Malachi really is one of the smiliest babies. (Smiliest was highlighted as a misspelled word. I'll bet Words with Friends would allow it.) All anyone has to is say hi to him and he pulls out and delivers the biggest grin he can. He just exudes happiness and contentment.

 

 

 

 

So it has been a huge turn around that he has been doing this a lot this week. Last week he had a little cold but it was never really bad, meaning I didn't have to extract anything from his nose with the hated blue squeezy thing. I've been waiting for any drainage to stop but I still have to wipe his nose several times a day and he definitely is not feeling his normal self. Meaning he requires lots of pacing and bouncing and strolling. It is so sad to see him trying to tell me what is wrong, as loudly as he possibly can, but I still don't know what. His gums look fine, he felt a little warm yesterday morning, but that was 5 days into it. If he is in the midst of a communication session. nursing is not desired at all, on his part. So I keep pacing. Eventually he gets into a low mournful  moan on the exhales and then I know he is going to fall asleep. If I time it correctly he will be asleep enough to not be offended by nursing and  eventually I can put him down for a little bit.

 I feel so exhausted at that point I can just muster the energy to take a quick shower and make some sort of meal. I am afraid the little kids schooling has been compromised this week, but the big kids are carrying on nicely.

So when my sister sent me a text to join her on Words with Friends, I thought yes, that is what I need. We love to get together for Scrabble, but as schedules don't always allow for real, live, in-person game it seemed the perfect option. So I signed up, apparently all the user names I tried were taken so I am just a random number and won't know how to find me. But if we just keep a game going all the time I don't have to worry about it.

Yesterday she came over and we played a real game. We took turns pacing with the baby and sorting out kid squabbles. Then finished up our virtual game we had started that morning. I asked her at what point we might suspect we have a problem. She said when we stop feeding the kids. That sounded about right. But I was a little unsure of our diagnostic criteria when it was time to go and we found this:

 

But they were well fed, no one needed a socket put back in place, and we had both won our fair share. And Cyprian now knows how difficult it is to put a mattress pad on a lower bunk without hitting your head. So we all learned some good lessons. And some new words. More on that later. I have to go. It's my turn.