Dancing frogs -- part II

Griffith and the dancing frogs

Linda made new pillow slips for the boys. Griffith is checking the frogs out.

Griffith - stuck again

This time under the chair. He doesn't know where he is going. He's just going there backward.

The peg

The balloon goes inside Allan's belly and is filled with water. It is about the same diameter as a quarter. The part to the left is like the valve on a beach ball and is what is visible on his belly.

Allan - snuggled down.

Kind of like Randy in A Christmas Story -- he lay there like a like a slug. It was his only defense.

Allan in his snowsuit

On his way to the hospital this morning. It was the coldest day of the year -- 4 degrees.

Toothless no more

In all the excitement I forgot to mention that Griffith has finally sprung a tooth on the bottom right (same one that came in first on Allan). It is just barely poking through, but is clearly there. Of course, he jerks his head back and forth violently when you try to reach in there to feel it so I don't anticpate any photos any time soon.
Griffith also got in to his first heated discussion on Saturday night. Alan and Michele came over for spaghetti and Griffith took exception to Alan's tone or the content of his comments and he (Griffith) began to "gack" at him with a very serious expression. And he didn't let up. He wasn't crying, he wasn't scared. But he was quite clearly telling Alan that he had crossed the line, thank you very much.

The boys had a good weekend. Griffith has decided that napping is optional, however, and that isn't suiting any of us. Griff is a high-intensity little fellow and we all need a little break from that on occasion. He even finds being himself exhausting and turns in to a bit of a whiner by the time night falls. So far the only solution that we have found is to hold him while he sleeps. This is not a long-term option, however.
We had a little excitement this morning. Allan managed to pull out his peg some time between 6 a.m. when Jay did his meds and 7 when I picked him up to get him ready to greet Flora. I'll try to post a picture of the peg and balloon contraption later today. Anyway, although it isn't a life-threatening dash to the ER, it is something that has to be addressed with a certain degree of speed (For one thing, he doesn't eat enough orally. For another, the digestive tract begins to heal right away. Like, no, really, right away.) Dad was already on medical duty today because Griffith had a hearing test scheduled for 9 a.m. (He did great. Clear as a bell.) So I had to take Allan to the hospital outpatient area and Dr. Joe came up and put another one in. Poor Allan, always making it hard on himself.
Griffith gets a gold star this morning, though. We were busy trying to get Allan straightened up and headed to the right place and calling doctors, etc., and Griffith woke up, sweet as an angel, and didn't make a peep the whole time. Just entertained himself and watched what was going on. He is a high-intensity little fellow, but he also knows when to rein it in.

Dad made it back late last night. Griffith, the little angel, slept all night through for the first time in several weeks. (Allan sleeps through the night nearly all the time, bless him.) All the flirting with Lynn last night must have worn Griffith out. They giggled and tee-heed for hours. He did all of his tricks for her -- rolling over and back, pulling up and standing, almost crawling. Very impressive. She swears that his is the best baby laugh she has ever heard. It is pretty contagious. Allan had his time to shine, too. He doesn't waste time with all of the tricks. He goes right for snuggling and batting his lashes at her. Whatever works.

The boys and I are hanging out on another cold winter's night. Dad has been gone since Monday, but Allan and Griffith have held done the fort (with the help of Kim and Markus and Jennifer and Eric and Lynn, but who is keeping score?).
Things went relatively smoothly until last night when Allan decided to keep me up from midnight until 2 and then Griff woke up (as his now usual) at about 4 for a Scooby snack. We will all be glad for Dad to hit the door.
Allan is paying a lot more attention to Griffith these days. Don't know if that is a good thing or not. Last night they were lying on the bed beside each other and Griffith got to howling about some perceived slight from me. Allan watched him and became visibly more distressed until he joined in the chorus. Great. That's all I need. Both of you squawling. Where is your father any way? Ah, yes, eating a 'lovely' filet at Ruth's Chris and having a nice glass (or two) of wine. Yeah, enjoy it. You'll pay for that later, buddy. Not enough boxed wine in the world will make it okay for you to gloat.....
Speaking of howling, Griffith has just started again, so it is time to sign off.

A little smile from Allan

So much for the long winter's nap...

Griff just howled and woke his brother up. Fortunately, Allan woke up happy.

Griffith - action photo

Unfortunately the action is toppling over as he tries to figure out crawling.

