I Heart Zantac

Can you hear the big sigh of relief from there? Tristan is 7 doses into his prescription and I'm definitely noticing a difference in him. He used to get agitated really easily, especially when he was sitting on his own and now he's pretty content a lot of the time. His fussing doesn't automatically turn into screaming after a few minutes and he settles down to sleep without needing to be nursed. Twice already he has fallen asleep in his crib with me just shushing him and patting his back. Needless to say I'm thrilled, although we are still having issues in the evenings and at nights with him really fussing about nursing and crying quite a bit. I'm thinking that he's reacting to certain foods that I eat, namely broccoli and beans, but he also still has a cold and gets really stuffed up at night which makes him cranky. At least he's not constantly screaming in pain anymore. That does a number on the nerves, particularly after suffering through a year of Roanen's hysterics.

Now for the other exciting updates:

The older boys are actually going out for Halloween this year. Josey is going to be an elephant and Roanen is going to be a pig. Josey is thrilled because I'm "forgetting" that I don't like him to have candy (and I won't remember with him constantly saying it...). We have a tentative deal in which he will keep a few items and trade the rest for a bugs & cheese lunch date with me at Boston Pizza. This is a very good deal for me since not only do I get his candy, I also get lunch out. Oh, and the leftover candy that we don't give out, since I highly doubt we'll actually have enough trick or treaters to use up the 90 chocolate bars I bought... That's when I'll sadly figure out that Tristan is sensitive to chocolate in my milk.

Last week we had our chickens killed and butchered in a gory, yet strangely fascinating and efficient manner. Josey really wanted to watch them, but I was hesitant to let him see any of it since he can be sensitive about things like that. When I told him that I didn't want him to get upset about it, he informed me "I won't get upset - I kill things all the time!" He ended up having no problem with it all, and found the chickens hanging upside down with their heads partially severed and blood dripping from their necks particularly hilarious. No joke. I was slightly less impressed with that. Roanen followed his lead and ran around laughing and yelling "Really scary!" He also decided that it would be a good idea to bend over and try to drink out of a bloody puddle on the ground. Always good when your toddler channels Ozzy Osbourne.

Behaviour is still less than would be desirable, although I haven't been driven to tears by it for over a week now so things are improving. Today at the grocery store we were informed by a woman with three teenaged boys that this is the absolute worst time for us and that it gets really good later on. I was just impressed that three teenaged boys (all of whom looked relatively "cool") actually let themselves be seen in public with their mommy. Even Josey walks several yards behind us in the mall and yells at us for looking at him.

Hard to type with one semi-asleep 6 week old and one wiggly 3 year old on lap. Signing off for now.