Some Spring Fotos!!

At the Hogle Zoo with Jackie, Otto and Jackie's cousin.

Max decided to sleep on the floor instead of his bed.  He still  sleep with a blanket on his head, just like Jake......I think it's a genetic thing. 

This was the fort we made for the Earth Quake drill we had a few months back.  Max was overly excited about it. 

Max finally decided to get on a tricycle for the first time, now he loves it.  However, he just needs to figure out the peddles.  

We had Jack for a few days back in May, Max and he did well the first day, but they were sick of each other by the second.  First born syndrome.  

Health Status

2012 has been Max and mines year of poor health.  When the snow finally melted and the weather cleared up max's Eczema went crazy.  It got so bad it looked like he just had a rash everywhere and it took months for it to clear up.  Now he has scars all over his arms the bumps he had.  However, it didn't seem to be clearing up o his butt, but it also didn't seem to be bothering him either.  Then a bump started to grow just below his belly button.  I had finally had enough and took him to Primary Children's Medical Center, where all the best pediatric dermatologists reside.  It took me a month to get an appointment but it was well worth it.  Because Max's eczema had gotten so bad, he had developed a staph infection, and the bump on his belly was a boil.  I didn't even know that people got those anymore.  Anyways she gave him an antibiotic which seemed to be helping his boil, but didn't take care of the rest of the rash, we thought it would clear up with some recommended bleach baths and some topical steroid prescriptions he had been given.  But it didn't.  Things got worse as well.  Max was turning into a little monster.  We were starting to have the summer from hell!  he would cry and wine about everything, he wouldn't eat his food at all anymore and he was trying to push around all the other little kids on the playground, which really isn't like him at all.  So we decided that maybe his staph infection hadn't gone away and that he needed to see a doctor again.  They gave him another prescription and it seems to be all cleared up and Max seems happier too.  I mean he can still be a pain at times, but he's much more pleasant.

For the past month there seems to have been something effecting my health every week.  I had a cold during graduation that was awful, then I fell in the garden.  They say you have poor balance when your pregnant, but I guess the fact that someone decided to dig a hole in the trail next to our garden plot and leave it there unfilled didn't help.  I fell into it, twisted my foot and landed on my side.  We went to OB Emergency at the hospital the next day just to be on the safe side.  Everything was all right but the fall totally messed up my foot.  It's bad enough that I'm carrying all this extra weight and my poor feet have to adjust to that, but it felt like a muscle on top of my foot tore as well, making it extremely difficult to walk anywhere for a few days.  It's been over two weeks and my foot still hurts a bit, but I'm just glad nothing too serious happened from it.

After believing that my pregnancy wasn't going to jump to a high risk one, this weekend it finally happened.  I could feel the symptoms of cholestasis beginning last week, but I kinda just ignored them.  I was diagnosed with it at 28 weeks when I was prego with Max so I thought it probably wasn't going to come if it hadn't already. It just took a bit longer this time.  At exactly 31 weeks the extreme itching, tiredness, inability to sleep, and lack of hunger all began on my birthday.  I didn't even want to go out to celebrate cause I was feeling it, but I was determined to spend some alone time with Jake. But Sunday night was aweful.  I woke up with extreme itching everywhere, including the soles of my feet at 1 30 and didn't sleep the rest of the night.  My doctor was nice enough  to prescribe me some medicine ASAP before my blood work had come back.  THANK GOODNESS for that cause after one day of treatment I feel a little bit better.  A little bit goes along way with this illness.  I mean I'm still itchy but at least last night I was able to sleep only waking up every 3 hours to go to the bathroom and scratch my leg.  I have to start doing my non stress tests next week, which is annoying cause I can't take max with me, but as long as the baby it being monitored I'm content.

Graduation and Etc.

Summer has finally begun.  I am officailly graduated, unfortunately the day I was suppose to "walk" I got really sick.  Just when I thought I had escaped any sort of illness this winter I finally got a cold in April. I was too sick to walk and could hardly stop blowing my nose.  Graduation isn't important for everyone, but it was something I had been looking forward to for years.  Now summer is here and I am glad.  I felt like a single mother this semester. And Jake was gone three nights a week with only an hour interval between work and school in the evening.  Max was starting to grow anxious to see jake, he would wake up in the mornings and run into our bedroom to see if Jake was awake, or anytime he got in trouble or sad he reminded me how much he wanted daddy, which didn't always make me feel good.  However, when Jake was around he was constantly acting up a lot.  I think he was trying to get attention from him, even if it was the negative kind.  School has been out for a few weeks and now Max seems fairly content to have Jake around again.  After searching for a new job over the past few months,  he finally had an interview somewhere else, and then has been asked to come in and interview at a few other places.  I guess it always works this way, because then they decided to give him a promotion and a pay raise where he works, the question is will it be enough to tempt him to stay?  Well it was.  A new job anywhere means starting over, convincing them to give time off for when the baby comes and when school starts, and less money.  He also plans on volunteering  at the University hospital for the next few months, we're just waiting to hear back from them to see what works best for Jacob.

