Matt & Andrea Thieman

Another two weeks have passed since I last blogged, which just reminds me how bad I really am at keeping this thing up to date. I was thinking the last two weeks were pretty uneventful until I started writing down what I want to blog about. Looks like I should have blogged a few times in the last couple of weeks. Oh well, I’ll chalk it up to being busy.

The weekend of July 17th through the 19th truly wasn’t that eventful for me. Mom and Dad came up on Friday to spend some time with Carter that evening, and Matt left for a softball tournament in Greeley, NE. After Carter went to bed and Mom and Dad left, I headed over to Jerry and Vicki’s (our neighbors) to sit around the patio fire and chat with the neighbor gang. Then Saturday was actually a great day for me. Carter slept like a champ and I was able to get our backyard shed cleaned out as well as pull 75% of the boxes out of our garage attic space to be able to move them to our storage shed. It was a lot of work, but I am very happy to have it all done. Mom and Dad came up again on Saturday evening to hang out with Carter while I moved all of our boxes over to the storage shed. Without them, I don’t think I would have been able to complete the chore, as I’m not sure Carter would have hung out in his carseat for the couple of hours it took to get everything moved. That Sunday I spent super cleaning the house because I was leaving for Sidney and didn’t want it to be a mess for Matt while I was gone.

So, Sunday I traveled to Sidney, and spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday working with some users in the new group I will be working with. I thought it wasn’t going to be that helpful, but it turned out to be a very productive few days and now I’m feeling more confident with my new work load at work. On the way back on Wednesday I had to travel through some fairly bad storms and at one point the interstate had so much hail on it that it looked like it had snowed! It was very slushy. Glad I missed that part of the storm and just had to see the aftermath.

We got news last Tuesday of Codi’s dad’s passing after a battle with mouth cancer. Codi is Jamee’s girlfriend and although they aren’t engaged or married, she is a part of our family, so his passing hit home for both Matt and me because we know it’s hard for Codi. So, we went to the funeral this past Saturday in Red Cloud, NE, but we had to hurry home so Matt could play softball for a tournament in Milford. My parents were kind enough to drop their plans and come to Lincoln to watch Carter for the morning and part of the afternoon so he wouldn’t have to make the long trip with such a short stop in the middle. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

On Saturday night we invited the neighbors over because I really wanted to try our new cast iron pie makers to make some pudgie pies. I got the idea from my sister who recently made them with her co-workers. Anyway, Matt seasoned the cast iron that evening so it was ready and I got some ingredients ready. Within a couple of hours the neighbors made their way over and we started trying pies. It took a few tries to get a good ingredient combination, but we finally started making peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallow pies and everyone was pleased. Very yummy!!

Sunday was pretty laid back. Pat and Chuck came by the house for about an hour before we had to leave to go to Brett’s (our nephew’s) t-ball game in the afternoon. It was nice to get out of the house, but the sun felt so hot, and there wasn’t any shade. I got sun burnt, which turned out to be okay since I have no color at all this year (due to the fact that I don’t have time to go to a tanning salon and the little man isn’t allowed in direct sunlight until 6 months of age). In any case, it was fun to watch Brett play as this is his first year of t-ball. I wish we could have gone to some of the first games as it sounds like they were hilarious as the boys tried to learn how the game is played. Now that it’s the end of the season, it seems they’re more knowledgeable and the game ran fairly smooth (from my perspective). It was still funny to watch some of the boys act like they were tough (at 5 or 6 years old)…as if they were ready to go to the big leagues. Heck, in their minds, they’re IN the big leagues – very cute.

