World of Stars

Wed 1/25: Andrew sick, again

rwistar — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:17:24 +0000

Bad news: Andrew was sick and had to come home from school again, on Monday this time. Good news: we got a head start on his nine-month physical. Here are the vital stats from nine months:

Weight: 19.8 lbs (48%)
Height: 29″ (75%)
Head: 18.25″ (80%)

Fortunately, he was not discovered to have an ear infection this time, so let’s hope he gets well soon!

Wed 1/18: Christmas in Annapolis

rwistar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:53:34 +0000

A smattering of pictures from our Christmas celebrations in Annapolis:

Tue 1/10: Andrew ear infection #1

rwistar — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:36:35 +0000

Andrew had to come home from school yesterday with a fever, and when Marcie took him to the doctor, we discovered that he had 1.5 ear infections (one for sure, and possibly the other one too). I’m recording this here in the blog because I want to have a more permanent record of his ear infections. He’s been sick with something for what seems like several weeks, so I am a little concerned he might be headed down the same road that Ben did. Of course things turned out fine with Ben after he got tubes, but I hope that Andrew doesn’t need to suffer through that!

Wed 1/4: Welcome back Wistars

rwistar — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:14:04 +0000

OK, I’ve returned from my holiday hiatus with some updates on our goings and doings. We had a nice holiday season, inasmuch as we survived the with with no day care without causing each other any serious injury, either physical or psychological. In fact, we had a very nice time down in Annapolis with Nana and Granddad Wistar. See more on that later this week.

For now, here is a brief photo-essay from the actual Christmas day, which we spent with Granmary:

Mon 12/19: She can rebuild herself?

rwistar — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:32:43 +0000

Observe the following photo and notice what might be unexpected:

It’s true, Betsy can now actually support her own weight on her back legs without any assistance. She’s not really walking again; although she can walk a few steps, she still falls down on her butt quite a bit. But it is rather inspiring to see her make such an amazing recovery from complete paralysis in just a few short months. Perhaps it’s a Christmas miracle?

Sat 12/17: Robbery?

marciejeanne — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:11:08 +0000

Nap time for Ben has been a farce for a long time now. When at school he naps for a bout 90 minutes, at home it just doesn’t happen. But I still need a break so I give Ben 1 hour on the timer and leave him in his room. Saturday was a day of faculty meetings for Roger so I had the boys solo and Andrew was sick with constipation and a sinus infection. I set Ben up for his rest in his room then got Andrew set up with a bottle and myself positioned on the couch so I could watch TV while feeding Andrew. I heard a thump from Ben’s room, but nothing else until the timer rang and I heard, “Mommy, my timer rang.” Okay Ben, clean up your room and come on up. “But it’s too heavy.” Huh?? I was a little speechless when I discovered the mess in his room. Check it out:

I don’t remember exactly what I said after giving him a time out on the stairs and running to get the camera so I could take these photos. There was a lot finger pointing and “your dad and I work too hard to give you a nice place to live for you to treat your room with such disrespect.” As these words were coming out of my mouth I was thinking how he has no concept of “respect” “work” He just knew I was pissed.

After lecturing for a few minutes I told him he could not have any Caillou (his favorite show) and had to clean up his room. I hauled the bed back together and then sat holding a fussy Andrew while Ben cleaned his room. He tried to have some fun with me, but I wasn’t allowing any cheer.

When he was all done I gave him another shot at his rest time in order to get his much desired Caillou. He did it this time without destroying his room. Ugh, buddy. That was a rough one!

Mon 12/12: Christmas, Part 1

rwistar — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:28:18 +0000

This past weekend we hosted Grandpa Dan and Cathy for the first of what will be several celebrations of the Christmas season. The highlight on Sunday was Ben opening this huge box:

Which turned out to be a HUGE ZEBRA!

Sun 12/11: All aboard the Polar Express!

rwistar — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:45:32 +0000

On Sunday our big activity was boarding the Northern Lights Express, a holiday-themed train ride at the New England Railroad Museum. They have a vintage engine that they take out for an hour-long trip up and down the track. There were elves walking around the cars, and even a visit with Santa. Ben really enjoyed looking out the window and describing all of the sights of the trip.

Mon 12/5: MAS*H unit

rwistar — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:54:13 +0000

So here I am back on the air after a brief ROBLOMO rest. My goal is to get a post out at least once every three days. That ought to be enough to slake the thirst of even our most avid readers. Anyway, part of the reason why it’s taken a while to get a new post out is the subject of this post. Our kids have been really, really sick the past week. Either Marcie or I have had to take time off work to be home with the kids every day since last Wednesday — that’s going on four days now.

