Sunday the fifteenth of May

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One month

So here is that adorable one-month photograph that I neglected to take yesterday. I’ve decided on a theme: I’m going to take a picture that represents whatever new development or activity that month has brought us. As I mentioned in the earlier post, Archer is insanely fussy until he is swaddled, and then he sleeps soundly for at least a couple of hours.. So I took a picture of him swaddled in his swing. Isn’t he sweet?

Today has been an adventure front start to finish.

So, cleaning human feces that has been ground into the carpet, rubbed all over blankets, and smeared all over toys and books? Not how I like to start my day. Not even kinda.

Yes, Deven took a dump in his pull-up, and again, instead of alerting someone to it’s presence, he decided to take off his pull-up and have a painting party with it. Let me tell you, this has been, like, the third time in the last couple of weeks this has happened. Well, okay, one of those times Deven didn’t have his potty in his room, and wasn’t wearing a pull-up, and just kinda pulled his pants down and dropped a deuce right in the middle of the floor, so it’s not totally the same, but still. The kid’s been having a hard time understanding where we prefer our turds to land. (Unless M&Ms are involved. He will go on the potty for candy, and that’s about it.)

On the upside, I got to use a pressure-washing hose nozzle to clean shit off of a Texas flag blanket. There is always a silver lining.

I don’t think this is regressing, because he still hasn’t mastered the art of pooping on the potty yet. We are still dealing the mixture of successful potty attempts, morning-turds-in-the-pull-up, and, well, this. We’ve tried so many things to at least get him to keep it in his drawers if he does poop in his pull-up, but this has been such a challenge. I try to imagine what his train of thought must be leading up to this act. He’s a very habitual child who likes to repeat the same acts several times, I think it must go something like:

“I’m in my room! What do I do in my room? I know! I like to poop in here.”

“Okay, so that’s done. Now what do I do with all of this poop?”

“O YEAH! I play with it, and smear it all over EVERYTHING!”

“What, that’s what you do right?”

When he eats lunch, it’s the same thing every day, at nap time, it’s the same cartoon-themed fruit snack and the same Yo! Gabba Gabba DVD. At poop time, it’s the SAME RITUAL. Unless there is candy involved.

Moving on. (THANK GOD.) We came upon some money in the mail, and this was so the highlight of our week. We have been sticking to a very strict budget, and every single penny has been accounted for, and we’ve forfeited certain things, like fast-food, and you know, FUN. So this extra money, in CASH form, mind you, was a welcome surprise. We immediately decided we wanted to spend the bulk of it on our latest obsession. We went to Michaels and spent, like, 70% of the money on Perler beads and various supplies. Vance is busy making Super Mario coasters that he is hoping to sell on Etsy or Ebay or something. After spending that much of our mad money on tiny colored beads, he had better be looking to turn some kind of a profit from it.

The rest of the money went to take-out from Pluckers. It was delicious and so worth it. I can feel okay about going back to the tedium of the work week, and having to cook the same lame dinners every night, at least until Friday. Hopefully we’ll come upon more money and be able to go out to eat for my birthday. Hopefully.

 

One month

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Archer has been here for a whole entire month. I can hardly believe it. I am also so tired that I can hardly think or see straight.

I would have taken an adorable one-month themed picture of him today, but, remember how he was all fussy last night? That didn’t get any better today. He spent 80% being held by someone while he screamed at them. I finally remembered how much he likes to be swaddled, and once that happened he slept for a good 3 hours in a swing instead of on someone’s chest. For some reason, I only think of swaddling at night when he’s going to be put down in his bassinet. Like he knows the difference yet.

So, what has this new era brought us, Besides excessive fussiness? More alert periods, less spitting up, more chub, and more attempts at smiling. THIS IS WHAT WE NEED PICTURES OF!

So, that diaper rash I told you about a week ago? It hasn’t healed yet. Well, not completely. It is slowly getting better. We decided to switch Archer’s diapers over from Pampers to Luv’s, and we switched the diaper rash cream to Dr. Smith’s. There still hasn’t been a significant improvement, but we only made these changes yesterday.  How long does perianal strep take to clear up? I still have no idea how to handle these types of ailments! Deven never, ever had any of these types of problems. He never had a diaper rash that couldn’t be cleared up after one application of Desitin. We had one of those huge tubs of Desitin that we were given at his baby shower that we didn’t throw out until this year, and that’s only because we figured there was no way that stuff was still good after that long. Now, we’re going through diaper rash cream like it’s toothpaste. (Let’s hope we don’t get those two products mixed up.)

We’re still working on this whole two-kids-of-two-different-ages stuff. When his often-intrusive big brother gets in Archer’s face during his alert-periods, he does not get as bothered by it as we do. He usually looks up at his brother’s face in curiosity rather than fear, which makes me think we are being somewhat over-protective of him from his brother. Deven has the potential to be rough, but he normally doesn’t take it in that direction until he sees that his interaction with his brother is making us angry. It totally shouldn’t! He enjoys his baby brother much in the same way that we do, and he just wants to be able to be near him like us. He doesn’t mean any harm, and he is not going to learn the proper way to interact with him if we don’t allow him near the baby. Yelling at him every time he touches his brother is only going to make him resent us and his brother more than he probably already does.

What else? Did I mention I was tired? I thought I was getting used to less sleep, but I think it’s actually taking a physical toll on me. I have been having these random faint spells (I don’t actually faint, I just feel like I am going to.) Out of curiosity, I took my blood pressure during one of these episodes today, and it was pretty low. I can’t help but think it’s being caused by the sleep deprivation, but then again, I can’t help but think that everything is connected to my lack of sleep in some kind of way. I don’t know.

I’m going to bed.

 

Friday the thirteenth of May

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Sorry for the late and disappointingly short  entry. Archer is having a fussy night and will not let anyone put him down. We’ve been trying for hours to console him, and so far the only thing that has worked is nursing him and then letting him lay on someone’s chest until he falls asleep. The second you jostle him or put him down, he becomes inconsolable all over again. This is going to be a long night. Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday.

This is one of those things that a smart, experienced parent would take into account when considering having a second baby. This is also one of those things your brain tends to shove out of the way when your baby smiles at you or learns to walk. Hopefully I won’t forget if I write this shit down somewhere.