I'm so funny

One of my favorite shows is The Biggest Loser.  Nick and I watch it faithfully.  No idea why we are so hooked.  It's not exactly something you should want to aspire to be a part of!  But it's a ton of fun to see the change in people as they work to lose weight.  This past week when I was watching and they went to singles and started ganging up on one another, it made me think of something.  Maybe it's because I've seen too many commercials for the new Hunger Games movie, but this is what I thought of.

This is probably one of my finest creations, haha.  It's not greatly done, but the concept is dang funny.  I could just see the contestants scrambling over each other like in The Hunger Games series.  I mean, there's only one winner in both contests, right?  Bahahaha I love photophop

A stroll in the park

Day light savings time.....who thought of that one?

Well, even though we knew about it and supposedly set an alarm, we still woke up late.  It was stake conference for the singles, but because we woke up when it was starting, we decided to just go to our homeward at 1 PM.  We ended up being a little late for that as well, but got to sit in the foyer with other parents and their babies.  Tristan even made a couple of friends!  He was getting very frustrated though seeing them crawl.  We put him on the ground in the hopes that he would try  mimicking what he saw, but the poor kid could hardly keep his head up.  He's got a lovely bruise on his forehead from a different attempt the other day.

But we discovered he loves babies.  He was giggling like crazy every time he saw one, and I had the thought that maybe I should join a mommy play group so he has more baby interaction.  It was darling though, there was a little girl who was quite a bit smaller than him, but he was flirting with her like no one's business.l  My goodness but we have an adorable son!

Afterwards, we walked over to the park across the street to let him swing and slide down the slides.  Tristan loves being outdoors, he was so happy swinging with daddy and sliding down the slides.  We saw a couple in the field flying a kite and Nick started singing the song from Mary Poppins to him.  We've decided that we need to get outdoors more, especially since it is starting to warm up quite a bit.  It was sooo nice outside today!  We didn't even need jackets.  I wish it would stay like this all year round, this type of weather is just perfect.

Sundays are so lovely and quiet.

A treatment that actually worked!

This is absolutely amazing!  I really do wish we had gotten it done sooner, but I'm glad we were able to do it now.

Yesterday, Nick and I noticed Tristan was being slightly more tipsy than usual.  He had floppy newborn head.  Haha, okay, maybe not quite as bad, but his coordination in turning was terrible.  And when I looked closely, his neck looked different to me.  It looked.....smooth.  Hmm, I felt it.  It was soft.

I took him to Nick and told him to feel.  He looked at me with the same surprised face.  The tumor felt completely gone.  There was no tight ball of muscle in his neck.  Everything had evened out.

Wow.  It felt sooo weird, and yet it was super exciting!  Finally, the tension is his neck had been relieved, he can move his neck around freely.  It is amazing!  He was actually leaning his head to the left today, and I've never seen him do that.  Oh, I am so glad we pushed for this.  During all those silly tests, I knew his problem was just that tight muscle, he didn't have vision or hearing problems or a brain tumor.  It was just the dang muscle!  But like I said, even though I'm disappointed that it took six months for the doctors to finally listen to us, I'm glad that it happened.  Don't tell me to "just watch it"!  Now we can stretch him out without it hurting him, now he can work on strengthening the other side of his neck, now he can try and sit up and stand without being pulled to one side by that silly muscle.

Yeay for botox!

Back to his normal self and pulling clothes out of drawers

Botox isn't just for the wrinkly

Botox:  Botulinum toxin.

Wait, what????  TOXIN???


Ok right, I knew that, I think.  So why did I want doctors to shoot up my baby with toxin?  Oh yeah, his neck......It only took us, hmmmm, six months to make it happen.

