Cured!

I have some exciting news, everyone!

Many of you have been following our journey dealing with Jay's hydronephrosis (aka enlarged kidney problem) that he's had since pre-birth.

It was first noticed in utero, confirmed it via ultrasound soon after he was born, we visited the local urologist in town with some pediatric experience who ordered some (not so fun) testing at the children's hospital in Madison, and due to the nature of the blockage being abnormal (it was at the ureter tube end that's connected to Jay's bladder instead of the common blockage being up at the top near the kidney) we were referred to a pediatric urology specialist at the children's hospital up in Madison and were told that due to the blockage Jay would most likely need to have surgery around his 2nd birthday where they pull out the ureter tube at the bladder, snip it and then reattach it. After several visits in Madison, we learned the specialist was taking a position at the children's hospital in Milwaukee. Fortunately our insurance covered him at Milwaukee so we followed him there.

Eating some celebratory pizza
after his check-up!

You may remember me reporting last February, at Jay's last urology check-up 6 months ago , that there was a significant improvement with the dilation in his kidney and that it was possible that the blockage was opening up on its own.

Well this past Thursday we had Jay's regular 6 month check-up again - an ultrasound on his kidneys and bladder and then meeting with the specialist right after to go over it.

He said that as far as Jay's urology issues go - we can consider him cured!

He said the left kidney continues to look healthy with hardly any dilation and the ureter tube doesn't look engorged at all anymore! He said to consider it a temporary plumbing problem that has been resolved!

Guys, this is AMAZING news!

The specialist did tell us at the beginning that while there was the slim chance the blockage could open up on its own, it is rare and we shouldn't get our hopes up as we would most likely be facing the reality of Jay needing surgery to correct it.

Honestly, I had started to prepare myself for the reality of that, pushing it to the back of my mind until the time got closer. It helped that the specialist assured me that he had done the procedure himself (as he would be the one doing it) many many times and so far he has been successful with no complications - he had put me at ease.

But now, no surgery at all, no further testing either (which is GREAT because I have no idea how you get a 2 year old to cooperate when it comes to attaching a catheter to them, not to mention getting them to leave an IV alone or lay still for a 45-60min thorough ultrasound scan with using some kinda of sedative!). He wants us to come back in a year for a follow-up ultrasound just to confirm that everything still looks good but he said that unless anything comes back abnormal we'll most likely be meeting with the nurse practitioner so we can have a quick in and out visit.

I would like to thank ALL of you for your thoughts and prayers as we have been dealing with this these past 18 months or so - I know many, many people have been praying for Jay and specifically that the blockage would open up on its own so he wouldn't need to have the surgery  - it has been GREATLY appreciated!

For all of you out there who have been following us on this tough journey or if you stumbled across this post while trying to find answers to your own questions about hydronephrosis or other kidney/ureter problems your little one might have... let me just say that there is hope! While surgery may seem inevitable to correct it, I pray you have a great pediatric urology specialist like we did (Dr. John Kryger, based out of the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) who recommends waiting a few years to see if the problem corrects itself first. It is a rough journey, especially with some of the testing your little one has to go through (please feel free to click the "hydronephrosis" label at the bottom of this post to read back through some of what we've gone through these past 18 months in regards to this), but I hope that if anything, I have given you hope and comfort in knowing you're not alone when it comes to this.

Jay's Day Out

Today (Sunday) it was 90º out. Hubby wasn't up for playing outside in the heat and I wanted to make the most of a family day together so we decided to opt for some indoor fun.

We loaded ourselves up into hubby's air conditioned car and Jay started looking through a book as we drove over to the big indoor playcentre.

Only we learned that they're closed on Sundays during the summer - wtf?

So... we ended up at the mall.

We let Jay walk with us for a bit too, until he started getting distracted by fun things in various store windows and would drop our hands, running off towards the windows. He also got extremely distracted by the barking, flipping puppy toy that a toy kiosk had going.

Our main reason for stopping out at the mall was to let Jay play for a little bit in the "germ pit":

And of course he spied the 1 family sitting along the sides that can't read the "no food" rule and were breaking out the snacks of chips and Cheetos for their kids. He toddled right over to the mom with the food, his mouth open wide, waiting for her to give him a Cheeto /facepalm

Hubby said he saw them with the food, then he saw Jay noticing it too and thought "No... he wouldn't" only for it to turn into a "omg he is!"

We let him have the 1 Cheeto that the mom gave him and hubby tried to explain to Jay that you don't just walk up to strangers with your mouth wide open and insist they stuff their food into it. It was still pretty funny though - of course my kid has food radar!

We took the Cheeto incident as our cue that he was hungry so we went to the food court for a late lunch and got him a Burger King kids meal with chicken nuggets, a juice box and apple slices. He wasn't too fond of the apple slices though so I got him a fruit yogurt parfait from Subway since I was getting my food there. He most of the nuggets, 2/3rd of the parfait and drank all the juice box. He also got this nasty snake toy from Rango in his kid's meal that I don't think we'll be keeping in the house - yuck! His meal came in a box that had a tear of BK crown that we tried to get him to wear - he pulled it off his head (like he does with any hat these days *sad face*) and was a bit confused as to what it was!

After lunch we let him ride in one of the motorized ride cars for 75¢ before walking over to Barnes and Noble and taking him to play with the Thomas train set they have in the kid's section. There was another little boy playing there too who shared a few train cars with Jay. Jay was more interested in pulling all the books off the shelves though.

See, he's a tad OCD about books being on shelves - for whatever reason he *has* to pull them all off the shelves at home and put them on the floor ("Mommy, books don't go on shelves - they belong on the floor!"); I pick the books and DVD cases up most nights and put them away on the shelves, one of the first things Jay does when he's up in the morning is walk right over and pull them all down. Half the time he doesn't even look at them - he'll just pull them all down and leave them. One time we had cleaned up the family room as I was expecting company. I told hubby, who was watching Jay, to make sure he didn't destroy the family room (which is also our front room). It was literally killing Jay that we wouldn't let him pull all the books and DVD cases down - he threw such a fit over it, it was actually pretty hilarious! He had a complete meltdown over it!

So you can imagine, him in a bookstore... yeah... sooooo many books to put on the floor! LOL... Fortunately Hurricane Jay wasn't moving quite so quickly so we were able to pick them up as we went.

By the time we left there, it was time to go home and put Jay down for a late afternoon nap.

And that was Jay's Day Out.

No, my child's not tired, he just has shiners

I hate when people make assumptions about your child.

Ever since Jay was born and we'd go places in public if he fussed while in the check-out line there always seemed to be someone that would declare "Oh, he must be hungry!" Um, no... he ate before we came here - he probably just wants up, or something to play with, etc.

It got old.

Now that he's a bit older when we go out in places someone almost always comments "Someone looks sleepy - it must be naptime, isn't it?" No, actually he just woke up shortly before we left home.

The reason why people make this assumption?

You can kinda see them here - they look like darker
bags/circles under his eyes

He has what his pediatrician informed us at his last check-up is called "Allergic Shiners," which look like dark circles under the eyes.

This is pretty common in younger kids, especially around allergy season. And we're almost positive that Jay unfortunately inherited my family's horrible seasonal allergies as I notice he tends to show allergy symptoms during the same time we're all struggling with ours - some days being more miserable than others. While we could get testing done to be 100% sure, I just didn't see the point, as there's not much we can do for it right now anyway. There's really only Benadryl unless we want to get a prescription and I'd rather not be giving him Benadryl unless it's really bad.

So yeah. No, my child is not tired when we're out shopping - I try to make sure he's well rested and has a full tummy before we go out anywhere to avoid a tantrum from happening - he just has allergies, thank you very much.

