Tagged.

As most of the folks who are following our blog are not bloggers, i'll give a quick explanation of being "tagged." Someone else on another blog "tags" you to post some sort of themed list. Thankfully this one is about Julian and not me, so I won't be revealing anything too personal.

Anyway, I've been tagged by Gwen and Mia http://everythingmia.blogspot.com/ and the topic is "10 things about me (Julian)."

It is torture for me to write for Julian in the first person, but since this is how the game goes, I'll play. ;)

1. I get really bad eczema on my face from the most basic of foods: rice, corn, dairy, soy- so my diet is a bit limited for the time being. Don't worry though, I get plenty to eat. Once I ate 3 eggs in one sitting (after already having vegetables and half an avocado) I wanted 4 but mom said no.

2. I think it's really funny to put food on my head during meals. My parents think it's funny too but they pretend they don't.

3. It is easiest for me to communicate with sign language. The signs I know are: apple, avocado, banana, milk, water, cracker, tomato, vacuum, phone, belt, jacket, socks, shoes, pajamas, hat, ball, doll, more, all done, please, thank you, sorry, help, dog, cat, horse, frog, bird, fish, boat, car, bicycle, train, bus, hot, cold, hurt, mommy, daddy, grandma, bath, wash hands, and toilet.

4. When someone tells me "no" I sometimes bonk myself in the head so that person will kiss me to make it feel "all better."

5. I love my kitty more than anything but it is still hard not to get too rough with her...today she bit me 'cause I kept poking her.

6. Dancing is in my soul. Sometimes I close my eyes so I can really feel the beat of the music.

7. My daddy sleeps with me on a futon on the floor. I've never slept in a crib.

8. In swim class I go underwater (see blog title photo and last post.)

9. Other than my signing video and the Superbowl, I haven't seen any TV since we left Guatemala.

10. When I laugh, my mommy's heart melts.

Bad Blogger! Oh, and 1 1/2 today.

OK I had no idea that it had been so long since my last post. Jon reminded me to update, and considering how much time he spends trying to get my sorry ass OFF of the computer I knew it must be too long. My new commitment will be to at the very least get a photo or two of the captain up every week by Sunday night, even if I am not able to muster up a witty diatribe about my life, family, or friends.

So since my last post...my mom and sister came for a visit, Z and Steph came by again, I have a boat load of staff turnover happening at my office (my heart starts beating irregularly just to think about this), and the weather has gone from sunny and 60 degrees to snowing within a week. I have pretty much accepted that my sense of humor will be on leave for the time being so please bear with me.

Here are some recent snaps for the addicts.

Think the kid likes his bottle?




Hugging G'ma BB


J loves cleaning. Just like his Mama.


2 of Julian's favorite things...milk and the vacuum.


Yes, he is swimming under water.


His third favorite...the phone.
Note the multi-tasking. Again, just like his Mama.


Feeding a 'nanana' to his dolly. Nice mess.


J and Z.


And ta-da, strike a pose.


Off to curl up with babycakes for the end of his nap. Mmmmm.....

I love my husband sooooo much.

I have the most fabulous husband in the world. He is sweet, funny, kind, attentive, loving, and supportive under just about every circumstance- and I am no walk in the park to be married to...trust me on that one.

That said, I have 4 fun shares for you today about my dear, sweet husband.

1. The Sponge.

Julian usually eats in his high chair in the kitchen while we cook. It turns out that cleaning thrown, spit, and mutilated food off of the kitchen floor is easier than cleaning it off of the dining room floor (which is cork, and was a perfect material choice for us prior to the addition of the Captain to the family.)

So- the other day I turn around and Jon was wiping Julian's high chair tray with the sponge that we use to clean the counters. He then proceeded to swiftly and briefly wipe the baby's face with it. I very gently said "Jon, it's best not to use the sponge to wipe the baby's face." OK, that's a lie. I actually yelled "Jonathan WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DO NOT WIPE THE BABY'S FACE WITH THAT SPONGE! IT'S FULL OF BACTERIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I scared the crap out of the baby and Jon just got dead silent. I really didn't mean to yell but c'mon...hasn't everyone read about how nasty kitchen sponges are? They are supposed to often be more bacteria laden than the toilet. I shudder just to think of it. I apologized regardless.

