It's Here

Jax's first freckle made its appearance shortly after we returned from our Florida trip despite my efforts while we were there to douse him in sunscreen. I discovered it within the first few days we were back. When I first saw it, I didn't think much of it as I suspected it was a little scab from a scratch or dirt as it was on his thumb. He wasn't being very still for me to get a good look at it either. But then the next day, it was still there, so I tried to see if I could rub it off and of course, I could not. Here it is, in all its cuteness! Check out that meaty paw, too.

A Friend!

I think I may have finally made a mommy friend, maybe even two! Woohoo! Every week Jax and I go to the local Gymboree Play for a class and last week 3 of us exchanged numbers. Jax is almost one and it has taken me this long, you say? I know. And now I just have to play it cool.

I have had a rough go at this. My first friend was great. We were in prenatal classes and were even in the hospital together - she had her baby girl the day before Jax was born. AND, she lived 2 blocks away! We were able to meet up for one walk, but a month after the little ones were born, they moved back to California.

My second friend was a girl from prenatal class as well who I ran into at the local hospital's breastfeeding club. We emailed and made tentative plans to get together. One week later I received word that their sweet baby had passed from SIDS. I am getting upset as I write this reliving that time. There are just no words. I went to the services with another girl from our prenatal class and the three of us shared a hug and a hard cry. We emailed and made tentative plans to get together, but it never happened, and I didn't want to push. It may have been just too hard. What do you do in a situation like that? I didn't know her well enough to know what she would need from me. Our friendship was forming over the fact that we had babies similar in age and that wasn't the case anymore, so would she even still want to be friends? I hope to see her next month at the SIDS charity event next month she is organizing.

My third friend was another girl from prenatal classes. We emailed and met for coffee one afternoon and also ran into each other at the breastfeeding club. We attended the services for the baby of our friend together. We were both devastated and were in similar positions with our other friend and became somewhat of a support system for each other. We made tentative plans to have a Sunday brunch with our husbands and babies, but it just never happened. One of us had family in one weekend and then the other one would. I sent her an email a couple of months later and never heard back from her. I guess it's possible she didn't get my email because my computer ate it, but all my other ones got through. So, I didn't know what to do, so I did nothing. I may see her at this event next month and that would be nice.

So, as you can see, I need a mommy friend, or two, or ten! I promise I don't bite. much.

First Freckle - Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are

I usually call my mom soon after we update our photo website and then we look at the pictures together. We updated late Saturday night so when I called her first thing Sunday morning she had already beat me to the new pics. We went through them all again and when we got to this one, she asked if he had his first freckle on his forehead or maybe in the corner of his eye. No, he only got in an alley cat fight with himself. I am really diligent about keeping his nails short but this is what happens if they are not kept nubby.



My sister and I are covered in freckles. Lots and lots. My husband calls me Cheetara. It's not a question of if for Jax, it's a matter of when. My mom seems to think we got our first one around 10 months. So last night I looked on the internet for common age for a first freckle appearance. I found lots of blogs where mothers were recounting their child's first. The ages spanned anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Hmm. I can't help but wonder when I will be posting about my baby's first. This post doesn't count, right?

Cali Out, The World In

T and I have decided we are not going to live in Palo Alto for a month. We never ended up finding a great place to rent and the weather hopefully has taken its final turn into better days around here (aka:no more snow). We did discuss these other possibilities for travel:

*This one is confirmed - 2 weeks in FL in May. T has a conference and we are going to meet his family out there to head off their otherwise imminent trip out here. They will be coming from North Carolina. Oh, how I am looking forward to those 6 days!

*There is a conference in June in Paris. T has not signed on for this one yet as we are not sure we are ready for this trip. We would be looking at a total of 10 hours on a plane with a 1 year old. Hmm. The timing is perfect however as my best friend will be there at the exact same time! She lives in San Francisco and we don't see each other as often as we would like. If we go, we would probably spend a week in Paris and a week somewhere else? If we are going to put the effort into getting there we are going to make it worth our time, dammit!

*1 to 2 months this winter in Australia and New Zealand. Again a conference is the draw and the weather here and long flights make anything shorter not worth it. T loves New Zealand after spending several months there back in his galavanting days. It was one of stops on our wedding/honeymoon trip and I have to agree with him, I want to be a Kiwi for awhile, too! I just did a search for tickets yesterday and they were like, $2000. Each. Those need to go down.

