Halloween 2012

 Look at my "Mommy and Baby Pteranodon"- I have no idea if I've spelled it right and am candidly, too tired to care.

I picked the boys up from Taren about 4:45 today and we hoofed it over to Grandmary's.  Gil was a little less jazzed about his hood than I thought he would be, so after some "portraits" we took it off.

 And I popped Gil in a stroller so that his brother could do some trick-or-treating.

 This was Vake giving a dinosaur roar.  He had obviously been practicing all day long at preschool- he definitely had it down.

And speaking of things that he had down, he was clear on what was happening this year.  He said "Trick-or-Treat" when the doors opened and said thank you when he got candy.

Halloween preparations

Costumes? Check.


Jackolanterns? Check.


Delighted son? Check.


Happy family? Check.


We are hanging in there!


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It might be a long couple of days...

...what with Hurricane Sandy and all. We will keep you posted.




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Saturday fun

So Saturday started with a bang for me! I ran the last of the training races for the 1/2 marathon. 12 miles! Long way. It is so funny, every time I do one o these races, I find myself saying "never again" anytime the training get above 10 miles, but here I am doing it again!

When I got home, Gil helped me with a mountain of laundry while Vake went to a birthday party.





Then, we had a costume viewing. Too cute.


We are hunkering down for the storm now, I am having a hard time believing we need flashlights, water and batteries as we have not gotten a single drop of rain yet.


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Whew! What a day

Vake had a tough night last night, for reasons that will become clear in a minute. About 3:30, he came up to my room for what felt Ike the millionth time.

Generally speaking, I always try to put him back in his own bed. He is a sleeping thrasher and I always find that I have to take him back to his own bed anyway, but I was just too tired. So he slept with me.

Here was the scene in our room this morning.


Now of course, his little brother is still on an impressive sleep schedule which means he is raring to go by 6:30. This was what was going on at the foot of the bed is while vake snoozed. And as it turned out, vake was tired because he had a case of strep throat.


I am pretty sure this is the first one of 2012. But so annoying. He had been acting a little "off" but I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong until he had a rash coming out of his nose.

And thank god for Jennifer Mullen. I was stuck in court so she took him to the doctor, who told me it was strep.

Then, as the final piece de resistance, look at what I saw when I went to drop Cornelia off! That's right. A daddy copperhead. Yikes!


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Bottle baby

All of a sudden, I've got a baby who can hold his own bottle.




Wow! We are making progress.

School seems to be going well for Vake. This year feels a little more serious. The teachers are working with him with flash cards for reading readiness. Eek. I do note that Eric already knew how to read by the time he was Vake's age.

We've also put away the little potties while Eric has been away. For those of you who have potty trained a child you know what a happy day that is!

I am almost ready to run the 1/2 marathon. Had a "short" training run last night of 7 miles. I am feeling like I am almost there.

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On the road again...

Eric is traveling for the next two weeks. He's in Indiana this week until Thursday and then leaves next Wednesday for Atlanta. We miss him when he's not around. I keep thinking that we could get organized and get Skype around here, but so far haven't managed to do that.

Gil is on the road all the time too. He is crawling with real efficiency now. It is absolutely crazy what a little person he is now. And I think we are getting closer to dropping the morning nap now. He is waking up totally ready rumble at 6 am.

I'm on the move too. I am about to get moved to my new corner office st work! Yay! I am officially a big deal there. And I am getting ready to put another 1/2 marathon in my rear view mirror. Did 7 miles after dinner last night and it wasn't terrible.


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9 months stats

Now tipping the scales at 22 pounds and 6 ounces (almost 6 pounds lighter than his big brother at this age) but also taller than vake- 32.5 inches.

Gil Martin. Happiest baby on the block


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Cutest diaper baby

Party. Moms bathroom. 7 am.


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In the blink of an eye

In the blink of an eye, we go from this...




...to this.




Today gillie wore his brother's shoes for the first time.
We're almost done with babies here and it kills me.
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Frog and fireman

It is a rainy day on the Boulevard.


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Guest Post by Daddy

The image is of a Copperhead snake.

Copperheads are quite easy to identify from the hourglass shaped dark bands on a lighter brown/tan body.

Copperheads are one of three venomous snakes native to this area, the others  being the cottonmouth and the Eastern Diamonback.  Copperheads have the strongest venom by volume, but it's the rattlers that tend to deliver more toxin due to their size.

Copperheads, more than other venemous snakes, will often deliver a "dry" bite - a bite in which they don't deliver venom. They can also control the dose they give, and often give smaller doses.  The exception to that is juveniles, which have not yet developed the dry bite or low-dose bite skills. Copperhead bites are, nonetheless, is are almost never fatal unless they get a child or a vulnerable adult - only 2 verified cases in 20 years.

Ask Vake what the rule is about snakes and he has no hesitation "Stay Away!"

Daddy, apparently, is not as good at heeding the rules (which may not come as a surprise to Left Bank Granny).

Saturday, while working at a charity pig roast, daddy was alerted to a small snake near the beer.  I went over to shoo it away and, ignoring the easily identifiable hourglass bands, decided it was probably a juvenile black snake.  I decided to grab it directly behind the head and toss it over the wall. 

Unfortunately, I grabbed it a bit too far behind the head & it quickly turned and sank its fans into my finger.  I threw it away (fortunately not in the direction of anyone else).

The wound hurt, but didn't seem to be a problem.  I iced it down while watching the sunset and then leaned up after the party. 

I kept it in ice on the drive home, by the time we arrived the swelling had noticibly increased & the pain was quickly becoming unbearable.  So, off to the ER, where the experienced snake bit doctor dosed me up with lots of pain killers and steroids to reduce the swelling.  The swelling and discoloration increased and looked pretty nasty, but after a while the swelling and discoloration subsided. The pain did not, but fortunately the doctor had no problem managing it "aggressively" so I was feeling mostly okay.  Momma was cross with daddy for being so reckless. Daddy was mostly chagrined (although I note it will be a good office story come Monday)

After the mandatory 6 hours of observation (which took 8 hours), I was sent home with lots of pain killers and a week-long series of tapering steroids.

And while there was never any great risk from the bite - i will attest that there is nothing as painful.

Moral of the story is, as Vake knows, "Don't Touch!" 

You have got to be kidding.

Vake is at a funny place in life right now. He's trying to negotiate the outer limits of his behavior, especially with me. We spend a lot of time talking about the fact that he must "listen and obey" Mommy (and daddy, too).

Today was a particularly wretched day. I've got this awful cough. I don't feel sick, but I spent about two hours coughing last night. Vake was awake and wanted to have extended conversations about the big bad wolf at two, four and five, accompanied by trips back to his own bed.

So we were all tired at 7 this morning. I had to be in court and vake kicked off the morning by refusing to put on clothes, eat breakfast, put on his shoes or his backpack or go and sit in the car. Ick.

After I got him up from his nap today, he was still a grouch- I wondered of he was getting sick. So I got him ready for bed.

And the child loves to be nudie-patootie. I got a message that someone had left a package on the front porch and I went to get it. Vake, nudie, came with me.

10 minutes later, there is a knock on the door and it is a uniformed police officer. "Ma'am, we've had a report that there is a naked child on the Boulevard."

Are you kidding me? Really? He's three.

I didn't recognize the officer. He quickly agreed with me that there's no statute that I was violating.

I invite the "good Samaritan" who called the police to come walk a mile in my parenting moccasins today.


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Happy Birthday to me!

All the babies are in bed. We've had a delicious supper. I had a fun day full of treats and good times. Yippee!


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