Halloween

Little man face planted into the side walk at the very first house we went to.  Overall he was unimpressed with trick or treating but had fun once we got home and started handing out candy.

Sad Dragon

Bribing with candy

Day after

Nice shot of the damage

He still has a small bump on his head but it is finally getting better.   This is what I get for calling him a bruiser in my last post.  Go me for not catching him in time.

Destined to be a gymnast?

Probably not:)  Let's face it, the kid is a bruiser.

What is with all of the colors?  Walking into the gym made me very nostalgic of the days of a blue floor/mats and the perfect 10.  I still have such a love/hate relationship with the sport, Chris said I was beaming the whole time and I would say it is because I enjoyed coaching so much but it is more than that.  It's a good thing we don't have a girl as that is the one sport I would steer her clear away from which would actually be pretty hypocritical on my part.

1st year pics- Round 2

To say we are much happier with these would be an understatement!  The picture of the three of us looking at the wall is even going appear somewhere in the picture people store, haha.

My hip

hurts so bad I want to punch something.  Seriously.  I was walking with the laundry basket last night and ran into the corner of the door frame.  The laundry basket left a lovely little bruise on my stomach but I guess I also jolted  my hip somehow.  Then you add in a rainy week and you have a limping Kate.  I go to the doctor anyway tomorrow for a follow up on my hand situation so I will have her take a look to see what the hell I did to myself this time.

An update to my hand situation is that I have two ganglion cysts, one in each wrist because I don't do anything half-assed.  The hand specialist was great, it only took him a few minutes and a x-ray to figure out what was going on.  Unfortunately because of their location and size he is unable to drain them so for now my only option is pain management.  The size and location is also why they are being such a pain, the cysts are pressing on my joints and nerves so the pain all makes sense now.  We are all hoping that as Jax becomes more mobile they will shrink and no longer cause all sorts of issues with my hands.  If in a year they are still bothering me surgery is an option but it is both hands and there is a 1 in 5 chance it will come back so time will tell what ends up happening there. I was also given wrist braces to wear at night when I am having a lot of pain.  So that is that in a nutshell for now.  Enough of my bitching, here was Jax this morning!




Teeth 7, 8,9, and 10 are all making an appearance.  I noticed this morning that the left bottom tooth in the front popped through over night.  His molar gums(?) can only be described as angry looking.  No wonder the poor kid was up at 4:40 this morning with his hands in his mouth crying.

10/11/2011

I thought that once I got my new phone I would blog from it, but not so much!  We had another great weekend, it was 82 out so we hit Rehoboth Beach for one final trip before fall sets in.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea as we almost turned around because we couldn't find a parking spot.  We ended up parking five blocks north and it turned out great, in fact, I think we may park there from now on.  It will be much easier to drag the umbrella and chairs since it is so close, it is less crowded and there is a cute little outdoor bar that we can grab lunch at instead of battling the summer crowds on the main drag.  Win win.  Speaking of Win Win, if you haven't seen the new to dvd movie with Paul Giamatti you need to see it.  Pee my pants, laugh out loud and almost wake the baby hilarious.

Jax seems to be getting more confident in his walking skills.  He lets go more often and attempts to run towards the dogs.  It is so cute!  Jax is all but transitioned into the toddler room, ack!  They said it usually takes a month but after just a few days he wants nothing to do with the infant room.  LOL, what a little ham.  On Friday they brought him back to the infant room for the afternoon and when he saw his new teacher walk by he started yelling and reaching out for her.  Since everyone is a sucker where he is concerned she scooped him up and took him back to the tods room.  This week they are going to attempt nap time on the nap mat and if that goes well I think he will be fully transitioned by next week.  Holy shit, he really isn't a baby anymore!

