Addict
I would love to take a look at this house. The list price just dropped to $85k, and the realtor's website claims the house is livable as-is. Thirteen-foot ceilings sound nice (at least in the summer =-7 ), and the neighborhood seems pretty nice, besides being convenient to church and my job. More stairs, though!

Labels: Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Gary @ 11:51 PM |

 
Cheapskate
I just paid for Isaac's birthday present by means of my amazon rewards gift certificate and some leftover Christmas gift certificate balance. He already got "Jay's" gift- a cute little fire truck with a tiny screwdriver you can use to wind up the drive gear or to attach/detach the hook & ladder. It's been a popular toy for $3.

Labels: birthdays, boys

- posted by Gary @ 7:18 PM |

 
Lesson Learned
Never take a three-year-old to the pediatrician in flu season unless he is the principal. First off, he lords it over his younger brother ("No, Isaac, you can't go! You are not 'e extra boy!"). Then he comes down with a runny nose two days later. Then everybody else comes down (including the baby) with the sore throat/runny nose just in time for the "extra boy" to sink into febrile misery. I'm still hoping all we've got is a cold: that's all it feels like, and I did get my flu shot this year...

Labels: boys, illness, learning

- posted by Lenise @ 8:10 PM |

 
Oliver Twist?
John has a healthy appetite, to put it mildly. We could have just left lunch behind, and if we pass a restaurant (say, McDonald's) whose looks he likes (or possibly none at all), Jay will say in a pleading tone, "I'm very hungwy, sir." I don't know where he picked that trick up, but it's cute.

Isaac, meantime, fell asleep at his highchair after I capitulated to his pleading for hot cocoa. This is not surprising, since it takes him a couple of hours to drink 4 oz (about 1 cubic millimeter at a time, on the end of his plastic spoon).

Labels: boys, eating

- posted by Gary @ 2:58 PM |

 
All's Well That Ends Well
Although our regular pediatrician saw Daniel at 4 days old and said he didn't need to see him until one month, we got a mysterious call Thursday instructing us to take him to the hospital- something about newborn screenings needed to be repeated. Of course we were out, and it was a late afternoon call, so that we couldn't ask any questions until Friday morning. Turns out they did something wrong at the hospital when they drew about half of his blood, so we had to take him back for them to draw the other half. I called our local branch, and they said if we needed to, we could just bring him in to the office. Since I was still under orders not to drive, and Paul was working Friday (at home, thankfully), we managed to work it out so that Jay and Daniel and I went to the pediatrician's (a couple of miles down a 35 MPH road rather than 10 miles down the interstate) while Isaac stayed home with Paul. I didn't have to drive far, and we wouldn't be gone for long, so I felt comfortable with driving, and Paul was OK with keeping Isaac.

Unfortunately, while we were at the doc's, we discovered that Daniel was only up to 8 lbs even. I was reluctant to take the doc's advice to supplement with formula, having gone through this with the other two, and in Isaac's case, anyway, having recovered without resorting to formula (and in Jay's case, not staying on formula consistently), so she said we could give it a try with more frequent feedings over the weekend, and have a weigh-in today. The pediatrician wanted to see a 2 or 3 ounce gain. Daniel weighed in at 8 lbs, 5 oz today, so we dodged the formula bullet. When I go back to work, though, I'm afraid we'll have to supplement.

Labels: babies, breastfeeding

- posted by Lenise @ 5:59 PM |

 
Brotherly Advice
When Jay's attention is directed towards his infant brother, he becomes the voice of experience. His most oft-repeated wisdom is this: "'Ere's nuffing funny about biting, Daniel." Jay should know, as he's been on the receiving end and not on the giving end since he was a babe in arms himself.

Labels: boys, mentoring

- posted by Gary @ 2:20 PM |

 
Livin' La Vida Baby
Daniel's settling in quite nicely. He does much better holding a pacifier in his mouth than either of the older boys did, and (if he's well fed and sleepy) I can wrap him up, pop a pacifier in his mouth, and put him down to sleep with NO DRAMA!! Granted, he's less than 2 weeks old, so this may not last, but it's been very nice so far!

The older boys have been adjusting really well. Grandma and Grandpa G were here to help them ease into it with lots of extra attention, and Jay and Isaac keep talking about them (e.g. Isaac said this morning, "Peese... ma'I... talk Ganma Papa?", holding the cordless phone out to me). Uncle Todd was able to spend several days with us this past weekend (he arrived Friday night and left Monday evening). The boys have loved roughhousing with him. Yesterday, I innocently held Daniel up above my head for a second and lowered him. I may have repeated it before Jay got the idea to ask ME to do "up and down" with him. Ha! As if! So he was directed to Uncle Todd (U' Todd in Isaac-speak). It didn't take Isaac long to join the clamoring, and Todd was once again the center of orbit for 60 pounds worth of rambunctious little boy projectiles.

