Father's Day...and the rest of June

It's been a busy couple of weeks...keeping up with all the spots and stuff. After getting all that cleared up and back on a better sleep schedule,  I realized I missed an important holiday in June....Father's Day! I'm certainly not sure how single parents do it because I know I'd already have lost all my hair if Simon weren't around! To celebrate, we went to lunch and spent the day being lazy. 

 

 

At the end of the month, we hit the beach to visit with Nanny. On the way down, we picked up a cousin and visited with the others....we think they look more like siblings than cousins:

 

When we could tear him away from the sand (eating it), he did seem to enjoy the water.

 

 

And speaking of water....he STILL loves the bath...even when mom plays with his hair:

 

 

The very last weekend, we headed to Canada to visit Mamina and our other family there....more on that trip in a different post.

We're seeing spots

So the sixth month mark was a big mark for us.

First, we began to see the inking of teeth forming on Xander's bottom gumline, and then sure enough - the first one broke through...then the next one!

But I should back up....

Before the sighting of teeth, Xander had his first ear infection. It was right before his six month check up. I was acting all proud: "He's been in daycare for more than three months, and this is the first time we've had to see the doctor!" Haha...little did I know. On a positive note though - he was still the happy-go-lucky Xander we all know and love all during the infection. No complaints.

Then we had his six month check up. The doc said his ear looked "better" but not completely  healed so if he started acting up/differently to bring him back in. Well, hello, has she met him...he's not very good at letting on that he is in pain. Luckily she did mention that if his sleep starts acting up to bring him back in...because that's how we knew something was up. He went from waking up only once a night to waking up twice...and usually pretty miserable at that first wake up.

So back to the doctor...

Yup, this time it was a double ear infection. Great...I got all cocky with the first one, right!? Anywho - the doc prescribed a stronger medicine this time - Augmentin. All seemed to be going well until about day 5 into taking the new medicine....Simon brought him in looking like this:

Luckily I have a baby nurse as a sister and quickly texted her a photo to make sure this wasn't chicken pox. She said it looked more like a reaction...was he taking any medicine or had he eaten anything new/different? BINGO.

So Simon took him to the doctor, and sure enough - textbook penicillin reaction. Doc said it was 'normal' enough and to keep pumping him with Benadryl. So we did. When they looked like this the next day:

we called to ask how long we could give him the Bendryl. Doc said however long we wanted/needed.

So when he looked like this the next day, I called the doctor again....he humored my question and said the spots could be there for up to 10 days!!

But then he woke up the next day, and they were gone...and have been gone since.

It's been a fun week-and-a-half to two weeks in our house! Now we just have to get his sleep back on track! (and await the next tooth breakthrough!)

Lately....

Everyone said it would happen, and well it has....XYZ has grown up! Other than still drooling everywhere and not having any teeth, I feel like he's not really a "BABY" anymore. I'm not sure what I would call him as he's not a toddler either, but he's just too big and independent to be a baby anymore!

Speaking of drool though. Oh my....we've taken to freezing burp cloths and letting him suck on those - as you can see below, he just shoves it in his mouth and lets go. We also gave him some frozen apple in a mesh thingy, which he enjoy and made a mess with...as you can see below. (And then looked like he'd frozen his entire face with!)

We finally got around to hanging some of the photos Annie took for us. Though not entirely straight/centered, here' what the finished product looks like (for now...hey they're on the wall at least, right?!)

 Last weekend, we actually made it to church. This has become a not-so-regular occurrence in our family since Xander arrived, but we do try. They have a lovely family room where we can all sit together and not stress if lil man starts screaming or something.  As you can see here, as long as he has something to put in his mouth, he's pretty happy.

And we also made it to the pool....no words needed here:

 

 And finally - his latest trick....sitting up all by himself!

Half a Year Old

Not to sound redundant, but I can't believe it! Xander is 6 months old now. I have to look back at the 5 month post to remind myself of all the new things he's doing.

