Family Bike Day

With all of the sick and Passover craziness around here I didn't get to post about our *favorite* day of our vacation in Virginia Beach. There was only one day of full sun, and even though it was still chilly down by the ocean we spent the entire day enjoying the weather.

Being on vacation really made us realize that Owen misses his Daddy. Once he figured out it was going to be the three of us all day, everyday, he woke up saying, "Da-dee" and never stopped. He crawled around following Jeremy everywhere he went. He wanted "da-dee" to hold him, read to him, tickle him - anything to be with his Daddy. It was so sweet and I know Jeremy was delighted to have his little mini-me by his side.

Da-dee got Owen dressed in the morning

And they had lunch out on the patio

And then Owen had his very first bike ride (other than the spinning he did with me while in the womb)

Owen had a blast riding bikes up and down the boardwalk for almost two hours. We even stopped for a chilly ice cream cone! Jeremy was a little nervous with him on the back (no way was I doing it, I can barely ride a bike as it is..) and riding on a real street would take some getting used to but this was perfect for our first go at it.

Each night Owen and I would go in the bedroom, snuggle and nurse. He would finish nursing and with a very sleepy voice he would say, "Da-dee?" And Jeremy would come in and for the first time, he would finish putting Owen to bed.

These boys are growing to be great friends and it absolutely melts my heart.

Second Sedar

Owen and I went home to Dayton for second Sedar on Tuesday. Our 4hr drive turned into a 5+ hr drive thanks to pouring rain the entire way. Owen only slept for 15 minutes of the trip so by the time we reached my friend Rachel's house he was more than ready for nap. He only got to sleep for about an hour before we headed to temple.

We were seated at the Rabbis table with their family at the front of the room. I fed Owen a 4oz squeeze pack of mango/pumpkin at the begining of dinner just in case he didn't feel like eating Sedar food -- but apparently I underestimated his love for Passover. He gobbled down carrots, matzah balls, chicken, "cookie" (matzah). I guess I didn't pay attention to how much he had eaten over the course of the meal, I was happy to be in the company of friends and at our home temple. Owen was a doll until the very end just as the Rabbi got up to make the closing prayers. Owen started crying, very unlike him but I figured he was tired so I picked him up and bounced him a bit.

And then he threw up mango sedar food down my arm in front over 100 people.

And then when my friend rushed up to help me, I shifted him to my other arm and he projectile vomited down my bra.

And then all over the floor.

My friend looked at me and said, "Dude, you didn't even flinch when he puked down your cleavage. I almost gagged and I have two kids. You are a rock star."

Poor buddy turned green and I just sat down on the floor covered in vomit holding him as he cried. For a second I was embarrassed but then I realized that every Jewish mother in the room felt horrible for me and my little guy. People were rushing to get us napkins and help me get him cleaned up. Of course I took his "back up" clothes out of the diaper bag (they were one size too small and I forgot to replace them - who needs back up clothes anyway! Yeah. right.) but I manged to find a white onesie in the bottom of my bag for him to wear home (I wore wet dress and a puke-filled bra home, which was awesome). When we got back to my friend Rachel's house she and her husband scooped up Owen and gave him a bath while I showered the off of myself. I have really great friends.

I was so scared that Owen was sick and would get the other kids sick - we had a bazillion play dates during our 24hrs in Dayton. Turns out he just over ate. He did come down with a cold this week but I don't think the two were related.

The only pre-puke photo I have in his little man clothes that are way too big :)

Group shot, white onesie with puke towels on the floor, best we could do

Playing with Chava and Avi -- he loved all of their fun toys!

We wrapped up our trip with a visit to my friend E and her two girls. I was so excited to see their beautiful new house. While she was showing me around Owen was crawling around. I looked down and saw that he was moving something around in his mouth. I put my finger in AND FISHED OUT A PENNY! My kid barfed on me and the next day he tried to eat a penny. AWESOME.

The cutest part about our visit was when E's little girl Amelia, who is a few months older than Owen but a tad smaller than him, was feeding him Cheerios! He would open his mouth and wait for her to put one in. It was so adorable and I'm kicking myself for not having my camera during our visit with them.

