Happy Birthday, America!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!  As you can see, we dressed for the occasion.  All in all, it was a pretty laid-back day - church, a little afternoon rest.  Brian did grill some hot dogs and brats, but we stayed home and just had a nice family day.

We let Xander stay up late tonight to watch fireworks on TV (A Capitol Fourth), and got the added bonus of being able to see some live fireworks out of our family room window.  They were just backyard fireworks, but it was still neat to watch them all snuggled on the couch together in the dark.  Xander loved it; we conducted and played pretend drums and trombones to the music, and we made a game out of who could see the fireworks outside first.  And since they were far away, there were no loud noises to scare him - just little popping sounds.  Or, as Xander said, "I like the fireworks.  They have pretty colors and pop like popcorns."

Father's Day Part Deux

Brian finally got the Father's Day we had planned last week before Xander got sick.  Yesterday we went to Five Guys for his cheeseburger dinner, and today we went to see Toy Story 3 in 3-D.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Xander in his 3-D glasses - the theater was too dark, and he (very responsibly) decided to recycle them after the movie instead of taking them home to play with.  He looked like a little Buddy Holly, though; kind of like this:

*Picture coming...I can't find it!*

*Edited 7/10/10 - Managed to find it while shuffling pictures between laptops!*

After we got home, he asked Brian if they could play video games - his new fun thing to do.  They played Lego Star Wars, and Xander was actually doing pretty well at one of the pod racing games.  Which means he'll follow in his daddy's and his Uncle Phill's footsteps.  Of course.

School and Camping

We finally got a chance to visit the preschool on campus where Brian works today.  We've felt for some time now that Xander is ready for school.  He's very smart, and I think he's ready to interact with other kids in a more structured environment.  Not only do we get an employee discount on tuition, but the school is run very well and incorporates so many activities for the kids.  In addition to the age-appropriate classrooms, they have a music and movement room stocked with instruments, a children's museum/store room that reflects the theme they are focusing on, a kitchen where they eat and sometimes even help prepare their snacks (no added sugar, I might add), and an art room stuffed with paints, clay, blocks, and all kinds of creative things.  Then there's a really cool play area outside, with flower and vegetable gardens attached.  The kids help plant and take care of everything in the garden, and when the fruits and veggies in the garden are ripe, they get to use them in their snacks.  I could keep going on and on, but suffice to say this is a really cool preschool and I think Brian and I are just about as excited about it as Xander is.  It's kind of crazy to think about it, but our little guy will be going to school three days a week starting in September!

After we visited the school, we got to go over to the dining hall so Brian could show the kids off to everyone there.  Xander really wanted to stay for the camp that was coming in for lunch, and he was really sad that we had to leave before they arrived.  He kept asking me if we could camp and if he could follow the camp people as we were pulling out of the parking lot, so I offered to help him build a fort when we got home and we could have lunch there.  Thankfully, the diversion worked!  He had fun eating, playing, and watching cartoons in his fort for the rest of the afternoon.

I think we've recovered...

I believe the sickies have left our house.  Xander was feeling much better yesterday, and today I let him resume his normal diet.  Bring on the peanut butter and waffles!  Brian didn't feel well last night, but he was fine this morning.  We're still not sure if we all had some kind of stomach bug, or if there was some bad pizza involved.  That was the last thing Xander ate before he got sick, and Brian half-jokingly blamed that pizza.  So I suggested he try a slice and see what happened.  Brian didn't get nearly as sick as Xander did (thank goodness!), but he did feel a little ill.  Whether it was the pizza or just coincidental timing, we'll never know.

The good news is that whatever swept through the house seems to have skipped Amelia - yay!  Today I stepped up her meal schedule; now she gets breakfast, lunch, AND dinner.  She really enjoys mealtime - she doesn't suck her thumb in between every bite anymore, and she even opens her mouth like a little bird when she wants more.  It's so cute when babies start communicating.

Father's (Sick) Day

Well, happy Father's Day...I hope all the dads out there had a better start to their day than Brian did.  He went in to check on a screaming Xander at 1:30 this morning only to find that he had thrown up all over himself.  Needless to say, Brian has been awake for almost ALL of his day.  Poor little guy didn't really rest last night, and today all he has the energy for is laying on the floor or the couch and watching cartoons.

Notice the tea towel?  That's his special "tummy towel".  We're not really sure where he got the idea for such a thing; our best guess is that he saw me using the therabeads last week when I was sick and figured he needed one, too.  And it had to be this particular towel - "the purple one with the squares" as he described it to us.  To be honest, it took us a while to figure out what he was talking about.

