My tiny ball of light

Without a doubt, my favorite moment from last night's Oscars.

Gummy Bear's Stage Debut

Today we went to a free Winter Jazz Festival. Super fun. Not only did we get all the free food we could eat (chicken marsala, quinoa salad, Moroccan stew, sushi, and all the tarts and pastries you could wish for), they also had some good music. The highlight for Gummy Bear was the magician who performed in between bands. He was picked for a very special assignment.

 He had to help the magician make a hat that would fit him.

 So first they tore some paper.

 Then he kept making more and more magic wands.

 Finally, he had to tap the paper and say some magic words.

Eh Voila! A hat! He thought it was great, and wasn't a big stage-shy. Who would have guessed that?

Countdown to Government Shutdown of Doooommmmm!

Yeah. So I have not been writing much because there hasn't been much to write about. T is going through a thing right now that includes lots of tantrums and drama. F has decided this week that he has an opinion, and it's mostly not my opinion. I've been learning lots about diabetes and congenital abnormalities.

Ry has been busy at work.  That may change pretty dramatically soon, though. It seems that there is a pretty good chance that the government is going to shut down on March 4.  Unpaid vacation time! That is exactly what we need right now!!

We don't know if he will be furloughed or not. We also don't know if he'd get paid for the time missed when he went back to work. We're sitting right in the center of a steaming pile of We Don't Know. Those of you who know me well know how good I am at I don't know. But hey, we may get to enjoy my spring break together!

Wow, this post has lots of italics and exclamation points. That must mean that I've exceeded my snark threshold and should go to bed. So. Good night ya'll.

Search Terms

Nothing to add today, except that two people got to my blog by searching for "giant cat couch."

Repeat after me

T is in the bathroom.

T: I made a mess!!

Ry: Clean it up then.

T: It's on the floor too!

Ry walks into the bathroom. How did you do this?

T: I didn't do it ... my penis did.

Ry: You are responsible for the actions of your penis.

Me: *Snork*

A snippet

Scene: The boys and I are in the car, driving to the park. I've just gotten them from school.

T: Mommy, I'm ready for another baby.

Me: You are?

T: Yes. I think we should name him F.

Me: But, we already have an F.

F: Ah. Dah dah dah.

T: It's OK!

Me: But if we have two Fs, how will they know who we're talking to?

T: I don't know ....

F: Mmmmmmmmm. Ahhh. Dah!

Me: And anyway, what if we have a girl baby next?

T: Your tummy makes boy babies.

Me: Not necessarily.

F: Raspberry noise.


T: Well. When your tummy is done making boy babies, then it'll be ready to make girl babies.

F: More raspberries.


Me: I see.

T: Mommy, do you see that ditch down there?

Me: Yes.

T: If F fell in, you would have to hold him really tight. You would hold him really tight, right?

Me: Of course I would kiddo.

T: Because if you didn't, then we'd be really sad because we didn't have a baby any more.

Me: I would hold him really tight and he wouldn't fall in.

F: Mmmmah!

T: And me?

Me: I would hold you really tight too. And Daddy. I wouldn't let anyone fall in that ditch.

T: OK. Good.

F: Aaah. Dah.

T: Mommy?

Me: Yes?

T: I love you.

Me: I love you too, kiddo.

-------------------------------------------

I'm looking for blog nicknames for us all.  All the initial business seems silly, and it seems like everyone has blog nicknames. Suggestions?

A Valentine's Day Compare and Contrast

In honor of chubby baby boy day, here are both boys, around 15 months old. They may not look a lot alike, but they sure share some facial expressions.

Consider my heart pierced.

And how

Yeah, Valentine's Day is not a holiday we celebrate around these parts. Still, Happy Naked Winged Child Day! Alternatively, Happy Arrow In Your Atria Day!

T's First Haircut

Today, we took T to get his very first haircut. He is 3 years and 11 months old.  While his hair isn't what I'd call long, it is increasing unruly and always looks like he just rolled out of bed.

 Here he is before.  I'm not sure what he spilled all over his sweater. He had only been wearing it for 5 minutes.  This is what his hair looked like 5 minutes after wetting and combing it.

 The side.

 The back.

 We took him to one of those kiddo cutting places.  When I asked if he wanted to get his hair cut, he practically jumped out of his skin with excitement.

 Here it is right after.  Strangely enough, cutting it made it look both curlier and thicker.

 Here he is about 15 minutes later, after it dried.

 And here, after a few hours. This is probably what it's going to look like most days.

I have to admit to getting a little sniffley as she was cutting his hair.  This was kind of the last "baby" first for him.  His hair looks good, although he looks older and different. My baby ... getting his hair cut like a big boy.

15 months -- big and happy

Today we had F's 15 month well-visit.  And, finally, he's well.  The cough is almost gone, and the daily nebulizer seems to be keeping things under control.

Today, he weighs 26 pounds, 14 ounces and is 32.5 inches tall.  That puts him in the 85 percentile for both.  F is my round, charming, laid-back little man. The sum total of his vocabulary is "Ma," "Da," "Bye" and "Uh Oh."  He also said "Roar" once, but since he's never done it again, I'm not including it.  Apparently, this is completely normal for 15 months, but my working hypothesis is that he can't get a word in edgewise.

