The Midnight Blues

I was awakened this morning by the sound of someone crying and coughing. I tapped Ted on the leg to wake him, and he got out of bed to investigate. But, after a few minutes it was clear that this wasn't going to be a quick pat them on the back and tuck them back in trip upstairs. I rolled over and got out of bed. A quick squint in the direction of the clock told me it was 4:12. It was Mattie crying, and his cold had turned into croup. Ted was upstairs looking for the nebulizer. I quickly turned on the hot shower and motioned for Ted and Mattie to go in there. I grabbed some Benadryl and gave it to Mattie. I set the nebulizer up for them upstairs, and crawled back into bed. Luckily, Ted handles almost all of the nighttime disturbances, at least while I am either pregnant or nursing a new baby (which, honestly, has been most of the last 8 years, right?) So, back in bed, I closed my eyes and was able to fall back to sleep quickly. Ted spent an hour or so upstairs with Mattie trying to get his cough quieted enough for him to go back to sleep.

My next wake up call came in the form of fussing and grunting. This time it was Theo, and it was 6:30. Ted was back in bed asleep. I picked Theo up out of his beautiful little nest, and got back in bed to nurse him. A short while later, I returned him to his bed, and decided that, although I really should be getting up, I would lie back down for just a few more minutes. I dozed off again, and the next thing I knew, it was 7:20. (Which happens to be very late when you are supposed to head out the door for camp at 8:10.) Having been up for a while during the night, Mattie didn't get up until around 8:30. Jack told us he didn't feel well, and his cough was bothering him, so we kept him home from camp today as well.

Ted and I both come from allergic families. We also both have allergies ourselves. So, we're no strangers to asthma, or the croupy cough that asthmatic children so often get with colds. But, our familiarity with it doesn't make it any easier to watch. Mattie spent the day today alternating between lying down with his "Tita", having coughing fits, and sneezing huge piles of "mocos" out. (Except for the trip to the mall I dragged him on, in the pouring rain no less, while everyone gave me dirty looks and took a few step back each time he coughed.) He got Albuterol nebulizer treatments every 4 hours, and a total of 220 mg of Flovent during the day. We went through this with Jack for about 2-3 years when he was a toddler, but, luckily, he seems to have outgrown it. They called Jack's scenario "reactive airway", because he only ever had flair up as a reaction to a respiratory infection. Mattie seems to have that croupy cough every day, unless he takes his Flovent. A low daily dose keeps it away, for the most part. So, we believe that Mattie has true asthma, as opposed to just reactive airway. But,ultimately, only time will tell.

Before I had kids, I thought of parenting as a full time job, but I was completely unaware of what the reality of being on call 24-7-365 could possible feel like. And, as I graduate from being a parent of one to a parent of two, three, and four, the number of times those "on-call" hours turn into "I've-gotta-go-to-work" hours keeps increasing as well. I readily confess that the hours when the kids are in bed are my favorite hours of the day. Honestly, I spend most of those hours asleep. After all, I only get about 9 hours between the time the last bedroom door closes and the time the first feet climb out of bed. (And even less if you count the time they're actually asleep, not just in bed.) But, for the hour or two in the evening when I'm awake and they're asleep, I savor every minute! I even find myself staying up late (even when I'm utterly exhausted,) just because I crave more of those quiet hours.

Right now is one of those time. Mattie is up in bed asleep. (Still suffering through coughs that sound like a seal's bark every few minutes, but asleep nonetheless.) Jack is in his bed. Theo and Elliot are sleeping quietly in our room. (We'll move Elliot back up to his room shortly, once we're sure both he and Jack are asleep. We move the boys around sometimes to let them fall asleep more quickly, and therefore get a better night sleep.) In a few minutes, I'll crawl into bed. And hopefully, no one will need me all night long.

Happy Birthday Jack!

