Happy

Limelet is doing much, much better in his new class.  Several times now he has smiled as he waved bye-bye to me in the morning, which has never never happened before.  He does still cling to me and then to Mr. Luke (usually) or Ms. Sarah (sometimes) when I hand him over.  But he seems much happier.  He's also started interacting with other kids in public (like at the park) a lot more.

 

This morning when I dropped him at daycare, the class was outside in the little playground area, and some of the children were playing with a big plastic baseball and bat.  Instead of clinging to me as usual, he said, "They're playing baseball.  I want to play baseball!"  And he actually wriggled out of my arms and ran off with barely a goodbye.  This would have been unimaginable even a month or so ago. I'm so relieved.

 

Over the weekend we visited a new park and Limelet played with a little boy who was perhaps a year older.  Now in the way of most older children, this other boy was bossing Limelet around, which Limelet was mostly ignoring.  The other boy showed him a pile of wood chips that he was using to "make a pizza," and Limelet obliviously pushed the entire pile off the little ledge onto the ground.  The other boy got upset.  Not terribly, but in the way of "hey, you're ruining it!"  I translated to Limelet that the older boy was trying to make a stick pizza, and suggested that he help him get some more sticks.  Limelet became concerned that the other boy was upset.  "Oh, okay, I'm sorry.  Are you alright?" he asked, solicitously tilting his head.  It was really cute.  I'm happy he can apologize and make amends already, because that's a difficult skill that a lot of adults still lack.  (I attribute this to our willingness to apologize to him ourselves, instead of pretending we didn't do something or insisting we were right when we obviously weren't.) 

 

He still phrases some things awkwardly, and some phrases have even become ingrained family slang, such as "You want no?"  Meaning, "I don't want this."  But he's moving a lot more towards proper pronouns.

 

Fireman Lost

I haven't been able to stop being upset about this.  I think I'm more upset than Limelet.  We accidentally left his fireman outfit (jacket and helmet with moveable visor) at the park last night (9pm), and of course it was gone this morning when we went back (8am).  He loved that thing, even wanted us to bring it up to the bedroom so he could sleep with it nearby.  He would dress up in it and sit watching his fireman video, while holding his toy fire truck.  He wore it for hours every days lately.  He'd go in the back and spray water from the hose while wearing it.  He's been asking for it today, of course.  "Da fireman stuff?"  I've been avoiding letting him see that video.

 

I haven't been able to find a replacement set online anywhere.  This year's versions seem to be cheaper and flimsier (already).  The helmets have no visors, etc.  I got it from Rite Aid last year.

 

Who would take a little kid's stuff like that? I know that's a dumb question.  But I'm just so ticked off about it, and can't seem to let go of it. 

 

Especially since a few weeks ago when I found a pretty dang expensive hand-held video game I turned it in to public safety, even though Limelet loved it.  It wasn't ours! 

 

I went back today and put up some signs, though I'm sure nothing will come of that except probably dirty prank phone calls on my cell.

 

Stupid me losing stuff.  Stupid people taking stuff.

Random Bits

It's been such a long time since I wrote anything, but not because nothing's happening.  It's because everything's happening!

 

Last night was a record five nights in a row of good sleep!  !! !!!  The previous record was three.  I think this is partly because we've given in fighting against the late naptime at daycare, and started putting Limelet to bed late.  Like 9:30 or even 10.  It's sure better to do that, than put him to bed at 8:30 and have him wake up from 11 to 3, which was happening a lot.  That was especially hard because I was finishing out my contract at work, and the last few months were the busiest and most tiring.  (This is my first week "off.")

