Enough, now

 

As if the Christmas season wasn't enough, Andy went and lost a tooth (his third) last night. We were already at a party too late and then my niece, Megan, was coming to spend the night. After I'd read three stories and was tucking them in, finally, at something ungodly like 10:30, he pulls his tooth out. The going rate this time? Two dollars.

The Easter Bunny

Tomorrow is Easter. We have plastic eggs to stuff with candy and a few lottery tickets for the big kids. We even left out some strawberries on the back patio for the Easter bunny. I'm a little at a loss about the whole ruse though. Is the Easter bunny just like Santa? I mean, is it a big surprise that he comes and does all this stuff? And does he bring presents other than the eggs and candy? I ask partly because due to the sheer awesomeness of Facebook, I see all these pictures and posts from friends who appear to go to great lengths with their Easter bunny surprises for their kids. Does everyone do that? We're just planning to hide some eggs and search for them.

Granted, I'm quicky admitting I'm not as awesome as my mom who must have dyed two billion hard-boiled eggs with us growing up. Last year I bought the kit and we never ever opened it. I was actually just fine with that, thanks. Maybe next year. Or the year after.

Andy's tooth is still working it's way out. It's pretty loose now, but I have no experience except my own vague ones from probably 25 years ago to know how loose is really loose, so loose I need to go ahead and yank it before he accidentally swallows it. Next question, what's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy these days?

My little climber, part 2

Seriously, this kid is a climber. I took the kids to the library yesterday to look for some books on stranger danger/what to do if you get lost in the store kind of stuff. I had been having a hard time finding anything good and was talking to the librarian about it. I put Meg on the floor and she proceeded to then find every bench, chair and stool, climb on it and then STAND on it. I had to eventually hold her and when that didn't work, let Andy practically sit on her for the 10 minutes I talked to the library staff. And after all that, I never did find anything really age appropriate. Any suggestions?

Meg was up three times last night, at 10, 2 and 5 before waking up screaming at 7:15. It was a long night. I first thought this morning that it was constipation, easily helped by some prune juice. But after a trip to the park and the swing, I got a good look in her mouth and realized her upper right molar is only half way through. Well, no wonder she's cranky. She's got two pieces of tooth pressing through some flesh. I plan to give her a good dose of Motrin before bed tonight and hope that was it.

She's still not walking, but standing on her own more confidently ever hour it seems. It's been amazing to watch.

Oh, and I'm almost done with Breaking Dawn. I am somewhat ashamed I have read all four books because the characters irritate me so. Then again, I'm not a 12 year old girl so what do I know.

Ear infections part MXCII

I took Andy in for his post-ear infection check. Even Meg's sinus infection, i.e. goopy eye problem, was looking better so I mostly had a couple of questions about nose bleeds, adding dairy back in, and teething. I was not expecting to hear that both kids have ear infections. Apparently they're not super red and nasty (meaning really painful) but they are definitely not well and need some more medicine to clear them up. Apparently Andy's ear infection just never really cleared and Meg's sinus infection just worked its way over to the ears. The prescription was Suprax (at the bargain price of $50 per). Poor guys.

I explained that Meg was up somewhat inconsolable for about an hour or so the other night. Dr. Staats predicted that was more likely due to teething than her ears and encouraged good use of Motrin and Tylenol. While all four molars are through the gums, she predicts it will be several more weeks before they are all done moving.

I asked about tubes again for Andy. She predicted we'd get through March, the last month of cold and flu season and likely not have problems again. But if this infection refuses to clear up, then we'll talk about it again. She said it's pretty common to have to do them again, even at this age, and now that he's four, they'd likely take the adenoids out as well. I explained our theory of getting the tubes for Meg in late summer in time for the season. She thought that made a lot of sense, unless of course, the latest infection refuses to die. So now we're on antibiotics for another couple of weeks and seeing where this takes us.

So it as 70 last weekend only to snow this morning. March is turning out to be pretty wacky.