Other than those major trips, there is a little bit of talk around a trip to NYC, maybe a week in Barbados. T's dad's family is from/live there and I love this place! All these trips sound fun and exciting but I am always held back from the excitement somewhat by the inevitable doom of traveling with a toddler. Not only for the duration of the plane rides, but taking him out of his environment and his perfect routine. Why would I want to mess with a baby who happily goes to sleep on his own at 7 in his own crib? Because I like to make myself anxious, I suppose, and I'm just plain crazy!

Roseola Infantum

Last Wednesday night I thought Jax felt warm as I was reading to him before he went to bed. Then on Thursday and Friday he ran a fever ranging from 101 to 103. He didn't have any other sick symptoms - no cough, runny nose, etc. I had a sore throat myself and just assumed we were both getting colds. Well, his fever broke sometime Friday night, but then on Saturday he started getting a rash, mainly on his torso, neck, and the lower part of his face. My first thought was I've eaten something or he has that has really set off his eczema (I hope to post about this soon - Jax has suspected allergies to milk and eggs.)

On Friday during the period of high fever, I was looking on the internet trying to find out when I should call/go see the Dr. if at all. It seems like we are always sick over the weekend and I wanted to go in Friday as opposed to making a trip to urgent care that weekend. Well, I found somewhere that I should call if his temp was around 104. I decided not to call and just see how it went. T and I agreed that the Dr. was probably not going to give him anything since he didn't seem to have other symptoms so why go in just for him to tell us, give him rest and lots of fluids.

On Sunday, the rash seemed more pronounced and the same on Monday. I remembered seeing something while I was looking on Friday about high fever and rash. Sure enough, there is a a viral infection called Roseola Infantum, also known as Sixth Disease, which is characterized by a high fever and a rash that develops after the fever has subsided. Turns out this is a common illness for children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. It's usually not serious in most cases but the fast rising fever can trigger seizures. So apparently, we lucked out on that because I would have lost my shit if Jax would have started seizing. Below is a picture of what his belly looked like yesterday. The rash is starting to go away and he looks much better this morning.

Turtle Love

Yes, that is a dinosaur HUMPING a turtle. Yes, my husband is demented. The other morning I asked him if we had any pictures to upload on the camera as I was going to update our photo website. He was all, "Yeah, I took some this morning. Check 'em out." So later I was doing just that and this beauty and several others like it were discovered. Very funny, T.

We are undecided about whether or not to spend a month in California. The weather is getting nicer here which makes the decision even tougher. The place we had hoped to get sometime in March was not going to be available until April and so we started to rethink it. As far as other travel, it looks like we will be in FL for about a week or so right around Jax's first birthday. T has a conference in Orlando and some friends in Tampa we would like to see. They have a 6 month old daughter and we have not gotten together since the little ones were born. Also, my MIL has been wanting to visit for Jax's first birthday and we are thinking we will just have them meet us in Tampa instead.

I can't believe I used to live in Orlando. That seems like someone else's life! I moved there when I was 19 with my boyfriend at the time. He was going to be attending Full Sail recording school and I was going to support him! HA! Basically, that's what ended up happening. Needless to say, it was over after about a year and a half and I moved back to TX. That's a whole other post for another day!

April Fools Day?

Yesterday afternoon Uncle K came over and hung out with Jax while I went to the gym. T had come home for lunch and ended up staying home that afternoon. When I got back from the gym I was laughing with K about how I should have come home and told T I was pregnant and how great that would have been to have gotten him like that. Later that evening in bed before falling asleep I had a major emotional meltdown and after it was over I asked T if he thought I might be pregnant because where the hell did that come from? This morning he asks me to take a pregnancy test. I will, and I'm 90% sure I'm not, but if I am, ohh brother, or sister...

New Blog

I've started a new blog - Orbgirl Stuff! I am constantly on the internet, in fact, I spend most of my free time on the internet. My new blog, www.orbgirlstuff.com is going to focus on things that - I love, make my life easier, or must have. I'll still writing about our life and whatnot over here.

J is for Jax

I have decided to stop using the letter J to refer to my son and I am going to call him by his nickname. Also, I am trying to figure out what I can call my husband on here as I don't really like referring to him as T. The only reason I started doing this in the first place is for a little privacy. A little thing called google has made it possible for anyone to find anyone. And we want a little privacy. From people we know. Not from total strangers, you see, because that makes perfect sense!