 

It's been hard to discern which sleep disturbance has been from what, since he's been sick so often.  Generally speaking it's been a big deal if he's had three or four days in a row in which he's not been sick, which is suspiciously similar to the number of nights in a row he's had good sleep.  In the past four months alone he's had four (4!) ear infections requiring antibiotics, that week-long horrible GI thingfor which we went to the E.R., hand-foot-and-mouth, and at least one upper-respiratory infection that lasted three weeks.  I spoke with another woman leaving the daycare yesterday who complained of the same thing: "my grandson never got sick at all until he started daycare this year, now he's sick constantly and they're planning to put tubes in his ears."  Which, incidentally, Limelet's doctor mentioned last week when we were in for the fourth ear infection.

 

Limelet has undergone another developmental jump in the past couple of months, and has grown very interactive in his conversation skills now.  It's also clear that he remembers things that he couldn't describe at the time.  For example, he remembers songs from videos he saw months ago and never sang before now, when he's become big on singing.  Even as we have tried to shelter him from violence, some kid's videos and cartoons nevertheless have shooting.  He doesn't know what a gun is, but calls them "explosion tubes" at this point.  Which is fine, because he thinks an explosion is something fun, like fireworks.

 

The other night when he was awake from 10 to 2, I was very tired (as you might imagine.)  At midnight, as Limelet was happily sitting up reading a book in the night light, I yawned and said, "Limelet, it's midnight.  Mama's turning into a pumpkin!"  Startled, he turned and looked me up and down a few times with a serious and expectant look.  I burst out laughing, because I realized that lately he's gotten the concept of something "turning into" something else, and imagined I was literally turning into a pumpkin.  Characters in videos sometimes turn into other things, after all.  I had to explain to him quickly that I was not, in fact, turning into a pumpkin.

 

Limelet has also become very affectionate lately, and gives us kisses and hugs when he's feeling especially happy.  Or sad or scared, which is pitiful.  For example, the other day we were at the playground, which was very busy.  I was crouched down by Limelet, who was standing on the ground pretending to slide down a sliding pole ("Like a fireman!")  I heard TheLimey shouting and looked up in time to see a Big Kid (probably 10 or so) sliding straight down at us.  I shouted at him to watch out, and that he should look down before he slides, as I snatched Limelet away from the pole.  Well, Limelet thought that we were shouting at him and that he'd done something wrong, since I snatched him away while shouting.  Poor little thing.  It took us a minute to realize that he was still shaken and quiet, and when I picked him up he hugged me and tentatively kissed me.   However, after I explained that we were not shouting at him, but shouting at those big boys to stop jumping on Limelet's head, he perked up immediately.  It was clear that he understood the explanation, because a minute or two later he walked a few steps away from us and shouted "Stop, stop!" in the direction of the big boys.

 

Oh, and a while ago, we got him a toy tool set.  He was hammering on the doorframes around the house, and wanted TheLimey to join him.  "Daddy, ham with the hammer?" Hee.  There was some other similar construction that we laughed about, but I forget it.

Kerpow!

Limelet now likes scenes in videos that feature "consplosions."  He also insists that one of his favorite ducka beeps is a "compact hammer" instead of an "impact hammer."  I don't know if this pattern means anything, but it's funny. He's using first-person sentence construction a lot more lately, especially when he really wants something.

Limelet also had his first skinned knee recently after falling at the playground.  Not a bad one, but he got to experience picking a scab, which he seemed to find really fun.  [rolling eyes]

Crazy Bus

crazy bus
Originally uploaded by swissmiss

Oh yeah...here's the other ride he loved! It's surprisingly high up, too. I didn't know if he'd be terrified, but he laughed like ... well, crazy, the entire time.

Bear Affair ride

Bear Affair ride
Originally uploaded by A.M. Kuchling

Limelet loved this ride especially. I wonder if there's a pic of the Crazy Bus (his other favorite) somewhere too?

Sick!

Last Friday got Limelet in to the doc as  he had been having "cold" symptoms for three weeks solid, and they were only getting worse.  He was ending up being awake from 1-5 am each night because of the congestion.  And it was turning green.  (Ewwww.)  I wondered if he was getting an ear infection because of the non-sleeping thing. I used guafenesin a couple nights, which  helped, but it's so nasty that it was hard to administer.  By the day we got in, though, he was already getting a lot better.  The doc said his eardrums looked a little bulgy, but no sign of infection.  So that was good.  He had a really good night's sleep that night (and so did we.)

