Happy Easter

 

Happy Easter Weekend! We have had so much fun spending so some quality time in the sunshine and blue skies (spring has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest!) and we can’t wait for the summer. This morning, we had a wonderful Easter brunch with Uncle Erik and Aunt Cheriss where we made delicious Easter Pancakes. We also introduced Jamisen to a new book – Peepsqueak by Leslie Ann Clark. He loves it!

We also took a little Easter walk and Uncle Erik proved that he is going to be an amazing Father when he takes that plunge. It was so fun to spend time with family - and we loved the extra effort of the Easter Pancakes. Thanks Uncle Erik and Auntie Cheriss!

No, No, No

Jamisen, our little bugaboo, is hilarious! He really is starting to talk a lot and make his opinions known. This morning for example, he only wanted seaweed for breakfast (alrighty then). This was his rain outfit the other day (because leather does go with everything, even footie jammies).

He loves to eat snacks (goldfish crackers, string cheese, and bread) and is less excited about actually eating real dinner or food with substance.

Chris has figured out that the best way, currently, to get our little bugaboo to eat anything healthy is this:

Chris *pretends* he is cooking something for himself. He sits down at a low area so Jamisen could surreptitiously steal some food, if he wanted to. And lo and behold, like a little thief in the night, Jamisen will run over (okay, more like a loud thief in the night) and loudly declare, "MINE!" and start eating "Daddy's" food.

He has eaten two very generous servings of the incredibly adult flavor profile cauliflower garlic pesto pasta (after Daddy said to me, very loudly, "He won't like it!") in the last 24 hours with this. We have a delicious chard and white bean pot pie for him to devour for dinner tonight so will try to pull this psychological trick later tonight too.

Still obsessed with washers and driers ... and, of course, tractors! He is all boy, despite us not promoting any gender roles at home.

 
Other favorite activities include play dough (yeah!), feeding the birds on the weekends, throwing rocks, reading, reading and reading.

Hammer Willpower

People, we have hit Terrible Twos. (Not that you can tell by the photos below. They are all happy photos but this is because we don't take sad, mad photos. We are too busy laughing during those instances.)

 

 Today, Jamisen threw his toy hammer. His Grandma (Faiola) asked him to pick it up. He refused. So, she walked over, picked him up and brought him to the hammer. She asked him to pick it up.

 

He picked it up.

 

And promptly threw it again.

 Yeah, that's pickin' it up alright.

So Grandma put him in time out. After his 1 minute time out was done, Grandma came over to the time out playpen and said, "Are you ready to pick up your hammer now?" Little bugger not only turned his back on Grandma, but walked to the middle and back of the playpen. She couldn't pick him up if she wanted to!

Of course, all the adults busted a gut laughing; we could not hold it in. We all had to turn our heads so he couldn't see us laughing.

 

According to my Dad, Jamisen takes after his Mama. Lord help us all. 

 

PS - This fun photo was taken at dear friend, Erin Baker's, birthday. The other baby is Sasha, our friend Heather and Sylvie's little boy. He is just 6 months younger than our Jamisen.

Preschool Hunting

 

In addition to house hunting, we're making plans for when Baby Girl joins us. Right now, we're thinking that Jamisen will go to preschool 4 or 5 days per week for 3 hours. The pre-school he's in is lovely but a little structured for his free spirit ways. So, we toured some very creative, very activity-driven preschools that will keep Jamisen moving, active and in a more free flowing environment.

  

He loved them both (that's him and Jason, one of the teachers, making giant bubbles). He didn't want to leave for his naptime.
 
One of the preschools had a bean playing area where the kids could sit in beans (dried lentils and black beans) and sort, play and generally have a tactile experience to remember.

  

We're going to have him start at 'Little Darlings' in November for 2 days per week and keep him in Hillcrest, the more structured school, 2 days per week. When he's old enough (3 years), there are a lot more options that open up (Montessori if we want, Loving Spaces, Waldorf and other school options) and we can re-evaluate again. It's all about finding the best school for Jamisen that fits him and his personality - and that will probably change as he grows (and changes).

Fevers, Shoes & Trips

Our little bugaboo got sick last week. He had a fever over 102 for three days. It was so sad to see him suffering. He just wanted to hang out, lay around and be in his Daddy's arms all day long. It was tough on the entire family. He vomited once but I'm not sure if it's because he was sick or if it's because he was crying so hard that he vomited. Little Dude was mad at me for not giving him his way (I think he wanted to play in the water and generally make a mess) so the crying was pretty intense. And then the vomiting happened. 

