Two in the Tub

We did a bathtime experiment of putting both boys in the tub last night. They both enjoyed it. Oliver is fascinated with Logan and thus stared at him the whole time, punctuated with bouts of wiggling. Logan loves to help bathe the baby and thus eagerly helped (he was in charge of Oliver's feet), not noticing that he, too, was being scrubbed as he did the scrubbing.

The only glitch was getting the water level to where Oliver's tub would not float. This means the water is a little lower than Logan is used to, but he didn't seem to notice. And we saved water. So...green, and clean!

The Bills Breakfast Challenge

Saying you read Esquire for the recipes feels a little like saying you read Playboy for the articles. It's just...shut up, no, you don't.

But this month, Esquire kicked it up with a special feature devoted to breakfast. One part is on the country's best breakfast places. (None are in Austin. Haters.) The other part, which does not seem to be available yet online, is a series of absolutely mouthwatering breakfast recipes from chefs around the country.

Breakfast is something we can all get behind here. Even Logan will usually eat weekend breakfast. So we're eager to work our way through these recipes, which include a "griddled" bacon-egg-and-cheese on whole grain toast (I think we will try that one first), "green eggs and parma ham" (basically Eggs Benedict topped with pesto) and a very funny migas recipe from Mary Louise Parker.

Stay tuned for reviews.

Defensive Driving

Logan's class is learning about traffic signs, cars, trucks and other things that move people. This conversation occurred at dinner tonight.

Daddy: Logan, what does red mean?

STOP!

What does green mean?

Gooooooooooooooooo.

What does yellow mean?

(Pause). Faster!

Gourmet Ollie

Solid foods Baby Ollie has eaten so far:

Rice cereal

Sweet potato

Applesauce

Banana

So far, banana is the one to beat.

Contemplation

Baby Ollie watches the antics safely from Grammy Helen's lap this weekend.

Buckethead

It's sad when a child is so shy, no?

Easy On, Easy Off

Hmmm...hope we are not teaching Logan that drawing on the walls is OK.

Oh, Ollie

A quick post because I'm doing this while I wait for Microsoft to do a search for a long-lost file.

Ollie, Mommy and Daddy took a trip to Dell Children's Tuesday afternoon. Ollie was really struggling Monday night, and when Larry took him back to see Dr. P Tuesday morning, he was in respiratory distress and they told Larry we needed to go to Children's. I drove from work to meet them, leaving a live Webinar literally in the middle. As in the past, multiple Bulldogs stepped in without fanfare to help.

An ambulance ride later they wheeled him in, still in his car seat and asleep, getting a little oxygen for the ride over.

Well, anyway, Oliver is fine. We stayed in the ER for about five hours for observation. Oliver had a steroid shot to reduce the swelling in his airway that is caused by croup. He slept for a while and then woke up and nursed happily. His color was good and his oxygen levels were pretty stable, they did dip a little. Seeing that monitor brought back many troubling NICU memories for me.

Since we've been home he's much better, the steroids have helped and I think he's managed it well. He is such a sweet little guy, he was smiling at the nurses. I wish he didn't have to go through things like this. The ER doctor said "These preemies, by six months, really, I see them do very well. I see a strong kid here."

I'm going to cling to that, and my coffee cup, for now.

Strep, Croup, Alley-Oop

If our wedding anniversary were not in February, I swear I would try to find a way to skip the whole damn month. Bad stuff always goes down in February. Freakin' day care.

Logan has strep throat. Poor little guy. He was miserable last night. There was a strep case in his class recently, so rather than wait a few days to see if his fever diminished, we decided to take him to see Dr. P this afternoon. Strep is so painful. I'm glad we went in...we have a course of antibiotics and he should be feeling more comfortable by tomorrow.

Not to be outdone, Oliver woke up from his nap this afternoon with croup. Scariest cough ever...especially when your baby was previously attached to an oxygen tank. They worked Oliver in to Logan's appointment (I promised we would not make this a habit) so we didn't have to wait too long to see if he was having serious problems. His oxygen was fine, huge relief. And he doesn't have a fever. So we came home with reassurances he'll be OK and instructions to keep him hydrated.

Sigh.

Sleep Training Night 2

Oliver Bills: Down at 8.30 p.m. Up at midnight; down again right after feeding. Stirred (loudly) at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. but resettled himself without intervention. Woke very hungry at 5.30 a.m. Go, Ollie, go!

Logan Bills: Spontaneously barfed all over his bedroom floor at 8 p.m. Again about an hour later then once more an hour or so after that. Chipper and hungry this morning with no memory of any of this. We have no idea if it was something he ate or an 8-hour virus (Is this even possible? I think not.). Watching and waiting.

Elmo: Barfed on at 9 p.m. Cleaned with damp rag and recovering nicely.

Stay tuned for Sleep Training Night 3.

Happy Valentine's Day

Scene: Crowded Whole Foods Market at Gateway.

