Loving Mom

To Bake or Not to Bake

When I lost my job Amy presented an idea to me. Start my own catering business and bake desserts for (a) restaurant(s) - particularly the one they hope to open in a few months. I really like the idea because it's something I can do from home, so I can be home with Dylan, and as he's still going to daycare one day a week, I could do it on that day. HOWEVER. There's also laundry to be done, an apartment to clean, grocery shopping, a car to maintain, Jeremy's business office to run, and all the general stuff that falls onto a stay-at-home Mom. I'm typing this post mainly to put my thoughts down but any input is appreciated. I love to bake. But do I want to make it my job? Would I hate it if I did that? What happens when we move to Burlington? Do I want to continue it? What if we have another kid? Would I have the time? Is it worth the investment (and yes, there is an investment)? Will it take time away from Dylan and any future kids? Am I okay with that? Not really... but how can I encourage my kid to do whatever he wants when I don't do what I want. Is it selfish to want something for me? Or is it something that perhaps I should wait on until we move, until Dylan's older and in school and it's time for me to go back to work?

First Steps!

Dylan took his first steps yesterday. Two at daycare, then three to me, twice. A total of eight steps for the day. He has since decided to protest and cling to Mommy in denial of his new-found independence, but I'm still hopeful.

Little Snout

Zoo Lights

The Reid Park Zoo in all its lit glory. It was pretty awesome.

Look, Mom, lights!


One of the rare Dylan and Mommy shots.

Black Friday Shopping

Notice where the cart is from? Notice that it's empty? Yup, we went to precisely one store on Black Friday and bought precisely nothing. Score.

One

Happy Birthday my sweet boy. You amaze me on a daily basis. I can't wait to see what you do in the next year. You're a complete ham, a wonderful hugger, full of snot currently and I love you more than anything.

The End of an Era

Yesterday at 2:30 pm EST an era came to an end - the State Farm era. In January it would have been 10 years that I've worked for an agent. I'm kind of glad it didn't get that far... 10 years is too long. My boss notified us (myself and my one coworker) that we were being laid off a couple weeks ago, and what our last days would be. Since then it's been really hard to get up in the morning and go to work. Now? Now I don't have to. Now I get to spend my days with my wonderful, amazing little boy. Who says Mama. It doesn't get any better than that.

Slide!

There are two parks within walking distance from our place. I'd been going to one regularly with Dylan as it was a little easier to get to and it was shaded, which was nice in the summertime. Dylan could pretty much go on the swings only as all the playground equipment was for bigger kids. The slides were weird too, at least to me. They had bumps and lines and were all wavy going down. Now that summer is a distant memory, we tried the other park. So should have done that earlier. They had a little kids play area, consisting of a nice, short, straight slide. Dylan loves it.

Dylan the Duck

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!

Goodbye Fall

Fall has officially left the building. Not that it was ever technically in the building. And yet it's gone anyhow. We took Dylan to a pumpkin festival in Massachusetts with the Schneiders and it was a lot of fun to watch the kids play together at Kathy's house. The festival itself left something to be desired. Pumpkins, perhaps? It felt more like the 4th Ave Street Fair in Tucson - crafts and foods. I did score some fudge which I am begrudgingly sharing with Jeremy. Other fall-ish activities? Well, we made some pumpkin cupcakes which while I like this recipe better than the original one I tried previously, the decorating didn't work out quite as well. Of course that could have been because I was trying to get it done during naptime and I don't know any longer how long naptime might be. Going back to this fall thing... how do I know it's gone? Well, the evidence is below (past the Dylan and Ellie stair adventure).

Pumpkin

Toys are overrated, Mom. I just need the pumpkin.

First Aquarium Trip

You've seen one, you've seen them all, right? Nope. Not until you've seen it with a little one. Dylan was fascinated by the New England Aquarium. His poor finger must have gotten tired from pointing stuff out to us (stuff = brightly colored fishes, primarily). The day after Dylan was released from the hospital was a lot of fun: a trip to the aquarium followed by lunch at Faneuil Hall (busy as heck; I'd like to see if when there's not soo many people there), stroller running near the water, walking past a hotel whose fire alarm was emptying people onto the streets, finding swings and then deciding to drive back to Brattleboro because if we'd done all that on Monday, what was left for Tuesday?

