Diaper Rash

Poor Tommy, as a result of his cold, he developed a slight pooping issue-a little bit, a lot of the time. He got the worst diaper rash ever and I had a learning moment as a mom. Patrick never had diaper rash as a baby, so with Tommy, I just kept slathering on the butt creams-Butt Paste, A&D, A&D with zinc, Desitin Max, all to no avail. Tommy would scream when I changed him. I soaked him in baths and let him crawl around without his diaper on (and subsequently cleaned up the poo and pee off of my hardwoods), but it wasn't improving. Finally I called my doctor's office to schedule an appointment and they told me to try Lotrimin cream that is used for athlete's foot. Turns out they were right-Tommy had a yeast rash and it was no wonder he was miserable and wouldn't nap. After just a day on the cream his diaper rash is nearly gone and he is a different baby.

I feel horrible that I didn't call sooner. Sorry, Tommy. In news of the good, I have gotten a couple of "Mama"s out of him this weekend.

Christmas in November

This past Saturday, Tom and I hosted our second annual "Christmas in November" present exchange for Patrick, Tommy and their cousins (unfortunately, this year their Vermont cousins were sadly missed). This gives the kids an opportunity to see each other open the gifts they picked out since my brother's kids live in Virginia and my oldest sister's kids are in Vermont.



It won't be a shock to anyone that my attempts to get a photo of all the kids and my dad (looking at the camera) was a complete failure. I do love some of the resulting images though-this one being my favorite.


Tommy and his cousin Jack

Tommy with his Aunt Karen

Uncle Steve, Aunt Christina and Patrick

The weather cooperated and the kids (and adults) were able to play some ball outside.

Patrick with Uncle David, Aunt Ally, Chase, and Kate

Patrick and Tommy both battled colds since Thanksgiving, but we still had a great time.

Oh, the Places You'll Go

Tommy had quite a day-our house was filled with cousins, aunts, and uncles and quite a lot of attention was poured onto the newest babe. So when I put him down for a nap, it was no surprise that he didn't want to fall asleep. Tommy's Aunt Ally had the baby video monitor and after some time had passed, Tom asked Ally if Patrick was still rolling around. No, she replied casually, he was just standing quietly. Tom and looked at each other, grabbed the monitor to see for ourselves, and then dashed upstairs.

You see, Ally just assumed our little 7-month-old guy was a long-time pro at pulling himself up in his crib, when in fact, today was a first. So for the second time this month, Tom got out his tools and set the crib, this time to its lowest setting (Patrick hadn't pulled himself up until 9 months).


(He was so pleased with himself)

Let's Talk

What did this sweet face utter yesterday and again today? Not the name of his loving primary caretaker. Oh, nooooo. Once again, I took second seat to "Dadda". I thought maybe what I heard yesterday was a fluke, but twice more today, Tommy let out a good "Dadda". Darn it.

In other household news...
Patrick is on the road to potty training! Patrick went twice on the big potty today just a minute after sitting down. Hooray! Huge progress in the last two days compared to just last week when he would sit for 45 minutes with the promise of gummies if he would just put some pee or poop in there. Number 2 is whole different ball of wax that I am hoping will just come with time. Lots of work to do, but optimism is running rampant around these parts.

When he asks for a newspaper, I can tell you all earnestly that he isn't modeling my behavior.

Patrick's House

Today was the much anticipated Gingerbread Workshop. Patrick was too young last year, but just right this year to participate. Patrick brought his friend Allison (the sweetest daughter of my high school best friend who is moving out of state after I finally move back) and her dad, and Baba joined in the madness.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

Once again, the "everyone looking" family picture eludes us.

Yes, these roofing materials were taste-tested for structural integrity before being put into place.

Happily ever after

More Zoo and a Resolution

Okay, I mean it, I am going to sign up for a basic photography class. I played around on the "P" setting at the zoo Monday (Tommy's first zoo adventure!), but had disappointing results. Liked my frog, but had no luck in the first shot which is the penguin tank. The top is bright light, with a dark water tank underneath, and apparently I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to get Patrick in focus with the swimming penguins slightly blurred, but everything came out blurry (talented photographer friends, any suggestions?).

I resolve to master my camera off of the automatic setting.

I am going to tackle this resolution soon. I will learn more settings and will learn to use some editing software. It is a big, time-consuming task though that intimidates me. Already I can't keep up with laundry. Tom, you might not have clean underwear for a while, but we will have beautiful pictures.

I love going to the zoo when most sane people stay away. Snow, rain, hurricane force winds=no crowds. When the hourly forecast showed a two hour window of no rain amidst an otherwise rainy day on Monday, off we went. The prediction was about 20 minutes off, but we were prepared with umbrellas and rain boots and enjoyed a relatively empty zoo.

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a...Deck???

Patrick and Tommy went down for naps at the same time. Weather=beautiful.
Tom was sweeping sand into the crevices of our patio pavers in prep for winter, and I decided to pressure wash the deck which had become precariously slippery due to a season's worth of moss buildup. Turns out you can't just pressure wash a section of a deck because the deck would be two different colors.
Soooo...
I had to do the whole thing.

