Let the good times roll!

All of February, I had been working with Jason on the art of rolling over. He had sort of done it, but we cheated a little. By cheating I mean, I rolled him from his back on to his stomach, with his arm pinned underneath him, and in the attempts to free that arm, he would push himself back on to his back. Or we would lay him on the bed, one of us would be laying near by, and our weight would cause the mattress to slope downward just enough so gravity could give him a little help (after we gave him a little nudge). But on March 4th, I put him on his stomach to watch me do the dishes. I turned back down to look at him, and he was on his back. Excited, I went and got the camera and put him back on his stomach to see if he'd do it again. Before I could even turn on the camera, he was starting to roll.

So he had mastered the stomach to back roll, completely unassisted, at basically 3 months, 1 week. (Is that early, or right on schedule?) A few days later, while Daddy was home from work and we were playing with him, he struggled and struggled, but finally kicked himself from stomach to back. So he could officially roll over in both directions. We were so proud.

Then, March 13th, I was putting some stuff in the garage storage during Jason's nap, when I heard him on the baby monitor. He cried for just a minute or two before I got back inside to wash my hands and get him out of the crib. When I went in there, he had rolled onto his stomach and was crying.

That was the beginning of it. For the next week, every time we laid Jason down in his crib, he instantly rolled onto his stomach and cried. We tried to calm him, put him back on his back, but he would just keep rolling over. If that's the way he wanted it, we would just let him cry and learn to sleep on his stomach. He eventually fell asleep. However, Jason the drooler and stomach sleeping don't fare well for crib sheets. After just a few days, Jason's cheeks started developing a little rash/redness. I realized it must be from all those hours smooshed into the sheets, wallowing in his own saliva. But there was nothing I could do about it.

On March 17th, Jason actually rolled continuously in the same direction to the point where he had cleared about 4 feet of carpet. I was pretty impressed. He hasn't done it since, but our son is officially mobile, so we have to be a lot more careful leaving him on the bed, or leaving things on the floor.

As of now, I am happy to report that his sensitive cheeks seemed to have adjusted and the redness is gone. Jason also seems to have adjusted to sleeping on his stomach, although the novelty of rolling over in the crib is fading because there have been a number of naps where he has stayed on his back. But it's still pretty funny to us to go in and see him on his side, bunched up in the corner of the crib fast asleep, mid-roll.

This has been a fun milestone to watch Jason reach. In addition to rolling over, he also does this cute pivot thing. By that I mean, he will be on his stomach, and he'll kick with his feet so his back end shifts, but his head stays put, kind of like the hand of a clock. So he'll be facing twelve o'clock, and after a serious of butt wiggles and shifts, he's now facing three o'clock. He has worked himself 180 degrees around before. The last time he was doing it, we watched his face and it seemed like he was starting to realize that he was causing his movements and that the change of perspective and scenery was somehow linked to what he was doing. It is phenomenal to watch the wheels of his mind turn and process. What a joy to be a parent.

Whit's Wheels: a tale of tragedy and triumph, presented in time-line format

Saturday February 28th - My friend Erica had been having car problems and needed a ride to drop her car off at her mechanics house. He wasn't home, but had instructed her to just drop it off, leave the key with his wife, and he would take it to his shop later. The plan was that I would follow her over there, and then she and I would go to a children's book sale in a neighboring city. As we pulled into the driveway of the mechanic's complex, however, my car died. :-( After giving half a chuckle and two full sighs to the irony of the situation, we started calling for assistance so we wouldn't be stranded. We couldn't get a hold of either of our husbands, however, because they were helping our good friends and next door neighbors move. We finally called our friends who were moving, and they were able to locate Dustin. A couple hours and a AAA tow later, my car was at the same mechanic's shop Erica's was going to be driven to just hours later, Dustin was back at home, and Erica, Jason and I were in Dustin's car on our way to the book sale. Here are a few pictures snapped on Erica's phone:



Monday March 9th - Our friend the mechanic couldn't figure out what was wrong with the car, so we used up another one of our limited AAA free tows to get my '97 neon towed from his shop to the street in front of our apartment. We have another friend who works with cars who offered to come by and check it out.

Saturday March 14th - Out other mechanic friend comes and takes a look at the car. Turns out it's the fuel pump that's busted. He doesn't have the means to fix it though, since it involves getting the car on a lift, draining the fuel tank, etc. I have been officially w/o a car for two weeks.

