Giving it a Little Personality

The plain white DOC Band had to go and is replaced with something with a little more personality. I painted it blue, but because we didn't put a sealant on it the paint began to rub off. So we removed the paint, but it did leave a blue tint to it. You can't really tell in the pictures. Then we put these cute rub on sticker things on it. I'm not too confident that it will all stay on so it could change over time.

CJ has been pretty fussy today. It's hard to tell if it's teething or the band. The red mark on the side of his head continues to show up. It does take a while for it to go away. Cranial Tech called this afternoon to check on things and I mentioned the red spot which lasts more than an hour. She said if it goes away it's fine and when we come in next week they'll relieve some pressure there.

I noticed some dry skin on the back of his head later tonight. It's not red or anything so I guess it's okay. As I kept being told yesterday pink skin is healthy skin. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get any worse.

Sleeping has been pretty much not happening today. He might have napped a total today of 3 hours if we were lucky. Mostly cat naps. He's very restless tonight sleeping in the helmet. Again I'm not sure if it's the helmet or teething or something else entirely. I was giving him a bath tonight and he kept pulling on his right ear. So I'm not sure if he might be coming down with something. Maybe he just discovered that it was there and free to be played with. Maybe it was itchy, I don't really know. So another thing for me to keep an eye on. But pretty much I don't anticipate getting too much sleep tonight. And since Joe has to get up early for work I'll be up with him tonight. I might just sleep out in the living room actually so to not disturb Joe.

I am hoping tomorrow will be a better day for him. I guess we'll see. He still looks so darn cute though, doesn't he?

CJ Got his DOC Band

Today we made the hour drive to Clinton to go to Cranial Technologies for the 3rd time this month. This time it was to actually receive the DOC Band that is going to reshape his head and make it more round, we hope. So here he is. Happy as a clam. So far he seems to be doing well with it. He gets mad when you are putting it on, but that only lasts a few seconds and then he's fine. I put him down for a nap though today and he didn't like it much. He's supposed to wear this 23 hours a day.

The first few days though we have to take it off to check his skin. So every three hours we have to take it off and if there are any red marks on his head we have to keep it off till they fade. If tomorrow the red marks last more than an hour then we'll have to call the clinic. He seems to have this one spot on the right side of his head that gets pretty red and stays that way. Actually, it's looking a little raised right now too. We opted to let him sleep without it tonight even though they told us to leave it on him at night. I decorated it tonight though and the paint is still drying. I think his head could use a break from it though.

And of course this has to be one of the hottest days of the week this week that we get it. He's been sweating, which they told us is normal. It will take a few days for his body to regulate and get used to it, but the sweating is supposed to stop.

We have to take it off everyday and clean the inside with 70% rubbing alcohol. We'll also have to shampoo his head every night. I'm hoping this thing doesn't get too stinky though.

It is basically a hard smooth plastic on the outside. It's even taking some getting used to for me. I was carrying him today and rammed his head into the door frame. It didn't phase him at all. He's independent with sitting up, but he's trying to do more now that he has more confidence. So now when he falls over this kind of cushions his head. This could be a good thing, but also could be a bad thing. He's going to become quite the dare devil.

We go back next Wednesday to get it checked and make sure everything is okay. Hopefully after that we'll only have to go back every two weeks and not every week.

And now I leave you some pictures from this morning at Cranial Tech when he got the DOC band and while they were trimming it. We hung out there for a little while to see how he handled it. So CJ had fun playing with the toys while we waited. Tomorrow I will hopefully have the band completely decorated and I can share pictures of how we personalized it for him. I couldn't leave it just plain white.

"What's this on your head CJ?"

"What's this button do?"

"I really like this!"

"What are you doing here Natalie?"

"Watch out, I drive with my feet!"

Pucker Face

Wordless Wednesday: I Like Ice Cream

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Don't Forget my Giveaway

Don't forget that I'm doing my very first giveaway. Be sure to leave a comment on my post Ten Things of Ten to be entered into my giveaway. I will choose the winner at random on Friday August 1st. So be sure to check back here then to see who the winner is because it just might be YOU! My dream would be to get 100 comments on my 100th post so please help my dream come true. That would be awesome!

This n' That

Wow, it's been a while since I've written anything on here. I guess I haven't had too much to say. Friday my landlord did come back up to work on the ceiling, but he's STILL not done. And he won't be back this week to finish anything either because apparently he's busy all week. I gave him access all afternoon/evening on Thursday and then he was up here Friday morning for an hour before I had to take the kids to swimming and I let him back at 1 for a couple of hours. I told him we couldn't have him here at all on Saturday because we wouldn't be home at all. It almost seems like he's mad at us because we wouldn't let him in. Shame on us for having plans. Sorry, but it was my cousin's 30th birthday party. I couldn't miss that.

