The Fur Mother - Podcasts powered by Odiogo

Tragedy / Comedy

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:29:00 +0000

(Cross-posted)

The other day Limelet was in a rare mood of hyperness. He galloped over to his Lego box and tore the lid off, throwing it across the floor to crash noisily on the opposite wall. TheLimey and I both shouted "Limelet!"* at once. He looked cowed. TheLimey prompted him: "What do you say?" expecting a brief "Sorry."

Instead Limelet answered, "Thank you." TheLimey and I stared at each other, paralyzed with equal parts horror and mirth. Before we could correct his misapprehension, he continued, "Thank you for shouting."

It was such a smartass thing to say--if he meant it that way, which I'm sure he didn't--that it was really funny. At the same time, it was so pathetic that it was mortifying. "Please sir, may I have another?"

With our genes, it'll only be another six months or so before he says stuff like that and means it.

*Not his real name. I hope this is obvious.

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The Depths!

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:48:00 +0000

Yes, my need to find a social outlet has led me to new depths. I actually posted on the local Mensa Yahoo group site to ask if there were any parents of young children, in case they might want to arrange child-friendly activities together.

Of course, the first thing that happened was that a couple someones pounced and tried to recruit me to do some kind of program coordination for gifted children, or some dang thing. You know, I'm new in the area (practically speaking, anyway) and all I want is to have a dinner/playdate etc. with some other people who have children, too. I'm not looking to groom my poor kid into a genius--whatever that even means. Nor am I currently interested in focusing on the possibility of his potential giftedness. And that's not even what I asked for in the post!

Anybody who with little provocation immediately tells me their kid is gifted...it seems like they're compensating for something or other. I just want Limelet to have friends and have fun! Oh, and us, too. (Although TheLimey has friends through work, of course, I don't know of any with young children.)

If Limelet does turn out to be "gifted," then we'll deal with that at such time as it becomes a meaningful issue. Right now I'm more concerned with social development and happiness. His and mine! His intelligence is being nurtured just fine, thank you very much.

I should have known. Well, I have other potential groups.
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jump_5

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:13:00 +0000

jump_5
Originally uploaded by doctorlizardo

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Music

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:26:00 +0000

Limelet has become smitten with performing music of any kind. His main musical idol is Raffi, and he uses a tennis racket to pretend he's playing along with the Raffi concert video. He also does all the bows, dancing, and hand motions, as well as copying Raffi's banter with the audience. Limelet played with a child-sized guitar at a party the other evening. He was completely enchanted by it, and wept heartbrokenly about leaving it all the trip home. We're getting him one for Christmas. In an odd coincidence, we found a little toy drum set placed out at the curb for trash on the way home. He's been playing it with chopsticks, and of course wanted to take it to bed. (For once I said no!) He also has been playing his little keyboard (garage sale) and "playing" the microphone.

I wonder which thing(s) he'll settle down to?

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Ages

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:36:00 +0000

It's been ages since I last blogged, and I don't even really have any pressing excuse. It just seems to take forever to do all the endless lists of stuff that I've been saving up to do "when I'm done with my PhD." And daily home maintenance takes forever, too, though you wouldn't know it to look at my house.

Anyway, we took Limelet to the Adventure Farm last weekend, which is the last weekend it's open for the season. He loves it, especially the conveyor belts that feed the goats, the fuzzy chicks, the giant trampoline-pillow things, the fries, the water pumps, the...anyway. We like it, too. It's big enough to be interesting, but small enough not to be overwhelming.

Limelet is doing really well. He actually likes daycare now, and yesterday when I dropped him off he smiled and blew me a kiss. He's also become much more outgoing with others. At the park the other day he asked a slightly bigger boy if he wanted to go down the slide together, and started a conversation about the giant slide at the Adventure Farm.

