Our Christmas Miracle

In the midst of all the sickness and stress going on in December, we ventured to the mall to take pictures with Santa. This was a bad idea for many reasons. We got a late start, both boys were sick, we were going to one of the most crowded malls in the area on a Saturday, and neither Ed nor I were in the most jovial of moods. Still, we wanted to have this experience for the boys, so we trudged ahead.

We got to the mall just in time for Santa to take his mid-day, hour-long break. Because we so brilliantly planned our day, it was 1:00 p.m., which is William's normal nap time. We decided to walk around the mall a bit before heading back to get in Santa's line. We played at Pottery Barn Kids for a little while and puttered around. I kept expecting Seth to fall asleep, but he was too interested in the sights and sounds around him. At 1:30 we headed back to get in line. We waited, and waited, and waited. Ed walked around with William. Then I walked around with William. He started getting whiney, and Seth started getting antsy. The line finally started moving, and as we got closer and closer to Santa, Seth started getting more and more tired. He fell asleep in my arms when we were almost to the front of the line, and I was convinced this was going to be the worst Santa picture ever.

Over an hour later, as we tried desperately to keep William entertained and happy and held a sleeping Seth in our arms, we were just one family away from Santa. William stared at Santa and started looking a bit dubious. Seth stirred and woke up, looking around bewilderingly. William said he didn't want to see Santa. He started getting teary. Our turn arrived. I told William he could stand by me and watch Seth sit with Santa. I handed Seth to Santa and fully expected the tears to start flowing. Instead he looked at Santa, looked out at us and the camera and all the people watching, and started smiling. Then William decided he would sit with Santa after all. He cautiously approached Santa, and when Santa asked him, "What do you want for Christmas?" William answered, "Presents!" He sat on Santa's lap and as the photographer clicked away, he finally broke into a big grin. Our Christmas miracle indeed--a Santa picture with both boys smiling! It doesn't get much better than that!

Where Have We Been?

Wow--that was quite a blogging break I took! I'm having a hard time jumping back into it--I feel like I have to blog about every detail of the past few weeks. But that would be sooooooooo boring, so I'll just catch you up with the highlights.

As an explanation for my long absence, I'll just say that life has been getting the better of me. Things were pretty stressful for a while, and something had to give. At the end of the day, I was crawling into bed semi-conscious, so blogging took a back seat. I'm still feeling a bit stressed, but not quite so overwhelmed. Much of the stress revolved around Seth's continued diarrhea. It went on for over two weeks, so Ed and I struggled with missing work and trying to find back-up care, all while battling vicious head colds ourselves. It was not fun, and not a good time for either of us to miss work. I'm now down to 1 day of sick leave and a few hours of annual leave. Also not good. But what can you do.

As for Seth, although he clearly had some kind of virus, I think the continued diarrhea was diet-related. I'm pretty sure he has an intolerance to milk. I've stopped pumping and am nursing a lot less, and he started drinking more milk-based formula right around the time that he got sick. After about a week and a half, I switched him to soy formula, and the diarrhea cleared up. I switched him back to milk-based formula, and the diarrhea came back. So now he's on soy formula, and we're sticking with it for a while. I might try the lactose-free milk-based formula, but for now, soy is fine. Of course, I struggled with a bit of guilt about trying to get my supply back by pumping more and taking supplements. But it's just too stressful at work to pump, and I'm soooo ready to be done with pumping. I'm still nursing at night and in the morning, but it's only on one side now. We'll see how long that lasts.

Speaking of Seth, though, he's crawling now and pulling himself up on everything! He has bruises on his forehead to prove it. He hasn't figured out that he can't let go. He's also eating a ton and loves Cheerios. He shoves as many into his mouth as he can get and then smacks away with a big grin on his face. I missed the chair pictures on his eighth-month birthday, but I'll do them tomorrow anyway. A week late isn't too bad. He's still not sleeping through the night, but I haven't really forced the issue. I don't think it would take much, but he's been sick for the last three weeks. Hopefully he's on his way to healthy. [In fact, as I was writing this, Seth woke up and fussed for a minute. When I checked the monitor, I watched him find his pacifier and put it in his mouth and go back to sleep! Yay Seth!] He went to the doctor on Saturday for his flu booster shot, and he weighs 17 lbs, 6 oz. He's wearing 9 month sizes now. He's much bigger than William was at this age.

Speaking of William, he is as adorable and as annoying as ever! He talks up a storm these days, and still loves to play with his cars and trucks. He also loves playdough, playing at the sink, "reading" his books himself, and whining. He does not love taking naps or eating or listening to his mother. Despite that, he makes me laugh every day, and amazes me with how much he learns, listens, and processes all the time. He is very sweet and cooperative (most of the time) and still loves his brother. He has been pretty excited by Seth's transition to crawling and standing, even though it means Seth can now try to grab whatever William is playing with! Through all the sickness with Seth, Ed, and me, William miraculously stayed healthy, with only a runny nose and slight cough for a very short period of time. So thank God for that.

I think that's enough for this "maiden" post. I'll save Christmas and pictures and videos for my next post (or two or three). Don't want to overdo it on my first day back! I work tomorrow and Tuesday and half of Wednesday, but daycare is closed, so Ed gets to stay home with both boys by himself, all day, for two and a half days. He doesn't think he will make it. It's a lot easier than he thinks, though. So stay tuned!

Holiday Spirit Restored--A Little

Tonight was our daycare center's annual holiday party. Seth ended up staying home with Ed again, so it was just William and me. (Seth is better, but we kept him home one more day just to make sure he was really over it.) When I got to daycare to pick up William, he was soooo excited for the party. All of the kids were excited. I guess they had been talking about the party a lot during the day, because I hadn't even mentioned it to William. But William knew there would be a party and knew Santa Claus would be there. The kids' excitement and the buzz around the Center was infectious.

When we got to the party, William was so excited to see some of his friends. The music teacher, Mr. Bill, was there as the entertainment, and William went right over to him to check out the instruments and listen to the music. This is momentous because William is usually terrified of Mr. Bill and at school, he won't go near Mr. Bill. Tonight, however, he sang Jingle Bells with Mr. Bill, and at the end of the night, he told me, "I like Mr. Bill! He's nice!" (He also said, "I like Santa Cwaus! He's nice!")

