Craniosynostosis Awareness

I don't know why I haven't done this sooner, but I guess with Jude's surgery around the corner (one week and one day away), now's as a good a time as any.
I set up a page at carepages.com for Jude. I'll probably keep it more updated than this throughout the surgery and hospital stay. You do have to join carepages in order to view the page.

For awareness and more info on craniosynostosis, you can visit the following sites.
http://www.cappskids.org/ - The Craniosynostosis and Positional Plagiocephaly Support Inc. strives to spread awareness, educate and offer support and guidance to families affected by craniosynostosis and/or positional plagiocephaly.

http://craniokids.org/ - provides awareness and support forums, founded by a mother and father after researching craniosynostosis and being disappointed in the lack of personal support and connections they found.

http://www.jorgeposadafoundation.org/ - founded by Jorge Posada after his son was diagnosed with craniosynostosis, the Jorge Posada foundation is a non-profit organization that creates awareness of craniosynostosis and provide support of families going through this journey.

Thank you all for the support!

Get to know me!

The wonderful Kacie at And Baby Makes Two indirectly pointed me towards Mannland5 and the "Getting to Know You" on Sunday's so I thought I'd give it a whirl, it looks like fun.

1.  Have you ever snooped around someone else's house?

I've snooped around ex-boyfriends rooms... That's what happens when you leave me alone with nothing to do for 45 minutes to shower.

2. Can guys and girls be friends? ( thanks Jen!)

Totally, but sometimes feelings happen and interfere with the friendship. I'm friends with more guys than girls. I've learned to not feel bad for shooting them down and I tune out their flirting, which they do jokingly 90% of the time. It's a real downfall really, because I go out to the bar with guy friends and am invisible to any cute dudes that might be there. It's like having a boyfriend without having a boyfriend. I should start hanging out with more girls...

3. Can you curl your tongue?

Oui.

4. Have you ever stolen anything?

Yes. 

5. Would you rather talk on the phone or text?

Text. I'm so scatterbrained that if I'm talking on the phone I'll go off on several random tangents before finishing a sentence. Plus, when there are other people (my family) around they tend to ignore the fact that I'm on the phone and try to start a convo with me. With texting, it's too much work to go off on the tangent my brain wants to ha.

6. Memorial Day plans?

Nothing. Perhaps making my parents watch Jude while they're home so I can get stuff done. We need to get things from Ikea and Babies R Us so hopefully I can convince them of that. Maybe I'll go to one of Sydney's parades.

7. What do you do to relax?

Read. Or go out for a drink. Or pour myself a glass of wine and soak in the hot tub. I could use that last one right about now...

8. Do you do anything to honor those that have died fighting for our freedom?

My sister is in the Plymouth Fife and Drump Corp so I'll go to some of her parades... Other than that, no.

Birthday Party brain vomit

Jude's turning one in 2 and a half months. I've been trying to figure out what to do for his birthday party. I've been googling themes and I keep finding great stuff. Like really awesome things and now I want his party to be perfect, I don't even believe in perfection, but his party has to be it. Just a warning, this post may or may not be coherent from a spectator's point of view, it's mostly to get my thoughts out of my brain so they don't get swallowed and lost in that vortex.
I definitely narrowed down the theme from several contenders to under the sea. I'm thinking for colors I want teals and blues and orange.
Maybe some greens for shiggles. Orange doesn't really belong below the sea perse but it looks really rad with teal. I figured it out! It's the fail whale's fault.

I'm debating between doing a tons-o-fish feel or narrowing it down to one main sea creature; either a whale or an octopus. The fail whale is mighty cute, but that might be sending the wrong message... Maybe I could use my master-genius to turn him into a not so fail whale just for Jude's party.
I definitely want to make most of the decorations and whatnot by hand.
- Banner. I have so much extra cardstock and scrapbook paper lying around.
- Cupcakes, because slicing cake at a party with my family is always a huge hassle. But, my grandma has been on an ice cream cake kick for everyone's birthday's this past year... and ice cream cake IS mighty tasty... NO. Cupcakes, and since my grandma loves me she'll probably bring an ice cream cake to the party for my birthday (a convenient 8 days after Jude's). Cupcake cake or individually decorated cupcakes? Cupcake toppers? Cake stand? I feel like I'm getting a little crazy, I never plan things this far in advance, I'm a very last minute, spontaneous person.
- Jude's cake needs to be adorable, and sea creature shaped.
- Invitations; do I make them on the computer and print them or do I work some paper magic like I did for my baby shower (which reminds me, Sydney's graduation announcements need finishing, good thing my parents aren't ready to mail them yet).
- Favors, to do or not to do? I'm leaning towards yes because everyone loves favors, and I have 10 freakin' little cousins for crying out loud, plus Jude's baby friends that come. That said, it really is going to be a small affair, just close family and friends but I have a lot of those.
- I'll leave the nom sitch up to someone else.
- Table decorations. Fishbowl ceneterpieces complete with real live fish that double as a party favor, anyone?
- Activities aren't really needed, he's only one and everyone can just enjoy everyone elses company, dammit.
-Oh, and of course, this will be as eco-friendly as possible. RRR, ftw.


