Chloe

We just finished making a really hard decision. Well, I left it up to J.R. and he made the decision. We gave Chloe away.

A few weeks ago we had Ben's follow up allergist appointment. He's still allergic to milk, and of course now cashews, and now he is allergic to dogs. It stinks not only because we have a dog, but because I don't want him to grow up having to take medicine in order to go somewhere where there is a dog, or not go somewhere at all. J.R. and are I are both dog lovers and we want the kids to be dog lovers too.

We figured out the allergy because it seems Ben always has a cough. Chloe was at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a month. When we went down to visit and to bring Chloe back home, we noticed Ben's cough. I thought he just had a cold (we were out on the boat and there was wind), but we noticed he hadn't been coughing during the past month. Chloe stayed at Gma and Gpa's while we came home. We had the doctor check it out and, in fact he has the allergy.

The doctor said it's not a severe allergy. We could get rid of Chloe, we could let Ben cough, or
we could put Ben on Zerteck (sp?). Since there are other options, I did not want to put Ben on medication. We struggled internally with what we wanted to do. Should we let Ben cough? He's not bothered by it and it doesn't always seem that bad. We are looking for a new apartment, so maybe we'll just get something without carpeting, and we'll swiffer everyday. Finally, J.R. and talked about it last weekend. I ended up telling him since Chloe is really his dog, he can make the decision. He said he knew what he should do, but it's not what he wanted. He took a few days, and the decided that Chloe needed to stay at her Grandparents'.

He is incredibly sad. He's had Chloe for 7 years. I think it helps that she's staying in the family and we can go and visit anytime we want. I'm sad not only because I loved her too, but because she lived with four other families before J.R. took her and I promised her we'd never give her up - that we'd give her her final home. Gma and Gpa treat her like royalty. She goes for walks everyday and gets regular baths. We weren't able to do that for her anymore. We are blessed that Gma and Gpa are generous people and are willing to give her so much love and a great home.

Chloe isn't gone for good. We'll get to visit. We are still going to miss her terribly though.

Beach Vacation

We just came back from a long weekend at the beach. Although I'm not much for laying in the sand and getting sunburned and sweaty, it's nice having in-laws that live at the beach. We went for lunch/dinner/drinks at bayside restaurants,

took boat rides and went fishing, saw fireworks (from the boat), had another birthday party for Ben, played games on the boardwalk,

and took Ben to a waterpark.

We had a really great time. We were able to spend time with family and enjoyed being away from home for a few days. We were lucky to spend time with Aunt Nancy, who we only see once a year.

I did a total mommy thing...something I thought I'd never do. A few weeks ago I bought matching 4th of July t-shirts for all of us to wear! So silly, but it was fun. We wore them on the boat when we watched the fireworks. Aaron fell asleep for his first fireworks. Actually, I think they were Ben's first fireworks too; last year for the 4th there was a bad lightning storm so we ended up watching Mother Nature's fireworks. From our spot on the bay, we could see fireworks all up and down the coast of Ocean City. Ben had fun finding the "booms" and pointing them out to us. However, he fell alseep on J.R.'s lap before the big firework displays started.

I think my favorite part of the weekend was taking Ben to the waterpark. Last year he hated it, but this year not only was he a year older, but we just let him do whatever he wanted. He immediately went to the kid's waterslide and went down a few times, hesitantly at first, but he did well. He tried to squish the small water fountain in the pool

and we went in the lazy river.

I took him down the big waterslide, but he didn't like it when we went under water at the end. After sitting on my lap for a while, he went back to the kid's slide. I'm not lying when I say he must have gone down 40-50 times. He was practically the only slider, so the lifeguard was paying special attention to him. She was running down the steps and picking him up to take him to the top. He could have climbed the steps himself, but I think she had a crush on him :) He got spoiled from the star treatment and started to call for her if he had to wait for her to get to the bottom of the step. So funny. What a little rock star! Here's video of him sliding.

Sleep

At one time, I was able to link a song from Rhapsody to my blog. I can't do that anymore, so just sing "Who Needs Sleep" by the Barenaked Ladies, here. .......Who needs sleep? Well you're never gonna get it. Who needs sleep? Tell me what's that for?......

Aaron is doing OK with sleep. He falls asleep for the night usually somewhere between 11pm and 12 am. Yeah, I know, another night-owl kid. He did fall asleep around 9pm one night and slept til 12am or so. He'll fall asleep early, like 7, 8 or 9, but then he'll only sleep for a 1/2 hour or so then wake up again. At that point, it's just a feeding frenzy, but if he'll sleep for 6 hours after feeding him for 2, I'll do it. He has given me 6 hours a few times. So on the nights he falls asleep at 12, he wakes up at 6 and it feels like it's been all night. Most nights, it's 3 1/2 or 4 hours, then every 1 1/2 to 2 hours after that. Around 6am he wants to stay awake. Most days I'm able to get him back to sleep, if only for another 2 hours. In a few weeks I'll have to get up for work at 6am so I guess I'll have to get used to it. Aaron is a great sleeper during the day. (Doesn't it figure) He'll sleep for a good chunk of the late morning/afternoon, then nap again around dinner time. I don't necessarily want him to sleep through dinner time because I'd like him to fall asleep for the night shortly after dinner time; but it gives me a chance to get dinner ready for Ben (and the family) if I need to, and/or eat. I'm trying to work on some kind of a schedule for him based on his sleep patterns, but of course, every time I think I have something, something screws it up.

