Supermarket Sweep; Blah Blah Blah

Look at my wife, sneaking blog posts in there that I don't know about. Tsk tsk. Although that strawberry thing was pretty hilarious.

I want to take a few seconds to announce a couple of things:

1) Max is obsessed with shopping. In our pantry. Yes, he wheels his multipurpose truck that has faces announcing things like "I'm the bus driver, time to go to school" and "I'm a fireman, don't play with fire!" over to our pantry and starts pulling things off the shelves and firing them in his truck ("shopping cart"). Typically, he grabs all of the boxes of raisins he can get his hands on, all of our granola bars and occasionally a chocolate bar or something similar. Unfortunately, this has led to Max helping himself to raisins occasionally and tonight, Holly busted him trying to break into a Skor bar.

One morning last weekend, Max had been playing around in our bedroom closet with a sealed bag of raisin boxes that he had "bought". I knew he couldn't get into it so I kind of ignored him, being in the middle of my haze of sickness. Holly came in and heard the crinkling. She asked "what is our son doing in there?" and I muttered something about raisins but she thought I should check. It turns out that at some point, he had also pilfered/"bought" an open bag of mini Rolos and had at some point given up on the raisin bag and moved on to the easier prey. He had at least 4 or 5 in his mouth and that may not have been his first kick at the cat. Oops. We're monitoring his shopping cart more closely now. He has moved into jams and seasoning mixes occasionally but has as yet stayed away from the brewskis on the bottom shelf.

This is no doubt where Max gets the shopping gene from:


2) Leo has started babbling, much like what Max started doing when he was 6 months and 12 days old as documented in this post: Happy Easter. Leo is slightly behind the curve at 6 months and 26 days, but that's pretty close. In fact, I hadn't really done the math and wasn't really expecting it anytime soon. I had definitely wondered to myself what it would sound like when Leo would start, but didn't give much thought to the "when". It started when he woke up at 3-something in the night...I'm sure I heard something about "hickey" in there...I suppose I should have warned Holly. In any case, he was running his mouth all day long. Unlike Max, Leo is a little camera shy so I was repeatedly unsuccessful at getting a good movie, but at the end of the one below, you can get a little taste. I'm sure we'll film something better shortly. Anyway, Leo has been in a wonderful mood all day (in fact, Holly and I got some good jobs done around here today and we're both feeling pretty good) and I'm hoping he sleeps a little better than last night.

My boys like berries!

So, Max took a big imaginary bite out of my belly button last night. When we asked him what my belly button tasted like, his enthusiastic response was "Strawberry!". Very interesting.

In other berry-related news, I have another giant hickey on my face courtesy of Leo. At 3:30 am last night when we were heading to the basement for a feed and a looooooooooooong play session, he managed to latch onto my face something fierce. It looks like a giant raspberry has been crushed into my jaw line! Oops. I guess I will attempt to be more alert if it happens again tonight!

Another sickness update AND boys with crazy headgear!

First off, an update on the sickness. It hit John HARD last weekend - massive sinus infection. He felt like he had been hit by a truck. He missed almost a week of work but he's on the mend now thanks to two prescriptions and a LOT of rest. Max is 100% and Leo has some lingering nasal congestion. It turns out that the whole city has been down with either a bad respiratory virus (like a cold but with a cough that can last for three weeks - when I heard this on the radio, I had quite the "Eureka!" moment thinking about both of our boys hacking up a lung these past few weeks) or a terrible gastrointestinal bug. All of the hospitals, including the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, have been canceling elective surgeries and quarantining people. Yikes. Apparently, the respiratory virus can cause lung infections in kids too so I'm relieved that the doctor put Leo on the preventative course of antibiotics. Miraculously, I have thus far managed to fend everything off with my supermommy immunity shield. Fingers crossed that my luck continues!

And now, some totally random photos of the boys with things on their heads!


Max with his beloved Sumi Vancouver 2010 Mascot towel.


Leo with the famous Lone Star birthday cowboy hat.


Max loves his birthday cake hat.


Leo, living up to his name as the star-crossed lover in a Russian romance novel.

