Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tummy Time Pt Deux

Henry reminds me of Ross when he finds his old report card:

Math: A
Science: A
History: A
Reading: A
Gym: ...



Come on Hen... or "Dr. Henry Kelley" as you will one day insist that we call you.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A John Dickson Update

Does it seem like we go to the doctor a lot? I mean, none of us has been sick in over 6 months, and yet, I counted up our doctor and dentist appointments in the last 2.5 months... thirteen. In the words of Brian Fellow, "that's crazy!!" For those of you Safari Planet lovers, you should also know that John Dickson identified "a dawg, and a baby dawg!!" yesterday. So proud.



Also proud of that.

Anyhoo, the good news is that John Dickson does not have allergies. The bad news is that he has had a sinus infection for probably more than a year. He acts perfectly fine and never has ear infections or a sore throat or any of that mess, he just has a cough and a chronic runny nose. The allergist said that a normal round of antibiotics probably made it better, but was never enough to kick it, and so it has never gone away. I feel terrible that this has been going on so long, but its not for lack of us trying to identify the problem! So he's on a 3 week round of antibiotics, and hopefully we can kick this gunk once and for all.

That's all.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Who are you wearing??

Of Mice and Men

We love downtown Greenville. We could spend all day down there, and have many times! One thing we have never attempted, however, is to find the mice on Main Street... until yesterday... dun dun dun. There are 9 bronze mice hidden around Main Street. We've come across the same one several times and we always say we need to do that one day, so we finally did. Well, we failed. We only found 8 (thanks to Papa for phoning in the clues), but now we have something to do next time we go back!



We took pictures with all of the mice, but it was just not a photogenic day for the Kelley fam.



John Dickson was too serious in his hunt to crack any smiles. Only John Dickson wasn't just hunting mice... he was also hunting men.




He found two.

Henry did this:

Friday, September 24, 2010

The John Dickson Fridays

Oh, John Dickson... John Dickson, John Dickson, John Dickson... I could go on and on just saying his name and shaking my head, but that's no fun to read. What have we gotten ourselves into?? This kid is too smart. Seriously.

So, as you may know, I have John Dickson and Henry all to myself Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. In order for this to work, John Dickson has to be cooperative. Has to "listen", if you will. He, however, has decided to do everything in his power to do just the opposite. Consequences? HA, he says. Take for example, last night. He had to go to his room for a little bit, so he went, without so much as protesting. Then he threw his fan down. When this didn't get me in there, he peed, on purpose. He then slid his underwear out under the door and said "need to put this in the dryer, Mama".

Later last night, he was supposed to be sleeping. He wanted to come out and play. So... he says "I pee pee jammies, Mama". So I open the door, and he is holding his diaper and his pajama pants. I felt his pants, and they were dry, so I told him we would put on a new diaper. I then walked past him to get the new diaper, and he runs out of the room as fast as he can.

He also has this ability to turn control back to him. I don't know how he does it, but I don't even realize it has happened until I realize what I have just said. He's like a wizard. So, we will put him in his room, and he will stay there for a good maybe 10 minutes. Then, when we go to get him out, he says no, and he slams the door in our faces. Then I find myself asking him permission for me to come in his room!! It's insane.

If you know John Dickson, you know he is nothing if not a milkaholic. So last night, when we were going to get him milk, and he decided not to listen, he got water instead. He had water for dinner, and was told if he listened, he would get milk after his bath. He was totally cool with that. This child has NEVER been cool with not having milk. It's totally worth it to him, if it means he can do the opposite of what I want him to do.

We're running out of ideas... and no, we do not, nor will we, do spankings. So if you've got some better suggestions, we'd love to hear them. In the meantime, John Dickson will just continue to drink water, not watch "Old NcNonald", not take baths, go to bed early, spend time in his room, and sleep without his tower fan. And he'll be A-ok with that... that's the challenge.

On an unrelated note, I asked John Dickson last night if he was my baby. He told me he had a booger in his nose. Good times.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Hen

Who wants to hear the stats when there is no precious picture to accompany them? My bad. The best part about this outfit is when you rub the bird, Hen smiles.



How about that blonde hair coming in??

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Henry - The Stats

Weight - 13 lbs 7.5 oz (JD was 13 lbs 8.5 oz)& 79th percentile
Height - 25 inches (JD was 23.5) & 95th percentile
Head - 97th percentile

Henry still has his two holes in his heart, but they haven't gotten any bigger, and the cardiologist says he doesn't need to see him back for 2 years. He still expects them to close on their own, but doesn't think they will cause problems if they do not. Adam got some blood sent off to begin the genetic testing for HCM (totally unrelated to Henry's murmur), and so the visits were both positive. I asked the pediatrician how to make Henry sleep... we were hoping for a gin vs. bourbon kind of recommendation, but she actually didn't have much to offer. Ol Hen goes to sleep pretty easily, he just doesn't stay asleep, and there's not a whole lot we can do about that.

