Leaving Las Vegas

Well, Yardley anyway! Chris and I are going to Florida tomorrow for an entire week's vacation! Thanks to my in-laws for the great place to stay AND for watching Joey for the week! I just finished typing out all the notes on Joey's every move during the day! I do this every time they watch him. I don't know why! They are MORE than capable of taking care of him, and they have watched him numerous times - but there's something about me that always worries that he won't be able to tell them what he needs, or that they'll put him to bed differently then me and then he'll be confused! As much as I love and NEED the break - at the last minute I always freak out and don't want to leave him. I worry about him the whole time I'm gone. Each time I go somewhere without him a think "Next time we go I won't worry as much because he'll be older." But it never happens. It's got me wondering - when he's all grown up and has his own family -will I STILL think about him every second and hope he's okay?

Here's the notes, just so I can look back and remember what a nut I am!

Little Joe Boo

Daily Schedule:
• 7-8 am: Wakes Up
• Breakfast
• 12:30 – Lunch
• 1:00 – Nap (Sleeps between 2 and 3 hours)
• Upon Wake Up – Snack while watching High Five
• 5:30 – Dinner
• 7:30 – Bed

Meals:
• Breakfast – Cheerios and fruit, Waffle and fruit, or Pancakes and fruit; milk
• Lunch – good luck; this is his worst meal of the day – yogurt and fruit, mac n’ cheese and fruit, cheese with crackers and fruit, anything you think he might eat is fine.
• Afternoon Snack – depending on how much/what he ate for lunch I usually give him fruit, cheese, and crackers or some type of combination of this. If he ate almost no lunch then I give him a bigger snack and sometimes will give him a yogurt too.
• Dinner – I try to do a meat, grain, and fruit/vegetable. He really doesn’t eat any veggies though. Ideas of things he likes are: scrambled eggs with cheese, pasta with sauce, meatballs, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza (with a pile of parmesan cheese to dip it in), meatloaf, fish mixed with rice. Grains he likes are tough because there are not many, but he loves rice pilaf. I also will give him a slice of bread, mashed potatoes, whole wheat crackers – whatever you think!

Other Food things:
• Joey loves cereal bars. I try to limit him to one per day. He can either have it as a morning snack or any other snack or sometimes I give it to him with his lunch.
• He also loves the Gerber fruit twists and fruit sticks. They have almost no calories, so I give him these when he is asking for a snack but it’s really close to a meal. Orange slices are another good snack when it’s close to a meal because he really just sucks the juice out of them.
• Cookies – if he eats a decent dinner I give him a couple of cookies for dessert.
• Fruit – Joey is a fruit nut! He loves it all. He eats grapes (cut in half), blueberries, strawberries (cut in at least quarters), watermelon, apple slices (no skin and sliced very thin), orange slices (you can either cut it like a lemon or in thin slices and then in half), applesauce, and those little fruit cups.
• Hot dogs – MUST be cut in quarters. Hot dogs are a huge chocking hazard and they make me nervous! ☺ (Same with grapes but he can do those in halves just fine)
• Drinks: He always has milk for breakfast and then he finishes the milk throughout the morning. After that I give him either water or water mixed with a little bit of orange juice or lemonade. Sometimes, if he has not eaten well that day I give him milk with dinner too.
• Cracker snacks – he likes all types of goldfish, cheese its, pretzels, plain crackers, animal cookies, really almost anything!

