One step closer to walking...

Look at our big boy - pulling up on his own now!

Yesterday, I picked Ben up from daycare and he was kneeling beside one of these activity tables. He had never really done that at home at all. I imagine it's because he didn't really have anything at home to pull himself up on, besides mommy and daddy, so I checked Craig's List and found a table for $5 and picked it up today on my way home from work. He can't get enough!

Down with the Sickness(es)

We've had a rough spell here lately. RSV in late January, nasty high fever/cold virus in the early part of February, and now this past week has been loaded with another cold that turned into pink eye. This latest one started as a super runny nose, punctuated with goopy eyes, toss in some low grade fever, 2 days home from daycare with daddy and one night of horrible dry coughing in his sleep. We hemmed and hawwed for several days over whether to bring him in to the doctor. We eventually decided to take him in because of the of the goopy eyes and because another kid at daycare came down with the same symptoms. The doctor said it looked like a mild case of pink eye, and he has to take the dreaded drops for 5 days. At the same time, Andy came down some severe ear pain on Thursday night that kept him (and me) up for several hours on Thursday night. So, when we took Ben into Immediate Care today, we had the doctor check out Andy's ear. Diagnosis: raging ear infection. Poor Andy. Hopefully, this is the end of it for a while. And hopefully, the weather will warm up so we can open up our windows soon and air out all of these germs!

In the meantime, my Physics Club had an intense week of preparation for their competition on Friday. We took 1st place in the edible car competition (again), and 3rd place in the barge building (using 3 pieces of paper and 12 paper clips - build a vessel that will hold as much weight as possible). I think we got 3rd in something else, too, but I can't remember for the life of me! I'm thankful to not be working the long day once (or even twice) a week anymore - it made it tough on Andy - having to stay home with Ben on Thursday and Friday this week, plus a few more days in the past few weeks. I think my Physics Club kids had a great time, as did I, so it seems worth it in the long run. I'm hoping for a break coming up soon. I have student teacher that will be taking over full time soon and Spring Break is just around the corner. I'm looking forward to Grandma Jan and Grandpa Ron's trip out to see Ben for about 10 days over my Spring Break!

Here are some pics from last weekend's get-together with Ami/Riad and their sons, Alex and Dylan and Doug/Maureen and their twins - Conor and Madeleine. I think there were some more good pics, but not on my camera...

The Roe twins and Ben

OK - I've now edited this post to include a few more shots from Ami and Riad. Thanks, guys!

Dylan mauling Ben. :)

Dylan, Ben, Conor and Madeleine (clockwise starting with the orange top)

And a short clip of bath time with some cute little water squirting toys.

A few more videos...

Here's one of Ben playing his "drum" (aka empty almond container)

And one where you can see how fast our little Ben is moving around now.

Enjoy!

Oh - and the late night wake ups that we've had off and on the past few nights, I think are due to Ben's top 2 teeth cutting in. At least that's what I'm hoping, because we had a really nice thing going with our little one sleeping from 8 or 9 PM to 6 or 7:30AM, with very little waking for quite some time now (there still are occasional wake ups for lost pacifier, etc.).

Over it.

I hope. I think Ben is finally kicking the bug that he had from last week. I'm still not convinced that it was an ear infection to begin with, but he took his antibiotics from Tuesday to Saturday, and then a rash showed up on his torso. It may be an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin, so we have stopped for now. We had a rough night last night with Ben up from 1:00-3:30AM, fussing and not able to sleep. It's been a while since we have had this happen (seems like months). We gave him some Tylenol and fed him and he finally went back down. He seems to be back to the good old Ben today (although still not eating cereal for some reason...).

Here's Andy trying out the backpack... And some backyard pics from today.

Here's a video of Ben turning the pages in his "big" book (oh, and at the end he slides from belly to sitting).


A video of Ben flexing his throwing arm (sorry grandpa Ron, it's the right arm, not the left).

And another throwing video... (he kinda uses the left - there's still a chance.)

