Maurice, Olivia, and I attended a friend’s wedding this weekend. It was very nice! We were pleasantly surprised at the exit music, which was the Star Wars theme. Of course, Maurice was too shy to “waaaaaaagh” at the bride and groom as they exited the church. We had lots of fun seeing our friends from Maryland as well. We don’t get to see them often anymore, so it’s always a treat to meet up with them (they’re the ones with the dogs that like to eat me when I’ve had one too many strawberry daiquiris).

Olivia wore a cute, handmade outfit that Granma Evy and “The Great” Grandmother bought her on their way down here to see her when she was just 3 weeks old. We’ve been waiting for a time when she could wear it out, and figured the wedding was such an occasion. It was a very pretty outfit. We didn’t want her to spit up on it, so sadly she had to wear a bib most of the time.

On an odd note, John and Debbie did pick out a wicked cool wine called Vampire. The wine is made in California and we figured “oh lord, another cutsie wine name” but it was REALLY GOOD. I loved it. It’s one of those table wines you don’t mind chugging down during the week, since it’s only 10 bucks a bottle. The Cabernet Sauvignon was quite tasty: http://www.wickedwinesonline.com/product.php?productid=16231&cat=250&page=1

Pictures 1 & 2: Our friend Carrie holding Olivia for the first time

Picture 3: Maurice and Olivia enjoying the reception (while Carrie provokes mommy into drinking more wine)

FINALLY! We got our Internet connection back! I was so upset when we found out our cable went out Thursday night and Comcast wouldn’t even come out to check on it until Sunday afternoon. Turns out some moron cut the cable when digging in the area. Figures. Friday was Halloween at Mythic, which is a fairly new tradition that started last year. Mythic gets tons of goodies for the kids and sets up trick or treating on the main floor. The kids can go door to door and trick or treat with your friendly neighborhood developers. It’s awesome, and we were looking forward to it this year even though Olivia isn’t really old enough to know what is going on.

This year I decided to make her little outfit to be a Jedi Knight. It. Is. Awesome. Actually, it’s more like awesome wrapped up with awesome bacon and drenched in awesomesauce. I took a hooded jacket pattern that I had purchased some years back and modified it somewhat to be longer, not have a zipper in the front, and no elastic around the hood’s edge. It made the most perfect little Jedi Knight Robe. Then I purchased some khaki pants she could reuse and put on a kimono styled shirt from Danielle. Maurice took it an extra step and got her a little glowstick to be her lightsaber. Again, totally awesome.

Olivia had what looked to be fun. She just gets a little overwhelmed when we’re around a lot of people, since there’s so much to take in. If the pictures make her look catatonic, that’s why. She’s fine, just… taking in the atmosphere.

Sadly, we won’t be having the Nelson Halloween Party this year. We really wanted to do one, but figured most of the people we know who would come have kids now, and since our house isn’t kid-friendly just yet, we’re holding off until next year. We plan on doing a kid-friendly halloween party next year with crafts and things for the kids to do. I’m 110% sure that our house will be alright for toddlers of all ages next Halloween.

Picture 1: Chilling with mommy

Picture 2:  A Jedi needs sleep too!

Picture 3: Jedi + Mommy + Mythic Sign = Awesomeness

Picture 4: It’s that daddy person holding me again — this is how we rol

Picture 5: The Force is strong with this one

Picture 6: Mommy won’t stop showing me off! Help me Jason; you’re my only hope!

Picture 7: Olivia was enthralled by Isabella and the other kids playing in front of her

Olivia is 3 months old today. It’s hard to believe the time has gone by so quickly. She’s grown so much over the past few months since we brought her home. It’s hard to realize it until you look at the pictures from start to finish to see what progress she’s made. She’s definitely a lot longer than she was when we did the little 2 month photo shoot! I’m thinking she’s going to be quite photogenic. She enjoys getting her picture taken and perks up and immediately smiles for the camera without much provocation.

Her third month was much easier. People say it gets easier at 4 weeks then 2 months, etc etc.  No. It gets easier at 3 months for sure. She started sleeping longer at night, taking better naps, napping in the crib for that matter, and can play with different toys now. We have a rotation of toys for her to play with at home now, since she bores with one after about 10 minutes and cries for the next one.

