Impersonating a Monkey

It's just one of those days when you really just have to laugh.

Today is Friday, so Adam is home with me and the babies. I've really come to enjoy these days because Adam, now that he's feeling better, is tons of fun. We play tickle wrestling, we chase each other through the house, we have lunch together, Adam's choice, and we have Ducktales marathons.

Today Adam was not bad at all... but he decided he wanted to embody his favorite fictional character: Curious George.

Me: "Adam, what do you want for lunch?"
Adam" "Ummm... let's see. Cancakes! (pancakes)"
Me: "Pancakes, huh? Can Mommy have some too?"
Adam: "Yeah!"

So I mix the batter, vaguely notice that Adam has grabbed the Bisquick box (which I thought was empty), but I keep stirring. I turn around not 15 seconds later and Adam is standing in the middle of the kitchen, covered from head to toe in white powder, and is holding out his right foot and pointing at a white speck there (amidst all the other white specks all over his body). "Messy!"

I laugh. "What happened to you?"
He grabs me by the hand and leads me into the family room, stands before this pile of Bisquick and says sternly: "Look at THIS MESS!"

As punishment I made him pose for a picture.

So we eat lunch, and he goes back to playing, talking, etc. I sit down to feed Claire, and Adam disappears into the laundry room.

I realize that I'm hearing him "blow his nose" - it's a cute little attempt - but he's doing it over, and over, and I'm thinking... there aren't any tissues in there.

I put down Claire, who is screaming at this point because she's been interrupted during meals several times already today, and find Adam using the dryer sheets to "blow his nose," then throw them in the washing machine. When I found him, he was very proud of himself, grinning ear to ear and showing me what a great job he was doing.

I had to laugh.

When I get back to Claire, it's not five minutes before Adam wanders over to me, and he STINKS. Because this will make the 3rd dirty diaper I've changed just on him before noon, I mistakenly try to make it a potty training talk. I knew I shouldn't have mentioned it the second the words came out of my mouth.

When he hears the word "potty," he gets excited and goes running for the bathroom. I tell him to wait for me, but he's on a mission to go on his own... with an already dirty diaper. Before I can even interrupt Claire for the second time, I hear, "Ewwwww..."

I dreaded walking into that bathroom...

His diaper is off, and to save you from the graphic nature of the scene, I will just say that there was crap... ahem... EVERYWHERE. On him, on the floor, on the rug.

"Eww, Yucky!"

I start wiping it up (keep in mind, Claire is screaming in the background because she's PISSED), and Adam hands me some toilet paper, points at the floor and says, "Go, Momma!" I take it and clean up what's in front of me...

"Good job, Momma!"

(Awww, thanks Adam. Funny how anytime anyone is doing anything your favorite phrase is "I DO IT!!!" I guess that only counts when that person is doing something cool, like cutting an apple or hammering on the floor or painting the walls. But I appreciate the encouragement).

I clean what I can and because he insists he still needs to potty, I let him stay while I go to Claire, who has given up on me and is refusing to eat, probably out of spite. Adam comes out of the bathroom naked. I tell him to go get his diaper on, and he says okay.

He comes out with both legs in one hole and the diaper pulled up past his belly button.

"Help, Momma?"

I go to help him and realize that there is . . . well, crap . . . still on him, so we just go for a bath. He cheerfully lets me bathe him and put him in his favorite robe.

So how did I handle this now that it was just barely noon and still 30 minutes until naptime? I broke all my rules. I put him in the recliner. I gave him the iPad, a pacifier, a sippy cup of milk, and turned up Ducktales. Then when it was naptime I let him take the iPad, which is usually not allowed. He fell asleep fast, which happens when you have a very busy morning.

Oh, What a House!

The title of this post is Adam's favorite Dr. Seuss quote from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish: "Oh What a bed! Oh, what a house!" (His second favorite in that book" "I do not like this one so well, all he does is yell, yell, yell!" Then Adam says, "YELL! YELL! YELL!")

