Yeah Noah!!!

Noah has a new trick ... he has learned to clap! Click here to watch him in action.

The view from up here ...

Since Greg was hit by the minivan I've been a little frazzled to say the least ... I'm remembering how much running can help me. Not just because it helps relieve my stress, or because it helps balance all of the cookies that I've been eating because people really like to bake you cookies when you break things, but it also just makes me happy ... this is the view from where I run. How could I not smile with these two running with me?

Oh Minivan, How I Wish You Hadn't Run My Husband Over

Just over a week ago I was lying on the couch feeding Noah, waiting for Greg to be home. It was one of the first weeknights I had been home since summer school had started and I was counting down the days until our summer, our freedom, would finally begin. When I finished feeding Noah, I grabbed my phone and I had 4 messages. The first was from Greg telling me he was just leaving work. The next one was from Greg telling me he was going to ride home, but why couldn't he get a hold of me. The third one was from Greg and it went like this ..."Jules, its me. I don't know why I can't get a hold of you, uh...I was just hit by a car. I'm lying on the street at 39th and Folsom. I think I broke my wrist and they called 911...the paramedics are coming." That was so not the message I was expecting or wanting to hear!


Greg was hit by a minivan while riding his bike home from work on Thursday evening. He was in the ER most of the night and then spent the next day in the hospital. He broke his right wrist and his left clavicle, which means he can't do too much. He's going to be having surgery on his shoulder on Monday and he has a pretty blue cast on his right arm. Both injuries are going to take about 6-8 weeks of recovery, plus physical therapy.

At first I was okay ...I postponed my crim pro exam, but knew the longer it was postponed, the less likely it would be that I would retain any of the information I had learned in the class. I never expected to have to take care of both Noah and Greg in a similar way, and I'm sure its no fun for Greg to need my help in doing everything.

The woman who hit Greg is a nurse at UCDavis where they took Greg. She was very upset by the whole thing, but the more I think about her, the angrier I become. I know she didn't hit him on purpose, I don't think she's a horrible person, but she's up and moving and probably hugging her kids and her husband. She's probably working and still driving around.

I'm upset that the first free time, otherwise known as "time without law school", that Greg and I were going to have together since before having Noah is now going to be spent with Greg's arms strapped to his chest or in casts. I know that we'll be okay, we have tons of help and support, another bonus of living this close to your family, but its still annoying.

I'm mostly sad because Greg can't hold Noah...he can't feel how strong Noah's legs are getting when he pulls himself up on you and jumps up and down. He is missing feeling how much more hair Noah is getting on his head and how sharp his little baby teeth are (not that that is a bad thing, because those things are like miniature daggers and should be sold on the black market to ninjas or something). He can't have Noah give him high fives, which is his latest thing...he's missing bath time, tickle time, diaper time, everything!

I know in the grand scheme of things, it could be much much worse, but that doesn't matter to me right now. What matters is that I'm missing my husband and my husband is missing 6-8 weeks of holding his 9 month-old son. That's a long time in babyland. Noah will be 10 1/2 months by the time Greg is able to really hold Noah again. Noah is taking up half of me, by the time Greg is able to throw him up in the air, Noah might be the size of Greg!

Words can't explain how grateful I am that his injuries weren't more serious because my world and my life are so much better with Greg in it. Thank god for bike helmets!

Bribery

I think Noah and Gary are going to become fast friends ...

Click here.

Welcome Old Friend

I was going through our videos on the Flip Video and found this one of Noah watching Ellen DeGeneres. Greg and I saw Ellen do stand-up in San Francisco several years ago, it was right before she started her TV show. We laughed so hard we were crying for most of the show. We used to TiVo her show when it first started and we would watch it everyday, but then something must have happened because it stopped recording ... probably something to do with Directv, I blame them for everything.

One of the only pregnancy meltdowns I had involved Directv ... it was August, I was very pregnant and I had been waiting all summer for the Bones premiere (yes, I get THAT excited about fall television premieres). We also had just gotten a new flat screen and HDTV and was super excited. Needless to say, when I went to watch it, the whole thing was gray. No picture, no sound, nothing!

I made Greg call them while I sat in the background cursing and muttering obscenities. None of this made Bones appear in my DVR. I was so upset that I cried about it and I'm not a big "cryer." My family says that I don't have tear ducts, but that's not true, I cry, but only about very important things, like Fall TV:) Anyway, so, I blame directv for us not recording Ellen anymore.

