A little Mischievous

As he gets older, Tristan also has been getting more mischievous.  I can't do anything unless I know he is contained, and I mean that by being either locked in his highchair, or asleep in his crib.  The other day, Nick set him on the floor to play and turned his back for a minute.  I was making dinner, so I didn't see what happened, but apparently Tristan found a "treat" on the floor.  We saw him "chewing" on whatever it was, but no matter how we tried, we couldn't get it out of his mouth.  He was hiding whatever it was somewhere in there.  We put him in his high chair to try prying his mouth open with a spoon to see if we could get it out, but he clamped his jaw.  Fed up, we stopped and tried to entice him with juice.  Suddenly he started gagging and coughing.

Of course I freaked out, pushed him forward and started slapping his back.  After a second, he stopped, but his poor little eyes were red and watery.  Whatever it was made it's way to his tummy.  Great, I hope it was just paper!  So now, we don't even put him on the floor unless we are right there watching him.  I seriously need to invest in a playpen.....

And last night, Tristan decided he wanted to stay up super late.  So while Nick went to bed, me and Tristan played toys and watched Groundhog Day.  At one point, the little stinker found my diaper bag and proceeded to empty out all the contents piece by piece.  I had to watch him carefully, because nearly every object found its way to his mouth.  Why is it that babies want to eat everything???  It was super cute though.  I love how curious he is, and being able to see the world through his eyes is exciting.  What would it be like to look at everything as though it were the first time?  Still, keeping up with him is getting hard.  I can't wait till he understands that "No" means "No" and not "Go ahead!".

Tormenting Suki

Where did the baby go?

In his tunnel trying to get to the 

nightlight....nice

Oh, hi mommy

I was just looking around

And I found gas drops,

these are for me right?

And hand sanitizer!

Such a silly baby....

Cupcakes

So have you ever seen the show Cupcake Wars?  It's a new favorite of mine.  Unfortunately, every time I watch it, I get the sudden urge to bake.  I've been restraining myself, but last night, I couldn't stay away from the kitchen.

Now, if I went on the show, I'd probably get eliminated the first round.....I love to bake, but I'm no gourmet cook by any means.  For some reason, my cupcakes always turn out like muffins, and my muffins always turn out like cupcakes.  Always!  I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  I found a recipe last night that I figured would be impossible to screw up because it took peanut butter in place of butter or oil.  And besides, who can resist a chocolate peanut butter cupcake?  I'll bet that French dude couldn't even say no to one of those.

I put Tristan in his high chair, and started baking.  Mmmmmmm, smelled super good.  Put them in the oven and started on the frosting.  That's one thing I do perfectly.  Chocolate buttercream.  Holy oh my tastiness, that I couldn't stop sampling.  Eventually, it ended up atop my cupcakes and I made Nick and Will eat them.  Haha, Nick said they still were a little muffiny....oh well.  Like I said, chocolate peanut butter, how can you not love it???

Ooh, ball!  Yeay!

What will your baby look like?

Just for fun, before Tristan was even a gleam in our eye, I was playing around with that website that lets you see what your kids could possibly look like.  On Modern Family this week, Cam used the same website to see what his baby would look like.  So it made me want to look back and see what I had made.  Haha, they are pretty funny.  Which one do you think looks most like Tristan??  One of them I had even titled "Tristan", how intuitive I was!

12

34

56

78

9

To what end?

Doctors can be silly sometimes.  A couple weeks ago we had our follow up at Primary's for Tristan's neck and were very disappointed when they sent us away assuring us everything was fine and to "just watch him".   Hmmmm, okay I'll just watch him......

I decided I was tired of them never taking us seriously, because dear little Tristan always behaves like a gem at the doctor's office.  They look at us like we are crazy, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this kid!  I talked to Shelly about it at his 9 month appointment, and she helped me to realize that the best way to get things done is to be persistent.  If I wanted Tristan to get treated, I needed to be more persistent.  Even though I thought I already had been, I realized when I actually went to his appointments, I would just agree with the doctors and downplay what was going on for fear of being an obnoxious mother or being offensive.  Bad Sara.  A child's best advocate is their parents.  I needed to say something.  This has gone on six months tooo long.

