We're here!!

Christmas decorations are up in the family room. The living room and dining room look super amazing as well. I need to take better pictures.

Ahhh! We made it!

My mom and dad came to my rescue on the 22nd of November. My mother had the wonderful opportunity to fly in that morning, and then pick up my baby boy, and then fly out around dinner time. Hahaha, ok, maybe it was a lot of work, but she didn't complain one bit! My dad was totally punished and came to help me move.

Actually, on the 23rd, he taught Jonathon how to fix his breaks. They also tackled that stupid window. By the end of the night, he and Jonathon had my entire car packed and ready for the road. It was so amazing to relax the night my dad got in. He treated my sister, Jonathon and I to a steak dinner in Bowie. Ok - - I had a brownie sundae which is SO much better than the guys' steak. It was really the only break we got!

My mom told me that Jackson Lane was the best baby on the plane! He talked to everyone and did really well for not having enough room to lay down completely. However, the booger slept perfect for her, which I'm kind of disappointed about. He NEVER slept at our house. 25 minute naps...horrible! She got him to take a 2 hour nap each day. What the heck is that? Jon and I were totally disgusted with his little act. :) He's wonderfully unpredictable.

My dad, Melanie, my cat and I left Wednesday morning. My dad drove for about 1450 miles of the trip, I took over for only 350 miles of the whole ride! He's such a trooper! My cat slept the whole way, thank goodness.

I was so excited to see my boy. He gave me a big hug right away. He LOVES my parents house. He walks around like he owns the place. He shows me all the "pretty" things in each room. (He points to all of the Christmas decorations and says, "pretty!") He also calls the cats by saying "kitty kitty". J also really loves that there are so many people here. He took to his Uncle Matthew when he was a little baby, so now that Jackson can actually play, they have so much fun! Emilie is a little, er, big helper! It's so nice to have an extra set of hands. And my parents couldn't be more amazing with him. He loves them so much. I can run errands and he is 100% fine at home with them. After 14 months, I have more help than I could ever imagine! It's such a blessing.

In slightly less exciting news, Jackson really loves brushing his teeth. After I do them, he gets to brush them himself which he thinks is so cool. He graduated to a different toothbrush today. I've been looking for the perfect toddler one, but just couldn't find it. Today, I was looking for a cd for Jonathon's sister and came across the cutest Sesame Street toddler toothbrush. He got his eye teeth this week so we have just about a mouthful to brush.

Jonathon probably won't make it home for Christmas. He's been asking for orders for weeks and they still haven't given him hard copy orders. They "working on it" every time he asks. So, his outprocessing may not be done in time to get here. We'll keep our fingers crossed for a last minute change of plans. We'd hate for him to miss two Christmas' in a row. Especially since this Christmas is so cool! My mom, dad and I all went Black Friday shopping and we got some super cool items. Oh I LOVE Christmas!!

Daylight savings time

Ok, I'll just admit it. I hate daylight savings time. Last night, Jonathon had to work an extra hour and Jackson woke up way early according to the time on the clock.

I also didn't know how to adjust Jackson's schedule. He already gets a night time bottle at 5:45 p.m. He can't possibly go to bed an hour earlier for the night if we were to adjust everything by an hour. He already hates naps, so today when he WANTED to go to bed, he didn't. I just took him to the store where we bought him some super cool new shoes. When we got home, it was almost 2 hours (time adjusted) later than normal for his nap. But I took the risk and put him down anyway. He cried until I wrapped him up in his blankie. All is well upstairs so far. However, he has a horrible habit of only sleeping for a half hour when his schedule is messed up.

My house is super chaotic. There isn't a place for anything anymore. My sister told me she's excited to see my house for the first time...great, after it's completely torn apart. The upstairs was already torn apart by the time Jonathon's mom came. It will be SO nice to be settled in our next home.

It's becoming real that I won't have a December cable bill for this house, because I won't be here in December. Then it hits me that it's already November 7th and I only have 2 weeks until my parents get here. OMGosh! I just realized two weeks. Ahhhh....

My poor baby!

Here's a little story for you.

We are Pampers users. We mostly use Pampers Baby Dry, but we also use the Cruisers. We happened to have a box of Luvs sitting upstairs and I thought we'd just use them up before moving. We started using them Sunday or Monday night.

He's been having several messy diapers a day, and I chalked it up to the teething and the occasional pain medicine. He has super sensitive skin, and we have to stay on top of putting a cream or powder on him for most diaper changes. Well, he was getting a bad rash that wasn't being cooperative with the Butt Paste. He was also waking up several times a night and getting up for the day around 5:30 a.m. He'd cry all day long and we could not for the life of us figure out his problem. We gave him Advil for his teeth (gosh, they are RIGHT under the gums. Come through already!!), Orajel, took him outside, nothing worked.

Yesterday was Thursday. It was really rainy all day so it was pretty dark in our house. Usually when J wakes up for the day, or from a nap, we leave the lights off for a few minutes and let him wake up a bit. I had the light from the tv and started to change his messy diaper. One stroke of the wipe and the kid is screaming. I quickly finish up and he calms down. The next diaper change, I'm showing Jon that Jackson's bottom isn't just a rash. It is on his thighs, his little biscuits and everywhere in between. It honestly looks like a sunburn. Jackson screams bloody murder if you touch it with a wipe, wash cloth or water.

I thought about the things that have changed in the last week. His diapers. I packed Jackson up in the car and took him to Target. In the entire hour we were gone, Jackson hardly moved. He didn't say one word. He just laid there. I bought our beloved Pampers, all 300 of them. After getting him home, we changed him right away and lathered him up with Butt Paste. I asked a friend if she had used Luvs before. She said, "Yeah, they were great until I found out my daughter was allergic to them". She described the exact same, and some worse, symptoms that Jackson also experienced.

After this long story, my poor baby was walking stiffly all night. He cuddled with me mostly. Jonathon woke him up every 2 hours and changed his diaper and re-applied the Butt Paste. This morning, I got up to a boy who slept until 6:45, has been smiling since and his rash is half way gone. The part that is still there was the really bad areas and I'm sure that will take a couple days to heal.

We just felt so bad for our little guy! I was SO thankful that it even occured to me to switch back to the Pampers. Who would have thought a diaper could cause such a burn? I remember all of the news that Pampers Cruisers caused burns on children because of the Dry Max, but they didn't give Jackson a problem whatsoever. I emailed Luvs, we'll see what they have to say. I remember using Luvs when Jackson was about 3 months old or so, and we did not have this problem. Maybe they changed?

In other big news, I took our bed apart. The head board and footboard are pretty heavy, so they will stay against the wall until Jonathon can help me bring them down. Our mattress is on the floor. It sounds so funny, even Jonathon laughed at me, but I love having the mattress on the floor. It feels like we're camping out or something. There is SO much to do, I'm really hoping my sister, Melanie, can come down from New York to help me. With Jackson being sick at the beginning of the week, and losing all day yesterday to his rash/pain, I'd love the help. Plus, truth be told, Melanie is WAY better at the little maticulous jobs.