Full Moon

Tonight is the fullest moon of 2010.  Holy shit.  Let's hope that with the exiting of January in a couple of days that this month is just a fluke, and that February will usher in a much better harbinger of the new year.  We started it off with a horrific accident that altered many peoples' lives for the balance of January and beyond.

The economy contributed to make it a stressful month for those that were job-effected.  It continued when my oldest sister ran into the brick wall of commitments regarding premie Olivia without sufficient resources to take care of the fundamentals (but managed to get it done), and my next oldest, and wife of the aforementioned sledding victim, crashed a car on an early-morning drive home from work. Mandy's sister suffered through about ten days of illness, and here on the low end of the inconvenience scale, we're suffering from the rotavirus with both our boys.

Here's to all of you.  You really deserve for 2010 to get better.

Wubzy inspired?

"Look Mommy! I drawed a picture of YOU!"


I think it looks a whole lot like one of his favorite characters, Wow Wow Wubzy, though....

Sickies

Last night Paul & I woke up to Noah crying hysterically and coughing at 11pm. Paul went in there to find him crying and scared. He had thrown up all over his comforter and pajamas, and was so scared and confused. Believe it or not, he has never thrown up before. By the time we cleaned him up, took him to the bathroom, put on clean jammies, clean bedding and layered it with towels he was sitting straight up crying hysterically again and ready for round 2. He threw up about 6 or 7 times in a few hour period. Poor guy was so scared and freaked out by it. I admit, I still cry when I throw up and I know what's going on. Poor thing. I felt so bad for him. He also had diarrhea. He wanted to sleep with his light on all night and I stayed with him awhile, but Paul took care of him most of the night, because I was tending to E when he woke up (a couple of times during all the chaos).

He finally got a decent stretch of sleep and has been in good spirits today. He hasn't thrown up in quite awhile, but has only eaten a few crackers and had a little gatorade. He says his "mouth" hurts which is what he told me last night when he was throwing up. And he has a low grade fever.

E hasn't been eating well today or drinking much either. Then a couple hours ago he had major diarrhea. I recognize the smell (from my nursing days) and I'm sure it's rotavirus. I got both boys bathed and put E in his highchair and gave him a couple of teddy grahams. He threw up all over his highchair and himself. Right after his bath of course. Ugh. He also has a low grade temp. My poor boys :(

I am giving some mad props to my hubby. He was the one who did all the laundry, cleaned out the trash can EACH time Noah threw up, cleaned up Noah at least half of the times, and took him to the potty all 3 times overnight. Without so much as a flinch or yucky face. I think he'd make a really good nurse :)

PB&J

Elliot is a lucky boy. I'm so much more laid back with him than I was with Noah. I followed every single recommendation to the letter back then. Well I still try to, but I'm more relaxed. And now there is a lot of research that says delaying doesn't prevent allergies. We have no family history and I got the OK to give him some Peanut Butter at his 1 year appt. WOOHOO! No reactions and he is a fan. As you can see for yourself :)

Elliot is ONE!

I can't believe my baby is already one. This past year has gone by way too fast! His actual birthday was a lot of fun. He woke up early enough to see his daddy and say goodbye. Paul was going out of town for a few days for work. After his nap and lunch, we headed to Little Monkey Bizness and had a blast. I've been to a lot of kids play places over the past 3 1/2 years and I have to say this is the best place I have found that incorporates fun things for the big kids and little kids all in ONE OPEN AREA! So Noah could climb on the big boy things and go down big slides, while Elliot climbed the smaller ones, and I could watch and play with them both. I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time there in the next few years, but especially in the next year.







Elliot's party was last weekend. I kept it small and just family. We had a lot of fun. We had a nice lunch, fun with the family and Elliot really enjoyed his cake. I think he enjoyed smashing and making a mess even more than eating it. It was fun to watch! He actually got into his gifts (not just the wrapping paper) and loved playing with them all.

Elliot decided to wait until he had an audience to meet a major milestone. He took his FIRST STEPS!!! Right in front of a big crowd of relatives cheering for him. It was so fun to share that moment with everyone. He was very excited and loved everyone clapping for him. He's still mostly crawling, but can take several steps at a time now, too. He practices often and each time expects a round of applause, and even stops to clap for himself (will post a video in a seperate post).



Elliot had an good/uneventful one year check up. Here are his stats:

Height: 29 3/4 inches (25-50%)
Weight: 23lbs 5 oz (50-75%)
Head Circ: 47.2cm (50-75%)

*for those interested in comparisons Noah was more than 3 lbs heavier than E at 1 year (26lbs 8oz). He was (and has always remained) 90% in both height and weight.

Will update soon....

