3/21/05: Marc’s watching JT a lot this week while Mommy’s at the computer getting paperwork rounded up for closing on the house. Gives Mommy a chance to answer questions Marc may have and be around in case anything happens and help Marc learn what makes JT tick. Also doing a bit of packing, we now have 16 boxes in the living room ready to go!! JT’s attention span is getting shorter as he wants to learn and do new things all the time… so keeping him entertained is a full time job!!

3/20/05: We took Marc out to breakfast and then out to Canton to show him our new home (where he’ll be in June). He likes it!! We also talked to the current owner, we’re buying her riding lawn mower from her so we have something to mow the lawn until we get settled and have time and money to get what we want. We were going to then go for a hike that Daddy saw in the Backpacker magazine, but once we started heading that way we realized the hike was actually closer to North Carlina than we thought… we weren’t up for that long of a drive, so we went back to Canton and walked around a small park there to give Licorice a chance to run around and get some fresh air… she won’t know what to do with herself when she learns she has 2.2 acres that’s all hers!!! Pretty quiet evening, JT is taken to Marc - i think he’s tired of looking at Mommy and Daddy!!

3/19/05: Mommy’s cousin Marc flew into town today from Ft Lauderdale to spend his spring break in Atlanta and help with JT so mommy can get paperwork and packing going on the house (not to mention so he can feed his addiction to video games with Daddy). He’ll also be back the whole month of June, taking care of JT while Mommy starts back to work.

3/18/05: JT is wanting to stand more and more, so we went and got him a bouncy today… its sorta like the older ones that you hook into an open door frame, but we really do not have any that would allow him to be part of the action, so we got him a stand alone bouncy… HE LOVES IT!! Pics will be posted soon!

3/17/05: Happy St Patrick’s Day!!! JT made sure to wear green today to school so he wouldn’t get any pinches. Mommy and Daddy both dropped him off at school today cuz Mommy had to give Daddy a ride to work. JT likes when Daddy takes him.

3/15/05: Daddy takes JT to school today - he’s doing better. At least he’s not stuffed up this morning. Mommy takes Licorice to vet for final surgery follow-up, things look good, no additional surgery unless something seriously goes wrong, knee seems to be gaining some strength!! We make it to gym again, JT is a hit in the Kidsclub, all the little girls like to “babysit” him. He’s hamming it up already!!

3/14/05: We are all wiped, but we still made it to the gym after Barry got home from work and then we all crashed - tonight, JT is asleep in his swing, right in front of the humidifier, seems to help keep him from clogging up so bad when laid out flat - feel kinda guilty, like maybe we’re doing something wrong - allowing kid to sleep in swing!?!?! But he sleeps from 10p to 4a… can that be all that wrong?!?! Count-down… 3wks ’til closing on the house!!!

3/13/05: JT was pretty clingy all weekend, not feeling well, not horrible, just kinda blah, Mommy was very glad to see Daddy late Sunday evening!!! JT was up numerous times both Friday and Staurday nights, he just clogs right up when laying down. Poor thing. JT showed off his new tricks to Daddy… 1 - he LOVES to stand now, standing all the time while in your lap or with you holding his hands while he’s in his crib, he’s so cute the way he stretches his little neck up - i think he’s some kind of kin to ET. 2 - he likes to jump and dance around in Mommy’s arms - it quickly produces HUGE grin across his face!! 3 - he couldn’t show, but Daddy learns JT had some rice cereal with a spoon this weekend - he likes it! he likes it!

3/11/05: We went to gym and then dinner and had planned on being home by 8pm so Barry could hit the road… ended up hitting crowd at Longhorn (we cant help but go there soo much, it’s right around the corner and in same lot as gym)… we got home around 8:30-9 and Barry’s parents called, they suggested he wait and leave in the morning instead - cuz there was some icy/wet yucky weather expected over-night. So he did. JT slept through Kidsclub (at the gym) and dinner… he’s just not feeling right, no fever, just stuffy… got stuffiness down a bit, so guess was catching up on some zzz’s.

