Rex has hand-foot-mouth disease, which produces sores in the mouth and throat, and on the soles of the feet and palms, plus fever, and he's pretty miserable. But we got through what we think are the worst couple days, and he's sleeping well now.

The boys' merger at night has gone beautifully, with two full weeks under our belt until last night, when Rex woke miserable at 8-something. Ben slept through it. Rex spent the night with us, and did sleep a 6-hour stretch (as did we).

H-F-M passes in under 7 days, and based on the symptoms tomorrow might be day 4 or 5, even. Poor guy. Jello and pudding is in his future--tomorrow!

I spent the evening with Rex while Lynn took Ben off for a haircut and dinner. Sort of like a mommy-date. You wind up in a close relationship with your kids (if you're lucky), so

So...Lynn and I decided Rex was old enough to not freaking sleep in our room any more at night. Don't get us wrong: He needed to be nearer to us during his months of ear infections. But we'd hit a stride with him. He was getting himself well back to sleep on the rare occasions that he was waking up. Ear infections seem to be past with ear tubes and better weather. He's sleeping til about 6.15 am, which is late morning in babyworld.

We'd tried to merge the boys in Ben's room (now redubbed Ben and Rex's room) several months ago. We had a couple decent nights and then two that just didn't work. We gave up until Rex was further along. We decided we had slept well enough that we could stand some midnight wakings, and we figured the boys might actually sooth each other.

The

Two banner events today, following a lousy night.

Rex woke at midnight for climbing practice this morning. He wants to pull himself up now all the time when he's out and about, and he's getting darned good at it. Surprisingly so. He's starting to "cruise," where he takes steps while holding himself up. Slick! (Improvements in crawling and the desire to stand happened after all the grandparents visited. As previously remarked with Ben's development, older relatives appearing must spark an evolutionarily competitive neuronic trigger--"Feed me if my parents die as I am o so clever!")

But midnight cruising, not so good for adults on the street or infinks in their cribs. He spent 30 minutes wandering around in the crib, and then started wailing. It took until 2 am before he was settled again, and then he slept until just about 5.30. We managed to slip in another

It's been a rough few weeks in the Warner/Fleishman household. The kids are fine, but not great. We are exhausted. We had a lovely Christmas week with Lynn's folks and brother in town, and with my folks visiting the day after Christmas. But Rex is going through separation anxiety, and thus couldn't easily be handed off to relatives, meaning Lynn or I had to be on top of him. He was also clearly slightly ill, as was Ben, but not very ill. He had some crazy nights, including being wide awake from 10 pm to 1 am a couple nights ago. Then last night, slept 6.30 pm to 6 am. Go figure.

Lynn took Ben into the doctor today with Rex in tow, because Ben is a bit out of sorts--it's so easy to tell when he's sick. He was complaining about his ear and tugging at his

Lynn's strength has started to ebb, she has a chill, she feels a bit...unwell. She may be the latest victim in our household to succumb to the dread stomach virus. Rex is still not feeling himself, although he's overall better. Ben is much happier and healthier, and I'm not up to snuff but neither down for the count.

My stomach still doesn't want to hear about pizza, a turkey sandwich, a slice of cucumber, or such. A pancake? Sure. English muffin? You bet. Anything more complicated? No--thank you! It's not that I feel unwell at the thought, it's just I know that my tum-tum wouldn't handle it. I'm working my way up from a certain category of carbs and will eventually resume my normal eating schedule.

Lynn is asleep as of nearly an hour ago, and I'm hoping that she doesn't get the full-blown version of this. She's behind

I become the third member of the family to be struck low, but briefly, by the vomiting virus. Ben got it on Friday, Rex last night at 9, me last night at 11. Lynn, so far, demonstrates the superior genetics that led me to marry her through a painstaking assay that took me 15 years. (Don't tell her that part.)

About 14 hours later, I am not dead--"I feel happy!"--but not quite living, either.

Warning: Explicit descriptions of toddler bodily functions follows.

Ben had his first ever bout of vomiting last night. We have friends for whom every cold seems to be accompanied by piles and piles of vomit. He was perfectly fine before bed, and hours later woke up wailing. Lynn went in and found he had thrown up all over his bed. He seemed otherwise fine, so we got him changed, stripped sheets, cleaned up, spent some time with him, took his temperature, back to bed.

A few minutes later, another bout. And then another. We are running out of sheets. "Friends," meaning his stuffed animals, are in short supply due to them being covered in you know what. Meanwhile, Rex has been awake for most of this (about 90 minutes), Lynn has tried nursing him to no real avail, and so, because he seems otherwise healthy, he gets ignored and goes