However, Henry chose last night to go 10 hours with only one time waking up in the middle. And seeing as how I also went to bed at 8:30, it was wonderful. And today he is taking a record long nap in his crib. We've been trying to get him to nap there instead of just the swing or on us, and today he finally gave in. Whoo hoo!!!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A Couple More

My sweet sweet boys. Do you know what they are doing here?

This is John Dickson touching Henry's face in the sweet way he always touches Henry.



This is John Dickson reading Henry a book.



This is John Dickson giving Henry a kiss.



These are best buds.



This is a proud big brother.

Some Gooders

Real men wear pink. And pee standing up, apparently. We won't go there tonight.



Hen in his safari attire



John Dickson got mail today. Can you guess what was inside?!?




And John Dickson also dressed himself for the very first time. Sure, he puts on shoes or shorts, but he's never put on his own shirt, and he has certainly never put on an entire ensemble. I present to you, backwards shirt, backwards shorts, and rain boots on the wrong feet. Enjoy.

Tummy Time!

So the other day I ran outside to grab something out of my car, and I was surprised when I was not followed by the pitter patter of little feet. (No, obviously I did not learn my lesson from being locked out), so when I came back inside, I started looking for John Dickson. He wasn't making a sound. I finally found him lying on his stomach in Henry's room, all by himself. I thought that was REALLY odd behavior for John Dickson. I mean, he rarely stops moving, much less lies down voluntarily! So I asked him what he was doing... you guessed it, he was doing "tummy time." So when Henry was doing his tummy time the other day, of course John Dickson had to spread out his blanket and join in.





And then Jared had to see what all the fuss was about.



On that note, Henry is finally starting to lift his head! Yay for Henry! He goes back to the pediatrician on Monday for his 2 month visit and to the cardiologist on Tuesday for a follow up. I don't think I previously posted, but he has/had 2 small holes in his heart that should close up on their own, but pose no problems if they do not, and a kink in a vein from the heart to the lungs, or the lungs to the heart, or whichever it is. Also supposedly self correcting. So he is just going in to get a check on it. Also, Adam has been approved for genetic testing, which will tell us 100% whether or not either boy has Adam's heart condition. That's good news!!

John Dickson went to the ENT today to see what we can do about his chronic runny nose. They had a fancier term for it. He seemed to think it might be allergies, despite Singulair and Zyrtec not working afterall, and now John Dickson is trying out a nasal spray. He goes in in 2 weeks for a consultation with an allergist.

In case you are REALLY keeping tabs, I go to the dentist on Thursday. I probably wont provide an update. I will say that I am looking forward to lying in a chair and watching tv for an hour.

What was this post about again?!?

No Title

After the beach, we stopped back through in Columbia and hung out with my family. John Dickson had fun running through the sprinklers, but he didn't want to do it alone. So we all took turns running through with him. When Adam's turn came, they ran a few times, and then Adam took his shirt off to run through with John Dickson upside down. John Dickson thought this was hilarious, but then insisted Adam take his pants off. We decided it was time to go inside.




As previously posted, we headed to Riverbanks on labor day with Betsy and Mrs. C. I think I've already touched on the highlights there, so we'll move on. More on our visit with Betsy and Brandon later...




Henry did more of this:



I can only post 5 pictures at a time, and I've got a lot of good ones to share, so get ready for a lot of posts!

The Beach!

We headed to the beach right before labor day for Henry's first trip to the ocean with Granna, Papa, Erin, Jason and Ella. Erin and Jason rented an awesome house for the week and invited us up (or directly over maybe) for the second half. Do we have awesome sister/in-laws or what?!?!? Don't even get me started on our niece. I want to take her home with me, which is saying a lot, because my boys are a handful.



Well, usually.

Anyhoo, John Dickson had a great time searching for seashells, riding the waves and having his first sand burying.







Ella pretty much just looked cute and dined on sand.



Did I mention I want to take her home?

The less cute part of our vacation consisted of my only remaining car key getting lost, presumably in the sand. We had to tow her to Toyota and have a new key made - and those smart keys are not cheap, and thus, not cute. Aggravating. So that is what I was doing while John Dickson and Ella checked out the NC aquarium. At first I was bummed that Adam forgot to take the camera, but then I realized all of the pictures would have been of fish, alligators and other various water creatures. I'll just wait to see Erin's pictures :-) Henry just chillaxed at the house with his Granna. Vacation is rough.

Henry Meets More Fam

This was actually 3 or 4 weeks ago, but Henry finally made his way down to Hartsville to meet Bobbie and Dick. We had a great afternoon visiting and eating homemade peach pie - who could ask for more?



Saturday, September 11, 2010

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Highlights

Sorry for the blogging hiatus - its hard to get anything done when Henry just refuses to relax.