The good news is, you can use botox treatment in babies with torticollis up into their toddler years.  I just didn't want to wait that long.  His head shape already suffered from poor physical therapy, I didn't want him to walk around with a perpetual head tilt for the rest of his life.  Check it out on google images and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Today was the day.  We drove up to Primary's and checked in.  Baby was a tad bit grumpy because he hadn't eaten anything since last night.  I did get him up this morning though to give him a bottle full of juice to make sure he had good veins.  Just my luck, they were doing a general, which meant happy baby gas instead of an IV.  After waiting for just a few minutes, they took us back, explained the procedure and asked if we were ready to leave our little boy with them.  They let him play with the gas mask so he wouldn't freak out, and then laid him down.  I have to say, watching this was worse than watching him get an IV!  He didn't even mind the needle, but had a very hard time with the nurses holding him down and the anesthesiologist smothering him with a mask.  But it didn't last long, his eyes rolled back and he was out like a light.  They asked me to help hold him down and keep him happy, but I couldn't stand too close.  He was struggling a lot and the gas was leaking out, and I was starting to get dizzy.  So when they asked us to give kisses before sending us out, Nick and I both were like, oh we're ok!  We'll see him after.

We went to cafeteria and got Nick some breakfast and me a milk while we waited.  They told us it would only be about a 20 minute procedure and that he would wake up pretty quick afterwards.  And it was very quick, as we were walking back to the waiting room, the receptionist grabbed us in the hall and took us back to the recovery room.  A few feet away from the door we heard him screaming.  Haha, apparently waking up  this time wasn't as pleasant.  A nice old nurse was rocking him in a chair and giving him a bottle of juice.  He reached for me as soon as he saw me, which I thought was adorable.  He was much more alert and grumpy this time, but still kind of silly.  After he finished his juice they let us go.  But man, if I though the gas was bad in the botox room, it was even worse coming out of Tristan.  He practically sedated Nick and me on the ride home breathing that stuff on us.  And for two hours after we got home, he still smelled just as strong.  A very sweet and pungent strawberry smell that makes you very dizzy.  No wonder he was still tipsy all over the place!  Poor kid.  But he was back to his normal self with in a half hour, rolling around, playing with toys and giggling and virtually everything.  I'm very proud, he's been such a trooper, and he did very well today.

Now we wait.  They told us it would take a few days for the effects to really show, and in the mean time not do anything too strenuous with him.  We're also going to take him to a new physical therapist up north to learn what to do now that his muscle has been relaxed.  Hopefully we will start to see good results with the treatment, that he will be able to start pulling himself up and sitting and crawling on his own.  I'm very excited, I really hope it works well for him.

Tristan loves the bubble towers

Daddy let's him look up close

Playing with toys and waiting for the doctor

This is a fun one we should get mommy!

Mommy, what are they going to do to me??

(you can see where the muscle sticks out

on the right side)

Waking up and chewing on the monkey

All nice and recovered

Botox injection points

Daddy jungle gym!

I could do this all day!

Cuddle Bug

Something that has always depressed me just a tad is that Tristan doesn't like to cuddle. Even as a tiny little guy, he didn't like to cuddle.  He would sit on our laps, or let us hold him for a little bit, but he'd much rather play or sit on his own.  And he only liked to be rocked to sleep every once in a while.  As he's gotten older, he never really cuddles or sleeps on us.   There's just too much exciting stuff going on around him.

But, last night, after we put him to bed at 10 PM, he woke up at 12 AM ready to play.  He's been doing that lately, sleeping for a tiny bit and then waking up.  It sucks because guess who gets to get up with him.....yup, me.  Well, it's fun spending time with him when he's happy and playful, but then we both end up sleeping in until noon.  So it's this terrible cycle.  This morning, well, this afternoon, haha I woke up sleepily to a strange woman calling my cellphone for Nick.  When I told her to go away, and looked at the clock, realizing church was in half an hour, I bolted out of bed and into the shower.  Luckily, Tristan stayed asleep long enough for me to get myself ready.  Nick came home to get us and helped get Tristan dressed and then we were out the door.

Normally, Tristan will wake up, breastfeed, play for like an hour, and then go back to sleep.  That is our routine in the mornings.  Today, we went straight to church after he woke up.  Along about relief society, he started winding down and making his ehhhhhhhhhh ehhhhhhhhhh ehhhhhhhh noise.  That's the "I'm tired but I'm going force myself to stay awake".  One of the girls in the ward that he adores was sitting next to us.  While he laid docile in my arms, she stroked his hand and cheek.  Within a couple of minutes, he was out.