Jay Knows His Routine

Last weekend, I mentioned that hubby and I went to go see 2 of his brothers play in their band. Their parents try to make it when they can, but because it was at a local bar their 13 year old sister obviously couldn't go. Since it was a Friday night show and we could go (most of their shows have been on either Thursday or Saturday nights, which don't work with hubby's work schedule) we decided to see if she wanted to watch Jay for us.

We'd be leaving around 845pm and Jay usually goes to bed between 10 and 11pm so she'd only have to keep him occupied for a short time before putting him down to bed. We got him changed and in his jammies so she'd have minimal work to do. I left her a note of his bedtime routine so she'd have some idea of what he's used to. We said he could watch Sprout before bed, and told her to feed him some yogurt and water if he refused to drink his milk sippy before bed. I had set up his Lego CD player to play on repeat so all she'd have to do was hit "play".

I guess things went really well, until she put him down in his crib.

He started throwing everything out of it (ie: binky, burpie, stuffed animals and books) and wouldn't quiet down. Little sis was baffled, told him it was bedtime and put everything back in his crib. Only for him to toss it back out again.

I guess this went on for a few times before it dawned on her - she forgot to hit "play" on the CD player.

So I guess she did that, put everything back in his crib and he instantly put his head down and settled himself in!

He knew his bedtime music was missing and wasn't going to bed without it! LOL...

Our Baby Bedtime Must-Haves

Getting your baby/toddler to sleep is a must, so it's good to establish a routine early on. Granted, things like teething or sickness happen and can disrupt that, but still... it's good to have a routine in place.

Here's some products we use when it's time for Jay's bedtime:

Binky and Burpie
We still let Jay sleep with a binky at night, even though we're trying to get him to wean him off using it during the day. For one, they say it helps prevent SIDS somehow, which is every parent's nightmare, not to mention for Jay it's a comfort thing - during his early days with various testing for his Failure to Thrive and then later with his Hydronephrosis he got quite attached to it as a security item. We only ever use the Nuk Orthodontic pacifiers though, just like we did with his bottles, as personally, the fact that they're orthodontic makes me feel a little more at ease about it. Plus, he's been teething for the majority of time since he was 3 months old and sucking/chewing on his binky (in addition to a dose of infants Tylenol) seems to be the only thing that helps give him any kind of relief. And well, an old dishrag of my mom's that she let us use as a burpie when he was younger somehow became his lovey (fortunately she gave us 4 of them... somehow though we're already down to 2 and I can only account for how 1 went missing!), so obviously he has to have that old thing to sleep with.

Disney Lullaby Album

We had a small sound machine with projection that we were given at Jay's baby shower, however after awhile, having to listen to the same song over and over across the baby monitor all night long got a bit old and there were only 3 actual songs to choose (in addition to waves, rain and a creepy heartbeat!). When we finally hooked up the Lego CD player my parents got him for Christmas I decided to look into getting him a lullaby CD for it and came across this one at Target. It's got a great mix of lullabies that you'll most likely recognize, however I quickly realized that I only actually know one or 2 lines from each song! Doh! Jay doesn't seem to mind it and well, it's 12 tracks so definitely not the same song over and over for us to listen to all night either! I definitely recommend this lullaby CD!

Stuffed Animal Friends
Now that Jay's old enough for us to not have to worry about suffocating himself on a stuffed animal or light blanket we let him keep several stuffed animal friends in his crib with him:

My Pal Scout, Eeyore, and Elmo 

Elmo and Eeyore are more for comfort, as he was attached to Elmo for awhile and Eeyore... he often uses him as a pillow for his back or head, lol... My Pal Scout keeps him occupied for a little bit in the morning so mommy can catch a few more Zzz's!

Crib Toys

Jay has these 3 for crib toys to keep him occupied if he wakes up early in the morning or mommy's still getting ready when he wakes up from his nap - the Baby Einstein's fish tank (which I swear, since changing the initial batteries, it eats any other ones I put in it!), a Little Tikes musical pull and peek toy with other fun gadgets on it, and the baby animals touch and feel book. Sometimes he'll sneak another one of his board books in his crib with him too, which is fine with me - he's taken quite an interest in books lately!

Baby Monitor

I wrote before about how the 1st baby monitor we got from the baby shower crapped out on us after 7 months. So far, our replacement hasn't given us any problems (knock on wood).

A Nightlight

Jay can't sleep without a night light. Like most little kids, he doesn't like it pitch black in his room. His first night light, which was a gift given to us, he broke by pulling on it too much when he would escape from me in his room - the weight of the decorative part he had bent kept pulling the rest of it out of the socket. And well, when this would happen in the middle of the night Jay would wake up, freaking out about being in the dark. Broke my little heart to hear him sobbing in fear and to turn on the light to see him sitting straight up, clutching his burpie for dear life until mommy came and fixed it! We picked up a 2 pack of basic night lights at Walmart for a few bucks (the cheap, non-fancy ones can be found in the home improvement section). They're not as bright as his old one, but he's adjusted to it.

A Scent Warmer

Okay so, maybe not a must-have, but it is nice to have! Jay has this now discontinued warmer from Partylite in his room and it's a flameless, electric one so I don't have to worry about there being an open flame in his room. I have a lavender scent bar in it, as lavender is supposed to be soothing for the little ones, however when he gets older I'll let him pick his own. And while it is a Partylite warmer, you can use any scented wax bar with it - I've used both Scentsy and Yankee Candle ones with my various warmers throughout the house. We turn this on when he's getting ready for bed and keep it on until I check on him one last time before going to bed myself. It's great for combating the stench of really stinky diapers too, as I've found myself turning it on in his room at various times throughout the day after some super stinky diapers!

Johnson's Bedtime Lotion

It claims it's clinically proven to help babies sleep better at night. While I'm not completely sure about that, it does smell nice and thankfully none of Johnson's lotions appear to have those toxic chemicals in them that Forbes reported on awhile back (seems only their basic shampoo and body wash have it). We often lather Jay up with this after his bathtime, which is currently twice a week (our hospital stressed you don't want to bathe a baby every day as it dries out their skin so we got in the habit of just twice a week. I'm sure we'll maybe add in a 3rd come summer time, and of course after swimming). For bathtime, in case your wondering, as we threw out all the basic Johnson's shampoo and body wash bottles we had, we've been using Aveeno Baby's natural head-to-toe shampoo and body wash as all the store brands seemed to have the same formula as the Johnson's basic (their natural formula doesn't have the toxic stuff in it, but also costs $7-10 a bottle!).

Toothbrush and Toothpaste

Once your kiddo starts getting their first set of chompers it's important to take good care of them by brushing regularly. We try to make sure to brush Jay's at night before bedtime and he seems to enjoy it (although he has a bad habit of sticking his tongue in the way, making it more difficult than it needs to be, lol...). There's a ton of different options as far as baby/infant toothbrushes and safe flouride-free training toothpaste (we've both Orajel and Aquafresh brands).

A sippy cup with warm milk, some snuggles and Sprout's Goodnight Show!

Yeah okay, I'm a bad parent cuz I let my son watch Driver Dan, Nina and Star, the Pajanimal's lullaby song and occasionally some Calliou before he goes to bed. It seems to work for us though as he'll sit there in my arms, drinking warm milk from his sippy and relaxing. We've tried reading to him before bed, but that doesn't seem to work as he doesn't want to sit there while you read. Don't get me wrong - the kid loves books, but he's currently not into them at bedtime. He does often bring me several books he wants me or daddy to read to him throughout the day though, so we do get reading time in daily!

What are your must-have items and products for your child's bedtime?

15 Month Check-up!

Yesterday (Monday) we had Jay's 15 month check-up and overall it went pretty well.

