The Child Support Court Bologna is OVER... for now.

I had court for Child Support with Christopher on the 13th.
It was ordered that Christopher has to pay $295 a month, plus $20 to the state for the medicaid that we don't use and can't get rid of, plus $25 up to $2736 for the birth costs. He is also responsible for 68% of health costs that insurance doesn't cover. They also ordered joint legal custody even though he hasn't been around or shown signs of giving a crap. They gave him "reasonable parenting time to which both parents agree" which means we have to work out a schedule.
We got lunch after to discuss all of that, and that went... smoothly, I guess. He saw Jude once last week and that was awkward. Not only that, but the plans were made last minute, then cancelled last minute, then remade last minute again. Notice a trend? That's not going to fly with me. We have more to work out and discuss, but who knows, the ball is still in his court, always has been and always will be.
I'm not even going to worry about it now because I leave for vacay in California in just over 24 hours. Hopefully it won't eat at me while I'm away. 

Jude's Birthday Celebrations! (and one year stats)

To kick off Jude's Birthday celebrations, my mum and I gave him some gifts from us in the morning on his Birthday.

After his nap, we gave him a Ding Dong for a Birthday cake, complete with a candle.

We spent the day playing, and went to the fish store to buy snails. We had a late dinner with our family friend, Lisa because she was in town from Texas at the Timberwolf Tavern (Jude loves to flirt with the waitresses there). When we got home my mum gave him his big present, his drum! As soon as he had the mallets in his hand he held them properly and started playing the drum.

We had his birthday Party on Sunday, the 15th. I made the invitations, cake, cupcakes, and decorations myself. I also put out a scrapbook that I was working on all year that has a picture of Jude each week for the past year. 

Most of my family was there as well as my friend Amanda and my friend Kelsey (who I kidnapped for the weekend from BG and kept me sane). 

We had a taco bar, and everyone seemed to have a good time!

 For my favor buckets I ended up putting a stuffed clown fish, some fish stickers, bubbles, a punch ball, a small water toy, a packet of Goldfish, and a bag of gummy fish candy.

I filled the kiddy pool at the beginning of the day for Jude to splash in and we tossed him in it after he made a mess of his cake (which he didn't slam into as hard as most kids, he was very timid about it. I think he ate too much fruit beforehand) to clean him off.

One year stats:
-Weighs about 20 pounds.
-Eats normal people food.
-Nurses at night and first thing in the morning only.
-Drinks whole milk during the day.
-Sometimes sleeps through the night.
-Takes one 2 hour nap during the day.
-Loves to play drums, catch, and sit in his toy boxes.
-Says: Bubba, kitty, mmm for food, and mimics things like yeaah, hiii, and hmmm-mmm. (maybe more)
-Signs: more, food, all done.
-Climbs onto the couch.
-Loves to climb up and down steps when he's around them.
-Starting to throw toddler tantrums.
-Favorite song: "Single Ladies" by Beyonce.

Happy Birthday Jude!!!

Today is Jude's Birthday!! He's o-fish-ally one!!
Here's the hard part, what do I write about? I can't think of the right words for this quite yet (even though I've been thinking about it for days) so I'll use this as a recap of the year in pictures, because like I said before, he looks completely different.

First born, he looked like a Mandrake when he cried, which he did a lot.

2 months.

First Halloween(2.5 months).

Right after his skin tag surgery (11/23) (3 months).

First Christmas (4 months).

6 months.

First Easter (8 months).

9 months.

First tooth(9 months).

Day he came home from surgery (10 months).

And last, but not least, his First Birthday.

There will be more postage on all of this later, including his "stats", milestones, and celebrations, plus tons more pictures from the day! For now, I have to get my camera back before he smashes it to pieces.

8 weeks post-op!

Jude was 8 weeks post-op as of Wednesday!
One of the hardest things I've been through in my life happened 8 weeks ago. It sometimes seems longer ago than that, probably because we jumped right back into normal life almost immediately. I'm so relieved it's all behind us. He looks like an entirely different person than he did 8-9 weeks ago. Hell, he looks completely different than he did when he was born, but we'll save that progression for his Birthday on Monday.

Top-view, pre-op.

8 weeks ago, the morning of his surgery.

Fresh out of surgery.

Top-view, 2 days post-op.

1 week post-op.

2 weeks post-op.

Top view, 2 weeks.

3 weeks.

4 weeks.

6 weeks.

8 weeks!

Top-view, 8 weeks.

