RigganOnline

Cost of Parenting

2010-09-02T10:16:00.005-04:00

I have entered a whole new stage of parenting: solid foods. I started Elijah on rice cereal a week ago, and so far, the whole experience has been good. I have learned that the texture of the food is very important. He likes the creamy consistency of boxed cereal. He hates and will choke on gritty cereal. He will eat but not fully enjoy creamy homemade cereal. Today, I will introduce a veggie to him (I'm thinking sweet potato), and we'll see how that goes.

When I went grocery shopping this week, I went ahead and bought baby food in a jar as well as some fresh produce to make baby food. Baby food is so expensive! Well, it's deceptively expensive. A little jar is only 50 cents to a dollar, but that jar is only 2 meals. Then, if you add formula to the mix, it gets even more expensive. I just realized that the expense of a child exponentially grows with the age of the child. Am I sure I want a second kid later? :)

Poor Elijah has gone through a lot of changes this past week. He got his 4 months vaccinations. He has two teeth that have broken through the gums. He started on solid foods. Through all of this, he's still a happy baby... well, for most of the time.

I leave you with this video I took of him this morning. To me, he reminds me of a dog guarding a bone. He even kind of slobbers like one right now. Either way, he's still cute.

Overwhelming August

2010-08-23T13:45:00.002-04:00

There's only one more week in August, and I can't wait for it to be over! The past two weeks has been very hectic, and I feel like I have barely survived. Taylor has been traveling a ton. He just went to L.A. for a week, and while he was gone, I was feeling horrible. I had a nonstop headache, chills, neck pain, and after several days of the same thing, I finally decided to go to the emergency room. Hours later with testing and a CT scan, I was diagnosed with most likely something viral such as viral meningitis.... which means no medicine could really help. I would just have to suffer through it and take any over the counter stuff to help alleviate the symptoms. I ended up staying at Taylor's parents house on Thursday night until Friday (which was the day Taylor got back home). By Saturday, I felt much better, and I am now headache free.

While I'm feeling much better, Elijah is having a rough time because his teeth are coming in. He has one tooth on the bottom that has broken skin and the one next to it is almost there. He's been extra fussy and drooling, and he's been harder to keep happy. Taylor goes out of town again this week, so I'm not looking forward to keeping a teething baby all by myself for a couple of days.

Other things that have kept us busy have been CPR class, play groups, and scrapbooking. I have been working on a scrapbook for Elijah since he was born, and I got introduced to a scrapbook store by one of the playgroup moms. We went last Saturday together, and I had a really good time. However, she's been stalking me ever since then. Last week, I got 5 emails, 3 calls, and multiple Facebook messages from her. Today, she messaged me on FB again. Oy. Should I be nervous that she knows where I live?

So that's what has been happening the past couple of weeks. Taylor has been traveling. I've been trying to survive. Elijah is just here for the ride. I hope September goes more smoothly.

Things don't seem to get easier

2010-08-02T19:01:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was a lot of fun but very stressful. As written in my previous post, we celebrated Elijah's 100th day birthday. We had my entire family and Taylor's parents come over, and we catered Korean food. There was so much food! There was so much leftover that each family took a platter of food home with them. We had about 25 people here, and the AC ran the entire time. I cleaned like a mad woman before everyone got here, and then we had to clean once everybody left! Ugh.

Today, I went in to work to pick up my company issued laptop and go over expectations for my new position. I won't be very productive in my position unless I get everybody's input. My problem is that everyone else is so busy that they don't want to stop and get me the information that I need. Ironic thing is that if they help me, in the long run, I could be reducing their workload tremendously. Ah, such a vicious cycle! I did get to log in some time today just downloading documents and sifting through all of the blah that is on the company's portal.

So not only am I trying to balance this new work thing and watching Elijah, but I'm also trying to get used to Taylor traveling. He went out to Nashville on Friday, had to go back out there today, and will be going again on Thursday. He's going to L.A. the following week for an entire week. There are also plans for him to go to Chicago for a week's time at the end of August. Our house seems so busy. I hate it. But what can a girl do?

I guess I'm done complaining now. Thanks for reading.

Getting Ready

2010-07-27T14:14:00.003-04:00

This week is all about getting things ready. In Korea, we celebrate a baby's 100th day of birth. We literally call it "100th day birthday." Well, Elijah's 100th day is this upcoming Thursday, and we are celebrating on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time dreading it. We're going to have about 25 people here, and this is just family! Actually, my mom did invite her boss (she is a nanny for a couple), but the rest is just family. We are having Korean food catered for the event. Should be lots of fun. So, to get things ready, I've been cleaning the house. I'll be saving some last minute stuff on Friday so that everything will be freshly clean before everyone arrives.