Hubby tagged along this time, as he hasn't met with Jay's pediatrician since he was born (not to mention I get tired of him asking at each appointment where "dad" is - it's a weekday afternoon, he's working, duh!) and it seemed to help with Jay A LOT compared to the last time when it was just me and him.

He started rummaging through all the toys in the waiting room, settling on a Sesame Street coloring book and running around the waiting room with it. They let him take it back to the exam room with us too since he didn't want to let it go.

We had a 4pm appointment and it didn't seem nearly as busy so we didn't have to wait nearly as long as we did last time when it was the middle of the day. Jay started getting into everything once again, but this time I had hubby to help me keep him out of stuff so I wasn't on the verge of pulling my hair out.

When Jay saw the doctor walk in, hubby busted up laughing as Jay got this "oh shit!" look on his face -  he realized where he was! LOL

He hung out in my lap while the doctor did the basic exam stuff, but Jay started getting worked up when we laid him down on the table for the last bit.

Jay currently weighs 23lbs, 8oz with his shoes off (24lbs, 1oz with shoes) and is 30 3/4 inches tall. Doctor said he is in the 50th percentile for weight and and 50-70th percentile for height. His height to weight ratio percentile is 50th as well.

So overall, it was a fine exam - no concerns or anything to worry about. The doctor was thrilled to hear about how well his last urology exam went and he seemed intrigued at the fact that Jay matches things now. He didn't seem too concerned about him only babbling a handful of words at this point, just saying to not encourage the baby-talk but to say "bottle" or "water" if he says "ba ba" or "wa wa" to kind reinforce that those are the words he's trying to say. And he was pleased to hear that he's fully weaned off the bottle and onto sippy cups now.

Jay got 2 shots today - they said at his next appointment he'll have 1 left and be done for awhile. While we were waiting in the exam room, Jay figured out the one stool spun around so he had fun with that, and then it sounded like he was trying to say "my ball" or "my book" - he kept getting stuck on the "buh" part and couldn't get the rest out.

We took him to Red Mango afterwards to cheer him up for getting shots today. He did have a slight fever this evening but it broke before bedtime - pretty sure it was just a side effect of the shots. I did put him to bed a little early tonight though as he was just tired and worn out.

Between his check-up and Red Mango we stopped at my mom's house and Jay communicated to her that he wanted to do "Itsy Bitsy Spider"! She was holding him and he started doing the spider thing with his fingers, then putting his arms over his head in a circle, then the spider finger thing again, and then the circle with this arms over his head, all while babbling. It clicked with mom and she was like "Do you want to do Itsy Bitsy?" and Jay was all "uh-huh!" So they sat down and she did and he attempted the 1st part with her, and when she asked if he wanted her to do it again he said "uh huh!" It was pretty neat!

He started refusing milk near the end of last week - he'll drink some at bedtime, but during the day he'll push it away when you try to get him to drink it, so we've been giving him water instead. He loves the berry pomegranate flavor water spray - he drank 3/4 of my mother-in-law's big Aquafina bottle on Sunday and then Monday night, as she went to put her shoes on before they left Jay came toddling over and picked up the bottle and started walking off with it! As far as the milk goes... he gets yogurt at breakfast and I make his oatmeal with milk but I've been a bit more conscious lately to make sure to give him cheese and other dairy products so he's getting some dairy in his diet even if it's not straight up milk. My mom said my sister and I both went through a phase where we refused to drink milk as well and she too had to resort to yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, ice cream, etc to make sure we got enough dairy.Oh well, we'll manage!

What I Bought at Work This Week 05.06.12

Yeah... I did it again, I bought quite a bit. But in my defense, it was kinda needed...

We had a sock sale this week - 2 for $1 on the basic solid color socks, however by the time I got back there Saturday only some of the "off" colored socks were 50¢ and well, Jay hates wearing socks it seems (he prefers to be barefoot around the house like mommy!) and promptly pulls them off and tosses them the second his shoes are off, so I figured for that price, it wouldn't hurt to pick some more up.

It's been pretty hot out this past week too and he's been wearing his cloth matchables a lot lately so I picked him up 2 more of the matchable tanks since they're currently on sale for $5.

And the cotton 2 piece PJs... he has like 4 already that he can wear this summer, but I figured he's going to need more this summer as his footie PJs will be too hot, so I got him 2 in a size 2 XXS to wear this summer when it's really hot at night.

And then the jeans... premium denim is on clearance - CLEARANCE! - right now for $9.99! It was $12 last week. Normally they're $24.95 and rarely go this low, let alone hardly ever under $20. Not to mention, right now, that's cheaper than our basic denim jeans! I grabbed a 18-24month pair for late fall and winter as he'll be in them around them and he already has 2 pairs of 18 month ones I grabbed him last time they were on clearance last winter. So he has 1 pair of jeans already for winter - think I'll buy him a pair of basic carpenter jeans when they hit $10 again in a few months and he'll be good on jeans for the rest of the year.

And then the t-shirt... graphic tees are $5 right now (the lowest I've ever seen them on sale for) and this was a new one. He's set on shirts, aside from this year's 4th of July one I plan on getting him from Old Navy, but this one was too cute - he likes hot dogs and yeah... $5 plus my discount, I *had* to get it!

All in all, I got 10 items for $37 after tax and my discount. Not a bad deal, I'd say!

What I Bought at Work This Week 04.29.12

This week... I didn't buy much.

I seriously think I've bought everything in the store that Jay could possibly wear for summer that is just too cute. I keep saying I'm done buying him summer clothes, but then we get something else super cute in and of course I just have to get it for him (see last week's items), but this time, I really think I'm done. Until we get our fall line in a month or so.

What I did buy was this bib:

Friday night we were out at the mall before going out to dinner and we no sooner left the house and I realized I forgot to bring a bib for Jay. And we were having pasta for dinner. Which can get messy with a toddler. I remembered we had some bibs that recently got put in a clearance bin so since we were already out at the mall I stopped in and grabbed one of the more boyish bibs we had left.

It ended up being $3 after the clearance discount, plus my discount. I paid just under $2.50 after tax. Score! Right now there's lots of cute bibs for your little one that are 50% off the lowest price (some are already marked down too, so it's 50% off that!). I figure, you can never have too many bibs!

Random Ramblings

I finally finished "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making" by Catherynne M. Valente. I originally won the book last summer in a giveaway on @amy_geek's blog and while I did enjoy it, it just took me awhile to get around to finishing it as I had a bunch of other books I wanted to get through and kinda worked on it in between them. Since the new Sookie Stackhouse book doesn't come out til May 1st, after finishing the Hunger Games Trilogy I decided to finish young Miss September's adventure in Fairyland! And it was a really cute book! It has a bit of an Oz feel to it, as September is a young girl who is one day whisked off to the magical Fairyland! Upon there, she loses her shadow, meets a witch and accepts a quest to get back the witch's magic spoon from the mean Marquess who currently rules Fairyland. She also makes friends with a friendly Wyvern and a blue Marid named Saturday. Her Key follows her, but is always a few steps behind and her green smoking jacket keeps her company as well. This book is full of adventure and a pretty easy read (just under 250 pages) and most of all - it's fun and whimsical! It also pays homage to both Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia. If you like fantasy novels, this is a great little gem to pick up! And I'm so excited that a sequel is in the works too!

So, as I wait for the next Sookie Stackhouse book to come out, I am currently reading the rough draft/1st edit of hubby's novel he's currently working on as he put the 1st 9 chapters on my Kindle app - he's hoping to have it up for sale on Kindle later this summer and you bet your bottom dollar I will be plugging it! He calls it a "gunpowder fantasy" as it is a medieval fantasy but there's gunpowder involved instead of just swordplay (or so I gather). Feel free to check out his blog/site for more details!