We did go to the Pic.ture People in Cherry Hill this weekend with Foxy and Aunt Casey to get Jax's one year photos done.  I am not at all happy with them so I am so glad I kept my appointment for Sunday at the one we usually go to in Delaware.   The kid was downright posing for the camera and she managed to get zero shots of him full on smiling.  I should have just declined to buy any but I was worried that if next week he happened to be in a mood or something that we wouldn't get any good then either.   Here they are-





And a few more pics from the weekend-
Pumpkin picking with foxy and aunt casey

1 year stats

Ok, I don't have exact stats but here is what I got from Chris

Height-29. something inches  We do know that he is 30th percentile for height
Weight- 21.something.  No gain from 9 months but that doc said that was ok.  Let's face it, the kid has some extra chub for himself and everyone else in daycare.  35th percentile
Head circ- no idea, they measured it and said it was normal

Everything else is right where it should be for a year.  Little man is taking steps here and there on his own and has had a huge language explosion in the past few weeks.  We are constantly hearing new letters and phrases.  My favorite right now is when he says vroooom while pushing around his cars or moooo when I am reading Little Cow to him.  Squeeee, he is so darned cute!   The doctor's office just went paperless, yesterday, so everyone got a kick out of him cruising over to the laptop and putting his hand up to type.  They said he probably knows more about then they do.  What a little ham.

He did get his two shots plus the first flu shot yesterday.  Holy shit, I have never seen him so fussy before when I got home from work.  He wasn't super happy yesterday to begin with because of tooth #7 but he just wasn't having anything so gave him some tylenol and luckily he woke up in a great mood today.

His actual birthday was great this weekend.  Jax go SO much stuff for his birthday from everyone that I ended up putting most of the things I bought for him in the Christmas pile.  He did end up with a new book, the Elephan Ball popper and then that annoying walking ball popper toy.  We put aside the anywhere chair, two more books, wooden puzzles, mega blocks, and a few other small things.  He'll never know, LOL.  I really think we are going to have a clothing, book, puzzle rule for Christmas because a)I can't think of any other toy he even needs and b)he have no more room.  

Jax wouldn't touch the cake at his birthday party, he seems to have a thing against cake so we bought him an ice cream cake for his actual birthday and that was a hit and a half.  He dove right in once he realized he liked the crunchy middle section.  I still need to make an appointment at Pic.ture People to get his 1 year photos done but I haven't found a good time to take him yet.

Birthday party pics

What we have learned in the past two weeks is that a teething Jax is not always a happy Jax.  He now has four on top, two on the bottom, and we think we can feel something going on with molars but he is such a spaz when we try and look that we don't bother!  Needless to say he wasn't that happiest boy at this party but there were also no major meltdowns so all in all it was a success!

It's possible I went overboard

Not amused

We had quite the turnout

About a minute later the smash cake fell on the ground :)

Goldfish favors- Besides the fish that were put into ponds they were all dead two days later, LOL!

Hand update!

The EMG was not awful, not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination but not awful.   After quite a few pricks, pokes, and shocks it has been confirmed that my current hand issues has zero to do with my nerves or muscles.   Yay!  That is the result the pain doctor and I suspected but it is good to have confirmation.  The doctor did explain to me that the average person has a forearm length of 24 inches and mine is only 18 and that petite people are more prone to issues similar to what I am having plus then throw in the arthritis factor and it's all over.  Onto the hand specialist in two weeks to try and come up with a better game plan but I am stoked for no surgery.  

I have been on the new anti inflammatory for over a week now and I have noticed an increase in acid reflux:(  I see my GI doctor at the end of next month and am wondering if maybe we need to go to a different reflux med instead of switching anti-inflammatory drugs.

In other news the Verizon business worked out.  They do have a deal if you are going from basic to smartphone so I just had to sign a new contract which we are going to do in December anyway and I got the 2 yr price plus $100 for trading in my old phone.  I went with the iPhone because the Droid 3 is out of stock and I am glad it turned out that way.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to type which was why I wanted the Droid but I got the hang of it in just a few minutes.   Now that I have it I am not sure where it has been all of my life and I would be shocked if Chris didn't go smartphone soon since he can upgrade now.

Jax and I are off to Buffalo this weekend to visit granny.  Hopefully I will have a few good pictures to come home with!

9/13/11

Work shifts between being completely insane and insane lately.  The higher ups keep asking us what is going and we have no idea.  No major companies have laid off in the area lately, the unemployment extension denials have leveled off, so we just can't pinpoint why we have so many new clients.  I am doing much better at leaving work at work and what doesn't get done, doesn't get done without it effecting my life too much.  All in all work seems to be on the up and up and we all know my job is secure.  LOL.

