Bringing Up Baby

Two things have kept me from posting more often: the change from old Blogger to new Blogger (Google bought Blogger a while back) and Frankie’s bout with a stomach virus in early February -- and now pneumonia and an ear infection. The former really wasn’t such a big deal, but since Dave started this blog, only he could make the change and he forgot his password. The latter has been a bigger issue. Luckily, in each case, we’ve had the aid of MawMaw and PawPaw B. to help us out since Dave and I are working full time. I was out of town for the poopiest part of the stomach virus cycle, so kudos to grandparents B for taking care of Frankie’s butt when he most needed it. Now, Frankie has a cough that makes him sound like a lifelong smoker/bourbon drinker. In fact, his cough rivals our neighbor two doors down, who has what I presume to be emphysema and hacks so brutally, sometimes I hear her at 2 in the morning even though our windows are closed. She also still smokes -- I mean, I guess she figures why the hell not?

With Dave working 14 hour days, MawMaw and I have been attending to Frankie this week, a sometimes sad, sometimes comical job. Yesterday, as we all calmly sat in the living room, molding Play-Doh (which I am just delighted that Frankie is getting into because Play-Doh has such a yummy salty smell and the feel of it squishing in my hands is so relaxing), we heard a noise emanating from Frankie’s hind quarters. Just as MawMaw says, “that doesn’t sound good”, like the dark, slow rush of blood that crawls like lava from the head of a fallen hero in a Scorsese flick, a pool of diarrhea creeps from beneath Frankie’s butt into the floor. And yes, he was wearing a diaper and pants….this stuff escapes, people! We were horrified yet amused as Frankie didn’t seem to notice and continued to stamp a flattened green mass with stars. MawMaw rushed to retreive paper towels and I ran to the bathtub holding him out in front of me. We removed hisclothes and bathed him since the poo was just everywhere and I spent a half hour decontaminating the tub and floor. Good times, folks! Anyway, he’s in a good mood for a while, and then unhappy because of these coughing fits and the awful stomach cramps from the antibiotics and the other five medicines he’s taking. On top of that, every four hour breathing treatments make him hyper and though he’s sleepy, it’s hard for him to rest. We’ll be here traveling the slow road to recovery in the next couple of days.

PS: Oo top of this we’re now dealing with a crib to bed transition since Frankie managed to climb out of his crib last week. He actually really likes climbing in and out of the “big boy” bed. He does this maybe fifty times a day.