It's Fall, Y'all!!

It's finally fall!  After such a hot summer with temperatures in the high 90's and 100's, we're glad to be back outside in the cooler temperatures.  Despite the fact that my allergies have been acting up, we've been having a lot "outside time" and rotating among the many surrounding parks.    I honestly never know what clothes to put the boys in because the temperatures keep fluctuating.  This makes for a lot of laundry, but it's so nice to get out.  The more outside time we have, the happier Blake and especially Dominic are.  

With school back in session, we lasted less than a month before our first cold, case of stomach flu (simultaneously), and subsequently quadruple ear infections (both boys had double ear infections = 4 ears were infected at the same time) in the Morton house.  It's been a rough couple of weeks mostly spent in quarantine.  The cold was the first sickness.  It came on all of a sudden for Dominic with a lot of sneezing and then he woke up 3 times in the middle of the night.  To add to the fun, I also discovered that one of his 2 year molars (top right) is finally in the middle of coming through.  This means that 3 more are to follow.  The teeth and cold definitely accounted for a notable increase in his whininess.  A couple of days after Dominic came down with the cold, Blake soon followed (no surprise).  However, what I didn't count on was just after Blake started getting sick with the cold, I ended up getting a stomach virus.  When I recently was thinking how I would love to spend the day in bed watching TV, I did not have this in mind at all.  The boys were miserable and in an effort to avoid giving the boys my stomach virus, I couldn't hold them even when they were miserable with their cold (so sad).  Brian had to take charge of the boys while I was sick.  

Unfortunately, while still extremely sick with his cold then Blake became started throwing up and having diarrhea a day later after Brian went back to work.  Our poor baby kept coughing, gagging, and then with his upset stomach throwing up for about 5 days...in between blowout diapers.  There's nothing worse than cleaning up throw up and changing blowout diapers when you're nauseated and throwing up yourself!  On the bright side, the stomach flu is a quick way to lose pregnancy weight.  I'm now 2 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight, which with Blake was 10 pounds lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight with Dominic.  I barely ate for a week, but around the time that my stomach felt normal again, Brian and I came down with a cold.  Does this ever end? NO!  After Dominic became the most emotional I've ever seen him, crying while watching Snoopy cry in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and giving me a glimpse into what it would be like to be a mother to a teenage girl, I finally took both boys to the doctor for their first sick visit as a pair.  The logistics were hard, but I did it, and we discovered that the boys both had double ear infections and were put on antibiotics.  After this ordeal, we're getting fitted for hazmat suits soon.  

Despite the various plagues, Dominic is continuing to settle into preschool and comes home talking about his day more and more (most days).  This was something he never really did last year in Parents' Morning Out because he just wasn't all that verbal at that point, but this year I hear about the shapes they've been working on, the kids' in his class, his teachers, songs they're singing at school, whether they painted or used crayons (or both), and most of all the snack if it's "yummy."  The playground is brought up as well.  Sometimes I'm not exactly sure what he's telling me they did, but by the sound of it, he had fun, which is the most important thing, right?  His teachers set up a Shutterfly site so we parents can see pictures of the kids at school.  It's so great to see Dominic in action at school away from me because I obviously never get to see that.

Playing at recess with a huge smile!

With his cute, little classmates at school...and Dominic looks like one of the tallest kids in the class whoa!

playing with airplanes and firetrucks at school. how...not surprising. ;)

Painting and apparently that included his mouth. Ew!

Meanwhile, I have officially become a cliche mom, sitting in my minivan in the carpool line at Dominic's preschool with Blake in tow.  I was going to wait a little bit to start carpool with Dominic just to give him more time to become acclimated with his new class, but the first day the 2's were permitted to leave through carpool a couple of weeks into school, it happened to be pouring out, so I opted to stay dry and not have to get Blake out of the car.  Dominic seemed a bit weary and impatient in line the first couple of times, but now he just looks excited to see me pulling up.  He hops right into the van, walks behind Blake's car seat in the middle seat (once again thank God we bought the minivan!), and climbs into his own car seat without a problem before I pull off into a parking spot on the side to buckle him in (the teachers don't buckle them in as policy especially with him sitting behind me).  This is so much easier than having to unbuckle Blake, carry him in with me to quickly get Dominic from his class and then carry Blake as Dominic and I walk back to the minivan before buckling both boys back in the van two minutes later (last year that was a process!).  Brian continues to walk Dominic into school in the morning and plans to continue doing so for at least a little while longer.  I think Brian enjoys that alone time with Dominic, which is so sweet.  :)

