Snot Fest: Day 4

I did at least get out to get Ben to school this morning.

It was against his wishes (he has a cough, but is feeling fine and has no fever anymore, he just didn't feel like leaving the house), but we made it. When I arrived to pick him up, he was running all over the playground, so I think he had a good day in spite of himself. He's taking it easy watching the Backyardigans now and I'm trying to decide how to entertain him for the rest of the day that will obviously, once again, be spent in. our. house.

Simon, on the other hand, is clingier than Saran Wrap. He was up every hour last night. No fever anymore, but other than that he is just miserable. He won't eat anything but his bottles, and not even much of those. His nose just keeps running, the poo just keeps coming, he has the worst diaper rash I have ever seen on either of my children and there is no schedule to speak of because he does not want to be put down anywhere. Sometimes, I get lucky and he falls asleep on me and I can get away with putting him in the crib.

(sigh) I'm pretty good with my kids when they are sick, I think... I get to do lots of the nurture, coddle thing that is my absolute favorite part of mommyhood. However, I am SO drained right now, I could just cry. I feel bad for Ben because I keep having to just up and leave him alone so I can rock Simon... I feel sorry for Simon because I can't just spend all day on the sofa holding him and neglect Ben. It's not fun. These are the weeks I think two children are more than enough for me to handle. :(

Another Ben funny though: I was snuggling with him last night before bed and prepping for for having to go to school today. He informed me that he does like school... but asked, "Why do we have to do all the sitting still, learning stuff?"
Poor little G-family short-attention-span-gened child. He's sure in for a rude awakening when he gets out of preschool and into REAL school where the sitting still learning stuff to running around and playing ratio is much higher. ;)

Quarantine: Day 3

Eh. Not that we could leave the house today anyway... it's bitterly cold and windy. I'd hate to take Simon out in this even if he were 100% if I don't have to -- and he's not 100% and I didn't have to, so I didn't. Man, I am getting tired of my house though. You best not come near here or I will grab you by the arm and pull you in just so I have someone to talk to and to tell me about the goings on in the big, wide, exciting outside world... or at least to tell me what's new in the Dollar Spot at Target.

Simon has added liqui-poo to his list of maladies. I suspect it's more a side effect of the extra snot and drool than anything else, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, he's still pretty miserable. He has blessed me with an afternoon nap though and my right shoulder is enjoying the brief respite from his 22 pounds of baby self.

Anyway, enough of the sicky talk. I have a Ben funny I want to document. Yesterday, he was just doing a string of ornery things... mostly involving dropping or throwing hard toys onto the wood floor (big fat no no in our house now and he's having trouble adjusting to the new rule). He kept saying these things were accidents when they clearly were QUITE intentional. I finally stopped him after about the 10th declaration of "But it was an accident!" and said, "Ben... WHAT does "accident" mean?"

I should have seen the following coming from a mile away...

"Accident means it's something you don't get upset about."

First Tooth!

During all the fussing today, I was able to catch a glimpse of a telltale white sliver! The first tooth (bottom right side) has finally popped through! It's nowhere near out far enough for me to get a picture, but it's there! :) Looks like #2 is just a few days behind, too!

Cry Whine Cry Cry....

I can't put Simon down. All he does is moan and cry... even when I hold him... but even more when I try to put him down even for a second. I realize he feels awful, and I'm obliging his needing to be held constantly for the most part, but this has been ALL DAY and I am seriously going to lose it. I have been letting him to 15-minute stints in the crib (during which he sometimes actually falls asleep) just so I can eat, pee, take care of Ben... etc.

I've got Ben watching movies (I swear, he has watched tv for three days straight at this point)... but at least we've moved on to Indiana Jones (Temple of Doom, for those interested) from Star Wars. He thinks Indiana is Han Solo and keeps asking what planet he's on and where Luke, C-3PO and R2-D2 are. It's actually rather amusing.

I hope Simon is on the upswing tomorrow... :(

ETA: Oh yeah. Forgot how umm... scary T.O.D. is... we turned it off around the point where the guy tears the still-beating heart from the prisoner. Ack. Toy Story, anyone?

Hello from the Infirmary...

Ben is still coughing like he has the plague and also has a slight fever. This bug is pretty tenacious, huh? Of course, he didn't want to go to school today. (I was pushing it before I took his temp) So home again, we are. Just sitting around staring at each other and watching tv.

Simon had 102.8 temp at 2a.m. but nothing now that the Motrin is circulating again. He also has the cough and runny nose.

Send prayers for my sanity... and my immune system. I CAN'T be out of commission for the four days or so it seems to take this bug to ease up.