I was soaked and dirty at that point, and needed to jump in the shower before I grabbed a now awake baby out of the crib.
But I had been meaning to scrub that tub for a month,
soooo...
I did that first.

I felt so good that I finally could check that task off my list, that I decided to go the whole nine yards and collect up all the bath mats to throw in the laundry.
I came downstairs with Tommy (Patrick was still napping), looked around at ALL the clutter and things that needed to be put away, and started to clean up. I went to the hall closet to put away an umbrella and...

noticed a dust bunny.

Soooo...
I took everything out of the bottom of the closet to vacuum. Including my pool bag which had been sitting in there since Labor day weekend. Started pulling out the contents to put away until next season. Went to put away the vacuum then thought, I might as well sweep the whole downstairs while the cord was already unwound. (Tommy loves the vacuum).
But, when I was done sucking up crumbs...

I noticed how dirty the floors are.

Soooo...
Yep, after this blog, I am going to do a long needed mop (I am longing for a steam mop by the way. My neighbor swears by hers).

Laundry is whirling and whooshing in the washer as I type.

I am the old lady who swallowed a fly, but the cleaning version of the book.
I am also never going to be able to get up in the morning.
And...my house is still cluttered and in need of more organizing than when I started (pool gear sitting in front entryway).

Happy 236th Birthday!

Happy 236th Birthday Marine Corps, and a special Happy Birthday to Daddy and Grampy!

And now an official Marine Corps message: http://youtu.be/dzOAU7i4V6g

(We practiced "Happy Birthday, Marines all morning, so I am not sure where we got off track in this video)

Hibernation

What a glorious weekend! While I feel badly that we didn't make it to the park, or the zoo, or anywhere but church really, we did get a lot of stuff done around the house that needed to be completed before we hibernate for the winter. Patrick helped me paint the front door (with his bucket of "paint"), and the boys and I hung out back while Tom replaced some rotted out columns on the shed.

Who needs the park or zoo with all these leaves to play in? The sun was starting to set and everything had that warm, cozy glow that I love.

Tommy just sat quietly in his swing, soaking everything in...

But the best part of the day? When Uncle Mike made an unexpected stop and helped make P's big pile of jump leaves.

Fall Back

Now that I have kids I am not a huge fan of the turning back of the clocks. Extra hour of sleep? I don't think so...Tommy was up at 5AM instead of 6. Oh well.

Love this photo though-Tom went to pull him out of the highchair and found the rest of the puffs that never made it to his mouth.

Forgiveness

How you manage to get into so much when you aren't even crawling yet, I don't know. All day you were in and out of your exersaucer base. Sometimes you just hung out, looking proud and triumphant. Getting in is definitely a lot easier than getting out.

Yesterday afternoon you were on the rug with Patrick, who was playing with his baby-friendly school buses. I reminded him to share with you and walked into the kitchen to get a snack.

You started crying a short while later-really crying. You had the scrunched up sad puppy face that no parent can resist hugging and kissing. And I knew it then, even before I saw your brother's blank stare.

Your brother hit you, it was just a question of with what... I suspect one of the school buses (due to the amount of tears, but I couldn't find a mark).

Forgive him, because you guys are brothers and just like you are learning so much each day, he is still learning the art of sharing.

Science, Smience

Today Patrick had his long anticipated visit with a pediatric allergist (who turned out to be the brother of my new neighborhood friend) to figure out what the deal is with his newly discovered corn/milk/soy/egg whites/barley allergies.

Turns out he isn't allergic to any of those. We determined that by the nice doctor asking me if he ever had any symptoms when eating those foods.
Nope.
No allergy then, says the doctor. About 1 in 3 kids have a false positive on the test. He still has his peanut allergy though, and some new epi pens (just in case).

One more thing to thank God for-after a weigh in of 27.5 pounds, Patrick has inched up to the 25th percentile for weight. Sounds good to me! I pulled him from occupational therapy due to what I would describe as a disorganized, shabby feeding program. We may try another program in the area I heard good things about, but as long as he is growing and making progress, we are going to try what we have learned on our own for a while.

Calling All Firefighters!

It started drizzling exactly 20 minutes before trick-or-treat kicked off. And it was cold. Could there be a costume better suited for these conditions than one with a plastic helmet and fire chief rain boots? I think not. We dragged Tommy to three of our neighbors' houses before dumping him back at our front door with grandma.

Patrick's coat was embellished with his very own lettering to match his Daddy's jacket. He didn't want to take it off. The kid could have walked 3 miles with the knowledge that nearly every house would give him candy. He wouldn't even let Tom or I carry his bag. I think he thought we would take the fruits of his labor.

It was a great parenting moment, sharing in his excitement. I wish we had more family shots, but for my mom, taking pictures is like performing brain surgery when you haven't been to medical school. She took our heads off in the first version.

Happy Halloween!