Pink Eye

On top of Jack's completely awful cold and wet cough, we've added pink eye.  He woke up yesterday with a swollen pink-colored eye so off to the doctor we went.  He's got his prescription eyedrops now but I'm not sure how to stop him from rubbing his snotty nose and then rubbing his eyes.  But we're muddling through.  Just want him to get healthy so we can resume our play dates and normal schedule.  And hopefully get his smiley happy demeanor back.  Because that kid in the photo above?  He's not that fun.

Getting dirty

There is no doubt that my son likes to get dirty.  And, for one reason or another, I seem to be the type of mom who lets her son enjoy dirt.  Lately though he's taken to throwing dirt and sand and wood chips all around.  Up in the air, at me, in his hair.  Every night in his bath, I find tons of sand embedded in his scalp.

He just is so passionate about the throwing...he throws with great force and gusto.  Even when he's sick.  I took this picture of him two days ago.  He refused to leave this dirt planter.  I caught him right after his threw a fistful of dirt in his face and as he was coughing with snot dripping down his nose.  John says it's the worst picture I've ever taken of him.  Which is obviously why I had to put it on the internet.  It cracks me up.

Housekeeping...and blood.

I realize that, while I've been good about posting pictures of Jack here, I've been pretty bad at documenting milestones and schedules and specific development.  And I know 99% of you don't care about that... but I think I may want to look back and know when Jack's nap schedule changed or when he started drinking this or that or when he got his teeth.  I think the ship has sailed on a lot of this stuff but I'm going to try to just jot down some notes here so I can remember.  So, basically, this post is for no one but myself.  Enjoy!

Naps:
Jack is now down to one nap and has been for about a month I suppose.  He wakes up around 6 and then goes down for a nap any time between 11:30 and 1:00pm.  Then he usually sleeps a good 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Bedtime is still around 7:30 or 8.
(Truthfully I can't even remember when he went down to two naps but I think it was a long long time ago).

Drinking:
He's been on milk since he turned a year old.  When we switched from formula to milk we almost immediately ditched the bottles.  Well, upon waking he has milk from a soft spout sippy cup.  Then the same thing after his nap.  Then at bedtime he gets a bottle because, hey, why rock the boat?  He's going to bed so nicely nowadays and I don't think there's anything wrong with a bottle at bedtime.
He also drinks water and in the past couple of weeks, toddler juice boxes.  Or I fill his cup with water and put a splash of apple juice in it.  He can use a straw sippy cup but still doesn't like the hard spout cups.

Books:
He still loves books.  And still loves his old favorites like Elmer, Dr. Seuss (especially the Eye Book and Mr. Brown Can Moo), and animal picture books.  Now he also likes to feel the fuzzy, texture books too.  But he's also started to read some books with more words and less pictures.  I'm particularly delighted that he now likes the Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon, all the Curious George books, and It's Time to Sleep My Love (a really lovely bedtime book with beautiful illustrations that he got as a gift from his cousin Christy).  He will sit and read them for an hour.

Sleeping:
Oh man.  It's been, on the whole, blissful.  I think around 12 or 13 months he finally started sleeping through the night.  And let me tell you, it's glorious.  Before that he used to need a bottle around 3 or 4, but for the past two months he's moved past that.  I have never been so happy in my life.

Teething:
This brings us finally to the blood portion of the blog.  The night before last Jack uncharacteristically woke at 3am with a lot of crying and we couldn't get him back to sleep for 2 hours.  We took turns rocking him in his dark room until he finally went back down.  Then yesterday morning I pulled Jack out of his crib to discover that his sheet was covered in what I would call a good bit of blood.  One spot the size of an apple and the rest of the sheet covered in lighter spots where the little guy had obviously smeared it around.  Combine that with bloody finger prints on the side of a white crib rail and you have yourself a scene from CSI.  I freaked out and examined him thoroughly but saw zero sign of where it came from.  No cuts, no dried blood on his face or anything.  I called the doctor and we figured out that it must be from his molars breaking through.  I had read that the toddler could bleed a bit when they finally broke through but I didn't think it meant it would be a giant gush of blood.  But, sure enough, he has all his molars.  Well, I think 3 of the 4 have officially poked through and the 4th is almost there.  Poor little guy.  It must have hurt so bad.

To make it up to him, I let him run around naked most of the day and he seemed to enjoy it.  :-)

 

 

Mother's Day 2012

My sweet boys made my mother's day very nice.  While Jack decided to get up at 5:30, my nice husband let me sleep until 7:30.  And, at that time, Jack toddled in with a card and handed it to me.  It was so cute. The hubby also had a card with a nice bracelet.  From there we were off to the farmer's market and breakfast.

Later in the day I was lucky enough to go to the spa and get a massage.  In honor of mother's day they gave everyone a glass of champagne.  Lovely.

When I got back, I was greeted with another surprise.

A tired boy and FLOWERS!  How cute.  And especially adorable considering my last mother's day...