Anyway, back to my husband and his name - his name is so unique that when googled, he makes a first page appearance and he hates it. Just recently, his old college girlfriend found our family photo website and sent him an email via the website. It was a benign message wishing congratulations on getting married and breeding and saying she was quite happy herself with family life. No big deal really, but the only way she could have found our website was by googling him. Now, I don't really care if an ex-girlfriend wants to catch up or stumbles (don't know if you could call googling an ex stumbling) onto our personal photo website, but I really don't want them reading my blog. And so for now, T will known as T.

Nap Bandit

Yesterday afternoon after I put J down for his nap, I was tired myself and decided to lie down on the couch and see if I could get a nap in too. Twenty minutes later, just as I was reaching that warm fuzzy place, the all too familiar cries jolted me back to the cold, crippling, almost asleep, awake state. Proving how I have NEVER been able to do that 'sleep while the baby sleeps' business.

This is what leveled me in the early days of motherhood. Each time I would lie down and attempt to sleep, whether it be for a nap or nighttime, I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. This anxiety would start to build because I knew as soon as I fell asleep I was going to get woken up and it was going to suck so bad. Suck worse then not sleeping, or so it seemed, and thus, a vicious cycle ensued. Me needing to sleep -me unable to sleep because anxious about being woke up from sleep - me FINALLY falling asleep, but woken up only a short time later due to the amount of time I was awake and anxious about that very thing! - me really needing sleep more than ever and so on and so on...

The nights are great now so it really did pass even though it seemed like it never would. J sleeps about 11 hours at night with no waking that requires intervention from us and it is the reason I AM ALIVE TO WRITE ABOUT IT. Seriously, I need my sleep. My brain does not function right without it and I have no doubt that I was probably suffering from some type of postpartum anxiety disorder.

The Plague, Part 2

I am getting over a stomach virus that woke me up at 3 AM on Thursday night. Ohh puking, how much fun you are! The worst of it lasted about 24 hours and then there has only been residual body aches and weakness. But that 24 hours, f-ing hell. T came home early from work on Thursday after feeling nauseous almost all day and with a massive headache. J had diarrhea twice that day so I was putting two and two together and getting a little nervous. But then T came home and started to feel better that evening so I didn't think about it again. Until 3 AM!

The first time we all had this nastiness was about a month ago. J had diarrhea again and then the next evening after a huge Chipotle burrito I wound up in the ER. I swore I had a intestinal obstruction my stomach hurt so bad! I received fluids and morphine (yummy!) and was sent on my way. But shortly before we left, T started feeling 'something'. Wouldn't you know it, he woke up a couple of hours later racing to the bathroom, which he did not make it to in time. ( For whatever reason, he thought it best to head for the bathroom downstairs. ??) He got, ohh I don't know, within 3 feet of the bathroom door and then SPLAT! So gross. We had to toss J's infant car seat as it was covered and his new crawling tube which was awesome. The worst of it was the first 24 hours, but again it was on a weekend and that SUCKED. J never exhibited signs of feeling bad, but his diarrhea continued for almost a week and then finally cleared up.

Both times we were lucky that Uncle K was able to watch J for us during the first day of being sick both times. J loves his Uncle K so it was no hardship for him. Thanks, Uncle K!!

Bruisehead

My little guy has hit his poor head in the same spot 3 TIMES in the last week, most recently this morning before this picture. He seems to be having a little trouble, 'getting down' from a standing position. Dang, bruiser!

***I changed the original photo I had posted because I am experiencing differences in color vibrance and brightness when I upload images. The pictures on the right, especially the one of the boys, looks washed out. They are way brighter when viewing in Lightroom or even Mac Preview, but for some reason not so much on here. I am having to overtweak the color etc. more than I think it should be so it will look ok on here. Anyway, I think I was able to do that with this picture but not the other one.

Trying to Be a Gym Rat

I have been mentally trying to get back into going to the gym, but it has been tough. First, we all had a stomach virus that knocked us out for about a week and then J had an upper respiratory infection and I had a sinus infection. But, yesterday we made it! And, it really felt great. But, just as I was finishing my cardio and about to start weights I was summoned by the daycare pager (in case they need you to attend to your kid). That thing scares the crap out of me! It's their new thing so they don't have to come track you down and it feels like - HEY YOU, COME GET YOUR BABY. He is cutting his top left tooth and I think that was bothering him as he was pretty upset and splotchy faced when I got him.

