E. – Page 18 – The Nearest Future

On the Edge of Our Seats

This past week we’ve been seeing a lot more of this than is usual:

Yep, one of E.’s teeth has finally decided to grace us with its presence. But it’s being a total drama queen and has decided to keep us writhing in suspense for over a week. In the mean time, E. is congested and drooly, cries at the drop of a hat (or if you take too long getting him a Cheerio), and has trouble napping (but thankfully he still sleeps okay at night).

All and all, I guess it’s not too bad. But it’s been going on since last Friday. Just how long does this whole thing normally take? When I feel inside his mouth it seems sometimes like the tooth is very close to the surface but at other times it feels like it has sunk down some. Do teeth actually do that? This tooth is such a tease!

On a brighter note, N.’s grandpa is arriving tonight to stay with us for a week and a half while he attends a conference in town. It’s always fun to have Grandpa around and I’m hoping to get some good pictures of E. with his great-grandpa.

We’re Getting Serious

I have to admit that when things were hectic in June I slacked off on feeding E. solid food regularly. But last week I decided to get serious about feeding him solids and finally got around to buying E. a high chair. I really like the design of the chair we bought. It’s like a little barber chair: it has a center pole with a pneumatic lift so it’s height-adjustable which means that E. can use it to sit at our kitchen bar when he’s older. And the base has casters so it can be wheeled around, which has been more useful than I thought it would be. I can wheel E. over to the sink after his meal to wipe him down or if I’m working in the kitchen I can position him next to me to hang out.

Anyway, E. seems to like sitting in his chair so far. During this past week E. has gotten a lot better at eating Cheerios and enjoys chasing them around his tray.

Recipe and ENT Follow-Up

Last night we had dinner with some friends. It was a lot of fun (Thanks for having us over, B. and E!) We brought along a dessert which was a sort of ice cream cake. I had seen an episode of Rachel Ray’s show and got the idea from her. I thought of it as a sort of frozen strawberry shortcake. There were only 3 ingredients: pound cake from Costco (yum!), strawberry ice cream, and some sliced strawberries for a garnish. Like Rachel Ray’s receipe, I used a pyrex meat loaf pan.

First we lined the pan with plastic wrap, making sure there was plenty of extra hanging over.
Then we sliced some strawberries and arranged them in an overlapping pattern on the bottom of the pan. (Note: they will freeze solid and so make sure to cut them thinly or else they may be a little too chunky like ours were.)
Spoon in some ice cream and spread it out evenly into about an 3/4″ layer.
Slice the pound cake horizontally into about 3/4″ layers. Lay a slice of pound cake over the ice cream and cut smaller pieces of pound cake to fill in any gaps.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 up to the top of the pan, ending with a cake layer.
Then wrap the extra plastic wrap over the top of the pan and press down on the whole thing a little. The ice cream should be a little soft so it mushes around and fills in any gaps.
Pop it in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
To unmold, dip the pan in a hot water bath for a half a minute to loosen everything up a bit. Then turn the pan upside down and wriggle it out of the pan by tugging on the extra plastic wrap. Discard plastic wrap.
Slice the cake vertically and serve. (Note: It doesn’t look that great when it comes straight out of the pan, but once you slice it into pieces, it looks pretty good. The end pieces don’t look as nice though, so either slice off a skinny piece from the end and discard it or give the end piece to your husband/roommate/boyfriend/child/dog to eat. You made it, so you should get a pretty piece!)

This morning I took E. back to the ear/nose/throat doctor today for his two-week follow-up appointment. The good news is that E.’s ears are all cleared up! The bad news is that E.’s was still a bit of a pill over the weekend. If his ears aren’t bothering him, I’m not sure why he’s been fussier than normal. Maybe he’s finally decide to teethe? He doesn’t have a single tooth yet. *shrug* Who knows.

What I do know is that my monthly report for work is due tomorrow and I still need to put in a lot of work on it. E. just went down for a nap and so I’ve got to get busy.

What’s that you say?

The colonies have declared their independence? By George!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope you have a lovely holiday. I think we’re going to putter around the house and then see some friends (and hopefully fireworks) in the evening.

I forgot to post about our trip to the ENT on Monday. Our pediatrician’s office had gotten us a 3:45 appointment but the doctor was really behind and we were stuck waiting for almost 2 hours. E. held it together pretty well for the first hour, but then started falling apart. So I put him in his stroller and walked laps around the hallway. It was good for him because he quieted down and fell asleep and it was good for me because I hadn’t had time to exercise that morning. We ended up walking around for 45 minutes!

Lateness aside, I really liked the doctor. He had a very competent and deliberate manner about him. After he checked E.’s ears the doctor said that they look like they’re in the process of draining. He said that the pressure is more painful to E. now that his ears are draining than when they were totally plugged up. He didn’t think it would be worth it to jump the gun and put tubes in when the problem may resolve itself. We have a follow up appointment to check E.’s progress in 2 weeks (thankfully it’s the first appointment of the day and so there won’t be a horrendous wait). So tubes are still a possibility, but they’re a slim one.

E. has been fussier these last couple of weeks than he has ever been. Luckily, it’s still not too bad. However, I’ve been spoiled by his previous mellowness and so this new behavior kind of wears me out. He has taken to shrieking in a super-high pitch at the drop of a hat. Hopefully the shrieking is related to his ear pain and only temporary rather than being a new hobby he has decided to explore. Because I have to admit that I am not a big fan.

Mr. Sandman part 2 and E.