As August comes to an end and I look forward to one more month at home before returning to work, I look back at all that we accomplished in the month of August.
- All three babies were sick with, count 'em: THREE different colds/viruses.
- One ER visit (to two different ERs).
- One two-day Hospital Stay
- 6 doctor appointments
- A visit Uncle Chris and his puppy Eddie
- A couple visits from Papa and Shane
- LOTS of visits from Mamie and The Grand Pe Pa, who are (so far) our willing on-call babysitters.

And somehow, in addition to all of this, we managed to paint the living room, the dining room (repurposed into a playroom), the entry way and the hallway. We printed pictures of the kids for art work and Shannon hung it. Shannon also replaced the chandelier and the entry way light fixture. In the middle of the project, I had several people ask me if I was crazy, and I always replied: "yes." Looking back, the only way I believe this was accomplished is due to Mamie and Grandpa giving up many, many free weekends.

Adam ADORES the picture of him with the twins over the fireplace. Everyone who comes over gets a grand tour of all the pictures of him and his brother and sister.

The new wall color is a sort of sea salt blue. The old color was a beige/tan that looked pink from the reflection of the terra cotta tile floors. It has driven me crazy since we moved in 3 years ago, and I'm glad it's gone.

The new light fixture in the entry way.

The new chandelier (the glass is not actually as yellow as it appears in the picture - it's more antique brown.)

We've fallen in love with gallery wraps.

New pictures in the family room.

In addition to all of this, on a day to day basis we have found lots of time to bond. Adam has a tough time going to school now because he has such a great time hanging out with Colin and Claire at home. He has also spent the last week or so perfecting his bedtime delay techniques (glass of water? Rub my feet? Rub my back? iPad? One more book? One more book? One more book?)

Brothers

During Claire's tummy time, Adam joined her and said she wanted to be under a towel with him. So we got a towel.

He has an obsession with towels... kinda like Ford Prefect in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 
"If you're going to survive out there, you've really got to know where your towel is."

He loves posing for the camera.

Colin does NOT like being on the floor.

Daddy and Claire (Eventually I will have pictures of me with them.)

And finally, yesterday I squeezed in a little project for headbands I saw on Pinterest. I think it turned out really cute...

After about two hours of being in the cute little frilly dress, Claire started fussing. I thought she was hungry so I changed her before I was going to feed her, and she was suddenly content when she had on her comfy clothes. THAT'S MY GIRL!

Does it hurt to be so cute, Claire?

My Adorable Mess

Claire and Colin were almost three months old when we finally got around to their 2 month well check up with Dr. Han, the pediatrician, which included the vaccinations. I decided to be brave and go alone. My mom offered to go with me, and I was going to take her up on it, but since we rescheduled due to Colin's bronchiolitis I forgot to tell her the new day and decided to see just how brave, or how stupid, I really am.

"Baby Claire" is already being spoiled rotten by her big brothers.

The day before the appointment, they both had follow up ultrasounds on their hips, which went fine. Claire's hips are perfectly fine but Colin's still have laxity. The difference between Colin's laxity and Adam's laxity, however, is that Adam had laxity with dislocation, meaning that his hips slid and sometimes clicked out of place. Colin's are not dislocating, but they want to keep an eye on them in case they do, so we go back for another ultrasound in 4 weeks.

Colin also did a swallow study and luckily they found he is not aspirating milk (although of course, when they did the test he was swallowing perfectly. Never fails to make me look like an overly paranoid mother. I hate that - love that he is fine, though). It's good to rule out a physiological issue and focus on what is most likely going on - reflux. I had switched him to the protein intolerance formula (Alimentum and Nutramigen) a few days before the swallow study, and he's already doing much better. Dr. Han also gave us a prescription for Xantac.


On top of the potential hip problem and the reflux, our doctor noticed that Colin's head was showing mild signs of plagiocephaly (his head isn't the normal shape). Last week she pointed this out to me and asked if he preferred his right side, and I told her that I had just noticed it in the hospital, that he almost literally cannot look left. She told me to try doing some stretches with him and do things to make him turn left. Well, we went home and I massaged him and stretched him and did everything I possibly could to make him voluntarily turn his head left, but the tightness or strain in his neck was winning. I had for a week or two noticed that he was just a ball of stress and tightness, which they say could be caused by the reflux or even by position in the womb. I called the chiropractor because I knew he would be able to do much better than I ever could. And a week later at the well appointment, his head shape is about the same (which I expected), and I was glad that immediately after the check up we were on our way to the chiropractor appointment. All of this is completely ironic to me since he had a "nicely shaped head" just 8 weeks ago.

