The Uncertain Can Suck It

So my child has been sick. Or so I thought. He might be. I don't know.

I have had a cold for a few days...or a week. I can't keep track. But my symptoms have been watery eyes, postnasal drip, runny nose, cough, etc. My child...started out with a cough, but in the last 24 hours those others have come into play. So I naturally assumed ah yes, Jackson got my cold.

Then I noticed that when I get him up in the morning or from any given nap, he is totally fine. No symptoms. Then I feed him. Then he spits up some, as usual, although honestly it seems like lately it has gotten more frequent and more voluminous. Then I noticed that the symptoms come back soon after I feed him. It wasn't until he got really red watery eyes, a really runny nose and a really stuffy head and then puked up his whole lunch that it occurred to me that it might be a food allergy. I now have reason to suspect my son is allergic to his formula.

But of course this isn't your typical Sunday evening determination. It's Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, so the doctor isn't open tomorrow. So I get to call the on-call doc in the morning and figure out what the hell to do now.

I feel so bad for him. He's such a good baby...he really is. He doesn't fuss much, he sleeps awesome, eats like Kobayashi. He smiles and laughs even when his nose is running and his eyes are red and watery. Just now after we opted for 70% Pedialyte 30% formula dinner (obviously not at the same time) and he still spit up some Pedialyte, we put him in his jammers and held our collective breath that he would settle down. I handed him a pair of sassy rings and he proceeded to talk to me and play with rings until I decided it was bed time. It was wonderful...and makes me that much angrier that he has to put up with crap like this latest development. But at least I will be able to sleep after I got some giggles and smiles before bed.

Video Cameras Rule

You just have to trust me on this one...

Really? REALLY?

So this morning I ventured out with future Aunt Jennie and Sally O'Malley to see the movie The House Bunny. It was funny...the last 10 minutes they handed over the script writing duties to a kindergartener, but it didn't ruin the entire movie for any of us. It was the typical, hey this girl is a homely misfit with glasses and a ponytail, and we take off those glasses and lose the ponytail and suddenly she's America's Next Top Model. Not Another Teen Movie makes light of that very same thing for a reason...it happens in every movie it seems like.

Following the movie we stopped for a delicious Starbucks and then went hunting for a few minutes for shoes for FAJ's wedding to Uncle Eric in October. We were walking past Pottery Barn Kids and I wanted to duck in to see if they had the elephant teething blanket that Jackson got from a friend of ours so I could consider purchasing it for the baby of the week, Gavin Pierce Swanson, son of Deric and Heather, born Friday morning at 12:03 am.

The three of us were strolling through the store and I basically stuck to the boys side of the store because hey, that's what I have and that's what I was shopping for. Sally and FAJ were lagging behind, and I would soon learn why. I decided to walk back out of the store down the the girls side of the store, and I'll be honest...I was completely disgusted by what I saw.

Boy toys: Trucks, tools, sports stuff. Girls toys: stoves, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers. Seriously. And then 50's retro versions of same. Cause yeah, we should tip our hat to that era of existence since clearly Pottery Barn Kids is still pulling their product development from that time. I mean really? Okay I can get on board for an EZ Bake Oven. I desperately wanted one as a child, and my parents decided to forego the 10% cooked cupcakes baked by a Lite Brite sized light bulb. But really, the ENTIRE Sally Homemaker set? I'm sorry if you happily purchased this for your female child and are offended by this little diatribe, but I find it completely insulting that this is what we position as the top products we should want our little girls to play with. Like we're prepping them for a lifetime of domestication.

I was reviewing my baby photo album from my parents recently, and I noticed something. Nary a doll, stove or washing machine in the lot. Is there a mini-basketball hoop? Heck yes. I don't know who was responsible for that purchase...if they sensed that I wasn't going to be into that Peggy Sue stuff or if sports was what they had hoped I would be into, but thank goodness that was the route they took no matter how they chose it. I can cook (no, really), I can clean (though I'll be honest, Jason is better and more interested in cleaning than I am), I can't sew much, and we both do laundry. And somehow, I still got married to an outstanding guy and produced an amazing child and have a career and a home and a wonderful life....and my favorite toy as a little girl was a basketball hoop. Funny how that still worked out.

