9 Month Statistics

We took Cody in for his 9 month well-child check a few weeks ago.  Here are his 9 month stats!

Weight - 18.15 pounds (25-50% percentile)

Height - 28-1/2 inches (90% percentile)

Head Circumference - 18 inches  (didn't write down the percentile)

He's looking to be a tall boy...but I know things can easily change!

He didn't want to let go of the sign....(notice the crinkles!)

We really are pleased with the pediatrician we chose for Cody.  She is really honest, approachable, down to earth and easy to talk to.  She works at the clinic in our town, so it's really convenient.

Cody's next well-check appointment will be at a year!  Omigosh.

Christmas Cards

Yay!!  Our Christmas cards have arrived!  

My cousin, Chrissy, took the most adorable photos of Cody for our 1st ever photo Christmas card!  I haven't "revealed" the photos to anyone...but I'll be posting the pictures on the blog next week.  They turned out SO cute and I'm super excited to share with everyone.  Of course, I think DS is the cutest boy ever, but I'm slightly biased :)

That said, I'd better get to stuffing & mailing.  I 'cheated' this year and did address labels, but that saved me so much time...

Happy Holidays!

Close Call

Whew.  What a day.  

Long story short:  Dh's work laid off 22% of its workforce today, approximately 120 people.  There was some scary times this morning, but dh is safe.  He was offered a different position in the company, starting tomorrow.  They cancelled this massive computer conversion project that he was 100% involved in.  That was his job.  Fortunately, he is very well respected and valued there, and we are so grateful that he was offered another position.  We were praying for good news & we are extremely blessed by God's Will in this matter.  

Here is an article about the layoffs from bizjournals.com:

Select Comfort cuts 22 percent of headquarters employees
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by John Vomhof Jr. Staff Writer

Select Comfort Corp. announced Tuesday it is laying off 120 workers, or roughly 22 percent of the work force at its Plymouth headquarters.

The layoffs are part of a broader cost-cutting initiative “in response to further slowing of sales after Thanksgiving and in anticipation of continued macro-economic challenges in 2009,” the bed retailer said in a statement. The company is best known as the creator of the Sleep Number bed.

Most of the cuts will affect general and administrative or customer-service positions.

Select Comfort also said it will immediately cease the implementation of SAP-based IT software and all associated activities.

Those cuts and others that Select Comfort is exploring are expected to save the company approximately $15 million a year, beginning in the first quarter of 2009. However, the company will incur a charge of $35 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 related to asset impairments — approximately $4 million of severance payments and other cash costs.

“During the course of the year, we’ve navigated through an extremely difficult macro-economic environment by focusing on reducing our cost structure and improving product margins,” Select Comfort President and CEO Bill McLaughlin said in a statement. “We expect these macro-economic challenges to continue and possibly worsen in 2009. Therefore, we’ve taken additional actions to better align our cost and cash structure with our 2009 outlook for the economy.”

Select Comfort (Nasdaq: SCSS) also previously had announced that it is on track to close approximately 20 stores during the first quarter of 2009.

The company said Tuesday it will “continue to examine its store base, and expects to close additional stores throughout 2009,” and it “is assessing supplemental opportunities across all functions to reduce overall cost structure.”


jvomhof@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2101

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Brrr....it's 9:24pm as I write this and it's currently 11 degrees below zero. It was just straight up nasty out today!! Very windy, blowing snow, etc. Not as bad as in other places like North Dakota, so I'm grateful it wasn't worse. We got Cody all bundled up to head out to daycare this morning & he was slightly reminiscent of the younger boy in "A Christmas Story". 

Cody is so darn cute though in his winter jacket, fleece hat, mittens and shoes.  I already lost one of his mittens though.  And, so it begins.

This is not good. Only my third post and I'm already out of things to talk about so I bring up the weather. Great.

We, and when I say we, I mean Gordon, installed the convertible car seats last Friday. We ended up buying the Britax Marathon for dh's car and Britax Roundabout for my car. Does this mean we're car seat snobs now? Yikes. I got a very generous gift card to Target from my work for Christmas, so we used that money and put it towards the car seats. They are super nice & Cody really seems to like them.  I must say, it's quite a bit easier to get him in and out of the car now in his "big boy" seat.  They are really easy to adjust the straps, too.  The infant carrier was getting sooooo heavy since he weighs over 18 pounds now!  At his 9 month appointment, he was 1/2 inch shy of meeting the height limit, so it was definitely time to upgrade.  That said, it was kind of sad to pack away the "bucket" though. He's growing up too fast!

By the way, anyone know how to make a gas fireplace stop stinking?  We have not used our fireplace much since we moved into our home, because when we turn it on, it gives off quite an odor.  It is kind of that "just turned on the heat" smell, except it doesn't go away after a few minutes, and it drifts through the entire house.  I've read it could take 30 hours for the smell to go away...Lord help me!  I don't know if we have had it on for 30 hours; it actually makes me somewhat nauseous after awhile.  I don't know if it's worth calling the fireplace repair people or not.  I wish we would have asked before our 1 year home inspection.  Oh well.  A nice warm fireplace sounds so wonderful on these cold days, but not when you want to just go outside to breathe fresh air afterwards!

Cody Meets Santa

We took Cody to meet Santa at the Albertville City Hall on Saturday. It was a really low-key event.  There were only a few kids there and we didn't have to wait in a line. We weren't sure what he would think, but Cody was OK with Santa! He gladly sat on his lap and studied Santa awhile, but after a few minutes, he let us know that he had been there long enough! It was pretty cute. For the cost of a food donation, we got the attached photo for free. Cody also got a book (about cats-how appropriate!), a little snack, and they had coffee, cookies and cider. It was nice to attend a neighborhood event!

First Post ...

Welcome to my blog!

I've been wanting to get a blog going for months, and I'm attempting to finally do this. My timing is horrible. It's less than 2 weeks until Christmas, I have an active 9 month old, and my work is crazy busy! I want to at least give it a shot and see how it goes. I'd like to get in a routine of posting daily or at least every few days...for nothing else, to have a record of what goes on in life! My memory seems to be completely shot for the most part, so maybe this will give me some sort of chance of remembering life with a baby. I can only wish I started this 9 months ago, as those memories are quickly fading.

I hope you enjoy & visit often!

The Simple Things in Life

I had this African Violet plant for forever and it was just greenery, no flowers. I remember I bought it at a church sale from this little old lady that told me how to take care of it. It was in a little plastic container up until a few months ago, when I re-potted it and put it in my "plant window" of our new house. It took off. It makes me happy. :)