No 'Hi!' --- Hi Daddy!

Den left for a trip out west today. His flight left at a time when we could seem him off at the airport. Ed loves pointing out the planes and saying Daddy is going on a big blue plane. After Den left for his gate we hopped in the car to go the the park on the water just north of the airport to watch the planes take off. Ed wisely elected to stay in the car (he hates loud noises). We had to leave before Den's plane took off, as nap time was becoming necessary.

It's a quick trip--technically one night away and two bedtimes for me. Bedtime alone is not that bad when it's ocassional--and once the kids are feeling better, I don't think it will be much of anything.

Right now I've got Ed's monitor on as he talks, sings, and reads himself to sleep. I think I might beat him to sleep. The other monitor (my video monitor splurge--worth every penny, btw) is staring at the back of Josie's head. She prefers to sleep on her left side, which despite her bad cold, is thus far doing rather peacefully.

Ed didn't want to have his picture taken in this shot with Den and then he started goofing around. This was the only one in which everyone is looking my way.

G'parents Ohio had a fit over my last post--pestering me to take Eddie to the doctor. Now Josie has the stoner look and Eddie is doing much better. I took these two with the camera phone. Ed is a near endless source of amusement to Josie, which is what everyone promises (kids eventually entertain each other). Now if I can just get Ed to be consistent. He will be the sweetest angel to her and then when you think he is the greatest brother in the world (after my own of course), he hauls off and pops her in the head.

Ed is also at that stage where he says no to something and then does just that. Like tonight, Me: "say hi to daddy". Ed: "no 'hi'" Me: okay, so I continue talking to Den. Ed: "HI daddy!". I guess we've come to expect it, especially when we know it's something he'd usually do. I'm sure if I'd paid closer attention in my psychology 101 class I'd know more, but basically I think he's asserting himself and learning his boundaries. I can tell he is feeling better because he is just happier in general--thank goodness. Still has the ocassional cough, but now Josie has become the resident professional hacker.

I think I'm going to be lulled to sleep hearing gooo....dogs! gooooo cats! goooo sheep! Think the UGA chant Uncle David taught him.

Monday Update

Since you've wondered...

Ed is still sick with a cold. I thought you were only contagious up to a certain point, but apparently the whole time you are showing symptoms, you are contagious. And yet there we were trotting Eddie and Josie off to not one, but two parties on Sat.

Ed's cold has developed into a 50 year-old smoker's cough. I feel so bad for him, when after each cough he pleads, "no more coughs!". Any normal two year can on ocassion try the patience of the most affable child-lovers, but the last couple days, Dennis and I have both been pushed to our limits of tolerance of whiny, contradictory statements and demands, supplemented with plenty of hitting, biting, and pushing of people and then there's the old, lets revert back to 14 months and throw my food on the ground, throw my silverware and basically do the opposite of every behavior expected of me.

We'd love to have visitors.

The kid has been sick, so yes, I'll cut him some slack. We have it so lucky with our kids typical demeanor that we only have to deal with this while they are sick. We'll see what it does to Josie, as she's got it too. Crossing my fingers that she cycles through it as quickly as I did (4 or 5 days). Ed's asthma makes it difficult for him to shake colds like this, as his little airways just can't keep up.

We are now giving him three albuterol nebulizer treatments/day (or aiming for this many). It's probably the wrong thing to do, but we've been bribing him with his favorite cheese balls at night and in the morning and afternoon its with a popsicle. They make these tiny pint sized popsicles that are about 1/3 the size of regular ones, which is perfect--plus they come in blue.

Speaking of colors. Ed's world is centered around colors now--and he has a definite order. Bue always comes first, then yellow. I don't remember what is next--red or green? Plates, cupsWhat he eats off of, his bathtoys, everything.

In the above pictures, Ed is helping make dinner. He liked it at first, but then I guess it was just a little too difficult for him. He did help with the silks. THe bath picture is an example of the color scheme. He was giving the bath toys to Dennis, one at at a time, color by color. Den has more patience than I.

I'm a little worried about what my night will be like with Josie--I fear it will either involve sleeping while sitting up, or just being up and about multiple times. She's already puked on me once or tiwce today and same for Den. She is gagging on the goop in her throat. We'll see how long before I've had enough sleep to post again...