Jack at 2 1/2 months

Favorite Photo of the Week

Me and my boy, after our charity cancer walk.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Week in Review - 5/12/12

 

 Another week and, can you believe it? Our little guy is sick again. He's only been healthy for about a week and he's back to being sick. Cold and cough again which means miserable kid and somewhat grumpy parents. But, that being said, he was healthy the first part of the week so we took some cute pictures. This was the week of water...although I'm sure it's just the beginning of the summer of water. We got a sprinkler toy and Jack loves it. And loves getting soaking wet.

   

 He had some friends over and they seemed to enjoy it too.

 

 

 He's a smart one though because he figured out how and where to turn the water on. I kept turning it off (there's only so much flooding my lawn can take) and he kept running over to try to turn it back on.

   

 It was certainly a week of friends for Jack. He continues to love his little house and shared it with his friends this week.

 

 

 The little bugger got better at drinking this week. He sure does love straws, just like his mama. And how cute does he look? What a big boy.

 

 

 And now, lots more pics from the week:

 

playing hide and seek in the shower

finding other uses for the basketball game

steering his ship

playing with is new ikea toy

three person trampoline!  he loved it

knock knock

wading pools

him and his friend Madelynn

Five for Friday: Things I do for my husband

This was John's idea so you can blame him for this one...

The top 5 things I do for my husband:

5.  Watch hours and hours of sports.

4.  Make sure there is always homemade mint iced tea in the fridge

3.  Go with him to Zankou Chicken.  But I don't have to eat it with him.

2.  His laundry.  And there's a lot of it.

1.  Trim his hair.


How about you?

SAHM

 

 Nowadays on the internet there is an acronym for everything and that includes "Stay at Home Mom" or SAHM. It's been over a year since I've had that job title and I'm finally starting to get used to it. People constantly ask me if I miss work and I realize I've probably never written about it. But do I? Not really. I liked my job and loved making movies but hanging out with Jack just can't compare. He's just as needy as some of the actors and producers I've encountered but at least I love him and he laughs at all my jokes. I love being around for every smile, every laugh, every new discovery, every new sound, and every first. That being said, being a SAHM is harder that working in some ways. I'd say that the hours are longer but, truthfully, they're not longer than working on a movie. But they are more tiring. There's no sitting, there's no surfing the internet, there's no leisurely lunches, and there are no private bathroom breaks.  And there's no real validation.  I know that I was pretty good at my job and sometimes people were even nice enough to tell me so.  Being a good SAHM?  There's not many ways to measure good vs. bad and there's not a ton of people telling you that you're the best they've worked with.  (Though my husband kindly tries to tell me that.)

 One of the main things I was worried about when I decided to stop working was losing my connection to other adults. Without any adults to interact with, the days can be long and draining. But, though it's taken a little while, I think I finally have a good little network of new mom friends. Truthfully, I haven't had to make new friends in a long time. My friends now I've either had since elementary/middle school or since I first moved to LA twelve years ago. So it's been a weird experience having to, in a way, start over. But joining the local MOMS Club has been a great way to make friends and get involved in activities. Every month the club and our new friends fill up our calendar.

   

 I don't know if people think Jack and I just hang out all day, but usually we have an activity or organized play date every day of the week. Which is great and makes the week go by faster.

So I guess the biggest pleasant surprise about being a SAHM has been the new friends that I've made.  The friends that now bring over cookies when Jack and I are sick, who invite us over to dinner because they know John is working late, and who text us whenever they're headed to the park or the zoo.  Yesterday I had 12 moms and 12 toddlers in our pool for Jack's playgroup and I finally thought, hey, I'm really a stay at home mom.  We're doing this and we are all in this crazy situation together.  Maybe we'll even survive it. *edited to add: I forgot. The one thing I really miss about working? The paycheck. :)

First trip to the beach

 

 Last weekend John and I decided that our first family trip to the beach was long overdue.  So we packed up the little boy and headed to Paradise Cove in Malibu.  We got there early so the clouds hadn't burned off yet but, on the other hand, it was nice that it wasn't crowded. At first the little guy was pretty tentative. Maybe even scared. That pic above is when we first got there. It was high tide and the waves were breaking right on the shore. We had forgotten how loud waves are but Jack's reaction quickly reminded us that it was a little intimidating.

   

 For the first few minutes he clung to his daddy and me. We just sort of tried to get him used to it.

   

 I took over holding duties and John made his way into the waves, showing Jack how fun it was. Slowly we crept closer and closer to the water. I showed him how I could get my feet wet, crouched down with him and let him get his feet wet. And, eventually, he took a turn and decided that the beach was AWESOME. He charged in again and again with his daddy.

 

 

 John let him get wet but not go all the way under (the water was freezing!).

 

 

 He loved getting swung around in the waves and squealed with delight.

 

 

 And when we were tired of playing in the water, he played in the sand for a long time. Just playing with his shovel and bucket. He was enthralled.

 

 

 It was such a great day and I am so happy that Jack seemed to enjoy it so much. It was so neat to see him go from scared to timid to tentative to mesmerized to joyous. Definitely fun to experience it through his eyes. I took so many pictures so here are just a few more. Enjoy!