Dr. Han gave me a pamphlet and instructions to call for a cranial evaluation. She said it was free and would give us a little more free physical therapy, and that they would be able to tell us if he needs further physical therapy. I think he does. At the chiropractor that afternoon, Colin got a good long massage and it made all the difference in the world, but I still think he needs some extra exercises. No one has said anything about thinking he might need a helmet - I'm not sure it's quite that bad, but we'll see at the evaluation.

Poor Colin - his lungs, his digestion, his hips, his head, his muscles... he's a mess. Adorable, but a mess. And Claire, fortunately, is doing just fine.

I'm fairly certain this is how Shannon looks at me behind my back too!

Despite Colin's potential need for physical therapy, he and Claire both have "extremely advanced motor skills." Head control, rolling over, strength . . . and Claire tries to crawl on her stomach and tries to stand when put on her feet, which Dr. Han says is impressive for her age, let alone her adjusted age. They are both on the small side for their age but are growing well. Colin is 12.5 pounds and Claire is 11.5 pounds. Colin has finally taken the lead by being a whole pound heavier and an inch and a half longer.

Then they got their shots, which were fine. Colin is a bleeder, unfortunately for me, and didn't love the shot but was not all that hurt by it... until he started bleeding and the nurse had to apply pressure. He said that hurt and not to do it again. While that was going on, Claire cried for him too. But when Claire got her own shots, she kinda fussed like she was annoyed, but gave it up quickly after it was over. We have tough kids.

Wait, shots? I didn't agree to this...

Overall the day wasn't too bad - two double appointments including vaccinations and I went home feeling less stressed than I have some days when we're just at home. We'll see how the next appointment goes, however. I know that it can only get more difficult as they get older, stronger, and more skilled.

I find it strange that I feel the need to lie to our pediatrician about their sleeping situation. I have finally gotten them able to sleep on their backs and not on their stomach next to my face or in a nap nanny, but they are both still on our bed sleeping next to one another (Shannon is on the couch, but mostly so he can get sleep to be able to function at work, not because he was kicked out). I put a bed rail up on the opposite side (one of those purchases that Adam never needed, so I moved it to our room). According to "experts," co-sleeping is "bad" and "the family bed" is "bad," but honestly it's the best thing for them for now. We plan to move them directly from the bed to their crib, and I'm hoping that if they are comforted by each other it won't be as big an adjustment. I also would never get any sleep if I had to go to two different bassinets all night. They are starting to stretch out their sleep cycles more - woo hoo, 4.5 hours at a time! - but still.

And I am a bad liar, so I told her Dr. Han the truth. She didn't lecture me or seem all that concerned.

All I know is that Claire is just eating up all this extra cuddle time with her brother and Colin is doing some cuddling up to her of his own...

Claire is grinning like she hasn't a care in the world, while Colin is trying to solve the world's major issues.

I'm Sticky.

This Saturday morning, I was blogging and Shannon was on triple baby patrol. He let Adam watch Curious George in the mancave while he fed Colin... and had to call me out of the room (literally, called my cell phone). He asked if I was almost done, and I said I was. I came out and he asked me to check on Adam. I realized that it had gotten very quiet... and therefore expected that something was destroyed.

Apparently Adam had been yelling to Dad: "I'm sticky!!"

I went into the mancave and found that Adam had been playing with my acrylic paints that I had not yet put away from an art project he and I had done together (oh, about 2 weeks ago). The tops were off and sitting on the bar, along with the bottles of paint. Adam sat in the chair in front of them. I searched and searched and searched for the giant mess that Professor Chaos was bound to have created, and saw nothing.

"Adam, were you playing with the paints?"

Adam looked at me, stuck his little pointer finger up to show me a little speck of yellow pain on the tip of his finger. "I'm sticky!"