Allan - settled in

Allan, ready for a long winter's nap.

Griffith - stuck

Stuck but not unhappy about it.

Griffith - stuck again

Griff can manage backward, but gets stuck under the coffee table, the couch and the armchairs.

Allan and his carrots

Savings bond mystery

If you sent the boys savings bonds, please identify yourself. The bonds arrived, but there is absolutely nothing showing us who sent them. We really appreciate it and would love to send a "thank you" but are stumped.

Cheryl and the carrots - part iii

Cheryl and the carrots - part II

Cheryl and Griffith - eating carrots.

Allan and his cords (II)

Looks like he is ready to change the oil.

Allan in his cords

Griffith - big, wide grin

Griffith in the new bouncy seat.

Warm as toast

Well, we are all snuggled in tonight after a cold and snowy day. Pork tenderloin is cooking in the oven. Dad is preparing to boil the life out of some carrots. And then smother them in butter. Why do the British hate vegetables? If it keeps him amused and out of my hair, I guess I shouldn't complain.
The big news is that Allan laughed out loud for the first time today. He smiles and laughs, but, until today, hasn't made a true laughing sound. He has been vocalizing a lot more in the past couple of weeks (so long as doctors and PTs aren't watching). He really seems to hit his stride from about 8 p.m. until 10 or 11 p.m. That's usually when we play rock-a-baby and act like we are going to run, run, run away and play like we are riding a bike. (Our own version of physical therapy.) Today, though, we were watching UK beat Tennesse and playing with some silly Leap Frog caterpillar that sings songs and, for whatever reason, two little butterflies and three little bumblebees struck him as very funny. Next thing I know I see a big, wide smile and hear something that isn't a 'gawk.' I would have thought that I imagined it except that he repeated it several times before it wasn't funny any more. The best part is that he sounds EXACTLY like Griffith when he laughs. Sort of a silly heh, heh, heh kind of chuckle. Very Beavis and Butthead. We hope that Allan decides that life is as funny as his brother finds it because Griff laughs all the time. Except for when he is howling in protest.
Griffith continues to be a whole lot of fun. Yesterday he learned to make a kissy face which amused him greatly. (What doesn't?) His girlfriend Caitlin came to visit and he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Flora came to help yesterday because I needed to work in the morning and she is going to be off on Monday. She was so jealous that she wouldn't leave. She just sat and watched Caitlin and Griffith and resisted (just barely) snatching him back from her (who knows what would have happened if I hadn't been here?) The boys and I had a good long walk yesterday afternoon while the sun was out and it was warm. It is a good thing we did, since, by 4, it had turned bitter cold and has stayed that way.
On Friday we met with the lady from First Steps which is a program to coordinate different types of services for little guys like Allan. We are going to have someone come in to consult for speech therapy (because he still isn't very interested in feeding from the bottle) and physical therapy. Griffith was almost beside himself twisting around and trying to get the girl's attention. I am very afraid that we have quite a flirt on our hands.

Alice and Allan (II)

Alice and Allan, bonding.

Allan snuggling with Alice

Allan had to get his loving, too.

Alice and the boys

Griffith entertained Greg and Alice for dinner last night. He and Allan had formula (naturally) and we had sushi.

Preparing to launch

Griffith just hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate arms and legs. Thank goodness.

Preparing to launch

Griffith just hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate arms and legs. Thank goodness.

Allan - going bananas

Allan wasn't sure that the bananas were what he wanted for breakfast.

I tried to post all day yesterday. Don't know why it wouldn't take it.
Griffith did great at the NICU grad clinic on Wednesday. He was almost not able to do the test because he kept looking at her and giggling. Goofy little flirt charmed the Very Nice Physical Therapist. That may account for the glowing report. He picked up blocks, moved them from one hand to the other, clapped spoons together (I didn't know he could do that), grabbed a string, pulled a napkin over so he could grab something on it, turned toward sounds. The only thing he didn't do was roll over and that was because he was too interested in what was going on above him. Can't fault him for that. He scored very high on his verbal which tickles me since he has yet to say anything. Apparently squealing and babbling are high-value activities. He is now 16.5 pounds and 26 inches tall. He is growing like a weed and is in the 25th percentile for his adjusted age.
The boys have been big fun this week. When I got home on Tuesday, they were playing on a blanket on the floor. Allan had hold of Griffith's right arm and was trying to bite him. Griffith kept swatting at him with his left hand and occasionally tried to roll over top of him. They both seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly. Allan is really starting to make a lot more baby noises and he is grinning a lot these days. He seems to enjoy rough-housing quite a bit and loves to be rolled back and forth (rock-a-baby, rock-a-baby). He folds his little hands across his chest so that you can get he really going.
All-in-all the big boys are doing great. Just have to keep on doing what we are doing and wait for spring.

