A night to remember

Two nights ago was truly a night worth mentioning.  What makes it special is that, for the first time in roughly a month, the boys slept through.  Alla and I were treated to something we practically forgot - namely two children who went to sleep at 7:30 pm and woke up at 6:36 am.  Last night was still better than most - Zev woke up around five.  I came over, told him it was still night and exited.  After a minute or two, he went back to sleep.  The general quarters wake up call was sounded 5 minutes after 6 am.  Not bad.

Improvements in walking continue.  Zev prefers to walk upright while holding onto things - walls, furniture, someone's hand.  Benjamin, on the other hand, hates walking while holding hands.  Instead, he gets up and walks a few meters before plunking down on all four.  In fact, he is now starting to try to go over small obstacles upright (up or down small single steps).  If he looses his balance, he lands on his hands and thinks this a terrific joke.  In his near future I see a few falls and rapid progress.  Yes, grandparents, we will endeavor to curtail the former without hindering the latter.

Recently the boys were exposed to some of my colleagues at the company picnic.  Or, I should rather say, the personnel of the company were exposed to the boys.  Zev and Benjamin, arriving in a separate plastic car each, were a hit.  One chagrined colleague informed me that Ben gave her a terrific smile right after she took the picture.  The boys also enjoyed interacting with the live ponies.  Zev rode a few laps while holding onto mom who was walking beside the horse.  Benjamin, on the other hand, was not his adventurous self and settled for petting the ponies's face, but refused the ride.

Lastly, last weekend the boys had their first swimming lesson.  They had a great time.  Today is lesson two and I will report on that later.

another facet of normal

This too, I shall share.  Last night started rather late for us, as Zev was up from 11:30 to roughly 1 am - presumably, teething.  He spent the time either physically in Mom's arms, or sitting in his bed, screaming full bore, not even trying to sleep.  When he finally quieted down, I was to wound up to sleep, so took the opportunity to answer a few e-mails I could not get to during my very restful long weekend.  I am figuring it was around 1:30 or so when I fell asleep.  And then it was 5:48, Benjamin was screaming, and my day started with cleaning up liquid shit.

I changed both kids and stayed in their room for roughly 40 minutes, listening to the whining from one or the other, cleaning up also two fully runny noses (daily trips to the playground in the mall are certainly paying off).  After that I decided it was important for Alla to participate while I share these few words with you.

The reason I try to volunteer for the morning duty is because I firmly believe we did this to ourselves and deserve nothing better.  This underlying belief shapes my daily parenthood experience.  Add in the knowledge that there are multiple years of this in store, and you have an idea of my basic outlook on life.  Please, save your sympathy.

I also need to go to work a little earlier, so that I can leave early enough to get some childproofing equipment, and possible new doorknobs, on the way home from work.  You see, today I observed Benjamin finally succeeding in opening the door to his room.  He was not entirely able to get out, but that should no more than a dozen attempts away.

Therefore, my gentle reader, I am now off to my 8 am conference call where I shall have to exercise a great deal of diplomacy and tact.  To be followed, undoubtedly, by what will be a very productive workday.  Needless to say, should I fall asleep on the drive home and rap my car around a concrete embankment, that will be just fine with me, thank you very much.  Now, should I forget to use my seat belt today for best effect? Hmmm...

treachery 101

Another recent change in the boys is first indication of deviousness and scheming.  Allow me to explain.  Recently the boys decided that sneaking past me out of the room in the morning is fun.  And it is fun, because I go after them and drag them back - for outside the room lie, among other things, the office (interesting, but full of danger), the bathroom (of many hard surfaces), the bedroom where mom sleeps, and, of course, the long, steep stairs.  All great fun and allowed, but not unsupervised.  Thus, the escaping, the grabbing, and the returning.  Of course, there is a price to pay for the fun sometimes.  For instance, on a recent occasion I had to grab both escapees at once.  Ben squirmed, and got loose just as I was bringing them in for a landing.  A predictable result - Ben cluncked his jaw on my leg and bit his tong.  Evidently, he has enough teeth to draw blood with.  He was genuinely puzzled when he went to explore his mouth (while crying, of course) and his fingers came out with red on them.  Within two minutes, he was back to escaping.

What is important is that the boys understand that escaping is a game - while I am changing one of them, the other would take a step toward the door, then look back to see if I was going to come after him.  If I am busy, the boys are usually content to play in the room.

Alla reported a very similar incident.  While playing downstairs one of the boys initiated an unauthorized ascent of the stairs (the gate as left open).  Alla grabbed him after he got a few steps up.  A short climb followed by a ride on mom, you say?  Awesome!  As soon as crawler 1 was taken off the stairs and deposited some distance away, crawler 2 was already a couple of steps up and crawler 1 was getting ready.  Grab, put down, repeat indefinitely.  After peeling both of the boys off the stairs a few times Alla finally closed the gate.  It should be mentioned here that the only time the boys ever show reluctance to climb, naturally, is at night when we want them to self-propel up to their room for bed.