It has been a long, tough journey, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the hardest thing in my life thus far. I'd also be lying if I told you I didn't cry while gathering the pictures and writing this post. Sometimes I miss his little pointy noggin, butbI'm glad it's over with. I'm glad everything has returned to mostly normal. His scar is so normal to me that I almost forget it's there when we're out in public until someone (usually a small child) looks at him odd, and sometimes people ask. I like when people ask because then I can inform them of craniosynostosis. More times than one would expect with it being so rare and unheard of until diagnosis I run into someone who says "Oh, yeah, so and so's child had that." It's good to know we're not alone.
There's a 5k run/walk for craniosynostosis on Halloween this year. It's in New York, but my mum and I are going to make the road trip to run. We're also going to do some fundraising. It's benefiting two of the larger craniosynostosis foundations; the Jorge Posada Foundation and CAPPS. We'll work something awesome out for fundraising. I think our goal will be $500, that's the minimum for t-shirt sponsorship to get Jude's name on the shirts and that we're running for him.
I feared that his personality would change after the surgery from the stress of it all and all the strangers in the hospital, but it hasn't. He's one of the friendliest, most out-going babies I have ever seen. Whenever we go out anywhere he sits there and waves at anyone he sees. He starts conversations with them. He flirts with the ladies. Strangers think he's a complete doll. I'm thankful for that.
Now that that journey is over with, I'm excited to see what other journeys come our way. I hope they aren't nearly as challenging and stressful as this one has been though.

Countdown!

6 days: Jude will be one! I got his 1 year portraits done on Friday, they're pretty cute, and the first portraits he's had done post-op.

10 days: Court hearing with Christopher about child support. This time I'm pretty sure there's no loopholes he can use to get out of it or postpone it any longer, I've also been brushing up on my knowledge of the custody, visitation, and child support laws to ease my anxiety.


12 days: Jude's first birthday party! It's going to be fun. I've been working on planning and getting everything ready, it would be much easier if I had a job and the money to fund it instead of relying on my parents because they like to put everything off to the last minute. Here's a preview of some of the stuff (table cloths, napkins, favor buckets stuffed fish favors, banner, and cupcake liners)

14 days: My Birthday. And a stupid WIC appointment.

21 days: Family vacay to California for 6 days for my mum's Birthday.

29 days: School starts. I can't express my excitement for this. 

Jude's Almost ONE!

That's right, in 2 and a half(ish) weeks Jude will be one! It's amazing how much personality he has and how much he has learned and grown over the past nearly a year.
He's still not walking or standing on his own, but that's groovy with me.
He's eating real people food. Often at meals he won't eat unless I feed him what I'm eating, which is really no big deal.

He has 7 teefers right now.
He stopped calling everything "Bubba" and now he calls everything "kitttty" except the t sound isn't fully there so it's more like "kiiii-ey." I think. I'll try to catch it on video and post it.

I have been working on things for his party. I started making a banner, I just need to go buy ribbon. My whale invitations turned out awesome. The whole family was invited and a handful of my friends. I think we're going to have a taco bar. Or pizza. I'm leaning towards taco bar. The cupcakes I'm going to make are going to look super cute. So is Jude's cake, I decided to do a regular shaped cake instead of a whale shaped cake, it takes less thought. I still need to figure out what to do for favors. My mum picked up some fish stuffed animals for them. I'll get some fish-like snacks and bubbles and who knows, I'm sure I'll find something. I'll probably put everything in buckets. Paint some names on said buckets. Or decoupage, just because decoupaging is fun.

And then there's the rest of my life... I put my cat down a few weeks ago. That was obviously sad, but it was for the best. I'm still unemployed and looking for a job. I want to leave this place and find something bigger and better for Jude and I because that's what we deserve. Chris still refuses to talk to me. I still haven't heard from the child support offices about a hearing.

We went to the cottage last weekend. I love it there. It's so peaceful. The weather was really nice, except for Sunday, but it was still a good, lazy day in the cottage. Jude LOVEDLOVEDLOVED the lake, even though it was pretty cold.
I have been reading a lot lately. I stormed through The Tao of Pooh in under 24 hours last week and plan to do the same with The Te of Piglet soon. I've also read a few other things, but those are the most exciting and noteworthy. Plus I highly recommend them. They explain Taoism through Winnie the Pooh (and vice versa). I read The Tao of Pooh as a kid when I was home schooled and learning about different religions and I understood it for the most part. Re-reading it now, it made even more sense and I was able to understand it better on a deeper level.