In other news, I will be starting me "new" position at work on Monday. I'm going in for a meeting to pick up a laptop, paperwork, and to go over the agenda. I'm intimidated about this work. There's a ton to be done, and I'll be doing it all on my own. We'll have to see how successful I can be working from home and taking care of a little one.

Happy Birthday!

2010-07-18T13:49:00.005-04:00

Happy birthday Taylor! You're so oooooooooooold now. :)

I have exactly two months to make fun of Taylor being older than me before I join him in the 30 category. What is it like to be another decade old? Did we ever imagine we would be here so soon? High school is so very scarily a distant memory. Tim and I were just talking about those good old college days last week. In college, we would always want to hang out with everyone but was too broke to go out and have fun. Now, we all have the money but just don't have the time. We all have jobs, mortgages, spouses, and kids. Ugh.

We celebrated Taylor's birthday yesterday with his family. His mom made a chocolate chip cookie cake for him. I almost refused to eat the cookie since it had these ugly blue and yellow icing on it, but I survived. Notice how there is an attempt with the GT in the left hand corner too. Gag me!

Here's Taylor with his cake after we sang happy birthday to him.

Today, we're going to do a joint celebration with my family since my mom's 70th birthday is on Tuesday. I made Taylor sourdough French toast with fresh blueberries on top as requested for his birthday breakfast. Oh, and of course a side of bacon to go with it.

In honor of Taylor's birthday, I tortured our son for this image. Happy birthday from all of us!

I couldn't help myself

2010-07-14T13:21:00.002-04:00

I am trying really hard not to overwhelm everyone with stories and pictures of Elijah all the time. However, Taylor is out of town, and I was finally able to record Elijah flipping from his tummy onto his back! Taylor hasn't been able to see him do this, so I wanted to post this video just for him. Elijah did flip onto his back for the first time last week, but he hasn't been able to consistently flip until today. I actually have 4 recordings of him flipping onto his back just from today.

If you do get annoyed with my gushing over my absolutely adorable, sweet, good-natured baby, think of it this way: how often do you blog about your work? Well, technically, watching Elijah is my job, so think of my constant blogging of Elijah as me blogging about my work. :)

Speaking of work, I think I have finally found a middle ground with work. There is a new position going to be created that I will be filling, and I will be a part-time employee. I will be working remotely from home, about 20 hours a week for at least 3 months. I did take a pay cut, but considering I get to work from home with flex hours, I am not complaining. I will be reporting directly to the VP of services. Exciting! We didn't think I would be working at all, so this extra income will really help us pay off some student loans before we buy a new car.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great day.

Going down the list

2010-07-12T10:46:00.004-04:00

This past weekend was very productive for us. We are in the process of refinancing our mortgage (I know... again... but dude, we're dropping more than .5%!), so we wanted to get some things on our to do list done before the appraisal. These things are also things that needed to be done before we sell the house, which we hope to do in another year or so. We finally replaced our mailbox, touched up the ceiling with paint, and did some cleaning chores around the house. On Saturday, I even mowed the lawn for the first time since being pregnant. I love productive weekends like this!

Work wise, I'm still unsure what I'm going to do. I can't go back to my old department because their demands are too high. I had requested to work part-time, but they still wanted me to work 30 to 35 hours a week. How is that part-time? Now, I'm working with a different group to see if I can work remotely, but who knows if that will work out. My friend Janelle just became head of the store Michael Kors in Dawsonville, and she wants me to come and work for her part-time. This option seems to be the most desirable even though it is the least paying. The hours are more flexible, and I can work as little or as much hours that I want. I am having lunch with her today to see what we can cook up.

Even though this video has nothing to do with what I wrote about, I figured I would post it just to share the cuteness. It's just a short little demo on how well Eljiah can suck his thumb. Enjoy!

The Fourth Weekend

2010-07-05T21:30:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was a complete blast! Taylor had Friday to Monday off, so we got to spend the past four days together without any work getting in the way. Here's a recap of what happened.

On Friday, we had lunch with Tim so that we could borrow a Braves onesie. Afterward, I had some pamper time for myself and got a manicure and pedicure. By the time I got home, Taylor had dinner ready for me, and we spent the rest of the night just hanging around the house.

We started off Saturday by having breakfast at J. Christopher's. After breakfast, we headed over to Taylor's parents house where we ended up eating lunch (BBQ ribs!). We then did an impromptu visit to my mom's house. Poor Elijah was spoiled by both grandmothers that day.

