Posts from — April 2009

Leo and I traveled down to Seminole, Oklahoma with my parents to visit my sister Amy for a long weekend from April 18-20. We didn’t tell Amy that Leo & I were coming, so it was a huge surprise as I pulled Leo’s car seat out of the car and she saw us for the first time. She screamed, “Leo’s here!”

Leo was such a great traveler! We were in the car for about 5 1/2 hours each way, and he barely cried a peep – thanks mainly to grandma who sat in the backseat beside Leo so she could soak up some baby-time.

On the ride home, grandma got a little more than she bargained for as she changed Leo’s diaper on her lap … he pooped all over her! Luckily we were in the parking lot of a Brahm’s and she had an extra change of clothes handy, so she was able to go inside and get cleaned up pretty quickly.

The worst part of the trip had to be the preparation and all of the packing. Who would have know that such a little guy would require so much stuff for a 3-day stay! In the end, I did a good job estimating what he’d need and packing stuff for him. But, not so good for myself as I forgot to pack any warm clothes and, of course, it was cold and rainy pretty much the whole time we were there!

We had a great trip, but I’m still not sure we’ll be planning any other out-of-state ventures anytime soon.

Leo is officially 4 weeks old today, and he is growing like a weed (albeit a cute, lovable one)!

He has officially outgrown all of outfits that were size 3-months, so we had to make a shopping trip yesterday to pick up some 6-months sleepers. I hope they will last a little longer.

Leo’s really starting to develop a great little personality. He’s very laid back, and doesn’t spend much time crying.

Over the last week Leo’s eyes have started focusing in on objects and he studies them for awhile (including mommy & daddy). He loves ceiling fans and can stare at them for long periods of time, even if they aren’t moving! He’ll make the funniest range of faces when he’s looking at his “ceiling fan buddies”. I like to pretend that he’s holding conversations with them – sometimes he’ll smile and almost break into a giggle, and other times he’ll scrunch up his face and give a tough guy look.

Leo’s also started “talking” to us. He’s gotten pretty consistent at making sounds other than crying. Usually they are vowel sounds, but he’ll also throw out the occasional grunt, babble or squeal of delight (usually at the ceiling fan).

We’ve really started to put emphasis on making sure Leo gets a little tummy time each day so he can strengthen his neck and upper body muscles. Unfortunately, Leo isn’t really a fan of tummy time. He usually gets pretty frustrated after about 5 minutes because he’s not able to move around the way he wants to. He’s pretty good about being able to pick his head up to a 45 degree angle, and can hold it for awhile. But he struggles at turning his head over to look the other way. We’ve only had success with him doing it twice so far. But his little legs are very active the whole time he’s on his belly – they are ready to crawl!

A few days ago Brandon finally got a chance to feed little Leo as we introduced his first bottle. Both dad and Leo did a great job, just like they’d been doing it for years. Leo drank two ounces of milk and Brandon completed the job without any help from me (despite the fact that I was hovering over them, you know, just in case…).

At the next feeding time, Leo converted right back to his regular breastfeeding routine, just as if the bottle never happened. I shouldn’t have been surprised – my big boy is an eater, no matter where it comes from!

Now we’re now trying to give Leo a bottle twice a day and starting to establish a routine that will work after I return to jhP from maternity leave.

Here’s a video Brandon shot while feeding.

The community is invited to the “GET-OUT-AND-VOTE” Civic rally! It will take place on Sunday, April 5th at the Gage Park Zoo parking lot at 1:00p.m. We are asking the community to help to spread the word, use “Twitter”, Facebook, email, cell phones, word-of-mouth, etc. and invite everyone you know to be at the “GET-OUT-AND-VOTE” Civic rally. Participants will be asked to stay for 5-10 minutes and shout out “GET-OUT-AND-VOTE.”  Then, stay and enjoy the park or spend the day knowing you took this little bit of time to get involved.

The primary election had a very low turnout. There are a number of candidates who are running for city council and a very important sales tax question on the ballot for the April 7, general election. This election will more directly affect the citizens of Topeka than even the statewide and nation wide elections. If the tax passes, the community will pay that tax almost everyday. Agree or disagree the only way to make your choice count is to vote!

Start today. Share this announcement with everyone!  Get energized! Let’s come together on April 5th and remind everyone you know GET-OUT-AND-VOTE on April 7th!

If you are a frequent visitor to our site, you will notice that we have removed the polling section from our blog. It was brought to our attention yesterday that some visitors were getting errors while attempting to cast a vote.

After spending the evening unsuccessfully trying to fix the bugs in the poll programming, we’ve decided to remove the feature until we can get the functionality figured out.

At TransformTopeka, we make every effort to be as transparent as possible and realize that faulty voting could be perceived as our attempts to promote one side of the issue over another. Please trust that this was not the case, it was merely a widget program gone awry. We apologize for this and appreciate it being brought to our attention.