LR helped Daddy pick out pumpkins. We got one for each member of the family. LR even picked out 2 tiny ones for the twins.
Then he showed Mommy his mad pumpkin cart pushing skills.
And finally he helped Daddy scoop out the innards of Daddy's pumpkin. Such a great helper all day long!
There is a hidden benefit to having twins, pity. As a teen with Lupus, I hid the fact that I had the disease for over a year after diagnosis. I told myself that I didn't want anyone's pity. Turns out I needn't have worried. Everyone in high school is too busy pitying themselves. :)
Well LR's cold lasted long enough that he woke up Friday night after being asleep for an hour with an ear infection. The doc said to give him Motrin and Dimetapp and to bring him in the next morning. I had a game to coach (Homecoming which we won 38-0), so Daddy took him to the doctor where he confirmed our guess of an ear infection and prescribed Amoxicillin. It seems to have already done the trick. Sunday he seemed better, but tired. Today he was pretty much back to his old self and the coughing has finally subsided as well. This cold has been going on for over 2 weeks, so I guess I'm not surprised that it turned into an ear infection. I am happy that it's his first one ever though. He was able to tell me that his ear hurt even though I hadn't missed the dozen times he poked his left ear while trying to fall asleep.
A snowsuit arrived from grandparents B&W. They've been scouting the Carter's outlet in Denver for weeks, waiting for the winter gear to arrive and finally it did. I opened the box while LR was playing in my car. He wanted to put the hat on right away and admired himself in the visor mirror. He didn't seem to mind the mittens still attached to the top. Thanks, folks!
On Sunday we had a little shin-dig for LR's second birthday. September is busy, so we were a couple weeks late, but he didn't seem to mind. He was still a little under the weather from his croup/cold, but it didn't seem bad enough to cancel the party. I managed to way over order Mexican food, but everyone did their best to help us out from under the mountain of food. Although we asked people not to bring gifts, he received a bunch of really great books and a couple of toys that he loves. He's very into firetrucks right now which explains the firetruck themed party. He loved the hats and made Daddy wear one while playing with firetrucks with him. I bought him a big truck a few weeks ago to help at practice and it's been one of his favorite toys since. My friend A with a 2-year-old in a leg cast and a 3 week old, gave him a smaller friction firetruck which is the noisiest toy he has to date. Thanks A! ;)
Thanks to a few weeks of pretend play where we sang Happy Birthday, blew out fake candles, and ate imaginary birthday cake, LR was a champ at blowing out the candles on his cupcake. I desperately wanted to make some cool cake like my mom made for us when we were kids, but I ran out of time. I was trying to make flame-like cupcakes, but it fell through when guests starting walking through the door. LR didn't seem to care and ate most of the cupcake anyway.
We blew up LR's new bouncy castle for the kids who were there and he and V had a great time despite the fact she couldn't jump. She crawled in and let LR run around her. He actually spent a lot of time crawling around the house with her. Not sure if it was empathy or if he just thought she was playing a game. Anyway, here's a picture of the two love birds. They are adorable together.
LR had no fever and very little congestion today. It's the fastest cold he's ever had. I gave him Dimetapp just before bed to make sure he slept comfortably, but I skipped the Motrin. He had such a big day today that I'm hoping he sleeps through the night without any problems.
After we blew up LR's gift from us on the morning of his birthday and he crawled into it, Daddy asked me, "are we the worst parents in the world, or the best?" It made me laugh, but I knew what he was getting at. We're trying to walk the line between spoiled and well taken care of. We have the means to provide him with all his needs and most of his wants. Do we turn our house into an indoor amusement park or a place for adults to socialize. We've chosen more the amusement park route and I can't say I'm too disappointed. Being an adult is pretty overrated. Playing with LR in his new moon bounce or pushing him in his beautiful new tricycle from Grandma W and Grandad B or spending family time after each dinner playing with his Playdough factory from Grandma Nese and Papa is some of the best time I've had this week. I can't say the same thing about work.
Unfortunately, the day after his birthday was his 2 year physical which he hated. It was a regular exam and he did well with the weigh-in especially since he got to use the big scale this time and not the baby one. He didn't mind them looking in his ears, but being shut in the room made him crazy. I don't know if it's small spaces that bother him or that he knew being in this room could only mean one thing. Well no shots, but they did a lead test which is a finger stick and then lots of squeezing to get enough blood in the vile. He was unhappy to say the least, but recovered quickly. Then in the evening he started a runny nose and small cough. He was up every hour and by morning was completely congested. I was able to give him Dimetapp for the first time since he's now officially 2! Hooray for 2! That helped, but by mid-afternoon today he had a fever and so we're just crossing our fingers that the Motrin will keep it down and the Dimetapp will help the congestion overnight. We could all use a good night's sleep!
