10 months

Yesterday, Jack hit the 10 month mark! Usually hailed the 'longer on the outside than on the inside' birthday, though since Jack was inside for 42 weeks, I don't know if it applies. We celebrated by going to a birthday party for a friend of ours (who was turning one) and it was such a beautiful day that it was great to spend hanging out in someone's backyard. (and as usual made me want a backyard of my own!)

Jack has been sick all week. Projectile vomiting, massive amounts of pooping and a general loss of appetite. I think he's definitely lost weight, since he seems leaner and his face is less round. On top of that, he's reclaimed his cold, so there's the snotty nose and the cough which I feel like he's had for the last month. I think it's officially time to change doctors. I gave him baby tylenol yesterday and felt guilty about it for no reason (and it totally seemed to help and let him get some sleep, which he hadn't been doing). I just don't think I should live in fear of calling the after hours ped number because I'm afraid of being scolded for no steaming him enough. There has to be something else I can do to make this kid feel better - when are they going to come out with Baby DayQuil?? Then yesterday he had a totally dry diaper from 10:30a-6:30pm. Not good. Something's definitely up with him. Going to see how we do the rest of today and try and go in tomorrow. Sigh. 

The apartment search continues - I saw a place I liked last week and put in an offer, only to find out that 2 other people had also. There's an open house today for it and I think the plan is that the seller will come back to all of us that made offers and ask us for our best and final offer. I really don't want to get into a bidding war, but I did really like the place. But what's more of a pain is that idea that I have to sell my place. I had a broker come over last week and look at the place and while it's in pretty good shape as it is, there's definitely some cleaning/organizing that needs to happen before it's 'show-able', which I am not looking forward to dealing with. The idea of keeping my house perpetually clean and ready to show for the next couple weeks (hopefully only the next couple weeks) is kind of terrifying. Not that it gets filthy, but the baby crap seems to migrate all over the place and I feel like no matter how often I clean the kitchen, there's pretty much always banana or something on the floor. 

But in happier news, my side job is finished - thank god!! It was a fight to the finish but I feel really good to have it behind me and be able to focus on other things (like going to be before midnight!) My parents came to town last weekend to watch J for a bit while I worked and my dad even went to swimming lessons with him. It was...a learning experience. Jack was a little freaked at first but was into it by the end of the lesson even though my did kept inadvertently dunking his head under water :-)

As always, pictures:

The Grind

I've been a posting slacker - apologies. I took on a side job doing this other work that is some decent money for what I thought would be not a ton of work, but it's totally kicking my ass. It's due May 15th, and it's going to be a fight to the finish, so I've been working nights (and some days, when I can) on getting it done, but it's been tough. The house is a mess, I'm a zombie, and I feel totally checked out of my real job. But it's almost over. Thank god.

But in happy news, Jack started two new classes: music and swimming. The music class is just something in our neighborhood at another little boy's house around the corner, and I got to go to the first one with him, which was great (it's Fridays at noon, so I doubt I'll be able to make most of them). Jack seemed into it, but it was a LOT of singing and the babies seemed a little overloaded after a while. But he had fun shaking the little egg shaker, so whatever, it's fine.

Swimming, on the other hand, was a blast. Well, he had a blast. Totally loved the water and chasing after the rubber duck and grabbing on to the side of the pool. So that was good. The post-swimming shower/change/dress part was a bit of a shitshow, as I imagine anyone who's ever taken their kids to swimming would know. I brought food along to keep him occupied for three seconds to I could throw my clothes on (thanks for the tip, Mia!) but it's a very small locker room with virtually no raised flat surfaces, so you're kind of stuck on the wet, cold, dirty floor. Nice.

So other than my nightmare of a second job, all is good. I'm on the hunt officially for a new apartment, which scares the hell out of me because this time around, I actually have to SELL an apartment as well. Since my place currently looks like a cross between a flophouse and a toy store, I need to do some serious maneuvering to get it in shape to sell. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Here's some pics - none of us at swimming, but some shots of the little man (who is almost 10 MONTHS OLD!! Sweet lord, how did that happen????)

We're officially bathing in the big boy bath now (aka the tub). I have no idea how deep to make the bath...

At music class, looking slightly concerned...

Gnawing on a chicken bone. Jack has realized the wonder of eating chicken - he LOVES it. 

With our nanny, Leeann, the woman Jack thinks is his mother...

Never misses the chance to practice the standing