Negotiation

It is nap time.  Xavier now has a habit of sleeping with Pookie the stuffed bear, a toy Elmo, and a stuffed dog who remains nameless.  That's all fine and good when he has the whole pack-n-play to flop around, but at nap time I still rock him to sleep.  I told him today he could only choose one toy.  Here's how the negotiations went.

Xavier: "Elmo"
Me: "Okay, only one toy today"
Xavier: "One, two, three"
Me: (very impressed by the counting, but not giving in) "You said Elmo first so let's get him"
     We retrieve Elmo who is still sleeping in the pack-n-play
Xavier: "Pookie"
Me: "No, you can only hold one toy today and you are already holding Elmo"
Xavier:....(thinking) "Mama hold Pookie"

I laughed so hard he started laughing with me even though he had no idea what was funny.  He fell asleep just fine with only Elmo.

The stomach bug and other things keeps us busy

J.J. hasn't been feeling 100% since around Christmas.  It seemed like mono from all the symptoms, except his stomach also hurt.  The first trip to the doctor told us just about nothing, except it wasn't the flu.  He hung in there for a few more week and then when things got worse again we decided to try another doctor.  They ran a bunch of lab work and discovered it had been mono all along.  On top of that he has a bacteria in his stomach, the kind that causes ulcers, that was giving him all the abdominal pain.  So he starting taking lots of medicine and was feeling some relief.  Then I caught a stomach bug from who knows where.  I always took building immunity as a perk of teaching small children so I guess now it is a perk of having play dates and exercise time with other moms.  J.J. tried to stay away but managed to catch the stuff anyway.  I'm sure I've lost weight, but I would not recommend this method.  Praise the Lord, Xavier has seemed to miss out on the worst on the symptoms.  He has been sleepy, gassy, and unpredictable in the diaper department, but nothing that matched our second homes in the bathroom.  My mom saved the day by watching him during my initial siege.  Thanks, Mom!  We are praying tomorrow brings more energy and less illness.
We also do other things besides being sick.  We go to lots of basketball games.  The season is actually almost concluded.  I don't know about the post season chances.  Xavier loves to talk about basketball, but he doesn't spend much time watching it.  He spends most of his time running in the "carefully chosen so we will disturb the least amount of people actually watching the game while preventing Mommy from having to say no 1,000 times because it is safer" section of the bleachers with his basketball friends.  Several elementary school girls think he is awesome and enjoy playing with him at all the home games.  We've been getting ready for teen camp this summer.  We get to plan with some great friends, which means fun planning dinners followed by entertainment by our kids.
Mostly though we've just been doing our fun and not so fun daily things.  Xavier's been home for almost 8 months now and I'm excited to see how his 2 1/2 year old check-up goes in a few weeks.  He is growing and changing all the time.  He now sleeps in his pack-in-play every night and no one has to rock him or cajole him into sleep.  He does try to negotiate release most nights, but he really doesn't put up a big fight.  He can reach door knobs and open some doors now.  He loves Elmo and wants to watch the potty video at all opportunities (more on that later).  Whew!  This post is just stretching on and on.  Maybe I'm finally caught up from Christmas and I can do more everyday posts.  Stay tuned for less "As the Stomach Turns" and more "Days of Our Lives".  =)  Sorry, I couldn't resist.