Dinner and Pictures

Today was another good day. We got off to a bit of a rough start because William woke up at 4:30 a.m. and came into our room. He had peed through his diaper, and because I didn't feel like changing his sheets at 4:30 a.m., I let him sleep in our bed after changing his pajamas. He had woken up with a horrible, croup-sounding cough though, so before getting into bed, I put his jacket on him and we went and sat outside for a few minutes. By the time we got back in bed, he wasn't very interested in going back to sleep. We dozed a little, but by 6:00 a.m., we were up and downstairs, ready to play. (Will he ever sleep in?)

Anyway, his cough didn't end up being bad during the day, so that was good. We played, ate breakfast, went to the grocery store, played some more, ate some lunch, took naps, played outside, played inside some more. And my Valentine's Day present to Ed was a special dinner that turned out excellent. I made a leg of lamb, asparagus, and dinner rolls, with chocolate mousse for dessert. The most amazing part is that William actually ate the lamb and asparagus, and he especially loved the chocolate mousse. Life is good!

I finally got the camera out to take pictures today. I didn't get any great ones of William but got a few of Seth.

First, William wanted me to take a picture of his workman:


He played outside this morning, but refused to look at the camera:


Meanwhile, Seth has become quite taken with Ritz crackers.


He eats them meticulously until there's hardly any left.


Look at that face. He is too cute. Yes, life is good!

Sweet Moments

Happy Valentine's Day! Since I had no expectations for today, it actually turned out to be a really nice day. The boys wanted to show their love for me ASAP, so we were up by 6:00 a.m. Ed had a very nice card for me. Ed's parents agreed to last-minute babysitting so that Ed and I could go out to lunch and then a movie. We saw Slum Dog Millionaire, and it was very good. It would probably be just as good on DVD, but it was nice to be in a real theater. It's been a while!

The boys had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and we didn't get home until after 6:00 p.m. Both boys fell asleep in the car on the way home, so they were a bit wound up once they fully woke up. We let them play for a bit, then fed them dinner late, and then let them take a long bath together. Seth LOVES taking a bath and practically nose-dives into the bathtub. We've always bathed William just about every night, and it looks like Seth will be following the same pattern. Anyway, our usual routine for bath and bedtime is for me to get Seth out first, put on his pjs, and give him his bottle, while Ed takes over the rest of bathtime for William and gets William out and dressed in pjs. Ed usually reads William one or two books, and then after I've put Seth to sleep, I read William two or three books.

On Saturday nights, however, I do the bath and bedtime routine solo. Ed plays clarinet in a jazz band that has a gig every Saturday night in downtown DC. He doesn't get home until 3:30 a.m., so he usually takes a nap after dinner on Saturday nights. When I do the routine solo, I usually get Seth out of the bath first, put his diaper and pjs on him in the bathroom, then get William out and get him dressed. Then I set William up with his nebulizer treatment and a video while I give Seth his bottle and put him to bed. Then I can read to William and put him to bed. Tonight, however, we gave William his nebulizer treatment when we got home since he wanted to watch a video. So I told him he could play with his trains in his room or read books while I put Seth to bed.

As I sat in Seth's room, giving him his bottle, I heard William walk down the hall into our bedroom. I felt bad for Ed, because I know he was trying to sleep, but I didn't hear Ed say anything, so I just decided to wait and see. William started reading Go Dog, Go and it was everything I could do not to laugh out loud. He said, "Dog. Big Dog. Uh oh! Honk! Honk!" (That's the "dog out of a car" page.) "Wanna wear my hat? No I don't. Good-bye." "Dog going up! Dog going down." It was hysterical. He was reading with the same inflection and expressions that I use when I read it to him. When I finally put Seth into his crib and walked into our room, I found the room dark, Ed lying in the bed with the covers over his head, William sitting in the bed propped up on pillows, happily reading away. By the time I got there, he had started reading Goodnight Gorilla, so I lay down beside him and let him finish. It was one of those moments that makes you love parenting. Ed later said that William climbed into our bed all by himself (our bed is on risers so it's high off the ground), got himself situated, opened his book, and just started reading. Ed didn't have the heart to make him go back to his room. Definitely a sweet way to end Valentine's Day.

