We're in Elmo's World now!

I mentioned briefly in my Easter update that my mom got Jay an Elmo for Easter but I didn't mention just how much he seems to love the thing!

Jay loves his Elmo - you can tell he's smiling!

Anytime it's within arm reach of him he's holding onto it, hugging it, gripping it... it's too cute! He also grins really big and laughs when you do the Elmo voice and sing the Elmo's World song ("La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World...") - he LOVES it!

We first saw it in Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago when I was out at the mall, walking and window shopping. I stopped in to see about a few more board books for Jay and I spied him starring at something on the shelf from his stroller. I looked and noticed a bunch of Elmo's on the shelf. To be sure that's what it was he was looking at I picked on up and brought it towards his face and he grinned! It was $16.95 though and I was already spending too much money that day so I figured maybe someday later on I'd go back and get it for him. I also mentioned it to my mom and she said she'd try and see about getting it for him for Easter. When she went back to get it, it was the last one on the shelf!

She brought it out for him at Easter dinner on Sunday and boy did his eyes get wide and his face lit up! It was as if he remembered it from weeks earlier! Too cute!

So right now, we think this stuffed Elmo (which is just bigger than half his size! LOL) might be his "special" toy - you know, the doll or blanket you got attached to as a kid and had to take everywhere!

The Star of Mommy's Blog

I was in Target the other day picking up a few things in the baby department (Diaper Genie refills and Munchkin food bowls) when I came across this gem of a bib:

Obviously I *had* to get it and it was only around $2.50 so why not? This is an item that every mommy blogger needs to get for her baby!

Jay's 1st Easter and a brief update

Oh wow... haven't updated in like a week! My bad!

Last Tuesday they brought *most* of our living room furniture as the loveseat was on backorder or something and didn't get shipped out with the rest of it. Anyways, that's coming this Wednesday then all we'll need is the china cabinet and bookshelves so I can unpack and make it kinda homey in there... We finally got the basement pretty much unpacked and since we can now do stuff in our office I started unpacking and organizing in there tonight since Jay was cooperative and is just chillin' in his bouncy seat for a bit.

Last Thursday I went into the suburbs with my mom and sis and sis's boyfriend to do some shopping at Woodfield Mall. We found a nice dress for me that I wore for Easter and can wear for other special occasions where I need to look dressy in warmer weather. We tried to find a cute little suit for Jay to wear for Easter but unfortunately the smallest we could find everywhere was 6months. We did find a cute little sweater vest though so we just got that and I paired with a collared onesie and his khaki cargo shorts I bought him at work. We also took him to Build A Bear and made him Jedi Bear from Star Wars! It's sooo awesome!

He was such a well-behaved baby too - he spent most of the day in his stroller playing with his stroller toys, including this new bar of toys my mom had bought for him to play with when he was with her, but he got kinda attached to it throughout the day so she let us keep it since she had bought another. So proud of him though! He didn't nap much at all either so he crashed when we got home after daddy left for work and slept well into the next morning.

We're making progress with the crib - longest he's gone in there is 5hrs straight, although we got him to go 7 once, having to go in a few times to stick binky back in his mouth. Gotta admit though, it's weird for me not falling asleep with him on or next to me!

Jay celebrated his 1st Easter this past weekend! We got him a basket, but since he's too young to dye eggs or eat candy we just filled it with the grass stuff and put a blue stuffed bunny in there and a "My First Bible" I bought at Barnes and Noble. We took him to church for the first time - he did really well! We missed most of the singing at the beginning and Jay fell asleep soon after we got there, with daddy holding him, waking up at the end of the service. He had plenty of people - friends of the family - cooing over him afterwards! We ended up joining my in-laws for Easter lunch at our usual spot, Texas Roadhouse, coming home for a couple hours so Jay and daddy could nap before going over to my parent's house for Easter dinner. We came home and took some pictures before our outfits got messed up!

 So all in all, things are coming along. It's been really rainy out the last week with a nice break of sunshine on Easter only to get rainy again today and for the rest of the week so we haven't done any work outside yet, nor have we had a chance to go meet our neighbors! (The first week when it was nice out my allergies kept me indoors and it's been rainy ever since!) We find out next week about the results of Jay's kidney tests in Madison, if there is anything more to tell from them that we didn't already know! We also bought him some rice cereal and bowls as we figured we'll start that up in a week or so when he hits 3 months since his regular doctor said we could if we wanted to, just so he can start getting used to eating from a spoon so we when start real solids in the upcoming months he'll be used to a spoon and bowl.

