Off and crawling

August has been a busy month. We made some trips to the neighborhood pool, where Charlie easily made friends with whatever kids happened to be there. We went to the zoo on one really hot day-- for the Chin Baby Reunion. Charlie made a safari hat, and Liam got to see a snake close up. Charlie stayed clear of the snake, as his month has been peppered with bad dreams about snakes. Beth stayed with the boys last weekend while John and I went to California for a wedding. While we were gone, they visited the aquarium, ate at Skyline for dinner, and went to the pool. We are extremely grateful for Beth's willingness to take on this task, because we don't often get even a few hours away from the kids together, much less a few days.

Both kids were a little clingy to Mommy for a couple of days after we returned. But we all survived the separation.

Liam continues to grow bigger every day. He's into size 4 diapers now, and wearing 12-18 month clothes. He still has only 2 teeth, but he's starting to enjoy some soft finger foods like Kix and Gerber puffs. He babbles a lot now, and kind of says "mah mah." He's not been sleeping all the way through the night, but usually only wakes once about 3 or 4 AM to have a bottle and then goes back to sleep for a couple of hours.


Charlie has been making progress with the potty training. We're not all the way there yet, but hope to be turning another corner soon. I sure will be glad to stop buying diapers for two kids! Charlie has been trying to learn some of his letters, and surprises me sometimes with the numbers or letters he doesn't willingly admit to knowing, but which he clearly does. He likes to talk about how he is "a really good _____" or "a really fast _____"-- fill in the blank with runner, eater, climber, walker, drawer, etc. Today he almost changed one of Liam's diapers all by himself. He really is a good helper for Mommy and Daddy.

Liam finally took his first crawling "steps" today. Even without actually crawling, it was amazing how quickly he could move around the family room, especially when wires and cords were within sight. It's time again to pull out the big heavy boxes to block the entertainment center from little hands!

Yesterday we spent the day in Oxford for Broomfest. John and I played on different teams, and neither made it past the first bracket round after the preliminary round robin. We were tired after 3 games each, and the kids were ready to go home then, so it was just as well. We were happy that cousin Morgan, a freshman there at Miami, got to stop by and visit for a while. She and Charlie had a lot of fun playing and he showed her what a fast runner he was as they circled the lobby again and again.

The band, now with five members, is finally ready for their first event over Labor Day weekend. I don't know yet whether I'll try to head down there with the boys, since I'd want to head home before the fireworks start anyway. Maybe I can get Charlie to watch them on TV with me.

I can't believe it's almost September-- time to finalize plans for Liam's first birthday. It will be here before we know it. In the meantime, the boys say "Who Dey!"

Growing up fast

We've had more milestones this past week. We told the teachers at Charlie's daycare that we wanted him to work on going to the potty, and he went 5 times on the first day! Charlie also had his second visit to the dentist last week, the first time for a cleaning. He did great. Charlie has been developing a "sense of humor." He asks me things like "is this Dad's car?" while pointing at my car. Then he says "just kidding!"

Liam is still not rolling over on his own, but just in the past couple of days he has started to reach out from a sitting position nearly into a crawl position. And he no longer cries immediately when he's stretched out on his belly. He's been really interested in reaching for Lucy's feet when she's nearby-- it might just be the motivation he needs to crawl. (until he gets scratched by her claws!) We have been putting "finger food" in front of Liam on his highchair tray for about two weeks now, but he still is not very interested in putting it in his mouth. He does like to play with it, though.

Liam had his 9 month visit to the pediatrician on Friday-- he measured 21 pounds (70th%), and was 28.5 inches long (70th%). His head was, of course, in the 80th% at 18.25 inches. He still only has two teeth, and everything else checked out fine. The doctor encouraged us to get him in to see Charlie's dermatologist about the rash on his face, and so we did that this morning. We were able to get an appointment sooner once she knew the situation. She gave us a prescription for his eczema, and suggested we use the same special sunscreen we use for Charlie on his face daily. She also followed up with the rheumatologist to see if he wanted to see them both, and he does.