This week, Carter’s daycare is closed. It closes for two weeks out of the year, and this is one of them. So, I took vacation on Monday and Tuesday to watch him for those days, and Matt watched him yesterday and today. The poor kid was SO bored with me on Monday and Tuesday because I was more worried about cleaning things up around the house than I was about spending time with him. He spent the days in his exersaucer or in his little feeding chair in the kitchen while he wasn’t sleeping. I felt horrible, but also felt an obligation to clean the house and get laundry done as it’s my wifely duty…especially since I was home during the two days. Finally on Tuesday afternoon I gave up on cleaning and spent some quality time with Carter, which is when I realized that hanging out with Carter is more important than always having a clean house (which doesn’t happen anyway – no matter how hard I try). He was happier on Tuesday afternoon than he’d been for the whole two days I watched him. So, yesterday I decided that I need to retrain my brain to accept a dirty house for the sake of spending quality time with Carter. It’s my new challenge to myself. So, if for some reason you find yourself at our home and it’s a total pig sty, you know why. Anyway, Matt has done a better job of keeping Carter entertained, playing with him on the floor for most of the day and even taking him out for a walk to the neighborhood park and trying out the swings. Good thing he has a great dad to make up for his mother’s shortcomings!!

Carter has been sleeping through the night for two weeks straight now. He does wake up and fuss around 5:00am pretty regularly (probably because that’s when my alarm goes off and our walls aren’t soundproof), but after less than a minute of light fussing, he falls back asleep. Sometimes I’ll go in to give him a pacifier and find him rocking himself back to sleep which is pretty cute to watch. I’ve heard that some kids will bang their head on the mattress as a method to fall asleep, but Carter’s method is rocking. He’ll bend his right knee ever so slightly and dig his heel into the mattress a little bit to rock himself side to side. He also has a habit of brushing his sheets/comforter/bumper (whatever is closest to his hand) with his fingers and what little finger nails he has to make a little “white noise” for himself. They’re weird habits, but whatever helps him to fall back to sleep on his own is just fine with me!! I remember the days of feeding him every 3 hours in the night, wondering if the madness would ever stop. Looking back on it, I’m not sure how I did it for four and a half months, but I’m very glad those days are over.

Aside from sleeping through the night, our little man has acquired a few new skills in the last couple of weeks. He has now realized that his name is Carter, and will look at whoever is calling his name, he can roll over from back to front as seen in Matt’s video post, and he’s officially eating solids!! Along with his 25-30 ounces of breastmilk every day, he gets a couple tablespoons of cereal and one tablespoon of a vegetable. I started him with carrots, but will switch to a new veggie this Saturday night as he’s been eating carrots for a week now. I’m excited for him to learn new flavors and am having fun feeding him. Last night while I was eating summer squash, I’d be bringing the squash up to my mouth and he’d look at it and open up his own mouth. I felt horrible that I couldn’t share, but it’s great to see that he wants to try new things. It was also a little bit of a lesson to me that I should probably plan dinner around his feeding schedule for the day so he’ll be able to eat with us and feel like he’s part of the meal. Ah, the lessons of a first time mom!

This weekend we are headed to Petersburg for a Thieman reunion on Friday night and then Carter and I will leave for Wilber on Saturday morning to attend his first ever Czech Days while Matt stays in Petersburg to golf in his Dad’s memorial golf tournament and spend time with his family for the remainder of the weekend. I’d like to say that I’ll probably blog next week, but we all know it will probably be another two weeks before I get back to it…

So last night was the first night Carter slept through the night…yay!!  7:45pm to 6:45am when I had to go in and wake him up.  I’ve been in a fabulous mood today!  It only took four nights of letting him “cry it out” in the middle of the night for him to get the hang of falling back to sleep on his own.  And he didn’t even cry that much before falling back asleep.  The longest crying stretch was the first night (Friday), for 15 minutes.  Granted, last Wednesday night I accidentally turned the monitor off in my sleep (Matt says I “snoozed” it), so I’m sure he cried that night and I’m not sure how long he cried, but when I woke up on Thursday morning he was sleeping, so obviously it didn’t hurt him much.  In any case, Carter didn’t make a peep last night for 11 hours.  It was awesome.

