Adventures in Parenting: Episode 2

Welcome to the second installment of adventures in parenting.


The last time we shared an adventure in parenting it was about Collin. Well, not to be outdone by his big brother, this story is about Owen.

Let the competition begin.
On with the story.

Owen is a ham. A mischevious ham. There’s really no way around it. Anything that seems the least bit funny he capitalizes on.
 If he’s in your lap, he’ll try to fart, and when he does he’ll laugh.

If your face is close to his he’ll try to give you an eskimo kiss. You’ll lean in because its cute and he'll lick you. Then he’ll laugh hysterically.
If you tickle him, he'll try to tickle you back and laugh until you do too.
If you smile at him when he's eating he'll play drop the cup and say "ut oh! or "woops!" a laugh a 
deep belly laugh.
If you catch him without pants or shorts on he'll take off his diaper wrap (we use cloth diapers)and laugh really hard. I'll say Owen, no no. Leave it on. He'll laugh harder and take it off.

He's a comedy show All. Day. Long.

But today and yesterday he was feeling a bit under the weather. Not so many laughs. He's been running a mid-grade (101 -102) fever, and a little sluggish, but other than that he's been pretty happy. You can't really tell he's sick until you feel his poor little body. I'm not sure what it is (maybe teething?, maybe an earache? I don't know...).

Anyhow, today he played all morning outside in the sun and fun and water table. Wee! what fun! Then we came in for lunch, which was rather uneventful. We put both boys down for naps. When Owen goes for nap we always ask if he's pooped yet today because inevitably he wakes up earlier than normal because he poops his diaper, so if he has, we hope for a good long nap (2 + hours) if he hasn't its just a game of Poopy Russian Roulette.

Today he had not pooped.

So, we got him ready and grandma (who's here for a visit) laid him down. He was all set. Since he was under the weather I was hoping for a nice rejuvinating nap (so I could clean up and get some homework for a class I'm taking done). We were doing very well until about 45 minutes in.
45 minutes is WAY too EARLY to get up.

I thought: "He pooped!". I was sort of happy. If he pooped this early in the gig I can probably get him back down. I forgot to figure in the illness thing.

So in I went to his room, and while his little body had been a furnace all day, now he was making a sad face in his crib and he was ice cold. Poor baby. I figured his fever broke, so I turned down his fan and put him on the changing table. As soon as  I laid him down he cried and cried, which is super unusual for Owen. He rarely cries like this. I thought he must really be feeling yucky. So I openned his diaper and found no poop. Hmmmm.
Must have woken up because he was cold and felt icky.
So I gave him some tylenol and I thought, okay ,we'll snuggle and rock and you'll go back to sleep. His little shorts were pushing on his belly, so I left them off. I did not consider the disapearing diaper wrap phenomenom because he was sick and I forgetful.
We rocked and cuddled in his rocking chair and he nearly fell asleep with a little blanket on him, so I figure it was time to put him back in the crib. Down he went into the crib and as usual it took awhile to get him to find a "comfy spot" I watched him on the monitor for about 15 minutes, and it then appeared he was finally going to settle in for his sleep. He was nice and quiet.

So off I went, to the other room for my homework. la de dah.
An hour or so went by and Collin woke up. He came in and cuddled with me for a bit and we talked about playing outside. While I was talking to Collin I could hear Owen stiring in his room. I told Collin that I would send him outside so I could go get Owen. Owen was probably in there stirring for 10 minutes or less.

I walked into Owen's room with a big smile! Was he feeling better?! Was the sleep a success? and then I saw it.

Three jelly beans on his mattress, still in the shadows of drawn shades. I thought, Owen, what did you pull into your crib from your toy bin? blocks? some weird toy?

and then I realized what it was.

POOP.
No joke folks. This is the second story about poop. My boys apparently like to incorporate it into my parenting moments.

I quickly turned on the light and there in Owen's bed sat Owen in the corner, his diaper wrap strewn around the crib and three nuggets of poop. At first that seemed feasible to clean up. Just a hiccup. Then I looked closely at Owen, and there like a jelly smear across his face was a smear of poop. He was sucking on his Nuk, but his nuk was camoflaged in more poop.
So gross.
GROSS
GROSS
GROSS

My kid ate poop.