Hospital Speak

"Your kid is not that interesting" translates to "get him out of here. There's no medical mystery. He's recovering extremely well. It's no fun for us docs."

In other words... Dylan did great with his surgery. It's definitely one of those things that's harder on the parents (picture me carrying his glow worm everywhere with me that day) than the kid. He was in ICU overnight then got moved to the regular cardiac floor. By the Saturday following his surgery (which was on a Thursday), Dylan was crawling around his crib. He was discharged on Sunday. And that made for a second hospital trip (the first one being to Dartmouth when he was born) where we were told our kid wasn't that interesting.

He certainly interests us, but I'm glad to hear it.

Have a Heart

If I could give Dylan my heart, I would - literally. Jeremy says I'm not allowed to because Dylan needs his mommy alive not dead. So instead, we're gearing up for surgery. It's not actual heart surgery but surgery to fix his coarctation. The aorta comes off the heart and some goes up, one part goes down. In the part that goes down there's a kink. This is the coarc.

A few weeks ago Dylan went to Dartmouth to see Dr. Flanagan for his cardiology checkup. Dr. F determined that 1) Dylan is too wiggly and needed to be sedated for a better Echocardiogram (thus another appointment was scheduled for the following week) and 2) he needed surgery to fix the coarc. The following week we went back and held Dylan's hands and told him we loved him as he cried and fought the anesthesia. Then we were with him while he woke up and demanded food as he hadn't been allowed to eat for the past 7 hours. In between they got the better picture which held good news, or the best we could hope for given the situation. And that is...

The coarc is small. This means they can do a simpler surgery that does not involve grafts or fake parts or any of that. They merely clamp the aorta on either side of the coarc, cut it out and sew the two remaining ends together. It is, of course, a lot more complicated than that in actuality, but that's the easiest explanation I've got.

As with any surgery there are risks involved. I don't know all of them yet and of course my mind goes to the worst, thus me offering Dylan my heart. Jeremy did point out it might be just a little too big for him anyways.

But I don't want to think about the risks. I'm focusing on the fact that I asked Dr F if in five years Dylan would be running and jumping and kicking a soccer ball around and Dr F said yes. And I asked if we could still travel soon after the surgery (soon is relative... in November). Dr F said "go for it." Based on that I have no reason to believe we won't be doing those things and that's what I need to focus on. Can you tell this post is really a pep-talk for me?

The surgery is next week at Boston's Children's Hospital. It's supposed to be the best so naturally I have high expectations. Dr F is not doing the surgery, and in his words, we wouldn't want him to as it's not his specialty. Fair enough. And if the question comes up... Dylan still has aortic valve stenosis. This will not be fixed at this time. Right now the difference between the valves is 20, which is what they aim for as a result when they do need to fix it, so basically Dylan's as good as he's going to get there, at least for the time being.

Dylan is our little lion and he roars to be brave. Or at least that's what I'm teaching him to do. But he'll also have a lot of family around to be brave for him - Mom and Dad, of course, and Grammy and Nana; we'll all be there while he's in surgery next week. And even though we all love him with all our hearts, he can still have mine if he needs it. ROAR.

What Dylan's Been Up To

Dylan is growing fast. Too fast. I'd tell him to slow down, but it's amazing watching him learn things. He's been crawling for awhile now, but he's getting incredibly fast. He's pulling himself up (though he doesn't always remember how to get back down), walking holding onto the furniture though he prefers Mom or Dad to hold onto, clapping his hands, saying "uh-oh" (which I have no idea where he got that from since we rarely say it), and he clearly understands "no" and clearly doesn't always listen. He's also decided that napping is for babies and he's 9 1/2 months old which apparently no longer qualifies him as a baby. He was exhausted yesterday and it took an hour for him to go down for a nap. Last night wasn't much easier but I've discovered music calms him. Apparently it doesn't matter what kind either because I accidently had the All-American Rejects playing as I was trying to scroll through the IPod to get to his classical music. I think tonight we'll try Guns N Roses. Basically I'm relying on music to get the kid to sleep now and if anyone has any suggestions, they're welcome. Short of putting him in the car all the time, I don't know what else to do.

