Thirteen months

Theo crosses his ankles while riding in the stroller or carseat. At this moment in time, he also wants to be with Daddy Lovebo more than Mama. Last night as I was trying to nurse them both and then put them down for bed he refused to nurse and just wailed for Jeff to come back. He also definitely has ideas about what he wants and when he wants it. He has a more adventurous palate, at least for the moment, and has been eating a lot of fruits and pretty much whatever I put on his plate. Theo usually gets up earlier than Beckett from naps and nighttime sleeping, and he is more insistent than Beckett about having someone come in to fetch him. Whereas Beck will often sit up in his crib and play and chat for a while before becoming unhappy, Theo will immediately stand up and yell, then cry, for someone to come get him. When I get him in the mornings, before Beckett is up, I sometimes bring him back into bed with me to cuddle. He likes to look up at the fan above our bed, look at me, point, and say "DAH!" I then say, "FAN". We go back and forth like this for several minutes. The first time he ever said Mama to me was yesterday when I got home from work. He's been saying Dada for a few weeks at least. Theo's still more physical than Beckett, and he rarely falls while walking. He can crouch down, get back up, reach, and stay vertical all the while.

Beckett takes most small and large setbacks like a champ. This morning I noticed that he has one tooth poking through about halfway back on top, and then on the other side his gum is hugely swollen with a big tooth about to come through. His tongue is all red and swollen, apparently from where he bit it recently. We call him a bull in a china shop because he leads with his head and bumps it many times a day into things--door frames, the floor, the edges of furniture. Theo takes things out of his hands many times a day and he usually just looks after him for a minute, like, "did that really happen?", and then toddles on to the next event. Two nights ago we went for a walk through the park and Beckett started screaming his head off about 5 minutes in. Jeff was thoughtful enough to examine all parts of Beckett, and noticed that his right arm (the one closest to Theo) was all marked up with a bite. In general, Beckett won't try new foods as often or as willingly as Theo does. Usually he wants to see someone else eat the food first before he will try it. So if new food is put in front of both babies, Beckett watches Theo to see if Theo will eat whatever strange thing it is. If Theo eats it, Beckett cautiously advances the food toward his mouth and tries it out. Beck's vocabulary is more advanced than Theo's--he knows more words, or at least indicates that he understands, and he speaks more words. Beck has been saying Mama and Dada for a long time, and he says VROOOM when he sees a car or truck, in a book or as a toy or in person. He says CAT loudly whenever there is a cat or a picture of a cat around. He can say NUMNUMS (which means nursing, and sounds more like NA-NA). I think Beckett pronates when he walks, so he's less stable than Theo.

Both babies are pulling toys behind them and crawling down stairs with help. They still sometimes look puzzled when looking down a step, but with some help can turn around and back down it. They LOVE reading (reading pictures to come soon), and will sit for a long time examining the pages, pointing to various things in the book, and turning the pages. Then usually starting over from the beginning.

To the 24 hour period beginning at 5pm June 24, 2012, YOU SUCK

Last night we should have been enjoying a nice evening with Jeff's parents, who brought a lovely dinner for the eight of us (Kathy, Greg, the Parents Lovebo, T & B, and Uncle Jon and his GF Rachel). But Theo developed a rash on his scrotum that looked a little worrisome to us, so we called the pediatrician's after-hours line. The nurse couldn't tell what might be going on over the phone, so she advised us to take him to the pediatric ER at Upstate.

We ended up having a pretty great experience, given that we were taking our infant to the pediatric ER past his bedtime. Theo was a total sweetheart to everyone, smiling and giggling and chatting with the nurses and doctors. We waited only a few minutes before we were called into triage, then a few more minutes back in the waiting room before we were called back to an exam room. I will admit to having a few bad flashbacks to my own recent traumatic time in the hospital, but given Theo's fantastic mood and the similarity of his symptoms to what he had had before, I was not honestly very worried. The doctors were both great and had us out the door with bacitracin in Theo's hands within about 90 minutes of our arrival at the hospital. Dr Cantor diagnosed essentially a skin rash, a kind of diaper rash plus that was at risk of becoming infected. So we'll have to keep applying bacitracin several times a day and he started a course of antibiotics this morning that he'll take for seven days. He loved chewing on the tube of bacitracin on the way home and promptly fell asleep clutching it in one hand and resting the other fist against his temple. We were lucky enough that the Grandparents Leibowitz could stay with sleeping Beckett while both Jeff and I went to the hospital with Theo. We even ran into a colleague of mine, a lawyer there with his wife and son. All in all, as good an experience as we could have.

