Yesterday

It started at 4:40, when E woke up and refused to let us put him back down. He was hurting. His canines. Getting him to bed the last several nights has been difficult (multiple bouts of rocking and crying), which is unusual for him. He's also woken up mid-nap a few times and needed Tylenol.

Later yesterday morning (it was a long morning) I scared myself by falling on the stairs. I was carrying a huge basket of laundry, and E was downstairs on the other side of the gate, waiting for me. I fell down a couple of stairs and landed on the landing on my knees and one of my feet jammed into the baseboard. I started sobbing immediately for some reason even though I wasn't seriously hurt. E thought I was laughing, so he started laughing the laugh he does when he wants to be in on the joke but doesn't know what's funny, until I came down the stairs. He stopped laughing as soon as he saw me, and a look of grave concern came over his face. He watched me closely and hugged me. He is so sweet, that one.

After nap we were playing outside when I realized he was poopy, so I changed him on our new changing table downstairs, but then realized the diaper cream was upstairs. He's had a terrible diaper rash that was even bleeding yesterday morning, so I wanted to be sure and put cream on his bum. I put him down to run around naked while I ran upstairs to get the cream. You can probably guess what happened: Came back down the stairs and found him frozen in the kitchen with a huge pile of soft poo on the floor behind him and a puddle of pee on the floor in front of him. He didn't know what was going on or what to do. Up until now he's been completely oblivious to all things potty related, although he did ask me two days ago to take his diaper off so he could sit on his potty. I think he'd seen one of the co-op girls doing this; I don't think he's realized the purpose of it yet. Anyway, yeah, cleaning up a steaming pile of shit from the kitchen floor was a first for me. I'm just glad I succeeded in keeping him from running his vacuum through it. It was a close call, as we both apparently had a lot of cleaning to do.

A bit later, before bedtime, I was checking email before reading to him and he was behind me with an empty bottle of Motrin (which he loves to play with), a half-full bottle (which had the childproof cap on), and his little medicine cup. I swear I don't usually let him have an un-empty bottle, but he was going to bed in a few minutes, and it wasn't worth the battle to keep it from him (I thought). I just didn't think there was any way he could get the cap off. We both pretended to pour and sip the medicine and smack our lips, and then I turned back to my computer. Soon thereafter it dawned on me that he'd gotten very quiet, and then I realized that he'd uttered a gleeful, triumphant sound a few seconds before. I turned around and he was standing there with a giant grin on his face and two empty bottles of Motrin. I looked down and the carpet was covered in purple goo, as was the front of his shirt. It took me a minute to realize that he'd probably swallowed some himself before dumping it. And I'd already given him a teaspoon. I wasn't too worried, to be honest, but I wanted to call Poison Control anyway. They were super nice (and even called back this morning to check in). Turns out he could've swallowed an entire bottle and been fine. Good to know. Needless to say, he slept like a rock last night.

So, those were the day's highlights. Which I really didn't have time to just write out. But oh well.
It wasn't a bad day at all (and we had a great time at the park in the morning), it was just long and . . . eventful.

All Hail the Fuzzi Bunz

Yesterday when E and I were down on South Congress, we stopped at Austin Baby to pick up some more cloth diapers. I'd been holding out for more of the Bum Genius 3.0s (a shipment was due in soon), but since I don't get down that way too often, I decided to go ahead and buy a few Fuzzi Bunz since they were in stock. We now have three of each kind (FB and BG, I mean), plus three extra inserts (you can reuse the covers if you let them air dry in between changes) and some flushable diaper liners that keep poop off the diapers. (And we have six prefolds, but I'm spoiled now and hate to use them.) Anywayyyyyy, let me tell you something: Fuzzi Bunz are the BEST. I love, love, love them. Love them. More than Bum Genius. They're incredibly soft, not as bulky, and they use snaps instead of velcro. They run bigger than Bum Genius, so size medium (which is what we're using now) will probably last until E is potty-trained. Yesterday's total came to $86. Nothing to sneeze at, but worth it. I can't wait to buy three more next month.

A Few Things at the End of the Day

Kay and baby Jonas came over this afternoon, and I feel much better about rotavirus. Jonas wasn't vaccinated for it either, and Kay reminded me that there wasn't a vaccine for it at all until recently.

Austin Baby Store got an order of Bum Genius diapers in last week, so we picked up three on Saturday. We LOVE them. They're expensive but they'll save us money in the long run. They're one-size-fits-all, newborn up to thirty-five pounds. And they're just wonderful. I got another call from Austin Baby saying that the Fuzzi Bunz were in, but I'm tempted to just stick with Bum Genius and slowly accumulate a good number. Today was the first day we were able to use cloth from start to finish.

Eamon really came out of his shell when our friends were here today. He's usually quiet and reserved in front of them (and other people), while Jonas is more outgoing. But today Eamon was in his element. Sitting up like a pro, yelling and babbling and roaring, laughing, reaching for things, demanding attention. It was hilarious. Kay had never seen him like this. They were still here at 5:00 when TJ stopped working, so he came upstairs and we hung out for a while longer. Eamon and Jonas were sitting up next to each other making crazy noises and just being babies. We decided that now that E is rocking some dental bling, he's ready to make a statement. You know, show off his mad skillz.

It's true that he has experienced major developments in the past two weeks. Rolling, sitting up, and his first tooth. Man alive, everyone says it goes by so quickly, and everyone is right.

Peace out.

The Anniversary of the Bobble Head, Visit from Gramma, Cloth Diapers are Acquired

TJ gave me this monkey bobble head for our anniversary. There's a place behind the monkey's head where I can put a picture. (Of who, I wonder?) He also got me a super funky necklace and a ring that matches. They're fabulous. My gift sort of sucked in comparison. Oh well. I vow to do better next year. He's so hard to buy for. I think I need to plan my gift for him way in advance.

We had a nice anniversary evening. We all went to Central Market in the late afternoon and got a Porterhouse steak and a piece of turtle cheesecake and a cantaloupe to have with some prosciutto, which we used to order as an appetizer at this one restaurant in DC. It's heavenly. We had the steak with frozen green beans and a sweet potato, both of which we already had at home. After dinner we exchanged gifts and I printed out some old emails and an IM between us from 2002. They were crazy to read. I think we sound like completely different people. I also printed out our vows and we read them to each other.

TJ flew to DC the next morning (yesterday) for work, and he's coming home sometime after midnight tonight. I've missed him, especially last night when I got up at 4:00 with Eamon and didn't realize at first that he wasn't next to me. My stepmom Gwen came over at the end of the day yesterday and spent the night. We had a great visit, and Eamon had lots of fun with Gramma, which made me happy. I was glad they got some quality time together. She fed him solid food last night and helped bathe him, and this morning they played together while I went back to bed for an hour (so nice). Then she put him down for his nap (and he went down easily with her, I was glad to see).

She left about 11:30 this morning, and E and I went to the Austin Baby Store in the afternoon to find out about cloth diapers. We've been using disposables up until now, but I'd like to switch to cloth during the day, especially since we're home most of the time. They were out of size medium in Fuzzi Bunz and Bum Genius, so I got six prefolds and two covers to start with, and they'll call when they get more of the other kind in. The prefolds have to be washed five times before they can be used, so that's what I'm in the process of doing now. They sent me home with some special detergent to use as well as a page of washing instructions. I'm excited to try it out.

Well, I'm surprised this post makes any sense. I'm so tired I can hardly see straight.
Must . . . go . . . to . . . bed.