Please Advise...

Seeking support in how to handle the developing phase of "little stinker-ness" that seems to be becoming of my sweet innocent little boy.  How to handle stinkerness seriously even though it's just plain stinken cute.  Oh, Mr. Magoo....

Cutie Pics

Keller finds his First Birthday stash...

"You mean I get to eat some sweet yummy stuff off of this thing soon???"

Stinkin' adorable little shoes for Mr. Almost Walkin'--and I had to take this picture because the whole sweat pants thing riding up the leg really bothers me, but look at those chub-a-lub little shins hangin' out!!  I love it:)

Mr. Lips

Soooo mad!!  He can do this on demand now.  It's so funny because he really does this when he's mad about something, like not wanting to go to bed, he'll do Lips all serious and me and Trav can't help but giggle at the poor kid.

Oh and went to the Doctor today who gives Keller a clean bill of health...The Garlic Mullein drops did the trick!  

All Better

So I'd say Keller's cold lasted about a week with some sniffles and the cough.  Thankfully the fever was short lived and so what if his ears smelled like garlic for a little while from the eardrops.  We go back to the Dr. on Wednesday so she can peek in and see if there's anything going on still, but I think he's good to go!  The funny thing about the eardrops was that as crazy as Keller goes on the changing table screaming and squirming and being a fairly impossible subject of a diaper change, he would lie perfectly still and quiet when it came time for the drops...weird.  Only thing I can think of is that they provided instant relief?  Who knows...but he is definitely not a fan of the diaper change, particularly in the morning, particularly with mommy, and particularly at night.  The other ones are just squirmy in general...What happened to the little boy that would lie happily on the changing table grinning and gurgling?  Travis used to call a diaper change Keller's "reset" button because everything would be better in the world once you laid him on the changing pad...no more!

Our first week of work went well I'd say, particularly considering it was a full Monday through Friday deal which is unusual.  So we'd be up and out by 6:40--ugh!  Make the kids breakfast, get them ready for school, one out to the bus each morning for Kindergarten and on M, W, and F we brought the other one to preschool, which made those mornings nice and quiet for me and Keller.  Pick up from preK at noon and get back to the house for the bus drop off at 12:30, make lunch and hang out until 4 when the mom comes home.  MWF was easy.  Now Tuesday was a bit of a challenge, me and Keller and a 3 and a half year old girl who LOVES to play dollies...I don't know that I'm such a very good dollies player, but I tried my best, and I played duck duck goose over and over with her (and Keller in his stroller)...so needless to say, Tuesday morning was very loooonnnnggg, and so on Thursday morning we made plans to go to the park which was a much better way to pass the morning since there were other kids coming and going.  That made the whole idea of a mom's group crystal clear to me:)  I don't mind hanging out at home all day with Keller.  He's pretty independent with his playing and crawling around and checking things out, but really, once kids get a little bigger, they really do need other kids to play with...desperately!  So hopefully now that my sister-in-law Marisa is no longer selling hotdogs at my brother's hotdog stand, she can bring Samantha (another dolly lover) to play with us on Tuesdays or Thursdays!  All in all though, they seem to be a good family and good kids (albeit 3 and 5 year olds and all that entails;) and this week is off and next week is a three day work week so it seems as if it will be manageable and allow us to even put a little cash each month into savings again and get us out of the house and perhaps one of the best parts is that when I'm out of the house with Keller, like when I was up at my sister's, he actually gets more attention from me because I'm not fiddling around on the computer, or doing the dishes, or trying to get anything else done.  My job is to hang out with him and the other kids so I don't "feel like I should be getting something done" which seems to always be looming overhead when I'm at home.  But anyway...

This weekend was Samantha's 4th birthday!  Nuts that she's so big!  My brother just took off her training wheels on her bike and she's already riding on her own!  Keller loved being at her party in the little ball pit and driving in the purple jeep with Cali (supervised of course)--it's cute that they're so close in age.  And on Sunday Trav and I did a couple of house drive-bys, one of which was on the same road as Trav's sister, so we stopped in for a quick visit there too and got to see the little Miss Piper who's getting so big too!  I can't believe how quickly little babies become big babies and then real live kids!  Scary!

And so I wait for Mr. Magoo to fall asleep in his crib for his nap so that we can get up and out and run some errands this morning.  Off to the shower...quick!!

Mr. Sniffleberry

Sooo Big!!!

"Lips" because he doesn't fit in Bo's bowl.

More "Sooooo Big"

Happy Birthday to Chase!!!  Get this silly hat off of me!!

Yup...I'd say this is Keller's first official big boy cold.  Poor little peanut, but he's a trooper for sure!  On Monday, he started in with a little cough, no biggie.  Tuesday we had our babysitting debut for which he was fine for, refused to nap, and by the evening he was cranky, coughing more, nose running and woke up in the night with a fever.  That sound of the sad, sick, crying baby is heartbreaking and makes you not think twice about getting out of bed at 2am.  The lucky kid even got nursed in the night which he never does, but nothing was soothing him and I figured it was good immunity or whatever they say...Wednesday we went to the doctor who confirmed a slight fever and minor ear infections.  Actually, she said as she was looking in his ear, "This is NOT a healthy ear here..."  But she also said that it wasn't too bad and that if we preferred we could try Garlic Mullein eardrops to take care of the problem and if that didn't work we could fill an amoxocillian prescription.  Oh, and before she looked in his ears she just kind of pressed on them from the outside explaining that in Russia (her hometown;) that was how they determined whether a child had an ear infection if he complained about the pressure.  Keller seemed to like the pressure, which in Russia I guess would mean that his infections were not bad enough to treat.  So anyway.  Got the drops, and saline spray for the nose, and Pedialyte, which I only just gave him some of today, and he's feeling better but still buggary and garlicky--imagine that!  Funny how I didn't put two and two together until I opened up the eardrops that they would actually smell garlicky...yuck!  But knowing that garlic is a natural antibiotic and mullein increases blood flow to the area, I'd prefer trying that before the amox.

