New Lou

Something finally connected in Louis' brain the day after he turned 9 months old and he went from sweet, cuddly, trying to crawl baby to I WILL CRAWL EVERYWHERE AND PULL UP ON EVERYTHING YOU CAN'T STOP ME I AM GOING TO EAT THAT CAT INCREDIBLE HULK BABY. Don't get me wrong, I like this baby too, we just weren't quite prepared for him. Turn your back to heat up some peas for less than 10 seconds and he is in the bathroom, unrolling the toilet paper. And trying to climb in the bathtub.

He refuses to eat anything I try and give him on a spoon. He will knock said spoon out of your hand, grab the bowl, and give himself a yogurt and oatmeal facial. Like his haircut? I made the mistake of letting Amy "trim" the front of his hair that was constantly hanging in his eyes. He looks like Mo from the Three Stooges.

He would spend up to eight hours in this tunnel chasing the cat if we let him. Maybe sometimes we do.

He is pulling up to a standing position on anything and everything. Norah's Beauty and the Beast figurines have met their match.

Unfortunately, he's also been really sick lately. Norah brings home a LOT of pre-school cooties. She has had a cold for about six weeks now, which of course means, so has Louis. Mid-November it settled in his ears and we dealt with his first ear infection. Not fun. Less than a month later SINCE HE STILL HAD A DAMN COLD, he got another double ear infection. This time he was put on a different, more potent antibiotic that turned his poop beet red and made him puke.

He has woken up inconsolably screaming in the middle of the night for, oh I don't know, the past two weeks? He currently has a raspy smoker's cough and more snot than one baby should ever have. Thursday he pretty much stopped eating and drinking. Friday at 5:00 pm, just as the pediatrician's office closed, he spiked a 103 fever and cried non-stop for over an hour (so very out of character). To urgent care we went where it was discovered he not only STILL had a raging ear infection, but a virus that had caused him to get two nasty ulcers on the back of his throat. Fabulous.*

We have spent a lot of time lately looking like this:

Thankfully, he has still felt up to making out with himself in the mirror at the doctor's office.

And has enjoyed the pass he's been getting to sleep in our bed.

I think we've finally turned a corner this weekend and are on the road to recovery. Until Norah gets home from school tomorrow, I am sure.

*At one of our many pediatrician visits I bemoaned that perhaps Lou has been hit with the sick bug so much because he lacked the antibodies he should have gotten from breastfeeding. (Don't get me wrong, I don't feel guilty about it. I did what I could do and when it didn't work, we moved on. I just feel bad that he's so sick, so often). Alternatively, my breastfed kid has only been sick a handful of times and has had one ear infection in three-and-a-half years. His doctor doesn't think it would have made a profound difference because she says that generally, pre-school cooties make short work of breastfeeding antibodies every time. Not sure that makes me feel entirely better, but at least she tried.