We both have our (regular) flu shots now, which is good (Daddy still needs his). Limelet asked the nurse if she was going to give him a shot--he was excited about it. I tried to warn him that it might hurt, but he was still a little taken aback by the ouch. Nevertheless he was very brave, and then at bathtime gave Daddy and me scores of "shots" and insisted that we say "ow" and otherwise act like it hurt.

Guess it's a good thing I got him a doctor coat and kit awaiting for Christmas, although he still wears his firefighter outfit every. single. day. At least now he wears the nice shiny and sturdy new one I got him instead of the flimsy, hole-ridden one with the buckles falling off that he'd been wearing for months. It took Halloween to get him to wear the new one, but now he likes it. Limelet's such a big boy now, not even very toddler-like anymore. He's moved on from using the term "ducka" to "construction vehicle," though I don't know exactly when that happened.

His mood has also been very good generally, and even his sleep isn't too bad since we gave up on trying to get him to sleep earlier than 10. If it wasn't for that bloody late two-hour-long nap at daycare, we could do it, but it just won't work with that nap. This means that we never have even the hope of an hour or two to ourselves. However, it also means that he won't wake up for four hours in the middle of the night, and then have a screwed-up sleep schedule for three or four days, to be repeated ad infinitum. We just all go to bed at 10 (we usually read after he sleeps, if only for a few minutes), and then all wake at 6:30 or 7:00.

His eating habits are as strange as ours. He loves sardines and cous cous, but doesn't particularly like peanut-butter sandwiches. Figures. The other day when I picked him up from daycare I brought him a hot homemade whole-wheat waffle and a sippy cup of herbal tea to have on the ride home. He loved it. He also always wants his own tea when we have ours, so I usually make him some decaf.

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Now We Are Three

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:46:00 +0000

Limelet is three today! We will do his birthday stuff tomorrow (balloon store, presents, cake) as it will be Saturday, but we did get cupcakes for his daycare class today. It turns out that his little "best friend" in class has a birthday the day before his.

Limelet definitely speaks two languages now: English and American. The other day I was in the kitchen with him and he told me he wanted to peel a buh-neah-nuh. Then TheLimey walked in and Limelet told him he wanted to peel a buh-- he stopped himself-- a bih-nah-nah. He also sometimes drops his terminal r's on words and not at other times, depending who he's talking to.

After three weeks of trying the earlier bedtime of 9 or even 9:30, last night we gave up and went back to 10-ish. If Limelet wasn't getting that bloody two-hour nap (and so late in the day!) at daycare, I'm certain we could do it. But that nap just tips it.

If he goes to bed even as early as 9:30, it's just too early--Limelet wakes after just one sleep cycle and then stays awake for 3-4 hours. That usually means he goes to sleep at 9-9:30, then wakes up at 1-2am, struggles to go back to sleep for an hour, an hour and a half (he really tries--just can't close the deal), then he's simply broad awake until 5 am. And therefore so am I. It's exhausting It's also meant that TheLimey has had to go sleep in the office just to be able to get to work, because he can't be going to sleep at 5 am and getting up for work at 6. It really ruins the entire day to for me and Limelet be up the entire night, and has a ripple effect into the next several days. It messes with his daycare attendance, wioth my routine (such as it is), and everything.

It's maddening, because everything else about the daycare is really great. Except that they're ruining our lives with this frikkin' naptime!

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Big Boy

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Yesterday when Limelet went potty, he stood up! Just like that. Apparently they've already taught him in day care. I didn't know they'd be that throrough, but--it's working.

In other news, he's sick (home yesterday and today with congestion and fever), so his dental procedure for tomorrow has been canceled. Rescheduled, rather. I really wanted it over with, but it can't be helped.

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Verbaltude

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:08:00 +0000

Limelet seems to be undergoing a verbal development spurt. This week. He's suddenly started sounding a lot more grown-up in his speech, though I think some of the things he's yoinked from daycare "teachers," or us, or even videos. But ya gotta start with something, right? He says things that make us, his parents, look at one another in perplexity (Where did he get that phrase? We don't say it!)