Diagnosis: Teething

Meg had a rough night last night. She woke up wailing around 9:45 (naturally as I had just settled into watching 30 Rock with Bjorn). Nothing would soothe her, it was really weird. After a bit, I walked her outside for a few minutes and then fed her some cheerios. She seemed hungry, which would make sense. The chicken hadn't eaten much in the past couple of days. So I fed her a steady supply of carbs. At about 10:45, she was clearly tired, but not showing signs of settling on her own so I finally had to put her in bed and let her scream for about 10-15 minutes. That is always hard, but since it was clear that nothing was working to settle her, it wasn't as bad as it could be (also since it worked and she went to sleep). I finally nodded off about midnight for her to wake up around 5 a.m. and do the same thing to Bjorn for two hours.

I packed her off to the pediatrician's in the morning, convinced that she had an ear infection now. His diagnosis -- teething. Sure enough, I knew that last molar was coming in, but he thinks the combination of cold and sore throat probably combined to make her pretty unhappy. He also thinks it can be kind of scary for them when it hurts. He told me I was likely underdosing the Tylenol and Motrin and suggested going up from a 1/2 teaspoon to a full teaspoon and to give one or the other every two hours, as needed. For good measure, he also checked Andy's ears which are showing signs of improvement. Now the pus in his ear is gone, but the fluid is still there for the moment.

Mark is due home this week for Spring Break and Andy is delighted. He's been asking to make hummus for Markie for about three days.

And check out the adorable pictures of us as kids? That's me and my sisters and a family friend on the left. Aren't we just adorable?

Milestones

Meg keeps checking off the milestones and I'm loving it! Just this week, she's been starting to stand for moments at time, completely unassisted. She seems pretty proud of herself for it, too.

My girl is also getting all four of her molars right now. She was up several times Monday night and only settled down for the night after I gave her some Tylenol and antihistamine so I took her by Dr. Staats on my way to work Tuesday just for a quick look to make sure she didn't have an ear infection (it was worth $10 to know that). Fortunately, no ear infection, that moment anyway. But she does have all four molars coming in right now. The top two have broken through the gums and the other two are close. So now I loading her with a dose of Tylenol before bedtime to try to ease her discomfort.

We go back on Friday for her one year well visit. We also have an appointment on Monday with the pediatric ear-nose-throat doctor. Andy is going for a check-up and to likely have his tubes scooped out if they have fallen out already. Meg is getting an examination to set up for if we need to schedule the surgery eventually.

Teeth!

Meg got her bottom front teeth a few weeks (months?) ago. Since then, she's been working on her front two teeth. The one on the right is fully broken through and the one on the left is slowly working its way down. Somehow is the slow unfolding drama that is her two front teeth, I failed to notice that she's getting FOUR others. That's right four. She's now also getting the two on either side of her front two teeth and the two on either side of her bottom two teeth. I know, great parenting at work.

After two rough nights of Andy waking up saying he was "scared", i.e. he woke up and wanted attention, he slept okay the last two nights. In more good parenting, on Wednesday evening, I offered him the rest of a package of cookies (five in all) if he slept through the night without waking Mommy or Daddy. I wasn't even ashamed when I served him five Keebler cookies for breakfast Thursday morning. He earned every one in my opinion.

Yesterday, I stocked up on some Nutter Butters to reward him with this morning. At least I got cookies with peanut butter, right? It does have twice the amount of protein as an Oreo (I actually checked.) I think part of what's waking him up is he's starting to wake up when he has to pee. He's not exactly sure what to do about it yet, because I think the urge is waking him up, by but then he's peed in his diaper. I'm keeping an eye on it though in case this is a good opportunity to work on staying dry at night. Frankly, I'm not too worried about it, but if he's ready, I'll give it a shot, so long as it doesn't mess with my sleep too much.

