Sick Baby

We have been plagued with sickness at our house yet again! Andrew started with a hacking cough and cold a week and a half ago, then Jonathan started it on Saturday and I started with it on Monday. Poor Jonathan has been to the doctor's office twice this week. He's been running a low-grade fever for the past five days and every day it seems to climb. On Monday, he was diagnosed with a severe viral infection. Today he was diagnosed with a double-ear infection. The doctor called it a secondary infection. He's had two doses of antibiotics, and I think he's starting to act more himself! Finally. Lethargic babies freak me out! He's still running a low-grade fever, but my mom said I need to give the medicine 24 hours to work. GRRR. I just want it to work. Right. Now! Hopefully we can all sleep through the night. For the first time in I don't know how long...

So, what do you do when every one is feeling kind of yucky? Go for a walk to the playground, of course. Shortly after we got there, the wind shifted and it got kind of chilly. Rotten parents. Probably the cause of his ear infection.

Andrew was feeling great and had a great time running around!

Smiley sick baby

Jonathan has mostly mastered walking. However, his sickness has slowed him down. Otherwise I think he would be running full speed after his brother. I guess there is one small silver lining to this respiratory junk.

Oh, and the stairs. We blinked and he was at the top of the stairs. No practice needed. So, now we have the baby gate up and that ticks him off! He wants to be chased up the stairs, but until he masters down in a safe manner, the stairs are off limits!

And playing in the dishwasher always makes Jonathan feel better.

Jonathan has also added a few words to his vocabulary this past week, pre-sickness: this, ball, car, woo-woo (woof-woof, which he says for every animal he sees. We're working on that!) He has some word for kitty that I can't quite figure out how to type, but it's obvious he's trying to say kitty. And of course, mama and dada, mostly when he needs something immediately.

Baked Ziti

1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

We had this the other night and it is super yummy. I only made half a recipe and it filled a 9x9 pan to the top, and we had lots of leftovers. Very yummy and easy!

Little Kitchen Helper

Jonathan is very busy exploring his world, especially the kitchen. I pretend he's helping me...exercise. I can't count how many times a day I pick up everything he empties out of the drawers and cupboards. Here's a little glimpse into the busy world of Jonathan.

Knocking on the window, his sneaky way of putting finger prints all over it. Keith had just cleaned the windows and Jonathan was "inspecting" his work.

A favorite drawer to empty in a matter of seconds.

Moving on to a couple other cupboards...

"Does this lid fit?"

The DISHWASHER!

He used to just use it to help him stand, but now he has discovered he can climb it.

Look! I'm standing and I don't know it because both my hands are busy!

This face may be cute, but it spells TROUBLE!

I turned my back for a second and found him standing on the dishwasher and unloading the dirty dishes for me.

I guess it's in his genes to climb the dishwasher and find it so fascinating. This is me, around 1 years old at Grandpa's old farm house.

What a little helper!

Tube Surgery Update

Here's Andrew shortly before they took him off to surgery.

Andrew's tube surgery went very well on Friday. The worst part was waiting for the doctor to get there. We arrived at 7 am for what we thought was a 7:45ish surgery. We sat in the playroom area until 8:35 waiting for Andrew's name to be called. He didn't seem to mind, but we were a little groggy. They confiscated our coffee since none of the children in the waiting area could have food or drink. It made complete sense, but I was craving my caffeine! The last surgery we were able to keep our coffee because we were the only ones in the room, and I guess they decided it was our choice to torture our own child. He doesn't like coffee, so he wasn't tortured. Plus they have toys in there and a very LOUD TV, so he was quite distracted.

He remembered the last surgery and so that made everything a little tricky. We didn't even try to put the gown on him until they were ready for him and he actually kept it on this time. But I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture and by the time they took us to him in recovery he had stripped it off. And he was carried off kicking screaming once again by the anesthesiologist, but the nurses assured us that they have seen worse. Maybe they were just being nice to us.

The surgery only lasted a few minutes, and he didn't have any problems with the surgery or recovery. But now Andrew has a bad chest cold and has been running a low-grade fever. The doctor doesn't think it is related to the surgery, and I'm sure he just picked up a virus. Jonathan has his 12-month well-baby check tomorrow, and I think I'll ask the pediatrician to take a quick listen to Andrew's lungs while we are there to make sure it is just a virus. Good times!

Hopefully this is our last tube surgery, and I keep telling myself that Spring will be here soon and take away all of the sick junk floating around!

