It's official!

We ordered our Soft Bums last week, and they arrived yesterday! Kelly got the organic bamboo set, so JJ is pooping in velvety organic style! Kelly wanted to make sure we had the shells and inserts washed and dried and ready to go last night, so this morning we put one on JJ after his bath. (Kelly's going to a mom's reunion for her prenatal pilates class, so she wanted him smelling sweet and clean.)

We decided we liked the Soft Bums so much, we just wanted to stick with them, particularly since they're one size, and we can fine tune the size adjustment. The drawstring and velcro make it really easy! And, from a dad's perspective, they go on much like a disposable, so that's easy enough.

My mom in visiting for a few days, and already she's sent us out on two dates! It's great to have a babysitter for JJ, but even better to reconnect with Kelly as husband and wife. It's so easy to get caught up in the reality of being parents, especially with a newborn, that we forget who we are as a couple. We went to Outback in Midtown Memphis last night and got our favorites--including the seared ahi tuna and chocolate thunder plus wine! It was definitely a celebration!

So, this is our third weekend as a family of three, and we're enjoying it. This week, I started a new job teaching at a high school, and it's been great to have time in the afternoons and evenings with JJ and Kelly. What a blessing!

So great to have 2 date nights in a row, thanks to Grandmami visiting from GA! JJ's in great hands & I get to reconnect with my wife.

(Grand)Papi

I'm named for my father, and there are a lot of good things I learned from my father that I'm remembering more and more now that I'm two weeks into fatherhood. During Kelly's pregnancy, I kept thinking about what my dad might have been doing 30 years earlier in preparation for my arrival. What was he thinking? How did he research baby products? How did he support his wife in her pregnancy after he got home from work?

Now that I'm two weeks into fatherhood, I still think about how he did things 30 years earlier and somehow picture myself in his shoes as I'm a new father. Before JJ was born, I asked my parents to send me pictures of them when my mom was pregnant with me. The thing that stuck out the most to me is that I'm older now than my dad was when he was expecting me. But as I'm establishing routines in my family, I see his influences in my fathering. For example, we listen to NPR every weekend, particularly for the quiz shows and A Prairie Home Companion.


I'm different from my father in some ways, and my family isn't exactly like his; it doesn't have to be. One thing I appreciate more than anything is his advice and his listening ear. He does a great job at listening to what I have to say as an individual and offering advice as prompted by the Holy Spirit. I'm taking notes for when JJ gets older.

Thanks, Papi.

Sgt. Jennemann, U.S. Army, 1980

cloth diaper trial parte 2

We had the Soft Bums on him for a couple of hours, and it worked well. We put in a newborn insert, and had it on him for a couple of hours. After two hours of having it on him, we checked him because we hadn't heard any of the normal wet or dirty diaper whimpering (this child only cries when he's hungry, apparently--counting my blessings!). Sure enough, his skin was dry though the microfleece insert had pee and poop. We were impressed with how dry he felt!

We went ahead and changed him and put on a disposable (yes, I know) as we were going to our friends' house. We definitely liked the Soft Bums, but we have a few more kinds to try. I'll let you know. From a dad's perspective, though, this seemed very easy to put on him and change. (Though Kelly actually did all the diaper maneuvers for this trial run, I was right there, so I stand by my use of "seemed" here.)

We got the Echo System Basic Pack as a trial run from Amazon.

snow day

So I started a new job this week, but the school district called a snow day for today, so I get to spend one more day home with K & JJ.

We're trying out the cloth diaper thing today. We've gotten some samples of different cloth diapers, and now that his umbilical cord fell out last night, we're ready to start with our real boy!

K put him in a Soft Bums diaper with a newborn insert. K thinks he may still be a little small (well past his 8 pound birthweight), but at any rate, we'll see how he does.

safe and secure

I remember that song we used to sing at church called "Leaning on Jesus." The chorus goes like this:

I'm leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus,
Safe and secure from all alarm.
I'm leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

I thanked God for this wonderful picture of being safe and secure while holding my son just now.

New Station

I mentioned in my post "Welcome 2011" that it had been about two years since my last post. And as I've entered a new phase in my life and seen how God's grace has been more than enough to cover us in our time of transition. When I started my blog about five years ago, I was processing my life after a neurological disorder, so I was literally living on my own two feet.

After seeing God's grace and provision being played out in the lives of so many other people, I have realized that there is no way I live on my own two feet; I live in community, with friends and family. I have a wife and a child, and my heart has grown bigger.

I've started this new blog in order to continue reflecting on the learning process of living as a teacher (hence the "Profe" part of the title), a father (hence the "Papi" part of the tile), a Christ-follower, a husband, son and all around nice guy.

It's been one week

Joshua was born last week, and it's been one wonderful week, I tell ya. Between the diaper changes and middle-of-the-night feedings, I don't know I've ever been more in love or more excited to be married to Kelly! Joshua has done well in his first week of life, and he's feeling more comfortable in his own skin and in his surroundings.

Kelly and I are so thankful for friends who've come and spent time, helped out, cleaned, and brought groceries. We're so thankful for God's provision and his church in Memphis!

IT'S BABY TIME!

Kelly and I are in the Labory & Delivery room waiting for our son to be born. We've been watching for him to come over the past week, and it looks like he's definitely going to be an independent thinker. Kelly had consistent contractions all day yesterday, but he was still content to stay with Mami. Well, this morning, he decided that he's ready to join us; we've been telling him over the past two weeks that he'd have much more room to play in his room than inside Mami. :)

At any rate, he's coming TODAY!!! We're so excited!!!! As we were driving to the hospital, I told Kelly that today definitely changes the entire course of our lives.

Welcome 2011!

Welcome back to On My Own Two Feet. It's been almost two years since my last post, and a lot has happened in that time. I wrote my last post from my little living room in my apartment in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood of Madrid. I was an assistant English teacher and had been married barely six months. We were attending Oasis Madrid Church, and we had our whole lives ahead of us.

Since March 2009, my wife and I moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in order for me to start teaching at a charter school. Since moving to Memphis, we have had heartaches and triumphs. I am now writing from the den in the house we bought; my wife is now nine months pregnant with our first child, and the car we bought is in our driveway. I'm about to start a new job--my school let me go since they had to "divert resources" to other areas, and Spanish is not a required subject in middle school.

And I turn 30 in seven weeks.

I feel like I've spent so much of the past 10 years trying to prove that I was old enough to take on life. I'd always had friends older than me, and after I graduated college, I moved to Spain to start a new life and grad school. Now that I'm on the other end of my 20s, I feel like I'm not trying as hard to prove that I'm old enough. With my son being born soon, I feel like I have a pass to be young and learn new things as he learns.