We have had a couple weeks of ups and downs at The Stamm House. Leo was sick, then Gavi was sick, Brad was sick, I've managed to hold off so far (but I did hurt my back the other day and was totally out of commission for a while - serves me right for trying to work out. PT starts again on Monday!)
Despite that, or I guess because of that, we've had a lot of time to snuggle together at home, and I guess inhale each other's sicknesses. Regardless, here's what we've been up to:
Gavi is still cute as ever. So is Brad:
This is a 4 minute video of Gavi eating yogurt. Some of you will scoff, and others will watch the whole thing. Enjoy:
Leo and his friends at school have been learning about Kindness. They are doing kind things for each other at school and at home, and when they do, they get a marble to fill the class's jar. When they fill the jar, they get a party! Leo is a very caring, helpful guy to begin with, but now he's being extra sweet. He has been cleaning off the table after meals, he picks up things when Gavi drops them, he helps put groceries away - he has been very helpful and kind!
Gavi was sick on Wednesday and Thursday so she stayed home from school and deserved extra snuggles. She chose to spend that time playing with her favorite toy - tissues! Honestly, she loves tissues (sometimes clean, usually used...i know, i know), and the bottle of tushie cream. Those are her go-to toys.
Gavi is 11 months old! She has 3 teeth (and knows how to use them), and still has blue eyes! She is standing and has taken some steps at the walker, but hasn't shown interest in standing on her own yet.
And now, for Hanukkah Gavi was out of school yesterday for her post-fever day at home, but we came in and the school Director snuck her into the performance. There she is, in the middle stroller, in her blue Hanukkah shirt!
And here is a video of their class performance:
And here is Leo, Mr. Juah Maccabee. What do you say, does he look even more like Brad with his beard? He's on the far left, 4 kids from the end.
And here is a video of his class's performance, which was adorable:
After the performance, Leo wanted to wear Gavi's headband and my necklace. Look how nice he looks! Wearing it over his eyes was his choice, not mine:
And here is is, such a big kid. Each night he takes out his toothbrush, toothpaste, flosser and water cup and lines them up along the sink. He sure is systematic (just like another, bigger Stamm I know). He didn't want me to take a picture of him but he was just too handsome not to:
Ms. Diaper Hat getting ready for school this morning:
Buddy Breakfast x3! When Brad works from home, he and Leo have Buddy Breakfast. This morning, Gavi took part too! ...and by that, I mean she threw all of her cheerios on the floor. Please note the tissue box in the spot of honor on the table.
Brad here with a very exciting first for Leo on Sunday.
On Sunday, I dropped off Stacey and Leo at Beth El so they could go do a Tiny Torahs gratitude program. I think that's what it was, honestly I'm not entirely sure, I just know it was timely to Thanksgiving and had to do with paper in jars. Gavi and I went to Brueggers for a daddy - daughter breakfast which consisted of me drinking coffee and eating a bagel while she chowed down on Cheerios and was cracking up every time I kissed her hand. This was clearly to the amusement of some other patrons, and certainly not to others (their problem, not mine).
I then brought a sleepy Gavi over to Bibi and Zee's house for playing, snuggles and naptime. I joined Tiny Torahs for a few minutes before we needed to leave to get to the movie theater to see Frozen 2 for Leo's first big kid movie experience!
Thankfully I had planned ahead (I can see all of your shocked faces) and got the tickets a few days beforehand since the showing was already sold out when we got there. After waiting in line for popcorn and M&M's (which he no longer needs to work for by going potty) we went into the theater to pick our seats. It was still about 15 minutes before the previews started, and almost all the seats were already taken. We were able to get 2 seats on the aisle together since he was going to sit on Stacey's lap anyway, and started on the snacks! During the credits (which ended up being over 30 minutes long) Stacey took Leo out to make one last try at going potty before the movie started.
Leo happily munched away on the snacks and got very excited when Olaf (the snowman) came on screen and other kids would squeal at random moments as things happened. With about 15 minutes left Leo told us that he needed to go potty, so I picked him up and walked fast to the bathroom and after a successful trip, we were back a couple minutes later, without missing anything vital to the movie (phew) to see the ending. Stacey had done her research and knew there was a bonus scene after the credits so wait we did with 2 other families through the literal thousands of people who worked on the movie. To be honest, the extra scene was solidly meh for how long we had to wait. By the time we were leaving the theater, it was probably at least 1:30, and for Leo that's about an hour and a half after his naptime, but I was impressed that he stayed awake through the whole movie!
He even let me take a picture of him with the poster at the theater:
We then picked up Gavi and he crashed soon after getting home. Everyone had a great time and I'm sure he's excited for the next time we'll get to go see a movie on the HUGE screen.
