Fall, Generally

It's a typical November in Dallas, and we can smell the pumpkins fermenting in the 80 degree weather.  Ahh!  Shorts and short-sleeves for the little guys.  And the parents...


It's not so typical for the Parents, though, as time is knocking while we watch little Dylan become a big guy.

He's still got big brother Grant.

Ah, the Revelry! Happy Thanksgiving from the Benavides Family, Dallas Unit.

Top Six Blog Posts We Never Wrote

The staff here at littleleblogski.blogspot.com (tm) likes to keep you updated on our little prodigals.  However, with the recent economy, we've made some cut backs in staff.  Where is Baby Taylor, anyways?  Suffice it to say, in these trying times we're still committed to quality programming.  To prove it, here's a list of the top six blog posts we had mulling around in our heads, but never wrote.  They were timely and apt (and would have been sometimes funny):

6) The Halloween Special

A mostly obligatory posting about how cute our kids are in costumes, and black vampire teeth.

5) Occupy Diapers

Dylan first learns to sit up, and sit in.

4)  Soccer Tot

He can dribble, crawl, but can't hop.

3)  We can't remember number three...oops

2) An interesting story about this picture

You would have laughed or cried; we forget which.

1) And the number one blog posting we never wrote: Parts II - V in our five part series "Discharge-d"

This would have been epic:  A detailed five part account of the three days we spent in the hospital cooped up with a three year old in a tiny little room.

And here's some unranked stories that should have received some attention:

Dylan's first teeth:

Fall, generally:

Dylan is six months old (now seven...oops):

He's quite a spark, eh?

To entice you to keep coming back, here's a list of future blog posts we really hope we'll write:

• Dylan's Third Tooth
• Thanksgiving, San Antonio Style
• Why Dylan Gets Less Press Time Than Grant (A Democratic Conspiracy)
• A Random Annoying Illness that Upsets Our Life and Expectations
• A Christmas Story
• How Time Consuming Two Kids Is (A real downer posting on an off week.) 

• Date Night (finally)!

Here's to the possibility of hearing your comments to our hypothetically conceived blog posts!  Namaste!

Discharge-d

Three a.m., September 13, 2011: Life gives us lemons, but drinking the lemonade in a Wal-mart while buying clean underwear for yourself and your wife is just wrong. Thanks, Riggins!



Part I. The "diss" in DISCHARGE-D.

Four p.m., September 12, 2011: a call comes in on the hotline. "Honey, the doctor says we should go to the ER. It's in Plano." (30 miles away). Me, "OK, let's do it; I'll get Dylan; see you there." I didn't think about the underwear issue, but I did get Dylan some diapers. Way to go, Dad!

Two a.m., September 13, 2011: The seeds of wisdom are planted--you know the ones that sprout in the haze of our child (Grant in this case) awakening from sedation, of the uncertainty of where we'll sleep tonite, of the question how bad will it be, and of...

How to deal with a bacterially infected 3-year old in at least 5 steps:

1. Acknowledge that the child has a problem, a sore or inflammation appears. In our case, it was a big sore spot on Grant's thumb. We didn't think it was related that he had a painful pimple on his knee. So it's best to look for other sore spots on the rest of the child.

2. Do something about the problem, go to a doctor. Ask the doctor about the guidelines for prescribing antibiotics; this is important because it sets up the next question: Can he be treated now with an antibiotic that will treat MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)? In any event, accept that your child has an infection and will need to be treated. Stay calm, this could be a long haul.

3. You will be sent home with antibiotics and, if you have a three-year old, it will not want it. But get the meds into your child in anyway you can! More on this later. Antibiotics do not always work, even if faithfully taken, which Grant did. The "diss" is on.

4. If the inflammation does not get better within 48 hours, go to the ER. We did not do this, because the doctor said the two antibiotics would take longer to be effective and Grant never had a fever, both before, during and after this entire experience. It would have been crazy to bring a healthy kid to the ER. But if the inflammation does not get better within 48 hours or if a pus pocket forms (this is a white portion to an otherwise purple/red inflammed portion of the skin), go to the ER, skip your doctor, he or she cannot deal with it and will only send you to the ER, and by that point you cannot easily complete Step 5.

5. Pick a pediatric hospital with an ER that you are willing to stay at for at least three nights. One night anywhere is easy, but three nights is like moving in. Get an appropriate change of clothing, some snacks, basic entertainment (book, laptop, magazine, dvds); and most important feed and hydrate, if possible, your infected kid prior to arriving at the ER. The medical staff at said ER will ask you when your child last ate, and they will not sedate him unless he has not eaten or had any drink for six hours, but it will take the staff at least six hours to make a decision and take action, and in that time your child will get hungry and thirsty; so you're safe. Oh, don't forget your pets and other siblings!