On a lighter note, I was toting Simon around in the hip carrier this morning while I cleaned up the kitchen... I was wiping down the waffle iron, which was still warm and he reached out to touch it. I said, "No no... that's HOT." He looked at me, looked back at the waffle iron, and said "Hhhhahhhh". I dunno... I'm so skeptical with babies and words... we swore Ben said "Taylor" (his uncle) at 11 months...and then held our breath waiting for more words... turned out to be almost a year before he actually spoke anything else intelligible.... so yeah, I'm a doubter. I'd maybe buy that he's just starting to imitate sounds he hears more (now that he CAN hear), which is still pretty cool. :)

Sick Bay...

So both of my wee ones are sick, though I'm beginning to think they are suffering from two different things. Ben now just has what seems to be a bad cold and still has about a 100 fever and a cough. He slept until 10 this morning and is still in bed (watching tv)... and that is extraordinarily unlike him, so he must still feel awful. i'm wondering if he'll even be up for going to school tomorrow. :(

Simon, on the other hand, has a horrendous cough and a slight fever... though I've been keeping Motrin in him, so I don't know how high the fever would LIKE to be. But I've also noticed a bit of a red dotted rash on his face and I'm now thinking it's roseola. He didn't eat well most of the time we were on vacation and then of course, there was the horrible sleeping... the only thing is that there has been no crazy-high fever like when Ben had it as a baby. That's usually the biggest symptom, other than the rash that shows itself when the fever goes down. So, I'm not sure... maybe he just has a milder version of what Ben has. He's mostly happy, just wanting to nap more frequently...

Nevermind. He has what Ben has... his face is just red from the fever, which is now 103 (the old-fashioned way), and from laying in his crib. These poor kids...

Knock on wood, Tom and I are still fine. I at least don't want to get sick with it until they are both better...

Preschool Snack... Upping the Ante. ;)

This is for Krystyna, who is living vicariously through my having to bring snack to Ben's school.

We have snack tomorrow and I decided to trying something a little fancy... so I'm baking these Angel Food cupcakes from the Jessica Seinfeld Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Will the kids realize they have yellow squash in them? Hrm... we'll see.

There is an icing flavored with orange juice that goes along with them... but given the nature of preschoolers, I might just sprinkle them with powdered sugar and call it good. (though I may make the icing for the leftovers that Tom and I get to eat) ;)

One word: Ew.

Another word: SO-not-passable-as-a-cupcake.

Trip Wrap-Up and Some More Pics to Share...

Our trip was wonderful, albeit, quite a bit of work with the two kids. Tom and I didn't even get to talk much to each other because we were always dividing and conquering with one of us each taking a child. I usually took Simon, but a few times I got to spend some nice alone-time with Ben, which is hard to come by these days.

The weather was nice, almost always warm enough to swim and some days downright hot and tropical. It rained at least once almost every day, but always gave way to bright Florida sunshine. Gotta love Florida.

The brothers (the big ones) behaved themselves for the most part and there were no physical confrontations, which, in my book, makes for a successful vacation. I know there were moments where the grated on each other's nerves, but it's family... it happens.

The trip home was grueling... with a 2-hour drive from Vero to Orlando, followed by the haul through the airport, the 2-1/2-hour flight, the haul through our airport and home. We are still tired!

I finished unpacking yesterday and the final tally for things lost/left behind is 3. One bottle, Simon's Loyola College hat, and one blue Mickey sock. Not too bad for all the stuff we carted down there with us. I'm sad about the hat though because it was Ben's too when he was a baby and it was special. :(

The babies did remarkably well for being completely thrown off their respective schedules. Simon's sleep never really did improve, but we figured out he just needed to be walked around somewhere quiet (outside usually) so get to sleep. Tom took a lot of midnight walks. When we got home, he went immediately back to unassisted sleeping, thank goodness... and has napped normally and slept through the night (except for eating last night) since we have been home.

Here are some more of my favorite pics from our trip. :)


My pretty little niece who I actually got to spend a good deal of quality time with during the trip:



Climey Simey


The outside of our beach cottage


Hidden Mickey in an orange tree in the lobby of the Inn


Cool pic of shells on the beach that I am now using as my wallpaper


Ben on the beach with his name in the sand


Benjamin at MGM Hollywood Studios


Ben standing just like his daddy


Anastasia digging in the sand


Cousins in matching shirts


Ben and his Mickey meal


Simon discovers cornbread


All of us


THE END. :)

Saturday Night Fever...

When Ben woke up Friday morning in Vero, he was very whiny, coughing and felt warm... I chalked most of it up to him just being tired and ready to come home, his allergies and the fleece pj's he went to bed in. He was fine on the drive to the airport and the flight home... but later that evening, I took his temp and it was 102. We gave him Motrin and put him to bed and he woke up Saturday morning ready to play, though still warm.