I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of Tristan at his 'best'.  I'd get a good shot when he was playing with his table, sitting on the floor, watching a show with daddy.  Always he was hanging his head on his shoulder.  And whenever we would try to stretch him back to an upright position, he would fight and scream. That muscle is just too tight, he needs more help than just watching it.  Originally, Nick and I had wanted to see about getting him botox treatment.  We had read about it in some torticollis literature and it seemed like the best option for such a tight tumored muscle. The idea is to paralyze the muscle just enough to allow the weak muscle on the other side of the neck to build strength.

Of course I already told you about the fiasco of a work up we had for them to tell us he didn't need botox.  Mad me a tiny bit angry that I had said all along the problem wasn't his vision, wasn't his hearing, wasn't his balance, wasn't any of that.  He just had a tight muscle and it was impeding his ability to sit up straight, stand straight, and crawl.   This time they were going to listen.  So, we called and rescheduled for a sooner appointment and brought the pictures.  I showed Tristan's doctor, and she immediately said "oh, he needs botox".  Nice....

I had a couple of other questions.  First, Tristan still has his tongue thrust reflex.  You touch his lip and blaaaah! out pops his tongue.  So I was wondering if maybe the tongue thrust was pointing to his problem with textures (he won't eat anything coarse or mealy, gags it right out).  Second, he likes to hit himself.  He will grab a toy and smack himself in the head, or if he doesn't have a toy handy, he'll just smack with his hand.  Especially when he is breastfeeding. It's a little strange.    And his not being able to hold his head up while on his knees clearly has to do with his weak muscle.  The doctor seemed to think a moment, before saying "well, just watch it for now".  I stared at her.  "To what end?" I answered.  She gave me a puzzled look.  I rephrased, "how long do I just watch him before something is actually a problem?" She said "well, it's not a problem now".  Hmmm, completely missed my question.  So what does it really mean when a doctor tells you to just watch it??  That they don't really know what's going on and we'll see what happens later?  Not that any ailment has ever been cured by simple observation......

Well, in the mean time, we did get what we wanted.  Tristan will be getting botox in a few weeks.  He is also going to be seeing another physical therapist in Sandy to see if maybe she can determine if he has a sensory problem or not.  I just don't want to feel like I haven't done everything in my power to help Tristan grow and develop like a normal baby.  It breaks my heart to see him smash his face into the carpet everytime he tries to crawl, or to fall over after just a minute of standing, or to turn red and gag up everything except bananas and sweet potatoes.  I just want him to be able to do things other babies do.  In only 2 months he will be a year old, and I would love it if he could hold my hand and walk beside me soon after that.  We're working on it, maybe it won't happen exactly when I want, but it will happen.

A few pictures

Just a few pictures for fun.  Tristan's teeth are very visible now.  He's also started drinking from glasses with help and sippy cups on his own.  And we introduced him to goldfish today.  Daddy has to do that, because poor mommy has an anxiety attack every time he has something solid in his mouth....it's a problem I know.

sitting up all by myself mom!

yummy banana milk for baby

helping with laundry?  no....

spelunking in the laundry basket

little baby teeth!

sharing goldfish with daddy

getting so tall!

Teeth!

Finally, I was able to get a picture of Tristan's little bottom teeth.  He is quite adorable with them I must say.  Except he bit me at Walmart....not so cute.

Yesterday was fabulous.  It was sunny, it was warm, we got out of the house, spent some time up at my sister's.  And then we wake up this morning, and it's snowing outside.  I blame Angie, hahaha.  Just kidding.  But, I guess it's  good that we are finally getting some moisture, it's been so terribly dry here.

Sadly, I have no pictures of my delectable creations today, but I will share them with you anyways.  Nick came home on Friday with an eggplant.  He said he was at the store getting me milk and he saw them, and they were so great looking he had to buy it.  Today, for dinner I cooked it up.  I cut the eggplant into slices, buttered them, and rubbed parmesan cheese on top.  Then I baked them for about half an hour till they got crispy.  To go on top, I made a white sause with lots of chopped garlic, onions, red pepper and mozzarella cheese.  Added a little diced tomato and voila, tasty yummy dinner.

