Injury Report

Last night the little guy was running and fell into the corner of the main archway into our living room. Luckily for him the archway is framed with wood and the edges are rounded. When he hit, I was upstairs and knew immediately that it was going to be bad. It sounded like someone dropped a 20 pound dumbell on the floor. Then for a few seconds there was silence, and then the screaming began. He hit the board right in the center if his forehead. I tried desperately to put a cold cube on the goose egg that had already formed, but that only seemed to make matters worse. The screaming intensified and he just kept pushing my hands away. I felt so bad for the kid. I took him upstairs and snuggled with him in the rocking chair and he finally settled down. He almost fell asleep on my shoulder, something that hasn't happened in months.

After we changed him and put him and his sisters to bed, the wife and I both admitted how scared we were and that we were mentally preparing ourselves for a trip to the ER. Thankfully that was not necessary. The goose egg was gone by this morning, just a large black and blue mark down the middle of his forehead now. He is his happy, daredevil self, standing on the rocking horse and pushing his sisters out of the bookshelf -his little hiding spot. All is right in our world, until the next injury.


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"only women can be nurturers"

Missouri State Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) is currently trying to pass legislation that would pay at-home-moms $600 each year that they care for children under the age of 16. That's right, I said moms, not dads. You see, Davis told KMOU reporter Sarah Hollenbeck that "only women can be nurturers" and intentionally left dads out of the bill.

Click here to see the full story.

Click here to email Rep. Davis or call her: 573-751-9768 or 636-240-6369

Click here to email Sarah Hollenbeck

I gave up a well paying job to stay home to care for my children. For someone to say that I cannot be a nurturer because I'm a man is preposterous. It's like me saying that someone cannot be a State Representative because they are a woman. It's just not right.

Thanks to at home dad for bringing this to my attention.

Karma

Just when you think its safe to post about how healthy you are because of the wonders of modern medicine (i.e. the flu shot) mother nature turns around and gives you a strong left hook to the jaw. Or, the mother of all sinus infections. A few short days after posting about how wonderful the flu shot is and how it kept us all healthy, I got hit hard. I've been in a NyQuil haze since last Thursday. Luckily The Wife was nice enough to take Friday off and then took the kids to the in-laws for the weekend. I'm now being pumped full of antibiotics and am feeling somewhat better. At least, for now. It's still early in the day. Talk to me in about 12 hours, or don't, because I'll probably be comatose!

Invasion

It's happened. Our house has been invaded with sickness. It's not as bad as it could be, there's no throwing up or diareaha thankfully. Three cranky toddlers with fevers is bad enough.
I think the reason we've been so lucky this year is because the kids and I got our flu shots. I got mine way back in November (seems like ages ago) and the kids got theirs in January. I can't stress enough how important it is to get the flu shots. I know they don't always work, but when they do you'll thank yourself for doing it. A couple of weeks ago I felt a little off. I wasn't sick, just, not at 100%. I had the flu. And thanks to my trusty flu shot I was able to go on with my daily life and take care of my three wonderful children.
Back to the kids current state. I can't say for sure that it is the flu because the only symptoms are a slight fever and general crankyness. I can say that if I had felt the way I did a few weeks ago when I was a toddler, I probably would have acted exactly the way mine are acting now, like something just wasn't right.


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Baby Signs

Early on in this adventure the wife and I decided that it might be a good idea to try to teach the trips some baby sign language. I think we started around 6 months, repeatedly signing sleep, eat, more, all done, drink, milk, mommy, daddy, etc. All of the things that a baby would need. In the beginning, it was hard to keep up because there was little or no feedback from the trips, they just sat there and looked at us like we were crazy! It probably wasn't until 9 months that we saw some progress. We started to see "more" from the boy at meal time. This should not have been a big shock to us, since he eats like a 3 year old! Then we started to see "all done" and "sleep." These were big steps for us. We had communication! And the best part was we were getting the right signs at the right times. This was amazing!

Now it's getting even better. Today at lunch, the wife asked G2 if she wanted more or if she was all done. Not only did we get the sign for more, we got the word as well! Amazing! She actually put it together. Of course, we have been repeating the word every time we made the sign - that number must be in the thousands by now! All of that repetition does pay off in the end.

I was a little worried in the beginning that the signing might delay actual language a little. The wife reassured me that she had read that most of the time it actually helps to improve language skills. I trust her when she says she read something because when she puts her mind to it, she is great at research. So, I trusted her and so far she's been right. I have seen little delay in actual language skills. Each of the trips has a handful of words that they know and repeat. Interestingly enough, they each have their own unique set. Of course they all can say mama and dada and some variations of each (mommy, ma, daddy, etc.), and the boy can say block, G1 has said dance (and boy does she love to), G2 has said book and now says more. There are others, some clearer than the rest. I'm sure there are also some that I just don't understand yet. Oh, and they're beginning to say each others' names! That's just darn cute!

Bleh! Bleh!! BLEH!!!

The boy this morning was trying desperately to convey a very important concept to me by repeating "bleh" over and over with increasing intensity. I could tell that he was getting very frustrated that I did not understand. His sisters were just standing by watching the exchange between father and son escalate. Finally I picked him up and we walked around the room while I asked "is this what you want" pointing to the light switch (which is very popular at this stage), "no" was the reply I got. The book on the couch? The other books on the couch? The blanket? Is your diaper dirty? All "no." what could it be? "Blek!" he says. Ohhhhh! Blocks! I was rewarded with a big smile and open arms as I handed him the bag of big blocks.

What a wonderfully frustrating age, for both of us. I can't wait to hear that next word that is just waiting to emerge from their little mouths!


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