ZOO!

What a fun day, Mr. Cal had yesterday!!!

Ever since my parents sent this back from Africa, Cal has been OBSESSED with giraffes!

He sees them and points to them and screams "AIR AFFE!" He also has developed a love of el-fants (elephants) and a bunch of other animals.  My parents showed Cal their pictures from Africa and Cal was just blown away.

Jackson, Cal's cousin, is off from school this week (he goes M-F, so this is really a treat for him to be off!), and my parents wanted to take the boys to the NC zoo.  So, yesterday morning, Grandma and Grandpa loaded up their car with 2 carseats and both boys and headed out to the zoo! Cal had THE best time.

I begged my parents to take lots of pictures and they did not disappoint!

i love love love this one

 How cute is my dad pushing the double stroller?  I am obsessed with my double bob, and mom said it worked great for their trip to the zoo!

Cal loves his Grandpa-- he calls him Poppa (and it makes my heart melt)

 Apparently, Cal had a car with him that he wouldn't put down.  He would run it on all of the animals and he paid more attention to the car than the gigantic creatures right next to him!

how sweet is Jackson feeding the monkey a chip??

And finally, the air affes!!!

THANK YOU, Mom and Dad for taking the boys to the zoo!  I know Cal had just the best time...he took a wonderful nap after he got home and is still talking about all of the animals!!!

Because I can...

I can do matching jammies if I want to....

thanks, grandma, for the jammies!!!

I felt the earth move...

I have to document this event today!

Eddie was home getting ready to go out of town and I was rocking Andy to sleep for his nap.  My mom, being the wonderful human being she is, gave me a little break from sweet CalBoy and she let him "nap" at her house. 

As I was rocking Andy, I started to feel like something was shaking-- weirdest feeling ever.  I looked over to the bookshelf and everything was shaking on it, and the little buoy we have even rolled off.  I jumped up and looked out the window thinking I would see something huge drive by, but the street was dead.  I walked out of Andy's room and found Eddie and asked him if he felt that shake.  He said he noticed something, but didn't know what it was.  I said "you are going to think I'm crazy, but I swear it was like we just had an earthquake!" We both laughed and said we had no idea what it was... about 5 minutes later, Eddie's sister called me (I couldn't answer because I was putting Andy in the crib), and then she texted and asked us to text her to let her know we were all okay.... I called her back immediately and asked her why she sent that-- she said there was an earthquake that hit VA and the effects were being felt down to NC!  I KNEW it!!!

We were totally fine, of course, but NC was reeling from the excitement of an earthquake!  We were all busy watching Hurricane Irene that we couldn't believe that an earthquake could possibly hit us here. 

I called my mom to make sure they were all fine, and she said she heard/felt something, but thought it was just Cal throwing stuff against the wall during his "nap" time! hahaha!

Anyway, I had to document this "first" for both boys!

"that's a what??? an earthquake?????"

"haha-- you are so full of it, mom"

"no really....you are crazy..."

3 Months/23 Months

Oh, Cal and Andy! Where to begin with you two this past month???

 I am so in love with both of you.  Prepare for the cheesiness:  I just feel like I was meant to be a mother and I am extremely grateful to both of you for making that a reality.  There is not one day that passes in this crazy life we lead where I do not sit back and feel incredibly blessed to have you both in my life. 

Let's start with Anderson (no, his name is not Anderson-- it's Andrew-- we love the name Anderson, but felt that AnderSON WilliamSON would be a lot of SONs, so we stuck with Andrew...we just refer to him as Anderson...)
Well, Andy has just made himself right at home with our little family--- and we can't imagine life without him.  The first thing Cal says in the morning is "where Andy?" and he is always looking for Andy and asking if he is up yet.  He loves his little brother so much, and Andy has started smiling and even laughing at Cal now-- and it melts. my. heart.