I am going to pop a cap right in Verizon's ass.  I have had an issue with my phone since we bought it a year and a half ago.  They have replaced the battery, the back half of the phone and have done numerous in store fixes.  Well it is finally not holding a charge at all and it completely died when I was out this weekend.  Now if it was just Chris and me this would be ok and I would just wait until I am due for an upgrade in December but with Jax that isn't going to work.  I went to the store and they stated that I can upgrade(plan and phone) but they have nothing in stock.  I go online and it is saying that while Chris can upgrade, I can't.  I talk to customer service and they say that whatever I buy I have to pay full price for and that the store was wrong.  At the end of the day it will be cheaper for me to cancel and get service somewhere else than to buy a phone for full price.  This annoys me for several reasons- we have had the same contract for 8 frigging years and in my head this should mean something although I know it doesn't.  The "just because" on why Chris can upgrade and I can't and the fact that I have had issues the whole time and they have been unable to fix it.

That's about it.  Little man has a cold but same as last time he seems to be getting over it pretty quickly.  It is so hard to get him to sit still four times a day now for breathing treatments but we are doing the best we can.  I have no recent pictures because I forgot to upload them onto shutterfly:(

How is it already September?

I was doing so good updating my blog for a while there!  Then our team of 7 at work went down to 3 and I barely have time to pee during the day.

Jax's updates are that he is 11 months old, holy cow!  The invitations for his first 1st birthday party(yes, this is what I put on the invitation and never realized it) were sent out and I think it is going to be freaking awesome!  I don't really have any of the "oh shit, my baby is turning 1" sadness.  I have the "bring it on, he is so much fun" attitude.  Since my last update he is giving high fives, standing and clapping until he realizes he is standing on his own and grabs onto something, saying dada to everyting, up at the correct times, and oh which I believe his version of uh-oh.  He also whistles which everyone finds hysterical and is just generally adorable.   Sign language is still a total fail but we tried.

My update is that I need to see a hand specialist next month.  My hands still hurt, at first we thought it was just pregnancy swelling and overuse but at my last appointment my doctor noticed my wrists are still swollen and the pain I am having doesn't sound like carpal tunnel.  So next week I am having an EMG and then I see the specialist on the 5th.  My last hand x-ray was done a few years ago and there wasn't much degeneration at that point so it could just be worsening arthritis or something with one of the other nerves.

I also came off of my old anti-inflammatory and was put on a new for me, old school one called Melaxican(sp). I just started it last night so I know I need to give it some time but my hands hurt so bad last night I could not undo the knot in my pants and Chris had to do it for me.  This flipping rain is also not helping the situation so it has really been hard to tell what is what lately.   A little note to any other moron who stops her NSAID because she feels so good-yeah don't do it.  I could barely walk by the end of the week but that is how I figured out what was bothering my stomach so it all worked out but it is not advisable for the love of god.  What was I thinking?

I will leave you with some pictures of Jax's first black eye and the two bruises that followed this weekend-

First bruise trying to climb up the stairs at foxys

Second bruise trying to climb a bookshelf

The third one was right in the middle but very light thankfully.

BRU's Trade in Event

It's no secret that I have had my eye on a new stroller for about six months now.  I currently have a Jeep stroller that my cousin refused to sit in(LOL) and a lightweight Graco stroller that was a part of my travel system.   The lightweight one was great to use as a part of the travel system but it pretty much sucks on its own and the Jeep stroller is just too big and heavy for me to get in and out of the car on a daily basis.  I had my eye on a City Mini but the brand that makes them does not participate in the event so I went with a B.ritax B-Agile.  One hand folding, 17 pounds, a huge canopy so little man won't get a sun burn-yep sign me up.  I will admit it took me about ten minutes to figure out how to open it once it was closed but I was clearly just having a blonde moment as I didn't see the hook.

We went for a walk when we got home and it lived up to all of my expectations.  I could carry it folded in one hand and have Jax in the other.  Awesome.

We will be keeping the jeep stroller for trips to the beach as I don't think anything can beat that on the sand.  We are most likely going to trade in the lightweight stroller sometime this month and purchase another convertible car seat for my mom's car.

Bye-bye infant carrier, hello stroller.