Busted!

Jeremy left the fridge open as he was pulling something out that would be shortly returned... I can't remember what, barbeque sauce or something. If Dylan could talk he'd say "Oh hi, Dad. Didn't know I was that fast, did you? Now you know why Mom closes the fridge even if she's going to open it again in three seconds."

Splish Splash

As evidenced above by Dylan's lake-swimming photos, he's a water baby. If I so much as go into the bathroom, he races in and stands up at the tub and gives me a look like "hurry up Mom, I'm ready for bathtime."

9 Months

Nine months means no shots at his appointment - yay! It also means our big boy is getting bigger. Dylan's now 28 1/4 inches and 19 1/2 lbs. The pediatrician was quite impressed with him. No longer do I feel like they're going to call CPS on me (which I felt when they were forcefully pushing breastfeeding and I was trying to express that as long as my child got what he needed, was happy and healthy, did it matter?). She even went so far as to say his language skills are advanced. He likes to jabber quite a bit; he had a conversation with Granddaddy on the phone today, although Dylan didn't really let Granddaddy get a word in.

He's also pulling himself up, trying to cruise around holding the furniture, feeding himself, drinking water from a sippy cup... okay so half the water comes back out as he spits it at us. He's started turning the pages of his books, even though it's not always in the right direction. And with a little bit of help, he's making good use of his Mickey plane. Pretty soon he won't need us to make sure he doesn't fall over. Now if only I could teach him to peel his own grapes...

"Ooo"

I thought "ooo" meant "light." And I think for awhile, it did. We'd go into the bathroom and he'd turn the light on and off, on and off, and he'd reach his little hands for the light, then the light switch, light, then lightswitch. Now, however, it means Dylan wants something (I think). I'm learning that it's anyone's best guess to understand baby talk but I'm giving it my best shot. We were walking through a store yesterday that had balloons hanging at the ends of the aisles. I ended up going up and down more aisles than I needed to, just to hear Dylan say "ooo" and watch his little arms reach up for the unreachable balloons. We had an incident previously when I was buying a birthday card... it involved a lot of screaming for the big balloon display, so I'm glad the balloons prompted a much cuter reaction this time.

First Words

Dylan started saying dada on Father's Day (how cool is that?!). Since then his vocabulary has grown some, mainly to "ooos" and "uhhs." But in the rare moment that Jeremy leaves the camera at home for me to use and I actually manage to use the camera, and have it on the right setting at the right time, AND manage to hit the right buttons, we get this:

July Photos... Supposedly Chronologically

July? Where'd You Go?

Holy crap, it's been almost a month since I've gotten onto this thing?! Where the heck did July go? Excellent question. I'd answer that if I could remember, but the best I've got is...

1) The house raising encompassed another day. Unfortunately Dylan and I didn't get to stay for the whole thing as he had been really sick the day before, and then I got really sick the day after. Luckily it only lasted one day for him and a couple for me. In the meantime, Jeremy and his minions got a lot done in Wilmington.

2) Mom and Dad have gone back to Tucson (enter Dylan sobbing here... he misses his Nana and Granddaddy, and Dad, you'll be happy to know he still tries to get his cheek to pop at the dinner table... way to go Dad/Granddaddy).

3) My birthday... oh yeah, that happened. What can I say other than... ANGEL FOOD CAKE!!!! Which Dylan loves, by the way. Nana taught him to lick beaters. And then the bowl. And the spatula. He didn't quite get licking the bowl... so I stuck my head in it. Hey, don't judge me... there's no raw eggs in Angel Food Cake batter.

4) 3 kids at a Farmer Market? Were we nuts? Probably. Did we have fun? Yes. Gabe was a trooper who amusedly watched the rest of us. Dylan just wanted to be carried. And Ellie had fun with dirt (sandbox, Nicole, don't worry - she didn't eat any of it). Followed by dinner at the Marina - which needs some work, but hopefully it will get there. At least we had great company.

5) The bookstore I love in town is downsizing which sucks in more ways than one. All the books on sale because of this downsizing are books no one would want anyways. Good luck with that one.

