I DID IT!!

Why is April's picture so ugly??

Woot Woot! I did it! I blogged everyday for 30 days! WHEW. Can't believe I was able to come up with 30 posts in a row. Go me!


I think I will take a break from blogging for awhile, well, at least a week. Jaxon's 2nd birthday is one week from today, so that'll be my next blog.

Thanks for reading this month! It was fun telling stories about Jaxon every day.

Cute Jaxon Stories

Tonight I have a few assorted Jaxon stories.

Story Number One: Monday afternoon. Brian went to get Jaxon from the babysitter's house and she was telling him about naptime. She put all of the kids down and after awhile she hears laughing and giggling coming from Jaxon's room. She walks in and finds Jaxon in Jacob's playpen. The 2 of them were laughing hysterically at each other. She says, "Jaxon! What are you doing?" Jaxon stops, climbs out of the playpen, walks to his, climbs in and lies down as if nothing happened. Thankfully, he hasn't climbed out of his crib at home yet, but every night I feel as if he's going to come waltzing into our room in the middle of the night!

Story Number Two: Tueday morning. I realized on Monday that I had not been to Target in over TWO WEEKS! Yes, a record. How in the world did I survive without Target for that long I will never know. Anyway, Tuesday was my day off so I decided that after Gymboree Jax and I would head to the "good" Target. It has a Starbucks and is bigger than our "normal" Target. Jax was having so much fun at Gymboree that he did not want to leave, even though he'd already sang the Goodbye Song and gotten his million stamps. I said, "Jaxon, let's put your shoes on so we can go to Target." Jaxon raises one arm in the air and says, "Hooway! Tardet! Ets doh!" (Hooray! Target! Let's go!) He obviously missed Target too :) He is my child! When we got to Target he was the friendliest little boy! He said hello to everyone, showed them his animals, told them about his Gymbo stamps. It was hilarious. All kinds off ladies commented on what a well-behaved friendly little boy I had. If only they knew the truth!

Story Number Three: Thursday afternoon.Every kid that goes to Jaxon's babysitter's has a nickname. There's Squish, Crumbs, Peanut Butter, Lala, Bubba. So, one of Jaxon's favorite little friends is Peanut Butter. She is a cute blonde girl whose name is really Allyn, but no one calls her by her given name. Anyway, Jax is always talking about "Pea-ut Butter". Today when I picked him up and am driving him home he says, "Mama, Pea-ut Butter pushed me, Jaxon." It was so cute! He was so serious. I have to say, that this is the first time that Jaxon has said a full, complete sentence and it melted my heart. I was so proud and also so sad because he is just growing up so fast and learning so much each day. It brought a tiny tear to my eye. I was also struck by how he had to say his name at the end, just in case I didn't understand the severity of the situation! But I digress. I said to him, "Oh no Jaxon. I'm sorry. what did you do?" "Nice, Pea-ut Butter. Be nice" I guess he told her to be nice. How sweet! He came home and had to tell Lola. So I called my mom and he told her what Peanut Butter did. Then Brian came home and told him what Butter did. Of course what does Brian ask, "Did you push back?" "No. Nice Pea-ut Butter." "Is Peanut Butter still your friend?" "Yesh. Nice."

OH! I almost forgot! At the beginning of this month, I posted about Jaxon carrying his animals in a plastic bag. I am happy to say that he (well, I really) carries ALL of his animals in the backpack! He puts them in and makes me carry it. The bag cannot be zipped up though! He freaks out if you even zip it half way.

I think he carries a total of 12, plus Papi & Brother! And I bought him about 6 dinosaurs for his birthday!

ONE MORE DAY TO GO!!!

Shwim Fish Shwim!

You know how each and every store has knick knacks at their registers? The reason they put them there is because of me. I always throw something extra on the conveyor belt... gum, mints, chapstick, Wet wipes, batteries.Anything that looks as if I couldn't live without it! Well, Sunday was no different.