Happy (early) Easter!

This past weekend I took Jay to see the Easter Bunny for the first time ever!

He had the reaction we figured he would - a look on his face that was if he was saying "uh mommy... what IS this furry pink thing and WHY is it holding me???"

He did well though! The photo-op was hosted by The Rockford Kids Club which is a new local organization that hosts events like this one and offers discounts and deals to different places around town. An old friend of mine has a lot of involvement with it. But anyways, it was at Sapora Playworld which is an indoor playground type place inside the same building as one of the local ice rinks.

A friend of mine came with her 2 kids - her 1 year old started pulling on Jay's shoelaces, to which he gave her this dirty look, lol... it was pretty funny! Then he watched the kids running around and playing before dozing off.

Sunday was also a busy day for Jay as he got to meet his cousins for the first time ever! He has 2 - Noah, who will be 4 this summer, and Lucas who is about 4 months older than Jay. He didn't know what to make of Noah, who was a bit excited to see the baby and was playing with the toys on Jay's carrier. He was all wide-eyed meeting Lucas as he's never seen another baby that close in age to him - most the ones he's met before were nearly 1.

In other news, we're somewhat moved in now. Just tonight we got the rest of the boxes in the basement sorted and put away. We just have some boxes in the living room to put away, the office to put together and some stuff in our bedroom. Tomorrow most of our living room furniture is being delivered - for whatever reason Slumberland corporate didn't ship our loveseat with the rest of the set so that's been delivered when it arrives in a few weeks.

We've been working on getting Jay used to his crib. So far the longest he's gone in there is roughly 3hrs, which isn't too bad a start, considering the first time we tried he only made it an hour. We're really working on it this week though as it's important to get him used to sleeping by himself and in his own room.

My baby sis turned 18 today (Monday) and we celebrated with family on Friday by going to local pasta joint Lino's. We let Jay try some pasta sauce - he wasn't so crazy about it but boy did he love the little bit of vanilla ice cream daddy slipped him!

Kidney testing in Madison

Today Jay had his kidney testing up in Madison at the American Family Children's Hospital at University of Wisconsin - Madison and took his first "long" car ride and out of state trip.

I got up just before 6am to get myself ready before feeding him and getting him ready, stopped for gas and picked my mom up since she was coming to keep me company on the drive as hubby had to work. The GPS estimated about an hour and 40 minutes but it really only took us about an hour 15.

We got there just before 9am and found where we were going. They got us settled in a day treatment room and started getting Jay hooked up by giving him an IV (which sucked as they had to stick him twice to get a good vein) and put the catheter on him, which he didn't like one bit! Poor little guy... They let the IV hydrate him for bit, which made him fall asleep too.

The first test was a lasik scan where they scanned his kidneys and stuff for like an hour watching them fill and drain, etc. Fortunately he slept through most of that. We finished about 1130am and had to wait around until just before 1pm when he had his 2nd test which involved barium GI (it was called a VCGU). He did okay with that one. He was naked for it and pooped on the towel but it was alright - they got it cleaned up. The said the good news was that he wasn't showing any signs of reflux in the kidney, so it's not like anything was getting stuck up in there!

As we were finishing up the VCGU there was a statewide tornado drill and so yeah... we had to wait around for someone to come back to the front desk to validate my parking! Oh Wisconsinites and your silly statewide drills!

Jay did a great job though - I've VERY proud of my Little Man for taking everything as well as he did! Of course he cried a bit when they were sticking the IV on him and the catheter as expected but other than that he was momma's good boy! He also LOVED the Pedialite they gave him too! We fed him around 1130am but since he still had the barium test to do at 1pm they only wanted him drinking clear liquids so they gave us a bottle of apple Pedialite and OMG he wolfed that down!

Hopefully this will be the last of any testing he'll have done, as unless he needs surgery to unblock the blockage, they can just monitor it via ultrasound every few months and hope it'll unblock as he grows.

This weekend is a busy one for Jay - tomorrow he gets to go to mommy's deskjob with me as they actually have something for me to do and want to meet Jay so they said to bring him with and my 1 boss will help me watch him while I work as she's dying to see him. Then tomorrow night we're going out to dinner for Aunt B's 18th birthday (which is Monday). Saturday mommy's going to try and take him to see the Easter Bunny first thing in the morning as the local Rockford Kid's Club has get your photo taken with the bunny using your own camera for $1/kid! And Sunday he gets to meet his cousins Noah (who's 4 in July) and Lucas (who is 4 months older than Jay)!

