3.7 or, Sad Tummy Blues

Dear Corbin,

We were having a lovely month, and then there was the vomiting.

We went to Madison for Labor Day weekend, and the Thornes and Spencers met us there for a visit.  We spent an afternoon playing on the playground at my old elementary school, and that evening having dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Lam's house.  The next day, we all went swimming at the hotel.  And by all, I mean people other than you and me.  I had forgotten my swimming suit (after reminding Dad to bring his) and you decided you didn't really want to go into the pool.  You really liked standing on the edge and shooting squirt guns at people.  It was fun watching you play with your cousin Charlotte, at the playground and at the house.  You managed to share your toys with only a few moments of disagreement.  I'm always happy when we can get you some cousin time, even when it's only for a short visit.

Your regular preschool classes started.  It doesn't seem to be totally smooth yet.  There are some kids who haven't quite settled into the groove yet, and you've had some frustrating moments with them.  I spoke with your teacher about it, and she had been encouraging you to play with some of the other students who are better behaved.  It's another month until parent conferences, so hopefully by then the class will have calmed down and become more enjoyable.

We had gotten back into a pretty good routine, but this week you got sick.  It's our first experience with you having a stomach bug, and all of us are a little traumatized.  It started Tuesday morning at 3am, which meant I didn't really get any sleep the rest of the night.  Dad cleaned up you and your crib while I nursed Miriam back to sleep.  Then I laid in your room on the twin bed.  You woke up every so often to be sick again, which was awful.  I came home early from work that afternoon, and we managed to get a good nap in during the late afternoon.  Then you felt better, and I let you eat way too much for dinner.  It didn't all stay down, but then you weren't sick the rest of the night, so we all actually got some sleep that night.

It's hard watching you be sick.  There isn't a lot that we can do for you, in terms of medication, and you're not able to really think logically about how to make yourself feel better.  So we end up just trying to steer you into activities like reading new library books and sitting on the couch watching things on TV.  I had brought home some books about planets and asteroids, and then we watched National Geographic's Asteroid: Deadly Impact, which has some pretty amusing footage from the 1990's.  I hope that eventually you are a person who is good at taking care of yourself, and not just when you're sick.  I hope you value your body and your health, and that you're able to enjoy both.  At least, until you start taking kung fu lessons with your Dad.  Don't worry; we've got lots of ice packs.

Love,
Mom


In the pool with Dad:

 Cousins who can't sit still:

 Fancy hair:

Cleaning fish stuff with Dad:

Month 5 or, You're Longer Than This Post

Dear Miriam,

You are five months old already.  It's hard to believe until I try to pick you up and realize how much bigger you are now.  You're good at rolling over, and you're working hard to get your legs in the right places to start crawling.  I'm guessing it won't be very long until you're really moving yourself around.  It's been a while since we played the game Chase the Baby, and this time we'll have a toddler playing, too.  Ready, set, where'd she go?

This month, we gave you rice cereal for the first time.  You had been looking interested in our food for a while, but your staring had gotten downright accusatory.  You even started making angry noises at us, so we figured we'd better see if you were interested in the solids.  You're very enthusiastic about it, but still terribly messy, of course.  You don't really know what to do with your tongue yet and it doesn't really help that you try to suck on your toes at the same time.

You're gaining a bedroom this month!  Dad decided a while ago that we should move the office down to the basement so that you can have your own room.  This is good on many levels.  It means that Dad got rid of a bunch of stuff in the basement.  It means we'll get rid of a bunch of stuff in the office.  It means the office got a good cleaning.  And hopefully it'll mean that you'll start having a better bedtime routine and sleeping better.  At least, it will mean that I can ignore you more.  Which is my goal, really, to ignore my kids as much as possible.  So far, it's not going so well.

You still have blue eyes.

Love,
Mom