Two weeks ago, Andy had an ear infection and he was weighed in at the doctor's office: 14 pounds, 10 ounces.  I just went to a shower and told some of the girls there how much he weighed and they were all shocked at what a little chunker he is!  He is a chunker, but he is also realllly long.  He has long legs and long fingers.  Eddie says all the time that he has the biggest hands he's ever seen on a baby-- and he's already planning which sport will best suit those long fingers (palming a basketball? pitching a baseball? throwing a football? only time will tell!).

in his jammies...dreaming of which sport to try

While Cal is Eddie's mini-me, Andy is becoming more and more my mini-me!  We had dinner with some friends last night who met Andy for the first time and they were literally taken aback at how much he looks like me.  They kept saying it over and over again...

Andy is SUCH a happy baby now.  He is either: smiling, laughing, cooing, "talking", sleeping or eating.  He has been talking more and more and it is the cutest thing ever!

Other stuff:
Andy has discovered his thumb and is using it to comfort himself more and more...

side note: Cal had a very short phase of sucking his thumb...here he is at almost the same age:

Sleeping: We are making some progress with sleep.  Andy takes a GREAT afternoon nap every day while Cal (sometimes) naps (or screams...or strips...whatever), and he sleeps in the morning wherever he can-- the crib, the car seat, the stroller...wherever! I am so thankful he's flexible like that... the past few nights he has gotten up to eat only once, and then goes right back down again.  He is usually wet (and soaked through his pjs) which I think wakes him up for a second time... we are changing jammies in the middle of the night every night.  He is still too young for the over night diapers, but I am ready to use them!  I might try some in a size too big just to see if they help keep him drier. 
A typical night for Andy is bed time around 7:30, eating around 2am, waking up one other time soaked (last night it was 5am) and then going back to sleep for another hour or so.  Last week, he was waking up every single day at 6am, no matter what time he was fed last.  He woke up one morning at 4:45, ate and passed back out again and was up at 5:59-- when I went to get him to see if he needed to eat (I was too tired to think about anything else), he just wanted to look at me and smile and coo.  It made being up early worth it!
Eating: During the day, Andy eats just about every 2 hours (from time off to time on), but he will go longer stretches if he's sleeping.  He is still 100% on the boob, and is pretty funny about taking a bottle.  He is very resistant to taking one, especially from me.  I would say about 2-3 out of 5 times he will take it, but the other times he just refuses.  And I HATE when people say "if he's hungry enough, he'll take the bottle...." just don't say that to me... who wants to watch their child struggle to eat?
I am anxious to start him on some sort of cereal/oatmeal just to try to fill him up more, but I am going to wait until our next appointment to see if the doc okays it. 
Activities:  I am lame in this department.  With Cal, I had him doing tummy time every day to work on his neck muscles, etc...I have been SO bad about doing this with Andy! I can come up with excuses like it's hard having him on the ground because Cal thinks he can tackle him when he's down there, but the truth is, I just reallllly need to focus on this!  He sleeps on his tummy, so he works his neck muscles then, and I do feel like he has great head control, but he can't flip back and forth yet, and I feel like we need to work on that one some more.... I have been putting him in his Bumpo some and he finds that hilarious:

He just sits in it cracking up at everything and rests his head against the back of the chair looking up.  I will get down on the floor in front of him, but he won't even look at me-- something up high is either really funny, or his big ol' noggin is too heavy to lift off of the back....

Andy is just so much fun right now and I fall more and more in love with him every day.  He looooves to snuggle and I looooove snuggling him.  Sometimes I wish I had more time in the day to cuddle with him, but I know I am doing the best that I can right now!

On to Cal....

The terrible twos are knocking on our door and we are trying our best to ignore them!
Cal can have a meltdown like no other, but he is still SUCH a sweet little guy and is so loving and so kind.
We've been working with him on manners and he is very good about using them.  Every single time you do anything for Cal (buckle the seat belt, put him on/off the potty, help out shoes on, etc, etc...), he says, "thank you, momma!" except is sounds more like "tookuu momma"-- we know what he means.  He is also saying please anytime he asks for something, and if he's in time out or about to be sent to time out, he will start saying "SORRY!!!" over and over again.  He now says, "I sorry! I sorry!" It is so cute, it's hard to stay mad at him for long when he's doing that. 