Keller is being a good sport about it all though.  He hates having his nose wiped, but yet when he found a tissue on his changing table, he picked it up and pretended to blow his nose then held it out for me to try, so of course I pretend to blow my nose, and back and forth.  And on the topic of the my turn, your turn game, last night when Keller was nursing, he stopped, looked at me and then grabbed my boob and offered me a sip---like "Want some?"  It was so funny, I did not pretend to have some of that and responded with a polite "No, thank you." So he went back to drinking and then offered to share again and again.  Another one of those priceless moments in breastfeeding!  I hope he's all better soon!

Now to try getting his birthday invitation done...quick!!  before he wakes up!!  (that's the story of my life these days, though I'm never quick enough, it seems!)  

He's So Advanced;)

Or at least right on track;)

How stinkin' cute that he even makes the Vrroooommm! sound!  He also makes ruff-ruff and nnnn...nnn...nnn sounds like in his Doggie book (from Becky I'm pretty sure:)

Keller's first step-stool.

"Look Ma!! No hands!"

"My mommy and daddy think I'm smart enough to get a full scholarship to Yale:)"

"Look at me!!  I'm walkin'!!  This is so much fun!!!"

"So much fun" does not even begin to sum up the stage we're at right now:)  The things Keller is doing keep on surprising me and making me smile and make me amazed at how children learn things so quickly.  The walking thing is a riot, still, even though he's been using that walker-wagon for a few weeks now, he stomps around pigeon-toed with bendless knees and a giant grin on his face until he crashes into either a door, wall, or dog.  He sometimes figures out how to walk around to the front of the wagon and push it back the way he came and sometimes he tries to walk backwards.  It's adorable.  And it's even adorabler when I put his new shoes on him and watch him try...They're a pretty close fit, so not too big at all, but still have a rubber sole so as he goes to walk, the tip of the sole drags across the floor or gets twisted and left behind (it's not as bad as it sounds), and we don't leave the shoes on long because he really doesn't need them in the house or anywhere really yet, I'm just anticipating the cooler weather and the soon to be walking little man here.  And on the topic of shoes, I guess I've been trying them on him here and there because he so knows the routine.  He'll hand me a shoe and practically lift his foot for me to put it on.  It's like a game for him.  Which so beats having to fight him to get them on which I'm sure some day I'll have to do.  What else...following directions...He's already been pretty good at getting the Ducky in the tub, meaning I guess he's known that word for awhile, but now he's able to respond to more general things like, "Can I have that?"  "Can I have a bite?" and "Give it to BoBo".   He knows "No" in that he'll shake his head when he hears the word and better yet he'll shake his head as he's crawling towards Bo's bowl or the bathroom.  So he knows that those are No things, but just can't resist!  He will even say something resembling "No" or No no no" to Bo when Bo starts getting a little crazy--using a strikingly similar tone to one which Travis or I might use...kinda funny:)  But he's gettin' it!  He's working on feeding himself (with support of course) using a spoon (we're thinking lefty) and laughs each time he gets his cereal or whatever into his mouth on his own.  He also is becoming quite the expert on the "Show Mommy how piggies eat" which I swear we didn't teach him--he just sometimes tries to eat stuff directly from his tray--why bother with fingers if you don't have to...trouble!  

     So yes, we're having fun around here!  Aside from the Keller stuff, I'm getting ready to start that babysitting thing.  I have a half day this coming Tuesday to more or less hang out with the kids, check out where there schools are, practice loading the three kids into the van and all that good stuff!  Wish me luck!  Then that's it for this week and next week will be a full work week, which will be unusual...then the following week off, three days the next week and then we'll be off to Nantucket for Trav's cousin's wedding...Can I wear a white and black dress in October (mostly white with black designs)?  

     We've also resigned ourselves to "thinking about" getting the house on the market, which means doing all those things listed in my last post's "Shoulds" section.  I've actually been doing an okay job albeit slow job of sorting through stuff in the attic.  I've returned one giant bin of borrowed clothes, passed along a giant bin of clothes, and combined/sorted/donated other boxes/bags to be more organized.  So the clothes are set for now and I'm on to the Teacher Stuff---ahhhhhhh!!!!!!   Today I brought two file crates down to just sort through/throw stuff out/ save only one copy of "dittoes" and tossed the class sets/leftovers.  Unbelievable how much paper it is!  I hate to throw it all out, especially class sets and such and I thought about at least giving it away at my sister's upcoming tag sale, but I have to just throw it out (except for some coloring pages and stuff I'll keep on hand for down the line...)

     Thinking about Keller's birthday party.  Need to do invitations for that.  Have a "theme" brewing in my brain, but as Travis said, "Why don't we just have a party, you know, like a regular birthday party?"  Ah, to be able to think so simply.  I envy that (sometimes:)

     Glasses.  If you read my Facebook update you know I have new ones and that I'm not to happy about them.  I'm wearing them this week to see if they'll grow on me and to get some honest (and polite) opinions at Chase's birthday party this weekend.  We'll see.  I like the frames, it's just the big fat lenses that are in them...long story, same prescription as I had but the different shape and type of frame I have made them have to use a thicker lense...blah blah blah.  

     Boy is up now after a lovely afternoon nap...Thank you, boy!