Two Babies. One Room. Let the Fun Begin!

Alex finally had his first normal healthy day yesterday - no medicine, minimal crankiness, and a good mood to boot. The biggest telltale sign of his improvement was when we put him to bed -- He fussed and cried to the Gods, just like he did every single night in the past. When he was sick, he'd just plop down and go right to sleep. He was happy to hit the hay when he was not feeling so hot. But it's really good to have the little boy back to normal. We miss his laughs.

So, in case I haven't mentioned yet, he's walking 99 percent of the time. He's given up on crawling completely. It's an adorable sight to walk him walk and fall in all sorts of different little spills -- He did the splits on the kitchen floor today and just picked himself right back up. If I did the splits on the kitchen floor, Alex would have two Mommies. But really, watching him walk is a simple pleasure in an otherwise crazy-ass day. I especially like it when he walks towards me, (or my wife or his sister). and when he sees my outstretched arms to receive him and the big encouraging smile on my face, he gets egotistic and quickens his little paces and practically lunges into my arms. The Happy Coos follow and I plant a wet one on his face and tell him how proud of him I am.

And to think, a year ago I told my wife that I'll probably not kiss babies that much. Now I'm practically making out with my boy whenever I miss him.

Well, not really making out. Just loving him a lot.

I kissed Zoe today too, just a quick peck. Everytime I did it, she would startle with her eyes widened, and her mouth almost going, "Oh!" It was kinda cute the first 10 times, and then I got the notion that this could very well be some form of child abuse, so I stopped.

Tonight we're trying the two babies in the same room thing, because Zoe being in the same room gets to be a little tough to sleep peacefully. So Alex has to deal with it. And so far, he's doing okay. If Zoe cries, he'll sleep through it. But if Me or my wife walk in the room and he notices, he'll start bawling. There are many instances whereby my wife would accidentally wake him up, and then stand very still as a defensive move. Alex would hold his head up with half-open eyes and go, "Mommy? Is that you? Oh. Maybe it's just a tree that looks like Mommy. Back to sleep." Plop.

Well, I should be plopping to bed myself. It's getting a bit late.

Damn Time Difference!

I was going to submit to the DPChallenge for "Touch", but I was completely blocked in terms of ideas, overwhelmed in terms of number of babies, and just plain making excuses up the Wazoo. Finally tonight, I did finally decide on an imagery, and my wife and I put a lot of effort into getting the photo taken with a dangerous diaperless boy to get that theme. We took a few shots, and about 4 of them were okay enough to submit. But when I logged on to double check, the contest had already ended in the East Coast, which meant it ended over here at 9 at night. My wife was bummed out for me because I had passed on last week's contest, and didn't want me missing another week. But oh well. Here's one of the pictures that I considered. The lighting is a little harsh, but I'm working on it. I need a workspace eventually for these kinds of hobbies.

Nothing exciting today, just work. Alex is feeling better.

"Please don't make me run! I'm full of chocolate!"

Typing Madness

I can barely type anymore after spending 45 minutes on Typer Shark, which is exactly the type of dorky ass game that I would get into. But I have to brag because I did pretty well on the normal run.

Dive Master
Level 19
68 W.P.M.
95% Accuracy
1438270 points.

It's completely useless in the grand scheme of things, but it's good for making me feel like I've accomplished something, even though typing sharks to death isn't exactly a daily threat for me. But you never know...

Alex has not improved in the happy department - still gets sobbingly upset after a few hours up. We gave him some baby asprin and he started doing a little better with that - here's hoping that it's just the rosela. I did some googling about his symptons, and Lupus came up. I'm hoping that it isn't Lupus, because there's no cure for it at all. But I'm not jumping to conclusions, just hoping that the doctors visit tomorrow will be helpful and beneficial, and they can make my little boy happy again.

The Little Girl has been a little funner to play with today, probably because we were mostly mocking her in a loving sort of way. You have to, just because its one of the unwritten benefits of parenthood - you get to make fun of them and then disclaim it with an affection of love. Earlier today, I wrapped her up in a blanket tightly, including her left arm by her side, so only her right arm and her head was uncovered by the blanket. So I propped her up on my thigh and told me wife that Zoe can do an impression.

"I'm a one-armed bandit. I'm a slot machine!"

Then we proceeded to pull down on her exposed extended right arm - like a slot machine. Sadly, no money came out.

We were also making fun of her facial expressions, all of which are sorta cute in a baby way. If an adult were to make these faces, they'd probably be banished and sent to a reality tv show for a on-screen makeover. But as it were, she has her disgrunted expression, whereby she's not contented with what's going on, but not really all that upset. And her weird O face, when her eyes are wide open, her eyebrows arched down, and her mouth's formed into a little "o", as if she were some kind of hairy fish. And there's her poop face. Looks like anyone's face when they're going, I suppose.

Well, she's waking up. Time for me to feed the little girl.

Jealousy Surfaces!

Poor Alex.

His fever has finally disappeared but not the rash has surfaced. All report say that the rash doesn't hurt or itch, but there has to be something that's making my little guy so damn cranky. I finally understood what my wife has been talking about this morning. Usually, I'm at work and by the time I come home in the afternoon, he's just playing with his toys - a little bit cranky, but certainly not a handful. But in the morning, as I witnessed with my very own ears and eyes, he'll just break into tears for no apparent reason. He'll just sit there and cry until you pick him up. While my wife was changing Zoe today, I held the little man but he wiggled to get down. Once his feet touched the floor, he walked over to my wife and hugged her leg, sobbing away. So it's a pretty specific need that he wants, and that is the Mommy.

We just don't know if he's still feeling ill or sick, but he is a lot more tired than he's ever been. When we put him down for his first nap, it's earlier than usual and he's not fussing about it. Usually he's too busy to be down for naps, but these past week he's just sucked on his thumb and went right to sleep. In addition to that, he's taking second naps, which has been phased out months ago. He's just acting generally very tired, and it's worrying for us because we do want him to be well and happy. He's got a Doctor's appointment on Monday, so we're hoping that he can wait till then. Since he's not got a high fever or any other threatening symptoms, we can't really take him to the hospital.

As for Zoe, nothing much going on with the little girl. She's slowly moving up to 4 ounces of formula with each feeding, but she's still sleeping a lot - but not enough at night. My wife's been a real trooper, getting up with her for the feedings whenever I work and even on the weekends, but once she goes back to work, I'll probably take on the feedings at night whenever on my days off.

We're starting to suspect that Alex is beginning to know the difference between time spent with him, and time spent on Zoe. Maybe not in a real tangible "Me vs. Her" sense, but I think he knows that we're all in the same room, and we're not giving him the attention and he knows it. We do strive to give them both equal time, but since Zoe is still a newborn, her needs do ultimately take priority. 11 months. If I haven't already, let it be known that that is not a great idea. Space those conception dates further apart!