However, over the weekend, his sleep deteriorated again, where whenever he would stir in the night, he would start crying or almost crying and stiffen his body up.  Sunday night he started telling us his throat and his mouth hurt, and his appetite dropped.  I had to relent on the no-night-nursie because he was obviously sick and miserable.  Monday I saw a little sore on the tip of his tongue, like a canker sore.  Day care told us he couldn't come back in without a doctor's note, because there were several cases of hand-foot-and-mouth-disease, which I'd never heard of.  All I could think of was hoof-and-mouth disease.  However, the flyer at the day care suggested it wasn't something so terrible (which Google later confirmed.)  He was okay eating ice cream and maybe a little pancakes and donut sugar, but that's about it.  

I had to take Limelet to work with me yesterday, as there were a few important things I couldn't put off doing that day, and he couldn't go to daycare.  (And he was not lying-around sick, but happily-running-around sick.) There was a lot of running back and forth to use the snack machine in the hall, but not really because he wanted snacks.  He just loved the dispensing process, especially putting money in.  I was able to make some important phone calls while Limelet watched kid videos on YouTube at my desk computer.

I took him home at lunch time (a few frozen peas, donut sugar, and milk) and put him down to nap.  Then I had a phone conference.  Luckily, Limelet stayed asleep for exactly the length of the call.  Literally he began stirring and crying out for me just as I was hanging up the phone, so I was able to get him back to sleep for the rest of his nap okay.  Then when he awoke, I struggled to get him reluctantly ready for his doctor appointment and ran out to the car with kid and bags--only to find that the baby seat was out and the car seats still down from the move.  We so seldom use the car these days.  I had to call them and say we'd be late, but it still worked out okay.

At the doctor's office, Limelet played with everything he wasn't supposed to--the ear light covers, the stirrups on the exam table, the supply drawers, the exam light--instead of the books and calculator I brought for him.  The doctor finally arrived and needed only a tiny glance at the tongue sore to confirm HFMD.  He wondered why they would send him home for that, and then checked Limelet's ears.  Holy moley, they were very inflamed, and the doctor said most kids would be screaming in pain with that much inflammation.  So, surprise!  Only takes a night to develop that great stuff.  The doctor wrote a prescription for a different antibiotic than the last two times.  

I'm not ready yet to try the no-antibiotics route--I need to see more data on the recent studies, and I need to have this job contract be over so I can deal with some (more) sleepless nights more readily.

We went to "the medicine store" and got the new antibiotic as well as a couple ice lollies, which Limelet selected and ganwed on in the store.  (They're in the freezer now.)  Thank heavens, this new antibiotic is not horrible tasting!  It's made it much less of a trauma to medicate him than the last two times.  The pharmacist gruffly recommended that I give Limelet "Milkshakes.  Milkshakes with a raw egg in it.  He'll never know it's there!"  He was pretty funny.  Like a caricature of a small-town old-tyme guy of some sort (pharmacist, I guess.)

We got home in time for Daddy to return home, too--now with sore throat and feeling cruddy generally. Daddy also brought home some ice cream and a really cool toy set: two battery powered bubble gun sort of things, which the two of them played with while I made dinner.  I made dinner but TheLimey could barely eat it, and Limelet was also uninterested, preferring the salty blandness of a huge pile of corn chips.  I kind of get that.  I want salty bland stuff when I'm sick, too.  

I got him bathed, medicated, lotioned, powdered, pajamaed, nursed, and asleep by 8:45, which is really good timing for us.  (Especially after I let him stay asleep until 2:40 at naptime.)  He sure slept a lot better last night, partly due to being allowed nursie when he stirred, and partly because of baby Motrin.  His appetite was back this morning.  He selected a yogurt for himself and ate half of it, and then ate a whole soy sausage, as well as some animal crackers and milk.  Thank goodness!