Two hours later, I made dinner again.  Haha, apparently it just wasn't enough, even though it tasted fabulous.  Nick was still hungry.  So I made buttermilk corn bread.  Now this is a funny story.  Every time I make cornbread, I don't melt the butter completely, so when I add the buttermilk, I get little butter clumps.  My solution was to heat up the milk.  But, it has come to my attention, that when you add vinegar to warm milk it makes cheese.......oh well!  I added the cheese and mixed it in.  Haha, it actually turned out light and fluffy.  And smelled super tasty.  After eating a plate with chili and sour cream, Nick finished and said to me "I'm training for The Biggest Loser".  Well, if he wins, we get a quarter of a million dollars!

My "cheese"

Sundays are nice, we get to relax.....that is after Nick gets home from his meetings.  We tried giving Tristan some food we found at Walmart that didn't have any rice flour.  Instead it had corn and oat flour.   But it was the 'organic' stuff.  When I opened up the package, I swear it was play dough.  Figured we'd try it anyways.  One bite, and Tristan turned red, started gagging, stopped breathing, started trying to pull the food out of his mouth.  Poor baby!  We're not  giving him that one again.  He ended up eating sweet potatoes and banana milk for dinner.  Will said we should have got a video of that one, haha.  He also got to try finger food for the first time, yogurt drops, and he loved them.  Munched them right up, it was super cute.

reading mommy's notebook

baby's space heater, he loves to sit

in front of it and feel the warm air

this tastes funny (yogurt drops)

yes I want more daddy!

big 'ol bite of banana yogurt!

Can you tell he likes banans??

9 Mo Appt

Yeay!  Today, Tristan and I got out of the house.  He had his 9 mo appt at the doctors, so we decided to celebrate and go shopping.  The reason being, I rarely get the car, so getting out is a big deal for me.  We got up at 8 (thanks to the little devils *cough* I mean dears next door), beautified ourselves, dropped Nick off at school and headed to the mall.  We strolled around a bit, looked in a few stores, and eventually ended up at Macy's.  A few weeks ago, Nick got me a pair of skinny jeans, that I love!  Unfortunately, you can only wear certain shoes and shirts with skinny jeans, so half of my wardrobe was still untouched. I haven't gotten a pair of jeans since right after having Tristan, and well, I've lost weight since then.  Haha, so none of them fit, and have gone into a box for future needs.  But that still left me with one pair of skinny jeans.  I had got with Nick and looked at a pair at JC Penny, but he said they looked like granma pants on me (even though I loved them), so he suggested Macy's where I got the jeans I liked.  Maybe I could find a different style from the same brand.  What a stroke of genius that was, they were having a sale!

I had to restrain myself, the sale wasn't only on jeans.....it was on everything, including numerous adorable tops.  But, we found a sale rack, and a pair for $15, not low rise, boot cut, short, and size 3.  PERFECT!  I tried them on.  Again, PERFECT!  How could I leave them there on the rack?  They had to come home with me.  And so the did!  Ahhhh, good things come to those who wait.....and shop at Macy's.

After that we went to Walgreens.  I figured I didn't have quite enough time to drive all the way home and then all the way back to the doctors, so I would just pick up a milk there for breakfast.  And in there we found the cashier lady who always was working there when I'd go on my lunch break when I was working.  So we said hi to her, and she said it was crazy just how big Tristan is getting.  It's always nice when I go and she's there, because she recognizes me and says hi and makes me feel important.  We still had some time to kill before Tristan's appointment, but I ended up just driving around for a bit because he fell asleep.  I wanted him to have somewhat of a nap.

I always love going back to my old office.  Being there makes me want to draw blood and poke people with needles.  Hahaha, but seriously, I really miss it some days.  I love being home with Tristan, it's the best thing in the world!  But at the same time, it would be nice to get out, be around people my age (and add some funds to our finances....) that sort of thing.  And it's always fun to see my Grandview family.  They all told me my hair looks great, and well, if they think so, then it must be true!  No more brooding.