• Rolling over consistently from back to front and front to back
• Laughing all the time
• Blowing bubbles
• Allllmmmmooooosssst sitting up on his own
• Putting EVERYthing in his mouth
• Eating mom and dad out of house and home
  

Stats from our 6 month well visit yesterday:

Height: 28 inches (88%)

Weight: 20 lbs, 11 oz (87%)

Head: 46.5 cm (97+%....his little dot was officially OFF the chart)

He still LOVEs the bath....as evidenced below:

He has now been to two birthday parties. Here he is at his cousin's this past weekend....just hanging out in the dino chair....and at Lucinda's party sporting a lion hat:

We also had two visitors this past weekend. "Original" Laura came down from New Hampshire and gave him his first taste of pineapple:

While Callee came to town and gave him a bright, shiny balloon.....which he proceeded to try and eat (unsuccessfully):

He is big enough now to enjoy the baby swings at parks, and of course, he LOVEs them.

And last but not least, I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. Other than locking ourselves out of the house after breakfast, it was a great day. I will be redeeming my Zen massage later this week!

Run for Angela Post-Event Update

Race day was this past weekend, and it was actually quite fun! Waking up at 6:30 on a Saturday was not necessarily fun, but somehow I managed! Of course Simon and Xander had no problems getting up that early! 

We arrived to the start line just early enough for Simon to drop me off, us to get Xander settled (asleep) in the stroller and me to go pee (key before running any distance, I assure you). Xander and Simon went off to peruse Wal-mart and the rest of the strip mall while I mingled with the other runners and vendors (of course running into someone else from Socastee High School). 

It was a small crowd, but I was still impressed by the size due to the rainy start to the morning and overcast skies. Luckily it had stopped raining by the time we arrived at the start and didn't rain again until later that day. The 6.2 kilometers were a bit hilly, but I was plesantly surprised when I rounded a corner and saw the  back of the strip mall ahead of me. That was right after I found this guy to follow:

He definitely made the last little bit FUN to run. When I got to the end, I found this crew....well, really I just found Simon and Xander, but the Michaud posse wasn't too far away. Lucinda evidently was ready to race Xander....next year we will make that happen!

Before stuffing my face at  breakfast with the Michauds, JP and I paused for a photo with Angela's poster. There were probably 10 or so of these posted on the window of a local running store who supported the race. It was sad/sweet to see.

A close up of my running shirt - which also doubles as SPF too.

 All in all it was a great run. I raised $665 for Miles Against Melanoma. THANKS to everyone who contributed!! I hope to be back next year and raise even more!

FIVE months already!

Well, I can't believe it, but lil man is already 5 months old! So far he is:

• laughing out loud
• rolling over from front to back - evidently he does it all the time at daycare but only shows off for us every now and then
• sleeping at night in anywhere from 5-8 hour stretches
• eating 1-2 tbs of food at dinner time (sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, etc)
• weighing about 20 pounds! He's as big as or bigger than most of the "babies" in the Infant 2 room at daycare!

We went to Detroit for Easter. He did great on the plane, and it was nice to have Simon along with us this time around. The Easter bunny managed to find him in Michigan, though I think he could have lived without some of the bunny's gifts: 

Simon's mom joined us from Canada as well, and I brought her some French versions of the books we have at home. Here's Ours brun, dis-moi (aka Brown Bear, Brown Bear):

The weekend before Easter, I headed to Charleston for a bachelorette party. I was gone two nights!! When I got home, this is what I found:

 Just lounging with Dad all weekend...and evidently having  blast!


And finally - here are just two fun shots of lil happy man:

In the morning...hanging out on our bed while we get ready for work.

After a bath, which he LOVES. I always feel bad taking him out.

These past five months have been a lot of work but mostly a lot of fun. I had to go back for a second round of bloodwork for my thyroid, and the doctor asked how I was sleeping. I laughed at her but said, "I'm amazed at well I'm functioning on much less sleep than before baby." Maybe it's just that my attitude has changed. I still really enjoy snuggling with him at 2 a.m.

Running for Angela

This entry isn't about XYZ. Instead, I've chosen to use this space to write about someone I think about every day but can no longer pick up the phone and call.

Angela and I met in the sixth grade. We had every class except homeroom together. From the moment we met, we became the best of friends. I distinctly remember the first time I spent the night at her house. We had such a blast....and ate way too many cookies and watched way too many Johnny Depp movies.

As the years passed, many friendships I had changed - you know how emotional/dramatic girls can be in those years! But the relationship between the two of us only grew stronger. It helped that we continued to have EVERY class together through the eighth grade. I still have the notebooks we used to pass back and forth to each other in class!

