Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So much has happened to our little family in the last month, I don't even know where to start! First, I suppose I should start with my fibroid. Surgery was one week ago and things went amazingly well. The procedure was all done laparoscopically and I am well on the mend. I have three tiny incisions near my belly button and one 2 inch incision along my c-section scar.  The pain was very minimal and the only hard part of recovery is that it left me incredibly exhausted. Normally, I am an amazing napper and I can sleep just about anywhere. However, the  house next-door is (finally) being built and between the power tools, crane operations, generators, and the Mexican show tunes whistling worker, I can hardly get a wink of daytime sleep. All of this construction is happening less than 10 feet from my head. The good news is that I'm feeling fantastic!  I had originally taken two weeks off from work but will be heading back Wednesday to finish the week with the kids before winter break.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing them. :)

The "McMansion" next door

Drum-roll, please.......................We have bought ourselves a brand-new home! Yes, you heard me correctly! We had never really discussed leaving this house or this neighborhood  but basically a builder in the neighborhood gave us an offer on our house that we couldn't refuse. Daniel came home that night and talk to me about it and the next day we drove to Stapleton to check what they had available (North West Denver). Within 72 hours we had found our dream home, signed a contract for both the new house and our current house and are well on our way to a home with a lot more room, 4 bedrooms, a finished basement and a wonderful yard- we are beyond excited!

The house, was a spec house and construction on it had begun several months prior. We walked in just as the final choices for flooring were being made and have a small part in the design of the house. For several weeks the house was nothing but Clay and drywall. This weekend, Daniel and I walked in to see the progress being made and wow! We were amazed! The walls are textured and painted, baseboards are installed, cabinets and lighting fixtures are in, our bathroom is near completion, the hardwood floors are installed and it is going to be be-u-ti-fullllll!

Front porch

Front door

Living room- I'm standing in the dining room- kitchen is
directly to the right- OPEN FLOOR PLAN!!!

Dining room

Kitchen

Our bathroom

Hard wood floors

We play the game, in our new house..."we are going to have this… we won't ever have to do this again… I can't wait to have this"… several times a day! I can't wait to have enough cabinets in my kitchen to hold my wedding China. In our new house I will have a closet light and can display all of my clothes. In our new house I won't have to wear a headlamp to search for missing shoes at the bottom of my closet. In our new house, I will have enough kitchen counter tops to cook! In our new house we only have to walk five steps from the bedroom door to the laundry room. We won't ever have to entertain in our office/playroom/dog room/TV room/living room ever again! Now we can entertain and Porter can sleep quietly in his own room upstairs! I salivating, I'm so excited!

The only bummer of the whole situation is we are moving much farther from Meg and we will no longer be sharing Irma together.  Sniff sniff.  We have P starting at the Goddard School in February and Meg is currently interviewing new families to take our place.  It makes me so sad because Ashlyn and Porter are soooooo close and it will also make seeing Meg as regularly much more difficult.  If I could pick up this new house and put us 10 miles closer to her, it would in fact be the perfect house. <3 Love you Dudie.

Our attempt at a cute picture!

And finally onto Porter. Sweet Porter. He is turning into such an amazing little boy. Yes, he is definitely a typical almost two-year-old. We have started dealing with tantrums and negotiating deals with him but the little things that he does make me smile a hundred times a day.

He's obsessed with hugging. He can weasel his way out of just about every situation with a hug. I will be pushing him in the grocery store and he will want to stand up and hug me instead of ride in the cart. He will ask for just one more hug, about 10 times, before we drop him off with Irma. His favorite game on the playground is to run from one side of the bridge to hug Dada and turn around, run across the bridge and hug me. I love my little cuddle bug.

After Gymnastics Aiya hug

Hugging a snowman on a walk in the neighborhood!

Hugging Dada during swim class

Hugging his buddy "Dayden"

He is also talking up a storm. It's funny- back in September I started a blog post about all the words that he was saying.  I fell behind a few weeks and when I tried to pick the post back up, his vocabulary had grown exponentially that I couldn't even begin to list all the words he was saying. Today, his one and two words are now turning into four, five and six word sentences and we can (almost!) understand everything that he says.