We recently rented "In Time" from Redbox. It stars Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde and the guy that plays douchey Pete on Mad Men. Hubby wanted to see this one in theaters, but since having Jay... seeing movies in the theater anymore has become a rarity (which is kinda hard to believe as there was once a time when we would go multiple times a week! LOL). The premise is interesting - in a futuristic world, time is the currency, kept track of by a digital clock on your arm that starts counting down the day you turn 25 and you get 1 year. How you spend that year is entirely up to you - you can earn more time by working, having generous friends and family members, and by winning at gambling, or you can waste away your time on drinking and other vices. Once your clock stops though, you die by what looks like an instant fatal heart attack. Oh and you stop aging once you turn 25 too, so there's no telling who is really 26 and who is 50 or even 100! In the ghetto people are used to living day by day while the rich have acquired years and years of time. JT's and Amanda's characters become like a Bonnie and Clyde futuristic Robin Hoods as they set out to tip the economic scales, giving the poor a chance by taking years from the rich. It was pretty good! Was a little weird seeing Amanda Seyfried with a shorter, red bob though - used to her having long blonde hair!

My BFF from college called off her wedding this past weekend (it was supposed to be in August). It's sad, but she said it was mutual as after talking, they both agreed that neither of them were really feeling it much anymore. I guess it's for the best though and I totally understand.

Jay just gets smarter and smarter... he knows how to work plugs! He unplugged the computer cords and promptly looked to see if it turned the TV off. When it didn't, he eventually went over to the outlet strip that the TV is hooked up to and started turning the big orange button off and on. Off and on... now he knows he's not supposed to be playing with the cords - when he unplugged the computer ones, he tried hiding in the corner when hubby went over to pull him out, lol... he also knows how to work the garage door button, wanting to press it whenever we come and go via the garage so we let him. And the other day he was trying to stack empty boxes from our groceries to climb! He also came up with a new "game" while we were shopping last week, where he grabs either my thumbs or my pinkies or pointer fingers and "makes" me clap my hands, lol... it's pretty funny and he's been doing it quite often when we're together, cracking up hysterically because he thinks he's controlling me, lol...

Jay is also the screaming kid in the nursery at church now - 2 weeks running! I don't know why he does it - he's been there before... we pulled into the parking lot though and he started whining a little (he's getting good about recognizing places we go to). Then I took him into the early toddler room and instead of handing him off to one of the childcare workers I walked him in and tried to get him occupied with some toys. He wasn't having it. He cried as soon as we got through the gate and got even more worked up whenever I put him down. Eventually one of the workers came over and tried to help and took over so I could go meet up with hubby in the lobby. We went to pick him up after and he was sobbing, although they said one of the other workers got him to calm down for a little bit. Poor guy - I don't know what to do... he knows I always come get him. Separation anxiety sucks and he's been extra clingy and snuggly to me this week too (he learned he can latch onto mommy's leg). He's also been getting upset when hubby leaves for work - both in the morning and at night.

I drank 2 cups of coffee today - the Van Houtte French Vanilla light roast. I learned that if I put enough of Coffeemate's French Vanilla Caramel creamer in it and enough sugar it hides the icky coffee taste I hate! I was still super tired though and ended up taking a half hour nap - wtf?? I thought coffee was supposed to keep you awake... O.o

Hubby got quite drunk Sunday night, if you couldn't tell by my tweets or Facebook posts. He had (what we thought was) a little bit of Tennessee Whiskey left and he brought home some other type of alcohol the other night. He keeps piling his bottles of alcohol up on the kitchen counter though, despite us having a bar downstairs, and I told him he needed to finish the whiskey up soon as it was taking up too much space. I figured he'd make several mixed drinks out of it over the course of the next few days... I didn't expect him to chug it! By the time Game of Thrones was over Sunday night he was acting a bit... goofy. And kept drinking. It was amusing but annoying at the same time... and omg he has no filter when he's been drinking that much as I learned some TMI stuff about family members I would rather erase from my mind! We did have a nice conversation and some snuggle time as he started to come down from his goofiness.

I finally made an appointment to get the massive moles on my back checked-out and possibly removed. The other night, my bra was just rubbing against one of them soooo bad it still hurt for a good bit after taking it off! I should have had them looked at and removed awhile back, but I never got around to making the call. And sadly, the soonest they can get me in, since I'm a new patient, is July 5th! Nearly 3 months away! Ugh... I was hoping to get them off much sooner than that... I have 2 really big ones on my back that I've had forever and all my doctors know about them and have taken note of them, keeping an eye on them at my check-ups, however I never really noticed just how big and ugly they were until last fall when I noticed them in the mirror. Seriously, I'm not just wanting those 2 removed for cosmetic reasons - they're dangerous, being all big and one is raised too. I also have one on the right side of my head, along my hairline by my ear... okay that one is more cosmetic, as I hate it and always bump or notice it when I'm doing something with my hair or putting my glasses on - I 1st noticed it in Jr. High and for awhile thought it was a zit so I would try popping it before I came to the conclusion it was indeed a mole. Hopefully these 3 are easily able to be removed (the one in my hairline might not be though, as I would prefer not to have my hair cut or shaved in that spot to remove it) and none of them are cancerous!

Speaking of mini surgeries... my father-in-law is having surgery on the 26th to have his dialysis tube moved from his neck to his arm - apparently only 50% of those that have it in their neck survive more than a year so when the opportunity to have it moved to a "safer" spot was made available he decided to go for it! Everything should go fine, but keep him in your thoughts and prayers regardless that day!

And I think that's pretty much all the random catch-up ness for now!

Another Jay update!

Jay turned 14 months last week. I kinda gave up doing the monthly milestone posts, as once he hits one, well, the months part doesn't seem so exciting.

That being said, Jay is constantly learning and growing!

We officially weaned him off the bottle and he doesn't seem to miss it - we're all about the sippy cup now! Granted, it's not much different from the bottle, but it's a step in the process of drinking.

As I mentioned in Monday's photo post, Jay's started matching things! We're a bit... jaw-dropping shocked to be honest - is that normal for 14 months? He's a smart little dude!


He still is hooked on 1 phrase though - "uh-huh!" However he doesn't say it to everything, he uses it correctly when agreeing or answering yes to a question. It's kinda funny but I wish he'd learn a new word or phrase already - I'm getting tired of always hearing "uh-huh!" lol... he does babble up a storm though!

He communicates with us too - if he wants to watch a particular DVD or show he'll hand/throw the DVD at you. Same with whatever book he wants you to read to him. He has certain cues that tip us off that he's sleepy and often times he'll "lead" us to his room, walk over to his CD player to indicate it's time for his sleepy music and then we put him in his crib and he goes right to sleep. He let's us know when his diapey is uncomfortable and will "lead" us to his room to change him. If he doesn't want to eat anymore he'll either turn his face away from it or take one hand and push it away. He gets excited when he sees applesauce ready to eat. Oh and he knows when we're pulling into the Red Mango parking lot - kid sure likes his froyo!

Jay's also trying to figure out his Rock and Roll Elmo, although he doesn't quite get how to make him work - he'll put the drums in front of him and manually bang on the drums with Elmo's hand but gets frustrated as he hasn't figured out he needs to press Elmo's foot. He broke the hinge on his cooking-eating Cookie Monster too so the mouth doesn't open and close automatically, but he manually feeds him the cookies - it's pretty cute!

We're working on coloring too - we bought him an activity desk with Easter money as we noticed, when coloring on the floor he had a hard time reaching the crayon to the paper. This desk seems to help with that! He also likes to roll the crayons across the paper, coloring that way - whatever works I guess!

He also walks from the car in the driveway up to Grammie's front door and vice versa while holding mommy or daddy's hand! Just this past weekend he conquered the porch step too! Oh and he LOVES pressing the garage door button when we're going inside and the door needs closed - he knows what it does and how to work it and gets excited when I let him do it.