In other, completely unrelated news:
- We went to the beach with Nicole, Carly & Kaleb on Thursday. My back is sunburnt and Jude wasn't digging the water but loved trying to eat the sand. I didn't take any pictures though.
- I'm pretty sure I have an ear infection, my ear has been hurting for days, and there was a pimple in there and it popped and it still hurts and my mastoid is swollen and PAIN OW OHMIGAWD. I'm pretty sure I'm going to urgent care after those hosers get home from the parade and I eat some lunch.
- Jude's cutting another tooth, this time on the bottom. Teething isn't as bad as I expected, he's just extra cranky and extra clingy. And he has a boogery nose.
- He plays the soooo big! game now. I tried to capture some video of my intelligent baby earlier but alas, my stupid video camera is dead even though it has hardly been used.
- I sneezed and Jude's toy cheered for me. I legit had something more important to put here but I can't remember, and yes, they do say I have A D somethi- can we have class outside?
- I like lists and I love lamp.

That is all. Have a wonderful long weekend! We're bbqing some ribs & chicken wings for dinner. omnomnomnom

Jude's "vocabulary" revised.

Jude still can't say "real" words quite yet, and he babbles... a lot. He does have a few short words for some things.
-Uh-oh whenever he drops something. He enjoys dropping things off his changing table onto my foot and saying it and giggling when I wince in pain.
-Mama for me or mamamamamama when he's feeling particularly whiny. He'll sit at my feet, pull on my pants or knees to stand up and go mamamamamamamamama until I look at him or pick him up.
-Ca for cat. He'll chase the cats around whispering ca, ca, ca or he'll try to pet them and when I say "be nice to the cat" he'll try to repeat cat and it comes out as ca.
-Bubba. The dog. That I hate. It's probably because he's always getting yelled at so Jude hears it a lot.
-He tries to imitate hi/hello/bye. It results in an odd h or b sound.

My mum thinks he's all sorts of intelligent because he'll put toys in his mouth while he crawls. What a dorky kid I have... :D

First tooth!

Jude cut his first tooth over the weekend! I didn't even notice it until it was already cut through.

Uh-oh.

I made that video camera work! Here's the video I was talking about earlier with Jude showing off his skills. :) In a little bit we're heading out to his auntie Sydney's last high school band concert!

Details

I got so excited about Jude's new pointing skill that I completely overlooked his other new favorite activity... Dropping things and saying uh-oh! He actually has been doing it for a while, but that was all mimickery before, now he totally sort of pretends to understands gravity and has labelled it "uh-oh." It's quite adorable, really, he'll get this super serious face after watching something fall and just go "uh-oh." I have a video from breakfast yesterday with both phenomena on my illusive, awesome video camera; the one I got for Christmas when I asked for a simple Flip and an iPod classic, the one that isn't very compatible with my computer and I can't upload from or save the videos to my computer from. It's a good camera, if I had a better computer it would be a great camera. It's one of the many reasons why I'm planning to buy a new laptop this fall with my extra student loan money.