Early Lessons From a Parent of Two Kids

So I’m no expert, but what I’ve learned in these few months is the following:

1. If one child sleeps well, the other doesn’t.
2. If both children by some miraculous fate sleep well, one of the parents does not.
3. A baby within reach of a toddler is a baby calling out to be ‘touched’
4. It IS easier to enjoy your children when you have sleep
5. Two years is more than enough time to forget how hard that first year can be
6. You don’t really NEED to sterilize all that nursing and feeding stuff—soap and water does just fine.
7. Don’t put 2 children on the bed/couch/floor to be dressed at the same time when one of them is being wild and rambunctious
8. This One is Well Known, but whatever one child has, the other desperately needs

Two and a Half

In this picture of Eddie and Josie, he is sharing (unprompted) his beloved bowling pin animals with Josie. She had a pretty good grip on it, but at this point, is letting go. He kept making her laugh, which is why I hauled out the camera and he was having a good time with her.

Yesterday I asked Den if he knew what day it was (the 21st of Aug). He said that he knew Eddie would be 2 ½ the next day. I also reminded him I had one more month and then I’d be gasp! Another year older. So today Eddie is 2 ½. With each milestone of his birthday, I feel a combination of pride and wistfulness. There are no do-overs when rasiing a child—you can’t rewind. Over the last six months, Ed’s enunciation of 'baa baa black sheep, have you any wool' has progressed to near flawless, from it’s previous ‘w’ laden pronounciation. So unless I captured it, it’s gone (I’m pretty sure I did get him saying it at least once).

Commiserate with being 2 and a half, the picture of Ed is the only one he wanted taken today.

He is nearing the potty training stage, often excited to try sitting on the potty, or telling us he’s filled his diapers. He ‘reads’ books --because he has them memorized. He LOVES reading books and will ask for book after book after book. He’s gotten quite skilled at puzzles—this was something I was initially worried about because he didn’t seem to be ‘getting’ it—he is now.

Eddie talks almost daily about seeing g’parents Wisc. And Ohio. His toddler wisdom says he likes g’parents Wisc. House better than g’parents Ohio because—“they have more balls”. My speculation is that g'parents Ohio will have a near ball pit the next time we visit (not needed btw--g'parents Ohio just had so many toys, we didn’t bother trotting out the balls they had).

Speaking of balls, Ed has taken a liking to all kinds of other toys--trains, cars, puzzles, you name it.

Oh and I almost forgot--when we visited g'parents Ohio a couple weeks back--another forthcoming post, Den commented on what a negotiator Eddie was. This cracked g'ma up who said that was what I was like as a child. You say 3 books, he'll work for 4. You say 5 min, he'll suck 10 more out. And he's got an angle--it's fun towhat stall tatics or negotiating maneuvers he makes next.

And one other thing I forgot about the beach house--Ed slept in a twin bed with bed rails and he did great. I don't think he realized he could get in and out of the bed--even though he climbed in on his own each night and for nap. Cracked me up. I sure wasn't going to be the one to tell him to get out of bed on his own. Now I'm not sure about the whole toddler bed thing--I was that I wanted to get him one because they were so cute--and we had a mattress that was so new, but now I'm not as convinced. We'll see--for now he's happy in his crib--and so are we.

5 months or 20 weeks

I say Josie turned 5 months today. Den says she won’t turn 5 months until Sept. 3. Neither of us can argue that 20 weeks ago she was born. I rationalize that 4 weeks equals a month, but now that I think about it, I guess I’ve been ‘off’ all these times I’ve posted, because you get 12 months and the 12th one falls on April 3.

I’m all messed up because the Doctor’s office must count in terms of weeks, somehow catching you up by the first birthday. At any rate, she is talking up a storm, with ahg, ahg, ahg. Her latest development is that only mommy can put her to sleep for the night. This is a bit of a problem and something I’ll not tolerate--nor will Den. She screams bloody murder when Den tries to get her to sleep the last several nights. Hopefully we can resolve it sooner rather than later.

She's found her feet and really holds onto stuff--and people. Den is working (sucessfully) to get her to hold her own bottle. She is drinking 5 ounces in a sitting regularly. She loves taking baths and seems to enjoy watching Eddie. We just started putting her in the doorway jumper and will soon be branching out to the exersaucer--it's all about places to put the baby when you need to do something.

She so much fun right now--and relatively easy.

Newest Blog

Most everyone knows that my sister and her husband are trying to adopt a child. Both Den and I regularly get asked how everything is going for them. They have run into quite a few hurdles and recently decided to start a blog to document the process. I've added it to my links, but it's:

http://ourincredibleadventure.blogspot.com/

The latest is that they have formally put in for international adoption. I know our entire family (on both sides) is holding their breath, crossing their fingers and whatever else we can do.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation...

