Ben’s Blog

Below is a picture of Luke and Liam’s “new” playset. My dad and I actually built it back in late May, I just haven’t gotten around to posting about it. I’m pretty impressed with it. It’s a very nice playset for a reasonable price. It’s made by Rainbow, and we got ours at Wal-Mart. Luke has gotten quite a bit of use out of it already (Liam not so much).

By the way, my lawn looks much better now than it does in the photo. It’s amazing what a little fertilizer can do.

Both Luke and Liam enjoy TV, for better or for worse. When Luke was about seven or eight months old, he decided he didn’t like riding in the car unless someone was sitting back there playing with him. That wouldn’t work so we bought him a portable DVD player for the car. At first he only got to watch age-appropriate Baby Einstein DVDs. At some point after he turned one he got bored with those and Cassie and I went to Toys ‘R Us to get him something a little more exciting. After a brief discussion we decided on a Wiggles DVD. If we had only known.

Luke and Liam now have four or five Wiggles DVDs. We have around a dozen Wiggles TV shows “TiVoed.” Wiggles was all Luke watched for a long time. His interest has now branched out into Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Imagination Movers, all Disney shows. Until recently he only had Wiggles DVDs, we just recorded the other shows. Before our trip to the coast we bought him a DVD of each of the other shows. Liam loves the Wiggles too. It’s definitely his favorite, but he enjoys Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too.

Luke with his guitar, back in April.

Several months ago we got Luke a Wiggles guitar. For a long time he took it everywhere: the grocery store, restaurants, and one time, even church. Now he’s content to leave it in the car when we get out, but he still has to make sure it’s in the car before we leave. He plays along with the Wiggles, the Imagination Movers, or any other show with a guitar.

Several months ago we found out the Wiggles would be doing a tour in the US. We didn’t know when or where, but Cassie and I agreed that if it came anywhere close, we’d have to take the boys. Then, one day, after months of anxious waiting, the email announcing the tour came. Unfortunately, the closest concert wasn’t very close; Atlanta or somewhere if I recall.

Cassie ended up on the Ticketmaster web site somehow, and happened to notice that they had a Memphis date listed for the Wiggles tour. For whatever reason, the Memphis date wasn’t originally listed on the Wiggles site. Maybe the details were worked out at the last minute or something. In any case, because no one else knew about the Memphis concert, we managed to get front row seats.

The concert is tomorrow, and I think Cassie is more excited than anyone. :) We’ve been telling Luke about it for the past day or so, but I’m not sure he understands the “in person” concept. The Wiggles show up inside his TV at least once a day, after all. I think they’ll both get it when the concert starts though. It should be fun. I know video cameras aren’t allowed in the concert, but I’m hoping to be able to take pictures. We’ll see.

Since my last update, Liam is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. He’ll play in the living room for a while, then move to the “dining room” (aka their third play room), make a loop through the kitchen, and then maybe go play is his room for a while. He doesn’t particularly care if anyone is playing with him or not. In that respect, he’s more independent than Luke was at his age (11.5 months).

Liam loves to play “chase.” He loves for Luke, or for that matter, Cassie or I, to crawl after him. He thinks it’s great fun. He and Luke are getting to be pretty big buddies. Most of the time Luke remembers that he’s still quite a bit bigger than Liam, but occasionally he gets too rough for our liking. Sometimes you’d think he’s been watching wrestling. :)

Liam’s spitting up has gotten much better. Good enough, in fact, that we’ve tried mixing whole milk into his bottles. Unfortunately, it seems to make him spit up quite a bit more. We’ve stopped for the moment, but will probably try again soon. Hopefully it was a fluke. I’m anxious to get him off his ~$50/week formula habit.

Luke’s learning new words at a pretty rapid pace. He’s still not saying a lot of phrases, but that seems to have improved in the past week or so. At least to me, it’s obvious he’s a pretty smart little kid, we just need his verbal skills to catch up to what’s going on in his head. I have no doubt that’ll happen in time.