Jax & I went to Albertson's for some grocery shopping and of course I pick the SLOWEST line EVER! This always happens to me too. Why do I always choose the slow cashier, or the customer who argues about the price of every item in her cart? Anyway, so we are in line for about 5 minutes when I notice a package of "Magic Crawlers". You know the ones where you put them in water and they grow. How fun do those sound?? I made the mistake of showing Jaxon and telling him when we got home we'd put them in water and watch them get bigger. Immedietly Jax says, "Fish shwim watah." (Fish swim water). So for 10 minutes (yes the cashier was that slow!) we talked about the fish swimming when we got home.

We get in the car and there were about 5 cars behind me so I couldn't back up (why wouldn't there be when Jaxon is so anxious to get home?). Jaxon says, "Mama! Moove tar! Do!" (Mama! Move car! Go!).

FINALLY! We get home. I hand Jaxon the fish and he RUNS to the backyard and throws the fish into the fountain.

Can you tell how happy he is?

Not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking putting them in a jar. Oh well, he wanted those fish to swim. OMG! He was sooo excited! "Mama! Watch. Shwim fish shwim." Then our party pooper daddy comes out and says, "Uhh. There's all kind of bacteria in that fountain." Oops! That was fun, getting all of the fish out and Jaxon trying to put them back in and screaming because the fish had to swim. He eventually was pleased with the water in the jar (after he drank from the extra water spurting out of the outside faucet while I was using the hose to fill up the jar).

Guess where he's going?

Yup, to the forbidden, bacteria infested fountain!

Dumping out the water so he could drink from the faucet again.

Can you see how wet his pants are?

Only TWO days left of NaBloPoMo! I can do it!

PS I just want to say that it is seriously hurting my heart to know that my baby will be turning TWO in a week! UGH! Can't believe it. It make me want to cry.

Get A Grip

Brian & I have gone into business! Ok, Brian has gone into business. All I've done is make address labels & stuff envelopes.

In December, Brian was looking to fix the counter top at one of our rental houses in Tucson. One of the places he called was Get A Grip Resurfacing. Apparently, these people had a great product, but crappy customer service. For some reason, that I will never understand, Brian called the owner and asked if he could buy the Tucson branch. I'm not kidding. He thought he could do a better job of running the business so why not buy it? Again, not kidding! So after many phone calls and lots of discussions, Brian and his oldest brother became the owners of Get A Grip Resurfacing in March! Mike, Brian's brother, is the tech and Brian is the everything else.

Mike & Brian

Get A Grip resurfaces countertops, tile, laminate, cultured marble, fiberglass & porcelain.

Get a Grip’s Countertop Resurfacing features multi-color fleck designs, which give the look and feel of stone or granite to kitchen & bathroom countertops. They also specialize in porcelain refinishing, which means bath tubs & showers.

So, if someone used your countertop as a cutting board and left knife marks or if your bathroom is an ugly turquoise color, give Brian a call! (520) 742-2228 or go to website www.getagripinc.com, go to search states, type in Arizona & look for the handsome Pearson brothers! Make sure to mention you heard about them through the blog! Did I mention, they only own the Tucson branch?

What is With this Kid??

I swear Jaxon wants to be a Smurf or an Avatar! You remember a few weeks ago when he took a bite out of the blue sidewalk chalk? Well, yesterday we were painting and I turned my back for ONE SECOND! Literally, one second, I bent down to pick up a crayon and when I came back up he looks like this!

Don't you love how you provide a ton of paper and they still choose to color where they shouldn't!

A work of art!

When do kids stop putting EVERYTHING in their mouths??

J-A-X-O-N

I only have 5 days left of NaBloPoMo!

Ami gave me the idea of doing an acrostic (I think that's the word) of Jaxon's name. Fantastic

J umps on the bed

A dorable

eXcited about animals

O nery

N o is his favorite word

All I have to say is that I'm glad he only has 5 letters in his name!

Puppy Has a Brother!

I have introduced you to our beloved "Papi" in the past and you all know how I have been on a mission to find an identical blue puppy with no success.

