For Those Who Haven't Seen It On FB or LJ...

... I present to you via copy and pasting, what the next few months looks like for me!

The near future: I need to finish and mail out Sydney's graduation announcements, and possibly make Jude's birthday party invitations just to keep myself occupied and get it done before everything else kicks up.
Within the "next 30 days": DNA testing, not to mention whatever court crap is going to follow that.
May 17th: Jude has 4 pre-op appointments at Mott. (Neuro-psych testing, opthamologist, surgery team appointment, anesthesia pre-op).
June 9th: Jude's surgery. We'll be in the hospital for approximately 5-7 days, at least one of those days will be spent in the PICU.
June 10th: My baby sister graduates from high school, and I won't be there. :(
July 10th: Sydney's graduation party.
July 17thish: I should be ready to start working again, if I can get a job.
August 9th: Jude's 1st Birthday.
Weekend after that: Jude's birthday party.
August 17th: My Birthday.
August 25th: My mum's Birthday, hopefully being spent in California, that would be a nice getaway at the end of this shit storm.
September 2nd: Classes start.

Not to mention, a few more things that may or may not happen within the next few months involving my pets....

I forgot to mention (take a shot for every time I said "mention" in this post) that I'm taking a cardio kickboxing class with my 2 aunts and cousin. It's 6 weeks long, Monday and Wednesday so it'll end right before Jude's surgery. It's going to kick my ass, I can tell. It's like 40 minutes of cardio work and then 20 minutes of toning and when I woke up today, my abs were killing me. That's a good sign though, right? I walked in the March of Dimes walk last Sunday and I'm walking in the Race for the Cure May 22nd. Go me! At this rate, I'll be less flabby by the time I start school which will be good because then I can resume strutting around campus with an air of confidence.

I'm such a geek mum. I got my Kushies AIO diapers in the mail today and I was so excited. Unfortunately, they're the next size up so they won't fit Jude for a while... Unless I put him in them anyway lol.

Really?!

The court hearing about child support was yesterday. It wasn't very hearing-like. I went downtown to the friend of court office. Waited about an hour before they called Chris back. He didn't say anything or even look at me in the waiting room and I didn't sit near him or say anything to him because, honestly, I felt like I would say something bitchy and I'm trying to tone that down. Luckily, they were playing Star Wars in the waiting room, so that kept me entertained. There were no clocks, it was frustrating and disconcerting. Anyway, they called him back, he went back, eventually he came out, walked right past me to the elevator and left. A few minutes later the woman called me back and said, before I even sat down,
"He has the right to genetic testing and he chose to do that. All I need from you is to answer a few questions."
"OK..."
In my mind I wanted to ask her what he had said and why, but I knew better and that she wouldn't tell me.
"What's your phone number, date of birth, and social security number?"
I give it to her.
"Where do you work?"
"I'm unemployed right now because my baby is having surgery in June."
She didn't write down the surgery bit, just unemployed.
"Where and when was your last place of employment?"
"McDonalds. April '09."
"Give me your ID and sign here."
She takes my ID to the scanner to make a copy and I sign the paper.
"The test will take place within the next 30 days. You'll get a letter in the mail with the appointment date and time. If you don't come you'll lose the Medicaid."
Then she gave me this awkward look as if I was supposed to stand up and leave 3 minutes ago.
All in all. She was a bitch, but maybe it's just the context and/or situation.
It has to happen in the next 30 days, or else I cannot go. Jude's surgery is on the 9th of June, which is in 7 weeks and one day. If they schedule it anytime after that, there's no way I'm doing it. I'm not putting him through that stress after his surgery. As if the stress from the impending surgery wasn't enough, now there's this.
Typical guys, only thinking of themselves, which this makes no sense because it's only going to fuck him over more in the end. He's going to have to pay for the test and it's not cheap at all. I really wish he'd talk to me, this is such a craptastic situation. If I had known then what I know now, I would have never dated him, to be honest. I hate admitting it, but it's true. I don't understand how someone can be so selfish and uncaring for such an amazing person like Jude. Chris has already missed out on so much. I worry he's going to try to get custody after the paternity test comes back. I don't think it's a good idea because Jude doesn't know him at all. They haven't bonded and Chris would be completely clueless as to how to take care of him.
When we left the friend of court, I punched my hand in the elevator instead of the wall then my dad & I walked down to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream.

