progress

Ben had a second interview this morning and should hear back on Monday or Tuesday of next week. I am hopeful that he will get this job, seems like a great fit. Last night when we were talking about Ben was telling me how it feels weird to him that he hasn't been to work for two months and that he feels unproductive for it. I told him it's going to be hard to transition back because he's been at home with Malakai since he was born. He seemed really sad to realize that he won't get to be with us all day, but I reassured him that Kai sleeps most of the day anyway and they will have lots of daddy time after work and on the weekends. My husband really is the sweetest dad.

Wednesday night Malakai gave us the gift of sleeping from 11pm-6am straight through! It was such a shock that when I woke up and realized it was the first time I had actually looked at the clock since going to bed the night before all I could do was tap Ben vigorously and point at the clock. He looked at the time, then looked at Kai and said "wait, is this the first time he's waking up?" At 7 hours straight, I'd consider that sleeping through the night!

Kai is 6 weeks old as of yesterday. He's getting bigger and more alert every day, some times it's exciting and other times I feel like it's slipping by too fast and I'm going to wake up one day and he'll be moving out to go to college. I know that's probably silly, but I bet other mothers out there can understand where I'm coming from.


Malakai's Great-Aunt and Uncle are visiting and will be here any time now so I should get going...here are some recent photos of the boy

Job update

Ben has an interview tomorrow at 2:45pm for a job he'd be really stoked to get. Not just a "I'm settling because I need the income job" but also not a dream job- but a good one for a good company that his friend works at and we're hoping it works out.

Last weekend my sister moved into her college dorm and I felt old. We also had a family reunion with Ben's dad's side and Malakai got to meet a lot of new people.

I'll post photos once I get the time to sort through them all. The weeks are going by waaaay to faaaast!

5 weeks already?!

Mr. Malakai is 5 weeks old today. It truly has flown by way too fast, he's already too big and I find myself whispering in his ear that it'd be okay with me if he stayed a baby forever :)

He is getting more and more active and alert every day. He smiled at me after a 1am feeding some nights ago. I meant to write it down but it's already escaped me. He hasn't done it again though so I'm beginning to wonder if it was my imagination. Of course he does the gassy smiles all the time, especially in his sleep...but I was certain it was the real thing. He's testing out his voice and Ben and I are experts at deciphering his noises. He yells out sometimes when he's having what we call "wiggle time" but we both know very well that he's not upset, that he's just talking. He holds his head up like a pro and is even using his arms to support himself when he's on his tummy.

As far as employment goes, Ben is still looking. It's rough out there. We're also still waiting on unemployment. Things have been delayed because Ben worked at an educational institution and since summer is considered a "recess period" when many employees aren't paid (like teachers) he had to fill out additional paperwork to tell them that "yes, I really meant it when I told you the first time that I am a 12 month full-time employee" and this paperwork takes an additional two weeks to process.

Good news in the land of insurance- we were at Ben's parents' place the other night and his dad said he had a proposal for us. I was worried at what on earth it could be when I saw him grab a folder full of forms and brochures. Turns out that they want to pay for short term insurance for us until Ben gets a job and insurance kicks in. They even reassured us by telling us to think about it and that it's a gift with no strings attached and they don't want us to ever pay them back for it. Needless to say we didn't need to sleep on it. What an enormous blessing and a gigantic weight off of our shoulders!

We are off to have dinner with our only "friends with kids" that live nearby.

employment update

we're both still unemployed. Ben officially registered with the unemployment office last week.
we're also uninsured. I picked up an application for Oregon's Health Plan and have come to a stand still in filling it out. It asks for the last 4 months of income which I'm thinking will surely disqualify us from getting any assistance since Ben was employed for all 4 of those months and I was for 2 of them. It seems that there is no help for those in our former income bracket.

Ben has a job lead that we're both pretty excited about. He's hoping for a call tomorrow to get in and interview. He found out about the opening from a fairly new friend of ours and it seems that right now he's the only person in the running for the position. We're hopeful that this will work out but not giving up the job search in case things fall through. In the past we've made the mistake of putting all our faith in one possibility and lost a lot of ground when it didn't work out and there wasn't a back up plan.

I'm still planning to stay at home full time for as long as it's financially possible. If we need to supplement our income I'll look into work from home options.

Ben being laid off has been a blessing in disguise so to speak. I've LOVED having him home and he's really enjoyed being here to settle in with Malakai for longer than the two weeks we originally had planned on. Hopefully it doesn't make the transition back to work harder since we've established a bit of a routine. Ben gets up to change Kai's diaper while I situate myself to feed him (I've tried to nurse him in bed but I just can't get the "side lying" position down in the middle of the night...plus I'm fairly well endowed and this position plugs his little nose.) Ben goes back to bed while I feed him...except when Malakai decides to scream during his feedings which has been the case a couple nights this week. I think my letdown is a bit too much for him and he gets frustrated. We do this changing/feeding thing a 2-5 times a night depending on Malakai's demands and since Ben gets more sleep overnight then I do he takes Kai in the morning when he's awake and wiggly while I catch up on some sleep. At some point we usually take a "family nap" as well.

