Spring is definitely in the air at our house. Our tulips are popping out of the ground and I even had a teeny, tiny purple crocus in bloom already. As much as I love winter, I was definitely ready for spring. Ready to get the kids outside to play. Jadon has new shoes to test out now that he is walking and he got a new swing for his birthday!
Jadon loves to be outside. Everything in our yard is new to him. He just loves to wander around the yard. Last week he had a friend over to play for a few days. His name is John. He is Shelby and Jake's guitar teacher's son. Jadon and John are about 9 months apart in age but they really seem to get along well.
Jadon loves his outdoor slide as much as his indoor slide.
Sorry I have not posted in awhile. Got sidetracked scrapbooking! LOL! Then this weekend we all got sick. Some sort of cold virus. Matt, Jadon, and I were home alone on Saturday miserable. Jacob was camping at Starved Rock with his Boy Scout Troop and Shelby was at a track meet in the Galesburg area. I don't know if you have ever been very, very sick and had to also take care of a very sick toddler, but I can tell you it is not fun at all. Let's just say there were a few arguments between the two sick adults in the house as to whose turn it was to deal with the miserable toddler. By Sunday, Matt and I were very much improved. Jadon on the other hand was not. He continued to run a fever, not eat, and have a lot of drainage, and a nasty cough. I took Monday off because he was still sick hoping he would improve. However, Monday night his temperature got up to 103.3! That meant I also took today off and we went to see the pediatrician. Guess what? Poor Jadon has a double ear infection. No wonder he has been such a grump!! Tomorrow all our friends come back to play. We are looking forward to it.
Last week Jadon fingerpainted for the first time. I would not say he was exactly thrilled about it. He was not sure what to think about the texture or exactly what I expected him to do with it. He tried to eat it a few times and I told him no. The other kids were finger painting and he watched them. Maybe next time he will be more into it.
Here are some pictures:
Oh, cool! I get to do what the big boys are doing!
Hmmm....this is interesting stuff.
Uh, oh! It's on my hand Mom!
This is after he tried to eat it and got it on his face.
Jadon had two first's yesterday. His first year check up, and his first time out. The time out happened in the morning so I had a good chuckle when my husband brought home the "12 mo. anticipatory guidance" sheet with this direct quote on it:
"Infants at this age are developing more and more independence. They want to do more for themselves. This normally leads to expected oppositional behavior. They seem to resist everything you want to do. Try not to get into a power struggle over everything. Allow a reasonable amount of freedom within a safe environment".
Well, good to see Jadon is developing normally. He is certainly becoming independent. I do try to allow him freedom to explore. Most kitchen drawers and cabinets have been reorganized to allow for Jadons exploration but there are some things that can't be moved out of Jadons reach. Our computer for example. There is nowhere else in the house that it can go where I can still monitor my children's use of the world wide web. So when Jadon decided the other day that under the desk was going to be his new hang out I had a problem with that. He was messing with the CPU, opening and shutting the disc drives (we are already on #2), and I was just waiting for him to unplug something important. Not to mention the power strip and all the things plugged into it. Once I determined that this was not an acceptable hang out I prepared myself for the battle ahead.
I underestimated the strong will of my youngest child. After about 20 times of removing him from under the desk and giving him a toy only to have him turn right back around and go back at the first chance he saw, I was about to lose my mind. I was having visions of doing this all day long. The look of determination in his eyes made me sure he could last that long. So I looked around for something to block the desk with. I decided on our toys bins. Perfect!!
This set off anger in my sweet baby boy like I had never seen. He marched over to the toy bin and started pulling and dumping all the toys out. He was going to find a way to get back in there. So that is how he went to the stairs to sit in his very first time out.
He looks all sweet and innocent in this pictures but I can assure you….before he saw the paparazzi was on the scene he was in a full out temper tantrum. He did not want that to been seen by his public, so he quickly composed himself for the documentation of the situation. If he could talk I am sure he would tell you that he is completely innocent in all of this. Even looking at him napping when I checked on him a few moments ago and seeing how sweet and innocent he looks I have trouble believing it happened.
Jadon's first birthday party was on Saturday. It was a monkey theme because Shelby and I always call him "monkey". I had plates and napkins with monkey's on them. So cute! Matt's sister Emily made him a monkey cake and then his own little banana shaped cake! It was AWESOME!!! There were coordinating cups, table clothes, balloons, and streamers. And there was also one very miserable birthday boy. That's right. Jadon was not feeling well at all. He was fine all morning then right about the time we started loading up the truck to take things to the hall he starting having what we are referring to as a "bad nerve day". To explain: Since the end of December Jadon has had episodes where he gets really agitated out of the blue. He will start fussing and his face will become flushed. Within minutes he is screaming and squirming in our arms. I give him ibuprofen but it does not seem to make a difference. We just have to walk and rock him. After about an hour to two hours the episode passes and he sleeps for a couple of hours. Worn out and exhausted. He will wake up from the nap perfectly normal. I have tried to find foods or other triggers that each episode might have in commen but there is nothing. I have read that adults with nerve injuries report similar episodes. Lightning strikes and shoots of pain in the area. I am trying to take it as a good sign that thing are happening but it is so hard to see him in pain.
So we knew what was happening and my first thought was "NO! Not right now"! I knew from previous experience that this was a couple hours just gone for Jadon. We loaded up and headed out to pick up the extra cake and decorate the hall just hoping that it would go away (but knowing it would not). He cried all the way to Bloomington and all the way to the hall. One of is had to hold him while the other one decorated and got ready. Luckily Dani and Brian showed up early to help. All the guests kept trying to get smiles out of him and it was just not happening. We sang "Happy Birthday" and the whole time he looked at us like this was the last place he wanted to be. He did not touch his "banana" cake. By the time everyone was done with cake and ice cream he was asleep in his Aunt Brenda's arms. I knew he needed to rest so we just left him and I explained to everyone that we would take the gifts home and have him open them later when he was feeling better. I promised we would take a lot of pictures. A lot of people stayed for awhile and visited with us while Jadon slept. He probably got in a good hour nap.
He woke up when we were getting his coat on to leave. By the time we got him in the truck he was smiling and bobbing his head to the music on the radio. The whole way home he chattered with Shelby and her friend Theresa in the back. Just like nothing ever happened. We got home ate dinner. Cindy and Marion came over to watch Jadon open presents. He had a grand old time. Loved all his gifts. Then he ate his whole banana cake! In the end it was a successful day just wish we could have shared all of it with family.
Here are some pictures:
Emily's Monkey Cake
Jadon's personal Banana Cake
Not a happy boy.
Not into this at all.
And he is out!
Happily Opening his presents later that night.
He loved his Cubs Hat. Had to wear it the rest of the night.
