Happy St. Patrick's Day

It occurred to me this morning that this time last year we were in Las Vegas. Not a bad time to be in Las Vegas, St. Patrick’s Day, beginning of the NCAA tournament, anyway, obviously trips like that are not in our future anytime soon.

Natalie and I are preparing for a busy day. I’m doing some work, she’s enjoying a nap. If you don’t know, for the first time ever, every NCAA tournament game is being broadcast in its entirety live. I’ve been stretching my thumb for weeks in anticipation.

Anyway, lucky for Natalie that the Penn State vs. Temple game will be broadcast down here in Texas at 1 local time. I don’t think it’s particularly good draw for our Nittany Lions and Natalie agrees. At 5:45, Florida tips off so we have a double header of sorts. We’ll fill the gap with some feedings and diaper changing. Some friends that are also Penn State alums sent some PSU gear, but it’s still a little big. It will be perfect for football season and she has her outfit for today anyway, as you see here. (I took the picture after she woke up and ate and I changed her). 

Tiffany returned to work yesterday for good and will start her schedule of being in the office four days and home one next week. She will be home Wednesday’s and I will be home Thursday’s. Monday, Tuesday and Friday Natalie will have some time at Nana’s down the street. We hope this is a good mix of not overburdening Tiffany’s parents and also having some time with her ourselves. We’re obviously very fortunate to be able to have such a schedule and adjust our time at home accordingly.

People keep saying that Natalie is extremely alert for a two-month old and doing a good job with her neck. I’ve never been around a newborn for this long before so I couldn’t tell you if they are just being nice or if in fact this is true. Her hair and facial expressions do give her an older appearance though. She still has a lot of hair so we’re pretty sure that’s not going anywhere.

Yesterday we set a record for diapers within a given time span. I picked her up at Nana’s around 5 and came home and changed her and fed her soon after. By 7, we were on to diaper number four since arriving at the house. They were all also what I call “combo platters”, I’m sure you can figure that out. Anyway, her kidneys and digestive tract are obviously working fine.

Natalie continues to sleep through the night. We wake up before she does every morning, including the weekends and when she does wake up she rarely cries. Tiffany sometimes has to wake her up to feed her before she leaves for work. I’m sure if we left her alone long enough she probably would start to cry. Other parents seem somewhat irritated that she is such a good sleeper. During the day is a different story. She isn’t a big napper so if she takes a nap for 2 hours, that’s usually pretty good. Typically, she takes a lot of cat naps, so by the end of the day she looks kind of tired and is pretty cranky. After about 5, if she’s not being fed or changed, she’s usually not in the best mood. She’ll be waking up shortly and will probably be ready to eat again so I better prepare for that. She has FAR less patience when I feed her than when Tiffany does so the sooner that bottle is ready, the better.