LR started using "I" this past weekend. It was really interesting to hear since we've only heard him refer to himself as "baby" and by his first name until now. He's also singing many more songs. His favorite right now is a Laurie Berkner song about the moon. We belt it out at dinner time as a family and tonight he and I sang it as part of the bedtime routine. Speaking of which... no more bottles! After less than a week of water bottles, he's given them up. I'm tossing the chemical-releasing Avent bottles today!
So we've finally altered LR's bedtime routine. I figured it was all in shambles with the transfer from the crib anyway, so I decided to try to get rid of the milk. LR used to take a bottle of milk before bed and the routine was simple: bottle, blanket, books, bed. If he woke up during the night, he put himself back to sleep. Then when he went to the mattress on the floor it was bottle, blanket, books, bed... followed by a little bit from the bottle each time he came wandering into our room, once or twice per night. I really started to worry about his teeth in a way that I hadn't before. After fretting for a week someone (I can't remember who) suggested replacing the milk with water. Brilliant! Genius! He noticed the change, but didn't put up a fuss. He drinks much less now and I imagine we're not far from getting rid of the bottle completely. I'd really like to do that before the twins arrive.
Saturday morning we had a play date with friends D & M and their daughter C, who is just 3 months older. They hadn't seen each other for a very long time, so it was good to see them interact well together. C got cuddly toward the end and we're pretty sure LR thought he was getting a big 'ol dose of cooties.
Monday we had a play date with LR's girl, V. They chased each other around both inside and outside the house. V's mom and I tried to rest since she's due with baby #2 this week and I'm starting to look like I'm close. (It's not that bad, but I'm getting bigger by the minute!) Also got my AFP test result back which test for Down syndrome and we're in the clear with both babies. That was a relief. Am becoming more comfortable with the idea of a C-section. It just looks like that's the direction that twin deliveries are going now-a-days thanks to a study which says the second twin delivered vaginally has lower APGARs and spends more time in the NICU. Might as well do what's best for both of them.
LR came with me to the first rugby practice of the season last night. He mimicked the players as they stretched during warm ups, touching his toes and sinking into deep squats, and chased them while they ran laps. He showed off his somersaulting skills and they whooped and hollered for him. He was a little star. He gave lots of high fives and was told often how cute or cool he was. Speaking of, his new phrase is "how cool!" Guess that's a little of me rubbing off on him.
So we ended up putting our guest double mattress on LR's floor. He calls it his "new" bed and hasn't had any problem sleeping in. The problem, unsurprisingly, is that he won't stay there. It takes around 45 minutes for him to fall asleep with either Daddy or I next to him, but then at some point in the middle of the night, he wakes up, closes his door behind him (I have no idea why he does this) and then toddles down the hall to our room. For the first few nights, I let him sleep the rest of the night in our bed. 
Then last night I took him back to his room each time he came to ours. He only woke up twice, so it wasn't too bad. I hope as he gets used to the arrangement, he'll stop wandering around quite so much.
construction vehicles all over it. He invented a game where he jumps on each vehicle and calls out its name. When it was time for bed, he asked to play the game again. I was barely able to convince him to get back in bed. I'll have to take a picture of the rug this week and post it. One of the nights of their weekend visit, Cookie made artichokes which LR couldn't get enough of. He got the hang of the scraping skill quickly and Cookie helped to make sure he didn't get any sharp ends as we got closer to the center. He kept us all entertained during dinner and then demanded another game of chase with Cookie afterward. She obliged and they went tearing around the house again. You can see how much gun he's having in the picture.
A new favorite game of Daddy's creation is Plunger Ball. If you haven't visited us yet, you might not know that we keep two plungers in the half bath between the washer and dryer downstairs. They have never been used for their intended purpose. I bought three for the house when we moved in. They were cheap and the first time we had the opportunity to use one we found that they lacked the necessary "oomph"
that a plunger needs. So, we kept the other two as "decoration" and LR loves playing with them. He uses them as stilts, ground thumpers, and most recently, as a sort of batting / golfing implement. I'm not really clear on the rules, but Daddy seems to know them. I think both twacking and plunging are legal.
I went to the park this afternoon with LR after work. I put him in a swing and he talked about all the things he could see while he was swinging: trees, cars, trucks, slides, etc. At one point he looked up in the sky.
Gifts for Daddy's birthday arrived last week including an awesome beach bag from the Denver grandparents. LR claimed it as his own and Daddy and I made the mistake of giving him "rides" in it where we basically tested the bag's seam strength. Boy, is it a tough bag! Now we have to hide the bag from LR.
On the way home we picked up a second bouncer from a mother of twins from my group. When we got it home, I couldn't get LR out of it. He's wearing his Mr. Potato Head glasses while sitting and playing with all the toys hanging on it. He was content for at least 10 minutes on the kitchen floor which is why it's still sitting there and will sit there until he starts ignoring it. Guess I put his bouncer away WAY too soon!