Switching gears here, I wanted to update on how the "operation Get Tough" is going with William. It should be called "operation not-tough-enough." I've been partially successful. I've been able to say no to the chocolate milk. But not lying down with him is a bit harder. It's an emotional need that's hard to say no to. For a couple of nights, I've gone into his room, spent a few minutes talking to him about how he needs to sleep all by himself, how he has all his "friends" (stuffed animals) around him, how Daddy and me are just down the hall and will come if he needs us, etc etc. And I've gone back to our room. But then less than 10 minutes later, he's either back in our room, or crying. So long story short, it's slow going. We keep trying to entice him with the offer of fruit snacks when he wakes up if he stays in his bed all night. (We've also offered fruit snacks if he'll poop in the potty.) So far, that hasn't been quite persuasive enough. So we'll see what happens.

Got Milk?

We've slipped into a bad habit of getting William a cup of chocolate milk as soon as he wakes up in the morning. This is okay when he wakes up at 6:00 a.m. or later. But sometimes he wakes up around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. and he wants his chocolate milk. He'll go right back to sleep once he's had it, so of course, it's easier just to get it for him. But now we've fed the monster, and he's gotten into the habit of waking up at 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. and he expects his chocolate milk. And he also expects to either get into our bed, or for one of us (Ed or me) to get in bed with him.

So this week, we've been working on slaying the dragon. No chocolate milk until the morning. No getting into bed with William, and no William getting into bed with us. Except for last night, when he peed out of his diaper and ended up with a huge wet spot in his bed. And the night before when I got into bed with him, only to hear him ask every 30 seconds or so, "Can I have some chocolate milk? Can you get me some chocolate milk? I want some chocolate milk! I want some! Can I have some chocolate milk?" I held out until 5:30 a.m. That's pretty good, right? I can't remember why I got into bed with him in the first place, but I'm sure there was a good reason for that, too. (Probably because I forgot that we were laying down the law this week.)

So tonight is the night. I'm really going to say no. And I'm going to let him pitch a fit, even if it wakes up Seth. (Which it will.) And I'm going to remember that we're saying no, too. Even though sleep deprivation drives a person to do what.ever.it.takes to go back to sleep! So wish me luck.

(P.S. Seth is doing better, and went to daycare yesterday and today. Thank goodness! He went to the doctor this morning, and he just has a cold. He's still pretty congested, but definitely improving. I'll just ignore the fact that he had two very loose poops at daycare today.)

(P.S.S. Ed came up with the title for today's post. Pretty clever, huh? He never reads my blog, but just happened to be passing by. I guess he's good for something, huh?)

Too Good to Last

Because I foolishly said "out loud" that the boys were both healthy "going on two weeks," the fates had to show me who is boss. Daycare called Thursday afternoon to inform me that Seth was running a slight fever (100.7) and I needed to come pick him up. They said his mood was fine, and he wasn't acting fussy or cranky. And the lead teacher even said that if he had a good night and his fever didn't come back, I could bring him back Friday. (Usually, a child has to be fever-free for 24 hours before he can return to daycare.) We speculated that he was teething and I crossed my fingers and hoped this was it.

Unfortunately, his fever continued through Thursday night, and he had kind of a rough night, so we stayed home on Friday. His nose started running on Friday, and he was pretty cranky. His fever continued on Friday, and Friday night, and Saturday, and Saturday night. Saturday night he had a crying fit for 30 minutes that freaked me out. I think his teeth were definitely bothering him, on top of being totally congested and just feeling pretty miserable. He started coughing a bit, too, so you can imagine how anxious I've been feeling this weekend.

Today, however, he was much better. He took a power nap this morning (almost 3 hours) and hasn't had a fever since he first woke up. His nose is still very congested, but that seems to be the worst of it. We have a follow-up doctors' appointment on Tuesday, which is also when he's scheduled to get his 9-month shots, so they'll check his ears and teeth and make sure everything is okay. Hopefully he'll have a good day at daycare tomorrow (barring any fever tonight). I feel like we've dodged a bullet, but of course, I shouldn't speak too soon!

Besides nursing Seth back to health, we had a nice weekend. Ed took William ice skating again on Saturday. William fell asleep in the car on the way home, so when he got home, I laid down with him in his bed hoping he would go back to sleep. He barely opened his eyes as he snuggled with me, and when he was almost asleep, he opened his eyes and looked at me and said drowsily, "I had a good time ice skating wif Daddy. It was swippery!" And then he fell asleep. So sweet! Today (Sunday) the weather was gorgeous, so William got to play outside for a good part of the day. We got out his tricycle (kind of a cross between a tricycle and a Big Wheels) and he "rode" around the block. I say "rode" because he refuses to pedal and just pushes the tricycle with his feet. He'll figure it out one day, I guess!

So that's our weekend. I wish it hadn't involved sickness, but that's just par for the course. The beautiful weather did a lot to improve the outlook. I can't wait until spring! I'm hoping that wherever we end up will be part of a community with a pool!