Logan, do you know what day it is?

Mommy, I see colors! Blackgreenredblueyellow.

It's Valentine's Day! Can you say "Happy Valentine's Day"?

(Addressed to passing stranger in coffee section) Happy Valentine's Day!

Logan, are you my Valentine?

No.

Are you Daddy's Valentine?

No.

OK, well, you're OUR Valentine.

Pizza.

Sleep Training Night 1

I give us a C+ for last night's sleep training.

Ollie went down at about 8 p.m. and slept until about 12.30 a.m., which is pretty good. I fed him when he woke up and then put him back in his crib, where he fell asleep within minutes. He woke again at 2.30 a.m. and we took him in with us because we were really worried about him waking Logan. However, we did not feed him, about which he complained for about 15 minutes then fell asleep.

He woke up again at 4.30, but this time we fed him. Baby steps, people. I'd like to meet the person who could stay tough in the face of those huge tears and the Sad Baby Face(tm).

So...points for not feeding at 2.30 a.m. Maybe we'll focus on breaking that one feeding cycle first. If he could do a midnight to 4 a.m. stretch, I would consider that progress.

Stay tuned.

T Minus 1 Day

We geared up mentally for our sleep training weekend last night by putting Oliver in his crib at around 10 p.m. and not taking him out even though he was fussing (we did go in for short visits). He settled and slept until 2 a.m., when of course I woke up and got him. He then fell asleep (with us...remember, training does not officially start until tonight).

Two interesting things occurred about an hour later:

1. Our fire alarm went off and scared the crap out of all of us...except Oliver, who slept through the entire thing. I think our alarm might be shorting out, there obviously was not a fire. Larry reset it and it shut up, but Logan was so terrified it took him a long time to settle down.

2. Despite the commotion, Oliver slept until 6 a.m.

Get Some Zzzz, Baby

All right...it's time to get tough.

In most families, the eldest child takes longer to get into good sleep habits than the ones that come after. According to our favorite sleep book, Sleeping Through the Night, this is because, by the time the second one comes along, the parents are not nearly as hypersensitive about picking the baby up every time they move or cry out. Baby 411 confirms this: Turn off the monitor, let them learn to self soothe and they will be better sleepers...and so will you.

Ironically, Oliver, not Logan, is our little problem sleeper. We were warned (or advised, whatever) that this is often the case with preemies. It's very hard for preemie parents to let a preemie (or as I like to call Oliver, a former preemie) cry. Oliver starts in his crib each night and does a good four-hour stretch. When he wakes at 2 a.m., though, we're inclined to feed him and take him to bed with us simply to avoid having him cry, wake Logan and keep us up. He then wakes up at 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. and gets the royal treatment each time.

Thus, we have trained him perfectly as a night feeder who wakes up every two hours for a snuggle and a snack. This is not good for anyone.

This weekend we're going to try to fix it. Larry is off for President's Day on Monday, which gives us a three-day weekend to get tough with Oliver during the night without having to face the consequences of going to work the next day. For now, it basically means giving him a bit longer to soothe himself back to sleep, and making sure that he gets almost all of his nutrition during the day so he's not as hungry at night. (Baby 411, by the way, says despite every grandmother's heartfelt belief, rice cereal has nothing to do with sleeping through the night. I don't want to argue about it; take it up with them.)

Wish us luck. And some sleep.

First Day

Oliver's first day was a good one. He was a little dazed when I picked him up...quite a bit of stimulation for such a little guy. The end of the day is always kind of hectic at day care with everyone being picked up. I have to remind myself that it's not like that all day.

Ollie fell asleep on the way home and has been up for only about an hour since then (to have his supper). He ate well at day care, he's always been pretty good about bottle feeding (chalk one up for the NICU).

We'll see how the rest of the week goes. The adjustment is always hard...on all of us (except Logan the Oblivious).

Baby Ollie's Adventure

Tomorrow is a big day for Baby Ollie. He is going to start at day care three days a week. I would be lying if I said I wasn't very anxious about it.

We're fortunate that the woman who cared for Logan when he was a baby is still there, and she's going to take care of Ollie, too. That's what passes for continuity in our lives, I suppose.

We tried to explain to Logan that Ollie is coming with him to school (and will, in fact, be in the room next door) but he took that to mean we are all coming to school, and now fully expects Grammy Carol to meet him at school tomorrow and participate in crafts, singing, days of the week, etc.

Wish us all luck in this new chapter.

Chocolate Pudding, Logan Style

I'm usually sort of bored by pictures of kids with food on their faces, even my kids. The hilarity of messy eating is really lost when it's not live.

Thus I offer the following only because Logan was mugging for the camera. These are not action shots. He was, literally, posing. American's Next Top Toddler.

Ollie's First Cereal

Oliver tried his first rice cereal tonight. He was way more amenable than Logan was when he tried his first cereal. It's not shown here but he went on to swallow some of it and actually had seconds!