And while I'm going off on this electronics tangent, you, my dear audience, are probably wondering how Jude's battery of doctors appointments on Monday went, or maybe you aren't, I like to pretend you are and I'm going to inform you either way.
First thing at 10 in the morning was some good old fashioned neuropsychological testing. It sounds like a terrible, painful thing but I promise it wasn't. The tests performed on Jude were to measure the Bayley scales. Essentially, Jude played the entire time. He was given "problems" to solve hidden in the form of toys, play, fun, and laughter. The doctor loved him, she was cracking up at him and she said that even though all babies are adorable and all parents are told that that Jude was extra cute. He's also extra smart, according to all the tests, he was showing skills and behaviors of an 11-12 month old. His language skills are right on track. He so cute and so smart that she just wanted to keep him. I really wasn't too concerned that he'd be behind, but they had to test to get a baseline and make sure the fused metopic suture wasn't causing serious damage especially since language is one of the things that is commonly delayed.
After that, we got some Chipotle for lunch, I bought since I made $60 from selling my carseat and some baby clothes on craigslist. Jude kept trying to make friends with all the people who went to the pop machine. He's so silly.
Next up at 1 we met with Carolyn, the craniofacial clinic's nurse practitioner. She went over the surgery with us again, addressed our concerns, reassured us that it was going to not be that bad, and had me sign a waiver. Then we had to go to the pre-op center where I had to fill out more forms and answer the same questions as always for the surgery.
Then we went down to ophthalmology for yet another eye exam even though we all know he can see (again, another thing to double check that the fused suture isn't messing anything up and get a baseline). We get down there and the door is locked so there's a moment of panic and Jude falls asleep while we're looking around for someone to figure out wtf is going on. A receptionist from that department eventually comes down and tells us that the doctor was out of town and that they rescheduled all of that day's appointments, but never called to tell me this...? She pages the resident that's there and she comes in and does Jude's exam, we had to wake him up for it, which was nigh impossible due to his obvious exhaustion. They put drops in his eyes to dilate his pupils so he looked like he had been licking toads all night.
After that fiasco, he had to get blood drawn, which was awful. You know the screaming sounds from The Exorcist? He made noises similar to that, and his eyes were all dilated, it was miserable. Honestly, it was kind of hard not to laugh at the noises. They had to take blood from both his tiny arms, and he kept squeezing my hand. Poor baby. We got to go home after that... At like 4 in the afternoon.

He's a trooper; a red-eyed, "wrist-band" wearin', extra cute, extra smart trooper.

Quick update.

I'm short on time right now so I can't post an in depth update, but I probably will later today or tomorrow. Pictures included, I have tons to upload anyway.
-Jude started pointing the other day, Thursday I believe. He was asked where his mama was and he pointed at me. Aww. It was adorable. He also recognizes our dog, Bubba.
-Welcome to my new followers from the BG blog thread! I promise I'm a better blog-updater than this usually.
-My blog is slightly under construction, I changed the background and need to make a new header, I'm just struggling with it though and I might change my mind again.
-I'm in the process of getting Jude and I ready for his 4 pre-operation appointments at UM. Starting at 10 ending... I don't even know when it will end, we'll be at the hospital all day basically.
-But first, I sold my carseat on craigslist! I have to meet the woman to do that before the first appointment so I should really be more pro-active about getting ready.
-We went to a bonfire Friday night at a family friends house. It was a going away party for our good friend Lisa. She moved to Texas over the weekend with her husband who's a border patrol person. They'll be missed, but it's a pretty exciting adventure for them.
-Sunday we went to one of Sydney's parades, she's in the Plymouth Fife & Drum Corp. Jude loved it.
-Jude's cute and gets into trouble a lot.

I think that's all. More details later. Wish me luck, I'll need it to get through the day in one piece.

I'm a dope

I put in the title of my last entry that I was going to write about the court notice I got but totally forgot to. *doh!*
Anyway, it just said the date and time for the genetic testing and where to go and what to do. It's June 2nd, bright at 8:45. :| And Jude & I can't eat 30 minutes before it. So I not only have to wake Jude up earlier than normal, but I can't feed him before we leave. :| Then drive downtown and deal with the thing and possibly Chris. Yup, it's going to be fun.
Jude had a doctors appointment today. He weighs 17 lbs 9 oz. and is 27 3/4 in long. His development is on track, and everything else looks groovy.

9 months, Mother's Day, another court notice, and a flooded basement.