Whoooooo are you? hoo hoo, hoo hoo

Recently, Max has shown quite a bit of interest in pictures. He likes to look at a camera right after a picture has been taken, he likes photo albums and he even likes checking out the blog. A few days ago, I warped back to pictures of his 2nd birthday and he started identifying people in the picture. I asked him to start over and took the following video:



Wow. He has gotten so good at recognizing people both in his everyweek life as well as those he only sees once or twice a year. The last time he looked through a photo album, he was able to identify pictures of his Grandpa, Grandma and Auntie Jan without any help. In fact, the last time his Grandpa called, he asked who it was - I gave him the phone, Grandpa said "Hello" and Max said "Grandpa". To me, that's totally amazing. He has seen his Grandpa on four occasions, although one doesn't really count for recognition purposes because Max was a week old at the time.

I guess it all goes to show that everyone that Max meets over the course of his life does have an impact on him and he does remember voices and faces. So don't any of you screw up or anything because at this point he'll remember:):)

Sickness update

OK, so it's a little strange that I'm providing an update on something that you probably haven't read yet (scroll down for the original post - watch out for that diaper though), but I figured I would keep you informed.

About 10 days ago Max got his first cold in a long time. He was only out of daycare for about a day and a half and now he's back to normal, aside from a persistent cough. At the start of all of this, he was pretty good at covering his mouth with his sleeve, but midway through the last 10 days, it seems that he has selectively decided to forget how to do it. I think this happened right around when he started saying "I not sick" so maybe it's intentional.

About 6 days back, Leo picked up the nastiness and gave us a run for our parenting money on Thursday night and Friday. However, with the assistance of Holly's folks and Leo's willingness to sleep in his car seat, the weekend was most definitely salvaged. Friday night, Leo slept longer than he'd slept in roughly 4-6 weeks in his car seat. Holly thought of doing it to clear his airways as he is more upright in his seat and we found a website or two that suggested that it was safe as long as the straps weren't anywhere near the baby, it wasn't a long-term solution and the baby was in the same room as a parent, so we went for it. I think we slept over seven hours each that night and then Nana and Great Auntie K whisked Max away on Saturday morning to do a bunch of shopping and hang out with Great Auntie M. This gave me the opportunity to get some more sleep so I was super grateful. Then, both kids napped simultaneously for two hours (!!!!!!!!!), enabling Hol and I to do a crazy amount of puttering and cleaning up that was long overdue. Sunday went well too and ended with a nice family dinner at Nana and G.A.K.'s.

Monday, Holly took Leo in to a clinic to have Leo's drool rash checked out (he has raised bumps on his chin area resulting from the 24/7 deluge of saliva rolling out of his mouth). I guess the doctor heard Leo breathe once and immediately prescribed some antibiotics as a preemptive strike against anything bacterial or viral (pneumonia, say) that might be thinking of taking hold. For a kid who never drank from a bottle, you can imagine how well he's handling ingestion of liquid medicine (not well). Lots of sputtering and staining things pink. However, I think his status has improved since the weekend, despite the fact that he still has a nice, wet cough. Apparently, this can linger for a couple of weeks. That's unfortunate, but at least we won't be freaking out in 2 weeks when Leo's still hacking up a lung.

As for the parent-folk, Holly and I have been borderline since Sunday - that first blast of rest seems to have weakened our defenses. Holly has held up nicely, but I finally caved today and stayed home to rest. Hopefully I'll be back at work tomorrow, but it will probably depend on how tonight goes.

So that's the skinny.

I'm starting to feel bad about the Leosplosion pictures, so I thought I'd post something more enlightening today. Here is a video of Max, troubadour, entertaining his younger brother. It's really amazing to watch how Max's presence tends to totally calm Leo down. I hope they keep this up :)

The Sickness; one GROSS diaper

No, not the album by metal band Disturbed, but the stuff that has descended on the Stardom household. This past week has been a doozy, featuring by far the worst night since Max's birth not caused by a newborn. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This past Monday, Max was having a normal morning when, all of a sudden, he came down with a nasty cold at day care and had to come home. Holly was a trooper and I took Tuesday morning to pitch in. By Tuesday night, Max was full of beans again and ready to get back to the daycare grind, albeit with a hacking cough and nose dripping like a faucet. It turned out that all the kids at daycare were sick at some point this week so our awesome daycare provider was totally cool with us sending him to daycare even if he wasn't 100%.