Our big weekend

So this past weekend was moving weekend as we moved everything over from our apartment into the new house.

Late Thursday afternoon we closed on the house, got the keys and went over so my dad and uncle could get in to do some "minor" work - my dad wanted to work on fixing the drywall where there was previous mold damage and my uncle was coming over to fix something on the electrical box as he's an electrician. I got to work painting Jay's room.

I also had appliances coming first thing in the morning so Jay had his first overnight at Grammie's to make things a little easier for me in the morning. Mom said he did okay, as I was in and out over there a few times earlier in the night. She said around 2am he seemed like he was fighting sleep, like he knew his daddy would be coming home soon (as he usually does during the week at 330am) and was trying to stay up to see him, thinking daddy would come get him since he didn't get to go home with mommy earlier. She said he woke up around 8am for food and slept some more in the morning but started to get real fussy as the afternoon went on so she brought him over to the house so he could at least see us and know we didn't abandon him with Grammie.

As for me, the washer and dryer were supposed to be coming between 830-1030am, however at 8am, right as I'm about to get in the shower, I get a call asking if I can meet them in 5min. We tell them to give us 15-20min so I skip the shower and head straight over there. They got there at 830am sharp, hooked both up and left about 10 minutes before the guys showed up with our fridge. The Comcast guy got there right at 1pm and was here for a few hours as he was having issues first with our massive amount of cable hook-ups (apparently some are satellite hook-ups!) and then having issues getting the HD box to work.

Hubby and my sis's friend started bringing stuff over in my dad's jeep and her friend's car a little after 4pm. We were able to get most of the boxes over that way, however it took til about 9pm or so. Saturday we rented a U-Haul for the rest of the furniture to get it over here. Again, that took nearly all day.

Sunday my parents came over again - dad to work on the drywall some more, mom to help with Jay so we could work on unpacking. I got my kitchen all done and by the end of the day I had Jay's room unpacked, our upstairs bathroom complete and the boxes in the living room sorted as that furniture won't start arriving until Tuesday this week.

Saturday and Sunday hubby and I went out shopping for necessities that we needed right away, such as new locks, among other stuff. Needless to say... good thing payday is Friday cuz we're kinda broke! lol...

So we have Jay's crib all setup and have been working on getting him to sleep in it and get used to sleeping in a room by himself. He's gone a few hours so far, which is good... we'll get him used to it!

Jay seems to be adjusting to the new house better than Tiger though - Tiger's been a bit of a scaredy cat, stalking around and keeping close to us. We brought her over Saturday night, as that was our first night staying in the house. We transported her via the cat carrier. She was okay in it til hubby got outside, then she started freaking out a little bit and was meowing her scared meow the whole way in the car. She seems like she's starting to adjust though!

The apartment... it's a mess and looks gross! We didn't clean much the last few weeks because of the move but yeah... there's cat dander in places we didn't know it could get! And paper and crap from packing all over... a small mound of kitty litter where the box stayed... yuck! Not looking forward to cleaning that but we have til the end of the month - hubby and I are probably going to go over some Sunday and get it over with.

I'll be sure to post pics once we're a little more unpacked and we have furniture in the living room upstairs!

2 month check-up

Figured I'd sneak an update in here while Jay's still asleep - he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the doctor and is still asleep in his carseat/carrier! Someone's going to be hungry when he wakes up though!

So we had his 2 month check-up today and everything is great!

He's measuring just over 22inches long and with clothes on his weight is 10lbs, 4oz, so without clothes we're figuring right around 10lbs! Yay!

The doctor said we can just make his formula the "normal" way as it says on the package rather than mix in extra to make 24 calories like we had been. He also said we can try giving him a little bit of rice cereal if we wanted just to get him used to eating from a spoon, but he said most tend to wait til 4 months, so either way it's up to us.

Jay had a few vaccine's today too - one they gave orally which he took just fine as he's used to taking his amoxicillin orally, and the other 2 were combo ones via shot. He didn't like those and she said the 2nd one would sting a little bit too. Poor guy... he wasn't happy about that one at all but was fine soon after she was finished giving them to him.

So we don't have to go back to the doctor until his 4 month check-up in June, which is good, although we still have our appointment up in Madison next week for his kidney testing and then a follow-up appointment with his urologist 2 weeks after that.

"It's Time to Build a Word..." - kid's shows, moving & more!

Just realized it's been about a week since I last posted.

