One Good Thing

I suppose one good thing has come out of the kids' being sick for the past few weeks. Well, for Ben anyway.

He has apparently weaned himself off the paci!

It seems as though he was so congested that he wasn't able to suck on the paci and breathe at the same time, and as much as he loves the paci, he figured breathing was more important.

We had been slowly cutting down the number of pacis in his crib over the past few weeks upon the recommendation from the pediatric dentist Ben saw in August; she said that Ben's front teeth were becoming misaligned as a result of paci use and sippy cups with spouts. She recommended that we get him off the paci ASAP and we switch to sippy cups with straws. We did the sippy cup switch immediately, as Ben had used straw cups before without a problem. The paci we decided to take more slowly, as he's very attached to it and we didn't want another huge transition on top of our upcoming move (everyone says that you shouldn't make a huge change on top of a change that's already happening, right?).

So, there were initially 6 pacifiers that we kept in his crib - the dark blue one, the blue and orange one, the white and red one, the green one, the clear one, and the all white one. He didn't seem to care too much for the clear one or the all white one, so I removed them first. He didn't bat an eye.

The dark blue one was the next to go, and I honestly don't even remember how it happened. Oops. Again, Ben didn't really seem to mind.

It was down to the remaining 3 for several weeks.

Next to go was the white and red one, and that was kind of traumatic for all of us. The white and red one had been in Ben's crib for a very long time, and he was quite attached to it. On the night of Ben's birthday, September 14th, we were all in Ben's room reading the boys a goodnight story. Steve somehow noticed that the white and red paci was broken - the nipple was coming off of the base. "They" say that this is a pretty extreme choking hazard for babies/toddlers, and pacis with this issue must been thrown away immediately. We tried to explain this to Ben. Luckily he understands the concept of "broken," and he could identify that the beloved white and red paci was in fact broken. He started to have a problem, however, when Steve put the paci on a high shelf on the bookcase, out of Ben's reach. He didn't understand that because the paci was broken, he couldn't use it anymore. He cried when he realized he wasn't getting the white and red paci back. It was so heartbreaking that I almost cried. That was by far the most traumatic paci loss yet.

The next morning, however, Ben seemed to be fine without the white and red paci. Woo hoo! We were being so successful, in fact, that the next night during our bedtime routine I simply took the green paci out of his crib without any fanfare at all. Again, he didn't seem to miss it at all.

So that left just the blue and orange paci. And that leaves us at the week when everyone got sick. Of course, when our kids are sick, we get a little lax on the rules of the house. The "typical" rules of the house state that paci's stay in the crib - upon awakening, Ben gives the paci to the frog in his crib, and there it stays. Except during times of sickness. So every morning, and after every nap, down came the orange and blue paci with Ben. He sucked and sucked and sucked on that thing. He probably couldn't believe his luck - he had several days in a row filled with the paci being allowed downstairs and watching back-to-back episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny. What could be better?

Then the congestion started, and all of a sudden I noticed that although Ben still insisted on bringing the paci downstairs, he no longer sucked on it. He just held it in his hand all day long. It was amazing to see that even though he wasn't sucking on it, it still brought him comfort just to be holding it.

That was almost two weeks ago, and I don't believe he has sucked on the paci once since then. His congestion is almost 100% gone, and still no sucking. This seems to be one of those blessings in disguise - of course I hate that my son was so sick for such a long time, but woo hoo - we're off the paci!!

Stats

I know I can't just leave you with *no* news about the boys. So here are their current stats (taken at their 9 month and 2 year well visits last week, which I can't really refer to as "well" visits, because they were both sick):

Logan - 22lbs 9 oz; 29 1/4 inches
Ben - 24lbs; 34 inches

Crazy, right?

No, I haven't forgotten about the blog...

I've just been trying to compose the perfect, witty post in my head about how the past week and a half has been. For now, I will leave you with this- the past 10 days have involved 5 trips to the pediatrician's office, fevers ranging from 100.3 to 103.5, mucous, eye goop, boogers, drool, and vomit all over me, 3 rounds of antibiotics, 4 - yes, 4 - holes in my kitchen ceiling due to continued leaking from the upstairs bathroom, and the stress of having all this happen when we have tenants moving into the house in 8 days.