Here, he is loving on Hank-- he LOOOOVES his dog, but lately, he's been into tormenting the poor thing.  The latest thing he does to get in trouble in run his shopping cart as fast as he can go into Hank.  Hank can be sleeping and Cal will plow into him at full steam ahead.  Or, Hank will know it's coming and try to avoid him, but Cal will corner him in the kitchen and just ram into him.  He went to time out numerous times for that last week-- and he has to apologize to Hank and kiss him each time.  It is SO sweet to watch Cal go over to Hank and squat down with his hands between his knees and say, "I sorry, Hank. I love you." AGH! Melt my heart!

Let's see.... we had the last day of camp last week and we are ALL sad that it's over!  He will be starting preschool in the fall going 2 days a week again.  It is so good for him socially-- we have noticed a huge change in his timidness since going to camp.

the last day of camp: wanting to take McQueen with us

Cal very rarely sits still, but the other night he was exhausted and wanted to watch Chuggington on TV.  He came over and sat in my lap and rested his head on my arm.  I wanted to cry it was so sweet:

A few of Cal's favorite things as of now:
Cars the movie, match box cars (LOVES), fire trucks, golf, golf, and more golf, trucks, books about trucks, giraffes (I think because of my parent's gift from Africa), trains.... really anything that moves makes him happy!

Eating: Cal is an outstanding eater.  He eats pretty much everything we give him.  Last night at dinner with friends, they stuck two little holders in the end of his corn on the cob and he ate the entire thing-- down to the core!  It was amazing! He loves ketchup and would eat it on everything if we'd let him. 

Sleeping: ha! I feel like I have done so many posts about this in the past week, I am beyond redundant! He is sleeping now.  I'll just leave it at that.  I don't know if it's because it's the weekend and daddy is home that he knows he needs to sleep...?  We will see how he does this week with just me.... let's just say he can remove the zip up jammies with the snap...

And, I have to share this because it cracks me up.... on Friday, Cal was, once again, not napping.  I was pretty close to losing it because he was getting naked, no matter what I put him in.  SO I finally just let him out of the crib to play.  Normally, he gets up and is calmer and will play nicely...not this day.  He ran over to Andy's door (who was sleeping....) and started banging on it.  I pulled him away and he started screaming-- loud enough to wake up Andy after only sleeping about an hour. I started nursing Andy and Cal was like a one man wrecking ball.  He was pulling lamps off of tables, ripping books off of shelves, and just all around tearing things up.  I decided to load the boys up and head to the mall.  Cal could get out and run like wild and I could chase him with my stroller.  When we got there, I loaded both boys in the stroller and took a quick phone call while I walked around.  Everyone was looking at the stroller and smiling up at me giving me a kind of awwwww face.... I figured given the state of Cal that day, he was probably undressing himself in the stroller/was already nude, or better yet, flipping everyone the bird.  I walked past a mirror to see what he was doing, and saw this:

That little stinker was so worn out that he crashed in the stroller!  Andy was fine in there, so I just walked laps around the mall and let him sleep!

The night, Eddie went in to check on Cal (as we both do every night before bed), and found this:

He skinned off his shirt, but I guess was too tired to do the rest before falling fast asleep. 

Saturday morning, we went in to get him, and he was doing this:

Having a full on dance party in the crib...naked! What a character this one is.... I am on the lookout for footless jammies that zip up so I can zip them up the back.  I haven't been able to find any yet, but maybe as the temps cool, stores will start offering them...

And a quick note on potty training: we are about 90% there.  He is hesitant to poop on the potty, but pees on the potty every time.  He has been staying dry at naps (IF he naps) and is still wet in the mornings, but as soon as he wakes up, he is running to the potty to go. 

Cal is chatting up a storm and is really forming sentences now.  It is so much fun to hear him figure things out...he is also repeating everything we say...everything.....we now have to watch ourselves constantly.  (yikes!!!)