Overall our trip home was a success. I got pretty homesick seeing all of my friends and their kids. I imagined myself there, having playdates with them, Owen going to the baby room during services at temple, our house and how it was the perfect place to raise a family. When we moved, Jeremy and I agreed not to ever drive back by again. We wanted to remember it as it was when it was ours. But I did go to the grocery store down the street and I remembered running in after spin class when I was pregnant with Owen. Before baby, before bedrest. I remember feeling so blissful and confident. Dayton was the place where we made a home, where we were married and where my son was born. Part of my heart will always be there and I hope one day I can feel the same way about Pittsburgh.

Passover

We spent first Sedar with our friends here in Pittsburgh. They did a wonderful job cooking and planning - it was a very special night! I brought two desserts, the Chewy Chocolate Meringues and Almond Butter and Jelly cookies. Both were hit and turned out to be my biggest culinary successes this Passover, but practice makes perfect for this Jewish Mama :)

Owen was such a good boy and sat through the entire Sedar. He chewed on a piece of parsley for almost an hour;) Jeremy told O that matzah was a "cookie" so all week he has been asking for "cookie" and while anyone who has ever eaten matzah knows its a far cry from a cookie, its VERY, VERY cute.

{Owen having his hands washed by his friend Jonah as part of the Sedar}

{The only picture we got of us}

Last year, baby Owen slept through the Sedar and woke up just in time to find the Afikomen. What an amazing year this has been.

Thirty One.

As of today, I'm officially "in my 30s"

My husband woke up at 4am to make me breakfast before he left for a 14 hour work-day

I spent the day staring at this little curl above his ear

and wondering how I got so lucky

When Jeremy got home from work and O was asleep, we ordered pizza and talked about our day and how absolutely perfect our son is.

He got me a pair of pearl earrings and a toaster and, honestly, I was more excited about the toaster.

My 30s look like motherhood, and pancakes and post-its announcing that even though he can't spend the day spoiling me like he used to, my husband loves me more than anything in this world.

So far, my 30s are filled with family, toast and possibilities

and I think 31 looks good on me!

Good Shabbos!

This is the first year we're observing Peseach by not consuming hametz (anything leavened or containing the Biblically prohibited grains rye, wheat, barley, spelt, oats). Its pretty much the South Beach Diet - add matzah!  Owen won't observe this year because I'm having a hard enough time feeding him and limiting bread, puffs and pasta pretty much leaves me with yogurt, peas and butternut squash. Being raised in an interfaith house, Jeremy has never observed this way either so it will be a new challenge for both of us but we're looking forward to it. We feel like we need to have a few "practice years" before we're telling Owen what is an isn't okay to eat for these eight days (we're still asking ourselves that same question...) We can't afford to "throw away" or even "give away" all of our hametz but we'll be putting it away so not to entice us during the week.

I spent a little time this week reading recipes and deciding on a few. Anything that comes out yummy will go in our recipe binder as a Passover staple and I'm exited to start building some traditional foods to share each year.  I'm trying to find some fun things to eat so the next week feels more like "fun spirituality" than "restrictive dieting." Jeremy's packed lunches are my biggest obstacle right now and I'm toying with the idea of making some matzah rolls so that he can still have a "sandwich" to eat on the go.

Today was a HUGE success, these Chewy German Chocolate Meringues were TO DIE FOR and I don't even really like meringues. I seriously had to stop Jeremy and I from eating them because I needed to save some to bring to the Sedar on  Monday night.  It didn't hurt that the only chocolate I had on hand was a bar of Scharffen Berger.  Mine didn't crack like this, they still had the pretty swirly tops. I think because I used 3/4 cups of coconut and omitted the nuts (nuts in dessert = yuck!) The prep was super easy, even though this was my first attempt at "stiff peaks" and I was terrified I'd screw it up - I think I rocked those peaks! The 1 hr cooking time seemed like FOREVER. What is this a meatloaf?

But it was totally worth it. I'm really hoping this wasn't just beginners luck.

I'm off to bed. More baking to do tomorrow but I'll leave you with a Passover story on Kveller.

Shabbat Shalom!

Better

Sorry about the delay in posting, Owen is much better. His fever broke completely on Wednesday. No rash, no diarrhea. We still have no idea what caused it to spike so high and for so long, but we're hoping with all our hearts that it is gone for good. Now we're working on getting him to eat (cue frustration...) Today's success? He ate 1/4 cup of black beans ONE.BY.ONE.  It took him nearly an hour but whatever works, right?

Today was a beautiful day and we celebrated a healthy baby (and Daddy's day off!) with a morning trip to the zoo. We were able to see the tiger babies for the first time today and they are HUGE already!