The child can eat. He just recently learned to drink from a straw. F is my cuddle bug.  While he's getting better about sharing me, he can still throw a grand tantrum if he happens to notice his brother my lap when he decides he wants it. Color me shocked that he went to the lady in the church nursery last week! He seems to pick and choose who he's going to warm to quickly. He'll go right to some people, and others have to bribe him with food for weeks before he lets them into his circle of trust.

F looooves to dance.  While his brother was all up and down at this age, F has a groovy little bum-shake that you can't watch without grinning like an idiot.  I keep trying to capture it on video, but it's as fleeting as it is charming.

He has charmed everyone in the baby room. He pats the little babies when they cry, hugs and snuggles the women, and fully participates in the impromptu dance parties.

F has remarkable patience for his big brother. There are brief, lovely moments every day when they play together, make each other laugh, and give each other hugs. I can only hope that when they stop being jealous of each other they'll be great friends.

My baby has officially entered toddler-dom.  While I am sad to say goodbye to the baby, I love to see him run, laugh, and grow. I love my F, so very much. Happy 15 months, my littlest love.

When it rains it pours

On our list this year is a new TV.  Ry bought our current TV when he was in college, which makes it ... well, it makes it old.  We're noticing more and more of our favorite shows are being cut off in the most distressing ways.  You know where we notice it the most?  Sesame Street.  All the stuff to count gets cut off, so instead of seeing 14 farm animals, we see 12.  The TV has also been dying a sad, slow little death over the past several years.  However, given the current state of affairs in our household, our television may have to eek out another year.

Here's the list of (higher priority?) stuff that we will probably be replacing:

~ The microwave that turns on if the door isn't shut just right. Can you imagine? "Mommy, my dino was cold, so I put him in the microwave.  Now, he's meeeeeelted!"
~ The TIVO remote that has hit the floor so many times that it's one good toss away from shattering into a gazillion pieces.  Also, only about half the number buttons work.
~ The mudflap on my truck that a snow bank liberated for me today.
~ The cordless phones that only work for incoming calls.
~ The laptop that has been blue-screening at random intervals.
~ The set of dishes that is one or two dinner plates from useless.
~ The truck, which currently has no idea how much gas is in the tank.

Good times.

Grateful

One or another of us has been sick since Christmas.  Ry and I were both laid low with a stomach bug during one of our earlier snowmageddons, T has had a runny nose for most of the month, and F had an ear infection.  Thankfully, I was off most of the month and Ry took some vacation while my mom was here.

Monday, I felt off all day.  I tried to shrug it off, since it was our 7th anniversary and we actually had a sitter (!) for once.  By the end of the day though, I transitioned from off to downright bad.  My wonderful husband ordered food from the restaurant where we had reservations, picked it up, brought it home, set the table with candles and we had an anniversary dinner.  I didn't eat much, but it was still nice to spend an hour talking to my hubby without crying or random noise.

At 2 am Tuesday morning, I went from bad to ugly.  Let's just say I was up evacuating for several hours and finally fell back into a fitful sleep around 5 am.  Ry stayed home in the morning long enough to get the boys up and to the daycare so I could concentrate on actually dragging myself to class.  Since our class days are 6 hours of lecture and we had our orientation for clinicals starting today, I really couldn't miss yesterday.

As soon as I stepped foot in the parking lot, I received a phone call from the daycare, telling me that F had spiked a 102 temperature and was coughing a lot.  How did they know he was really sick? He wouldn't eat any lunch.  I went straight to get him and from there straight to the pediatrician.  He had a little cough when he went in Tuesday morning, but I was pretty shocked by how bad he sounded when I got him.  So shocked, in fact, that I almost drove him to the ER instead of the pediatrician. I finally decided that he would probably be seen quicker at the doctor's office.

The doctor stepped inside the room and said something to the effect that she didn't need her stethoscope to hear F's wheezing.  She diagnosed him with an ear infection and respiratory infection.  She also gave him a nebulizer treatment in the office, prescribed an antibiotic and told me that he should probably stay on a once-a-day treatment for the rest of the winter (once he got over this bout of course). This is the 3rd time we've been to the docs for wheezing in the past 2 months.  I'm afraid my baby boy may have inherited his dad's tendency to asthma.

The tylenol last night wasn't really doing much for his fever, so I put him in a tepid bath before bed (did the trick!).  Ry offered to stay home with him today so I could go to my clinical.  It was actually a really interesting day in Interventional Radiology, but that's another story for another day). When I got home this afternoon, he was still running a fairly high temperature. He'll not be able to go back to daycare tomorrow either, even if he's feeling better in the morning.

And here's where I'm really grateful: Ry is staying home with him again, tomorrow, so I can go to clinical.  He has about a bazillion sick hours stored up, but still. I'm grateful that he's willing to put his job on hold so I don't have to make up clinical days at the end of the semester (and pay $75 per day). I'm grateful that he does it with such a willing and kind spirit.  I'm grateful that his boss is the kind of guy who also takes sick leave for his kids' illnesses. I'm grateful to Ry for blowing up the air mattress in F's room so I could sleep in there last night (you know, in case I got too worried). And I'm grateful for doctors and medication and cell phones and big brothers who cheerfully play video games because his parents are preoccupied with his little brother. Yikes, that was a really long way of getting to the point of this story:

Tonight, I'm just feeling grateful.