First Haircut!!!

Look at that curl in the back!  Jax's hair was officially getting out of control-






All in all it went very well.  It only took her about ten minutes and there is only one little spot in the back where she took off a little more than needed because he moved.  She was worried I would be upset!  LOL, it looks ten times better and one hundred times better than if I tried to do it so I am over it.  It is still a little wavy in the back but there won't be much we can do about that until it gets thicker and it can just be buzzed on the sides.  I wish we would have gotten it done sooner.

Either

the Newark Post Office is built like a brick shit house or I am completely oblivious to the ground shaking underneath me.  I felt nothing during the earthquake we had a few hours ago, NOTHING.  I walked back to work and saw everyone standing outside thinking the fire alarm went off and they said that it was so bad on the third floor that the computers were shaking.  They are building a Wawa gas station next to us(hello pumpkin cappcinos) so I immediately figured something blew up and that was the reason for the ground shaking but apparently not.

Work has been incredibly busy, overwhelmingly so this month.  I broke down and cried in my office yesterday because we lost another person, so what is supposed to be a 7 man team is now a 3 man team and administration didn't even have the decency to email us and tell us we were down to 3 as of Monday.

I have kept this open for an hour to write more but work calls!

Little man's weight

I forgot to post his weight in yesterday's post!  He is now weighing in at 21lbs 7oz, people were really not kidding when they said that he would start slimming down as soon as he started crawling.  He is only up 5 oz since his 9 month appointment and he has definitely gotten taller since then.

My little sis is getting her wisdom teeth out today so Jax and I are headed up to Jersey tonight to cheer her up and help my mom with her if Casey is really out of it.  I think my dad and brother are away on business so we will do our best to keep everyone calm.  *I repeat, please remain calm*   Everyone keeps giving her horror stories about dry sockets, bruising, and being down for the count for days so she is way more nervous than she needs to be.  I know we are all different but I was fine by the next day and had zero bruising so hopefully she will be the same.

On Saturday my mom and I are going to hit up Party City to see what sort of Sesame Street stuff they have, Walmart for his wagon, possibly Ikea for glass jars to put candy in, and we also want to see The Help.  It's going to be a busy day!  Oh, I also need a new camera as mine is on the fritz and I keep having the nagging thought that is going to break for good during his birthday party so I am going to get a new one soon.

Little man getting nebbed in his sleep, the best way to do it!

Luke, I am vadering again

We dropped off Jax at daycare on Tuesday and he was fine, we pick him up and he is in full force vader mode.  It was bad, he was so congested but the mucous wasn't flowing at all plus he is wheezing again.  I take him to the doctors and it is the same song and dance as last year-too young for allergies, could be a sinus infection with a slight respiratory infection.  Lungs are clear which is good, it is all in his airway.  He was just on an antibiotic for ten days for an ear infection so I am not sure how much I buy that it is another infection three days after he finished his course.  Either way we had gotten him down to only one breathing treatment per day and he really did well for a couple months but now we are back on pulmicort twice a day and xopenex at least three, possibly four times a day until fall, winter, and spring viruses are over.  Bummer dude.

As of today we are still calling it reactive airway but I am pretty sure that when he turns one the diagnosis will switch over to asthma.  Good news is that with four treatments yesterday he is already sounding much better.

Other good news is that my work is really off the hizzle lately so I decided to not go back and hang out with Jax until Chris was done work.   We hit up Borders and bought favors for his party, a mini grover, a 2012 calender, a cookbook, and a Skippy Jon Jones board book.  It was 30% off with an extra 15% off for most of it so I would say it was a pretty good deal.  I am sort of kicking myself for not picking up a 2 feet tall birthday party elmo and may go back for it but I just couldn't justify the cost even with the discount.  Maybe once it goes half off I will check back to see if there are any left.

Then Jax and I walked over to Toys R Us to look at the wagons.   I really want one that will fit into the trunk of the Mazda at the very least, the ones that they had assembled were all freaking huge and wouldn't work so I might run to Walmart this weekend to see if I can get a look at the Radio Wagon Pathfinder.  From the reviews I read online this is the smallest one, the handle flips under and it fits into most trunks so we will see.

