Ear infection strikes again...

Poor baby Noah. As it turns out, he has an ear infection again. It all started last week when he was rubbing at his ears. Since we'd been checking pressures in his ears every three weeks since his last flare up, I figured it was another opportunity to give him his allergy meds. The pediatrician had told me that it could help with inflammation in the eustation tubes. So, allergy meds it was and he seemed to be doing ok. He got them everyday, even when his eyes started watering and nose started draining... uh oh. When the weekend came around, the discharge was green and his temperature started fluctuating up and down. Had to be on the weekend...

Monday I scheduled an appointment to have him seen and we left with a prescription for some antibiotics and instructions to go see an ENT. We got the appointment scheduled with the ENT for this coming Wednesday and not a moment too soon, because he ear started draining like it had the first time around.

Through all of this he's been a champ. A few cranky days and more naps than usual, but otherwise, he's active and playing and actually loves getting his medications. I helps that they flavor them for kiddos.

As for me, I've just been going along with it, not doing much but taking care of the little one. Yoga was skipped all week because he wasn't feeling that great and I didn't want to risk getting pulled out of class because of the draining from his ear. You can pre-emp some things with them, but they still don't believe me that he's a monster spit-up baby and ended up pulling me out of class one day for that, so I'm not even risking this.

Taran's parents came to visit this weekend which is pretty cool. They are staying with his brother which is weird. They had always stayed with us when they visited, but since his brother now lives down here, they feel they have to be fair. It kinda makes me sad. I guess that is how you know you have good in-laws... when you feel kinda jealous they are staying somewhere else. =)

Anyhoo... Just keepin' on keepin' on. Until the next moment strikes me...

More time disappearing

The summer seems to be flying by. Noah has officially reached 11 months. One more and he'll be a year old! I can't believe it. I've been working on several projects lately that have been taking up my time. That combined with the baby and I'm a busy person!

One of my projects is advertising my baby items for sale. I of course have the diaper cakes that I make.

I've also started a few other items that I feel will ad more variety to people wanting baby gifts. The idea is that these offer other options but they run a little cheaper than the diaper cakes.

So, presenting the Baby Buggy (formed with rolled diapers and wrapped in a blanket and wash cloths), the Baby Bouquet (presented in a basket or vase with rolled diapers, wash cloths, and other baby items), and the Candy Dish (made of rolled diapers, wash cloths, and other baby items wrapped to look like candies).

I'm really proud of these and I think they add a bit of variety for gifts or shower decorations. I've compiled a brochure which I'm hoping I can put in a local shop where my mom group meets, but I also figure that I can bring the pamphlets to craft shows with one or two display items so people have the information to order some if they like.

I've also remade my Pet Nutrition Solutions business cards. I'm having difficulty finding someone w/ marketing/advertising/art skill to help me make my logo. I have the concept but no artistic skills so I need help. I really wanted the logo before making the business cards and other promotional items, but I felt I needed updated cards regardless. There is a pet boutique near the shop where my mom group meets. Their sign reads "Pet Nutrition Center." I'm not sure what that means so I want to go in and talk to them about it and if warranted, I can leave my info and gain some business and if nothing else, some exposure. The updated cards list my website so hopefully that will generate traffic as well as people getting an idea of what my philosophy is as well as learn ways I can help them out. I also listed services on the back of the card. I'm unsure about how that will work. Taran tells me that info listed on the back may be missed, but with the nature of the card, it wouldn't have worked.

Noah has been stuffed lately which is no fun. I'm thinking it is just allergies, but it may be related to his ear issues which have been off and on for a while. Thanks to Zyrtec and an aspirator, I think he's feeling a little more comfortable.

With any luck, we'll get to visit my brother today, it's been forever. I just have to get laundry going!

Until next time!

Bah...

Ok, so now all my worrying about getting other kids exposed to chicken pox is complicated by the fact that the other baby that potentially had it actually has Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease which can look like chicken pox. And that disease can still be spread even after symptoms subside! Oy vey! So here I am thinking we'll be ok since Noah's spots are mostly healed up and now I find out that if he has this other thing, maybe not! I'm mildly annoyed because I don't know what is going on. Yes, Noah is doing better and obviously is ok as far as this is concerned, but I was unable to get a hold of a nurse at the pediatrician's office and I'd like to just talk to someone and figure stuff out. In the mean time, I really shouldn't expose him to other kids until I know what is potentially going on and what the risks of infection to others are.

Today is Taran and my second anniversary. We didn't do anything special to celebrate. We did go to Best Buy and pick up some new movies and the first two seasons of The Big Bang Theory. I love that show. So close to home with all the geeks I used to hang out with in college! It just cracks me up.