We had an amazing day at the beach with friends D & H and their son King J. The weather was perfect and the boys had a ball. If I were less exhausted, I would write a nice long post; however, it's bed time. The sun really wipes you out!
They stayed awake and then loved every minute of playing at the beach. LR was a little concerned about he sand in his flip-flops at first, but got over it quickly. King J kept running straight into the 61 degree water. LR was much more tentative. He thought the water was too cold, but Daddy managed to get him to play in the water for a bit. LR and I built sandcastles and dug big holes which we let fill with water. Both boys barely made it back to the car and fell asleep immediately. I took this picture of them when we pulled into the garage at home.
Every morning when LR woke up during the family reunion, the first thing he said was "see da people?" He wanted to go downstairs to see what group of people were in the house today. I think that may be part of the problem he was having with sleeping through the night. Since everyone went home last Monday, he's been sleeping though. It's been really wonderful to not have to get up in the middle of the night with him. I'm thinking we need to alter his bedtime routine, however, so that we brush his teeth after he has his milk, not before. Unfortunately, he still uses the milk to go to sleep and I keep reading articles about 2 year olds with rotting teeth. For now I'm just happy that he's sleeping through. We'll tackle the teeth next month.
After Grandma Nese and Papa left, Grandma W and Granddad B arrived. They were not as terribly delayed getting in, but I hit accident traffic trying to pick them up. The reunion week was an incredibly bad travel week. Very few travelers made it through unscathed with 3 separate parties being delayed at least 24 hours. The day after they arrived we all packed up and went to the New England Aquarium. The place was packed and not as cool as I had hoped for. We also missed connecting with Aunt K's friend who was diving in the main tank in the morning. The kids loved it though. Penguins, jellyfish, and sharks ruled the day. On the way out the grandparents bought both boys stuffed turtles which they both loved.
In the picture Granddad B is reading the airplane book that the other set of grandparents brought from Oshkosh on their way. LR absolutely loves the book. His favorite page is "M is for Messerschmitt." I can't get over the way he says it. It's adorable. Then he always follows it by saying "looking for a dogfight" which is part of the second sentence on that page. The nanny must have been reading it to him since I came home from work on Monday and that was his new trick. He knows about half of the planes already. I think "J is for Jenny" is his other favorite page. He also follows each plane's name with the word "plane": China Clipper plane, Electra plane, Ford Tri-plane plane.
Wow, what a long time between posts! My apologies to Daddy's side of the family. My whole family has been visiting for a little over a week and it was wonderful. It started with Aunt K coming in last Saturday (after a 24 hour flight delay) followed within hours by Papa and Grandma Nese in their plane. Then Sunday Aunt Lady M joined us and we expected Uncle SwingDaddy and Cousin Bud, but they were also delayed in Dallas by 24 hours. I have no idea how SwingDaddy survived on so little food and so few diapers that night in a hotel with no crib, but he did. They arrived Monday tired, but recovered quickly. Here is a more detailed review of their adventure.
We did little more than let everyone acclimate for the next few days, but we did manage to catch a concert on Wed night at the Hatch Shell. Daddy was wonderful about finding the event and getting everything together for us to go. Bud was thrilled with the orchestra's performance, but LR was more interested in the boats. Daddy and I each took a turn chasing him down to the edge of the Charles River. He outran Grandma Nese and managed to get a foot in the water just before we left. He is getting so quick!
Since LR's last bout with a cold, he's had a hard time sleeping through the night. He'll wake up at 2 or 3am and call for me, claiming that it's "Mommy's turn." I still have a hard time listening to him cry, so I've been getting up, or making Daddy get up, and giving him a couple ounces of milk and putting him back to bed. With my family coming into town next week, we decided we have to get him to sleep all the way through again so that everyone can have a good night's sleep. Each night he cries a little less and last night was probably just 3 minutes or so. Then he slept through the night. If everything continues to go well, I'm hoping he'll be back to sleeping through the night by the time everyone arrives.
There are 2 things worthy of note from the past few days. One is that LR has stubbed his big toes and bloodied them 3 or 4 times in the last 72 hours. This would indicate that LR, indeed, has Daddy's feet. Daddy is notorious for stubbing his toes, once so hard that he broke the big toe on his left foot. We were hoping LR wouldn't inherit his very big toe, but oh well. Actually, one of the cuts came from dropping rocks on his toes while in his pool. He has a bucket of rocks that he plays with while he's in his pool. He drops them into the water and counts them and then counts them again as he puts them back in the bucket. Yesterday he made it up to 18 which was a big jump for him. I'd only heard as high as 12 the last time I heard him count.
