"Gentle"

I've been desperately trying to teach Jay what the word gentle means. Whenever he pulls my hair, instead of shreaking out in pain and jerking his hand away, I try placing his hand back on my head and saying, "gentle... see Jay.. gentle." Which usually results in him giving me a devious look and smile and doing it again harder. (I saw the same look in a horse I had in my college riding class. Her name was Black Beauty and she'd always give me that look right before she'd step on my foot. Same deal here.) Anyhow, I don't mind the pinching and hair pulling as much as the biting. You'd think I'd be able to avoid this one but this kid is quick! And check out his teeth: They're like fangs! What's funny is I didn't know how hard he was actually biting me until the other night when I was in bed talking to Joe. I looked down and I had little marks all over my arm. They were groups of three little dashes and it took me a minute to realize that they were actually Jay's teeth marks! Let's just say I'm not so thrilled that his top teeth are coming in... Ouch!
And now sometimes he doesn't just bite me but he gives me little hickeys all over. I was talking to Joe's sister Traci last night and I wasn't really paying attention to Jay. Before I knew it he was sucking hard right on my arm. By the time I pulled him off he'd left a pretty good mark. (This picture makes my arm look kinda funny. It looks like my elbow but that's really my bulging tricep. I work out.) Anyhow, the only sad part is that I have to wear short sleeves for Janelle's wedding on Saturday. I hope it fades a bit before then!

Jay is such a cute kid though. I can't ever be mad at him because he just looks at me with those big eyes and big smile, and then snuggles in close. This little guy is good! I'm in so much trouble once he learns to talk.

Speaking of cuteness: here's a picture mostly for me. I love how Jay crosses his legs when he sleeps. Watching how cute he is when he's asleep makes me forget what a little rascal he is when he's awake.

Accident Prone

(I know I've been posting a lot lately. I have a billion other things I should be doing right now but for some reason writing is therapeutic for me. It calms me down.)  

Anyway, I've always been accident prone... ALWAYS. From the time I was tiny when I broke my arm playing a game that I made up (how embarrassing), to the time in college when I fell down a mountain, fell down ice skating, then passed out and hit my head all within 24 hours. Pretty much doing anything can be dangerous for me. I don't think Joey really knew how extreme this problem was until this morning. He was mowing the lawn but had to leave to go do some other things. So he asked if I would finish up. We both went out to make sure that I could start the lawn mower. I pulled a few times and it barely turned over. Finally Joe said something like, "Don't be a wuss." So I pulled as hard as I could and managed to jam two of my fingers on the bar that goes across the the top of the lawn mower. Then I blacked out and went down! Joe didn't know what was happening. I guess he thought I just wanted to sit down. He said he was thinking, "Stacy, don't sit down... there's thorns." When I came to I found him sitting next to me laughing. Honestly, who passes out trying to start a lawn mower?! I lead a sad, sad life. 

Pretty Trippy

I've been working on a slideshow for Janelle's Wedding (Joe's little sister) and while doing that I ran into a few baby pictures of Joe. Now for all of you who think Jay looks just like me, this post is for you. Check it out.

Joe: Jay: Me: To me he looks so much like Joe as a baby. Maybe with my eyes though. Anyhow Joe was so cute (and is so cute now... he'll call me out on that one) I just had to share a few of my favorites. And here's me: 

Some people think Joe and I look like brother and sister. I'm kind of grossed out by that.

A Few Things I Want To Remember

#1) I suspected Jay was a skinny kid for his age. Well I was right. We went to the doctor yesterday and he's 75% for height and 5% for weight! 

#2) The doctor we went to yesterday was an Allergist. He said that because we haven't switched Jay to formula yet and because he's sooo allergic to milk, I have to go off dairy!!! Yikes! Have you ever tried to go off dairy products? It's impossible! I've been living off pancakes and popsicles. It's really well balanced. 

#3) Jay also had to have a blood test yesterday and they took a lot of blood. Poor kid. The syringe was the same size as his forearm. I don't think I've even had that much taken from me... not to mention if the syringe was the same size as my forearm, I would have passed out for sure.