Yikes.

"I hear a symphony"

I used to go to a restaurant/bar in New Jersey called Champps (I didn't misspell that - it actually has two p's. Or maybe it has to m's. Does "Chammps" look better?) on Wednesday nights after work. Wednesday night was karaoke night. I fancied myself a bit of a rock star - I actually wanted to be the next Jewel. A few times I got up the cojones to get up on the miniscule stage and sing. The very first time, I sang "Son of a Preacher Man" - and I won. I was the first prize winner, and got $100. I was ecstatic. I was so nervous as I walked up to the stage after they'd called my name, but once I got up on stage it was amazing. And the feeling of being done - right when the song ended - made me realize why people aspire to rock stardom. The second time I won, it was for singing "I Love Rock & Roll" and that was awesome too.

Why a post about my brush with rock stardom?

Well, I still like to sing, and I want the boys to appreciate music and song, so I sing to them a lot. I've downloaded a bunch of kids' songs to my iPod and I have it going in the playroom all day long. It's funny that my repertoire, which used to include Nirvana songs and "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, now consists of the songs from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and They Might Be Giants' songs about the different numbers. (Example - "What's that out the window? A whole bunch of sevens!)

Just a few minutes ago, Ben was riding around on his choo-choo train. I started to sing, with great gusto I might add, the theme song from Choo Choo Soul, which goes "All aboard the choo choo train, all aboard, all aboard." Well, Ben did not like this at all. As a matter of fact, he came up to me and said, "No mommy! No mommy!" and wasn't happy until I stopped singing.

:(

I was stunned! I'm sure I was singing it on key and in tune... and with such passion! Genevieve, the lady from Choo Choo Soul, would have been impressed, I'm sure. How could my singing be so offensive that a two-year-old asked me to stop?! What an insult!

Maybe tomorrow I'll stick with his favorite - Itsy Bitsy Spider.

A few things

We've had a lot of exciting things happen in the past few weeks -

• Ben got his 2nd two-year molar
• Logan became increasingly clingy (or as I like to put it, suffocating)
• Ben has started saying "I'm fine" when asked if he's okay after a fall
• Ben has insisted on wearing a "zipper" to bed - meaning one of the footed PJ's that has a zipper running from the left calf up to the neck
• Ben has insisted that baby wear a "zipper" too
• Ben has finally outgrown his 18 month "zipper" and has graduated to the 24 month one
• Logan has started clapping like a pro - especially when someone says "Yay!"
• Oh, and we're officially moving to Massachusetts in 3 weeks.

Yep, it's official - we're going to be Massholes again starting October 1st. We've rented out our house in NY and are renting a house in MA. Both leases are for 18 months so the houses will come onto the market in spring, which will (hopefully) be ideal for selling.

I'm a little nervous about the move. The past few weeks have been pretty miserable. Steve does nothing but pack when he's home on the weekends, and I sit around feeling useless as I play with the kids and watch Handy Manny. But I think this past Saturday, when I went for a massage with Jayne (btw - it was the best massage of my life) Steve finally realized that it's pretty much impossible to get anything substantial done when Logan is around. No offense to Logan - it's just that he's so demanding. At least Ben is able to keep himself somewhat amused with toys when Steve or I need to do something. I think Logan will be better once he's mobile. In the meantime, he just screams whenever no one's directly paying attention to him or entertaining him. It's so draining.

***

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a terrible blogger. I really do think about posting all the time. As a matter of fact I compose all sorts of posts in my head during the day. My best work comes either while I'm lying in bed waiting for sleep and running through the day's events in my head, and in the 10 or so blessed minutes of freedom and alone-time I get while washing the dishes. Seriously. I think of witty, clever posts about very deep and meaningful things related to parenting and my experiences, but when I sit down later and look at the blank screen it all just goes away. Can it be called writer's block when you're not really a writer?