Explaining the concept of being sick to a three-year-old is not easy.  When he was still vomiting, he was scared and upset to the point where he was making himself sicker.  Then we had to explain why his tummy hurt and he couldn't have peanut butter and waffles for breakfast.  Although it's a good sign if he's asking for his usual breakfast.

So we're spending this Father's Day camped out on the couch drinking Pedialyte.  Here's hoping the sickies don't hang around our house for long.

Lunch Date

Brian's mom is in town this week keeping me company while Brian's in New York.  Today, that gave me the unique opportunity to spend a morning out with my boy - just the two of us.  We didn't exactly whoop it up while Amelia and Grandma had a playdate; our first stop was the doctor's office, where Xander got the second dose of his H1N1 vaccine.  It wasn't pretty, but the lollipop and Spider-Man sticker the nurse gave him after the shot helped ease his pain.

After the doctor visit, we stopped at a great natural grocery on the way home.  Thankfully, this market's too far away to frequent with any regularity; otherwise, our grocery bill would rival our rent.  I try to pop in whenever we visit the pediatrician, and I'm excited that that's on a more frequent basis now that we have to take Amelia to her well-baby visits.

Xander and I strolled the aisles, picking up the usual items (graham crackers, chocolate sauce), as well as some new finds (pizza-flavored Pirates Booty!).  Then we stopped at the deli counter to pick up some lunch to enjoy in the market's sun room.  Xander selected steamed broccoli and a tuna salad wrap, and I added some cheddar potato chips and a cookie as treats.  I must admit, I felt very cosmopolitan sitting with my well-behaved 2 1/2 year old - he ate almost all the broccoli (I had expected to eat at least half of it and only ended up getting a few bites) and very neatly ate his tuna salad with tomato, shredded carrots and sprouts.  It was kind of relaxing to just focus on one child and enjoy his company.

By the way, notice the pinkie extension - he's so fancy!

Xander's Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for food.

Thank you for dinner.

Thank you for games.

Thank you for sun, for wind,

For dark, for rain.

Thank you for sunny.

Love from Mommy and Xander.

Amen.

The photos are from dinner the other night.  He was looking for "clues" with his "woggle gobbles" (wobble-goggles, for those of you who aren't super fans of the Imagination Movers).  The prayer, however, is from breakfast this morning.  We often ask him if he wants to say the blessing, but he rarely obliges.  That's what made this morning so sweet.  He kept his hands folded, but looked around the house as he thought of things to thank God for.

Swing Baby, Swing

So yesterday was a big day in more ways than one.  You already know about Amelia's surgery that went exceptionally well.  The other milestone is that yesterday marked the end of the two weeks that the neurosurgeon told us to to wait before letting Amelia be on her back as often as we (and by we, I mean she) like.  It's exciting and freeing not to have to worry about how long we have her out and on her back!

How did we celebrate this momentous occasion?  Brian, my dad, and Xander put the swing together that we received at Christmas.  We were fortunate enough to borrow a swing when Xander was tiny, but now we have our own adorable one (seriously, it has ears!) for Amelia.

 

Amelia's been in swings at church and at the YMCA, so the concept wasn't new.  She seems to like hanging out in there, but she doesn't really fall asleep in it like I had hoped.  I thought maybe this would be a good way to get her to learn to sleep on her back.  Last night we put her to sleep on her side with her bunny pillow propping her up from behind, but she woke up every couple of hours crying out.  She finally woke up for good around 6am, far off her usual wake-up time around 8:30.  Of course, I don't know how much of that is the new position and how much is because (hello!) she just had surgery.

 

As you can see, she really doesn't mind being in the swing (or anywhere, for that matter) if she can see big brother.  In fact, she got a little fussy while Xander was watching a cartoon and I was doing some things around the house.  I thought she might like to swing front-to-back instead of side-to-side, so I switched her.  She fussed in this new position at first, too, but as soon as her eyes locked onto Xander, she calmed right down.  I love seeing the bond develop between them.

This last shot is Xander's work.  I've been showing him how to hold the camera so that every picture he takes isn't of his hand.  You can see the smile that Amelia likes to give her big brother.

Doctors and Banana Slips

Amelia says hi! She's really happy tonight despite the fact that she had two shots and an oral immunization today.  Plus, both shots had to be in the same leg since her cast comes up almost to her hip.  Poor thing.