Things have been busy in the Thomas household. Elliot turned one last week, had his first birthday party, has taken his first steps and I'd love to blog all about it and post adorable pics. But, Paul was out of town for several days and since coming home he has been working a lot of hours. The kids have not been letting me sleep enough. Then my computer was giving me problems and today it's getting a new hard drive.

Hopefully by this weekend I can get caught up. It may be longer before we are both caught up on sleep though.

Elliot's eye update

Today we went to the opthamologist for a follow up. As I posted about before, we've noticed Elliot's eyes drifting outward (exotropia). We emailed his doctor about it in the past and we were told to just keep an eye on it until this appointment.

Well he definately saw what we were talking about. The good news is that he does it with both eyes, so we don't have to patch. If he was doing it with one eye more, the other eye would get stronger and we'd have to patch the "strong" eye. It wasn't bad when he was much younger, but doing it now would not be fun. The other good news is that Elliot is working hard to bring them back into focus and keep them straight. So surgery isn't necessary right now.

The bad news is that it can continue to gradually get worse, so he wants to keep a close eye on it. We will see him again in 2 months. If we notice it suddenly getting worse before that, we are to call in for an earlier appointment, but it's almost always a gradual thing. He said surgery is not inevitable, but a "fair amount" get worse and need it. Blah.

Sleepy bedtime stories

Ever since we moved Noah into a big boy bed, I always fantasized about reading bedtime stories and him falling asleep while we were reading. HA! We used to let him read and read and read (after all it's educational) until we realized he was soooo manipulating us into prolonging bedtime. So we now do 3 bedtime stories then it's time for bed.

Last night he refused to eat dinner saying it was "yucky" (a new trend here). As we were eating he stripped down, put both arms up in the air and yelled "FREED!!!!!!!!" There should have been a talk about inappropriate behavior at dinner time, but Paul & I both laughed. Just couldn't help it. Then decided to take advantage of him being naked, throwing him in the shower early.

Paul gave Ells his bath while I read to Noah. I was reading this book of 3 minute bedtime stories and just kept reading more and more since it was still early. All of a sudden his breathing got slower and deeper and he passed out. We were on his couch and he was cuddled up on my lap with a pillow. It was the sweetest thing. I wish Paul had taken a picture. He was down for the count by 7:45. Nice.

Ells

Just keeping everyone up to speed on Elliot's new nickname. Anyone who knows Noah well, knows he likes to make nicknames by keeping the first syllable and adding an "s". (Chars for Charlie, Huds for Hudson, etc).

So first he was Ed-uh-wit, then Ed, then Elliot. Rarely Ed now. It's Elliot when speaking formally, but more often just plain old "Ells".

He wants to be my baby forever

He told me so.

Yesterday I was changing Elliot's dipe and told him "You are almost ONE! You are going to be a toddler soon!". He shook his head no dramatically from side to side. I said "Yes, you are." And he still shook his head no. Then I said to him "you don't want to be a toddler? Is that why you won't walk? OK, you can be my baby forever then." And you know what he did?

He smiled big and started clapping his hands in approval.

So that settles it. He won't be turning one next week. He's going to stay my little baby forever.

3 days & 3 nights with Greta, Luci & Finn

The only good part of Steve's sledding accident, was getting to spend so much time with these kiddos. After a couple of days with Finn, we sent him back to his grandparents last week. But, Saturday night he showed up at the back door with big sisters Greta (4) and Luci (22 months). Noah was excited to have Greta & Luci sleep in his room. He's had two sleepovers before (cousins Charlie & Dylan), and loves it.

Having 5 kids under age 5, was definately busy and challenging at times. But, it was a lot of fun! And Noah and Greta didn't want it to end. Greta said she wanted to stay here "forever and ever". And Noah said his cousins "Can't go! They can't!" They had a lot of fun playing together, but also had their fair share of disagreements (mostly Noah having a hard time sharing), so I was delighted to see the fun outweighed the fights.

I wish I had gotten some better pictures, but with an infant, a baby, toddler and a 3 & 4 year old, I rarely had 2 free hands.

Bedtime stories

Snacktime

Charlie's 6th birthday

Finn spent a lot of time in the bjorn

3 of 5 in the tub

Cousin love

Watercolors

But, mostly we just played

We had lots of laughs, squeeling, screaming & baby smiles

And very little of this (but, her pucker is SO cute I took a pic. Don't worry, we cuddled too and she got over the fact that Greta & Noah needed to share the water used for painting, despite the fact it was quite traumatic for Lulu)

Baby Finn had a sleepover

Noah loves his baby cousin and wanted to hold him a lot.

He also made sure he had plenty of toys to play with. And blankets. And pillows.
Paul with the babies. Baby E loves his baby cousin too, but maybe a little too much. He hasn't quite learned what it means to be gentle and had to be supervised pretty closely.

All tuckered out.

He had fun, even though he missed his mommy and especially his daddy, who he hasn't seen since "the incident" Bathtime in the sink