Preview of coming attractions

Well, the boys and I have been reading furiously, trying to finish Harry Potter before someone spoils us for the ending. We are about halfway through. Maybe we'll make it this weekend.

I am afraid that I have ruined poor Griffith. He and Allan and I went out in to the backyard to play last night after dinner and before bath time. All last night Griff was restless and kept waking up. He stayed awake from about 4 until about 6 (the second time this week!) and it wasn't until the break of day that we realized that he was covered in bug bites. His right eye has a huge knot and he must has 5 spots on one arm and 4 on the other. I swear I sprayed both of them. Allan doesn't have a single bite nor do I. Either I sprayed Allan twice or Griffith is just irresistible to mosquitos. Who would have thought that he was the sweet one?

Allan is just doing fantastic. His eye still looks great although the plethora of eye drops is a pain in the a** (5 every morning and night plus a salve once a day at the moment). He is heartily irritated with the entire proceeding. And, of course, you need to wait a certain amount of time between each drop. It seems to be working, but, frankly, the whole thing seems a little like voodoo.

Allan is coming on like a little steam engine though. He wants to pull up and stand and will get stiff as a board and resist you trying to sit him down. He sets his little jaw and holds his breath to maintain his balance, but, by golly, he is going to do it. He also has started to buck and jump when he sees Dad come home from work. He loves bath time and has become strong enough that Griffith can't knock him over (very easily) and can't necessarily take away his toys. Allan smiles and giggles a lot these days and it just tears us both up. Edie (his speech/occupational therapist) was so pleased with him this past week. His "core" strength is great and even though he isn't making a lot of sounds for her, she can tell that, organically, there is no reason why he shouldn't. She was trying to get his attention with something (don't ask me what) and he wasn't looking in her direction. I guess she could tell that I was a little distressed at the way he was responding, but she just laughed and said that he was acting exactly as she would expect a one-year old (which he is adjusted) to react. He was more interested in what Griffith was doing than what she was doing and she was just going to have to step it up if she wanted to be the focus. You could tell that she was well pleased with him. It is so gratifying and wonderful to have people who are so committed to our children and who know them, in some ways, better than we do. We spend so much time with them that we don't always recognize what great strides they have made.

We are working on establishing a new routine as part of the whole "break the bottle" endeavor. Between 6 and 6:30 we feed the boys, wipe them down, play with them (one of us does while the other frantically makes a grown up dinner or cleans up after the boys) and then we have bath time (including brushing of the teeth which Griff hates and Allan loves), a bottle for Griff (shut up), a cuddle for Allan and, with any luck, an hour or two for Mom and Dad to pay bills, watch TV, read, do chores, whatever.

No big plans for the weekend. We are simply going to continue to try to impose a Mussolini-type schedule on the boys, at least at night. Cousin Bailey is coming to spend part of the weekend to "help take care of Allan and Griffith" (she's a very grown up four year old who has requested dinner of a baked potato, birthday cake ice cream with sprinkles and balloons). It will probably come back to haunt us, but, really, what is in it for us to deny her? Sprinkles and balloons it is.

We should have a load of photos from this weekend. We'll try to blog, but Harry Potter does take priority!

Have a great weekend!