"Papi"

During that mission I did buy a blue puppy that Jax wanted nothing to do with.

The Impostor!

One time my mom tried giving the impostor to Jaxon and he would throw it at her as if to say, "That is NOT Papi!". Well, we have kept the impostor on his shelf in his bedroom for months. Yesterday he came across him, brought him to me and said, "Mama, noder Papi" (Mama, another Puppy). "Yup, that's another puppy, Bud. What's his name?" Jax looks at the new puppy, considers for a minute and says, "Broder. Papi's broder." I am assuming he means brother. So now, Papi has a brother that Jaxon carries everywhere! The kid needs to be an octopus. We has way to many things to carry.

"Papi" & "Broder"

I am mostly amazed with his naming the impostor puppy, Brother. Where did he learn that word? It's not like we ever talk about having a brother or even what a brother is! I'm sure it's from Frances' house. His little brain amazes me. He is such a smart little boy (at least, his mama thinks so!)

Sleeping Toddler

I am running out of ideas for postings!! Thank goodness there are only 7 more days after today! I was looking through pictures to find some inspiration and came across these 2 pictures.

Too funny.

Bad Parenting Skill #15

I have to do a very quick post tonight. The kindergartners are performing their Three Piggie Opera in an hour. I know I will be too tired to blog after the performance.

Bad Parenting Skill #15: Letting your child swing a golf club inside.

I know, this is a bad idea. I mean all kinds of things can happen- broken TVs, holes in wall, blah blah blah. Oh well! No one has gotten hurt yet.

This video is of Jax practicing his golf swing. After watching the video, I notice that Lucy kinda steals the show! She is such a little theif and persistent little dog that it became kinda comical after I watched it a few times.

Special Mama Time

It seems that lately, most of the blogs I read have mentioned the fact that Mom is always the one taking pictures and never actually in them. So each mom has been trying to get in front of the camera a little more often. In my friend Bee-Jai's blog, she posted "Mom n Me Monday". She posts a picture of a special moment shared between her and her sons. What a GREAT idea!

My special moment with Jaxon is bedtime stories. Our routine every night is Brian & I get Jax ready for bed together. Once he is bathed and pajammad up one of us reads him a story. More often than not that someone is me. Lately, I have been asking Jaxon would he wants to read him a story. The answer is ALWAYS "Mama!" with a very big show of him throwing his arms around me and saying, "Read it, Mama. Read dinosaurs" (or whichever book he's into at the moment). I have even tried saying, "Oh, but Daddy is a good reader. Don't you want him to read you a story?" "Ummm No. Mama read it".

I truly enjoy this time with him. I know the time will come too soon when he doesn't fit in my lap anymore and won't want me to read to him. I cherish each night that I get to sit him on my lap, smell his sweet boy smell and snuggle with my baby. Even though after 3-4 books, I'm ready for that sweet boy to go night night. :) He almost always says, "More Mama. Read other one."

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this boy?

Thyroid Update

It was a year ago today that I had a complete thyroidectomy due to a cancerous tumor. So, what better day than to today give an update!

I have been seeing my Endocrinologist, Dr. Edwards, every 3 months since June 2009. Each time I have lab work done so he can check my TSH (thyroid something hormone, can't remember the name) and the tumor marker. Well, (I think I've blogged this before but I can't remember) apparently, my blood makes an antibody that conflicts with the antibody used for the test. This means Dr. Edward is not getting an accurate reading on the tumor marker, which means he does not have a clear idea of what the cancer may or may not be doing. He hasn't been extremely worried about this considering that Dr. Coffman (my surgeon, Dr. McDreamy) took out as much thyroid tissue as possible last year and I had a very successful body scan last summer. Since there hasn't been an accurate blood test, I have to have a body scan in June. This means that I must have another radioactive iodine pill, which means I must go on the low iodine diet once again.

The diet will begin on

June 7 -June 25 (yes, that's almost 3 weeks!): Begin low iodine diet

June 21 & 22 : go to Dr. Edwards' office for some injections (not sure about why, but he told me I had to)

June 23 : Go to hospital to take the radioactive iodine pill and leave immediately!

