Christmas Part 1

First a correction - the boys did not actually get the same tooth in at the same time.  It was all lies (and a faulty memory).  Alex got his bottom left canine, but Zach popped his bottom right.  They have since both gotten in their other bottom one in, so no one's the wiser.  Let's just keep this slip-up between us.

Diaper issues were resolved in time for me to take the boys to the pool before we left for the holiday's.  You could tell they were really confused when instead of asking for just their shoes, I took all of their clothes, too.  Then they had to wear a blue swim diaper.  Once they saw the water and got comfortable playing in it, they had a good time.  We brought some bath toys and a beach ball, plus the pool has a ring sprinkler.

The thing I like most about the pool is that it's zero depth entry.  There's no steps, but a ramp so the boys and I had the option of how deep we wanted to go.  Most of the time we played in only a couple of inches of water, with forays out to knee-deep (for them) to play in the ring sprinkler.  No one in the room could resist their cuteness and everyone stopped by to say hello to them.  They don't get much attention when we go out in Olean, so I think they enjoyed it.

We left Olean around 8pm Friday night, stayed overnight at my parents, and drove the rest the next day.  We've done a few trips with the boys, but nothing like 12hrs during the day.  Jim and I decided on the fly that a DVD player would probably make things go smoother.  We stopped at Wal-Mart about 45min from my parents and picked up a dual-monitor model.  You can't just pull out the big guns at the beginning of the trip, so we packed it away for a later moment of desperation.

I once read a story about a family that followed their GPS onto a snow covered, mountainous dirt road in the hopes of reducing their trip by 20min.  They got stuck in a snow bank for 24hrs until they were rescued.  At the time I thought "How stupid!" but now I understand.  Instead of going the way I've been traveling from Ohio to South Carolina for about 10yrs, I decided to follow the GPS.  Never.  Again.  We ended up on a winding 2 lane road driving west to go south east.  We did this for 3hrs.

The only other thing to note from the trip down was our multiple stops to find a power adapter that was long enough to reach the DVD player.  When I asked if they had a Best Buy nearby the reply was "We don't have no fancy stuff like that 'round here."  Luckily a second Wal-Mart and a dude with AA batteries stuck through both earlobes had my back.

I had worried that being back in SC, in our old house, would somehow psychologically scar the boys.  They just went with it and acted like it was every other place we've moved in the past month.  And really, I have to agree with them.  It doesn't feel like home here anymore.  A full PODS worth of stuff is missing, we're delegated to using the guest bath because the master shower is impossible to keep clean, and all of our baby gates are gone.  It's like living in someone else's house, except I know where everything is (or isn't, as the case may be).

We put up our Christmas tree here, and got some new shatter-resistant ornaments.  Two ball-obsessed boys are not compatible with the glass ones we used to use.  I overheard Jim telling the boys "This is the season where we travel from house to house putting up trees!"  For all they know, he's telling the truth!  Sunday we let the boys open their kitty cars, mostly to stop the "Busses!  Busses!" whining since we left all things yellow and wheeled in NY.

We've had a full calendar of events, which has been a welcome change.  On Monday we met up with J and Ana for a playdate at the Pavilion's Bounce House.  The boys had a ton of fun and it was really good to see our friends again.  They got the boys a play tent with a tunnel, so we set that up as soon as we got home.  They also got touch and feel first words cards and love them.  J made me an awesome photo book of the boys and Ana playing together over the last year.

Tuesday was the boys' 18mo check-up.  I don't have the stats in front of me (they're packed in the van) so I'll have to report the details later.  One surprise was Alex weighing about a half-pound more the Zach.  I guess all of that mouth stuffing is working to his advantage.  Both boys are maintaining their weight percentiles close to normal but have gone up on height.  They both grew about 2in in the last three months.We had the doctor check their iron levels, just to be sure they're still doing fine on diet alone.  The hemo numbers came back in the 10-11 range, so they're right where they need to be.

Teeth, Talking, and Feet

The boys have FINALLY popped a tooth through, after about 4 months of me saying "They're teething."  It also happens to be the first tooth they've gotten in at the same time, their bottom left canine.  The downside is I think we're just beginning.  The first 8 teeth they have came in within two months.  I see that sort of thing happening again, but with some molar action.  Their gums are really red and swollen.  Zach has woken up two nights in a row needing Motrin to help with the pain.  I'll be glad when we're done getting teeth in.

It's amazing how much the boys understand, even if their current vocabulary is limited.  They can follow directions well, especially if it involves bringing me their shoe or taking something to Jim.  I find myself just requesting things from them like I would any adult, and being surprised when I get what I want in return.  They use "yes" and "no" properly most of the time, with only the occasional "no" before they realize they really meant yes.  It's like they expect to say no, and then change their minds once they see what's being offered.

