Lazy Eye

I guess it is now Henry's turn for a medical issue. Poor little Hanky-poo has a clogged tear duct. It was first misdiagnosed as an eye infection so we were torturing him 3 times daily with eye drops. Now we just have to give him some hard rubbing eye massages twice a day. That should be fun.

I was worried at first that we would end up with a white Forest Whitaker (see lazy eye), but apparently it is common in newborns and there shouldn't be any long-term issues.

Happily, he is already looking much better today.

McDonald's

(This is obviously prior to Cole's little forehead mishap, just in case an accurate Fuchs family timeline is important to you). Kristin and I thought it would be nice to take Cole for his first trip to McDonald's to celebrate becoming a big brother. We got him a 4-piece chicken nugget Happy Meal. Right out of the gate Cole tossed his milk on the floor...and from there the trip continued to go south. The Happy Meal came with a stupid Kung Fu Panda toy. Cole didn't love it. He did love his nuggets though. In his excitement to eat more, three of the nuggets ended up joining the milk on the floor, forcing me back in line to order another 4-piece. Eventually part of the toy landed on the floor as well. We made quite the mess. Cole did a little socializing but neither him nor the other kids were all that talkative. He also had no interest in going in the play area.

 Lovin' his nuggets and fries!

The toy 

The mess

The friends

On a side note and speaking of "Firsts," Henry got his first cut the second day being home and in our care. I am happy to say this is all Kristin's fault. Even though she knows not to cut a baby's fingernails right away because they can get a cut and risk infection, she decided to do it anyways. Surprise surprise. She took a nice chunk out of Henry's pinkie finger. Great parenting.

Not So Happy Father's Day

This year I did not have a Father's Day I would like to repeat. First the weather sucked, so we couldn't go on the pontoon, which I was looking forward to all weekend. Then my two boys were not able to get me the coffee mug with a lid that I wanted. Oh yeah, then there was this...

We were minutes from leaving my parent's house after our Father's Day celebration. Henry was strapped in his car seat and Cole was in his jammies. Kristin was just about to grab Cole for goodbyes; I didn't see exactly what happened, but the gist of it is Cole tripped and hit his head on the square base of a table. It sounded awful. Kristin ran over to grab him and saw that he was bleeding. I then grabbed him, thinking it was not too bad, and discovered that the cut was so deep I could see white; not a layer of skin left, just skull. My Dad and I rushed off to the hospital, I didn't even bother to throw on shoes. Oh, but it didn't go as smoothly as predicted. We got stuck waiting for a train. We were not even fortunate enough to catch the middle or end of it. The crossing was closing just as we approached. Obviously very frustrating, but once the bleeding was under control and I didn't have to put pressure on the wound, Cole calmed down and stopped squirming.

Of course it was a nice long wait at the hospital.  Luckily Cole was very calm during the waiting period and charmed all the nurses. Finally we were able to get checked out and Cole got numbed up and prepped for stitches. I am proud to say he acted very tough throughout the whole ordeal (Kristin too). He ended up with three interior stitches and seven to the outside. If you have been lucky enough to NOT witness your child getting stitches let's hope it stays that way. It was the most painful 30 minutes of my life. Kristin and Cole bawled the entire time.

 Tired and sweaty after getting stitched up



 All fixed up

Having fun with his mail before "the incident"

Now we have the pleasure of cleaning the wound twice daily and applying ointment. You can imagine how well that goes over every day. Cole is back to his wild ways, running and tripping and making us crazy. Kristin tells me she is getting an Ergo Baby carrier and Cole will live safely on her back for the rest of time. Father's Day 2012 is sure to be a smashing success.

Bulimic Baby

Cole apparently needs even more attention. I’m not sure how this is possible since he is a baby and gets an unbelievable amount of attention already. But, he is greedy and wants more. So much so that in the car he started to stick his fingers, and at times his entire hand, down his throat making himself cough. I don’t know if it was on purpose or he just got carried away, but when I went to take him out of his car seat he was not only covered in a lot of spit, but he had definitely forced himself to throw up. Thankfully he hasn't done this since. It was pretty funny to listen to from the front seat though. Now with Henry around this move may come in handy.

Hard to see but he does have vomit on the car seat strap and his chin.

Bike Rides

So, we have a couple of pre-Henry blogs we were planning to post, but now that Henry is here we don't want to confuse everyone and make them wonder why we don't talk about our new baby. Therefore, we'll post a couple of these quickly and get to life with Henry posts. Below is the first of the last posts of the days with Cole solo. (And if you don't know who Henry is check out the older post).

If you recall, the Easter Bunny gave Cole a bike seat attachment so he could come on bike rides with me. It wasn’t easy, but we were finally able to go for a ride. The first challenge was getting him to sit in the seat. At first he thought it was pretty horrible and our planned first bike ride didn’t even happen. The second challenge faced was getting him to wear his bike helmet. Kristin was able to get it on him and buckle it under his chin. Cole instantly cried and tried to pull it off with the strap pulling his chin up. Finally, attempt number three worked. For some reason Cole was fine with sitting on the seat and wearing his helmet. I have no idea why he had the change of attitude, but I’ll take it. $65 not wasted! Cole seemed to like the ride. I couldn't see his face, but I didn’t hear any screaming or crying so I imagine he was all smiles.   