William loved running around with the other kids, being silly, and singing songs. When the announcement was made that Santa Claus had arrived, the kids shrieked with excitement. William somehow ended up at the front of the line. But it was a bit overwhelming for him and he started crying and wanted me to hold him. We watched a few kids sit on Santa's lap and then he decided he wanted to sit on Santa's lap, too. And he did! I was so proud of him. Santa gave him a little gift and William was thrilled. It was so fun to watch all the kids and see everyone having a great time.

As we were driving home, William said, "I had a good time at the birthday party, Mommy!" He's still trying to figure out what, exactly, Christmas is, but so far, I think he likes it. The whole evening has helped me remember what Christmas is--joy, anticipation, excitement, celebration, and friendship. It was just what I needed, jut when I needed it!

Crap-tacular Holidays

And I mean crap-tacular literally. Seth has had a gastrointestinal virus since Friday night and has had diahrrea since Sunday. Almost every poop he has made has gone up his pants or down his legs. I have rinsed poop off of so many clothing items that it no longer grosses me out. I have been completely desensitized to poop. It all started Friday night when Seth threw up in his crib at 2:00 a.m. He continued to throw up (more like dry heave since there wasn't anything in his stomach) until about 5 a.m., but then when he woke up Saturday morning, he seemed fine. Ed's parents came over and entertained the kids so we could clean the house and decorate for Christmas. We went out early and got the tree. Things were fine. We decorated the tree, William was great, Seth napped as usual, we got the house clean. Ed had two gigs Saturday evening, so I took the boys to Ed's parents that evening and we spent the night. No more throwing up for Seth, but that's when the blow-out poops started. Every diaper was a poop, and by that evening, it was clearly diahrrea.

So Sunday night around midnight, I woke up feeling very nauseous. I lay awake for about 2 hours, and at 2 a.m., I started throwing up and kept throwing up until about 5 a.m. I felt like death all day Monday, so Ed took William to daycare and came back to take care of Seth so I could lay in bed. I finally started feeling better Monday night, but Seth still had major diahrrea. Luckily, he was eating and drinking like normal, so I wasn't worried about dehydration. He also hadn't had a fever, so that was a good sign. Ed took him to the doctor on Monday because he was pulling on his ears a lot, but his ears were clear. He also has a bad cough, but his lungs sounded fine. Just a stomach bug.

Anyway, I stayed home with Seth and William on Tuesday (William was still fine and showing no signs of illness), and Seth had a low fever all day and was clearly not feeling well. Ed got home from work Tuesday evening feeling nauseous and went straight to bed. He had the headache and achy/chills that I had on Monday. Great. I had missed work Friday because I thought I was coming down with something (sore throat, headache, stuffy nose--thought I was getting a cold, but those symptoms, other than the headache, disappeared). So by then I'd missed three days of work in a row and it looked like I'd be staying home Wednesday, too. We asked Ed's parents and sister if they could babysit (all of them would have to miss work), but his parents both have the flu and his sister had a deadline for work. So back to sqaure one. I stayed home this morning (Wednesday), and around 11:00 a.m., Ed got up and said he's feeling better and could take care of Seth. I took William (who miraculously has not gotten sick) to daycare and got to work for a half day.

Seth had a good day today. No fever. He had several poops, and I asked Ed to describe them. He couldn't so I had to do some investigating in the diaper pail. (I know that's totally gross but this is what you have to do when you're a mom.) One of the poops was explosive, but it wasn't the volume, so much as the way the diaper had been put on (or so it appeared). Both poops had good consistency, so if tonight goes well, tomorrow might be a normal day. Have I mentioned how stressed out I am at work and how this is not a great time to be missing several days in a row? I don't think I'm on the stellar employee list right about now.

Did I also mention how I'm helping to plan the daycare holiday party which is, um, tomorrow night? Yeah. Did I mention that it's December 10 and I haven't gotten a picture for our holiday cards, yet alone started working on them? Not to mention the photo books and calendar I'm trying to put together for holiday gifts. And oh yeah--there's that whole shopping-for-gifts thing. Every year I prove that I just can't get my shit together and this year is definitely living up to expectations. Oh well. There's always next year.

Despite all of the sickenss, I've gotten lots of quality time with the boys, which is a great thing. William is talking up a storm and is anticipating Christmas as much as a 2-year-old can. We're going to see Santa on Saturday, but I have a feeling William will not want to sit with him. He may surprise me, though. William is not down with costumes or masks, but the Santa we go to see is "real." He's the one from his '07 and '06 pictures. So maybe William will enjoy it. I never know with him. I need to do a better job of capturing our conversations with him because he is so adorable. He remembers everything and you can just see him processing information and putting two and two together.

Seth is growing by leaps and bounds. He is so close to crawling and he wants to practice all the time, although it frustrates the heck out of him. Tonight he managed to launch himself forward several times, which was very exciting. Two days ago, he pulled himself to standing in his crib and was so dang proud of himself. I'm really not ready for him to be mobile, but ready or not, here he comes.

So that's my life. It's not pretty, but this too shall pass. Despite the craziness, I'm trying to step back and remember that family is most important--enjoying the time spent together and not sweating the small stuff (or the big stuff). We missed some neat holiday events, like the Santa Train and the local firefighters who bring the fire engine around the neighborhood with Santa and Mrs. Clause riding on top. We're not likely to make cookies, or ornaments for the tree this year. But who knows--there's still time. William's only 2 and 1/2. We'll continue "traditions" next year and he'll never know we missed them when he was 2! (Unless he reads my blog. Maybe I'll edit this post!)

Off to bed. A good night's sleep always makes things better, right? Actually, I wouldn't know. Haven't had one of those in almost 3 years!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

I'm still recovering from the Thanksgiving weekend, so I thought I'd post pictures to cover the highlights. Three of my four siblings visited us so there was lots of activity, lots of coordinating, and lots and lots of attention for William and Seth. They had a blast and both did very well, despite missing naps, staying up late, and being completely off the routine. William had his share of meltdowns and clinginess, but that was to be expected. Mostly he really enjoyed the family--especially his big-girl cousins! He also got to try ice skating and bowling, which were both big hits.

Cousins Katie and Melanie and Baba:

Aunt Cheri:
Melanie:
Katie:
Aunt Rose, Uncle Dave, Katie, and Melanie
Melanie and Katie:
Baba:Daddy!

I might add some more pictures later, but it's late and time for bed. The weekend reminded me of how lucky we are to have our families! We are very very blessed!