Meanwhile, Liam is now going on a week of being home from daycare, due to a bug that has been going around his room. He finally cleared up the diarrhea symptoms today, and then came down with a new rash all over his back and belly, so he'll be home again tomorrow. Between his face, the eczema, and now this, he's one spotted baby!

it's all about context

Last week I was watching the kids while John had band practice. I would give Charlie an instruction, such as "finish your hot dog" or "wipe your face." Each time he would say "Yes sir!" and give me a sort of weak salute. He had never exhibited this behavior before, so in an effort to figure out where he had learned that phrase and the gesture, I asked him "Who says that?" Charlie simply said "the green men." Luckily, I remembered that he's been on a Toy Story kick recently, and it all came together.

Liam had his first parent conference at daycare last week. He got good marks for being a good eater. It was no surprise that he failed tummy time. It's becoming obvious to us that he will learn to crawl about the same time he starts to walk. He's getting really good at scooting on his bottom while never leaving a seated position. It's like he's bopping along to a tune that only he can hear. He's also showing signs of being able to hold his own bottle, but he's not quite determined enough to do it for more than a few sips. He seems perfectly content letting you hold the bottle for him.

We had a nice overnight visit to Cleveland two weekends ago. We saw a lot of Robenalts at Morgan's graduation party, and Charlie got to ride on Uncle Tom's new boat. It was a short ride, but memorable. Of course, Charlie would tell you that he was really sad that he didn't get to drive the boat, because he wanted to drive.

Last weekend we enjoyed being home at last after a series of trips away. Liam had his first haircut, and we made a trip to the pool. Charlie had fun running with me in the rain when we went out to fetch breakfast from Panera. We've had lots of thunderstorms and showers popping up, it's been so HOT this summer. But it hasn't been enough rain to keep the front yard from going brown. Last year I kept to a regimen of watering the front, and it turned out to be a pretty wet summer with the grass was growing long past August. This year I didn't even try to keep up, given all of our travel schedule, and wouldn't you know it, it's on the normal pace to brown up in the next few weeks.

Liam was sent home this past Monday with a strange rash on his back and part of his stomach. I had given him baby food with corn in it for the first time on Saturday, and the rash appeared sometime by Sunday. He had the food again on Monday and it was about the time the rash was spotted at daycare. I feared a food allergy or reaction of some sort. The pediatrician didn't think it was anything to be concerned about, but did order blood tests to check for allergies.

While John took Liam to get his blood test that evening, Charlie and I went to the UPS depot to ship a birthday package to the Brewoods. I also had a small envelope to return to Amazon. Charlie proudly carried the envelope for me, and put it up on the counter. While I paid for the box to be shipped, Charlie took interest in the process. I noticed he was watching anxiously as the box went down the conveyor and through a little doorway back into the warehouse. So I explained to him that the box was going to be put on a big truck that would take it all the way to Kansas.

I told Charlie we should go back outside and look at the trucks. I pointed out the big trucks like the one that would take the box to Kansas. And then we looked at some of the dark brown local delivery trucks. I explained that one of those trucks would take the box to Nathan and Briana's house, and that the driver would knock on the door and tell them that they had a package. Some drivers walked by just then, and one of them waved to Charlie. Charlie wanted to wait and see our box be put on the truck, so I had to explain that the truck going to Kansas might not leave for a while. On the way home, I told Charlie that it would take three days for our box to get to Kansas.

About the time that the birthday gifts reached the Brewood house, we learned that Liam's blood tests came back negative. No allergy to corn (or wheat, soy, milk, or even peanuts, amongst other things). What a relief! Given his eczema and seemingly sensitive skin, it's possible that the rash was just a reaction to some stain remover I had used on his clothes. Now if we could just figure out what is causing the rash on his face-- just like Charlie has had. In fact, when we went in to the pediatrician last week, everyone assumed that the rash we were there for was the one on Liam's cheeks. We're due to take him in to Charlie's dermatologist, but not until October. Unfortunately he counts as a new patient, but luckily there was a cancellation and we don't have to wait quite as long to get him in to see her as we did with Charlie.

It's time to watch the Cards play the Cubs on ESPN. For the first time since I've lived in Cincinnati (now 18 years), the Reds and the Cards are both in contention. I've always been able to pull for the Reds, except when they played against the Cards. But now I have mixed feelings, when the two teams have been trading back and forth between first and second place in the NL Central. I guess I'll just have to think positively-- it's looking very likely that I'll have a team to cheer for in the playoffs no matter what happens!