I took both Xander and Amelia to the pediatrician today.  Amelia for her two month checkup (Can you believe she's already two months old?), and Xander because he developed a cough a couple of days ago and I'm not taking any chances - especially with Brian sick.  No worries, though - Xander is fine.  He's cutting all of his two-year molars (top ones are almost fully in, bottom ones are just starting to come up), so the cough just developed from the runny nose he has.  He did end up getting his flu shots today, though, so I had two slightly puny little ones.  There were a lot of snuggles and cartoons this afternoon!  Plus, after dinner he got to enjoy his first banana split - "banana slip" as he called it.

Amelia is doing great - she got a new cast yesterday (a little more fitted than last week, so I think we have a good chance of keeping this one on again until next week), she's starting to smile at us, and she's growing so fast (9lb 13.5 oz, 20.5" - woot!).  She's also sleeping through the night every other night or so, which I am so thankful for.

Brian's feeling better, too.  He's on the tail end of a pretty nasty upper respiratory infection (like he gets every year), but the doctor put him on a strong antibiotic and a heavy cough syrup.  Tonight he even made dinner - a sure sign he's feeling more like himself again.

Taking a sick day

Brian never calls in sick.  In fact, I can really only think of one occasion in almost eight years of marriage when he was so sick that he voluntarily stayed home from work.  Today marks the second time I've seen him call in sick.  It's that bad.  All the poor guy's been able to do today is sleep.  I'm praying I don't get whatever yuck he has because, um, moms don't get sick days.

Xander's still running full bore, though.  Yesterday after breakfast he asked for a game, so I asked if he wanted to play a board game or a video game.  By video game, I meant computer game since we've been playing a lot of fun games at the PBS and Playhouse Disney websites.  Xander must have taken "video game" literally though, because he lit up and said, "Oh yeah, I go get my guitar!" as he ran for the closet where we keep the Guitar Hero controllers.

The kid's actually been raised on Guitar Hero in a sense: I played frequently while I was pregnant (most famously the night I was in labor) and Brian would play with him strapped in the Baby Bjorn to settle him down when he was fussy.  However, today he went for the microphone.

Later in the day, we got down on the floor and played with Amelia.  She's really pushing up now; I guess that's one nice benefit of having her prone all the time.

I took Xander to the playground this morning.  It's been a challenge to keep him occupied and away from Brian.  Usually having Daddy home equals fun times, so I've had to work at explaining that Daddy is sick and we need to let him rest.  Xander wisely asked if Daddy was going to go to the doctor.  Happily, I can say yes, tomorrow Daddy is going to go see the doctor.  As is Amelia - I'll have an orthopedic update tomorrow, too.

Big-boy bed

Brian put Xander's new bed together today.  I'm still second-guessing myself about the bed we decided on, but that's my problem.  I always get like this when we make any semi-big purchase.  I wonder if we made the right choice; if the color is right, the design something that both kids and anyone else can use.  Brian says to give it a few weeks and it will seem like the bed has always been here.  He's probably right.

Once we got the bed all made up with the fun sheets and pillows I've been collecting over the last few months, it really did look good.  We had to put a stool next to the bed so Xander can climb in, but at the rate this kid grows, it won't be long before he's jumping in without it.  It takes up more space than his crib/toddler bed, obviously, but it's even more strange to see his crib set up in Amelia's room.  Ack - I have two kids!

 

Brian put up the bed rail I bought a while back, too, just in case since the new bed is pretty high off the ground.  Then Brian went upstairs to check on Xander - the little guy had climbed out of bed to get a book to read (not unusual) when he heard Daddy coming up the stairs.  So he did what he usually does in this case: he flung himself back into bed.  Only tonight, the bed is suddenly much higher than he's used to, so he ended up flinging himself into the mesh side rail instead, falling back onto the stool and then onto his bottom.  I haven't heard Brian laugh so hard in quite a while.

This little guy was camped out on our front step yesterday. At first, I thought it was a piece of trash or debris or something. That is, until I saw him move and curl up! Then it struck me that it looked like someone's poor mustache had escaped and was seeking refuge at our house. At least that's the story I told Xander.

Rainy day fun

Amelia slept through the night! She slept from 11pm to 7:30am - of course, I was up at 5am, wondering why she wasn't. What's funny is she and Xander both slept through some crazy thunder last night that rattled our windows and caused several brown-outs. I guess that's what qualifies as a winter storm around here.