We had a great weekend in general too, snuggling in bed, going for a hike, and Leo and I made our own pizzas when Stacey went to play with Asher and Riley. Here are a couple other pictures for your viewing pleasure:
Welcome to the Stamm House of the Infirmed. Is it seriously only Thursday? I swear this week has been a month long.
I can't even remember the details now because it's all a blur, but our week has gone something like this.
Monday:
I dropped off the kids at school like normal. Gavi had a bit of a yucky eye but she was acting totally normally so they accepted her. I got a call in the late morning that we had to come pick her up because her eye was getting worse - more red, more gross, and she was unhappy. Brad was working from home so I brought him the car, he brought me back to work and went to pick up Gavi and bring her to the doctor. He said the doctor walked in and laughed because he could immediately tell what was going on. Gavi had pink eye, a double ear infection, and a fever. Poor thing!
Brad brought her home and spent the second half of the day babying our baby.
That night Brad and I went to a specil pilot program at shul and we had a babysitter coming anyway, so Leo got a bath as soon as he got home and Lizzie came over to hang out with them for a couple of hours. Lizzie works at a daycare (Tender Care, where Leo used to go!) so I'm sure whatever is going around at the JCC is also going around at her school.
Tuesday:
Brad went to work and I hung out with Gavi in the morning, then BiBi came in to hang out for a few hours so I could get some work done, then I came home for a couple hours, then Bibi came back over so Brad and I could take Leo to Speech. Phew, there was a lot going on that day.
I gave Gavi a bottle and she immediately did this:
Then this:
The poor thing was so uncomfortable, she just couldn't find a position that she liked. On the floor, on the couch, on me...she just kept squirming around.
Finally the tylenol kicked in and we were able to play a little and even got some smiles in!
Gavi was happiest when she was climbing on me:
Check out this video to see Gavi's newest accomplishment:
Brad's working on a big project at work so he had to catch up on some work tonight.
Wednesday:
Brad stayed home with Gavi and was working from home on and off for a half day. All was fine and well, Gavi's fever was coming and going.
Then I got a call from school at 11:00. Leo and his friends were lining up outside to come in and he was running at full speed, slipped in some mud, and ran with full force into a concrete wall. They said he was okay and his teacher, Kathy, was comforting him and that I should come in and see him.
When I came, he and his friends were sitting down to have lunch. Kathy said that he's been leaning back in his chair and wavering around a bit and I could tell he looked sleepy even though it wasn't nap time yet. I called the doctor (who I'd already called about 4 times this week - is it still only Wednesday?) and they said if there's any chance that he might have a concussion I should bring him to Children's Hospital's Emergency Room.
When we got there, old school Mickey was on, so Leo was happy:
As we waited longer and longer, Leo explored the waiting room and was playing with the light sticks, building tracks for the cars, playing games on an ipad (which he had never done before, so that was new!). As you can see, he was acting totally normally, which was great to see.
After waiting for an hour, they told us it would be faster if we went to Urgent Care, so we went there, played some more, and were soon taken back to see the doctor. After a 30 second visit, the doctor said we're good to go. Easy peasy.
Now we are waaaay past Leo's nap time so while we were still in the parking lot, I told him he could take a nap. He responded by closing his eyes, and not 15 seconds later, he was asleep.
When we got home, I carried Leo up to his bed and he kept sleeping. Brad was home with Gavi. She woke up around when we came home and Brad was done working for the day so we had some fun play time! Gavi played Godzilla and kept taking the trains off the tracks, and we had tons of smiles and relatively few tears.
Then we discovered that Gavi had polka dots!
After the kids were in bed, I went back to work for a little bit to plow through some emails that I just couldn't seem to get through during my interspersed time at my desk these days. It's amazing what you can get done when the phone isn't ringing, emails aren't coming in and various conversations aren't taking place that you're in and out of. Maybe I should work a bonus hour each night to get through things? Naaaah. That's actually one reason Brad likes working at 7am (gah, I know!), because he can get through things before everyone else starts arriving. There is something refreshing about that.
This morning, everyone went back to school but that wasn't to say it was an easy morning. I woke Gavi up from a deep slumber and she was really really really really unhappy about it. Add to that my taking her temperature and giving her the amoxicillin which she haaaates. That's what led to this series of pictures. Just watch Leo's face transform:
Leo always tries to make Gavi feel better. He is such a sweet big brother.
I got a call this morning from school saying that Gavi's spots have spread. I called the doctor again. They now recognize my kids' names and do not need to look them up. Do we get a doctor's office punch card? I also called Dr. Zee (for about the 20th time this week) for a consult. They both agreed that the rash probably came once the fever broke and that it's not a reaction from the medicine. Rashes from this medicine typically show after 7 days of taking it and she's only been on it for 3 days. We're going to keep an eye on it but she's acting like herself so that's good.
Sooooo is it really only Thursday? Mama needs a glass of wine. Nay, a bottle of wine. Can that be arranged, Brad? I think we deserve it.
