Thursday, April 28, 2011

D's New Cast

Well it's only a week and two days late but who's counting.

The main reason why I'm even writing this post is just for future references. I have found that my blog is a much more convenient method of keeping track of the milestones for the boys than their baby books. That's not to say I won't eventually update those, but I'm digressing...

 D had his appointment to get his blue cast off on April 19. He was very proud of his blue cast, and had everyone sign it, but he was ready for it to come off. It's very cumbersome and, as it's on his dominant hand, has made even the simplest task (like feeding himself ,  putting on his clothes, etc.) take an extraordinary amount of time and effort to were he'd just get frustrated and whine ask for help. Not that I mind helping him, it was the way that he asked that started to get old.



Anyway, Kel was home from work that day and had decided that he wanted to take D to the appointment. This was big for me because I am so used to being there for everything and knowing the facts first hand. But he wanted to do it, and I was tired from another long night with C so I said go for it. An hour later, D comes back with a bright yellow cast on that he said was for Ducky and asked what was for lunch.

To say I was surprised was an understatement.

Apparently when the doctor took D's cast off, D held his arm to his side and said that his wrist still hurt. He wouldn't move it and wouldn't let the doctor touch it. It could have been due to the fact that D hadn't really used his arm (or wrist) in three weeks so that was why he wouldn't move it, but the doctor was worried about the fact that D wouldn't let anyone touch it. So off to X-Rays he went to make sure the bone was healed.

And it wasn't.

Which I suppose was obvious since he came home with another cast. Apparently the bone is healing, but it wasn't completely healed. And due to D's age, the doctor felt that putting another cast on was the best option to limit D's opportunities of doing more damage.

So this time D picked out a neon yellow cast that glows in the dark in honor of his beloved friend Ducky the Duck. Who is no longer yellow, but a dingy shade of gray. But that's beside the point. D is very happy to say that he picked yellow this time for his friend. And I'm the only one who's been asked to sign it.


We go back May 3 to get this one off and hopefully be done with casts and splints all together.



Saturday, April 23, 2011

Halfway to Two!

Happy Eighteen Months Buggy!


Weight: 27 lbs (On April 15)
Length: Haven't been able to measure him this month

Teeth sure like to take their time:
  • Has all four molars
  • Has a total of between eleven and thirteen teeth ( I can't get an accurate count without the piranha bite)
  • The drooling has slowed down some so we may be waiting for the rest of them.


    What's Sleep? :
    • Went back to taking two naps of one to two hours during the day.
    • This month has been hell between another ear infection on April 6 and April 15 and teething.
    • I still get him in bed by 8. 
    • If I'm lucky, he'll fall asleep within 10 minutes and wake up around 6:30 am. 
    • If I'm not lucky (which this month I've been 85% UNlucky) he'll either fall asleep around midnight or he'll wake up a few times during the night. More often than not screaming his little heart out.
    • Have had a minor set back with Binky but still working diligently on getting that thing out of my house...
    • Will not sleep unless he has his soft Kansas City Chiefs blanket.

    Who needs to Eat:
    • Loves, loves, loves any and all fruit
    • Is still somewhat of a picky eater and most of his meals end up on the floor.
    • Has almost completely stopped eating table food and has fallen back on soft mushy foods like yogurt, oatmeal, and applesauce. It's a good thing that his Gerber Graduate Meals are soft and squishy...
    • Loves using a straw whenever possible which has resulted in the introduction to juice boxes.


    Who Talks Anymore:
    • is still more Noise Machine than Talking Machine
    • has started putting the few words that he does say together to make sentences (Lets go is his favorite phrase at the moment)
    • Says "Mamamamamama" or "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad" when he wants out of his crib
    • Hoping the latest antibiotics will kick the ear infections for good so we can get more vocabulary from him. I think know he's behind now...
    • Favorite word to say is Dian (Dylan)! 


