Sleep

I feel pretty fortunate, because at two and a half months old, Westin sleeps at least 9 hours straight at night. Just two weeks ago I was touting how great it was that he was sleeping for 6 hours, and now I am just beside myself that he sleeps through the night! The whole sleeping thing was a big fear of mine before I had a kid. I was one of those 8-to-9-hour-a-night kind of people, and I was fearful of how I would function on very little (or no) sleep. For the first 6 weeks I was definitely sleep deprived, but the Lord sustained me and I actually felt decent in spite of the lack of sleep. And now... I'm getting around 6 to 7 hours of sleep, which is much more than I thought I would at this stage of Westin's life!

For now he is still sleeping in our living room in a pack-n-play with a bassinet on top. We will be moving him into his own room soon. We're just waiting for it to warm up a bit, as his room can be quite chilly. Hopefully he will transition to his new crib with ease.

And speaking of sleep.... it's time. Goodnight.

Tax Time Tips

When it comes to income taxes, I'm a complete financial geek. I have an idea a couple of months in advance what my refund will be. I cannot wait for January 31st each year, which is the deadline for banks and employers to send out important tax information to customers. I usually file by the first week of February and get my refund by mid-February.

This year, my tax situation is a little different because of Westin. I had to wait a couple of weeks longer than normal to file my taxes, because his social security number hadn't arrived yet. (It took almost 10 weeks to get here, which seems like a LONG time!) The government says my son is worth at least $1,000 in tax credits, plus an income deduction of $3,500. I say he's worth a whole lot more than that, but I'll take what I can get! I finally filed last week, and should get my refund before the end of February.

If any of you use TurboTax, you can get a 25% discount on your Federal and State returns by accessing TurboTax through Fidelity's Website. Go HERE and click on the Visitor entry. That's a great savings in my opinion, and that's what I did.

If your Adjusted Gross Income is less than $56,000 for 2008, you can prepare and file your taxes electronically for FREE. Go to THIS SITE for help. If you do your own taxes and don't file electronically, you're missing out. It is by far the easiest and fastest way to do your taxes.

A few years ago I took a tax preparer's course through H&R Block, and then worked for them for a few months part time during tax season. It was a great learning experience, though some mental attrition has admittedly taken place since then. It's hard to keep up with all of the ever-changing tax laws. Although I love doing my own taxes, I'd never want to do it for a living. I'll just keep it as a hobby, thank you very much.

Happy Filing!

Two Months

It's hard to believe our little guy is already two months old. Where has the time gone? Seriously, the days just fly by, and I don't get much accomplished (such as blogging!). I have great intentions, but my plans seem to get derailed every day. I'm learning to have very low expectations of what will and won't get done in a day, and to just enjoy every moment I have with Westin.

He's getting really fun, and I'm sure it's only going to get better. He smiles and laughs and has recently found his voice. His favorite time of day is morning, around 7 or 8am, when he's well rested and well fed. He will talk away and giggle and smile, and it is the most wonderful thing in the world. I honestly look forward to every morning for that reason. I keep meaning to capture it on video and show everyone, but I get lost in the moment and forget to break out the camcorder. One of these days I'll remember.

At this moment he's asleep on my lap with a pacifier hanging out the side of his mouth. He looks like an old man with a cigarette dangling. Quite funny.

At his two month appointment he weighed 15 lbs and 1 oz. This puts him in the 97th percentile for weight! He's quite the chunk. My sister Jennie affectionately named him her little Butterball, and that is an appropriate nickname. He's dense, like an offensive lineman! He's 23 and a half inches, which is the 75th percentile for height, but his head is only in the 25th percentile.

We've had a whole slew of visitors over the past month and it has been great. We feel so blessed that our family wanted to come meet Westin and sacrificed time and money to be here. Now everyone is gone and it's just the 3 of us. We're trying to settle into a routine, whatever that is! Fortunately Westin is sleeping well at night. He's averaging around 6 hours at a time, so I feel great about that. We don't have a daytime nap routine yet, so I'll be working on that soon.

Well, he's waking up from his little snooze on my lap, so that's it for now. More later.

I leave you with a recent picture of our little Butterball.