June 23 - 25. In isolation. Luckily, this is a much smaller does than last time (5 millicuries as apposed to 150) so my isolation time is only 3 days. Jaxon & Lucy will be in Tucson. Brian will be living in our guest room & his office

June 25: Body scan

June 26: Fly to Tucson to pick up Jaxon!

Let me remind you what the low iodine diet consists of:

- no dairy products- milk, yogurt, ice cream, chocolate

- Only egg whites, no egg yolks

- No iodized salt or sea salt

- No seafood

- No soy sauce

- Only 6 0z of meat everyday. Stay away from ground meat

- No foods that are packaged- no sliced bread, no cookies, no cereal, no crackers, no tortillas, etc.

Almost everything has to be homemade since I can control what goes into each meal. Thank goodness for my mom because she got VERY good at cooking meals & snacks that followed the guidelines. She even made me homemade bread every other day!!

While in isolation I may not be in the same room with any person or animals. This is why Jaxon & Lucy will be in Tucson.Brian will be home with me, but he will spend most of his time in this office or the guest room. Last year, when I was in the living room and he would want to come into the kitchen, he would yell, "Coming to the kitchen!" And would either go outside or upstairs until he was done.

During isolation I have to use disposable everything, plates, utensils, cups, napkins, etc. I also have to flush the toilet 3 times after using it and rinse the sink & bathtub thoroughly when finished. I also have to shower 2-3 times a day. This helps the radioactivity leave my body quickly.

Several hours post-op

The day after surgery

My scar today. You have to look closely! It is right in between the collar bones. It looks like a crease. Dr. McDreamy did an amazing job didn't he?!?

It's hard to believe that was a year ago! I feel great and the thyroid medication I take everyday is the perfect dose. I feel so very blessed for having survived thyroid cancer with not much fuss. I also am so happy Dr. Coffman was my surgeon, he did such a great job removing all of the cancer. Dr. Edwards has also been a Godsend. He is so patient, nice & caring. And I just feel fortunate all the way around!

One Little Jaxon Jumping on the Bed

After about 3 hours of peace and quiet in our house yesterday, I begin to hear some peculiar banging noises coming from Jaxon's room. Hmmm? A little boy must be awake and doing something naughty I'm sure. Sure enough, I walk in and find Jaxon jumping in his crib. My favorite part is the look on his face in the very beginning of the video. He knows he's up to no good and knows he can get away with it! He is 100% boy!

You Know You're a Mom When

All of my blogging friends have blogged on this topic this past week, so it wasn't something I thought I should do. BUT! I couldn't think of anything else to blog about today and I can't skip a day this month! So here is my version:

You Know You're a Mom When....

- You would NEVER dream of leaving the house without a sippy cup, extra snacks, small toys, & diapers.

- You can drive one-handed while leaning into the back seat handing your child one of the above items.

- You can't have a meal without getting out of your chair at least 5 times to pick up a sippy cup or fork that was "dropped" on the floor, feeding your own food to your child (even though he has the exact. same. thing. on his plate!) and saying, "Do NOT play with your food!" a million times.

- You can't walk into any room of your house without stepping on any number of toys.

- You have no problem sticking your nose in a kid's butt to check to see if there's poop.

- Your couch & carpet have all kinds of interesting stains.

- Your day revolves around naptime.

- You chose a restaurant based on whether they have waiters or not. If they do, you won't go. Too much waiting for a toddler!

- You do more shopping for your child than you do for yourself.

- You have a day to yourself and you decide to go grocery shopping instead of getting your nails done.

There's my list! Check out the other versions of "You Know You're a Mom When"

The Best Things in Life are Three

Madsen Memoirs

A New Normal

Sarah and James Plus One

6 Years Ago Today...

The past six years have been the best of my life! Thanks for being a wonderful husband, taking care of me and putting up with all of my craziness & feistiness! There is no one I would have rather been with than you!

Happy Anniversary!