Some of his favorite things are blowing out candles whenever they are lit (the menorah has been blown out more times than I can count), he loves to wash his hands and play in the water, he loves to "dump!" all boxes of toys out on the floor, he loves to paint and to play with his tools. (The kid can be more tools than I can, it's amazing!) He's incredibly gentle with the dogs, especially Ralphie, who has seemed to turn into a wonderful toddler dog. He loves to drink seltzer and eat spinach.  He must always take a "bike" of our food during meal times and loves to watch himself in the mirror. He loves to read books and we are currently working on teaching him what "just one more" means before bed.

He has named his lovies, "Wo Wo" and carries no less than
three of them around at one time!

Double ear infection- can't you tell!

I can hardly believe he is going to be TWO in 5 days...where does the time go. I love you, P.

Fibroid Update

Last week Daniel and I went to the appointment with the surgeon and not only was it very informative but also it helped us make our final decision.

To start from the start...

Dr. Schultze was given all my pictures and charts from all our previous appointments but he wanted to do a vaginal ultrasound so that he could see what he was working with with his own eyes.  Before he was able to tell us much about what he was seeing he asked me if there was any way I could be pregnant.  My period had started 6 days earlier, there was no way I was pregnant.  He pointed out an area in my uterus that was filled with fluid.  This is usually an indicator of pregnancy.  He spent a lot of time looking at it for a potential heart beat or a "yolk sack" and finally had me get off the table to take a pregnancy test right then and there.  After he ran my cup to the lab he came in and told me that it was negative but that the fluid he was seeing concerned him.

After more poking and prodding around he came to the decision that not only is anything getting up my cervix (ie sperm), but not everything is coming out with each period either.  This was concerning to him because a "foreign substance" ie fluid, would most likely cause a federalized egg to not attach to the uterus and shed at the end of the month.  Doing IUI was not something that he recommended.  This fobroid needs to come out.

We then talked about the procedure that he would need to do in order to remove it.  Ideally, the whole thing would be done laproscopically- a laparoscopic myomectomy- but because it is so far back in my uterus he's concerned about having enough room to do this and keeping away from my arteries. He plans on discussing this with his "team" and making a decision with them.  If not laparoscopic, he will have to make an incision on top of my c-section scar and take it out this way.

The laparoscopic procedure is naturally what I want.  I will have four very small scars,  recovery time will be about 2 weeks and we could start trying for a baby 3-4 months after that.  The latter would mean potentially 4 weeks of recovery time and 6+ months of waiting to get pregnant.  He is also booked out for 3-4 months.  I was so hoping to have this done ASAP and the thought of waiting 4 months until I can even have the surgery is a bit of a disappointment.  However, I cannot be too disappointed.  Everything is okay with my body.  I can still get pregnant after this- naturally.  In the grand scheme of things, 6-12 months will seem like drop in the bucket.  I can continue running races, chasing after Porter, enjoying a good glass of wine, getting tipsy at a beer festival, eat all the sushi my heart desires, and continue to drop a few lbs (I'm officially UNDER my wedding weight, thank you very much!). I can wear all the clothes in my closet, eat all the unpasturized cheese my heart desires and enjoy a few more months of non-pregnancy rules.

Thanks for all the emails, texts and calls of support over the past few weeks.  I will be sure to keep everyone posted on all things surgery.  Until then, we will have to continue to hear stories and look at pictures of the cutest toddler on the planet.

~ Mama Jess

Secondary infertility

Because I know this blog is read by only my most favorite people, I figure it's time to share with you this newest chapter of my life.

Eleven months ago Daniel and I decided to start trying for baby number two. I figured making another baby would be as easy as (Porter) pie! Wow, could this experience not be any different from how it was 2 1/2 years ago. After not getting pregnant during the fifth month I went to my primary care physician to have my fibroid checked. I  had put in an IUD and after Porter's birth in hopes of it shrinking, but that was not the case.  As it turns out, it grew 2 mm over the past 20 months. Fortunately, my OB did not think this it was playing a role in my not getting pregnant.