      Dislikes:
      • This month hasn't shown me much "new" dislikes other than his complete and utter disdain for ear infections. 
      • He is disliking most foods that I'm feeding him (refer to his Eating section for more of those details)

      Likes:

      • C loves to jump. Whether it be on solid ground in a nice pile of leaves or his nice, bouncy bed.

      • C just learned how to drive the Cadillac and loves to drive his brother around.

      • C loves trucks, trucks, and more trucks.
       

      • C loves his baby cousin Z and can't wait to actually see his other cousins M&M. They've met, but the girls stayed in their stroller most of the time since they were asleep.

      • C loves to dance on tables.

      • C loves to blow raspberries. 

      • C loves to play video games with his brother (no I don't let him do it all that often, he'd still rather play outside).

      • C loves to climb on things that he really shouldn't, especially the ladders in the backyard. One handed makes it extra fun. 

      • C loves to try and open doors, any doors, with Daddy's keys. 

      • C loves to help in the garden, especially when I let him use his own shovel. 

        • C loves picking dandelions and weeds flowers for Mommy 


        My poor Buggy I'm so sorry this past month has been so hard for you. I hope that this next month brings lots of changes for the better! 



        I love you Sweet Cheeks <3




        Tuesday, April 19, 2011

        A Sick Buggy is a Grumpy Buggy

        Poor C. He just can't seem to catch a break. For almost two months now he's has been battling one thing after the other.

        February 25 started a five day fever spree. Granted, for the most part they were low grade fevers, but if you look at his pictures in my previous post, you'll be able to see just how miserable he was. I thought it was teething, since he was due for some molars, but after a week and a half of sleepless nights and an exhausted, crabby toddler Kel and I decided that enough was enough.

        March 9  I took him to the doctor's and found out that he had an ear infection in both ears. No fun. Also explained the sleep changes, the retraction in speech, and the dwindling eating habits. I felt bad that I waited so long, but at least we were taking a step in the right direction and on our way to getting our Buggy better.


        April 6 I took him back to the doctor's because he started his screaming wake up calls again that week. I tried to go back to the same doctor's office that I took him to in March, but they didn't have any available openings that week. So off to Urgent Care we went while D had an impromptu "Take your Son to Work" afternoon with Kel. After a little over an hour of waiting and twelve minutes with the doctor, we had another confirmation of an ear infection in both ears. We were prescribed a stronger dose of antibiotics and told it should clear up in a week.


        The first antibiotics C was prescribed was Amoxicillin. It didn't even touch the infections that he had. So Dr. L prescribed a five day treatment of a stronger antibiotic called Zithromax. C took the medication from the Wednesday he went to the doctor through Sunday, along with a pain reliever, and again showed signs that he was on the mend.





        Well except for the rosy red cheeks, but they've been around for so long that sometimes I think it'll be his permanent color.



        Until Tuesday night rolled around.

        By Friday I was at my wits end with all the side affects that are associated with a lack of sleep and on the verge of calling my mom to see if she could take him for the night until I remembered two things. One , she was out of town for the weekend for my sister's volleyball (Go R!) and two, there were two "wittle littles" at the house who were probably already keeping her up at night as they continued their transition to formula. So with that plan out, and no real back up plan in mind, I decided that we would just tough the weekend out and wait until Monday to see if he needed to go back to the doctors.

        Isn't the saying something along the lines of "The best laid plans often go awry"? (Feel free to correct me here if I'm wrong)

        Friday morning was decent. He ate some , not enough, but some of his breakfast before deciding it was time to play and had an okay nap. Friday afternoon was the same. Friday night around 6:30 pm he was just... done. Nothing could console him, and every little thing pissed him off, for lack of a better term. I picked him up and he felt like a sauna. While I took his temperature (102.3!) he was rubbing his ears and trying to get away. It was as he was staring at me with his "sick eyes" as my mom calls them, that I noticed his nose start to bleed. It wasn't a lot, and it was most likely just a scratch on the inside of his nose from one of his numerous attempts to pick all the snot out, but it scared me.

