Silly Tucker

Everyone thinks that their child has a great personality...and we are no different:)  Tucker is such a bundle of energy and cracks us up.  I am finding that he is quite the social butterfly and will just walk up to other kids at My Gym and say "hi", or try to take the hair clip out of their hair-he needs to learn some boundaries.

He is saying quite a few words too and likes to tell us when he does something, even if we aren't watching.  

Most recently, I was in the kitchen while he was playing in the living room with Brayden.  He is VERY good with B so I can leave them alone for a few minutes and check on them from around the corner.  Well this time, he comes in to the kitchen saying "at, at" which usually means that he wants us to look at "that".  He brings me in to the living room with a proud smile on his face to show me that he just fed Brayden a HALF A GOLDFISH, or "peesfash" or something that sounds like that.  Begin panic mode! I may have mentioned before that I have an extreme fear of choking!  Well thankfully a quick fingersweep got the fish out and Tucker and I had a chat about how Brayden does not eat any food...scary stuff.  

The day before, he knocked the water bowl over at a friends house (for their dog) and came in the other room to tell me about his feat:)

A couple weeks ago we were treated to this, which I think is hysterical.  Not sure if anyone else will or if it's just one of those, "it's only funny because it's your own kid" things, but I like the end the best:)

Diagnosis!

After three+ days with a 102.5 fever and a cough that the prescribed meds weren't helping, we made a trip back to the doctor to try to figure out what was going on. Diagnosis: double ear infection and pneumonia! BAM!! Thankfully tucker was still pretty with it but he didn't have much of an appetite. I think he probably had 20 goldfish and 10 cinnamon life pieces. This morning though he was a little hungrier, and what did he want? Crackers! We tried to entice him to eat more by making him pancakes but he only got 5 bites in before he was done. We are so thankful his fever is gone and he is breathing better with these new meds but we can't wait for his appetite to return!

Brayden's eye

When Brayden was born his right eye would barely open.  It was a LOT better by the time we left the hospital and he spent so much time sleeping that most people never really saw/notice it.  I have an eye condition called strabismus so I am keenly aware of any "weirdness" going on with my kids' eyes, as it can be hereditary.  I have a slight droopy eyelid too, as does Tucker, but its not anything that is super noticeable.  Brayden's was DEFINITELY noticeable.  

The pediatrician told me it was probably just birth trauma, which made no sense because I had a C-section.  Over the next couple months it got a lot better, but his regular doctor suggested that I take him to the eye doctor sometime soon to get a baseline read on what was going on.  It has gotten MUCH better since that first day, as these pictures show, but it is still there.

I finally got around to making an appointment and took Bradyen to my doctor at Yale today.  Thankfully, his droopy lid is not impacting his vision at all. It amazed me with Tucker at 6 months and even more so with Brayden at 3.5 months, that the doctor can do an eye exam on an infant!
Brayden was a champ and had to get his eyes dilated and he didn't even cry!  (I might add that my kids don't usually cry with shots either...minor mommy "bragging" moment-if you can even brag about that!)  Thankfully his vision seems to be great too! So at this point, his droopy lid, which isn't even that bad anymore, is only a cosmetic thing and won't require any surgery as of now.  He has to get it checked a couple times a year at first, but all looks great! We are so thankful!

little guy knocked out after the drops

all dilated up! his pupils are huge!!! and so are his cheeks:)

Oh My...

"Oh my" is Tucker's new favorite thing to say...and we always laugh when he says it, which prompts him to say it often!  He is slowly recovering from whatever sickness he has-he's had a 102.5 fever now since Tuesday (almost three days!) but thankfully it hasn't slowed him down too much:)

Before he got sick, we celebrated my dad and grandma's birthdays this weekend.

I walked to the front door a couple days ago and I saw this...and I most certainly did not leave the shoes neat like this against the wall...Tucker is learning to organize already! I really hope we aren't creating a monster!

Tucker was not feeling great when he first woke up this morning and I needed to get ready so I gave him a little phone time (he has a few apps on my phone he likes).  Later today I went to look for a picture and saw these beauties that he took...apparently he learned how to take a picture also!

oh boy...

Brayden Update: He did the 12 hour night shift for three nights in a row! ANNNNNDDD he decided to start taking stellar naps too! Last night was not so great-up a bunch and needed his binky back (I have a love-hate relationship with the binky)-but he's been off since I started eating dairy again.  Needless to say I am back off the dairy!

Tucker-oh poor little guy! He is such a tough guy when he's sick and it looks like he's pretty sick! He's had a runny nose for over a week but the first week was just a runny nose-he gets them whenever he is getting a tooth in, which he was.  Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to drain well so he ends up getting bad coughs and/or chest congestion sometimes.  He started getting a cough on Saturday and then it got really bad Monday afternoon.  Yesterday he was super constipated (sorry if TMI) and he was trying to go so badly and he was crying for about 45 minutes....then I noticed how hot he was and he had a fever upwards of 101.6.  He never gets fevers! This is the 3rd one in his whole life.  Well after a trip to the doctor's last night, his ears are perfectly clear and so is his chest! Good news! Except they weren't really sure what is wrong.  They went with a diagnosis of bronchitis and gave him some steroids for his nebulizer and an antibiotic in case it is bronchitis.  Thankfully he seems to be "feeling" fine for the most part but he still had a fever this morning.  Hopefully the meds will keep working and he'll feel better soon!

We are just praying that he doesn't pass any germs on to Brayden! Respiratory stuff for infants=no good!

Woooo hoooo

Oh did we have a great night last night!!
Brayden Thomas went from 8pm-8am!! No dream feed and just a quick binky reinsertion at 6:30. Oh if by some miracle this could happen again we would be in heaven!! Tucker never has slept a 12 hour stretch! This is amazing!!

Just keep snowing, snowing, snowing...

I have lived in New England for 30 years.  We have seen this much snow before...just never all at the same time! We had supposedly 34.5 inches in our town...it was CRAZY! The pictures just don't do it justice! Friday night Max and Tucker went out around dinner time to do a quick first round of shoveling...little boy didn't want to come in-shocker!

I kinda wished we were able to actually see the blizzard (it happened over night) but the end result was astounding! SOOOOO much snow! It took Max at least 4 hours to shovel everything, and that included me taking an hour just to shovel the front walk and a path from the top of the driveway to get to the front walk! Tucker was loving all of the snow:)

 This is the only way the streets could be cleared-with a Pay Loader! Miraculously we got our street plowed Saturday afternoon at 3:30...unfortunately it still is only 1 lane, but we are SO ok with that!

 yup, that's my car...a big SUV...covered in snow!

A little scavenger hunt in a box of snow!

 Lots of quality in the house time for these boys.  They are actually starting to interact with each other which is so cute.

 Snow sundaes! Snow, maple syrup, and rainbow sprinkles...yum!

 Brayden finally made it out in his first snow...we kept him in for the one right after he was born. He didn't seem to mind the snow at all! 

We had a fun blizzard party with our friends across the street.  Sienna did such a great job holding Brayden too.

As usual our awesome neighborhood elves were at it again! They all went around with snowblowers and shovels (because the blower just couldn't cut it on their own) and did the end of everyone's driveways after the plows plowed them back in.  What a great neighborhood we live in!

We did make it out of the house on Sunday for Max's Grandma's 90th birthday party up in Farmington and the highways were fine.  Tucker and I went to My Gym today too and the main roads are fine, but there are still people in surrounding towns who haven't gotten their streets plowed yet! It's incredible!  I'm just praying that the snow in the forecast for this week stays away!!!!

This guy...