Dillierama

Baby's first word? Oh God, I hope not.

As you already know, Max is a breastfeeder.  Boy loves him some boobies.  When I'm trying to feed him something that is not dispensed from my nipples, and a boobie meal is really what he would prefer, he will paw at my boobs and yank on my shirt collar. 

Yesterday, I was attempting to feed him some pureed bananas, and he was grabbing at my chest as usual.  Then he looked me in the eyes, placed his little chubby hand on my left boob and said "Tata"

So there it is.  Max's first word.  Not Mama, not Dada.  No, it's tata. Nice.

We have the plague, but at least I'm loosing weight!

Alex is back to having a plain old ordinary cold after having a nasty case of Croup last week.  I'd be thrilled that he's almost back to playdate condition, except that now Max has RSV AND an ear infection, so we're all stuck inside for at least another week, maybe two.

Thankfully Max's bronchiolitis isn't bad enough to land him in the hospital, yet anyway.  He's just, you know, miserable.  Wheezing and coughing and leaking goop from all of his head holes.  His ear infection was only a minor one, but it was bad enough to have him crying non-stop for 48 hours, stop sleeping, eating and nursing.  The antibiotic and numbing drops for his ear seem to already be helping him, as he slept pretty well last night, as for the RSV, we've just got to wait it out and give him Motrin for the fever.

John and I have been sick with colds for the last two weeks, and yesterday we both thought we were finally on the mend, but we both woke up back at square one, coughing, sniffling, sore throats and headaches.  I suppose it was inevitable seeing as how we've been sharing our bed with two mucous covered petrie dishes of doom for the last week.

John's going to the doctor today, though I'm not sure it will do much good.  I think he's just got a cold, but with his history of athsma, I suppose it's better for him to get his lungs listened to, just to make sure it's not something worse. 

In other news, I posted my one month progress pictures at Bodies.  I can kind of see the difference, enough to keep me motivated and excited to see what kind of changes another month might bring.

http://www.bodiesinmotivation.com/2009/02/one-month-update-with-pictures/

Meme about us

Since we're about to celebrate our anniversary, I thought it would be fun to do a couple's meme.  Plus, if Dooce AND Sundry can do this meme, it can't be too lame right?

What are your middle names?
Mine is Lee, and his is LeRoy. Yep, with the capitol "R" and everything. Incedentally, we have the same initials:  JLD

How long have you been together?
We've been together seven and a half years, married for six in March.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We didn't.  We started out dating.  We met online, so I suppose we wrote back and forth for a few days, but we decided pretty quickly that we wanted to meet each other, and once we did, that was it, we were dating.

Who asked whom out?
It was a mutual decision to meet up at a coffee shop.  I guess he asked to meet me first if you want to get technical.

How old are each of you?
 We're both 31.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
His.  We never see either of my sisters who live in California.  He's REALLY close to his siblings.  It's just lucky that I love them too I guess.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Parenting.  Different ideas on what to discipline and how.  We don't really share the work of parenting equally either since I'm a stay at home mom, John tends to view everything that isn't fun as optional for him, for example, he's never once given either kid a bath.  He's gotten much better about helping me out on the weekends though.

Did you go to the same school?
 No, I went to a technical school and he went to the University of Utah.

Are you from the same home town?
No, but close.  I grew up pretty much where we live now.  He lived in Cedar City and Murray during his formative years.

Who is smarter?
When I asked him this he says "You".  When I asked him if he was saying that only because he wanted to have sex again someday, he said yes.  The truth is, we're both fairly intelligent.  John is "show-offy" smart. He loves Trivia games and sprinkling big words throughout his vocabulary.  But there is no way he'd have married me if I wasn't at least as smart as he was.  John has an incredible memory.  He can read or hear something once and he stores it in his brain forever, ready to pull the knowledge out when needed.  Me, I can barely remember my phone number.  I am much more analytical and logical than he is.  I can find a solution to any problem and I'm also an excellent multi-tasker, and these are not strengths of his.  He's great at Math, I can't calculate a tip.  I can pinpoint the serial killer in movies and TV shows LONG before he even suspects them.  So, I guess we're equally smart, but in different ways.

Who is the most sensitive?
Oh, me for sure.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
John's favorite place to eat is Wingers, a little diner with a great Buffalo Wing sauce.  I'm not too picky, and it makes him so happy to go there, so that's where we usually end up.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Two years ago we spent a month in Panama.  Separately I've been to Denmark and he spent two years in Costa Rica.

Who has the craziest exes?
Me.  But not stalker crazy, just wierd guys.  I suppose the fact that I have more exes than he has stacked the deck in my favor for this question.

Who has the worst temper?
I think we both have equally bad tempers.  Mine's a bit quicker to go off than his but then I also calm down faster than he does.