Ben's sleep routine is AWFUL!!! He is now going to sleep between 11 and 11:30 pm. Ugh!! It's been so hard to get him to get him ready for bed when I'm attached to Aaron. He's been watching a lot of videos before bed and I absolutely hate it. He was doing so well when I could read him a bunch of books (and I mean a bunch - I love to read to him so I'll pull out at least 10 books for him!) then we'd turn out the light and he'd fall asleep, most nights in less than 5 minutes. When I'm busy with Aaron, it's most easy for J.R. to pop in a video to help Ben fall asleep, which he used to do quite often (fall asleep, that is). Just the other day I found something on-line that states it's bad for kids to fall asleep with the t.v. on because they won't sleep very well. (I've read that about adults too, which is why it's not great to have a t.v. in the bedroom - a bedroom should be a place for relaxing, I read). I showed that to J.R. not to pick on him, but just to show him some back up on how I feel. For a couple of days, we had no t.v. and read books instead and Ben stayed in bed all night. On the nights where he'd watch t.v. (the no t.v. thing didn't last), he'd wake up in the middle of the night, like usual, and fall asleep again with us in our bed. I'm really trying as best I can to get back into a bedtime routine with Ben, but it's so hard. Tonight I wanted him to have a bath at 9pm, then brush his teeth and start reading books so we could hopefully turn the lights out after 10pm and he could fall asleep soon after. Well, instead he got a "Babar" video. I finally took him to get washed up and teeth brushed after 10pm, we only read 2 books because he wasn't paying attention to them (he threw a small fit at first because he didn't want to read - he probably figured out it meant bedtime was soon), and I turned the light out and forced him to stay in bed. He of course screamed for a while, but he was asleep before 10:45.

J.R. had Aaron while I was getting Ben ready for Ben. J.R. put Aaron down around 10:30 so he could lie down with Ben and I. Aaron was pretty awake, but he still fell asleep! We were both pretty happy about that. We'll see how long he sleeps til. Right now, I'm the only one awake. I need to put Ben in his crib and hopefully I'll be able to sleep for a couple of hours before Aaron wakes up....which might be soon because I just heard him make a noise. Sigh....

Who needs sleep?(well you're never gonna get it)

Who needs sleep?(tell me what's that for)

Who needs sleep?(be happy with what you're getting

There's a guy who's been awake since the Second World War)

Thomas and the Emergency Room

So, I'm all ready to blog about our day at Strasburg Railroad on Friday, and how we took Ben (and Aaron) to see Thomas the Tank Engine. I'm thinking about how it's great Ben is now identifying characters and has favorites. We are able to buy things for him now that he likes, like a coloring book with "Cars" on it, Thomas the Tank Engine mini trains (thanks Karin), Bob the Builder Videos, etc. When I was able to shop for the birthday party, it was cool. Taking Ben to see Thomas was fun. It's been fun mommy stuff...another notch on my "I feel like real mommy" belt. Fun events for Ben's childhood. Well, how's this for a "I feel like a real mommy" moment ... our first emergency room visit.

About 15 minutes after we got home, I took a couple of necklaces out of a container of jewelry cleaner. Ben grabbed the lidless container and before I could get it out of his hands, he shook it, sending cleaner all over his shirt, face, and in his eyes. I had J.R. rush Ben to the sink to spray cold water in his eyes and I called poison control. She told me to put Ben in the bath, dump water over his head into his face for 20 minutes and go to the Emergency Room. So, we did and of course Ben hated that. He was fine for the drive over to CHOP though, and for our surprisingly short wait in an extremely full waiting room. But if he was OK, would I have a story to tell? Of course not.