The other day we heard that he told another child "stop your tears." ??!! It has to be something his teacher says, as neither of us says that. The daycare teacher told us about it with pride, as evidence of his growing confidence with other children. Well, we don't want him to be downright mean! I hope he wasn't too mean.

He's also suddenly started asking "why?" about everything all of a sudden--I don't think he really knows what why means, but he gets that it evokes a response about whatever we're discussing. And he says it with such feeling. For example, TheLimey and I were discussing the tuna roll I had just made for dinner. Limelet: "Tuna roll? Whyyyy?" It was pretty hilarious. Finally, the other day he spouted back something I've said occasionally for years without even thinking about it. "Mama, I want da other nursie. Dis one's tapped out." I couldn't stop laughing. My laughter made Limelet laugh while nursing, which was also funny.

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Oh Yeah...It's Potty Time

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Limelet has been peeing on the potty several times a day most days now and is usually dry overnight. I was going to use that one-day method of potty training that uses positive reinforcement, but he's just grown into it himself before I got around to it. The one thing I did do right was to scuttle his kid-potty and get a wide, stable footstool for use on the big-people potty. He just did not want to use that little plastic one, especially since the potties at daycare are normal toilets (though a bit small). He climbs right up and sits down. It's very cute. He even did a poop on the potty for Daddy last weekend, while I was napping. Yay Limelet!

Basically, this means that when he ages out of diapers we'll be starting a whole new diaper cycle with the new one, for about a 6-year-long stint of diaper changing.

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Beach

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:42:00 +0000

We finally got a chance to take Limelet to a beach over the weekend. I found a state park that's about an hour away. It's the first long-ish car trip he's been on in....I don't know; a really long time, anyway. Well, Limelet absolutely loved the beach. There was a thunderstorm in the afternoon, but at least we got in a good long morning of digging in the sand and paddling in the water. He was really upset to leave, of course. I can't wait to take him again.

Limelet is thriving in his new classroom. He likes his teachers and talks to them spontaneously (I've seen it), and goes readily to them in the morning when I drop him off. It's just a way better situation. Limelet now discerns between cumulus and cirrus clouds (learned in daycare), and sings little songs that I have to look up online to figure out what they are. They have the same super-late, super-long naptime as the rest of the center (1-3pm), so he just doesn't go to sleep until 10pm. It's ridiculous, I know. But if we put him to bed earlier, he's awake from 2-5am, which is way worse.

When we were at the state park, there was a woman there with three children ranging in age from maybe 4 to 10. We first started noticing her when her daughter was playing in the sand with Limelet. They were happily pouring water into sandy holes near the water's edge, when the mother started closely directing into exactly which hole her daughter should pour the water, and in what manner. "No, not that one--the other one. No--inside the hole!" Geez, I thought, here come anxiety disorders galore for this child. Moments later, the mother started badgering her about how her tummy looked, and asking whether she had just eaten a lot of food or something. I tell you, this kid was a skinny-to-normal four-year-old kid (and very cute). The mother was quite heavy, so it was no leap of imagination to see her dumping her own anxieties all over the daughter. Here comes the disordered eating, too, I mentally added.

She continued to loudly harangue, micro-manage, and viciously nag her kids, especially singling out the daughter and one of the two boys for whatever reason. (Nice vacation for them, huh?) This culminated shortly before we left, when she screamed at her son, who did not want to go near a busy nest of massive hornets at one end of the beach. She wanted him to get something or cross that area for some reason; I don't know. What she shrieked was "If you don't get over there right now I am going to pull down your pants and spank you in front of the entire beach for being a sissy about some bees!" And then as an aside to me muttered that it was as if a monster was going to jump out of the beach and bite him. Well, it was--it just wasn't the hornets.

I just don't get how someone can think that's even close to okay to say to their kids at ALL, let alone imagine that it's okay to scream it in public. I know we all lose our tempers sometimes, but this wasn't losing her temper--this was hours of just miserable, wretched nagging.