Sometime yesterday afternoon, I took his temp again when he asked to lie down and the temporal artery thermometer registered 104.3!! A call to the doctor told me I was doing everything right... lukewarm bath, Motrin, Tylenol, cool drinks, light clothing... we thought it was coming down when I took it 30 minutes later and it was 104 even.

About 30 minutes after THAT, he got REALLY whiny and his eyes were half closed... I swiped his head again and it was 106.1. I thought it HAD to be a bad reading because I really thought he'd be completely delirious with a fever that high... it read 105.7, then 105.9. We packed him up and headed to the ER, since I called the pediatric places at both hospitals and one was PACKED and the other didn't have any appointments until 9p.m.

He chatted all the way to the hospital while eating a popsicle. When we got there, they took his underarm temp in triage and only got 97.9. ?? They took us back to a room quickly and the doctor checked him from head to toe and said he was fine, just had a virus and to keep doing what we'd been doing. By this point, he was giggling and taking pictures of the room with Tom's cell phone.

I asked about the insanely high reading on the T.A. thermometer and she said that they are usually VERY accurate, so I wasn't completely insane and that she didn't blame us at all for rushing him in. She humored me and took his underarm temp again and got 97.9. Sheesh.

When we got home, I took the T.A. temp again and it was 100.7. So I decided that it must run a bit high. I did the math (okay yeah, so Tom helped me) and we figured out that he probably did have about a 103-104 temp when the T.A. thermometer said 106, so it was still a pretty darn high temp, just not the boiling one we thought.

I did some research on the internet last night after I got up with Ben at midnight to give him more medicine and water... stumbled across a nurses' message board where the general consensus what was I had discovered... the T.A. thermometer can run as much as 3 degrees higher than mouth, underarm or rectal because it measures core body temp, which is naturally higher. One nurse posted that she got a 107 reading with a patient... turned out he was 104 by mouth.

I know there is at least one nurse who reads my blog (Hi Becky!) and I'm wondering what the thoughts on the T.A. thermometer are around town? Now that I know how to much to adjust the reading, I feel pretty confident with it, but WOW that was scary to see 106 on that thing.

Simon woke up around 2a.m. coughing and with a 100 temp... so it looks like he hasn't been spared yet another bug.... and I know his cousin is also fevery, so they all must have picked it up in our travels. (sigh) Poor kiddos. :( So far, all the mommies and daddies are well though...

More About Our Trip Later, but First...

Look what happened while we were gone!


Yay yay yay!! Of course, now we need to go find rugs... but at least the floors are finally down! :) I Loooooooooooooooooooooooove them!!

Some Pictures from Yesterday...

I took the boys to the beach with me while Tom was taking a nap... :) They had a great time... Ben dug around and a man who was looking for shells gave him a shark tooth! Simon just tried to eat sand and seemed to enjoy watching the waves...






On our way back, we kept encountering THESE things, which my sister-in-law told me later were Portuguese Man of Wars... Ew. They were EVERYWHERE!!!

Quick Update...

Ben: His dislike of short sleeves has escalated to a crisis point. I only brought one long-sleeve shirt for him and we just keep washing it. (sigh) His sweatshirt won't do... tantrum in progress.

Simon: Seems to be giving up his bottle in favor of the sippy cup... we have wasted SO much formula it makes me sick. He also seems to be giving up baby food. This morning, he ate almost an entire Eggo waffle and some fresh mango.

Erin: Tired, but enjoying the vacation and the weather very much.

Tom: Ditto.

More later... must tend to the tantrum.

Simon's First Swim and Ben's First Big Slide....

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the pool today... Simon LOVED the water and Ben tried the slide, though didn't so much enjoy doing it by himself. ;) He did enjoy swimming for several hours though and is now taking a NAP! Woohoo!




Coming down the slide with daddy... the second time, he went alone and THAT was not a good time. ;)

An Update and Some Pictures...

The weather is very nice... especially if you take into consideration that I've heard it's 18 degrees at home. Yesterday, Ben had the BEST time... he got to play on the playground, miniature golf, collect shells on the beach, go on a treasure hunt, go swimming, try out a hottub, go to a bonfire and have his first smore. HIs only complaint is that he has to wear short sleeves... he has major issues with that. He's weird. ;)

Simon is sleeping quite poorly and Tom has been having to talk him for walks just to get him to GO to sleep. After that, he never stays down for very long. (sigh) But other than that, I can't complain.

Today there is a scavenger hunt for the kids that I want to take Ben on. And tomorrow, there is an "Unbirthday Party" for kids that I think he'll like.

That's pretty much it. We're just playing and relaxing and enjoying the warmth, as it will be all too soon before we head home to the freezing cold. (shiver!)