3/10/05: JT seemed well enough to go to school today - so went ahead and took him in with bottle of saline just in case. Right now, there’s only 2 other kids in the infant room (there were 4 but 2 of them just moved up to the 1yr room), so he gets lots of one-on-one time with the teachers - if there was a fullhouse, i dont think i’d have taken him. Mommy then took a break from housework and went to the gym - was able to sign JT up for their KidsClub - this means Barry and I can start working out together again and they’ll watch JT - this is good thing - cuz when we tag team, one of us doesn’t get home from gym until 10:30pm… this way, we can both go as soon as Barry get’s home and be done with it by 8pm, whew! Picked up JT from school and teachers said he didn’t need the saline, but he seemed to be coughing a bit more. I dont think we’ll be going to TN with Barry tomorrow. All-in-all it was a fairly quiet evening.

3/9/05: It’s a very sad day - today JT is 10wks old, in his double digits already - there’s no looking back now!!! We both tagged team today and went to the gym - felt good to get some exercise. JT seems to be doing a bit better, but his nose is still stuffy - we’ve already gone through a whole bottle of saline drops.

3/8/05: JT’s doing much better - can tell it’s all loosening up. But mommy kept him home from school today (still doing 2 half days a week) - so he can spend one more day in the humidity chamber (aka his room). Got a call from loan officer today - we’re good to go for the house, have a list of paperwork to start pulling together and all should go fine - our closing on our new home is set for 1pm on April 4th, and we begin moving in at 5pm April 6th!!! Woo hoo!! (pray nothing goes wrong!!). We got bad news late this evening, Barry’s Aunt Myrtle (his Mom’s sister) passed away. Barry will be going up to TN for the funeral this weekend, JT and I may or may not go depending on how JT’s feeling… he hasn’t been 100% for a few days now and not sure a 4hr roadtrip and being around lots of people would be wise at this point. We’ll see. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mammy and her siblings.

3/7/05: 5am Mommy flies outta bed… he’s STILL SLEEPING?!?! scared myself AGAIN, thought maybe something was wrong, went in and he was sleeping like a baby still. He woke up smiling, yet still a little stuffy, ate a bottle, spit up a little, but was right back out again, we did that just about all day - poor thing is catching up on some lost ZZzz’s. Again, keepin him in his room so he can stay “humidified” - HAHAH Mommy thought she’d catch up on chores, low and behold there’s NO WATER!!! so mommy catches up on chores, minus laundry and dishes, apparently someone hit a water main and it’s off for the whole complex. It finnally came back on at about 5pm. So did the dishes and then made dinner, watched American Idol, went to gym and did cardio and then came home, made bottles, daddy fed JT (had to wake him up to eat) and put him back down by about 11:30… he sure is a tired little boy… Mommy and Daddy head to bed and both fall asleep reading their own issues of Backpacker Magazine!! (we cant wait to take him hiking, we’ve already got an awesome back carrier for him that we got on Sale and used Daddy’s gift certificate he got for our anniversary gift on).

3/6/05: 4:45am Mommy flies outta bed… he’s STILL SLEEPING?!?! scared myself, thought maybe something was wrong, went in and he was sleeping like a baby still. I was up so i made a cup of tea and had some ME TIME… checked on him every 30min, finnaly couldn’t take it anymore and woke him, he smiled a bit and such so i got him a bottle, gave him another dose of meds cuz he was still real stuffy and unable to breathe from nose, fed him and he was doing good, then HURL, all over me - there went that bottle, then he fell back asleep. Of course, now i’m worried he’s not getting enough fluids, 12+ hrs sleeping then he spits up bottle and back to sleep… so i do what any first time mother does… i called my mom!!! She told me to take him in bathroom and stand while hot water is running, creating a steam room, then go get a warm mist humidifier. He loved the bathroom, cleared him right up, then we ran out of hot water… LOL, so i went ot get humidifier and daddy took over for a bit and got him to keep a bottle down. Got home with humidifier and set it up and put it in his room and then daddy and i spent the day tag-teaming and keeping JT comfortable in his room. DADDY MADE MOMMY PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST!!! JT sounds really bad - but i know it’s just the “stuff” loosening up… it’s not green or anything, sucks though - all his toys and swing, etc are back in his room - feels like he’s on punishment, not allowed to join the family in living room. He again fought sleep most of the day, but was out for the count after a nice warm bath, bottle, and dose of meds at by 10pm.