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Happy

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:53:00 +0000

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.

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Fireman Lost

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:43:00 +0000

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.

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Random Bits

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:59:00 +0000

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.

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Kerpow!

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:37:00 +0000

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]

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Crazy Bus

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:18:00 +0000

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.

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Bear Affair ride

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:14:00 +0000

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?

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Sick!

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:08:00 +0000

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!

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Miraculous!

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:46:00 +0000

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.

Click here to play

Post-Move

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:34:00 +0000

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.

Click here to play

We're Not Alone, But...

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:50:00 +0000

A rambling post because I'm never NOT sleep-deprived any more. It was another night in which Limelet kept us / me awake most of the night. His sleep is just so messed up since being sick. He didn't go to sleep until almost 11 last night, then woke up at 1 (briefly, and went back to sleep just fine with no nursie), then again at 3--when he ended up staying awake until after 6am. I would put him on my shoulder and walk around a little, or rock him in my lap while sitting (his 2nd-preferred ways to get to sleep) and he would drop off, but then when I sat on the bed or lay down he'd wake up again and beg for nursie. He really wants nursie to get back to sleep.

Night-weaning has been such a huge pain for all of us (especially Limelet, no doubt). If he hadn't been such an agonized teether I could have done it a year ago. So now that he's finally done teething, he's getting this steady stream of illnesses that interrupt the process instead.

I have now instituted night-weaning three times, (the first two times went as planned and then--BAM! Ear infections) and I am bloody well not doing it again, as I insisted at the last, horrible, traumatic time where he was sobbing pathetically for nursie. The first night is always just awful, awful, awful and traumatizing. He's always okay by the second night, doesn't seem traumatized and rejected by the whole "nursies are sleeping" thing, although he might not like it. So we are NOT going to initiate the process all over again--we're going to get through it this time. This going back-and-forth thing can't be good for him. He needs consistency, and he needs to practice falling asleep without nursing.

Just--last night, he had a lot of trouble doing it. I am feeling proud of myself because I managed to talk myself through the irrational angry impulses and be (mostly) soothing, even after repeated almost-sleeps and recurring getting-ups for three hours.

At 4am TheLimey recommended that I just give in and nurse (he was being woken up a lot, too, of course), but there was no way I was going to do that. It's like saying no, and then giving them the thing they wanted at the store just because they cried about it enough. It trains them to "press the bar more frequently" or cry more just to get that thing.

TheLimey wonders if we shouldn't wait a couple months to try this again because then at least I won't be working so many hours. However, Limelet's dental procedure is coming up in just a few weeks. He can't have anything, even water, after midnight, so no nursing. I want him to be used to not nursing at night by then and okay with it. If we go ahead and let him nurse all night up to that night, and then stop just for the night, what's going to happen is another traumatic "first night" of sobbing pathetically all night, and both me and Limelet being traumatized and weepy the night before his procedure. Just what I don't need, and neither does he.

That's not the only reason I want to finally get through / past this, but it certainly is a galvanizing factor. I also want to stop with all the ambivalence already! and just give him the one option: no nursie at night. Sleep through! Or get back to sleep some other way. Rather than, "well, some nights you have to sleep through, but other nights I may give in if you cry the right way, or for long enough, or whatever." That's too hard and confusing.

We were doing that thing where you limit night nursing to before 11pm and after 6am, (7 hours of no nursie), but parts of that are not working. As someone warned me, he has started to anticipate the 6am nursing and to awake earlier and earlier for it. Because it's still so darn dark at 6am, or even 7, I can't use the "wait until it's light" technique. I think he does not know what the difference is between nursing at 6am and at any other time in the middle of the night, which confuses the issue for him and creates inconsistency. So that will have to be the next thing to change--the first nursie of the day will have to be either when it's light (which is too late to get up for work and day care), or after we get up and go downstairs in the morning, just to differentiate.