At home, a miracle has also occurred because Dominic has started eating meat (he's a vegetarian by his own choice).  Since he's always very interested in my Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets, I found a healthy recipe on Pinterest and breaded and baked chicken nuggets, which with some organic ketchup Dominic eats right up!  He also has started eating veggies a little more often...as long as they're dipped in peanut butter.  This is his favorite food these days.  He loves eating peanut butter out of the jar.  Luckily, since he doesn't eat much meat, this serves as an excellent source of protein. :)

A mischievousness look in Dominic's favorite hiding spot (Brian's closet)

Our adorable 2 1/2 year old has become quite the practical joker these days.  Dominic thinks it's hysterical to put stickers on our backs, hide and have us look around for him, and have us sit on little toys like dinosaurs that he sneaks onto our chairs. It's very funny watching this little prankster's personality in full-force.  I love playing jokes on people too, so I appreciate this personality trait in Dominic as long as the jokes aren't on me.  I worry, we're really in for it in the coming years!

Meanwhile, Blake is 10 months old now and has had a lot going on in the last month!  Still happy as ever, he's cruising all over, crawling even more quickly than ever, and flying up the stairs (often sneaking past the gate much to my dismay).  The biggest news is that he all of a sudden started babbling like crazy!  This was a relief to me because I had been concerned about how quiet he's been.  I'm not sure if it's the alone time with me while Dominic is at school but that's really when it started.  Blake now says /t/, /ch/, /s/, /da/, /duh/, /uh/, /oh/, /f/, /g/, and /e/.  We're not sure if he said it with meaning, but Blake crawled up to Brian when he got home from work one day and said to him, "Dada, Dada."  He repeated later on as well.  So exciting!!  Then Blake started saying another word, "Uh-Oh!"  He says it when something falls or just randomly, so, again, we're not sure whether or not to count it as a real word.  Either way, Blake has come a long way in a short time in his language!

Another breakthrough has been finger foods.  He had been eating a lot of Mum-Mums, but now Blake is picking up and eating Cheerios like crazy lately!  So much so that it can be a problem since Dominic likes to drop his Cheerios.  There was also a Play-Doh incident where Dominic dropped some of the floor and Blake started eating it.  Next up, I'm going to start feeding Blake some veggie finger foods.  At this point, I think we're going to buy some stock in whatever company owns Cheerios as these boys eat that cereal like their lives depend on it.

Cutest messy face!

Along with these new skills, Blake provided me with some challenges.  These days I feel like I'm wrestling an alligator when it comes to Blake's diaper changes even with all of my tricks.  Also, if he's playing with something and you take it away, he becomes very upset and starts crying.  I recognize the signs all too well and know it's the beginning of toddlerhood, which I don't like at all .  How can he already be entering that stage when he was just born?

Smiles!

He had a week or so where he wasn't napping or eating well either.  I changed some things with his food and naps in an effort to help.  I started limiting his morning nap to 30-45 minutes, which makes him more tired for his afternoon nap.  This seems to have helped.  Then I started giving him slightly less pureed/baby food in the morning so he would be hungrier at lunch where I've seen the biggest problem.  I had been thinking that he was starting to wean, but since he's still not able to drink water or cow's milk out of a cup yet (we're working on the cup of water part!), I don't want to start weaning till then.

trying to stand up in the sand box

With Blake growing larger and getting around better, crawling and cruising all over, he is also starting to fight a little with Dominic.  Blake likes to grab Dominic's toys out of his hands and often pulls Dominic's hair and hits his big brother.  For a while, Dominic was great about ignoring Blake's aggressive behavior.  However, now that Blake is stronger, Dominic has started fighting back some.  I can't entirely blame Dominic and I have to remind myself that Blake really doesn't know better at this point.  Dominic continues to love wrestling with Blake.  It often looks a little too aggressive especially to others, but Blake always smiles and laughs. 

I thank God for these two boys each and every day!

Seeing Blake's personality developing more and more continues to illustrate to Brian and me how very different our two boys are.  Dominic is much more of an independent, adventurous, wild child, while Blake is very social, easy-going, and quiet.  I'm amazed how I love two such different boys so much.  They really compliment each other, which I believe helps them get along well.  Dominic will be the one to go exploring on his own, and Blake will follow his big brother in his exploration because he doesn't like to go by himself. Dominic is constantly entertaining us with the silly things he does, but I also adore how happy and laid-back Blake is.  They both are so much fun to play with!  Honestly, Brian and I are lucky to have both extremes in our kids, so we have all of our bases covered.  :)