“Is it bedtime yet?” said the voice in my head again and again all day today. Noise, crying, yelling, chaos…

Brendan had PT/OT today. His PT wants him to do pushing exercises, but he outgrew the Chomp n Clack and Trevor’s shopping cart is too unstable for him. So she found this storage bin that we have with wheels on it and put some weight in it. He pushed it all around the house, up and down the halls, back and forth. He loves it, even though he sometimes cheats on his posture.

His nurse made him do more laps after his nap, and then Bill made him do more laps after dinner. He should be one tired boy! He wore his PMV all day too!

Second to water, Trevor likes to play with flashlights

He still loves his trucks and trains

Trevor took this picture of Brendan

Then he promptly threw this tantrum when I wouldn’t let him have the camera without me also holding it

Bill took Trevor on an outing to Home Depot while Brendan and I made dinner and Brendan knocked out a few puzzles.

I took a few videos, but I can’t stand another minute of the yelling to watch and edit them for the web! When Brendan has his PMV on, he is VERY vocal and VERY loud. I now know how Trevor feels!

Things are still going well with Trevor’s new crib setup. I hope we can get at least a few more months out of it. It is a laugh trying to put him in it!

Taming the wild Trevor requires lots of water. I drove him around this morning, trying desperately to think of something new to do when it is still 100 degrees outside. Anything that came to mind was either too hot, too germy, or takes too much preparation. The mom’s club was meeting at a pizza place with a kids’ play zone but I just could not bring myself to go and face the exposure. Brendan is just getting healthy again and making some progress. I am still worried about our brief library experience and what kind of bugs he picked up.

The only thing I can do when I am out of ideas is to turn on the hose and stand outside and sweat my butt off. (If only that actually worked literally)

During trach care tonight, Brendan kept pulling off his HME and chewing it. So I capped his trach. I didn’t expect he would do as well as he did! He wore it for 45 minutes!!! That is a Brendan record. YAY BRENDAN!!!

He was having his evening power surge I guess, his oxygen is in his hand and he is breathing entirely through his nose/mouth and not through the trach.

We checked him over and over and with NO oxygen attached, he was still sitting at 83%.

He was being extra silly practicing his walking. Even more good news – Trevor tolerated Brendan’s crying, yelling, talking and laughing with only one small bout of sad crying. Maybe he is finally realizing that it is OK for Brendan to have a voice too.

“I’ve got no strings
To hold me down
To make me fret, or make me frown
I had strings
But now I’m free
There are no strings on me”

Unfortunately, his string-freedom was temporary. He gets his feeding tube, Pulse-ox, and vent hooked back up to go to bed. He is on 1.5L of oxygen now on the ventilator to maintain 80% and above. Funny how he needs more oxygen when he has a machine to help him breathe. He has been using 0.5-1.0L on his HME which is where he was before he got sick again. Back to baseline, finally. Time to move FORWARD again. Go go go BRENDAN!!

Today was Mommy Monday Madness Day. We have no day help and Bill is very busy with work, so I get to manage the monsters alone. Bill takes a lunch break to come out and rock Brendan while I put Trevor down for a nap. Today was brutal. The floor crib is working well right now for Trevor so we are not going to rush and change it. I hope we can buy more time with this setup, I just have to find a way to make it a little better.

We bought some bananas yesterday. Trevor LOVES banana but they don’t love him back so we have to have them only occasionally. He loves them so much he gives them a kiss.

And a hug! He will devour a whole banana and if the others are visible on the counter, he will beg and plead for a second one. He yells “Bayaya!! Peel! Peel!” (Kayla would be proud)

I want to do good things with the boys, but they make it nearly impossible. Trevor loves to read books so I thought I had Brendan playing nicely and tried to read to Trevor. Nope! Sorry! Put the book down and capture the monkey!

I got them watching “Baby Signing Time” and working on signs with me, sitting so nicely together.

Trevor was going to give Brendan a kiss (to apologize for the brutal tackle earlier) but he got swatted away!

They were best friends and worst enemies today. Trevor charged Brendan who was sitting on the floor, he planted both hands on Brendan’s shoulders and shoved him over, landing on top of him and rolling. How do babies know how to do these fancy maneuvers?!
Brendan pursued Trevor all day trying to take toys away. You could not stop him (in the video below).
Yet, they chased and giggled and talked and bonked heads all cute all day too.

Here’s a sample of today’s mayhem.

The constant crying when they don’t get their way wears us down so fast. There is a ton of cleanup still to do tonight, dishes in the sink, formula to make, and laundry to put away. All I want to do is take a long hot shower and go to bed!!