allan & griff: 3/23/08

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The recovery

is progressing.

Last night was a bit rough. No sooner would you get one baby settled than the other would rouse up. We literally saw part of every hour last night. Allan, who never wakes up during the night, was up at 1:30 and was inconsolable. Griff was already in bed with me. Allan, who runs hot on a regular night, was burning up. The nice thing about his G-tube is that you just squirt in the meds and go on. With Griff, though, you have to do it the old-fashioned way. It is hard to know how much medicine goes down and how much he spits out. In any event, I went from one side of the bed to the other until I finally decided the only way was to be in the middle of the boys with pillows on either side of them. As soon as one would cry, I would roll in that direction, settle a baby down, and roll back over. If Griff didn't think he was getting his due, though, he would crawl over my head and flop down between Allan and me. By 6 a.m., they both settled down and we all slept until about 8 or so. Griff was in pretty good spirits but wouldn't eat his breakfast (every meal since he has gotten sick he will sit in his chair, eat a few bites and tell me "all done"). Allan just couldn't get going, though. He sat in the floor in a heap for the longest time. Then he would crawl a few paces and, the next thing you knew, he would be laying on his face, sucking his thumb. By eleven, we had all had it. Dad wanted to hang pictures, but that required the drill and the hammer so we made a grocery list and a list of other errands and sent him out. Allan was the first one down and out, followed shortly by Griff and then by me. I got a solid two hours of napping in and the boys each got 3.5.

Dad got to hang some pictures but isn't satisfied with his efforts. I got to get out in the yard and clean out flower beds. Both of the boys are feeling cruddy, but have been little troupers. We got baths early and they are both asleep at the moment. Allan in his crib (hence me typing) and Griff on his dad, "watching" March Madness.

So far, Allan hasn't been as sick as we feared he might be. Maybe getting on the Tamiflu early helped. He has been back on the oxygen full-time and he isn't as peppy as he has been, but he hasn't wilted the way Griffith did.

We hope for a quiet night and a day of recuperation tomorrow. More pictures then.

Friday, March 28, 2008

The Flu

Both boys have it. Yuck, as Griff says whenever we try to get him to take his medicine.

Griff was running a little fever Wednesday night when I got home. By the middle of the night, it was 103-104 despite the Tylenol and all he wanted to do was lay on me. So yesterday we were off to the doctor and we confirmed that it was the flu. So Dad, Allan and I all started Tamiflu as a preventative measure. Too little, too late for Allan, though. He woke up with a fever this morning and we went back to the doctor just to confirm our suspicions. Yep.

Griff is better today. Still not himself. He rallies for a while and then spikes a fever and wilts. His little eyes look so black.

Allan is pretty bouncy still, but his heartrate is up and he is back on the oxygen just to make things easier for him.

I am heading out to get more Pedialyte, Kleenex, and wine. The staples.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The big boys

Allan's nutritionist was at the house today and Big Al weighs a whopping 21 pounds 4 ounces and is 30 an 1/4 tall.

We don't have a height on Griffith, but he was 27 pounds 10 ounces.

On your bottom, Allan!

We keep having to reprimand Allan for standing in the tub. He refuses to cooperate despite being told to sit down. Griffith even tries to help by patting him on the bottom, but Allan is determined. So we have to take him out early. Which ticks him off royally, but what are you going to do?

Flora and Griffith

He's still Flora's big boy.

Allan and Miss Flora

She was so glad to see how big and busy he is these days!

Future Martha Stewart

Bailey making the rum cake.

Easter 2008

A shoe is not a chew toy!

Dimples

Another wild night.

Allan

Has been off the oxygen since Saturday morning. A few alarms during the night, but we roll him over and he's fine. Maybe it will take this time.

Also, he has started saying "ma-ma-ma-ma" which is kind of fun. When he does it, Griffith does it back. Like he doesn't want Allan to get ahead of him in my affections.

Monday night

Jay had his Monday night out and the boys were wonderful (it can be a mixed bag some weeks). First of all, they spent a lot of time chasing each other around the dining room, in and and out and around the table and chair legs. Griff is so sweet about crawling so that he and Allan can play together. Every once in a while Griffith would flop over on Allan's legs so that Allan could "get him" and they would both laugh and giggle.

After bath time, we turned down the lights, got our books and snuggled on the couch. Usually Allan likes to roam around (and make lots of noise) while Griff is trying to get to sleep, but Monday nothing would do him but that he be in my lap, too. Which would be fine, if he and his brother wouldn't keep hitting and poking each other. After three stories (Griffith keeps yelling "read!") we settled down. Except for Allan hitting his brother's bottle. Turn Allan around and pin him down to my side. Then Griffith realizes he can kick Allan in the back of his head (in his defense, it really was right in the line of fire. It would have been hard for any one to resist.) Turn Griffith out. Then Allan moves back up. Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle. Finally Allan goes to sleep on my right shoulder. Slide him down on to the couch and lie back with Griffith on my chest. At which point Griffith begins kicking Allan in the head in earnest. Fine. Reposition myself so that Allan is between my legs and I can keep him protected from his brother's assault. Sigh. Peace and quiet finally.

Hard-headed

The boys have recently started playing with their puzzles a lot. We have one that is shapes. Griffith doesn't know the names of many yet, but he does a pretty good job of getting them where they need to go. He picked up the yellow circle and, when Jay asked him what it was, he said, "ball." Jay responded, "No, it is a circle." I was all, "Wait a minute, Jay, look at it -- it is a ball. It is round. That's pretty good for a little fellow."
Jay: "No, it is a circle."
Griff: "Ball!"
Jay: "Circle!"
For heaven's sake.

Getting the blog updated has taken a while. The task was not helped by the fact that we took over 300 pictures from Thursday through Sunday!

We had a wonderful time this weekend. It started on Thursday when the weather was so nice. I found a used Little Tikes kitchen set, which is just perfect for playing with outside, on sale at a consignment shop. (Only $29!) So I threw that in the back of the car and headed home. On the way, I stopped at another consignment shop and found a Little Tikes toolbench (Only $19!) So I wedged that in the back seat. When I got home, I pulled those out and plunked them on the front porch (the new front porch -- the old one had nearly rotted through in spots.) Then I went to the garage and pulled out the zebra riding toy and little house thinga-ma-bob, and the swings and brought them around to the front porch, too. The boys LOVED them. (Dad, not so much -- don't you think it looks a little trashy to have the toys on the front porch? Ummm. No. I think it looks like we have two toddlers.)

Friday was just gorgeous. The office closed early and I headed home and while the boys played on the porch with Jesana, I did some much-needed gardening (if you count raking out beds as gardening).

On Saturday Miss Flora came over for a visit as did Cousin Charles. After a bite to eat, we all took a nap. Nearly two hours -- simultaneously! Then we headed for "home" to stay with Bailey and await the Easter Bunny. As you can see, that was a big time -- eggs to be colored, toys to be played with. It was all very exhausting. Bailey very thoughtfully wrote a note to ensure that EB left the boys' gifts in the proper location (he did).

Easter Sunday turned out to be beautiful. We ate a big meal -- Uncle Mark's green beans were a hit again (Momma is going to have to cook hers in a crock pot with lots of country ham, too.) Egg hunting eluded both of the boys. They just didn't get it. They much preferred playing with Bo who ran himself ragged chasing the football. We got home late in the afternoon, tired, but well-satisfied.