It feels like Christmas!

Thursday was Jon and my fourth anniversary. We had an easy going day, taking in another movie with Callum (Kick-Ass) which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

The traditional 4th year anniversary gifts are fruit or flowers - so I got Jon a delicious Edible Arrangement. Logan and I chowed down on the fruit Thursday night (interestingly, Logan preferred the plain strawberries to the chocolate-dipped ones, asking me to "take off" the chocolate from the dipped ones for him). :)


This pic isn't as good since it was night time and I only had my phone with me, but you can see how he enjoyed eating the strawberries off the "skewers"... :)


Jon was a kind man and got me a new Coach wallet, something I've been wanting for some time (because my current wallet is too small, black, and doesn't match my brown purse!). I didn't complain that it was neither fruit nor flowers - it's a perfect gift in my eyes.

We also received a gift from Jon's work. And when I say "we", I mean Jon, since it was a humongous box full of several pounds worth of Texas BBQ from Salt Lick. He was jumping for joy. I was all ewwwwww, go put that in the freezer and get it out of my kitchen, stat! ;-)

Callum also received a gift, from his Abuelita and Abuelito Riedy - a "Baby Bunch" bouquet! The presentation was awesome and the idea is so neat, something neither of us had seen before. The clothes are still too big for our tiny delicate Callum, but given the way he's now growing, he should be able to fill them out in no time. Thanks again Ita! :)


Logan was not to be forgotten. While Daddy and Callum were out getting me my new wallet, they stopped by the Disney store to pick up a couple pairs of pajamas for Logan too. So Thursday night he got to choose between the two pairs - his choice for the evening, Buzz "Iteyear" (he still can't pronounce his "Ls" well). :) He ran around the house calling out super hero names, with his arms flapping and flying, high on strawberry sugar juice.


Abuelita and Abuelito also got Logan a cool stuffed dinosaur to add to his growing collection of stuffed animals that join Logan on the bed each night. It arrived on Friday and he promptly took it with him to my parent's house (while Jon and I enjoyed a date night Friday night). So, I'll have to snag a pic of him with the big dinosaur another time. It is definitely a new favorite for him to carry around every morning, noon and night however!

And since we're talking about gifts, I would be remiss to mention the Welcome Home gift that graced our house when we returned from the hospital last week (good God, was it just last week?!?). When Logan was born, you might recall my parents decorated the entire house with beautiful bright red poinsettias. They were gorgeous and, at the time, I teased my parents that they were trying to kill off my cats, since "everyone knows" that poinsettias are poisonous. My mother did some research however, and proved that it's actually just a big myth. PHEW. Bullet dodged, said my cats.

This year, being Spring, my parents decided to decorate the entire house with beautiful wild Asian Lilies. And again, they were gorgeous and a wonderful surprise.


But, I couldn't ignore the fact that lilies are in fact, poisonous to cats. Sadly, we had to move them all outside.


I think my parents might have a secret side deal going with Jon, to see how quickly they can kill off our cats whenever we're gone. Wouldn't you? ;-)

"Big Kitty Cat"

Logan is telling me that "Big Kitty Cat" (this stuffed animal's name) is sleeping. He says "Shhhh, be quiet!"

This little beanie baby is about 12 yrs old and Logan recently took a liking to carrying him around every morning and night. Who knew a stuffed animal from college that I carried with me across the country and back would one day come in so handy for my 2 yr old son! ;-)

A late night talk with my son

We were first woken up by our sickly diabetic cat puking up all over our bedspread at 4:00am in the morning. Lovely, isn't it?

After changing the bedspread and cleaning up the floor and Logan's tent (which was on the floor near my side of the bed, where I essentially threw Sanka the minute I heard her gagging on top of me), we settled back into our deep sleep - only to then be woken by little Logan next.

*sigh*

Jon covered the first shift - feeding him a bottle and putting him back to bed pretty quickly. But at 5:00am, he woke up crying again and wasn't able to fall back to sleep himself. So, I took this shift, and went in to pick him up and console him. I didn't arm myself with a bottle because I thought, he JUST had an entire bottle of warm milk like 20 minutes ago, he couldn't possibly need any more.