This morning I was in the midst of four loads of laundry and cleaning the stove when I got a call from my real estate lawyer that the closing for 120 Linn St scheduled for this Friday was indefinitely delayed because a search of the city tax records showed a city lien for over $4,000 for unpaid sidewalk repairs. Without going into the painful, outrageous details of that debacle, suffice it to say that we won a lengthy battle against the Board of Public Works mainly because of the brilliant legal arguments of our non-lawyer neighbor at the eleventh hour. But apparently the city had never taken the lien off our house. After some crafty web searching we found the meeting minutes which demonstrated that the charges had been expunged ("try google. it's a search engine.") Problem: averted.

Also beginning this morning the gas company arrived with large machines to tear up our lawns and the lawns of our neighbors to begin some sort of gas line replacement project, and to add the meter to the outside of the house. All I know is that it took all day, blocked my driveway, created an incredible volume and violence of noise, and resulted in two holes about five feet deep, five feet wide, and five feet long. They did refill the holes at the end of the day and the boys did enjoy watching them work when they were directly in front of the house, so not all was lost. By the time Daddy Lovebo got home from work the holes were filled in but it's going to take some labor to get the yard back to normal. I hope the gas company will come back as they promised!

On the bright side, the boys took lovely long naps midday and we had a fun trip to Wegmans in the morning, including a visit with our friend Mike the helping hand. I need to get a picture of Mike with the boys some day, since he sure does love them and helps me so much with unloading the groceries. We also enjoyed a lovely walk with Daddy when he got home, and they had a great dinner before conking right out at 7. Tomorrow Grandpa Stu comes for another day on his own!

Weekend fun... and our first trip to the pediatric ER!

 First trip to the pediatric ER at Upstate. Theo's fine--just a little rash to be treated with antibiotics. It was good to be cautious because it could have been worse and it's good to treat it before it gets bad. He charmed everyone and we ran into friends at the ER. The total wait time was less than an hour total between all the waiting, and we had a great experience with Drs. Overton and Cantor. It was a good trial run--now we know where to park, where to go in, the process, and some of the nurses and doctors. And we'll hope never to have to go back!

Groovin'

This video is to illustrate Beckett's penchant for dancing whenever he hears music, anywhere, anytime. And to illustrate the utter hilarity of having two toddlers with the run of the house. Tonight we had some people from the neighborhood over for dinner and in the chaos of having people arriving and me cooking and Jeff cleaning up (we'd gotten home about 10 minutes before people started arriving) we lost Beckett briefly. He was upstairs playing. It's a little nuts.

Winning and losing

Grandma Joanie sent me this article to celebrate Fathers' Day. The article talks primarily about boys but the lessons seem widely applicable. So far we're not playing games, at least in the traditional sense, with the boys, but I'm excited to apply these lessons when we do!

Summer begins

I know it's not officially summer yet, but it sure is feeling like it. I'm not even in school but I can feel spring fever in the air. The school across the street has been doing fire drills they must have been procrastinating on, the birds are chirping, the weather is gorgeous. Theo and Beckett have been enjoying stroller rides in the park, swimming in the baby pool, and, today, experiencing their new slide!

 First family dinner out on the new deck!

Strawberry picking!

 We spent a great afternoon yesterday picking strawberries at Reeves Farms in Baldwinsville with friend Ana. I had planned to bring them in the double stroller but the rows were too narrow. Luckily Ana didn't mind carrying Beckett with her, and Theo rode on my back. I carried her son John in his carseat through the rows while we picked. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day and we got some good berries!

 Mark and Mindy were supposed to leave Tuesday but haven't been able to get their car out of the repair shop, so they're still here and we're lucky enough to have been spending some nice time with them. This morning they came over with a bagel for the babies and played in the front yard for a while.