weekend recap

Theo: one ear infection
Beckett: two ear infections
Mama: monster cold
Daddy: in Philadelphia for his LLM

Supporting cast: Tara T, Uncle Jon, and the Grandparents Leibowitz for stepping in to help out.

Since getting back from Philly, Daddy Lovebo has been double extra hands-on, doing nighttime duty with two sick kids so Mama could sleep last night. I'm finally on an antibiotic which I really hope will help. 

A nice day on the back deck. The boys really enjoyed having their snack sitting up like big boys on the bench.

An interesting new development: the boys have been taking naps gradually later in the morning/afternoon. This has led to a conundrum of whether to feed them a heavy snack at their usual snack time, 10:30 or 11am, or to bump lunch to pre-nap. We were waiting until after nap, but then they're too groggy to eat much, and then they're not hungry enough to eat much dinner, especially on the epic nap days when they sleep til 3:30. Today was the first day of implementing pre-nap lunch. I was too sick to work and Mindy was planning to work anyway, so she and her son Jared took care of the boys. They ate a small but not unusually small lunch, then a good nap (1.5 hours--Theo, and 2 hours--Beck), then played outside for much of the afternoon (including a nice visit from Mindy's other son Jalen and neighbors Will and Ollie). Then they ate the most monster dinner ever. We're hoping that translates to good sleep tonight!

It turns out Theo had an ear infection and a bad sore throat, which is probably why he was so upset. Maybe for a couple days. Luckily Mindy was on to it and the pediatrician confirmed an ear infection and put him on antibiotics. She also thought he had a painful sore throat that was probably contributing to him being unable to sleep. Beck's not feeling super-great but so far he's been in better spirits and sleeping better than Theo. Though last night was better than the past two. I'm still working on not much sleep in the last week and nursing my own nasty cold but I am really hopeful that a weekend of down time will help us all feel better. This morning they both woke up pretty happy and had a great day with Mindy. We had been planning a trip to Philadelphia this weekend for Jeff's LLM program and to see friends Laura, John, Henry and Aaron, but I'm just too exhausted to imagine wrangling the boys by myself while Jeff's at school. So we'll have a quiet weekend at home and try to rest up. I hope Jeff will be home in time to enjoy some time with us Sunday.

One of my favorite things now is putting the boys to bed and having them pick out books and crawl into my lap to read them. They each get one thigh and I think we all fit pretty well together.

Theo's starting to throw and catch things with some accuracy. Beck's not as advanced in the throwing/catching realm but he has quite the windup on his throw. Here's Theo with Daddy Lovebo playing their first game of "catch."

It has been eight days since the last Team Lovebo post. Why, you ask?

WE NO GET NO SLEEP UP IN HERE.

Example: last night. We had a great evening at our neighbors' across the street who have three little boys, a four year old named Ollie and twins, Luke and Jake, one year older than Theo and Beckett. Because we have been exhausted from so little sleep the last many nights, we were in bed at 8:30, and asleep at 9. Theo and Beck went to bed at 7:45, a little later than usual because we were at Will and Kristina's until about 7:30. At 9:45, Theo was up screaming. And again at midnight. And 2:30. That time Theo woke Beckett up, who then asked for a diaper change. At 4:30 Beckett woke up to nurse. I couldn't bear to wake Theo up, like I would usually do, because he was finally sleeping soundly. Twenty minutes after I went back to bed, Theo was up to nurse. When they got up at 7:20, Daddy Lovebo got up and let me sleep a little later. But geez, Theo, what the heck??

That's all I have to say. We need to get some sleep up in here. Here are some pictures to appease the masses.

This morning the boys and I made lasagna. Theo was in charge of mozzarella, and Beck was in charge of parm.

Beck spent some time after dinner playing floor hockey with a mixing spoon and plastic balls.

Bathtime has become way fun lately. The boys love drinking out of their cups and splashing each other and grabbing each other's feet and laughing and giggling. Bathtime sometimes lasts close to half an hour with all the fun.

Beck's been drooling a ton lately. The front of all his shirts are drenched most of the day. He must have some teeth coming in.

Both boys love walking around in shoes they find around the house. Here's Theo in Daddy Lovebo's slippers.

On a recent trip to the playground at the park, we saw a friend with two little girls who had brought their own strollers to push around the playground. Beck and Theo borrowed them while the girls were on the swings. Gosh, they love a push toy!

This is our neighbor Christine's house. She has the lion cat, Simba, and, more importantly, keeps a broom on her porch. Hence it is Theo's favorite porch. 

Last weekend at Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu's house everyone was pretty tuckered out after re-elasticizing the diapers and a long morning at Iron Kettle Farm, so Grandpa, Daddy and Theo took to their respective couches to relax.

Step Three: Put Your Duck in that Box

Ju-ice

Good friend Anne Ju (hence the Ju-ice title above) came by for a visit today. It was beautiful out, sunny and warm, and we did some walking and mowing with the boys around the block and in the backyard. The highlight of the afternoon, however, was Anne allowing the boys the remainder of her juice. They acted like they'd just gotten their first hit of heroin.

Yesterday I went through all our winter hand-me-downs to get an inventory and figure out what we need for this winter. We have some good coats, mittens and galoshes. I've ordered some stuff from Old Navy to see what works and what will fill in the gaps, and I'm planning to buy some snow boots at the Multiple Moms Mingle sale Saturday morning. This is Theo trying on a nice warm hat and snowpants, and Beck tromping around in some galoshes.

Theo is crying because I said it was time to take off the snowpants (it was 65 degrees out that day).

Pumpkin Patch Visit

 Sunday Grandpa Stu accompanied the Lovebos to the Iron Kettle Farm, where Mama Lovebo spent many fun visits in childhood. The Farm has been greatly expanded since Mama Lovebo's last visit, with a huge petting zoo, some great play areas, and fun rides for little ones.

Ducks are one of the most favorite animals around here, so seeing lots of ducks and geese in the flesh was a highlight of the trip. Especially for Beck, who has an especially realistic QUACK. He also got bit by the geese not once, but twice.

This is Theo before testing out the slide for the first time. The slide on this stationary boat was especially slippery, much more so than either our baby slide at home or the slides on our neighborhood playgrounds. As a result, Theo flew down the slide, landing several feet from the base of the slide, on his butt. He bit his tongue in the process and seemed more than a little startled, but then wanted to slide over and over again.

Less thrilling for Theo was the hayride. I thought being pulled by a big green tractor ("VROOM!!") through a field populated by pumpkin people and characters at a steady yet slow pace would be a huge hit. After about a minute on the hayride, Theo was shaking his head no and indicating that he wanted to get off. Oh, well.

We waited for the photo op til the end as we were leaving, more than an hour past usual naptime. Not the best time to capture beautiful smiles, that's for sure.