Jude turned 9 months on Sunday! That was also Mother's Day, but before I can talk about all that, there's all the other weekend excitement that happened...
Friday morning my parents woke me up early because our basement flooded. Apparently, the suction-cuppy bath mat that was stuck to the wall to dry fell off in the middle of the night, hit the faucet handle, blocked the drain, and overflowed the tub. All the water seeped through the cracks in the floor and our basement had like 3 inches of water. No big deal, it's just a basement, right? Wrong. We have a nice freakin' finished basement with a bar, a pool table, an old piano that came with the house, air hockey table, an entertainment system with surround sound, and a foosball table. Not to mention, about 75% of my stuff is down there. Here's the other kicker, my mum pulled everything out of our furnace room two weeks ago so she could put up some shelves and organize everything. All that got wet/ruined. The piano is ruined, which not too big of a deal because it was here when we moved in and no one plays piano. The wood paneling and baseboards on the walls are ruined, the bar top is ruined, a ton of books are ruined. We've done like 20 loads of laundry to clean the towels and clothes that were in storage that got wet. Luggage sets are ruined. Now, another thing that makes this not-so-bad is that we were getting ready to sell a lot of this stuff in a garage sale, but now that half of it's ruined and we've spent a whole weekend cleaning and organizing, we don't have time. Now I just have to try to sell the baby stuff to resale shops or on craigslist. There's a lot of stuff that needs to be gotten rid of. The rest of the stuff we might just toss. I think the insurance is going to cover a lot of the stuff that was ruined, and the costs to replace the panelling and whatnot.
At least our basement is almost organized now... And they're building me a craft counter/nook in the furnace room, while not the most appealing place in the house, it will still be a nice little place to store all my crafty stuff and work on projects. Another good thing that came out of it is that I had to go through all my old clothes and tried them all on again and some of them fit! That means I'm shrinking back down, probably from that cardio kickboxing class.
On Mother's Day, after busting butt cleaning all day, my mum's mother came over for dinner. That was pretty nice, except for the tension between all of us while cleaning all day so dinner and company was the right change of pace to lift spirits. My dad bought me a gerbera daisy plant "from Jude" and my mum said she's taking me to get a massage the day before Jude's surgery, I cannot wait. I really need it.

Jude's 9 months now, he's growing too fast. :( He's crawling all over, chasing me, he's pulling himself to stand, dancing to music, and starting to realize that toys & books have purposes aside from being nommed on. He loves eating finger foods, and is starting to master the pincer grasp. He's a great mimicker and he's extremely curious about everything, which usually leads him to trouble. <3

Green Street Fair

His shirt says "Be green save our planet" in sequins on organic cotton, I thought it was fitting.

This weekend was the Green Street Fair in Downtown Plymouth. It sounded fun and interesting so Jude & I checked it out on Saturday. There was live music, tons of booths selling eco-friendly/crafty wares, vegan foods, recycling info, organic clothing, activities for children, and organic elephant ears. I wanted to try the organic elephant ears, but didn't get the chance to.
I strapped him to me and we walked around looking at all the booths. People tried to sell me home cleaning products, soap, cloth diapers, and cloth pads & menstrual cups. Surprisingly, a lot of the local green stores/companies I knew of before and shop from weren't there (like Green Baby Bargains and the Little Seedling). Another surprising thing was that there was only one tent of green menstrual care products and two cloth diapering tents. I expected more baby products, and more crafty tents I think. I got a lot of comments and questions about my baby wrap, which was cool. I saw a lot of baby's in Ergo carriers.
My neighbors run a green dryer company, I don't know exactly what it is that they do, but it has to do with dryer vents so I ran into them there at their booth and chatted with them a while. I also ran into 2 friends from high school.
Jude fell asleep the latter half of us being there and once I exhausted all the booth possibilities we sat in the park in front of the music stage and listened to some music. Jude woke up right before the band American Mars came on so I let him sit in the grass while we waited for my dad to pick me up. We listened, and Jude danced. Everyone who walked past thought he was absolutely adorable.


I couldn't resist, I went back today after getting cash from my dad to get my mum a mother's day gift. I also ended up getting myself a bar of body/face soap & a bar of shampoo from the Mirror Lake Organics booth because they had some bars that were half off from getting rained on (the soap's fine, just the labels are a little messed up) plus it smells delicious and the guy selling it was kinda cute, not going to lie. ;D But, really, who can say no to a delicious smelling bar of homemade, organic soap for $3?

Detroit Zoo Pictures

This one's not from the zoo, but it shows off the cute leg warmers I made for Jude out of a pair of knee-high socks and about 10 minutes of hand-sewing & his Wilco onesie. :D

These are a little old, almost 2 weeks, but I just found my camera yesterday morning. The couch ate it. I had to shove my arm all the way into the depths of the couch, but I'm glad I have it back, I went on a small picture taking spree yesterday, I'll upload those later though, first, these zoo pictures!

Prairie dogs!

Jude & I in front of the fountain.

I just HAD to pose him with at least one statue.

Crocodiles cuddling.