Milestones

Anke tells me that Conrad had his first big smile today.

Last night Corwin used the potty for the first time. He used it twice tonight!

A Saturday of Pictures

A snail on the Marsh Boardwalk.

Corwin is jealous that Conrad can nap on the deck, while he must nap in his room.

Corwin and Anke sweep the detritus from driveway that have accumulated there from the weeks storms and my finally mowing.

Drawing with chalk.

Clothes baskets make great beds.

Corwin isn't dead.

Neither am I.

The first Saturday that Conrad was home, Mom and I took Corwin to get a couple of things for Conrad. Corwin has a swell Turtle Towel and I thought Conrad should have such a nice towel too. So we went to Pottery Barn Kids, where the Turtle Towel came from to pick one out for Conrad. We couldn't decide between the sheep towel and a puppy towel, so I showed both of them to Corwin and said, "Conrad needs a towel. This towel will be for Conrad. Which one do you think he will like best?" Corwin picked out the sheep towel.

When we got home Corwin went to the shopping back and got the little sheep towel out. He immediately ran to Conrad and put the towel down beside him and said, "Here ya go." My little family rocks.

Random

I've not been so diligent in posting lately. Works been hectic, and we are still trying to find a groove at home with a 0 and 2 year old to care for. So recreational computer time for me has been minimal. So some random what's been going ons: Conrad came home from the hospital Sunday August 12 and been perfectly fine since. No medicine to give him and he's acting like a normal baby. Hooray.

Last weekend instead of mowing the yard Saturday morning we went to the marsh down the road. Lots of lotus flowers still blooming. Then we took a zoo trip Sunday morning, instead of mowing the yard. Combined with the heat, rain, kids, and shear laziness, the yard is looking a bit jungle like.

Butterflies from the prairie before the marsh.

Me and Conrad napping. I need to do a better job of taking pictures of the little one. Anke has been on the ball and snapping shots, but not so much me. One thing I was on the ball about are play tickets! Spamalot a musical version of Monty Python's Holy Grail, is coming to the Orpheum theater in Omaha the first week in November. Tickets went on sale at 10:00 am last Thursday. So I skipped out of work at 10:30ish and walked down to the box office to get some. The lad selling tickets helped me pick out some good one. So now we have third row, balcony seats, which are very good at the Orpheum. The other two times we've gone, we've had nose bleed seats way at the back. I'm excited.

On Sunday we're taking a field trip to visit Tony and his wife Jen, along with their boys. This will be Conrad's first trip out of Omaha. Next Wednesday evening Anke's Grandmother Renate and her Great Aunt Ursel are coming for a visit. They are two extremely sweet old ladies, and we are excited that they are visiting.

Kids

Yesterday Children's Hospital tried to install a PICC line in Conrad for his antibiotic therapy. But the little veins in his arms were too small, which wasn't all that surprising. In children so small sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So they're going do a surgical IV today.

Conrad is doing well, however. He's eating lots. But he has rather bad diaper rash right now. Unfortunately the antibiotics kills some of the good bacteria in his digestive tract, along with the bad. Corwin is doing well also. It is good that he is such a resiliant little guy. I've gone back to work full time this week, as my sick time is starting to run on the low side and it will be another year before the bucket refills. And Conrad and Corwin are sure to be ill again in the next year.
Being a single parent must be really hard. I've only had to do it for a week now, and it's a lot of work. Getting up and showered and Corwin up and feeding him his cereal and getting him dressed and out the door on time is quite a chore. But he is so charming, it really isn't much of a chore. His latest thing is dancing in circles yelling, "CRACKCRACK! CRACKCRACK!" I'm not sure where he got the yelling of crack crack from.

I put him to bed last night, and at about 8:30 I heard some whining coming from his room. So I went to check it out. There he was, hiding behind the door buck naked. As soon as I came into the room, he became all excited and started jumping in circles and dancing around the room. So I got him dressed and put him in jammies that are a bit harded to take off. I let him watch TV with me for 10 minutes then put him back to bed. He was still dressed when he got up this morning.

Cliff Notes version

Conrad has been in the hospital since Monday. He has a kidney infection of some sort. On Friday his temperature finally broke, and he is starting to act like himself again. He's going to remain in the hospital for the next 10 days, so he can continue to receive the antibiotics via IV. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.