Twelve a.m., September 13, 2011: The doctor is reading the consent-to-treat form, line by line. Sedation has risks, like "death" our ER doctor reminded us like three times. There are alternatives to sedation, but they're the kind that sound more psychologically painful than a simple 20-minute sleep. He's already had his blood drawn and has the IV tube in him; hasn't he been through enough?

I sign my name, giving consent, and we say a prayer.

Four p.m., September 15, 2011: Grant is discharged!



Stay tuned for Parts II - V in our five part series "Discharge-d"!

DISCLAIMER: Taking medical advice from the Interwebs is always a bad idea. Come on, people! And, by the way, the above is partially embellished to make it more fun, if you can call a staph infection fun.

Dylan? He's good...

The Transformers

The Benavides Family, Dallas Unit, was in San Antonio on Labor Day weekend. We were there to visit family and friends, but especially to celebrate the life of our Aunt Trina Topalis. We have known the fruits of her prayers she said in Connecticut, all the way here in Texas. Now that she is with the saints that prayer and its appeal to God's grace is only multiplied. Thank you, Trina.



A funny story from that weekend: Grant in the picture above is shown believing that there is a Transformer (a trademark of Hasbro) in the vicinity, and that obviously the fire department is here to clean up whatever mess has been made. He has, as evidence, the fact that the lights went out in the hotel we were staying at, the testimony of the front desk clerk who said that it must have been a transformer that caused the outage, and his parents refusal to clarify the mix-up. It's funny, right?

When the lights went out, we called the front desk and let them know that we, like everybody in the hotel, had no power. The desk clerk said a transformer must have gone out. Daddy gets off the phone and tells Mommy, with Grant listening, "It was a transformer; they'll get it fixed." Grant, his eyes wide and showing some concern, "A Transformer?" Mommy and Daddy looking knowingly at each other, "Yes, a transformer."

"Oh no!" says Grant.

"Well Grant, a transformer is a box that helps keep the lights on, not necessarily an extraterrestrial robot that changes into a car."

A blank stare comes back from Grant. Minutes later a fire engine shows up, and Grant explodes, "The Transformer!" He is certain the firefighters are here to deal with the Transformer.

So we run out and the nice firefighter lets Grant into the fire engine. The other firefighters walk away mysteriously out of sight, and presumably to deal with the Transformer.



**************

Later that night the Garcia sister-clan (Grants great aunts) and their respective families gathered at Pico De Gallo in San Antonio, or "Pickle De Ga-l-l-o" as Uncle Greg says, and enjoyed a great supper.



I like to believe that everybody there dined beneath the shade of Trina's tree, and the Mariachi trumpets of heaven sang "Hallelujah," or was that "El Rey."

Oh, and Dylan's doing great!

First Vomit

The buildings rise, the "spit" falls.
An evening hot and humid,
and a swim lesson in the Dallas heat,
A calzone, some juice,
some grapes, and cookies
Equals the perfect recipe
For inauguration
Into regurgitory bliss.



Oh by the way, Dylan's doing great. He's a chunk. He's smiling. Ok, get with the program kid, we need material.

Happy Mother's Day!

We're having a little contest with ourselves to see how much time it takes to get out the door to make any sort of outing. Sometimes a pressing matter, like church, gives a little bump, but about 2 hours is about our average, which is us really concentrating on getting it done. Anyone feel the pain? Or are we just slow?

We celebrated Mother's Day with a day in the park, very sweaty, some gelati, yum, and a trip to our favorite pizza place in East Dallas. Altogether a good day.



Grant did a great job on getting his Mother's Day thanks and appreciation out in a timely and well-done manner. Last night, he bragged on making a card for Kelly "all by himself," and for getting flowers to Kelly last night "all by himself." Ok, confession, Grant employs a driver who takes him to the store, and carries his credit cards around, and purchases and delivers the flowers to Mommy, all at his direction.



This is Dylan's first Mothers Day; so he and I made this little demonstration of thanks to Kelly. Unfortunately, Dylan is such a busy person, with his feedings and bowel movements that we had to incorporate such thanks into his schedule. WARNING: The following video contains explicit and potentially offensive material(s), such as references to poop and such things. If you are not a parent (current, not awaiting birth) or not a primary caregiver, then you we recommend skipping this, because it may dissuade you from parenthood, not a good a thing. Be fruitful and multiply!



