Potty Training

We attempted potty training with Jay and it lasted a day.  He had a lot of accidents.  In fact, he only used the potty once.  The next morning I tried to put him on the potty and he freaked out.  He started crying and throwing a tantrum so that was it for potty training.  The reason we tried potty training was he keeps trying to take his diaper off, he'll smear poop all over and he likes to pull his penis out of his diaper which makes him wet the bed.  I'm getting very tired of doing all of the laundry. 
Jay is saying a few more words now.  He does several animal noises and loves to blow kisses.  He goes to see his doctor in October for a speech development check up.  I don't know what will happen after that.  Jay seems to not have any other developmental delays and is a typical two-year-old.  He is becoming very independent and loves spending time with his friends at daycare.  (He still goes once a week when I don't work and we're not on "vacation".) 
I do work on Monday, but I'm not sure if I'm back for the season or if it's just for the day.  It's always up in the air.  Pretty soon I will be back on a more permanent basis, but still only a temporary employee.  I've enjoyed my time at home and love that I was able to take Jay and visit family.  I'm sure I'll be able to do that same thing again fairly soon!

Long Time

So it's been a long time since I've blogged here. I apologize.  I've had computer issues and just received my new laptop yesterday.  I was also working 40+ hours a week (barring any previous engagements) and am currently on a temporary layoff until things pick back up.  I did make a lateral move at work where I now make all the solutions each department uses so I'll work longer than most of the seasonal workers.  I've been off for almost two weeks now.
In that time off, Jay and I visited Mom and Dad for a little more than a week.  We visited Grandma and Grandpa Jacobs, a couple of my high school friends and Jay's cousins were up a couple of times.  He had such a fun time with them!

 

 

In fact, here's Allegra talking to "Gampa Don".  One of the times she was playing with that phone without Jay wanting to play with it too.  There was also swimming, mooing at cows and car rides.  We did stay in Olin for a few days, but Jay was fighting a cold/croup so he was a stink-butt the whole time.  We got to help Grandpa John mow hay and I think Jay can't wait to be able to drive the tractor himself.  There were so many levers and buttons!

I worked at the State fair again this year and had just as much fun as last year.  The showing schedule was changed up this year giving us dairy clerks a little more down time.  Luckily for me, I was allowed to leave early the one evening so I could take care of the sinus migraine I was getting.  We did a family day the second Saturday of the fair.  Jay and I went down the Giant Slide and despite his reluctance at first, Jay loved it!  He wanted to go again.  He'll have to wait until next year!

Jason has been busy since the students are back.  He says it's almost impossible to get anywhere on campus with the increase of students this year. 

Jay has been having a great time at daycare.  He is really good there and is very helpful.  He has some listening issues, not that it's a big surprise.  He is two.  His daycare provider has said he is very empathic when the other kids don't feel good and will go comfort them.  He's also very good at giving hugs and has started giving kisses.  He isn't really talking, but he does quite a few animal noises if you ask him to. 

Now we are just waiting patiently for fall.  I'm trying to get our clutter taken care of along with getting the house ready for winter. Hopefully  I'll get to this blog a little more often now that I have a computer!

So Much

I didn't realize I hadn't blogged at all in May.  We had one major event.  Jay turned two and boy oh boy do we know it!  He has fits at the drop of a hat which is doubly bad since he doesn't talk and we don't really know why he's having a fit.  He doesn't like having his haircut at all but he loves being read to.  He's also quite the dancer!  Jay is pretty good the majority of the time, especially at daycare.  He had one bad day a few weeks ago, but it seems it was just the one day.  (Miss Marcia, the daycare person, had said all of the kids were out of sorts that day and they had just gotten two puppies the week before.  I didn't envy her at all!)

Enjoying our birthday supper!

Mmmm....nachos!

Happy birthday apple cake!

I have started back at work and have actually put in some full days.  I haven't put in a full work week, but hopefully that will change with this next week.  My section lead is on vacation until mid-July, so I am temporary lead while she is gone.  (Originally, we were told the busy season would be over by the end of June.  They were wrong on that one!)

We've been dealing with rain on and off for several months now. Our back yard is nothing but a swamp right now.  Jay loves playing in the yard because of all the mud though!  He also loves drawing with his sidewalk chalk on the driveway.  He's very possessive of his chalk and he and I went to Fareway with it.  The checkout lady was very nice and was able to get him to put his chalk in a small brown bag.  He likes to play outside, so possession of his chalk is a minor obstacle.

