Spittle

As is the usual start to my posts, V is sleeping and I am hanging out on the sofa as per usual on Saturday night.
I am back to work on Monday and might even be happy about that. Lord knows I can't stand to 'relax' or 'do nothing', so the idea of working holds a curious appeal to me. It's that or reorganizing the kitchen/closets/cupboards etc etc, and I have already done the kitchen. Cupboards are tomorrow!

I am watching The Mummy 3 and am not too sure what I think of the CGI Yeti in the film. It might rank up there with Pierce Brosnan singing in 'Mamma Mia".

V has learned a new skill, courtesy of his Daddy and Pop-Pop respectively. And oh is he ever pleased when he can show you! While we were at Epcot earlier last week, my husband and father-in-law somehow managed to teach V how to spit/blow raspberries. You should have seen the smiles on their face when he finally caught on! V was having the time of his life and pretty soon we were all covered in spit. And his face was soaking wet. And the front of his onesie looked like he had just ran a marathon.

Next on the agenda was to teach him 'pull my finger'....... and again I had that vision of my future, full of men, all farting and burping and laughing hysterically at it. And again I thought about getting a female pet.

Our chihuahua is a male too. Basically I live surrounded by men. And I know too, that if I were to have another child, it would also be a 'masculine child'. And that would be the end of it. Forever surrounded by men, dirty bathrooms (as those go hand-in-hand), upright toilet seats, burping, farting, 'game day', sports paraphernalia , sinks full of shaving cream and whiskers NOT washed down the sink, endless viewings of 'The Godfather' parts 1 2 and 3 etc etc....

All I have to do now is convince M that another animal in the house wouldn't be that bad of a deal! Wish me luck!

Eve...

I have approximately 7 minutes....... That is precisely how long my delicious orange-vanilla Genoise cake has left to cook in the oven.

I am being adventurous this year and am making a french recipe for Buche-de-Noel that I found online and am really hoping that it will be delicious and look exactly like it does in the picture (complete with meringue mushrooms..... which I might even attempt...). V is down for a nap which is how I have time to try this out. M is out doing his Xmas shopping. Without fail every year he does the majority of it on Christmas Eve and complains to me that he can't believe how busy it is (!!!!!!).

The house is clean, the tree is lit and I am watching a James Bond marathon on telly in my pj's feeling very relaxed...

(3 minutes!)

Quick observation on parenthood related to incidents that M and I just had recently..

In M's case, the other day he was playing with V, when he threw-up directly on his face..... some of which got precariously close to his mouth. M nonchalantly wiped it off and continued with what he was doing. He confessed to me later that he was really surprised by his reaction..... I think he thought he was going to be more grossed out that he was...

(Timer! Be right back)
Holy dear god does that cake ever smell good.........

Anyways, my incident happened this morning as I was getting ready to give wee V a bottle. He was starting to get fussy, which is generally what happens when he is getting tired and it was getting close to his morning nap time.

I picked him up out of his high-chair, where he was playing with a sippy-cup (in my hopes that he would figure out that there is juice in there and start drinking from it even though I gave it to him for the first time about 3 hours ago....but I digress). I was holding him facing towards me and I lifted him up over my head to give his pants a sniff (as this is what us parents do) and he apparently didn't like this move as he threw up right on the top of my head. RIGHT ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD.

I started laughing hysterically (something which I apparently do a little more often than I did pre-parenthood), which made V smile and giggle.... in the meantime baby-puke is slowly dripping down my scalp on to my neck, and the spit-up that managed somehow to miss the top of my head and hit the floor is being diligently cleaned up by our chihuahua.

Please try to imagine that scene:
Me, covered head to toe (literally too!) in baby-puke, laughing uncontrollably in my living room, with V grinning at me, while our dog frantically licks the carpet surrounding my feet....

Well, what do you do?? I gave V a bottle and then put him down for his nap...... then took a shower, washed the puke out of my hair and decided to bake this darn cake!

It really is amazing how things change with a child. Probably in the past this would have grossed me right out, but now I could care less and in fact ignore it. In the grand scheme of things its just really not that important. Besides, I love my little man too much to even be bothered by him throwing up on me!

Strawberries suck

I just finished wrapping some silly gifts for M and wee V and am pretty sure that I will be hitting the hay in a few minutes....
I think I have solved the mystery of wee V's allergy problem. I fed V applesauce with strawberries again today and about 2 hours later I noticed that his feet were red. I didn't think that much of it until I went to change him and got a better look at them. They looked a little swollen and puffy and had little raised bumps on them. And when I sat him up on the changing table I noticed that he had a red rash on his lower back with some little welts on it. I called Dr E and she agreed with me that it sounded like he was having a reaction to the strawberries.
I mean, we had just started a new formula today, but its soy and so pretty much guaranteed to not be a problem since its designed for the sensitive tummy. And the sauce was the only other thing it could have been. So off I went to get some benadryl..... my poor boo....