What's a kid without his Mother...

One Month.

Happy One Month Big D! He's up to 11 lbs.

Ok, his eyes are closed, gotta go! Good night!

D-Link

Dylan got his first photo shoot. So serious. Well big brother Grant will teach him how to play it cool.


I would like to invite you to view pictures of Dylan at Amy Columbus Photography. They are located at http://amycolumbusphotography.com/photocart.

When you go to the website, click the Access Gallery link and enter in the access code below:

Access code: dylanb

After you do that, you will be able to view the pictures.

Two Weeks

Dylan has had a restful two weeks. Do they start moving around more than this? Because this guy is easy to carry around.




Big brother Grant is having a great time being the wise one, and teaching Dylan all of his tricks.



Teaching Dylan how to drive is definitely on the list.




Being 3 is going to be good to Grant.

Thanks to all our visitors over the last two weeks: Kay, Elizabeth, Emily, Liz, Julie, and Ken.

Dylan Parker Benavides

No overtime needed to close this one out. Here are the post-labor stats:

Born: 4:22 pm, April 5, 2011
Sex: Boy (confirmed post-utero)
Fingers: 10 (same as toes)
Weight: 8 lbs 12 ounces
Length: 21 inches
Mom: Tired and Excited
Dad: Proud

He's a little bruised on his face because of some rough play going for the goal, but otherwise he looks good. Thanks to all Dylan's fans for support, prayers, and love.

(No it's not a rehashed photo of Grant.)

The Pre-Labor Stats

It's 9:30 AM, and most people are at work or school. But we're in our pre-labor warmups for the big show. We wanted to give you a quick look at the players and the stats:

Sir Victor Hicks is coming in averaging 3 cm per game, but he's always looking to improve on his game.

Heath Faiz-Mint is coming in averaging a red hot 85%.

The players are stretching and hydrating and are already doing their hill sprints.

April Blane!

Thanks to those who sincerely supported the staff in its apparent choice of Blane Jonas Benavides as a name for our next. But it's just not a handle that these loving parents would give.

Despite its obvious musical references, the staff was just kidding, an ill-conceived April Fool's joke for which at least one member of the staff will pay, and dearly.



But if you liked "Blane" and/or "Jonas", you'll like the real thing.

Labor Bowl Weekend

In case your not on The Facebook, the big Show-Down is set for Tuesday April 5, 2011. Get your get tickets now, before the scalpers do.

The Pre-Labor festivities have already begun! Looks like somebody's got a Dodge Durango parked outside our house with their tailgate down and some dogs grillin'. Hey! throw me a Tecate, no the can! Thanks.

Here's a tailgaiting tip for everybody: freezer bags and heavy duty foil.

Enough fooling, we've got some fun activities planned out (in our heads, mostly) for The Little LeBlogSki. And there are some compelling questions to answer:

Who is this new child?

Where did he come from?

Where is he going?

When will he get here?

What will he weigh?

But the one question that everybody really wants to know is what's his name?

Well, I have received last minute authority through a tight 3-1 vote to reveal the name to you, our loyal fans. So if you're reading this, thanks for checking in, even during the rough months, when there were no posts and all you had was the same tired commentary.

Blane Jonas Benavides

Or BJB for short.

Thank you very much.

The Staff.

Lucajamunya

The There's A Little Leblogski staff didn't have much time to write up a posting this week, because of the all the wintry weather and Super Bowl parties. But we did review the recent entries for the Name Our Baby Contest, and though none were correct, we decided to make a composite of the entries, just for fun. You know, like when you electronically combine your and your spouse's face to see how your baby might look like. However, the name composite did not turn out too well--"Lucajamunya." So keep trying!



This week's clue: It's not a family name. Lo siento, abuelos.

Name Game Part 2

Thanks for all your submissions. Here are the results of this week's contestants:

1) Thanks Whitney M. of Bellville, Texas for the most intellectual response so far. No "Obama" is not our new kid's name, but nice tie-in with the presidential theme.

2) Thanks Kay G. of Lakewood, Colorado for the most mother-in-law-ee response so far. No "Blake" is not our new kid's name, but Kelly started having second thoughts.

3) Thanks Matthew __ of ___, Texas (we think) for the most out-there response so far. No "Tnarg" is not our new kid's name, but that's a good middle name candidate.

This week's clue:

Vanna can I buy a vowel. The first name has "a".