Wow. Talk about dodging a bullet there.


After that I took him for a haircut and he was extremely well behaved. He asked to sit in the red truck, he watched Toy Story 2, ate some gummy worms, and when the clippers on his neck scared him, he looked at me with a very composed expression and said, "Mommy, I need a paci."

I swear, these haircuts get me every time. They make him look like a completely different person...

Perfectly Content

Colin came home from the hospital on Saturday and he was doing much better than he had three days before, but not quite 100% yet. A week later, I'm not quite sure we're "there," but we're improving daily. His breathing is still raspy, but they think it may be caused by him aspirating his milk at most feedings. So we're scheduled for a Barium Swallow Study on Tuesday, followed by double hip ultrasound follow ups for both Colin and Claire. Adam did the swallow study too because of his excess spit up, but it came back okay. I'm seeing a big difference between how Adam was and how Colin is (Colin really struggles to eat sometimes, and always has). Both boys have extremely sensitive gag relexes.

Reunited

Feeling Much Better

I heard of one mother who had two kids and the first time she ever had to clean up vomit was when her youngest was 2. Ha. I think if I go three days without cleaning up vomit I'd consider that a vacation. And I've been doing it since Adam was tiny.

Adam started a stronger form of antibiotics to kick the sinaus infection before we found out he had probably also gotten the different form of RSV, and it still took a toll on him and was a real challenge for him to overcome. He was on Cefdinir, then Suprax, and for the last week or so he was an absolute mess. Talking back, refusing to do anything just for the sake of refusing, feeling sick, not being able to sleep, not being able to cope... at first I thought, "just a two year old phase," then I thought, it's probably stress from Colin's hospital stay and not really understanding what's going on. Four days in, I started to really worry that something was very wrong that he couldn't express. And then Shannon read an article about antibiotics and obesity in children, and it dawned on me that the antibiotics might be triggering a behavioral issue... or that it's making him feel sick and he can't say why. So on day 9 of a 10 day course, we quit the antibiotic. 2 days later, he's back to his cheerful self and is an absolute angel. I really missed him. And I'm putting Suprax on the list of medications to avoid. We'll put that right under Albuterol Sulfate and Amoxicillan.

Adam, the "unhappy two year old," during his struggle with the nasty antibiotics

Feeling much better

Speaking of Amoxicillan, it's on Claire's list of "do-not-take" also -- turns out, that "acid reflux" where the milk was shooting out of her nose and she was writing in pain was really a terrible reaction to the antibiotics she was on for her fetal hydronephrosis. A week after we quit, she was perfectly fine. It's also why they didn't see it in the NICU. She started the antibiotic 2 days before she was discharged. And I had only started to suspect that was the cause about 3 days before she was done with it.

Happy Claire

EXTREMELY Happy Claire

Speaking of antibiotics. I know of a mom with three kids who didn't have to fill an order for antibiotics until her youngest was 2. Ha. In my dreams.

I can see major changes in all three kids lately. Colin and Claire are smiling more often and are more awake... Claire has a six sense for knowing when someone is going to sit down to eat or decides to leave the room while she's sleeping. She is so like Adam was in that you can already see her determination to improve her physical abilities. She pushes herself to sit in the Bumbo, to sit up in your lap, to turn her head from side to side and see whatever is around her. She loves her pacifier. She grins the biggest grins I've ever seen, awake or asleep. She is social and independent and active, and I think the nickname "Mae Ham" (Mayhem) will actually be quite fitting for her.

Colin is incredibly strong, And uses his strength when he feels like its necessary, and no sooner or later. His pacifier philosophy is that he will take it... Briefly... If he's starving and expects that you are making him a bottle, like, immediately. He'll also take one if he feels sick and just wants to sleep, but even that takes some "spotting" from mom and dad. Mostly, though, if he's upset and you stick a pacifier in his mouth, he'll act like its the most disgusting thing he's ever tasted. If you insist, he'll take it to appease you, and when you finally let go he'll spit it out right away. Either he really doesn't want it, or he finds it completely unacceptable for you to not just give him what he needs. I think his philosophy is: "Don't pacify me, FIX IT!" But when it's fixed, he's the most laid back person in the whole house. He loves to cuddle and when he looks at you, you know he's thinking a million different things... and it makes you wonder how you're adding up. Mr. Wisdom.