I have had several people talk to me about acupuncture and how they found it beneficial in their fertility process. I decided this was the next step that I would take. I scheduled an appointment and for the next two months received acupuncture and drank a lot of really nasty Chinese herbs! I was actually very hopeful that this was going to be the answer to my prayers. Two months ticked by and still nothing. Something in my gut told me to move away from Eastern medicine and began the route of a Western fertility doctor.

Fast forward to the past six weeks. Daniel and I met with a doctor from the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine. Here she drew up a timetable of the next six weeks. If I was not pregnant that month, I would begin a series of tests that would hopefully lead us to an answer.

Unfortunately, that month my period started and I was devastated. It was really the first month that I felt disappointment. I could not believe that I was actually about to begin this journey. The first test happened during the first few days of my cycle. I went in for a vaginal ultrasound. Here they were looking for blood flow, follicles in my ovaries, as well as taking my blood to test for estrogen levels, and a million other acronyms. The results from these tests came back "good ". All my levels were average and between the range the doctors like to see.

The next procedure I had happened a few days later  is called a HSC. In this procedure they inject my uterus with a dye. The die then travels through my Fallopian tubes and they capture the whole process on film. Nothing was blocked and the die flowed freely. Again, this test came back as normal.

Several tests later led me to one last 3D ultrasound. A few days after this procedure the doctor called me and asked me to come in for a "mock" procedure.  What she concluded was that in actuality my fibroid is blocking cervix- so much so, that she doesn't think any sperm are even making their way past my cervix.  The only way I could get pregnant with the fibroid still in place would be with help of a good ole turkey baster- aka IUI.  She wanted me to come in to do this mock procedure to see if she could even get a tube past the fibroid and into my cervix.

After a successful mock-IUI, she gave us two options: keep the fibroid and do an IUI or get the fibroid removed and get pregnant naturally.  The downside of IUI is it is expensive.  The downside of surgery is surgery (duh), 2 weeks recovery time and 3-4 months before we can even start trying to get pregnant.

We met with a high risk pregnancy doctor last week who assured us that carrying a baby with the fibroid would be a-ok!  There is very little chance that the fibroid would interfere with any part of pregnancy.  Next Wednesday we meet with the surgeon to discuss the pros and cons of surgery and how it relates to pregnancy.

And here we are! No baby, no decision but very very very happy in our lives.  Porter is the most amazing little boy who makes us happier than ever (and sometimes makes us want to pull our hair out!).  School is fantastic! My 24 kids are AMAZING.  They are so eager to please me and to learn.  I can't wait to have an entire year with them,  I feel so lucky after coming off a year like last.  I deserve an amazing year!

I promise to keep you posted on what happens in the next few weeks.  Love you all!

Mama Jess

P day- Me day!

Porter is officially 1 1/2 and although cliché , I'm going to say it anyway- having a toddler is SO HARD!  I literally Never. Stop. Moving.  He never stops moving- he's into this for 1.5 seconds and onto that for 1.5 seconds.  He climbs and jumps and opens and eats and runs and screams and does it all over again.  All.  Day.  Long.

Irma is working for Meg full time this summer and so I held onto her for 2 1/2 days a week during break.  It's been a perfect mix of Mommy time and Porter time.  Porter days are filled with fun fun and more non stop fun.  Each week we meet my friend Dell and her little dude Max for a music class in the Highlands.  It's run by this amazing woman who is very talented at singing and happens to know a lot about early childhood development.  She is able to incorporate the two- the kids learn and they sing- who could ask for more!?

We've also met Jules and Quinn for a few play dates- the boys are 5 months apart and play so well together.  On days when we don't meet friends, we play in the pool, go to the park, push cars around the house, look for airplanes in the sky (there are SO many!) and saw, screw and hammer with P's tool set!

Strumming on Miss Maureen's guitar

 

P loves his "toots!"

Library book hour

P and Max- already best buds!

 P and Quinn- Matching shirts and guac- doesn't get better than this!

 

This hat was Dada's when he was little. <3

Me days seem to consist of a lot of trips to the grocery store and errand running- but I have managed to carve out some time for some amazing running.  My quest for 2015 in 2015 is going great despite a few minor injuries here and there.  I've run 362.35 miles so far this year and need to hit 672 to help my team hit 2015 in 2015.  I've also met some great friends for lunch, spend whole days with each of my parents, read a few grown-up books and gotten in some TV watching that doesn't consist of Curious George or Sesame Street.

