"Kah-Gah" and other funnies

Whenever I look at Christopher these days, I can't believe what I see. He is just a little person! I wanted to share some of the cute things I've been learning about him in recent days...

1. Kasey's official new name, according to CJ, is "Kah-Gah." This is what he consistently calls her when he sees her.
2. Yesterday, Christopher picked up the big foam letter "K" we have in the basement and said "K." No, this does not grant him genius status; it's just something we talk about all the time since it is his favorite dog's letter.
3. When we shared a bed in the hospital, Chris settled down to sleep by chatting away next to me. One thing he said over and over again was "Daddy, Daddy." At least, that's what it sounded like.
4. Christopher does not actually need the pacifier in his mouth to fall asleep! In the hospital, he just grasped onto it for dear life in his hand and fell asleep that way.
5. Our new Kindermusik CD (which rocks!!!) has some fun songs on it, one of which is a little kiddie waltz. This morning, we waltzed around the kitchen for quite some time as little man smiled away.
6. When we heat things up in the microwave, he claps and "counts" (usually saying "eee" for each number) until it is done.
7. Chris is obsessed with "Miss Spider," a series of books about a little spider and her buggy friends. Look it up--the pictures are great!
8. He is picking up some major speed in the running department. I think we might enter him in a spring 5K at the rate he is going.
9. CJ plays peek-a-boo with certain blankets (especially the Yankee one we have downstairs) by holding it over his face and then revealing himself quickly and laughing.
10. He helps me load and unload the drier when I am doing laundry. This is not the only thing he helps with. Yesterday, he helped unload the dishwasher by taking out all the utensils and placing them gently on the floor. He also knows how to clean up his toys when directed to. Crazy, I know!

And a little story related to cleaning up: Yesterday I was washing dishes and Christopher was playing in a cabinet by the sink that has plastic water bottles in it. He proceeded to empty it out and I thought "Oh boy that is going to be a big mess to clean up." Well, I forgot about it for a while and when I went back to pick up the bottles, they were all placed back in the cabinet and the cabinet was closed. I know Kasey didn't do it! Incredible! Anyway, my good friend Lauren from high school is coming to visit us tonight and for the next few days. Chris, Brian and I are looking forward to it and I know Snuggles will be happy to have another warm body to snuggle with.

Visuals

I was really hoping that I would be able to post a video of Christopher performing his world famous Yankee cheer on tonight's blog entry. However, every time I open the video camera to record, all he wants to do is look at the screen, especially when we have Kasey in our sights. (Who could blame him? We've established that she is a majorly cute dog!). Someday soon we'll do a sneak attack video of him cheering for his team. In the meantime, to satisfy your need for visuals, here are some pictures of our boy sitting in his Disney chair and reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar with Mommy.

Much better

Well, today we got somewhat back to normal with our little patient. Christopher's rash has decreased significantly and his feet are back to their normal size (yesterday I couldn't even get his shoes on!). He is still taking Benadryl to help contain the bumps and he has one more day of steroids (not to get buff, he's already buff enough) but to help reduce the swelling. We're most likely going to go in to see our regular doctor on Monday or Tuesday just to check all of little man's systems to make sure they are 100%.

Because it was such a beautiful day here today, we spent some time out in the front just relaxing in the sunshine. Christopher likes to play this game where he runs up to both Brian and I and touches our noses. All you have to say to him is, "Chris, where's Mommy's nose?" and it sets off a reaction of excitement and laughter with CJ running to me and touching my nose and then to Brian to do the same. He does try it with Kasey too but she is on to his antics and runs away before he can get to her. Here's Christopher playing the "nose game" with Daddy.
Chris had a blast last night watching Kasey go crazy as several groups of trick or treaters came to the door. When I say "several" I mean our doorbell only rang about 6 times. What's with kids these days? I used to fill up a whole pillowcase with candy when I was younger. We would hit half of River Vale between the time we got home from school until it got dark. And then Brian, of course, used to get to go to apartment buildings in the city and got tons of candy. I don't know, I think that might be cheating... Anyway, here are Kasey and Christopher checking out our neighbor's Mustang.

Sleepover!!!

