Second Thoughts About Room Sharing

The boys have been sharing a bedroom for several months now without much of an issue, but Mr. Eli is starting to stand in his crib and our attempt for a double down nap didn't go so smoothly today.  We could hear Adam laughing and Eli was jumping around in his crib entertaining his brother.  We pulled Eli out of the room and let Adam fall asleep.  When we put Eli back after we were positive Adam was asleep Eli stood up to try and get Adam's attention and when he realized he was asleep he sat back down dejected.

Eli started waving this weekend.  And I think there is something really cute about capturing your 9 month old digging in the pots and pans.

9 Months

When you try to take a 9 month picture without Dad's help this is what you get.  A baby that is happy and smiley and sitting perfect then you pull your hand away from his body and put the camera up to your face and capture this.  A baby completely turned around or nearly crawling off the chair.  Such a cutie, but so completely unable to sit still.  And he thought he was so funny.

Eli is nine months old.  Stop.  How did my little baby get so old?  He’s cruising and sometimes crawling, but mainly army crawling when he really wants to get somewhere.  He still only has two little teeth on the bottom.  

He loves his big brother more than anything.  A couple of times Dave and I both swear we heard Eli say “Adam.”  You ask him to say Adam – “Eli, can you say Adam?”  And he just smiles and laughs.  Eli spends the second half of the night in our room in the pack and play, because he’s still getting up twice to eat.  So this morning I brought Eli up to the boy’s room to help wake Adam up.  We started singing Rise and Shine to Adam and he partially woke up, so then I put Eli in Adams bed and Eli crawled on Adam and started to give him kisses and Adam put his arm around Eli.  It was so precious.

Eli wants what Eli wants and most of the time that is no diaper change and not to be on his back.  We try to distract him with new toys, socks, singing songs, making faces and all Eli wants is to roll over and to not lie on his back.  I think Eli could be the spoke model for Kimberly Clark’s Slip On Diapers.  I don’t know if they make them in a size 2?  Speaking of size 2 diapers, dispite Eli’s small size we have to put him in size 3 diapers at night otherwise he leaks through a 2.  To me that means he’s eating too much at night, but apparently Eli doesn't care.

Eli's eating everything and I mean everything.  The other morning he had red drool down his chin when crawling around on the floor.  Dave started freaking out about what he could have possibly eaten.  I realized pretty fast it was a piece of dog food.  He was still working on chewing on it and breaking it down when I fished several chunks out and he was not happy I was taking his food away.  So we put him in his high chair and feed him eggs and cheerios- a much better breakfast for the baby.  We mostly send the typical pureed baby food to daycare, but at home most of the time Eli eats what we eat just cut up really small.  Like tonight he had chicken and sweet potatoe fries.  

Eli's 9 Month Stats

We took Eli in for his nine month check up today.  It was the fifth time I've been to our clinic in the last two weeks.  Eli is doing awesome and hitting all of his developmental milestones.  The only surprising thing that probably shouldn't come as that big of a surprise is he's not going to be a basketball star.  He's only 27 inches in height- that's the 8th percentile.  Such a shorty.  His weight was 18 pounds 0.6 oz- 24th percentile and his head is 18 inches with is the 74th percentile.

Eli's new favorite place to play is by the railing.  He was just playing back there by himself for the longest time, so I finally walked around to the other side to snap some photos and he just kept laughing and laughing at me every time I asked him what he was doing.

Oh and yes that big green thing behind Eli is the Christmas tree.  Between everyone getting sick, Dave's long hours at work and just plain being busy we haven't put it away yet.  Don't judge the woman who had a 105 degree fever last night!

PS- Adam and I are getting healthy.  We both only had a couple of low fevers today.  Below 100 doesn't even require medication for us anymore.  I'm on antibiotics even though my second culture came back negative for strep.  Apparently my tonsil looked that awful.  As my husband said after I opened my mouth wide with a flashlight shinning in, "Thanks, I can't un-see that!"  I guess there are some things that don't need to be shared in a marriage.

Viral Tonsillitis You Stink!

No really tonsillitis stinks literally and figuratively.  It's like Adam and I have strep throat, except antibiotics don't work.  We've been lounging around the house for three days and I don't feel any better- in fact my eye is getting red and I may be feeling worse.

We went into the urgent care clinic on Monday and the doctor did a strep throat culture on me and told us it was negative and most likely viral.  Then he warned me that the sore throats like we have are taking 3-5 days to clear up.  All I thought was oh, Adam will be sick all week.  Great!  Never even crossed my mind that he was talking about both of us.  Here I am on day three wondering will I ever get better?

But when the fevers are at bay from Ibuprofen or Tylenol Adam and I try to have a little fun together.  Like fishing in a boat.

 

Eli's First Sickness

Last week was Eli's first fever.  Well I'm pretty sure it was Eli's first fever- you're never as confident about your memory when it comes to the second child.  Like I said he woke up on Tuesday morning hot with a fever and I just new this wasn't some one or two day thing.  Thank goodness Dave's parents are retired and were able to come watch our children this week.  Poor little Eli wasn't getting better, so on Thursday morning we got in with the pediatrician (yes- the pediatrician.  In our town of 13,000 we only have one because two are on maternity leave).  She took a look in his ears and the right one was infected and so was his eye.  So he's on antibiotics, but yet his fever persisted until 10 AM on Friday.

