Checked In

James is all settled in at the hospital. (We ran into one of Matthew's former primary nurses when we were registering, which was a nice start to the evening!)

He's on the 7th floor, which is good because it's the pediatric surgery floor. (I liked it better than the 6th floor from the start because they have very insistent signs about using the prominently-displayed hand sanitizer before entering the unit, as opposed to the 6th which had some vague suggestions about handwashing but nary a public sink in sight.)

Apparently James is on the schedule for 1 PM tomorrow, which is a bummer because they stopped feeding him at 9 PM tonight. We expect a cranky morning tomorrow. The one silver lining is that I don't have to head back to the hospital before dawn, so I can be here for the morning routine with Matthew. Mike is spending the night with James.

James was very unhappy about getting the IV, but he finally dropped off to sleep.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

James and Matthew Alden (and the rest of us) say Happy Birthday to Grandpa G! We love you and hope you're having a wonderful day!

Mike, James, and I are off to the hospital to check James in. Wish us luck!

Remembering

Memorial Day is a time to remember those who gave their lives for their country, and we are grateful for their service and sacrifice.

But today I am also remembering Memorial Day weekend last year. James was very sick with his first round of NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) and we did not know whether he would survive. So, today (as every day) we are also deeply grateful that our precious son is still with us. The bottom picture is from his baptism -- you can see the chaplain's hand and James's tiny foot.

Just Say No

For the first time, Matthew actually stopped doing something (chewing on one of the foam floor letters) when I told him "no" -- of course, he started doing it again a minute later and a second "no" had no effect, but we have to start somewhere. :) (Hopefully it wasn't just coincidence!) And on the flip side, he gave a huge grin when I complimented him on his excellent clapping.

Mattie is also getting yet another tooth (on the bottom; number 7, for those of you keeping track at home). That might have contributed to the many, many wake-ups last night. (But it was probably mostly this never-ending congestion.) Mattie is not normally a clumsy child, but he was so tired this morning that he was stumbling around like a drunken sailor. And then he was overtired and hyper, so it was quite a production getting him down for a nap. Fortunately he was more himself by the afternoon.

Although the light in this picture may make it appear that James has a top tooth, he doesn't yet. We think there may be a bottom one starting to come in, but we're not sure yet (and we've been fooled before!)

Mike installed our third attempt at a baby gate to block off the living room from the kitchen. We think this one will work, and the bonus is that it can actually be operated with one hand. (But not one paw -- poor Stanley can never decide which side of the gate he wants to be on.)

Cruisin'

Matthew took a couple of steps hanging on to the couch this afternoon -- he's cruising! James probably isn't far behind; he can move between the music table and the couch if they're right next to each other.

Mattie is also now clapping! For a while he clapped with one hand open and the other hand kind of a fist, and then he moved to frenetic arm waving where his hands sometimes came together, and now he's got it figured out. :) He was clapping this afternoon and had a big smile on his face -- he's enjoying his new skill! Hooray for Mattie!

Babies Who Stare at Goats

[Alternative title: Kids and Kids.]

Usually yardwork isn't a spectator sport, but our friends J & Y have employed the goat patrol to get rid of the ivy in their yard. So, we seized the opportunity to play goat tourists and introduce the boys to a new species. :)

Interestingly, goats find poison ivy much tastier than regular ivy, but they'll eat just about anything. While we were there, we saw one goat jump up to knock over a sapling, and the rest came running to help eat the branches.

We learned the poison ivy tidbit and other fun facts from the goatherd. Who knew goatherd was even still a profession in these modern times?

Re-Rescheduled

The surgery scheduler made a mistake. Our surgeon is out of town on June 9, so James's surgery has been rescheduled again, for June 2 (next Wednesday -- yikes!)

We went in to the hospital yesterday so that the surgeon could take a look at James (or, more importantly, a listen to his lungs), and he said that as long as James didn't have anything more serious than a runny nose, that the surgery could proceed.

On the one hand it's nice to be getting it over with sooner, but on the other hand, Grandma Georgia already had plane tickets to come in on the 7th! Fortunately, Uncle Isaac and Aunt Erin can come visit next week and help us hold down the fort (or hold the Matthew, as the case may be).

James has gotten to be an expert at standing up in his crib. Last night, we tried to put him down three or four times, and every time we'd hear him chatting over the monitor and came in to find him standing up. (So, of course we gave in and let him play for a while even though it was past his usual bedtime.) He's also starting to use his legs the right way (one foot in front of the other), instead of just doing a pull-up with his arms to get to his feet. Go James!

[Top photo is from 5/15.]

Spring Day

Everyone enjoyed a little outdoor time this afternoon. Except, perhaps, for James, who slept through it all. To be fair, James visited the doctor today so he missed his nap, was stressed, and then fell asleep on the ride home. We moved him from the stroller to his crib shortly after the picture was taken.