Of course, then I have to figure out how I am going to get in my 10-minute morning routine (bathroom, wash face, throw on clothes) which I usually do while he's sleeping in the morning after his 6am nursing. If he's awake, he totally freaks out that I'm in the bathroom, especially in the mornings when he knows we are all getting ready to go our separate ways. It's really not fun trying to get washed and dressed while your tiny kid is screaming miserably and hanging on your leg. I really hate starting the morning like that, for him, too.

Looks like a lot of other co-sleeping parents are having the same issues we are . In one sense this helps, because I feel like I'm not crazy. But in another sense, I want to hear that these people found X, Y, Z to work once they implemented it, rather than "this is awful for all of us, and we can't escape it!"
Click here to play

My Son, the Sparkly Vampire

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:47:00 +0000

In the past few days more than one person has randomly told me that Limelet looks "just like" the guy from Twilight. Which I haven't seen and probably won't.

Unfortunately, he's just too young to capitalize on it because he's 2-1/2. By the time he's even in middle school, no one will remember the movie. (Except way-older people.)

Oh well; he'll still be good looking. ;)

Neverending Story (of Sickness)

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:42:00 +0000

Limelet was sick again this week, with similar symptoms to his previous ear infections, i.e.: a few vomit episodes apparently out of the blue, sort of feverish, fussy, cranky, loss of appetite, wants everything he can't have, exhausted but can't sleep (meaning Limelet and I both got 2-3 hours sleep a few nights in a row--well, he actually got a few more hours than that, but I was facilitating it). The sleep deprivation would have been difficult but tolerable if I wasn't working [outside the home] because I'd take a nap with him. But going out to work on that amount of sleep is awful. It's still amazing to me how functional I am with almost no sleep for nights on end. Highly unpleasant, but amazing. Nevertheless, it still meant that I got almost nothing done at work those days because I simply couldn't, which means that all the work I've been waiting to do over spring break when students are gone--hasn't gotten done. Also took a day off to take Limelet to doctor, so my five long-awaited work days have just evaporated.

Good news: no ear infection this time, just some viral illness! So that means it will only last a few days, most likely--it's probably almost over already.

I am still angry at myself for how cranky I get at him after just a few nights of sleeplessness. Well, not when he's just sitting there being normal, but when he's being unhappy and miserable because he's sick and exhausted and miserable, too. I just lose my patience entirely when he goes to pieces over something trivial. I've even had the (resisted) impulse to spank him when he's screaming, despite knowing that it won't actually help anything at all (even if I thought it was okay to do so). I wish that didn't come up for me, but there it is. I had to leave the room once and ask TheLimey to go in and watch him for a minute as I was becoming unreasonably angry. (Thank goodness I have a partner so I can do that.) Of course, then I feel horribly guilty because Limelet is crying his guts out in the other room and feeling abandoned on top of whatever misery he was already experiencing. Then when he goes to sleep he continues with little sobs while he's sleeping. Terrible!

I am so sick of this whole constant, constant, constant sickness thing. It darn well better end after a year as everyone says. I can't imagine how people cope who have a child with a serious chronic illness, as opposed to Limelet's (and our) constant minor-to-moderate illnesses. I imagine they have to marshal more resources, or it just wouldn't work.

Five, Six, Who's Counting?

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:51:00 +0000

I realized the other day that Limelet has been sick five times in the past six weeks. Two of those illnesses were ear infections, which we (his parents) didn't get, but we got the other things. And this pattern has been pretty stable since last September. We were just discussing the other day how before one has kids, one hears parents say things like "once they're in school/day care, you'll be sick all the time, at least during the first year." Which I guess we heard but--didn't really hear. We really are sick all the flippin' time. You know how great it feels to get over an illness when you've been struggling through each day tired and bleary, or coughing, or with diarrhea, or throwing up, or whatever?

