Weak Week

The circumstances surrounding this week have led me to not take many pics, and my memory is bad enough that without pics, I don't really have anything to write about.
Plus, I'm still working on a very frustrating home improvement project that has taken away all of my thought power. I'll tough through this for you guys though.


Unfortunately, Riley came down with his first ear infection.
Wednesday night was rough, then he was really whiny on Thursday so we brought him in. The doc found pus in his ear, but also recognized that he was not being his usual cheeseball self and tested him for flu, which came back negative.
Since he was being unusually cuddly, Joan stayed with him that afternoon and administered antibiotics.

By the next morning he was pretty much back to normal, though he does still look kinda run-down.





He is in a good enough mood though to enjoy riding around the house in a diaper box.





Earlier, in the week, my Mom was sick , so I pulled another half day of babysitting, which consisted mostly of just telling the kids to look out of the window and telling them it is a really big tv.





They each have their own roles. Anna plays with things and makes animal sounds while Riley tries to chew anything he can reach, and Gabe floor-swims over to watch Riley and learn what not to do.






When I decided it was nap time and Riley didn't agree, he showed me how strong he is by pulling down his wall blanket.





I already have a lecture pretty well nailed down for times like those, when he gets all uppity. I make him make eye contact and I say:

" I'm bigger, I'm stronger, I'm madder, and I'm meaner, and I will always win against you, so don't even try."


It may seem excessively harsh, but he's the only person in the world I can get away with using it on, so I'm gonna play it for all its worth.

No progress on the walking front,but he is making noticeable strides with his fine motor skills. Despite not getting nay better at walking, he has decided he is good enough that he doesn't need to hold my fingers for help, and will fight to pull his hands away so that he can do it himself. Best of luck to him. We may get our first ER visit sooner that I thought.


Joan has continued to add more dairy and ate a Meche's donut today for the first time in a long while.
He's shown no adverse reaction yet, so it may be green light time.

But, limited dairy is probably still a good idea, since we have three months to get our beach bodies ready before heading to Destin for some rest and sunburning.


finally, so that there's a little humor this week, here's a couple of shots of Anna trying to get a Lego at the bottom of the toy bin, and just a little out of her reach.

Just Clownin'

No real story lines this week, and the home improvement project I'm working on right now is really irritating me, but I'll give this my best shot.
(author's note- Joan changed it to "irritating", I typed something stronger.)


Though we're hoping he's going to be a smart kid, he still doesn't know that having good taste in music doesn't mean that your music has to taste good.





We really expect him to be walking within a month, but before that, I fully expect him to take a dive out of Jimmy's (very dirty) door, which he has been playing with alot recently.




Here's a little clip of his bipedal progress.







On Saturday he tried to help cousin Molli play her guitar.



He's not very good. Very avante garde.


He also proved again that pulled pork from Johnson's Boucaniere brings out his alter ego, Super-Cheesey Boy




He was making such a racket out on the porch, I know that I would have kicked us out. (but Lori and Clair, et al are too nice for that)

Sunday, he tried to be all adult-like and copy Nonnie and Poppy at breakfast. (Mommy and Daddy don't drink coffee.)

Our table excluded, I wouldn't doubt if he had more IQ and common sense than most of the sheeple who were at Golden Corral. (Ain't I the meanest nice guy you'll ever read?)



(still looking for a good breakfast buffet in Lafayette, preferably with an entrance exam, if anyone has any secrets)

Since food has been mentioned, Joan has again explored dairy this weekend.
Items consumed include fried pickles, banana pudding, chocolate cake and a biscuit...you know, healthy stuff.

He sprouted his fifth tooth this week, seen below peeking out just to the right of his fronts.




I am a firm believer in kids being kids and being able to do things adults can't do, due to social conventions.
I also like the rodeo, which is in town this week. (but we aren't going).

Combine the two, and I believe that my kid should be able to dress like a rodeo clown every once in a while.




Sure, he wasn't quite as stylish as his peers, but who cares?




