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....

Skiing at Labrador Mountain

The week before we left for Sanibel Jeff took the boys to Labrador Mountain, which has much better teaching and facilities for little guys learning to ski. Jeff was very happy to see the boys have a nice long ski run on their own.

One of our last days in Sanibel we met up with an instructor from the Sanibel Sea School for a lesson in sainting (Sp?), which is running a net through the water at a shallow depth to see what you can find. We also did some throwing of a cast net, which was interesting and challenging but didn't net much in the way of fish. But the sainting was cool. So you run the net through the water, covering from the surface all the way to the bottom, and then you hammock the net and put it up on the sand to see what you've got. We had the chance to see and handle lots of things--hermit crabs, dwarf sea horses, jellies, sea snakes, puffers, and lots of other kinds of fish. We also found lots of conches and got to handle them and see all their parts.

Bubble blowing on the tennis court

Andy Parkes joined us for a bike and snacks at the farmers' market.

Theo, down 2 pounds because of the flu, fit perfectly in Reed's swim shirt.

Beckett in his swim get up.

Reed continuing his eat everything philosophy while in Florida.

Everyone adapted pretty well to the time change but Reed was... confused.