baby love

It started off with a runny nose. Jasper had some slight seasonal allergies last Spring too. I never thought it would become such an ordeal. Runny nose for three weeks led to coughing, watery eyes, much miserableness. I took him into the doctor last week. The looks of pity from everyone that saw him that day confirmed that I did the right thing taking him in. The doctor gave him Singulair for kids to help with the allergy symptoms. Little did we know that he’d have side effects from it.

The first night wasn’t bad. He woke up around 3:00am and was very confused about his blankets. I spent some time getting him re-situated and he went back to sleep. The next two nights were anything but normal. Apparently side effects for this medicine are trouble sleeping, hostile/aggressive behavior, disorientation… He had all of those. In the middle of the night. Yeah, so that sucked. He got the medicine for three nights before we figured out what was going one. The last night I slept with my glasses and sweatshirt on, basically sitting up in bed waiting for him to wake up. He was up every hour that night, crying and upset. At one point I spent at least ten minutes with him switching his blankets back and forth trying to get them “just right” so he’d calm down. It.was.terrible. Thankfully I had googled the medicine on a whim and saw the side effects.

We have felt terrible that he had such a reaction from something we gave him. But it’s not like you know until it happens. Looks like he’s going to be sensitive to medicine just like me and my mom. Jasper’s pediatrician was out of the office on Friday so we’ll see what he says today about a different allergy medicine. Thankfully the three days of allergy meds did help his symptoms and he’s had a little relief.

Last week was a rough one. On top of Jasper being sick by Thursday, I was attacked by allergies or a cold as well. Josh was able to take Sunday off so that helped a bit. I am so ready for us all to be healthy and not feel trapped in our house!

High of 75 today! Crossing my fingers that Jasper is feeling better and we can spend some time outside. A trip to the doctor yesterday confirmed that Jasper’s got some pretty bad seasonal allergies. We’re trying out some allergy meds that will hopefully help him out. Poor guy has been pretty miserable. Medicine, sunshine and warmth…make my kid feel better!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous on Sunday. We took a walk to the park and played for a bit. It was great to get outside! There was swinging, climbing, lots of running…and leave it to my husband to take both the little boy and dog down the park slide. Needless to say, there was also lots of laughing.

*If you’re not a parent of a young child, you probably can just skip this post.

Nick Jr is one of our favorite channels. There is a lot of preschool age programing like Backyardigans, Team Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies… The shows are really popular with Jasper. I also like them because they teach him as he watches. Nick Jr is especially awesome because they have no commercials. Jasper doesn’t see any commercials for crappy toys or Chuck E. Cheese while watching.

On March 1st, Nick Jr retired their little mascot Moose A. Moose and his sidekick Zee. They’ve been around for nine years and seem to be well loved. I know I’ve posted this video before of Moose singing a song about Fall… Jasper and I love that one. So on the 1st, Moose and Zee just were gone. After a quick google, I found that they were retired.

I also came across boards with people asking about them. These people were complaining about the characters retired. Woman were going on and on about how mad they were that Nick Jr did this. Seriously? Sure, I’m sad they’re not on the show anymore but is it worth getting worked up over? Um, no. Sesame Street retires characters. Shows go off the air. This happens everyday. If they’re that upset about a little character not being on Nick Jr, they may want to get out more.

My brother and sister-in-law just spent a week working in North Africa on a mission trip. Their plane was scheduled to fly in a little before 10pm on Sunday night. Josh and I thought it would be fun to surprise them by being at the airport. We headed into town early to get a few groceries that we needed. Meijer is surprisingly empty at 9pm on a Sunday night. It was very strange to be out and about with Jasper that late in the evening.

Jasper was incredibly excited to go to the airport to see Tony and Emily. We got to see a couple planes right outside the windows and walked around a bit before the plane deboarded.

It was great to see Tony and Emily. Jasper wanted to run through the gate to them. (I didn’t snap any pictures with them because they were lookin’ a little rough.)

After waiting at baggage claim, Josh told me that he was going to drive Tony and Emily home and I would follow in the Jeep. To them it was 4:30am and had been up for over 24 hours…so yeah, we didn’t feel good about them driving the hour home. Plus they both got colds over the trip and Emily had serious ear issues on the way home so she couldn’t hear that well. Jasper slept most of the way. The three of us pulled in just after midnight. Quite the adventure for a Sunday night! And I’m very glad my brother and sister-in-law are home safe.

