Gametes In Love

We drive by the Caltrain tracks every day on our way to daycare. From time to time we get to the tracks right when a train is pulling up to the station. We have a little routine with G where he asks where that train is going, and based on our fortune it’s either bound North for the city, or South to San Jose (although if you ask G, every train is going South to San Franks-isco). Lately he’s been asking that “maybe sometime Daddy and Mama and S2 can all ride the train”. So we did. We had a massive tantrum on our first train day attempt, to we deferred our visit for awhile, but just like that it happened two week-ends ago.

Going all the way into the city was risky. It’s a fair enough of a ways that G might end up being over it, and us stuck on a train with a volatile 3yr old. So we opted to go to Palo Alto instead, which was a much shorter ride. We got off, walked over to the other side of the tracks and were on another train heading home within 10 minutes. It was awesome! G was a great sport too, which made the experience pretty rad. This wasn’t his first Caltrain ride, but the first he actually remembers 🙂

Getting tickets.

S2 waiting, impatiently for his ride

G wasn’t exactly sitting still either though

Here it comes!!!

On the train.

G spent much of the ride resembling something like this

And S2 like this

Underpass

Waiting for our ride home.

(Post contains graphic content. Read at your own risk)

Friday morning I walked into S2’s room (waddled really: it was 5:20 in the morning) for his early am wake-up.
It was a rude awakening as soon as I opened that door, let me tell you, because his room smelled. Of vomit. I had always wondered if there was a difference between a baby spitting up and a baby throwing up. I no longer wonder. It’s a night/day difference.

There had been a stomach bug going around daycare, so i wasn’t too surprised. What did surprise me was that S2 had thrown up multiple times over the course of the night and not said a peep. He stayed home that day (of course), but spent the rest of the day healthy, and happy as if nothing was wrong. The only trace of what had happened was the pile of laundry in my laundry machine and the un-pretty diapers that have been hanging out since.

Then yesterday, as I was at a holiday party with some friends, S texted me to say that he was feeling off and would I please not stay out late. I left for home right away. S proceeded to get pretty ill within minutes of me walking into the house and was miserable until the early morning.

And now me.

The only one left remaining is G, and I absolutely dread the possibility of him coming down with this while S and I are not both well enough to be with the kids. Let me tell you that when you have to make a choice which end hovers over the toilet is not the best time to also play, feed, or supervise a child. And this is the sort of sick that if a kid has it, I image they would want to be held by a parent until its over.

So if I’m sick, one of the kids is sick and the other (better) parent is with said sick child, what do you do with the second kid?

I am thankful at least it’s not all of us exactly at the same time.
I am thankful neither S and I are single parents.

But it still sucks when you have to reach out to your support network to be on stand-by and help. ‘Cuz admit it: how eager would you be to enter in the house of (this type of) sick?

At least (and I am thankful for this) this is supposedly an 8 hour bug. You are violently ill for 8 hours, and then you feel like crap, but at least your homage to the toilet gods has been rendered. I’m hoping my 8 hours will be up before G shows symptoms.

Stay tuned.

Fall is in the air. Well… I guess now more winter, but I finally had some time to take the boys out to frolic among some fallen leaves.

This is where we collectively all say “Aaaawwww!”

Yes! He really did.

As in ‘What happened to month 12’? I’m pretty sure that my internal clock thinks its only mid-November. This last month really went by super fast. What happened? Who stole time?

S2 spent the last month perfecting his waddle. He now maneuvers like an expert at lighting speed. He even attempted running, but that ended momentarily with a face plant. None the less, this little Speedy Gonzales is giving me a run for my money. I’m learning to pee at lightning speeds because I can’t keep him out of trouble long enough to properly use the restroom.

S2 loves to climb. I caught him trying to scale his closet the other day. Really if anything level is at knee height or below expect him to climb it. I’m pretty sure he’s part goat, and I’m blaming gene splicing at the clinic.

Overall though he remains a sweet, cuddly dude, who’se face lights up when he sees a loved one walk into the room.

I am just a little bit concerned about his lack of words. I know that technically I shouldn’t because 2 years of age is when the first analysis of speech is assessed, but G had 4 words by the time he was 1, and I’m still anxiously awaiting number one. S2 HAS had several ear infections over the last 2 months and despite 3 separate antibiotic regimens in a month’s time, at his check up he STILL had fluid in his ears. We are addressing this (with yet another antibiotic) and it is improving. Dr. M suggested that his speech development is impacted by these ear infections, which of course is now making me even more paranoid about them. I think we’re another ear infection outbreak away from seeing an ear, nose and throat specialist. But here’s hoping that we’re done with the year infections for awhile.

Onto some stats…

Weight: 20lb 14oz

Height: 29″

Favorite activity: climbing

Favorite food: Puffs, Mum Mum crankers, and recently Oh-sies (aka cheerios). Glad to see he’s expanding his repertoire 🙂

Favorite toy: He really likes to chew on G’s (new-ish) Thomas break-down train

Number of teeth: 2

Naughtiest moment: sticking his hands down the toilet. Gross!!!