Time for the first ear infection

Ben has pretty much been his happy self, until last night when Andy descibed him as a bit "off". I thought he felt a bit warm, but his armpit temp was only 98. He seemed fine in the AM, but when I picked him up from daycare, he felt warm, but only registered at 99 in the armpit. Daycare said that he slept all morning, but ate OK. I ended up bringing him in to the doctor's office, because of his recent RSV and the propensity for associated ear infections. His temp there was 101.1 in the armpit, and the doc said that he had some fluid in his right ear. So antibiotics here we come... There's a first time for everything, right? :)

Day Trip to the Beach

Here are some pictures from the Saturday day trip to Pacific City. We also stopped at Lincoln City to go to the outlet mall for scout for baby clothes. We've learned that when travelling with a little one, it's all about the timing. Ben took his AM nap on the trip out at about 12:00. We hit the mall, then the beach, then had dinner at our favorite brewpub: Pelican Brewery. Great food, scrumptious beers, neat-o location right on the beach. I fed Ben his dinner while waiting for our food to arrive. Perfect timing. He slept the whole way home. Great trip all around!

Funny thing. Last year for Father's Day I ordered Andy a bunch of Richard Scarry books from Amazon. One of which was titled, Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever. I wrongly assumed that it would be a big book meaning: a lot of pages. Turns out it was HUGE book meaning: life size for a 2 year old. We just pulled it out recently and Ben loves it!

Tackling the Milestones...

I think it's official at this point. We have a forward crawling baby. Ben had been moving pretty well recently - mostly twisting to his sides and scooting backwards, but now, I think we can say that he is able to move forward toward something that he wants. Usually something like an electric cord or the heating duct vent on the floor. It still isn't pretty - lots of jerky motions, but hey, he's going in the direction that he wants. He sure seems a lot happier now that his body is doing what he has been trying to tell it to do for the past few weeks.

He also pushed up from his belly back up to a sitting up position. (haven't got this on film yet)

This is a video of forward progress. Sorry for the bad camera work.

Working on his toy management multi-tasking... One in the mouth, one in each hand.

I feel like I'm having one of those rare "super-mom" days. You know, one of those days where most everything goes right and you get a ton of stuff done (even if its little stuff). Here's my day in review: Get up at 6:00 - nurse Ben, get him and me ready for work/ daycare. Drop him off at 7:00, get to work at 7:35 (only 5 minutes late - not bad for a Monday). Teach until 12:00, leave a bit early at 12:30 so I can stop at the hardware store for some PVC parts for the trebuchet that my Physics Club kids are building. Drive the 20 minutes home from work. Pick Ben up from daycare at 1:30, get home, nurse Ben, change Ben, eat my lunch, play with Ben on the floor, watching him CRAWLING (capture this on video)! Feed Ben a snack of pureed apricots and squash (or something orange - I can't remember). Talk to PGE power company for 10 minutes about our outrageous bill this month. Reschedule Ben's 9 month doctor's appointment because of a conflict with a Physics Club meeting. Get some things ready to mail, take a stroller ride with Ben to the Post Office to mail items (it's about 4 blocks away). Continue stoller ride thru the nearby park and neighborhood. Get home, take Ben on a tour of the outside of the house (because it's a gorgeous 52 degrees outside and I want to see how our landscaping is doing). Bring Ben in, let him play on the floor a while longer. Ben goes down for a nap at 4:45, while I pay bills online and learn how to download youtube videos so I can play them at school (we are blocked from youtube at work). Download the video and still cameras. Make the first part of this post. Ben wakes up at 5:45, and I feed him cereal, squash and green beans. Then I start our dinner with Ben in the high chair finishing up his puffs. Make pesto pasta seafood dinner that is nearly ready as Andy walks in the door at 6:30. Phew. It's 7:45 and I still have to get Ben a bath, me a shower and maybe relax and catch some TV tonight after Ben goes down for the night - I hope at about 8:30.

I can't even imagine what my day would be like with 2 kids, let alone 3 (H, D and K, you are rock star moms!)