Monday, January 30, 2012

Days 29, 30, and 31

Day 29: So here's some more puppy love! Figaro is getting cuter by the day. He has really come into himself in the last couple of days, we were worried he'd be really sad without his mom and siblings but he is fitting in really well here. He sleeps a lot but when he's awake he really loves to play. He and Jude get along famously, they love to run around together. Figaro's sharp little puppy teeth are really longing for things to chew on. He found this old toy ball of Jude's and just loves it. He also has a rope that we bought him that he is very fond of. He eats like a horse! Jude loves to "dump" his food from the measuring cup into the dish. It's an exciting new experience.

Day 30: So today Jude's little cough has gotten worse. We always worry with a cough because they can lead to lung infections and we don't want his little lungs to colonize any bacteria. With a kid without CF, we might go longer before hitting the antibiotics but with Jude we are a little more aggressive. We want to knock out whatever is causing this cough. We have a new antibiotic on board this time, Keflex. He's never been on this one before and I already hate it because it has to be given FOUR times a day!! Holy cow. It smells awful but he doesn't seem to mind the taste. It is apparently cherry, but I don't see the resemblance. Hopefully we'll be able to tell in the next couple of days if this new medicine is doing him any good. I hate to see my little guy sick. But I do have to mention, that he does not appear sick. He's still running around acting like his crazy self, just with a little cough. I'll keep you posted.

Day 31: In a former life, I was a band teacher. Also, as part of my music teacher duties in the public school I taught at, I was required to teach guitar as well. I am NOT a guitar player but I do have enough skills to teach basic guitar. This is a Juglet that I teach every other week. She is super smart and catches on really quickly. We had a lesson this morning and she allowed me to take her picture. We've been doing lessons for a few months now but I think it probably won't be long before she outgrows me and moves on to someone with a little more guitar talent.












Sunday, January 29, 2012

Days 26, 27 and 28

Day 25: Well, here we are, 30 weeks!! I can't believe I only have 12 more to go =) For those of you who know me, I'm a long gestator. Jude came exactly at 42 weeks and I'm not expecting anything less from Violet. If she decides to come earlier, well, that would be a welcome surprise.Day 26: For tonight's Jugs, I made an all-time favorite. Hot Corn Dip!! Here is a link to what it looks like. It is delicious. I like to serve it with the "hint of lime" tortilla chips. One of the Jugglets calls them the "sour chips" which is exactly why I like them. Some of the jugs don't care for these chips but if they want something else, they can bring them!

Day 27: So today we finally did it! We got a new puppy. We lost our first family dog, Maestro, this past summer. We were finally feeling like it might be time to get another puppy but with me being 7 months pregnant we thought it might not be the greatest idea but when we met this little guy, we just couldn't resist.

His name is Figaro, he is 8 weeks old and as cute as can be. According to the owner of his mom, Figaro is 50% lab, 25% rottie, and 25% blue hound. He looks very much like a rottie and he was the largest in his litter. We are already in love with this little guy, well, everyone except Bela. She's pissed! More updates to come on this little guy.


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Days 24 and 25

Day 24: I'm trying to get at least one or two sewing projects done each week. This is a wetbag for another CF mama I met online. She's also preggo with #2 but she's having another boy. She needed another bag to hold all those cloth diapers and wipes. This is the first time I've done one with two different fabrics. I have to say, I think it turned out pretty well. I hope she enjoys it.Day 25: Today Jude and I met his best friend Colin and his mom (one of my best friends) at Monkey Joe's. This is an indoor playground with a bunch of those inflatable toys. Jude is finally big enough to climb them all on his own (insert tear here =( ) They had such a great time! As you can see in this clip, Jude's friend Colin is very protective of him and did not want anyone to get in Jude's way as he climbed up the stairs! So cute. These two are besties.

Days 21, 22, and 23

Day 21: So at Jugs this week we played a few games, had a few snacks, and talked a LOT! It was lots of fun. I made these nutella cheesecake bars that I found on pinterest. They were yummy!! Here is a link to the recipe and a picture (one less picture for me to take!).

Day 22: Tonight I tried another recipe from my pinterest recipe board. If you aren't following me, you can do so here. This time I made the french dips. They were delicious. Jason really loved them, he raved for a while so I knew this recipe was a winner. Here's the thing. The recipe called for 6oz of red wine. Fortunately, one of my Jugs had dropped off two bottles of wine (she doesn't drink), when I hosted the week before. They had been sitting at her house for a while and she wanted to get them somewhere someone might drink them. I'm not sure if she intended for them to be mine, but they are now! Interesting enough, this particular Jug is also my midwife =) I couldn't let the rest of the bottle go to waste. Don't worry, I just had one small glass.