Seth is Seven Months Old (a day late!)

I totally spaced Seth's seven-month birthday on Saturday! But one day late isn't too bad. We spent lots of time at home this weekend, since both boys have pretty bad colds. Seth has an ear infection again so he's not sleeping very well. (Which means I'm not sleeping very well.) But despite being sick, he's been his normal, happy self. William's nose is a faucet again, and both boys have a congested cough. But if this is the worst of it, then we're pretty lucky. Seth actually threw up three times on Friday night, but I think it was because I gave him his antibiotic on an empty stomach. He hasn't thrown up again, thank goodness. William never threw up that young, so it was definitely a new experience and one I'd like to not repeat.

Anyway, Seth has been working on getting more mobile. He pushes up on his hands a lot and tries to pull up on things. He pushes himself backwards, and still rolls when he wants to get to something. He reaches out for me all the time now for me to pick him up. He'll play by himself happily until he sees me, and then he'll pitch a fit until I come pick him up. He loves to eat and has decided that fruits are way more tasty than veggies--especially green veggies. He's not too keen on Cheerios yet but he likes to gum on Zwieback toast. No teeth yet, but he drools like a mad man. He still loves his brother and is happy to watch William wherever he goes. He's still a terrible sleeper, but I have faith that there's a good sleeper in there somewhere. Above all, he's a delightful baby and fills our house with love.

Here are today's chair pictures. Both boys were still in their PJs, and Seth's nose was totally goopy. But the pictures are still cute.


Happy seven months, Sethy. We love you!

Imagination

I stayed home with the boys today since Seth has some kind of stomach bug. He's also caught a cold and had a bit of a cough today. William's nose has been a little runny, but otherwise he's been fine. Anyway, today I really enjoyed watching William play. His imagination has really taken off lately. Here are just a few examples of his day:

He used my car keys as a jack hammer with his play dough.

He put his play dough on the floor and stood on top of it and called it his skateboard.

He pulled my kitchen tongs out the drawer and pretended he was a crane and used them to pick things up all over the house.

He pretended that some thin wooden dowels were fire hoses.

He found a clear plastic bag with a handle (originally packaging for some toy or other) and pretended it was his briefcase. He packed it with toys and said, "G-bye ev-wee-body. I go to work now!"He even came and gave me a kiss and a hug.

This is such a great age, despite the discipline challenges. He was having such a good time today that I let a few rules slide (like keeping play dough on the table). Far be it from me to stifle his creativity!

I also got some great pictures of Seth today, and a cute video. I tried to get pictures of William, and of both the boys together, but that didn't work too well. So for now, here's Seth!


Here's the video. (And in case you're worried, my socks were fresh out of the drawer!)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brotherly Love

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. I've been drafting this post for three days now, so I guess I should just go ahead and post it already. I was hoping to get a great picture to add to it, but that didn't happen. Anyway, William and Seth have been so cute together lately, especially in the car. Seth almost always falls asleep in the car, and when he wakes up, the first thing he usually sees is William, and he just grins ear to ear as soon as he sees him. William will grin back at Seth and giggle, and then Seth will giggle, and then William will belly laugh and Seth will belly laugh. Seth adores the attention and William loves making Seth laugh. I'm glad that for now, the car seats side-by-side are still working. I figure that some day, we'll have to separate them, but hopefully that won't be for a long time.

At home, Seth will play happily by himself, as long as William is nearby and he can watch William play. The minute William walks out of the room, though, Seth will start to fuss and cry. We usually try to convince William to play with his toys in front of Seth. Sometimes he cooperates, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes, he will get some books and "read" to Seth, which is one of the most heart-warming sights ever. Of course, much of the time, William is horsing around and experimenting with how much he can touch/push/sit on Seth before either Seth starts crying, or I get mad. Seth is pretty tolerant, though, and I end up looking like a fool when I'm telling William that Seth's going to get hurt, and Seth's over there laughing. I've been trying to adjust my reactions, and not get quite so upset at William's testing. If William hurts Seth, he gets an immediate time out. If he's pushing it and won't stop, I remove Seth and go into a different room. A few times when William has hurt Seth, I've flown off the handle a bit, and that is just not good for anybody. It's a work in progress, that's for sure!

A few other things I wanted to mention. First of all, Seth is now experiencing separation anxiety. He cries when I walk away from him, and he cries if someone else is holding him and he sees me. This is a really annoying phase! He's starting to pull up on things, too--well, he's trying to pull up on things. He's still rolling around as his primary means of mobility. And he loves a box or bucket full of toys. If you put a few toys on the floor in front of him, that's okay, but doesn't hold his attention for very long. If you put those toys in a bucket, he's engrossed.

William has been a total chatter box in the car on the way to and from daycare. I want to bring a digital recorder in the car one of these days so I can capture our conversations. They usually go something like,

William: "There's an excavator, Mommy! What that excavator doin' Mommy?"
Me: "The workers are driving it to the construction site, William."
William: "Where's the constwuction site, Mommy? Can I see it?"
Me: "I don't know where it is. I think it's over there. We can't go there today."
William: "I wanna dwive the digger, Mommy! Can I dwive it?"
Me: "When you're a grown-up you can drive the digger."
William: "Yeah, I be a grown-up and dwive the digger, Mommy! I need the keys!"
"What's dat car doin' Mommy?"
Me: "I don't know William. What do you think it's doing?"
William: "Dat car go to work, Mommy. You go to work, Mommy?"
Me: "Yep, I'm going to work. And you're going to school."
William: "Sef go to school Mommy? Where's Miss Tanga, Mommy?" (Ms. Tangela is Seth's teacher.)
Me: "Miss Tangela is at school. Yep--Seth's going to school, too."

And on and on and on. Sometimes it is sooooo draining. But it is also so gratifying, because I feel like we're finally spending quality time together on our long commutes. So between that and the boys sharing giggles in the back seat, going to and from work has not been too bad. I'll take what I can get!

Playground Bully

I had the day off for Veterans' Day and got to stay home with the boys. We had a nice day--nothing too exciting. We went to the playground this afternoon and William was having fun following an older girl around and showing off for her. (She was almost four.) Then 4 older boys came onto the playground and William followed them as they climbed onto the equipment (what the heck do you call the playground thingys? Very large climbing apparatuses with slides?). I was talking to the girl's mother and had Seth in the Ergo so only had half an eye on William, but I looked up in time to see an older boy (he was probably four) push William down! William was so upset and immediately started crying. The boy ran off. The boys' mothers were on the other side of the playground, of course, not paying a bit of attention to their kids. I didn't even have a chance to yell at the kid because he ran off after the other boys. I quickly got to William and held him as he cried.