Tristan passed with flying colors.  We talked about his crazy food aversions, his growth, his neck, his teeth.  Pretty much though he's doing great.  I thought for sure his HgB was going to be low, because he never eats cereal, but it was just fine.  It was actually almost 14, which is excellent.  Must be all the Boost I'm drinking, haha.  And he's started getting tired of breastfeeding.  He'll do it 2 or 3 times a day if I'm lucky, so I may need to try getting him to take a bottle again.  Although Shelly said that next month we can start him on milk just fine.  So we'll plan on that.  But overall, he is doing great.  His two bottom teeth finally came through.  Crazy huh??  We didn't even know he was teething!  No drooling, no excessive anger or crying, no biting on things more than usual.  So I can say I'm pretty happy with the fact that I have a mild baby.

And now we're at home, Tristan's taking a nap and I'm relaxing.  Ah, I love days like this.

Hair

A good hairdresser should tell you what does and doesn't look good on your face.

For example:

I have a short neck and a wider face (some people say my cheeks are fat, but I'm just going to say wide).  So, you'd think that the girl that cut my hair would have noticed and said, oh a bob with weird side bangs probably wouldn't look good on you.

It's a good thing I was smart enough to realize that, which is why I didn't ask for a bob or weird bangs.  Or A-line, which just accentuates all the bad features even more.  Hmmmm, never going to that salon again.  So why a month later am I still complaining?  Because it hasn't grown out yet, I'm mad about it still being too short to even bobby pin out of my face, and it makes me look like I have no neck and man shoulders.  People always comment that they like my "new" haircut.  But come on, even if you see someone you know with a gorilla-do, you always say you like their new style because it's polite.  It could be the most hideous thing on the planet, and you would still lie to them that it's cute.  I'm guilty.....I'm too much of a wimp to tell someone when their hair looks like a disaster.

I was going through some old pictures of myself, realizing just how stupid of an idea it was to cut my hair.    It seems I always end up with someone who doesn't understand the phrase "to the shoulders".  I miss my long hair.  And I think I'm going to go and cry about it right now.  Word of the wise, NEVER CHOP YOUR HAIR OFF!  And if you are going to, GO TO COMPETENT HAIRDRESSER!  As for me, no one except my mother-in-law is ever touching my hair again.  And I have to wait till tow years from now till it is back to normal.  *growls*

Sorry, I seem to be starting to treat my blog like my journal....it gets paid a visit every couple weeks if it's lucky.  And I decided the blog might as well be the Cooking Tristan blog.  Oh wait, that sounded terrible!!  I mean the cooking and the Tristan blog, bahahahaha, since that's all I seem to write about anymore.

So, in keeping with context, Tristan had his follow up at Primary's on Friday, and well, turns out everything is fine.  The doctors were amazed at the progress he has made in the last month, and told us to just keep doing what we're doing.  Hmmmm......I hate that.  At least I'm not paying for all the bills, but still it feels like we get the runaround, people telling us he has all these terrible problems, and then going, just kidding!  So, I've decided, not all doctors are created equal and for the most part they are really quite stupid.  Of course then we get in the car and Tristan immediately reverts back to his torticolis position and stays there for 3 days.  Ulgh, that child!  But, we're just going to let him do what he wants, and not worry about it.  Every kid is different, so what if he's a little slow?  No big deal.

Ahem, anyways!  Now that that is all behind us, life at home is good.  Tristan is sleeping through the night, sometimes up to 10 hours!   And he eats like a horse, still only his favorites though.  Yesterday however, I snuck some peas carrots and potatoes into his sweet potatoes and he ate it.  Mwahahaha, I'm so clever!  He sits up great, he stands great, he is even crawling better.  So tomorrow we are going to go out and buy some outlet covers since he decided those are his new favorite thing.  Aren't kids crazy??

And that's all for now.  Nick is still swamped with school, work and calling, but seems to be doing well.  And I am home all day, it works.  Me and Tristan have a lot of fun together, especially since he has gotten more interesting.

My handsome boys

Playing basketball with daddy

Chunkie cheeks!

and the chopped up Sukisue