Intro To Toddlerhood

Elijah is just moving right along…literally!  Since his first birthday he has learned to walk and climb, learned some new “tricks”, is almost weaned, gotten some new teeth, and is communicating a bit more.  He’s a fun little guy who catches on to things quickly and he has stayed true to himself as he is still very passionate with his opinions.  Elijah brings more and more fun and laughter to our household all the time and we love him to bits.

This little guy is so much fun!

I love this stage of new learning when young toddlers amble around on wobbly legs.  I like how they are generally agreeable but have the benefit of big kids in that they are more independent and can be put down more.  Elijah was very fun to watch walking when he initially learned because he didn’t bend his knees so he walked with a wide stance and looked like a cowboy that had just gotten off his horse.  In the last two weeks or so he has perfected the knee-bend, though, and now he is enjoying walking faster.

He has also become quite the climber.  We have a footstool in our living room that is about 2ft high and the other day I caught Josiah standing on it and told him to get down.  The next thing I knew Elijah was standing up on it.  Yikes!  As Jacob says, “monkey see, monkey do!”  He has also learned that he can walk up to the couch and make motions to climb up while whining and Josiah will walk up behind and give his behind a lift.  While I’m on the subject of the boys interacting…every time Elijah finds Josiah’s water cup sitting around, he very dutifully picks it up and goes to find Josiah and gives it to him.  So kind!  It is funny though when Josiah doesn’t want it, puts it down, and Elijah picks it back up and hands it to him again.  Eventually he brings it to me or Jacob.

I like this picture where he’s looking past me towards our dog.  Too bad there is a weed in front of his face.

We love living on this property.  It is so great that our boys can just run and play!  Elijah is enjoying his ability to explore in an upright position.

We have gradually noticed that Elijah seems to catch on to things very quickly.  In addition to sitting up early and crawling early he only had to be shown once how to walk behind a toy or push himself on a ride on toy.  More recently, while blueberry picking, he purposely picked only ripe berries and put them in the bucket.  He has also learned, thanks to Jacob’s teaching, to give the sweetest hugs and kisses as well as high fives.  He’s also learned to point to some body parts.  He is not, however, interested in much talk or sign language.  He does (when he feels like it) say a form of “thank you”, “da da”, “ma ma”, “cat” (or specifically our cat Lilah) and signs “more” (when coaxed) and “milk” is the universal sign for “I want” along with a grunt.

As far as diet goes…he is so picky!  I’m not used to that because Josiah ate and drank anything.  His preferences change, but right now his meat intake is mostly restricted to chicken, turkey deli meat, and hamburger meat if covered in spaghetti sauce or chili.  He has to eat his veggies in the form of puree now since he will not currently eat it as a finger food.  He is finally willing to drink something other than water from a sippy cup and I accomplished this by putting in banana drinkable yogurt in a cup, which he loved, and slowly adding milk.  He still nurses about once daily, but he has lost interest and drinks more from his cup, as long as it is a specific cup, that is.  I expect he’ll be weaned by the end of the week because now we just do it enough to keep me comfortable since he couldn’t care less.

Elijah was particularly fussy this night and when I put his plate of food in front of him he immediately swiped it off his tray.  Grrr…  I always struggle with how to discipline this age so he ended up in the playpen so that I could have time out :)  Afterwards I put him on the floor and asked him to help me clean it up (he actually does this) but instead he ate most of his dinner off the floor!  I let him :)

Obviously he does enjoy some foods.  This was from chili enchilada night.

After chili enchiladas came home made popsicles.  I just throw a bunch of fruits, some milk and water into my food processor and freeze the result.  I can guiltlessly let them have seconds!

Elijah now has eight teeth total but he has two molars on the way.  He is the slowest teether!  You can feel/see the teeth for weeks before they break through.

There is a new love in Elijah’s life.  A teddy bear.  He started showing interest in all things soft and loves to carry around articles of clothing, so in preparation for weaning and eventually pacifier revocation I gave him a teddy.  He fell in love instantly and has never looked back.  The other day Josiah filled his crib up with stuffed animals before I could get him up from his nap, but Elijah only had eyes and arms for his one special teddy bear.  I need a duplicate!  I hope to be taking away the paci once he is weaned and over these current teeth coming in…maybe before the next 3 month update.

There’s that paci and teddy.  Usually that teddy is tucked under his arm, but I guess it escaped.

We love having this little red head wonder in our lives.  Everywhere we go people have to comment on his hair.  It is often greasy looking when we pick him up from the nursery from people “petting” him :)  One visit to the grocery store will glean multiple comments about his beautiful hair.  It never ceases to amaze me.  He has such funny and wonderful facial expressions along with a laugh that you can’t help but laugh along with.  Elijah has a particular fondness for Jacob which I know melts his heart.  Admittedly it is a little hard on me because I’m used to Josiah who seemed to adore me at this age.  Elijah, however, will readily leave me to go to Jacob, Grandma, Cindy, and others as long as the setting is familiar.