Matt and I have been busy over the past couple of weeks.  On July 1st we packed up the Vue and headed to Wisconsin to spend some time with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece and go to Matt’s cousin’s wedding on the 4th of July.  My dad rode up with us because my mom went to Jake and Natalie’s early to watch Mercedes while Jake and Natalie went to Las Vegas the weekend before (lucky ducks).  On our way up, we stopped in North Liberty, IA and stayed overnight at a hotel to break up the trip.  It was so nice, and I wish we would have done the same coming home.  Little Carter didn’t like the car ride home and now dislikes his car seat.

While in Wisconsin, Matt got to go salmon fishing with Dad and Jake.  It was his birthday present from my parents, and he had a great time!  He said his forearms were fairly sore, and he had tenderness on his waistline from where the pole would sit while he was reeling.  This is the fourth or fifth year that Dad has gone fishing up there, but this was the best fishing trip he’s had.  They limited out and had to head back early!  So, I was very excited for all of them to have such a great time!  A little jealous…but still happy for them.    Matt also went golfing with the guys on Saturday morning.  Mom, Natalie, and I did some shopping and hung out with the kids.  It was really nice to have a couple of extra hands with Carter. 

Matt’s cousin Ryan got married on the 4th of July to his bride, Kelli.  It was only fitting for a man in the navy to get married on the 4th of July.  Everything was red, white, and blue and very patriotic, so it helped to feel like it was a holiday.  The wedding was beautiful and they had a very cool meal too.  The food was All American style food, and it was served family style with big bowls of meats, veggies, and rolls to pass around.  Awesome idea…I just loved it!  Unfortunately, not long after dinner Carter started getting tired, so he and I headed back to the hotel room to get some rest.  We had another wedding this last weekend where we didn’t stay for very long after the meal.  I’m starting to feel like we just go to weddings to eat…and feeling a bit guilty about it.

This last weekend was a nice little weekend at home.  I made and canned some bread and butter pickles out of cucumbers and some out of zucchini (both from our garden), and was surprised that the zucchini pickles turned out to be excellent!  It was my first attempt at canning anything so it took more time than it would probably take a seasoned canner, and the final product isn’t perfect, but all of the jars sealed and the pickles turned out tasty!  What more could I ask for?    I’m going to make some dill cucumber pickles and some pickled green beans sometime soon too.  Matt finished up a set of cornhole boards this weekend in between helping me can pickles and watch Carter.  On Sunday evening I went to Wilber to get my hair “deep conditioned” and Mom and Dad got to spend some time with Carter.  Dad had him giggling pretty good at one point.  It was super cute. 

Carter had his 4 month appointment last Monday (the 6th), and he’s plugging along perfectly on the growth charts!   He’s at 16 pounds 3 ounces now and 25 3/8 inches long!   He’s also been picking up a few new tricks over the past couple of weeks.  Since he doesn’t always need it, Carter has started pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and finds a good challenge in trying to get it back in.  He has a success rate of about 50% when it comes to getting the right side of the pacifier into his mouth, but he usually forgets to let go of the pacifier before pulling his hand away from his face, so his true success rate is probably more like 15%.  He’ll get the hang of it eventually, but its fun to watch him figure things out on his own.  He’s also developed a habit of sticking his feet up in the air while he’s lying on his back, and enjoys watching and grabbing for his feet.  This gives a little bit of a challenge at bed time when I’m trying to put a blanket on him.  Matt has also been working with Carter on sitting, and he’s getting pretty good at it!  He’ll be sitting on his own in no time.  Carter, that is, not Matt…Matt can already sit on his own in most cases.

At the doctor’s visit, we also discussed cereal, but our doctor wants us to wait until Carter is five to five and a half months old before we start feeding him cereal since he’s growing just fine from eating only my milk.  We still try every few days to give him cereal though.  So far, he just shoves it back out at us.  It may be his five or five and a half month milestone before he actually does eat it.  I’m okay with that though.  He’s sleeping through the night now, so my anxiousness has dwindled!    I’m hoping we get to keep our Saturday afternoon naps though!