A doctor took a PH test by sticking a small piece of paper in each eye. We knew he wasn't going to like it, so in order to prepare him, two nurses wrapped him in a sheet like a cocoon. That probably scared him more than someone poking his eye. The PH test came back high so they had to flush his eyes. If you thought Ben hated the cocoon, he despised what happened next. No, I'm not sure despise is a harsh enough word. Anyway, they wrapped him back up in the sheet, placed him on a board and velcroed him into the board. Horrible. He's screaming, I'm praying, and Aaron is not happy either. Aaron finally decides to eat, so at least he's not screaming anymore, but I can't get up to be with Ben. That was a good thing, I guess, because since a nurse (there are now four in the room) is standing in front of me, I can't see the plastic contact lens type things go into Ben's eyes. The lenses are attached to tubes which are attached to IV bags which then empty out into Ben's eyes. He's screaming, I'm crying, and thankfully J.R. is able to stand next to Ben and talk to him the whole time. The nurse in front of me walks away and I can see the saline solution running out of Ben's eyes...into his nose, his mouth, his ears. (I'm thinking to myself "He's going to drown!") The longest 10 minutes of my life passes and the tubes are taken out of his eyes (thankfully the nurse came back in and blocked my view again). They test the PH level again and check for scratches to his eyes. My prayers are answered and he's fine. He doesn't have to go through any more trauma. A Child Life Specialist (counselor) came in and told us he's too young to remember this. Thank God! He may not remember, but I'll never forget the picture in my head.

Ben fell asleep on the ride home, and stayed with us in bed that night. He was fine the next day. I don't know if he remembers anything, and I don't want to bring it up. But I wonder if it taught him a lesson.

Ben's Two Year Well Visit

Yesterday was Ben's 2-year well visit at the doctors. Unfortunately, we couldn't see our usual doctor. She is so nice and has been there while Ben has been "growing up". We did see another nice doctor though, and here are Ben's stats... He is 26 lbs, is 35 inches tall and his head is 19 inches around (all nice even numbers). She didn't give me any percentiles. I answered yes to all the "is he doing this" questions, like, does he say a lot of words & can he kick a ball. He said he's doing great. Next well visit will be his 3-year appointment! Aaron was supposed to have his 2 month visit at the same time, but we don't have insurance for him yet so I had to cancel. Hopefully we'll get an answer back soon so we can reschedule. I had him weighed at my breastfeeding group, and he's 13 lbs and 3 oz. He's half the size of Ben!

Here's a picture of Ben in a new outfit that mommy and daddy bought him for his birthday. The shirt is so outrageous it's adorable!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ben!

Today is Ben's 2nd birthday! We celebrated while we were on vacation last week in Massachusetts. My mom and I went to the party store to pick out plates and things. It was so fun for me. I used to work at that store (it's what brought me to PA) and see parents go overboard buying party items for their kids. Now I was doing it! Ben loves the movie "Cars" right now, so we bought Cars themed items. I was so excited because I knew he'd love it. We bought the plates and napkins for cake, loot bags and punching balloons. We even bought a "McQueen" cookie because it didn't have milk in it. I wanted a balloon, but the store was out of stock. I was so happy shopping I could have cried. Then, we went to the supermarket to buy a cake. The bakery had a Cars cake! The baker was extremely gracious and made a cake for later that same day. There was even a real McQueen car that came off the cake. I think Ben really enjoyed everything, at least as much as a two year old could.

Ben's cake

Ben got to open presents three times. Grampy came down from Maine on Friday, with gifts from him and Gramy. Sunday, we went to Auntie Linda's and hung out by the lake for the day. Auntie Linda, Nana and Kelley all brought gifts. For the party, cousin Brooke was there with Uncle Joe and Auntie Lisa, Memere, cousin Brad with cousin Daisy, and of course, Pepere and Grammie (along with Mom and Dad). Ben is a well loved little boy. We haven't even seen Grandma and Grandpa yet!

Brooke and Daisy playing with Ben's new track and car sets.

Ben and Memere playing in the backyard.

Brooke taking Ben for a ride in the "Barbie car".

Another allergy

We found out Ben has an allergy to cashews...the hard way. We are on vacation at my mom's house and Ben was given a couple of cashew crumbs last night. He had ONE. I don't think he liked it because the other couple of crumbs he gave back to my mom. A little while later, he was rubbing his eyes quite a bit. I took a look at his face and he was getting welts and hives all over it. Then his whole head got beat red and there were welts all over. He started really scratching his head. I called the doctor's office. The nurse told me to give him benedril. His breathing was fine, fortunately. He did continue to get hives all over his belly, his groin and the backs of his knees were very red also. Poor little guy couldn't stop scratching. Then his eyes became swollen. He looked like a completely different person. The benedril slowed his itchiness. I thought it would put him to sleep, but no such thing. All this happened around 5PM, he didn't fall asleep until 10:30PM. He did fall asleep on his own; he fell asleep on the couch right beside me. I didn't even realize he was sleeping at first. I didn't think I'd sleep much last night because I thought I'd be too nervous that he'd stop breathing. He didn't cough or wheeze before he fell asleep, and I checked on him a few times and he was fine, so I ended up sleeping OK. In fact, he slept well at all....he slept until 10:20AM! Aaron slept pretty much all night too...he also fell asleep around 10:30PM and woke up at 6:00 AM.

Here's a few pics of Ben with his swollen eyes.

Daddy was making Ben laugh because at this point, Ben wasn't feeling very well.