3/5/05: Well, down for the night didn’t exactly stay down, poor thing was up at 2am and stayed up til 3:30am and then was up again at 5:30… and didn’t go back down… Mommy decided to let daddy sleep in though, so we hung out for a bit, he’s not feeling well at all, starting to get congested. Daddy finnaly got up at 11:30 - i jokingly said “sleep well”, though after not getting much sleep at all and being rather jealous that he got 12hrs - probably didn’t sound like a joke - soo - we ended up arguing, turned out being a misunderstanding on both parts… so we kissed and made up rather quickly (for a change). We then tag-teamed JT and started pulling out the boxes from last move. Barry got about 6 boxes of JUST BOOKS packed, Mommy got one box of DVDs, etc packed - then mommy took a nap - ended up being a very long one - daddy woke me up 3hrs later. WHEW! Went online to look at what a 9wk old is allowed to take for stuffiness, now JT is throwing up a bit when he tries to eat cuz he cant breathe to well. Found a good site online and headed to drugstore, got him some Infant PediaCare cough and stuffy nose decongestant - he wore himself out over past two days of very little sleep - poor thing ate a good bottle and then was out like a light by 9pm, Mommy soon followed and was out by 11pm.

3/4/05: Got the inspection report - all in all - it passed with flying colors!!! We have a few things to do once we get it so we can ensure it stays in great shape, but lucky for us, the current owner’s ex-husband (i finally got the scoop) is a contractor - so when he worked on the house, everything was done very well!! We are soo very excited - we wanted to go celebrate again (any excuse to get out of house) - but JT’s still not feeling well, shots have him coming down with a cold - he’s been awake quite a bit today and very clingy (again, sicko me didn’t mind a bit!). So we stayed in, and finnally got JT comfortable enough to go down for the night.

3/3/05: Well, we had our inspection of the house today… and it went VERY WELL!!! We were worried, but the inspector was recommended by a friend of ours, and he ROCKED!!! We were there about 3hrs, and even he commented on how he’s looked high and low for any sign of leaks, mold, or residue and could find NONE! There were a few minor things and the current owners are already on top of it. We get official report by first thing tomorrow morning. Barry was able to get out of work and attend as well, good thing, cuz JT was fussing quite a bit, his legs are sore from shots yesterday - he’s not crying, just cant seem to get comfortable. Poor thing, normally he does NOT want to be cuddled, he likes to lay on floor by himself and just look around… today all he’s wanted is to be held - i have to admit - i like being able to coddle him some.

3/2/05: brrrr! 26degrees with 16degree windchill (march 2nd!!!?!?!) PatPat flys home today she spent morning hanging with JT, feeding him and giving him a bath… this is after Licorice, Barry, Kim and JT all dogpiled her in bed to wake her up this morning!!! We got everything together and then met Barry for a quick lunch and coffee and then off to the airport… Mommy didn’t cry this time - but it’s still sad to see her go everytime. She’ll be back in early April to keep JT occupied while Mommy and Daddy get to packing and moving into their new home!!! Mommy then took JT to Dr’s for his 2 month checkup… can i just tell you he’s the most awesome little boy ever!!!! He did NOT cry after FOUR immunization shots… first shot, he didn’t notice, 2nd shot he made a face, 3rd and 4th shot - he shouted and then that was it… even the nurse commented on how unusual that was… Yep, That’s our boy!!! He also weighed in at a whopping 14lb 10oz and is now 24.5″ long (he’s a 2footer!!!) Dr said he’s in 90th percentile for weight and height (that means if you have 100 boys lined up, only 10 boys would be taller and heavier than JT). But take note, he’s only now starting to get some weight on his long skinny legs - he also has a few baby rolls on his wrists and ankles now too!!! he’s too cute!!!

3/1/05: Everyone was up and moving by 6am - Barry was taking Nick and Kris to the airport, while Kim and Patpat were taking JT to “school”… go out to start up the cars…. IT SNOWED!!!! (march 1st!!!!??!?) okay, it “dusted” really - but for patpat and kim growing up in South Florida… sure looked like snow to us!!! Not to mention, it was JT’s first snow…. so we got a few pics of the little man, not many though - it was COLD OUTSIDE - check’em out! Patpat and Kim ran errands and Kim went to dr’s to get iron levels checked again - should find out soon if they are back to normal. Picked up a few books of stories and nursery rhymes for JT and then eventually settled in for quiet eve at home - JT was wore out from school and snow (hahah) so he slept quite a bit when he got home - Mommy and Daddy watched American Idol and then were going to hit the gym when they then realized the AMAZING RACE premere was on!!! (we’re addicted to that show!) need less to say - we skipped the gym. Oh, BTW… the sellers of “our house”… signed the contract/offer… keep on keeping those fingers and toes crossed for us!!!