Neurotic mess

Can someone explain to me why I am more neurotic with the second kid than the first? Doesn't that defy normal logic? Both are (relatively) healthy, beautiful kids. Both so far are following all the normal milestone progression. So why is it when she gets something I totally freak out?

Case in point, Meg has a fever. A high one, clocking in at 104 today. It started with her diarrhea/barfing adventure on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday she was a little warm and by Friday (when I left to go out of town), she went up to 102 and tracked off and on like that all weekend. I got home last night and she was seeming better, but she didn't eat much and had a rough night, waking up 2-3 times and still had a fever in the morning. I took her to the doctor this morning. Fortunately, no strep and no ear infection, but she does have a sore throat and a fever. Apparently a virus is going around that lasts about three to five days and the recommendation was to keep her hydrated and medicate the fever as necessary.

Ayesha kindly offered to watch her for a few hours while I "took rest" as she calls it since I worked all weekend and didn't sleep much while I was away only to be up a lot of last night. I rested and then went to pick her up about four after a few hours. As Andy and I arrived, Meg had just thrown up her snack and was incredibly listless. It was freaking me out to see her so limp and hot, alternating with chills, not to mention clingy and just sort of out it. I tried to give her some Tylenol, and after about five minutes, she threw that up, too. Ayesha asked if we should go to the emergency room with her fever so high, which sort of freaked me out, too. I called the doctor and left a detailed message. After about 30 minutes, I called back (now armed with the 104 temperature news) and she seemed somewhat annoyed to be forced by her receptionist to take my call.

"I imagine with a fever that high she would be miserable and achey. You should get some Tylenol suppositories, which sell under the name Feverall. They might be behind the counter. For her weight, give her 160 mg. Give her comfort foods, Pedialyte and white grape juice in small quantities. The fever may get worse overnight and be better in the morning for a couple more days." She earlier to come back Wednesday if it's not better.

Fortunately, the last dose of Tylenol I gave her before I got the Feverall stayed down as did the Motrin I gave her about an hour later bringing her temp down to 99.8. She even was hungry for what Andy was having for dinner and drank some Pedialyte. I am hopeful I can consistently work to keep her temperature down until this works its way through.

So why does this freak me out so? Was I just too naive the first time around? Do I just know now that I can bug the doctor when I have a question rather than be a martyr and wait? Am I just more impatient now and I want an answer/treatment now? Is it that two pregnancies have made my pregnancy brain permanent?

In other news, Andy keeps singing, "Who let the dogs in? Who, who, who?"

Bjornism

I have to give Bjorn credit, he is definitely more of a half-glass full guy than a half-empty kind of guy. It's usually a good balance for me since I tend to be more cautious. Today is a perfect example.

Meg and Andy were beyond adorable after dinner as they were both in an empty diaper box "driving." I think it was a bus, but it could have been a boat. I'm not sure Andy was entirely clear. But they were playing together and laughing.

"Wow. Isn't that adorable? It's so great that they can play together a little now," I said.
"Yeah, it really is great. 'Andy, you are being a good big brother,'" said Bjorn.
"It was a long way to go for this, but I do love it."
"Are you kidding? This is worth everything."

I know, what a sweetheart.

I leave for a work trip for the weekend tomorrow. Meg has been sick this week starting with diarrhea Tuesday followed by the barfs Tuesday night into Wednesday. I was up with her Tuesday night and then Bjorn stayed home with her yesterday (again, what a good guy.) She was really whiny and sad off and on during the day (and refusing Tylenol) so it was so great when she woke up this morning much more like herself. It makes me appreciate the joy the kids were having together all the morning.

Oh, what's up with Michael Jackson today? I just have to add that my mom wins cool points for taking us to his Thriller concert at Texas Stadium back in like 1980. The killer? We had front row seats. Apparently Mom sent away by mail for the tickets from the back of a Rolling Stone magazine. Totally cool.

Happy Father's Day

Two days late, I wanted to give a shout-out to Bjorn for Father's day. I love that he loves his kids, all four of them. At each stage, he has said every age is the best age. His positive attitude is a great asset on a day where both the big kids have asked for money and both the little kids have thrown consecutive temper tantrums. Seriously, he's a sweet guy, a good husband, very smart, and except for being just a little too chatty and know-it-all ity (I know, pot/kettle?), I'm glad he's my baby daddy.