We then strolled over to Cheeseburger in Paradise which was awesome.  Jax ate guacamole and pretty much nothing else, I literally just drop spoonfulls in front of him and he picks it up with his hands and eats it.   You know the food wasn't great but it was so nice to have an afternoon to just relax with my little man.  We did a little more looking around and then went to pick up Chris before we headed home.

8/16/11

I finally picked out a theme and invitation for Jax's birthday party!  The way I was acting regarding his invitation you would have thought I was a frigging rocket science trying to figure out the best way to blast off into space.  We were going to do Chuggington as he loves it but party supplies will not be available in the US until after his birthday so we can save that for another year.  The next best thing to Chuggington is Sesame Street's Beginnings books, specifically Bubble, bubbles so that is what we are doing.  You would think it would be easy to find a customizable invitation for Sesame Street that can be printed but oh it is not.  It must have something to do with copyrights but none of the sites such as invitationbox.com, shutterfly, tinyprints, ect have Sesame Street layouts and there is no way in hell I was going to pay someone on etsy to create one that I will have to take somewhere to print out and then buy the envelopes.  What the hell is up with that anyway, I guarantee if they offered it at least half of the people would order from them if they offered to print them out and send you blank envelopes.  Anyway, I remembered that I have a good picture of Jax reading Bubbles, bubbles so I ran with that and made them on shutterfly.

So while I didn't go overboard with the invitations the rest of the party is going to be a totally awesome shitshow.  I am 99.37 percent sure I am only having one child so there is no reason not to go crazy.  While I was against printing out my own invitations I am all about ordering decorations on etsy and then printing them out on cardstock.  I am currently deciding between two packages and hopefully it will be done by Friday so Casey and I can start printing and cutting this weekend.  It is going to be a lot plus I am all athritic in my hands so I can't do a lot at once which is why we are starting over a month early.

Damn you Gordon Ramsay!

My favorite shows on television right now are reality cooking competitions.  I watch all three Gordon Ramsay shows plus reruns on BBC, Extreme Chef, Food Network Star, and the list goes on.  The downfall of watching all of these shows is what is going on around my waistline.  I can't help myself, when I am watching them cook their delicious meals I want to eat no matter how late it is.  Usually if there is fresh fruit I will munch on that with a glass of wine and be good but other nights hardcore snacking goes down in our living room.

This week on Masterchef, or it may have been last week's episode that I watched this week, they made shepherd's pie.  It dawned on me that not only have I never made it but I have never had it so I decided at work yesterday that I was going to find a recipe and give it a whirl.  I had one recipe but then once I got home I realized I was missing an ingredient and then I found Rachel Ray's recipe-I had everything and it stated it only took 30 minutes to make which is important.  It was holy crap delicious, definitely the best new thing I have made in quite a while.  There was also more than enough left over that I didn't have to make lunch today for the three of us.

I am always on the search for quick and tasty meals since I don't have a whole hell of a lot of time to cook at night since we don't get home until 6 and Jax goes to bed between 6:30 and 7.  Our favorite easy meal so far is just brown rice and chili, Chris likes regular chili and I like chicken chili.  It is super filling and takes less than ten minutes to make.  I may attempt making my own chili one of these days but so far Hormel's is my bitch.

Chicken Skin

I swear this isn't becoming a beauty blog but stay with me for a minute.  In my mid-twenties during the infertility years I developed chicken skin on the back of my arms.  We noticed it after my first miscarriage, I am not sure if that is when it started but that is when it started looking downright awful.  I asked my dermatologist about it and he just told me it was rosacea and that there was nothing I could do.  Fine, I had enough going on that the back of my arms was the least of my worries.

Things have clearly calmed down and Chris knows how much my arms bother me-between the scaring from the mole excisions and the red bumps on the back of my arms I was always trying to hide them so he did some research.  He finally came to the conclusion two months ago that this was not rosacea but Keratosis Pilaris aka chicken skin.  I did some googling and decided he was right and during my research I found this wonderful and cheap product.  Yes, it's just Eucerin Intensive Repair Creme which you can get for $6-7 dollars in the drug store.   It contains lactic acid, a much gentler AHA than glycolic acid, and it is supposed to unclog your pores which will stop keratin from building up and creating chicken skin.  Or something like that.  No matter what science is going on all I know is that this stuff works!  After two weeks my one arm was clear and the other looked much better.  Two months later and I have almost zero chicken skin areas on the back of my arms and the only reason I have any is because it started looking so good that I forgot to use the cream and it started coming back.  If this is too gentle for you there is also a product called KP Duty that can be found online or at Sephora.  It contains "potent" levels of glycolic acid and is $36 for 4 oz.

