Hair and Makeup ~ Trying Pravana

So I decided to try a new dye. A friend of mine uses it and her hair always turns out so nice! Mine does too but I have perfected the art of hair dying. If I were to go by the instructions on the jar my hair colour would only last a few washes where as when I do it my way I'm still getting compliments even when I've got two inches of new growth (I've actually been rocking the fro for a while now, too hot to flat iron so the poof covers the roots). If I assume my friend is going by the box with her dye, maybe with my method and her dye.... MY HAIR COULD RULE THE PLANET!!! That's what I thought at least. So I had to give it a try. The dye? Pravana Chromasilk VIVIDS. I just wanted to keep it my blue and pink. I mean I had a 212121 decal made for my car in my hair colour! I can't change it now! We match! So I got 2 tubes of blue and a tube of magenta! I have a confession to make... I've been getting lazy lately. I used to use the packets of Quick Blue as I recommended in my how to dye post a while ago but man... I don't wanna! I've been using... A BOX! Gasp! I've been using Clairol's Nice & Easy Born Blonde in Maxi. It doesn't work quite as well but it sure is easier on my hair and it gets it light enough for the colours I've been using.

So Darling Husband bleached my roots and I was ready to dye! This dye comes in a tube instead of a jar so I have to squeeze it out into a colour bowl and apply with a brush.

   

 It smells like a man. Like a hot sexy man. I miss the grape smell of my Punky dye. It is a lot thinner too. Like a light conditioner as opposed to the thick hair mask consistency of my Punky.

 I got it on, put a bag on my head and sat down with my Kindle in one hand and the hair dryer in the other and read and heat processed my bag head. Then I went to bed. Baby Hulk does not like bag head Momma. He kept giving me the bottom lip and looking at me like he was unsure of whether or not I could be trusted. So he was quite happy to see me the next morning after I rinsed it out. It took forever to rinse and I don't like to shampoo the first time after dying. It never runs clear with Punky either but I ended up doing a co-wash to try to get more out. Then I did my vinegar rinse to seal it and finished with the wonderful tube of conditioner that came with the bleach (why don't they sell that conditioner for real!? I love box dye conditioners!). The water that wouldn't run clear caused some run off dying of the blue in the pink so my magenta is a little ombre. So the roots are the proper magenta but the ends are purply.

I don't think I mind. I have a feeling it will look exciting if and when I finally brave the heat with my flat iron. Of course as I do with every new dye job I put on some extra fun makeup because without it I tend to freak out and think I have just made the most horrible mistake in the world.

  I went a little matchy matchy with the fuchsia colour the blue turned most of my magenta and that was when I decided it was truly and okay thing. Yep! I like it. I hope it fades as nicely as Punky does.

 I will do an update after a few washes to let you know how it holds up but right
 now it looks quite nice and Baby Hulk loves me again.


**Update**
I really hate the magenta. It faded sooo fast. I love the blue though. It has lasted well and is really pretty. I still see lots of blue run off when I wet my hair, and the pink is kind of a purply mauve because of it. My hair has a lot more shine to it, even in the faded magenta so I think it was good to my hair even though it faded. All in all I think it is great for your hair, but maybe not for more than one colour at a time, and pinks will need more frequent touch ups. Feel free to share your experiences with other colours in the comments since they seem to vary.

Baby Hulk ~ One Truth, One Tip, One Pic

 I've never done a blog hop before. I don't really understand them. Luckily I have my beloved Buttons! She walked me through what to do even though it was pretty well explained. I needed her assurance and I really wanted to do this one I found on another Down syndrome blog I follow, With A Little Moxie. It looked fun so I decided to make it happen.

One Truth: It's Just Parenting

     When Mr. Grey was born we had to stay in the hospital 3 days because I tested positive for Group B Strep. The morning after we were discharged they called us to tell us to bring him back in, his liver wasn't functioning properly yet.  Jaundice. We stayed in the hospital 3 more days until his biliruben levels were normal.
     When Lumpy was about a month old I noticed a bulge near his groin, it made weird squishy noises if I poked it. He had a weakness in his lower abdominal muscles and his intestines had slipped through. At 2 months old he had a surgery to repair his inguinal hernia.
     Then came Baby Hulk with his extra chromosome! I had really rough starts with ALL of my babies! After you get done being terrified for your baby it's just parenting. You trust your instincts and pick up on cues from your child. Whether they have 2 copies or 3 of the 21st chromosome. Making the best choices you can for them. I made the choice to send Mr Grey to preschool when he was four because he had serious personal space issues. I didn't do it so he could learn his letters and numbers. I did it so he could learn to interact with other kids. I sent 3 year old Lumpy to preschool because he still couldn't count past three! These are decisions I made for my children as a parent based on what I saw from them. I will send Baby Hulk to preschool too. When depends on what I see in him, same as his big brothers.

One Tip: Live in the Present

That was my biggest mistake in the beginning. I was so worried about what could be wrong or what could go wrong. I had a serious case of the "what if's". Right now is where we are and right now is what matters. It is 2013! Science is an amazing thing! Leukemia can be cured! By the time Baby Hulk is an age where we have to worry about Alzheimer there could very well be a cure for that! So let's not worry about it now!

One Picture:

I did it! What fun!

