Jay's Day Out with Thomas!

Yesterday (Sunday) we took Jay to meet Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt!

HiT Entertainment with MegaBlocks held the annual event again
this year at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL which is roughly about a 45 minute drive from us. I had first heard about it a few years ago when hubby's brother and sister-in-law took our oldest nephew to it as, like Jay, he's loved Thomas for years. This was the first weekend for it this year as it continues next Saturday and Sunday. They had a bunch of different booths and stations set up around the railway museum grounds - a Thomas merchandise tent, a local firefighter booth, a tent to watch some Thomas videos or hear stories, mini-putting greens, and a tent to get temporary Thomas and Friends tattoos! You could also get your picture taken with Thomas between train rides (yep - you could purchase tickets to go for a "ride" on train cars pulled by Thomas) as well as pictures with Sir Topham Hatt. It was really neat!

 As we pulled up to the railway museum grounds we got stopped at the train tracks that go around the parking lot and lo and behold - there was Thomas going past us! Jay got the biggest grin and made a face like "Oh yeah, that's Thomas, that's my pal."

 Thomas at the station, between train rides

 Jay didn't want to take his eyes off him!

 Daddy, Jay and Thomas

 Mommy, Jay and Thomas

 Riding on a train car pulled by Thomas

Jay was doing good until the family sitting in front of us pulled out their brand new Thomas toys, opened them up and proceeded to play around with them. Naturally, Jay being a toddler, he wanted them so we had to struggle with him for a good bit to keep him from diving over the seat to get at the toys (he had his own Thomas train toy with him but he wanted theirs!). He also wanted crackers during the train ride after they had told us no food or drink on the train.

 There's Thomas coming down the tracks!

 Jay got Thomas and Percy temporary tattoos on his hands and just like last week at the fair when he got a Jolly Green Giant one, he promptly proceeded to rub at them, lol...

 He couldn't believe it was Sir Topham Hatt! He didn't want to take his eyes off him!

 Sir Topham Hatt, Jay and Daddy

 Jay started touching him, lol...

 He started babbling nonstop to Sir Topham Hatt, it was really funny!

  Sir Topham Hatt, Jay and Mommy

 Thomas running down the line

Processing the events of the day

 And he fell asleep on the car ride home

 Jay's loot - we got him the reusable Day Out with Thomas bag and this year's annual wooden train car (a Quarry car) to go with the set we plan on collecting when he gets a little bigger. He also got a certificate after going for a ride on Thomas that makes him a Junior Engineer!

This year's annual wooden train car... which I already found in the dog's water dish this evening!

Jay had a great time with a huge grin on his face for the majority of the time we were there. We definitely plan on taking him again in a few years when he's a bit older! If you have a tike who loves Thomas and you're interested, be sure to check out the official Day Out with Thomas site to see if Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt are coming to a railway museum near you!

And because today is  Monday, here's the only other photo I took this week:

Hubby's sis turns 14 next month, however she's huge into the Hunger Games and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I was going to take her to the midnight DVD release of Hunger Games at Walmart however her and her dad took a spur of the moment trip down to Springfield for a few days and weren't back in time so I went with my sister and got it for her (I had to do some grocery shopping after work while there anyway). This was the setup we had waiting for her on the kitchen table when she got back into town. We got her the 2-disc Walmart set which included trading cards (she got Effie Trinket!) and a Mockingjay pendant and we also got her a Twilight Sparkle plushie. We figured we'd give it to her a month or so early that way she wouldn't go out and buy the movie before then (we know she's been dying to watch it again!). She loved her gifts and we're glad =)

Jay's first allergy

Yesterday I had a few errands to run and since Jay needed to eat before we went out, I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I fixed him a plate of chicken nuggets, cut up, with a little bit of ranch dressing on them as we usually dip the chicken in ranch via a fork and putting it in his mouth. I figured, he's been doing great with finger foods and self-feeding lately so I gave him the plate and let him feed himself while I went to go get dressed. He seemed fine when I checked on him and went to go put my make-up on. All in all, it was roughly 5 minutes that he was alone, eating, and it's not like I was far away - I just in the next room.

Anyways, I get done, see his plate is empty and go to fetch him some applesauce when I notice see this rash all over his mouth, cheeks and part of his arm:

WTF?! The chicken nuggets were warm when I gave them to him, but nowhere near hot enough to give him a burn like that!

I sent this pic to my mom to get her thoughts and she said it could be an allergic reaction or some contact disease or something and to call his doctor. We've given him chicken nuggets with ranch dressing plenty of time - it's one of his regular lunch meals.

