I wonder how Napoleon would feel about this turn of events.
It took us about three days to complete watching the stage in hour long increments thanks to the two wild animals that now live in our apartment with us.
Said wild animals have developed a new game after their shower. While one of them gets a fresh diaper and put into their pajamas the other crouches in the crib (which we use as a sort of holding pen) and then jumps up to surprise the other. It's enjoyable to watch and makes the baby on the changing table only writhe about 85% as much as normal which makes diaper changes a breeze!
A harsh, stinky breeze.
This week Jen picked up the share. We received copious amounts of cucumbers, eggplant, spinach, leeks, smaller leeks, fennel, Thai basil, and Sun Gold tomatoes.
Jen made a cucumber soup while I was at work. I did not partake of any due to my extreme hatred of cucumbers. I did, however, put it into a bowl to feed the Wombats. Their new thing is that they are extremely picky eaters. This means that neither of them will eat what the other is eating or what we eat for dinner. This means we have to make three separate dinners so that everyone can go to bed with a full stomach.
On Wendesday I got a call that Elliott was not feeling well. He had been sick to his stomach and developed a diaper rash so severe that it caused him to spend all of his waking time screaming.
I went to pick him up and took him to the drug store where he would not be calm unless I allowed him to hold some of the merchandise, in this case a container of children's ibuprofen. I was pretty sure they thought I was stealing this at the self check-out but they took pitty on me and didn't confront me about it. This could have been simply because they took pity on me but it was more likely because they hated their jobs.
When we got home I let Elliott swing for a bit then he took a spin around the driveway in his Cozy Coupe.
When inside he took part in his new favorite game where he crawls under the television and turns off the surge protector.
This is not my new favorite game.
For the last week or two Elliott has been crawling at such a speed that he lowers his head, seemingly to cut down on wind resistance and get better speed. We call this is time trial crawl. After several failed attempts I was finally able to capture this on video. It's not the best example I've seen but it's the only one I have.
Elliott was wiped out so I bathed him and got him ready for bed. While I waited for Jen to return home with Martin I had a Purple Haze from Abita, a beer I haven't had in at least ten years. It was too low in alcohol to really satisfy after the day I'd had but it was a nice start.
For dinner I used the leftover ratatouille from the other night, added some grilled corn from our barbecue, ricotta cheese, and tossed in some ratiatore with some Parmigiano-Reggiano.
To bring up the ABV average for the evening Jen and I shared this The Audacity of Hops from Cambridge Brewing Company.
Shortly before bed Martin began screaming and I went in to comfort him and get him back to sleep. In the night it happened again and I found him curled up, crying, and hot to the touch. When I took his temperature it was 104. We called the on call doctor at 4:00 AM and she confirmed what Jen already suspected: croup.
Apparently it's not just something that affects characters in Anne of Green Gables. It is all too real.
After a lot of ibuprofen, and very little sleep, we woke up in the morning and took the guys to their well-timed one year checkup.
There we performed the well-choreographed dance of twins at the doctors by entertaining one baby at a time.
Then allowing the other to get checked out, and possibly remove all the doctor's equipment from its location bolted to the wall.
After the appointment I brought Elliott to day care and kept Martin at home to watch after him.
This included a couple of walks to the local dealership so I could get my car inspected. It was a shockingly cold day for July so I had to dress him in a jacket and long pants to keep warm on the walk. The socks kept him thoroughly entertained as he spent much of the walk trying to remove them.
The socks didn't keep him entertained all day. Back at home he was very warm and just wanted to lie there. Normally if you put him down on the couch he spends all of his energy trying to hurl himself over the edge. Elliott, how had been picked up from day care at this point, had enough energy for the two of them. He spent much of the time standing up on the couch and leaning over and see what I was doing on my phone. Eventually he would lean too far, fall over, and do it all again.
I set up Martin in his Rock N' Play and played the movie Animalympics on my computer to keep him entertained while I played with Elliott in the gated off area. Eventually Martin fell asleep after a long day of napping. Elliott followed soon after.
For dinner I threw some chicken breast in the oven and made a salad with lettuce from the far, Marcona almond, feta, fig, avocado, and tomato from the farm. I also made a sweet potato salad with red pepper, red onion, and the remaining sauce for the Mexican corn I made for the birthday barbecue. The sauce was mayonnaise, sour cream, adobo, paprika, chili powder, feta cheese, hot sauce, lime juice, and cilantro.
After dinner I sat back with this Declaration Belgian Style IPA from Backlash Brewing Company. Jen had only one beer displaying her to be a stronger parent than I.
There's no telling what this weekend will hold. We are at full alert preparing for the inevitable (though hopefully evitable) moment where Elliott catches his brother's croup.
A wise father of twins once told me that they take turns with illnesses. One of them gets the flu, then the other one gets the flu. One of them is teething, then the other teeths. It's almost as if twins have evolved that way. Two babies with one illness at the same time may be too demanding for the parents to take care of and would lead to twins not surviving. If they take turns it is more manageable.
I'm not truly convinced this is actually better.
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