On Sunday, we hung around the house until we left for the Braves game. Being the Fourth, the field was packed, but we had purchased the tickets and the parking pass in advance. We had some great seats! I had to call Ticketmaster to specify which area we wanted to seat. We sat on the third base line on the Gold Moon Casino level. These seats were perfect because they were underneath the awning, in the shade, and all of the food vendors were in air conditioning. Elijah did really well throughout the game. He had one cranky spell because he got so tired and the noises were really loud. However, we were able to calm him down with a pacifier, and he slept for a good 30 minutes in my arms. The only thing that would have made this day even better would be if the Braves actually won.

Today, we went to the mall for some walking and shopping. Other than that, we just hung around the house and rested. This has been one of the more relaxing weekends I have had in quite awhile.

On a side note, there are some ingenious inventions for baby crap. We used the umbrella stroller for the first time going to the game. Very pimp. Also, I ordered a nursing cover, and it came in the mail on Saturday. This thing is SO amazing. I can't believe I went so long without one. I think there is an invention for every minute detail in the baby journey.

In closing, I leave you some pictures from the game. Thank you again Hansens for the borrow. I will return it to you fully washed and clean! I'm sad the last picture is slightly out of focus. Our usher was informative and nice, but she didn't take a clean shot. :(

Getting a groove

2010-06-28T09:20:00.003-04:00

I'm slowly getting my independent groove back! Last week, I had an activity scheduled every day which made the week go by lots faster. I'm getting more and more comfortable taking Elijah out with me. Sadly, I look forward to activities that used to be annoying or mundane before just so that I can get out of the house and break the monotony. Simple things bring simple pleasures. I took Elijah to church all by myself this past Sunday. This may not sound exciting to you guys, but driving an hour and fifteen minutes one way, alone with a baby, is quite an accomplishment. Good thing Elijah loves to sleep in the car! This upcoming weekend is extra exciting because Taylor will have a 4 day weekend. I plan on having a pamper session at the nail salon on Friday, and then we plan on going to the Braves game Friday night to watch the post game fireworks.

Now, the great question is am I being suicidal by taking a baby to the Braves game? Taylor is pretty confident we won't have an issue, and I was at first too... but now I have my doubts. Will I be able to enjoy the game? Will Elijah not cause too much trouble? We wanted to go to the Friday game because it's a late evening game, and the heat won't kill us.

With that, what are your Fourth of July plans? Anybody have anything exciting scheduled? Anybody would like to join us for the Braves game?

Oh, our peach tree is having a great harvest this year! I've already made a peach cobbler and have given several to my mom and my sister. There are so many still on the tree. The only problem is that the fruit are itty bitty but very sweet tasting. Anybody wants some peaches? There is no way we can eat all of them!

Because I was bored...

2010-06-23T14:24:00.005-04:00

There really isn't much to write about since I haven't done a whole lot lately. It's just me and the baby. However, I do leave this little nugget of movie joy for you. I took it the other day of Elijah. He's very vocal now and more active. Enjoy!

All things must come to an end

2010-06-17T09:09:00.000-04:00

After the whole Rayd going down fiasco, I begged Taylor for us to move our site to a more user friendly blogging template. Like many of you know, WordPress is a beast, and I was never part of the site development because of it. Now that I have lots of time on my hands, I wanted to move our site to a place where I can control all of the settings, images, and so forth which just a drag and click of a mouse. With some research, we ended up here.

So what's new with the Riggan family since the last post about a month ago? Let's do a quick run down.

I am currently no longer employed. Technically, I haven't turned in my notice, but I plan on doing it today when I meet up Melissa for lunch. I tried to give my notice yesterday, but the company came back with a counteroffer to entice me to stay. Alas, it did not work. Our goal as a family was to prevent Elijah from having to go into daycare, and the counteroffer would require at least 2 days of daycare. Sorry, not interested. Where does this leave us? I will most likely return to retail for part time work. At least with retail, I will have flexible hours.

We recently did a photo shoot with Elijah. If you haven't see the pictures already (which I'm sure most of you have since you also follow me on Facebook), you can see them at SnyderPhotography.com. They are a cute couple and charge really cheap for the quality pictures you get. We will most likely use them again as I really want to get some really nice family portraits of the three of us.

Speaking of Elijah, he's two months old now, sleeping through the nights, holding up his head, and is very responsive. He's more enjoyable as we can travel together as I do errands.

Mother's Day was pretty awesome, and Father's Day is this upcoming weekend. Don't tell Taylor, but all he's getting is some spit up and a dirty diaper. :) Happy Father's Day, honey!

Well, I hope you enjoy the new look. As always, this is a work in progress. I plan on getting more pictures and junk up here, but for now, this is good enough. Til next time!