Cranky

We are on cold number 4 around here -- somehow it seems one or the other of us has been sick almost the entire month of May. This time it's James, unfortunately. He's got a cough and was not very happy today. (I'm pretty sure the germs were introduced by someone who ought to have known better, so I'm not too amused by this either. And if you're reading this, then no, it wasn't you.) And Mattie still has a terrible runny nose, though he's mostly been in good spirits. I just hope we can line up a run of good health before James's surgery.

One side effect of the boys being sick is that their sleep schedule has gone completely haywire. I was up at least three times last night with Matthew and I think Mike was up more than that with James. And you'd think that would mean they'd nap better, but in fact it was just the reverse, so we're all dragging a bit.

Matthew is enjoying his standing-up skills. He stood himself up using just the wall (with a vent on it) yesterday (and then couldn't figure out how to get back down!) This morning, he stood up on my legs and then let go for a second, just testing it out. And he's tried to walk a little hanging on to furniture, but unfortunately he's tried to do it while making a turn at the same time, which has led to some rather spectacular looking sideways wipe-outs (fortunately onto well-padded surfaces, so no harm done).

This evening, Mattie heard Mike in the bathroom talking and running his (Matthew's) bath, and he crawled from the living room (otherwise known as "baby play area") down the hall and right into the bathroom. (I was right behind him; babies aren't allowed in the hallway unattended!) Clever boy!

Bonus Grandma Time

The boys got some bonus Grandma time yesterday afternoon and this morning -- Grandma stopped by on her way home from visiting Cousin Daniel.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Matthew and James say happy birthday to their daddy! (Mattie celebrated by staying up past his bedtime, a bit of a surprise to us since he didn't sleep well last night -- yet another cold! -- and didn't nap well either.)

Mike and I celebrated by going out to lunch. The babysitter said that the boys were well-behaved until right before we walked in the door, when she dared to set Matthew down so she could change James's diaper. We could hear the screaming from outside the house. Mattie definitely makes his opinions known! (Fortunately, he had lots of smiles for us today as well.)

Baby Swings

Instead of our usual evening walk around the neighborhood, we went to the park today. And so the boys got to have their first try at the baby swings! James seemed to really enjoy it; Matthew wasn't so sure about it but wanted to chew on the edge of the swing. (This is the exact opposite of what I would have predicted, given Mattie's love of being swung around and James's love of chewing on the edges of chairs.)

They're small enough to both fit in one swing (bottom picture), but they liked having their own space more. :)

By the way, in case I haven't mentioned it already, James's surgery has been rescheduled for June 9 (a Wednesday). Although it would be really nice to have it behind us already, it was also kind of great to be able to enjoy Mother's Day and the babies' birthday at home rather than in the hospital.

Babies in Good Standing

James has started pulling himself up to a standing position. Hooray for James! Unfortunately, his favorite thing to pull up on is the exersaucer, which is not a very stable support (since it's designed to rock). He also will just let go of whatever he's holding onto when standing, and while I appreciate his trust in the basic goodness of the universe, that's not exactly the best strategy for getting down! Hopefully he'll figure that out without learning the hard way (so far, I've been behind him to catch him). I'm pretty sure he's just on his knees in this picture; we haven't captured a standing-up photo yet.

Mattie has gotten quite good at pulling himself up, and he also seems to have the idea of sitting back down again (though we still follow close behind him, too!) The picture of him with Grandma is from a couple of days ago; she left on Sunday.

James has been initiating games of peek-a-boo. He'll pull a towel over his face and then back down again. So cute! (Mike has been playing lots of peek-a-boo with Matthew because we read somewhere that it helps them get over the separation anxiety by teaching them that things can disappear and reappear again.) James also likes the "sound effect game" -- when we're sitting in the easy chair, he'll tap on the arm of the chair, and I'll say "boom boom" every time he hits it -- he turns around with a huge grin and then starts tapping again.

Mattie was funny this morning. We have a big cardboard box in our entryway that a baby gate came in, and it has an orange circle on it with some text. Matthew crawled over to it, tapped right on the circle, and then when nothing happened, he banged on it again harder. He was clearly disappointed that this toy was broken; nothing happened when he pushed the button!

At Least It's Caffeine-Free

Matthew continues his kitchen exploration. :)

Mattie also seems to have entered the "separation anxiety" phase -- he occasionally decides he doesn't want to be left alone, or even put down, and screams bloody murder if you try. We're hoping this phase passes quickly, or our babysitter will start demanding hazard pay!

Birthday Boys

Since we had expected that James would still be in the hospital on the babies' birthday, we hadn't planned any kind of party in advance. (We figured that we would have a "birthday observed" celebration when he was back at home.) In the middle of the week it dawned on us that we should do a little something to celebrate, so we invited a few neighbors over for cake and ice cream. We had a cake for each boy, which also allowed us to get both chocolate and white cake! (And then, since it was going to be around dinner time, Mike decided to order pizza as well, and Grandma and Sue found decorations at the party store.)

It was a wonderful party (at least from our perspective!), and the babies seemed to really enjoy it as well. Their daddy even gave them their first taste of icing.

(Apologies to our local friends who don't happen to live on our street -- next time we have a party, hopefully we'll have more advance notice and can invite more people!)