6) One, two, three... four? Top teeth for Dylan are on their way. Technically three have arrived and the fourth is visable.

7) Yet again, and nothing to do with this month, I'm baffled by why four is spelled with a u, fourth is spelled with a u, and forty is spelled without one.

I'm sure there's more stuff that happened this month but I just can't think of it at this time. Photos to follow... perhaps before August.

A Random Assortment

Dr. B and Grandpa Drew

To Granddaddy's disappointment, Dylan seems to like shopping (for now, anyways).

The bright side after way too much rain.

On Daddy's jobsite, hard at work with Grammy.

Well, one of us is working in this photo.

First Father's Day

I think I got the best dad I could ever wish for my child. Jeremy is an awesome dad. Happy Father's Day Jeremy!

(and to my dad - Granddaddy - and to my brother - Uncle Brian, and to every dad out there)

Strolling of the Heifers

"You create your own fun," said Dad (Grandpa). And he was right. In a small town like Brattleboro, creating your own fun consists of a parade of cows. Literally. So we walked downtown to watch cows meander down the street. Luckily there was some music, otherwise I don't think Dylan would have been that interested. He did like the people-watching, however. And later that day, Ellie came to play for the afternoon. Dylan was enamoured. We took the kids to the park and I watched as Jeremy's inner-kid came out. He and Ellie attacked the slide with a vengence (that involved a lot of giggles). The day was topped off with dinner with Brian, Nicole and Gabe. I wonder if three high chairs in a row scares waitresses. I thought it was cute, but that could just be the fact that the kids are adorable.

Six Months (Six Months?!?!?!)

So it's not a great photo, but it is photographic proof of the 1st tooth, taken on the 20th. The second one has since broken thru. Dylan (and Mom and Dad) have made it 6 months. Wait, 6 months??? It feels like yesterday, and a lifetime ago, that my water broke and we started on the venture of parenthood (I guess technically that started when I got pregnant, but it became very real when they put a screaming baby in my arms after 16 hours of labor). Dr. B had his six month check up on Thursday...

15 lbs, 1 oz
27 inches... which officially means that the 6 month clothes really are done and I'm just fooling myself that he can wear his really cute "I love mommy" outfit just one more time. I'm half tempted to go buy it in the 9 month size. Whenever Dylan is having a particularly rough day (luckily it doesn't happen that often) or I haven't gotten a sufficient amount of sleep, I put him in this outfit to make myself feel better. Purely selfish I know, but hey, he doesn't know any better.

My parents, Nana and Grandpa, have arrived for their summer visit with Dylan - yay!! - and us, if they remember that we are actually here also. Not likely, but it's worth a shot. Dylan was a little momma's boy yesterday when they got here, but he warmed right up to them this morning. We look forward to a summer of fun, and as always, it makes me wish we lived closer to Nana and Grandpa.

Beef. It's What's for Dinner.

Dylan's dinner that is. Last night, because regardless of how much I mean to update the blog... it just doesn't magically get done by intent alone. We tried solids with him starting a couple weeks ago. It didn't go over so well. He just kind of let it drool out. Until we heard the magic advice from Jan, his daycare lady. "Hold his tongue down with the spoon and he'll suck the food off." Wow. What a difference. He ate beef last night, chicken tonight. He's even starting to make chewing motions (while the spoon is still in his mouth, but... hey, progress is progress). In other news he's also starting to scoot himself backwards. We're still working on the sitting up. He'll do it for others, but for me, well, what do you mean he can't just lean on Mom? And as for the Bumbo... it was great while it lasted, but he's figured out how to get out of it: throw a toy down, out of reach, then try to get it. It's not a good thing.

First Mother's Day

Being a mom is the most demanding and most rewarding job ever. And I'm loving it. Happy Mother's Day to my mom: thanks for being a great mom and for teaching me how to be a good mom. I love you! And to my Dylan and my Jeremy, thanks for letting me be a mom.

The Dominican Republic

A week long venture in the DR, thanks to Tasha. Here's some photos to make you jealous.

I was taking the first couple pictures above and had to sit squirmy wormy Dr. B down for a minute. This is what happens when I say "hold onto Mommy."