 Meg and I scheduled night out that consisted of zero talk about Irma, husbands or babies.  We drank a lot of wine, ate some delicious food and recreated this amazing photo that about sums up every single one of our college pictures!

 My dad's friend Steve owns this amazing Corvette that I got to ride it.  We hit 103 in about 1.2 seconds.  I won't lie- I totally put in my fake break and held the "oh shit handle" for the entire ride!

I officially have 14 days left of summer break.  The thought of going back to school makes me sick to my stomach.  Coming off of the year that I had last year, it's hard to be excited about another school year.  I will however, look forward to seeing my work friends and welcoming in a new group of kids that are nothing but kind and precious- according to the 4th grade teachers!  My apologies for the time between posts recently, I'm having a hard time thinking of ideas to blog - if you have anything you want me to write about, I'd welcome any suggestions!

Until then~

Mama Jess

A wish for my son

Last week I experienced a phone call from a parent that really rattled my bones.  Let me set the stage:

My fifth graders switch rooms for their math classes- I have 30 kids, some that are mine for homeroom and some that come from two other classes.  It was the end of a particularity trying lesson, the kids were rambunctious, my two tough kids were completely out of control, even my good kids were out of sorts.  Near the end of the 2 hour block with them I was WAY over fifth graders and way over teaching math. "J" who is normally sweet little boy, had received one too many warnings for the day.  He and another boy had goofed off every time I turned my back.  I had had it and gave them their first "strike." J began muttering under his breath something directed at me but clearly didn't want me to hear.

Let me insert a side note here- 5th graders in the spring are basically no fun to be around.  They are hormonal, self centered, flirting, giggling, smelly, sweaty, gossiping, loud bundles of annoying.  They would much rather be on the playground, milling around, setting their friends up to "go out" with someone than be in math class.  My team and I have started to crack the whip on disrespect.  If you are disrespectful to your teacher, you go to the office and call home, no questions asked,  99.99% of the time, this happens and the student apologizes to us.  A few weeks ago I received an amazing letter from a little girl who's mom had her write one to me, a boy in my class and the music teacher, who were all affected by her disrespect. This is not how things happened on this day...

J headed down to the office to call home.  He couldn't have been on the phone with his mom for more than a few seconds when she demanded to be connected with me.  My phone rang and if I had only known what was coming, I would have never answered the call.  She spent the next two minutes telling me that I singled out her son and how dare I call him out and humiliate him in front of the class.  Not once did she ask for my side of the story.  Not once did she allow me to talk.  And to top it off- she hung up on me before I had a moment to do either of these.

Not only did she undermine my authority, but she taught her son that he can continue to be disrespectful to teachers and not have to take responsibility for his actions.  She taught him that he can be rude to a teacher and all will be okay because his mom will "take care of it."

Porter- my wish for you...
May you always be kind to everyone: friends, parents, strangers, and most of all, your teachers.
May you hold doors open for everyone, not just women with strollers and old people.
May you say thank you and please and excuse me.
May you tell people what you feel in a way that is respectful and sincere.
May you chose your battles carefully.
May you listen when people talk to you.
May you think before you act.
May you admit your mistakes.
My you make eye contact when talking to others.

Love, Mommy

I'm glad to see you have already mastered please and thank you, sweet boy.  <3

Mama- Momma- MOMMY!

Porter is figuring out this whole speaking thing and it is just blowing my mind!  He now says "words" back to me when I ask him to say them and many of them actually-sorta-maybe sound like that word.  My favorite is "beanbag."  It comes out something like "bebe" but I know exactly what he's talking about.  I ask him to say a lot of words and he always tries to spit out something that he thinks resembles the word.  It's interesting- I have felt like he's been taking off when it comes to language over the past week and look at this!  Below is how many words kids say on average at certain months:

12 months- 3 words
15 months- 14 words
16 months- 40 words
18 months- 68 words
23 months- 200 words

Porter turned 16 months this week and it all makes perfect sense.  He's not at 40 words, but for a kid that listens to Spanish for 40 hours a week, I'd say he's off to a great start.  I keep meaning to ask Irma what words he says in Spanish.  Certainly, if he has 20 or so in English, he has to have just as many in Spanish.