The boys did well with their eye exams today.
Griffith has a slight astigmatism (courtesy of Papa), but it isn't anything that they need to do anything about right now. He may or may not have to have glasses some day. Come back in a year, thank you very much.
Allan's eye looks pretty good, but the pressure was up in it some. They are adjusting his eye drops and seeing how that works. Come back in a month. They are going to put him back under anaesthesia some time to look in the eye and see how and whether scar tissue is forming back there and if they can tell what is causing the pressure to build up and how that is or isn't affecting his optic nerve. But we aren't going to do any thing at all until RSV, flu and cold season are over with. April? May? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Abject misery

Whose idea was it to put the baby down?

Well, there was no napping, cat or otherwise. Griffith just can not stand to miss out on anything and refuses to go down. He spent a lot time this afternoon trying to figure out how to crawl. The pictures don't do it justice, but our pride and joy can get up on his hands and knees, but he can't quite figure out how to get his big ol' head up at the same time. There was much grunting and groaning and general frustration but no forward progress. I know that a good parent would be actively encouraging her child to crawl and helping him figure the process out, but we really aren't quite up to a mobile Griffith and if it takes him an additional week or so to work it out on his own, so be it. That gives us a little more time to prepare. Jay put down a rug in the dining room this afternoon and we got one for the living room and the nursery, too. Throwing down blankets just isn't going to work for very long. And it is time to dig out the cabinet locks and electrical outlet plugs. Baby-proofing needs to begin in earnest.
Allan has had a good afternoon. Our child who acted like he didn't know he had hands has been batting at his fishes all afternoon. And shoving his hands in his mouth. And clasping them to his chest. And, while he isn't quite as vocal as his brother, he has been talking all afternoon. Sometimes in response to his brother talking which is pretty funny.
Both of the boys go for an eye exam tomorrow morning. Allan for a post-op follow-up and Griffith for his 6 month check up. Then, on Wednesday, Griffith goes for the NICU graduate clinic. I wonder if he will do better than Allan did or if he, too, will have performance anxiety?

Aunt Kim and Griffith

Allan, laughing (II)

Allan laughing

Grinning and clasping

Allan-clasping his hands

Call the VNPT right away!

Allan, smiling (II)

Allan, smiling

Allan's 2 teeth

Griffith -- crawling? (II)

Griffith -- crawling?

Allan - playing with the aquarium (II)

Allan (II)

Big Al and the crawl through aquarium

Dad and Allan (II)

Allan at his first dinner party.

Dad and Allan

Check out the sock. No doubt whose kid he is.

Griffith and Montell

At his first dinner party.

Tickled (IV)

Tickled (III)

tickled (II)

Allan being tickled

guess who dressed him ?

Flora and her big boys

Dinner for 6?

The boys attended their first dinner party last night and comported themselves with a great deal of dignity. We were afraid that it was going to be touch-and-go since neither of them took a nap of any significant length yesterday (all the excitement?). Griffith kept having melt-downs before we left and it wasn't looking good for a quiet dinner. They both fell asleep in the car on the way over. Allan slept for the first hour or so, but Griffith couldn't stand to miss any thing and so he rallied. He took in all the sights at Jim and Montell's new house and he has his eye on the guest room for future trips. We got to eat in the formal dining room off of the mother-in-law's china. (The boys, of course, they were eating from their own bottles. Griff brought his new Cubs one to show off.) The only faux pas belonged to Allan who decided to take a big poop at the dinner table, but every one took it in stride. It isn't as if he could excuse himself and head for the powder room. A good time was had by all and the boys slept well last night. Today is a gloomy, wet, icy day so we will be homebound. Maybe we can get them back on their usual napping routine and get a little nap in ourselves. Or maybe I should just lay down on the floor here at the office and get a catnap in before I go home.