Boy was I wrong. And what's more, my crying son let me know.

He kept signing "more" to me in between his sobs and then pointing to the (closed) door of his room. I asked him, more? You want more of what? And he furiously nodded "yes", tears streaming down his face.

I thought, well what could he possibly want more of? He's just tired and upset and needs to sleep, as I dismissed the signs and continued to rock and cuddle with him.

He PUSHED me away and signed "more" again, much more deliberately. I thought, well, he just had a bottle, perhaps he wants more milk? So, I asked him, are you hungry? He nods an emphatic "yes" and then signs "hungry" followed by "more" and additional head nods.

I was amazed at how much he was communicating with me, even in the most distressful situation it seemed. I called out to Jon to get me another bottle, and wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what Logan needed. He polished the bottle off and then snuggled back into my arms, totally content and singing to himself as I rocked him in the dark (and not waking up on his own in the morning until we came in to get him ready for school!).

I was still in disbelief at what had just taken place - exactly *how* much Logan was growing up and communicating on his own. It's truly amazing.

And, who knew? Listening to your baby and watching for the signs is all you really need to succeed at this parenting thing.

Bruddah Iz

Normally I will find Odin hanging out on Logan's rug, while Iz is curled up in Logan's crib. There's something about his room that the animals just can't stay away from.

But this -- this is a first. I came in to put Logan down for a nap, only to find Iz curled up sleeping on Logan's changing table!


Logan seems to be doing a little better as of this evening. We had a really tough night last night - he woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night burning up a storm (hitting at least 102.8 during one temp reading) and we struggled to cool him off enough to get him back to sleep. He was miserable and clearly just wanted to be with us, but no one could get comfortable and I'm afraid we all lost a lot of sleep because of it.

I called the doc's office today to check in and make sure I was giving him the right dose of Tylenol and the nurse said it's quite possible the fever is due to a molar or two coming in - apparently they can hit pretty high temps, more than normal teething, when the molars come in. I asked, how high? She said, nonchalantly - eh, up to 103 for a few days at least.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I worked from home today (Jon came home by about noon to lend a hand for the rest of the afternoon) and by mid-day it seemed his fever had finally broken. He started walking around and playing with his toys which was a huge improvement, thank goodness! He's still been pretty clingy, whiny and basically just uncomfortable and doesn't know what he wants, but much less than yesterday so I think we're finally on the mend. He even ate a few bites of mac n' cheese, some pretzels and a few graham crackers before going to bed for the night - woohoo! :)

Cat on the roof

We tried out Zafu's brilliant idea last night and found Twyla waiting for us at the sliding glass door this morning. WHEW!!!

Thanks Zafu!!

Of course, now that she's eaten a proper meal, she's begging to go back outside. Think she's learned her lesson? ;-)

I love the smell of vomit in the morning

Nothing says "Welcome Home Daddy" quite like projectile vomiting all over us, in bed, at 5am in the morning....volumes of it. I'm still washing all the sheets, blankets, pillows, clothes....

I know folks are wondering where I am, how Logan and I are doing, and where all the frequent blog postings are.... here's a quick update from the week (things are fine, just a little hectic with my hands full while Jon was gone):

Little Logan is still a bit under the weather but we're not quite sure what with. It seems like he's got a little bug with all the throw up (the other morning he spewed a nice puddle of it while half asleep, through his crib railings and onto the floor and rug beneath) and explosive diarrhea I've been cleaning up. Or, maybe it's his way of saying he missed Daddy this week? I know I did.

The upside is, after dousing us with milky puke this morning, he then smiled and laughed and gurgled and coo'd like nothing was wrong at all, so at least he's in his usual charming good mood while being sick. :)

I ended up taking Logan to the dermatologist since the rash on his face got a lot worse - turns out he's got seborrheic dermatitis (they think the heat wave we had this past week set it off). Can't say I'm entirely surprised given he's had skin issues since birth. So we now have a(nother) new lotion to put on his face. I applied some last night and it's already 100% better this morning. Cool.