He wasn't physically hurt, but you could tell his feelings had been really hurt. It broke my heart. William loves big kids and he's so shy and he was just watching the kids, not even trying to talk to them, and he gets shoved. Poor guy. I asked him if he wanted to go tell the kid that it wasn't nice to knock people down, but he declined. At first he wanted to go home, but then he decided he wanted to play on the other side of the playground. He calmed down pretty quickly and seemed to get over it. He told Daddy about it later tonight. Ed told him if someone shoves him, he should shove them back. *Sigh* I know the "right" thing to do is to try to empower him with words. But I want him to stick up for himself and not let people push him around. Ed says it's better for William to get in trouble by hitting or pushing back than to be a wuss. I see his point. It's one of those fine lines of parenting. It's always a balancing act.

This morning, before the whole playground incident. we went to K-Mart to exchange some toys that mom had gotten for the boys. When we walked in, the Christmas trees and yard ornaments were on display and the boys were mesmerized. William loved the moving reindeer and rotating trees with ornaments, and all the tsotchkes that sing and dance to Christmas carols. After walking up and down the Christmas aisles, we made it to the toy section and spent a good half hour in the truck aisle. William played with as many trucks and diggers as he could, and then explored some of the other aisles. I was picking up cars and trucks and diggers in our price range and asking him if he wanted to bring them home, and he kept saying "no." We picked out a toy for Seth, but he still didn't see something he wanted. (He did find a few elaborate trucks and motorcycles that he liked, but they were out of our price range.) Finally, he said, "Where's Christmas?" (He doesn't quite get the concept of Christmas and refers to Christmas like it's a person.) So we went back to the Christmas aisles and he picked out a really cheesy snow globe that plays 11 different Christmas carols and spins the "snow" around the snowmen. Both he and Seth love it. I was happy to get it, because it reminded me of all the Christmas decorations that I loved as a kid, as cheesy as they were.

I'm also happy because William loves Christmas songs! I've been singing them on our way to and from work and I can't wait to get my Christmas carols playlist downloaded to my iPod. (As soon as I find my iPod!) I may have to break my no-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving rule this year.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin

Seth has taken up the sport of rolling and is pursuing it with gusto. This morning he rolled himself right under our bed and then was quite put-out to find himself there. It cracks me up. He seems to really enjoy rolling, though. William never rolled. He started the army crawl at this age and then finally crawled at 10 months. Seth is trying to get his knees under him, but hasn't quite mastered that. We'll see how far the rolling takes him.

I'm still struggling a bit to get through our daily routine. We seem to be getting home later, maybe because traffic has gotten worse. Or maybe it's taking me longer to get the kids checked out of daycare. I've not been doing a great job with making dinner that we can all eat together. Ed's been getting home after 6:30 p.m. anyway, so it's just been easier to wing it. But William hasn't been too keen on sitting at the table to eat, lately, and he does much better if we all sit down and eat together. I think William is having some kind of growth spurt, or maybe he just got over a growth spurt. He's not eating now, but sleeping a lot. On Saturday, he took a 3-hour nap, and today, he slept for 2 hours.

William has had a snotty nose all week, and he's had some tight-sounding coughing now and then. But it hasn't gotten any worse than that. An intestinal bug was going around in Seth's class and Seth seems to have caught it. He had really loose poops all weekend. But he's been fine otherwise. It seems like at the new daycare, the boys are still getting sick as often, but they're not getting as sick. I did notice tonight, though, after Seth's bath, that his nose was a tiny bit runny. On Wednesday, he has an appointment to get his shots and follow-up on his ear infection. So hopefully we can get through that.

I'm reading 1-2-3 Magic right now. I haven't gotten very far into it, but the major premise makes a lot of sense. The books says that the two biggest disciplining mistakes parents make are talking too much, and getting too emotional. Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! This is exactly what Ed and I both do when we're frustrated with William. I either talk and talk and talk, trying to persuade him to follow my logic. Or I get super angry and lose my temper or yell. Ed is also a short-fuse yeller. Soooo not good and not effective. The book talks about how kids feel powerless and they don't like feeling that way, and when they see that they can evoke such strong emotions (i.e. anger) from their parents, they like the power that it gives them. So the key to discipline is to show NO emotion. There is a clear consequence to an action, and the consequence gets implemented with no talking and no emotion.

One of our big issues right now is that William will get too rough with Seth. He'll push him over or play too rough or sometimes even get too excited when we're playing and he'll hit Seth. He's never done that out of anger. It's usually just when he gets over-excited or when he sees me playing with Seth and he wants to join in. He really doesn't understand the concept of hurting Seth, although he absolutely knows it's wrong to hit, and I've told him a hundred times not to touch Seth's head. Part of the problem is, half the time, even if he knocks Seth over, Seth will laugh and not actually get hurt. So then William can't figure out what the problem is. I have noticed, though, that silence speaks volumes and William gets it when I give him a look and don't say anything. The no emotion part is really hard, though. I didn't realize that I have a short fuse. I always thought I was laid back! Not so much. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to give more feedback about the book in a few weeks. I want Ed to read it so we can both implement the technique together. The hard part is figuring out what behavior warrants what consequences.

We had a good weekend. Saturday was filled with cleaning and the house and playing outside while Ed changed the oil and filters in the cars and raked the leaves. Today we went to the zoo and had a great time. We saw the panda, elephants, tigers, gorillas, snakes, lizards, and orangutans. We saw the elephant pee and poop, and that was a big hit! He liked the gorillas the best, and kept calling them his "cousins" after Ed told him they're our cousins. LOL. All in all, it was a very nice day. Both boys fell asleep in the car on the way home and William went into his bed when we got home and slept for two more hours. Seth woke up and nursed and then we both took a little nap, so that was nice! After William woke up, we all went to the grocery store together, which is a very rare thing!

