Too Much of a Good Thing?

The good news is: Clara finished up her course of antibiotics yesterday. We're thrilled as this means we don't have to subject her to the indignity of the baby-sized syringe of medicine stuck in her cheek pocket twice a day, and her diaper rash should abate on its own. For the past week, her diaper rash has been kept at bay with a prescription concoction called--and we are not making this up--"Butt Paste." This has some sort of somehin'-somehin' in it, as well as an "anti-fungal" (and here, we fervently hope this last bit forever remains a prophylactic measure).

But we no more got one bottom healed up then the other wee bottom broke out in diaper rash, and Fans, we fear we are entirely to blame. As you, Joe's legion fans, know, Our Hero is mad for the fruit, especially the berries. We suspect we have allowed him too many blueberries. He's in detox for the berries, and we are now using the Butt Paste on him.

Another Rainy Day

Fans, it's another rainy day here--which means Raleigh doesn't quite know what to do with himself. Clara has also been a little out of sorts this morning (lots of burping, very uncomfortable). We'd no more worked out the burps and settled in for a good nurse, when Raleigh decided to begin bounding up and down off the bed at every little thing. It's no use hissing "No!" at him with every bit of menace you can muster because all bets are off on rainy days and "Really," you can hear him thinking, "you should know this by now." (Please note, dear Readers, that it is only RAINING. It's not storming. The dog is a mess.) Julie sighed; Clara rolled her eyes. We powered through and Baby Bird has settled into her first restful sleep of the day. But we're off to the lactation consultant in half an hour. Poor Baby Bird. It's just one thing after another today. But we are planning to stop at Rustica on our way home for a treat. Really, it's a way to avoid being in the house with Ribbons on a rainy day. Really, he should know this by now.

Tearing It Up With Graham

It had been a while since Sara and Julie had hung out with their boys, what with giving birth and all! It was too wet for the park this morning, so Sara and Graham came over to play. It wasn't too cold for the porch though, so Sara and Julie camped out there while the boys went back and forth between the porch and the living room. You can see that most things ended up in the porch. When we were cleaning up, Julie laughed upon discovering that every single toy from the basket and almost all of the toys from the bins in the living room had been carted to the porch (or, it may be that Joe was carting them to the threshold of the porch and tossing them in the porch?; tossing is here a polite euphemism for throwing--Julie recalls telling Joe "no throw"). The boys enjoyed a fine meal, too ("Pretend eat!"), after going to the grocery store for muffins and jam (really pretend eating as muffins and jam are not to be had among the plastic food offerings). Can't wait to see Clara and Connor tearing it up with the big boys before too long.

Big Boy Bed Update

The first night in the big boy bed came, and went. Looks like our Big Boy has a new roost. This means, Baby Bird will have a new napping roost on weekdays, when Big Brother Joe is at school--only during weekdays for now. Don't want Big Brother Joe seeing his former nest honed in on so quickly. It also means: The Return of the Mobile! Hooray! Julie has so missed the mobile which twirls mesmerizingly and plays classical ditties and keeps wee ones occupied for about half an hour sometimes.

Big Boy Bed

Today was a big day in this Ekkers household...Joe transitioned to his "big boy bed!" Loyal fans will know that his twin bed has been set up for several months now, and we have been waiting for a sign from God to tell us when to transition him. The sign came in the form of a chicken salad sandwich from Panera. That is what Julie was eating on Friday when she suggested making the transition this weekend. So this morning, we had Joe "help" Ted put together the bed rail for his bed. We also talked about how wonderful this big boy bed would be all day long. We even had him try it out with his blanket and ducks, and he seemed to get the idea. When it came time for nap, we put him down in the new bed and he squawked only a little more than usual as he got himself to sleep. He never moved from the traditional sleep position, so our fears of him scrambling off the bed to hunt us down were unrealized. When he woke up, he still lingered in the bed until Ted showed up. Ted climbed in the bed while Joe rolled around rubbing his eyes and then Ted dragged him to the foot of the bed - which made Joe giggle. And to top it all off, there were warm freshly baked cookies waiting for him for a post-nap snack. Some people pay a lot of money for this type of life...Joe gets it for the occasional hug.