But this is not the deviousness yet, you say!  Well, hang on!  A few days ago Zev and I engaged in what looked like a competitive game.  I blocked the way out of their bedroom, Zev tried to get by, by going around me.  Well, I am larger and can block the way.  Zev would find his way blocked, laugh, and try to go around.  Find me moved, turn around, repeat.  The game went on to mutual delight for a few minutes and then Zev employed what was an excellent fake.  No idea if it was intentional or a random event - but he went right for one step, changed direction and went left.  Here my size played against me and I really had to scramble to get him.  He earned it - he snuck by, was allowed to get nearly to the door and was grabbed there.

Another time Zev got hold of Ben's blanked, took it away and had a great laugh as his brother tried to get his blanky back.  The laugh, I was told, was not evil, but the act sure was.

Benjamin recently has had nice displays of cunning of his own.  The two "off-limits" items in the boys room are the diaper pail and the trash bin - for obvious reasons.  Ah, but they are big, white, and the diaper pail has a blue handle that moves (thank you, Sergey and Rekha - your gift is in year two of use and not slowing down).  Now that the boys can reach the handle - the pail beckons.  Clearly, the boys know that they are not allowed to play with the two items - we pull them off routinely and, in fact, they look to check our reaction as they grab for the pail's handle.  This morning Ben crawled over, heard me say "don't even think about it", and went to play with the clothing boxes - those are shaped like a frog and a monkey, are "playable", and conveniently situated right next to the forbidden items.  Ben got up, started playing, looked at me to confirm it was OK... and after a few seconds lunged for the diaper pail.  Well played, sir, well played.

... and another early morning post

You have to excuse my lack of creativity with post names, my gentle reader.  That's it, no clever explanation, just deal with it.

You may have also noticed that the previous post ends somewhat abruptly.  Very observant of you.  Indeed, that was dictated by the boys who informed me loudly that they want their morning cartoons.  In fact, even as I type Zev demands my attention.  Let's see if he can help me type.  Being the more patient of the two, there is hope.

Back to recent events.  A couple of nights ago Zev woke up and cried.  I was dispatched to pick him up.  Which I did, to Zev's continued crying.  And cry he did, inconsolably, for another two or three minutes.  Alla finally walked in.  Zev extended his arms towards mom and was picked up.  At roughly 0.7 seconds of physical contact with mom, not quite in Alla's arms, Zev was quiet.  The little brat.  I went to sleep.

In another event, one I have not witnessed, Ben took hold of a toy they both wanted (lately it has been a toy cell phone that talks and plays music).  Zev went after the toy, of course.  Ben held onto the toy, then went (OK, crawled) to the box, got another toy and gave it to Zev.  No idea if it worked, but the thought was nice.

A habit recently acquired by Zev is pulling hair of whoever happens to be in vicinity.  As you can imagine, Alla and aunt Olga are the primary sufferers.  At yesterday's Costco trip the target was Ben, while the boys shared a ride in a cart.  As you can imagine, the indignant crying that resulted (from both, you betcha), was epic.  This prompts a question of a) means of immediately altering behavior that do not involve physical punishment and b) means of long-term behavior correction, such as teaching not to pull hair via a stern "нельзя!" (not allowed!) and instantaneous punishment by withholding attention for a minute per year of age.  To be pondered later.

This morning Zevi woke up at 5:30 on the nose.  While Alla and I were debating the merits of getting him vs. letting him ride it out in order to teach him that 5:30 is still 'night', the crying continued.  In a true example of family consensus, Alla finally said "I am getting him" and went to grab Zev.  By that point, of course, Ben was awake and cried at the unfairness of being left in the room as Zev was picked up.  It was a great time for all of us to be awake anyway, right?  I, certainly, was too angry (at no one in particular) to sleep at that point.

On this cheerful note, I will wish everyone a more restful and less exhaustingly anger-filled Sunday morning than I have had so far.

early morning post

The life has somewhat returned to normal.  I say this with a grain of salt, as "normal" sometimes includes waking up before 6am.  But them, as they say, is the breaks.

The boys have recently learned to say "дать" (to give).  As in "дать тебе печеньку?" - "shall I give you a cookie"?  So now when they want something, they point and say "give", using the infinitive form.  Better than nothing.

The incidents of walking, while still limited to 3-5 steps, become somewhat more frequent.  At a recent Gymboree trip Alla and I noticed that the boys can now negotiate any and all obstacles there, entirely at will and without assistance.  They do, also, continue to show a strong independent streak -- with little regard for the teacher's plans, Benjamin and Zev play when they want and where they want.

less red, more itchy

The day after the redness showed up my parents provided caution as to what was to come and offered advice on combating itchiness of the receding hives.  Naturally, since the doctor did not recommend any sort of ointment to us, we assumed the itchy hives did not apply to modern US babies.  Later same night we were, once again, reminded that the basic design of a baby is the same, regardless of country of manufacture.  In other words, we were wrong, my parents were right.  And boy, were they...

All of Ben was itching.  Badly.  The night was basically a blur, with Benjamin sleeping in his bed (hardly), not sleeping in his bed, sleeping on top of Alla, not sleeping in bed with us (mostly).  Around 5 am Alla gave up and went downstairs with him.  Zev slept late and had to be woken up around 7 am.  Left to his own devices he would have slept more, making up for the crummy night his brother treated him to.