Anyways, I called his doctor's office and talked to one of the nurses. She said to hold off on giving him anymore ranch dressing for awhile and said to just monitor him for the rest of the day, see if the color on his face goes down any and that we could give him some Benadryl at bedtime. She said it sounded like an allergic reaction and that even though he's had it plenty of times before it could take awhile for an allergy to develop and show up. Mom pointed out too, that he's only had the ranch dressing given to him via a fork, straight into his mouth, no contact with his skin. I had let him feed himself with his hands, and he got it all over his mouth. Oddly though, it wasn't on his fingers... just 1 patch on his arm where he must have put it in the dressing.

He didn't seem to be in any pain though and it didn't seem to be affecting him at all. Fortunately the color went away within 30 minutes and he looked like his normal self again. I did get him the Benadryl though, gave him some before bed and got lucky that it made it him drowsy, as he conked out while drinking his bedtime bottle (the nurse said it would either make him tired, hyper or neither, so use at our own risk, lol...).

Some more firsts with Jay

We've had a few memorable firsts with Jay the last 2 days.

Sunday, well... he took his first tumble down the stairs.

My in-laws decided to drop in that afternoon and I noticed that our loveseat was covered in cat hair as Tiger's been shedding a lot lately so I vacuumed that up and then decided to use the Furminator to get some of the loose dead fur off her. She was sitting just on the other side of the gate so I opened it up to get her. I *thought* I closed it and latched it all the way...

While I'm grooming the cat on the kitchen floor (since it's easier to vacuum up), I notice Jay is playing by the gate like he always does (he LOVES throwing toys down the stairs for some reason). All of a sudden we hear a thud and Jay screaming!

Hubby, who was sitting on the couch in the family room just across from the kitchen, bolts up and is all "OH MY GOD! HE FELL DOWN THE STAIRS!" We both take off running down them, hubby ahead of me, beating me to Jay so I didn't even see how he landed. Hubby picked him up at the bottom of the stairs and he was moving okay, just screaming and crying because he was scared. We checked him over to make sure nothing was broken - hubby said from the way he was laying at the bottom of the stairs, it looked like he rolled which is a good thing.

Hubby freaked out at his sister, who had gone downstairs as soon as they got here, thinking she didn't latch the gate all the way, until I spoke up and said I was the last one to open the gate so it was likely my fault unless Jay finally figured out the latch himself. We monitored him the rest of the afternoon and he seemed like his normal self. He didn't seem to learn a lesson though as he was back playing by the gate in no time. I should probably work with him on learning how to properly go up and down stairs... he gets off the couch properly now and I've worked with him on that for awhile. My mother-in-law assured me that as long as he was crying and moving around that he's most likely fine, and that babies bones are flexible and they're made to take falls and bumps and still be okay. As hubby keeps reminding me, it'll be a miracle if he makes it to 18 with no stitches or broken bones.

I was still shaking and nervous and scared though - when I hear him playing by the gate I often I have scary thoughts of him falling down the stairs and breaking his neck or killing himself... and here he fell down the stairs. I usually take a glance at the latch when he's playing near the gate just to make sure it's secure... but this time, I had a squirmy cat in my hands and unless Jay figured out the latch himself, I must not have secured it. Talk about mommy guilt! At least he's okay though! Thanks for those of you who responded on Twitter and shared your stories of your kids falling down the steps and being perfectly fine!


Other 1sts...

Well, Monday we went mall-walking with my good friend and her daughter who'll be 2 next week and we decided before they had to go to let her and Jay go play in the "germ pit" as the moms who come into my store often refer to it (you know, the kiddie play areas they have in the mall). It was Jay's 1st time in there and he looked so proud of himself to be walking around amongst bigger kids all by himself. He tried to "escape" out the only exit/entrance twice though, making me chase after him.

And then a first of what I'm sure will not be the last time this happens...

He lost one of his shoes in the mall. These shoes I got from work on sale... they have like a bungee cord that you pull a clasp on to tighten them. He ALWAYS seems to get the darn things off though, but usually he's good about keeping them on in public. Well, after my friend and her daughter had to leave I decided to stick around and walk and window shop. As we're walking, I turn the stroller around and an elderly couple point out that Jay's missing a shoe and they said they thought they saw it on the other end of the mall "by the games." Thinking they were talking about the kiddie vehicle rides, I race back to where we were recently and look, but no luck. I went back into the last store we were in and look around, but again no luck. Then I'm thinking "games..." and as I'm looking on the ground in front of Gamestop I see it - his shoe sitting on top of a display. I went to put it back on him but he was fussing so I took his other one off and stuffed them under the stroller so we wouldn't have to go through that again. But yeah, I spent 10 minutes back tracking, looking for my kid's shoe in the middle of the mall.

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's 1st Christmas & Fun with our Phones!

Whew!

The craziness of the holiday season is over and I survived! Which means I should be around on here and Twitter a bit more!

Anyways, onto Christmas!!!!