Sleepy Boy

Andrew hasn't taken many naps this past week and Thursday night at dinner, he almost fell asleep in his cake. It was so funny! These pictures don't really portray the sheer exhaustion he was feeling. He didn't quite fall asleep, but it was close for awhile. He went to bed early that night and has taken a nap the past two days. Hip Hip Hooray!

Washing Dishes

"Washing dishes is fun!"
This is a quote I think I should print and frame for future reference!

At some point in the dish washing adventure, his sleeves got a little wet and so the shirt had to come off.

Andrew was a little stir crazy one day this past week and was determined to play in the sink. So, I decided it wasn't a bad idea and filled the sink with soapy water, a few dishes, funnels, measuring cups and let him play. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before! It kept him happy and quiet for a solid 30 minutes or more. Of course, I couldn't stray too far in case he was tempted to dump cupfuls of water on the floor, which he thankfully did not!

More Birthday Presents

Last Sunday, we had a little birthday party for Jonathan and Keith with my parents. We had yummy ribs, baked macaroni, asparagus, rolls, and strawberry ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Yum! Yum! Oh, and we had a few presents, too. Sadly, there are no pictures of Keith or of his presents. Trumped by the child again!

Jonathan and Andrew looking at Jonathan's new book.

The birthday boy.

Dramatic ripping of the wrapping paper with Grandpa and Grandma's help.

Another new book!

And the now "vintage" Rock and Roll Dinosaur (found on Craig's List!). Hours and hours of entertainment and a few fights over who gets to put the balls in and whose turn it is...

"It's my birthday and I'll frown if I want to!"

Jonathan demonstrating his perfect Ayotte scowl for Grandma.

Birthday Presents

Here are a few pictures of Jonathan opening his birthday presents from Grammy, Grandpa and the Fleurys, with a little help from Andrew.

Jonathan really loved the paper. Next time I think we'll just buy him a roll of paper and no gifts!

This is how most of the unwrapping happened - Andrew opened while Jonathan watched.

"What is it?"

"I love it! Thank you!"

A picture of the birthday boy taken by his big brother, the budding photographer!

Jonathan loved the Elmo plate set.
Thank you for all the great gifts and the new clothes!

Tubes...again

Is this a preview of what my sweet boy will look like as a surly teenager?

I took Andrew to the doctor on Friday because he has been claiming that his ear hurt. I didn't want to take any chances for a weekend emergency visit, so off to the doctor we went. Our pediatrician was out of the office, so we saw another doctor in his practice, whom we won't be seeing again. I'm not sure why he is a pediatrician because children don't seem to be his thing. He never once spoke to Andrew or tried to comfort him.

Anyway, after he looked in the good ear, he spent quite a bit of time in the bad left ear. He then informed me he needed to get a better look because he was seeing something strange. Here was our conversation that followed:

Me: "Some THING?!"
Him: "yes."
Me: Do you mean, some thing like a foreign body?"
Him: "yes."
Me: "It's not the tube?"
Him: "No. It's blue and the tube is green."

By this point I'm in shock and freaking out. And the lack of information from the doctor wasn't helping. He stopped looking in the ear, and I start asking Andrew what he put in there. He looked just as shocked and confused, which I chalked up to normal 3-year-old behavior - always look dazed and confused.

The doctor informed us that we would need to see the ENT to have "it" removed. Fortunately our ENT is down the hall from the pediatrician, so we trooped down the hall, while I continued to question Andrew about what he might have jammed in his ear. I thought maybe it was a little man from the Life game that he likes to play with.

Our ENT fortunately had an immediate opening, a little gift from God, and we walked right into his office. The nurse and audiologist hovered at the door, anxious to see the little blue man extracted from Andrew's ear. The ENT spent about 5 seconds, if that long looking in Andrew's ear and announced there was NO foreign body. Just a blood clot covering the tube. Praise the Lord! I could see the disappointment in the faces of the nurse and audiologist. Obviously they were having a boring Friday.

The audiologist checked Andrew's hearing and confirmed that the left ear was blocked and so the ENT said we need to have the tube removed and a new one put in. So, that is what we are doing Friday morning. Lucky us!

Andrew's behavior has been a little crazy lately and he says his ear doesn't hurt, but it's clear that it bothers him. We are looking forward to Saturday - new tubes and hopefully better behavior! And no little blue men!

Happy Birthday Keith!

Jonathan and Daddy

Andrew trying to figure out how to get the 2007 World Series commemorative baseball out of it's special box.

Andrew helping Keith open a present.

Daddy and Andrew playing the Little Einstein piano.

My favorite boys!

Here they had all given up and were trying to wiggle their way free. I think it looks more like they collapsed from sheer exhaustion at trying to all look at the camera at the same time!