We had skipped swim class on Tuesday night with all that was going on, but I took Logan on Thursday and we had a great time. We're still practicing getting our faces wet, and now learning how to turn around and grab for the side after falling in (from a sitting position on the edge of the pool). We also just started the motions of turning over from back to tummy to back again (to get them used to turning and floating on their back if they fall in). Great, practical stuff in my opinion, and I'm really glad we have him going to the classes.

I lost 2lbs from my first week on weight watchers. Let's hope the trend continues!

Twyla is still on the roof. I'm getting desperate and about to plead with our neighbor, the fireman, to help get her down since it's going on a week now....!!! We'll try to take another stab at getting her down this weekend, now that Jon's home to help.

Sanka has diabetes. Her sugar levels are through the roof. I visited the vet yesterday and received a tutorial on how to give her insulin shots, which we'll start on Monday. Twice a day. We have special food to give her as well. We have to take her in after a few days to measure her glucose and see if the dosage is right or needs some adjusting.

Feels like life just got a little more complicated. But, I know we can handle it.

Yes we can.

When it rains...it pours...

Have you ever had that feeling that when the shit hits the fan, it REALLY hits the fan, all at once and splatters indiscriminately all over the damn place?

The past few days, and the next, look to be very entertaining indeed. And, just when I think this is about all I can handle right now something else turns up.

For instance, my back. My injections last Monday went well, but I was in MORE pain the few days afterwards. I got shots of cortisone to EASE the pain. So, doesn't that seem counter-intuitive to you? My PT explained it to me as, if my glass is already full, and we fill it with just a little bit more liquid, it's going to be SPILLING over. Spilling over with aching numbing pain she forgot to add.

Luckily, my back started feeling better about Sunday afternoon. And then, Jon took off for a week-long business trip to NY on Monday morning.

Sanka, our oldest cat, has also been failing (we're all old and rickety in this here house). We started noticing that she's been losing weight these past couple of weeks, at a dramatic rate mind you, yet she's eating and DRINKING, like crazy!

And then there's the pee. Ohhhhh, the pee.

Remember when I mentioned we got back from our LA trip only to be greeted by a warm stuffy house smelling of cat shit and pee? Well, the pattern has continued - pee just outside the litter box, on the floor, a nice shiny wet big puddle for one of us to clean up each morning, noon or night.

And just when you thought that was enough (we're tearing our hair out trying to figure out WHY OH FUCKING WHY aren't the cats using their litter boxes properly anymore?!?!) I wake up with a jolt the other night to a nice warm WET lap. That's right. More pee. On our bed. On our comforter. On my pajamas. ON ME.

And we thought, hmmmm, maybe this pee deal is Sanka and not Iz (who my husband we were blaming) afterall.

So I took her to the vet today to get checked out. They think it's either one of three things:

1. $ Diabetes
2. $$ Hyperthyroidism
   
3. $$$ Kidney Problems

We'll find out tomorrow.

That's the oldest cat. Now let's turn to the youngest cat. Twyla. She's our most feral skittish cat of all, and really only likes to hang out with me. She will sneak outside when she gets a chance and frankly, we haven't really cared esp. given she's put on some extra weight after moving to the new house and she needs to work. it. off.

But I digress. So Twyla likes to do the cat walk along our fences, our neighbors' fences, everyone's fences, you name it. And, has discovered hey! this fence juts right up against the house so it's only a 3 ft (or so) jump up onto this nifty roof here.

And there you go. She's now stuck on the roof. Been stuck up there for A FEW DAYS. I kid you not. Jon tried, unsuccessfully, several times before he left for his trip, to get her down. Me with the bad back, even *I* have tried several times to coax her down (I even climbed onto the roof tonight in a desperate attempt to free her, just don't tell my PT that). We must look like idiots, teetering at the top of our ladder, leaning over the edge of our roof, shaking a bowl full of kibble saying "heeeeeeeere kitty kitty kitty!! c'mon cute kitty! heeeeeeeere, little Twyla!"

And the moment she gets within arm's reach, I try to grab her and WHOOSH she splits. She's just super spooked. And, the longer she's up there, the more spooked she gets.

Hey, and did I tell you we've hit a heat wave this week and it's running in the 100's during the day and oh yeah, roof tops are probably one of the hottest places around to sit all day with no food, no water, no shade?

