Cloth Diaper Trial

So, one of my biggest regrets about a decision I made regarding Jude was not starting right away with cloth diapers.  I seriously thought about it.  They are cheaper in the long run (they do require more money up front for the initial investment in a cloth diaper stash), way more eco-friendly (yes, you do use more water to wash them but it's at least using a renenwable source and not spending a million years in a landfill), and just exposes a baby's bum to way less moisture, chemicals, etc.  The cloth diapers that are out today are not the square piece of cloth and diaper pins of old.  I was shocked when researching them while I was pregnant.  They've come such a long way!  Plus, they are freaking adorable.  Who wouldn't love a fluffy butt like that?

Anyways, I need to find out if daycare will support cloth diapering.  Depending on how much of a hassle it is, I may still do disposables at daycare and then cloth diaper at home and on the weekends.  Jillian's Drawers has a 21 day cloth diaper trial program for $10.  How it works is that you get enough diapers of all sorts of brands to cloth diaper for 10 days.  That way, you can decide which kinds you like and which ones you don't.  You can send back the ones that you don't want to keep and either exchange them for more of the ones you do like or get your money back! 

I'm not sure how much Phil is on board with this whole thing.  I think once he sees that it isn't quite the hassle is appears to be, he may go with it.

Magic

Yesterday we had classic spring weather.  The type of day where if you were standing in direct sunlight, you were warm, but if you happened to stay in a shadow for a few minutes there was a chilly bite of kinetic energy in the air.  I love these kinds of days that briefly exist before the hot blanket of summer takes over.  I came home from work, put another layer of clothing on Jude and we went and hung out in the backyard.  These days are his first real experience with the great big outdoors and he is constantly in awe of the small things that I take advantage of on a daily basis.  I found myself slightly envious of Jude in that he is able to see such sheer beauty and magic in the smallest of small things.  I posted something of the like on Facebook stating that I wished I could see the magic in something so simple as a blade of fresh spring grass, as Jude does. My wonderful aunt/godmother (who is one of the most insightful and artistic people I've ever known) stated in response to my comment : "you ARE--just noticing his discovery of the magic returns it to you!" 

And as always, she's right.

HUGE milestone.

That's right, avid blog followers.  It's official.  The day we've all been waiting for.  Are you waiting with baited breath?  Can't stand the anxiety for one more second?  Alright then, here it is....




We would like to announce.





Jude finally has enough hair to make shampoo mohawks!!!!  Wheeeeee!!!!



Enjoy the cuteness of the photographic evidence (and also the last time a bath will take place in the kitchen sink as evidenced by the last photo, before the expensive camera was almost lost to a tidal wave).

Infertility Awareness Week

1 in 8 suffers from infertility.  Such a staggering statistic.  I'm aware and hoping this week that everyone suffering from infertility is blessed with their miracles.

The foods of Jude

We're becoming more adventurous with introducing foods to Jude these days.  I figure he's over 10 months old now so we've moved on from purees.  I hate that he gags on a lot of stuff and the paranoid mom in me just wants to stop harder foods altogether because I'm afraid he'll choke.  The pediatrician reassured me that gagging is a prevention of choking and to just keep working at it.  It takes practice.  Anyways, I wanted to start a list of all the foods, purees and not, that Jude has tried so far and whether he loved it or not.  I thought it would be fun to look back on these days when I'm arguing with him about all the reasons why he can't have a lollipop and cookies for dinner and think back to the days when a pizza crust was a really big milestone.  I think I'll continue to keep new lists as new foods are introduced.  If there is a heart next to it, he loved it.  If there's no heart, he spit right back out repeatedly, clamped his lips shut and tossed his head from side to side until I stopped coaxing him to try it again.  I wonder where his flair for the dramatic comes from.

Apples ♥
Pears ♥
Sweet Potatoes ♥
Carrots ♥
Green Beans
Peas
Squash
Blueberries ♥
Raspberries
Peaches ♥
Yogurt ♥
Puffs/Cheerios ♥
Yogurt melts
Bananas ♥
Pumpkin (don't even think about not putting some cinnamon with it, though) ♥
Mango ♥
Mandarin Oranges
Cheese (riccotta, Mozzarella) ♥
Pancake ♥
Whole Wheat Toast ♥
Oatmeal ♥
Pizza crust ♥
Spinach
Pineapple
Potato ♥
Brown Rice Cereal ♥
Plums ♥
Organic Cheerios ♥
Avocado ♥

10 months!

My newborn is 10 months old!  I really can't believe Jude is creeping along to a year old.  It's just too much to take.  Our neighbor has a 5 month old and she brought him over in the yard while we were grilling out tonight and it's just getting so hard for me to even remember him being so small!  I now understand why people get baby fever BAD when they're little ones encroach upon a year.  No worries, I don't have baby fever.  Yet.  Even if I did, I'm still breastfeeding and my body is so stupid that I'm sure we'll need treatments again and that's a no-no while BFing.  Anyways, time for the list of Jude's stats and likes/dislikes.  Here we go!

10 MONTH STATS
Weight: 20.5 lbs (40th percentile)
Height: 28.5 in (50th percentile)
Head: 17 3/4 in (50th percentile)

LIKES:
Playing with bouncy balls, plastic balls, actually any ball.
When his Mama walks into a room.
Cars.
Crawling while scooting something along the floor with his hand.
Fruit.
Hats.
Sunglasses.
Shopping.
Llama Llama Red Pajama and The Very Hungry Caterpillar books.
Anything Dr. Seuss.
His daycare teachers.
Seeing his friends at school.
Feeding himself.
Pizza crusts.
Taking items out of something.  (i.e. taking folded laundry out of the basket, taking all of the toys out of his toybox)


DISLIKES:
Sitting in grass.
A statue of Jesus at my parents house.
Being handed to someone new before he can get acclimated to them first.
Pretty much any green veggie.
Getting into his carseat.
When Mama leaves the room.