When we hit high school, we no longer had the same class schedule every year, but that didn't change a thing between us. Here's a funny story: In our school, if you earned all As for a quarter, you got what was called a Gold Card. That card let you in to all school sporting events for free. Our sophomore year, Angela and I had biology together. I had earned all As except for biology. I was going to get a B. :( It just so happened that our teacher was the school's trainer and clearly enjoyed all school sports. So Angela wrote him a fabulous letter, begging him to GIVE me an A so that I could get that Gold Card and come support the teams....and watch her cheer. So obviously, he gave me the A....and then I had to attend every single sporting event that quarter, which was totally fine with me because they were pretty fun events.

One of our many sailing adventures

 

 

Anywho - off to college we went...me to USC and Angela to BYU. Though we were thousands of miles apart...and there was no Facebook back then...we remained in constant contact. She was the ONLY person I used this odd thing called "e-mail" with back then. I mean, who in the world thought that would ever catch on!

Ironically enough, it was through email that I learned about Angela's first diagnosis with skin cancer - she explained it all to me in one email. I remember where I was....sitting at my desk as an undergrad assistant in this little closet of an office. It's a good thing it was isolated because I'm pretty sure I was knocked to the floor with fear.

After several surgeries and all kinds of other terrible stuff, Angela was "clean." We no longer hit the beach together on our summer breaks, but we did still find ways to hang out when we ended up in the same place at the same time.

Fast forward to winter 2007. I was in the midst of yet another sad breakup. Angela had just gotten married that December and was living in London with her new husband...and being Angela, she offered to give me however many hundreds of frequent flyer miles I needed in order to come visit her in London to take my mind off things! So off I went. We had a great visit. I remember her explaining how she'd been racking up all these miles....flying back and forth often for dermatologist appointments. She'd been having mole after mole pop up and look suspicious. I remember sitting on the train one afternoon with her, and her telling me she felt like she was being attacked. At the time, I just thought: "what a pain...to have to keep going and getting these little surgeries to have moles removed." If only.....

That was March 2007.

I believe it was later that year, Angela and her husband were back stateside on a more permanent basis for her to be able to deal with more than just moles. The cancer had metastasized and was now in her brain, breast and lungs. Again, I remember where I was when I read the email telling me they were coming back to the states.....at work in the library....and unfortunately in front of a computer with way too much Google time on my hands.

The story doesn't get any better from here, but I was lucky enough to be able to visit Angela during some of her treatments over the next two years. We always had a blast during our visits, and I hated leaving.

Our last visit was Easter Sunday 2009. She was at home, and I came down to visit. I decided to go to her church that morning. It was a difficult service. Angela was not feeling well but put on a brave face. After the service, I hugged her goodbye and told her I loved her. That was the last time we spoke.

Two weeks later, her husband called me with the news. I remember seeing her name come up on my phone's caller ID. I stared at it for a while....kinda scared to click "answer." It was Paul. All he said was, "Allison, she's gone."

I just happened to be getting in my car at that moment. I was going to my friend Julia's house. We had planned on having a girls' night at a new dessert bar in town, and I thank God for that timing. Anyone who knows Julia, knows she's the kinda girlfriend you want/need to be around when times are tough. She'll make you laugh, cry and then laugh again. I don't know what I would have done without her that night.

The next week or so was a blur of drives back and forth to Myrtle Beach, a trip to Utah and a bunch of long nights.

In the weeks that followed, I had so many supportive friends help cheer me up. One good friend wrote me a sweet note saying that she really wanted to do something to honor Angela and could I please help her find something to do. Again, with too much Google time on my hands, I found the Melanoma Research Foundation and a running program that supported them and decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon in memory of Angela. Training for that race was great therapy - I was up at the crack of dawn every Saturday for long runs, and I got to spend that time alone with just my thoughts/memories. Through tons of tears, I'd run and think about Angela.

Our friend JP ran the marathon too, and after the race, we agreed to NEVER run another marathon again. So - this year, I've signed up to run a mere 6.2 kilometers (not quite 4 miles).

This Miles Against Melanoma 6.2K is a race to raise awareness - and funds. My goal is a mere $200, but I am hoping you'll help me surpass that! Click here to donate. I think JP will be running with me again...or as I like to say, he'll be running in front of me.....so if you're in Charlotte, we'd love to see you on the sidelines.

There are so many times/days I think of Angela and wish I could just call her to laugh with her. But I can't. What I can do though is keep her memory alive AND help continue the fight against melanoma.

THANKS for your support.