Liam woke up Saturday morning with a fever. In addition, you could tell he felt horrible. We thought it was just teething-related issues. Turns out it’s thrush. He’s not quite as bad as he was Saturday, but he’s still not feeling good at all. Poor little guy. That’s two weekends in a row of not feeling well.

Obviously, Liam being sick distracted from Luke’s potty training. I still think it was a worthwhile venture though. By Saturday afternoon he was having very few accidents. Of course, we had his potty in the living room and Cassie was asking him if he needed to go every five minutes. The biggest “problem” is that he doesn’t realize on his own that he needs to go. I guess that will come with time. For now, at least until Liam gets better, it’s back to pullups and diapers.

Potty training Luke commences after breakfast in the morning. Cassie’s chosen method involves Luke being naked from the waist down. It should be fun. Wish Cassie and Luke good luck.

Liam and I have been given the task of making ourselves scarce all day as to not interfere with the process. Anyone interested in having lunch with the two of us tomorrow?

Unfortunately we can’t hide out in my office. It’s a construction zone. I’m in the middle of adding several shelves to the closet. I could finish it in an hour or so, but that wouldn’t exactly be a Liam-friendly activity. Maybe I can finish it during one of his naps tomorrow, if Luke doesn’t find the drilling distracting.

Sometime early last week Cassie started getting sick. Nothing too bad, just a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, etc. A day or two later Luke picked it up. Still no big deal. They were both better in a few days with no major incidents.

Friday afternoon Liam started showing signs of being sick, including a fever. We assume there was some teething involved, as he was drooling massive amounts of saliva. Saturday he was as miserable as I’ve ever seen him. Several times he would just cry and cry. Saturday night he woke up every couple of hours or so. Around 3am he decided he wanted to cry for a while. We finally distracted him with one of his toys. After an episode of the Wiggles we were back to sleep again.

Sunday he felt a lot better, but was still under the weather. He had a couple of crying spells, but nothing like Saturday. To our relief he only woke up once Sunday night, and it was before I went to bed, which is much easier to deal with. Other than being clingy and maybe a little whiny, Liam was almost completely better today.

Luke, on the other hand, just wouldn’t go to sleep last night, which is really strange because he’s a really good sleeper. He normally goes to sleep around 9:30pm. He and Cassie started out on the couch, then moved to the bed, then back to the couch, and back to the bed. Around 12:30am Cassie asked me to drive him around. I did. He fell asleep in about ten minutes. As I was getting him out of the car, he woke up. He laid in bed awake with Cassie for at least another hour before finally drifting off.

This morning he woke up around his usual time, ready to face the world. (Cassie, not so much.) No sign that anything was wrong. He was good all day. Tonight, just before bedtime, we discovered he was running a temperature. He seems to be feeling fine other than that though. Hopefully it’ll pass.

The last time we had it this bad was when we all got a stomach virus before Liam was born. We had to call in reinforcements that time. It’s never fun to see your child miserably sick. It’s even less fun when they keep you awake. :) I hope it’s awhile before we have another episode like this again.

Luke and Liam are generally well-behaved. Liam approaches angelic on most days. Luke is certainly no worse than your average two-year old.

Yesterday we all went to Memphis for a little shopping. Shortly after 7pm we had secured a table at the Outback Steakhouse in Cordova. Liam was sitting in his high chair, quietly munching on sweet potato puffs, his favorite. Luke had ants in his pants. He couldn’t be still. He would periodically disappear under the table and reappear on the other side or with one of the many toys Liam had dropped. Cassie and I were getting a bit frustrated with him.

Shortly, a little old lady walked by our table on her way out of the restaurant. Her table had been situated such that she couldn’t see Luke, just Liam. She stopped and said, “It’s such a pleasure to see a well-behaved child.” Luke had recently departed on one of his trips under the table. I smiled and said, “Thank you.” That could have been the end of the conservation, but Cassie just couldn’t help herself. She smiled and said, “We have a two year-old under the table.” Luckily the little old lady had a good sense of humor and found the situation hilarious.

Unfortunately for us, things went downhill from there. Liam was well past due for a nap. Luke had only managed a thirty minute nap, well short of his standard hour and a half. I’m glad the little old lady wasn’t there to see it.