The quote of the day-
"I know that it's right, because I observated it myself." (Jack)

Today is Jack's 8th birthday. I can't believe how fast 8 years have gone. I know that is what everyone tells you when they talk about their own grown kids, but it is so true. Jack is hard to buy a present for. He's too old for toys. Like most other children these days, he already has one of almost everything. And, since we don't encourage tv or electronic gaming in our house, things like Wii and DS are out too. So, I took him to our favorite toy store last week to choose a gift from Grammy, and he spent close to an hour diligently scanning the stores shelves. He picked a small aquarium that houses a sort of enclosed ecosystem, with two miniature frogs and one snail. It's very low maintenance, and seems like a good opportunity for Jack to experience pet ownership with very little work for me. Ted gave him a full set of Red Sox baseball cards. Elliot wants me to take him to the store tonight to pick out a piece of candy for Jack, a chompo bar, perhaps. I ordered him some wiffle ball base and strike zone nets. We'll serve his favorite dinner (other than sushi, since we're having that this weekend) on the "special" plate - hamburgers on the grill, smiley face fries, and cucumber salad.

I drove him to camp this morning like usual, and made sure to tell him all the things about him that are special: his kind heart and gentleness, his intelligence, his love of sports and puzzles, how he still likes to cuddle with us, his wonderful ability to draw, his special love of babies, how kind he is to his little brothers, and his handsome face! I also made sure to tell him how much I love him, and I put a little note to that effect together in his lunch today as well. Happy Birthday Jack!

Moments with Elliot

One of the most amazing things for me as a parent has been discovering how very different my four children are. Each pregnancy felt very similar to me; all four boys looked strikingly alike at birth. Yet, over the years, I have come to know each child's personality, and they are unbelievably different. To watch the unfolding and development of a unique human being is nothing short of an incredible journey. With all four of them at home together, it's not often that I get to spend much time alone with any one of them (save maybe a few quiet moments nursing Theo.) But, those special one-on-one moments, when they do happen, offer priceless glimpses into those individual personalities. All four boys like to talk, (those of you who know me well, will undoubtedly find that easy to believe, ) but Elliot is my biggest talker by far. While Jack and Mattie talk mainly because they feel compelled to share something with us, Elliot just talks to talk. If he thinks it, he says it. Period. He can frequently be heard walking around the house talking to himself. He replays events that happened earlier in the day, explains things to himself, and just carries on simple conversations. On Saturday we went blueberry picking. The boys typically tire of picking way before we have amassed as many as Ted and I would like. So, after an hour of so of picking in the very hot sun, I took Mattie, Theo and Jack over to the farm stand to sit in the shade and play for a while. Ted and Elliot kept picking. This farm has some pretty stiff regulations that require everyone to pick a bush clean before moving on to another bush. As a consequence of this, they tend to have small crowds of people picking in tiny roped off areas which they are constantly moving down the field. Ted and Elliot were diligently working on their bush. All the while Elliot chattered away, with Ted throwing in an "oh" or "yes" now and then. There were times when he he had trouble staying focused on Elliot's ramblings, but there were also a few instances when he could barely stifle his laughter. His favorite? When they moved from one side of the bush to another, and Elliot exclaimed, "whoa - we hit the mothering load!" Elliot also had an entire conversation himself as to whether he could take back something he'd already said. And no, he hasn't been watching Seinfeld re-runs. The woman who was working on the next bush was apparently taking this all in as well. Ted said he could hear her chuckling from time to time, and watched as she would look at Elliot and smile, particularly after his more precocious comments. When Elliot did finally stop to draw a breath, the woman started a conversation with him.
"What are you going to make with your blueberries?" she asked.
"Blueberry pie, " he answered.
"Me too," she continued. "Do you like blueberries in your cereal?"
"No," he replied, with a look of complete incomprehension. "I'm a kid."

Belly Button Powers

Mattie has been sneezing for the last few days. I suspected he was coming down with a cold. Jack started coughing last night. Theo woke up sneezing and coughing this morning, and Mattie had a temp of 99.1. Suspicion over. Cold confirmed. All that remains is to wait and see how many more dominoes fall.

Theo had his 4 month well visit today. He weighed 16 lbs 10 oz, and measured 27 in. That put him in the 80th percentile for weight, and the 97th for height. Yep, he's a big kid. He's not too happy right now, but at least he's sleeping. Three shots and one oral vaccine on top of a fresh cold aren't fun.