After having Noah and not working, it was nice to reconnect with my old show and nice to see that Noah has good taste.

This was back in March. Click here.

Mmmmmmmmm Cheerios!

Noah has started finger foods this week. Yesterday he had peas, which he liked, but he had a hard time picking them up. He also had a teething biscuit, which he also enjoyed, but he dropped it, so Gary got it. Today he had Cheerios...he loved his cheerios!

I just took a bath with a sea horse

A lot has changed in the last two weeks ... I started a new job, Noah has started pulling himself up on everything, he got his first big fever, his first ER visit, daycare, separation anxiety and finger foods. Noah broke out into a high fever on Wednesday, so I rushed home from class. His fever was 103.7 and he was so hot and sad looking. I felt awful, there was nothing we could do. Apparently the doctor's don't see babies his age until the fever is over 105! They said to monitor, nurse and give him tylenol. What does monitor mean!?!?

He went to the doctor on Thursday, he was diagnosed with a throat virus. He went to the doctor on Friday and they said something similar. Saturday the fever broke and he got a rash and then around 3:00pm he started crying every 2-10 minutes for most of the night. We called the doctor because he seemed to be in a great deal of pain in his abdomen and the doctor said we needed to go to the ER. He cried for most of he time while we waited in the ER, the grossest place EVER, and then as soon as we got to see the doctor Noah was a complete angel. The doctor said nothing was wrong with him and that the rash should go away on its own and we should see our pediatrician before we could start daycare. As soon as we left the ER the crying started again ... Sunday morning we went back to the pediatrician's office and he looked at him for a couple of minutes and determined that Noah had baby measles roseola. He said he should be fine in a couple of days...we got home and the crying started again around the same time and he fussed for most of the evening. So I called the doctor again, yes, I'm a bit insane, I call the doctor a lot and he said the abdominal pain could be something else, but it will probably go away on its own ... not very helpful.

Its so hard when Noah seems to be so unhappy and so uncomfortable and he can't tell us what hurts and the doctor's don't really know, but just say "it should go away on its own." I decided that his crying is one of my least favorite sounds.

Noah did not start daycare on Monday. Instead he stayed home with his grammy and his nana. He was still a bit fussy, but by Tuesday morning, I felt like I had my little boy back again. He was smiley again and playful ... until we went to daycare.

That's not to say that daycare was bad or that it went poorly, but Noah showed his first signs of separation anxiety. I know everyone told me that it would be difficult and that I would cry. I didn't cry, but when I left him on Wednesday he was screaming and that was one of the worst sounds I have ever heard!

Daycare went okay ... I'm convinced that the daycare ladies don't like me and that they think I'm a bad mommy because I didn't get the doctor to sign the "ointment" form or pack more frozen breastmilk or breakfast. But, in my defense, we don't really use ointment and Noah hasn't been eating as much because he was sick last week. I explained that, but I still think they thought I was lame, not that it matters because they seem to really like Noah.

It was a bit scary leaving him on the first day. Not because I was worried something would happen to him ... its hard to explain. I set him down on the floor with the other little babies and he seemed curious, but shy. He reached for the toys around him and crawled around and then looked for me. He had never really had a problem going to someone else, or being held by other people before. It was almost flattering that he needed me and that he missed me, but it broke my heart to have to leave him. It was like watching the new kid on a playground; hoping the other kids like him and that they won't pick on him or that one of them will share their snack. I know its different because they are infants, but you know what I mean.

My mom loves to tell the story of my first day of kindergarten. Apparently there was a tray of donut holes. I went up grabbed a handful and then fell asleep under a table. Noah didn't grab any donut holes or fall asleep under a table. He watched the little boy sitting in the basket and crawled over to him to see what he was doing. He grabbed on to the side of the basket and then crawled back over to me.

I'm glad that I'm only working part-time right now and I'm glad I'm able to ease him into the daycare situation because I'm not so sure I can handle more crying after last week's crying spells.

For now, I'm enjoying the new challenges and exciting changes that are happening in my family. Noah's growth and happy smiles. Today I went to take a bath the bathtub was still filled with Noah's toys ... so today I took a bath with a squishy sea horse and froggy sponge. Things have definitely changed.