Two weeks ago I ran around town to find two of these Disney Planes bikes with propellers on the front. Beck took to the bike right away, after years of the strider bikes and pedaling their tricycles, and within just a few minutes was starting the bike up by pushing with his feet. I hadn't affixed Theo's training wheels as well and so he was a little tippier, but Grandpa Stu and Grandma Joanie made some adjustments the next time they went out and he's doing great now. Of course, Beck can't bike this month, so I'm hoping they'll be about even when the cast comes off.
A tub of baby toys came out of the basement and with it, the famous tutus. The boys gravitated to the ones they always used to wear--Theo, the pink and gray, and Beckett, the yellow. Theo did some vacuuming in his and has been wearing it on and off for several days. Beck refused to go biking (above) in anything except his yellow tutu (and nothing else). Auntie Tara's gifts just keep on giving!
Top: Theo (left) and Beckett (right) at three months
Bottom: Reed (and Beckett) at three months
I think Reed looks like a pretty good combination of both of them. Not as in, there are bad combinations, but he looks a little like each of them. Though I think his nose is a little broader than Theo's or Beckett's, which means Jeff's nose may live on yet in Reed. He makes expressions that remind me more of Theo but his eyes are more like Beckett's.
Their 11 week stats (we don't have 11 week stats for Reed, but will have a four-month visit breakdown on September 4):
Theo
12 pounds, up from 4 pounds, 13 ounces at birth! 34th
percentile for weight (up from the 0th percentile when he was four days
old);
height 22 inches, up from 17.5 at birth (but I think they
didn't measure him very well): 4th percentile, but still up from 0th
when four days old); and
head circumference 15.5 inches, up from 12.4 inches at birth: 17th percentile, up from 1st percentile at four days.
Beckett
weight 12 pounds, 10 ounces, up from 5 pounds, 15 ounces at
birth. 49th percentile for weight (up from 2nd percentile at 4 days);
height 23 inches, up from 19 inches at birth: 28th percentile, up from 27th percentile at 4 days; and
head circumference 15.6 inches, up from 14 at birth: 21st percentile, up from 7th percentile at 4 days.
Monday night our friend and neighbor Emily came over with her Sharpies and eminent skill to draw a Superman emblem on our Superman. These pictures don't do it justice but he was absolutely thrilled!
Then Tuesday Mama Sara (Preston's mama) brought over some awesome lap games and puzzles from Preston's collection that weren't getting much use. She also picked up Theo and took him to camp and had him over for lunch afterward, which meant me and Beck and Reed had some nice time together in the morning and early afternoon. Beck just kept going through all the games/puzzles/books and saying "this is awesome!" and "this is great!"
In the final days of July we met Ana and her sons James and John for a hot and sunny playdate at Green Lakes State Park. We had an awesome time digging in the sand with the digger and playing on the playground before hitting the lake. My boys were thrilled to be able to wear their puddlejumpers in the water and immediately swam right out into the lake. Theo swam out to the farthest buoys and was happy as a little clam, floating on his back and beaming back to me and waving. When he finally came in, shivering and shaking, we made up a signal that I could use if I needed to summon him in, since he was so far away he couldn't hear me. They are such happy little water babies, it's so fun to watch them in the water!
We had our annual Trumansburg playground meet-up with Louise Dugan and her daughter Charlotte. The boys and Charlotte had a great time playing together, though Charlotte was less keen on the spinning than the boys are. The teeter-totter was a big hit with everyone.
Grandpa Stu and the boys fishing. They caught some ungodly amount of gobi and sunfish.
Today, August 3, is Reed's three month birthday. And yesterday Beck broke his tibia and got a full leg cast. Exciting times around here.
