There are some days that stress sets in and just gets a grip. I didn’t sleep well and Trevor was up really early and I was so tired, I just couldn’t seem to catch up to the day. Trevor managed to sling an entire cup of coffee all over the floor to start the morning and it just went from there.
Brendan is just continuing with his withdrawal and is very quick to tantrum. He does this hold-your-breath cry fit and makes this horrible wheezing noise because he knows it gets to me. He saves it for when I have both boys demanding things and not enough hands.
We plodded through the day without too much event and the boys had some good times. Trevor and I went to Sam’s Club and I was surprised at how not busy it was. It wasn’t even normal Sunday busy.
The biggest positive part of the day was buying a new vacuum. oooohhh Having a cleaner house does help everything feel better.

Trevor was playful today.

Brendan is showing off his new teeth. They are coming in fast and furious now, he has molars showing on the bottom and the 5th and 6th top ones on each side are coming in too.

I can see the top two side ones on Trevor and some molars look like they are starting. I have lost count now!

Brendan has outgrown the ironing board for bath and trach care so now I sit on the floor with him. I have gotten really proficient at doing the whole thing myself so usually he gets his whole routine in the morning. I just wish that giving him a bath every day wasn’t like setting up for a surgical procedure. I spend about 15 minutes gathering and prepping supplies and always forget one thing. I need to write my list down.

Sitting Brendan up in the tub is better for the splashing, but he still manages to throw lots of water.

These are the days we just need to take some deep breaths and know that it won’t always be like this. I look forward to the day when there are no more giant deliveries of medical supplies, no more suction machines, and no more alarms.

We wish Great-Grandma a quick recovery from her sprains and strains. We are going to have to get her an adult size chomp and clack so she can get around safely!

Finally, we are getting to where we are almost feeling normal again! I had energy today to actually do some cleaning. Trevor was well behaved (for Trevor!), no screaming, no endless whining crabby night. He was his usual stinker, get-in-to-everything, always-on-the-go self. He did take a good morning nap but then a 7 minute afternoon nap. He did sit and let me read a few books to him so he had some quiet time. Then when he got overtired tonight, he got really slaphappy silly. It was a riot.

Brendan is showing the worst of this weeks withdrawal symptoms today. I HATE HATE HATE putting him through this process and want to give him his meds to make him comfortable. Hopefully just a few weeks are left of this process for this drug. He did still have some good fun today in patches.

The highlight of the day was chomp and clack time. Trevor was all ready to rock and show everyone his newest skills!

Chomp and clack hilarity with the all new Trevor-cam!

Here’s the Trevor-cam setup

Trevor watches Bill over the back of the couch

Trevor can sometimes be a bully to Brendan, I think it is mostly curiosity and a bit of jealousy.

Brendan says, “The things I endure around here! Sheesh!”

Brendan really enjoys the arch of monkeys in the jungle, he was very proud the first time he was able to push one all the way over.

Now he just owns those monkeys!

Bill looks at our stack of diapers today and says, “Uh-oh, we are kind of low. Maybe you should run to Sam’s and buy a box?” I said, “Today? Are you crazy?” Black Friday indeed, we don’t leave the house if we can help it. Bill did have to work today, but after he was signed out, we were determined to start on our big to-do list for the weekend.

You would think that the first mod we did to the new van would involve some kind of welding. But alas, it was just that the beige microfiber interior would not be holding up to our family for long. So we got custom fit seat covers. (no, I did not make them!!) I love them, they are super soft and washable.

Front seats

Back seats

Sort of coincidentally, I worked on a project that has been sitting on the back burner for over a year. I still have the arm rest things to cover. I did make this one. It covers more beige microfiber that isn’t holding up. It is funny how similar it is to the car seat covers in design, I guess my tastes haven’t changed.

Trevor approves

The trouble is, with time being precious, it makes me want to rush to finish things. And when you rush, you tend to make more mess and things come out worse and take longer than if you just slowed down and did it right the first time. I broke my sewing machine today, it was a sturdy old hand me down with a lot of miles on it. I had to finish up with my serger, which needed to be rethreaded (that’s a tedious job!).

Scrub-a-dub, two babies in the tub. For most of the day, the boys did pretty well. I was able to keep them both happy while Bill worked.

Bill did a good job with them while I was fighting with machines. They had a little tickle attack

Today was the first day that Trevor managed to get in a tackle on Brendan. He just charged him and got his hands square on each shoulder and pushed him over and landed on him. Brendan was scared but he was well padded. I think Trevor meant it in fun. He also tries to pat Brendan’s head the way I have been teaching him to pat the dogs. Brendan only cried for a few seconds, he takes a lot from Trevor because he likes him so much.

Trevor got to be a handful of upset baby when I tried to put him down for an afternoon nap. He was having nothing of it. He stayed crabby but ate a really good dinner and went to bed easy. Hopefully he feels even better tomorrow.

We have a giant list for the weekend, it feels good to get some things done.