Things at work are still a little crazy, especially with three undecided Senate races. It looks like the Minnesota race could remain undecided for months. It might even be a case that ultimately gets decided by the Senate. Back in the '70s, the closest Senate race ever occurred in New Hampshire. The initial tally favored the Republican, but a recount gave it to the Democrat by 10 votes. The Republican challenged this, though, and the state ballot commission recounted the disputed votes again and gave the election to the Republican by 2 votes. The Democrat then petitioned the Senate to review the case in January (more than two months after the election). The Rules Committee deadlocked, and the case went to the full Senate. The full Senate sent it back to the Rules Committee, which then sent it back to the full Senate. The Senate debated the issue for six weeks before the candidates agreed to have a new election. The Senate declared the seat vacant and the governor appointed someone to fill the seat until the election could take place. In the new election, held on September 16, 1975, almost one year after the original election, the Democrat won decisively. So there's your Senate history lesson for the day. I'm hoping the current Senate races won't be quite as complicated or dramatic!

Awesome!

Did You?

Happy Halloween

Okay--I'm a day late. But what can I say--we've been busy!

William had a great Halloween and enjoyed hanging with the neighborhood "big kids" (the four year olds) and trick-or-treating. He was excited to get candy and I thought he'd want to eat it as he got it, but I guess it didn't occur to him until he got home. He got scared when he saw other kids (and adults) in costumes with masks, but otherwise, he seemed impressed with other costumes. His costume ended up being a little on the minimalist side. He started off as Bob the Builder but ended up as a regular 'ole construction worker. I'm glad I didn't shell out the big bucks for a more elaborate costume, though, as he was totally uninterested in what he was wearing, and probably would not have been down with dressing up more. So without further ado, pictures! First, we carved the pumpkin on Thursday:

Checking out what's inside the pumpkin:



Helping me draw the face. William wanted a happy face, not a scary face!


The finished product:


Hamming it up in costume:


Ready to go!
Trick or treat!

We ended the night with a lollipop and only went to bed about half an hour later than usual. And since most of William's candy was chocolate that he can't eat because of his peanut allergy, Ed and I got to ransack the loot. Yum! For now, William is perfectly content with lollipops and sweet tarts and starbursts and skittles.

Autumn Afternoon

I stayed home with both boys today. The new daycare has a policy that a child must stay home for the first 24 hours on an antibiotic, so since Seth is on Amoxicilan for his ear infection, home we stayed. We had a good day, despite that fact that William wouldn't nap. I missed the window of opportunity because we went to Old Navy to look for a hat and mittens for William. So that's life. Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight. (If we don't get him into his room and in his bed between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m., he gets a second wind and then he won't fall asleep.)

Fortunately, Seth took great naps today, so in the afternoon, we went outside to burn up some energy. It was a beautiful day, if a bit nippy, so I got out the camera.








We also carved the pumpkin today, but I'll save those pictures for tomorrow or Saturday.

Blogging Funk

Clearly, I've been in a blogging funk lately. None of the thoughts swirling about in my mind seem to last until the end of the day when it's time for me to blog. I'm too tired to write anything coherent. Things are good though. Well, at least things aren't bad. William is still doing great at school. He's happy to go in the morning and he's starting to tell me about things that happen during the day. He might tell me what he ate, or he might tell me what he played with outside, or he might talk about something he did inside. One week they talked about camping and set up a tent in their classroom, so he told me about the tent when he got home. One day they had chicken noodle soup for their snack and William told me that he didn't eat the soup but it had noodles. I like hearing about his day from his perspective.

He's been pretty good about eating lately. He still never eats a lot, but he is always willing to try new things. He's also eating some things that he has refused before. Tonight we had lasagna and garlic bread, and he ate both with gusto. It was the first night in a long time that we've all sat down and eaten together. He really likes it when we all sit down together and eat the same thing. He checks out Ed's and my plates and compares it to what's on his plate. Maybe there is hope for him! Seth is looking like he is going to be a great eater. But that can all change at the drop of a hat.

Speaking of Seth, we had his six-month appointment today. He weighs 15 lbs, 7 oz., and is 26 inches long. He's heavier and a bit shorter than William was at the same age. I actually thought he was going to weigh more than that, but he's right on his curve and he's right on target with his development. But the bad news is Seth has an ear infection. I feel like such a terrible mom because I didn't even know it! He's been fighting a cold for more than three weeks now--with a snotty nose and lots of phlegm. And he's been sleeping terribly. (Except for two nights ago, when he had a really good night.) So I probably should have considered the possibility. But there have been so many times that I've taken William in thinking he has ear infections or something else, and they've sent me home with "he's fine--just a cold." And since Seth never ran a temperature or seemed excessively crabby (or even a little crabby!), I just figured it's just a cold. Poor Seth! So he's on antibiotics and we have to go back to the doctor in two weeks for follow-up, and to get his immunizations and flu shot. There's a glimmer of hope, though, that maybe he'll sleep better once the EI clears up!

What else, what else. Work is kicking my butt right now, which is probably why I haven't had enough energy to post. My job is not usually very stressful, but I have multiple projects going on, all seemingly urgent, and the elections are also coming up, which means a lot of work updating statistical lists that I maintain. I actually pulled two all-nighters last week, where I stayed up until 3 a.m. for my job. It felt like college all over again. Ugh. Suffice it to say that I will be glad to see the end of the year when it comes to my work!

I do not, however, want the end of the year to come as quickly as the first ten months of the year have gone by. Time seems to be passing with lightening speed, the boys are growing up so quickly. With the holidays approaching, I guess it's a bad time to wish for things to slow down. But I really need to figure out how to savor my days and make the most of all the joy that holidays represent. I don't want the next two months to pass in a blur of stress and angst and rushing from one thing to the next. I don't want to feel like things are out of control. So I will be pushing the pause button as much as possible! Wish me luck.

Seth is Six Months Old!

Holy cannoli--how is my baby already six months old? Seth continues to be a delight to everyone around him. He's sitting up like a champ, passing objects from one hand to the other, dropping things and looking for them, and rolling in every direction. He eats like a champ and hasn't met a babyfood that he hasn't liked. He's still not sleeping through the night, and I'm still swaddling him (if I want him to sleep for any length of time at all), but we'll be talking to his pediatrician about that at his six-month appointment next week. He's a very happy and social baby. He likes to be around people and does not like to be left alone. He especially loves his big brother.