Here are a few pics from the last four days... I am still on dialup, so I had to shrink them... hope they turn out okay!

Ben on the Grand Prix Raceway at the Magic Kingdom


All of us with Figment at Epcot


Simon with Mickey at the character breakfast... he didn't even KNOW Mickey was behind him.


Mickey and Ben


Simon and Anastasia talking to each other


Ben on the beach yesterday


Pretty beach


Ben taking a break from mini golf


Roasting marshmallows


Ben and I at the campfire with his first smore

Alive and Well in Florida -- a Series of Misadventures...

We have been to Disneyworld, and are now in Vero Beach. Vero Beach is lovely, but here's the thing? The high-speed internet? Only in the lobby. The lobby? Not so much near our beach cottage. I've managed to scrounge my old AOL dialup connection which really shouldn't even exist, but apparently still does.

It's actually probably a good thing the internet is not all that accessible. I've gone cold turkey for three days at this point until just now... yeah, I think I needed a little internet detox, frankly. ;)

Here are some highlights of the trip thus far:

*Simon's first flight was great. He fell asleep on takeoff and slept until 30 minutes before landing. He's a little trooper this one. Well, except for adjusting to nighttime sleeping away from home... man are we tired. The past two nights have been decent, but the first night... wow. I am still recovering.

*The cheerleaders on the flight: I honestly wasn't complaining about them... I just thought that the Southwest flight crew might have some fun with them and have them dance during the flight or something... but no dice.

*The cheerleaders on the flight: turned out to actually be the PSU dance team. The TSU dance team (my alma mater) was also on the flight.... I should have taken closer note of this because...

*... as it turned out, we happened to be in DW on the day of National Collegiate Dance Competition... ohmyholyheck it was crowded. The parks? Crazy like I have only ever seen when I came once in June. Lines? Everywhere. We waited 45 minutes for pizza at Pizza Planet in MGM Hollywood Studios. There were lines for rides there are NEVER lines for.... to say it was annoying would be an understatement.

* But Ben had a blast, we rode everything he wanted to ride and nothing he didn't. He also found all the clocks in the Magic Kingdom, MGMHollywood Studios, and Epcot and got a drink at dinner that had flashing ice cube.

* After dinner, we got caught in the scariest thunder storm I have ever been witness to and we were OUTSIDE. We had to walk in it from the park all the way to our car. Every time the thunder crashed, everyone in the park screamed. Really, quite scary.

* We went to a Character breakfast at O'Hana's and Ben took a liking to Stitch. It was very cute, yet odd, considering we have never seen Lilo and Stitch. I think it's because Stitch gave him a thumbs up in the MGMHollywood Studios parade on Saturday. ;)

* I washed my cell phone. No, it doesn't work anymore. Thankfully, after my last Disney adventure with my cell phone where it was stolen and ultimately thrown out, I bought the insurance policy. Nevertheless, there will no more moblogging on this trip. :(

There are lots of pictures and some video of our adventures thusfar, but it's going to be a challenge to upload them unless I can spend a big chunk of time sans children in the hotel lobby. (sigh) So we'll see...

I checked out the events list for our resort and there is campfire/smores thing going on tonight that we want to take Ben too... as well as an "Unbirthday party" tomorrow and a treasure hunt for 3-5-year-olds!! How fun does that sound? :)

If I can update later, I will... if I don't, it's because I can't. I know, it's very strange for my blog to be so quiet... I find it a little unsettling. But I'll deal... and if I don't get any pictures up while we're here, I can promise you there will be at least a hundred when we get home. :)

Bye for now!

We are on a flight w the entire psu cheerleading squad...could be interesting...they keep breaking into dances. Heh.

On Our Way!

Gah. I knew I'd be up too early. Anyway, off to have some coffee and get this show on the road. See you later! :)

Interesting to note: This trip, we have one extra person, yet, no more bags than we had the last time we went. (except for an extra carseat) Huuh?! I MUST be forgetting something...

Snow, Boarding Passes and Other Randomness...

It's snowing. Hard. Thankfully, it really didn't start sticking until about an hour after I picked Ben up from school.

Speaking of school -- VERY cute --When I got there, the kids were outside. Krystyna's mom saw me at the door and came over to tell me they were out on the playground catching snowflakes on their tongues and deciding what flavor they were. :) On the way out, I asked Ben what flavor his snowflakes were and he said, "Snow flavored. Yum." ;) Mr. Literal like his daddy. ;) They also did this way cool snow painting that looks like it was done with some sort of shaving cream-like substance and then sprinkled with iridescent glitter... it's currently glitterifying the inside of the van, but will make it to the fridge eventually.