Happy Earth Day!

I love this day, I really do.  It's usually nice out and the world smells of rain and renewal.  I remember as a kid, we would always plant a tree or some flowers or something to commemorate.  While I thought about doing some planting today, I opted not, seeing as the weather in Nebraska this time of year is insane and I really just don't feel comfortable doing any planting before Mother's Day.  I've been burned too many times thinking there was no way a frost would fall.

My two favorite boys and I ran our Saturday morning errand to Babies R Us for some organic baby food (yay sale!) and then to Once Upon A Child for some gently used toys and clothes.  I adore that place.  We got Jude three pairs of Gap pants, a pair of Nautica overalls, a ball popper toy that he fell in love with at his friend Avery's house, a crib toy that plays music and nature sounds, and some baby window shades for the car for $45 total.  You can't beat that.  And I felt somewhat Earth friendly given the holiday and buying used.

Jude checking out the new toy. 

There's that camera again.

Wait, the balls come out of this thing?!?

I'll just take them over here.

And chew on them.

Well, I thought $6.50 was a good deal on this toy, but apparently I just got overpriced toy balls for Jude to chew on instead.

And to think, we actually were considering spending $40 on this crib toy, when we found a used one for $10!

Baby cold/ear infection = penguin humidifier is having to work some overtime in the nursery.

And apparently, this is waaaay cooler than a toy that tosses balls in the air and makes them speed down ramps.

Score on organic baby food today.  That's right, I don't make my own....I had every intention...no freezer space because it's full of breastmilk...don't judge me...another post to come on that hairy subject.

Kickin' it with the hubs on the back patio after the Judester went to bed.

A Lucky Bucket lager for him.  A glass of Relax Riesling for me.

Mason performing his whirling dervish on a spring night.

Leif panting per usual in the cool grass.  He spent the day at the groomer losing 20 pounds of hair.  Handsome boy, huh?

Baby monitor is blessedly silent.  For now.

Yes, please take my picture.  Sans makeup.  After a night of Jude wakings.  In bad light.  And make me promise to put it on my blog if I am putting one of you on there. Thanks.

The tree in the backyard that blooms once a year for about five minutes.

Okay, I didn't take this photo.  The hubs did, that's why it rocks.  Showoff.

Just one lonely thought this evening

The look on Jude's face when I pick him up from daycare;  the sheer joy and happiness that his Mama walking into the room brings him just makes it all worth it.

This is going to be a long, long week.

So, Jude's cold is a little more than that.  It's an ear infection.  Poor little man.  He's had a faucet for a nose since last week and he started running a fever.  Phil took him to the doctor today and it was confirmed he had an ear infection.  His first one.  Daycare has a policy where he can't come back until he is 24 hours fever free.  This happened on the worst week ever. 

Since I got my promotion back in January, I've been working on this huuuge project for our biggest client and I submitted it to them today.  Not only that, but I have to give a big presentation on a product enhancement to the company on Wednesday this week.  Sooo not the time for my little sweetie to be sick.  Thank goodness for family.  My dad will watch him for the morning tomorrow so I can at least set some things up in the conference room I reserved to go over my presentation. 

That's not all.  Phil rearranged his day to pick Jude up from daycare and take him to the doctor.  In his hurry, he slammed his middle finger in the front door of our house.  That was this afternoon.  Cut to this evening and the pain was pretty much unbearable, his finger and fingernail were black and it was swollen up to massive proportions.  He is currently at the ER.  I feel awful I didn't go with him, but Jude is in bed and we didn't want to wake him.  My mom is meeting him there to keep him company in the waiting room.  God love her.

So yeah, the first day of the week was a little stressful.  But, I got my project successfully submitted before end of business today, which is a huge weight off my shoulders.  Now I just have to breathe and relax about this presentation I have to give this week and again next week (to people in the company who know way more than I do no less).  And I thought dancing in front of audiences for years and years was nerve wracking.  No way, that was cake compared to public speaking.

Fingers crossed my boys pull through and are as good as new soon and that this week of stress flies by.

Eek. I take it back, I don't want to grow up!

Petri Dishes for Playmates

Jude has another nasty cold.

I thought we were maybe getting done with all this sickness.  I truly believed that his constant colds/illnesses were a combination of being so young, during the worst winter I can remember, combined with the fact that he goes to a daycare center and is around so many other young kids (or Petri dishes, as I prefer to call them).  The weather has just started to get warm and a sense of relief has come about that cold and flu season is nearing its end.

No such luck.

The first telltale sign that Jude is coming down with a nasty cold is eye drainage.  Ew.  It gets all green and gunky and seals his eye shut overnight.  Poor guy.  I have some drops that clear it up, but it's always the first sign that things are going south.  Congestion sets in.  Then the coughing.  Then the all night wakings.  At that point, our world becomes a sea of saline drops, nasal aspirators, cool mist humidifiers, and Boogie Wipes.
Our pediatrician has repeated over and over that the typical newborn/baby gets about 12 colds a year.  It seems like Jude constantly has one.  Hell, he was hospitalized for RSV for five days back in February.  I can't help but get sort of panic-y when he gets sick now.  Although the RSV virus was special, he ran a 102-103 degree fever the entire time and that was his first symptom before anything else.  He isn't running a fever this time.  Thank goodness.

I just hate when Jude is perfectly healthy and I go to pick him up from daycare and he is happily playing with a friend.  Then, the friend turns around to grin at me and all I can see is the river of snot pouring out of his nose and I know that Jude will have a cold in about 48 hours.  Ugh.

I guess it's the expected repurcussions in the glamourous life of a working mom who sends her kid to daycare.