Soggy Bottom

A couple weeks ago, I had a really busy day. Ryan was gone all day, and I had all sorts of errands that needed to be completed. Needless to say, that night I was completely and utterly tired. Luckily all I had left to do that night was to give Jackson a bath, a bottle, and put him to bed. Then I could relax.

Whenever I turn the bathtub on, Jackson does one of two things. He crawls as fast as he can towards the bathroom in excitement OR he crawls as fast as he can away. He thinks it's funny when I have to chase after him.

That night it was the latter.

I cornered the little stinker and brought him to the bathroom where he was promptly derobed and plunked in the warm bath water.

Usually, Jackson immediately reaches for his toys and splashes around, but tonight was a little different. I was tired, so it took a couple seconds for me to realize that Jackson was just sitting there giving me a confused, slightly unsure look.

"Why aren't you playing Jackson?"

He hesitantly looked around for his toys, but kept glancing back at me.

"Your toys are over there. You can play with them."

He started to reach for his rubber ducky, but again stopped short. His big brown eyes just staring at me.

That's when I realized--I forgot to take off his diaper!

The poor boy was waist deep in bathwater and his diaper was a big, puffed up ball of sog.

I immediately took off the soaked diaper. Jackson smiled in relief and gave me a look as if to say "Silly Mom!" I smiled back sheepishly,

He then decided it was finally safe to play with his toys.

Action shot!

The Sequel

You know that awkward moment when I rewashed almost all of the laundry, and I was still breaking out in hives?

Well, I started investigating what else I could be allergic to...strawberries, bananas, milk, soap, dish detergent, etc. Nothing seemed to make a difference. I continually got more and more hives spreading down my body each night.

I was frustrated and itchy. It  felt like I was getting slapped by rubber bands, not the best feeling in the world.

Finally after 2 weeks, I went to the doctor. I figured I could at least get steroids to help with the hives.

As I was sitting in the empty waiting room, this middle-aged  lady came in nearly hacking her lung out. She checked in and made a beeline to sit down. She could have sat anywhere as I was the only other patient there, but she chose to sit right next to me. I'm a bit of a germaphobe when it comes to doctor's offices and was confused as to why she chose to sit so close. Where was my beloved courtesy seat? (What's a courtesy seat? Get to church 5 minutes late and try finding a place to sit. You will find that the only seats left are the ones smack dab in the middle of the row or the empty courtesy chairs next to every family.)

She was a nice lady. Unfortunetly, I did not appreciate her trying to share germs with me as she coughed in my direction. I tried to angle my body away from her without it being too obvious. I even contemplated moving across the room, but I thought it might be awkward to get up and sit somewhere else.

5 minutes later of barely breathing through my nose, I watched as the woman's husband walked in. He gave her her wallet and sat on the complete opposite side of the room. She didn't have a chair next to her for him to sit in. I was again thoroughly confused as to why she was sitting next to me instead of her husband.

I was concoting all sorts of theories when I was finally called in to see the doctor.

The nurse asked me why I was there, and I told her it was because I had hives.

"How do you know they're hives?" she remarked.

"I just assumed?" I stammered.

"Well, it could be a rash," she responded in a know-it-all voice.

I guess it could be? I didn't know there was much difference.

Anyways, to make a long story short, I am not allergic to anything. Instead, I have a viral infection that makes me have rashes everywhere. I guess most people who have it, start with it on the trunk of their body. I am part of the 6% who have it start on my extremities. Out of that 6%, 1 out of 4 people complain of itchiness. I guess I am in the minority.

I am relieved to have the mystery figured out. I wasted a lot of laundry detergent, but at least my clothes are extra clean!!

(And luckily for waiting room lady, I am not contagious.)

You Know That Awkward Moment When...

You know how when you come home from a long trip, you have a mountain load of laundry to do? And you put off washing them for a couple days because the task just seems too daunting? (You may have worn dirty clothes just to avoid the inevitable.) C'mon, you know we've all been there.

Well, rewind a couple weeks and that was exactly the situation I found myself in. There comes a point when you find yourself debating whether to wear dirty underwear or not, and you know it's time to draw the line. (I mean, not all of us have disposable underwear *cough Jackson cough*.) It took a couple days to wash what seemed like every article of clothing we owned. Not to mention the several hours in front of the tv it took to fold them. Finally after a long Sunday evening, I had washed, folded, and put away all of the laundry. *Phew* What a weight off my shoulders.

Fast forward a couple days. Spots. Random spots all over my arms. They didn't itch, they were just red. And big. I admired them for a couple minutes and then didn't think much of it. 2 days later, the red spots spread over my entire body accompanied by smaller spots. Concerned, Ryan mentioned the words "bed bugs", "common in apartments", "eating me alive"--no wait, I may have said that one.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to decide to throw all of the sheets, blankets, and pillow cases into the wash on the hottest, bug-killing setting. JUST IN CASE!

Well, folks. Jokes on me. I called my mom because not only was I red and spotted and blotchy, I was extremely itchy. She asked me if I had eaten anything or used anything new.

"Well," I responded. "Daddy gave me a new laundry detergent last week."

"Oh!" my mom exclaimed. "We gave that to you because Daddy is allergic to it. It gave him red spots."

Ooooh. Light bulb.

So you know that awkward moment when you are covered head-to-toe in hives and you realize you washed every article of clothing you owned, every bedding, every towel, and I might even add every pair of underwear in a laundry detergent you are probably allergic to?

No?