#4) My car is being... flakey. That's the only word I can think of right now. It dies at least once a day and it's always in the middle of an intersection. Not safe I know. I think it's my fuel pump but that'll cost a big chunk of change to fix. So do we just buy a different car? What to do? Maybe a bigger car would be practical considering my car can barely fit Jay's car seat. (We're tall people.) Oh well this is probably not an important thing to remember, I just wanted to vent.

More Childproofing

Problem: Solved.

I have to tell you that I am in love with Craig's list. This entertainment center was only $25! It's so nice to not have to pick up every DVD we own off the floor everyday... not to mention that right after I took that top picture, Jay pulled the whole tower down on top of himself!

I also got a gym membership off Craig's List. (Happy Mother's Day to me. Thanks Joe!) Did you know they have those?! Well they do and it's awesome. So many people are trying to get rid of them right now. You just search through and find whatever gym you want at the lowest price you can find. No start up fees! And the person is usually so desperate to get rid of it that they will pay to transfer it to your name. Then to make it even better, you are only locked into it for the amount of time they had left on their contract. I signed up at Gold's and the girl had a year left. After that they'll just keep charging me until I cancel. And the girl had already paid for this month so I get to use the gym for free until June 20th. And on top of all that, I get UNLIMITED childcare for only $10 a month! (Obviously, I had to be super picky about this option because of Jay's food allergies.) Their facility in Meridian is amazing. They know how to handle food allergies and the gym has TV's on almost every machine where you can watch the kid's club from three different views! So I can spend forty-five minutes getting a good workout, with Jay only 50 yards away, and I can watch him the whole time! Love it.

Just In Case

If you were wondering how Jay is doing since his little "episode" yesterday... well...He's good.

an*a*phy*lax*is

Webster's Definition:

noun (also anaphylactic shock)
an extreme, often life threatening, allergic reaction to an antigen to which the body has become hypersensitive following an earlier exposure.

My Definition:
noun (also parents' worst nightmare)
a hysterical trip to the emergency room spent trying to keep your son conscious.

When Jay was first born I thought his hospital wristband was so cute and tiny. I loved to pick it up from time to time and let all the good memories come flooding back... how it felt to hear him cry the first time... holding him for the first time... spending that precious time together as a brand new family...

I certainly never thought that I would be looking at another one of those anytime soon and that it would actually be a symbol of the most terrifying experience I've ever had. The story goes like this:
Today we unknowingly fed Jay some baby food with whey protein in it. (not even really milk and it was the last ingredient!) He only ate a few bites but a few minutes later he started throwing up a TON. We didn't realize until about twenty minutes later what was actually happening. It seemed like one minute he was just a little sick or even just gagging a bit (which he does all the time) and the next minute his face was bright red and his lips were turning blue. I got him out to the car while Joey grabbed a few things inside and by that time he was barely breathing. I was out of my mind scared, screaming for Joe to hurry. It was the longest car ride ever. His eyes kept rolling back and closing and I could count at least four seconds between each tiny gasp. All I could think to do was try and keep him awake by shaking him and calling his name. Joe told me to say a prayer but I couldn't even start without bursting into tears. We finally got to the emergency room (really only a two minute drive) and I ran inside to find NO ONE there. I banged on the glass and the lady inside said, "Oh is this the baby with the fever?" I couldn't really talk but I managed to say, "No! Look at him he's having a reaction!" Then she said, without really looking at him, "Oh well you'll have to sign in." (!!!) Just then another nurse looked over her shoulder, saw Jay and immediately opened the door. She grabbed the car seat from me and ran us back to a room. They stripped him down and started putting monitors all over him and giving him an IV. All the while they are trying to act calm and they keep asking me all the seemingly inappropriate questions like, "So are you still at the same house on Amity?" I understand these are necessary questions but at the time I wanted all of them to shut up and just make my son better. They pumped him full of benedryl and epinephrine and something else I probably can't pronounce. He was screaming and they had me climb in bed with him to calm him down. His head was clammy and he seemed so limp and helpless. Then his color changed from red and blue to white and he threw up even more! (from the medicine I guess) They put more fluids in his IV to keep him hydrated and after a few minutes he fell asleep. I was so grateful that he seemed to be doing better but I was terrified that it wasn't over and maybe he would just stop breathing. Once he woke up though, he was his normal wiggly little self (who did not appreciate all of the tubes and wires that were attached to him). Here's a few pictures of him after the reaction had cleared almost completely up. Oh and the only gown they had was enormous on him so we tied it up the best we could!He looks like he has casts on because they had to wrap up his IV and O2 Monitor so he wouldn't pull them off. They kept him for three hours for observation and then gave us a prescription for an EpiPen. I don't know if I can picture myself ever stabbing my son in the leg but I hear that when it actually does come to that, you don't even hestitate or think about it. I'm sure that's true.