Things around here are so busy lately. We are in the process of looking for a new apartment - bigger and cheaper seems to be quite the challenge. The thought of packing up and moving again makes me want to poke my eyes out with jalapeno pepper fingers. I cannot believe we've almost lived here a year. I've been missing Dayton, missing our house and temple mostly and lately I find myself daydreaming about a place that I didn't know I considered "home" until we left.  Thankfully we're making a trip there VERY soon!

Update

I thought we were out of the woods this morning when Owen woke up a cool 98.6 and stayed that way through much of the afternoon, including his follow-up appointment with the pediatrician. No fever, no ear or throat redness - still a mystery what caused it.  Then he woke up from his afternoon nap at 103.5, a fussy crying mess. He still isn't eating for me, with the exception of nursing. He weighed 20.5 lbs at the doctor today, which is pretty much the same thing he's weighed for the last two months. The doctor said he is still in the 20th percentile for breastfed babies and not to worry too much.

If the fever continues we'll be back in for a more extensive work up -- right now Roseola is on the table and we're just hoping for a rash in the coming days.

I never thought I'd say that I am hoping for a RASH.

He was really, really hot

Owen is really sick again. He woke up Saturday with a mild fever, which I thought might be teething since I noticed he has an incisor breaking through. By mid-day I realized he was definitey sick; cligy, crying, temperature rising. He nursed but wouldn't eat. He took a nap from 3-7pm and when I went in to get him his fever was 104 and he threw up all over me. We gave him a cool bath and tried to bring it down. He was pretty cool by the time we put him down at 10pm with some Advil. He was fitful so I went in and out rocking him back to sleep and finally got to bed myself at midnight.

I set my alarm for 3am to check on him and redose his Advil. When I went in he was sleeping in a huge pile of vomit and when I reached in to get him he was burning up.

I was already so upset about the vomit, how did I not hear him throw up on the monitor? I woke Jeremy to put on fresh sheets while I changed Owen. I took his temperature and it was 106.4

and I took it again because I felt like I was going to faint.

106.4

I got really upset and we realized we needed to take him to the hospital. Jeremy wanted to get his fever down a bit before we went and waited in the ER. We gave him Advil and called the doctor while we put him in a cool tub. He was such a trooper. The water was COLD, but he let me read him his splash book over and over without so much as a complaint. After an hour we could only get the temp down to 104.9.

Jeremy dressed for work and we carpooled to Children's Hospital. They got us in very quick and by the time they took his temp is was almost under 100. When the doctor came she said she had never seen a temperature register that high and that they wanted to run some blood work  -- given this was the second episode of high unexplained fever in the last month. We decided since he was having an IV blood draw we would also get him some fluids, since his wet diapers have been scarce.

He was SUCH an angel. My sweet boy barely made a fuss when they put the IV in his hand.

The doctor came back and to let us know the blood work all came back very good,

"we were a little worried about cancer."

CANCER. I died a little inside.

I guess some forms of leukemia present with very high fevers that appear to be sporadic. I didn't want Owen to be sick, but I was thankful for a virus and not ... well something I hadn't even considered.

We were able to bring him home mid morning and I've been trying to keep his fever down all day. As soon as the Advil/Tylenol start to fade his fever spikes again. We're hoping it will break soon. It was a beautiful day, so after he and I took a long nap we went for a walk and I blew some bubbles for him. He loves to be outside.

 We're still trying to keep his fever down tonight, but here's hoping some spring sunshine on these baby toes helped a little.

Rain, Rain Go Away

We had an amazing view from our hotel, but only one day of full sunshine (in the 50s) with the rest of the days very cold and stormy.

So we spent a lot of time indoors explaining to Mr. Owen why we couldn't go outside.

Because if we do, you have to be bundled up like this.

2 coats

1 hat

legwarmers

and a blanket.

Now if that doesn't scream SPRING BREAK I don't know what does.

Worlds Best Coffee Table

So other than a full week with his DA-DEE, the highlight of Owen's trip was the coffee table in our little suite.

It really was a toddler's paradise. It had a "tunnel" running through the center that was filled with two removable baskets. We put Owen's toys in the baskets and he had a blast taking his toys in and out and crawling through the table tunnel.

But most of the time he was doing this...

I was very gratful for this table because it kept Owen occupied while we were indoors, which was a lot since the weather was downright terrible. I wish I knew where they bought it because ours at home is bulky and we have to remove it from the room most of the time so that Owen can play. We even contemplated stealing it -- but how do you "sneak" a coffee table by the doorman?