We spent another fun filled Sunday at the YMCA pool. LR loved it so much that he cried when it was time to get out of the water. He calls it the "big pool" or "walk water" because the entry to the pool is a gradual slope that makes it easy for kids to walk in. Daddy dunked LR 5 times and LR cried each time, but recovered quickly. He didn't like being underwater, but he certainly didn't want to get out of the water. When he went down for his nap on Sunday I filled his kiddie pool with water so that it would warm up by the time he woke up. Late afternoon I put him back into his bathing suit and he spent another hour in the water while Daddy went for a bike ride with our friend B. I also positioned his slide so that he could get out, climb the stairs, and then slide back into the pool. 
He loved that. He also liked holding my hands while he did it which makes me think he's not quite as adventurous with water as he is with other things.
LR had a good day with the nanny today. He swam in his kiddie pool, fell asleep in the stroller, and had tons of milk to drink. Apparently wasn't too hungry, just thirsty for milk. When I got home I let him spend another 40 minutes in the pool. I lotion-ed him up before bed because I'm sure he's drying out from all the washing. The good news is that he's tanning! What some of you may not understand is that I worried while LR was in utero that he would have my skin. That might sound weird to people who have never burned so badly they blistered all over their back, or smelled so strongly of vinegar that they couldn't sleep, or who were never convinced by their best friend that suntan oil would help them tan. I wished he would have Daddy's olive skin and it looks like he does. *phew* Not that I won't still bathe him in suntan lotion, but at least I don't have to worry as much about the lobster effect.
We had so many great photo opportunities this weekend that it's hard to pick which ones to post. On Saturday we took a nice bike ride around Horn Pond in Woburn. LR loved it. He even kept his sunglasses on for the majority of the ride. We went around once and stopped for water. He said "again, again, again" until we hopped back on and went around the pond another time. Then I coaxed him out of the trailer by promising we could throw rocks into the pond. 
We did that while Daddy packed up the car. LR fell asleep on the drive home, but woke up when Daddy tried to put him down in the crib. It took another car ride after lunch to get him to go down finally. Oh, and taking action shots while riding a bike... not as easy as it looks. I'm pretty happy I didn't wipe out when I got the shot of them riding with the pond behind then.
He really wanted to slide, but wasn't sure about the landing. Anyway, he didn't want to get out of the pool and I know Daddy is looking forward to his turn next weekend. (Only one of us can be in the pool with him at a time.) I have so many photos to post that I'll put up some more tomorrow if I get a chance. The photos seem to be taking a ridiculous amount of time to load tonight. *sigh* The swim picture is of him riding a fun noodle while singing "Puff the Magic Dragon." I hadn't thought of singing that too him, but he heard the word dragon and repeated it while we rode around. He didn't want to give up any of the equipment each time we moved onto a new activity.
Last night around 6pm I noticed a light rash on LR's back. When I put him to bed I saw his nose was running very slightly. At 10pm he woke up crying with a stuffy nose and a sore throat. He was up just about every hour last night. I took the day off with a migraine and tried to recoup some of the lost sleep when he napped today. Although his nose ran all day, he didn't seem any worse for wear. The rash is still there and brighter during the bath which reminds me of his bout with Roseola. At dinner he told us that his "nose hurt" and I imagine that it does. Hopefully he sleeps better tonight. He hates the medicine for stuffy noses, so I just gave him Motrin for the sore throat. Thinking about grabbing some Dimetapp tomorrow to see if he'll take that.
LR loves the car pull toy Grandma W and Grandad B gave him during our recent visit. He pulls it around the house often with much enthusiasm... so much so that one of the wheels keeps popping off. It just needs a touch of wood glue, so I'm not worried about the toy lasting a very long time. Gigi, if you look carefully, he still chews on his lower right lip. :)
On the fourth we had some quality family time at the pool. This Sunday is our first swim lesson and we wanted to make sure he isn't afraid of a large body of water. He's not. He loved it. He would have loved it more if the water hadn't been quite so cold. He kept jumping in with me and then scrambling to get out. Then he'd run down the length of the pool, challenging Daddy to stay between him and the water. 
The last picture is one of the many times Daddy retrieved LR. Really looking forward to the swim lessons!
Daddy and LR have been having a fabulous time with the Brio set from Uncle D. Here's Daddy's latest creation. We're still working to get LR back on schedule. He's going to bed and getting up a little later than we'd like. Tonight he made it down by 8:45pm which is definitely an improvement. Daddy's going to wake him up in the morning if he tries to sleep in too much. (I can't believe I just typed that.)
Anyway, I haven't been able to blog much because I've been going to bed pretty much right after LR. Hopefully, we'll be back on track soon with more blog entries and more time to chill out after LR goes to sleep. And by chill out, I mean wash the dishes, do the laundry, clean up from dinner, etc. Luckily, LR is totally worth it. Sleep tight, kiddo.