New words:
Ball, duck, beanbag, banana (no longer nana) and mouth

New sounds-
Gorilla, duck, train, and car

New signs-
Please (adorable)

My newest favorite word is officially Mommy.  Daniel and I refer to each other as Mama and Dada and I'm not quite sure where he picked up Mommy and Daddy but he likes to say them often and he likes to say them loud!  He has realized that yelling them in his crib usually pull at our heart strings and can't resist but to go in to get him. He also just likes to yell them intermittently during his play- maybe he likes hearing them as much as we do, maybe he just wants to check that we're still in the room with out looking up.  Who knows, but I swear, my heart will melt forever whenever I hear his little voice say Mommy. <3

We have a walker! AND we have a runner!

It look Porter 14 1/2 months to figure it out but we officially have a toddler! It's amazing how just before my very eyes my baby transformed into not a baby anymore.  In my arms he feels like a baby but when I see pictures of him, he looks so much like a little boy-it's crazy.

Daniel and I had been waiting for Porter's first steps for several months.  We must have said, "He's so close to walking, " about 900 times.  One afternoon after school the three of us were in the back room and Porter was cruising the furniture, per usual, and just like that he let go and stood for several seconds.  I put my arms out and BOOM he walked right to me! We both squealed with delight and he let our a huge belly laugh because we were so excited for him.  The best part was he did it over and over and over again!

Walking isn't the only big change we have seen in Porter over the past few weeks.  The kid is a walking, talking, signing ball of energy.

Words he can say:

Mama/Mommy

Dada/Daddy

Irma

hi

up/down

opie (open- this is my favorite word he says, after Mama, of course)

agua (water)

appa (apple)

woof woof (for all dogs)

ni ni (night night)

bye bye

eye

doggie

Animal sounds:

woof woof

moooo

oooh ooooh (monkey)

who who (owl)

elephant sound (I have no idea how to spell this!)

sssssss (snake)

Words he can sign:

more

all finished

milk

book

help

hot

eat

Words we're working on- jump, egg, dance, music, cheese, wait, please, thank you

Body parts he knows and Spanish and English:

head

ears

mouth

tongue

teeth

belly/belly button

eyes

and my favorite, "Donde esta Porter?" (Where is Porter?)  He points to himself with a huge grin. :)

Ahhh! Reading back over this makes me so joyful.  Being with him is incredibly entertaining.  I can't believe how many times I told Newborn Porter to never grow up, and now that I have a communicating little boy, I realize how sorta boring a tiny baby is. (Did I just admit that out loud??) I mean seriously- look at how stinking cute he is!

Putting on our shoes- his newest obsession

In other news- my new year resolution this year was to participate in a little competition called 2015 in 2015.  Running 2015 miles in the year 2015.  My two amazing running buddies (that I trained with for the October Rock and Roll 1/2) and I joined as a team and pledged to run 56 miles each, per month.  What an amazing motivating pledge it has been.  Not only do I run when I really don't want to- but I FINALLY inspired Daniel to start running.  (I say finally, because when I started training in July, he said that he would like to run with me.)  This took 7 months but he did finally buy a new pair of shoes and we run together (with P and Eazy) a few times a week.  

2015 is a group of 17,000 people around the world, that are all competing in various groups to conquer this challenge.  Some people are running solo (running 6 miles a day), some are in groups, some are walking, many are recovering from having surgeries, others are starting over after having a baby.  Some people only count runs (that's me), others are counting all their walking during the day plus any running they do for exercise, and everyone is totally excited about participating.  There is a FB group that we all belong and the amount of love and support for running and for each other is amazing.  

I meet my girls every Saturday morning at 7:30 and we usually run anywhere from 6-8 miles together and ALWAYS take a picture. :)  We talk kids, life, jobs, houses, husbands, food, and about our week. We ran into two women the other week on the Highline Canal who told us that they have run together every Saturday morning for the past 6 years.  Running away, we decided that that wanted to be us!  I LOVE love love the anticipation of Saturday mornings and meeting up with my running mamas.  157  miles down, 515 to go!   

Another 1/2 under my belt! Conquer the Damn 13.1