Aside from running to the bank and doing some chores around the house, it's been a pretty uneventful day. Uneventful is not bad though. I still feel like I could use some more relaxation... Maybe I just need sleep...

So, yeah...

I can't say I have anything in particular to write about, I just didn't want my blog to go for another month without writing and the best way to do that is to write something even if it isn't particularly noteworthy.

The biggest thing that I have to report is that there is the potential that Noah had chicken pox. On Saturday I discovered that one of the other babies in my Smart Mommy Group had chicken pox and it threw me into a panic. I started looking up symptoms and what do you know, they described exactly what has been going on with Noah.

Now, I don't want to be one of those people that reads something on the internet and attributes a disease to it and panics, but I am worried that he potentially spread it to other kids because chicken pox was so far off of my radar I didn't bother to keep him away from anyone after his fever cleared. I have no clue if he caught it from that other baby or if he gave it to her. He has multiple opportunities for exposure so there is really no telling. I'm going to call the pediatrician's office tomorrow and see what they say. Since he's recovered for the most part I'm not expecting them to really do much, but I'd like to know if that is what he had and would like to know if there is a way to tell that it is for sure that.

Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. We went over to Taran's brother's new house and Taran helped them to move in some more of their stuff. I couldn't really do much because I was watching the baby. I felt bad that I was just standing around, but I didn't really have another option.

That's all for now... maybe I'll have more to report tomorrow.

Uh... I am terrible at this blogging thing...

So it's almost been a month since my last blog post and since the baby is up and moving around and getting into things he shouldn't, this is going to be quick.

Here is a rough, read very rough, summary of what has been going on with me:

Taran has been home for a while, though that doesn't mean that he's actually been at home. Right now, life has been like a typical stay-at-home mom/working dad life. Taran has spent some time training then gone in to work at the lab for a couple weeks and then spent more time in training. So, he is gone for the day and Noah and I are home to go about our business.

For the most part that means that I go to yoga in the mornings at the YMCA, with the exception of Wednesday mornings when I meet with my mommy group. We've had a few rough mornings as Noah has continued his tendency to awaken early and not want to go back down.

Developmentally, Noah is continuing on. he is an amazingly fast crawler and manages to get into things before I realize that he's done it. I've caught him putting about everything he can into his mouth such as shoes, books (which he can very effectively and quickly destroy/eat), and even leaves off of my plants. He pulls himself up onto the furniture and will walk along the length of the couch or grab his push toy and walk with that. He is fascinated with anything on a hinge from book pages to doors to the dryer.  He has discovered the cabinets in the kitchen but has not spent much time exploring in there, thank goodness. He also has become quite a climber as seen here:

He also received his first haircut on May 11. We did it at home with the clippers and it went great. He tolerated it so well:

He's continuing to grow, though his fast growth is over and now he's letting the other babies catch up to him so he doesn't appear to be such a mammoth.

I'm attempting to keep my sanity as I chase him around and am barely able to keep up with any of my other interests because how how occupied I am with him. Such is the life of a mom.

I hope my next blog comes sooner from a month from now, but we'll see. 'Til then...

Holy Cow, the Weekend is Over

Oh, I'm well aware it's already the end of Tuesday, but I really don't know where my weekend went.

Friday started out as a normal day, first yoga, then home. I worked a lot on cleaning up the house in preparation of my in-laws coming in. Taran told me they'd be coming in late so I had plenty of time to get things done.

Taran had spent last week training so he was at the office and came home late in the afternoon. I had just started vacuuming the house and he asked me if it was ok if he went to Dallas with his brother that night to help bring a load of things back the next day. His brother Clinton and his wife Kim had just closed on their house on Friday and they thought it was a good opportunity to start the move. They officially have a little over a month in Dallas until school gets out (they are both teachers) but they had the weekend free. So, Taran was heading out as his parents were heading in. It's a good thing I get a long with his parents otherwise that would have not been a good situation. In any case, by the time I got to the other end of the house with the vacuum, Clinton and Kim were at our house getting ready to whisk Taran away. He had barely been home at all.

So, Taran's parents came in late in the evening toting gifts for Noah. No surprise there. He got a really cute pair of camo shorts and a rimmed hat to match. Yay for sun protection that isn't girly! He also received a bear with contact points on either hand and when you hold on to them he "says" the prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep." It is super cute. In any case, it was late by the time they arrived, so we went to bed. I had kept the baby up since the dog always barks when people come to the house and he would have been awakened anyway. The good news is that with him staying up, he slept pretty well that night.