We discovered that even though they call every vehicle "bus" they know the difference between cars, trucks, and actual buses.  They also know what a word represents, even if it doesn't look like the same thing.  They have a book with a cartoon tree.  They know "tree" also means the Christmas tree and will point back and forth between them.

They currently can say no, yes, ball (anything round), bus, bye bye, bye bye to you, thank you, shoe, sausage, uh oh, wow, and nose.  They can identify and make the sounds for a horse (neigh), sheep (baa), pig (snorting sound), dog (bow wow), and chicken (bawk bawk).  They also love to mimic, especially crows, emergency sirens, dogs wining, cats meowing, and even Jim snoring.  We'll be in the van going to the grocery store and the boys will take turns laughing at each other's sounds.

I inadvertently taught them that "wow" means you're impressed or it's something you like.  Anytime they see a car or truck they yell "WOW!"  It can be quite a sight walking them through a parking lot to a store.  Every car, no matter how old or beat-up gets their verbal seal of approval.  They want to touch them, too, but I try to keep them reigned in.  We'd never make it to Wal-Mart if we had to pet each dirty, salt-covered car between us and the doors.

We had our first stomach bug last weekend and Zach got the worst of it.  He threw up and both of the boys had bad diaper rashes.  Alex still isn't out of the woods and we've been trying hard to get his hind end fixed up.  I had whatever it was for about 24hrs and pretty much slept all day.

This round of diaper rash certainly isn't my first, but every time we have this problem, I try to figure out what I'm doing wrong, or what I can do to solve it faster.  This time I think the stomach bug started things off but some apple juice and tomato sauce made recovery that much harder for Alex.  We went to Jim's company's Christmas party Wednesday night.  The boys had a great time but the food was pizza with juice to drink.  I wasn't thinking about the acidity, just that they didn't go hungry.  Alex sucked down a lot more juice and pizza than Zach.

I've also been reducing their dairy, since that can prolong digestive issues.  I don't think they have a dairy allergy or sensitivity, since the diaper issues would never stop.  I switched them to soy milk for now, and have cut out most cheese and yogurt.  I got them probiotic powder (that was fun to find here...) and am trying to be sure they get their vitamins.  Zach is pretty much back to normal but Alex still has an open sore.  It doesn't seem to hurt him and he doesn't cry during diaper changes, though.

It has been snowing most days here, with the temperatures in the mid-20's.  I think we had about 10in-12in total accumulated until it got warm today and melted.  I got the boys and myself snow boots since tennis shoes were leaving us with wet feet.  The boys were scared of the boots initially, and both threw themselves on the ground crying when I put them on their feet.  Eventually Alex accepted them but 6hrs later, Zach was still protesting and yelling "Shoe!"  Sigh.

Every year the bed and breakfast owners put on a Mr. and Mrs. Claus night.  There's both characters, plus horse drawn sleigh rides, hot chocolate, and cookies.  We took the boys over and they had a good time, although neither Santa or his wife were well received.  You could see the steam rising off the horses, and the sleigh ride was surprisingly smooth and quiet.  It's a weird sensation to be gliding across a field in the middle of the night.  Every word out of the boys' mouths was "neigh" and we took them to see the horses after our ride.

Our former pasta haters have become noodle lovers.  They ate so much spaghetti last night and I've been making them all different kinds of pasta.  Zach even seems to like mac 'n cheese now, which is a big surprise.  Their favorite food is bread, though, and they ask for it anytime they're hungry.  They're also not shy about going to the fridge and asking for milk.  It's really nice not trying to figure out what they want.  They get their point across nicely most of the time.

Alex is still scared of the Christmas tree and won't retrieve any toy that ends up under it.  Zach, on the other hand, wants to see how many things he can stick in the tree.  Today he attempted to put one of his push toys in it.  I've come in to find a dirty sock on a branch.  They want the tree and the garland on the stairs to be lit whenever they're downstairs.  They'll ask for one of us to turn it on if they're not.

The big thing we're working through right now is keeping their feet off the kitchen table, and teaching them not to lean their chairs back by kicking off with their feet.  I wasn't having much success using only positive reinforcement (saying "Thank You!" whenever they removed their feet).  They started putting their feet up because they wanted the praise when they stopped.  I had to add in food removal to get the point across.  I either won't give them a bite, or I remove the food they have in their hands until they comply.  Of course Alex has figured out I won't take the food out of his mouth, so he stuffs everything in there and puts his feet up to relax while chewing.  For whatever reason, they never put their feet on the table outside the house, so it could be a lot worse.

All in all, the boys are doing pretty well up here.  We haven't really developed a rotation of things to do yet, or have any friends, but the grocery store and Wal-Mart keep us busy.  Once the diaper situation is fixed, we're going to head to the pool at the YMCA.  They also have a big room full of things for them to climb on.  Ideally long term, I'll be able to leave them with the daycare people for a little bit in the morning and go workout.  None of us quite their yet, though.