But not the kind you think or even the kind you would hope to have. It was more like the kind where you show up at Urgent Care at 8:30 in the morning and end up staying in the adjacent children's hospital for the rest of the day and night until it is time to leave the next day. Hopefully many of you read about the little red spots that we saw on Thursday. Well, everything got a bit worse Friday morning and Chrisotpher's little feet and hands were swollen on top of it. We were more than concerned so Brian and I took him to the urgent care clinic at Children's Mercy Hospital. Our poor little man had to endure a catheter plus three needle sticks in order to find a good vein for his IV Benadryl. The vein was hard to find because, as the nurses kept saying, Christopher is a "fluffy" baby. We weren't sure if that was because he was all swollen or because he's a solid boy. Anyway, after all that torture, the doctor recommended that we keep him in the hospital overnight for monitoring just to make sure his breathing wasn't affected. It is SO fun hanging out in a hospital room with a little boy who's miserable because he doesn't feel good and has been tortured all morning! Brian took a trip home to pick up some things for Chris and I including his treasured Sesame Street videos. We don't watch a ton of TV with CJ but we must have watched the same two DVDs about 7 times yesterday just to distract him. It was also a ton of fun sharing a twin size bed with my little man overnight. Let me tell you, if you have a kid like Christopher co-sleeping is completely out of the picture. He never stops moving, even in bed. After all was said and done, we still don't know the exact reason for his fluffiness but here are the three options:

1. A viral infection (highly likely according to two doctors)
2. A food allergy (also likely according to another doctor but cannot be confirmed without more tests and we certainly were not going to stick him again)
3. Allergy to amoxicillin (according to two other doctors)

So go ahead and take your pick. Let us know later which one you think it is because who knows!? Needless to say, we're probably not going to trick or treat with little man today unless he takes a really good afternoon nap and improves significantly. Good thing he got to wear his costume to Kindermusik last Tuesday!

Little Red Spots

It appears that little Christopher had the same reaction to amoxicilin that I had five years ago. Last night as we were getting him ready for bed, I noticed two little spots on his leg. Okay, not too worrisome but it certainly got my "Mommy-on-alert" antenna going. Well, this morning the bumps spread... and spread... and spread some more. So it was back to the doctor for us! Turns out the amoxicilin has done NOTHING over the past 10 days (aside from giving my little boy a nasty rash) and the ear infection is now in BOTH of his ears. Fabulous! So my poor baby was incredibly uncomfotable all day and essentially cried for 2 hours (at least) because he was unable to sleep and was, therefore, super cranky. We are now on our second antibiotic plus ear drops plus Tylenol plus Motrin (glad I did a drug-free delivery for our little man). And if that wasn't bad enough, we're watching the Yankees in their mediocre performance in game 2 of the World Series. I guess they thought winning the ALCS was enough. (I really hope they prove me wrong--it's only the 5th inning as of this writing). I hope to have better news tomorrow!

A Perfect Fall Day

Ahhhhhh.... Today was one of those beautiful fall days when all you need is a light jacket or fleece and your two running feet, especially if you are Christopher. Although it was a bit blustery, we spent nearly 3 hours total outside today, some in the morning and more in the late afternoon. There is just so much for our little man to see and experience outside that he can't get enough of it! For example, he watched the men from the town working to fix the cracks in the road right in front of our house, and he even waved to them when we saw them later on our walk with Kasey. Then CJ got it in his mind that he wanted to torment a crow that landed on our neighbor's lawn. Fortunately for the crow, CJ's plans were foiled by Mommy! Later on in the day, we were playing in the backyard when Kay saw us and we went to her yard for a visit. Christopher was rearranging some of the rocks in her landscaping for much of our time there. But most of all, our little boy's favorite thing to do is run. Run, run, run... Not surprising considering the genes that make him up! Here are some more pictures from our outdoor romping:

And then here is as close as I can get to an action shot of Christopher running toward me, getting closer, closer, and closer still...

Our little hero

So when I was browsing the children's Halloween costume aisle at Babies R Us, two questions went through my mind: 1) Will CJ be roasting in this costume? and 2) Will it be easy to change his diaper if necessary? The costume that had me answering "yes" was the little firefighter pictured above. Today at Kindermusik, we had a little Halloween celebration where all the little babies dressed up in their costumes and brought treats for the class. They all looked stinkin' cute! There were flowers, tigers, spiders, bees, ducks, and more! Here are Emily and Danny, two of the kiddos in our class:

This was the first time Christopher wore his costume so I wasn't quite sure how he would respond. The pants were easy, although they were a bit long. The jacket also wasn't a problem, although I did get nervous with the velcro (yes, another bonus) going right up to CJ's chin. The part of the costume I thought for sure would be the first to go was the hat. When we got to class, I put the hat on and there it stayed! It even came off at one point and Chris tried putting it back on. Who would've thought? Anyway, we had a very fun time at class and we stayed until Christopher's pager went off calling him to his fire truck to go save the day!