Jadens Journey

Jaden left about 20 minutes ago for school – we found out yesterday that they are doing pictures of the kids today so we did our best to dress our little man for his photo shoot. I tried to get a couple of quick shots of him (with my iPhone, no less) as he was leaving with Daddy for drop-off but he moves around so much this was the best I could do.

I’ve been blog-MIA again and I’m sorry it is taking me so long to get back into the groove. The semester is under full-steam now so I’m inundated with course preparation. My big goal (other than “publish, publish, publish!!!”) is to get back to a regular schedule for blogging – whether anyone is reading it or not, it is something I intended for Jaden to have as a part of his ‘lifebook’. I’ll get there…

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What a crazy few weeks. First, vacation in upstate NY had me in a tizzy trying to get packed and ready to go. Packing for a toddler, even for a weekend, makes me feel like I’m packing to leave home permanently. Make it a week and I end up needing a massage to get over the physical and mental stress of it all. Yes, vacations should be fun – and it was. The packing, however, was a nightmare.

THEN Jaden had that horrible coxsackie virus. We think he got it from the pool at the resort, which didn’t smell too fresh toward the end of the week. The blisters were all in Jaden’s mouth, so he hardly ate or drank anything. We were worried for a while that he’d end up in the hospital from dehydration, but we finally figured out that he’d drink Yoohoo if it was room temperature. It was one of those “Aha!” moments of the summer.

Jaden’s doing fine now, and has already started to gain back some of the weight he lost during his illness. It’s amazing how quickly his belly and cheeks puffed up once he started eating again. Here’s a picture or two of him helping me water the plants in our front yard — as you might deduce from the photos ‘water the PLANTS’ was not getting through too well.

[caption id="attachment_563" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Cute as a button"][/caption]

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Jaden never used a pacifier. Not even when we desperately tried to get him to use one, hoping it would help soothe him to sleep. He also never used teethers. No matter how many times we try to show him that he can chew on them to alleviate his teething pain, he just looks at us like we’re absolutely crazy for putting something in his mouth that isn’t meant for eating.

I guess in some ways it is a blessing since he (most of the time) doesn’t stick anything in his mouth that’s not meant to be there (except for the occasional sock fuzz, for some reason. Eeeeew!). Add that we won’t have the difficult job of taking the binky away from him when it is time and overall, it may have been a decent trade-off. 

Imagine my surprise yesterday when, as I turned around after taking the laundry out of the machine, I saw Jaden popping a pacifier in his mouth. 

We never threw the pacifiers out, even though he didn’t use them as they were intended. We kept them around because he played with them. They were one of his favorite ‘toys’ when he was still rolling around on the floor, hardly sitting up on his own. He liked to pass one from one hand to the other, shake it a few times to make it go click-click-click, then pass it to the other hand and repeat. So the two pacifiers that came in the one package that we bought have been around since day one.

So it was kind of humorous to see him walking around with a pacifier in his mouth. I assume it is because he’s teething those darn eye teeth (“canines” as Neville corrected) and maybe it was helping him with the discomfort. Regardless, it was a funny sight since I’ve never seen him with one in his mouth.I was somehow quick enough to find my camera and take a couple of pictures. Hopefully you’ll giggle as much as I did.

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I really need to start collecting my thoughts on my little recorder. I carry one around with me all the time – but at this point it just takes up space in my purse (or diaper bag, these days) since I never pull it out to use it. Although I have pulled it out to replace the batteries a few times. The point is: today we were driving in the car on the way to “Mommy and me” class and I thought of a few things I’d like to blog about, but of course now I cannot think of what they were. At the time I thought “I should really pull out the recorder and get this down” and then laziness got the better of me and the subject of my blog is now lost. It was pretty funny too – so you’re really missing out. 

So Auntie Tina enjoys the pic of Jaden in his hat-shorts, shorts-hat. I have to admit it makes me giggle every time I see it too. We have so many great pictures of Jaden, but a lot are either on Grandma and Grandpas camera, or on Auntie Tina’s camera, so a lot of them don’t get posted. The other complication is that it takes me FOREVER (am I the only one?) to upload pics to snapfish and slide.com, so I have to either wait until Jaden is napping or until he is asleep— and as anyone with a 1-year old knows, once they’re asleep, it’s party time, not snapfish time.

