So overall good things have been happening with minor setbacks, but that's life. Smurf 3 has been home for a month after spending a week in the PICU with bronchitis. He required a small amount of oxygen to come home (0.1 liters of airflow; the consistently of having a fan blowing in your face) but has been off it for over two weeks now. Now that he's finally not sick he has time to start acting like a baby. Right now he's showing a lot of progress with developmental skills but he is expected to be behind at this point because he was premature and spent a lot of time hospitalized with issues. At 4 1/2 months he is still working on holding his head up and coordinating objects with his hands. However he can roll over onto his side from his stomach and will even military crawl about six inches if he can get traction on his feet (the boy has some strong leg muscles!). He is just at 10 pounds, so he's still a small Smurf. However we've noticed that he has very little body fat and is eating/feeding a lot right now. I mean this kid goes through 3 oz. of formula per bottle as well as having applesauce as a filler. About an hour and a half later (unless asleep) he will want the same amount. We've had to start adding rice cereal to this bottles just to make them last longer. So if we can fatten him up that would be a good thing!
Smurfs 1 and 2 continue to amaze me. Sure they're pains in the ass a good portion of the day, but they are definitely learning a lot about socialization, helping others, and empathy. Smurf 2 is really sensitive to the feelings of others, whereas Smurf 1 (being a boy) has the attention span of... me. So when he bounces from topic to topic and barely pauses to apologize for something wrong he did I can follow him without thinking about it. However, my wife will stop the both of us and make sure he backtracks to the apology and understands why he was in the wrong.
Kid logic is so funny to me. Smurfs 1 & 2 can come up with an excuse for anything in the world, and it actually makes sense in their limited view of the world. I've heard stories about why cookies can be eaten before dinner, why it's okay to leave a room messy, and how writing a lot can lead to a hand injury (now that was funny!).
My stress is less because we're getting into a better routine at the home. Granted I still have to work in the evenings now and try to take care of the house (which is a war i'm still losing) but it's worth it to be home with Smurf 3. I've definitely got to improve my home organization skills and learn to balance the time with my work requirements. At least my mind isn't as scattered as it was a few months ago. Hopefully things will continue to improve.