The pregnancy has been going well, and I'm still waiting to see if the Colistasis is going to kick in or not.  There's a chance that it's not, but if it does then a scheduled C-Section seems to be the upcoming method of delivery.  Max has been really good and patient with me lately.  He continues to play basketball outside and at the age of 2 has a talent for it.  My mom brought over his own basketball hoop and we raised it as high as it goes, he thinks it's funny but he still gets it in.  He has moved on from his last girl Elleyna to a new one named Joselyn.  He and Elleyna have hit a rough patch and she has become the dominant personality in the relationship so he decided to move on.  Jocelyn is our friends Jake and Breeanna's little girl.  She is 4 months older than Max and about 2 inches taller, but they seem to get along really well.

First Half of April

This is my 23rd week, and I feel much better.  The flowers on the trees have bloomed and so I think the worst of my allergies are over. I feel so much better and Jake can sleep easy at night now that I've been letting him turn the air conditioning on. The air was making my allergies was worse because it was basically just recycling the pollen from the outside air.  But once again, I thank God that my allergies are better, they are just about 10X worse when I'm pregnant.  Max has been extremely clingy to Jake this week.  He has been really good when he's home with me, but as soon as Jake gets home he turns into a wild child.   He wants to spend every possible second with Jake and he expects him to take him outside to him, play games with him  and go somewhere. Jake only does these things on the weekend, but Max wants to do them all the time, he won't let Jake out of his sight not even to go to the bathroom.  Jake's nights were spent with a crying child who wanted his attention, so it was quite miserable for him.  Anyways, I'm glad to say that it's Monday and I think he had his fill of Jake for the weekend, and he's turn back to normal....today he was pleasant and easy going.
It's become much easier to take Max to public places.  He's starting to listen better, to hold my hand when we cross the road instead of taking off or making me carry him everywhere, and he's become a little better at playing with other kids.   Now that we are going outside more he wants to play with the other kids, instead of just being a loaner. I think the worst of the terrible twos has past. Unfortunately, Jake and I had to take him to 2 separate doctors visits to figure out what was going on with his skin.  I looked like his arm broke out into an awful rash.  I was worried that he had a fungus, or had touched something and had an allergic reaction.  However, after deciding to drive 45 mins to see a pediatric dermatologist I found out his eczema is just flaring up, and even though something triggered it, it's not serious.  Which is good to know, cause it looks awful and I was worried about it spreading.  Today he wore a short sleeve shirt for the first time in awhile, and all the Mom's on the play ground kept asking me what was wrong with his arm (probably cause they wanted to get their kids away from Max cause it looks so bad).  But I think the medicine is helping.  He was scratching his arm in his sleep, so we have to give him Benadryl when he takes his naps and when he goes to bed at night, I don't think it's making him drowsy, but I'm always worried of him getting too use to it.  Sometimes I need to take a breath and make sure I'm not being a psycho Mom. But at least he's not scratching his arm.

Easter Sunday was yesterday.  It was an easy going day.  Max and I made some special Easter box's and treats for his nursery friends.  I wished I had took a picture because they were really cute, but the above picture is the link of the template I found on Pinterest for the boxes and they are exact replicas of how the box was organized and I used the exact same candy,  Peeps and Starburst Jellybeans.  In the end it was a lazy day.  We were going to have dinner with the Giometta family, but plans fell through, so at the last minute we put together a Chicago style pizza, which I must say was delicious, and now that I've made it plenty of times it's fairly easy and quick to prepare.  Mom got Max some candy and she gave us some Fannie Mae chocolates.....Trinidad's were one of my childhood favorites.  It was definitely a night full of Midwest favorites, pizza and candy.  

The Month of March (I began writing this weeks ago but never finished it!)

The Pregnancy was going fairly slow and steady up until last week.  I'm almost 21 week probably a few weeks past half of my pregnancy if I'm induced early.  I'm feeling the bloat, the rib pain, and tiredness.  Cleaning the house has become a serious chore for me, and going anywhere with Max and Jake is something I definitely have to prepare myself for now a days.  However, I'm hoping once allergy season is past things will get better.

We celebrated Grandma Boots' 88th birthday a few weeks ago.  The siblings and I decided that this may be the last year where she is cognitively coherent enough to enjoy a birthday so we had a get together with some of her friends.  It was an easy going affair. Jake and I set things up and prepared a room at the church for everyone to meet.  She was very happy and felt very loved.  Sometimes no one is able to see her all week at where she lives, but I think she stays fairly entertained.  Little Jack was the life of the party, laughing at everyone, crawling around, and following Max everywhere.  I'm glad to see that he is growing into a fun little toddler.  Towards the end of the bash grandma decided to stand in the middle of the room and perform some sort of comic routine.  The only funny part was watching her attempt such an action.  She made up all these weird stories that weren't accurate from her youth, and constantly lost her train of thought in mid sentence.  It was odd, but at least she was happy.