Something in the Water

Well something is in the water in the lives of people in my life right now. Last Monday, August 11, my friends Amber and Chet gave birth to beautiful baby girl named Avery Blayne. Amber was in labor for four hours and was in the hospital for barely two before the kid emerged. I don't have words to express how I feel about that.

Then on Thursday, my other friends Leslie and Jon had a little boy Jack, to go along with their other sweet boy Henry. I can't wait to meet them both! Jason's friend from high school Rob and his wife Jessica had a little girl on Saturday....Then we have my poor friends Deric and Heather. Heather's little one was due Thursday and still has stage fright. Then my high school friend Marci is also overdue with her pumpkin.

So yeah, that's a lot of babies. What is going on?!

Plumpkin

He's not really a plumpkin, he's just eating his freakin weight in formula! Jackson had what I can only imagine or hope was a growth spurt on Saturday. He woke up at 2:30 am for what I thought was just a diaper change but was instead a full blown meal attack. Then for each of his feedings the rest of the day...at 7 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm, he ate 8 ounces at each feeding. Which was like 46 for the entire day. And he barely spit up any of it.

Sunday he was back to normal, but my goodness! I was just glad that he didn't wake up at 2:30 to eat...just at 4:30 for diaper, which is the new addition to the repertoire, but so far he has gone back to sleep after this for the most part.

He's back at day care today and I still hate it.

Milestone Reached!

He rolled over. He did it this morning when we were getting ready for work. He was laying on the bed in our room while Jason was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and I moved over on the bed and watched. He did it in one big move...just like he had been doing it for ages. It was pretty fun that I got to see it and I was glad it didn't happen at day care. Although it might have and they were just obeying my "don't ask, don't tell" policy about his milestones.

We got the photos back from JC Penney. My friend Sally O'Malley saw the one at left on Facebook and said, "What is this a baby Glamour Shot?" HA! That's totally what it looks like.

Enough Already!

We've been getting hit with a barrage of gooshy ads it being Olympic time and all. Today I was treated to these ads consecutively: Jennie Finch with her 2 year old son Ace, who "makes it a little better when I come off the field" pitching a website for NBC, followed by a mom making her little boy laugh just by talking into a plastic cup courtesy of Kaiser Permanente, followed by the one where the guy messes up his leg in the 400 meters in the 1992 Olympics and his dad comes out of the stands and carries him to the finish line thanks to the fine folks at Visa. Three commercials, three parents, three sons.

Are you kidding me? I don't watch the Olympics to be brought to tears by a bunch of freakin ads. I'd rather be moved by performances and things like the 9 year old Chinese hall monitor that saved two classmates from earthquake rubble because he's "the hall monitor and its my responsibility". These ads are so unfair...how can a new parent be expected to withstand that and emerge unscathed? Like why don't they just stick a fork in my eye and get it over with. Geez.

Roll Over...or Don't. Whatever You Want.

Now that our quality time with the pumpkin is limited, we try to cram a lot into it. Spending time feeding him then hanging out with him. Truth be told we'd probably let him just sit on our laps and smile and coo for two hours. But in order to foster his development we have to do some play time.

So lately we've been putting a quilt on the floor and alternating between his back and his tummy for play time. Back time has been the most exciting lately, as Jackson is SOOOOOO close to rolling over from his back to his tummy. He lifts his ham hock legs in the air and swings them to the side and gets up on his side and then just rests on his side. If he leaned even a centimeter more, he'd roll over to his tummy.

