG SMILES. He is also starting to laugh. It tends to start as a shrill squeal. Callum has rolled over several times at home. He's not consistent with it because he actually did it for the first time almost a month ago. I figured it was a freak accident. It happened twice all at once and then he didn't do it again until last week. He can go both tummy to back and back to tummy, but it is random- only occurring occasionally. I imagine as he gets stronger it will happen more and more. Work for both Iain and I has been going fine. The calm before the storm is occurring in my office- new student move in is Thursday. The university goes from having about 500 people at one time to about 8000 people which is insane. To all of you Shippensburg locals- watch out for traffic on Thursday and avoid King St. if you want to get anywhere on time.

First Week

The Burnetts have survived their first week with Mommy at work and Callum at daycare. Although it has been hard to get into a routine, we're plugging along. I would note that unfortunately it only took four days for Callum to come down with the sniffles. Yes, this must be a new world record. Iain also has come down with whatever Callum has. Thank goodness for saline nose drops (Callum) and DayQuill (Iain). Callum has adjusted very well to having to rush out the door in the morning. He wasn't too excited today but I guess this is how we all feel on Monday. It doesn't help when Mommy sleeps through the alarm and throws us all off schedule as we rush around trying to make it out the door in 15 minutes flat. I guess now Callum and I are just working for the weekend! On another note, some very special people, Shaun and Lori Smith, are counting down the days until their little one enters the world. Baby Ty Gregory is scheduled to join us on September 14. He may or may not know he is supposed to come on that day. :-) Please keep Shaun, Lori and Ty in your thoughts and prayers in the next couple of weeks. We are so excited for them and cannot wait for Callum to have a new playmate.

We Survived!

Yes, folks I wanted you to know that both Callum and I survived his first day at daycare and my first day at work. Iain was definitely the brave one in this situation. I was told that Callum was fine all day and only cried when he was put down, as he does at home, and he even took three naps! I was so pleased. Now he could have eaten a bit more but that will come with time. Now work for me was stressful and I still feel overwhelmed. How could I not be after returning to 483 new emails, a huge stack of paperwork and 35 graduate assistant applications to review? Fortunately I had an excellent replacement and plenty of help and welcome upon arrival. I even got some beautiful flowers from my amazing husband. I should manage to get it together before the semester starts.

Off to Work I Go

My maternity leave ends in just a few short hours and I am definitely feeling sad. My head tells me that it is the right thing to do, but I just don't feel ready. I do feel fortunate to have been home for 13 weeks but man have they passed quickly. If Callum was sleeping through the night, I might be a bit more prepared but he just isn't there yet. I'm not sure how I am going to handle working and getting up throughout the night--although Iain will be doing this more frequently than he has had to while I was at home exclusively. On a lighter note, our cats provided some humor this morning. Iain got up and fed Callum at 4 a.m. and put him back to bed. At 7:15 a.m., I woke up to Henry scratching at our bedroom door. When I let him in, he proceeded to sit on me, meow and basically annoy the heck out of both of us. Shuster came in shortly after to help Henry out with waking us up. Iain told me that they had food because he put extra out when he made up Callum's bottle a few hours earlier. Well I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I finally went downstairs to see that Iain had given the cats some leftover "diet" cat food from when Shuster had been having stomach problems. He and Henry wouldn't eat it! Can you believe these picky cats??? Are they spoiled or what? When I put more regular food out, they munched away happily and left us alone. Too bad Callum woke up 10 minutes later. The rest of the day has been good though. I hope that your Sunday has gone well and think about the three of us tomorrow when we start this transition. I guess I could always close my door and sleep in my office if I had to... J/K :-)