Oh, pictures are from his birthday two weeks earlier, but I thought it was cute. I also need to hide those thick flannel winter pajamas as Andy insists on wearing them and then when I check on him in the night I find him sweating like Pete Schweaty.

Social media

It's weird, with the fun stuff like Facebook and Twitter (which I now am using a lot for work, thank you very much), I find I'm neglecting my blog. It's a shame, too, since this is my excuse for not really doing a baby book to record what my kids are doing. It's just that I'm finding it's more fun and immediate to post little things here and there rathering to really think about a post. Plus, there is all the fun of stalking high school and college friends to see what they're up to. It's like the best reunion I've never been to in that I get to see what everyone is doing, send some e-mails, view some pictures but not have to endure the awkward half drunk conversation at the Marriott over a $5 Bud light.

In other news, the kids are almost playing with each other right now. And I say almost because she wants to do what he's doing, but his initial interest in that wanes quickly and he whines and cries that she's taking something/breaking his fort/doing something else clearly evil and wrong. I've even witnessed him give her that a little too hard push or smack her almost testing to see what happens. I can see a future of "S/he's touching me."

Meanwhile, we're trying to plan an August get-away to Lewes, Delaware. I've been corresponding with a realtor about rentals, but I don't know the area. Anybody have a clue? I'm just afraid what looks fine in pictures is really in Dowistrepla or something.

Dolly

Dollies. Having a boy first, we never really went through baby dolls. Andy has his dogs and never really showed much interest in dolls. Of course, I don't think I ever gave him one explicitly, but when we were with my nieces or other girls with them, he wanted to play with the baby stroller and not the baby.

Now I have a daughter and things are different.

I picked Meg up from her babysitter's on Monday and she was dragging around a baby doll. She was reluctant to give it up so Ayesha let me take her home. I promptly named her Daisy after the famous air gun that I'd seen with my folks at the NRA firearms museum that day. (I'm not a queen of naming stuffed animals like Betsy, but I am actually rather proud of this one).

Since then, she's been carrying Daisy everywhere and sleeping with her. Not to be left out, Andy now says he wants a doll, too. I tried to give him a soft doll that my mother gave Meg for Christmas, a doll I promptly named Remy, short for Remington, sticking with my weapons theme. He instead wants one just like hers. That doll that we haven't gotten yet, will be a boy, Andy says. And I will name him Colt, after the rifle as well as the after the Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.

Picture is somewhat unrelated, but I really like it.

Hooray

My folks were visiting this weekend so my dad could be honored with an award for his legal writing (go Dad!) so we went (well, I forced them) to hit the Newseum that I've been trying to visit for at least a year. It was great and I want to go spend more time there, but the highlight was getting this great picture.

Classic.

I conned Andy into taking a nap yesterday. I knew he was tired and made him like next to me quietly in my bed. After about 15 minutes, he actually fell asleep. By then it was already 2:30 and I knew Meg would be waking up soon so I opted to crawl out quietly to do some work on my laptop rather than try to get in a nap that would be so short it would just piss me off.

About 10 minutes later, I heard a thumb, followed by a cry. Andy had fallen out of bed. I quickly scooped him back up and tucked him back into bed.

"That was funny," Andy said. And then he passed out for another hour.

Adorableness.

Boo!

I have a baby board book called Baby Boo! (thanks Frances, I think it was a hand-me-down from you actually.) It's got like eight pages and 15 words in the whole thing, so I love to read it too as it doesn't take forever to get through. On one page, you ask where the baby is and on the next page, it says "boo" to a smiling baby's face. In total adorableness, Meg now says "boo" when we read it, sometimes even on the right page!

She's getting so interactive right now I just love it.

One of those days

My kids had one of those days yesterday. That alone isn't that notable, but they chose yesterday to both have a bad day. At the same time. At the same time as it was pouring down rain. It started with Meg's ear follow up appointment. I was surprised to hear that her latest ear infection didn't clear up with the Suprax as expected. Next up, Augmentin. She had that last about six months ago (ages in the life of a 16 month old) and it caused some diarrhea. But that could have been due to something she ate or the antibiotics. I guess we'll see. The concern now is that this may be speeding up the timetable on ear tubes.