Well, I used to know that feeling of relief, too. But now, it's downright unusual to have a day (or even group of days--imagine!) in which we don't feel awful. It certainly makes everyday life a lot harder. We were so excited to have Limelet's teething finally end so I could start night weaning. Which went well for about 5 days. But this constant stream of illnesses just blows any kind of routine--day or night--completely out of the water. It's more a matter of just surviving day to day. Who feels well enough to cook something this weekend so we can eat it during the week? How can we keep Limelet occupied and distracted from his symptoms without having to expend too much energy because we're too tired to play with him properly this evening? This has led to way too many viewings of Arthur and Mary Poppins for my conscience.

Oh, and speaking of his teeth, we finally were able to get him to the dentist. He got my oral bacteria instead of TheLimey's, it's pretty clear--he has seven (7!) cavities already and will have to get general anesthesia to get them taken care of. Since TheLimey took him in, he only got a mild version of the erroneously informed anti-nursing lecture, but I'm sure if it had been me it would have been more accusatory. Okay, I don't know that, but I'm betting on it. I'm going to take the path of avoidance as far as possible.

In other news, Limelet is really starting to engage in imaginative play. He makes "food" out of Play-Doh and pretend to eat it (luckily is not much of a non-food eater so far), and reads books to his "action figure", Ducka Guy. He saw that Ducka Guy was standing in such a way that he appeared to be looking at a book, and asked him "You want a book? A libwawy book? How 'bout dis one?" And then read Scuffy the Tugboat to Ducka Guy by turning the pages and describing what was happening in the pictures. It was unbearably cute.

Babywearing Humor

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:30:00 +0000

This cracked me up. Advice on babywearing during a zombie apocalypse . I think babywearing is most appropriate during any apocalypse, but I had not yet considered zombies, specifically.

Ears, Ears, Ears

lizilizi1@yahoo.com (doctorlizardo) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:59:00 +0000

Poor Limelet.

He just finished a course of (much-loathed) antibiotics for ear infection a bit over a week ago, and it looks like he has another one already. This will be the third time since he started day care. He never had them before (though a couple of times his ears were a little iffy, they never actually got to a bad stage).

He went to his well-baby visit last week, and got his second Hep A (as planned by me) and also a chicken pox vaccination (one of two, which the doc talked my husband into, and I'm still kinda ticked about). Anyway, four days after the vaxes (Friday night) he came down with a fever and threw up once in the middle of the night. Of course I was trying to get back to night-weaning that week, so once again I feel like a monster because he was sick. He was in decent spirits all weekend, at least in the daytime, but had a fever the whole time. I attributed this to the vaccination reaction, though this may or may not be the case. Maybe his ears were just getting bad again and caused both the fever and the throwing up; I don't know. TheLimey is convinced that the vaxes caused it all.

Limelet didn't sleep very well Saturday night (so I slept about 3 hours) and then last night it became obvious that it was his ears again, so in the middle of the night we dragged the blankets and stuff downstairs so I could sleep in the chair with him. He whimpered and slept only fitfully and intermittently for the remaining few hours (so again, I got about three hours total sleep last night, too). Once it was daytime, he was cheerful again (if a little fragile and clingy). He feels okay when upright, basically. This morning he has an appointment at 10:30 to which TheLimey will take him, since he is still not back to work yet (second interview Wednesday, though!)

We went all out and spoiled him over the weekend, really just to have some way to help him feel less miserable. It was too cold to go outside, and Limelet was too sick to be around others much, so we were trapped in the house. I got several "new" videos at the Starvation Army, and on Sunday Daddy broke down and went to Toy-R-Us and got him a little train (the generic version of the wooden Thomas trains) and some new Play-Doh. Also, we let him eat whatever he wanted, since his appetite was so down we were happy to have him eat anything at all, even ice cream.

I know that a naturopathic treatment for ear infections is to cut dairy out entirely. Maybe we will be trying that soon.

When do their ears (internally) change shape enough to grow out of this?