The leg is just one of those times when in hindsight you see how you should have easily prevented what happened, but didn't see how at the time. We were playing at the Trumansburg school playground and had only been there a short time when Beck got on the monkey bars. He likes to see if he can grab them (it's a big deal, since he couldn't reach any last summer, and now there are a few playgrounds where he can reach them) and then drop down to the ground. I have seen him effortlessly drop or jump down several feet, almost always landing on his feet. This time, because I was unencumbered with a baby, unlike how I usually am, I was talking to Beck about how he could reach to the next bar by swinging his legs. I see now that he really just wanted to reach, hang and drop--but I thought if I showed him, he would see how he could do it. I can remember the moment when I saw his hands slipping off, because he wanted to drop, and his legs still swinging out behind him. What I imagine happened was that he fell while his legs were still somewhat behind him, so when his bosh dropped, his leg hit the platform on the way down. Now Beck falls and bumps a lot, because he is daring and brave and moves quickly, and because like his mama and grandma Joanie he sometimes underestimates the dimensions of his body. And he has lots of bumps and bruises. But he hardly ever cries about falls or bumps. So when he wailed and cried and screamed, I knew something was very wrong.
I wanted to stop at the cottage of Dr Dugan, our family friend and orthopedic surgeon, or straight to the hospital, but Beck absolutely insisted on going home to get his blanket. We did drop Theo off with my parents (we had to take Reed because I am his only food source) so it wasn't only for the blanket but it was amazing how much comfort he received from that blanket, the one he sleeps with every night and has since he was tiny. He just kept screaming that he needed his blanket (and that the bumps in the car hurt his leg). But he was right. I'm not sure if he cried at all again once he had his blanket.
At the hospital (Cayuga Med) Beck was pretty happy to play games and watch movies in daddy's iPad. He acted surprisingly normal and cheerful, though I could tell he was very tired. They did an x-Ray right in the room with a portable machine, and pretty soon the doc came back and told us it was broken. We had to wait for the orthopedic guy to set it, and in the meantime I had lots of opportunity to look at sad Internet pictures of kids in casts and think of all the things Beck wouldn't be able to do the rest of the summer (the ER doc said the cast could be on 4-10 weeks) and ruminate on what a terrible mother I am that I did this to my child. Then the (kind of gruff) orthopedic dr came and set it in a hard cast and told us the hard cast will probably be off in two weeks, with a walking cast for the next two weeks and then probably nothing. So I think we're looking at the best case scenario here and he should be out of the cast by Labor Day and the start of school.
Throughout, Beck has been amazing. Yesterday as soon as we got some pain meds in him he was pretty normal, albeit tired. I woke him up to give him ibuprofin overnight, which we're trying to give him around the clock now. Beck woke up this morning saying that he forgot he was even in a cast. Then he said "it would be funny, Mama, if the Cast Fairy came and took my cast off while I was sleeping." He didn't eat much for breakfast and then retreated back upstairs to watch movies and play games on Daddy's iPad, but after eating a pretty good lunch he asked if he could go play trains. I helped him down from the chair, but then he scooted himself into the living room and all around to build the train set with Theo. After his nap this afternoon, we knew he was awake because he appeared at the top of the stairs, having already made it down the first four steps before the landing. He's even hopping a bit, with support, on the good foot. I know he's mostly probably just thrilled to have unlimited "screen time" with the iPad and movies and games to his heart's content, and that at some point soon he will be grumpy about not being able to do fun stuff, but for now he's been absolutely terrific.
Managing a preschooler with a broken leg, a very active preschooler withOUT a broken leg and lots of energy to get out, and a three month old baby will be a challenge, no doubt, but today was a breeze because of how thrilled the big boys were to have screen time, and Reed's first forays into napping in the crib. At night he's still sleeping 7-9 hours straight in his crib, but daytime napping has been mostly in arms or in my baby carrier. And Daddy came home at lunchtime bearing groceries and lots and lots of patience and good humor. I've decided: this family works a lot better with one parent not working outside the home at all, and the other only working mornings. I am currently looking at ways to fund said venture.
Friday we visited Toddler Time at Skyzone Syracuse with Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu to do some trampolining for the first time. I'm guessing we won't be back for, oh, just guessing here, at least four to six weeks.