He knows what things mean and seems to understand what you're saying to him - many times have I told him "let's go change your diapey!" or "time to get ready for bed/bathtime" and he'll get up and start walking towards his room! He's just getting sooo smart!

We have a hard time keeping him away from cords though - many times does he try to unplug the lamp in the family room and he often pulls out the power strip for the TV that we keep under one of the bookshelves and presses the big power button, turning it off and then frantically trying to turn it back on as we tell him for the millionth time to leave it alone and that it's pushed back under the bookshelf for a reason... oh and we had to unplug the laptops during the day as he kept pulling that plug out. We put the safety on during the day, however he pulls the plug thing out of the laptop bin and attempts to plug it back in with the safety plug on lol... as hubby told him the other night "we appreciate the intelligence, but you're not gonna get that plug back in."

He has at least 10 teeth - 5 on top, 5 on bottom, with a few more coming in on top along the sides.

Anyways, I guess that's a bit of a Jay update!

To a certain few - kindly STFU!

Today let's talk about 2 things: judgementalness when it comes to parenting and fast food.

Last week, as some of you may have noticed, @maliasma had tweeted about the grossness that is skim milk (no offense, if that's your preferred type of milk, but a lot of people do find it gross) and I tweeted back about how they now give you skim milk in the kid's meals at most fast food places when you opt for the milk instead of the juice box or soft drink. I also commented that my kiddo needs the fat in 2% and whole. Anyways, some jerk decided to butt in to our conversation, saying that I had no business giving my 1 year old fast food and that it's my responsibility as his parent to make healthy nutritional choices for him.

Um... did I ask for parenting advice? No.

He got rude after my response about not giving parenting advice when it isn't asked for and my question about if I should go ahead and carry unrefrigerated milk in my bag all day rather than buy it on the go when we're out and about, responding to my tweet about my sis coloring my hair saying "you obviously care more about your hair than your child's nutrition - grow up!" Um, excuse me - HOW are the 2 related? I was doing my sister a favor, as she needs like 1500 hours in the salon at beauty school to get her certification, my hair needed coloring before her wedding this weekend, I offered to come in during her walk-in hours so she'd get the credit and I'd get it done for cheap. WHAT does that have to do with my son's nutrition?

And I should clarify, it's not like I'm giving Jay fast food all the time - he's actually only had it twice that I can recall.

The 1st time, we were out at the mall one afternoon, mall-walking with my friend and her daughter, when it got past Jay's lunch time. He was clearly hungry, woofing down Goldfish crackers, so I stopped at Burger King and ordered him a kid's meal. I got him the chicken nuggets meal with milk - he ate 3 of the 4 nuggets, most of the milk and all of his applesauce cup I brought in my bag, I ate the fries and other nugget. This isn't any different than a typical lunch of his at home - he often eats chicken nuggets and applesauce for lunch with milk. The other occasion, we took a day-trip into the big mall in the suburbs and obviously he was going to need to eat at some point, so we stopped for lunch at A&W. He got the kid's hot dog meal with milk - I cut up his hot dog (which was vienna beef, so not a "junk" hot dog), a little bit of the bun, an applesauce cup I brought with and a good bit of the milk. I ate his fries with my own hot dog. Again, at home he often eats cut up Kosher hot dogs (yay for Hebrew National) with milk and applesauce for lunch. I don't see what's so wrong about either occasion. Sorry, but we're not an organic family however I do opt for more "natural" products and products that don't have high fructose corn syrup when I can. Sometimes while on the go though, it is easier to stop at a fast food joint and make sure my hungry kid gets fed. He gets 3 meals a day plus a snack here and there and a bottle of milk before bed.

Considering the rough start he had at the beginning - being as low as in the 5th percentile for growth - I am thrilled that at his last appointment he was in the 50th percentile and his growth is back on track. We let him eat until he's full or doesn't want anymore. At this point, portion control isn't an issue and we give him food we know he likes and will eat. If it's able to be finger food, that's even better as he enjoys feeding himself.

It irks me when someone butts in about my child's eating habits when they have NO IDEA what we've gone through in the beginning just to get him to eat ANYTHING and enough to grow. Now that he's growing fine and in the 50th percentile... I don't think his nutrition is an issue. If he starts getting obese obviously we'll fix whatever the issue is.

But my kid LOVES his applesauce. And his milk. And things that can be finger foods. Breakfast he eats oatmeal with fruit and fruit yogurt, lunch always contains a meat, chicken or some kind of protein and a fruit and sometimes a veggie, dinner is always a meat, a veggie and sometimes a fruit - all served with milk, occasionally water. So unless you know what I've been through - please kindly STFU.

And another thing that bugs me - the Breastfeeding Nazis.

Yes, we all know, breast is best, but sometimes circumstances arise that make moms end up formula feeding instead.

It's a personal choice and there's always a reason for why someone is formula feeding, so unless you know the whole story, quit judging.

If you've been reading this here blog for awhile, you know our story with breastfeeding.

Jay was induced roughly 2.5 weeks before his due date because of a significant lack in his growth between gestational weeks 30 and 37 - they were afraid he had stopped growing and there was no way of knowing why. So he was born at 37 weeks, 5 days old - technically full-term. He weighed 6lbs, 7oz - a full pound bigger than what the ultrasound 3 days prior had guessed. We had planned on exclusively breastfeeding him for at least 6 months.

God had other plans.

At his 1 week appointment, Jay had lost weight and was down to 6lbs even. At his 2 week appointment he was at 6lbs 8oz. The doctor gave us the weekend to see if he would gain any weight after we began supplementing with formula - that Monday he was still holding steady at 6lbs 8oz and was admitted to the pediatric unit at the hospital where he had numerous tests done trying to figure out why he wasn't eating enough to grow. He then spent the week hooked up to a feeding tube, continuously pumping formula into his stomach for several days straight. He began gaining weight and eating from a bottle.

By then we decided it was easier to just feed him from a bottle, with formula, so we could keep track of how much he was eating, making sure it was enough. Plus they put him on "high calorie" formula (Enfamil Lipil, mixed specially) to help him "catch up" a bit better and we had a visiting nurse checking up to weigh him twice a week to make sure he was continuing to gain weight after being discharged.

All the doctors and nurses we met with were behind our decision to formula feed 100% - they said that as long as we tried breastfeeding and Jay got all the good stuff in the colostrum, than really it was okay to formula feed, as the colostrum is really the important stuff they need - the rest from the breast is just extra, as formula these days is made pretty well.

But of course the Breastfeeding Nazis will be Breastfeeding Nazis - judging you for giving your kid formula, not having any idea what you've gone through just to get your kid to eat enough to grow (we did learn at my 6 week post-partum appointment that there was a knot in Jay's umbilical cord, which we believe is why he never knew the feeling of being full and eating only enough to survive). Whether it comes from a bottle or a breast, it doesn't matter - as long as your baby is healthy and eating, that's what matters.

So Breastfeeding Nazis, please kindly, STFU - it's not nice and just plain rude and hurtful when you get all judgmental on those mom's who aren't breastfeeding for one reason or another.

To wrap it up - what IS with Burger King not offering much of a healthy alternative? I mean McDonald's and Wendy's both have healthy-ish snackwraps - Burger King has salad that tastes like it's a day old despite saying "fresh" on the label. Get with it Burger King - I'd eat there more often if they had a decent tasting snackwrap... it actually saddens me that McDonald's was replaced by Burger King in our local mall (where I work, I might add), as there's nothing "good" to eat there.

A recent dream, or rather, a nightmare!

It's no secret that I have really trippy dreams when I sleep.

