Sleep, glorious sleep

Everyone in the Burke house slept well last night. I think that's the first time we ALL slept well in probably 6 months. Ryan actually went 9 hours last night, woke at 5 to eat and then slept until 8:30. Andrew didn't need Mommy until 7 (had to poop -- what are you going to do?) and the got dressed all by himself (in clothes we laid out last night. Mommy learned from yesterday when he decided pajama pants (clean, not the ones he slept in) were "fine" as pants.) So its been a good morning so far!

I'm not sure what to do today. Lots of fun stuff is closed, so that's out. Its kinda rainy here so parks are out. Hmmm. We'll see I guess. Maybe a Costco run -- what's more fun than that? NOT.

They're heeere

So the talk of the Chicagoland area is the cicadas. These harmless, but ugly and annoying bugs emerge every 17 years and are everywhere. That's an adult on Andrew's hand. He loves them. They crawl out of the ground, where they have been for 17 years, climb up on a tree, and then break out of their shells, leaving them on the tree or ground. Their wings dry and in a few days they start the mating process, which is LOUD. Its only just begun, I'm told that 17 years ago it was deafening. You can watch a cool little movie about them here.



And if you'll turn your attention to the picture on the right, I'd like to welcome you to our seaside town. Or so you'd think. That roof is covered with seagulls, and its only a small sampling of the number of them in our neighborhood. They are worse than the bugs, for sure. Apparently cicadas are a delicacy for the gulls (and for people, in some parts of the world) and they have invaded. There is gull crap EVERYWHERE. Gross.



As I said, Andrew loves the cicadas, and I'm doing my best not to show my disgust to ruin it. He's been collecting them, and their shells. I suspect he won't like the noise when they really get to buzzing.

A little catch-up post

Ok, so I blink and over a week has gone by. Crazy.

First, Ryan's health. We went to the GI doctor and he thinks it was either an infection of some sort or more likely a milk protein allergy. That just sucks for me, not for him. He'll outgrow it. However, I decided to have a lactation consultant come help me and she thinks that it is a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance. She gave me some pointers and we'll see how things go. He's gaining weight, looks chunky, and is generally happy. Just doesn't nurse too long (he gets a lot of milk right away from me, but peters out before getting to the good, fatty, hindmilk.)

In events, we went to Catherine's graduation from the Notre Dame MBA program, which was a bit of a pain for travel because of the boys, but not too bad. They rose to the occasion, actually. And now I can't think of much reason to ever go to Niles again, which is fine with me. I don't have much sentimentality for that place.

Steve's job goes well and keeps him very busy. We got the swingset properly installed now, and it is all woodchips there so like our own little park. I'll post seprately about the cicadas.

I'm doing ok. I have a draft post that I'm still debating on posting that focuses more on me. We'll see. Pretty full of self pity so I may resist.

Ok, now for a couple of pictures:

TV Time for the boys

My Strong Guy -- actually kind of likes Tummy Time

Mother's Day

So, my first Mother's day as a Mom of 2 was pretty good. Got some stuff done, enjoyed a beautiful day. Andrew didn't fight getting dressed, Ryan ate well and had (dare I say) pretty normal poops -- what more could a Mom ask for. Steve was a sweetie too, as usual.

Here's some pics of my menfolk on Mother's day:

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there.

Well, now its interesting to other people

Yep, I'm back on the subject of poop. Sorry, but now its not just parental obsession, now the doctors are interested too. Ryan's doctor finally decided to do a stool sample, (which of course, was very easy to obtain) and lo and behold, there's blood in the stool (which I didn't see.) So off to the GI doc we go.

I was the image of a calm, collected mother upon hearing the news. NOT! I lost it. My sweet boy Andrew came over and helped me do deep breathing to calm down (as I do with him), and offered to get me medicine to make me feel better. What a doll. And my sweet husband rushed home from work to calm me down too. I'm sure they're thrilled they live with such an emotional wreck.

What calmed me down even more was talking to our old, beloved, pediatrician who is now in Bloomington, IN. I trust her completely, and she's the kind of doctor that tells you how it is. I discussed our issues, complete with a very graphic description of all facets of his poop, and her reply was "we don't get too worked up about this." I know from what I went through with Andrew that means "settle the hell down Vicki" She was glad I went off dairy, as that's what it could be, and seemed ambivalent about me seeing a GI doc, but said I might as well.

Luckily, the GI docs at Children's Memorial have a satellite office in Tinley Park, which is only about 20 minutes away so its not too bad of a trip. We go Tuesday. In the meantime, our ped wants one more stool test, for some very latin sounding thing, so I'll get that done today. Oddly enough, Ryan hasn't yet produced a sample!

More scoop on the poop as it happens.

Some pictures

Ok, this post is all about pictures! First, here's a pic of my smiley boys.


Ryan gazing off into the distance (actually, into his changing pad)


The new swingset! Andrew loves it, particularly when another kid (or even better, MANY kids) come over to play.


This was at a fire truck birthday party and the mom got the fire department to bring a REAL firetruck, and Andrew got to go in it, sit in the driver seat, honk the horn, turn on the siren AND they hooked up a fire hose and he got to shoot water! How cool!


This is Andrew passed out after aforementioned birthday party (we thought it would be years before he'd be passing out after parties).


We're enjoying a nice weekend right now, getting some yard stuff done. For those curious, yes I'm MUCH better after my mastitis, and no, Ryan's poops aren't much better. But he's a happy boy so there you go.