We also made it to six months with exclusive breastfeeding! With William, I was only able to pump 2 bottles a day, so I started supplementing with formula as soon as he started daycare. I also never built a freezer supply with William. I've been more successful with Seth and haven't yet had to supplement with formula--until now. In fact, just today I used up the very last of my frozen stash. Since Seth had a growth spurt at 4 months, he's been drinking 4 5-oz. bottles a day at daycare. And I'm only pumping about 15 ounces a day. Now that I have no more freezer stash to make up the difference, we'll have to start supplementing with formula. I'm pretty happy that we lasted as long as we did, though.

Without further ado, here are the chair pictures!


Happy six months Seth! You are pure sunshine and while I can't wait to see how you develop and grow in the next six months, can't we just slow time down a little? These first six months have passed in such a blur, and yet I can hardly remember what life was like before you were around. We love you and are so happy to have you as part of our family!

I've Been Tagged

Julie at My Life with Roundface tagged me, so here goes!

1. I love cereal and my all-time favorite is Frosted Mini Wheats. Whenever we end up scrounging for dinner, cereal is usually my choice. I will sometimes eat a bowl right before bed, too. Other favorites are Smart Start Healthy Heart, Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, Cocoa Pebbles, and Cap'n'Crunch with crunch berries. (I don't like the all crunch berries, though. There has to be the right ratio of crunch berries to the Cap'n'Crunch part.

2. I wash and blow-dry my hair every morning before work. There's no way I can make myself presentable with bed head. That doesn't mean I've never gone out and about without showering and blow-drying my hair. It just doesn't happen often.

3. I love sleeping next to my kids, although this is not something I want to do every night.

4. I learned the facts of life by reading books that my parents got for us. I learned the interesting facts of life by reading The Joy of Sex that was hidden in my parents' closet.

5. Of all the household chores, laundry is the one I like to do the most. There's something very satisfying and finite about it.

6. Of all the household chores, ironing is the one I like to do the least. It's a pain in the ass and takes me forever.

7. Even though I'm an editor by profession, I hate writing. It takes me a very long time to write something, but I tend to write only one draft.

Thanks for tagging me Julie! I tag the following people, but if you've already done this meme, no worries.
Laura
MJ
LJ
Megan
Cathy
Joanna
Lindsay

"I Be Funny, Mommy!"

Whenever I get onto William about doing something that he shouldn't, like drinking the bath water, or throwing cheerios in the car, or throwing things inside the house, or waking up Seth in the car, he earnestly implores, "I be funny, Mommy!" I try very hard not to laugh, but how can you not? This is the precursor to, "I'm just joking. Geesh! Where's your sense of humor?" I guess Ed's not the only one who thinks my sense of humor has disappeared. Nice try, kid!

Unintended Blogging Break

As you can see, I've taken a bit of a blogging break over the last week. I wish I could say we've had lots of fun and exciting things going on, but it's more mundane than that. Life just seems to be getting in the way of my blogging habit. Well, life and sleep deprivation. Hopefully I'll get back on track shortly.

I did want to note a few things:

• Both boys have colds, but I'm encouraged by the fact that so far, they've just had goopy noses. No coughing or respiratory infections, so I'm thankful for that. (Of course, I've just completely doomed myself by saying that OUT LOUD, but I'm feeling crazy.)
• Seth is sitting up on his own for extended periods of time now. Yay Seth! He also seems to be teething like crazy (so is William, for that matter--with his two-year-old molars), but so far, I can't or feel the teeth coming in. Yesterday, when I picked Seth up from daycare, he was sitting on the floor and one of the teachers was dancing around the room and Seth was absolutely cracking up. It was the cutest thing ever.
  
• My mom visited this past weekend and William and Seth loved having her here. We went to another pumpkin carnival and William did much better, although he would not ride the ponies this time, and he did not want to go down the big slides. He mostly played in a big pile of dirt and on a wooden monster truck. I got some cute pictures, but haven't downloaded them yet.

I've had many more thoughts swirling around my head recently, but I'm in no position to write them coherently, so I'll end for now. Keep sending sleep dust our way. We're bound to catch some of it sooner or later.

"Sef's School"

I keep forgetting to give an update about how William is transitioning to the new daycare, or as he refers to it, "Sef's school." He loves it! At this point, of course, it's still a bit of a novelty, so I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. But so far, he has not shed one tear about it.

As we're driving there in the mornings, he usually says, "Wanna go to Sef's school, Mommy." And when we get there, he almost runs into his classroom to find his new teacher, Ms. Janet. When I tell him I have to leave, he gives me a kiss and a hug and hugs Seth and says, "Bye Mommy!" It's pretty unbelievable. On Friday, Ms. Janet wasn't there, so I was a bit worried about leaving him with Ms. Sara, but he was fine with that, too. But like I said, we're only on day 5. I fully expect the old routine to rear its ugly head soon (where he cries and has a fit when I have to leave). But the fact that he hasn't had any weepiness about leaving his old school and hasn't had any problems adjusting to the new school is a very pleasant surprise. We'll see what happens as time wears on.

I also keep meaning to blog about how my post-work/dinner routine has been shot to hell by Seth's transition to solid foods. William usually eats at 6:30 p.m., but that is too late for Seth. So I've been trying to feed Seth no later than 6:00 p.m. But we don't usually get home until 5:30 at the earliest, and William immediately wants to play outside. Since the weather has been nice, I've been trying to keep an eye on William in the back yard while I make Seth's dinner (just cereal and/or veggies), and then I'll feed Seth in the back yard. But that can be tricky because at some point, William usually wants to go to the garage and either play in Mommy's car, or play with sidewalk chalk, or play with Daddy's tools. And William knows how to open the gate. And he doesn't get the concept of waiting for Mommy before opening said gate and going to the garage. (He doesn't understand the concept of waiting, period, but that's another post.)

Soooo, for now, there are days that Seth doesn't get dinner (he also eats cereal and fruit and/or veggies during the day at daycare, so I don't worry too much about it), and there are days when I feed both boys outside, and days when William might not eat until 7:00 p.m., and there are days when I don't even get a chance to change my clothes or go to the bathroom until after the boys have gone to bed. But I'm sure as Seth gets older and the time changes, things will change yet again. So I'm trying to worry too much about it. Of course, I feel completely and totally spent by the time both boys are in bed, but again, that's another post all together.

We're surviving, although I feel like just barely at this point. It seems like everything has suddenly escalated--work has gotten stressful, William is, um, challenging, routines are out the window, and I'm not getting any sleep. But I keep repeating the mantra, "It's just a phase. This too, shall pass." Say it with me, now. "This, too, shall pass." I guess this is what my Blog title is all about--Working It Out.

