Daniel has learned a new word this week: hurt.

As in, "You are hurting me when you change my diaper."

So sad. He's had a horrible GI bug since last Friday and with 10-12 poops per day, diaper rash was inevitable. (In this photo he's going commando on the back porch in an attempt to give him some relief, but the hot, humid weather probably wasn't any better than the diaper. Now there's a weather metaphor for you--this Midwest heat wave is like living inside a diaper. Eww!)

Daniel's been on a banana, applesauce, Cheerios and Pedialyte diet and none too happy about it. He keeps asking for milk, but I never thought of that as something on the approved list for a troubled tummy. I kept him home from daycare on Monday, hoping to knock it down by keeping focused on changing him as soon as anything entered the diaper. Tuesday he went back and I thought he was doing a little better, but today when they called from daycare to say he'd had four poops before 10 a.m. and the rash was close to bleeding, I decided he needed medical attention. Advice there: "Feed him through it." I'd never heard this before, but apparently you're only supposed to keep the restricted diet for 24 hours and then give regular foods because the nutrients will fight off the germ. They said to stay away from anything acidic (pineapple, oranges, etc.) but otherwise just give him whatever he'd normally eat.

Well he's much happier at mealtime but still none to pleased with the changing table. We're also supposed to use an anti-fungal due to suspected yeast in the diaper area, and the doctor said, "When it comes to diaper cream, I don't care what you use, but use A LOT. A quarter-inch thick is not too much." Well, slather it on then! So we're hoping for a turn-around before we head out to Chicagoland on Friday. My family is all gathering to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary (which isn't until August, but this was the only weekend all summer we could all come. Well, all except John. The annual conference for his newspaper association is this weekend in Minneapolis, so I'll be on the road solo with the boys.)

In a happier time before intestinal distress, last week we heard some construction noises in the neighborhood and went for a walk to investigate. A house around the corner was getting a new roof and there were lots of workers and plenty of equipment to admire. I'm not sure why the digger was brought for a roof job, but it was detached from the forklift and just sitting next to the sidewalk, so I let the boys climb in. The workers didn't object. I couldn't get them to look at the same time for a picture though. There were just too many other wonderful things to admire. The high point was the forklift off-loading piles of roofing material from a flatbed trailer and driving up the driveway. The excitement only magnified when the forklift then lifted some of the materials up to the garage roof (workers had shouldered the load up ladders to the main house.)

One of my sister's recent pictures of her new baby reminded me how much I love summer babies in just onesies so when a hot and sweaty Daniel took himself upstairs and stood under the towel hook calling "bath bath" before dinner, I decided he didn't need any pants once he was cool and clean. He looked so cute running around and he won't be a baby much longer so I have to soak it in while I can.

Edward has been much better with his emotions and closer to something we might call "equilibrium." When we drive up to daycare now he says, "When we go in my room I will say, 'Bye Mom!' " Then sometimes he'll ask, "Why did I cry?" recalling those horrible days last week. He did have one meltdown this week when John took him while I stayed home with a sick Daniel. We forgot to send his stuffed dog, which has become quite the security object through this whole stage. So between that and the fact that Daniel and I weren't there, his routine was just busted. Even though he's not having the crying jags, he's still a little sensitive. One of his newest things is asking "what if" questions and while some of them are a bit outlandish, others show a bit of anxiety/insecurity. Last night during a thunderstorm he called from bed to ask if we heard the booms. We talked about how booms and lightning are outside and we are safe and dry in our house. "Well, what if we didn't have a house?" he asked. So we talked about all the people who love us who could help us if something happened to our house.

He's also very keyed up about the possibility of tornadoes. We had a warning on Sunday night so we had to explain the siren to him, but we were not in the path of the most severe storm so we didn't have to take shelter. We tried to explain as much as we could without putting scary ideas in his head. But the next night he said, "A tornado can pick up a house!" I figured he must be getting this from school, and sure enough, today there was a new "book" on display of pictures the kids had drawn of various stages of a tornado (storm clouds, wind blows, funnel, etc.) I'm not sure this is necessary for three-year-olds, but the horse is out of the barn on this one so we just have to try to reassure him that tornadoes hardly ever happen and that the siren tells us if we have to check the weather on TV.

On a lighter note, for Father's Day dessert I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies, a recipe I'd been alerted to some months ago, but had not had an occasion to try out. They actually were better in theory than execution as the brownie kind of overpowered the chocolate chip cookie, but they were still quite tasty. Anyway, when presented with this treat after dinner, Edward made the funniest wide-eyed, round-mouthed face and exclaimed, "Wooooooo!!!!" and we all just about died laughing. Now he thinks he can get a laugh saying that about any food presented to him.