Stopping the Bleeding

You probably thought this was going to be another post about how I injured Seth. Fortunately, Seth is fine. But by now you might have guessed the big news I was alluding to in my previous post. We sold our house! We put our house on the market in October, and after four long months and several low offers and reducing the list price once, we sold for $5,000 under list price. This is pretty good in our neighborhood. Home prices are falling FAST in our neck of the woods, and there's a foreclosure on our street that is listed for $170,000 less than our home. Ouch! Some of the other houses on our street have gone for $30,000 or more below list price. So we're feeling pretty good. Although we lost money--$52,000, to be precise--we feel like we've stopped the bleeding.

Let me back up a bit, and tell you why we decided to sell our house. First of all, while we both like our house a lot, I can't say we really LOVE our house. (Mistake number one when buying a house!) There are definitely things I love about it, and that I will dearly miss. I love the hardwood floors (although they are so beat up after just a year and a half), I love the huge back yard (even though there are many trees that need to be removed and it's too shady to grow grass in more than half the yard), I love having the basement playroom with the full bath, I love the huge laundry room (although it would be nice to have a laundry room upstairs), I love the garage with the work bench, I love our neighbors on one side, and I love how close we are to the elementary school. But there are lots of things I don't love. I like the layout, but the dimensions of all the rooms are a bit too small (except the basement and master bedroom). It's very hard to fit furniture into the rooms. (It's a good thing we don't have any decent furniture!) The kitchen is pretty small, and doesn't have enough drawer space, nor does it have a nice big pantry! The master bathroom is kind of weird, because the area with the sinks is open to the bedroom.

So anyway, when we moved in, we were thinking that we wouldn't be staying there forever. (Mistake number 2! Buy a house that you wouldn't mind staying in forever!) We thought maybe 5 years, 6 or 7 max. Meanwhile, the market tanked and housing prices started spiraling downward. My astute husband could foresee the market bottoming out wayyyyyyy lower than what we paid for our house, and rather than continue to lose equity and get stuck in a house and a neighborhood we don't love, we decided to cut our losses and put the house on the market and see what happens. Since we weren't desperate to sell, we felt like we could wait for a good offer. And worse case scenario, we don't accept any offers and we end up stuck, no worse for the wear. But fortunately, our patience paid off. We've stopped the bleeding! Now we plan to find a place to rent for a few years as we look for our dream house and the dream location.

Which brings me to the silver lining of losing $52,000. Hopefully, we'll be moving to an area much closer to the city, which will significantly reduce our commute. When we first looked at moving out to the suburbs where we ended up, I really struggled with how it would affect our quality of life. We were living in a cramped condo with a tiny kitchen, but it was a great area and only 8 miles from work. So what's more important to quality of life--having a shorter commute and more time at home? Or having a nice house with a big yard and lots of room in a nice area? It would be great to have both, and maybe one day we will. But after doing the long commute for one and a half years, I think I'm ready to tolerate a smaller place with not-so-great amenities in exchange for a shorter commute and more time (and less stress!). The frustrating thing is that when we first moved to the 'burbs, I swear the commute wasn't that bad. We were getting home at 5:15 or 5:30 at the latest. But traffic seems to be getting progressively worse, and now that I'm dropping off/picking up two kids from daycare, that adds time to our day, too.

Anyway, although I've had really mixed feelings about selling our house, I know now it's the right thing to do. When we first put our house on the market, our families gave us a lot of crap. Everyone kept saying that the market will go back up, we just have to ride it out, if we sell now, we'll lose money, this is the worst time to sell, yada yada yada. When it comes to all things money, though, I completely trust my husband. And his research and his instincts told him that the market is going to continue to drop, and will probably bottom out at 2001 prices, and then stay there for a long, long time. So add that to the fact that our daily grind is really wearing me down, and it just makes sense to bail. And I think the current state of the economy and the real estate market is proving Ed right. But even if he turns out to be wrong, I still trust him 100%, and want him to follow his instincts. You don't learn if you don't take risks.

So now we're looking at rentals and locations and whether we want to rent a townhouse or a single family home. Ed would like to not have to deal with yardwork for a while. But I hate the thought of not having a yard for William to play in. We MUST have a place for his sandbox! LOL. Who knows what we will find. We're keeping an open mind, that's for sure. Our closing isn't until April 20, so there's a good bit of time between now and then. And the fat lady hasn't sung yet, so there's always the chance the deal could fall through. Still, the potential for change for the better is exciting! And while I worry about William having a hard time with the move, I know he'll be fine. He just wants to be where we are and will adjust like everyone else.

