Barney the Beagle...

"Meet Barney the Beagle..." says Erin Tate of NBC4 in Columbus.

We made the news on Saturday night at 1130p and again on Sunday morning. We even made it on before the unfortunate news about a infant passing away after getting caught between the bed and the mattress. (Must have been a *REALLY* slow news night.) After about twenty minutes of talking to Ms. Tate, the footage was basically cut down to a few good shots of the photogenic Barney romping around the backyard, giving kisses to me, and "trying to get back to normal" (which for him is pretty much laying on the big pillow). Essentially, the basic plea of anyone finding these pooches to call Animal Control (not to mention lock up your dogs if you have any) was what got across. (See NBC4 website for the text version of the story ran on 2/25/2006 and 2/26/2006 at http://www.nbc4i.com/news/7467739/detail.html or http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11575822/ for the same story with a picture).

Since the attack, everyone is slowly healing. Barney has a massive amount of scabs forming on his neck and head area, mainly on his right side, and will be going back to the vet tomorrow for the drainage removal. Next week, he will have the stitches removed. Steve C. from next door seems to only have a small bite on his right hand as well as some bruises but that is also healing, while I am confused sometimes because I can not tell if I am looking at a bruise or a diaper mark on my hand in addition to my various bites. We are all very sore, and poor Barney did nothing but moan all Thursday evening.

On a side note, I want to thank EVERYONE who helped us out again. I am so lucky to have family and friends that are concerned for us and are willing to help us. I can not think that anything worse can happen to us, but knock on wood when you read this sentence. (I know I just did.)

New shoes...

The Babies got to wear their first ever shoes. I have not purchased them shoes until yesterday, and even then the shoes are more for traction when they are in their walkers. Anyway, since they have shoes, I actually dressed them up in real clothes and was able to get a picture of them in their real clothes and shoes, both smiling at the same time! (Thanks one more time for everything, Bic!)

And how do you know that Aron is truly my child? Why, by the butt in the air during his nap, of course!

Nothing like starting early...

Some time ago, my mum purchased a couple of baby walkers at a local church rumage sale. Since Aron is showing stronger leg control, I decided to pull the walkers out. Needless to say, he can now move forward, backward, side-to-side, and even can pull himself up next to you so he can chew on your chair and/or foot. (Nice, AJ.) Although Alyssa is not as mobile as Aron, she can also move around but mainly only backwards.

Anyway, I found Aron in the unique position of walking to the bathroom, so I placed a fine object on his tray. And, of course, not to be outdone by her big brother, little sister has a fine wedding baby picture of her own, properly altered.

Scary little baby episode...

On Thursday afternoon, I was advised by my family physician to take the Lyssy Kissy to the ER at Children's Hospital. Miss Lyss was experiencing typical teething symptoms with some earaches but was unable to keep anything, including pedialyte, in her system since Wednesday evening. Since it had been going on 48 hours of little to no food in her system, the Dr. advised me to take her to the ER as she was becoming severely dehydrated with blood in her diaper on Thursday afternoon. Since then, she came home on Saturday and is now doing TONS better. The hospital doctors believed that it was a viral infection called a rotavirus that caused her to have top and bottom end problems. Unfortunately, this virus had to run its course but often sends almost all infants with this virus to the ER. On top of it all, she came down with a snotbug just as the virus was clearing up. She is now doing much better, because her smile has returned and she is now kicking her feet up in the air during diaper changes. We still have to use pedialyte mixed in with her formula, which will be decreased as she shows that she can keep formula down. Since formula is what caused her to stay an extra day, along with her vomiting after a coughing fit, they do not want to push the limit.

Unfortunately, as most people with multiple children know, Aron is now coming down with something that may be similar to Alyssa's illness. However, at this time, he is nowhere near as bad as Alyssa was. While his appetite has decreased and he is coughing a little more mucus, he is not running a temperature and is doing okay. It appears that he did not get the rotavirus but only the snotbug that Alyssa got just as the rotavirus was clearing up.

For all of the family members who were helping Joel and I out since Thursday, I thank you all greatly. I knew life would be fun with two at the same time, but I guess it finally hit me on how interesting it would be.