Archive for February, 2009

ooooooooh, i’ve got a hot date tomorrow night with my hub and i am having a hard time focusing on anything else. no, we did not find a babysitter to replace the ho bag we hired to (wrestle on our guest bed with her boyfriend) babysit a few weeks ago. a former usna classmate of paul’s who now works with him is doing us a solid and watching the magoo for us tomorrow night.
so, what’s on our romantic agenda? i dunno. that was part of the deal. i had asked paul for a date a while back, but a date in which i did none of the planning. i didn’t want to book the sitter, i didn’t want to think of something for us to go do, i didn’t want to do anything other than show up and look killer.
which leads me to my next question… what does a girl wear when going on a date with her hub after being date-neglected for oh so long due to a little one who leaves spit-up crusts on her clothes???
we’re not going anywhere fancy shmancy (we have no money) and the “what we do” isn’t even what i care about. i’m just stoked to have an evening out with my ultra fine hub.
sooooooo… what to wear, what to wear… when one does not need to worry about spit-up on the attire.
bring on the suggestions ladies!!! (and men, if you are of the fashionable kind)

jackson wanted to say “sup” to all his homies.

if my last post didn’t convince you that jackson has turned into a ferocious animal, perhaps this one will. today jackson has tipped over an end table, pulled a febreeze plug-in out of its socket and tried to feed it to the dog, and toppled a nightstand over onto himself (the nightstand was home to 2 books, a telephone, lamp, remote, and full glass of water). jackson accomplished all of these actions before 8:04 am.
apparently 10 months is when one is “supposed to” (and i use that term very cautiously) begin the ins and outs of discipline. riddle me this though… how exactly does one go about disciplining a 10 month old?
we have started saying “no,” and pulling jackson away from things he toddles himself over to investigate that he shouldn’t (like the cable box and red’s water dish). good grief, if he started pushing buttons on the cable box, i wouldn’t know how on earth to remedy that situation. but how do you “time out” a 10 month old? of course this is assuming you are a proponent of time outs as a form of discipline. i don’t want to put him in his crib for time out, that’s his sleepy place… comfy, cozy, just-for-jackson. i don’t want to put him in his play pen… it’s a play pen for crying out loud. and i can’t just plop him in a corner because as evidenced by this morning’s shinanigans, he is now in to everything.
i’m learning that there is this not-so-delicate balance between doting on your child, and letting your child explore and learn things for him/herself. i’m all for exploration and (at times) feel that is the best way to learn things.
your parents can tell you all your life, “don’t drink too much on new years,” but until you have that horrific hangover from drinking waaaaaaay too many screwdrivers, you don’t really believe it. (not that i’m speaking from experience…) so how do you navigate this not-so-delicate balance between doting/protecting and allowing for exploration?
i watched jackson pull over the end table on himself this morning. (and it should be noted that he does all of this, toddling here and there in his walker/red car. he’s not walking on his own… yet.) but i watched my son pull this table over onto himself and did nothing about it. granted the table is one of those small, circular, piece-of-crap, plywood things you buy at kmart, and weighs nothing more than a pound and a half. i knew it wouldn’t crush his skull, so i let him do it. i watched him scare himself when it actually did tumble, and then i watched as he maniacally laughed afterwards, amazed at his super-baby-strength. when he pulled the nightstand over, it was not so graceful a learning process, and i was in the other room (bad mother, bad bad BAD mother).
paul and i have been reading this hilarious book of essays that has actually taught us a thing or two about parenting, as well as given us lots of good laughs about poop. in one essay, writer matthew baldwin explains the following scenario…

Yesterday my son (now three) and I were monkeying around in the backyard. My wife strolled out to see what we were doing, and noticed that he was lugging around an object he had purloined from our small stash of building supplies. Curious, she turned to me for explanation.