Anyway, we're home now and enjoying being snowed in. Better today than tomorrow is what I say! Not only do I not want to have an issue getting to the airport, but I don't want to have to think about any "deicing" of the plane that might be going on. That creeps me out.

I got our Southwest boarding passes at 10:15a.m. on the dot and still only managed to get A40, A41 and A44. The website froze after I clicked the first time or I think I might have done a little better. My MIL and FIL got A33 and A45, I think and BIL and SIL got 21 and 22. Looks like they'll be saving lots of seats! ;) I think I'll send Simon on with my mother-in-law and if she sits near my SIL and Anastasia, people will likely run for whatever seats are furthest away from the two babies and leave us lots of room. ;) At any rate, even with the A40's, we STILL will get to board before we would have if we had just gone with the "families" group that goes between A and B. so that's not too bad. One of these days, I'm going to start flying onb an airline with seat assignments though... seriously. :P

Snowing...

In school parking lot trying to hold out going in to get ben for another 15 minutes...gah i hate snow!

Good Morning, Blogland...

Hi ho there. I am up at 5:30! Why? No Simon-related reason! I just. couldn't. sleep. I was also up at 5a.m. yesterday and will likely be up at 5a.m. tomorrow.

This week has just been so incredibly anxiety ridden... first with the surgery, then with worrying whether or not we were going to get The Worst Stomach Virus Ever (my mom is STILL sick). I have worried myself into a constant state of nausea and knots in my stomach though I think it's fairly safe to say at this point that I'm not sick. I hate that my head has that much power over how I feel!

Now I think I'm mostly just worried about the last of the packing and getting to and through the airport and to Florida. For some reason, the getting through the airport launches my blood pressure into overdrive and I can't relax at all until I'm sitting at the gate (usually 2 hours early!!).

Then of course, there are remnants of my flying phobia that surface here and there. I'm not afraid to fly anymore, but I still wouldn't say it's my favorite way to spend 2-1/2 hours on a Friday morning. Throw the welfare of my children into the mix and there's a whole other level of anxiety that I'm sure won't ease until the plane is safely in the air. (for some reason, I'm generally pretty relaxed about the whole thing after that)

So yeah.... that all adds up to I'm WIDE awake. (sigh)

So... what are you all doing this lovely morning?

Thinking Outloud... but if You Have Any Contributions, I'll All Ears...

Decisions, decisions... Umbrella stroller or backpack stroller for our vacation? (not doing the parks with Simon at all, so we wouldn't be using the backpack part of the backpack stroller... but it might be nice to have the option... however, he could sleep easier in the umbrella stroller as the backpack one sort of makes him sit completely upright)

How will we manage to get two giant, heavy carseats onto the airport parking lot shuttle, along with all our luggage and the two children, off the shuttle and to the checki-n... much less get them all the way through security and to the gate? This will be interesting. I'll keep you posted because really, I am VERY curious how it will be done.

Will I really WANT or NEED more than the one long sleeve shirt, which I plan on wearing on to the airport?

How many days will it take Tom and his brothers to have a sibling blowup, directly following which my mother-in-law will declare that we will never take another family vacation again so long as we all live?

How many viruses will be floating around the plane and how long will it take one of us to get one of them?

Will Simon actually sleep in a Pack n Play? And if not, what will we do since Ben will probably already be sleeping in between us?

Hmmmmm.... stay tuned. Answers to these questions and more, coming to a blog near you.

Re: Those Book Recs...

Remember I blogged about wanting to get these cute booksabout a week ago? Well, I found them for supercheap on half.com and got all three.

Ben already LOVES "Before You Were Big". He calls it the book about "mommy and her two boys". ;) I can't get through it without choking up... seriously, we have read it outloud four times or so and everytime I read it, I start to cry.

I thought THAT was pretty bad, until "My Firstborn, There's No One Like You" came two days ago and I read that one. Good lord, I am the biggest sap. But seriously, some of it describes Ben and how I feel about him almost to a tee... I mean, here, read this: (it's one of my favorite parts)
----------------------------
"The truth is," Mama Bear said as she turned the page, "sometimes you were downright persnickety! Everything had to be just the way you wanted it. When you were a baby cub, you had to be rocked a certain way. Then you had to brush your teeth with a green toothbrush, but you would drink only from a blue cup. At bedtime, you had to have the door opened exactly halfway, and when we tucked you in, the quilt had to be over your shoulders but not touching your chin."

Firstborn Cub giggled. "That was silly."

Mama Bear laughed. "And when you ate spaghetti, the sauce couldn't touch the noodles. You made me take the crusts off your honey and peanut butter sandwiches. YOu were unhappy if your socks weren't on straight or a shirt tag was rubbing your neck. You were quite a bit of work, as I recall."

