Eleanor is 10 months old! One of the good things about these monthly photos I take of the kids when they are babies is that they force me to update the blog at least once a month(ish). I feel like I have a laundry list of very good excuses for not updating recently, not the least of which is that Hammie and Eleanor both have pink eye, which includes not only runny, crusty eyes but also nasty coughs, runny noses and constant fevers along with lots and lots and lots of crying. I have tried to keep things quiet and relaxed here to speed recovery, but since Hammie is currently outside with Fraser playing "Splish Splash Splosh," game that involves running enthusiastically through very muddy puddles while yelling "Splish, Splash, Splosh" you could say that attempt has pretty much failed miserably.

A few weeks ago we went down to New York for my Grandfather's memorial service, which I think was a little more stressful for the kids that I initially realized. It is hard at 2 and 3 to really gauge how much they understand of what is going on, (and since Hammie and Fraser actually missed a good chunk of the actual service since Andy took them down to the golf pro shop where Hammie managed to drive a kid size golf cart across the room) I didn't think it would have much of an impact on them. But, I think between all the talk about my grandfather, and the fact that their was also considerable discussion about my uncle who was very ill and has since passed away, they were more disturbed by the experience that I was hoping they would be. Then again, when we got back I found that one of our fish had died and I was worried that they boys would be upset when i fished his body out of the tank (we had had Peter-Norbert since before we bought our house) but they seemed to think it was pretty cool to see a dead fish, and when our foster cat Ralphie killed a mouse and two bats in the barn, they thought that was freaking awesome, so I don't think I'll sign then up for therapy just yet.

I, however, may need some serious therapy for post traumatic stress if Hammie and Eleanor do not start sleeping better soon. I know most of it is due to their being sick and feeling cruddy (oh God, please that that be it) but last night I was up with one of them at least twice an hour until 3 a.m. when I finally got an entire blessed hour and twenty minutes of sleep until the the tag team event of "let's see how close we can get to killing mommy" began again. Some nights I feel like an unwilling participant in some sick science project designed to test which is stronger, a mother's love for her children or her need to get more than 3 hours of combined sleep a night. This is after it takes at least 45 minutes to an hour of sitting next to Hammie to get him to fall asleep now (and God help you if you have to get up and pee because he will follow you screaming into the hallway, crying "Mommy I want you!!" will continue screaming the entire time you pee, and will scream in your face as you carry him back into the room. And don't even think about suggesting that old "tell him you'll be back in 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc" if I even get out the words "I'll be back in..." the screaming starts again. Yesterday Fraser told Andy he was being a "pain in the ask." Can't imagine where he got that from...

To make matters worse Andy leaves for his brother's bachelor party in Las Vegas on Thursday. Don't' get me wrong, I don't begrudge Andy a weekend away with grownups, but we are barely making it to dawn with two of us manning the battle stations. With just me on deck, this ship is going down. Which brings me to the topic of my first session with my soon-to-be-therapist, "is it wrong to occasionally fantasize about giving your children adult doses of benadryl so they would just all sleep through the damn night just once and I could get my first decent night of sleep in 4 years? Oh save the sermon, I'm not actually going to do it, but 8 straight hours of sleep would be pretty freaking nice.

Eleanor is doing very well despite her pink eye and lack of sleep, though she does still occasionally fall over backwards when she is sitting. Before I had just chalked this up to a concentration issue (she is easily distracted and there is a lot going on in our house) but now I am starting to get a little more worried. She isn't crawling yet, but as you can see in the video she is attempting to get moving. Still, I wonder if the not crawling and falling over combined don't indicate some sort of gross motor delay that I should be concerned about. I told myself I would wait until she was a year to become overly concerned about it, but considering how long it takes me to get the ball rolling on anything these days, I'm thinking it might be time to give early intervention a call.

Well, tonight is Fraser's graduation from the 3rd year old preschool program. It's really a show for them to display their singing prowess and ability to follow directions given by people other than their parents, so it should be adorable. This is good, because I really need at least one kid to be super cute right now so I'm not tempted to poke holes in our sinking vessel just to watch it go down faster and let the pain be over...splish, splash, splosh!