Monday, July 02, 2007

Bits and pieces

I am finding it hard to blog lately, partly for lack of time, but also because so much is going on that I want to record that it seems like I can't get down any of it. I would like to emulate some of my favorite bloggers and produce a well-rounded, classically styled essay every time I hit the "publish post" button, but what I am really able to produce right now is more along the lines of random notes taken frantically on Post-It notes in crayon. Well, so be it, I guess.

The boys are becoming more and more adorable, and their personalities are developing apace. It's obvious to me that Sam will be our little party animal. He loves people, and he loves meeting new people. Our next door neighbor came over yesterday to move a piece of furniture, and Sam, who had not met the neighbor before, surveyed him for a mere 30 seconds before giving him a lovely gummy smile. Thirty seconds! And it was one of Sam's megawatt smiles, too -- not to mention assorted arm waving, kicks and gurgles. It's obvious: our boy is either going to be President or a used car salesman.

As for Gus, he is not one to jump into anything. He surveys toys mistrustfully before finally whacking them. He looks into our faces and checks us out carefully before vouchsafing us a smile (though I must say that his smile, when it arrives, is blinding in its beauty). The neighbor? A smile? I don't theeeeenk so.... However, Gus is still working on his collection of volitional noises, adding to them carefully (whereas Brother is still mostly limited to a jovial "Hoo hoo!"). Gus has added a very Hispanic-sounding rolled R, and in the last couple of weeks has also added "crowing," which actually sounds like a rusty door hinge. Not to be outdone, Sam has also started crowing in the last couple of days. In his case, his crowing is so high-pitched and pure in tone that he sounds like he's going to launch into the big Queen of the Night aria from "The Magic Flute." So perhaps Sam will be our tenor (or maybe countertenor!) whereas Gus's lower-pitched voice sounds more like a baritone in the making. (Hm. My mother's grandfather, she always said, was a tall red-headed man with a big handlebar mustache, and he was noted for his lovely baritone voice. History repeats, perhaps?)

In other news, we went in for their four month checkup and shots on Tuesday. Gus was 14 lbs 1.3 oz, and Sam was 12 lbs 10 oz. Sam was only 1/4 inch behind his brother in height, though. I think Sam's copious spitting-up may have retarded his weight gain. (Oh, let me tell you about the spitting up! I often refer to him as my Little Fountain. Sam's favorite thing to do is spit up what seems like half his bottle -- enough to soak his clothes, my clothes, and have enough left over for a small puddle on the kitchen tiles -- and then give me a beatific grin. Clearly, it doesn't bother him. But ye gods, you would not believe how many shirts this child goes through in one day!)

But Dr. Pixie, their pediatrician, was not overly concerned about the spitting up. (She just seems like a pixie. She's several inches shorter than me -- and I'm not what one would call tall -- wears her hair in a cute little pixie cut, and in short, looks like she could sub for Santa's elfin helpers at a moment's notice.) The copious spitup should resolve in the next few months, she said. She noted that we could give him Reglan, but was unenthusiastic about the idea, due to the possibility of seizures. (Seizures! Yikes!) The Zantac that Sam is taking doesn't help with the spitup; it just keeps it from burning his esophagus. (Hence his happy little smiles after, I suppose.) So it seems for the moment, he will keep his title of Spitup Sam.

All in all, he and Gus are in quite good health. We went through a looooooong bout of thrush last month (thrush totally kicked our butt, believe me), but that's all gone now and no new malady has cropped up yet. I thought that Gus had a tooth coming in -- it was hard, pointy, and white, and obviously bothered him -- but Dr. Pixie says it's an inclusion cyst, and it should go away when his teeth actually do come in.

We do have one thing looming on the horizon. Both Gus and Sam have a nice little case of torticollis, or "wry neck." This means that they have a tendency to look to the right whenever possible. To stretch out the shortened muscle that causes this condition, D and I are supposed to stretch out their little necks by turning their heads to the left several times a day, repositioning their heads while they sleep, etc. Gus has responded well to this, and his is definitely getting better. Sam is more stubborn about the head turning (you should hear the wails our little boy soprano can produce!), and also has definite flattening of the head in back, on the right side. Actually, his head is pretty asymmetrical in general. His ears are seriously not aligned with one another. So now we have an appointment to see a specialist in Oakland to find out whether Sam should get a helmet to help mold his head correctly. I must say the helmet thing seems rather trendy, but I don't want my boy to have a weird-looking head throughout life. So off to Oakland we will go, next month. Stay tuned!