Catching up

Whew - it's been two weeks already?  Time flies when you're teething!  Actually, it doesn't.  But more on that later.

We celebrated the end of the babies' first baseball season by taking in one last game at AT&T Park.  We got there early so the babies, who hadn't been to the ballpark in over 5 months, could see everyone they'd been missing.  First, they headed up to the Press Dining Room to see Maria and Eva.

They also enjoyed eating bits of bran muffin that Daddy fed them.  Next, they went down to the Press Box to explore.

Daniel, looking for game notes

Caroline can find toys anywhere!

Look at my pretty orange and black outfit!

Daniel, chilling in the stroller

Max, making friends

Daniel even got a baseball from Ed Montague!

After the press box, we went out into the stands.  It was way too hot to sit in our seats upstairs, so we went for a tour around the Promenade and then mingled in the lower boxes with some friends.  I'm not sure what happened in the game, really, because we didn't get to watch much of it.  The babies did incredibly well, so we left in the seventh inning stretch to avoid pushing them too far.

I think Daniel had the best time of any of them:

Plus, he gets to show off his new car seat!

Next season, we'll be sure to scour the entry plazas looking for the Salvateenies' commemorative brick on the "Walk of Champions"!

Over the weekend, we had to make sure the babies got extra clean so they'd be ready for our photo shoot on Baker Beach on Sunday.  

The new game is "throw all the toys over the side!"

Daniel, showing proper stretching posture

Reading in the tub!

You caught me!

Here's a sneak peek of what  the family portraits will look like:

For the photo shoot on Sunday, the weather was mild and the babies were in good spirits.  We weren't quite sure how we were going to schlep them all over the beach for pictures, but when we opened the door to the car, my dad magically appeared!  He'd been at the Castro Street Fair and had some gifts for the babies from the "Young Punks" booth.  We quickly drafted him into service as a baby toter and distracter.  The most bizarre of his duties was as a prop - literally.  At one point the photographer sat us on a low tree branch to get a nice view with the bridge in the background.  Joe was nestled in on one side of the branch with a baby on his lap and his arm around my back to steady me.  I sat next to him with one foot propped up on a branch and a baby on the knee, and the other baby on the other knee.  The only problem was, there was nothing for me to steady my other leg with!  So my dad sat down in the sand and scooted himself down out of the shot, holding my foot in place.  I'm pretty sure we would've tumbled out of the tree otherwise.  I'm sure when we see the pictures, I'll look terrified!

After the weekend's dramatics, the weather turned wet and cold and Caroline's teeth decided it was time to join the party.  She spent much of Monday being generally unhappy.  Monday night, she cried so loudly that she woke Max up, which almost never happens.  Joe took charge of her to calm her down, and I took Max in the living room.  Joe's calming effects got Caroline snoozing in our bed within ten or fifteen minutes, but Max had decided he was enjoying his slumber party and didn't sack out until 5:30!  This meant I got about 45 minutes of sleep all night.  Not fun.

Tuesday was another day of pain, both for Caroline and her sleepy parents.  She and Max woke up a few times during the night, but there were hours of uninterrupted sleep and it felt like things were improving.  Until Wednesday.  Caroline cried all day Wednesday.  I understand why - three of her upper teeth are pushing through, and they're HUGE.  But it was still a lot of crying.  Wednesday evening she wouldn't go to sleep at all, and when I tried to put her down, she woke Max again.  This time we both got up with them.  Caroline was howling at the top of her lungs, and Max would cry the instant you let him go.

After drugging her with Ibuprofen, teething tablets, and orajel, I finally broke down and called the advice nurse, who, hearing her in the background, asked how long she'd been having these problems.  When I said it had been about 3 days, the nurse's voice turned judgmental as she said "And she hasn't been seen by a doctor yet?"

"No," I thought, "she's teething."

But the nurse assured me that "just teething" would not cause the level of irritability she was hearing over the phone (I assume she meant Caroline's crying), and after a brief consultation with the on-call doctor, she decided I should either bring her to the ER or call back after 6am for an appointment the next morning.  I was still harboring fantasies that I'd be able to go to work on Thursday, and I knew it would not be a good idea for Joe to take all three babies in to the doctor that morning, so I packed her up and took her to the ER at 2:30am.

20 minutes and a $50 co-pay later, the doctor diagnosed her as "teething" and we were given her next dose of ibuprofen, along with instructions that we could supplement with Tylenol between ibuprofen doses if she was in pain - which is really all I needed the advice nurse to tell me.  Thanks a lot.

Caroline in the ER waiting room

At the time, I thought the blurriness was my eyes...

Of course, she flirted with the nurse and doctor

 When we got back, she took about another hour to settle down, but Max still refused to sleep, and after the second sleepless night that week, with two crazy, sleepy babies, I ended up having to call in sick for the next day anyway.

Teething continued over the next few days (we're not out of the woods yet!)

Caroline, sucking on a teething toy

Daniel and Max showing off where their teeth are

And on Friday, Max got into an argument with one of his new toys and ended up with the second shiner of his young life.

(that onesie, from the Young Punks, says "Pooh is my homeboy")

That's two black eyes in the first 54 weeks, while neither Daniel nor Caroline has had one - I think Max might need to curb his enthusiasm a little bit.

The good news, though, is that my school pictures came this week!