"Does that mean you love the other cubs the best?"

"Well, let's see..."

"I don't think I've ever done anything as hard as dropping you off at school the first day," Mama Bear said. "I wasn't ready to watch you go, but you marched into the classroom like a brave soldier. That's when I realized my little firstborn wasn't so little anymore."

Firstborn Cub nodded. "I remember that day."

"I'm sure you do! You immediately liked your teacher and found a playmate. RIght away you discovered books would be some of your closest friends. And back home, even though your brother and sister were still there with me, the den seemed extra empty that day. I kept watching the clock. I could hardly wait until you came home."

--------------------------------------
(sob!) I haven't delved too far into "My Youngest" yet, but I'm sure it has just as many tearjerkers in store... yikes! I didn't order the middle child one yet since well, I don't have one of those yet and there are no guarantees! ;)

Whew!

Simon did beautifully this morning... as usual, he was the little charmer, forcing all the nurses to stop by and talk to him and flashing the dimples left and right. He went right to the nurse who carried him back the OR, and they told me afterward that he never even cried!

He was done in about ten minutes and cried in the recovery room for a bit while he came out of the anesthesia, but then took a full bottle, started another one, ate a handful of Puffs and happily played with his little red-lit toe monitor thing until we got discharged.

Since we have been home, I have already heard him babble more in an hour than I have in probably the last two months. He has latched on to "buh" with a passion, and everything is "buh buh" and "mmm buh" and "bwah!" He's also big into the "MMMM!!!" again, which he had abandoned during the months of ear infections.

I'm so happy and relieved that he can obviously hear better... yet I feel sad that he was hearing so poorly for so long. The ENT told us that he removed what were basially two giant "loogies" from his ears and that all he could hear before was what things sound like when you put your hands over your ears. I tried this and nearly burst into tears. Basically, everything has the Charlie Brown teacher effect.. "wahWAHwahWAHwahWAH". :( My poor baby...

But... all is well now, we're through it, his hearing is fine and we can move on to vacation! :)

Dr. Clayton rocks. ;) I'm bringing him back a pair of mouse ears from Disneyworld and writing him a "Thanks for my new ears" note from Simon. ;)

All done! Perfect! Simon happy

All done! Perfect! Simon happy and no longer hard of hearing! Yay!

WOohoo!

We made it through the night... seems he would have probably slept through. But I'm glad we tried to forcefeed him anyway. Now, on to the show! It's 5:28a.m. and I'm showered, dressed and presentable. Tom's in the shower. Simon is still snoozing (as is Ben). We have to be at the hospital check-in no later than 6:30a.m. Good thing we're morning people in this house, huh?

This will be a lot more fun when it's the airport we have to rush off to!!! ;)

Countdown to Tubes is on!

So, we got him up at midnight to feed him.

He took about three ounces then, and took about five at 8:30 when he woke up briefly. Let's hope that was enough to get us through! I'm so nervous, (not really about the surgery but about him waking up hungry and me being helpless to do anything) that my stomach is all in knots and it's making me question do I feel sick or don't I? I'm fairly sure it's all nerves because now that I'm distracting myself with the computer, I feel better. But SHEESH.

Let's Just Get to Thursday...

Stressed out would be a pretty good description of yours truly right now.

Simon's surgery is in the morning and I just don't know how the night will play out. He slept all night last night from 9:30-7. And the night before, he was up to eat at 2a.m. The two nights before that, he woke up to eat at 10:30 and midnight, respectively. So what to do, what to do. Do I stuff him to the gills all day and cross my fingers and hope he sleeps all night? Do I wake him up at midnight and see if he wants a bottle? Ideally, he''ll wake up sometime between ten and midnight on his own, that would make the decision easy. (sigh)

I have to pack Ben up this evening so he's ready to go when his Nanny and Pap come to get him at crazy early o'clock tomorrow morning... because our original Ben plan his a little snag... (see below)

I found out this morning we were exposed to a stomach virus yesterday, by way of my mom (she didn't know she was sick, obviously) who watched the boys for me so I could take the registration stuff to school. She is quite not well at the moment... So we're crossing our fingers and praying firstly that she feels better and secondly that it stays far, FAR FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR away from all of us. And if it doesn't, my alternative prayer is that it hits tomorrow night so it's cleared out by Friday morning.

Please send prayers our way... for an easy, nonhungry night for Simon and that we all stay healthy. :\

Simey's Game...

He just thinks this is a riot. ;)

The Great Preschool Race...

I just returned from turning in Ben's registration forms for preschool next year.
I had been a little stressed about it because I heard registration day was a little nutso. And to think my original plan was to just turn in the forms tomorrow on his regular day. HAHAHAHA! (yeah, that's reaction I got from people I told of this plan)

Here's the thing. After this morning, I decided that the reason it's so insane is because of crazy ocd stressballs such as myself. But, such is the way of the world, I suppose.

