Ben has a tooth....finally!

Just a few days shy of 10 months, Ben's first tooth broke through yesterday! This has taken FOREVER. You can just barely see it, but it's there!

Bye-bye Baby

Ben lost his 'baby' look last week when we took him for his first haircut. It was a complete role reversal. Jack actually wanted to go first and was oddly excited about getting his hair cut. He climbed up into the chair willingly and sat nice and still, talking with the woman cutting his hair the entire time. Ben on the other hand morphed into his brother. From the moment the scissors came out, he was whailing and screaming and thrashing all about.

We got a good laugh about the whole thing (but I am still upset about it). It took MONTHS to have Wayne agree to getting Ben's hair cut. Now Wayne likes it and I am upset at how short it is. The whole time, I kept telling him that it won't be a big deal. We'll tell them what we want :
- just a trim of his bangs (so that they are not in his eyes)
- trim the hair around his ears (so that it didn't need to be tucked behind his ears anymore)
- and trim up the back so that it is not long enough for a baby ponytail.

Before getting started, the woman asked if we wanted her to use the clippers and we said no. Specifically emphasizing that we did not want it to be that short. We liked the little bit of curl that he had and we wanted to keep it. Unfortunately, she heard "First Haircut" and immediately found a perfect little curl to cut off of his head. It all happened too fast, and it was snipped off before either one of us could say a word and at that point we were committed to him having short little boy hair. So now our baby doesn't look like such a baby anymore. He's still just as cute as ever though.

Here are some pictures from the past week or so.
Jack loves to play Go Fish.
Messy boy! He had to go straight into the bathtub after this meal.
Ben loves zwieback toast!!
Jack loves to push his brother around the house in his tonka truck. Ben just loves it and squeals the whole time.

Ben's 1st trip to the Hospital - It was a DOOZY!

Last Tuesday, I took Ben to the doctor for his 9 month check-up. He was a healthy, happy boy. He is tall 29.5 inches(80th percentile) and skinny 18 pounds 1 ounce (15th percentile) with lots of brains, his head circumference measured in the 80th percentile. He had a bit of a runny nose, but I thought it was because he is teething. Yes, he is 9 months old and still no teeth. Not a single one.

Well, the following day he woke up and was a fussy boy from the moment he woke up. He is normally a very happy boy who doesn't cry much. I knew something was wrong, but again thought he was crying because he was teething. I gave hime some motrin but it didn't really seem to help. So by the time he woke up from his afternoon nap it was clear to me that something was really wrong.

He started running a fever. I took his temp and it was at 101.8 so I gave him tylenol and called Wayne at work. Ben was having difficulty breathing - his little belly was moving in and out really hard and really fast. So we decided to call the pediatrician (who was about to close for the day). His nurse said he needed to be seen and to take him to the pediatric after hours clinic.

Ben was the first one to be seen and the doctor told us it was a good thing that we brought him in. He had croup and bronchiolitis. He received a breathing treatment and a steroid injection. That helped him, but he was still having trouble. So he received two more breathing treatments. He really seemed to like the breathing treatments, it was the only time that he stopped crying the entire three hours we were there. The nurse even turned on the nebulizer to get him to calm down so that she could check his oxygen levels.

So at that point he was improving, but still not enough for the doctor to feel comfortable with sending us home. They did all they could do for us there and then sent us to the hospital. Ben received breathing treatments every 2 hours through the night and the next day improved enough to stretch it to every 4 hours. He had a nasal canula, which he despised and constantly tried to rip out (that is why there is so much tape stuck to his cute little face). They monitored his oxygen levels and would increase or decrease the oxygen as needed.

He was finally released from the hospital on Saturday evening and it was the best feeling in the world! It is SO good to be home!! We are so happy that our little guy is better and continues to get better with each passing day. We have been able to space out the breathing treatments a little more each day and soon he won't need them at all. He is certainly feeling better, getting his appetite back and acting more like himself.

Thank you to our family and friends for your thoughts and prayers.


Ben developed a special bond with one of his nurses. He about broke his neck trying to flirt it up with her while she was at the nurses staion and he was in his high chair.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at our house last night. Wayne had to work and so we had some of our fire department family over to celebrate. Lisa came over with Chloe and Addison and Jennifer brought Aidan and Aileen. The moms gabbed while we made dinner and the kids had fun playing with every single toy in the house. Good times were had by all. We watched the ball drop in Times Square on tv at 9pm our time and the kids were all very excited to shout "Happy New Year!". Of course, Jack and Chloe didn't need much prompting to give each other hugs and kisses.

Jack & Chloe dancing in their jammies.