The last time we had made it to the gym, the pager went off. We had gone later than usual that day, during the early afternoon. J was the only child in there besides the daycare ladies' own children. When I went to get him he was sitting in the middle of the room on the floor and the ladies were about 10 feet from him. I can't really blame them as there was an explosion in his diaper that didn't stay in his diaper. That was fun. AND the last time we were there as that was the beginning of our stomach virus.

I love working out and going to the gym. Ideally, I like to do an hour of cardio and 30 minutes of weights and then 5 to 10 minutes stretching. I just don't have that luxury anymore. The daycare is only free for 1.5 hours/day but that's irrelevant as J never seems to last that long. It is really hard for me to get motivated to go knowing my workout is not going to be what I want it to be. My body physically won't respond to only 30 minutes of cardio, it just won't. I will never see the results I want that way.

So we are headed there now, let's see how today goes. I got this awesome Biomega Hoodie from Puma this weekend as a little motivation. I am going to try to link to it so I can practice all that linking bizness.

Cali, Here We Come...

T and I have been contemplating spending a month in Palo Alto. This week we almost signed a lease for a condo we would rent for a month. The guy was expecting the lease signed on Friday morning and on Thursday evening we discussed it at great length and made a final decision Friday morning not to do it. Yuck, I feel bad because T worked him really hard to do a 1-month rental for us when he really wanted at least 3 months or longer AND we had basically verbally committed to him. Ohh well.

T really liked the place because it is within walking distance of anything we would need. I just wasn't feeling it though. We did, however, find a place yesterday that looks very promising and is only 4 blocks from the other one, so still viable for walking to where ever. And, it's a house with a yard close to a park, AND cheaper. We are just waiting to find out exactly when it will be available...probably closer to the end of March and I am pretty sure we are going to try to get it. 

Why Cali? Well first, T has some business to attend to out there. Second, we are thinking it would be nice to escape the last bit of winter here. Third, my best friend lives in SF, only 30 minutes away! Yippee! Fourth, we are trying to still be adventurous. One thing we talked about before we had J was how we hoped we would still be able to travel. And finally, we are in search of a place to live that we both love. 

T loves Boulder, and is not a fan of Denver, and I am the other way around.  I spent 7 years in Denver and loved it, but I can't convince T to move there. We won't be moving anywhere anytime soon because we own too much real estate in this area and the market is crap right now. But, I think we will eventually move away from here. I like cities and T likes smaller college towns so it's not going to be easy!

Bacon Baby!

This morning after J nursed and I was carrying him downstairs, I could have sworn that I smelled bacon coming from him! I put it out of my mind until later I picked him up and smelled bacon again. I even told T, "he smells like bacon." It was making me WANT bacon to the point where I almost cooked some. T laughed at me and I could tell he wasn't really buying it. Wouldn't you know it, later I hear, "weird, he does smell like bacon." That's it, baby! Come here, I'm gonna fry you up and eat you!

For the Love of the Internet Wizard

Yes, I did go play with HTML last night. Although I had an idea about what was going on there, I had to be bailed out by the Internet Wizard. He can do anything! He was able to get my page looking like I wanted in like, 15 minutes! And thus, this post, which he so deserves. A few things I love about T.

• He adores me.
• He adores our son.
• He is a great father.
• He works hard so I don't have to.
• He likes cookies as much as I do.
• Sometimes, he tries to cook. (just this week, mac and cheese)
• He used to have a Twin-Turbo 911 Porsche. sigh
• He brings dinner home most days.
• He has a good laugh.
• He would do just about anything, if I asked.

LU, T.

I forgot a big one.  He is very patient. =)

And...We're Off!

Ahh...my first post.  Hmm, whatever do I want to write about?  Basically, I just want to write something so it will show up here so I can pick and choose my fonts, colors, etc.  

How did I get to this point, finally starting this blog? I think it has been in the works in my brain for quite some time. I have never been any good at consistently writing in a journal because hand writing is terribly tedious.  The closest I have come to keeping a journal was during our wedding/honeymoon trip. I painstakingly detailed what we did everyday while in Fiji only to find out recently it may be lost forever. *hint, hint T*

I'm going to go play with HTML now!