President Clinton

Saturday at 2:45 Jeff checked the website for the Syracuse paper and found out that Bill Clinton would be speaking at Fowler High School, just down the road from us, at 3:45. Theo was with Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu for an overnight, and so we had Beckett and Reed. We packed up the fam and headed to Fowler. It was surprisingly un-packed, given the all-star lineup of Mayor Stephanie Miner, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and President Bill Clinton.

The extra Ergo carrier for Beckett was a last-minute hasty addition to the pack but I'm so glad we brought it. Beck had strep throat all last week and is still recovering, so he needed a rest and a nap on daddy's back while we were waiting for Billy C to arrive.

Senator Gillibrand and Mayor Miner. Sen. Gillibrand was in especially fine form.

Our two boys napping during the wait.

A couple weeks ago Theo was invited to his classmate Tahje's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Jeff had taken Beckett to his friend Jaya's birthday at CEC a few months back and it sounded pretty terrible to me, so I was not eager to go, but Jeff refused to be chivalrous and go with Theo. I ended up going and having a pretty good time, mostly because Theo enjoyed himself so thoroughly. His best friend Johnny was there, with his mom, and so we hung together and played a ton of games. I was impressed by how quickly Theo picked up the games, since he has never played anything like them before. His driving skills were especially amazing, since he went from not knowing how to use the throttle and steering wheel (he was driving a boat) to racing around and anticipating curves and obstacles. It was fun to see him developing such a great friendship with Johnny, too.

Friday afternoon we returned to the "tree slide place" (aka play area in the food court at Great Northern Mall). Reed conquered the steps up to the slide. Beck and Theo easily climbed up every play structure and ran all around. After being the little kids on so many visits, we finally had some of the biggest kids there!

This is one of the cutest things that Reed does: when we are sitting next to him, he looks up and grins at us, then collapses over in giggles with his head in our lap. He and I play the game a lot, and here is he playing it with Theo.

Reed climbing down the stairs

Reed at 11 months

Our little chubby monkey is just about the happiest little guy I have ever met. He thinks his brothers are endlessly entertaining, and he is delighted by most everything in the world around him. At the mall he grins at every shopper and salesperson. He stares at the overhead lights, the displays, and the merchandise. When put on the floor he happily slithers around checking out all of his brothers' toys. It is funny that we have so many baby toys that Theo and Beckett truly enjoyed as babies, and many of which Reed himself found captivating when all he could do was sit in one place or lay on his back. He loves his baths but is increasingly annoying to his brothers (and takes up more room in the tub) so he's taking more baths solo. He loves reading short board books (absolute favorite is Everywhere Babies) and will sit with his brothers when we read their books, but mostly so he can stare at his brothers. Reed eats about everything and we've all but given up spoon-feeding him anything except usually yogurt for breakfast along with his cheerios. Other than that, he usually feeds himself whatever we're eating. He's a bottomless pit when it comes to strawberries and raspberries, at least at the moment, and he'll regularly eat a half an avocado, cut up. He has a double ear infection so he's not sleeping great these days but he's usually a great little sleeper, reliably sleeping an hour or two in the morning and and hour in the afternoon, and then 7pm -6:30am with one wakeup to nurse. He absolutely loves snuggles and cuddles and hugs and kisses.

Visit with Mimi and family

Easter morning we got a very special treat: a visit from Mimi, the boys' former childcare provider and our neighbor and good friend, as well as her family, who we got to know so well when they lived down the street from us for four years. It was so nice to see the boys with Mimi again, and it got me so emotional to see how loved they feel by not only Mimi, but her kids and husband as well. I wish they were still just down the street but I'm grateful they are still in our lives.

These folks are selfie experts so we had to have Mark take one of us. Not our best effort here but still nice to have a pic of all of us.

House of Illnesses is healing

We here in Loveboland have been sick for about a month now. It started with Jeff having a mild kind of flu with a headache and tiredness the week before we left. Then Theo was diagnosed with an ear infection the Friday before we left for Florida. He was on antibiotics for almost the whole trip. Then he got the flu on top of it, running a fever every day we were in Florida. He was on round-the-clock ibuprofen (and sometimes Tylenol too, when we couldn't get his fever down enough). After several days of fever and a night of some gasping breaths, we took him to a doctor there and he was diagnosed with croup, so then he got a couple days' worth of steroids to reduce the inflammation in his lungs so he could breathe easier. The last night we were in Florida, Reed started with the gasping breaths and Beck's congestion (festering all week) was getting worse, so all three went to the doctor the day we returned from Florida. At that point Reed had an ear infection and croup, so he got antibiotics and a shot of steroids. Theo's ears were getting better and fever was finally down and Beck was congested but no need for medication. After being congested the entire vacation and trying unsuccessfully to beat it back with my neti pot, I was diagnosed with a sinus infection and ear infection and started on antibiotics the same day. Two days later I developed a redness in my eye and made it to work one day before before I got the flu and the redness got worse. Tuesday my doctor diagnosed me (with Beck and Reed in tow) with pinkeye and gave me antibiotic drops. The flu hit me and Beck hard Tuesday night into Wednesday, so we spent the day lying in bed staring at the ceiling and rolling in and out of sweats and chills. Beckett only made it to school Monday, just like me. Then I turned out to be allergic to the antibiotic drops my doctor gave me, so my eyes started swelling and tearing and gooping nonstop. Because I was so sick with the flu it took me until late Thursday to realize that my eyes should have been a lot better, and so I started using breastmilk drops instead of antibiotic drops and my eyes got much better. I was still very tired and fevery over the weekend so luckily Jeff's parents, brother and Rachel came to visit and entertain the kids and make Easter dinner.

This week we all seemed a lot better, FINALLY, but then I took Reed back for his ear check and he had not one but two ear infections so he's back on a heavier dose of antibiotics. Which makes sense since he has been waking up a lot at night and having a hard time napping. But he's still in such a great mood during the day that it's hard to realize he's having a tough time! Jeff, Theo and I all feel 100%. Beck's still congested and Reed's working on those ears but medicated in the meantime to keep him feeling better. It has been a rough month but I am hoping we're all on the upswing now.

My new theory is that I had the Zika Virus rather than flu. Not sure about Theo and Beckett but I did get a lot of mosquito bites in Florida, where there have been many cases of Zika, both suspected and proven by lab tests. I went on google last night to search for Zika symptoms and half-jokingly suggested to Jeff that I probably had it. But then I saw that there have been several cases in Broward County, where we flew in and out, and that there had been many suspected cases on the Gulf Coast, where we were for a week. And what blew my mind was that the symptoms are milder than flu--fever, body aches, and EYE REDNESS! How coincidental is that? Not that it really matters whether I had Zika, but I just think it's interesting....