        So, again, off we went to the Urgent Care to see what else could be wrong with my Buggy. We arrived five minutes to eight and there was only a few people in front of us. Two ladies whom I didn't know their story, a Hispanic man who did not speak English, and a little girl who had smacked the back of her head on the corner of her living room table while bouncing on her bouncy ball. I hadn't been sitting down for more than ten minutes when two of the four people were called to the back. I remember thinking to myself that with the rate this was going I should be home in an hour or so.

        Boy was I wrong.

        As I heard the woman at the front desk state to anyone who asked, the Urgent Care did not take appointments and the wait depended on what you were being treated for. Understandable, but when I watched a lady with a dog bite, a man with symptoms of a heart attack, and another man with some type of... boil, I guess you could call it, on his leg from an injury that happened over eight days prior get called to the back before my crying-so-hard-he-conks-out-for-forty-five-minutes, waiting-longer-than-they-were toddler gets the call... well needless to say I was frustrated. Well minus the guy with symptoms of a heart attack, I was not frustrated with him or the hour it took for the doctor to determine that he was having a heart attack and she needed to call an ambulance because the severity of the condition was out of her league at the tiny Urgent Care. Once he was gone, I thought that C and the little girl would be first to get the call back since we were here before the other two and C was still being pitiful . Again I was wrong, as a dog bite, boil and possible head concussion are deemed much more severe than a measly common ear infection. Even though said ear infection resided in an almost eighteen month old who was so hot from his fever, so tired from the last week of sleep disturbances, and in so much pain that his cry was making one of the other women tear up with him. And no it wasn't me.

        We were the last to be seen. At 9:50 pm. And the office had been closed since 9. But it's ok, I would have waited as long as it took for C to be seen. When we were finally taken back, the nurse didn't weigh him since he'd been there nine days before. Temperature check told us that he was now at 101.4 and then the nurse left us to settle in until the doctor came.

        Which took another fifteen minutes.

        But she was so nice. C loved her and she seemed to actually WANT to know what's been going on with my Buggy. Not the quick check of the ear, another prescription, and out the door kind of doctor. She made faces and got C to laugh so she could check his throat (no easy feat). She listened to me while I told her about the new, and old, symptoms that C has been having over the past two months. And she made me wish she wasn't an Urgent Care doctor so I can make her the boys regular doctor when she said that Strep is going around so, although it is unlikely at his age that he'll have it, she'll swab and send it out to verify (negative!). She also listened to his lungs to make sure the fluid hadn't started to go south (it hadn't). Two things that may seem common and normal things for a doctor to do, and should not make me so giddy, but two things that not even his doctor had done (yes I am aware that we need a new doctor).

        And this time she insisted that he get re-checked in two weeks. And prescribed me a stronger antibiotic that she knows will help but was very reluctant to give due to the side affects. Which for Buggy was pretty severe diarrhea and an even worse diaper rash.

        Like I said, my Buggy just can't seem to catch a break.

        But on day two of being on the antibiotics I was the recipient of a day full of smiles, giggles, and laughs. So I will take the side affects and beat them. Tons of Desitin, petroleum jelly, and baby powder has kept the rash in check and today (day three) the diarrhea has subsided. So we will take it one day at a time and hope that this latest round of antibiotics will work it's magic and get rid of the infections once and for all.



        Monday, April 18, 2011

        Worth the Wait

        I finally got to meet my little Z over the weekend!

        L and M brought Z on a whirl wind vacation to meet as many family members as possible. Wednesday through Saturday they were in Bakersfield visiting with Nana and M's aunt and cousins. Saturday afternoon brought them to the San Fernando Valley to stay with J and B and Sunday brought us all together at Great Grandma Walker's house.

        Sunday morning was a rush. Getting the boys ready and out the door was a challenged because C wanted to just stay in the backyard and D wanted to play his Toy Story 3 video game. It's amazing how quickly I can get the boys cleaned, dressed, and out the door when I'm told I only have fifteen minutes to do it.



         Apparently there was no need to rush, as we were the first to arrive. C spent the time destroying exploring Great Grandma's house with Dad and D and I sat on the grassy hill , watching the cars go by until the guests of honor arrived.



