Our Acne Phobia

Did you catch my Mad Lib in the title? Say it three times fast and see if you catch it. Theeeeeere you go.

Our sweet little Lincoln.

And the skin that was once baby soft....

 Turned literally overnight into....

THIS!!! 

No, no. Those are not spider bites. That my friends is baby acne. It's a little disheartening when you turn to the internet for baby acne remedies only to discover that your child's pimples are worse than any and all of the Google Images that pop up.

Leaving me to believe Lincoln literally has the worst baby acne there ever was. And his face will probably now appear when Googling "baby acne."

So for those of you who found my pubescent baby prodigy on Google and are wondering what home remedies best worked to unsplotchify Mr. Splotchy, the answer is baking soda and water. I just put a little bit of baking soda in a cup of water and dabbed that on his face in the morning, left it on for about a minute and then rinsed it off with a bath, careful not to get any runoff in his eyes. Then I put breastmilk on it several times throughout the day for good measure.

The acne appeared seriously overnight. Right at his one month mark on this zit flustering planet. It started at his nose and sloooooowly migrated in a perfect circle to the outside of his face. It was the weirdest medical condition I have ever witnessed.

As it migrated away from his nose it got more spread out and lighter. 

And exactly one week later we had clear skin again. Whew! There is hope for all you Googlers. (Dear Lincoln, forgive me for forever making you the poster child of baby acne. And sorry I've already used up your 15 minutes of fame. On this.)

Just in case RSV threatening our well-being wasn't enough to keep us cooped up, Mr. Splotchy's face was extra security to ensure we minded our quarantine. It's taken quite a bit to keep three boys happy locked in a house all day.

Eli and Carson rediscovered our Legos the first week Jeff went back to work. They spilled and spewed Legos all about the house. I ordered them to clean the Legos before I would let them watch a show in the afternoon one day. Then I didn't see either of them for 4 hours. It's amazing how busy they can keep themselves when they're avoiding a simple chore and a strict mother.

Let's face it. This little guy has been pretty easy to entertain. He is on a funny schedule where he has two straight hours of awake time every 12 hours, but then he is totally konked out for the rest of the time. Unfortunately, these two hours do occasionally fall between the hours of 12-5 AM, and when that happens, he has himself a grumpy milk supply for the next 24 hours.

The older brothers are still constantly doting on Lincoln.

The hospital got Lincoln addicted to the ugly binkies. I swore I'd never have one of THOSE kids with the gigantic, ugly pacifier. But alas. You would think I'd learn by now to stop judging child rearing tactics because inevitably you always end up proving yourself wrong.

They are the cutest.

This is what a quarantine-friendly swimming pool looks like.

And this is what a quarantined Carson looks like. Begging for a second helping of chocolate chips and marshmallows. Knowing I'm going to say "no" and frowning in advance.

The worst thing that can ever happen before 7:00 AM is for the boys to realize it's snowing outside. Because who likes hunting down snow gear and bundling two rascals up all before breakfast has had time to digest? Not this mom.

I love this picture because you can see the plea in Lincoln's eyes saying, "Save me, Mom." Sorry bud. You're on your own. I'm on camera duty.

And I love this picture because Eli was chanting, "Fooooooooooooooooorkliiiiiiiiiiiiiiift" as he ignored all the discussions we've had on the importance of infantile neck support.

When you're too quarantined to go buy new toys, make your own! Eli's little brain got working one afternoon as he was playing with a balloon. I saw his wheels start turning and he got in the zone of figuring out a way to make himself a slingshot. With the help of a box and a certain little brother, his slingshot dreams materialized.

Carson is our imaginative player. Carson lives half reality and half fiction. I love seeing him play pretend because Eli's always been a little too logical to fully commit to pretend games. Here he was meticulously "cooking dinner" for an hour one morning while Eli was at preschool.

I kept feeling like Lincoln was still theoretically in utero since it was still pre-due-date. But we've officially made it past his due date, so I finally feel like he's officially been born and is a regular newborn. Well. Maybe when we get rid of those pesky cords he'll officially be a regular newborn. We've still got two weeks left with those. The good news is Lincoln has finally started gaining weight! He weighed in just below 7 lbs at his last appointment. And believe it or not, those chicken legs actually look chunky to me!

Once a week we break free and venture out to church. Today the boys broke out as they broke in their new bow ties.

Eli knows he's rockin' it.

Three kids!