Christmas Eve started off with me going into work at 830am to finish processing our shipment (which I finished by 1130am - it was a Christmas miracle considering we've been trying to get through it for weeks now!). I took my lunch break and then returned around noon to finish out til 230pm when it was my time to go home.

Merry Christmas!!!

I did a few last minute errands, such as stopping at Barnes & Noble and getting Jay a board book of The Night Before Christmas since I realized we didn't have it and stopping at Sam's to get some beverages for the weekend since we were pretty much out.

I got home around 330pm, Josh had fed Jay and I quickly gave him a bath and got him dressed up for the Candles and Carols service at church at 5pm. I was aiming to leave around 430pm and we met that goal and arrived at church with about 15 minutes to spare, sitting with my family.

Jay did pretty good during the hour long service (since there was no child care that night) - he sang along with the congregation as we sang Christmas carols (which had us cracking up) and didn't want to stop "singing" during the scripture reading so we had to take him out for a few minutes, lol... he did fine the rest of the service though.

Afterwards we went to my aunts for Christmas dinner - she had a trio of singing Wise Men mice that sang "We Three Kings" which Jay really enjoyed! Jay ate a little bit of Christmas dinner with us, which included my mom's Shepherd's Pie dish which he seemed to like. We exchanged presents with my aunt, uncle and cousins - Jay got super excited over his playmats my aunt got him, as well as the Curious George movie on DVD. He also got a Wiggles DVD and a Playskol Giggle Cow bouncing toy.

 

Posing with Grandpap

Picture time with mommy!

OMG!!! Playmats!!!

It's George, mommy!!!!

Then we went over to my parents house and exchanged gifts with them. Jay got some Thomas and Friends bath toys, a fishing pole and plastic magnetic fish for it for the bath tub, a Thomas hoodie for this spring, a wooden puzzle, a Lego CD player for his room (so he can fall asleep to something other than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Rockabye Baby, lol...), a new crib toy to play with, a musical, light-up snail toy, some VeggieTales DVDs, and oh geez, I can't remember what else... he got so much! My parents got hubby some Cowboys floormats for his car and a Starbucks gift card, among other little stuff. We also got the Fast Five DVD, Super Mario Bros All-Stars for the Wii (yay!), these really neat Wizard of Oz nutcracker ornaments among other things that aren't coming to mind right now (oops!).

Watching Grandpap and Grammie's train under the tree

Playing with a toy, with a bow that stayed on his head for awhile, lol...

Thomas bath toy

More toys!

Our tree & presents waiting for Jay

We went home, got Jay to bed, and then I finished cleaning up the house and we put together Jay's walker/ride-along toy. Hubby had a drink, I had a glass of wine and we hung out on the couch in the family room watching 24 Hours of A Christmas Story - we got through 2 viewings before we both fell asleep on the couch, waking up at 7am and moving to the bed, lol...

Jay woke us up around 1030am. Hubby got his camera ready while I changed Jay into his Christmas outfit for the day and we brought him out. He seemed a little unphased at first by the presents and walker under the tree... I started opening presents for him - 1st one was the Chica plush from Sprout's Sunny Side Up Show. He seemed to like her, despite acting confused as to why she was there and not on TV, lol... he got excited about the Super Why DVD, ripping it out of my hand when I showed it to him, lol... and he LOVES his talking Super Why doll! He also got really excited when we were opening stocking presents and got to the box of Aquafresh training toothpaste with the Nerdle Gurdle characters he sees on the commercial that Sprouts plays everynight around bedtime, lol... like he carried the toothpaste box all over the house, lol... he has yet to play much with his walker, but he has discovered it and checked out the stuff on it that moves and makes noise! He likes his Leapfrog My Own Leaptop laptop too, despite him only really banging on the keyboard and opening and closing the lid, lol...

It's Chica! From the Sunny Side Up Show on Sprout!

Playing with Super Why while mommy opens up the Leapfrog Leaptop

Hubby and I exchanged presents too - I got him a "Geek Dad" t-shirt from Think Geek (we said it was from Jay though), $20 in Starbucks giftcards, a $20 giftcard to the Dallas Cowboys official store, Firefly the complete series on Blu-Ray, Willy Wonka DVD, Cowboys plug and play speakers, Clue card game, some pens for writing, and a candy cane with Hersey Kisses in it. He got me the Harry Potter 8-disc DVD box set, a WoW hearthstone keychain I saw on Pinterest and wanted, and a wi-fi blu-ray player for the family room! Sweet!

At 1130am Jay got hungry and was yelling for his "ba ba ba ba ba!" in the kitchen so we got him fed and his Uncle Ethan came over around noon, after church, despite the rest of the family not showing up til 2. We watched A Christmas Story and I went to go get cleaned up and ready around 1pm.