Speaking of my cousin's 30th birthday here she is, the birthday girl. She actually turns 30 tomorrow which is also my niece's 1st birthday. Sadly I can't celebrate my niece because my brother has disowned me, but I had a good time celebrating my cousin. And no, I still have no plans of turning 30 myself. That's all for you Margaret ;). Here are some more pictures from the day. I thought I forgot my camera and didn't realize I had it the whole time until we left. So these are pictures that my Aunt (Margaret's mom) took and e-mailed to me. Thanks Aunt Kathy...

Awww aren't they sweet! Margaret with her boyfriend Kevin. Kevin threw this great party for Margaret. Thanks Kevin!
Margaret with her birthday cake. Can she blow out all those candles?
Here she is giving it a try. She got them all.
Here's Uncle Jimmy (Margaret's Dad)
Here's CJ wondering who's taking another picture of me???
Kaitlyn, so sweet!
Natalie, so grown up!
Joe says, "Oh no you're not going to take my picture!" Oh yes Aunt Kathy is and she did!
And I guess it's only fair to add the picture of me even though I really don't like it. Everyone else is there though so I figure I should be fair.

Sunday we went to Lake Compounce and got caught in the rain there. We had a good time before the rain came down though.

And today is back to the weekly grind. The girls had swimming this morning and CJ had therapy this afternoon. Both went well. I should have more to say this week. Wednesday CJ gets his Doc Band. They actually called me today saying it came in early and wanting me to come this afternoon or tomorrow morning instead. I told them no though because Joe took the day off on Wednesday to come with us. Of course we had CJ's therapy this afternoon and tomorrow morning CJ has swimming. I couldn't miss either of those. So we kept our appointment for Wednesday.

Landlord Nuissance

Sometimes I really hate renting. Our landlord has no concept of time. He needed to put up some insulation on our drop ceiling in our kitchen to hopefully help us retain some of our heat in the winter. So this week apparently is the week of repairs for him. He was up here Monday trying to fix things which we've only been asking him to fix for the past two years. Those aren't complete though. The only thing he completed was fixing the accordion door on our kitchen closet. He took the screen out of our screen door, but he still has that so we can't have our door open without letting bugs in. He's supposed to replace a light in Natalie's room, but that hasn't happened yet and he claims to have ordered a new window for our bedroom which has a tendency to fall right out of the frame.

He was looking to come up and do this insulation in the kitchen today, tomorrow, or Saturday. Today was the only day for me. So after swimming lessons today I came home and told him he could come up at 1 to start that. I asked how long it would be and he said about 3 hours. Okay, so he should be done by 4. Plenty of time for me to cook dinner.

So he comes up half an hour late ready to work or so I think. I had to move stuff out of his way (one thing being my very wobbly microwave cart). He moved the tiles on the ceiling and took some measurements I suppose. He told me that it was more of a problem than he originally thought and would need to get to an area over my fridge, but he would work on the other area first. Good because I wasn't moving the fridge for him. So he leaves without a word. Ceiling tiles are still off and his ladder in the middle of my kitchen with some debris on the floor. Kind of like this...



And here's the ceiling...



He returns at 3:15 finally and says okay the insulation is all cut for that one area now I need to measure the other. So he gets up there and measures and tells me he's going to cut that and he'll be back. That was that. And here's the other part of my ceiling which needs fixing...



My ceiling is exposed and he hasn't actually done anything here. And then I spot him outside doing this...

Bringing in the groceries and not cutting my ceiling insulation.

So now it's after 4 when I had hoped all of this would be done. Joe gets home in an hour or so and I need to get dinner started. However, I'm now going to have to work around all of this mess and surely he will come up either right when I begin cooking or right when we sit down to eat in our mess of a kitchen. Clearly he does not see how much he inconveniences us when he does this stuff. I want the work done, but is it unreasonable of me to not want to sit around all day while he's supposed to be working, but instead is doing nothing? Is it unreasonable of me to not want my kitchen to remain torn up at dinner time when he basically said he'd be out of here by 4 with the job done?

CJ's Physical Therapy

CJ has been receiving PT since June because he wasn't rolling over or sitting up yet. His therapists have been so impressed with him. When we first started he really had no upper body strength at all. Now CJ is sitting up on his own and will reach for toys in front of him or to the side and get himself back up into a seated position. When he gets on his tummy and isn't screaming (which is still a struggle) he will hold himself up with his arms and reach for toys with one hand while holding himself up. He can even be up on his knees. He doesn't get his trunk up off the floor, but it probably won't be long. His therapist came out today and she was so impressed with what she saw from him. And in all honesty I don't do too much with him. He's been doing it all on his own. It is so fun watching him begin to do these things. He is making super progress.