I can NOT believe my little Cal Boy is about to be TWO years old!!!!!!  In less than one month he is going to be 2!  ACK!  How can that be???????? 

just to leave you with a little glimpse of our chaos...

xoxox,

oh no! out of storage???

I am trying to upload some pictures and it says I am out of storage....is there any way around this?? You bloggers out there, help me!


xoxo,

Dear Cal....

While Mommy loves you so so so much, she REALLY is not ready for you to drop your nap. She thoroughly enjoys spending lots of fun time with you, but she also thoroughly enjoys your nap time.  That is her time to recharge her batteries so that she's able to chase you around constantly all afternoon with a smile on her face.   

Just because Mommy stopped napping all together when she turned two does not mean that you should.  Ask your grandma about the trouble she got into when she didn't nap.....

You are an active little boy who needs his rest...and mommy needs you to have your rest. 

That is all for now.  Sweet dreams, you little wild child.

Love,
Mommmyyyyyyyy

PS: It's tempting to read you this bed time story, titled "Go the F*#@ to Sleep", narrated here (fast forward to about a minute in).  (Mom, don't click on the link...there is bad language....that goes for anyone else that might be offended by foul language--or if you are reading this at your office...)

Movie Playdate!

We are always looking for fun things to do, and when we heard that the movie theater offers "Summer Movie Magic" for kids, I was all about it.  They show older kids' movies that are no longer in the theater at 10am on Wednesdays.  It is a dollar for the kids and grownups are free!  They also offer dollar drink and popcorn specials. 

I emailed Cal's playgroup to see if anyone would be interested in joining, and a lot of people were!  We met this morning-- they were showing Yogi Bear-- and had SUCH a great time!

Cal loooooooved the theater.  We arrived late (obviously...why would we get anywhere on time??), so we didn't have a chance to grab a drink or popcorn.  I would have liked to get some for Cal; I think he would have loved that!

The kids all had little booster seats to help them see the screen-- so cute! 

Cal held his hands in his lap the whole time (until I let him have a pop-pop for a treat)

We were late, but we still made it before the show started.  We sat in the row in front of most of Cal's buddies-- the theater was PACKED!  Guess this is a fun thing for parents to do with their kids when it is hot out! Cal sat up on his booster seat and was grinning ear to ear. 

The previews were great-- the kids were hooked.  They had one for Happy Feet 2 and they were all staring in awe. 

Kaylee and Brad sitting behind us (pardon the camera phone)

About 40 minutes into the movie, some of the kids were a little over the sitting in a seat part.  I think if we had had the entire row, where they could run back and forth, it would have been fine, but like I said, it was really crowded in there.  So the restless kids headed out to the lobby, but Cal was still pretty content. 

He loved pointing out the trucks and the bears and when the big kids would laugh at something in the movie, he would look at me and start laughing too.

Andy did fine for the first 30 minutes, and then I could feel his carseat rumbling... he had gone to the bathroom and I knew it was only a matter of time for how long he would last!  I took him out of the carseat and held him with the paci for a while, but soon he was over it.  I quickly strapped him in the carseat (while he was crying in the middle of a movie...I was sweating).  Poor Cal was still sitting in his seat as I was scootching past everyone in the aisle.  He hopped down and started saying, "wait, momma! wait!"

After we walked out of the theater, we played in the lobby for a bit and then we played outside by the fountain for a while.  Cal kept saying "pool!" over and over again-- he took his shoes off, ready to jump in the pool/fountain...