I've started running.  Yesterday I ran 2.8 miles.  I'm trying to work up to 3.1 miles so I will be able to run the 5K Color Run in Des Moines.  I've been running at Ada Hayden park so I've gotten some small hills to deal with as well.  Jason walks with Jay while I run and they have a pretty good time.  The first time we went Jay had to stop and play in all the water puddles, watch every car and person go by and look at every flower.  They didn't get very far.  The second time they went around the small loop, but it took some effort to concentrate on walking.

I'll have to try to keep up on this blog better.  Time has just been flying lately

Official

I officially start back to Solum, Inc. on Monday.  I had a nice talk with our HR director  and she assures me that will be my start day.  I may now work 40 hours for the first couple of weeks, but I will be going back to work. 

Our daycare provider is back and open again.  Jay went for the day this past Monday and he had a great day!  He cried for about 10 minutes after we left, but was fine the rest of the day.  I hope this means he'll adjust well to going back full-time.

Jay has also developed a laugh that is very infectious.  He really thinks animals are funny.  We took him to the petting zoo at Vet Med for VEISHA and he was pretty gentle with most of the animals and would laugh after petting each of them.  He made everyone with the animals laugh.

 

 

Jay is such a ham!  We're so lucky to have such a fun little boy!

 



Visiting

Jay and I are visiting Mom and Dad this week.  Since neither of our moms came out to watch Jay while I worked, I figured we'd at least try to visit my mom!  (As of today, I'm not going to back to work until April 29th.)  It was probably a good thing she didn't have to come out to watch Jay as she's been sick and is currently having a hard time hearing.  It should be an interesting few days!

VEISHA is also this week.  Jason is hoping that we'll have some nice weather on Saturday so we can go to the parade.  Last year it rained on and off for the whole day making for some cold times and a short time at VEISHA.  With the rain and snow in Ames today, it doesn't look like it's shaping up to be a nice weekend though.

Plans are still up in the air for Jay's birthday.  I know we'll have cake, but I'm not sure if we'll do anything too exciting.  I'm having Jason do most of the planning since I'm supposed to be back at work and possibly working extra.  I know he's still debating about what to do.  He did get Jay a present already, so the important part is done.

Jordan came out to visit this last weekend with Andrew.  We eventually got to go swimming with them and had brunch after church on Sunday.  We also went to Huxley on Saturday for a picnic at Jason's aunt and uncle's.  We got to see Grandma and Grandpa Slater, Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Slater and two Great-aunts and uncles.  This weekend was full of family and we had a great time!

Finally

I finally have a start date to return to work.  My first day back will be April 8th.  No April Fool's here!  Thanks to my mom and Jason's mom, we will have someone taking care of Jay until our daycare provider returns from Italy!  I'm not sure who's more excited about them coming, Jay or them. 

I will be taking Grandpa and Grandma Peterson to Grandpa's doctor appointment on Friday.  Jay will be tagging along as well so it should make for a fun and busy day!  (Jay is pretty good about not getting too far away.)  I'm sure he'll take a good nap for me that day. 

Easter went well for us.  I sang at both church services and Jason and Jay came to the second service.  Jay sat with us for the whole service and was really good.  He found all but one egg the Easter bunny left for us and really liked the monster trucks that was in his basket.  Jay did figure out how to open some of the eggs.  He thought the ones with the jelly beans were best because he could just eat them.  Next year should be lots of fun to watch!

Progress

I think we have successfully weaned Jay off of his pacifier.  He hasn't had it for almost a month.  He has decided to have more temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way.  Jay will grab my pants or hands and pull me to where he wants me to go.  He's also getting a little better at pointing at things he would like to have.  We're working on picking up our toys and books.  Sometimes he does really well, but most of the time he throws a tantrum.  It's a slow work in progress.  I'll take the small victories.  He's also started using his eating utensils a little more. 

Jay got a haircut on Friday.  He did not care for it and moved around a lot.  The lady who cut his hair did a pretty good job and was fast.  Not to mention patient since Jason and I had to take turns holding him.  Jay looks very cute with his haircut and Jason says he looks like a boy now.  (Jay's hair was pretty shaggy.)