Teeth

It's official -- Meg has teeth. Two little clearish nubs are just poking through her bottom gums. I am excited and surprisingly melancholy that my little baby is growing up. Andy is thrilled about it though. He made a point to cheer her on, "Good baby! You're so good at growing teeth!" That just about killed me, too, it was so damn cute.

Meanwhile, I got a shout-out over from DC Blogs for my Hanna pictures. I am quite the celebrity, obviously. We went over to check out the lake yesterday after school and Andy and I were both amazed that all the water is gone now. What remains is mulch in weird places, a washed out walking path and mud everywhere. The mud line in the trees is about 15 feet high so you can see where the water went.

Andy was very happy that the water had gone down. The night before, he had a whole plan of how he would build a bulldozer to build a tunnel to get all the water to go away. He was quite serious about it. Bjorn and I were both impressed that he intended to build a bulldozer.

Sick

Okay, so I've been working on keeping Meg and Andy healthy. Fingers crossed, we made it through the week. What sucks is now I'm sick. I am not sure how that happened what with operation hand sanitizer and all, but I felt crummy last night with fatigue and a sore throat only to keep waking up feeling cold with fever and chills. I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another.

I think Meg is getting her first tooth. No actual teeth yet by touch even (when she lets me rub her gums and when I make sure I've really, really washed my hands), but her bottom gums are whiter than normal and she's been a little cranky. Course, cranky could be for a host of reasons. I think she's getting a little separation anxiety when I leave the room. I think she has also discovered that crying=attention. She's no fool.

We're under a tropical storm watch this weekend with the remnants of Hurricane Hanna headed to the D.C. area. As a weather junkie, I love it. I also love that Bjorn's football games he's reffing will likely be rained out since we have a ton to do this weekend including Andy's first gymnastics class, a baptism, a community fun day (that also may get rained out) and two parties.

What a Long Strange Week Its Been

This has been a very odd week. Andy has alternatively been a beautiful angel and a tantrum-throwing, non-sleeping mess. I did figure out he's getting his second year molars. I did venture to stick my finger in the back of his mouth this morning and felt one of them on the bottom. It was a pretty good-sized bump, but it hasn't broken through the surface yet. I have no idea if there are others popping as when I tried to feel the other side, he bit me. Hard. I can't say I blame him, I was sticking my finger in his mouth, but still. That kid has some chompers.

This morning was initially blissful as he slept until 9 am. Then he threw a tantrum from about 9:15-11. It was quite a challenge. I tried to feed him breakfast which set him off on a crying jag. After about 15 minutes, I put him back into his crib to cool off. He was chipper in like 5-10 minutes only to do the same thing when I tried to do anything - get him dressed, go outside, play with toys. I gave him a little Tylenol and that settled him down briefly. I finally got him to eat some raisins and drink his milk, but my efforts to put pants on him were fruitless. When I asked if he wanted to go to playgroup, he said yes, but if I even had pants in my hand, he would freak. In fact, once I had the door open to the carport and he saw the pants and grabbed them from me. He screamed at me "no, no, no" and proceeded to climb the stairs to his room to put them back where they go. It was funny, except for the screaming part. After a few more visits to his bed to calm down, I finally got him to eat breakfast and let me put his pants on. At playgroup, he was a doll, too. I wish I had any idea what was making him so mad other than the teeth. He doesn't seem sick, I can only think that he wants something and can't tell me. If you have any idea, let me know.

On the flip side, he's been a doll. He seems to love Christmas and we spend time each evening walking around the block pointing at the lights. Our next door neighbors have a ton of lights and he likes to walk through them all and point. It's precious. He also demands that we turn on our outside lights and the Christmas tree lights. I'm thinking he's going to be sad once it's time to take them all down. We might have to take the tree down after he's in bed some evening. We also spent time last night on the floor of the kitchen making sugar cookies. He was "helping" me stir and pour in the ingredients. It makes me smile just to think about it. Tonight we're going to roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters and do the baking. I plan to take lots of pictures.