Missed Celebrations

We did not do anything special for the babies' first Pi Day (March 14 -- 3.14 -- yes, it's a geek holiday!), which was also their ten-month birthday. That's okay, though; they're too little to eat pie this year!

As you can see from these pictures, taken on March 17, we also fell down on the job for their first St. Patrick's Day. Matthew coincidentally had his green on, but poor Jamesie would have gotten pinched. We did feed them carrots, though, which at least starts with the same letter as "corned beef and cabbage." (James was not terribly impressed with the carrots, but did enjoy chewing on the high chair tray.)

The sniffles from the start of the week turned into full-fledged colds for all of us, including our babysitter. Mike seems to be feeling better, and James is stuffy at night and hasn't been eating as much as he had been, but otherwise seems fine. Matthew is still pretty congested, and woke up a few times last night. He was fully awake around 2 AM, which would have been more annoying if he hadn't been so cheerful and smiley. He even tolerated having his nose sucked out. (We got this nosesucker -- the nosefrida-- on Jason and Kate's advice, and although the babies don't exactly love it, they don't hate it with the fiery passion that they reserved for the bulb syringe.)

I think I've gotten the worst version of the cold, because I had to go to Toronto for work yesterday -- being on a plane for several hours does not do one's sinuses any favors! But there were some small mercies: 1) when Matthew threw up his entire lunch right before I left for the airport, he did so after I handed him to Mike, and 2) I didn't lose my voice until after I got home from my presentation. :) I couldn't actually breathe through my nose when I went through customs and immigration on the way back, which apparently made the customs agent suspicious -- he asked me twice what I was bringing back and scrutinized my picture against my passport more than usual. Ah well, at least they let me back in! (Although I did meet a woman who was just back from maternity leave --which in Canada is twelve months paid leave, plus her job gave her an extra two months. Yes, that did make me wish that we lived in Canada!)

One of Matthew's top teeth has finally started to poke through. And my prediction that he would start crawling last week was not correct, although he is getting up on all fours and rocking a bit like he's getting ready. He's quite effective at getting where he wants to go by rolling. He keeps going "off the baby reservation" -- that is, off the carpet onto the hardwood floor. I was worried that he would bonk his head and hurt himself on it, but it doesn't seem to bother him. I'm not sure if that's because he's figured out to roll more gently, or because he's hard-headed. :)