We had a relatively rough day today – following a relatively good night. Last night we had the usual 2-3 awakenings between bedtime (8:30 these days) and midnight – generally we deal with night terrors or nightmares in these hours. Last night it was only nightmares. Then we had a partial awakening around 1:30 which was easily remedied by a few pats on the back and “shh-shh-shh’s”. Usually around 3:00 we’ll then have a wakening where we have to do a diaper change and a bottle (believe me, you do not want to try to change Jaden’s diaper at 3:00 a.m. without giving him a bottle to focus on). Some days that lasts 20 minutes, other days it can go as long as 2.5 hours — OH yes, those are the fun nights.  However, last night was not a usual night.

After the “shh-shh-shh’s” I went to sleep again, fully expecting to be awake again in 2 hours, only to wake up to Neville holding Jaden over me at 6:50 a.m. saying “Mommy, wake up.” I was a little disoriented momentarily, thinking that I must just not remember the diaper change, the bottle, the 5:30 a.m. waking where Neville tries to get Jaden back to sleep and fails and then takes him downstairs while I go back into the sleep zone until he wakes me up so he can get ready for work. So it took me some time to realize the reason I didn’t remember the diaper change and bottle was because there wasn’t any. It took me another moment to realize that Jaden just woke up – Neville hadn’t yet dressed him. Halleluia!! Sleep, sweet sleep!!!!!!

And then….

Once the day began, I started to wonder whether a (relatively) full night’s sleep was worth it. Jaden was super-super clingy today. He didn’t want to let go of my pant leg. Very unlike him, usually. He was super-super cranky at “mommy and me” and now I wonder whether I should have taken him. I did try a different time since I’ve been trying to push him to only one nap. Some days he makes it, some days he doesn’t. Yesterday he didn’t (hmmmm….). Today I pushed him to it, but he was over-exhausted by bedtime, and driving me absolutely crazy long before bedtime.  

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I think Jaden was cranky because now he sports a new bruise on his forehead from a spill he took at the aquarium on the concrete-covered-in-thin-carpet floors (hey Dad- it’s on the same side as the scratch, so it the scratch isn’t as visible anymore!) and a bloody lip from some lady that purposely tripped him. 

Okay so that’s a little severe. Maybe it wasn’t on purpose. She was sprawled out on the floor and saw Jaden coming, and seriously if you see a 1-year old coming straight for you don’t you do your best to move your legs out of the way? Well, she didn’t. He fell over her legs (c’mon – her body was a loooong way away from her legs, if you’re looking from the vantage point of someone who is only 32 inches tall). He took a bad face-plant and started crying (another unusual reaction from Jaden) and she said “Oh I guess he’s still learning to walk?”

B!&$%. 

So I’m going to keep writing because it’s Friday night and it seems these days I’m either all or nothing with the blog…

This week I hooked up with a babysitting gig at a local workout studio in return for my membership there. YAY! Remember how when we brought Jaden home I had lost about 10 lbs? Well I gained it all back and then 50% more. Yes, 15 lbs since October. Hard to believe, since I don’t think I ever gained 15 lbs in my entire life. If only the market were gaining that quickly.

So this is the most I’ve ever weighed in my life and it is really driving me insane. The problem is that I’ve become super lazy too. I have a million excuses for why I cannot work out at home – asthma being the first (it’s too dusty in the basement where all the workout gear is!) – TV demand being the second (how can I pop in a workout video and appease the Elmo-monster all at the same time?!) — and procrastination being the third (no comment). Working out outside of the house becomes just as problematic – the weather during 80% of the year in northeastern U.S. is not conducive to outside workouts (with a toddler in tow), and any gyms would have to have hours that are flexible enough to fit with the “who has the baby?” schedule. Yes, I am the 2009 QUEEN of excuses.

SO – While I was watching Elmo last week I did some research and found this local place that provides free babysitting AND they were looking for a babysitter. I looked into it and the bargain is that if I babysit for one class per week, my membership is gratis. Well, DEAL, I’m IN.  I go tomorrow to fill out some papers and I’ll take a class while I’m there, and then I start my baby-sitting on Monday. I’m really, really excited about this. It’ll get both me and Jaden out of the house  a few times a week. My goal is to workout 3x per week (Jaden will be there with the sitter for 2x) and then I’ll have my one baby-sitting session which Jaden will join me for. So Jaden will get to go someplace different 3x per week, and Mommy will get out of the house 4x per week. And no concrete-covered-in-thin-carpet floors. Ahhhh!

I really should write more often so I don’t write 1202 words at a time, eh? 

Cheers~!

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I also posted pictures of Jaden from today (believe it or not) and some older miscellaneous stuff. Just keep scrolling down the “pictures: forever family” tab and you’ll find them all.

See what one can do on a full night’s sleep?!! AMAZING!

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