The big kids are still in camp this week, so it was up to Mattie and me to accompany Theo to the doctor. As I was bucking Mattie into his carseat, he looked me right in the eye and in a low voice said, "My belly button has great powers." I replied to this revelation with a sly smile, "Yes, belly buttons are very special." I finished bucking him into his seat and backed out of the van. He looked at me again in earnest and repeated, "My belly button has great powers." I smiled and slid the door closed. It was so important, he told me twice.

Able was I, ere I saw Elba

Scrabble is not the only obsession in our household.

As I drove the kids to camp this morning, Mattie asked me to open his window. He sits in the last row, beside one of those casement style windows, which only opens a few inches, and opens out, rather than up and down. I happily obliged him. He soon followed with a request to open Elliot's window (which is a real window in the middle row of seats.) My gut reaction was to say, "no" and offer some explanation as to why it's not a good idea to drive around opening and closing everyone's windows, but I caught myself and stopped. I was suddenly struck by the recollection of a newspaper article a friend wrote some time back. The article was about an M-n-M Sandwich, and implored its readers to consider indulging our kids more often, not with more toys or junk food, per se, but simply by saying "yes" to their often small and harmless requests. I was also simultaneously hit with a flashback to the days of my childhood, when car air conditioning was still unusual, and, as my father led us to believe, somewhat temperamental. (I have very strong memories of our first car that had air conditioning. It was great, unless we hit stop and go traffic. Then, we had to immediately turn off the AC to avoid overheating the car. We, coincidentally, only ever seemed to get stuck in that type of traffic on 95 degree days, when you could see the heat rising up off the asphalt.) So, with only a momentary pause to ponder these things, I silently rolled down both middle row windows. An unexpected hush came over the car. The wind was blowing our hair, and the sounds of the road and the city had come alive. I found myself reaching for the two front window controls without even being asked. With a smile spreading slowly across my face, I reached upwards and pressed yet another button. The sunroof slid smoothly backwards, and sunlight poured in. I'm not sure who was more surprised by this whole chain of events, me or the kids. I can't remember the last time I drove down the road with all the windows open. It was definitely better than I remembered. I couldn't believe how many noises we could hear, and how much more I felt like a part of the world. I was beginning to think about how many experiences I was depriving my children of, by figuratively keeping the windows closed around them at all times, when I was interrupted from my thoughts by Elliot. "I thought of another palindrome," he said. Palindromes, and homonyms, homophones, and sometimes rhyming words and names, are all topics of much interest and frequent discussion in our house. He spouted out his new discovery, "Radar. R-A-D-A-R." This was quickly followed by his exciting list of yay, gag, and redder, all of which had just occurred to him for the first time. Then, he announced, with even more enthusiasm, that he had also thought of a new pair of homonyms: steal and steel. So, with pleasant thoughts of palindromes and homonyms, we drove to camp, the wind in our hair the rest of the way. A man, a plan, a canal. Panama.

SCRABBLE

The kids have been obsessed with Scrabble for the last few months. It started when one of them discovered a version of the game on the computer. Besides the obvious online injection of dopamine, the PC version made it very easy for them to learn the rules, play against each other or alone, check words in the official Scrabble Dictionary, learn to keep score, and even gave them hints when they asked for them. After a few weeks of being nagged to let them play on the computer constantly, I sent Ted to our storage unit to retrieve our regular and travel Scrabble games. The boys were delighted! And, thanks to the swift learning curve with the computer version, they were off and running with the real game, completely on their own. They play together. They play alone. They create fantasy Scrabble boards with impossible 10-letter words. And, on the few occasions I've had time to play with them, the games are very close. Thanks to the online dictionary, they know far more 2 letter words that I will probably ever know. They also know every word that starts with the letter Q. They talk triple word scores, and proudly (and instantly) shout out their scores. They even taught me the Scrabble term "bingo", which is a play using all 7 of your tiles. (I still haven't gotten one yet, but they have.) Elliot's proudest moment? "Quizzers", using a blank for the second Z. Now, if only they could tell me what all the words they play mean...