However, by Wednesday night, Leo was showing signs that he had picked up what Max had. Thursday morning, he sounded like Holly when she's got a case of the croup. He was so congested by Thursday night that he wouldn't sleep if he was put down - the second his head hit the crib or bed, he was up. Leo and I ended up sharing a nice late-night urban drive between midnight and 2, just to get him some sleep. Holly and I both staggered through Friday on about 3 hours each and we're hoping for a better night tonight.

Poor guy. I don't think Max was ever this sick. And of course this all comes on the heels of me mentioning to Holly how lucky we were regarding the kids' health. I suppose we were due. We're still lucky that it's just a cold. Hopefully the weekend can help everyone recuperate.

Oh, it's entirely possible that I shouldn't be posting the following pictures due to their graphic nature, but it speaks a bit to what might also have been going on with Leo in regards to his sleeping. The word is "constipation" and it should be combined with "new diet". I kind of forgot that introducing solid food into a baby's diet changes how a few things work for the little one. Well, I got a phone call at the office on the 8th from Holly who sounded like she had just escaped from a blazing building. Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but...

For those of you who don't know, Leo has had this funky habit of filling his diaper once every 7-10 days, which results in spectacular clean-ups. Although this may sound a bit weird, it is actually totally normal for a breastfed baby - anywhere from 10 times a day to once every 10 days is in the normal range. Fortunately for me, I got an A in hot potato back in the day, so Holly has been left holding the bag (so to speak) for most of these explosions. Most of what Holly had seen before P-Day was pretty tame though until this happened:

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.








Yes, that's after the first wave of wiping. Holly was a little overwhelmed. In her own words: "he was on my hip and then my arm was wet and then I kind of knew what was happening, but when I put him down and revealed that it had gone up the back and over his SHOULDER....oh my God!". So apologies for those of you with weak stomachs, but I felt like I had to share.

Holly adds - I didn't think that much poop could come out of a six-month old baby! The best part was that I had just bathed him a few hours earlier then had to bathe him again. I also found some poop on his EAR when I was putting him to bed that night. I also mourned the loss of that super cute OshKosh yellow onesie but there was *absolutely* no way of saving it so it went directly in the trash.

Unsolved mysteries...solved!

Man, the December blogathon has still got me blogged out.

About three nights ago, when Leo cried to let us know that he'd gotten up in the night, we noticed when we picked him up that he wasn't where we had left him. It seems that at some point, Leo figured out how to move forward on his tummy. Which is strange, because we'd never seen him do it in the daytime. I'd put him on his tummy and he'd lift his head and then do normal stationary baby things. No crawling. Then, in the night, forward movement. In fact, we decided to make sure that when we put him to bed that his feet were essentially at the end of the crib to maximize the time it would take him to get to the other end. This didn't end up changing his new (bad) pattern though...just when we thought we were clever! So this crawling stuff ended up being a bit of a urbabyan legend.

Tonight has not been a good night for Leo in terms of getting to sleep. This post will be a bit misleading to you out there, given that it was started after midnight and thus will be dated the day after the sleep battle began so please note that I'm referring to Sunday night. Recently, Leo has taken very well to going to sleep on his tummy, rarely requiring more than one trip to the crib to start his sleep. Tonight, it was back up to five. For many days now, he's been exhibiting all the signs of a teething baby (mega drool, bad sleep, all grabbed items inserted directly in the mouth, occasional jags of inconsolability, etc.) so we think that this has come to a head tonight. In the end, we gave Leo his first (in a long time? ever? I can't remember...) shot of Advil and I'm pretty sure he'll be out for a few hours as a result. I'm glad - Holly needs a break. In any case, I've checked the blog and Max's first tooth came in at 7.5 months. I'm hoping that this is the real deal and not a "teeth moving but not breaking through" false alarm. Then again, it could also be a growth spurt I suppose. Maybe a combination.