Time to Blog

I've been having a really hard time lately finding time to blog. Between traffic and me having to stay at work a bit later now (our HR department decided to crack down on the 8.5 hour day--I was working 8 hours and skipping lunch, but can't do that anymore), we've not been getting home until 6:00 p.m. I try to feed the boys dinner at 6:30, but since William usually needs (and deserves) my undivided attention the minute we get home for at least 15-30 minutes, we haven't been eating until closer to 7:00, and our whole schedule has been pushed back by half an hour. So Seth's not going to sleep until 7:45 or 8 and William's not going to sleep until 8:15 or 8:30. I haven't been wrapping up my evening "chores" until about 9:30. And all I want to do by then is crawl into bed. So I haven't been blogging. I really wish we had about two more hours in each day. Too bad time can't evolve like people do!

Despite the drudgery of life right now, things are going well. Seth and William are both healthy, and it's going on two weeks. Seth has not sustained any more serious injuries (other than the bruises and bumps that accompany a cruising, fearless baby). William has been showing more interest in the potty. He's been peeing in the toilet for a while, when prompted (doesn't tell us when he needs to go yet), and he's just this week started sitting on the potty to "try" to poop. This is a big step. In the past, he's always refused to sit on the potty. He hasn't actually pooped yet, but we'll get there. Fortunately, they're working on it at daycare, with the chart and stickers and peer pressure. I'm really not worrying very much about it. They'll tell me when they think he's ready to get serious. Yet another HUGE benefit to daycare.

Seth has started cruising with a vengeance. He's walking behind push toys and trying to keep up with William. He loves drinking out of sippy cups--especially if he can swipe William's! He's sleeping so much better, too. He typically wakes up once, around 4:00 or 4:30 to drink a bottle. He lost over a pound while he was sick, so I'm reluctant to make him give up that nighttime bottle just yet. He's starting to eat table food but still loves his bottles.

So that's our life right now. I shouldn't complain. Really, I have nothing to complain about. We have good jobs, a place to live, families, and our health. Everything else is gravy. And anyway, things might be changing a bit in the not-too-distant future--for the better. But I'll have to save that for another post! (How's that for a cliffhanger?)

Gross Negligence?

Poor poor Seth. I think he greatly suffers from second-child syndrome. I begged his daycare teachers this morning not to report me for gross neglect.

A few weeks ago, I picked Seth up when I was standing at the sink--which is next to the stove. I had forgotten that I had just taken a pot off of the back burner (I always cook on the back burners) and had set it on the front burner. Seth's hand brushed up against the pot and he burned his two little fingers! I felt sooo horrible.

Then a few days ago, he was crawling around under me in the bathroom, and the blow dryer that I had carelessly rested on the sink counter fell down on his hand (thank God it was just his hand!) and banged and cut his finger just below his nail bed.

THEN this morning, he was crawling around under me again as I tried to get ready for work. I put my old makeup bag down for him to play with (stuff that he can't figure out how to open yet) and forgot that the pencil sharpener was in there. I looked down after a few minutes and noticed little drops of blood everywhere. He had managed to cut the tip of his finger and fingernail. Wow--did I feel horrible.

THEN, when I went to put him in the car seat to head to school, I notice that the side of his face is scraped--right on his cheek. I have NO IDEA when or how he did that, but it was in the span of just a few minutes. He cried and fussed a bit off and on this morning, but there wasn't any anguished, painful kind of cry. I guess he's pretty tough!

So I'm hoping he can get through the rest of the day without sustaining any more injuries. Clearly daycare is the safest place he can be right now! Poor Seth.

Weekend Report

Wow--I haven't done a weekend report in a long time! I guess this goes to show that things really might be getting back to normal. Our weekend was really nice and uneventful--just like they should be! On Saturday Ed and I cleaned and cleaned in between playing with the boys. We went to a local Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Today we went to the mall and William got his second haircut and a new pair of shoes! When we walked into Stride Rite, I didn't expect William to have much of an opinion about his shoes. Although he's picky about his shirts and pants, he never seems to care about what shoes he's wearing. I should have thought twice. He got one look at these:
and that was it. In case you can't tell, that's a MONSTER TRUCK on the shoe. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever. Ed was horrified by the flashing lights and tried to convince William to go for another pair. But then he realized that most of the shoes in that store are at least $50 and these were only $35. So William gleefully wore his tacky, light-up MONSTER TRUCK tennis shoes out of the store. (He's a size 8 now!)