Then I saw his hands and knees, his whole little body, like he was going duck hunting for feces.
Oh Owen.

Really?!? Did you have to try to eat it (maybe even eat it? I have no idea) and smear it everywhere? I scooped him up, poop and all and snuggled him. I wondered, well, if you don't feel well now, I can only imagine how you feel after eating that. Oh Yuck.

I googled "What if your child eats poop?!" and luckily there were many responses. Turns out, it happens, its okay, and mostly kids are fine when they do it. You just have to watch them for a fever or symptoms of e coli or an infection.

GREAT! The baby who already has a fever should be watched for a fever. How the heck do I tell what its from? So I crossed my fingers and hoped any future fever would NOT be poop related.

So, there it is folks. Adventures part deux.

Drew's mom says it probably is a result of a genetic influence. Turns out Drew used to escape from naps with a bare rear end, taking his diaper off and streaking around, and  Drew's sister Susie apparently decided to take poop from her diaper and shove it down Aunt Jan's register, so I guess this was just Owen taking it the next step.

Its true that I have no idea when he did this and no idea when he took the diaper wrap off. I'm pretty much an awful mom. But when I picked him up he was all smiles. He thought it was funny I think, and well, if you can't beat em' join em.

With poop smeared into my own shirt and shorts, I laughed too.

 

Father's Day

Its hard to believe it's been nearly a month since Father's day. So much is happening in our lives, it feels like every time I take a look at our calendar it seems to have amazingly filled up, yet again. So a month later, I'm finally posting about Father's Day.

This year was Drew's 4th Father's Day. Quad. Quatro. Easy Potatoes.

He's getting pretty used to this gig these days, so there isn't much to say about the holiday itself. Sort of regular day where he got to pick the meals and activities (the farmer's market, a yummy apple fritter and chili for dinner), rounded out with a typical father's day gift (a hose this year). And while the day feels sort of uneventful, there a lot of things to say about being a dad.

I'll be the first to admit that parenting isn't easy. No one has it all figured out. We're all lost in the same maze. So at the end of the day, its about the joy you find the moments along the way, even if you are lost, and Drew's found a way to capitalize on every moment he can with the boys.

For a guy who wasn't sure about having kids, he's really found a way to capitalize on his inner child. There are days I walk into the house and find all three of them building a duplo complex with corresponding vehicles and highways, or other days where I find them in the back yard, each nearly half-drenched in water after an afternoon in the water table.

Its true that there have definintely been times when these finds were frustrating. Like- why on earth is there no dinner and a disaster in the living room, but all three of you (Collin, Owen and Drew) are having a dance party in the bedroom?

But now, four years in, I appreciate it. I appreciate that our boys will grow remembering how fun their dad was when they were little. How much he cared to play with them, instead of just watching them play. How we went out of his way to help them develop vivid imaginations, to build new and fascinating vocabulary and how he was there nearly every afternoon with a smile and a hug to say, I missed you while I was at work.  I love that Collin and Owen are learning how to garden, how to cut down trees, how to pound nails, how to mow the grass, how to build things and take them apart. Everyday Drew teaches them something new that I can't and I know that in this third year of their collective little lives the memories are becoming permanent in their little brains.


And I don't mind the mess.

Life is messy. There's no catching up. So, when you can't beat them, join them.

Drew is a great dad. Really. He's near the top of the "how to be a good dad" example list. He loves our boys so very much, and they are incredibly aware of how much they are loved by all of the time and attention he shares with them. Seeing him with them reminds me how lucky I am to have such an amazing husband.  How  fortunate we are as a family. How my boys, having him as a dad, are never stuck in front of a TV, never ignored, never shushed or asked to wait to spend his time doing something less than stellar (while he texts of Facebooks. Which I thinks is a ridiculous way to spend time when your kids are right in front of you!). The boys look forward to spending time with him and anticipate his arrival every single day. All smiles and reaches. It never gets old to their sweet little faces.


So, here we are, another father's day. Life among the roses. Happy father's day Drew. You're an amazing dad and we look forward to all of the new adventures you dream up for you and the boys.
All our love.
Alisha, Collin and Owen