        Of course once they arrived, I scooped up Z and just held her for awhile. She's just the sweetest little snugglebug! D was excited, but a little nervous so he wouldn't get too close.


        Great Grandma got her own special paparazzi. I believe at one point she had three people taking her and Z's picture at the same time.



        L, M, and Z stayed at my house Sunday night. I snapped a few pictures of Z, but she wasn't feeling too well. It was a big trip for such a little body and she was just a little out of sorts. It was still nice to visit and the boys loved looking at their littlest cousin.





        (yes I know I don't look all that great but in my defense I had just woken up) 

        L and M also used this trip to make a big announcement. They are moving to Missouri in the beginning of May! It's come as a big shock, but this will be an awesome adventure for their family. Was it inappropriate that the first thing Kel and I thought of was being able to go to a Kansas City Chiefs game? I believe Nana said it best when she said, " I'm excited and happy for them, but I'm sad for me." I believe everyone in the family feels the same way Nana!

        We wish you nothing but the best P family and can't wait till we can come visit you!  

        (and C can't wait to hang out with Z again)



        Monday, April 11, 2011

        A great Day

        Today was a nice day. We had great weather and so we spent most of the day outdoors.

        Our vegetables are doing well. We haven't killed them yet :) C is starting to notice them more, and tries to pick the leaves off. This will come in handy once there are actual peppers and tomatoes for him to pick.



        When the yard work was done, we spent the remainder of the day outside. It was too nice to be cooped up inside, and C enjoyed his freedom.



        I had kept him inside for the majority of the week because the weather had been unpredictable this week and he is getting over another round of ear infections. One in each ear which makes for a total of two infections in the left ear and one infection in the right ear in one month. Not fun. On top of that, C also got all four of his molars this week, which explains why he had such a hard time sleeping.

        So the boys played basketball with their dad,




        drove their cars,



        ate oranges,



        and just enjoyed the day.




        We got a new table today as well! Well... an old table from my Aunt D and Uncle H makes for a new table for the Walker's.



        And true to nature, C had to test out each seat to see which one he liked best. He decided on the bench, and sat there for awhile just enjoying the view.





        Saturday, April 9, 2011

        Happy Birthday H!

        Today D got to go to his first birthday party. His cousin, H , turned six today!



        H decided to celebrate his birthday at the bowling alley. I believe he invited kids from his class room as well as his baseball team and a total of twenty three kids came. Even his teacher showed up! H is one very special boy and I am so happy that D's first birthday party was his.

        D and I started off the morning with a Target run. Yes, I know last minute. But I figured that it would help kill the time before the party started. He was good for the trip, and didn't ask for anything for himself. He was very excited to pick out the present and proudly told the cashier that he was buying a special toy for his cousin.




        On the way to the party, D fell asleep in the car. I knew it was around the time he usually took a nap, however, I thought that he'd just tough it out because he was so excited to bowl. The beginning was hard. D was shy (not so hard) and kept asking to go home (sort of hard). When something wasn't going his way, or if I wasn't responding to his requests quick enough, he resorted to his short, high pitched scream and a smack in the face (the hard part). I knew that he just needed a little more time to wake up as well as get used to the fact that there were so many kids around. I think there were a total of three parties going on at once, so the place was a zoo.  I think he was overwhelmed, and confused. I need to find more play dates for him.


         This picture says it all doesn't it?

        Once D got to bowl a few times, the smile came out. It didn't stay out for long, but each time we went up to roll the ball the special D smile came out for awhile.



        Once bowling was over, and he got tokens to the arcade, D seemed happier. He was excited to race his cousin on his favorite video game (it was a tie).


        After the arcade came pizza and cake. This really perked D up and I finally got some smiles from him. Of course not for the camera but at least they were there.



        All in all, I'd say that it was a successful first party for D. The first half was a little rough
        (I blame it on the miss nap) but by the end he was enjoying himself.

        Happy Birthday H!