Who does the cooking?
Well, you'd have to use the word "cooking" very loosely here, but that would be me.  John's idea of cooking is fixing a bowl of cold cereal or microwaving leftovers.

Who is the neat-freak?
I think it would surprise his family to know this, but I am.  Pre-married John was a total neat freak, but when he moved in with me and my four pets (2 cats and 2 dogs at the time) he stopped caring all that much.  Now, he's kind of a slob at least in "my" areas of our house.  He never picks up after himself, he drops his dirty clothes on the floor inches away from the hamper, he leaves dirty dishes all over the kitchen, and I find little piles of his fingernail clippings on the side tables WAY too often.  He has never, since we've been married, done any housework in any area of our home except his mancave (basement).  His mancave, however, is spotless and gets dusted and vacuumed regularly.

Who is more stubborn?
John. Absolutely, without question, John.  He gives new and enhanced meaning to the word stubborn sometimes.

Who hogs the bed?
 John

Who wakes up earlier?
I do

Where was your first date?
A little coffee shop that no longer exists.  We then went back to his place to watch a movie, which also no longer exists.

Who is more jealous?
Neither of us are jealous types.  I suppose I sometimes get jealous when he gets to go out of town for the weekend and I'm stuck alone with the kids. 

How long did it take to get serious?
About six months (if you do the math, that is one month AFTER we moved in together)

Who eats more?
John does.  Unless I'm pregnant, and then me.  Definately me.

Who does the laundry?
John doesn't do laundry. Ever.

Who's better with the computer?
John is, and that's strange because I'm the one who worked in IT for 10 years.

Who drives when you are together?
John does, but only because I hate to drive.

Max sounds

Max makes sounds I've never heard come out of a baby.  You know, most babies do this cute babbly thing with some cooing and laughing.  Max does that sometimes, but mostly he hisses, growls and makes weird clicking and clucking sounds like a Bushman.

The other day he was in his walker and banging into all of my kitchen appliances and hissing at them.  BANG (hit's fridge) "HISSSSSSSS" turns around BANG (hits stove) "HIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!"  This went on for about a half hour. 

Sometimes when I'm tickling him he'll be laughing and then he'll smile, (or maybe it's a sneer, baring his clenched teeth) and growl. "GRRRRRRR". 

He also bites. 

Seriously, did I give birth to a puppy? A mutant snake? 

As for his speaking in African tongues, I don't know where that came from.  I mean, it's cute, in a kind of weird sort of way.  I guess it's just Max's way of being unique.  As a second child, he's constantly compared to his big brother, and maybe these vocalizations are his way of standing out.  See? Look at me! I am multi-lingual!  I speak Dog, Bushman and Parseltounge!

Sick

Yea, this is getting old.  Everyone in our house is STILL sick.  Alex and I fought about him taking his medicine last night (Decadron for Croup). I crushed it up and put it in some apple juice, wouldn't take it. I mixed it in with applesauce. Refused to take it.  Finally I conned him into taking it by putting the applesauce back in the cup and smoothing the foil over the top again and putting it back in the cupboard.  Then I waited a while, got the cup out of the pantry and made a big to do about opening up a nice fresh cup of unmedicated applesauce, which he then ate, and promptly threw up. MY GOD!

So I freaked out a bit because I had no more medication and called the after hours clinic, but we couldn't get in until 10 and they said they had a 45 minute wait. Meaning a doctor wouldn't see him until nearly 11 and they wouldn't just give me more medication because it was a different doctor than he saw the night before.  I decided Alex would be better off staying at home even without the second dose of medication.  I figured if he got worse by morning, I'd just take him to see his regular doctor this morning.

Alex did fine through the night, he's still coughing something terrible, but it's less barky and more wet which leads me to believe it's a bit more productive.  No more fever and he's got some of his energy back.  Energy enough to make a mess out of the house, annoy the dog and earn himself a couple of timeouts already this morning.  So, I'm pretty sure he's on the mend.

Max woke up at 4:45 with a fever and even nastier cough than yesterday.  Adding a little ear pulling has earned him a trip to the doctor later this morning where I'm fairly certain I'll be told that he too has Croup, or ear infection, or some exotic baby disease.  It's Max's first "sick baby" trip to the doctor since we brought him home from the hospital.  Normally I'm a wait and see kind of mom, but with Alex having Croup and Max's habit of putting everything Alex touches in his mouth, I'm positive there was some mucous cross contamination.

John's still got his Man Cold and I've got the same cold, but it's a Mom Cold, meaning, no one really gives a shit.  Luckily it's not that bad, more annoying than anything else.  I can't wait for the boys to start feeling better because we've been stuck in the house for nearly two weeks and if I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to go crazy!

Bowl for Kids' Sake

John is bowling to to help support Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Utah again this year.

Click here to donate. Any amount helps, even just a little, and hey! It's tax deductible!