Bedtime and Nap Routine:
• I brush Joey’s teeth when I put on his PJ’s at night. I actually brush them and then let him have a turn. He doesn’t like me to brush them so I do a once over really fast, but I try to at least get in there for a few seconds. He’ll ask you to put toothpaste on his brush 800 times. I usually let him re-toothpaste twice and then tell him he’s all done with the toothpaste. When he finishes “brushing,” I hold him up at the sink and let him rinse his toothbrush and put it back in his mouth. This is his favorite part. He’ll do it as many times as you let him! His toothbrush and toothpaste is in the second drawer down in our bathroom.
• After I change his diaper we read one or a lot of stories (whatever you feel like). I always ask for a kiss right before I put him in the crib. He sleeps with his 3 binkies, a bunch of blankets, Doggy, and Blanket Bear (that blue blanket attached to a bear rattle). Lately he has wanted to bring other toys in his crib – if he asks it’s okay. I do not put a drink in his crib.
• At night, after we read stories we also say his prayers. Sometimes he pays attention and does the motions with me, sometimes not, but I always say them for him. He imitates the sign of the cross and sometimes keeps his hands folded while I say the prayers. You can say any prayers you like or here is the prayer we say each night:
o Sign of the Cross, then: “Now I lay me, Down to Sleep, I pray the Lord, My soul to keep. God bless Mommy, Daddy, and my Baby Sister. Noni and Popi. Gramma and Papa. Aunt Coleen, Uncle Phil, Aunt Beth, Uncle John, and Uncle Billy. My cousins Frank, Julia, John, and Andrew. My dog Charlie, my cat Bill, and all my friends. Thank you for today and I love you.” Sign of the Cross, then: “Night night, sleep tight, I love you, see you in the morning, bye bye”
• Before we go to bed at night, Chris or I sneak in and put toys at the end of his crib for the morning. Sometimes he has been waking up but if you just tell him to lie down he does and goes right back to sleep. I also usually pull his blanket back over him.

Baths/Showers:
• Joey’s skin has been getting really dry, so I am trying to give him showers instead of baths. If he has a shower he will take it with either Chris or I. I turn the jets on in our shower (low) and he plays in the jet water while I shower and then I clean him. You can do however you want or rotate between a bath and a shower.
• After his bath or shower he gets fully lotioned with the Aveeno lotion in his diaper drawer.
• Also, on the back of his right leg by his diaper are a few spots with a red eczema rash. I put cortisone on these spots at least once a day – twice if I remember. The cortisone is with the lotion.

Binkies:
• Joey is only allowed to have his binky upstairs and in the car now. He really does not ask for it other times anymore.
• Before you come downstairs, he puts the binkies up on his dresser. Sometimes he will tell me no and I have to take them, but usually he does it willingly.
• In the car there is a binky attached to his car seat.

Activities:
• Monday: Tumbles Class from 9:15-10:00. They know you will be bringing him. His teacher is Miss Maryanne and the assistant is Miss Tracy. He doesn’t like Miss Tracy – he always cries when she tries to play with him!
• Tuesday: Story time at the Library from 11:30-12. If you decide to go then I let him bring a snack of goldfish or something and a drink because all the other kids will have one too. He does not sit great for this but it is okay if he wanders around. Only go if you feel like getting out!
• Wednesday: Open Gym at Tumbles from 3:00 – 4:00. This is not class so he does not have to go. You can just go and play for the hour. If he gets up from his nap in time then we usually go, but again it’s optional.
• If you are looking for other things to do with him, he also like going to Target and the Grocery Store when I need things, and he likes to go to Barnes and Noble and play in the back with the kids books.
• House things that he likes to do besides his regular toys are play-doh at the counter, pushing his red car outside (if it is warm enough – it’s in the shed – he asks for it every time we walk out the door!), stickers (these are in the closet in the baby’s room in a drawer labeled stickers)…..

High Five:
• He ALWAYS watches this while eating his snack after his nap. He’ll ask for it usually in the morning too, or sometimes at night. I try to only let him watch it twice a day.
• It comes on channel 130 at 9:37 every morning if you want to watch it while it’s actually on, otherwise there are several episodes DVR’ed.
• To watch it on DVR, once the TV is on:
o Hit “menu”
o Select “DVR”
o Select “My Recordings”
o Select “High 5”
o Then scroll through and choose an episode.
o When it comes on you have to fast forward it to 7 minutes.
o Make sure when it’s over that you choose “don’t delete”