Reenactment with Jon stepping in for Julian as Julian is currently asleep:



2. Driving to the Restaurant.

Last weekend Sharon and Jeff, Jon, Julian and I are going to brunch to meet a group of our friends. Jon is driving with Jeff up front, and the rest of us are in back. Jon gets off of the highway and turns left. "Aren't you going the wrong way?" This time I actually did say it nicely. "Yes," Jon replies snarkily, "I'm going the wrong way." I couldn't see him roll his eyes, but I'm pretty sure he did. I shrug happily and continue playing with the baby. Why happily, you may ask? Because I knew full well Jon was going the wrong way and I knew also I'd get all kinds of mileage out of it. Sure enough a few minutes later Jon asks "Where the hell am I?" Sweet.

3. The Pantry Project.

I've mentioned on the blog before that we have a house rule about projects. Jon can do whatever he wants and if/when he stalls (time frame varies on the project) I can hire someone to wrap it up.

We decided to make a cabinet into a pantry a few weeks ago. Our contractor is very busy and since he didn't have time to do it right now he dropped by a box with a plexiglass template for drilling peg holes and a special drill bit that centers the hole. I told Jon I really didn't want him to do it because I knew something would go wrong and it would turn into some kind of fiasco. Well, go figure, the drill bit broke. Spent the afternoon driving around town looking for a new drill bit. Found it. Cabinet done. And the shelves are only slightly catawampus.





4. The Vacuum Attachment.

I am cleaning the kitchen and Jon says to me "Can I tell you something that will get you mad but that is really funny?" My first answer is "No, I don't think so." He prods "C'mon..."
I know better..."OK" I say.

He proceeds excitedly "Well, today Julian was pointing at the vacuum attachment and I gave it to him, then we were on the computer and I looked down and he was sucking on it, like this!" Jon shows me how the baby was sucking on the vacuum attachment and laughs. I am clearly not amused...and here we go with take 7,492 of my baby safety and health lecture.

Another reenactment:



Ok, enough with the stories...here are a few photos for all y'all.

Julian signing "kitty." He sometimes wakes up and does this first thing (otherwise he will say "book!")



And here are some photos of Jon getting our baby ready for his first bike ride.



I love this photo of Julian post bath time.



Showing off his broccoli.



Not ready for potty training yet (I hate the word "potty" just for the record) but last weekend I got Julian his own toilet so when I have to bring him to the bathroom with me, he can sit on his own seat instead of trying to stuff an entire roll of TP between my legs (yes, that's my little helper!)



I think he likes it!



And in honor of my dad...Julian putting his spork in his nose. Now that is serious business.



-S

On the road to recovery.

As you can see Julian is back to his normal spirits.







He is still wheezing a bit so we're continuing to do albuterol treatments every 4 hours. My fingers are crossed that this is an isolated incident and not a new state of affairs around here.

My sister and brother-in-law are visiting for the weekend and Julian was hugging and cuddling with my sister within minutes. It is amazing...we've had this with our cats for our entire lives, that my cat took to Sharon and her cats have taken to me. I was still shocked to see it with Julian. Is it our looks? Our voices? Or just our general energy and vibe?



Zinnia and Steph stopped by to say hi on their way home.





It looks like they'll be back with greater frequency in the near future because they rented a place here so they can get some more city time in addition to their country time. Ooh, remember Country Time? We used to eat the powder straight out of the can at summer camp. I wonder if they still make that?

Anyway, life is on its way back to normal, whatever that means.

Here are a few more photos from today.

Julian eating his salmon dipped in berry flavored fish oil. Mmmmm.



And on that note, I forgot to mention when we were in the hospital, the floor secretary noted J's food allergies (rice, corn, soy and dairy to start) and brought us to the food closet to show us what options there were. I told her I stopped home to get food for him so not to worry about it, and she asked what he eats as a rule. After explaining to her open mouthed awe that he eats cereal and greens or eggs for breakfast, sauteed veggies and chicken or fish most other meals, and fruit for snacks, she proceeded to tell anyone we passed, "you wouldn't believe what this lady feeds her baby...tell 'em!, tell 'em!" I felt like a circus freak. Why is it so weird to feed your child actual food?

Here's a pic of Julian watching his signing video, which he loves.



Please note the close-up below of his slack jaw and glazed look.



