Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Duck and a Madman

We haven't had two healthy days to rub together at our house for a long time. Every time someone gets well, someone else goes down. When I complained to Pat that it had been a month of constant battles with illness he corrected me that it had been more than a month. He's the optimist of the family so I know he's just being honest. I'm dragging myself back to health at the moment and I'm going to do my darnedest to keep us all there for a while. Anyway, about the boys: Here's a little Fintan funny that Pat and I keep cracking up over:

For months now whenever I call Fintan a "silly goose" he says, "I'm not a goose I'm a duck!" It's a standing joke at our house.

A few days ago Fintan was being naughty. I pulled him onto my lap and said "You are such a weasel!" He immediately responded"I am such a duck!"

Coen is a little crazy man. The kid cannot be stopped. He's already climbing OVER things and UP things and THROUGH things. If you ask him to please be careful when he's standing somewhere that looks a bit tenuous he'll just let go with one hand and start bouncing up and down. He's a madman. The two easiest ways to tick him off are 1. Remove your fingers from his teeny-tiny fists so that he can no longer stride purposefully around the room (up the rollercoaster, over the trampoline, through the gate, down the long dark hallway to touch the door at the end, back to the kitchen....and on and on and on) and 2. Put his food BACK in the microwave after he's watched you to remove it to stir it. His wrath is something worth seeing.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Do you take returns, Santa?

The boys and I went to a play date this morning at a friend's house. They had an enormous bounce house set up in their basement and Fintan loved it.

This evening he was telling Pat all about it and how much fun it was. He said, "I want a bounce house, Dada. We can give Santa back the trampoline!"

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A mom without a voice...

Is like a.....what? This phrase keeps popping into my head and I can't come up with the right analogy.

I just never realized how integral my voice was to my bag of mommy tricks. I can't sing. I can't distract with a comment or a funny noise. I can't hum to my poor, fussy baby, I can't read any books and I can't carry on a simple conversation with my toddler. It's been a very very hard day for that reason.

So what do you think? What is a mom without a voice like? A sponge without water? A masseuse without fingers? What?

If anything pops into your head, please share.

A silent tree in the forest

Fintan just walked over and pulled down his own pants and sat on the potty. No fanfare. No big deal--to him anyway. HOORAY FINTAN!

On a different note, there's been another side effect to me losing my voice. Fintan is doing all sort of things he knows he's not allowed to do. Sort of like a tree falling in an empty forest--if Fintan can't hear me I don't exist, right?

Sick day

Well, Fintan is feeling much better today but still has no appetite and a powerful cough.

Coen finally caught it, too. He's barely slept the last 24 hours for coughing.

Pat isn't well either, and is currently off spreading germs at work. Sorry Pat's co-workers!

I'm not feeling my best either. I've lost my voice completely. Fintan has responded to this by either whispering back to me or asking "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, MAMA?"

It's going to be a looooong day.

Monday, March 2, 2009

The bad with the good.

So. My earlier post was interrupted. I was going to add one more shot--of the pearly new mommy-chompers--but then Fintan woke up and he was TICKED. An hour later we headed out to see the doctor.

Coen had little dry skin circles on his arms that I wanted to make sure weren't ring worm. He also has a fairly large bump on one of the joints of his fingers that I wanted the doctor to check out. I had an appointment for Fintan, too, but I thought for sure she'd just say that he has a virus that will run its course.

Well the news was worse than expected all around. Coen has excema. I know that's not that bad but when you live life in fear of food allergies it IS. If you have excema you're much more likely to develop food allergies. Doggone it. The doc didn't know what the bump was on his finger and said to just keep an eye on it since it doesn't bother him.

Now, I should mention that Fintan SCA-REEEAMED during the entire visit. I snuggled, cajoled, demanded and begged him to stop but he wouldn't. Eventually the receptionist came in and took Coen so I could focus entirely on Fintan. The doc could tell he was in distress breathing-wise. I finally got him to stop wailing for a moment or two and she listened to his lungs (heavy wheezing) and looked into his ears (infection).

She said that from what she heard she's thinking it's quite possibly pneumonia but it could have just sounded worse because of all of the howling. So he's on antibiotics for the ear infection, and breathing treatments for his poor little lungs. If he's not seeming a lot better tomorrow I have to take him back in for round 2. PLEASE let him feel better in the morning!

Now for the good news. When we got home and I got Coen to bed, and while I was giving Fintan a breathing treatment. Pat brought over the monitor for me to look at. And here's what I saw:

Coen stood up by himself for the first time ever! Hooray!

Oh, and I also forgot to mention that Coen is now alternately saying "da da da" all day long and clicking his tongue. He'll say "Da da, click click, da da da, click, da da da da da". He sounds like a pint sized aborigine.

And here are the teeny tiny toothies. Better pic to come.

Weekend cowboys


Coen has been just a crack-up lately. I took a gazillion pictures this weekend and he's grinning in all but a handful of them. He's been galloping through the milestones, too.

Ever time I go up to get him out of his bed he is sitting up waiting for me. He grabs my fingers and stands right up. I love that when I lay him down for a nap or at night, as soon as I get down the stairs and look at him he is already doing this:


It makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

Then a few minutes later I look at him and he's doing this:

Who knew babies like this even existed?!

He's also crawling now! Honest to goodness crawling. Very slow, but with increasing coordination. I'll try to get a good video to post. I'm thrilled. Fintan skipped that mode of transport almost entirely.


Fintan was sick this weekend. Poor little guy. So he wasn't as happy as his baby brother. He wanted to participate mostly behind the scenes. So he took this picture of his brother for us.


He also took this picture, expertly blocking out undesirable elements.

I've come to the conclusion the boy is GIFTED.

He did come out from behind the camera at one point to be a cowboy with Coen.

And then have double the cowboy fun.



He also came out to snuggle his baby brother and tell him "I wuv you Coen. I really really wuv you."

And Coen was happy.


(Notice the pacifiers stuck securly to his thumbs in this picture. He always finishes up a nap that way and they come off with an audible "pop"!)

Our boys. Could we ask for anything better?