Waving

Tyler started waving this week. I think he is pretty proud that he can do it because he does it ALL THE TIME. I don't know how his arm isn't getting super tired from all of that waving. It's not a open and close of the hand, it's giant movements of his whole arm up and down. Super cute! He knows how to get us to smile at him, that's for sure! Still no crawling but both boys are pulling up to a kneeling position, usually at the coffee table. They like chewing on the wood, yuck! I guess it's better than cat food but I try to stop it as much as possible anyway.

Lost x 2

On Easter this week while at John's parent's house Hunter disappeared for a solid 10 minutes. Every adult present (about six of us) was looking inside and outside of the house for him. After checking all of the obvious and not-so-obvious places John finally got in the van to drive around the neighborhood to see if he had maybe walked down to the park and as soon as he started backing out of the driveway Hunter popped up from the cargo area of the van. We had even gone in the van calling his name several times but just hadn't looked in the way back behind all of the seats. I guess he thought it was pretty fun to hide from us...not so! We were about ready to call the police. It was so scary and we had a serious talk with him about how when we are clearly looking for him he needs to answer us because what he did was not acceptable. Anyway, that's actually twice that we "lost" our son in the last week, the first time being about a week ago.

John had gone out to the garage to see if he could start up his motorcycle after it sitting idle all winter. The wind had blown the pedestrian door shut (on the garage) as Hunter was approaching coming from the house. The main door (where you drive in and out) was still open and he went out into the alley to get into the garage that way but John (unaware that Hunter was out there) had finished up and shut that door and walked back through the pedestrian door, closing it behind him. Hunter ran into the garage as the main door was closing but John had already shut the pedestrian door so Hunter was locked inside the garage but nobody knew this. Our pedestrian door is really tricky to open from the inside. You can't just turn the knob, you actually have to turn the lock (which sticks and is fairly high) and pull at the same time. About 10 minutes after John had left the garage (still oblivious to the fact that Hunter had gone missing) Hunter came running up to him in the front yard with a frantic story that went something like this, "Dad! I was locked in the garage and I tried yelling but nobody heard me and I tried banging too but that didn't work so I stacked some wood up and climbed on it to push the button but I couldn't reach so then finally I remembered that Mom twisted the lock to get out so I tried it and then I said, "Well....whattaya know...I'm free!" It was so funny how he had ended his little rant. I guess we should keep better tabs on our little guy!

Private parts

Hunter has a pair of pants that is hard to zipper and snap and so recently he asked John to help him. But he warned that then Dad was "going to see (his) private parts." I asked for clarification and he said, "you know...my belly button!"

Crawling?

Tyler and Brody are moving backward and not at all forward when on hands and knees so that's not exactly crawling but it's one step closer (or further away technically speaking). They don't seem to mind that they're not getting to the places they are attempting to reach...or maybe intend to go backwards. Who can say? That's the beauty of being so young. They just go with the flow. I need to take a page out of their book!

New food?

I really like the "Super Baby Food" book because at the beginning of each chapter it lists all the new foods your baby can be introduced to at each new month. For example, at six months your baby can try avocado, bananas, and rice cereal. Now that Tyler and Brody are nine months old, I wonder if now is a good time for them to try cat food...because they did so yesterday. I was upstairs straightening up and when I came down to the kitchen I heard Hunter say, "Mom! Look at what Tyler did!" I walked into the living room and almost had a heart attack. There was mushed up cat food all over his mouth and the front of his jammies and the cat food was spilled all around him. I think Brody got a few kernels as well. DISGUSTING! Somehow I don't think that's organic. I grabbed my phone and took a quick pic to send to John at work. It said, "Daddy! I discovered cat food is really yummy today! Mmmmm! Love, Tyler"

Conferences

Today we met with Miss Martha, Hunter's preschool teacher, for parent-teacher conferences. She told us that she noticed he was very interested in sea creatures, particularly the sea anenome. We already knew this because we have a book at home that is all about the California reef system and he has memorized each picture in the book. Miss Martha told us that she had mentioned to Hunter that she noticed this interest and that maybe someday he would be a scientist or a marine biologist. Hunter said, "Miss Martha, I can't be a scientist because I can't read all those big words!"

Emergency room

The boys (all three of them) have been sick for the last few weeks so I haven't had the energy to post. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it. It started with Hunter. He had symptoms of the flu for several days and had a bad cough that persisted for over a week. It developed into his very first ear infection. He wasn't even complaining about any pain. The only reason we had him checked out at all was because Brody had started wheezing and John had to take all three in for him to see their Pediatrician since I was at work. On the way there Hunter told John in the car, "Dad it feels like I'm on a roller coaster!" After some further prodding he said, "you know, like sometimes at night in bed I feel like I'm moving but I'm not really moving!" John knew there was an inner-ear issue going on from that comment so he had the nurse check out his ears. She was shocked to find out that he was not complaining of any pain because I guess they were pretty bad. Hunter started crying when John told him he had a (double) ear infection and that he'd have to take medicine to get rid of it. He liked that feeling (dizzy) and didn't want it to go away. That lasted all of a few minutes though. When he tried the medicine he forgot all about why he was sad. They make children's medicine taste pretty good these days. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm not so sure I want my children being conditioned to think that medicine is great because at a young age it tasted like candy.

When they examined Brody they learned that his pulse-ox reading (reads the amount of oxygen in his blood) was low. They gave him a breathing treatment (Albuterol) and told John to get him to Children's Hospital right away. Their concern was because everyone's natural oxygen level drops lower during periods of rest/sleep and since his was so low while awake they said this lack of oxygen during the day and night can cause brain damage over time. I had to come home from work so that John could stay home with Tyler and Hunter since the hospital wouldn't allow other children in. By the time we arrived at Children's Brody's pulse-ox reading was within normal range. After some further examination they allowed us to leave and not spend the night. Thank God! We gave him some more breathing treatments at home for several days and thankfully all three boys are now on the mend. John unfortunately is fighting off something similar but I have managed to remain healthy for now. That's the update in our household.