In any event, after the visit, we dropped off the prescription at the CVS drive-through (we're now good friends with the folks there). Then I needed to go to Target for a few things. There, they both proceeded to whine and wiggle through the entire store. If one wasn't crying, the other was and then they both were. Meg is now of an age (and temperament) that when she doesn't want something, she can really arch her back and make it difficult to carry her. So I couldn't contain her in the cart or control her on her feet. And Andy was just crybabying the whole way. Ugh.

Then we needed to head into the library to return DVDs from our trip and pick up a new one. This whole exercise usually takes five minutes, but Andy was still whining about everything (including all the "strangers" in the library and Meg was running away from me and/or climbing on chairs. It got so bad I had one librarian helping Andy who was crying because I had to run to grab Meg and he was crying that I had left. Then as we checked out, Meg ran off and I had a nice lady behind me with three kids of her own holding her while I checked out and Andy cried about not wanting to check out at a certain station. Big stuff.

We went home for a nap (hers at least) then we trekked into town to see an old high school friend who was visiting with her two kids and staying in Dupont Circle. In the afternoon, they were better, but I did discover upon returning that when Andy was having "quiet time," what he did was write all over his pillows with markers. Good times. I had several glasses of wine last night.

And then? Both kids slept until 8 this morning, which is unheard of. Then they were then precious angels most of the day, playing, smiling, eating properly. Meg took a power nap in the afternoon and I even got a nap in (which always makes me in a better mood.) What a difference a day makes sometimes.

Adorableness

Megan, Andy and Emma at the DCC last weekend. I know, they are totally beautiful.

Photo gallery

Meg didn't get to go on our trip, so I had to take adorable pictures of her before I left to show off. Note the new pink shoes and the open strap -- she insists on keeping the straps un-velcroed. I can't explain it. This was also after she climbed the big kid slide and went down by herself. That kid is a fearless climber.

Tia with Emma and her totally awesome hair that morning.

My birthday tiara was actually far less interesting than the seriously awesome fudge cake Mom, Mary and Bitsie picked up at Celebrity Deli.

Bjorn is horrified by his manly little boy dressed in a hula skirt and pink hat. I personally think he looks pretty cute.

The customary bathtub picture of the kids. We are going to try to get a photo every time they're together in the tub. This will probably be a problem in few years with a very high mortification factor.

Uh oh

Tonight Andy took the Neosporin and covered his naked body in it.

"Look, Mommy. I'm all slippery."

I should have taken a photo and didn't, but his whole body looked like it was getting ready for a G-string and a strip club.

Vacay

Andy and I are in Dallas at the moment. We came for a quick trip for a long weekend to visit leaving Bjorn and Meggie Meg at home. It's been fun and weird just having one kid. Andy has loved the attention. Well, when he's noticed me. He's be loving playing with his cousin Megan and occasionally Emma. It's been nice to not have to be so rigid about bedtimes and naps as a four year old is more flexible than a 16-month-old, but I have missed her. Emma is 22-months though and I love watching her closely to get a feel for what's coming my way. She is almost talking and is generally more into running and playing than Meg is at the moment.  I know Meg is going to really love playing with her the next time we're together. 

The trip has been too short to be able to really look anyone up unfortunately. Next time...

Toddlerhood

Holy sh*t. I have a toddler on my hands. I mean that in the sense that I now have a small person who is no longer content to play happily with toys or eat her dinner of whatever was on the menu. No, now she points, grunts and whines about seemingly everything, insists on eating my dinner even if it's what was already on her plate, arches her back to avoid getting in the carseat and generally demands attention only to reject it once I give it to her. It's going to be a long few years ahead, I can feel it.

On the other hand, with this new found independence and intellect comes an increasing awareness of what she does want. Like she likes to hand me a book and sit in my lap while we "read"/flip the pages. She likes to play in the bath water. She likes to sit in chairs of all shapes and sizes to turn around and smugly see what the view is like.

