Just Another Manic Monday

The photos are from the cousins/Jesse Jay 9 month photo sessions we did at NNU with Heidi Jahn. She does fabulous work and we love having her take our family portraits because its affordable and she does such great work.

Oh goodness. This week has been so BUSY. We have had visitors upon visitors. Kimmy is still in town and will be until the 1st of August. Jesse's mom and nephew were also in town and left this morning. Then my friends: Nate & Stephanie are visiting with their daughter Avianna. Not to mention last week was HORRIBLE for Jesse as he had a huge project for school. Ugh...

We have just been running a mile a minute. It'll be nice to have a three day weekend this coming weekend and relax a little bit. I am on call but it shouldn't be horrible over the weekend. Friday is probably another story all together.

The baby is just so funny! He laughs so much and just chatters and chatters. He continues to crawl (fast) and is no longer welcome in the crib room in the nursery. He is with the crawlers and walkers now. His hair gets longer, more curley, and crazy every day. He gives hugs now, which I love. Only he usually only hugs you if he hits you first and you display any sort of pain/hurt.

And he drools like a rabid dog.....

He is finally playing in his play pen and helping mom feel like she got her money's worth. I told my sister-in-law I am going to continue posting things he "won't do" online just so he will prove me wrong. :)

9 month Check-up

We went to Jesse's 9 month appointment today. We scheduled it a couple days early so 1. I could be there. One of the doctors is out of town this week so I could actually go with 2. Idaho is changing laws soon so that immunizations may no longer be covered. We have Blue Cross which is the ONLY carrier that will cover immunizations reliably but I wanted to get any last ones in before a $30 copay starts becoming my norm.

The doctor checked Jesse out and says he is a healthy boy and isn't having any problems. His ears are clean and he is growing great!

His stats are: 90% for head circumference (which has been status-quo since birth), 75% for height (which was a little jump in the tall category from our last appointment), and 50% for weight. He now weighs 20lbs 14 oz.

He has four teeth now, he crawls quickly anywhere we let him, and walks around furniture. He is able to pull himself up now and walks along furniture. He is eating anything we will let him. Basically anything but nuts, hot dogs, chocolate.

Oh, and they did sneak one pesky hepatitis b shot at today's appointment. He did not appreciate it very much either.

Happy Father's Day Jesse, Your Gift is a 4th Tooth

We had a fantastic time up in Cascade. The Ashley Inn is a fantastic hotel. The pool is crummy, but who really goes to a hotel for a pool.. (so maybe I do)? The food was fantastic, the room glorious, the baby an angel! They had a pack and play in the room ready for the baby with a blanket and everything.

Baby Jesse was so excited he happily jumped up and down in the play pen and enjoyed himself in there for a couple hours. He loved the TV and being right next to our bed. It seemed like he felt like he was on vacation as well.

We caught his sleeping like the picture above. Belly down, butt way up in the air. That's my boy.

He slept pretty good too, nearly 10 hours straight. He only woke up when Daddy decided to get ready to go get breakfast downstairs.

He handled the car ride like a champ and mostly slept the whole way. He loved the Banana shake and fries from My Father's Place. And he can still charm any lady into giving him freebies. He got gold fish crackers from a lady he flirted with at the hotel.

Big Jesse took us to Roseberry, Idaho outside of Donnelly. Apparently it is a historic town that has a museum there. Jesse had to plan a mock field trip with us for his class and write it up as though he planned a field trip for a class. It was pretty neat. I liked the general store. It reminded me of my grandparents house in some ways and Little House on the Prarie in others. The top picture is of Jesse buying Pick Up Sticks from the old store.

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On another note baby Jesse is growing tooth #4. Three teeth in like 10 days, no wonder he had the exceptionally crabby period. Goodness. He now is growing the bottom front tooth on the right!

And I think he had a nightmare last night. He was screaming last night like something was hurting him but he just laid there and wouldn't move. That kind of freaked me out. So I picked him up and he'd move some but just flopped his head on my shoulder and wailed. He refused to open his eyes. I made him a bottle and he calmed down as I was feeding him and seemed surprised and delighted he was awoken to being fed and hanging out with mommy and daddy in our room.

He has his nine month appointment tomorrow. So I will have an update on his stats soon.

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Jesse had a good Father's Day all-in-all, I think. An excellent trip to Cascade, hamburgers, a museum, and I made homemade soup. If you knew my husband- trust me.. it's a very good way to spend HIS day.