Conversations with Mattie

Jack and Elliot started camp today, so I got to spend much more time than usual with Mattie this morning, including a 30 minute car ride home from camp. He speaks well enough that I sometimes forget how little he is. But soon enough his immature conversational skills surface, and I can't help but remember that he's only 2. Our conversation this morning went something like this:

Mattie's comments are in all caps to express the level of excitement in his voice.

"LOOK, A FIRE ENGINE!"
"Yes, it's a fire engine."
"IT HAS IT'S LIGHTS ON!"
"Wow, it sure does."
"IT HAS IT'S LIGHTS ON MAMA."
"Yes, it has it's lights on."
"IT MUST BE GOING BACK TO THE FIRE STATION!"
"Hmmm. Maybe."
"I THINK IT'S GOING BACK TO THE FIRE STATION!"
"You're right, it must be going back to the fire station."
"LOOK, A WATERFALL!"
"Yes, a waterfall."
"LOOK A POLICE CAR!"
"Yes, I see the police car."
"LOOK, DUNKIN DONUTS, MAMA!"
"Yes, I see Dunkin Donuts too."
"I LOVE DUNKIN DONUTS!"
"Yes, I love Dunkin Donuts too."
"LOOK, AN AMBULANCE!"
"Oh, wow, we've seen so many different vehicles this morning!"
"IT'S AN AMBULANCE, MAMA."
"Yes, it's an ambulance."
"IT'S A BIG AMBULANCE!"
"Yes, it's a big ambulance."
"IT DOESN'T HAVE IT'S LIGHTS ON TODAY."
"No, it doesn't have it's lights on today."
"IT MUST BE GOING BACK TO THE AMBULANCE STATION!"
"Yes, I think it is going back to the ambulance station too."
"LOOK, A DIGGER!"
"LOOK, A TRAIN!"
...

Sometimes, listening, and repeating everything he says back to him, takes so much effort, that I have trouble concentrating on the road! But, he thinks there's nothing better than a nice, long talk with Mama. Lucky for him, we'll be getting back in the car in just a few short minutes for afternoon pick-up.

Summer in Boston

Today is an absolutely beautiful and exemplary summer day in Boston. It is 82 degrees. The strong sun shine convinces you that it's hotter, but the gentle breeze and cool shade remind you that it's not. We packed up lunch, a wiffle bat and balls, and more gear than it seems possible to need for one day, and headed to the Frog Pond on the Common. Jack and Elliot rushed into the water and spent about 15 minutes there, then spent the rest of their time playing ball. Mattie just got in and out of the water over and over again. We got Italian Ices on the walk home, and an ice cold iced tea for me. I'd say that the boys all had a great time, had their constant complaints not assured me otherwise.

I read a Jack Prelutsky poetry book to the kids the other night and was surprised at how simple it was. So, while I nursed Theo back at home this afternoon, I let my mind wander enough to come up with the following (it's actually a song, not a poem, but I don't know how to post music, and I wouldn't dare sing it myself online anyway.)

I love you in the morning,
and in the afternoon.
I love you in the evening,
and underneath the moon.

I love you when you're happy,
and when you're sad and blue.
I'll love you when you're turning one,
and when you're 82.

You are my darling baby,
and my little shining star.
You are the start of dreams I have,
I hope you'll take them far.

And now, with Theo and Mattie sleeping soundly, I'm off to the grocery store. Then, long after I've put all the groceries away, made dinner, cleaned up dinner, and put the boys to bed, hopefully I'll get to unpacking all that stuff we packed up this morning.

Baseball Cards

Instead of stories tonight, Ted and Elliot sat on Elliot's bed and put Elliot's new baseball and hockey cards into an album. Elliot is very proud to have an almost complete Red Sox roster. He asked Ted to read him the name of every player he has a card for, and they sorted them by team. I sat in the rocking chair and nursed Theo. Ted is really enjoying re-living his childhood love of sports and baseball cards with Jack and Elliot.