Missing My Sense of Humor

That's missing, as in, my sense of humor is missing, and also as in, I miss it.

Ed says that ever since I've had kids, my sense of humor has been gone. I think it comes and goes, but for the most part, I have to agree with him. I think that sleep deprivation is responsible. Whatever the cause, today was one of those days where I really could have used it. William was a terrible two, and I'm afraid I didn't handle it very well.

I'm not sure if he was just tired, or hungry, or if he's starting to get a cold and wasn't feeling well or maybe it was his two-year-old molars that were bothering him. Or maybe it was just his day to act like a two-year-old. Who knows. At any rate, William, Seth, and I went to a pumpkin festival with Ed's parents today. There were hayrides, pony rides, slides, farm animals, a big hayloft, a pumpkin patch, mazes, and lots more. When we walked in, we got in line for the hayride, and William seemed excited. When the tractor pulled up with the wagon, we started to walk up the steps to get in, and William freaked out. So we started to walk away, and he freaked out. So we started to walk back towards the wagon, and he freaked out. Here's how the conversation went:

William (crying hysterically): "No no no I don't wanna go de wagon!"

Me: "Okay sweetie, we don't have to go. Let's go do something else."

William (crying even more hysterically): "No no no! I wanna ride de wagon."

Me: "Okay, let's get in line so we can get on the hayride."

William (crying hysterically at the top of his lungs now): "NO NO NO Wagon NO Wagon!"

I was mortified. And I know that other parents understood. And I know they felt bad for me and for William. And I felt bad for William, because clearly he was torn. He really wanted to ride the wagon, but he was also afraid. But I was still that parent who had the kid who was pitching a total and complete fit and I was powerless. So here's where my sense of humor would have come in handy. But it was nowhere to be found. Instead, I ended up pissed and stressed out and embarrassed. And I certainly didn't make the situation any better. Not my shining moment as a parent. And all in front of my in-laws, no less.

We finally walked away from the hay rides with William crying. But we managed to salvage the day somewhat. William was still cranky and whiny the rest of the day, but I think he had a good time. He rode a pony and then saw some farm animals that he liked (chickens, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats). He loved jumping around in the hay loft, and he rode on the pedal tractors and went through the mazes. At the end of the day, we decided to try the hay ride one more time. As we were about to get in the wagon, he started to freak out, but I just picked him up and put him in. I figured that once he was in and the tractor started driving, he would like it. Fortunately, I was right. The hayride took us to the pumpkin patch where we got out and picked our pumpkins. So the day ended on a good note.

You may be wondering where Seth was during all of this. He just hung out in the stroller the whole time. He got a little fussy at one point, and we took him out. I nursed him briefly at one point, too. But otherwise, he was just happy to take it all in.

Here are some pictures to end with.

This is from Saturday afternoon, at the grandparents' house. These bulldozers were parked in a field down the street from their house, so we had to go check them out.


When we finally moved on from the initial hayride fiasco, William took a pony ride. Note the expression. He wore this expression during the whole pony ride.

Here's a better look at the expression

Seth got to enjoy the hay, too.

Finally, some smiles!




And of course, picking pumpkins

If you happen to find my sense of humor, could you send it back to me?

Recovering

It is Tuesday and we are recovering nicely. William hasn't thrown up since around 1 p.m. yesterday, and he hasn't had a fever since 3:30 a.m. He's been eating normally today and playing and seems to be in good spirits. Seth is fine, knock on wood, so it looks like we'll be back to work/daycare tomorrow. Tomorrow was supposed to be William's first full day at his new daycare, but I think we'll try for Thursday now. The plan for tomorrow is to have him visit for a few hours in the morning and eat lunch at his new daycare, and then Thursday, I'll drop him off in the morning and play it by ear. If he seems to be doing well, I'll leave him all day. If not, I'll pick him up early.

Yesterday wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, having to juggle a sick toddler and an active and somewhat demanding 5-month-old. They managed to nap at different times, so I was able to give them each one-on-one time. Seth probably fussed a bit more than he is used to, and William didn't get held quite as much as he wanted to. But all in all, they both did great. I can't even begin to figure out how Cathy and her husband handled all six of their kids getting a stomach bug at almost the same time. That is just total craziness. Anyway, moving on . . .

Seth is really enjoying floor time these days and is starting to move all around. Gone are the days of putting him down in one place and expecting to find him there a few minutes later. Yesterday I had him in his car seat in the living room and went to the kitchen to get a drink for William. When I got back, Seth had flipped over onto his stomach in the car seat and was trying to figure out how the heck to get out of there! It's a good thing I was only gone a minute!

William got to watch lots and lots of TV and videos yesterday. We discovered a new show called Sid the Science Kid. William really liked it. He also saw Caillou for the first time and liked that one, too. There are very few shows that will keep his attention for long--especially if they don't involve construction vehicles or other big trucks. So I was glad to branch out a little. Today was back to our normal activities--playing outside in the sandbox, pushing the bubble lawn mower, drawing with sidewalk chalk on the driveway, playing in Mommy's car, playing with trucks in the family room, playing with playdough and trucks in the family room, playing with blocks and trucks in the basement, drawing on any number of random pieces of paper and envelopes and magazines with pens, playing at the kitchen sink, playing in his room with the train table, reading books (in just about every room), and finally, his newest activity, "checking e-mail." (Last night he went to the computer and climbed into the chair and told Ed and me that he was checking e-mail. Too funny!) It was a busy day!

I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep (she says laughing hysterically in her head) and getting back to our routine. Today was really nice, though, with William feeling better. While there are many days that I'm so glad that I work full time and have child care that I love, today was one of those days that I wished I could stay home with the boys. It was one of those days that made me think, "I could do this. I could even be good at it!" But the grass is always greener, right? Now that the boys are attending the new daycare, I'm even more excited about how much they will learn and grow and gain by being in group care. Despite wonderful days like today, I'm still very happy with our choices and my life!

An Exciting and Fun-filled Weekend . . .

Featuring a trip to the ER, very little sleep, a train ride not taken, a family party not attended, and lots of vomit!

Starring William Hahn.