He is such a great Daddy too. Everytime he see's his son I swear his eyes twinkle and a smile of pure pride creeps upon his face. No kid in the world has ever been luckier than mine to have a better daddy!

He still gets up with him in the middle of the night and feeds him so I can get a full nights rest before work. And he doesn't stop doing it on weekends. I am such a lucky wife!

Bad Kitty, Tooth #3, and 5th Anniversary.......

I am heart broken. My beloved cat Tinkerbell has had a rough life since the baby has been born. She went from our baby to the "cat" when Jesse was born. She was never a pleasant beast. She nailed Melinda with her claws the first time they met. But slowly she has warmed up. I assumed she had warmed up to the baby too. But now the baby chases her around the house and doesnt pet nicely, despite our attempts to teach him "gentle."

Last week, she decided she had had enough (while Grandma was around) and nailed the poor guy for chasing her. She was tired of the chase, I guess. So we locked her in the laundry room for 4 days after a severe scolding.

We have slowly acclimated her back to being a part (or around) the family again. She was doing well until Jesse pulled himself up on the couch where Tink was sitting next to Melinda. She just nailed him. Poor kid has a scratch mirroring Harry Potter. I put ointment on it and made sure Tink understood that this behavior was NOT acceptable.

I had to do SOMETHING, but what? Tink is old and will never change her ways. She isn't pleasant and does not get along well with other cats. I could take her to the Humane Society, but that isn't fair to her or any potential owners. She is old and MEAN. Putting her down is just AWFUL. I don't want to do that unless she is sick, dying, or severely injured. She isn't any of those things. And lastly, boot her outside. She hates that. But no one wants her and I can't bear to put her down.

So she is outside. She may be MEAN but she is a wimp. I don't think she'll last long outside, but then again she was a stray when we got her and she survived just fine. She is hiding under a bush under the guest room window. She tried to run back in and I threw her back out. She seems to have gotten the hint now. I hate this. But between my sons wellbeing and the cat, she is out. Ugh... I have cried a lot.

On the plus side, we don't have to worry about the litter box anymore.

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Meanwhile Jesse's third tooth is popping out now. The RIGHT upper tooth is trying to accompany the new left one. And Sarah tells me the bottom right is starting to sprout too. He has been a monster though. Today he was HILLARIOUS, we usually block him in with furniture into the living room and today it was open.

Once he gets through the open part (that's usually his boundary line) he starts giggling as he makes a getaway for it. It's GREAT that he does that. Whenever I am mischievious, I give myself away by giggling as well.

He even stalked me to the bathroom when I got home this afternoon. Then proceeded to play with the bathroom scale. It's his new favorite thing.
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I had a good review at work Wednesday. I did an excellent job suturing too. So yesterday went fantastic!

And Jesse and I are celebrating our 5th Anniversary tommorrow! We really are celebrating it SATURDAY.. but we are going to breakfast tomorrow, so I am excited. One more day until we go to Cascade!

This is What Happens When You Tell the Baby "No..."

Watch the video at your own risk. It is so heartbreaking and adorable all at the same time! It isn't for the weak of heart.

I discovered Jesse would do this today when he went after my laptop. Usually he continues to do the thing I am trying to get him to stop, but this time he stopped and did THIS! My son is so adorable.! Even being firm with him is difficult. He is such a tender hearted guy.

Tooth #2

Success! Katie Sprague is a genius! Jesse called me at work today to inform me that baby Jesse has his second tooth (at the mentioned 2nd tooth comes in 2-3 weeks later). I was so excited I ducked out of work once it was clear to do so. I couldn't wait to see it!

And here it is in all it's glory. He is kind of a weird kid though. He has already established a left lower tooth and now has a left UPPER tooth. Nothing on the right. But it's here! All the crying, crankiness, and waking up in the middle of the night in PAIN were for a REASON!

Hello tooth number two. Welcome to Jesse Jay's mouth.... :)

Please Feel Free to Remind Me That I Am Not Stupid...

I am having a mixed week. Grandma Judy is here snuggling baby Jesse. I love grandma. :) She brought her pickles and strawberry jam and I love them. And she is so loving and pretty much the epitome of what a grandma should be. Having her here is just wonderful.