To prove that he's not at all neglected, and we're trying to make him gain weight, I fired up the Egg and got all smoky smelling just to cook him two boneless chicken thighs. He's gonna owe me a nice retirement.





And finally, here's your schadenfreude for the week.

Please examine the photo below and answer the following multiple choice question:

What Happened here?

A- BW got a little carried away while making pancakes.
B- BW walked under a tree full of birds.
C- BW has a recently discovered birthmark on his head shaped like a Scandinavian country; or
D- BW played a flying game with Riley a little too soon after the last feeding, and just a couple of minute before his Inns of Court meeting, and Joan let him think that Riley just drooled on him , so he ended up putting his hand in a puddle of puke.




If you guessed anything but D, please report to the Golden Corral.

Down with the Sickness

This week has been all about the funk.
Not the musical variety though, we're jammin' to the head congestion variety.

Last weekend, the little man started getting all nose constipated and quickly passed it on to Joan.

Here he is in all of his puffy face, congested glory.





Due to my impermeable immune system, (thanks to a steady diet of lemonade, jelly bellys and pulled pork), I never got hit.

Riley's sickness has caused a complete collapse of his sleep schedule, and he is now waking up every hour or so, presumably to try to breathe. It's also keeping him from eating as much as he should, which is not good considering his ped visit last Monday.

His 9 month checkup showed us that he is still at the bottom of the class, size-wise. He weighs 17 lbs 4 oz and is 27.75" tall. His height and head are right around the 25%, where they always have been, but his weight has dropped down to the 4%, down from between 15-20%. That got the doc concerned, so she told us to fatten him up and come back in a month.

Unfortunately, the sickness has made him eat even less than usual for the first week, so we're just gonna pretend that she said come back in 5 weeks instead.

He likes what we're feeding him, he just can't breathe. If things don't pick up soon, we're gonna hook him up to a tube, froie grois style.

Also hit by the sickness bug was my mom, our babysitter.

Fortunately though, Joan and I both have flexible employments and were able to cover for a couple of days.

My office is paperless, so, as long as I have internet access, I'm able to access the entirety of my files, sign mail, read mail and get work done, even with the kids running around.





Unfortunately, the weather was rainy, so we weren't able to play outside, which left Riley and Jimmy staring, longingly, through the front door.





When the boys get out of control, I just stage a little mock arrest. This is hopefully the only time Riley and Gabe will ever have to assume this position together, but I'm not putting any money on it. (especially with the moves that our Fed, State and Local govs are making toward a police/nanny state. But that's for another day's discussion)





Joan also got them for half of a day and struck her best barefoot, redneck- mom pose (with authenticity ruined by the diamond earrings and charity 5k t-shirt not found in native hillbilly cultures)





They're pretty good kids (except that none of them have ANY volume control.) They usually just play peacefully until naptime.






I was also able to take Riley and Anna for a little bike ride. Check out the thrilled looks of anticipation on their cherubic faces.




It is interesting to compare that pic to their last ride together 6 months ago.





Riley also got the opportunity this week to visit Poppy at work where he was able to both sit in a helicopter and pretend to be the son of a rich Middle Eastern oil family.





When we were kids, we were able to take helicopter rides on a few occasions (dad fixes 'em and his dad flew 'em.)
It's not something most people ever get to do, unless they work offshore. But I guess our modern safety/litigation culture (dang lawyers) has gotten that practice shut down. Hopefully, he'll get a chance to fly in a chopper at some point though.

Due to his sleep schedule, he and I ran around on Saturday and Sunday mornings while mommy tried to sleep.

We stopped at my office where he nailed the perfect, "You surprised me with a camera while I was working" look.




Then he tried to camouflage himself between my two screens.

Can you pick out the real baby?




Next we had breakfast at Great Harvest, where he was cranky inside, but fully at peace sitting outside and giving me what has become his typical picture face. (one that doesn't exactly give off an aura of intelligence)






Sunday we had breakfast at Meche's , where, though he couldn't have any donuts, he was more than happy just walking along the corner booth.

