Karl Krawling

September 12, Friday

This is are little guys first real day as a crawler. He'd been trying and trying the days before, but by this day he is a real crawler. We were so proud of him when we saw that first awkward, wobbly crawl. It was so cute!

Now that he's a crawler, he can get himself  to where ever he wants to be and doesn't have to cry to Mommy or Daddy for help. He likes to crawl over to Daddy's shoes ALL THE TIME. He loves the shoelaces.

He likes to crawl over to the kitchen and be my buddy. Sometimes on the way he'll play a little game of "Where's the baby?" with me. He'll hide and then peek around the corner, then hide and peek again. He's such a tease!

Those first few days I was on my toes making sure he couldn't get into anything he wasn't supposed to. One thing we did is put our table on its side so he couldn't pull on the cords, xbox, tv, etc. I found that as he'd crawl he wouldn't see the glass and he kept bonking his head into it. So Jared helped me color all over the table with widow crayons so that Karl wouldn't bonk his head any more. It worked.

This is a video I took of his third day as a crawler. Jared was very supported of Karl and liked to get down and crawl with him. Karl definitely seems happier now that he's figured the crawling thing out. We're very proud of him. :-)

Potty Training

September 11, Thursday

Potty training has been so much bigger of an experience that I originally thought it would be. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I've found that potty training is training for both parent and child. The whole process with Jared has taken about five months, with one or two breaks in between.

 There were times that Jared didn't want to sit on the potty or even go in the bathroom, and there were other times that he was just fine with it and very cooperative. After a month I started the sticker chart, which made potty training more interesting for him; he liked to see the different stickers he'd get on his chart. It was also very helpful for me so I could keep track of how often he was getting to the potty each day.

The chart was very helpful for getting into a good routine. By this time, in September, Jared is really good at going number one with very few accidents. He's very independent with it and can run to the bathroom and get on the potty all by himself. Yay!! He does this funny thing where he'll pull his pants and his undies down to his ankles, take one foot out, and use his other to kick his pants and undies into the air. He does it every single time. He's so silly the things he comes up with. Number two has been a different story. He was having some difficulty wanting to do that, so Ryan and I brought home these toys from the arcade one night and told Jared that for every time he goes number two on the potty he gets two toys. It was very helpful for him. He has almost all of them now. We're very proud of him! 

Department Move

August 21, Thursday

When Ryan was hired by Goodman, he wasn't quite sure what to expect. It evolved to be more computer-based with an emphasis on customer support/coordination, rather than more traditional engineering like he would've hoped for. The solutions analyst position was still a solid way to get a foot in the door, with the potential to then at some point transfer to an area of the company that fit his degree and interests a little better. 

Ryan wasn't expecting to be able to make this kind of change 'til maybe about Christmas time this year. He had prepared himself to be patient until then, but he wanted the department managers to know what he was hoping for in case there were delays finding someone to takeover his responsibilities. So he had some conversations with his boss and a manager in the ME department. It turns out his efforts were a success. This summer the transfer was completed and Ryan is very happy to now be working in the Manufacturing Engineering Department, much more related to what he'd chosen to study in school. Ryan celebrated by bringing home some fun treats for all of us to share. I'm so happy for him!! :-)

The final transfer of  his active responsibilities happened this past Monday. Of course he is still around in case anyone from this former group needs his advice or input, but now his focus can center on working with the production and design teams to make products and the components within them better.