But then there's a bunch of just BLAH!! At work Friday, it went fine until the end of our case. We had a new radiology tech who wasn't very competent and is clearly scared of my doctor. Usually they tell us they need a final x-ray of all the hardware in someone's back/neck. She didn't ask. I was frazzled because the doctor was hoovering over me as I tried to do our closing sutures. I don't do well when someone is telling me to hurry up. It's my downfall. So I forgot to remind the MD that we needed it. Then anesthesia let the patient wake up sooner than usual (they were still on the table- and fighting) so I forgot again. My normal routine was shattered. So I forgot to get the x-ray too. We didn't realize until the patient was back on their bed ready to be wheeled out.

Granted it wasn't life or death or really a complicating mistake. It was inconvenient, certainly, but it can be remedied. But that set the tone for my attitude. I hate leaving work for the weekend on a bad note... It leaves me feeling incredibly discouraged.

Then I had the answering service call me (I am on call this weekend) like "we have paged you three times, so why arent you calling back?" I asked what number they were paging and it wasn't mine. Then I have a patient requesting a lot of narcotics. I understand they are in pain but our policy is that we do not refill these on weekends and our patients have to plan accordingly. Ughh, I hate being the bad guy.

And we kidnapped Sarah and Jason,s dog Jack this weekend to play with Melinda's puppy's. They get (got) along so well I assumed it wouldn't be a problem. And because this weekend HATES me (minus grandma) Tank decided he doesn't like Jack anymore and he was mean and snapped at Jack a few times. Which, Jack didn't appreciate either so he had to go back to his home. So much for trying to be nice.

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Jesse is still teething. We continue to have only one tooth to show for it. And it sucks. At least when a tooth pops up I feel relief knowing that all that crabbiness has something to show for it. Anyway, nights especially he is a terror. He wakes up at 3 am and wont even sleep until 10pm or later. I just worry if I am missing something, like is he really teething or is he getting sick? But he has no other signs than just pure crankiness.

He is so active. We have learned to move the furniture in a corralling configuration to keep him happy, busy, and entertained. He hates his play pen. And that makes me sad.. it's a perfect baby kennel! We hardly use the thing and spent 100+ bucks on it. What a waste.... ;(
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I appreciate all your prayers. They have been very helpful. I have been feeling a little down the past couple weeks. I assumed in a specialty the job would be a little easier (stupid me) because we focused on only certain conditions.. but it's really HARD. Not everyone can be a physician assistant. And not every PA can go into orthopedic spine surgery. It feels like going back to PA school all over again some days. And that's rough! I try and remind myself that its making me a stronger and better PA.

But I love the people I work with and they are pretty great to me. Sometimes I am STOOPID and forget how great I really do have it and complain. But a good friend reminded me how great I really do have it. And it will get a little easier over the months. It's easier this month than last, and so on and so forth. And the stuff that's hard to learn are all great lessons. And it makes me more invaluable as a PA. As they taught us in school- you MUST be committed to be a life long learner. And that's certainly the case!

OWWWWCH!!

Let me tell you a story about me...

I don't like to workout and then again, I do. But at the moment I am sore, tired, and so achy I used an anti-inflammatory patch from work on my neck and shoulder to try and subside some of my pain. And all because when I work out.. I don't do a little. I do TOO much. I played in the garden (which the allergies hate me for), we biked to a friends house, and we went swimming. And now.. I am paying for it.

So if I could just do enough to feel good and a little sore instead of REALLY sore, I'd be all the better for it. But learning that balance has been a bit of a Forest Gump moment for me thats lasted for far too long. Old habits die hard....

Ok, thats the end of my workout story.

Baby Jesse is teething like crazy. Sarah told me that when she fed him today he'd cry for no reason at all between bites. Yep, thats my teether. Not even FOOD comforts him. And food is this little guys entire purpose in life, the way he acts.

It was a good weekend. We got to see good friends we hadn't seen in over 18 months. And I also found out this weekend that we have plans EVERY weekend in June. Which is great. I like visitors. My Grandma Judy will be here next weekend. Then we celebrate our 5th anniversary in Cascade, Idaho next weekend. Then MORE friends as well as Jesse's family.

I love the summer....

Splish, Splash He was Taking a Bath....

Baby Jesse discovered today that splashing in the bath is funny and now he loves to do it, and giggle all the while. He has been a monster lately. Today he is in really good spirits. I missed my happy boy!