Monday March 16th - After calling around and getting various price quotes, we realize that it will cost us at least $400 to fix my car, and since it has been having a few other problems that will probably rear their ugly and expensive heads in the not too distant future, we opt to buy a new car instead. For Family Home Evening, we get pre-approved for a loan with our credit union, review our current budget, look over my autotrader.com finds from the last few weeks and decide we need to actually see a few of the vehicles in person before deciding what type of car I want. We head out to look at the used sections at a few dealerships, only to be disappointed that they don't carry any used vehicles older than 2003...which means we didn't get to see anything in our budget.

Tuesday March 17th - There happens to be one used car lot about a mile from our house. Jason and I take a walk down there to scope out a Honda CRV and a Volvo Wagon I had just seen on Autotrader. Both have already been sold. There was a little RAV 4 that had just come in that day though that they were still getting all the paperwork on in order to sell it. Price was higher than we could afford, but it's a silent auction bid style of buying, so we would make a lower offer and they might accept it.

Saturday March 21st - While Whitney is in AZ, Dustin stops by the car lot and checks on the RAV 4. It's still there, and he approves.

Monday March 23rd - Dustin and Whitney visit the lot again, and after a few hours of looking, test driving, price negotiating and paperwork signing, Whitney drives home in her new car, a shiny black '99 Toyota RAV-4. Paid a little more on it than they wanted to, but since Whitney starts going back to work the following week, time was running short and a purchase needed to be made. Whitney loves her new car, but hates the vulnerability and frustration associated with the car buying process.

Tuesday and Wednesday, March 24th and 25th - Whitney makes a few trips back to the dealership to try and finish up some paperwork. There is a lot of confusion with the dealership and the credit union, but it looks like things might finally be straightened out. Whitney never wants to deal with the dealership again, and doesn't think they want to deal with her, since she was asking a lot of questions, challenging their methodology and refusing to sign certain things they presented her with. All that still needs to happen is for the dealer to get the title to the credit union and then the credit union will get the check to the dealer. Hopefully everything will play out smoothly because Whitney has done everything she needs to (and can do) and just wants to drive her car in peace!

Thursday March 26th - Whitney gets a new license plate frame for her birthday from her sweet husband. She loves the gift. She also arranges for a scrap parts place to come tow away the old neon that has been parked on the street for two and a half weeks now. She only got $100 for it, but she doesn't care. She's just happy to have it all over with.

Friday March 27th - One month since the ordeal started, Whitney finally posts pictures on the blog to update friends and family about the situation. She also takes a video tour of the new car for those who want to see it.

Family Pictures

On March 2nd, we went and had family pictures taken at the Target portrait studio -- not the highest quality photographic experience we've ever had. They were running late, so by the time we got in there, Jason was teetering on the fussy side since he was so tired. And our photographer was this kid who was nice enough, but didn't have much experience with photographing babies; he would spend a minute trying to get Jason's attention, and once Jason was looking at him and smiling, then he would lift his camera into place, count to three, and take the picture. Only thing is, we didn't really get to the taking-the-picture part, because before he had counted to two, Jason was already looking away again. I politely suggested we skip the whole counting thing and just snap away, after all it was a digital camera. He did a little better after that, but a lot of Jason's smiles were gone before the camera caught them. However, for no sitting fees and only $4 a sheet for prints, what more could we really expect?

But when all is said and done, I wanted some cute pictures of Jason at 3 months and a good family portrait to hang on the wall, and we got what we came for. I guess Jason is just too cute for even a Target portrait studio to not get at least a few good shots, no matter how inexperienced they are. Here are the prints we wound up ordering. Thanks to Grandma Lynette for Jason's Bear Skin Rug Christmas gift. I thought it might be fun to take some bare-skin pictures on the bear skin, and I think they turned out cute. So with out further adieu, here are the Hemsath family pictures.

A couple of fortnights

Oh how I wish that the title of this post meant that I had photos and stories to share with you of laid-back evenings building hideouts in the living room with our pillows and sheets. But alas, it has reference only to the fact that it has been 4 weeks since I last posted a blog on here, and those four weeks have been anything but laid-back, which is why it's been a while.

In the past four weeks we have had car issues, health issues, ant issues, diet issues, family pictures, found out two sets of our best friends/next door neighbors are moving, Jason's first plane ride, a few new Jason discoveries that made naps harder, Jason turned 4 months, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary and I celebrated my 25th birthday, just to list a few things. Too much has happened to put it all in one post, so I plan to post about each thing separately. I go back to work full time on Monday, and tomorrow Dustin and I are celebrating our anniversary by getting Aunt Erin and fam to babysit Jason while we go to play at Knott's Berry Farm. So exactly when all of these posts will get written, I'm not sure. But if I put the promise out here now, then I am more likely to follow through with it. After all, I wouldn't want to disappoint all my adoring fans, right? :-)

Jason is napping right now, so we'll see if we can't crank out one or two posts before he wakes up. Here goes!