Saturday we got up a bit late which was nice. It was a nice relaxing morning and Taran's parents had gotten doughnuts and kolaches for breakfast. Yum. Taran's dad had grabbed some blueberry cake doughnuts for me which are one of my favorites! Taran's dad decided he wanted to mow the lawn (as a favor to Taran) and I'm not gonna argue with him, so I let him. Taran's mom and I went to my Smart Mommy meeting  and immediately afterward, we went on to Noah's first party!

One of the babies in the Smart Mommy Group, Lilah, was celebrating her first birthday. They set up a cute party for her with a farm theme. Cassidy, the mom, out did herself. Now, Cassidy is extremely creative and man, did she show it! The guests were primarily family and members of the mommy group, at least from what I could tell. Cassidy and her mom had decorated with balloons which fascinated Noah. There were also pictures strung up together from every month in the past year of Lilah so you could see how she grew from birth until her first year. It was super cute. I'm probably going to steal that idea. They made five cakes. Each cake was round and they had them set  up in a row in increasing sizes. Each cake was decorated like a farm animal. Smallest to largest, there was a rabbit, a chick (yellow coconut to look fuzzy), a sheep (marshmallows to look like wool), a pig, and a cow. Too cute! On top of that, Cassidy's dad and step-mom brought over two miniature horses for the kids. One of them, St. Napolean, was good enough for the kids to sit upon for photo shoots. Of course, since they were mostly babies, they didn't really get pony rides, but it was cute nonetheless. Here is Noah on his first horse!

After riding the horse, playing with toys and the other kiddos, and snacking on broccoli, chicken, tortillas, etc., Noah was tuckered out and took a nap:

We left shortly after because he was wiped! I'm not complaining. Naps are good. He barely moved when I put him in the car. Sweet baby.

That evening, Taran and Clinton returned from their trip to Dallas and started unloading the truck. Taran's dad headed over to help them out and Taran's mom, Noah, and I went shortly thereafter - Taran's mom made cookies and we had to wait for them to cool. The evening was spent unloading the truck and setting up some furniture. I mostly watched since I had the baby, I felt kinda useless, but oh well. Kim, Taran's mom, Shannon (a friend of Clinton and Kim's), and I went to see if we could check out some of the other new or unowned houses in the neighborhood, but they were all locked. Oh well. We returned home a bit late, and Taran ran to Chick-Fil-A to grab dinner.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day, but nice. We took a walk to the playground here in our neighborhood and put Noah on the swings, and slide and other playground equipment for photo ops. He was super cute. We also took some picks of Niobi playing fetch with a stick. I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet, but they were good. Taran and I got to go to a movie afterward while his mom and dad watched Noah. I wouldn't have minded staying out a bit longer, after all, we don't get much opportunity to go out just the two of us, but there wasn't really anything else for us to do.

Monday Taran had to return to work at the office and Taran's parents headed out and I was left alone with the baby. It was so weird that the weekend flew by so quickly and here we are and it's already Tuesday.

Today, I had so much laundry to do, but didn't get much of anything done. I did water the plants this morning and took Noah and Niobi for a walk before it got too hot. Noah was kinda cranky today and I was suffering from a plugged milk duct that I had to figure out how to empty (no fun since that side is super sore from a bad nursing latch). When Taran came home after work, I was finally able to get some things done, like dishes and vacuuming and I was able to start on the laundry.

Tomorrow, I have my mommy meeting and I need to take the car in to fix the tire pressure monitor that is brand new but not working and to get the passenger side view mirror replaced. I hope it doesn't take terribly long, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Here's hopin'!

Here we go again

Wow, just wow. Another day but the same cranky baby. Noah is having another bad day it seems. I think its a combination of tired and teething. He got up early this morning. He didn't think I should stay in bed. I disagreed, but as so often happens, he won the argument. So we got up.

Yoga was actually pretty good today, although, the instructor kinda put me on the spot by pointing out that I was more flexible than she was in one particular position. Oops. It was a little embarrassing, but oh well. It was reported to me when I picked Noah up afterward that he seems to like to steal bottles and pacifiers from other babies. Oh no. I've noticed he does the same thing at our Smart Mommy Group. I have no idea why. He'll take toys too, but pacifiers are like an instant beacon for him. Maybe he feels he needs one too. I don't know, but it is a common occurrence apparently.

Although he took a nap on the way home, I was unable to get him to stay asleep and he's been cranky since then. I'm supposed to meet some other moms from the mommy group for a late lunch today. At least Noah is pretty good in public even when he's tired, so I hope that he behaves. Maybe all of the activity will exhaust him enough for him to think napping is a good idea. Here's hopin'!