Weekend Odds and Ends

As I mentioned in my last post, Jacob was really great over the weekend.  I have a feeling that's what a weekend with a "normal" five-year-old should feel like--a couple unfortunate moments but very functional in general.  I'm not sure what happened to do that, but getting his Valentine's Day gifts definitely perked him up a bit.

He helped me try to make Carter smile for his pictures, and even almost seemed like he was interacting with him a bit.  I mentioned how he seemed very interested by Carter's hockey stick birthday gift (in a non-jealous way), and he just seemed more willing to help out with retrieving toys and things like that.  He just didn't argue as much and was really delightful to chat with.  There was still some potty talk but it was limited, and the hitting was nearly non-existent.  It all sounds really normal to most people, but to us it's definitely a change.  It was so ridiculously nice, especially considering all of the stuff that was going on all weekend. 

His good behavior lasted right into Monday, where we sent Carter to daycare and spent the day with Jacob.  I almost wrecked it because I had a couple hours where I literally could not pull myself out of bed.  I don't know if my body gave up after a busy week, or what.  Eventually I did get moving and we went out for a quick lunch followed by a couple rounds of Glow Golf (yes, glow in the dark mini golf) as his reward for getting the top color on his classroom's behavior scale a couple weeks ago.  We finished it off with Frosties at Wendy's.

Monday night got a little more challenging and he keeps saying that he doesn't feel great, so I'm thinking of asking the doctor if we can get some bloodwork done on him, both to see if there's any sort of status report we can get now that he's been gluten-free for about four months, or if anything else seems amiss.  It's just random stuff--he says he's tired, complains of random aches and pains, and still seems to have some stomach aches and nausea that never amount to anything.  Half the time he's complaining he still seems like his normal, active self five minutes later, so it's hard to tell if he's making excuses, or making small things seem worse than they are, or if something's really bothering him and he's just sort of battling through it.  With two friends with kids with cancer, I guess you can never be too sure, right?  In the meantime, there's a delicate balance between being sensitive to whatever might be bothering him, but not buying in so completely that he thinks he can pull the sick card whenever he wants to skip school or other events.  My mom used to have a fever/vomiting rule about staying home from school, and while I know there are some other things that might warrant a day off, I'm not in a position to be able to stay home just in case something is up.  It stinks, but that's how it goes.

So, we're all back to the grind now.  Work for Craig and me, daycare for Carter, and a lacrosse clinic and the school district's February break version of the afterschool program for Jacob.  We'll see how that goes.  Carter's one-year well visit is on Friday, and I'm hoping to get some insight into transitioning him off of his fancy formula now that it seems he can tolerate at least some dairy.  I just don't want to overwhelm his system, so I am pondering switching to sensitive formula for a bit then working up to real milk, or just very slowly adding milk, though it would sort of defeat the purpose of the pricey formula.  We'll see what she has to say.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here is the official set of pictures from Carter's first 12 months.  I can't believe this project is over already, as it doesn't seem like it could have been started 11 months ago!  The progression is amazing because you just don't see the day-to-day changes, but what a difference a month can make!  I'm definitely thinking back these days to the beginning of my maternity leave a year ago.  Oh, what I wouldn't give for more dedicated time like that again!

Amazing!  What a year it has been...and I can't believe how much he's going to change in the next year based on what I see looking back on pictures of Jacob.  This parenthood thing is quite the trip, and I love my front row seat!