weekend.

We're still working on runny noses here, but nothing like the fright-fest that was the last entry. Ben's been pretty patient with us while we get some painting done around the house. Today after I fed Ben lunch, Chris had to turn the power off in the house so that he could replace some electrical outlets. Ben and I hung out outside.

This is the view over our back wall, facing our neighbor to the west. Every year they plant 'crops' - or as much as you can plant in a backyard. I always love watching the plants grow. Ben and I took a peek.


I'm not sure what they are so I took a closer picture in hopes that the green thumbs out there might be able to shed some light. Soybeans? The plants don't flower but can reach a pretty good height.


I'd like to be able to ask the neighbors, but English is their second language, and I can't even begin to speak Chinese. They are incredibly nice - the wife and I sometimes meet outside and try our best to chat with one another while we sweep or water plants. She is taking care of her grandson 5 days a week and seems to be loving it. They gave us an outfit for Ben when he was born, and the other day she came over with 4 apples and handed them to me. She explained that her husband had bought a lot, and these were extra.

There's a new lens on Chris' camera so I've been having a hard time getting good shots of Ben. User error. But here's one in which I think he's looking pretty optimistic. With yogurt on his face.

warning: this is pretty gross.

We've all been sick for awhile now here at the Reif household. Ben got the sniffles, I got a sore throat, Chris got a cough... And we'd all fade in and out of sickness, but nothing too bad.

This morning, though, I woke up with swollen glands and a sore throat. I was achy all over - I swear even my eyeballs hurt. So I found a doctor in South Philly who was willing to see me - I just had to wait for them to call back and let me know what time to come in.

While I was waiting for the callback from the doc I fed Ben his breakfast. I swear we've been keeping Puffs Plus in business lately because I feel like every two minutes I'm wiping Ben's nose. I had to clean his face here and there while he ate his breakfast, but nothing too extreme. When I had my back turned, however, he sneezed. When I turned around to see what the damage was, I almost cried/puked/died laughing all at the same time.


I mean, that's a lot of boogers. I called for Chris and made him come in and take a picture, and Ben (as usual) obliged. So cooperative, sometimes.

Perhaps you think I'm a cruel parent for capturing this on film. If so, forgive me. Once in awhile the Man Upstairs will throw me a bone - something to make me laugh so hard when I'm in the middle of taking myself too seriously. This was one of those times. I just had to document it. That, and to bring this picture out and embarrass Ben in front of his future girlfriends someday.

little stinker.

It feels like forever since the last post I made, but I've stayed away for a reason: I probably would have sounded like a bit of a whiner. Ben's had a cold, and he's teething (drooling and constantly has his hands in his mouth), and he's been miserable. He's been waking up a bunch in the middle of the night. Yesterday I noticed some nice yellow goop in his eye. He's coughing and sneezing and rubbing his eyes a bunch. I feel bad for him.

I also have pity parties for myself once in awhile, mostly at 1am or 2am when I'm awoken to the sound of him screaming... But then I see how frantic he is and how much pain he's got to be in to wake up out of a sound sleep. This is a boy who likes to sleep. And then I feel terrible for him. I now know what it means to say that I wish I could take the pain away.

give me back my son!

Years ago, someone I know did a great impression of Mel Gibson yelling, "give me back my son!" from the movie Ransom. We're talking practicing in front of the mirror and stuff. You know who you are.


That's how I feel right now about Ben. I look at him and ask, 'who are you and what have you done with Ben?'

I don't know what it is, but for the past 4 nights he's been up multiple times, standing in his crib and crying. He's not taking the naps he's supposed to. He's generally cranky.

I had trouble like this awhile back with him, and I found a site which explained things in layman's terms.

Your baby is also going through enormous developmental spurts that you can't see, because they're dealing with cognitive processes. They work through these spurts the same way they work through the physical spurts, but when your baby is practicing recognizing patterns, you can't see that. Leading up to the actual new skill the baby is going to go through several weeks of intense brain work and prep that you can't necessarily see (unless you know specifically what to look for). One of the side effects of this brain work is that they don't sleep as well as they do during times in which they're not about to master a new skill. They may seem restless in the night (like they do sometimes when mastering a physical skill) but it's just nothing you can see and label. So we call it a sleep regression.

Once a baby has learned the new skill, s/he will often sleep through the entire night for 1-3 nights after mastering the skill. Which is freaky from the parents' perspective, because you go from waking 10 times one night to sleeping 12 hours the next. But it makes complete sense if you know that the baby was working on this really tough challenge and couldn't help but wake up so often (in fact it's probably a miracle that the baby could even fall asleep in the first place with so much going on in the noggin), and then once they've got it they relax and sleep it off for a couple of days, like sleeping off a crazy party. Then they'll most likely go back to sleeping the way they were before they started working on the new developmental skill.

I cant feel any new teeth or anything, but I'm guessing it's some sort of sleep regression - something he's working on (walking? standing up? doing his times tables? who knows?). This explanation makes sense to me, and makes me feel better - if for no other reason than that it gives me some hope that things will go back to 'normal.'