Baby Hulk ~ Service Baby

     Since school let out I have become quite familiar with anxiety attacks. It's pretty bad... like if I were a sane person I would be seeing a therapist and probably be medicated. There is a giant invisible gorilla with his big hands around my neck!!! But I have my own stress reliever. Baby Hulk. He's like a service animal. I should get him a special vest so I can take him into restaurants with me and... oh wait... he is a human baby... he can come into restaurants with me... Well... he needs a vest anyways.
     So when I get out of the shower to discover the other bathroom's floor has been flooded and Lumpy and Mr Grey are using soaked stuffed animals like water balloons, or when Mr Grey and Lumpy climb onto the super high exam table  and then Mr Grey sends Lumpy plummeting to the ground while Baby Hulk's pediatrician watches, in horror. Or the spitting, or the biting. Lumpy opening the door with the red warning on the handle that tells you it is for emergency use only and an alarm will sound! Refusing to stay in their room and running through the house screaming hours after bedtime... When I am to the point where the invisible gorilla is strangling me, I pick up my sweet, good, Baby Hulk, hug him tightly and breathe in deeply, his sweet barfy baby scent. It took me a while to figure out why my baby didn't have that baby smell. Then around four months he started spitting up and suddenly he smelled like a baby! I pick up my sweet baby and a sense of calm washes over me. The gorilla doesn't entirely let go, once it starts he pretty much hangs on until an hour or so after the kids are asleep. But suddenly I don't want to beat them as much. I can think clearly enough to send them to the playroom (I know I never gave you the tour of my new house but it has a playroom... with a door... that I can close).

     On July 3rd Darling Husband took off from work early and we loaded everyone into the car and drove to Bellevue for an ophthalmology appointment for Baby Hulk, all my baby sitter options were unavailable with Buttons out traveling and my poor Momma Pru managed to get pneumonia! Since the monsters were coming I needed wrangling help after that embarrassing ordeal with the pediatrician I was not going at this one alone! So it became a family outing!
     The doctor noticed something Baby Hulk's physical therapist had just been calling torticollis, a slight head tilt, only she had speculations that it might not really be torticollis. She thought it might actually be a misalignment of his eyes!   Baby Hulk really hated the doctor, she kept trying to straighten his head so she could get a look at his eyes and he fought her the whole time and every time she turned her back on him he had quite a lot of horribly rude things to say (I am certain if The Doctor had been there to translate, since he speaks baby, there would have been a lot of bleeping). By the end of the appointment he was extremely cross with her and she had no answers. She wants us to set up another appointment with her in 3 months... le sigh...
     Oh! And do you know how they fix a misalignment? SURGERY!!!! I hope his physical therapist is right. She doesn't think his eyes are the problem. She knows she isn't an eye doctor, but she has worked with a baby who had an eye misalignment before and she says it was completely different. I was already a bit in denial that anything was really wrong with his eyes, but having her say that may have made it worse. I had pretty much given up on the doom. There will be no doom! My baby is healthy as an ox!

     Playing defense for his brothers is serious business so Baby Hulk has had to do some serious working out so he can take on the evil Mommy. He has been working on bulking up and as of 7 months this kid now weight 13lbs 6oz! ...Yeah... that's still tiny huh? And he is a little over 24" long!!!!! Yeah... that's still tiny too... But if you enter in all his stats into the Down syndrome growth chart... well it's still tiny... He is in the 16th percentile for height, and 22nd for weight, BUT he is in the 56th percentile for head circumference! That's just on his own special growth chart. Plug those measurements into the regular growth chart and it comes up "less than 3rd percentile" for both weight and height and 6th percentile for head circumference. Tiny!!!! My 7 month old has hand me downs from a 2 month old! He is between 0-3mo and 3-6mo clothing depending on the brand.
     It's kind of weird, but because of his size it doesn't at all feel like there is anything different about my baby. He looks like he should be doing what he is doing developmentally. He looks like a little baby who should just be learning how to sit unsupported, and chewing his toes. When I look at my other friends' babies I can't imagine him doing the things they are doing at 7 months. Pulling up and cruising and such. He is too tiny! He is just a baby!
      Just when I started to think the amazing and obvious changes and strides he was making in his physical therapy were slowing down, last week happens! He still is only prop sitting, but has gotten so good with it now that he can shift his weight around from one hand to the other so he can play with his toys with the free hand. He rolls to his tummy like it's nothing now, which actually has been causing me quite a bit of grief. The boy now wants to sleep on his tummy... "Back to sleep" has been drilled into my head so thoroughly that I just can't let him sleep on his own now! I end up holding him in bed with me to keep him in the proper position all night. I think I would be okay with his tummy sleeping if he hadn't oh so conveniently forgotten how to roll back onto his back from his tummy! When he started rolling onto his stomach his physical therapist told me she believed he would be rolling around the room in no time.... and then he stopped rolling both ways!
     I was not at all expecting him to be any kind of mobile but then this week he started turning, his belly is his axis as he spins to reach the toys he wants, and then Friday night (7/12) he starts bringing his knees up under him and trying to kick himself forward, and by Saturday he is doing kind of an inchworm move, only somehow it ends up propelling him backwards... but holy cow I wasn't expecting this at all!!!! I'm really proud of my little boy. I think he is proud of himself too.

     And now to catch you up through super cute pictures!

  

7 months old, lounging by the kiddie pool

 First Independence day, kisses from Lumpy, and watching fireworks on the dock at Grandma's house with Stitches and her offspring

Momma lovings

Hanging with the boys

  

Trying to be grown, and give me a heart attack

 

 

 

      I thoroughly intend to keep up my postings this summer although as you already know, I am not good with doing what I say I'm going to do.  I hope you will stick around for my random and occasional posts and maybe I'll even try to take over a little for Buttons and Stitches on Hot Toddies events. There need to be some of those. I miss them!!!! I think a Lady Porn marathon is very much needed in the near future. Remember back in the days before the drum broke when we played Rock Band all the time? Yeah.... I'm thinking maybe we should use the money from our He Had A Plan sales (I still can't believe we wrote a book!) to get some new drums...