Day 23: I finally finished Jude's CF Awareness video. I shared it on FB but if you haven't seen it yet, please check it out. We are looking for people who want to walk for Jude and also for donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in his name. If you want to join, we have teams in Charlotte, Tallahassee, and Orlando. Please take five minutes to watch this video. Thanks!




Saturday, January 21, 2012

Days 19 and 20

Day 19: I mailed a package to my sister this week containing the baby shower gifts I made for her last weekend. I also included the shirt that I made for my niece, Allie. She loved it!! Here is a picture of her wearing it. My sister said that when they opened the box, Allie kept saying, "new dress, new dress" (even though it's a shirt) and insisted on putting it on right away. I have to say she looks very cute in it and it fits perfectly!! I have some of that fabric left over, I might have to make one of these for Violet =)







Day 20: Here is a picture of Jude that I took today at Founder's Hall uptown. We were waiting on Jason so that we could have lunch together. we were meeting the coordinator from our local chapter of the CF foundation to talk about the Great Strides Walk for this year. We are the team captains of Jude's team, The Jude Bugs. More to come on this!! These really cool couches were very appealing to Jude and he really thought they were supposed to be a trampoline. The guard at the front of the building did not agree with him, those grown-ups ruin all the fun.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Days 17-18

Day 17 - Another CF mom that I met online asked for some volunteers to hold letters while doing treatments for an awareness video that she's putting together. We volunteered and Jude was assigned the letter I. Here are a couple out-takes from our photo shoot. They are a little blurry but oh so cute! I'll post a link to her video when it's done.Day 18: Today while Jude was doing his evening treatments I was trying to put away some of the toys that he has strewn about the loft. While picking up the toys this is what I found. You can never leave an empty box sitting around here. This is Opus, one of our two cats. He always looks pissed, but I don't think he really is. I'll try to get a picture of Bela at some point.



Monday, January 16, 2012

Days 14-16

Day 14: Every Saturday (sometimes Friday) we have a girls game night. We've been doing this for about two years now and it's so much fun. I really look forward to it. Our group is affectionately known as the Jugs. Usually we get together and everyone brings food and games. We snack, chat and play until we decide we've had enough. Here we are on Saturday night playing a game of Rummicub. This was a small group (4 of us, there are a total of 8 if everyone is in). No one wanted to show their faces for this pic (we go VERY casual!). Fun night! We wrapped up at 12:45!!Day 15: I'm working on some shower gifts for my mom and sister to give at an upcoming baby shower. The recipient is a huge FSU fan as is most of my family. This is my first attempt at the taggie ball and I'm very happy with the results. I think if I made another I might make it a little bigger but this one came out so cute. Also, another lovey! I'm gaining a new appreciation for the walking foot on my sewing machine. That minky can be a pain in the a**, the walking foot is SOOOO helpful. I don't know what I would do without google and all of the sewing blogs I follow!
Day 16: Mondays are swim lesson days for Jude. He absolutely LOVES to swim. He has been in lessons for about 6 months now and after four months was moved up to the under 3 advanced class. I usually take him but since today is a holiday, Jason volunteered to take him in. Well, I asked and he agreed, close enough to volunteering to me! Parents still swim with the kids until they are three. This was a very welcome break for me. I hate getting dressed in the morning as it is, and changing into and out of a swimsuit is a big pain in the butt as well =) I got to sit my pregnant behind in the chairs and watch, it was great and Jude really enjoyed having daddy in the water with him. Here they are after the lesson, Jude is wearing the red hat he asked me to make. He loves the color red. In fact, he'll tell you EVERYTHING is red =)

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Days 11 - 13, The baby post!