It's been a busy couple weeks (month?). I know this post will end up last by the time I catch up, but our friend got elected to City Council (Den served as Treasurer) and that was pretty crazy busy till mid-July. The election was on a Tues, and we left to visit g'parents Wisc. on Thurs. Came home for a week and visited g'parents Ohio (long story, but it was supposed to be one longer trip with stops in both places). Home 3 days and left for the beach house, pictured at right, the day after attending the funeral of an elderly cousin of my dad's who lived in the area--bonus visit with g'parents Ohio.
We went with Eddie's buddy Eli and his parents to Tybee Island, GA (right outside Savannah). I've not really caught up with my travels online as I've been either packing or unpacking from a trip, or trying to squeeze in work.

The beach was fabulous--water a little murky, but the water was a great temperature, the beach was nice, and there was the ocassional wave to remind you that you were really at the beach. Above is the house we rented. Loved the house and it was just a short walk to the beach. It's for sale if you have a little over 1M to drop. Classic old house with character (if you don't count the chopped up kitchen). This was by far the most fully stocked house I've ever rented--it was fabulous in that regard--except that we couldn't find a baking dish small enough to accomodate the mini batch of brownies Den was making for the nursing mom and pregnant mom. Eli's mom thought of making a dam out of tinfoil and Engineer Den created the masterpiece in this photo.

We (all 7.5 of us) had been looking forward to this trip as a chance to relax and enjoy the beach. We knew it would be hot--as you want that at the beach.
Day 1 arrive on Sunday in 10 hours, 2 hours quicker than we'd expected. I'd had 3 hours of sleep the night before.

Day 2, got a blister on my foot on our way to the beach (it really was a short walk, too). Eli's dad spots a washed up jelly fish. Nevertheless, everyone enjoys the water.

Don't ask how, but Eddie fell and hit his head on the claw foot tub. He cried for a very long time. Then, we had both kids laying on the bed to change diapers and get ready for bed when Josie takes a knee to the eye--hard--curtesy of her big brother. She cried for a long time.

Day 3 (Tues), discover jellyfish infested water. Beaches were never really crowded (except by the condos 500 yards away), but on this day, the water was deserted. Everyone but the kids got stung (did Eli's mom escape?). You would watch people go into the water with smiles on their faces, hear a scream and watch them move quickly out of the water. Nobody was ever really close enough to warn. I suppose we could have posted a sign with big letters.

Day 3 also corresponded with the day we had to have hit 100 degrees with 80% humidity (and I like the heat, but this was too much). Eli's dad had grill duty with burgers. Don't know how he drew such a short straw.

Day 4, Wed. We still can't believe there isn't a wireless hotspot until we notice a laptop next door. If you are in just the right spot on the expansive screened in porch, you can get a feed that is like drinking a Frosty through a straw. Not worth my time--I can't even get an email to send, but do manage to download my emails--each one twice. Still can't decide if it was nice to be so disconnected, or just frustrating.

Walk to dinner at a local place, AJ's. Turned the wrong way at the end of the road and got some extra excercise and a little tour.

Day 5, Thurs. Jellyfish seem to have subsided, we find out about Safe Sea, a product claiming to prevent jellyfish stings. Worked for us--either that or the jf had left by this time. Worth every penny of the $17 we paid for the tiny bottle. Den's Wisc. heritage is coming through and the heat is taking its toll on him. Eli's parents agree to hang with the kids during naptime so we can get an hour at the beach. We're prepared to reciprocate on Friday when...

Evening of Day 5, Eddie woke up in the middle of the night with a bad cough. I gave all the usual remedies, but by 5:30am, it had become the croupy precursor to an asthma attack. And to think we almost left the nebulizer at home.

Day 6, Friday. After being up much of the night with Ed and having his cough get worse throughout the night, we debate about leaving and decide that if this develops into a bad cold, we don't want to be driving 10 hours to get home on almost no sleep (we were slated to leave on Sunday), as usually when Ed gets a bad cold, we don't get sleep for the duration. And we might have to figure out where to stop to adminster the nebulizer, which he loves so much.

Good friends, Eli's parents, watch the kids most of the morning instead of touring Savannah so we can pack and get going. The silver lining in all this is that when things were going well, we very much enjoyed hanging out with our friends. Hated to leave early, but we did get to enjoy a rarity where we live in August--Sat. and Sunday that are picture perfect upper 70, lower 80s with low humidtiy.

We are continuing to give Ed his nebulizer and he seems to be doing well. It's me that really needs the treatment as I've got a really bad cold now. Ugh. And it's now that Den tells me about the person he might have caught a small cold from and passed to us right before the trip.

Below are a couple photos from a beautiful sunrise--we had ocean views, but weren't oceanfront. I took a couple at the beach with a 'beach' camera--disposable/waterproof. Once I get those developed--someday, I'll post.

Still Here

You'd think in the summer I'd have more time, but that just isn't the case. I have not abondoned the blog, but will post as soon as possible.