Not too much has really happened. We're officially closing on the house this Thursday at 230pm so by evening we will have the keys to our own house! Yay!

Jay, 2 months old
(8 weeks, 3 days in this photo)

Jay can fit into his 0-3 month clothes now as I've had him running around in the onesies this past week. He's also been able to finally wear his shoes too - they don't look like giant clown shoes on him anymore!

We also started using the size 1 Pampers Swaddlers diapers too and I like them much better than the Parent's Choice Walmart brand we were using. While the Walmart ones fit great, I've noticed the past week or so he's been getting a pretty bad case of diaper rash. The Pampers ones are nice as they're a lot softer on his skin and they're virtually leak proof which is nice as we've been having issues with him leaking lately.

He's become more alert in the past week or so and so we've started watching kid's shows on PBS/WTTW. He usually watches some Sesame Street or WordWorld while he eats his morning bottle and falls asleep during them for a few hours - he usually sleeps about 6 or 7 hours at night and then wakes up to eat  and falls back to sleep for about 3 or 4 more hours. During his afternoon bottle (after he wakes up) we usually watch either Clifford, Curious George or Arthur. I'm not let him get hooked or addicted to TV or anything, but since he is more alert now and we've noticed him watching the TV when it's on I don't see any problem with him watching early learning shows while he's eating throughout the day. PBS seems to have the best younger kid friendly shows too. I really like the WordWorld show - everything in the show, from characters to objects and buildings, is made out of the word of the character/object/building. Like the duck character is made out of the letters "d-u-c-k". It's really cute! And the show uses bright colors too so it gets Jay's attention.

 

Sesame Street's Abby's Flying Fairy School
segment with animated background - most
of the segments in the show now have
animated backgrounds!

Has anyone watched Sesame Street lately? To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed by the current format. Growing up, it took place on the actual Sesame Street with the adults and kids interacting with the puppet cast of characters with various short segments dispersed throughout the show. Well now, we briefly see the actual Sesame Street (at least from what I've seen in the episodes we've watched) and the whole show is in various segments. Many of the puppet characters are now standing in front of CGI animated settings rather than actual real settings (half the time the puppets look CGI animated too!). And between each segment is a red monster who's hanging out in some city park introducing each segment (such as Elmo's World and Abby Cadabby's Flying Fairy School) with a real kid. Maybe it's just me, but I miss the old school Sesame Street from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that I grew up watching myself as well as with my sister. This new "updated" version just isn't as good in my opinion.

I started back at work this past weekend, working a 4.5 hour shift (it was supposed to be 4 hours but we were busy and the store was trashed so they asked if I could stick around for an extra half hour). It wasn't too bad. They changed the keyboard on the registers so that took a bit of getting used to (I hadn't worked a register since the very beginning of January!) and by the end of my shift I was doing returns pretty well too. After maybe the 1st hour or so I was feeling comfortable with everything again, as far as working a register.

After my shift I bought Jay a pair of sunglasses as we had display of them but only a handful left in the 0-2yr size and he's going to need a pair for this summer. They're a little big on him, as his nose isn't big enough to keep em on his face yet, but he'll grow into them! They're $3 each right now (normally $4.50 or 2 for $6) if you want to pick some up for you kid. After my employee discount I got them for $2.41 total - not a bad price considering they're Children's Place and not Walmart! There's a cute pair of sandals I want to get him too but I think I'm going to wait until this weekend to get them for him as they're $9.95 and this weekend we have employee appreciation days where we get to take 40% off instead of 25%.

The next few days are going to be quite busy.

Today (Wednesday) Jay has his 2 month check-up where he's going to get several shots which I'm sure he won't be too happy about! Hopefully the doctor will cut back his calorie count and just let him eat the normal amount so we don't have to mix extra into it and the formula can last a little longer. I'm guessing he weighs close to 10lbs too - guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow! Also, I have work tomorrow night for a few hours in the evening.

Thursday, like I said, we are closing on the house and then that evening my dad's coming over to fix the drywall in the one room while I start painting Jay's room as I need to get the blue layer on first and then the brown and then do the detail. Friday I'm going to be over at the house alllll day as we have our washer, dryer and fridge being delivered and Comcast is being installed - I plan on working more on Jay's room and doing some basic cleaning before we start moving everything in. Also Friday we're borrowing my dad's jeep and transporting all our boxes over from the apartment and then going shopping for other household items we need to get. Saturday is the big moving day as we're renting a U-Haul and moving over all the bigger items. Sunday I'll be back at the apartment for a few hours cleaning up here.