Jaren's poor skin and more! (Oct '11)

This is just a mini post of a few things in October of 2011 before I begin our giant travel section of the blog. The rest of October and November were filled with traveling adventures! (To be continued...) Before that however, Jaren broke out in this crazy rash and spots.

 

My poor Jaren has had such a rough time with his skin, ever since that first staph infection. In the end I think this was another outbreak of staph. I even picked up a little of it this time- a spot on my chest that Reid would scratch when I'd nurse him. It was small and so easily treated but it did burn and irritate me.

Poor little boy who had so much of it! Even as I write this his poor tummy is covered in new bumpy rash spots that for months we haven't been able to get rid of.

The first doctor we took him too was a dork and ignored all of the information I brought him about Jaren's hospital stay and the medicine they used and gave us something else. Luckily after an ineffective week of that we took him to someone else who gave us the right one that the hospital treated him with last time and it cleared up.

The kids on our street used to always play right at the end of my driveway, which freaked me out. I was so paranoid that one day we wouldn't see one and hit them with our car. We're so extra careful when we leave, because that would be one of my worst nightmares. Luckily they seem to have grown out of it. It's still not 100% secure, but much less likely that some sweet kiddo will be hiding behind our car as we leave.

Reid was getting so big and beautiful. What a delightful baby. Here are a couple tummy shots of him.

And I'll see you...in September (2011)

This post is mainly just assorted pictures of my darling babies during the month of September (2011). Jaren is 20 months old and Reid is 4 months. Oh how I love them!!!

Jaren was obsessed with putting his fingers in Reid's mouth. Argh! Poor little Reid, he's had to grow up to be a tough one with such a busy rough brother!

Such happy faces!

 

Baby girls totally have the market on adorable clothes, but I think little boys dressed up can also be so darling!

Temporarily safe from the reach of his brother.

Play date with Oma.

I could be mistaken in the timing of my memory, but it's possible this was the first time Reid fell off the couch (not that I think he fell more than the once.) He was playing so happy on the couch and was "too young" to roll off. However he wasn't too young to shift himself and kick the back of the couch, flipping himself completely over and on to the floor. So sad!!! Poor little guy! I think I even had a prompting beforehand to move him but had my hands full doing something for Jaren and then it was too late. We played in the exo-saucer after that to be safe. 

Again with the mouth, for pete's sake! (What a funny expression! Where does that originate from?!)

I think Reid looks like Mr. T below. What a Mo-hawk. Why did I not shave that off sooner?!?!

One of Varian's bosses, gave us this play set after the floods, the boys have loved it. This was the first day setting it up.

But it's not all fun and games when we have a new toy. As I was taking pictures Jaren leaned a little too far back on the seat and fell over. Poor little man!

Jaren was a binky baby. This worked out well for him for the most part. But one negative thing about this was him waking up in the night because his binky had come out and he needed help to find it. It drove me crazy having to get up for him in the night, especially when there was a new baby on the way who would need to wake up and be fed. My sister in law Felicity suggested using the binky strings to tie it to him at night. He could pull those off way too young, but the idea was inspiring! I used a short string (and believe me I was so paranoid about  it being short enough to not be a choking hazard) tied to a shirt that I put over him every night. Best move ever! That way he still had his binky and I had my sleep!

 

I decided to see if we could manage going without a binky for Reid and it worked very well. He would self settle easily and didn't seem to mind not having one. The down side of not giving him a binky was that after a few months he became a thumb-sucker. So I don't know which is worse a binky or a thumb. I've heard the adage of you can take away a binky but you can't take away a thumb. That is what I'm worried about now. Jaren gave up his binky a few months ago and after a few bad days/nights sleep he was fine. But I'm not sure how to help Reid now stop thumb sucking. Also he was a pretty harsh thumb sucker. He would chew on his thumb more and especially once he got teeth, and a big sore was there for months...a year. I think it's basically gone now, but even at 2+ he still sucks his thumb now and then.

Bath time- Jaren ended up chewing on the bar of soap. I've heard of having to wash teenager's mouths out with soap, but I didn't expect my 1 year old to do it on his own.

For some reason I needed some new passport-y shots for Jaren, I can't remember now why, possibly when I was renewing my passport, or some such thing for my visas here. But I thought these extra shots were cute of Jaren.

These boys are lovely and they did/do keep me on my feet! I think they have twice the energy of normal kids sometimes. But with that twice the trouble fun as well. I am so lucky to be their mother!