It started when Marcie kept the kids home on Wednesday thinking that they had pinkeye. Fortunately as you know, that was not the case, but Andrew had to stay home another day on Thursday because he was on penicillin for the first time. Then Andrew came home early again on Friday because he was really miserable and upset at school.

The weekend seemed fairly quiet and the kids seemed to be in pretty good shape, but when Ben woke up yesterday, he was not himself. He was cranky, weak, and didn’t want to do anything more than lie on the couch and watch TV. If you know Ben, you know that him sitting down anywhere for more than a few minutes is highly unusual. So this was pretty serious. He didn’t have a fever, so his illness was hard to identify. The coup de grace came just before lunchtime when I was sitting with him on the couch with his head resting on my lap. Without warning he jerked up and vomited explosively all over the couch. It was a huge mess that would have made Linda Blair proud.

Most of the damage seemed to be confined to things that we could wash, so it wasn’t a big deal. But he was still down for the count for most of the rest of the day, until he finally took a two-hour nap just before dinnertime. After waking up from dinner, he seemed to feel better, but he did register a fever last night. We decided to keep him home today, but he has been feeling better this morning. I think we are out of the woods there.

12/1: ROBLOMO redux

rwistar — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:55:18 +0000

So there you have it — an entire month of posts in the blog. It’s true that I didn’t exactly write a post every day, but there was a post for every day. What can I say after the experience? It wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be, so perhaps it will have the desired effect of increasing my overall output. It seems like if you post very regularly, it isn’t as hard to get up the motivation than it is if you start to skip a few days here and there. Now having said that, I might take a day or two off to just clear my head and focus a little more on other things before resuming my little narrative.

11/30: Good news, bad news

rwistar — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:52:19 +0000

The good news is that after a trip to the doctor, neither one of our children has pinkeye or any other communicable diseases. Andrew has a sinus infection and Ben has a double ear infection. So uncomfortable but not contagious. The bad news is that because it is the first time that Andrew is taking penicillin, he will have to stay home from school another day to make sure that he doesn’t have a hideous reaction and blow up like a balloon. That’s frustrating because we had really gotten our hopes up for a brief while before they were dashed, but I suppose it is something that we will only have to go through once for each medicine.

Tue 11/29: Curse of Scott Baio

rwistar — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:26:22 +0000

We think there’s a chance that one or both of the kids might have pinkeye. It’s not a terribly serious condition, but it is contagious. We’re going to keep them home tomorrow and take the to the doctor to get checked out. Let’s hope that it’s something less serious, like a sinus infection or something like that. Otherwise we might be faced with keeping the kids home for several days.

Mon 11/28: Back to school

rwistar — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:34:01 +0000

Ben was pretty upset this morning when I left him at day care, which is unusual for him. Usually we read a few pages and then I gently excuse myself, but today he was very clingy and upset. It’s strange that a two-day absence from day care would affect him so much. Oh well. Unfortunately we have to skip Ben’s swim lesson today so that he can get his flu shot. It’s not ideal, but he needs to get immunized as a condition for day care.

Sun 11/27: The back-up plan

rwistar — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:26:04 +0000

Andrew has been constipated lately. Not just a little bit — this kid really hasn’t made a good poop in more than a week. (Is that too much information? Oh well, you’re reading a baby blog — caveat lexor.) Marcie and I realized to our chagrin that pretty much everything that we had been feeding him might be contributing to his constipation. Anyway, there was a lot of grunting and straining and crying, and we were starting to get pretty concerned. But a phone call to the on-call physician on Sunday reassured us that this wasn’t an emergency situation, just something to keep trying to treat through diet. Good luck Andrew!

[Ed. Note: this post was written on Monday and day care reports that he had two gigantic poops today. So it seems that the dam may have finally burst. Thank goodness!]

Sat 11/26: Firefighter Museum

rwistar — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:43:26 +0000

On Saturday we decided to make a family trip to the Firefighting Museum of New York. It’s a really great museum. On the ground level they have a few dozen donated fire engines, and several of them are available for kids to climb around on and explore. Upstairs they have a big activity room for kids, complete with several craft projects for them to do. It was the second time for Ben and me; we went once before in the spring, I think, after Andrew was born. Anyway, Ben had a great time today too.