Avi explaining to Cal that it isn't a pool

 After we played outside, we walked down to the mall and to the food court where we all had some Chick-fil-a.  We traded in our kids' meal toy for an ice cream cone.  Cal was in heaven:

And, on Monday and Tuesday, Cal did not nap.  This is a kid who usually sleeps for 3-4 hours at nap time.  He did not fall asleep.  I think the whole potty training thing is screwing up his sleep (ugh).  He wouldn't pee in his diaper, so he spent all of Monday's nap trying to remove his clothing and his diaper.  Tuesday's nap, he started off in his regular clothes and took off everything from the waist down in the first 20 minutes.  My mom showed up then with a ton of footie pjs that she just bought.  We put Cal in a fresh diaper and zipped him up.  He spent the entire rest of nap time talking to the doggies on the jammies, singing some song he learned at camp, and trying his hardest to get the diaper off from the outside of his pants. 

Today, however, he sleeps:

And, on a potty training note (for me to remember later in life): we are wearing pull ups now (just to try it out) and they are working out great.  He stayed dry at camp on Tuesday in his pull up and he was dry for the whole movie and peed in the potty at the theater.  After lunch, I had to nurse Andy in the dressing room in Nordstrom and half way through, Cal started saying peepee potty peepee potty....well, my hands were full, so I told Cal to hold it if he could.  He did!  We went to the bathroom as soon as I was done and he was dry!  woohoooo!!!!

Sorry for the constant peepee updates....I gotta keep track of this for later :)

Camp: the class

August camp is winding down, and sadly, Cal's teacher, Ms. Jamie, is moving on to another job, and today was her last day. As a goodbye gift for her, we got her a gift card and decided to attempt to get a picture of the kiddos before camp started today to put in a frame to give her at drop off...

I think these pretty much captured all of their personalities...perfectly!

avi, bea, cal, brad, henry, and jack

august 2011

walking in together....

Camp ends on Thursday and I am so sad.  This is such a great group of kids and Cal has been having the best time with them.  I am thankful that his timidness seems to be fading the more time he spends with these kids... so fun!

2 steps forward, 2 steps back

I haven't written about potty training in a few days... here is an update!

So, Tuesday at camp went reallllly well: no accidents, he went on the potty every time, it was great.

Wednesday, home without Eddie for the whole day and Cal did okay, but not great at ALL... we were going to go for a walk with some friends and we were racing around trying to get ready to go.  He told me he had to go, and I didn't get to him fast enough and he had an accident.  We changed clothes and set off on our walk. 
Before we took off on the walk, I asked him if he needed to pee and he said no, but I really didn't want him to pee in my stroller, so I pulled his pants down and encouraged him to go outside (gotta love boys).  He did a little and said all done, so we loaded up the stroller and set off.  He did great on the walk, no accidents. 
We got back to my mom's house and went inside, where I immediately put him on the potty.  My friend and her kids were there too and I think Cal didn't want to miss out on the fun, so he peed a real little bit and then started saying all done all done all done.  I let him off the potty (my fault) and about 10 minutes later, he had an accident.  I changed his clothes once again, but wasn't going to get frustrated: he isn't even 2 yet...accidents are bound to happen. 
We got home and he started saying peepee potty over and over again so I ran him inside, but he had a real small amount already come out (tmi? sorry!), but the rest went in the potty. 
This is when Andy started getting really fussy (see next post...) and I was about spent.  We were on our 4th pair of underpants and I was exhausted....but determined to not let him back in a diaper... we had come this far...we are sticking with it!
Cal did not have any more accidents the rest of Wednesday-- he does really well when we are at home....even told us every time he had to go-- we didn't have to ask him once.
Thursday, Cal went to camp again-- super excited to go, once again.  Last time I took him, I took him into the bathroom before I left, but I didn't do that this time.... well, this time at pick up, Cal was wearing someone else's shorts (Sally, quit laughing....) and a diaper.  He had gone through the pair I sent him in, and the TWO backup pairs I sent as well.  They said every time they took him to the potty, he would pee, but only a small amount, and then he would get back with the group and would go in his pants about 10 minutes later.... kinda like what he did before. 
I think he doesn't want to miss out on fun times with his friends, so he pees just a little so he can hurry and get back to the group, but then really has to go, so he just goes in his pants.  He's the only one in his class that is using the potty, so I think he doesn't like being taken away from the group. 
So, I asked his teacher what we should do, and she said it's totally up to us.  She will support us either way.  I really appreciate that because I feel like he's so close, but he would be so far without her support...