The doors open every day at 9:15, so I was in the parking lot at 8:30. It wasn't packed yet, but I certainly wasn't alone. As soon as I saw another mom jump out of her car with the telltale handful of orange forms, I quickly followed. When I opened the front door, I was only mildly surprised to note that there were about five people already ahead of me in line. One said she had arrived at 8:15.

As I looked around and chatted a bit with this high strung group of morning people, I realized that we, this little group of Type-A neurotics, are the very reason Southwest airlines changed their boarding policy. We are the ones who camp out in the A line at the gate 1-1/2 hours before the flight boards. ;) Sorry! Early (and neurotic) birds get the worm, the best seats on the plane and the 3-day A.M. slots at the preschool, you know.

It was an outwardly nice, yet quietly viscious group of women... we all happily chit chatted, each knowing our place in line... each newcomer that entered was quietly stared down until they realized the hierarchy and took their place at the back.

A few clueless souls wandered in merely to drop their children off and asked, "What's going on?!" They were met with a group chorus of "It's registration day!" (with an unspoken "duh!" at the end)

One woman, and I do not know if she was being sneaky or if she really was just completely oblivious, peeked her head down the stairs and stopped one of the assistants who was heading into the school. "Can you turn this in for me? Thanks!" and scurried off. The assistant, who, bless her heart, is the sweetest little white-haired lady, didn't realize she was aiding and abetting. "Hey! Can she do that?! Is that allowed?!? That's not fair!!!" yelled the woman in front of me. "Give it to the person at the back of line!!" chimed in another. In the end, probably to avoid a riot in the stairwell, the teacher decided she would take it down and give it to the director, who I am quite confident will make certain the offender will be prosecuted to the full extent of preschool law. ;)

Yes. It was CRAZY. I was number six to turn in my paperwork, so I'm sure Ben will get the coveted A.M. slot we want... but as I exited the building at approximately 9:12 and saw the line that now wove up the stairs, into the lobby and down the hall, I knew some of the others would not be so lucky. And to them I say, "You shoulda gotten up earlier, SUCKERS!" ;P

It pays to be neurotic. ;)

p.s. If you think I am nuts for being this obsessive over securing an a.m. spot over a p.m. spot, you have never met Benjamin in the afternoons when he is tired. On particularly difficult afternoons, he's a completely different kid than he is in the morning. Evidence of this came out in the conference we had with his teacher where she looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if he ever got destructive and out of control during class. So yeah, I was willing pitch a tent in the parking lot if I had to to get him in the morning class again for next year!

Procrastinating...

I am sitting here blogging because I am taking a break from/procrastinating finishing up the packing for our vacation.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to pack for a vacation to a place where at this time of year it isn't consistently one range of temperatures? No. I am not complaining. I realize it's pretty darn awesome to be going someplace even remotely warm in the middle of January... it's just that it makes the packing very very complicated.

We have gone to Florida in January before and it has been literally, FREEZING... as in, icicles hanging from the orange trees. And then we've gone when it has been as warm as the beginning of summer here in Baltimore. It could also potentially be fall'ish, early spring'ish, mid-summerish or ALL OF THE ABOVE. And the evenings and mornings there in January are generally nippy enough for at least jackets and long pants.

So far, I have only started packing for the boys. The suitcase is jammed with every possible outfit weather combination. It's complicated by the fact that I don't really know what of Ben's first-year warm weather stuff is actually going to fit Simon... most looks a bit too big, but it will have to work! I WAS amused to find that a pair of shorts (Target Cisco Brand size 12 months) that Ben wore as recently as early last summer, fit Simon. Granted, they are a tad long, but they fit where it counts, around the waist! ;) So at least I didn't need to run out to Old Navy and buy him shorts, which was my original plan.

Like I said, I haven't even started packing for myself. Tom's on his own, thank goodness. Plus, I haven't started packing any day-to-day stuff -- diapers, toiletries, yada yada blah blah blah... or carryon bags for the boys... so much to do. :(

So yeah, I'm blogging instead. ;)

Today's Costume...

Here he is explaining that he is a "Jedi Knight". But he looks like more of a cross between Harry Potter and Cruella De Ville with a lightsaber. ;)



Also, please note I have decided to make "Ben's Costumes" its own post category. ;)

Simon is Eight Months Old!

Simon is eight months old today... that is entirely too close to a year. WHERE did the baby go?!