This table was some serious fun!

Sleeping baby

Thank you to everyone who offered advice and sympathy for our current napping situation. After multiple attempts to auction off Owen on Facebook, Jeremy and I realized he did the exact same thing just before he started to crawl. He is restless when his little mind is on overdrive. He has been working on standing unassisted and has started to push his walker toy across the carpet. I don't think we'll have a walker on our hands anytime soon (Mr. O likes to take his time with milestones) but he is definitely showing more interest in standing independently.

I also went back to dream feeding him at 1am. I set my alarm to wake up and nurse him (he stays asleep..) and for the past two days he's woken up at 8am! Granted, hauling my butt out of bed in the middle of the night sucks, but it makes for a much smoother day. The last few days he napped from 12-3 (330...345ish) -- so we're officially a ONE NAP household! I've been trying to do something fun with him in the morning, lots of play, errands or story time and then down for his nap.

I had to post these pictures to show you the extent of the pathetic baby we've had on our hands this week. On Monday we were sorting through some laundry before bedtime and Owen loves to "help". It was quiet for a second and Jeremy says, " Where did Owen go? He was just here..."

Cue crying.

We had to take a picture of him before we got him out because we were about peeing our pants laughing.
Poor little guy.

and OMG THE HAIR!?

Who are you and what have you done with my son!?

I'd love to get to uploading the pictures from our trip - I'd also love to eat lunch, wash the piles of laundry all over our apartment and hmmm take a shower. BUT, unfortunately someone has taken Owen and replaced him with a mess of a baby who won't nap. AT. ALL.

I think Karma has finally caught up with me. My angel baby who took no less than TWO, TWO HOUR NAPS is now boycotting everything.

He has been trying to drop his second nap since ~10 months. I was trying to play it by ear depending on when he woke up. After 9 - one nap from 1145-245. Before 830 he got two naps, one from 10-12 and one from 4-530ish. But the two nap days were screwing up bedtime and he was up until almost 10pm, leaving no time at all for me to spend with Jeremy (awake, anyway).

We've been traveling for the past month so I didn't freak out. In North Carolina he was waking up at 730 and taking one if not two great naps - nothing consistent but he was well rested and his sweet, normal self.

When we got back he got sick and pretty much slept all day long on me and was up most of the night.

Then we went to Virginia Beach where he was getting up between 450-6am every day. Fun vacation right? Jeremy and I would take turns getting up with him. We tried EVERYTHING to get him to go back to sleep but nothing worked. His naps were sporadic and by the end of the week he was a cranky mess.

We thought coming home might fix things but the same thing is happening.

He wakes up at 645 and then around 715 starts in saying, "night, night" over and over again. I try to wait until at least 845 to put him down. He's been taking an hour nap (if that) and then is up FOR THE DAY. I try to put him down again at 230 or 3 and even though he falls asleep nursing he won't nap. Then he wants to go to bed at 6pm. None of this is working for ANY of us.

Today when he got up at 645 I didn't go to him when he called for me. He laid back down and eventually went back to sleep until 845. He started saying, "night, night" at 11 but we had friends over for a playdate so he couldn't go down until 1230. Fell asleep nursing and woke up at 1 crying. NO NAP.

All of this would be fine if he were THAT KID who can go from noon-7 without a nap but HE IS NOT. We are in an overtired cycle where all he does is cry (my baby? cry?) and fuss and say, "night, night" ALL DAY LONG.

Like right now, "Mama, night, night. Night, night. NIGHT! NIGHT! NIGHT! NIGHT! NIGHT!"

I took him to Costco yesterday and all he said the entire time was "night, night" - the sample ladies kept saying, "wow looks like he's telling you he wants a nap."

I almost traded my baby for a chicken nugget at Costco.

HELP! I'm open to suggestions, trade agreements or cash offers. Thanks.

We're Back!

We're back from vacation and Daddy is back at work today :(  I have laundry up to my ears and an empty fridge but as soon as I get some things done around here I'll post a few pictures from our trip.

The weather was cold and crummy but Owen didn't notice one bit - he was far too excited to be spending time with his DAH-DEEEE!  So much so that he made his voice horse from saying it ALL DAY, EVERY DAY :)

CLLLLassy.

This was our view of the beach from our window first thing this morning. I'm very glad Owen isn't old enough to ask why there is a picture of some numbers and a "smoking gun" written in the sand.