Livin in a land of candy

So the little tyke had his one month checkup last week and he’s getting less and less little. He’s nearing a whopping eleven pounds already. It seems in the 23 days between his last two doc appointments he gained 27 ounces. You see – I told you he wants to nurse ALL the time.

Life in the land of two offspring is dizzying. One moment I'm all "WHAT were we thinking?" and "I'll NEVER be able to handle them ALONE!" and the next I'm thinking "GOD I LOVE THEM! This can't be my last one."

I’m sorry to report that gastric reflux has reared its ugly head. Slowly Ray has been showing symptoms and they have been getting more and more severe. This of course is rather disappointing but on the up side it gives us hope that soon there will be less screaming. This boy – he’s got some lungs on him. Noah NEVER screamed like this. Ray goes from quiet to window-shattering decibels in one second flat with no plaintive mewling in between. In fact when he screams he does it so forcefully, and so angrily that his whole body turns beet red and he looks like he might pop some blood vessels. It can be quite disconcerting, but over time I’ve gotten more and more accustomed to it. Now I’m able to just hold him calmly and comfort him and wait for it to stop, but Mark isn’t fairing so well. It’s still melting his brain. As it does with just about anyone else. On Thursday my father-in-law's wife was in the car with us when Ray started screaming and she wanted me to stop the car because she was certain he was in life threatening peril. I was all “Nope. He’s fine. He’s just angry and wants out of his seat. He’ll stop when he feels like it.” I don’t want to give the impression that he’s an unpleasant colicky scream machine – he isn’t. He sleeps a lot and anytime he’s out of the house he is a dream – just loves looking at the world and being in a sling. But several times a day at home he goes through these short inconsolable crying jags – and though they often seem attributable to possible reflux symptoms or really bad bouts of gas – we can’t be sure. Today we started giving him small doses of Maalox and if those don’t work we’ll go back to the pediatrician later in the week to get a prescription to Zantac.

Every time I take Ray out I get stopped several times by strangers all of whom make some comment on his red hair. Today while grocery shopping with Ray in the Baby Bjorn at the Shop Rite in Port Richmond three separate old ladies stopped me to say variations of “Ahh! A little red head! He’s so adorable. How old is he? Ahhh! He’s precious. Bless you!” With this many blessings a day we can’t go wrong. While I was stocking the fridge (for like two days – I swear I grocery shop incessantly) Mark and Noah were on a transit adventure. They took the Septa El to the Patco train to take them across the Betsey Ross Bridge and then took the River Link Ferry back across the Delaware and then home on the El. There was no destination – just to ride the never before ridden Patco train and the Ferry. And they had a grand time.

Last weekend we visited family. We went to a pool party at the home of one of Mark’s maternal cousins on Saturday and saw a bunch of family that sadly we only get to see like once a year unless there is a wedding or a funeral. It was a really lovely day – the highlight for Noah being the pool. We nearly had to move him in. Sunday we went to my Mom’s place. While we were there Noah played with my Aunt Jill – she has no kids of her own and so at most family gatherings she acts as the pied piper and entertains the flocks of young ‘uns – bless her soul. This time Noah had her all to himself and really enjoyed it. And before we left he played his first board game with my Mom and his second cousins Alec and Cody. He did really well so later in the week we set out for Toys R’ Us and bought him the preschool board game basics. He is loving Candyland and Hi Ho Cherrio – but Chutes and Ladders is decidedly too confusing because of the board design. The odd part is that though he mastered the rules instantly and played intently the first few times – now that he’s more accustomed to them he loses focus real fast. Much to Mark’s chagrin. In Candyland Noah is fascinated with the treat cards and will just stare at them and lament every time he gets a card with color squares on it.

On Saturday we HAD to go out because the weather was sunny and mild – and until then we’d forgotten what that felt like. We went to Penns Landing to check out the food, music and dancing at the Indian festival. Little girls dancing to Bollywood hits and Samosas to die for! (Now Noah is reenacting festivals at home.) Afterward we hit Franklin Fountain for some blueberry ice cream – made from freshly picked Jersey blueberries of course.

And how could I forget – Noah finally got his BED! My in-laws came to help us pick it up on Thursday. And though it took two days and several nervous breakdowns to assemble it – we are all quite pleased with his new bunk bed. I’ll post pictures soon.

OH! And potty training is still really great. Seriously. It has seemed all too easy. Maybe we really just lucked out by picking the perfect time to start. Of course tomorrow it could all go horribly, horribly wrong. But that seems unlikely after weeks of success. However as Noah says about drawing a card in Candyland “You never know what you’re gonna get.”