After camp on Thursday, Cal did NOT want to nap.  I went in after hearing him say "peeeepeeeeeeee" over and over again to find my little man with his shirt almost all the way off (his arm was out the neck hole...and stuck), his shorts off and his diaper off.-- he was sticking his "part" through the slats of the crib, attempting to pee out of the crib.  Yes.  I am serious.  Nice, right?
Thursday afternoon, Cal did great with the training and told me every time he needed to pee.
Friday, I was reaching a breaking point.  I haven't had a break in a while and I think it's just catching up to me.  I think having Eddie gone, Andy sick, and dealing with the potty training, all the while Cal is learning to express himself by saying NOOOOO all the time... is really wearing me out.  I was pretty much at my wit's end by 9am.  We were having a play date a friend's house with a pool and I was looking forward to some one on one time with Cal (my mom graciously offered to keep Andy).  I think Cal is craving more attention from me, since it used to be just the two of us, and now Andy needs me so much and that is taking away from Cal....so I think he's been acting out to get more attention from me (and it makes me soooo upset).  Anyway.... I was losing my mind early on Friday and started second guessing the whole potty training thing.
We went to the pool play date and were swimming along, having a great time, when Cal said "peepee, Momma."  I said, do you need to peepee?  And he said okay! So I lifted him out of the pool, and he ran over to the woods/side yard, and started pulling his pants down!  I ran over to him and helped him and he peed a TON in their side yard!  I was pretty impressed he didn't just go right in the pool! That was a huge plus.
After the pool playdate, we were heading home, but I stopped by the club to pick up lunch.  I should have had him get out to pee while we were waiting,  but I didn't.... and he peed in his car seat on the way home.  ugh.  He didn't tell me he needed to go, and I didn't ask him.... that was my fault. 
Friday night, he did great-- no accidents, and today is Saturday, no accidents.  He has been really good about telling us today when he has to go. 
And this is total TMI, but we are waiting for #2 action... it's been a few days.... YIKES. 

SO, I really think this whole process is just that: a process.  There are going to be good days, and there are going to be bad, and we knew going into this, that he would not be accident free-- that's crazy to even think that.  I do second guess our efforts sometimes, but even now, when he's in a diaper, he tells us when he has to pee, and he holds it until we are at the potty.... that's a pretty big step.  We will see how camp goes on Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to returning the shorts... let's just say they weren't quite my style...... (Sally, shut up!).

Here's hoping to a dry rest of the weekend.... well, it's raining now, so a dry weekend for CAL at least :)

Mother's Intuition

Momma's just know when something isn't right with their little ones.  Mother's intuition is not something to be messed with...

Let me back up.  Eddie had to go out of town on business at 5am on Tuesday morning and was returning Wednesday afternoon/early evening.  I was going to be home alone with the boys, which is totally fine, not a big deal, I can handle it (but it sure makes me appreciate having him home--!).

Tuesday night, Andy slept a 9 hour stretch!  I was THRILLED!  I couldn't believe he went that long!  And once he woke up and ate, he was right back asleep again-- ahhhhh, it was awesome! 

On Wednesday afternoon, around 12, Andy got a little fussy, so I figured he was just tired and I put him down early for his nap.  Cal went soon there after... Andy woke up after about an hour and a half and ate and burped like normal, but then started the most pathetic cry ever.  I thought maybe he was still tired so I tried rocking him.... he was reallllllly upset at this point.  Tears were pouring down his sweet cheeks :(. 

Thinking it was a dirty diaper bothering him, I laid him down on the changing table where he let out the loudest shriek I have ever heard a kid make.  I picked him up, diaper-free, and held him and he was just so upset.  He was crying like he was in pain...and it was a different kind of pain than his tummy pain that he had previously. 

I carried him around for a while trying to get him calm and he would rotate whimpering, crying, and shrieking.  It was breaking my heart. 

