First Fever

Frowny face!
(By me; Aeli's riding tough with as many smiles as ever. Napping a bit more than usual, though.) Baby has bronchitis (break-mama's-heart-itis!), hence the crazy-named nebulizer (pictured below) that vaporizes saline solution to help break up the yucky stuff in his nose and throat.
And yesterday evening his forehead felt so warm; I took his temperature in his tiny little armpit and it was 100.3. This morning it was down to 98.7, so I decided not to call the doctor. We ran all over town today, including to a ridiculous place called "The Bridal Lounge," where the lady working there asked me, "So, have you heard of us?" (Umm.... I'm standing right here.), the public library, and the post-office (I'm about to write a strongly worded letter to the Department of State. Unclear and contradictory information = $190 passport.). When we got back around five, Babe was sleepy and feeling warm to me again. 99.4 in the armpit this time. If he's still feverish tomorrow I'll call the doctor.

Poor baby. When he catches a coughing fit, and his eyes well up and the skin around them turns all red, and his little tongue juts out and his whole upper body shakes, he just rides it out and when it's over, doesn't cry or anything, just sort of raises his eyebrows into the shape of a question mark, like "Why is this happening to me?"

Poor little thing. He is napping now with his papa.

These boys are my world.

The Best Job In The World

He giggles. He smiles. He grabs his feet. He smiles at funny noises. He's mezmerized by the leaves of trees, his daddy's beard, and the butterflies that float above his crib. First thing in the morning, he takes a deep breath and lifts his feet to face the ceiling. He bounces himself by pumping his legs. He sometimes pulls away from my breast while nursing, looks up at me, coos, and goes back to eating.

I get to hang out with him all week since it's spring break. (Papa stayed home with him last week during his break from school.) Today we walked to the grocery store and watered the garden, visited Miss Sadie and did some laundry; read for fun, made a good breakfast with garden kale, napped, but mostly just cuddled and played.

What a blessed life I lead.

Happy Four Months!

December:


Late March:

He Giggles

Aeli giggles now and it is the best thing ever.

L'Elephant and Outside Adventures

Check out this impressive elephant made by Rachel (a friend of Stefin's from high-school).

Other cool things in our lives lately:

Cakey babysat for us for a couple of hours on Saturday so we could take a bike ride. We rode through City Park (scoping potential sites for a wedding celebration, minding the evil stinging caterpillars) and up to Lake Ponchatrain. I hadn't been on an actual bike ride since September (when my belly really started getting big), and so this beautiful new toy Stefin found me on craiglist had mostly just been sitting teasingly, unused in our back shed. It felt so good to be rolling around again, and it was a gorgeous day.




Later we went to the French Quarter; the French Quarter Festival was going on, but we didn't actually catch any shows. Instead we people-watched, met up with a teacher S worked with in Virginia, and took the ferry to Algiers Point for a couple of beers.

On our way back home we stopped at the old house, where they had grilled up a feast, and then at another party for/by some of Stefin's coworkers. Aeli partied super hard and threw up on a pretty girl's dress.

Today we hung out a bit in the garden (Stefin does this very nice thing on weekend mornings for me where he gets up with the baby when I'm so not ready to. They go water the plants and I get a couple more hours of blissful rest); Aeli cuddled his lizard.

Then Aeli got a bath (since these 80 degree days have led to much in the way of sweating-through-your-onesie), and now he's kicking around with what Papa Bear calls "fluffy bird hair."

Life is good.

Grandma Kelly & Grandpa Mike

Someone please move Louisiana and Washington closer together. These people should be our neighbors.

Whoa Dude, What Happened Last Night?

Today sucked. Thank goodness I get to come home to the sweetest little creature I've ever encountered.