They say you have weird dreams when you're pregnant... well, I've been having really weird dreams for as long as I can remember (and I dream in color quite often too - apparently that's supposed to mean something...?). At one point I even had an entire blog devoted to keep tract of my weird-ass dreams, but I kinda gave up on that as half the time I forgot about it (oops!).

Anyways, while taking a longer nap the other day when hubby was around to watch Jay, I had another really weird dream that actually made me quite upset, and you'll see why!

I dreamed that we were down in Dallas again, visiting my old college roommate like we did back in October 2010, only instead of being 5-6months pregnant Jay was a newborn. My college roommate also had had a baby who was just slightly older than Jay.

We went out to some straight-up southern bar and grill type place one evening, after 9pm or so, so it was past the babies' bedtime. But my old roommate said that was fine, they had childcare at this place we were going to. She told me to go take care of getting our coats checked while she got the babies squared away for us.

I check the coats in and go to rendezvous with her and I learn that this place's form of childcare is swaddling and then securely locking each baby into its own small locker!

NOT acceptable for
storing babies!

Horrified, and hearing Jay screaming and freaking out, as it was dark in there, he doesn't like being swaddled, not mention he's never been in a space like that, I go to get him out, however my roommate couldn't remember the correct locker combination! So we go to the "childcare" desk and they won't give her the combination as she's not the mother and they won't give it to me as I wasn't there when he was checked in! They tell me I have to come back the next day when the general manager is in to take it up with her!

I was furious and freaking out, spending the night and day the next day waiting for the woman to show up. We ended up having to have dinner there too before she showed up.

Explaining the situation to her, she eventually used a master key to open the lock on the back so I could get him out, however it had been nearly 24 hours since he last ate, his diaper was sopping went, and he was clearly traumatized as he was just staring off in space at first, having cried himself out! He was barely breathing and took a good minute or two to come to and be okay.

Livid, I proceeded to bitch at the manager and how I would be contacting child services regarding this supposed "childcare" they offered to patrons and the way we were treated. She snootily replied that she didn't know how they run things up in Illinois, but down there, in good ol' Texas, there was nothing wrong and that my child was fine - all the babies freak out at first until they get used to it!

Yeah, that didn't help any...

Needless to say, I'm glad my dream had a happy ending with Jay being okay instead of dying of starvation/dehydration at the hands of these business morons! I would have woken up crying if that happened! But still, I was pretty mad when I woke up!

Glad to know it was only a dream (albeit more like a nightmare!).

Have you had any strange dreams lately?

11 months already!

I can't believe it... as of yesterday, Jay's 1st birthday is now less than a month away!

Holy cow!

Where did this last year go?!

Well... in the last month Jay celebrated his 1st Christmas and 1st New Years.

He took his 1st few steps, but would rather crawl or cruise along furniture instead.

He likes to make my family room and kitchen look like a small hurricane went through it at some time during the day.

He can stand and balance without holding onto anything now (although half the time he does it, he doesn't realize he's doing it).

No new teeth although those 1st year molars sure are taking their good ol' time coming in and it hasn't been fun!

Jay's had his 1st illness, getting both a stomach bug and a cold right around Christmas.

He's gotten very good putting the rings on the pole in the right size order too and he's a pro at feeding his Cookie Monster that eats the cookies which he got from his aunt, uncle and cousins in the Quad Cities for Christmas.

He definitely needs another haircut (I guess I should probably see if my mother-in-law can bring her hair cutting stuff with her next week when she comes for her weekly visit).

He also regularly eats "real" food now, often getting small portions of what we're having, otherwise he eats the Gerber Nature Select 3rd Foods if mommy's not around to do the cooking or we're not eating out.

He recently discovered Whole Wheat Goldfish crackers and LOVES those things!

He has issues with the word "no" too - it gets his attention, but he'll look at you and go back and do or touch what you told him not to.

He also tries to be sneaky by tricking you into thinking he's going for one thing when his goal is to distract you so he can go for something else (ie: the remote or phone or computer cords).

Can't believe in less than 1 month from now he'll be 1!

In other Jay-related news - I just learned tonight that his pediatric urology specialist switching from Madison to Milwaukee was a bit of a blessing. While Milwaukee is a bit further drive, his doctor and the hospital he's now at IS in our healthcare network! Yay! That'll help us out a lot in about a year or so when he has to have his surgery. I liked the children's hospital in Madison a lot, and since there's no pediatric urology specialist in our network within 30 miles our insurance was giving us a discounted rate, it was still out of network which mean more out of pocket expenses and every time he goes for a visit (now every 6 months) he also has to have a renal ultrasound to check on the status of his kidney and ureter tube so the doctor has something to discuss with us. And that ultrasound isn't exactly cheap! So good news for us! I just need to call and setup the appointment in Milwaukee and cancel the one with the specialist's associate he referred us to in Madison.

Jay update

Despite all the long hours at work that I mentioned in my previous post, it's been a fun week with Jay!

We had some snow last week that had left a nice little layer over everything when we woke up in the morning. I showed Jay and his eyes got all wide as we looked out the glass patio door. He then proceeded to try and open the door to get outside and play in it, lol... It started snowing the other day while my mom was watching him and they were out running errands - she said he was looking up and big snowflakes were landing on his face... he thought it was the funniest thing ever! Kinda sad I missed it though, as we haven't really had much snow yet!

He cut his finger up pretty bad, playing with a pot! We think there was a rough edge on it and he got his finger caught on it when he went to pull it out of the handle slot... he was playing with it like normal when I heard him shriek and when I looked over he was face down on the ground freaking out. I picked him up to see what was wrong and his finger was all bloody... it looked bad, but my mom came over and took a look and it looks like it'll fine once it scabs over. He sliced it in 3 spots though - I wince and feel horrible every time I look at it.

He's also eating real bananas now too, cut up of course. He was watching my mom eat one while she was babysitting him so she let him have a bite and he LOVED it and ate a good chunk of her banana so I went out and bought some and have been giving him half a banana a day. I also started making using of my Magic Bullet I've had since college (back then we used it for mixed drinks, lol...) by pureeing whatever we're eating and giving it to Jay for dinner - he had some chicken and dumpling soup with veggies last week (and a banana half) and tonight I tried giving him some of this cheesy skillet chicken and rice with veggies I made, but he didn't like it and puked it all up - oops! He did make a meal out of bean dip with cheese and sour cream at a birthday party I took him to over the weekend for his lunch there!

He snores sooooo loud too! The other night I had to go in and nudge him to get him to switch to a different position as he was snoring louder than hubby and I couldn't sleep, hearing him so loud over the baby monitor!

And in BIG news - he took his first steps!

He's been balancing by himself pretty well lately so hubby and I decided to see if we could get him to go from one of us to the other - I had him stand by me on the loveseat while hubby sat on the edge of the couch not too far away and called for him to come. He took 2-3 steps! I think he surprised himself too! He can walk if you hold 1 of his hands, but this was the first he did it all by himself not holding on to anything (he cruises along the furniture really fast!). We tried to have him do it again and he took 1 step before deciding crawling to daddy was faster, lol... oh well! He did it though, we just need to keep practicing with him - we knew he'd walking on his own by the end of the year!

Just not Jay's week

Wednesday afternoon Jay had his follow-up for his flu-shot to get the 2nd part of it since I guess your 1st time they do it in 2 shots or something...

Anyways, it's been in the 20s and 30s around these parts lately so that means warmer jackets! Only... Jay doesn't like wearing his big heavy jacket and gets mad whenever we put it on him.

So he wasn't happy about that but we took it off as soon as we were in the waiting room so he could crawl around and play with the toys in the corner.

At our office he's had 2 or 3 different nurses do his shots, but more often it's the nurse that's married to our doctor. After a few minutes of waiting she called us back to get his shot. I picked him up and as soon as he saw her got this look on his face like he knows she's the one that gives him shots most of the time. Even the receptionist noticed and was like "Wow... he's really giving you a bad look!"