We had a wonderful day and half where everyone in our family seemed healthy and we went out to dinner on Saturday night and church on Sunday.  Then Adam woke up crying from his nap with a fever and I ended up with a fever later on that night.  I've been avoiding working out since I've had a lot of congestion all last week, but yesterday I couldn't stand it anymore so I did Insanity and took Brockway for a long walk.  Whoops didn't realize I was getting sick.

But Adam is doing wonderful in his undies having fewer and fewer accidents.  He even told Dave yesterday during the football game, "I have to go potty".

And Eli's fever gave us four straight days of sleeping through the night.  It was so wonderful!  Really it was the best sleep I've had since Eli was born.  Since his fever broke he's been waking up several times a night.  I'm going to have to get him back on the routine that worked- solids and a feeding right before bed and then waking him up to feed him at 10:30 before I go to bed.

We went to the clinic twice last week and I really don't want to go back today, but I want to make sure Adam and I don't have strep throat or something easy to treat.  Isn't it time for us all to be healthy?

A Mamma Knows

Well about an hour after I got to work on Monday morning I noticed my voice mail blinking.  Day care called and wanted to know what was up with Eli's rash on his face.  So I called and made what I thought was an urgent care appointment at 11:10.  We weren't seen until 12:50 and Eli was out of daycare for 2.5 hours.  Dave waited with Eli for the first hour and I took the second hour of waiting.  It was frustrating to say the least, especially since at one point the receptionist told us we were next to have a little boy who showed up after us get called in first.  Then we waited in the exam room.  When the doctor finally came in she took one look at it and said, "you know what this looks like, fifths disease."  Exactly what I thought.  So she checked his ears for good measure and we were gone in less than five minutes.  Oh well at least we know for sure what it is and day care can rest easy knowing Eli isn't infecting any other babies.

As for our clinic- I learned that urgent care appointments don't exsist and from 11-1 PM only one doctor is availible so skip going over our lunch break despite how convenient it sounds.  Then this morning Eli woke up with a hot little fever.  Guess he is contiguously sick and staying home today.  Grandma and Grandpa are here from Wisconsin to help care our sick little boy!  Although he's had a fever all day long he didn't seem super pathetic sick Eli.

PS No pee accidents today!!!!  Small victories.

Walker & Weekend Update

Eli had a couple big events this weekend- he started walking while pushing the walker and we're pretty sure he said Adam.  We keep asking him to say Adam and most of the time he just laughs like hey that's my buddy, but today he kind of repeated Ah-Dah.  He's been saying ma-ma-ma for a while now and da-da-da along with his usual kkah noises that are almost constant.    

Friday night we had our friends over for dinner.  They have a son Nathaniel who is six months older than Adam and another son Joshua who is 4 months younger than Eli.  I had beef stew cooking in the crock pot all day long, but when I went to check on it I realized it was lukewarm and none of the veggies or beef was cooked.  I quick called in a Pappa Murphy's order and sent Dave and Adam to get our food.  I've never had our crock pot blow a surge protector but of course the first time is when company was coming over.  We were supposed to go to Frozen Friday an event for families with young children to get out of the house and be active, but the little boys were having fun playing together here, the big boys were enjoying beers and the babies didn't care so we stayed at our house instead.

I'm pretty sure Eli has a harmless rash on his cheek from fifth disease that showed up Thursday night.  I probably should have dragged him to urgent care to get it checked out on Saturday morning, but with no fever or other symptoms besides a runny noise I decided I'd rather not spend a whole morning at urgent care to find out what my google search left me 99% sure I already knew.  Plus it's a virus and daycare didn't say anything on Friday.  

Saturday I made yummy lassi's for breakfast and then we ran errands in the morning and I went for a run while Adam napped.  We plugged the crock pot into a different outlet and ate beef stew for dinner.  I developed a cold (probably the same one the boys both have) on Saturday night and tried to get to bed early, but I'm an official night owl since Eli's birth.

On Sunday we went to church and Adam tried to correct father during his sermon about gifts by loudly telling him "we give gifts because it's Jesus birthday."  He was paying attention which is wonderful, but I could go without him trying to talk to Father while he's on the pulpit.  We went for a family walk after lunch down by the river.  We're trying to make the best of this pathetic winter by getting out and at least enjoying the warmth, but really 40 degrees in January?!?  

Oh and the most exciting Adam news.  Adam decided he wanted to wear undies like Nathaniel on Friday, so we're in full on potty training mode now… Again.  I feel like things are going smoother this time around.  He's noticing when he has accidents and he seems less resistant to sitting on the potty when we tell him it time.  It's amazing what five months can do to his readiness.

And it's Packer Playoff time so guess what Dave started to grow:

Algona!

While watching fishing shows on Saturday morning with dad Adam suddenly recognized the location.

"Algona, it's Algona!  Where we stayed in the condo."  I know were 8 months away from Shanty Day's, but Adam and I are really excited!

That and this morning I told Adam we were going to go run errands.

Adam, "We're going to Aaron's house?"

Me, "No.  We're going to go run errands."

Adam, "Oh, we're going to run to Aaron's house?"

I'm not even sure if he knows an Aaron.

Old Lang Syne

We actually made it until 10 PM last night with the boys, but paid for it dearly today (Adam wouldn't nap).  Here's 2011 year in review from pictures:

January

 February 

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December