Snuggling on mommy

My in-laws all were here by 2, as planned, and we got the food warming up (as my mother-in-law cooked it the night before). Just before 3 we decided we'd open up presents, however Jay took a light nap in my arms (it was naptime after all!). He got the whole Rock and Roll Elmo set, although his favorite still is the Cookie Monster keyboard (he loved playing with that one at his cousin's 1st birthday last fall). We also got Cowboys and Aliens on Blu-Ray, Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii, I got a $50 Visa giftcard, hubby got a $50 Starbucks giftcard (lol... he now has $80 in Starbucks giftcards!), and he got a really neat 3 volume collection of Civil War books. One of hubby's brothers got me a fleece throw, hubby a White Sox ornament, lanyard and beer coozy, and Jay a White Sox teddy bear (ewwww - I'm a Cubs fan, hubby and I agreed we weren't going to promote baseball in our house due to the Cubs/Sox rivalry, lol...).

Dinner was eventful - Jay vomited up his cereal and milk after eating a piece of turkey (he's puked several times after eating dinner this week - we thought it was a stomach bug, but it seemed he was over it by now... guess not!). Then, after dinner, Jay had a massive blow-out in his pants, going up his back and down his legs... it was really gross and he went onto outfit #3 for the day!

He went down for a longer nap though and hubby and I ended up passing out on the couch while my sister-

in-law started playing her Skyrim game downstairs (she got it for PS3 for Christmas but since their TVs aren't working she's planning on leaving it here and playing during their weekly Monday night visits - hubby has since started playing as well, lol...) and some of his brothers sat around chatting with my his parents. My in-laws left around 1030pm, I gave Jay another bath since he pooped and puked all over himself and got him to bed around midnight before cleaning up the house again and relaxing myself.

Completely out of it, leg dangling out of the crib, lol...

Passed out, snuggling with Super Why

Jay seemed a bit snuggly today and they didn't need me for my on-call, so we napped and snuggled and hung out today, taking it easy. I think Jay was glad to be back on his normal schedule - too much excitement for him the past few days we think! Hubby had the night off though so we relaxed, his parents stopped over for a bit since they were in town (they're usually over on Mondays anyway), bringing Chinese food with and we ended up watching Jay's new Winnie the Pooh DVD before it was time for him to go to bed.

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!

Jay's 1st time at Chuck E Cheese!

I probably should have posted this last weekend but I was just sooo busy with the holiday and work... this past weekend was quite busy!

"Chuck E Cheese! Chuck E Cheese!"

Anyways, last Wednesday we took Jay to Chuck E Cheese for the 1st time, at the request of my college roommate's fiance. They were in the area this past week for the holidays, visiting her family, and I had requested they meet up with us at some point (I really am thankful that my out of state friends still make time to visit with me when they're in the area!). Her fiance really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese and requested to take Jay so he wouldn't seem weird going there sans kiddo, lol...

It was fun, but boy has that place changed since we were kids!

I don't know how your Chuck E Cheese was where you grew-up, but the one here was in separate rooms - you walk in and there's the register with the prize stand by the door as well. Then there was the arcade-type game room with the skee-ball lanes. Then there was a smaller kid area and some tables. Then there was another room with the main dining room and the stage with the animatronic Chuck E Cheese characters... and then there was another room where the tubes, slides and ballpit was.

Yeah... all the walls, dividing up the rooms, are gone. The ballpit is gone (thank God! I've heard and read about too many horror stories with those!) and there's a tube that you climb up and you can go in a few different tubes that are up in the area and one is connected to a slide - it's very compacted in a corner of the now very open huge room! It was sooo weird!

Anyways, we took Jay and he seemed to have a blast! He LOVED the kiddie car rides - there was one where you can take a picture with Chuck E and another that was Bob the Builder themed which Jay LOVED! I have no clue how many tokens we spent on that, lol... and once hubby showed Jay there was a button to push on it that made noises, that was all he wanted to do on the ride!

Riding with Chuck E.!

Picture of the crappy quality photo the ride takes, lol...
It was cute enough to hang it on my fridge though!

"Can we drive it? YES WE CAN!"

Winning tickets with daddy.

Playing with the token cup while mommy shows off our ticket receipt

We all shared tokens - hubby and I got 168 tickets (I hit a lucky streak playing Skee-ball!) and got Jay a blow-up mini guitar, a bookmark and some Fun Dip for myself! Jay also liked the token cups so I snagged a few of those on our way out so he can play with them at home.

We went at 8pm on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so it wasn't very crowded at all - only 2 other families and none of the kids were close in Jay's age so we didn't have to worry about sharing the rides he was hooked on, lol...

I definitely recommend checking their site for coupons before you go though, as the prices are a bit steep! We got a large pizza with 4 drinks and 70 tokens for $29.99, plus my friend's fiance spent probably $10 or so to get another bunch of tokens. It was a fun 2 hours though!