I have a ton of pictures to share today. Please do not try to print these out as keepsakes, because they’re terribly small. If you want prints, just email me which ones you want, and I’ll  send the order to your local Walmart for printing.

Olivia started daycare this week, which I thought would be a horrible experience for everyone, but it turned out to be just fine. She started Tuesday morning and apparently was so well-behaved the ladies at the daycare center just love to brag about her. She’s even napping in the crib there for at least an hour twice, sometimes even three times a day. That’s great, considering we had only had one day of crib napping before she started daycare. I’m glad to see that new habit has stuck around. Sleeping in the bouncy chair was nice, but it was stressful trying to keep the main level quiet so she wouldn’t wake up from any odd noise. Plus the cats have a knack for waking her up. I thought I’d have a hard time dropping her off at daycare, but it turns out that it was easier than I thought. The head teacher for the infant room picked up Olivia and cuddled her. When Olivia smiled, I knew she’d be just fine. Unfortunately, since Olivia is only with me for maybe an hour each night before she wants to go to bed, I can’t get too many good pictures during the week.

Olivia continued to shock us this week by playing nice for our neighbors, Lydia and Mike.  They were kind enough to watch her on a weeknight so Maurice and I could have fun at the launch party for Warhammer in Georgetown. It was nice just to get out as a couple again, but I really missed Olivia. I have a hard enough time making it through the workday without her around, so I had feelings of guilt for leaving her in daycare all day only to get home and throw her onto our neighbors’ laps so we could go party with the rest of the company.

As for work, it’s odd being back. I feel like I should be monitoring the clock for Olivia’s next feeding and not checking out Microsoft Project to see how I can squeeze in X number of tasks into Y number of weeks for my team. Oh that is weird by the way… “my team.” I’m an engineer at heart, and would like to remain as such. I want to manage, because I know it’s the next logical step in software engineering to move out of the pits and into the overhang where you tell people what to do, but I want to get down into the trenches and continue to code. It hurts being told I won’t have time to do that anymore. I personally think it’s a waste of talent if I do say so myself. I know quite a bit about our server systems and it’s a shame that I can’t help out in that area anymore without getting some eyebrows raised at me.

We went to Danielle and Mike’s house today for Isabella’s birthday party. She’s now 2 years old. Wow. I remember when we were celebrating the pregancy with a baby shower out at their house, and now I’m celebrating a second birthday! I got one really good picture of Maurice holding Olivia, who was very interested in what the kids were doing all around her in the livingroom this afternoon. It’s a bit blurry when blown up, so I’ll have to do some photochopping of it to clean it up before I print any copies out. I would like to note that Mike’s mother is more than welcome to come live with us forever and ever… Olivia slept very well in her arms today and she was so kind to give me a break so I could eat lunch!

Today Maurice, Olivia, and I went shopping for our Halloween pumpkins. We have always enjoyed celebrating Halloween, so this year will be no different (well, with the obvious exception that we will not be hosting a drunken brawl at our house this year). We stopped by the office to try to organize our things since we were both moved around and then headed over to Rio Grande for some lunch. Olivia didn’t sleep the entire time, which had us slightly worried, but she fared well. We hit up Merrifield Garden Center for the pumpkins again this year, choosing one large one for me and Maurice and a smaller one for Olivia.

Lately, Olivia has also taken to sleeping longer stretches. We’ve started to feed her every 3 hours during the day, so by the time nighttime rolls around, she’s consumed most of her food for the day already. She’s routinely doing 7-8 hour stretches and even a fabled 10 hour stretch! We’re waiting for her to go 12 hours. If she does that, we’re golden. Until that point though, how we handle our weekday mornings getting for work is going to be a might unpredictable. We’re going to have to roll with the punches (or lack of sleep) for the next month as we adjust to me going back to work. That should be starting this Wednesday. I’m nervous, but also excited. I’m making a jump into management and I don’t know what to expect now that I’m actually responsible for something other than my own personal tasks.