Jon tells me tonight, don't give her too much food and water. Then I'll have to clean poop and pee from the roof.

Ummm, Jon? If I don't give her food and water, you'll be cleaning a dead cat from the roof. Take your pick.

Who's next?

Oh right. My son.

I got a call this afternoon from Logan's preschool. It's never a good sign when your cell lights up with your preschool's name on it. The teachers aren't calling to chat about the holiday weekend or the Stevie concert you just went to. Nosiree. They call and say "Hi Bree, no need to alarm, but Logan seems to be really sick."

No need to alarm? Then why the hell are you calling me?

Well, that little rash he had around his eyes yesterday has come back, and looks a lot worse. In fact, it's all over his cheeks now too.

Oh great.

And, he hasn't been eating nearly as much as usual.

Uh huh.

And, his cough seems to be getting worse.

Anything else?

Yeah. He had an explosive diarrhea a little bit ago. He doesn't have to go home just yet, but if he has another, then he has to go home for sure.

But you know, no need to alarm.

*sigh*

So I took Loganito to the dr's this afternoon, right after my PT appt (where I swore I wouldn't be climbing on any rooftops) and right before Sanka's vet appt (where I juggled a crying kitty in one arm and a crying baby in the other).

Luckily, it doesn't appear to be anything too serious. The doc thinks he's had some sort of allergic reaction, probably to food (the most recent new food we gave him was yogurt just a couple of days ago) but it's really hard to say.... So, we're laying low for awhile. Off the yogurt and will wait for the rash to go away. In a few weeks we can introduce yogurt back into Logan's diet and see if he has any of the same reactions or not (the dr thinks most likely not so we'll see). Other than that, he's ok. Nothing contagious or life threatening. His cough is a little "croupy" but nothing to worry about (clear lungs, nose, ears, etc.).

You'd think all this would drive a woman to drink. And yet....

I started weight watchers last week instead.

A cool midnight breeze

We are back home from our crazy long road trip and the first thing that comes to mind is, thank goodness we're back in the land of cooler weather! :) Also, before I start this post, just wanted to warn folks it's a little long and I have quite a few photos to share -- hopefully you'll enjoy them as much as I have this evening putting them together!

As you saw from my previous posts along the road - we left Friday afternoon, a couple hours later than we had hoped, to drive down to LA. We had a pretty good drive down, even though the weather was ridiculously hot (it hit 107 degrees just before the Grapevine, somewhere in Kern County I believe), and made great time. I was thinking we'd have to stop every couple of hours but not so! Our little guy slept for the first half of the ride, and I kept an ice pack on my back and reclined most of the way. When he woke up, I moved to the backseat to hang out with him and distract him with funny faces and toys until we could find a suitable rest stop to stretch our legs and change him.

After we checked into our (super fancy schmancy downtown LA) hotel, we drove over to Jon's brother's house to meet our new little nephew, Luke! Luke is Curtis and Renee's first child as well, and is only a couple of months younger than Logan. So, it was great fun getting the boys together for the first time. Luke is much bigger than Logan was at his age -- so I think the two look a lot closer in age from sheer size! But, when you look a little closer, you can tell Logan's still a bit older since Luke is still working up to sitting on his own (but super close!) :) Logan and I were pretty beat from the drive down that day (my back was aching like crazy) so we didn't hang out too long, just enough to grab a quick bite to eat and catch up for a little bit before heading back to the hotel to hit the hay.

Saturday, we slept in as long as we could, then went to Kai's apartment to meet up with him and my parents, for lunch. Unfortunately, we were all running a little late and didn't get to tour the USC campus like I had hoped (Jon hasn't seen it before), so we'll have to do that next time we visit. We did get to see his apartment (he's got a GREAT set up) and go to a nearby diner for lunch. Logan did a great job sitting in his own high chair for most of the meal while we scarfed down our food.