Miraculous!

Limelet had a "cold" for nearly three weeks, right as we were moving (coincidence?).  Last week he was so stuffed up that he ended up being awake from 1-5 am for 5 nights out of 7.  It was pretty much destroying our family, as that meant that not only was he miserable, sick, and awake, but all three of us were miserable, crabby, and awake.  It finally occurred to me that we have some guafenesin syrup and that it has dosages for small children, so I gave him that.  It's nasty, so it wasn't so easy getting it down him.  That seemed to help considerably, and I think even helped the infection (probably viral) clear up, since it allowed his passages to clear out.  At any rate he slept mostly through both those nights, so that was a huge relief to all of us.  Daytimes are a million times better when we're getting more than 4 hours of sleep apiece.

Last night he seemed better, but still somewhat congested, so I tried giving him one more dose.  However, he spit it out--twice--so I decided to risk the night without it.  He was better enough to sleep without it.  In fact, last night was probably about the best sleep he's had in his whole little life.  He went to sleep at 9:30, only stirred once around one and went right back to sleep, and awoke on his own around 7.  Amazing!  This also means that Mama had the best sleep she's had in three years (since before he was born.)

Really, I can't described how much better I feel, how much more like a human being and myself again.  Three nights of decent sleep topped off by a great night's sleep for ONCE.  I'm happy as a cricket, as Mrs. Banks says.  The past couple nights Limelet has been snuggling up against Daddy in his sleep instead of me.  Last night he just about crowded Daddy off the bed, as I heard.  I awoke to find TheLimey trying to gently squeeze Limelet more into the middle of the bed, muttering that he only had a foot of space at the edge of the bed in which to sleep.  Welcome to my world, I thought, and went back to sleep.

Tonight is the night that there are extremely noisy fireworks after the nearby baseball game, so I am making sure we install our air conditioner this evening so that Limelet at least has a small chance of staying asleep.  I hate to break this great sleeping streak.  Last week was a nightmare--he went to sleep at 8:30, the fireworks went off at 10:30 (?) and lasted maybe 15-20 minutes.  He twitched and stirred and generally came out of his deep sleep.  Woke up after they were over, and then was awake for four hours.  The following night (Saturday) we were unfortunately somewhat late to bed and the fireworks were fortunately somewhat earlier than before (9:30), so he actually got to sit with Daddy and watch them out the window.  He loved that and was really upset that they aren't out there all the time on his demand.

I'm still giving him melatonin before bed (down to .45 mg or 450 mcg).  It's been about 4 weeks.  I just want to get his sleep somewhat stabilized and then titrate it down, hoping we've gotten his circadian cycle in order for once in his life.  The initial .65 mg dose worked to put him to sleep but seemed to give him disturbed sleep (twitching, talking, crying, and waking), but .45 seems to work well.  Also I make sure to turn off all lights, even the night light.  The studies I saw indicated that "even a very dimly lit room" can give melatonin users disturbed sleep and nightmares.

In other news, the fair has come to town, and it's on the campus of the college.  I saw that it was going when I left work Wednesday, so I picked up Limelet from daycare and went straight back there (having stopped at home to grab some soy chicken for him to eat, and change into my jeans).  I didn't know if he'd be scared or love it. He loved it.  The lights, the big machines, the people everywhere. The first ride we went on he was a little uncertain ("Guy turn it off, guy turn it off!')  But after that he warmed up to it and wanted to try every ride, even the ones he's too small to be allowed to go on ("Ring of Fire").