Day 11: Violet update! We had our 28 week appointment with our wonderful midwife (and one of my best friends). Violet is doing great. She apparently had a growth spurt in the last couple of weeks which I could have told you about due to my ravenous hunger surge! This coincided with the waffle incident... Here is a pic of me at 28 weeks, Jude on my hip!
Day 12: This baby is not mine, but she sure is cute! Jude and I spent today hanging out with 4 month old baby A. Her mom is a friend of mine from nursing school and her regular sitter was going out of town so I gladly obliged when asked to watch her. She fell asleep and Jude brought her a blanket! What a thoughtful boy. I think there is hope for Violet yet.
Day 13: Jude usually takes an early nap (11 or noon-ish) but today he decided to hang out with me and a couple of nursing school friends who stopped by. I was hoping he'd hold out until bedtime but alas... He sure is cute when he's sleeping. And yes, he is almost completely naked under that blanket. He wore nothing but a diaper for practically the entire day once I took of his truck pjs. He cried when they came off (but they were covered in orange juice) and then proclaimed that he would like to be naked. I did not mind =)


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Days 8-10

Day 8: Today I wanted to show you a picture of one of our family's newest projects! We are on a mission to fill up our new chest freezer. I know that this picture is not that great, but you can get a general idea. I'll try to find a better picture later. So far we have two spaghetti pies, one chicken spaghetti, two servings of stuffed shells, homemade sauce, three soups (thanks to my friend Christine!), and a crockpot ready Thai Pork Stew. The goal is to get enough meals in the freezer before Violet makes her entrance sometime in April that we can have fresh, homemade meals for a while. I think we are doing great so far.
Day 9: Who needs an excuse to take cute pictures of your kid doing normal everyday stuff. Here are a couple of Jude eating his strawbers (strawberries) for breakfast this morning. He LOVES berries, well, really fruit of any kind. I asked him to let me take a picture of him eating his strawber and he tried to show me the strawberry. He is so

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Days 6 & 7

Day 6
This pregnancy has been very different than my pregnancy with Jude. One this has been the same though, my craving for Eggo waffles. It's a strange craving because it's something I don't generally eat. In fact, I haven't had one since I was pregnant with Jude over two years ago but the craving came again last week with a vengeance. I also only like them with "fake" syrup, like Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima. Jason laughs at me and says that I could totally resist if I really wanted to, but he just doesn't understand the pregnancy craving. I HAD to have it. So I bought some, and for breakfast this morning, I enjoyed two!

Day 7
One of my current addictions is pinterest. I'm constantly checking pins to see if anything looks good. I do lots of pinning. Mostly recipes, sewing patterns, crocheting patterns, and cute things for the kids. Last week a friend of mine posted the link for Oatmeal Cream Pies that are supposed to taste exactly like the Little Debbie ones, and OMG, the do!! I cooked these babies up today and I cannot complain. Even Jude had one, well, three quarters of one. The remnants are on the back of the plate =) Here is the link to this recipe!! Also, if you love pinterest, please follow me!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Days 4 & 5

Day 4
Today I set to work on a project for my niece. I've been wanting to make her a new dress and I bought this flower fabric specifically for it but then I couldn't find a pattern I liked. There is a really cute tunic pattern on the Made By Rae website that I just loved and she has made it into a dress so I bought the pattern. I'm going to start with the tunic and if that turns out well, I'm going to try to adapt it into a dress. I was going strong when all of the sudden my iron crapped out. I guess I should have been expecting this as I bought the iron when I was in college, sometime between 1997 and 2001. It was a cheap one and I guess they don't last forever. But, for now, the project is on hold until I can get another iron! Here is a pic of the work in progress.




Day 5
Here's a quick pic of my future architect. He will build a tower out of anything! This was just before we hit the produce section where he decided to take a bite out of the cucumber and then lick the bell peppers. All while saying "yum, yum"! What am I going to do with this kid?!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

January 3rd, CF nutrition

I guess I'll start today off with my first CF post. It has been about two years since we got Jude's diagnosis. I have to say that we were all shocked. No one knew that there were any carriers in the family, much less that both Jason and I carried this disease. We spent a lot of time educating ourselves and our families about CF and learning about what would be our new way of life.