Saturday afternoon was Scott and Monalissa's wedding down in Huntington Beach, so we headed back to the hotel to get ready and let Logan nap (I think the heat really took a lot out of him). Of course, we left later than we had hoped (we were never that timely before, but we are now way worse with a baby in hand!) and arrived about 15 min. late to the wedding. :( But, we got there in time to see them exchange their vows so that was cool :)

It was a beautiful setting in a really nice hotel along the beach. Logan really spoiled us all day with his wonderful behavior. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was THE center of attention at the wedding, second only to the Bride of course. ;-) The wedding was also quite fun because my entire family was there (Zane and Scott met at college and have been great friends ever since, so Scott has been a part of our family for some time), as well as some of Zane's old buddies that I haven't seen in years!

Logan slept fairly well each night at the hotel -- it did take some convincing to get him to go down since he was always SUPER tired and just couldn't fall asleep. But, once he did go to sleep (about midnight every night!!) he slept straight through the morning which was great for us. :) Sunday we slept in again, but woke up early enough to go grab some shirts for Jon before heading over to Ralph and Diane's house for lunch. Ralph and Diane are the parents of Bruce (my cousin Shawn's husband) and great family friends of ours. They have been long time residents of LA and have shown us another world down there that we've really enjoyed, as well as taken Kai under their wing while he's been at Grad School. Their son Paul, and girlfriend Monique, also stopped by since they still live in the area (they are the only "famous" people we know - Monique just did an advertising gig for McDonald's and Paul works in the music biz on awesome movies like Four Brothers and Hustle and Flow). We had an excellent meal, great conversation and a celebratory cake for Kai who's graduating from USC (yeah!!).

After a wonderful lunch, we headed over to Curtis and Renee's to spend the afternoon and evening talking kid shop, catching up on family gossip, having the kiddos meet and play together, letting "the big boys" do their brother-bond-watch-UFC-fights-till-you-drop thing and basically hanging out. We had a really great time and only left because the babies finally had enough and were getting really tired and cranky and ready for bed (poor Luke was struggling with his teething - he already has one tooth in and another is following!! and Logan was just plain tired with all the visiting, stimulation and ZERO naps all day long). As much as we loved visiting, it was for the best, since I knew Curtis and Renee had to get up early the next morning and we were pretty tired and needed a good night's rest before our long drive home today. It was a good thing too since we crashed hard and EARLY the minute we got back to the hotel.

Today, we woke up and lazily packed up for our trip back home. We loved all the visiting, but we were also pretty tired of sleeping in the hotel and braving the amazing heat each day, so we were looking forward to getting on the road and going home. My parents were driving home today as well, so they met us at an In N' Out just outside of LA for lunch before we all headed out for the long haul.

Unfortunately, Logan wasn't nearly as happy and content on the ride back home as he was on the ride down to LA. He DID fall asleep at one point, but while I was waiting for Jon at a pit stop, I decided to put a blanket up in the backseat window to help shade Logan from the unbearable heat. Of course, that woke him up and he was then Mr. CRANKY and UPSET baby. :( I crawled into the backseat to sit and play and distract and console him -- which only worked for a few minutes at a time. For the most part, he was unhappy and LET US KNOW IT, for a good hour, before finally falling asleep.

I've noticed him chewing, biting and gnawing on anything he can get his hands on, A LOT more than usual this past weekend. And today finally noticed little teeeeeeny tiny whites under his front bottom gums. When I feel them, they feel rough and agitated. Nothing has broken through yet, but it seems like it may be on the verge. *shrug* I really don't know (never dealt with a teething baby before) so we'll see. At any rate, I took some pictures during his crying session to see if I could catch a shot of his little white caps but it was challenging and I finally gave up. I moved to the front seat and after a little while, our little munchkin finally gave us some rest and fell asleep. We actually stopped at Babys R Us on the way home to get a few teething toys that we can stick in the freezer, to see if that will help him get through the next few days/weeks.....

It's way later than it should be and I really need to get to bed, but a few more things to add. Logan's finally fast asleep in his own crib -- he really wanted to go to bed as soon as we got home, the poor guy. Both dogs had a great time at the Hicksons but are also happy to be home and curled up in their beds. We're pretty sure Iz was pissed we left him "trapped" in the house all weekend long since we came home to pee and poop ON THE FLOOR in FRONT of the litter boxes, as well as a clawed up living room rug. He's now curled up at my feet, the little terd. And, if the smell of cat urine in your stuffy house isn't enough to come home to, how about spoiled food in your refrigerator? The scatter brain that I was before leaving for our trip (remember, this is the same woman who forgot to pack SHIRTS for her husband), I forgot to move the remaining items in our fridge to the temporary fridge we have in the garage.... *sigh*

We were, and are, happy to be home. But, suffice to say, we had a little bit of CLEAN UP to do, the minute we unloaded the car and walked into the house.