Twofer

Two new posts up at Bodies:

http://www.bodiesinmotivation.com/2009/02/less-fat-pants/

http://www.bodiesinmotivation.com/2009/02/aggressive-goals/

Happy bleeping Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's day kinda sucked.  John's sick, so he didn't want to go anywhere.  He slept until noon (he got up with the baby that night), so breakfast was out, I ran and got McDonalds for lunch. Alex had stolen the box of conversation hearts I was going to give to John and ate most of them, the rest he threw in the dog water.  I ran to the store to get more, but they'd already put away or sold most of the Valentine candy.  All I could find were SweetTart Hearts.  John was understandably disappointed.  He LOVES conversation hearts.  John had surprised me with a card, a dozen roses and a box of See's chocolates. I felt like a total ass, having gotten him just a card and a 50 cent box of candy I'd let Alex eat.  I figured I'd make it up to him later that evening.

We hung out downstairs in front of the TV all afternoon eating my chocolates until I fell asleep at 4:00.  I slept until 8, and woke up to find both the boys asleep.  We put them to bed and were giddy with the idea that here it was 8:00, the kids were in bed and I still had my eyes open.  So naturally, we watched the BSG we'd missed on Friday.  It took a while because we had to go back and rewind it to watch everything about the missing number 7 again.  And again.  Then we had to talk about the missing number 7, because dude, it's not Starbuck?  Really?  (For the record, I still think it's Starbuck)

Just as we were headed upstairs for some Valentine's Day lovin', Alex got out of bed soaked in pee.  I stripped his bed, but the real damage was that he'd peed on Blue Blankie.  So downstairs we all went while I ran his favorite blanket through the laundry.

We were all getting tired, so as soon as the wash cycle was over, John threw Blue Blankie in the dryer and we convinced Alex that we should all have a family cuddle in bed upstairs.  This was a bad idea.  Though he'd been given Diego Blankie as a temporary replacement, he was over tired and missing his lovey.  This combination always means screaming and crying.  The screaming and crying woke up the baby and John and I each took a boy to try to calm.  I had Alex and John had Max.  Alex's tantrum just continued escalating so I put him in his room where the tantrum went nuclear.

We decided it would be best to switch kids, John would take Alex back downstairs and watch Mighty Machines until Blue Blankie was dry and I would cave in and nurse Max back to sleep.  Needless to say, by the time both boys were asleep in their own beds again, we were way, WAY to tired for further Valentine's Day festivities. 

Oh well.  It's a good thing that we tend to be lovey dovey all the year round. Valentine's Day can be a good excuse to buy (and eat) candy and it's always the only time of year John buys me flowers, but when it goes bad like it did yesterday, it's not the end of the world. We'll try again next year.

Crush

I've got a crush on someone. Just typing that makes me feel 13 all over again. But, it's true. I'm 31 years old and I have a crush.

It's John.  Yep. I have a crush on my husband.  Isn't that cool?

I didn't know that could happen.  I mean I LOVE John. I've loved John for seven years and we've got an awesome marriage.  We're happier than I thought married people could be.  We'd settled into this really comfortable routine.  Things were good, they stayed good.  We were happy and comfortable and in love.  But, something's happened in the last couple of months. I feel all a twitter about him again. Reminiscent of the days when we were dating, I'd spend the night at his place and we'd stay up all night cuddling and talking and, well, not talking, if you know what I mean *wink wink*.  We were falling in love and it was new and exciting and fun. 

And here we are, seven and a half years later and I'm feeling that way again.  We're cuddling and talking and not talking, and let me tell you, I didn't know that the not talking could be this good after two kids.  But I could not talk to him EVERY NIGHT ALL NIGHT LONG.  It's the best not talking I've ever had in my life.

I wonder if I'm falling in love with the man he's become.  He's different now than he was in the beginning.  He's more responsible, he's a father, he's experienced moments of great happiness and heartbreaking tragedy.  It's changed him, he's a different guy.  Could it be that's why I'm feeling like this again? 

I suppose it doesn't matter. If you get to fall in love with the man of your dreams again, don't second guess it, just enjoy it.

Sometimes you just need to tell them what to say

"Honey, I've lost 25 pounds since I had Max"

"uh huh"

"That's 25 pounds AFTER all the baby stuff."

"uh huh"

"Honey, that 25 pounds doesn't include the 15 pounds of baby, placenta, blood, water..all that stuff.  That's 25 pounds of me, just gone!"

"uh huh"

"I'm wearing PRE-PREGNANCY jeans right now"

"yep"

"Jeans Honey. Jeans don't lie.  There's no elastic waistband."

"uh huh"

"Ok, what I'm looking for here is something along the lines of 'damn Honey, you're looking hot'"

"Damn Honey, you look hot!"

"Aw, thanks Honey!"