Play Date

So I invited two of my friends from church over today for a little play date.  It was nice having some Mom's around  to talk to, even though I had to constantly check on the kids in Max's room to make sure they weren't throwing toys at the turtle tank.  Max had a few times out.  I don't know what that kid is thinking.  He's been really into throwing things and it drives me crazy.  When he's done drinking milk he must inform me by throwing the cup, or when he's having fun with his toys he has to throw one across the room.  None of this is done out of anger, it's mostly just to see what happens, and he usually gets in trouble.  We've had a snow storm here the last two days, so Max has been really antsy to go play outside.  It hasn't snowed much here this winter, we've had a fairly mild one which means Summer is going to be awful.  But Max has no self control when he's around snow, everything I ask him to do goes in one ear and out the other.  He's a crazy child, but he's happy and I love him.  I woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn't fall back asleep until 5.  My mind just kept racing with dumb unimportant things.  Jake left for work at 6 30 and then max was up about 20 mins after that.  I was too tired to go get him so I let him chill in his room until he started throwing toys against the wall so I let him out and got him some milk and let him watch a show. After that I crawled back in bed, our room is like 5 feet from the living room so he wasn't neglected in any way. He doesn't really enjoy watching television unless I'm in the room so he decided to climb into bed with me and help wake me up by jumping on the bed, looking out the window while yelling at the guy on the snow blower and then reminding me that Mom doesn't have a wiener because she's not a boy.

February

I've become quite familiar with our daily routine.  Wake up get Max going, Breakfast, Clean up (dishes, laundry, etc) get dressed, decide if we will stay home (which we've been doing more of lately), or go out( which usually consists of running errands or playing with friends)  Make lunch, Put Max down for a nap, take my own nap, play with max (computer games, read books, or play with toys), Get dinner ready (it's only 4 at this time) wait for Jake to get home, eat dinner, say bye to Jake before he goes to school, Read with max, give him a bath, brush his teeth, feed the turtle go to bed.  Why am I writing this all down?  I really have no idea, maybe I just need it for myself to realize that even though routine can be mundane, I really do a lot.

Jake and I went out a couple Friday nights ago because he had class on Tuesday.  We dropped Max off with my Mom for his first slumber party.  I think Jake was a little worried, but I knew she could handle it.  We decided to go to Flemmings steak house.  We were probably the youngest people there, and the poorest, but we sat at the bar and enjoyed their early bird special.  Burgers for the price of 6.00, one of their unadvertised specials, it was great and we ate like kings and spent under $20.00.  Which is really amazing because just one steak there is about $38.00. We then went to DQ and enjoyed a blizzard which we never get because the only Dairy Queen is located at Gateway and we hate going there but since we were there for dinner and a movie we hit it up.  I  always forget how many mall rats there are, even for an outdoor mall.  We then went and saw Sherlock Holmes.  It was good, and I won't be surprised if they make another one.  It was a very good Valentines day.  We were fairly lame and got home before 10, but you would too if you knew how many freaks come out after dark in downtown Salt lake City.  Max had so much fun at Grandma's that he didn't want to come home, he was really upset when we arrived Saturday morning, I think Jake was kinda hurt.  But he's two, what do you expect.  Then later that night we went to our stakes Valentines dinner.  It was nice, but Max was off all night because he went to bed too late the night before.  So Jake and he went home early.

Monday night was very dramatic.  For the first time ever Max decided to climb out of his crib, which he's never done before.  I'm not quite sure what he did, but he fell off and landed on his head.  It took him awhile to calm down, but once he did he threw up all over Jake.  We decided to take him to the emergency room, I was hesitant the whole car ride over thinking we were over reacting, but then when we were waiting for a nurse he threw up again, all over the floor and on Jake.  I felt bad for all the other kids who were waiting and looked like they had flu.  Max was hysterical the whole time.  He hates doctors, but what kid doesn't.  He had a CT scan done and that took about a half an hour because he couldn't calm down, he finally gave in.  He fell asleep that night and was chipper and happy in the morning.  I'm still glad we went.  You can never be too cautious.

Max's new past time is painting.

My Valentine's present.  A new necklace from Tiffany's.

Jake set up Max's toddler bed soon after that.  The first night was a little different for him, but he actually likes it.  Which is a big deal because it was something I was dreading.  I've heard horror stories about people transitioning their kids to toddler beds.  Spring Break is coming up soon.  I wish we could go somewhere.  We talked about going to Oregon, or LV, or Denver.  But in the long run it's better for us to stay home.  Jake needs to save up his PTO for when the baby comes in the summer.  He's been looking for a new job.  And when I say "He's looking", I mean I'm looking.  Jake has little time to look up jobs and post resumes, so I'm the one doing it all.  There are so many apps that I've filled out I can't keep track of them.  It would be ideal for him to get a job at the University, but those jobs are so very competitive.  Everyone wants them because they have great benefits and a tuition reduction.  He actually got offered a job the other day, but it's way up in Park City and they weren't really excited about his school schedule.  I just want him to get more experience in what he intends to do with his life professionally.