Daddy arrived after we'd been on a couple rides and took over being the accompanying parent for a while, until he needed a hot dog break.  Limelet loved the ride with big bears that you get inside and they spin around; he loved the motorcycles on a circular track; and he really loved the Crazy Bus, which goes way up in the air and then back down again in a circular motion.  We got some fries or chips and had planned to put vinegar on them, but Limelet would not part with the entire hot and greasy $6 container, so we just let him have it.  He ate tons of them, as well as about half of Mama's 1/4 lb hot dog.  We had to sneak chips when he wasn't looking.

Limelet was really upset to not be able to go on the ferris wheel, and asked for it again at bedtime. Poor thing.  Not until he's 48" tall!

That afternoon was really living out my fantasies.  It was great. We were all happy, Limelet was having fun, the air was cool and smelled of fried food, and the trees and lilacs were coming into full bloom.  It was like living a Bradbury story.

We plan to go again Saturday, less spontaneously, but it'll still be great.

Post-Move

We had a meeting with someone from Limelet's daycare yesterday, where we compared what we see of his behavior at home with what they see there.  It seems clear that he's having a hard time getting used to being in an environment in which there are 12 kids and two caretakers, and so he does what he knows how to do:  sits down and reads a book.  Poor little thing.  They were initially concerned that he was autistic or something.  Luckily, I have the training to know that he isn't even close to meeting diagnostic criteria.  However, it makes me feel very bad to think that he's overwhelmed and lonely for 40 hours a week, which is how I picture it.  

They do say he usually seems happy, just off in his own world of reading or playing with toys.  I realized from their feedback that he tries to get the adults to talk to him in the way we would, but they think he's just muttering to himself, so they don't respond to what he's saying. At home, he's used to having what he says matter.  He's used to being one of the people who matter, not one of 12 minions in a tall hierarchy.  Poor critter.  

We are supposed to meet with his teachers and talk about ways to help him feel more comfortable so he can get more involved.  He has good teachers, but the lead teacher is very extroverted, which he's not so used to given us as his parents.  It's good to have other examples than us, but if it's all at once, it can be simply overwhelming.  Furthermore, in my experience extroverted people have a lot of trouble understanding introversion (though the opposite is not as common).  I don't want Limelet's general personality devalued, as much as I hope he can become more relaxed and happy in the setting.  I do want him to have the chance to develop some friendships now that we've stopped moving.

Yesterday Limelet began counting to ten in Spanish all of a sudden out of the blue, so I guess he's getting something out of those Spanish lessons they have.  It was really pretty cute and made him seem very sophisticated.  He really loves counting now.  His Sesame Street counting videos are his favorite--a combination of counting and catchy songs!  Wow!  ("Five-teen!")

He's been doing pretty well with the night-weaning, although he has never stopped asking for it entirely.  He does go back to sleep without nursing; just wants to be rocked or picked up.  Which in some ways is going backwards, for me, but we haven't had the time to implement the second half of the protocol (learning to get back to sleep without picking up) because it will probably involve several nights of being awake for hours and with a lot of crying.  So we're waiting until I'm not so swamped, maybe even until my contract is over here.  (Soon!)

However, we've had several nights of all that crying and waking stuff lately, anyway.  I think he's had a sinus infection or something, since he's had a "cold" for nearly three weeks and lately has had green stuff in his nose.  Eww.  Especially bad when you can't blow your nose, although he is actually learning this skill right now.  Last night I gave him guafenisin syrup to help with the nose stuff (also used a bulb to clear his nose, and swabs, and some other similar steps).  That seemed to help.  He had fitful sleep and stirred a lot between 11 and 5, but wasn't ever awake for long, unlike many other nights this past week.  Poor kid; poor us.

He seems to be at a developmental juncture right now and is changing in a lot of ways.  This is always the case, I guess, but this seems like  one of those times when there are inexplicably larger underlying changes occurring.  He's changing from echoic second-person speech ("Do you want the drill?" [meaning himself] to third- or first-person speech "I want Daddy's drill" or "Jack wants Daddy's drill.")  

The other day he told me he wanted a present.  Join the club, kid.