Andy is so desperate to play with Meg and she largely ignores him a lot of the time, much like he will do to her in a few years. It's nice to see what comes around, goes around.

Block party

I have vivid memories of the block parties growing up. We had a big block with lots of kids and it seemed the yearly block party was the highlight of the social season when we were in elementary school. They seemed to peter out as we got older, but the memories lingered. That's one of the reasons I wanted to organize a block party here in Fairfax.

I talked to my next door neighbors who were down with the idea. I then made a flyer with both our names on it. Since they're in there 70s and know everyone, I thought it would be a good mix of us (younger, newer to the block) and them (older, longer residents). I put out the flyers like six weeks ago asking for RSVPs. Doris and Ernie were out of town until this week so I was nervous that only a few people had said yes or no. We started talking it up more and it helped that a new family with four kids under the age of 7 moved in last week. In total, we had about 35 people show up, with maybe 15 kids of all ages. I was happy with the turnout and happy to get to know some of my neighbors better, especially since a lot of them have young kids in between my kids' ages.

It's been a long an exciting Memorial Day weekend. Other nuggets:

1) I bought Meg her first pair of real shoes. I love that there are like 10 pairs of cute girl shoes for everyone one pair of boy shoes.

2) Andy, Meg and I volunteered at the church Friday helping sort clothes for their first food and clothing distribution. Andy and I went back Saturday and helped in the kids' area letting kids color et al while their parents registered and were helped. It was really cool to be a part of that and I liked being able to volunteer with Andy.

3) I booked a flight for me and Andy to visit my Dallas family next weekend for a few days. Bjorn is going to stay here with Meg. Initially I thought about just bringing Meg, but Andy is old enough to really enjoy the trip and she's young enough that it wouldn't be a relaxing visit at all with me having to chase her everywhere. Next time.

4) Mark is home from college and has brought more clothes than I even thought he had. They are now strewn about his room and all over the laundry room. Bjorn said he wasn't going to wash them and I think Mark is trying to wait out his reserve.

5) The pool opened and we all went for a little while. Andy really loves it, but still refuses to put his head under water. I think I'm going to get him lessons this year.

6) I watched the Sex and the City movie via Netflix. And cried. Three times. I am a total sap.

7) Meg has another ear infection. I took her in on Friday to get her on and off goopy eyes looked at and sure enough, another ear infection. I didn't ask about tubes. This time.

8) Oh, and Frances, the duct cleaning went well. They were here about three hours with industrial vacuum cleaners. They said it was pretty bad in there. You're apparently supposed to get it done every three years. They also sucked out the dryer vent, which is good. Let's hope it also helps with Andy and Mark's allergies.

Parent/teacher conference

I had a parent/teacher conference at Andy's school this week. I know, sort of ridiculous as he's FOUR. It was the second one he's had there, I think, but the first with this new teacher in the class he's been in maybe six weeks or so. Generally he's doing well. He knows all his upper case letters and all but two of his lowercase letters as well as all his numbers. I could have told them that.

What I didn't know is that he's apparently quiet(ish) at school. I find this remarkable since he's soooo talkative at home. Since he broke up with his BFF/frenemy by moving up to the next class, it's taken him a little time to find his niche. Right now he's good friends with a little boy whose parents we know (score) and another little girl that the boy is friends with. I know them from birthday parties and they seem like nice kids so that's a plus. He also likes to tell me though, "I'm every body's friend." I love that. And I love that he seems to be progressing well.

I don't love right now is his pattern (like last night) of coming to my room at 5-ish claiming bad dream. I have been having a devil of a time sleeping lately. Either I have trouble falling asleep or else I wake up too early and can't go back to sleep so this early morning wake-up does not please me. This morning he came to our bed, insisted on getting in. Then between his wiggling and Bjorn's snoring, I finally left for Andy's bed for half an hour for some general peace and quiet. Needless to say I'm tired today. What is my obsession with sleep, theirs and mine? Seriously.

Tomorrow I'm getting the ducts cleaned in the house to hopefully alleviate some of Andy's allergies. Heaven knows when those were last cleaned. Certainly not by us.

Birthday!