When we got home, Ed and William turned right around and met Ed's family at a Japanese steakhouse (where they cook in front of you) to celebrate his grandparents' 59th anniversary. We thought it might be too much for Seth, so Seth and I stayed home. When William came back, all he said was, "Mommy, I saw FIRE!" I had already put Seth to bed, so I got to give all my attention to William as we did his nebulizer treatment, changed into PJs, and read stories. It was awesome to get one-on-one time with both boys tonight. And it was awesome to not feel worried about the boys' health this weekend. Seth's appetite is back and he's got much more energy. And I think he's finally stopped retracting. So we may try to send him to daycare tomorrow. We'll see how he looks in the morning and how his night goes.

So that's our weekend report. Hopefully our week will be as uneventful as our weekend!

Seth is Nine Months Old!

I have so much to talk about--the inauguration, our visit with Laura and Heather, the boys recovering (fingers crossed!) and childcare options--but before I get to any of that, I remembered that today is Seth's nine-month birthday! And I even got chair pictures. (Not great, but they'll do!) I think I've mentioned before that William loves to "write" with pens. He discovered an old daytimer calendar of mine and was pretty busy recording goodness-knows-what in there.


Seth, meanwhile, was quite busy with all of the nebulizer tubing that we've accumulated over the last few years.

It's getting harder and harder to take pictures of him on the chair. He's usually trying to take a nose-dive off the chair! As you can tell by the pictures, his nose is still a faucet, but I think he's slowly improving. His appetite has picked up a lot in the last two days. He's eating cheerios again, and babyfood (but only if it's fruit), so that's promising. He also hasn't had any fever in two days. We went to the doctor again today for a follow-up, however, and he now has a double ear infection. So he's on Augmentin. The doctor said to continue with the nebulizer for his breathing, and as long as he continues to improve, they don't need a follow-up for two weeks. If he doesn't improve or gets worse, they'll see him right away. As for daycare, he can go back when his breathing is better (not retracting), his appetite is back, and his cough is just residual. It could be Monday, it could be a week from Monday. I'm hoping for Monday, but on the other hand, I'm really scared to send him back to daycare. But that's fodder for another post.

What I should be talking about is how much Seth is doing these days, and how freaking adorable he is! He has figured out how to climb, and he is so proud of himself when he does it. He especially loves to climb onto the fireplace hearth. And yesterday, he figured out how to get on the dishwasher.


He also figured out how much fun toilet paper can be.

And when you ask, "How big is Seth?" he does this as you're saying, "So big!":

He's starting to cruise a bit, too, so I'm wondering if he'll walk around the same time that William did. (12 months) It's crazy to me that he's already nine months old and passing all of these milestones. It's even crazier that he still doesn't have any teeth! Not one tooth! He is saying "Mama" though! And I think he knows that "Mama" is me.

Even though it's Seth's nine-month-birthday, I don't want to close without at least mentioning William. He has been equally as adorable, and has really been using his imagination so much these days. He has a set of blocks that have some pieces that are long and thin, and he stuffs these between the sofa cushions and pretends they're his controls and levers for operating his diggers. One day it will be an excavator and one day a backhoe and one day a crane. Today we were upstairs trying to get some work done, and there was something in the basement he wanted, so he went down there by himself. And when he came back, he was lugging his huge CAT backhoe. He carried that thing up two flights of stairs! And he was so proud of himself. He said, "I be ve-we careful Mommy!" I think he must be having a growth spurt, because he's been eating more lately (not much, but more than he was) and not fighting naps or bedtime. One of his favorite books right now is At the Auto Repair Center. He loves any of the Tonka books (I'm a Great Big Eighteen Wheeler, Pure Power, Rescue Action, etc. etc.) and studies them very seriously. There has been no diverting William from his love of all things truck! He's also been saying that he "loves" things, like, today at Target he said, "I lub dat twuck, Mommy!"

He is fully recovered from his pneumonia and his nose has even dried up. Praise be! He went to daycare today and had a great time. He told me that he likes his friends today when I picked him up. That's because in the morning, before we get to daycare, he usually tells me that he doesn't like his friends and he doesn't want to go to school. Once he gets there, though, he happily pushes me out the door.

So that's where we are right now. Not perfect, but much much better. I still have so much to say--especially about the inauguration and Laura's visit, but I'll have to save that for another night. This turned into a much longer post than I had planned, but that's good, because it means things are maybe possibly getting back to "normal," whatever that is!

Not To Be Outdone

Seth decided William was having all the fun this week, so he one-upped him. Seth and I spent the day in the ER.