 

Of course, because this is the way the universe works, I was scheduled to give a talk on social media at ThinkSpace in Seattle. I knew that between Daddy and loving nanny McKenna that Jamisen would be in good hands but it was still difficult to be away from my little guy while he was sick.

  

 He got better on the 4th day with no more fever and the skip in his step back. It is so nice to have our little guy back. We missed our happy little tyke. He is back in such a big way that he managed to scare a possible new baby sitter terribly tonight. He was a total terror (screaming inside and running all over the place) while we were trying to interview. So, I gave him a time out and he proceeded to scream through his time out. It was not our finest moment as parents. Time will tell if she was scared off or not.

I am getting fairly large and the only thing that fits now is shoes - so I purchased new shoes this week. I love 'em! And, they fit, even while 7 months pregnant!

Mold. Mold. Mold.

As most of my family and friends know, I have a pesky blood clotting disorder (and the genetic markers for 4 additional ones). This means that I take blood thinners throughout all my pregnancy and six weeks after birth to ensure that I don't develop a blood clot and that the placenta/umbilical cord stay clot-free.

My insurance company is particularly adamant that I never fill my prescription for the blood thinners any more than 3 days before my current supply is due to run out. Thus, because of the time it takes my pharmacy to get the unusually high number of pre-filled syringes, I usually only have 1 day for a margin of error before running out of the drug.

Imagine my dismay when the very first syringe I pulled out looked like this:

Um, yeah. That's mold. In a syringe that I'm supposed to inject in myself. Thanks, but no thanks.

To their credit, my pharmacy was amazing and offered to exchange the drug right away. They called their wholesaler and found that all of the syringes they had were from the same batch. Then, the pharmacy called the drug manufacturer who said to use the rest of the syringes, and that if none of the other syringes showed signs of mold, that they were fine.

Um ... again, thanks but no thanks. Sure, they probably were just fine but why take the chance when I'm pregnant and especially vulnerable to infection?

I called around to all the pharmacies in the area to find out who had a different wholesaler and was lucky that Hoglund pharmacy had a different wholesaler for the drug. They checked their lot (at the wholesaler; they had none of the drug in stock at their pharmacy), found out it was a different lot, had the prescription transferred, and got me an emergency dose of 3 syringes for the weekend because of course, all of this drama happened on a Friday - too late to do anything about the replacement syringes for the weekend.

All in all, it will turn out absolutely fine - but it was 3 hours of phone calls, coordination and stress that neither Chris particularly had time for (he interfaced with the pharmacy as much as I did; he's pretty motivated to keep both me and Baby Girl Renoud safe). The entire experience makes me extremely grateful to have the best medical care, to have insurance and to even have the option of blood thinners. 

We remain extremely aware of our many blessings and extremely grateful every day for our healthy, happy family.

Weekend Fun with Fam

 I am reading the (amazing, life-changing, wow, must-read) "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey for the third? fourth? time with my Mastermind Business Group. The book reminded me that taking time to rejuvenate is key to a fulfilled life and the ability to keep going. That was just what I needed to read this week. So, in keeping with that theme, I only opened my laptop twice last weekend - both times to work on the Soap Queen blog (this is pretty much a record; I took my laptop on our honeymoon!).

 
 That left a lot of time to cook (shiitake mushroom stir-fry, yam and bean empinadas, blueberry compote with french toast), make green juice (with the cutest helper ever) and spend time with family. Chris's company just moved to a new location so a few of my team and I went and scavenged some of the desks and tables left behind. The frugal start-up girl in me loves a good deal (or free) and will go the extra mile to find it (even if they are 30 year old desks!).

Pregnancy is moving right along. I'm over 6.5 months along now and we are starting to get really serious about names. We have a whole list but so far, we haven't found 'the one.' We still have a few months though so are trusting the process. Overall, this pregnancy has been easier than Jamisen's, for which I am extremely thankful (because as anyone that has been pregnant can attest to, it's not a walk in the park no matter how good your pregnancy is going). I've officially started waddling and working out has reached a bit of a slow crawl (or walk). No doubt, the waddling, the interrupted sleep, and a tap-dancing-on-the bladder is all worth it for a healthy little baby girl to join our family.

Jamisen is very interested in the baby - constantly saying "Baby, baby", patting my belly and sharing his 'binky' by putting it up against my belly. We all hope this giving, loving attitude lasts past May! =) He has a few books about bringing baby home and we talk a lot about the baby and have been trying to get him acclimated to the idea.