Important milestones: first attempt at running

My littlest dude is on a mission to have me prematurely go gray. He has derived a fun little game for himself that he calls ‘Guess what I just put in my mouth?’ Clearly winner gives mom a heart attack.

Last Monday morning (because I can’t find the time to sit down and write this) S proceeded to take G to school and S2 and I stayed behind, since we had a pedi appointment for duder’s 1st year checkup.
We were in the master suite, me getting dressed and S2 playing on the floor of the office. While not child-proof entirely, our office is not an unsafe place. Except that morning. That would be the day that S2 decided he needed to go over daddy’s bank records. The bank records sitting on top of the filing cabinet. The bank records that were weighted down by a paperweight. A paperweight that just so happens to have a little well for storage of little knock-knacks. A well that just do happened to contain several push-pins, that were placed there so long ago one had forgotten they were even there. Well… with S2 yanking the paperwork off the cabinet, the paper-weight came down too, spilling the push-pins on the carpet (hence me hearing nothing). So now I see a toddler waddling off proudly with papers in his hands. I pull them away and return them to the filing cabinet. To see the spilled push-pins. Thinking ‘Where did these come from?’ and ‘I need to pick these up before S2 comes back here trying to take them’ I proceed to pick up about a dozen pins. And as I turn around what do I see? S2 trying to shove a push-pin in his mouth. I hadn’t seen him already in possession of one as he was hiding it in his fist while clutched around the paper. When I took the paper away, I didn’t think to inspect the palms of his hands. So here I sat trying to figure out if there was more than one pin in his possession and if any had already made it down the hatch.
Lemme give you a word of advice: Don’t search online for ‘I think my child swallowed a pushpin’. Just don’t! It’s not good.
So I called the pedi’s office and awaited a call from the nurse. She assured me that (at his age) if he had swallowed it I’d know it, but just to be safe to come in (which we were already planning to do) and to bring the offending pin with us.

In summary: S2 is safe. He finds it funny that I can no longer get dressed without constantly staring at him. Apparently being a parent means automatically becoming a nudist and exhibitionist. And white haired.

From our visit to Grammie and Poppa’s house…

G was in heaven with all the train tracks and cars Aunt K brought over. He would play with them ALL day long, and would make the longest tracks, and the longest train chains he could. You see that box behind him? That one was for JUST the tracks. There were two more containing track buildings and cars. Cousin J has a sweet set-up!

On our way to visit Great-Grammie P

Chillin’ at home with the boys and crazy dawg Daisy

I slacked off on pumpkin pics for the boys BIG time this year. All of a sudden, I turned around and Halloween was a week-end away. The Pumpkin Festival spoiled my plans one week-end, and general timing the next. So when all was said and done the first chance we had to take the kids for some pumpkin photos w/o the crazy was when we were visiting family in Virginia. It was a cold, recently wet day, and G wanted nothing to do with the gourds (despite the fact that he watched the Dinosaur Train gourd episode a dozen times before we arrived), but S2 at least sat amongst some orange orbs.

I really tried to cojole G to play along. I don’t know if he was shy or not, but he really wasn’t in the mood. I showed him Moonka amongst the pumpkins but really, all he wanted was to bury himself in dad’s sweater.

An “R/S” family photo:

S2 with his cousins. J was SO awesome with him. There’s a lot of love there, and seeing S2 peek over J’s shoulder as he carried him showed so much comfort and trust.

This week daycare is talking about stranger danger. It was something I’m curious about because I wonder if Shane and I set a bad precedent to the kids if we engage people we don’t know in conversation while out. So yesterday I asked Ms. J how they are handling the talk and if there’s anything special they’d like us to enforce at home. G hears this and immediately interrupts:

G: We already talk about Stranger Danger!!!
Me: You did?
G: Yeah!
Me: Great! Are you supposed to talk to strangers?
G: No!
Me: And who is a stranger?
G: Nobody.
Me: Nobody is a stranger? Than that means you can talk to anyone.

Hmn… lesson lost. Clearly we have some work to do here.

This week’s Foto Friday is brought to you by Kelly M Photography. Kelly took photos for G’s 3rd birthday, and S2’s 9m. They were taken at a secret photo location I scoped out a few months ago. I was saving it for S2’s 1st birthday pics, but I was quite frankly at a draw for what to do for this session. I’m super thrilled we did it now though, because the weather was perfect for that spot, and the pictures came out great. Thank you, Kelly!

My father would be proud, for at the tender age of 3, G is well on his way of mastering the art of back-seat driving. Ever since we turned G’s seat around his skills of observation have extended themselves to ‘helpful’ driving suggestions.
For example, he likes to tell you when the light turns green, and insists that you “GO!!!!”… even if it’s not your light. He also likes to tell you where to turn (and gets mad when you don’t)… even if the direction he insist you go is the opposite way.

I think someone needs his very own backseat driver’s license.

I’m pretty sure that the smart parents keep their kids facing backward, not just for the impact safety aspect: it’s for their preservation from driving (no pun intended) mom and dad crazy.