When last I left you, it was Wednesday. Seth had been wheezing, and the doctor put him on Albuterol and an antibiotic, and wanted to see him on Thursday. So Thursday morning, Ed took Seth back to the doctor. Seth was sounding much better and he didn't have a fever. The doctor said to continue albuterol every 6-8 hours, or as needed, if his breathing started sounding labored. He was fine the rest of Thursday, and had a pretty good night Thursday night. He also didn't have any more diarrhea. So we decided to give daycare a try on Friday.

Well, his morning was good. But his fever came back on Friday afternoon at daycare, and his breathing was a bit labored. So we went home and did a nebulizer treatment and I gave him Motrin. He had a really fitful night and I nebulized him again at some ungodly hour of the morning. At that point, I considered just taking him to the ER, but he managed to go back to sleep and his fever went down, so I decided to wait and take him to his pediatrician in the morning.

So this morning we went to the doctor and they sent us to the ER. They didn't think he had pneumonia, and he wasn't wheezing, but his labored breathing definitely pointed to something--most likely RSV. So we went to the ER. He was so pitiful when we got there. He hadn't had any Motrin since the wee hours of the morning, so his fever had spiked, and he felt and looked miserable. His nose was so congested. We were admitted pretty quickly and the nurse and an intern and the attending doctor all examined him. The nurse gave him Motrin, thank goodness, and the doctor came back and said that he has bronchiolitis, which is brought on usually by RSV. They did a nose swab and sent him for a chest x-ray just in case. The nose swab came back positive for RSV and the chest x-ray was negative for pneumonia.

Initially the doctor wanted to admit him to the hospital for overnight observation. He was worried that Seth's breathing could become so labored that it would wear him out and he could go into respiratory failure. But he ordered a nebulizer treatment, which Seth responded really well to. And the Motrin had kicked in, so Seth was visibly improved. So they sent us home with orders to nebulize every 3-4 hours and to keep his fever down by alternating Tylenol and Motrin. They also gave him an oral steroid and we got a prescription for that.

I asked the ER doctor if we should consider getting a nanny and keeping him out of group care. He said keeping him home might limit how much and how often he's exposed to viruses and bacteria, but he'd still get sick and still react in the same ways. And since he already has an older sibling who will expose him to lots of germs, it probably wouldn't do a whole lot of good to have in-home care. That made me feel a little better. But I'm also going to ask my pediatrician/s what they think. I can't help but think there's something I'm doing wrong--some obvious reason that my kids keep getting so sick when other kids aren't. It just doesn't make sense--they weren't preemies, I breast fed exclusively until 6 months, and continued to nurse beyond that. There isn't a long history of asthma or other respiratory illness in our families. Or even bad allergies. Are both of my kids going to end up with asthma? Should I move somewhere with a better climate or less pollution? Should I stay home with them instead of sending them to daycare? I wish the answers were crystal clear.

As for operation sanitization, I've made good progress. I got all the beds stripped and the house Lysoled. I got about three-quarters of the toys sanitized. I need more Clorox Anywhere. And to end on a positive note, William is much much better. His nose is still runny, but his cough is winding down. Even though he's been a little more clingy to me in the last few days--wanting me to hold him or play with him--he's also been enjoying playing with his toys and even had a great day at daycare on Friday. I'm praying that we've been through the worst of it this winter. And I'm also thanking God that this is a four-day weekend for us. We get Tuesday off because of the inauguration, so hopefully Seth will be recovered by then. I used two days of sick leave this past week, and I'm not even sure I had two days of leave. And I think I have one day of annual leave left. But my new leave kicks in on Feb. 1, so that's a relief.

Anyway, this hasn't been a very interesting blog lately. But I think I'll be glad I recorded all of this later. Hopefully, I'll look back and think, "Wow--things were really hard then. But that was the hardest time, and it all got better from there." Wishful thinking, huh? I don't think it gets easier--the challenges just change. Despite the stress and worry and guilt, I still wouldn't trade motherhood for anything in the world.

Good News . . . and Bad

William is much much better today. Infrequent coughing fits, no fever, and back to his energetic ways. Seth, on the other hand, is much, much worse. He started coughing a lot overnight and his diarrhea has continued. He woke up with a fever, and started wheezing. He was so lethargic all day. So back to the doctor we went today--the third time in three days. The doctor prescribed nebulizer treatments with albuterol, and an antibiotic. She wants to see him tomorrow morning, and if he hasn't shown improvement, she'll send him for a chest x-ray. Ed will stay home with both boys tomorrow. William could probably return to school, but we figute it's better to give him one more day at home.