He was not happy about the shot at all. And then he got mad at me when I made him put his big coat back on, screaming and crying in the waiting room (fortunately there were only 2 other people in the room, but he did get loud and the receptionists were giving us looks, lol...).

Poor kiddo... he's been teething off and on all week too, Thursday being the worst so far. We think he's working on molars the way he's been shoving his fingers into the back of his mouth on both sides. He didn't even finish a bottle at any of his meals, it hurt too much to suck on the nipples (at one point, realizing he hadn't even had 10oz of fluid today, I decided to feed him his bottle via a measuring cup with a spout on the side, which seemed to work). So yeah... I didn't take him to the library this week because he was just too miserable and fussy. At one point while I was dozing on the couch in the morning he crawled over to me after playing for a bit and wanted up, just to snuggle with me as he chewed on binky while I held and comforted him. Poor little guy =(

Library playtime!

Lately I've been looking into finding a Mommy & Me type organized groups/activities to take Jay to on a weekly basis where he can socialize with tots closer in age to him and I can get some parental interaction too.

Unfortunately there's not really an official "Mommy and Me" type classes in our area but I have found some similar alternatives...

the problem though is that most are held in the morning, and well... we're not morning people, Jay included.

So it's been difficult finding little kid activities in the afternoons.

But I did seem to find a group of moms in town that have a weekly Thursday afternoon playgroup and I did come across a free storytime/playgroup for kids under 2 Thursdays evenings at our nearby library branch.

We decided to check that out this past Thursday.

We were the 1st ones there, but another family with a little boy showed up and then 2 other moms with their sons showed up late as well. Their sons were all about 20 months old, but Jay seemed to do pretty well with them, crawling around after them, playing with the letter shapes that were passed out. He seemed to be enjoying himself which was good! The library worker read a few stories, we sang a few songs, and practiced sounds with the kids based on the letters they picked out of a bag (Jay liked carrying an O all over the place).

We'll probably go again the last 2 weeks of this year, so long as I don't have work. Hopefully some more kids come, and closer in Jay's age, as the other kids are all approaching 2 soon!

One Tough Cookie

Little Mr. Tough Guy!

Now that Jay's mobile, if he's not napping or in his playpen you most likely have to keep a good eye on him as he's fast. And he likes to get into EVERYTHING he's not supposed to (such as where we keep the laptops charging, my photo albums, the books on the bookshelves, or the cord to the floor lamp). And with him cruising along the furniture now he's gotten a few bruises from falling into the coffee table or banging his head on the floor when he loses balance.

I came home from work Tuesday night and just as I was coming in from the garage, I hear my mom say "You're probably going to fire me from babysitting..." (on nights I work, she watches Jay til hubby gets off work around 6 and brings him home, and then since he has to leave for his night job by 10 and I don't usually get home til just after 10 she comes over to watch Jay for about a half hour or so).

Well, we can say Jay's shed blood for the 1st time.

My mom was watching him play in the family room and he was playing with the toys on his activity table (which is low to the ground) when he decided to climb across it to reach the floor lamp cord behind it. The activity table sits next to one of our bookshelves though and my mom thinks his foot slid on one of those small animal blanket loveys we have a few of, losing his footing and he banged his face near his eyebrow on the edge of the bookshelf!

Oops!

The damage, after we cleaned up most
of the blood

Granted, there wasn't much she could have done to prevent it. I was just annoyed though as it was the night before his check-up and yeah... don't want medical people thinking I'm abusing my child - we already had visiting nurses check-up on us for a few weeks after his week-long stay in the hospital. Don't need that again!

She said it happened about 10 minutes before I got home and was bleeding quite a bit but had mostly stopped. I cleaned up the excess on his face with a wipey since we didn't want to use Neosporin for fear he'd rub it in his eye or get some in his mouth.

My mom kept saying he looked like a little pro-boxer or fighter with the cut above his eye like that, lol...

I must say, it looked A LOT better the next day than it did when I first saw it.

Of course as she's showing me and explaining what happened Jay's trying to slide/swing under the bar across the bottom of the kitchen chairs, nearly smacking his head on the floor had I not intervened when I saw it about to happen!

I hope he's not going to be accident prone like my sister was - my mom kept saying his daredevil-ness lately reminded her of my sister at that age!

Sesame Street Live!

Tonight I took Jay to see Sesame Street Live! in our town and he had no idea what was going on. He noticed the Elmo souvenirs on our way in so he knew we were somewhere that had something to do with Elmo. I bought him a program as a keepsake and he had fun looking at all the characters on the cover.

"Uh mommy? What's going on here?"

At the beginning, Bert and Ernie came out to tell us the letter of the day, which was J! (The number of the day was 8). And then the lights went down, the curtains whipped open, and the entire cast was singing and dancing to the Sesame Street theme song.

And OH. MY. GOSH!

The way Jay's face lit up was PRICELESS! It was soooo great and made me melt to see my baby so in awe of something he likes like that!

He started out sitting in my lap but as soon as he realized what was going on he scrambled to his feet and stood on my lap and bounced along to the tunes.

The premise of the show (which was titled Elmo Makes Music) is that Jenny is a new music teacher that has just arrived on Sesame Street. All the Sesame Street characters are eager to take various music lessons from her, however the truck delivering all her instruments hasn't arrived yet! While Jenny is worried about the whereabouts of the truck and why it's so late, the Sesame Street crew decides to surprise her and (after she tells them that anything can make music) come up with various instruments of their own. Mr. Noodle's other brother Mr. Noodle helps Elmo create a drum with a pot and long kitchen spoon. Abby finds a horn, Grover stomps his feet, Cookie Monster shakes a jar full of cookies like a maraca, and others use brooms, buckets and trash lids (a la Stomp or Blue Man Group style). It was fun.

However... it was a bit too long for Jay.

He did pretty well during the first half of the show, either sitting in my lap or standing. We had a good seat - just slightly up behind the floor/ground seats and on the center aisle so he didn't have a blocked view. At one point he was standing next to our seat, holding onto the seat in front of us. Then he wanted to sit. And then... he wanted to crawl and climb on the steps. I wouldn't let him and of course he got fussy about it for a little bit til something distracted him. Fortunately though that was towards the end of the 1st half.

Then there was a 15 minute intermission (why, I don't know - the first half was only maybe 30 minutes at most). At first I had a rough time trying to keep him occupied, but I remembered I brought his Gerber Puffies to snack on so he sat and ate some of those and then played with the program some more.

He was a handful of bipolar during the 2nd half!

One minute he's snuggled up on me like he's going to fall asleep, the next he's fighting me to get down on the ground to climb/crawl on the stairs, and then the next he's laughing his little butt off at something behind us! Rinse and repeat. He got excited again about the finale though and was standing on me and bouncing around like he was at the beginning.

Hubby took this one before we left for
the show - matching Elmo shirts!

He fell asleep on the ride home and napped on hubby while I made our dinner and fed him a later dinner (he had a big, late afternoon lunch though), getting him ready for bed before giving him his bottle. Needless to say, he went to bed a little early - he quite tired from our busy day of snow, shots and Sesame Street!

I'd say he enjoyed himself overall, but like I said, it just got too long for him.

There were lots of parents and kids wearing Elmo shirts like us and we also saw a handful wearing the Cookie Monster version. He also wasn't the youngest so I didn't feel too crazy bringing a 9 month old - I saw several younger babies with parents who brought the whole family with.

I'm sure he'll do better next year though! And maybe even hubby will join us too (hey the dad of the family sitting next to us got and got a beer, lol...) The only sad thing is I'll have to buy him a ticket next year (kids under 1 were free so long as they didn't take up a seat).

Shots and snow

Today was a busy day for us.