Jay has gotten back on track with potty training, and is forging ahead into the self-directed part of the program (hooray!). The only rough spot is that he wants to wear underwear to bed, and he's just not ready yet. Hopefully he will be soon!!

Labels: boys, family, potty training

- posted by Gary @ 9:08 AM |

 
There Are Worse Things...
Isaac told me twice in the past two days, "Wuv you, big mister!" This is a line from his favorite VeggieTales video, "Where's God When I'm Scared?", so I don't have any trouble overlooking the appellation. It's wonderful to be loved!
- posted by Gary @ 10:08 PM |

 
Furniture Revisited

Well, we haven't made much progress on moving out the old furniture, but in the meantime, I found something on Target.com that should make our new dining table fit even better into our dining room. At 15% off, and with free delivery, I'll have to consult with hubby when he and the big boys return from the mall (energy expenditure trip- yay!). Our current mid-century dining room chairs were purchased for $2 a piece at a liquidation sale at a nearby 18th century inn and restaurant, and are finished in a MUCH darker tone than the new table and old china cabinet. It would have been nice to get some of this done BEFORE Daniel showed up, but it will definitely make for a cheerier Mama when we finally do get it accomplished! I'm thinking we'll want the short bench on the traffic side of the dining room to demarcate the passageway. We might even be able to get away with just the bench and one booster seat. Now I'm getting greedy=]
- posted by Gary @ 12:53 PM |

 
It's a Boy!!



Daniel Kent was born Friday morning, and all went according to plan, except they gave me morphine like they did with Jay, and so I was sick and incoherent all day Friday. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He's been a really good sleeper and a very cooperative baby. As of his 4-day appointment, he'd regained all but 1.5 oz of his birthweight, so he's doing great! His brothers think he's a lot of fun, even though he doesn't do much at this stage =] Isaac likes to "huck babby" ("babby" rhymes with cabby, more or less), which induces Jay to say "Me too!" and rush over to participate in the hugging. Isaac offered a piece of his graham cracker to "babby Dan'el" this morning, and I had to explain several times that babies don't eat graham crackers, just milk, finally offering the fact that babies don't have teeth and that the cracker could hurt him before Isaac relented and just "hucked" his brand-new brother.

Jay was definitely more interested in Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Todd, but he seems to like his new brother too =] Isaac, when not trying to bestow hugs on Daniel, likes to watch him and say "Wow! Wow!", excited (I suppose) that there's somebody in the house smaller than he is =]

Labels: baby 3, boys, family

- posted by Gary @ 2:19 PM |

 
January Kiddos



- posted by Gary @ 12:43 PM |

 
Airplanes, Puppies, and Taco Juice
*Sigh* About all I have the energy for anymore is that- sighing. I'm glad this baby didn't decide to be a preemie, but wow, I'm tired and uncomfortable.

The boys and I went to the shopping area near the new mall in Burlington after my OB appointment on Tuesday. They have a Wide Shoe Warehouse there, which really rocks. My friend Lisa told me about the one in Raleigh, which has been a tremendous place for me to find shoes for my gnarly arthritic feet, but which is also more than a little out of the way. Anyway, the boys had a few little toys to play with while I waded through the large inventory, one of which was some sort of airborne conveyance (it looked mostly like a red and white space shuttle). Isaac was making a respectable "bbbbb" noise as he piloted the contraption, but Jay was following him around saying, "No, Isaac! You are not 'isse'ing. Airplanes go [insert impressive jet engine sound here]". I tried a number of times to explain to Jay that his airplane sound was too sophisticated for his brother to imitate, but doubt I made any impression. *Shrug*

We met our policeman neighbor's new wife this week. They have acquired two roly-poly Australian shepherd puppies, so she's out a lot with the puppies, trying to wear them out. Not unlike us with the boys, as she pointed out =] Isaac and Jay were thrilled to play with the puppies, though Isaac kept yelling ecstatically and saying, "Bears!" They really don't look that different from bears at that age ;) Just so I don't forget, the dogs' names are Possum and Jethro. Our new neighbor has the same name as my older brother, but spelled (I assume!) the feminine way. OK, now I will remember for sure!

Yesterday evening, the boys wanted to read some books with me. They each pulled one off the shelf, though Jay was immediately enthusiastic and lined up first with his book. Isaac came over as Jay and I were getting settled (with the Dr. Seuss's ABCs, which was a Christmas gift from my wonderful Aunt Gail) and said, "Peese ma'I taco juice?" Doting parent that I am, it still took me a few repetitions and a little bit of time before I deciphered Isaac's pronunciation of "Dr. Seuss". Once I figured it out, though, I thought it was pretty clever of him to come up with the author like that! Of course, he's really much better at saying "Please may I" than understanding quite what it means, but he is actually helping to encourage Jay to ask more politely, and after all, he's not 2 for another month!

Labels: baby 3, baby talk, mentoring

- posted by Gary @ 7:42 PM |