I will forever appreciate Lilah for enduring and loving my boys.  It is especially cute that one is her look alike!

Wow!  He is looking so big!

Keep growing, Elijah. You are already making a wonderful boy!

Waiting Game

Thanks to the people who let me know you are praying for Josiah.  Just to let you know, the blood draw went well.  (Sigh of relief)  Much more smoothly than last time.  I should have asked, however, what you moms recommend about preparing a preschooler for that.  I tried to prepare him, but next time I think I’d just surprise him.  The nurse said that was usually best, too.  He cooperated because he is generally well behaved, but he made it clear he dreaded it beforehand and he cried most of the way through, which I’d expect either way.  So, in case we face more diagnostics, what do you guys think?  What would you do?

Now I just need one more (of 4 total!) stool samples, and off to the lab we go!  :)

Round Two

This is just a quick post to note that after a year of Miralax treatment for Josiah, we are going back for round two with the doctors…or is it just a continuation of round one?  Thursday he is getting blood drawn for a full panel of tests as well as a range of fecal tests, all this in preparation for me to meet with his pediatrician next month for a consultation without him present to discuss the next step, which will likely be referral to Jacksonville.

The Miralax has helped to quiet his symptoms to a bearable state, but they are still present and taking him off meds does not appear to be an option.  After 6 months to a year his gut was supposed to be “re-trained” but we haven’t experienced that.   I’m still hoping he can avoid a diagnostic workup, but it is likely the only way to get to the source of the problem.  Please pray he’ll do well with his blood draw (last year was not a good experience, at least for me!) and that maybe we could come up with a solution so that we never even need that referral.

But I’m Not Wearing My …

Josiah cracked us up this morning.  Our babysitter is out of town so Jacob was watching the boys while I worked today.  Jacob had put Josiah on the potty and he got off right when I was leaving.  He was standing in the living room wearing nothing from the waist down and Jacob told him to say bye bye to me and he said “but I’m not wearing my penis, I mean, I’m not wearing my pants!”  We just laughed!

Ha ha!  I just thought I’d jot that down to laugh at later :)

A Night In The Life

I wrote this Saturday:

I giggled about this this morning, so I thought I’d share:

Last night Jacob went to bed at 11pm and I finally put out the light at 11:30pm.  (I can’t help but stay up and read a bit when I have a good book.  When else can I do it?  Sleep always looses out.)  12:45 rolled around and Elijah started screaming.  Not that rare, “I woke up and need a moment of help to settle back” cry, but an “I’m awake NOW and I needed someone like 2 seconds ago” cry.  I jump up and rush to him because something is definitely up.  I open the door to his room and get greeted by that familiar (I’ll explain why I say “familiar” in a minute) smell of vomit.  It’s completely dark, but I sure know I’m about to encounter some vomit!  Poor thing…I get him changed while Jacob (bless him!) changes the bedding, then finally get him settled back down.

Once awake, it usually takes me an hour or more to fall back asleep.  Last night was no different.

Fast forward to 6am when my alarm just starts going off.  It is a Saturday afterall and the boys get to stay home with Jacob while I work, so I get to “sleep in” a bit and get to get ready by myself.  Not happenin’!  We hear Josiah yell over the monitor “I need to go poo poo!”  Jacob bolted upright (take advantage of every opportunity for potty success, right?) and rushed to get Josiah on the potty.  Josiah is well trained in that he won’t leave bed on his own, but that does make us responsible for attending to all his elimination needs.  I lay back in bed for a moment, then hear “I don’t want to poo poo!” repetitively.  Ah, nothing like the fickle stubbornness of a three year old.  He never did go.  Then it was clear that Elijah was also awake, so I head that way to check on him rather than get ready for work.  Jacob beat me to him and brought me a baby with vomit all over him.  Nice. 

Then at work we had an unsocialized rescue dog drop off for day boarding who pooped in his cage then smeared it everywhere.  Our 21 yr old male kennel staffer, wearing poop covered gloves and a grimace, jokingly asked if I wanted to clean it up.  I told him I’d been there and done that back in my pre vet days and, in fact, I already had him beat this morning on nastiness.  He pitied me and cleaned it up.

Sometimes you just have to laugh rather than cry or scream!

Two side notes:

I say that vomit is a familiar smell because I have encountered a fair bit of it lately.  Aside from the one time Josiah vomited a huge amount all over my chest and in my hair when I was laying next to him, Elijah has left me a few presents, too.  What’s wrong with Elijah???  Josiah vomited once Sunday and Elijah did a couple times on Tuesday.  There were no other symptoms, both seemed fine, and both recovered fine.  I chalked it up to some merciful stomach bug.  Fast forward through 3 days of normal health and Elijah starts vomiting again.  He definitely has a molar coming in and he only vomits when sleeping so I’m wondering if he’s drooling faster than he swallows while sleeping and then gags???  Josiah had crazy symptoms when getting molars, too.

Yes, Josiah is using the potty to poop some now!  More on that in another post.