First off, we had our 1st snowfall of the season, even though it didn't last long - it came down white, but once it hit the ground it became slush and by mid-afternoon it turned to rain. I held Jay up and we looked out our sliding glass door in the kitchen so he could see (granted he was born 2 days after Snowmageddon, but I'm sure he doesn't remember what snow is since he was never really in it). He seemed a bit confused by the white stuff.

Can't wait (well actually, I can since I'm not a fan of cold weather) til our first real snow storm where the stuff sticks and is actually enough to cover stuff and he sees and feels it!

Anyways, Jay had his 9 month check-up today, which I left a half hour early for, giving us extra time not because of the snow, but because for some reason, here in Northern Illinois (where it snows often between November and February and sometimes even into March or April and as early as October) the majority of the cars on the road drive like they've never seen the stuff before - it's ridiculous but it happens. EVERY. YEAR.

Jay fell asleep in the car and woke up as I was carrying him in when the falling snow was hitting him in the face (he was not happy about that!).

His 9 month stats were good - 20lbs 8oz (50th percentile), his head is in the 50th percentile also, his length is 28inches which is a little short but nothing to be concerned about (while hubby's side of the family is all around 6ft or taller, no one in my family is 6ft so it seems Jay is just taking after my side more right now in that department). The doctor got to see him crawl and pull himself up on anything and everything (he literally crawled all over the exam room and I had to pull him away from the trash can and bio-hazard can, lol...) and he was sitting up just fine too so developmentally he's right on track and he said to keep doing what we're doing diet-wise but to go ahead and try to get him using a sippy cup more.

He did hear a slight heart murmur though, which he said isn't too uncommon at his age as their bodies are growing so fast and it's just the heart trying to keep up - he said it's probably benign and nothing to worry about and years ago would have said we'd just check-up on it again a few months, but since we have the resources and technology now to easily check it out he wanted to refer us to a cardiologist just to make sure everything was a-okay. I *really* do hope it's nothing - with his kidney/ureter issue and his week-long stay in the hospital at 3 weeks for eating problems I really don't want to deal with another major medical thing!

Jay got 2 shots today - his last Hep-B vaccine and his 1st flu shot (the 1st one is in 2 parts though so we have to go back next month for part 2). Originally hubby and I weren't sure about getting him that one, and lately I've been torn about it which hubby told me to do what I felt was best. I talked with the doctor about it, explained my concerns and it basically came down to the fact that him getting the flu would be a lot worse than most things you hear about from the vaccine (which he said the majority of the bad that you hear is usually the rarest occurrences, which is a risk you take with anything really). I am staying firm on the chicken pox vaccine though - I just don't see the point in having a vaccine for that and think it's completely unnecessary.

Naturally, he didn't like getting the shots.

He also didn't like his physical exam, with the doctor trying to look in his eyes, ears and nose (although I think part of it was he didn't like being held still, as he's at the point where he just wants to go, go, go!).

They were impressed with how many teeth he has (7 already, and I noticed the whites of 2 on bottom breaking through today!).

He also has this thing lately about opening and closing doors - 1 nurse came in and left the door ajar, Jay quickly crawled over to the door and shut it and then sat in front of it, lol... she was like "Uh... are you trying to lock me in here with you?". (Hubby informed me tonight that Jay followed him into our bedroom while he went to change out of work clothes the other night. Hubby turned the light off when he was done and thought Jay was following behind him... nope! A few moments later hubby heard Jay shrieking from the bedroom - apparently he was playing with the door and shut it while he was still in the room, locking himself in the dark! Oops!).

So, overall things are looking well aside from a possible heart murmur that we're hoping is nothing!

9 months!

Jay turned 9 months old this past Friday!

My has he come quite a ways! And boy has it gone fast!


He's graduated from the military crawl to a real crawl (which we almost thought he was going to skip as he showed us he could do the actual crawl but seemed to prefer the military crawl as it was faster, lol...). He's gotten REALLY fast too, as I'll come in from the kitchen in the time it takes me to walk to my room and start getting my shoes off he'll be right there, having followed me!


We're letting him try "real" food from time to time so long as it's something easy for him to chew and not something we need to worry about him choking on easily.

He's cruising along the furniture like a pro and has the whole pulling himself up thing down pat, although he still is hesitant sometimes about plopping down on his bottom when he doesn't want to stand anymore. We've taught him the "correct" way to slide down off the couch, however he still likes to dive head first over us, with us grabbing onto him and letting him down slowly so he doesn't get hurt, lol...

He's got seven - 7! - teeth now. The 4 middle ones on top and 3 in the middle on the bottom (the odd one being on his left side).

He's been quite amusing this past week when hubby's watched him.

One night he stood at the gate on top of our stairs and proceeded to throw toys down the stairs at Tiger (our cat) who was just chilling on the steps. She would give him this look like "uh... what are you doing?" and then move further down the stairs - everytime that happened Jay would bust out laughing! And then today, hubby said Jay pulled his phone off the coffee table and was crawling around with it, carrying it by the case. When it rang, Jay started dancing around to the ringtone! LOL...

He says words here and there. He's responded with an "oookay!" several times when we've told or asked him things and he often says "heeeeeey!" like he's Arthur Fonzerelli (aka The Fonz) from Happy Days. He also likes to clap, do the "soooo big!" arm motion, and give high 5's (although he doesn't often give them to females, lol... must be a guy thing!).

He's very close to walking - he's been getting gutsy lately while cruising between the coffee table and the couch, holding onto nothing but my finger as he goes from one to the other. My mom said he was walking holding on my dad's hands the other day too.

He LOVES the show Super Why on PBS and Sprout, as well as Thomas the Train and Nina and Star on Sprout's The Goodnight Show. I read an article recently that stated that babies don't know what they're watching on TV other than it's a glowing box, however seeing how excited Jay is when he sees Super Why is on or how he dashes across the kitchen in his walker to the spot where he can see the TV when the Thomas theme song comes on... yeah, my kid can tell the difference between the shows. There's plenty of shows and segments on Sprout he doesn't care for and would rather pay attention to his toys (or mommy's photo albums or the laptop cords in the corner of the room!) but when something he likes does come on, he's right there checking it out! Sesame Street is another example - he'll watch when Elmo or Grover are on the screen, but the non-puppet segments or segments with other characters on... yeah, he has no interest. He only likes to watch when Grover or Elmo are on.

This month I moved our Pack and Play into the family (from our bedroom) as 1 day I just had a really bad headache and just wanted to lay down but Jay wanted to get into EVERYTHING he wasn't supposed to. So I moved it out there, put more of his toys in it and had kids shows on TV in case one of his favorites came on and he sat and entertained himself without me having to worry while I relaxed. It's come in handy in the mornings too, as he wakes up earlier than I would like and this way, if he doesn't want to snuggle with mommy I can put him in there and he can play safely while I nap 3 feet away on the couch.
I also let him play with my small pot and frying pan too - he enjoys banging on those and carrying them around the kitchen and family room!

He's been enjoying his touch and feel animal book too, regularly flipping through that one and touching all the textures in the book. He likes it when I read it to him, making the animal sounds - especially the monkey's "ooh ooh, ahh ahh" (he cracks up everytime I do it!). He also seems to enjoy flipping through his other board books too, which is neat! I hope he grows up enjoying reading as much as hubby and I did and still do!

He's also fascinated with his wipey warmer, opening and closing the part where you put the wipes in as well as the lid, as he's figured out how to press the button to make it pop up - makes changing him even more of a pain now, lol...

Wednesday is a busy day for us - Jay has his 9 month check-up (I'm guessing he's at least 20lbs, as he was 18lbs back in September) AND I'm taking him to see Sesame Street Live! I'm hoping he'll enjoy it, although he's free since he's under 1.