WIFE: What is he carrying?
ME: It’s a brick.
WIFE: He’s walking around carrying a brick?
ME: That’s correct.
{Pause}
WIFE: What if he drops it on his foot?
ME: Then he will learn not to drop bricks on his foot.

i guess only time will tell if i’m the “what if” asking wife, or the “then he will learn” parent.

check out the teeth marks on that junk! good thing the crib was a gift from my parents… sorry guys.

i feel capable of making decisions concerning jackson’s health. it’s only taken 10 months of him physically being in my life in order for me to say that, but hell, i said it. so there!
this has been an issue for me since the very beginning. doctors, specialists, behaviorists, bla bla bla… ists. i’ve heard the input from all of you. i have leaned on all of you, continue to lean on all of you. and now i am feeling capable.
my latest battle has been with jackson’s pediatrician’s office here in annapolis. and i don’t use the word “battle” to insinuate that it’s been this knock-down-drag-out fight that’s been going on. it’s just been a lot of back and forth… and back.
they want to run more tests on jackson. apparently not a lot of doctors buy in to the whole cyclic vomiting scenario our son has going on. that’s fine. not many doctors believe that jackson was allergic to my breastmilk either. during one of our hospitalizations in atlanta, a pediatrician told me that it was “impossible” for a child to be allergic to his/her mother’s breastmilk. “that child would not be carried to term if it were allergic,” she scoffed.
it’s never been my intent to sway people, readers, doctors, with our story. i put this out there to inform, in the hopes that someone else who is going through this (god help them) finds comfort in knowing they are not alone.
so back to the tests… they want to run a metabolic screen on jackson (which was done by our geneticist in jacksonville) to see if there is an abnormality that may show why he doesn’t gain weight (don’t we all wish we had that problem?) and they want to do another upper gi with barium swallow.
jackson has had two upper gi with barium swallow studies done… in addition to two abdomenal ultrasounds, an endoscopy, and (almost) a gastric emptying scan (we opted out of this test once we learned that jackson would be strapped to a table for 2 hours while a radiologist watched the contents of his stomach travel and then empty.)
the tests that this pediatrician wants to have done aren’t all that invasive in my opinion. one is a blood test and the other has jackson drinking radioactive fluid. whatever. been there, done that. my issue is this… every single friggin test has come back normal. and that’s great. totally a blessing. gives us no answers as to why our son didn’t eat for the first 6 months of his life, but we’re beyond that now. so given that each test has given us “normal” results, why on earth would i continue to put my son through more of them?!?
in defense of the doctors here, i know they are just trying to do what they think is best for their patient. they want to run their own tests. he’s new; they are unfamiliar with his case; they know they are the reason we are in annapolis and we’re now on their turf.
but jackson is my turf. i know the ins and outs of my son better than anyone else (thank you for reminding me of that, mom.) and right now, i am not seeing the need to put my son through any more testing.
jackson is doing well. his last cycle lasted for 6 full days, which is the longest one has lasted yet, but we survived. granted, i still have my skepticism keeping me company. i still silently recite my feeding mantra every time i feed jackson a bottle… dear god help him eat, dear jesus help him eat, holy spirit help him eat. good thing i’m a stellar catholic (ha!)
we have our good days and our bad. my intuition has gotten me this far, and i think i’ve done ok, all things considered. the order for the metabolic test and upper gi are sitting on my desk. i just need to make a phone call to schedule the appointments. but, i’m going to put the order away in the desk drawer. i’m going with my gut on this one. no more tests for now.

dear jackson,
here are 10 things you did today, on your 10 month birthday, that amazed me.

1. chased red around the living room, kitchen, and dining room.
2. got the hiccups from eating tortellini for dinner.
3. said “mom” when i picked you up out of your crib after your nap.
4. took all your bottles like a big boy, in other words, drained ‘em.
5. had a blow out in the car going to home depot.
6. smelled so bad from the blow out that i had to change your diaper in home depot because i felt woozy.
7. enjoyed a laughing fit on your changing table with dad.
8. walked up to me and grabbed my butt as i sat at the desk and typed this.
9. sported a killer mohawk in the bathtub.
10. stole my heart again and again.

you are the coolest kid around. daddy and i love you so very very much.

what’s he laughing at? your guess is as good as mine.