Lately it has been hot again, but not the 100 degree weather we'd experienced a couple weeks ago. Still, Malakai gets sweaty in his sleep and I wish I could do something for him. Thankfully it is considerably cooler today/tonight and he should be more comfy.

So...for those of you that pray please say a little one for us and the job/insurance situation if you think of it.

nighty-night.

home SWEET home

So we're home. It feels really good to be back.
It's been hot here the past two days though and I did not miss that. It was really nice to get a break and actually wear sweaters and use blankets for a little while. Not that Oregon is all that hot compared to the rest of the U.S. We just have such a moderate climate that we're not used to anything in the 90's or above for any longer than a day or two.
I must just be ready for the fall. Usually I'm a sun-worshipper and love the summer, but with a newborn baby and not being able to go in the pool it's not as fun. I guess by the time a season is ending I'm usually ready for the next one to hurry up and get here.
We did take Malakai to the coast for the first time. He slept through the whole thing, but we got some cute photos.

on "vacation"

When Ben and I were still working at the University there was a give-away for employees. One of the trustees had offered their time-share in Lincoln City, Oregon. At an employee social they did a drawing and Ben won! We were super excited and had even planned for Ben to take his second week of paternity leave during that week (this week) since the dates were non-negotiable.

Even though Ben was laid off, he still got to keep the time-share. We were very excited about a relaxing vacation and our first trip as a family of three. Lincoln City is on the Oregon Coast and has great beaches and an outlet mall. We didn't know much about the place and had assumed it was a beach house. We looked it up online and found out it's an older condo and the reviews weren't great. We were still optimistic as we figured a trustee wouldn't donate their time-share if it was going to be an awful experience!

We arrived on Friday and the outside was VERY sketchy. While Ben went to get the keys I waited in the car with Malakai and hoped that the inside was going to be much better! When I walked in, the first thing I saw was the fireplace and I breathed a sigh of relief...a bit too soon.

While the condo was actually bigger than our home, and there is a great jacuzzi tub in the master bedroom the place was very unfinished. The framing on the sliding glass door was missing and when Ben opened the door a board fell on him from somewhere. The furniture was old and I was constantly worried about the cleanliness of things. I wouldn't set Malakai on any of the surfaces.

My family (parents and siblings) joined us on Saturday afternoon to stay the night in the extra rooms and hang out on the beach. My brother (16) was obsessed with the tub and went in it 3 or 4 times in two days. My parents watched Malakai for us so we could go out to the beach. The beach access was a very steep set of 100 or more steps. I haven't had any exercise since giving birth to Malakai two weeks ago, so while the trek down wasn't so bad trying to make it back up after walking around in the sand was a struggle. My lungs hurt and my calves were sore the next day.

Last night Ben noticed that in the main bathroom there was water pooling around the toilet. He put a towel there and decided to let management know the next day. When he checked this morning the water had soaked the carpet in the hallway and noticed it was actually coming from the wall next to the toilet. When maintenance checked it out they discovered that the upstairs neighbors were actually the problem and that they were going to have to tear into the wall to fix it up. They offered to move us to a 4 bedroom house on the nearby lake for the rest of our stay (til Friday). We followed the manager to the house and there were tons of people outside...the previous people staying in the house had not finished packing and the cleaning crew still needed to come through. We decided to run errands to stay out of the way. AWKWARD.

We finally checked in just after 1pm. This house has close by wifi access so I'm finally able to get online (although it was nice to have a break from our internet addiction for a few days). However, the furniture is just as outdated and dingy as the previous place and we just discovered that the forced air doesn't actually work. It says it's set to 65 but that it's 80 in here. I'm roasting!

To top things off, we got a call from management saying that they have someone checking into this house on Thursday and that we could either check out early or move back to our previous condo that should be done by then. Holy goodness, these people are disorganized! You think they'd check that the place was available for our entire stay before moving us here! We would go home early but the heat in town is much worse than here and we are saving money (since our stay has been free) staying here instead of going home and using our water for laundry and our a/c. Plus, I never got to use the awesome jacuzzi tub in the other house and would like to at least experience it!

There are a ton more things wrong with both the condo and this house that I could list, but I'm thankful that we got to go on this trip and have some time as a family to relax (as best we can) and enjoy the beach and lake. We'll take Malakai on his first beach trip tomorrow, it's supposed to be the nicest day weather-wise tomorrow and we'll use the drive up access down the highway instead of the scary stairs. I will be sure to get a lot of pictures and post more updates.

Wish us luck!