Ok, so that's not my excuse. I'll blame it on lack of sleep, since my relaxed little pumpkin does not sleep any better than the night he came home from the hospital. We're talking every 2.5 to 3 hours. And I. am. sleepy. Anyway, I really just wanted to share a few sweet pictures and to give you the highlights:

Our first born can spell.



No, he doesn't actually know any letters yet, with the exception of "B", and I'm not even sure that counts, since he thinks all letters are "B", but when he asked for a snack the other day, I asked my mom if she had any "b-a-n-a-n-a-s" to which John Dickson replied: "Yes, I like bananas. I like it." Amazing. He also recognized when we went from I-20 to I-26 and said "We're here!! We're at Nana's house!!" Keep in mind, we almost never go to Nana's house that way, but we were coming back from the beach. (You saw Henry above, right?) Anyway, more on the beach later. It's late, and did I mention that I am sleepy?

Henry had his first trip to the zoo on labor day. I assumed most people would have plans on labor day. Turns out, everyone had plans to go to the zoo. Anyhoo, Henry decided it would be awesome to poop all over his clothes so that we would have to change him while holding him over a bench. (Zoo bathrooms = gross). He then proceeded to go 3 or 4 more times while being held over the bench with no diaper on. It was both impressive and mortifying. They have renamed the bench in Henry's honor. Ok, so the bench never had a name before, but it does now.

Like I said, highlights.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Cha Cha Slide

This, my friends, is what I had the pleasure of watching my 2 year old do during music this morning. The Cha Cha Slide. Absolutely, positively, hilarious. Watching John Dickson do music is the highlight of my John Dickson week. It will be such a bummer when I have to go back to work! No worries though, he always finds some other way to entertain me...

Take for example Henry's pee pee teepees. John Dickson INSISTS these are little hats for Henry, and he tries to put them on his head. Now they are hats for his dinosaurs.

Speaking of dinosaurs, John Dickson got 3 dinosaur eggs that fizz in the bath and have tiny dinosaurs inside. And when I say tiny, I mean tiny. The things are no bigger than the pad on your thumb and they are made of foam. Easy to vacuum up... trust me. I accidently vacuumed up the purple dinosaur, but I figured John Dickson would never realize it. Rule #1: Never underestimate John Dickson. He found his orange and green dinosaurs the other day and he asked where his purple dinosaur was. Feeling about as big as said dinosaur, I tried to explain to him that I accidentally vacuumed him up and that he went to the dump. ("Daddy's dump" as John Dickson calls it). So the next day, this is what happened:

John Dickson: Where green dinosaur go?
Me: Mommy accidentally vacuumed him up. I'm so sorry.
John Dickson: He go to the dump?
Me: Yes he did. I'm so sorry.
John Dickson: No sir! Dont vacuum up dinosaurs!!

I believe we have finally hit the potty training jackpot with John Dickson's new Cars underwear. He is obsessed with them, and he does his best to keep them clean. Up until today, he has worn diapers to school, and so he changes into underwear when he gets home. Adam has started working at night due to those crazy night labs, and so he wasn't here last night. John Dickson put on his underwear, and forgetting Adam was not here, he ran out of his room screaming "I have Cars, Daddy!!!!" So sad. Then his prayers went like this:

"Now I lay me down to seep
I pay the Lord soul to - where's daddy? - keep
May angels watch me trew night
Daddy not here.
Keep me in bessed sight.
I see Daddy.
Amen."

John Dickson has been eating up a storm again - just yesterday for breakfast, he had an entire banana, half of a peach, half of a granola bar, cereal and an entire piece of cheese toast. No exaggeration. I love pretty much all vegetables, but I have never been able to stomach summer squash or zucchini. I decided to give zucchini a go the other night anyway, slicing it thin and roasting it nice and crisp with parmesan cheese, thinking John Dickson might like it. He wouldn't even try it. He has interesting excuses for not eating food, and tonight it was this:

John Dickson: "I no like it."
Me: "You haven't tried it. You'll like it."
John Dickson: "No, I no like it."
Me: "Just take one bite."
John Dickson: "No, it has bug on it."

We told John Dickson on Saturday that if he took a nap all by himself like a big boy, he could go to the zoo. So John Dickson got in his bed, and 5 minutes later, he got up. We argued back and forth on the matter and he got in his bed a few more times. Finally he started fussing about going to the zoo, and we told him he could try again tomorrow. So he says "I try again." and he starts to head to his room, turns around, and exclaims: "I wake up!!"

John Dickson has started being a little possessive over Henry. Yesterday when I went to pick him up, all of the kids flocked over to Henry, like they do everyday. Little kids LOVE babies. Anyhoo, John Dickson came running over yelling "No!!!! Don't touch my baby!!!!"

I'm sure there will be many more stories and pictures to post as we head to the beach tomorrow!! It will be Henry's first time dipping his toes in the sand. Happy labor day!