So far the only hurdle we've had with Jude's CF is his nutrition and weight gain so I think I'll focus on that for today. We spent the first two weeks of Jude's life thinking that I wasn't producing enough milk to feed my baby. Despite him having the 10-12 wet and 5-6 poopy diapers a day, he always seemed to be hungry. I saw two different lactation consultants and a couple of midwives, each one who thought we were doing a great job and no one could understand why he continued to lose weight. When he was almost two weeks old we got the call from our family doctor that Jude's newborn screening came back positive for Cystic Fibrosis. While we were stunned, we finally had our answer as to why he was losing weight. CF affects mainly the lungs and the digestive system. Jude's body is full of thick mucous that is hard to move. In the lungs, it's hard to cough out. In the pancreas, it clogs the ducts that release your digestive enzymes. Because of this, people with CF who are pancreatic insufficient (like Jude and most CFers) cannot break down and digest fats or fat soluble vitamins. They just pass it on through creating upset stomachs and greasy stools (sorry if that was TMI, but I felt it important). Fortunately, there are pancreatic enzyme supplements available for people who need them. Jude takes these pills every time he eats. They don't work as well as your own digestive enzymes but they sure do help. With the help of this drug, Jude has been able to gain weight. He is still quite small at 32 inches and 25 pounds (two years old), but he is solid muscle and a ball of energy.

We do the best we can to make sure his diet is full of high fat and high sodium foods (sounds like a dream for many of us who struggle with our weight). My biggest struggle here is trying to find HEALTY foods that are high in fat and salt. Fortunately, Jude LOVES to eat. If you gave him an apple and a cookie, he'd pick the apple every time but we try to find a nice balance for him. In the picture above he is having tonight's dinner. Turkey and hashbrowns (cooked in butter and salt). Hashbrowns are one of his favorite foods and we get them from Trader Joe's so I know they are an OK choice for him. He also likes his turkey rolled up and cut into pinwheels (just like they do the samples at the grocery store). He's pretty particular about some things. I am thankful that he's a good eater. A lot of kids with CF have feeding tubes to help them gain weight and we are so grateful that Jude doesn't need one (at least not now). I still struggle with his eating as it is so different from what I originally intended my children's diets to be like, but if having Jude has taught me anything, it's that we have to adjust our ideals in order to fit each child. I'm not looking forward to explaining to Violet why Jude has to eat fatty food while she has to be more careful. I guess I'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Days 1 & 2

Because I just came up with the idea for this blog this morning, I have a little bit of catching up to do. Here are my pictures from the first two days of 2012!

January first brought with it my first sewing project of the year. Jude is really into helping me take pictures these days. He was a willing participant in photographing this blanket I made for a friend. This blanket is minky on one side and the owl cotton on the other. This was my first experience working with minky and I think I have a little bit of practicing to do. I read up on it after I made this blanket and I have some ideas as to what to try next time to make it a little more even!

The second day of January brought more sewing! It was so nice to have my husband home on this lovely Monday that I was able to get a little sewing done without having to worry about Jude. Last time I tried to sew while Jude was awake he managed to overturn the computer chair and fall head first into the tv stand causing a nasty bruise on his head and more crying on my part than his! Today I decided to sew up this years flannel pj pants for Jude. He loved his "robot pants" from last year and while they still fit his tiny waist, they were WAY too short. This year I bought some Spiderman fabric (mostly because daddy likes superheros) and sewed them up! I left the bottoms unhemmed to make sure they fit and guess what? To my surprise they were perfect without a hem. They are just serged on the bottom but since he won't really be wearing them out of the house, it'll have to do! He loves them and wanted to wear them again this morning. He says "I wike it!" You can also see him chomping on Jason's first attempt at homemade bread. Jude loved it and commandeered my piece as well as his!

Two days and two sewing projects down!! I can't wait to get back in there. I just got three wool sweaters from Goodwill this weekend to make into longies for both Jude and Violet but I have to felt them before any sewing can begin. Keep an eye out for these!

Explaining the project

I've always wanted to be a blogger. I've never been very good at it. It always starts with good intentions but somehow I always veer off in other directions. I think part of the reason is because I don't have a topic that really draws me in. Plus I wonder who on earth would want to read my blog. So this year I've started a blog for myself, a sort of virtual journal. It is going to be a combination of a few different things that I would like to accomplish this year.

First of all, a few of my friends tried to do the 365 days of pictures last year to document a year in their lives. This will be the foundation of my blog. The idea of flipping through photos from each day of my life for a year sounds exciting to me and I'm looking forward to 2012 very much.
Secondly, I'd like to document my craft projects this year. I made a bunch of stuff last year and I would have liked to document it somewhere other than on FB.

The third function of this blog is perhaps the most important to me. I want to be able to raise awareness for Cystic Fibrosis. I sometimes worry that my friends and FB aquaintences get a little annoyed at my CF posts but I guess I don't really care. It's part of my everyday life and I would love for people to understand the struggles and triumphs that my son goes through every day. I feel if I get a mix of these three topics I will have a well rounded and thorough blog.