In any case, the one good thing that the multiple failures to get Leo to sleep have provided to us is some insight into the whole crawling thing. It seems that when Leo stirs from sleep while on his front, he scrunches up at the waist, bringing his legs up and sticking his bum in the air. Then, when he flattens out again, his knees gain traction and his top half shoots forward. Repeat. Given that the crib is only 2 Leos long, it doesn't take long for the little guy to run up against the end. It was suggested to throw a bumper pad on the end of the crib to lessen the impact, but I'm not sure if Leo's up by the time he gets to the end of the crib (which would render the pad moot) or not. Anyway, we'll just have to wait to see how things develop.

End of an era

It's official. I think Max actually likes hockey more than heavy machinery. At bedtime tonight, he chose a hockey book over one of his favourite heavy machinery books, "Diggers and Dump Trucks". I thought it would be bulldozers forever but I guess hockey is at our house to stay. I guess that makes me a hockey mom!

Leo's Half Birthday

Dear Leo,

Happy half-birthday, my beautiful boy. You are six months old today! I can't believe it. It seems like yesterday that you were a tiny, tiny little baby.

You had your six-month checkup today and you are perfectly average with a height and weight in the 50th percentile. You weigh 8.02 kg (17.6 pounds).

You've started on solid food. You started rice cereal on New Year's Eve and today you tried a bit of banana. The rice cereal was a hit but the banana was a no-go. We'll try it again another time.


You are getting really mobile. The other day, I was playing with you on your new quilt (Thanks Grandma!) and I got up for a few seconds to run to the washroom and came back to see this:


You had rolled across the room and were manhandling your brother's Zamboni!

You love music and songs. Singing can put a huge smile on your face and calm you down when you are upset. Acka Backa Soda Cracker and I Love You in the Morning are two of your favourites.

You have a huge range of expressions, which is quite the change from your brother at your age. Here you are giving the sock monkey your best "Come hither":


You have ticklish thighs. You have a little bald spot on your head that I like to obsess about. You are getting better about being in your car seat.

You put EVERYTHING in your mouth these days, including your own feet and your brother's hockey sticks:



You inherited your father's long eyelashes but my brows so your eyelashes actually do this weird thing where they curve downwards at the ends because your brows are pushing them down. Hopefully that changes as you get older or I'll be buying you an eyelash curler!

We put a bookshelf in your room today and I am looking forward to reading you lots and lots of books.

I worry sometimes that you don't get enough individual attention because we have your brother to take care of too but I also know that having a brother so close in age to you will mean that you will have a playmate and friend for life. You love to watch your brother play and run around. You also seem to like his hugs and sloppy kisses.

I also have to remind myself that you are growing up fast and to take the time to really be with you and enjoy your company while we have this time together. The dishes and the laundry can wait!

I love you oceans, little one, and I look forward to seeing you grow into your own little person.


Love,
Mama

Happy new decade!

Hello everybody. This actually marks our 200th post. I'm not sure I ever figured we'd get to this point, so I'm a little impressed. Thanks to all of you who have posted comments over the years or who have let us know personally that you are tuning in. It's great to be able to share these special moments we have with our boys with all of you.

You've all been waiting for some Christmas visuals so I'm going to pop a few up here. There were so many pictures taken over the holidays that we can't possibly cover all events here, but I'll try to represent a good selection. Here we go:


This is Max doodling on one of my office's Smartboards. He loved electronically tagging the wall!


Leo, hanging out with Auntie M and GG on Christmas Eve.


The whole crew before our KFC feast. Notice the absence of an AFTER picture.


Max, excited (?) to be doing some cleaning on Christmas morning.


Leo and Santette.


The whole family on Christmas Day.


The best expression I've ever captured on Leo's face. This one came after I tried to explain to him the true meaning of Christmas.


OK, nix that earlier caption. This is the whole family on Christmas Day.


Leo crying, while Max tries to tell him everything is OK. Note the matching sweaters, courtesy of Auntie L.


Leo, checking out one of the ornaments.


Mommy, GG and Leo.


Max opening his ukulele. I would have killed for him to have spun my way instead of away from me. The look on his face was pretty amazing. At least you can still see how crazy excited he was!