After about an hour of him crying in pain, I called the advice nurse line at my pediatrician's office.  When the nurse called back, she talked to me like I was a mother about to walk off of a cliff.  This was our conversation:

Nurse: how long has he been crying?
Me: for about an hour and a half
Nurse: well, you know babies can't use words to communicate
Me: really? huh.
Nurse: so they have to really get their talking out through crying. It sounds like your baby is just frustrated right now and is trying to talk it all out.
Me: seriously?
Nurse: Yes, seriously-- babies sometimes cry for no reason.
----->I wanted to reach through the phone and smack her------
Me: yes, I know that, but he seems like he's in pain
Nurse: I bet he just needs to burp.  Have you tried burping him?
Me: yep. He had a great burp.
Nurse: Well, I bet you've been eating something that upset his tummy then.
Me: noooo, don't think so...
Nurse: well, you know babies can't talk, so they have to express themselves through crying... I bet he's just had a stressful day and wants to let you know about it.

UGH!

After going around and around about how some babies just need to express themselves through crying, I hung up the phone.  She made me feel like I was being an over-reactive mother. 

Andy was still diaper-less, and I had a feeling there might be a movement sometime soon, so I laid him down to diaper him and all hell broke loose.  He started shrieking over and over again and couldn't catch his breath in between shrieks. 

I called the appointment line, but of course, there were no available appointments that afternoon.  Soooo, I texted  my pediatrician (so bad, I know) and asked if she could fit us in.  I believe my exact words were: "Dr. K: Andy is in pain. Don't know why. Can you see us? Please? We love you."  I do love my pediatrician....

She wrote back to come on in.  Eddie pulled in the driveway right in the middle of this and bless his heart, he walked into quite a scene!  I filled him in and he said it was obvious that Andy was in pain, but he thought that maybe it was just gas.  I told him to call the nurse on the advice line and they could chat about gas and expressing themselves, but I was heading to the doctor.  Eddie agreed it was smart to take him in.

Poor little guy whimpered all the way to the office and I carried him in in my arms and he was the most pathetic thing you've ever seen. 

He weighed in at 14 pounds, 10 ounces and had a temperature of 100, which is no big deal at all.

When the doctor came in, she looked into his ears and he was none too thrilled about that one.  He screamed and shrieked and cried.  She asked how long he'd been like that and said, "he is in a great deal of pain right now..." I wanted to cry.  She told me she had concern about the draining in one ear.

She had me hold his arms down so she could look in his ears again, and then she went to get another doctor to look at them too..... the other doctor came in and took a look and they started mumbling back and forth to each other and I could only pick up bits and pieces over Andy's crying.  I heard them mention his soft spot on his head and I heard the word meningitis.   I was beside myself. She had the nurse come in and give him some Tylenol and put some numbing drops in his left ear.  

I picked him up and worked on calming him, and he finally just passed out in my arms.  When the screaming had stopped, the nurse came in and told me that her other 2 rooms of patients were all so worried about his since his screaming sounded so sad. :(

The doctor came back in to talk to me and check on Andy.  When she came in, he woke up and started cooing and laughing---!!!!!  The doctor said she was so happy to see that and that she was realllly worried about him when we brought him in.  Well, that about set me over the edge.  I asked her about meningitis and she said, "he was in so much pain like a child with meningitis, but he is totally fine." Then I asked her about the soft spot, and she said they were just commenting on how the soft spot was pulsating so much during his screams, but that I shouldn't worry about it. 

When all was said and done, Andy had an ear infection!  His first one-- on his 12 week birthday :) Go figure! I apologized to the doctor for being an over-reactive mother and she looked me in the eye and said "you don't mess with mother's instinct. You knew your baby was hurting and you did the right thing by bringing him in."  See?  That's why I love my doctor!

Oh, and when I told her that Andy slept for 9 hours the night before, she said she thought that was because he wasn't feeling well.  Ugh. haha....

sweet little nugget with his first ear infection...