This is why so far, no TV- only this signing video. I'm sure one day we'll cave with some classics like Plaza Sesamo and The Jungle Book. For now though, it's only the signing video (Lori talked me into it) and as he is indeed learning the signs, I'm ok with it, mostly.

As for this last shot, I hope that we can count on Kyle and G to teach Julian to skateboard and surf, because we have no idea, and from the look on his face after he turned over the tray to his high chair and started to ride, I suspect it will be in his future.



Thanks again for all the calls and notes about Julian. I appreciate your thoughts and love.

350 lb weight limit

Ok, no photos, but an update.

Julian has been a very very sick little man. He got some nasty virus which then triggered some severe asthma. He had not, by the way, ever had asthma before. We wound up in the hospital overnight last night. It broke my heart and I am still walking around in a panic that the kid is going to stop breathing.

Here are the highlights of the horrific night.

1. Waiting at the emergency room. I must have said to Jon 50 times "DON'T let Julian touch anything" worrying that he would get MRSA or some horrendous infection in the old and moderately dirty waiting room. That said, Julian was coughing and spewing all over the place. The waiting room was full of old people slumping in their chairs and people lying on benches covered with their coats, clearly having been there for an extended period of time- and hopefully not catching whatever nasty thing Julian was dishing out.

2. After we went back and told our story to the nurses assistant, the nurse, the resident, and the doctor (one at a time, I may add...), Julian had several nebulizer treatments. He was beyond exhausted after 2 days of waking himself up coughing every 15 min or so. Thankfully our little man finally fell asleep in Jon's arms. Not 10 minutes later the nurse and her assistant came into the exam room where we were waiting to find out if we would need to be admitted to the hospital for the night.
"Do you have to wake him?" I asked.
"Well, we have to take his vitals which shouldn't be a problem, but the rectal thermometer might wake him up." (might?)
"Is there any way we can do an axillary temp since he only has a slight fever?"
"Oh, sure, would you prefer that?"
NO, I WANT YOU TO WAKE UP MY SICK SLEEPING BABY BY STICKING SOMETHING IN HIS ASS.
"Yeah, if you could do it that way it would be great..." For once I was able to have a diplomatic moment. (See mom, I knew I could do it!)

3. The resident was amazing. Sweet, lovely, kind. The attending physician in the ER was seriously, I kid you not, a carbon copy of the really obnoxious, snarky, rude doctor on Scrubs (Dr Cox.) It was unreal.

4. I go home to pick up clothes and food for us and Jon and the baby go to the room at the children's hospital. We wait for the respiratory therapist, who is supposed to be on her way, until 11:00. This would have been very late for the baby but for the fact that he was on steroids, which is the equivalent of baby crack. He was the fricking Eveready bunny climbing in and out of the drawers, running up and down the halls. It was remarkable. We finally got him down at 11:30 and the RT came at midnight. She wanted us to move the baby to the crib from the day bed to do an exam. I talked her into doing it in the bed and she said he didn't need to do a treatment at that time after all. Great, except that 20 min later the nurse came in and stuck a swab up Julian's nose so far that I thought she was trying to sample his brain. The poor baby was awakened with a swab in his nose and a penlight in his eyes. Nice. We rock.

5. Julian was attached to a monitor that would beep when his oxygen was getting a little low. Not that they felt the need to do anything about it (until the RT came back to give him an albuterol treatment at 4:30 "He sounds rough.") But we got to listen to the lovely beeping all night regardless.

6. OK. Now for sleeping arrangements. Jon was in the small day bed with Julian. I had two options: 1. Sleep in the fold out chair. 2. Sleep in the crib. I obviously chose the chair. It was soooo uncomfortable. So after carefully checking and finding that the crib had a 350 lb weight limit, I did it. I moved to the crib. I slept in the crib. Can't tell you how shocked the nurses were to find me there. In the morning I asked and yes, there have been moms that have slept in the crib with their babies, but to their knowledge, no mom has chosen to sleep in the crib alone. I am happy to say Jon did not have a camera.

7. In the morning we called the nurse to ask them to take the oxygen monitor off of his toe so he could walk around. She came in with a mask and a full body suit and gloves to tell me that we were in isolation and couldn't leave the room. That was new news to me. The baby was sobbing because he wanted to walk around. I was ready to pack up right then and there. Luckily the doctor(s...all 8 of them, as it is a teaching hospital) came in and said it wasn't necessary to be in isolation. Go figure.

