Saturday, January 26, 2013

51 Weeks

I can’t believe he will be a year old next week!  Thank you for all of your comments on our last blog about fits.  It’s nice to know we arn’t alone.  I have more to post later, but for now, his second to last weekly photo!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Throwing a Fit

Jude is feeling better now, over the flu and onto the next awful thing, throwing fits.  It has been coming for a while I think but now that he is feeling better, all bets are off.  My once happy, smiling baby has turned into a tyrant.  If he doesn’t get what he wants, say the remote controls, a sip of whatever mama is drinking, etc or even for no reason at all he throws himself into hysterics.  We’re talking full force screaming, thrashing, snotting, crazy freak out.  If you try to hold him he straightens his body out and thrashes and if you put him on the ground he flips onto his stomach and lays on the floor screaming and kicking.  It  is awful.  So awful that I’m half convinced that maybe he has an ear infection, but it just seems like he is so angry, not hurting.

After looking around on the Internet it looks like this is possibly normal behavior for a 12-18 month old?  Something to do with feeling strong emotions for the first time and getting overwhelmed.  At this point it seems best to just try to sit by him and be there for him when he is in the middle of these tantrums, but I am SO open to advise.  Anyone else go through this with their little ones?
-Liz

Sunday, January 20, 2013

50 Weeks and Still Sick

He is getting better, but clearly a photo shoot wasn’t his idea of a good time at this point.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Jude and the Terrible, Rotten, Very Bad, No Good Week

Our poor little baby has the flu!  We went almost a whole year with no illness bigger than an ear infection, when Tuesday night he woke up around 12am with a fever.  Within in minutes he was puking everywhere (mostly on S actually, he threw up on her 5 times that night) and sweating from fever and just so sick and sad.  Of course we called our Dr’s after hours line and got some info on what to do right then and got him feeling a little bit better and managed to get a few hours of sleep between the three of us.

On Wednesday morning I already had scheduled to get an epidural steroid shot for the disk in my back.  So S was stuck at home by herself (after very little sleep) with a sick baby while I was getting the procedure done.  And of course it ended up taking more than an hour longer than it was supposed to because of an equipment issue.  Oh and I was semi sedated for the procedure and supposed to take it easy the rest of the day so I was pretty much out of it and in bed all afternoon while S took Jude to the doctor and took care of him.  Doctor confirmed he has Type A flu, even though he totally got a flu shot.  S got one too, but I didn’t yet this year.  Not that it looks like it matters.  Either way, we are all three taking Tamiflu and crossing our fingers that we don’t get the flu also.

And to top off our crappy Wednesday, literally, S was giving Jude a bath  before bed when he pooped in the tub!  He hasn’t ever done that before, not sure if it was being sick or just the wrong timing, but either way he seemed kind of triumphant about it.  And again, poor S got the joy of cleaning up that mess also.  She really is our hero this week.

So if you have a second, any healthy vibes you want to send our way are appreciated!
Liz

Sunday, January 13, 2013

My heart hurts at almost a year old

My little baby is almost 1 years old.  I am having a bit of a hard time with it. Liz seems to accept it most days, but then the other day stated that she will not cut back on formula anymore because it means he is big and she likes the fc (forced cuddle) time she gets from him having a bottle.

I am having a really hard time processing that my little tiny baby is about to be “not a baby” anymore.  He already has done so many big kid things.  He cruises on everything.  He chased me around the room with is walker, laughing and playing so hard that when he quit he was sweating and panting.  He now signs “hungry” when he is.  He dances all the time to a beat or a song.  He points at what he wants and throws a fit when he doesn’t get it.  He gives kisses and hugs.  He will lay down next to you if you are lounging on the floor.  He laughs and laughs and laughs.  His smiles and laughs are the most amazing thing. He has multiple times sat down and tried to put a sock on his foot.  He likes to try and comb his hair with his comb.  So many things that seem to say, “your tiny man is no longer your tiny man”.  He also wears 18-24 month clothes and seems to grow taller right before my eyes.