On the brighterish side of things, Jude & I went to the zoo with my friend Nicole last week, I wish I could share the pictures but I lost my camera sometime after I got home. It's been MIA for the past week and it's so frustrating. I've looked everywhere 400 times.

Major News Alert!

My little bugger is no longer a tiny pollywog. He's mobile!
That's right, he started crawling. Last week, it was slight forward motion, and everyone told me I still had a while. Over the weekend he took a few tiny one crawls forward. The beginning of this week, BAM!, he's moving all over the place. With his newfound mobility comes lots and lots of trouble. He keeps doing things that he knows he shouldn't. He's a typical boy, wants what he can't have. :P
I will admit, his curiosity is kind of cute, but it's kind of worrisome. He keeps going after my old cat. She's 19, mangy, and only likes being pet a certain way only by me 8/10 times, so I think we can all see why this is a problem... He's starting to pull up on things to stand... Like the end table to get my cell phone, or iPod, or laptop. Once those were off, he crawled around the coffee table to where I hid them and tried to crawl over my lap to get to them, clever bugger. OH! And somehow he finds ways to get to electrical cords that I've tucked away or hidden...

Video proof of this new talent to come soon, now a) I'm not on my computer, b) it's night-terrors o'clock, and c) I'm working on making my sister's graduation announcements. I offered to do it because I do nothing but sit with Jude all day, and I like doing this kind of stuff. I want to go to a scrapbooking workshop to learn how to make sweet pages.

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I heard back from the state about the whole paternity/child support bull malarky. We're scheduled for a hearing with the friend of court on April 26th. I'm trying to not let my nerves get the best of me.

8 months, Easter, and such.

Jude is 8 months (2/3 of a year!) Friday and since we're going up north tomorrow morning I figured I'd do this tonight. It's so weird thinking it has already been this long, bittersweet if you will.

Milestones:

+ His solid food intake has decreased. A lot. Meaning I just restarted offering them on a regular basis. He had a cold a few weeks ago and lost all interest in them so I stopped offering them altogether. Not too big of a deal, really.

+ He can clap! He finally figured it out yesterday.

+ He likes to scooch around sitting up.

+ He's closer & closer to crawling everyday. There have been a few moments of positive forward motion.

+ He was teething, and there was a tooth that looked like it was going to pop through, then it disappeared. Weird... I meant to google that.

+ He still doesn't like to be put down to sleep & I still have to nurse him to sleep. Sleeping through the night is not something I've seen since about July and don't foresee seeing anytime soon.

+ Says mama.

+ Knows a few objects/people by name and will look at them when asked where they are.

+ Starting to grab onto things and stand.

+ Waves hello when you call his name or someone walks into the room & bye-bye when you say bye-bye.

+ The pincer grasp is starting.

+ He's beginning to realize books are for reading, not eating.

+ Grabs at my shirt to indicate he wants to nurse.

+ He looks for hidden things, it's really cute when I hid something behind something else because he'll try to crane his neck to look around the thing.

We're going up north for a long weekend. I decided to use disposables for the weekend so I don't have to drag a big, stinky bag of diapers home or try to wash them in the machine up there & figure out how to wash them in hard water. Jude's butt is so tiny in sposies, it's odd.

Easter was good. Jude & I woke up like normal then he discovered his basket and investigated it and took everything out and chewed on it. In the afternoon we went to my aunt's house for dinner with the family. My sister, Jude, & I wore sweet sweater vests.

Jude & I were home alone for 4 days while my sister & parents were in NYC because Sydney's high school band played at Carnegie Hall on Friday, Easter was when they came home.