Yes, it's been quite a weekend. On Saturday, Ed had William on his shoulders and they were playing around downstairs, and William apparently threw himself back. Ed grabbed his wrists to prevent him from falling, and William immediately starting crying in pain. He wouldn't move his arm and kept it close to his side, so we figured something was either severely sprained or broken. So Ed took him to the ER. It turned out that he had nursemaid's elbow. It's a common dislocation of the elbow (common in toddlers). Fortunately, William had stopped crying by the time he got into the car, and he was fine in the ER. He didn't even cry when the doctor put the joint back into place. The were back home within 2 hours and William was perfectly fine, as if nothing had happened. Whew! I was so sure he had broken his arm. What a relief. The weekend did not get better, however.

Saturday night was a rough one on the sleep front. Seth has not been sleeping well at all for several weeks now and I'm really at a loss as to what to do. He still sleeps swaddled, but he wakes up all the time and I have to replace his pacifier, and lately, he's been continuing to cry even after I give him his pacifier. I've tried unswaddling him, but it's really hard to get him back to sleep when he wakes up. And he flails around and can't seem to get comfortable if he's not swaddled. And I've tried putting him on his tummy, but he doesn't like it and rarely stays asleep on his stomach for more than 30 minutes. I've tried nursing him more often in the early part of the night. But nothing seems to help. Sometimes I think he wakes up because he's really uncomfortable, but he's not passing gas like he did in his earlier days. So who knows. At any rate, I swear I was up every 45 minutes last night. And if it wasn't Seth it was William, wanting me to sleep with him. And if he woke up and I wasn't with him, he'd start crying. He doesn't normally do that--cry so much when I'm not there. He usually will get up and come to our room or come into Seth's room if he sees Seth's door open.

Anyway, that leads us to today (Sunday). We had plans this morning to meet some friends who are here from out of town and take the Metro downtown to visit the Air and Space and Natural History Museums. So everything was fine this morning. We got ready, our friends arrived around 9:30, the boys played a little (they have a boy the same age as William), and then we got in our cars and drove to the Metro. William was excited to ride the Metro train. He had been acting a little whiny and cranky throughout the morning, and we just figured he was tired. On the way to the Metro, he said he felt "yucky," but you know--he's two. What does he know?

So Ed had dropped William, Seth, and me off at the Metro and had gone back home to do some work. My friends drove their car and parked at the Metro. We got our tickets and boarded the train. As we're waiting for the Metro train to leave the station, William lays his head in my lap, and then proceeds to throw up all over me. It was so gross. I had a burp cloth in my diaper bag so I used that to wipe up as much as I could. And then I used all of my wipes cleaning up the rest. I called Ed and told him to come back and William, Seth, and I had to get off the train and go back upstairs and wait for Ed to come back. William threw up on the sidewalk as we were waiting for Ed (right in front of some poor guy who was waiting to pick someone up!), and again in the car on the way home. He has thrown up several more times throughout the day and had a slight fever this evening. I'm praying that Seth won't get sick, and I'm hoping that William will get through the night without throwing up again. I'm fully prepared for another night of very little sleep. Seth, btw, was the perfect baby during this whole vomit episode. He just chilled out in the stroller and took everything in. He is such a good baby!

So needless to say, we did not get to visit with our friends, we did not make it to the housewarming party for Ed's cousin, where we would have seen the whole family, and I am not going to work tomorrow. *Sigh* I think this is the third Monday in a row that I've missed work because of a sick child. With that in mind, I'm going to bed now. I'm so tired I can't even see straight. Hopefully my next report will share better news!

Random Thoughts

All day I've been thinking random thoughts that I thought would make a good post, but now that I'm finally here, I can't remember any of them. Hmmmm, let's see . . .

• For starters, I still haven't uploaded the video of Seth rolling over, but I plan to do that soon.


• Part of the reason I haven't blogged much this week is because I've been cheating on Blogger with Facebook. I've found lots of old friends and it's the kind of site that really sucks you in. I always end up with a headache after I spent time looking around there.


• Seth is still not sleeping well and it's killing me.


• I've been planning a version of "What Not to Wear" for my blog where I take pictures of myself before work each day and then you guys can deconstruct my outfits. I hate my wardrobe right now, and I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't even have a full-length mirror so I really don't know what I look like when I leave the house each day.


• Getting up in the morning when it's still dark outside sucks.


• After work today, I managed to change my clothes, make cupcakes with William, feed Seth cereal, make William's dinner (it was just pasta, but still), and nurse Seth--all in less than one hour. Not too shabby.


• My kick-ass meal planning and meal-prep hasn't been so kick-ass lately. Partly that's because Ed and I decided to eat dinner together after the boys go to sleep. This gives us some greatly needed one-on-one time and allows us to enjoy our meal a bit more. It means I don't have to work quite as hard to plan ahead, but at the same time, less pressure means I've slacked off a lot. So it's back to the drawing board. But the other part of the reason is because Ed and William really don't like casseroles or one-dish meals that are easy to make ahead. So that really cramps my style a bit. With the cooler weather coming, I plan to utilize the crockpot more.


• None of these random thoughts were the thoughts that I was having earlier today. I still can't remember those. Oh well. I'm definitely ready for the weekend.
  

I think it's time for bed. I couldn't even pay attention to the debate tonight! Wowsers--what a week.

Making a Liar Out of Me

My kids like to make a liar out of me. No sooner had I written that Seth wasn't rolling over yet when he started rolling over. William actually saw him do it first. He shouted, "Sef rolled over, Mommy!"

Yay! I got some video which I'll add to this post tonight.

Seth is 5 Months Old!

Seth turned 5 months old today. My baby is getting so big! Unfortunately, he didn't have such a great day, what with being sick and all. But he was a good sport about the chair pictures.


Of course, big brother had to get in the picture:

which was okay at first

but then, not so much.

But big brother didn't seem to mind!

It's a good thing he's so darn cute!

At five months, Seth is babbling and laughing and he loves to flirt. He's nowhere near sleeping through the night (we seem to have regressed on the sleep front), but he's eating cereal (oatmeal) and loving it. He's still exclusively breastfed, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last. I'm aiming for six months before I have to start supplementing with formula. I'd love to continue breastfeeding for the first year.

As for physical development, he can roll from front to back, but not from front to back yet, although he's close. He grabs things and puts everything in his mouth. He's drooling like crazy, but no teeth yet. He can sit up for very short spurts, propped up, and he likes to grab his feet.

Here are some parting shots, taken in the last month. Happy 5-months birthday, Seth!