I hope he does it today because if he does it at day care tomorrow, I don't want to know. :)

Good Times

So day care is going pretty well so I can't say much more about that. I picked him up on Tuesday and he took one look at me and screamed as if to say, "Where the F&^% have you been?!" because he had slept a grand total of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Sweet. So when we were home telecommuting on Wednesday Jackson slept in a very bright room without a bunch of white noise and it paid off with his best nap yet on Thursday at school.

We took a family trip Tuesday night to the county fair, during which Jackson did his first trip in a Bjorn facing out and did very well with it. We were joined by Tera, Sabrina as well as Beth, Chris and Jack. We didn't check out too many animals and may do so tonight. Last night we went to see Jason's last softball game of summer leagues, which they won and won the championship! It was super fun.

So that's where we're at. Happy Weekend!

What a Warm Welcome Back!

So I'm back at work...and Jackson is in day care. I hate it, but it's a reality of today's economy and our plans for ourselves and him that we both need to work. I have taken him there three days and all three days I had some form of crying upon leaving. I have thus far managed to not sob whilst in the day care, so I'm kind of proud of that. He is adjusting and is his usual happy self but has not gotten used to our new morning routine and therefore isn't sleeping great there, but we are all doing our best to make it work.

Upon returning to work, I was welcomed back with the following: my phone turned off, internet down in the whole west side of the stadium, and the latest, some strange form of insect inhabiting my desk. Yes, I said inhabiting. It kind of looks like an ant, but also looks like it isn't an ant. When campus bug man arrived to check it out, of course they had all gone into hiding and were no longer crawling all over my desk although I keep thinking they are crawling all over me. I have the majority of my desk packed into boxes and I'm hoping they will come take it away and replace it with another desk. Super. Go Buffs!

How is it Possible?

How is it that my son is three months old? I'm serious. It's just absurd. It's been 13 weeks and one day since Jackson joined our little familia and there aren't words to describe how great it's been but I refuse to believe it's already been that long.

For his three month whatever you want to call it, birthday or whatever, Grandma and Grandpa came up and we all had dinner and watched some baseball. Jason and I made an actual meal and we sat at the "dining room table" HA which basically served as the pile of crap for the last three months...or three years, but really who's counting?

Anyways, it was a nice night and obviously he was in rare form as you can see from this photo with Grandpa. He has made it three nights in a row from 9:30 pm to at least 6 a.m. Today it was 6:45 a.m. so we are happy for him that he's sleeping so well.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It was a big day for the Lews. First the good...We had our first studio pictures taken today at JC Penney, which I feel like is a rite of passage for every family in America. We went with Beth and Jack so we got to see someone else do it first and it was so entertaining. I thought I had picked a time that would be a good time for Jackson, that he would be his alert and happy self. I was wrong. He wasn't unhappy, he just wasn't alert and the super smiley kid I'm watching play with his daddy right now. But we took a few photos and found some we liked and I bought them. I think JC Penney should seriously consider making all their photos available online so that people can buy...I had to buy all the photos then and there or else the price went up! That's crap!

So after the photo session, we took a trip to Boulder for the bad. The bad was Jackson's first trip to day care. Basically it was a dry run. So I took him and just sort of was loitering and finally after dotting the i's and crossing the t's I made myself leave. I managed to actually get INTO the car before my total breakdown. At which point I called Jason and informed him that we needed to win Powerball so that I never had to take him to day care again. Then I decided to take advantage of my dry run time and go to work to pick up some things. I determined my best route at work was to go to Dal Ward and go down the back stairs so no one would see my splotchy face (the ugly), but my plan was foiled when my boss came out of the Fieldhouse. He said, "Hi double L!" and I said, "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" while sniffling and biting my lip. He said, "Wow, not happy to see me are you?" and I said, "I *sniff* just took Jackson to day carrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," and he was like oh it's okay yada yada yada.

After I pulled it together I realized something about going back to work. First of all, I do really like my job and it's going to be great to be back. But if I'm gonna be there instead of with Jackson, then I better make every single second I am there count. As Jason says, "No more checking Facebook!"