Fig Life

Ewan playing with his Little People Pirate Ship:

I like how he says “Sorry” at the end.

Today was T-ball night. Isaac got a trophy (everybody gets a trophy in T-ball) and we got his portraits back. Here he is:

Here’s Isaac looking like Jay Kay from Jamiroquai. “Feel just like I should” go listen to some Dynamite now.

What a week! The kids have put me through the ringer while Brian’s out of town. Shortly after Brian left Sunday morning, I left the room–briefly, I assure you–just changing clothes or something. Suddenly Isaac runs in saying “You got poo on the floor!” I said, “I did? What are you talking about? I didn’t get poo on the floor?” I figured he’d pooped in his pants and leaked some on the floor (which still can happen once in a while), so I went to the living room. I was greeted by a scene of absolute horror–Ewan sitting in a pile of his own filth and with his hands full of it. In the brief time it took me to do my own business, he had apparently had an explosive diaper episode of mythic proportions. I was scrambling to clean him up with baby wipes and especially his hands. I wanted to give him a bath, but I had been just about to clean the bath so it was still nasty and full of cleaning spray. Also, I had put his bathring in the dishwasher to sanitize it. So I put him in his bed, scrambled to start cleaning the floor and running a bath. I finally got him in the bath and the floor cleaned–but it was a horrible experience. I must admit, though, the first thing I did when I saw him was laugh. It was hideously funny.

Tonight Ewan managed to get poop on the curtains. It was another strange nappy mishap–this time it wasn’t a particularly huge amount, but somehow it leaked right out the back. What’s up with that? I must be failing in the poopy diaper monitoring aspect of motherhood. He’s so busy crawling all around the flat that he doesn’t sit in one place stinking for very long anymore (just long enough to get it on the curtains). That’s my excuse. At least the curtains cleaned easily. Golly, I hope my landlady never reads this blog….

It hasn’t all been unpleasant. We had quite a good time tonight watching Ewan eat his first strawberries. The faces he made were hilarious. I promised Brian I’d feed him more tomorrow and tape it, so check my video page later.

Isaac has also been highly entertaining this week. He’s been talking much more and speaks more clearly now. He answers questions well and his vocabulary grows all the time. He also practices his speech by talking to himself or to his imaginary friend, George. Today I heard him in the next room saying, “Thank you, toy-maker.” When he came in I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, “I’m buying toys”. I guess he gets his toys directly from the manufacturer.

He also made a “cake” today and fed some invisible pieces to Ewan, who was just cracking up. Any attention from Isaac is the the height of hilarity for Ewan (except when Isaac pushes him away from his toys or something).

It’s really very fun to have two little boys (when they aren’t pooping or pushing each other down)–one who will be learning to walk soon and the other who is talking and pretending things.

Well, I have something I must confess, though it pains me greatly to write about it. Last Tuesday morning, one careless moment ruined Ewan‘s beautiful smile (well, I think it’s still beautiful, but it’s no longer perfect).

I was starting my morning in a typical way–putting away the clean dishes in the dishwasher so that I could replace them with our dirty breakfast dishes. Ewan now crawls really fast, and our flat is really small, so he was coming into the kitchen and trying to climb into the open dishwasher–or at least onto the wet door. I took him out into the living room and then put in a couple more items. Meanwhile, Isaac was also standing in the kitchen trying to help, which is why I think I didn’t notice Ewan quickly coming back on the other side of him. Oblivious to the baby’s return, I lifted up the dishwasher door. Suddenly Ewan was crying and his mouth was bleeding. I thought maybe his lip was cut, so I sat down on the floor with him to take a look. I was shocked and horrified to discover that the real problem was one of his upper teeth was loose and sticking straight out and his gums were split and bleeding. I had somehow managed to hit him right in that one tooth (he only has 4 teeth so far–two top and two bottom). He had no bruising anywhere else and his other teeth were fine. I grabbed a towel and sat holding him. I was a bit panicky, but managed to push the tooth down a bit and then called the helpline for the National Health Service–I came very close to dialing 999 (which is like 911 in the U.S.) but realized it wasn’t quite that kind of emergency. A nurse was soon on the line with me to give advice and she told me to go to Guy’s Hospital in Southwark where they have an emergency pediatric dental clinic. By then Ewan had stopped bleeding and was happy, but his tooth was obviously messed up.

So after getting the boys ready, I had to haul them both across town on two different tube lines. I won’t describe too much of the whole hospital experience–it was like most other emergency hospital experiences–more waiting than anything. Luckily the boys were both amazingly well-behaved and easy to handle the whole time. Ewan had his first X-ray, though it didn’t work too well. They told me it ws a good thing the tooth went out and not up into the gums where it could have damaged the adult tooth forming behind. They also said I just needed to keep and eye on it and bring him back for an appointment in a month. It might still fall out or get infected, but they expect it will just heal up, though crooked.

So now poor Ewan has a crooked tooth and I have guilt. I must confess I am already getting used to it (the tooth and the guilt) but I’m sure I’ll feel a little bad for a long time. It was a reminder of how one moment can change things drastically. Maybe one tooth is not a big deal, but one careless moment could do much worse damage. If my careless moment had involved stepping out in front of an oncomng car with my stroller–I can’t even think further on that. I am thankful I learned this lesson on a tooth and not something worse.

Unbelievably, I’ve had to retreat from the living room twice in one day. Ewan’s been in bed for a couple hours and has awokened quite irritated. I can do nothing to placate him other than hiding away until he calms down. I think I’ll run drug him with some painkillers, though.

OK, tried the painkillers. Tried juice. Tried teether. He stops momentarily and starts again. Stops and starts.

We are currently in a stopped moment. Hopefully he’ll stop for at least a couple hours soon. I am assuming this is some sort of teething episode or related to the illness. The doctor finally called back around 5 and said to bring the boys over to his office. He declared whatever I’d been doing for Ewan was working (though you wouldn’t know it to hear Ewan tonight) but he wrote out prescriptions for Isaac. To top off my annoying day, the Boots drugstore was closed because of a power outage. A woman came to the door and explained that they couldn’t fill any prescriptions because the computers were off. The other chemist on the street was also without power. As it was already dinner time for the boys, I had to take them back home. The disadvantage of walking everywhere is that it’s not easy to go to a pharmacy in another neighborhood if your local one is closed. I figured Isaac’s been sick for days already; he can wait a bit longer to start the antibiotics.

Ewan hasn’t screamed for the entire last paragraph. Hooray! Maybe I can venture back to the living room soon. Thank you, dear blog reader, for allowing me to vent.