I have finally heard that I will start back at Solum on April 1st.  This is also the first day our daycare provider will be on vacation.  So, my first day back, Grandma Pat will get to watch Jay.  We're still looking for some one for the third week of April to watch Jay, but I'm sure everything will work out.

I've also decided to try to make a Quiet Book for Jay.  I'm pretty sure I have all of the materials I will need.  I've already made up what I want my pages to look like, I'm too the cutting everything out and sewing things together.  Hopefully he'll like it!

So Tired

I know it's been some time since I've written on this blog.  I just feel like Jay is sucking all of my energy into himself so he can continuously play with his ball pit or run around objects.  (His new thing is running circles around the couch and kitchen table.  One night it was even Jason!) 

Jay has been without a pacifier for almost a month.  This decision was made when he chewed through his last pacifier.  He's been doing pretty good without it.  There were a couple of long nights, but he's not really missing it...unless he sees someone else with one.  He's decided to chew on his fingers instead since he's still working on getting the last of his molars. 

Jason has been keeping busy by trying to pick up as much overtime that is offered.  Summer is just around the corner and that means the end of overtime for a while.  CyRide is always busy in the winter and even busier with home basketball games.  They haven't cancelled service due to ice or snow, so we count ourselves fairly lucky.  (If CyRide did cancel or suspend service, Jason would still have to brave the weather and go to work.)

I am still waiting for Solum to call me to go back to work.  I enjoy my time off, but not knowing for sure when I'll be returning to work is starting to drive me a little crazy.  I do continue to take Jay to daycare one day a week to keep his spot and for him to remain used to going there.  In April, our provider is taking three weeks off to visit her daughter in Italy, so we're working on alternate arrangements for those weeks.  (Thanks you to both Grandma Pat and Grandma Deana for taking time out of your schedules to help us!)  I am also trying to work on free reading for myself.  A lot of reading is done while multi-tasking and Jay's books come first, but I'm slowly getting through the large stack that I have.

We do enjoy the snow that we have gotten.  Jay and I took a trek around our yard.  I don't think Jay's quite sure what to do with it, but he giggles when he gets to play with it and has discovered he can eat it and Mommy won't get upset. 

Jay had a photo session at our Super Wal-Mart today.  He was quite difficult, but his session was at 11:45 and they were running about 30 minutes behind.  (The second person called in sick.)   It was a long morning for both of us since we didn't get out of there until 1.  There are some cute pictures though and I'll make sure to give out the website once I get it!

Snow!

 

 

Ames finally got a decent amount of snow the other morning.  For a change, Jay and I decided to go out and play in it!



 

 Walking carefully.

 What is this stuff?

It's tough walking!

 

 

He had a blast playing!  Unfortunately, it was pretty windy so we didn't stay out too long.  We didn't get any farther than the driveway.  That's ok, maybe we'll get some more snow playtime this weekend.

 



Fever

Already into day 14 of the year and this is my first post.  I hope this tend doesn't continue!  Jay keeps me pretty busy while I'm at home and always wants to play when I have a free minute to blog here. 

Jay has a double ear infection.  We didn't know anything was bothering him until he ended up with 104.6 fever.  Not quite high enough to go to the ER, but enough for an urgent care doctor visit.  He's on an antibiotic and we're keeping his fever at bay with Tylenol and Motrin.  He always seems to be fine around supper time, just before bed time.  He's not playing quite as hard, but he still likes playing with his trucks.  He isn't eating quite as much, especially since Friday at lunch he ate an entire can of peaches plus a piece and a half of bread with hummus.  He'll still eat M&Ms though!

Jason worked his last Saturday yesterday.  They changed his schedule so now he has weekends off instead of Sunday and Tuesday.  He won't have to take as much vacation time since he'll already have Saturdays off for us to travel anywhere.

I was planning on being in Miles today, but Jay's fever was pretty high when he woke up this morning.  We'll try again tomorrow.  I won't go back to work until mid-February, possibly even later.  I'm not sure if I'll start back full-time or part-time.  I've also been working on finding recipes to make more of our food so we don't have to buy as many processed items.  I received a tortilla press for Christmas and it makes tortilla making so much faster!  Homemade tortillas are really the way to go!

Jay also finished the toddler's reading program at the library and received a new book!  It's about popcorn, one of his favorite snacks!  I might have to make some for a snack on our trip!