We drove to Cape May, New Jersey, yesterday for a 20 hour visit to surprise our friend who turns 40 next month. It was so great to see them after they abandoned us for New Jersey last year so it was great fun when her mother invited us and some other friends up during their family vacation to surprise her. We had a blast catching up with friends, but Andy had the most fun riding bikes with Mia and Liam, playing emergency and jumping on the air mattresses. It was so great to see them playing together like no time had past. Meg was also lapping up all the extra attention of all the additional family ready to hold her, play ball and tell her she was so beautiful and perfect.

Meg had a hard time settling into sleep in the pack and play and probably wailed for about 45 minutes before finally going to see. Andy finally conked out on the air mattress around 9:30. The big kids were exhausted. After an exhaustive reading of Texts from Last Night over many glasses of beer and wine and lots and lots of laughs, I finally turned in around midnight. Just in time for the town air raid noise to go off for the town's volunteer fire department. Meg then woke up and refused to go back to sleep for anything. I tried to hold her in bed, I gave her water, I tried putting her back down, I tried feeding her, I tried a bottle of milk, I tried driving her around. Nothing. With a house full of 15 other people, I couldn't really just let her cry like I might have at home. Instead, Bjorn took her into the car and she finally conked out and so did Bjorn. What a hero, seriously, sleeping in the car. We were all exhausted today.

We are planning another trip to the beach with friends later this summer and I'm a little worried that she hates the pack and play so much that we're doomed. I have thought about letting her sleep in it in her room a few nights to get her used to it. Any other ideas?

Pajama party

It's warm and humid here, most likely in anticipation of rain again, so I've been trying to put Meg is some cooler clothes for night. I have gone shopping for short sleeved shirts and shorts recently, but I thought I was okay on pajamas. Turns out much of what I have is fleece and therefore probably too warm. I dug into the closet and found a few pairs of Andy's old 18-24 month and 2T pajamas. Some of them I remember so fondly of him at that age that it warms my heart to see her wearing them. I imagine she'd be thrilled to realize they were Andy's, too. Now I'm wishing I hadn't given away so much of his clothes as about now, she'd look just adorable in blue pajamas wish fishies on them. Precious darling angel baby.

Andy is getting smarter by the minute. We have started playing "memory" and that kid is amazing at it. He also just loves it, which I love. I also like that we can play while I have TMZ on in the background.

We're going to visit some friends for the weekend at the beach. I think the weather is going to suck, but who cares! I am in desperate need of a change of scenery. I realized I haven't taken the kids (or myself) really anywhere interesting since the Christmas debacle in Dallas where Meg was sick and up all night practically the entire time we were gone.

I have decided I am in a funk and, in my natural fashion, I'm driving Bjorn practically batsh*t with my continued stream of things I want to do. Like helping the poor in our neighborhood through the church, taking a vacation to somewhere anywhere, taking classes at Mason (turns out since it's been six years since my last graduate class, I have to reapply), taking tennis lessons. He smiles and tries not to roll his eyes, but I need some ideas of fun stuff to do, places to go, people to see. What you got?

Back in business

I bought a new laptop back in January probably, but in typical Bennett family fashion, I have yet to dismantle my old computer and was keeping it standing (and on most of the time) mostly to pay bills and upload pictures. Of course, now that I have a new fancy FAST laptop, the old one has lost appeal to me. It doesn't help that it's in a corner of the basement vs. the laptop where I can watch Diego and post at the same time. That's the reason there haven't been many pictures lately and also why I have missed a few bills. And if you know me, I love to pay bills on time. Seriously.

So I have finally gotten the software to upload pictures here. Sure, it took me about an hour to figure out where on my hard drive they were stored, but I did it! Next up, getting a better routine for bill pay.

Meanwhile, we're still planning a beach vacay this summer. We've settled on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, to meet our friends. I can't wait. I really need the time away and as you can see, the kids love sand. Any recommendations from you out there?

Awesome!

Andy's new word is "awesome." He says it all the time right now, some of it when it's actually appropriate. It's adorable yet totally annoying all the same.

Me: Andy, let's go to the library and get a new DVD. Would you like that?
Andy: Awe-some!

Me: Andy, can you change out of your pull-up from last night, please? I think it smells like pee.
Andy: Awe-some!