So excited.

This week started off really, really rocky. Sunday night was great, then Monday - Wednesday were just... not good.
Thursday was great! Jude had his post-op appointment with the plastic surgeon. He's pleased with how everything looks and is healing. He'll have a hulking brow for the next year and for the next 2 months his head will still be kind of soft so we have to be extra careful about him bonking it which is hard because he has been cruising along furniture lately, luckily he hasn't gotten too ballsy and tried standing on his own yet.
He climbed up steps for the first time in the waiting room yesterday! And when we went to the Coney Island for lunch he drank water from a straw!
After that and dinner, Jon came over, he helped me sort through my records and put them away then we picked up Nicole, got slushies, and returned bottles and came back here and had a raging bonfire! We sat around and chilled and talked and it was a good night.
I have been really over being a stay at home mom for a while so I have been applying practically everywhere and scouring craigslist several times a day every day and replying to the ad's I qualify for. This morning I sent one e-mail and one application. I have already heard back from both! I have an interview tomorrow morning at a bar in Dearborn and an interview with a campaign company working for cleaner waters and safer school food in Ann Arbor today at 4. I'm so freakin' excited about it. I also have a doctors appointment at 1:30 which isn't as exciting, but still, life is good right now.
Here's a picture of Jude from today, a little over 2 weeks post-op and making a ridiculous face.

Summer!

So it's Father's Day. I thought it was last week so I already gave my dad his gift. It was a magnet picture frame with a picture of Jude in it and I painted a speech bubble that says "I love my Poppers!" onto the frame with the hand dandy paint pen I bought at Christmas time to make my mum's family tree ornament. I should change my name to Martha or Suzy, seriously. My Martha Stewart/Suzy-homemaker skillz have been insane lately. It especially shows when I host get-togethers with my friends. They keep telling me to relax and let them get their own beer refills, but I can't and I almost always beat them to it. My dad got me a Father's Day gift. He got me Zane Lamprey's Three Sheets book, so I can gain more useless alcohol knowledge I reckon haha. If you've never had the pleasure of watching this show, I highly suggest you do. They usually play re-runs on FLN all the time. A blurb about it on the website: "Embark on this international drinking tour with comedian Zane Lamprey who takes you around the world to master the local drinking customs." It helps that Zane is a total cutie, but that's aside from the point. Tonight after Jude goes to bed I'm going out to the bar to sing karaoke with Dan, Nicole, Jon, and a few other people apparently. I'm excited. I promise I'm not an alcoholic.

Tomorrow's the Summer Solstice. i wish I could have a bonfire to celebrate, but alas, my parents work and don't want people over late when they work. I tried to have one Friday, but it stormed literally when I was about to go outside to get it started. It was still a good night, we played Twister and just the trivia disc part Scene It! I was awful at Twister, but Jon kept getting in my way and knocking me over. At least I kicked ass in Scene It!, they accused me of cheating because it's my game, but I didn't, I just have that much useless movie knowledge. I love Summer. I feel so much happier. I can blog on the back patio in boxers and a tank-top with a face mask on while swell, upbeat tunes eminate from the speakers imitating rocks, right now it's my Summer playlist that's always being adjusted to suit my ear's tastes. I can paint my toe nails and drink iced coffee, I'm on my 2nd one, I make the best, better than Sturbucks. It's the time for wheat beers, served chilled with an orange slice, so delicious. And picnics and garage sales! There's nothing bad about summer, except for my tendency to fry in the sun. I also feel more confident in the summer. Jude is chilling out here with my sister and I, in plaid shorts and nothing else.

He's healing really well, almost all the swelling has gone down and he looks less caveman-like everyday. I haven't uploaded pictures in days and my webcam doesn't want to work so you'll have to see later. He's also getting really good at sleeping on his own. He'll go down around 9:30 after nursing, cry a little bit (like 3 minutes tops), then just fall asleep. He wakes up once, at a quarter to 3 usually, to nurse and then goes back down the same way and wakes up at 7.