I think our float turned out pretty well. Mr. Sandman lost one of the shells from his mouth during the trip to the parade grounds, but other than that he survived unscathed. Now he’s sitting in my living room but I’m afraid he doesn’t quite fit the decor. I don’t know what to do with him other than prying off the sunglasses I glued to his head and chucking him into the trash. I have to admit that I got a little *sniff* attached to the guy. If anyone here in Utah can think of a good use for him, they can have him, sunglasses and all.

Since we got back from Oregon things have been pretty hectic with N.’s parents leaving for Korea, my helping with the parade float, and E.’s double ear infection. Yep, E. has a bad double ear infection. I didn’t mention it before because I was hoping it would clear up and I’m sure that everyone is sick of hearing about E.’s various ailments. But it hasn’t cleared up yet (and so you get to hear about it. Try to contain your excitement!)

It started with the cold that E. and I caught back at the end of May. E. developed a double ear infection from the cold and before we went to Oregon he took a round of oral antibiotics. His recovery didn’t seem quite as dramatic as the doctor said it would, but he did seem to be feeling better and so I didn’t take him back in for a check up before we left (foolish, foolish, Faith!) I thought the problem was fixed.

E. was really good on the drive to Oregon (even over the mountain passes) and for the first few days. But by the end of the week he was waking up 3 or 4 times a night crying and generally feeling worn out. But he was still really good on the drive back.

I took him back in to the doctor the Monday after we got home (the 16th) and his ears were infected pretty badly. So that week he had three shots of rocephin, which is pretty much the strongest antibiotic that the pediatrician uses. The shots were pretty painful.

Fast forward to last Monday when I took him back for a follow-up. The rocephin hadn’t worked and his ears are still really infected. Our doctor referred us to an ear/nose/throat doctor that we’re going to go see today. I’m a little worried about him having to have tubes in his ears. He just seems too little to be put under general anesthesia but everyone I’ve talked to that have had it done says it solves the problem. This is E.’s first persistent ear infection though, so I don’t know if it’s warrented. N.’s taking off from work a little early so he can go to the appointment too. I guess we’ll just have to see what our options are.

Laying Down the Law

(I was going to post some more pictures today, but our mouse mysteriously quit working and I have no idea how to edit and upload pictures using just the keyboard. Navigating around websites using only TAB and ALT is bad enough. Try it for “fun” sometime.)

So on Wednesday I disciplined E. for the first time.

He had picked up a cold while we were on vacation and was/is still feeling under the weather and acting kind of fussy. Anyway, I was nursing him and he, um, bit down. He didn’t do it that hard and I was feeling sorry for him and so I let it slide with a mild, “no.”

A minute later he bit down again HARD. Yeouch! Definitely not cool.

I sat him up and looked him in the eye and sternly said, “No!” E. looked at me quizzically for a second and then his face crumpled and he started crying. It was a pretty sad sight. To be honest, I was pretty surprised. I hadn’t really expected him to understand. Anyway, I settled him down and then we went on with the feeding.

It’s been a couple of days and so far he hasn’t done it again. Here’s hoping the lesson stuck!

Um, seriously?

So I admit it, I had grown complacent. I know that baby boys are well-known for their tendency to pee when their diapers are removed, but E. only did it twice when he was really tiny (as in under a month old).

(Yeah, I think we all know where this is going.)

Anyway, the other day I was changing E.’s diaper and I noticed that it looked like he was getting a little bit of diaper rash. And so I fanned his bottom with a clean diaper to let it air out a little.

And then I looked away for a second to grab his diaper cream.

And then I noticed that the diaper I was holding was wet, along with my arm.

And then I noticed that his belly button was filled to the brim with pee.

My baby bird

I’ve been feeding E. rice cereal once a day since Sunday and yesterday I could tell that the light went on in his head. He started opening his mouth and leaning forward as soon as he was finished swallowing the last bite. N. said he looked like a baby bird. It was pretty cute. A couple of times he even grabbed my arm to guide the spoon I was holding into his mouth.

In other news, it looks like Robin Watch ’08 has ended sadly. Last week there was a horrible windstorm and the willow tree was shaken like crazy. Afterwards I didn’t see the female robin sitting on the nest for days. I went outside and checked and two eggs had fallen out of the nest and smashed on the ground. I took a peek inside the nest and there was one egg left, but since the robin hadn’t been sitting on it for days there wasn’t any way it would hatch.

I read online that robins lay about 3 clutches of eggs a season, so the pair probably decided to cut their loses after losing the eggs in the storm and decided to build a new nest somewhere else and try again.

Rice, Rice, Baby!

Yesterday E. had his first real experience with solid food. (I’m not counting the handful of times in the last month that N. has snuck E. tastes of random things such as ranch dressing and frozen yogurt.)

His first solid meal was rice cereal; it seemed to go well. He was really good about opening his mouth and actually seemed to swallow most of the cereal, contrary to the photographic evidence.

I’m going to give him rice cereal once a day for a week or so and if everything continues to go well, it will be on to tastier things. Kimchi, here we come!

No one was bowled over…

…by my mad skills. Because, um, I really stank. I guess bowling is not like riding a bicycle. I used to average about 130 back in my bowling class days, but this time I barely scored in the 80s. Oh well, at least it was better than Barack Obama did.

It was fun to see everyone from the office. A lot of people were surprised to see me and the baby, but everyone was very nice and seemed happy to see us.

And you know my boss–the one who sent me flowers a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, E. spit up on her while she was holding him–making friends! She was very sweet about it, though.

I don’t think E. has ever been in such a noisy situation before. It was pretty loud with all of the pins clattering around and so many people cheering and yelling. But he was a trooper and even fell asleep in his stroller for a while. All and all, it was a pretty fun time for me and I think a somewhat bewildering experience for E.