Overall, I am very grateful that the doctor at the clinic sent us to the hospital. I am very grateful that we spent the night and had such competent eyes watching over the baby. I am very grateful that we were both able to stay with him overnight. And most of all, I am very grateful that my baby is no longer suffering. It was beyond awful.

Thanks everyone who sent good thoughts, prayers, love, and energy our way. I'll post again tomorrow after our follow up appointment.

First fever.

No photos because I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo of my poor moaning, feverish, coughing, wheezing, whining, sick as a dog baby. I could barely hold him because I kept crying I felt so badly for him. I'm sure this was not helpful big picture.

We gave him some children's Tylenol to get the fever down a little (was 102+) and it didn't work very well so we gave him children's Motrin, which promptly gave him hives, which we then treated with Benadryl, poor little monkey.

So Jon brought J to the doctor today (or actually, the nurse practitioner standing in for the doctor), I happened to call his cellie right as she was giving the advice so I got to sit in. Didn't realize I was on speaker phone or I wouldn't have actually laughed out loud when she said that his ears were red and he was wheezing a bit (um...really?) and he would get better faster with antibiotics but "some parents object" to this approach.

Well...here's hoping she gets a fricking subscription to the American Academy of Pediatrics e-journal or something because antibiotics are not actually recommended for garden variety ear infections anymore. Here is a link to the NYT article that discusses it for anyone interested. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E5D7113DF934A15752C1A960958260


I had to request a nebulizer treatment for him, "do you think it might be helpful?" I asked as if I had no idea. She went ahead and ordered that and I suggested we could take the prescription for the antibiotic and fill it if we felt it was necessary in a few days. We'll pick up an inhaler for him tomorrow and I'll use it if we need to.

Good reminder that we're lucky that our regular pediatrician (who wasn't in today) is not only open to alternative medicine, but actually smart and well read. As a matter of fact, the last time Julian had an ear infection and I offered up that we'd prefer not to do antibiotics she looked horrified and said that she would never give a baby antibiotics for an ear infection as it is just as likely to go away on its own. Would it be too presumptuous to send the NP a copy of the recent research article? I think I'm going to do it...

OK, one photo from before the dreaded sickness...for the junkies.

Back in the saddle.

Whew, found the cord. It was at the bottom of my 'to be filed' drawer. Could have been ages before it turned up were it not for my frenzied filing fit this afternoon. No idea how it got there, but I suppose I have better things to wonder about.

This post will be a quick update and some photos. I'm sure y'all will live without too many details about the last few weeks...

So, Superbowl Sunday Jon took Julian to Kyle, Pam, and Shay's house. Julian had his first experience with the TV since coming home from Guatemala. I arrived with 5 min left in the game (was at work all day) to see Julian standing 4 feet from the TV, fist in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs. Oh how I wish I had a photo of that!

But I do have a photo of the other evening highlight...Julian's first spare rib. I was feeding him little bites but they were a bit spicy (courtesy of Matt) so I was being a bit tentative. Well, the captain would have none of that! He ripped the fricking thing out of my hand and gnawed every last bit off of that bone. Then he had 2 more. That's my boy, all about the meat!





Things have been absolutely lovely with Stephanie and Zinnia visiting for the last week. Julian loves having the baby around, and although I don't think Elwynn particularly cares for her, she is clearly relieved to have a break from Julian's attention for a while.

Julian of course wants to be in my lap if I am holding the baby.



And he fancies himself a helper...pulling the binkie in and out of her mouth.





He looks like such a big boy with daddy's backpack.



I keep telling him that it is very hard to make a top go with his mouth.



We got a new cabinet and Julian likes to climb into it. I set an unfortunate precedent by getting in there with him earlier this week. Jon was able to squeeze in, but just barely. The kid's gonna be pissed when I put my stuff in there this weekend and we put the cabinet locks on.



And yet another example of Julian not being influenced by gender role expectations (like his dad). Pink vacuum? No problem! A loaner from Shay, and by far his favorite toy right now.



I just love this shot. My boy is flipping gorgeous if I do say so myself...



-S