That benadryl sure made him sleepy though and right after he had his bedtime bottle he fell asleep in my arms. And has been sleeping ever since. I think I have checked on him oh, about six million times...... I have to wake him up at 11:30 to give him another does and then one more in the morning and hopefully we should be good.

I hope that this is the answer. It would make sense if that was all it was though.... what with my sensitive stomach and my reactions to things like that. Clearly he takes after me in that respect. So no Strawberries!

Funnily enough I really thought it would be the least harmless of the stage 2 foods. Especially since my other choices were things like guava and mango (fruit choices I mean), I really felt confident that apples and strawberries would be a safe choice. Now that I think about it more though I remember some movie where someone put a bag of moldy strawberries under someone elses pillow and it totally made their face all puffy and swollen and awful. Much like (now that I think about it more) V's face looked like the other time he ate it.

Clearly I should try and remember more random movie trivia and apply it to my life...

*Sigh*

Once again its the end of another week, and once again I am exhausted and on the sofa with a lovely glass of Merlot....
Darling V had his 6 month checkup and is a perfectly happy healthy little guy. With the exception of some sort of allergy. Yup! That's right, all that wondering and worrying and such a simple answer. What exactly he's allergic to is another story.... As the answer could really be anything, Dr E urged us to start with simple things like detergent and formula, so we are making the switch to soy (as we have already made the switch with the detergent, which is nice as M now smells even better all the time now!). I am really hoping that one or the other will be the answer before we get into the down-and-dirty with the food elimination.

So the week was off to a rather rough start, what with the doctor's appointment. And then the computer crash..... so disappointing! And literally it happened minutes after M transferred about 450 pictures from our camera card to the desktop. And didn't save them to disc, as it was late at night. Which contained some lovely pictures that M had taken of V and I at a local park. It was the first time we had actually sat him in the grass and let him check things out. The grassy areas around our apartment are heavily ummmmmm 'decorated' by our neighbourhood animals, I shudder to even think about letting him play there.

Anyways...... where was I going with all of this.... oh yes, there also was the incident of me dumping a large Toasted Almond coffee all over my new handbag, which made it smell rather unpleasantly of wet leather and coffee for a few days.

It all culminated this morning....

I have this routine every morning.

I usually:
1: Take V out to car, buckle him up, give his little face kisses (from me and his puppy-dog who lives in our car)
2: Drive to Dunkin' Donuts, get large large large coffee to go
3: Drive to Ginette's and drop off V (more kisses to his little sweet face)
4: Drive to work


This morning I:
1: Took V out to car, buckled him up, gave his little face kisses (from me and his puppy-dog who lives in our car)
2: Drove to Dunkin' Donuts, got large Toasted Almond coffee to go
3: Drove to work

Do you see the step I am missing there??

I got about oh, half-way to work when I heard a little rattle in the back-seat. V was being very very very quiet, he may have dozed off even! As soon as I realized he was back there I just started laughing..... not completely hysterically, but perhaps close. Perhaps if I had had a little more coffee this would have been avoided. I pulled a u-turn at the Marriot and headed back into Hunters Creek, back to Ginette's to drop off darling boy-o.
One of my girlfriends had told me that she lives in fear of this happening to her, and I was all like "Right. How could that ever happen! That would never happen to either of us! We are two together, highly organized people...."

But wait! I am forgetting one important factor! Sleep!! The sleep that I don't get! The sleep that my darling friend also doesn't get has her little one is 3 weeks younger than V! So much for the two of us collaborating in thought. Two sleep deprived minds don't make a right.

I called M to laugh at my mistake and he said "Oh, I am totally telling my Mum" while he laughed along with me. His Mum who gave me 'a look' when I brought it up at their house this evening (their house, which I might add which was at least 6 million degrees hotter than the outside even though its winter in Florida). Who then started to talk about how that is something that happens all the time and that I should really be more careful, or something to that effect..... I wasn't listening as I was sweating so much from the lack of air-conditioning-slash-any air movement at all in their house. Seriously!

Anyways, I couldn't believe I had forgotten about him. And I really wished I could have taken him to work with me too. I am sure he would have been very helpful. He does help me carry my keys to the car...

Anti fuzz...

The fuzzy sheets are gone....

I think its punishment from God for buying them at Ross.

What I am trying to say is that my son has sensitive skin, something we have been battling for a while. His face had been looking a little rough, the result of repeated scratching of his face. I religiously cut his nails and file them, so they won't cut his little sweet face. I call it 'manicure time', which M hates, which is probably why I continue to call it that =] I love teasing my husband. Anyways, nails are trimmed and his face is always slathered with Eucerin and washed daily.

He's had repeated dry spots on his cheeks, which are aggravated by the scratching. It seems to come and go. Recently it had gone (which we were so happy about), but now it's returned with a vengeance. Like it has a vendetta or something. Its just plain awful. And there are 2 little puffy spots under his eyes, and that is what got me thinking that its more than just scratching this time.