The next night Ben slept, but Zev woke up a quarter to 6.  My turn.  Another slightly zombified day, followed by another short-ish night.  Honestly, it blurs a bit at this point.  I do recall that Alla has taken the morning shift on at least two occasions, for which I am dramatically grateful.  Interestingly, once both boys are awake, things are better and even Ben is everyday slightly less red and slightly less itchy.  The itch returns  in the evening, promising adventures each night.  We continue to give Benjamin the aptly name Benya-dryl.  Ben, on the other hand, has just about had enough of pink substances administered via a plastic syringe.  This morning he, as usual, shook his had vigorously at the sight of the thing and cried when I got hold of his head. Alla took over and in one fluid motion squirted the entire dose (all of 3.75 ml) into Ben's mouth, resulting in a Benadryl geyser.  I refilled and went back to the "one drop at a time" approach.  I could have sword Ben saw me, stopped fighting, calmly let me drop some in his mouth and blew a raspberry.  Then again.  I gave up and went to work.

In the evening I knew we had no choice, so down the gullet the meds went.  At this point the kids are asleep, so is Alla (no idea how she lasted today - I know I struggled to 6 pm) and shall follow suite.

one... red... baby!

Benjamin is red.  There are no two ways about it.  He is red.  End I don't mean political views.  I mean color.  More intense and spotty yesterday, more subdued and even color today.  All that - compliments of an allergy to an antibiotic Benjamin was taking for his ear infection.

Now, you have to admire Benjamin's sense of timing.  For five days he was taking the meds just fine.  he waited until mom and dad were about 9 hours into their two-night getaway to the coast.  Then he developed the coloration an oophaga pumilio would envy (posting of a picture is currently vetoed by mom and is being negotiated).  Naturally, we got back by 10:45 the next morning and took Benjamin to see his doctor.  She immediately recognize the allergy for what it was and sent us home with Benadryl.  

This morning Benjamin continues to exhibit a red color, though it is not quite as intense.  He is still a touvh warm, but slept well and woke and good spirits and is eating well.  

In other news...  Zev is now up to three consecutive steps.  Zev also has the distinction of being the first of the brothers to draw some else's blood.  My own, in fact.  This morning, while playing with me, Zev decided to give me a hug, which resulted in a full-body headbutt to the lower lip.  Said lip was slightly busted, giving Zev the honor of first blood!

Antibiotics, day 6

We are currently in day six of the antibiotic course with Benjamin.  The meds seem to be working - Ben is consistently in a better mood and has been sleeping well (t'fu-t'fu).  He is pretty used to the routine by now, and takes his 5ml is five or 6 sips, with milk to wash them down in between.  Sometimes he obligingly lowers the bottle and opens his mouth to get the meds.

The interaction continues to improve.  In the mornings the boys are usually glad to see me and want to spend time in my lap.  This often leads to jockeying for the best position.  While reading, there is usually room enough for both, but when they decide to explore my head (beard and teeth are of interest presently), someone sooner or later ends up slapping me or his brother.  They get one warning and on second offense are summarily expelled from the lap.  For the most part, things work.

Today also I observed a brief instance of genuine play between Zev and Ben.  Zev was in my lap, Ben was just serving out his sentence behind my back for slapping his brother.  Ben crawled around me and peeked at Zev.  Zev moved is head and peeked back.  For the next 20-30 seconds the boys played peek-a-boo with each other, using me as an obstacle.

The other change is at night time.  The boys now consistently prefer to be in their beds while we sing to them.  As I have written above, being further away from our singing is motivation enough.  I imagine they will be applying to live-in day care by phone and mail any week now.  In the mean time, they may stand or sit while we sing.  When we finally go to give them a good night kiss, however, the boys immediately lie down flat.  We brush our teeth, I swear.  I personally brush mine at least once a week, whether I need to or not.  We think they may be afraid we will pick them up.  In the end, we sing, the boys are in their beds and lying down, we exit.  Good deal.

Lower fever, first step

An utterly miserable night was followed by a pretty decent one.  This morning Ben woke up reasonably early (6:05) but in a pretty good mood.  He is running a nominal fever (37.1 C), but other than that - he seems well; played very nicely with me and his brother.  Even offered a toy to Zev.  And then offered one to me.

What is clear is that Benjamin is not a fan of taking meds.  He will (sort of) tolerate taking Tylenol when he is not feeling well, but 5ml of antibiotic twice a day is not a hit.  Same bubble gum flavor and pink look fools Benjamin none at all - he rather hates it.  No negotiating on this one, however.  Down it goes.

In other news: yesterday Zev too his first, single, independent step, from support to support.  As befits a Jewish man of learning, his first step was taken towards a shelf of books.

one day at a time...

After two days and two nights of moderate fevers we took Ben to see the doctor, who promptly proclaimed "ear infection".  At present Ben is a little better, though still not comfortable.  Antibiotics, probiotics, Tylenol for the fever occasionally.  Sleep is somewhat better - for all of us.  Settling in for a hot day tomorrow.