16months!

annnnnnnd, it's mid-April! tasty brownie dough to celebrate spring! :)

i thought i'd post a few leg pics from the poison oak fest in march... for my mom/sister's pleasure... pardon the nastiness... skip over these if you'd like... these were the worst areas.. it spread to various parts of the entire left leg... and left my ankle swollen significantly (like a bad sprain) for 1.5 weeks... that's the first time i've ever had such swelling... that i recall... it's like a burn kinda... it cycled through in about 2wks... my skin still feels strange in the areas that were most involved, but overall... just looks bleached in the healed spots... will be awhile (months) before the tone normalizes...

my hip issues returned (slightly different) so i didn't end up running the 50miler i'd planned in april... we went down nonetheless as most of our trip was nonrefundable/cheap deals and we were looking fwd to hanging with the group of folks rondezvous-ing there anyway... it was a fun weekend, bittersweet.... but the cool thing was that all 6 starters in our group finished! 5 had never run an ultra before!!!!!!! and the 1 veteran perservered despite greatly diminished training! it was fun to crew and pace! makes me hungry for the next adventure! :) AND, i didn't get any poison oak! go figure! it was EVERYWHERE and had grown IMMENSELY in the past month since i was in the same general area... crazy... thanks to my fancy tall socks and wiping exposed skin with baby wipes at ea. aid station, after the race, and technu-ing up that nite...

while we were there, j took 3 big face plants and ended up with roadrash on his nose and upper lip... in order to scab the upper lip like he did, his nose must have flattened completely! poor little guy... this new-to-walking thing is rough! especially when you don't want to hold anyone's hands!!!!! everyone loved him and his little patagonia blue down sweater from our dearest friend here... :) what a little ambassador... :) he just wanted to walk... walk walk walk... up/down the hotel halls, wanted to ride the elevators/escalators/moving walkways... push elevator buttons, walk walk walk... and at the race finish, he walked while carrying his mini diaper changing pad (skiphop)... sooo busy... all in all, travelling to a race with a little munchkin is a whole 'nother level of inefficiency! and he was an angel! no joke! allll... the wheel... keeps on needing some reinvention! :) wouldn't want it to be any other way at this point. ;)

news: we have a closing date set for the condo sale... and an apt waiting to be moved into in the next town on our list of towns we've lived in! yay! not that we want to leave our current spot, but given where hubby works, it will be nice to be in the same town as he's based.

other news: j is definitely a walker now... rarely crawls, except thankfully a few crawl lengths after he clears the top step on the flight of 16 before he stands and strolls away... he's getting faster and faster, negotiating gentle uphills and downhills with no trouble, and getting a little more daring on uneven surfaces (woodchips, grass) but usually grabs a mama finger for that. :) i'm enjoying it... as i know it won't last (the wanting to hold my finger part). :)

he wanted to contribute to dressing himself today... i'd put on his cool (ubersoft) moose shirt and some brown knit pants (like sweats, stretchy and comfy)... a little while later, he comes over with his pj's from last nite and motions for me to put them on (he touches his right shoulder with his right pointer finger a few times and cocks his head slightly away)... so i put the top 1/2 of the footie zip pj's on him (super thin fleece pjs)... so now he has his long sleeve moose shirt and fleece pj arms/back on... with the jammie footies dragging behind like a cape)... a few minutes later, he brings over his REI fleece vest (he LOVES his vest)... and motions for me to put that on. :) so i do... and zip it... per his request... quite the layering thing going on considering he's a hot body and it's 71 deg in the house... he goes on about his electronics work after that... and about 1.5h later, with light sweat glistening along his forehead, he lets me take the extra clothes off. :)

j's gotten really good at instantly mimicking different beeps... as in, when someone's watch goes off in the middle of meeting... j mimicks it without missing a beat immediately after... he likes saying "um" if he hears you (or anyone) say it in conversation... this was hilarious when working with one of the apt leasing specialists... who had a penchant for that word... i was DYING trying not to giggle every time he would say "um" because j would just parrot it right back! now that's one way to cure you of filler words in public speaking! he also says "bahbahbah" if i say "blahblahblah" in conversation... which, turns out, i say quite a bit. :) hee hee!

his whiteboy dance is improving... the bouncing is deepening... especially to the german trampoline song on putamayo's european playground cd... and speaking of cd's... this has been going on for awhile, but he very specifically only wants to hear 1 of 2 cd's... all day long... and these cd's do change every 1-2 wks or so... thankfully!

electronics and power cords and plug ins and charger cords and machines (the monitor, the monitor's camera, coffee grinder, bread machine, cell phone chargers, light cords, computer cords, desk phones in public places, etc) CONTINUE to be his obsession... maybe that's putting it too lightly... the vacuum is down to maybe 1x/wk that he wants to get it out and play with it... of course, the 2 other times/wk i do vacuum sparks some interest as well... way more interesting if it's running. but thankfully, we don't have to play with it all day every day like not that long ago. :)

he has all his teeth except for the bottom two incisors... which are coming in... we've been dealing with 3 molars and top 2 incisors for seemingly forever... but they're finally all through... so now the final 2 until 2y molars?? yeeeeehawwwwww! can't wait to have the poops normalize! ;)

his use of the fork and spoon continue to improve... and despite how his mug looks in this pic, meals are going fairly well... the swiss side of our family (man i sure wish my grandpaoj was still around) would be SOOOOOOO proud of this boy's LOVE of bread and cheese... truly, i think little j could live on it quite happily and never want anything else... despite this, his range of foods is still fairly broad... he still spits some "usual favorites" out occasionally... maybe if the texture's off? i'm not sure... then he goes nuts for some things he doesn't usually like (lately, peas and sliced/steamed carrots! yay for more veggies!)... and his desire to dip things has only increased... bbq sauce, ranch, and yogurt are his 3 fav dips... unfortunately, ranch = he can eat by the spoonful... he tried that tonite with the sweet baby ray bbq sauce which has a bit of a kick... and despite my warnings... but it did make his eyes water a bit and he said, "Hot." ... but kept right on dipping things in it after he took a loooonnnggg swig of water. :) goofy goof.
fav breakfast remains peanut butter toast... and he loves to dip his fork straight into the peanut butter jar while i'm making it... as fast as he can slurp it off the fork... :) lovely. don't worry, i'll buy a special jar of peanut butter for guests... :)



see ya! we're off, soon, to explore new parks, trails, coffeehouses, bakeries, and etc! i'm going to miss my fav french bakery here in town, SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! sigh! :)

skjhz