So, while we were at Connor’s school I took a quick pic and posted it on Facebook and emailed Grandma/Uncle Danny. Ms. Tammy (from my office) saw the pic on Facebook and posted “Uh oh…do i see a tear?”

Grandma emailed me back right away with, “Why are his eyes glassy? Is my grandbaby crying?”

Uncle Danny says, “Why is he playing with a kitchen set??? Get him to the football…we discussed this.”

Glad to see the “village” is there for Connor. I am going to get on my “soapbox” for a moment…you veteran Mom’s out there (Ms. Tammy and Grandma) look too closely for things…I mean come on…any average individual (non mother that is) would NEVER have seen that “tear” in his eye. That “tear” in his eye is probably from his allergies…trust me he did not cry at all. You guys can sleep well tonight!  (TOO FUNNY!!!!)

Uncle Danny…keep it up and I will have him in dance lessons…

Can you see the tear???

That "tear" is from allergies!

Today was Connor’s orientation for St. Luke’s Preschool (where we got married at). Abby and Isaac also go there but are in different classes because they are older than Connor.

Connor has 3 girls and 1 other little boy in his class. They have a little potty (real porcelain toilet) but it is only like 12-18 inches off the ground. He washed his hands 3 times while we were there and did not have to use the potty. (Potty training is coming along great…he went #2 all by himself last night and #1 is almost all the time now…accidents during naps happen and sometimes while he sleeps at night).

When we entered his classroom, he held on to Mommy’s leg for about 30 seconds. His two teachers were in there and two other little girls were already in there. I kneeled down and show him the toys and gave him a little pat on his rear-end and told him he could go play. That was all it took…off he went to “cook” some food at the kitchen set. We were there for about 1 hour and went out in the hallway (out of his sight) for about 10 minutes…he didn’t even care.

At the end, his teachers gave him a bag of goodies…he was not shy at all (the other kids were shy). He walked right over and took the bag and said “thank you”. Then when it was time to go home, he waved good bye to his teachers and said “bye”.

He seems pretty excited…next week is the big day where we drop him off. We shall see how he does…Mommy and I are going to take him and pick him up together the 1st day.

He goes twice a week for 3 hours and has lunch/snack at school. Once a month he can stay after for an additional 2 hours to play on the playground. They take fieldtrips to local areas and the first one will be to a local farmer’s market. They will look at pumpkins and take a hay ride. Sounds like fun!

I couple of posts back, I mentioned that Jacob seems to be a Jazz fan. When he is in his pack-n-play in the family room, we turn on the Music Choice channel and set it to the Jazz channel. It seems to calm our little boy down more than anything else.

Over the past week, Jacob has been growing and is eating much more often as well as eating a lot more. Last week was probably the toughest week (for Daddy) as I take the 1st late night feeding and I am also “Mommy’s ears” at night as she sleeps with her hearing aid off. Getting him fed and putting him back to sleep was a challenge for me. He just didn’t want to go back to bed sometimes. So much so, that on Thursday night I had to yield to the magical touch of Mommy so that I could get some needed rest before going to work.

For those reading this for the first time, Victoria has a cochlear implant and her hearing aid is not a traditional hearing aid. It communicates with a device inside her head. So, a portion of the hearing aid is attached to her head via a magnet. It is recommended that cochlear implant recipients give the skin between the two magnets a break from time to time…thus the reason she sleeps with it off.

Back to the story…

So, we purchased a 2nd sound machine (like the one we have used with Connor since he was a infant) hoping it would work magic on Jacob like it did for Connor. (Mistake #1). (This sound machine plays noises of crickets, rain, waves crashing, white noise, etc…)

We put Jacob in his crib several weeks ago…he doesn’t seem to like that as much as his pack-n-play. (Mistake #2).

We started letting him go to bed with his arms outside of the swaddle as this is how he sleeps during the day. (Mistake #3).

So, after some consideration/discussion and a rough week for Daddy…we moved Jacob back into our room so he could sleep in the pack-n-play. We also swaddle him completely again. And finally, no sound machine. Rather, we used iTunes download some Jazz music and placed it on Mommy’s iPod. Daddy had some speakers that hook up to it and it now plays while Jacob is in bed.

Nearly 5 hours of sleep tonight! I haven’t seen that in a while…thus my blog posting at 2:30am…mainly because I am not exhausted like I was last week.

Glad iTunes and the iPod could save the day…uhhh…night, that is!

Sure, I realize that parenthood changes you…but I had no idea it could change me this way.  Connor has gotten sick in the past and I have been able to handle his vomiting.  This story/scenario never crossed my mind until tonight…

See, I have the “reflex” where if I hear or see someone throwing up, I can’t hold it together and I start gagging and will vomit too.

The “funny” thing about Connor vomiting tonight is that it wasn’t me, but Mommy that had that “reflex” take over tonight.  So, we are both in the bathroom rubbing and trying to calm our boy down as he is gagging because he needs to vomit.  As he gets close to vomiting, Mommy’s reflex kicks in and I see she is about to lose it.  I motion for her to “get out”.   She left and was able to control herself.  I stayed with him as he vomited and my “reflex” didn’t surface.

We love you, Mommy!

Daddy and Connor

Connor vomited Saturday morning, but we thought it was because he drank a lot of milk on an empty stomach.  He ate regularly and has seemed normal since then.  Sunday evening at Papa’s birthday party, he vomited again — now we figured something was up.  Again, he seemed to be playing like normal.

We got home tonight, topped Jacob off with formula and we all settled down for a nice night of sleep.  I figured with Jacob taking 4 ozs we could possibly get 5 hours of sleep before he was looking for another feeding.  So, everyone was tucked in a sleeping by 9:30pm tonight.

11:30pm — no good night sleep for us!  We hear Connor coughing and crying in his room.  We take him into the bathroom in order to help and to see what is wrong.  He needed to vomited.  A few minutes a later hit vomited a little bit.

11:45pm — Daddy heads to Wal-Mart for Ginger Ale, Jello, Gatorade, and Wal-Mart’s brand of pedialyte.  I know Connor doesn’t like pedialyte, so I went with Wal-Mart’s brand.  I saw some postings online saying it “tasted” better and that kids were taking that more readily instead of the Pedialtye brand.  I gave it the taste test when I got home and it really is not bad at all (orange flavor).

midnight — Connor is sleeping in our bed…3 towels in the bed with us…two covering the pillow and mattress and one available for a “throw up rag”.

Hope you feel better soon, Connor!

Tonight was the first time that Mommy and Daddy have been out of the house (together) without either of the boys since Jacob was born.  We went to the Outback (a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Brantley — THANK YOU) and Mimi/Papa came over and watched Connor and Jacob.  They mainly watched Jacob because Connor slept the entire time because Connor had been up since 6am that day, without a nap and Grandma had been over earlier to watch/play with him while we took Jacob to the doctor.

We enjoyed our night out (bloomin onion, lobster tails, and steak)…

Thanks Mimi and Papa!