Every other weekend Josh works. This means he’s gone from 6am until 6pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He started doing something on the Thursday before where he basically gives me the day off. He gets up first with Jasper and is first on call. I get to lay in bed or even sleep longer if I want. I slowly drink my coffee while scrolling the Internet. Josh usually takes Jasper downstairs to play and watch TV. I’m on “light duty”. It’s pretty fantastic.

As a stay-at-home mom, I don’t get time off. I don’t go to a job outside the home or get time away from the kiddo. I love being home with him every day but it is nice to have a little break once in awhile. I’m going into the weekend feeling a little more relaxed. I’m also feeling very thankful for a husband like Josh.

Jasper’s first imaginary friend showed up this week. He’s always been very imaginative when he plays. He often talks to different people using our old cell phones. This week he suddenly came up to me and excitedly told me, “Mommy! Secret Agent #4 is coming over today!”. A few minutes after that he told me that he was there. So Jasper went to the door, pretended to open it and then had a little conversation with this little friend. He then pretended to hold this kid’s hand and bring him over to me.

Since then Secret Agent #4 has shown up a few times and he even came into town with us. As we walked out of the book store yesterday, Jasper yells, “We left Secret Agent #4 inside!”. So sweet Josh took a couple steps back and opened the door letting out Jasper’s new friend. We also definitely had to buckle him in the Jeep! We always have to wear seat belts, says Jasper.

This new development is pretty freakin’ adorable. I’m interested to see if this imaginary friend sticks around or if it’s just a fleeting thing. Who knows…maybe there will be some other new friends coming over.

Jasper loves The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon. I think the key is reading it very enthusiastically. It’s as fun for me to read as it is for Jasper to listen to. Positronic rays, Flaming Eyeball, Sister Sinister, and being comforted by Mom… Fun stuff.

Another favorite of ours is The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers. The main character, Henry, loves books so much that he eats them. The illustrations are wonderful. One of our favorite parts is the bite out of the back cover!

A quick read that is often done before bed is Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea. You get to ROAR a lot which is always a good thing with Jasper.

We also enjoy I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan. Jasper really gets into this especially since he loves garbage day so much. The pretty cool thing about this book is that it’s easy to follow along and remember. Jasper “reads” along since he knows what is next. His favorite page is the one with the big burp.

We have so many books but there are definitely some that are in heavy rotation. Jasper also got new book recently that I’ll share next week. I love picking out books that I enjoy reading too. I can’t wait until he’s a little older and we can get into some chapter books. Reading has always been important to me so I hope Jasper will continue his love for books.

He’s really into playing superhero. “Daddy Superhero! Let’s get Bebo!”

If you call Jasper a name that’s not his own, he replies very adamantly “I’m Jasper Knight!”.

He likes to tell us that we’re his friend or better yet, “You’re my buddy”.

He’s learned the fine art of turning what you say back at you. “No, you’re a stinky pete.” After telling him to finish up he replied, “Maybe you should finish up.”.

His absolute favorite thing to say is, “How ’bout that good idea?”. Kid has a lot of good ideas.

I think one of the best things you can do as a parent is to be consistent. Kids feel safe and secure when the parent is consistent. I want my kid to know he can depend on me. I’ll admit though, it’s tough. Give a warning and then follow through. Yesterday was one of those days that I said, “Consistent parenting sucks”.

Jasper was not interested in napping yesterday. He played and talked, threw stuffed animals, got up a couple times. After quite some time I made it clear that now was the time for a nap and no more playing. He got up again. So I told him that if he got up one more time he couldn’t go to town with me. (I was headed into town later in the afternoon for a client meeting. The boys had planned to come along and then get groceries after.)

You can probably guess what happened next. Yep, he got up again. Dangit. We told him that he could not go to town. I don’t think he really understood at first. Once it was time for me to leave though, he definitely got it. He started putting his shoes on. I explained again that he couldn’t come with because he didn’t nap. He kissed me on the cheek and said, “I come now?”. Then I knew it was real for him.

Josh said after I left Jasper cried for a bit. He used his fake cell phone to call me. He cried on the phone and said he was sorry and “I go now?”. Oh the agony. I’m glad though we held out and followed through. It’s tough for sure but I think it was definitely worth it. Sometimes being a good parent sucks.