The Purge

Hello everyone!

I know you are all on pins and needles waiting for an update to my skin issues so here it is!

When I saw the dermatologist he put me on clinda.mycin in the morning and differ.in lotion in the evening.  He did state that for cystic acne the best thing is going onto a tetracyclin antibiotic but I am allergic to those so that was a no go.  He warned me right off the bat of the purge that would most likely occur when I started using these medications and of course he was right.  It has been two weeks now and things have mostly calmed down and my skin is looking pretty clear for the first time since I had Jax.  A friend of mine is pretty much on the same regimen and she has issues with these topicals drying out her skin but so far I have not had that problem at all.  

My main problem now is the red marks and scars that remain.  I am currently using a sample of Cliniq.ue's Dark Spot Corrector and Ole Henri.ksen's Little Wonders Kit.  My jawline is not the place to look now for improvements as it is so irritated but I have been keeping a close eye on two areas by my right temple and the difference is pretty amazing.  The red marks are still there but smaller and lighter in color so I am hoping that within a few months we will see a change in how my jawline looks.  Then just maybe I will be able to leave the house without throwing something on that area. 

The other new product I tried this month is MUFE's DuoMat powder foundation.  It's basically the best stuff ever-buildable(is this even a word?) coverage that takes the place of my concealer, liquid foundation and powder.  I walked into Sephora and told them that my face is an oil slick and this is what they gave me.  At $32 it is a little pricey but considering it takes the place of three products and it totally rocks I don't care.  They also gave me a sample of Nar's Illuminator in Laguna and I am sold on this also.  It stays put way longer than my regular blush and I don't look like a zombie by the middle of the day which is a major plus.  It's tough being pale!

8/8/11

We started our weekend a day early this time around.  A summer cold hit out house like a ton of bricks last week.   Jax was up on and off all night on Thursday so I knew it was more than a cold and I felt like holy hell so I decided I would stay home with him and since Chris was still recovering also we made a day out of it.  Our first trip was to urgent care where Jax was diagnosed with a double ear infection and a red throat, whatever the hell that means.  We were told that we could wait two more days to see if the infection cleared on its own to limit his antibiotic use but after seeing them pull blood out of his ears I decided to wait two hours.  Maybe it's me but when they pull blood out of your infants ear I am reaching for the drugs.

Friday night we had a Picture People appointment and even though he wasn't feeling well we decided to keep it.  Here are the pics-

By Saturday he was a new kid and we headed to the beach.  Jax played in his stroller for a good 45 minutes once he was done with the sun.  Everyone around us got a kick out him talking to himself and playing with Chris' glasses.  We did try to put his feet in the water again and he freaked out again.  

Sunday was awesome, let me tell you.  The three of us went with our friends Janki and Jason to Max Brenner- Chocolate by a Bald Man for brunch in Philadelphia.  I like chocolate, but I don't love chocolate so I had the Brenner Burger which was delicious, it had me at onion ring to be honest.  The waffle fries were to die for, Jax was holding one and not eating it and for a split second I thought about taking it out of his hand and eating it.

Everyone else had breakfast which was delicious but entirely too rich for me.  Chris and Janki had some sort of Vanilla French Toast with white chocolate dipping sauce.  So good, but I would have had an eighth of it and been done.  

We also ordered drinks, which killed our bill by the way.  The drinks were as much as our entrees. Here was my banana split martini.  

Chris liked it all so much he wants to go back for his birthday, which isn't until next April.  I would go back again also and I would still go the sandwich route but order a milkshake for a drink instead of a martini.  

Then we went to Yards Brewery.  I was not at all impressed with the ten beers that we tried.  

We also walked to JFK park and took a cheesy tourist picture-

Jax was so fascinated with the water fountain we had to turn around so it looked like he was looking at the camera.