It was simply precious.  I haven't had him fall asleep on me since he was 5 or 6 months old.  It was very sweet, and I love it when he gets cuddly, because it's so rare.  What would it be like to have a baby who wanted to cuddle???  Tristan loves to be held, don't get me wrong.  Sometimes he won't let you put him down.  But you are his own personal jungle gym, and he has to clamber all over you.  Today, he was just a sweet as pie, and I loved holding him while he slept.  The poor thing was just tuckered out!  But that's what you get for making mommy stay up with you until 4 AM watching the RM.

Here are a couple pictures I took with my film camera (sorry if any of them are repeat for some you!)

Happy!

Sad!

Baby's own controller

Shh, I'm trying to sleep

Pick me up please!

What to Expect the First Year....hmmmm

trying to get Suki's tail

Playing with his table

Heart-shaped cowlick

Swinging in the baby jumper

Drinking mommy's cranberry juice

10 months!

Captain Hook once asked: why do parents hate their children?

Hahahaha, I don't hate Tristan.  And I'm fairly certain neither does Nick.  But he is chilling in his crib right now thinking about his problematic screaming.  I just have no idea how to make this kid stop!  I mean, it's not like you can spank a 10 month old.

Oh yeah!

Happy 10 month my baby!  When you stop screaming, I will let you come out and play!!!  His screaming isn't mad or sad.  It's happy and joyous.  And very loud.  He just loves the sound.  No idea why, because by the end of the day I'm eating ibuprofen and pulling my hair out.

Oh well, I'll just keep praying its only a phase.

Mother, I think I may have soiled myself.....

I'm evilly plotting your demise,

and snorting

Feed me, if you dare...... to change my diaper

Otherwise I will keep screaming

Screaming

Playing ball with daddy

Baby fan

Trying yogurt bites for the first time

playing with mommy's shirt

Ibuprofen

Being a parent means you get to deal with a lot of noise.  And Tristan makes quite a bit.  Today he has decided he loves to the sound of his own voice.  His favorite thing to do is scream, as loud as he possibly can.  And nothing we do makes him stop.  Except feeding him.  But I can't just feed him all the time, unless I want him to be a professional sumo wrestler in his young years.  So I try plugging him up with his binki.  Of couse he just spits it out.  Crazy kid!

But he has been doing pretty good lately.  He's holding his head up fairly well, but he still doesn't have the strength to  keep his head up when he tries to crawl.....so we're still army crawling.  He stands and plays just fine when he's holding onto his baby table or the couch.  He loves to watch the cars out the window, and try to pull out Suki's fur.  And his favorite things to munch on are ritz crackers and yogurt drops.  Still can't get him to eat foods with texture, like a real mashed up banana, but he loves yogurt.  And apple juice.  Which isn't always good for his diapers.  He had a blow out the other day, and luckily Nick was the one to discover it.  Mahahahaha.

Other than that, things have been fairly quiet around here.  Nick is still working hard at school.  Tristan and I hang out at home, and we've become Hulu junkies.  What can I say?  I'm addicted to Glee and the Biggest Loser.  Oh and Modern Family.  Then we play toys and crawl around the house chasing the cat.  Some days I get ambitious enough to blow dry my hair and put on some makeup.  It's not because I'm going out or anything, but meh, it makes me feel groomed.  Haha, I've turned into one of the slovenly women I always used to pity......although I will say I have become accustomed to being lazy about my appearance.  Sundays are good though, the one day that I get to gussy up.  I need to get me some dresses, the nice nonbreastfeeding kind.  Like Quinn and Rachel wear.  I want to look classy too.  Of course I need my hair to grow back, so I'll look into some lady rogane (is that how you spell it?)

And lastly, Tristan has been corrupted from the beginning.  When he was born I was working the late shift....and so we would stay up late and sleep in late.  I've never been able to break that cycle...that and I love sleeping in.  So last night, I have no idea why, Tristan decided that he wanted to stay up......until 3 AM.  Bahhhh!  We ended up watching 3 Men and a Baby.......and eating yogurt drops.  It was fun....ish.  Haha, naw, I love spending time with Tristan, I just wish we could do it in the daylight!  I'm going to try getting him up earlier and getting him to bed earlier.  Of course I will have to actually convince myself to do it.  So I'll let you know how that goes.

Here are a couple pictures of my little doll of late.