Claire and Gus

Colin and Eli

A very patient cat.

Cuddles

Adam petting Eli.

Hey, get off my brother...

Why won't you move??

Bumbo time.

Adam is able to string together sentences and conversations almost like a three year old, and creates new thoughts in an intelligent and creative way. He calls his toy guitar a violin. He turned to Mamie while watching a show, put his hand to his ear and said, "Oh, I hear a trumpet!" And he was right. But he still does the cute little toddler-speak. When the lights go out, he says, "It's darky!" (And despite my English, Literature, and Educational background, it's too cute to correct).

This was our discussion about whether he should take a nap on Friday. For the record, after discussing whether or not he was sleepy for 10 minutes, he went to his bed and fell asleep immediately.



He has changed Grandpa's name to "The Grand Pe-Pa." I have to admit I like that name better and it definitely fits my dad, who says it makes him feel like he should be the president of a lodge and wear a cloak and carry a scepter. Adam's memory is phenomenal and his ability to deduct and analyze is very advanced. Papa and Shane came in town last weekend and Shannon took them to the airport for a trip they were taking. Yesterday I was talking to Adam in the kitchen and he pointed at the refrigerator, where there were a strange set of keys hanging on a hook.

Adam: "Keys!"
Me: "You're right, there are keys there."
Then I stared at the keys, baffled, for about ten seconds, trying to figure out where they came from or what they went to. It never came to me.
Adam: "They Papa's keys."

Uh, duh. He was absolutely right. They were Papa's keys to his truck parked out front.

The three of them are great together. Adam's new favorite thing is to pose for pictures with the babies and see them together. "It's Baby Claire and Colin and Adam!"

Terrible quality. Cute picture.

Adam dotes on Claire and is on paci patrol - last Saturday while Colin was in the hospital, I was home with Adam and Claire, who were both on our bed while I picked up the room. Adam was digging through a bucket of baby things (wipes, lotion, etc.) and got excited. "I found 4 pacis!" They were all the baby pacis. So he gave one to Claire, and I left the room. When I came back 20 seconds later, she had a different one. I left again, and when I came back she had yet another one. This went on for some time and she sat there happily, testing out each paci as he pulled them out and stuck them back in her mouth. Colin mostly saves his smiles for mom or dad, and especially the Grand Pe Pa, but Claire, when she sees Adam, grins so big I think her cheeks must hurt. And when she's near Colin, she still snuggles in close.

Claire says: "Stop showing off, Adam."

Adam caring for a sick Colin

Cuddling with Claire on a Saturday morning.

My friend Megan suggested a photo editing software that I could try out at a fraction of the cost of Photoshop, and I ran out and got it. I have a little bit of experience with editing software because of work, but am at best an amateur when it comes to using the camera and even worse when it comes to editing, but I enjoy playing with it. I've done some fun things that could use improvement but maybe I'll get better... eventually. I pulled out some old pictures and played with some of them.

I was taking pictures of them together and got a few where Colin was smiling and a few where Claire was smiling, but never where both were smiling together. So I did a "photo blend" and put them together. I'm sure this will come in handy for... oh, the next 30 years or so.

Adam 4th of July 2011

Adam's first birthday May 2011

Adam and Dad Summer 2011

Adam at 5 months old

Claire 7 weeks

Colin 7 weeks

Colin 7 weeks

New picture for the Family Book

I am tired, I feel like if I wash one more sinkful of bottles or do one more load of laundry I may lose it. Somedays I feel like literally all I do is feed babies and change diapers, and I feel constant guilt that they don't get enough one-on-one time with me. I know that as time goes on, Adam, Colin and Claire will get bigger and my life will get a little easier, but as tired as I am, if I could freeze time in this moment forever, lying on our bed with my three smiley babies watching Curious George on a Friday morning while I write, I would be perfectly content.