Jillian claims another victim

~~30 Day Shred music starting in the backgroud~~

Me: You ready?
Travis: Do your legs EVER STOP HURTING?!

Welcome to my world

So Travis decided he is going to start doing the 30 day shred with me. Two days ago was his first workout. Yesterday he was wishing for a taller car because his legs hurt getting in and out of our Camry. Last night was the second workout. This conversation happened before bed:

Travis: Oh, I think tomorrow might be worse than today.
Me: Ahhh, you must embrace Jillian.
Travis: Oh she's gonna be embraced with my foot up her ass!...I mean as soon as I can extend my leg that far again.

Best Friends

Alex and Aiden have become much better friends since Alex started feeding himself. First it started with Aiden being our own furry little vacuum cleaner under Alex's chair. But now...

I know you are probably grossed out that I let him put his hand in his mouth after the dog licked it, but that's the way we roll in our house. I do love the fact that he was more than willing to share his ravioli, but when he got a piece of chicken in his hand...sorry dog, you are S.O.L.

The Power

It never ceases to amaze me how an 11 month old child has complete and total control over my emotions. That may speak to my lack of control of my own emotions, but I am choosing to believe he has the ability to achieve a Vulcan Mind Melt if necessary, so clearly he controls my emotions.

Alex spent the weekend in Platteville with his uncle, aunt and three cousins. He really really likes it there. He gets undivided attention from three boys, and the aunt and uncle don't exactly ignore him. He gets new toys and new clothes, and gets told how cute he is approximately every 0.4 seconds. So, it's kinda like going to Grandma and Grandpa's. Which shockingly, he also loves. Anyway, this past weekend was no different. I called to check in Friday after I left. I could barely hear the assurances that everything was going great due to the excited baby screeching and belly laughing in the background. K, I am getting to the emotional control finally....

When I dropped him off, he could have cared less that I was leaving. He was sitting in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by his cousins. Mommy who? It made me a little sad, but I was happy he was going to be happy for the weekend. But then...then Sunday came and he came home. I went to greet them outside at the gate. Julie was carrying Alex. When I saw him, he kinda smiled. And when I reached for him? When his mother reached for him?...He buried his face in Julie's shoulder. Mommy's world...successfully shattered.

This brings us to this morning. He loves me again! My "littlest piggy cried weeeweeweeweewee all the way home" made him giggle and drool out his morning bottle. He didn't cry while I was changing his diaper and clothes. As a matter of fact, he actually was "talking" to me the whole time. He snuggled me when I picked him up out of his crib. And we had a wonderful conversation the whole way to daycare. Cloud 9.

And then he cried and was reaching for me when I left daycare. In a fraction of a second, cloud 9 disappeared. But hopefully this means he will be excited to see me this afternoon!

Added note after re-reading:
The reason I was knocked off cloud 9 when leaving daycare is that I feel guilty when he is sad when I am leaving.

What's this? Can I put it in my mouth?

Alex is now very efficient at putting things in his mouth. Which is very handy during snack/meal time. Not so handy during ALL OTHER TIMES. I have become very used to not having to worry about him putting random things in his mouth because for the better part of 11 months he did not put random things in his mouth. Oh how times have changed.

Yesterday he was sitting on the floor reading/demolishing my latest issue of Cooking Light Magazine. This is one of his favorite activities. He can amuse himself for quite a long time with a single magazine. But now? Now I can't let him sit with a magazine and try to get something else done. Now, he will rip pieces of the pages off and cram them in his mouth. Yum-o.

We were outside the other day and he was sitting on the sidewalk, happy as a little clam. I was talking to Travis. All of a sudden Alex starts coughing and sputtering and pretty much choking. He was trying to cough something up that was making him gag and almost throw up. Pretty much like a cat and a fur ball. I tried to get my fingers in his mouth to get whatever it was out, but to no avail since I was struggling enough with trying to hold onto this kid that had transformed into a clawing, coughing, gagging, velociraptor that did not want to be held in the downward facing dog position. Luckily Travis came over and fished out the cause of the choking. A leaf.

A side note of that afternoon outside...Alex found a stick and was waving it around like a flag on the Fourth of July. Aiden totally did a drive by stick stealing. It was awesome. She didn't even break stride. Just ran by him and snatched the stick right out of his fat little hand. He thinks everything that dog does is funny, so he just sat there and giggled.

Splish Splash

When we had Alex, the entire hospital staff was fantastic. Except for one nurse's aide. She was generally nice, but her bedside manner was...lacking. For instance, we took our sweet time naming Alex, so for the first day and a half or so, we were calling him "LJ". My dad had been calling him LaDanian the whole time I was pregnant, so LJ (LaDanian Julius) worked as a nickname to call the little sucker until we could make up our minds about his permanent name. Back to the nurse's aide. She could not remember what we were calling him. Even though it was written on his bassinet. Even when repeating it 72 seconds after telling her. It went something like this:

Nurse's aide: "What's him name again?"
Travis/Jackie: "For now it's LJ."
Nurse's aide: "TJ?"
Travis/Jackie: "No...LJ."
~Fast forward about two minutes~
Nurse's aide: "So when was the last time you changed little MJ's diaper."

It drove me crazy.

But the bigger problem occurred when she was showing us how to give our tiny 5lb-9oz fragile, breakable, head squishable monster baby a sponge bath. I was in a state of ouchy hoo-ha, so I laid in bed and watched her show Travis. We had no idea what we were doing, so naturally Travis was nervous. He did his best and I thought he did just fine. But she scolded him more than once and at one point told him if he did it his way, he was going to suffocate our child. Nice.

Since that day, Travis has been completely petrified to give Alex a bath. And has not done so. The only real problem I had with that is Alex loves taking a bath and it is a fun time to spend with him. And because of this nurse's aide-instilled fear, Travis was missing out on a really fun time with our kid.

But then last night happened. I had a hair appointment after work so I was not scheduled to get home until after the beast was asleep. When I got home I discovered Travis had accomplished a million and one things during his day off. Then he told me that we needed to cut Alex's fingernails. Which is a task that takes two people and can only be attempted when that child is asleep. So I go in his room to get him. He has a haircut, which is super cute, and is freshly bathed. Not only did Travis manage to cut his hair, but he did it! He triumphed! He gave Alex a bath!

It was a big day in the Julius house yesterday.

Nom Nom Nom

Hot on the tail of getting his bottle in his mouth, the boy actually figured out how to put food in his mouth! Finally! It is not pretty, but he does it. It started with this ring thing that has a small mesh bag attached to it, that fruit or anything mush-able goes into and he can chew on it and get the stuff through the mesh without choking. The first time I tried that with him, I held it, he chewed on it...with his hands just sitting on his little tray. But, after a brief hiatus from trying, I gave it another shot. And low and behold, he grabbed it, shoved it in his mouth and chomped away. Getting raspberry juice all down the front of his shirt. Minus one point for me for not thinking about the mess a raspberry filled mesh pouch would make. So we kept up with that for a couple days...minus a shirt. The red juice running down his chest is a bit horror movie-esque though...perhaps a waterproof bib with a catch trough would be a better route.

Anyway, the mesh thingy must have made the hand crammed full of food goes in mouth connection in his little brain, because now he grabs food and jams it in his mouth. About half the time he ends up gagging himself because all of his fingers are in there with the food, but I am assuming with some practice that little problem will correct itself.