I promise I'll resume regular blogging soon...

... but until then you're stuck with another weekly recap, sorry. :( It has been a very long, trying week to say the least.

Wednesday, June 9th
- Jude's surgery.
- 6:30 am, arrived at the hospital to check-in.
- 7:30 am, they took him back.

- 9:15 am, they told us they started surgery.
- 11 am, they told us that the neurosurgeon finished their part and plastics were starting.
- 3:15 pm, they told us the surgery was over, went great, and they were waiting to get him into a recovery room.
- 4 pm, spoke to the surgeons, they told me everything went fantastic.
- 5 pm, finally got to see Jude and they took him to the PICU.
- Throughout all of that, I kept myself distracted by using the internet, reading, knitting, napping, and listening to music. My parents obviously went with me. My grandma came to wait with us, she bought me chocolate covered bacon because she loves me. My grandfather also came unexpectedly.

Thursday, June 10th
- Jude spent most of the day in the PICU, and they slowly removed all of his wires.

- They moved him to a room on the floor at around 5 pm. 
- All the nurses and doctors said he looked a lot better than most cases they've seen.

Friday & Saturday, June 11th - 12th
- Hospital stay, nothing too exciting.

- They removed his bandages Friday morning.

- Jude slowly returned to his normal self and started playing more even though his eyes were swelled shut.
- The whole time in the hospital my mum and I took turns staying with him so we could get some sleep.

Sunday, June 13th

- We came home! Even though his eyes were still shut, they were pleased with his progress and sent us home in the morning. The doctors came in in the morning while I was sleeping and my mum didn't tell me until I eventually stumbled back to the room, showered and with breakfast for the two of us.

Since then we've been home. Jude's eyes started opening later Sunday afternoon and now they're almost all the way there. He's resumed being mischievous like before and we have to keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't bonk his head.

We also have started trying to get him to stop co-sleeping and sleep on his own. He has to sleep upright for the next few months so that's part of the reason why. He has to sleep in the carseat in his crib, he's not too thrilled about that at night, but my mom is insistent that he'll get used to it eventually and stop waking up every 2 hours.

I got the results from the paternity test today. There's a 99.99% chance Christopher's the father, shocker.

Busy week

Where did I leave off last time? Ah, yes, a very incoherent rambling about nothing in particular. Let's do a real life update.

Wednesday, June 2:
- The dreaded paternity test... dun dun dunnnnnnnn. I tried not to be awkward arond Chris, I thought I did pretty well, but he was still awkward, but I reckon that's to be expected. He still won't have an adult convo with me, but whatevz. I'm sure he'll change his mind about that once he gets my lovely pre-recorded Maury "you ARE the father" message. The actual test itself was kind of gross. We go back into this dinky room in an office building and there are two "nurses." They asked the 3 of us to stand against the wall and snap a polaroid, in my head I was making jokes about it because I'm fairly certain it's the only "family" picture of the 3 of us that exists. Then, as the nurse was preparing to swab my mouth I asked if she would wash her hands before doing Jude's because of fear of him getting sick, surgery in a week, yaddayaddayadda. They both looked at me funny and said "We switch gloves between people." As she was saying this, the nurse that did me totally sniffled and wiped her hands on her pants after taking off her gloves. They then proceeded to tell me that the closest bathroom was on the other side of the building. I was like, "I don't care, please wash your hands." She did, it took her forever to go there and come back, the whole time I bit my tongue from complaining to the other nurse that was doing Chris about how they sit in this dinky room all day, swabbing mouths and all they do between people is switch gloves.  There wasn't even hand sanitizer in the room. I thought about calling human services or whoever and complaining, but then I got sidetracked by something shiny.

Friday, June 4: 
- Went out to the bar with Nicole, Jon (whom I met a few random times, years ago but this was the first time we actually hung out), and Mike that night because I was feeling cooped up and needed to surround myself with friends. Mission accomplished.

