Fevers and contempt

 The cold and flu season...what a fabulous time of year with young children. We have just reached the end of a ten day run of severe colds between Apollo and Orion. Two and a half days of high fevers followed by cough, congestion, runny noses. This all equals very little sleep for Melanie and I. Some how, I seem to end up in Apollo's room with the sicker of the two boys.
  I don't mind really, and Melanie often has a valid reason (valid to her anyways) why I should have the sickest kid. There is something about the heat that their little bodies put off, especially if it is a cool night. They snuggle up against you because the feel cold and you are more than happy to hold them against you to keep yourself warm. It is like the warmth of the morning sun falling upon your face through a window. They are not sweaty, just very warm to the touch. Something I never noticed until Apollo and Orion is that the fever seems to travel all over their bodies. Typically, it starts at their  head and then moves downward. The funny thing is that it seems to migrate all around as if it is a moving mass of heat. First the back is raging hot, then maybe the chest or stomach, then possibly returning to the back and then perhaps out to the legs and arms. I know it sounds bizarre but this has been my experience with both boys. They may be hot all over, but the intensity of the heat is different from one place to another.      

We try to let the fevers run their course with out intervening unless they get too hot or the fever last more than a couple days. I know that the body is doing what it needs to get over the virus and build its immunity, but it is hard to watch them be so sick. All is well now. Both boys survived and have returned to their rotten old selves.
                    ~
  It is hard to express in words how much joy your small children can bring into your life. Orion is incredibly sweet and charming (when he is not sick) and has so much personality.  He can disarm even the foulest mood with his adorable smile and facial expressions. The feeling that he pulls up inside, I can only equate to that of a new puppy the first few days after you bring him home; it is something about their appearance and the way they move that just melts your heart, and the way they look at you like you are their whole world, causes you to surrender yourselves to them and cater to their every need.
  Orion is very playful, and wants to try everything the bigger kids are doing. He loves cars and trucks in much the way that Apollo does, however, Orion really enjoys ball sports more than Apollo does, or did at the same age. He will kick a ball all around the house especially if you are kicking it with him. If he can pick the ball up, he will throw it. He will throw anything and everything for that matter; phones, tv remotes, apples, cups, etc.. Orion is very bright and aware for his age and often surprises us with what he knows and what he has figured out for himself. He has discovered how to unlock my iPhone, find the music icon, press it and upon it opening up he will press the small arrow that starts the music playing.    


 He has been doing this for a while and I have told Melanie about it several times, yet I don't think she really believed me until we both watched as Orion grabbed her iPad and did the exact same thing, except in this case, the first icon he opened up was iTunes since the iTunes and music icon both have music symbols on them. Once opened, he realized that this was not what he was looking for, closed the app, found the correct icon, opened it up and pressed play. Orion is intrigued by electronics. TV remotes and phones are his favorite and we have a tough time keeping his hands off of them. His newest trick is to grab the house phone and call random numbers that are stored in the menu...yes, he has been prank calling our family and friends.

Out of the two boys, Orion is definitely the more social of the two. He likes big groups of people and is not intimidated in the least by a room full of kids. Apollo on the other hand, would much rather interact with one or two kids at a time and will get noticeable upset if there are too many kids in a situation that he wants to be a part of.
  Apollo likes to be private about things, from using the restroom, to getting hurt or in trouble or even when praised; "Don't tell mama about my owee.", "I don't want you to say 'Good Job' if I get it right.", "I don't want you to watch me take a bite."
  It is a curious stage and while we placate him most times, we have had to be creative to find ways for him to work through some of this behavior by encouraging 'bravery' and rewarding his actions with a toned down version of "Good Job!".
  As a father I take great joy in all the little phases that my sons go through. I enjoy watching them grow and shape their personalities into the people they will become as adults. There is always those behaviors that as a parent, you find less desirable. With Apollo, our biggest
challenge is encouraging him to be nice to his brother all the time. Apollo does not like the fact that he has to share everyone and everything with Orion now. Don't get me wrong, Apollo can be very sweet to Orion, and will often play with him and make him laugh into hysterics, but he has a hard time watching Orion play with a toy other than the one Apollo gave him, and he has an even harder time watching any of his top three people (myself, Melanie, and yiayia) holding, playing, or interacting with Orion.
 "That's MY dada!" Apollo will protest while pushing Orion away. "I don't like to share my dada!"
"Apollo," I will reply, "I am Orion's dada, too."
"No your not." he refutes.
"If I am not his dada, who is?" I will reason.
"Well, I think Pablo (our green winged macaw) is his dada...he was hatched from an egg."
  Ah yes, the mind of a 4-year-old; so imaginative.

Apollo knows how to manipulate me, I will confess, and not necessarily in a bad way. He just appeals to my juvenile sense of humor. He will do things just to make me laugh, which is often in public and much to Melanie's horror. I can not help but break into laughter, which I know eggs him on, but as I see it, you only live once and may as well enjoy every moment that I can while my kids are still young. It all is going by way too fast. Even here at the house, Apollo finds things to do that Melanie finds appalling and I find hilarious. I love when Apollo heads out the back door and says "I'm going to water my chickens." In moments I find him at the edge of the patio with his pants around his ankles, and an arc of urine raining down on his chickens.
The chickens try to scatter in all directions, tripping over each other and running into things while trying to avoid the acid rain.  Of course at this point I am in tears from laughing so hard. Observing the chickens race from the scene, Apollo will very mater-of-factly state, "Rhodie is my fastest chicken, she is even faster than Dash."

  Even with all of his naughtiness, and contempt for his little brother, Apollo has moments of clarity where he can express exactly what he is feeling and what he needs. One of my favorite of these moments is when he feels Orion has had more attention than he deserves, Apollo will grab my hands look me in the eyes and say,  "I need some dada time."