A day at home

Yesterday morning Connor had a couple of funny bumpy red spots on his thighs....I didn't think much of it but daycare called midday because his arms and legs were covered. When I picked him up he was very rashy all over his arms and especially his thighs and diaper area and had one little spot on his cheek. We put some benadryl cream on and hoped it was an allergic reaction. Daycare was concerned. This morning I decided to just keep him home and get it checked out. Our Doctors office is awesome, but the availability of last minute appointments is not very good. So of course by the time we would be able to get him in the rash is all but gone. His diaper area is still pretty red but that he has sensitive skin so that doesn't surprise me. So.....its been decided that he had an allergic reaction to the rosemary we cooked potatoes in the other night and he will be fine to go back to school tomorrow. I suppose technically I could head into work but by this point that seems silly. I think Connor and I need a day together.

Since I was home I decided today might be a good day to introduce Connor to his crib. He currently sleeps in a pack and play in our room and I have been thinking he may wake less if he doesn't have mommy's all night buffett less than three feet away. His crib for the last 10 months has been a very convenient place to keep a hodgepodge of baby items that he was either too big or too little for. So this morning I cleared it out, lowered the mattress to the lowest setting and put on clean sheets and pad. He is sleeping there as I type. He wasn't real keen on it at first and it took awhile for him to get to sleep, but zonked he is. Not sure if I will put him there tonight or not. Will have to cross that bridge later I suppose.

Oh My Blog!!

There is no possible way to catch up on here all the things that have happened in the last year. All the time I find myself composing posts in my head thinking of things I want to write down and hold onto and share, but then life happens and I am working or taking care of my boys or just wanting to stare blankly at the tv for awhile before bed. I haven't even been reading...and if you know me you know that is odd.

Life as it is at this moment is good. Mitch still has a good job, after my job moved to Portland I was able to obtain a position with the same company back in Salem and I am loving it. The boys are in the daycare right across the street from work and they are both happy and healthy and growing.

Mitch and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last October. We have known each other for 14 years now and in December we passed 11 years as a couple. That is just downright amazing.

Miles is 5. I am still in shock. How can it possibly have been five years already? He really is an amazing kid. Funny and goofy he tells the worst made up knock knock jokes and thinks they are the absolute most funny thing ever.

Miles: "Knock knock"
Me: "Who's there?"
Miles: "Banana"
Me: "Banana Who?"
Miles: "Banana in the Door!" (or ceiling, or wall or some other nonsense) followed by great bursts of laughter.

He is now in the pre-kindergarten class at school and loves his teacher. He is doing well, apparently he is ahead of the class on most things so she gives him extra work to keep him busy and he focuses and wants to finish. His daycare has a Kindergarten program and we are thinking of leaving him there for that next year rather than public school. Its a good program and so convenient for us to have him there all day and at the same place Connor is.

At home he is wanting to play games, read books and draw pictures of monster trucks (the kind with horns) - sometimes he is a royal pain in the butt but he is also a sweet boy who is actually really good to his baby brother. Except for when it comes to his special stuffed puppy, then its, "No Connor!" and a quick grab. When I say he is a pill its fairly typical 5 year old stuff....he doesn't want to listen and he is still somewhat whiny but it has been improving. The key seems to be keeping him busy and challenged.

Tall and skinny he looks like my brother and I wonder if he will grow up to look like him too. His favorite clothes are sweat pants and a tie dye tshirt - and as long as they are clean ones I don't mind. One day he chose his outfit and it was a pair of grey sweatpants and a blue zip up velour jacket - he looked like an Italian mobster- Mitch taught him to say, "It fell off a truck" when asked where he got his book for show and tell.

Lately he has been asking a lot of "tough" questions. The one I am stumped by is, "before there were people how did the first baby come out?". The other one is, "how do you blow out your [birthday] candles when you are dead?" That one I told him other people do it for you. We have lost too many people in the last many years and we try to still honor birthdays and such, to keep them close to us. He is also wise beyond his years. He has a girlfriend, her name is Eden and apparently Eden told her mom they were going to get married, which meant they would dance. I asked Miles the other day of Eden was still his girlfriend, he said yes but that they weren't going to get married anymore. When asked why he said, "we don't want to be parents". Smart kid.

Connor is an amazing little man. He is always happy. When he is fussy at all you know something is wrong. He just got over RSV (a nasty lung virus that can make a baby really sick) - even with all his snotting and coughing he was still smiley and giggly. He loves to laugh at his big brother, and even just laugh at all. He stayed with Grandma all week and one day he was just sitting under the table laughing...at nothing in particular.

He is working really hard to walk, he can go about 15 steps but usually he gets nervous before then and sits down to crawl. But watching him I can see he has good balance and will soon be outrunning all of us.

He loves to eat. I would love to give him whatever he wants but he only has 4 teeth in fully and two more working their way down. Currently he is snacking away on teething biscuits and gnawing on a raw carrot. I am doing my best to make the majority of his food at home and doing okay with it, but we do garb the occasional jar of storebought baby foods. He seems to like my cooking better and I do agree that the fresh stuff tastes better.

Anywho, been trying to get something new up for a while. Its not much but here ya go.