It was horrifying and honestly it changed me. I don't think you can ever go through an experience where you almost lose someone, or actually lose someone, without it affecting you. I can tell I'm going to be forever paranoid but also forever grateful for my cute little boy. We still have him and I hope I never take that for granted.

This Just In: I Am Not A Bad Person

There are three wonderful inventions that have helped me feel better about myself lately: 

#1) A Dishwasher.

 I used to love to cook before I got married. I would have even called it "relaxing". That all seemed to vanish when I got married though, and I never connected it to the fact that I had to do all the dishes by hand. I always thought, "What is wrong with me? Do I not love my family enough? This is supposed to be joyful!" Today as I was cooking soup, I realized that the dread

 was gone! It only took me five minutes to clean up and put everything in the dishwasher! I'm in love with this machine. 

#2) A High Chair.

Up until a few days ago, we were still feeding Jay in his bouncer! (Which he HATED) I dreaded the experience each day, and I have to admit that the inconvenience mixed with his food allergies made me feed him less solid food than he probably needs. But I finally broke down and bought a high chair. How did I ever go without this?! He loves it. I love it. He actually eats now... 

kind of. 

#3) A Baby Gate

This just came in the mail today! I used to spend half of my day just chasing Jay around, dragging him out of the kitchen, building pillow barricades, pulling stuff out of his mouth (who knows where he finds this stuff?!). It was exhausting! They should market these gates as energy pills. I feel great! All of a sudden I can leave the room and not worry that he's getting into something that he shouldn't be. And my floor is pillow free!

So I'm not a bad person! I spent months wondering why I hated cooking, why I dreaded feeding Jay, why it was so hard to get anything done and why I was so TIRED all the time? If you ever feel this way, I suggest purchasing one of these items. Lifesavers. 

(I have also come to the realization that although I'm not a bad person... I'm also not cut out to be a pioneer. I can live with that though.) 

A New Addition To Our Family!!

Joe is going to kill me for blogging about this instead of just calling people but honestly, I'm a girl and I can't be blamed for this. I'm just THAT excited!



As you can probably guess we have some long awaited news for you all.




(Some of you already knew the announcement was coming, so thanks for letting us be the ones to share.)




Is the suspense killing you?




Alright everybody I'd like to introduce you to our new....



















WHIRLPOOL SUPERSCOUR 5000!!!! Isn't it precious? We've welcomed this little one with open arms.
As you can tell we've already had some great times together.

Okay I know I'm the only person in the world that thinks this is funny but thanks for humoring me! Joe's probably going to read this and then go buy me a puppy to keep me company in the daytime!

The real story is we've had this for a few months... we drove to Oregon just to find a used portable dishwasher and we got stuck in a snow storm! (That's another crazy story.) But when we got it home we couldn't find an adapter to fit it onto our faucet. Anyone who has ever had to do dishes by hand for an extended period of time can understand what a tragedy that was for me. No one had even heard of a whirlpool superscour 5000! It's just that old! Anyhow, finally I found a parts store online that sent me a whirlpool adapter that they said should work and it does!!! (angelic music) It's pretty much the best day of my adult life.

No One Prepared Me For This

I heard that having a baby does funny things to your husband... unexpected mushiness, jealousy maybe. But honestly......A lion?

There's really not much else I have to say about this.