Elias: Week7
Another weekly update. Elias has been keeping us busy. It seems he doesn’t like to hold still, so he’s either being held, in the swing, going for a walk, or a car ride. We started Sunday Morning with a car ride to the beach. That let Nikki have her first time off in 7 weeks. We think she appreciated it (she went for her first run/walk) and the boys had a nice trip to the beach.
The rest of the week was also busy. I’ve been feeding and bathing Elias each night to get him into a routine. We do OK at both. He’s getting much bigger. Nikki weighed him and he’s now ~13lbs. She had to go buy him some new bigger clothes this week.
He’s now 8 weeks old as of Sunday (as I’m posting this it’s exactly his Bday!!!). This weekend we all went for a drive to Newport on Saturday. He didn’t sleep in the car which is unusual. Mom then came over and helped me with more yardwork (we’re getting closer). Today was a nice long bike ride and then I picked up Mario Kart for the Wii (Jess, go RIGHT NOW and get a copy so we can play online 
). We’ve had a nice slow day around the house since then.
I also managed to get some videos of Elias this weekend. The first is him in my arms Saturday morning. He was smiling and having a great time:
This second one is him in his swing. DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU GET MOTION SICK AT ALL!!!! You’ve been warning, I’m not cleaning your carpet.
Elias week 6 update!
As usual I’m catching up a week at one. I figured it would probably be easier to do one giant post that covers the whole week. I’m still shooting a photo a day, they’re in the gallery at the bottom and in the PAD gallery. But I figured one post will make more sense.
Anyway, it was a busy week this week. Tuesday we were off to the Stinton’s house for Steve’s 39th birthday. It was his first time meeting Elias and everyone had a great time. Elias loved the car as usual, but he did get to go for his first MINI ride… We were all set to leave in the WRX but Nikki had heard a “weird noise” in it Monday when she drove to her Drs appt. I started it and also heard the noise. I popped the hood and hopped out to see what it was and the tensioner for the AC belt had broken. It’s no big deal, but it’s not the best idea to drive the car like that in case the belt breaks… So we took him in the MINI and everyone was fine. Yes, all 3 of us fit in the MINI w/o issue, no minivan yet….
Friday night also was a big night for us. I got to feed Elias for the first time. Nikki pumped for her first time, then I went right up to feed him. We’re going to work on structuring his feedings so I can do the ~8pm and the ~11pm feedings. Nikki will pump ahead of time so she can get some good rest since I’m up anyway. The first feeding went very well. Nikki was able to pump a bit over 4oz. Elias only took a bit over 2, but that’s in the range as we’ve read. He didn’t mind the bottle at all. I think I did OK and Nikki had fun watching someone else do the work (even if she did have to feed the bottle just before). It was fun.
Today was spent doing yard work. Mom came over and helped a ton. Dad came over after the gym and mowed the lawn. Also a help, just not quite as much as mom. We really made some progress on things, but I”m hoping they make it over tomorrow too. With me and mom working I know we can bang out the rest of the yard in one day. Alone it will take me tomorrow and next weekend.
I bought a bike!
I decided to get a mountain bike for myself for my 30th Bday. I pooled all my Bday money together and picked it up at REI with a 20% off member discount (1 item in March). It’s nothing crazy, but it’s been a lot of fun for me to ride. I have an issue with exercising… I just can’t get too into it if it’s not fun. Skiing is fun. Sailing is fun. Working out at the gym isn’t so much… So I decided to get a new mountain bike again to ride on the trails near my house. I have 2 areas nearby that are perfect. One makes for a ~6 mile loop I try to hammer out after work, the other is goddard park. I try to ride my close loop, then ride over to the park for a 14 mile loop (I’m looking to make it ~15 with some more trails). That’s my weekend loop. The bike is a 29er which means it’s wheels are 29″ over the usual 26″. It makes for a faster bike when it is on the road and it also goes over bump/ruts/stumps better. More importantly it also makes the frame a bit longer so it fits me better. I’ve also been really impressed with the disk brakes on this bike. It’s my first bike with disks and boy are they nice.
I bought this bike because I had a mountain bike when I lived in MT. I sold it when we moved home to RI thinking I wouldn’t have anywhere to ride it. Well when we bought the house I found a ton of local trails. I’ve also been breaking spokes on my road bike, so it’s not that much fun to ride for me (RI pot holes and me being fat = broken spokes). So it’s been a lot of fun and I already know I’ll be likely to keep this up since I really enjoy it.
Some new youtube videos:
These are courtesy of Nikki. Unfortunately the best one of Elias is too long for youtube (they have a 100mb limit, it’s 189). Anyway, here you go:
Elias:
2 of the “other kids”:
A new hat?
The boys with their new hats… Nikki picked up the red hat for Elias at a maternity shop last weekend. My new hat is a walmart special I got yesterday when Nikki sent me out to get ride (I had to go to wally world anyway). So today at the grocery store I grabbed a shot of both of us with our hats. Elias seems to be interested in mine, maybe I can find him one his size for the summer. Today was a nice relaxing day for us. We went to the grocery store as mentioned, then came home and put everything away. After that I snuck away for a nice long bike ride. When I got home Elias had just fallen asleep so I was kept away from the shower for fear of waking him… I’ve since showered and finished up our taxes. I always procrastinate because I’m always worried of owing (we aim to break even, sometimes we owe, sometimes we don’t). Luckily we’re getting a small return this year, but of course the e-filing and software take the first $100 of that. But it’s a lot better than owing. 