I'll be doing some major disinfecting over the next few nights. I've got my Lysol and My Clorox Anywhere. Toys that can will go in the dishwasher. Others that can get submerged will go in a bathtub of Clorox. The rest will get sprayed with the Clorox Anywhere. And all household surfaces (doorknobs, cabinets, faucets, etc.) will get Lysoled. All sheets and towels and pillowcases and washcloths, etc., will get washed on the sanitary cycle (super hot). I will become the handwashing Nazi, and will not go anywhere without hand sanitizer.

On a lighter and far more pleasant note, William has been thanking me lately for all kinds of things, like making his dinner, giving him a bath, turning on a video. It's really cute. Today, as we walked from our car to CVS to fill Seth's prescriptions, William said, (in a really sweet, almost excited voice) "Dank you for holding my hand while we cwossed de stweet, Mommy!" It was so completely unprompted, and so genuine and ernest. I laughed because a lady had just walked out of CVS in time to hear him say that, and my first thought was (although I didn't say this out loud), "Don't worry--he's not always this polite! It's just a phase." It's nice to have William back to his old self. Now if we can just get Seth there!

Pneumonia

William has pneumonia. It started Saturday, when he woke up with his typical, tight, dry cough. He was coughing a lot, and his breathing rate was a bit high. So I nebulized him with Albuterol. It didn't seem to help a lot, but he was in a pretty good mood, so I didn't worry too much about it. He started running a fever at some point on Saturday. The fever was not his typical MO, but it wasn't very high, so again, I wasn't too concerned. He took a nap, and when he woke up, we went to Ed's parents house to spend the night.

Overnight, his fever got worse, and he was definitely wheezing. We nebulized him again and gave him Motrin. The Motrin brought the temperature down, but it would go back up. On Sunday morning, I called our doctor to ask if I should be concerned about the fever. I told them that he wasn't struggling to breathe, but he was still wheezing and the Albuterol didn't really seem to be helping. The nurse didn't seem too concerned, and since we were in Maryland at Ed's parents, I decided not to take him in. His fever went up and down all day Sunday and he was coughing a lot. Sunday night was more of the same, so Monday morning, Ed took him to the doctor. The doctor sent them to get a chest x-ray, and an hour later, diagnosed him with pneumonia and gave him a prescription for Augmentin. She said we should see improvement within 24 hours.

He spent the rest of Monday with Ed's sister and I think he felt miserable all day. Monday night was pretty bad. He coughed and coughed and his fever continued to go up and down. Today, fortunately, he was much better. He didn't have a temperature, so that was good. But he was still coughing like crazy.

Meanwhile, Seth has not been himself, and now he has diarrhea again. He's not eating, and is pretty clingy. He's also taking really short naps. So I took him to the doctor today and William tagged along. The doctor concluded that Seth probably has a virus, but when she heard William coughing, she was concerned. We did a nebulizer treatment to see if that helped his coughing, and then she prescribed him an oral steroid. And if he doesn't improve by tomorrow, she wants to see him again. Tonight he woke up crying an hour after he went to sleep, and sure enough, he's running a fever again.

Last night, William slept in our bed. Tonight, I might sneak into his bed. I feel better being right next to him when he's sick like this. I'm hoping that the diagnosis of pneumonia sounds much more serious than it is. I know it can be very serious, but in most cases, it's easily treated and recovery is quick. So I hope that's true for William.

Still Struggling

I'd like to say 2009 is off to a great start, but the boys are sick again. We couldn't even get through one week of daycare. Seth came down with a fever and diarrhea on Thursday, so he stayed home on Friday (half the day with Daddy and half with Aunt Meredith), and on Friday, William started coughing. By Saturday morning, he was on his way to wheezing and had developed a fever. His fever has been up and down--down thanks to Motrin--and we've been giving him Albuterol to control the wheezing. He hasn't been this sick in a while, poor thing. Seth is better, though, so he'll be going to school tomorrow while William stays with his Aunt Meredith.

When his fever has been under control, William has been in a pretty good mood. He's thrilled that we've been letting him watch so many videos. He saw My Dog Skip twice and loves it. Tomorrow he'll get to see Wall-E for the first time. He's also been playing with Seth, which has been pretty cute. Seth has started following William around, and wants to play with whatever William is playing with. And of course, if I'm playing with Seth, William wants to play with whatever we're playing with. Fun times. I've also been bathing the boys together lately. Seth loves it and it's easier and less time-consuming than bathing them both separately. I got a few pictures of them together tonight so I"ll post them. I've been working on adjusting the flash so that's it's not quite so bright. Here are the full flash pictures:


And here's one with the flash adjusted a bit:


And finally, in the bath:

Let's hope William will have a good day tomorrow! And Seth, too, for that matter. It's always something.