To me, he will always be my baby.  I am starting to understand why my parents annoyingly call me “baby girl” on a regular basis.  I know looking at Jude right now that when he is 30 years old, I will still remember the tiny helpless little baby he was.

We are sending out invites for Jude’s b-day this week.  It should be a pretty big event already.  Both Liz and my mom are coming, Liz’s brother and his wife, my bestie and her fiance, all our local friends, and then maybe more.  We are doing a truck themed party and as “decorations”  we just bough Jude a few cars and trucks.  That way he can play with them later. Liz is going to make a cake using some of the small construction trucks and one of our closest friends is going to make cupcakes with little signs in them.  We looked at a couple of places and this seemed to be the right theme for him in this moment.


Seeing Jude become such a big boy has given Liz and me baby fever.  We want another one.  It will be a while until we have enough money saved since I am just now settling into my new job, but once we do, I am sure we will go for it again.  I am thinking, and hoping, it will be at the beginning of 2014 that we start TTC again.  We have some medical bills to pay off from having Jude still and a loan from a family member and then we will squirrel away as much money as is possible and hopefully get going on baby making then.  There is the possibility of me making really good money at this new job, but it is going to be a while until I am up and running to that point.  There is talk of changing things up, so maybe it will be sooner than later.  We will see.

So much exciting stuff over the next couple years.  This year has flown by and I am sure Jude will be 2 in the blink of an eye and we will be working on #2.  Even with all of it, I try really hard to stay in the moment with Jude and really appreciate him right this very moment, because that moment is gone as soon as it was there.
-S

Friday, January 11, 2013

49 Weeks

I was going to write an award winning blog today, but now I’m le tired.  So maybe tomorrow.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

48 Weeks Photo

It’s getting hard to get Jude to lay down for these.  He just wants to party!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Resolution Revolution

I love New Years.  I love the idea of starting over, beginning fresh, and giving yourself another chance to make things right in your life.  Every year I think of how can I make things different, better.  And I make the same sorts of resolutions year after year and almost always, I fail.  But I think I get closer and closer every year and that makes it worth it.  I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and that counts for something, don’t you think?

So this year, these are my resolutions:
1. Stop avoiding.  I avoid things I don’t like, put them off, procrastinate, whatever you want to call it.  And I’ve got to stop doing that, especially when it comes to my health.  So to be more specific, this year it is my goal to get to the following appointments- physical, gyno, and dentist.  And I know for most people this doesn’t sound like any big deal, most of you probably do all 3 of these basic check ups every year, but for me, I dread it.  So much in fact that it has been MORE THAN 10 years since I have been to the gyno or the dentist, and probably 3-4 years since my last physical.  This must change.

2. In accordance with number 1, I need to get healthy.  Getting those appointments done will help, but that's not all that needs to get done.  S and I are going to rejoin Weight Watchers on Monday.  S already joined her gym at work and hopefully I will be feeling good enough to at least start going on walks again soon.

3. Less Stuff.  We have WAY too much stuff.  I have already cleared out our mountain of cheap Tupperware and just that little bit of letting go and organizing felt really good.  So my goal this year to clear out at least one area of the house a month until things are simple and clean again.  Or at least as clean as they can be with an almost 1 year old in the house.

4. More art, less TV.  This is a hard one because of my problems with my leg it is hard for me to sit in my art studio for very long and work on art/crafts, but it is possible.  I have 10,000 ideas for paintings, crafts, and such and I need to get on it.  The more art I do, the better I feel.

5. Focus on my marriage.  Sometimes, with a baby in the house and the normal demands of life, my marriage gets put on the back burner.  And while I think it’s natural that Jude is our focus now, we still need to make sure to reconnect.  So I hope to reinvest, connect, and love more.  Try to do nice things just to be nice, more kisses, more compliments, more surprises.  More love.

Anyone else make any resolutions this year?
-Liz