So, fueled by a full night's sleep, I felt strangely motivated today to do some fun activities with Xander and try to keep us out the funk that can come with a day of storms and tornado warnings.


First up was a craft I've been wanting to do for Xander's room. I saw this neat little piece of art at Pottery Barn Kids a couple of months ago that was just a simple frame with a picture of a car made from construction paper. I thought it would be easy enough to recreate and would look great for Xander's new big-boy room.


I have to admit, I'm pretty pleased with the results; I managed to put the perfectionist in me aside and enjoy making something with my son. He got to use his scissors for the first time, and enjoyed using them to cut up the scraps from our car. He also helped squeeze the glue (He wanted to do it by himself, but the only glue I could find was Tacky Glue. Must buy glue stick.) and press the paper down.

After (an early) naptime, we made snickerdoodles for Brian. Xander loves to help me cook, and I never got to make Brian's favorite cookies at Christmastime this year (plus, he's having a rough week, and who wouldn't like to be greeted at the door with his favorite cookie fresh from the oven?).


Xander's really starting to be a great little helper; he helped Brian tear up basil for dinner the other night, and today he helped crack eggs (he's getting better not just smashing the egg into the counter anymore) and manned the mixer. He did a good job of turning it off and on and dumping ingredients into the mixing bowl. I only had to watch him when he would turn it on after putting in the flour; he wanted to go from OFF to 10 immediately!


After the cookie dough was done, we started a little assembly line (well, I tried to). I would scoop out a cookie and put it in Xander's hand, then he would dump it into the bowl of cinnamon sugar. I tried to get him to roll the dough around to get it coated, but he just wasn't getting the concept. He loved the process, though, and even tried to man the scoop a few times. Of course, he also ate the cookie dough every chance he got.

In the end, the cookies were a bit hit - I'm munching on one right now, in fact. I don't think I can measure up to this level of fun again tomorrow, though.

By the way, why are my pictures so grainy? I've had this camera for a year now, and I still can't figure out how to make my snapshots look as good as on my old Canon. Grr.

Holding on

Xander is a really good big brother. In fact, he keeps surprising me with how kind and loving he is toward his sister. I'm sure you've already seen how he sings to her when she's crying (the ABC's, of course), and I've already told you that he likes to bring her a pacifier and put it in her mouth, too (which leads to a lot of pacifier washing, since sometimes it takes a detour on the carpet as a car before it makes it to Amelia). This morning he blew me away, though. I had just finished feeding Amelia, and was getting up off the couch when Xander reached for his sister and said, "I hold baby sister, Mommy. I hold her."

He went from sweet in the morning to sour in the afternoon, though. We tried to go to the playground since it was such a nice day, but the slides were really wet and had a lot of mulch on them. I'm not sure how that much mulch accumulates on the slides, but it was probably done by a child who likes to pick it up by the handfuls so it can rain mulch like mine does. Anyway, he just walked around the playground area for a few minutes, picking up rocks, and then we moseyed back home. Where he proceeded to act very strong-willed and dramatic (i.e., 2 1/2). Amelia was fussy, too. I'm not sure if she was picking up on the mood of the house or if she had her own reasons, but I was trying to calm either one or the other for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain all day, so I hope we're all in better moods to deal with the dreary weather.

Finally, we meet

Today, Amelia and I paid a visit to the urologist.  He is the only doctor involved in Amelia's care that we never got to meet in the hospital, so I was eager to finally get to talk with him and ask some questions that Brian and I never really got answers to.

Things actually look pretty good; the VCUG Amelia had in the hospital shows that she's eliminating well enough not to need a catheter, which is a huge relief.  We know that we'll very likely have to cath her at some point, but the farther back we can push that day, the better.  She does have some low-grade reflux (basically, urine backup) in one of her kidneys, but apparently it's not enough to be too concerned about right now.  In fact, the doctor said that this kind of reflux is very common in little girls and usually goes away on it's own - we're just keeping a closer eye on it because she already has a neurogenic bladder (typical with spina bifida).  He even said that he thinks that hers may clear up in a few years!  So, our course of action right now is to prevent a UTI with a daily dose of antibiotics and keep an eye on things via another ultrasound in three months.  She'll probably have to have another VCUG in about a year, too, which I am already not looking forward to.  Still, to walk away from the urologist with only a couple of prescriptions for antibiotics is a huge blessing, considering many babies have to be cathed from the beginning.

Xander was busy taking pictures with our camera today.  As you can see, he really likes his new airplane.