Well, let me tell you, you're not missing much. Except for maybe an itchy, polka-dotted body and a huge pile of laundry needing to be (re)washed. De-ja-vu.

On the plus side--I hear polka dots are in style these days.

Jackson at the Disney store. He refused to wear that hat longer than 5 seconds.

Rite of Passage

A couple weeks after Jackson was born, I read a status on facebook--"You are officially a parent when your child poos in the tub."

I am proud to say that after 14 1/2 months, Ryan and I have officially been initiated into parenthood. Thanks Jacks!

(I better not include a photo to this post... :P)

Jackson's 1st Birthday

For Jackson's first birthday party, we decided on a Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar theme. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

 

Month banner

 

This was fun to put together...some of Jackson's first milestones

 

Hungry caterpillar mobile

 

 

 

Some of the food....

 

Caterpillar cupcakes

 

Jackson didn't really notice the decorations. He did like the fruit though--he ate a lot of it! When it was time to do cupcakes, he wasn't hungry anymore and didn't want to try it....

 

First time seeing fire.

We finally had to stick some frosting in his mouth. It only took a second for him to realize that this stuff was good! He then started shoveling it in his mouth.

 

 

Why didn't you tell me it was so good?

 

 

Sugar overload.

He didn't eat the whole thing. Probably a good thing.

 

And just so you can feel like you were actually there...

  

Here's a picture on his actual birthday:

Yumm, ribbon!

Catch Up, Part II

Cute little dragon

 

The pumpkin Ryan and I carved. Every year, I choose the template and Ryan carves. It is a great arrangement, and is probably why most of the pumpkins we carve have cats in them.

 

We took Jackson to a pumpkin patch, and he loved crawling all over the huge--size of a 1 year old child--pumpkins. He also loved the animals and tractor.

Although, he wasn't so sure about the hay ride.

 

 

 

1st Haircut

Jackson's first haircut was a success and looong overdue. I finally got Ryan into a chokehold and forced him to cut Jackson's hair. I was too scared to do it myself. It looked great! We gave the little tyke watermelon to munch on, and he didn't care one bit!

 

 During:

 

After. 

 Handsome boy. And he chose the bib himself.

Just kidding.

 

Our Claim to Fame

Ryan and I went to the BYU football game here at Georgia Tech. My parents were very kind and watched Jackson for us. We met up with Jennifer and her dad and got to sit in AWESOME seats!!!! These awesome seats just happened to be surrounded by Georgia Tech fans. We may have gotten yelled at a few times, and some mean man called Jennifer "Giggles", but it was still fun! For the most part, everyone was nice, even the lady who left early and told us that she hoped this wasn't the only "Mormon win" if we know what she means. (This was before the elections.)

After the game, we ran like monkies down the bleachers to watch the players go back to the locker room. Jennifer and her dad were calling after the football players to come give us high-fives. "Riley! Riley, You're a babe! Yeahhh!"  it worked, and we got to high-five most of the players. Then they started saying, "Camera man, you're awesome! Yeah!!!!!" The camera man came over and pointed the camera at us.

 



 

Afterwards, I said to Jennifer, "Wouldn't it be funny if we were on tv? We're not really that big of football fans...."

 

But I guess we are good pretenders because not only were we on tv....

 

We were also in the Deseret News.



#Winning

Catch Up

I am giving myself 15 minutes to blog. I am hopelessly behind, but the house is a disaster waiting to be cleaned. And the dishes don't clean themselves. Too bad I can't sing a princess song and have the birds clean it for me. We have a ladybug infestation, so they can help too. (On a side note, having a ladybug infestation is way better than having spiders, fruit flies, and ants. All of which Ryan and I have experienced at some point in our marriage. Ladybugs are pretty slow, and Lily loves killing them, so it works!)

Did you know that Jackson, my mom, and I went to Texas in September? Because we did. We got to see my sister Lisa and her cute family.

There was some book reading.

 

Popsicle trying.

 

Brain freezes.

 

Chickens.

 

And feeding of deer. Nbd.

 

Oh, and let's not forget flirting.

(Too bad Kaelyn is afraid of babies.)

 

 

It was a fun trip. Jackson loved hanging out with kids kinda his age.

We also celebrated Halloween. Jackson was supposed to be Charlie Brown, but that unfortunately did not happen. (I may or may not have sent his costume to Utah by accident.) So instead, he was a FIRE BREATHING DRAGON!

Blogger is being slow, so you will get a pic next time. Instead, here is Jackson carving a pumpkin for the first time. Don't let his face fool you, he loved it! Getting dirty and slimy is right up his alley.

My little dragon trick or treated at 3 different houses. He even carried his own Halloween bag like a champ, although he didn't understand why people were sticking bowls of candy in his face. Mommy and Daddy were nice enough to eat his candy for him the next day.

Well, housecleaning time. Yay. And FYI, Jackson has been sick with the flu since Thursday. He started feeling better yesterday, but has since broken out in hives and has had bad abdominal pain due to a milk allergy. The poor boy has been miserable for nearly a week  and will hardly let me put him down--hence why the house is a disaster.

On a side note: We ran out of formula yesterday, so I had to put Jackson in the car and venture to the grocery store. It was probably a good thing because we didn't even have a can of corn or milk for cold cereal. As I was loading the groceries into the car, a nice older man probably noticed my disheveled appearance (picture crazy hair, mismatching clothes, and no makeup), and without question loaded the rest of the groceries into my car and took the cart for me. It was a welcomed act of kindness. He told me that you never know--one day he might need help and he hopes there will be someone to help him then. Thank you, kind stranger. You made my day.