Fri 11/25: O Christmas Tree

rwistar — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:27:35 +0000

Like most Americans, we in the Wistar household believe that the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving. Unlike many of our fellow countrymen, we do not spend that Friday getting trampled at a Walmart. Instead, we spent the morning putting up our decorations:

Thu 11/24: Happy Thanksgiving!

rwistar — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:45:05 +0000

Today was a nice day for the Wistar family. Although it was just the four of us for Thanksgiving this year, we managed to make the most of a small party. This year we decided to celebrate our new gas grill with an almost completely grilled menu:

Grilled shrimp appetizer
Grilled turkey cutlets
Grilled acorn squash & potatoes
Stuffing (not grilled)
Cranberry sauce (definitely not grilled!)
Grilled pineapple + ice cream

Wed 11/23: Frust-er-ated

rwistar — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:40:12 +0000

Tonight was challenging for everyone. Andrew was his usual cranky self (at least lately — I think the teeth are really bothering him), and Marcie and I had our hands full with Ben. When he gets frustrated, he starts doing this thing where he huffs and puffs. “Haauuuugh!” he says, and then usually adds, “You make me frust-er-ated!” At least it is nice that he is able to express himself verbally. Tonight was a typical hard night for Ben in that he seemed to really be trying to push our buttons and wasn’t trying very hard to listen to what we were saying. At least it seems that way. What is probably happening is that he is just reaching the limits of a three-year-old’s behavioral abilities. The kids will be home for the next four days, so keep your fingers crossed!

Tue 11/22: Two teeth!

rwistar — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:05:39 +0000

Andrew now is starting to cut his second tooth. Both of his incisors on the bottom are starting to come in now. This is very exciting for us but it seems to be rather uncomfortable for him. He’s not really fussy most of the time, but at mealtimes the past few days he has gotten very upset when we have tried to feed him a vegetable dish or something with real substance. He does still seem to be willing to eat yogurt and applesauce, so that’s good. We haven’t tried using any of those topical remedies, like Oragel or Jack Daniels. Probably we won’t use either one. Probably.

Mon 11/21: Swim class #3

rwistar — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:22:46 +0000

Today was a big milestone for Ben in the swim class — he made it through the entire lesson without getting scared and needing me to come out onto the pool deck with him. Instead, I got to spend the 30 minutes watching him with the other parents in the Room of Waiting just outside the pool. I was very proud of Ben. He bounded through the door to the pool at the head of the line and seemed gung ho for every activity. Occasionally he would look through the window as if trying to find my face, but he always seemed to be smiling and happy. It was a big win for him!

Sun 11/20: Field trip

rwistar — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:39:22 +0000

Ben and I decided to take a trip to the Connecticut Science Center today so that Marcie could have some peace and quiet to get her end-of-term reports done. It was a nice time — we spent the entire afternoon there and Ben took a nap on the way home. It was very interesting to me to see how Ben interacted with the museum today. In the past he has been focused primarily on the water play room and other more rudimentary activities. Today his favorite station was a simulated stream that allowed him to construct a dam with some blocks and other pieces of equipment. It was neat to see him really try to problem-solve and figure out a working dam.

Fri 11/18: Stinky pants

rwistar — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:03:57 +0000

Andrew stinks these days. I don’t mean that there is something about him that I dislike. I mean that he literally stinks. Ever since we started feeding him solid food, we knew this day would come soon. Real food equals real poop. But something particular that we started feeding him, I think maybe broccoli, makes Andrew’s urine smell like something from a sewage treatment plant. One upshot of this as Marcie noticed is that they are changing his diaper more often at day care!

Thu 11/17: Bath time!

rwistar — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:42:33 +0000

Since we finally live in an apartment with bathtubs (an amazing modern convenience — it’s almost incomprehensible that our last apartment had two bathrooms and no tubs), we can actually have both our sons take a bath together. Andrew has a little chair that is suction-cupped to the floor, and it keeps him upright. Here are a few G-rated pictures:

Wed 11/16: Wordful Wednesday

rwistar — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:17:10 +0000

I promise you, we are not keeping our children under the influence of any mood-altering depressants. Really.

Tue 11/15: Date night

rwistar — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:26:50 +0000

Tuesday night is Date Night in the Wistar household. Marcie and I realized pretty early on in our marriage that we needed to make time intentionally for together activities so that they didn’t get lost in the shuffle of work and other things. It can get easy when you live with someone to lose sight of the work you need to put into keeping the home fires burning. Now that we have two kids, that seems doubly true. Lately, most of our date nights have included take-out and curling up on the couch with TV after the kids go to bed. (Every once in a while, we go out to a restaurant, but our budget and our sanity don’t allow much for that.) Last night, after some complicated efforts to procure pizza, we settled in for about an hour of The Sing-Off, our new favorite together show. Last night was especially great — see you later Delilah!