Saturday, June 5:
- Got lunch with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. My grandma got Jude a Saint Jude necklace for surgery. All my little cousins kissed Jude's foot (so they wouldn't spread germs to him) and wished him luck on his surgery as we left.

Sunday, June 6:
- Went to see my sister march in the local parade with the fam.
- Hosted the most badass last minute BBQ-on-a-mostly-rainy-day ever. Jon, Nicole, Dan, and his girlfriend Amanda came over. I really overdid myself, I grilled wings (hot and bbq), butternut squash, and supremely delicious hamburgers. I also sliced a watermelon, Nicole brought chips, Jon brought beer, I had my dad pick up baked beans, soda, and potato salad. Good times were had, we played Scattegories, I almost won but got distracted by a screaming baby and a father who failed at diaper changing and lost in the last round. Everyone but Jon left and he helped me clean up and we hung out for a while. It was an excellent night.

Monday, June 7, today:
- Stressed over packing, it's still not done because Jude keeps getting in the way or whining. My mum's mom came over for a visit. Went on a hospital tour with my mum. I keep freaking out so bad that I almost puke. One full day left before surgery. The lady leading the tour thought I was the one having surgery because I left Jude with my dad and I look like I'm 16.
- Jude said "kitty" to the cat while I was gone. 

So the theme of the weekend was pretty much "surrounding myself with family and friends to distract myself from freaking out." It worked, but now that that stall technique is out of the way, I got nothing. I'll get through this, somehow, I know I will.

Tomorrow, my dad's taking Jude to the zoo while my mum, sister, and I get massages and lunch. RELAXATION... It will only last like 10 minutes though before I'm going crazy again.

Rain, rain go away

The birthday party planning is coming along swimmingly (tehe). Hopefully I'll have the invitations finished before Wednesday, that would be convenient and ideal. I lost my basket o stamps once again though. I don't know how this thing always goes missing but it does. I wanted to see if I have an invitation stamp or if I have to do it all by hand, which I have no problem with, I just thought a stamp would look nice. I actually made progress on the invitations today... by printing a fail whale stencil, making modifications to it, cutting it out, and tracing it onto 15 pieces of cardstock. It's a step. I made a mock-up a few days ago that's super cute, but in all the wrong colors.

I have a silent movie on in the background and each time I look up it gets stranger and stranger. "The Mysterious Island."  There are strange creatures with a battering ram undersea. I have no idea what's going on, I didn't even start it from the beginning.

It's storming, I hate storms, luckily the power didn't go out and it has mostly let up.

Jude is actually sleeping on his own right now! In his crib! Wooo! And when my parents get home from a graduation party I'm going to the bar to grab a drink with some friends! A girl needs a break... Jude has been restless today. He didn't sleep until midnight last night, woke up around 7-8, and then napped for only about 20 minutes total. Maybe this means that he'll sleep through the night and on his own? I doubt it, but it's nice to dream. So when I mentioned he was cutting a second tooth on the bottom... It's more like 3. He has the one on the top, and 3 on the bottom are working their way out and I think maybe another one or two on top. Just a few weeks ago he had none, now he's getting tons. That means as soon as we're back to semi-normal after his surgery I'll start him on meats (I refuse to give him the pureed meats, they gross me out) and more table foods! Yay!

My grandma's coming over tomorrow to give Jude a gift for his surgery. I love my grandma. My mum bought him a Rex (the T-Rex from "Toy Story") stuffy at Kohl's today. He's super cute. Jude was loving on the Lorax earlier too. He's so funny. OH! He pushed his walker-push toy... standing up! He only got one or two little steps, but it's still exciting even though I'm not ready for him to start walking anytime soon, he could hold off like 3 more months and that would be great.

I'm not sure this post had any real substance or point to it. Sometimes my brain just overflows and my fingers pour it out. I have to wash diapers. (Typing it out helps remind me so I don't forget :P)