On our next bike ride things went great at first. I got the bike, seat and his helmet out from the shed. He seemed very interested and excited to go for a ride. He even tried to put on his helmet himself. Once ready, I strapped him in his seat and we set off. We went for a ride along the Oak Leaf Trail from Riverside Park all the way to about O'Donnell Park. This is where I made a grave mistake. I wanted to turn around and start heading back, so I stopped the bike. I figured I would check on him and try to decipher his expression to see if he was having fun. He looked pretty happy, but then he got his helmet off and REFUSED to put it back on. I tried to force it on and he would wail and go berserk. I began to walk the bike with him in it to try to calm him down. It worked, but then I went through the same ordeal when I tried to get his helmet back on. At some point I managed to get his helmet strapped on and I quickly took off, holding him and his helmet on with one hand and steering the bike with the other. He continued to cry and wail. Needless to say we got some looks when we passed people on the crowded trail. I thought his crying would stop, but it didn't and eventually I gave up. I took his helmet off and started to walk the bike again. Sadly, I was a good 2 + miles from home, so I had to call Kristin to meet us at Alterra on the Lake. To make things worse, I actually bumped into somebody I know on the trail while walking my bike with my sad little child in it. I know about four people in the area, including Kristin, so this was bullshit. Oh well. We made it to Alterra and Cole got a car ride home. As an added bonus, he cried going into his carseat. I think he wanted to go back on the bike (as long as he didn't have to wear his helmet).

Henry Benjamin Has Arrived!

It took about 16 hours of labor, but he is finally here. Henry Benjamin Fuchs (a.k.a. Hank the Tank) arrived at 7:53 p.m. and weighed in at 9lbs 3oz. In comparison, Kristin was in labor with Cole for 23 hours and Cole weighed 8lbs 3oz. I have already noticed Cole and Henry have several differences, which is great because who wants to go through all this for something you already have. Both were hard, long labors but Cole was fine up to the pushing moment where Kristin spent three hours getting him out in the world. Henry apparently caused pain the entire day, but Kristin only had to push for about 25 minutes. Other differences I noticed include Henry's blond hair (and not a lot of it) and his nipples are already visible. I don't know what is normal, but Cole's nipples didn't come in until he was much older. Kristin wanted to add the one pound difference in weight, but don't worry, I explained to her that that is not an opposite and she needs to watch some more Blue's Clues (Cole's favorite show, FYI).

Kristin did great even though the epidural was not easy to get in nor did it work fully. They ended up giving her 5 times the amount of medicine and gave her additional meds before pushing. She toughed it out, although she did tell me, "If you want a girl we will be adopting. This is it." This comment was followed up with the demand to "keep rubbing Fuchs!" I'm just surprised she didn't get more angry when I asked if it would help if we turned on the Brewer game.

Well, without further ado, here are the pics of Henry Benjamin's arrival.

Water just broke

Yikes!

Phew! All cleaned up.

9lbs 3oz

Introduction - Mom and Henry

Introduction - Dad and Henry

Cole was not that interested in his new baby brother

Tired after wiener surgery

Weekend Outdoors

Finally, a nice warm weekend to enjoy and I like to think we took advantage. Cole loves the outdoors, so we did a lot of playing and eating outside. This included Cole possibly eating an ant and he definitely had a dog treat in his mouth. I, of course, blame Kristin; although I don’t even think she was around for either incident. Oops. Mea culpa.

Anyways, I’ll mostly highlight the weekend with photos (below), since I imagine everyone just wants to see pics of Cole. As I said, we spent much of the time outside. I took a page out of Grandma’s playbook and bought Cole a real mailbox, which I hung on the fence in the backyard. Now Kristin will have to deal with taking Cole out to get the fake mail every day. Ha Ha. That will get annoying quick.

We also went to brunch with friends at The Garage. No pics of that outing. I was sad to find out The Garage changed their menu and got rid of the Monte Cristo (a.k.a. the best breakfast sandwich ever). Cole was a handful and just wanted to walk around, but it was good to see people (and listen to Scott impersonate the Governator in bed). We also went to a park, but it sucked. Mainly because it was crowded and Kristin and I didn’t want to talk to anybody - but of course Cole was a social butterfly and wanted to chat with everyone.

Cole wears his new hat for a walk to Whole Foods. Go Brewers!
We probably won't be using our fancy all terrain stroller all Summer since it got locked in the shed with the key attached...

White trash baby - saggy diaper and all

Maybe could have gotten a smaller ball

"Hello mail"

Almost a bleeder!

Boy #2 Nursery

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we went to Ikea and bought the baby furniture for baby #2, (side note: we are selling the naming rights since we can’t think of any, if you want to put in a bid let us know). Ikea was tiring, but we got everything we need. The new nursery will be in the room I was keeping my dresser and clothes in, so now Kristin and I have to share a room/closet, which in turn required the purchase of two new dressers. We also bought an end table, crib and dresser/changing table.

This is the mood board (obviously put together by Kristin):

And this is how it actually turned out. With baby due in about 2 weeks it certainly took us long enough!

 View from doorway - that second door leads to a tiny upper porch

Kristin made this mobile for over the changing table

Bedding close-up; mix of Etsy and handiwork by a family friend

Although I think the nursery turned out nice, I feel I owe Boy #2 an apology. Boy #2 definitely got nursery on a budget. Cole's furniture, bedding, bookshelf and rocking chair were all fancier and pricier. I feel a little guilty, but neither Kristin nor I feel the need to go all out like we did with Cole. Hopefully this is not a sign of future child neglect of Boy #2. I hear you love the 2nd one just as much as the first, but as of now that just sounds like something people are supposed to say.

As I mentioned above, Kristin and I will now be sharing a room for clothes and dressers which should be great for the marriage. I anticipate this going as well as when we first moved into the condo together and I seriously wanted to murder her.