I have a side-by-side coming up too, but the outfit Ben wore at 8 months was so ridiculously small on Simon that I HAD to take another picture in a different outfit. Next month, I'll have another problem because Ben was wearing a Christmas outfit. I'm thinking this particular tradition may need to be phased out. ;)

This month has brought some new things, including the debut of cruising. This has meant at least one new bruise a day, as he doesn't quite get that some things are not stable enough to hold onto... like the rocking chair in his room, for instance... or his brother's light saber standing up in the corner. He's getting pretty good at it and can even go from thing to thing now, like the couch to the coffee table. When we're all playing in the basement, I move things around to set up a little "course" for him so he can all the way across the room and he has the best time!

Thankfully, the little standing incident from last month seems to have been a fluke since he has yet to repeat it. I'm hoping this means the walking is still a ways off... we're rooting for not until his first birthday because seriously, it's hard enough to keep up with him crawling all over the place and trying to hurt himself. He nearly went down the basement stairs two days ago... we are having to retrain ourselves to get back in the habit of replacing gates and shutting doors. Ben's doing better with it than Tom and I are!

He has managed to climb up a few stairs, but, in keeping with his personality, honestly doesn't seem interested in going for them all that often. Hooray!

He LOOOOOVES to be held and is a little spoiled in this respect. He's not a fan of strollers, though I've been working on this for short periods because I know we're going to need to use the stroller at least a little bit on our vacation next week. Also because my right bicep is starting to look freakishly larger than my left one.

He still doesn't babble very much, just coos, squeals and raspberries and his recent discovery, tongue clucking, though I did hear a random "da!" this morning. I'm hoping the ear tubes will get him moving on this, mostly for the selfish reason that I really want him to say a few words for us soon and to hear his little voice... I just can't wait to hear what nickname he coins for his big brother in babytalk. :) Tom's was nicknamed "Bubby" for the longest time, thanks to his little brother's babytalk. Heh. (I had that backwards the first time I wrote it, btw)

Despite the quietness, Simon does understand a lot of what we say though and one of his favorite games that he just thinks is HILARIOUS is "Can you give that to mommy?" "Thank you!!!" "Mommy will give it to Simon." It's so cute how he stretches out his pudgy little hand to give you whatever you ask for and then giggles when you take it from him. ;)

Sleep is touch and go. Some nights, 13 hours straight, other nights, up at midnight to eat and then back to sleep... still OTHER nights (but thankfully we haven't had one of these in awhile) he pulls the wake up, let's play for two hours nonsense. For the ear tube surgery, we are rooting for one of those 13-hour nights on Tuesday or at least a midnight wakeup and not a 2a.m. wakeup. Please, God, please.

Still no teeth. Weird, I tell you!

I will probably get an official height and weight at his pre-op doctor's appointment this afternoon, but as far as my scale and tape measure are concerned, he's 21.5 pounds and 26.5 inches. It's strange... I tried an outfit on him the other day that I SWORE he was busting the snaps open on a month ago, and it fit perfectly. So he must be growing more up and not out these days. I'll be interestd to see where he is at his 9-month checkup next month.

These days, he's chowing down on about eh... 24-26 ounces of formula, three meals a day (same as last month) and TONS of Puffs. OH how he loves the Puffs. :) We haven't tried any other finger foods yet because he scared me to death a few nights ago when he managed to break off an inch-long bit of biter biscuit and choke on it. Gah. Someone needs to give me refresher on how to introduce foods like that without giving myself a heart attack. We have started him on a sippy cup and he makes a huge mess. (I take those little no-spill things out because they just frustrate babies, I've found... they'll go back in when he's older) I'm hoping he's as easy to wean off the bottle as Ben was, but he does have a fondness for it that Ben never had so I have some concerns there. ;)

The usual diaper/nipple update: Size 3's still (and seems like he will be for awhile.. at least I hope so because I just bought another 174-count case of them) and we just moved up to the size 4 nipples.

He's such a good little baby and is really fitting in well with his "along for the ride" role as second child. ;) He adjusts so well to being carted back and forth to drop Ben off at school on those two days and just moves his nap accordingly. I always feel badly when I have to wake him up to drag him somewhere or when he's not in his crib for his nap. But he doesn't seem to mind. He remains super easy going and just so cuddly and happy. :)

ETA: 8-month side-by-side Yeah, THIS outfit went RIGHT into the box for the attic. Getting it on him was like stuffing a sausage!!

Sharing a Smile...

Simon, Ben and cousin Anastasia... (not in that order) Similar little smiles, don't you think? :)

Photographic Evidence of the Constant Motion...

These were all taken within about a ten-minute window of time yesterday afternoon.... note all the blurring. ;)







And these I just thought were cute of Little Dude...
Behold, the sippy cup!

We've taken to calling him Little Mr. One Sock...


...either that or just "Eyes"


So sweet...