Daddy's Back!

Whooowheee. It's been awhile since I've blogged with any real substance. Where do I begin?

I suppose I should start by saying HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Today was Jon's first Father's Day. Logan and I surprised him with this kick ass card (below) from Alternate Greetings (isn't it perfect?) as well as his very own fun toy to play with (a Wireless Digital Picture Frame) which he can use to brag to all his friends visiting, on what a damn cute kid he has. ;-)

This past week was hell without Jon around. :( My back got worse Tuesday night when, with a stroke of genius, I decided to take out the trash and scrape out one of the cat's litter boxes that was CAKED LIKE MUD. Yeah, not such a smooth move with a broken back. So, my therapist TAPED up my back for a day, to try and get me to stop moving around so much -- easier said than done when you're a single working mom who has a baby. I go back for my follow up with the doc on Tuesday -- with all the ups, and mostly downs, I've been having, looks like I'm headed for an MRI and injection. :( At this point, I could care less -- I just want the pain and inflammation to stop. *sigh* anyhoo, we'll see what he says....

And if that weren't enough, our refrigerator then DIED at the end of the week. I noticed this after our bin of ice in the freezer was full of water one morning and the bottom of the freezer was slowly turning into a puddle of lemon and lime popsicle juice. Grrrreat. And, to make matters worse, when I called our home warranty plan to get a service guy to come out and take a look, they said that refrigerators were an OPTIONAL choice which was not elected for our contract. WHAT??!?!? How can a fridge not be under the basic coverage of a home? MAN. I mean, we were thinking of buying a new fridge anyway, but not this soon. Luckily, we have a free standing freezer and a mini fridge in the garage, so I was able to salvage about half the freezer items and most of the REAL perishables like the dairy, etc. from the fridge.

As for Mr. Logan - he got to try out some more new foods; apples (which was really just apple sauce) and carrots were the two new foods of the week (in addition to pizza crust which I posted below). He's going through an entire jar just fine these days. But honestly, he seems to enjoy the finger foods (puffs, cheerios, and of course, yogurt melts) much much more. I can't tell if it's because they're tastier (and sweeter), or because he can help contribute to the eating process or if he's able to chew them more than the other jarred foods.... Anyway, it's still quite fun. I've also discovered that the cap to the jar foods is a PERFECT little chew toy -- which is still all our little guy wants to do. CHEW CHEW BITE BITE CHEW CHEW CHEW.

For example. Today for Father's Day I dressed him in a smart little overall outfit. And of course, what's the first thing that he discovers? The cool metal buckles within a close vicinity of his mouth, that he can grab, shove into his mouth and gnaw on all day long. I love the "built in" chew toy -- although, the additional drool and wet outfit that it comes with? Not so much.

I think I mentioned Logan's taken an obsession with his tongue this week. I was able to capture a couple fun pics of him goofing around. His personality seems to be shining through more and more these days with antics like this, which we just love. :)

And finally, the latest new development of the week, just in time for Father's Day, is Logan saying "dadadadadadada" alllllllll morning long. Because I'm running out of places to put him down where I know he won't go anywhere, I mostly just strap him into his swing in the morning after he's been changed and fed, so I can run and wash bottles, get his diaper bag ready to go, feed the dogs, cats, etc. and grab a bite for myself. He seems pretty content most mornings to just swing along and taaaaaaaaalk to anyone that will listen. And, of course, sing "dadadadadadada" non-stop. It's not being said in context of course (Jon wasn't even around this week so that answers THAT question!) but it's still neat to hear him saying it. :) I tried to capture a video or two, but you know how it goes. The minute I whip out the camera with all the pretty lights, he just stops and stares at me and the camera intently. oh well.