Christmas Morning Madness

Christmas morning was noisy at our house. Santa Claus brought a ball popper toy for Seth which turned out to be the hit toy of Christmas morning for both boys. What makes me laugh the most in this video is Seth squealing.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The boys had a great time playing with their new toys, although it was a bit overwhelming for them. Santa got a little carried away this year. We'll have to remind him of that next year! William got lots of different trucks (forklift, skid steer loader, front loader, garbage truck, LP car carrier, matchbox trucks), LP Spin n Crash Raceway, a mini space shuttle, , books, play dough, a few DVDs (he loves the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD), markers and paper, gears, plastic fruit he can "cut," a blower, and a fire station and doll house (neither of which he is very interested in, but Santa got them both for a steal, so that's okay). Seth got the ball popper, fish aquarium toy, Peek 'n' Play discovery dome, and lots of small, infant-type toys. He also got pajamas and Robeeze-type shoes.

In fact, the boys got so many new toys that even after cleaning out and putting away lots of old toys, we still needed to figure out a better toy storage system, so Ed went to Ikea and bought shelves to house all the toys. It makes the playroom look sooo much better. Although I'm embarrassed by how many toys we have.

Santa was not just good to the boys, though. I must have been a really good girl last year because here is what Santa brought me:

In my opinion, it lives up to the hype. I LOVE it.

So all the gift opening and playing with new toys was awesome, but the best part of Christmas was the early morning, when William and Seth both ended up in our bed, and then later, watching the boys play and interact, and making Eggs Benedict for Ed and me, and just relaxing and enjoying our family. In the afternoon we went to Ed's parents and had Christmas all over again with Ed's family. That was really fun, too. Even with all the stress leading up to Christmas, Christmas 2008 will still be hard to beat!

Seth is 8 Months Old! (Ummmm, 2 weeks ago!)

In all the commotion leading up to the holidays, I missed the chair pictures on Seth's 8-month birthday. And then I forgot the next day. And the day after. So almost 2 weeks later, I finally took the chair pictures!

Note the bruise on Seth's forehead. His sole purpose on Earth right now is to pull himself to standing--on anything and everything that looks even halfway stable. This has resulted in multiple falls, bumps, and bruises. And it doesn't help that William has no appreciation for how unstable Seth is. Poor Seth--I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. Despite the bruises, Seth remains his adorable happy self. Besides standing, he loves to eat. It's so nice for a change to have an eater! He's babbling lots, too--lots of consonant sounds. He doesn't really have a favorite toy right now because all he wants to do is pull himself to standing and attempt to cruise. He also goes crazy for his bath, and he can't stand getting his diaper changed. You'd think it was the worst form of torture possible!

So without further ado, the chair pictures! It's getting harder and harder to get good chair pictures. There's lots of motion and little cooperation. But these turned out pretty cute, in spite of that!

New Year's Resolutions

Instead of writing a list of things that I resolve to do in 2009, I'd rather phrase things this way:

• 2009 is the year that I will get a full night's (meaning at least 8 hours) sleep.
• 2009 is the year that I will get to sleep in every other Saturday.
• 2009 is the year that I will stop biting my nails.
• 2009 is the year that I will take more and better pictures, and then print the pictures and put them in albums or frames.
• 2009 is the year that I will become a more thoughtful person by sending cards and gifts to friends and family.
• 2009 is the year that I will do a better job of getting dinner on the table and packing lunch for work.
• 2009 is the year that I will go on a date with my husband more than a handful of times.
  

This way, I have the whole year to accomplish my goals, rather than feel like I'm under the gun the first couple of months. I'm more likely to give up in March if I haven't made progress by then. But now, if March comes around and none of these things have happened, that's okay, because I'll still have 9 more months to make things happen! Most importantly, though, I want 2009 to be the year that I figure out how to stay underwhelmed by life--how to balance time with my kids, my husband, my friends, my job, and myself. I guess there will always be moments that throw everything out of whack--like a sick child or pressing deadline at work, or both at the same time--but in 2009, I will learn to navigate the crazy dips and turns a little bit better, a little more calmly. That's good enough for now!

2008 in Pictures

Happy New Year! Ed and I got to dress up last night and enjoy a fancy five-course meal at a great little Belgian restaurant. It was pricey, but well worth it--if not for the food, then for the chance to go out, just the two of us. Resolution number one for 2009 is to establish a regular date night. We have enough family in the area that there really is no excuse.

Annnnyway, I'll talk more about resolutions in my next post. For now, I want to review 2008. I got the idea from Laura, who got the idea from Goddess.

January

February

March

April

May

June

JulyAugust


SeptemberOctober


November


December

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!