Next we went to Wal-mart, where it was just too early to have much success at Wal-Mart Bingo.(aside from the diaper in the parking lot, which we actually saw at 7:30 am)



(disclaimer- I grew up in a trailer park,had a "rat tail", have purchased beer and diapers together, and my kid never wears shoes, thus, I have all of the street cred to post that item non-offensively)

Then we just drove around, and I learned that no matter how much he fights off sleep when you're driving, if you get on a washboarded dirt road, like the one at Lake Martin, he'll be asleep within 50 yards.

Joan has been brave and had dairy twice this week in the form of fried shrimp breading and the bread at O'charley's (we gave 'em another chance. it's kid friendly)

Maybe next week, we can make it three.




On the developmental front, he's about to get two more teeth. Combine that with his mouth breathing and we've had to wring the fronts of his shirts out all week.
He's also begun to use crawling as a form of inter-room travel instead of just moving around within one room.

Finally, he's on the cusp of walking, he just needs to feel the confidence. He stands unsupported until he realizes what he's doing, then he sits down. He's also taken a couple of falling steps between us.
I give him until Mardi Gras to get with the program, or he can start crawling around town apartment shopping.


And to top things off with a good laugh, here's a little video to enjoy, wherein someone took a clip from Sesame Street and bleeped every instance of Count VonCount saying "count" in his song. Let's see where your mind goes.


The Count Censored - The most amazing bloopers are here


You're sick!

(You see how I brought it all back together there? That's called style, kiddos)

Cheesey

Nothing really earth shattering happened this week, from an outsider's perspective.
But, for the sake of dietary ease in our life, things did get better (so far).
More on that later though.

Earlier in the week (on the day it was cold) we hung his new swing (a Christmas present from Nonnie and Poppy) from one of our cypress trees.

He doesn't care what he's doing, just as long as he's doing it outside.






Being in Louisiana, it was no surprise that two days after hat and jacket weather, it was shorts weather again.





He's learned to regularly pull up on the table.





and he really likes to play with his balls.





He's also learned to pull up on his ride-on toy from Caroline's parents, and to operate all of the noise makers.





But he does need to learn that the bead spinner plunger is easier to operate with your hand than your teeth (his current preferred method)



(For the observant people, yes, the dog is sniffing his butt)


I tried to teach him some responsibility by getting him to help with the laundry, but he was not a big fan of just being dropped into the hamper and told to sort.





Sunday evening, we went to WOW Wingery where he, amazingly, slept through half of the meal before waking up dumbfounded, but with awesome hair, and showing us all of the ways you aren't supposed to sit in a high chair (or sit at all if you're a guy).





He could be a model for safety labels, but all of his pictures would have a red circle with a line through it.



Speaking of meals, here's what Joan got at WOW.



TaDa!!
That's our big news of the week.

"Why?" you confusedly ask.

Because there's CHEESE on the salad, and she ate it...... purposefully. (and rediscovered that salads are waaaaaayyy better with cheese)

And even better, it's the third time she's had dairy this week, and he didn't react to either of the first two.

Monday, she ate Chick-fil-a which has a minute amount in the chicken breading.

Then, on Thursday, she ate some cornbread, which was made with milk.
Since he didn't react to either, she got brave and decided to eat some cheese.

Due to her pumping and his feeding schedule, he won't get any cheese tainted milk until Tuesday, at which time, hopefully, nothing will be different.

The doc has said she could start trying to phase milk products in after 9 months, which is now.

She'll work back in slowly and we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Sometime in the next couple of months though, Coyote Blues may be back in the rotation and she should be able to partake of the very cinnamony bread pudding at Johnson's. We're gonna get soooooo fat.


As an experiment to see how video works, here's what he sounds like when he's on his eighth wind and refusing to go to bed.



(Please let me know if this causes the page to load too slowly)


Finally, he's learned to bang on the keyboard when he sits with me, so I'll let him close out this week's post with his deep thought of the day:

cvvvvvvvvvvvvvhgygggsrxzw32w987 ., hnbgggggggggggggggggyyy n jkmklijm j



The End
(I typed those two words, and these)