So I tried to think of what I had changed recently in his little world that could possibly cause this....

* Same formula--check!
* Same clothing, all cotton-- check!
* Same detergent (Dreft, such a funny name)--check!
* Same 'sensitive skin' body wash (by Dove)--check!
* Same baby cereal/baby food--check!
* Same sheets on crib mattress--che.....hey, wait a minute!

I put non-cotton sheets on his mattress, and now that he sleeps on his tummy, he rubs his little face on the sheets as he's settling down for the night. Hmmm..... could this be the problem?

So I ripped them off and put the regular ones back on. And before I put him to bed I washed his little face and slathered it with Eucerin and Aquaphor and am really hoping that I will see some improvement in the morning.

I moved V up to stage 2 food, which is a little thicker and comes in a few more exciting flavours and combos. So I thought that I would try something new for him and got him an applesauce/strawberry combo, which I though sounded rather yummy.

Which actually was rather yummy. I was curious as to what it tasted like! I have tried most of the jarred food he has eaten so far, and banana is my current favorite. I offered M a taste, and he refused. Flat out. No way. I think his exact words were something like "My dad said I didn't have to try it", which made me laugh sooooo much. Oh my gorgeous husband is so ridiculous sometimes (really all the time).

Anyways, for some reason, what with V's red raw little face in the forefront of my mind, I kept thinking about my childhood obsession with strawberries. My mum has told me repeatedly about how she has (ha! bad grammer, but it stays.....she doesn't limit my strawberry intake anymore) to limit how many I ate. I could eat 6, but if I ate more that that, I would be sick. I usually would sneak a few more. And then be sick.

And as I was feeding him applesauce with strawberries this morning for the second time, I wondered to myself if, since he looks so much like M if that would mean that he would take after me in some respects. Like with strawberries.....

Anyways, tonight is night 1 post-fuzzy sheets, and I hope hope hope darling V's wee face looks better tomorrow! I'll keep you updated...

Fuzzy Sheets

I finally have come to the realization that my little boy is growing up.

Just last week he rolled over for the first time, and ever since then he is a rolling mad man. M and I are not prepared for this! We had become very comfortable with putting him down somewhere and having him stay there (bouncy seat, bumbo jungle mat etc). We would move him around the house to various spots and do our work around him (laundry, dusting, grading papers....). We are having a hard time adjusting to the idea that he is mobile (partially anyways) and really are at a loss of how to handle it!

The weather in FLA is finally starting to actually feel like proper winter-ish weather and I might maybe have enough warm clothes for V (finally....maybe...). I bought him some fuzzy sheets for his little crib so his bed would be warmer. We are totally all over the 'no blankets in the crib' thing, and I felt horrible about just laying him down in the middle of the crib with nothing surrounding him. So I was all over the fuzzy-wuzzy sheets thing.

Anyways, those sheets must have been nice as in the middle of the night I found him flipped over, sleeping peacefully on his tummy.

Which freaked me out.

A lot.

As you may or may not know, the current philosophy is that 'back is best' when it comes to putting babies to bed. Although, when I was a baby sleeping on the tummy was the thing. It probably will change again when my little man grows up and has babies of his own (oh god!), but at any rate thats where we are now. All literature fully and completely supports this, and of course we want to do what's best for our darling V.

Anyways, so I flipped him back and he snoozed the rest of the night away on his back.

The following night, M got up and check on him only to find him sleeping happily away on his tummy, he freaked out, flipped him back and came back to bed. I got up a while later, checked on him and found him sleeping on his side, so I gently eased him onto his back. He woke up and was on his side in seconds. And I was at such a loss of what to do with him that I picked him up and took him to bed with me (which is delicious).

Today I rushed home from my company's christmas party, picked up V from the in-laws and headed home. We had dinner and a bath and then became a fussface and so I put him to bed. The second his back hit the mattress, he was over on his side again, reaching for the crib bumper and attempting to stuff it in his mouth. My mind was like "Ok! Thats the end of that! Bye bye crib bumpers!" and I removed them on the spot. His little feet immediately went through the bars of the crib and got stuck and he screamed in suprise, but we fixed that. I think he was kind of suprised/shocked that they were gone so suddenly. There were a couple of little whimpers and after a bit of wiggling around he went right to sleep.

I watched him as he slept, and marvelled at how different he looked in that crib. When we first brought him home he was soooooo tiny in it. So small that we could lie him with head and feet between the long lengths of the crib. Now he sleeps in it like any normal person sleeps in a bed. And now it has no bumpers so the crib looks so bare and prison-like (as I was just saying to Loo on the phone). All those bars....sigh..... my big boy....

anyways, off to bed for me! Mr V-P and I are off to see Santa tomorrow, its a big day!