Every year around this time I start to panic a little bit. Or a lot. Last year I was pregnant but I had the benefit of a week off early in December to get my bearings a bit and prepare as much as I could. This year the Christmas season is extra short, I have two kids, and Christmas is less than two weeks away...and I feel like I've done almost nothing. I felt good going into the season because I bought a handful of gifts back in November (and a few others earlier in the year), but now we're two weeks out and I've done almost nothing else.
I have a full list on my iPod of all of the people we need to buy for. Some of them have suggestions, some of them do not. People have been asking for suggestions for almost everyone in our family, and I'm stumped enough with what I have to buy. Jacob and Carter do not need any more toys, and Carter is all stocked up on clothes thanks to hand-me-downs from his brother and three cousins (four if you count his supply of Nike sneakers, too). Most of the stuff Craig wants is best managed by gift cards since it's more complicated than the average family shopper needs to do. I have a few things on my list, but most are more than most people should be spending. Still, I'm trying to think of suggestions for all the well-meaning askers, but I'm coming up short.
Half of my issue is deciding what to buy, and the other half is actually getting out to do it. My parents may come visit this weekend (weather and health issues depending) so I can have some time to do some running around. I know I can do online shopping, but I'd rather not spend a crap load on shipping, nor do I want to risk not getting things in time as we get closer to the big day. I think we're at a disadvantage when it comes to shopping because we live so far away from most of our family. We don't get as many of those casual conversations that might spark an idea, so we're stuck going off of lists most of the time. I'd definitely rather get someone something they'll like and use, but between working directly off a list and getting a nice, generic gift card, it all tends to feel a little impersonal. When all else fails I still value liking the gift above all else, but there's no doubt it's extra awesome when you think of the perfect surprise gift for someone. I just feel like I can't seem to do that quite often enough!
Every year, and this year in particular, I hear so many people saying that we need to get rid of the Christmas stress and appreciate the reason for the season. I couldn't agree more, but I don't know if the people who will end up gift-less as a result of that pursuit would be as understanding. It's all well and good to say it, but at the end of the day the gifts need to be bought. I've heard and seen a couple things this year saying that you don't have to do every tradition, that you don't have to bake cookies or go to every tree lighting or whatever...but honestly, for me, that's the stuff that helps Christmas feel like Christmas, and if I'm just siting around "appreciating" the season, it's going to come and go without any real memories to take away. Ultimately it's an impossible situation. Do everything and you're stressed, do nothing and it feels empty. The in-between isn't much better, because then you're picking and choosing, and becoming even more aware of what you're missing.
I think I'm having an even harder time this year because of all of the issues we've been dealing with as a family. From Jacob's behavior issues to Carter's food issues, from Craig's Nana being sick to just feeling generally overwhelmed by life most days, it's hard to feel Christmas joy or find peace in the quiet moments. Usually by now I've been moved to tears by one Christmas song or another, but perhaps this year all my tears have been spent. That sounds so depressing and so cynical, but this year more than ever I am buried under the burdens of life in general, and Christmas is only making it harder. Just trying to get through the day's usual stuff is hard enough, let alone adding Christmas shopping and other activities into the mix.
You might think that having a baby makes Christmas that much more special, and to some degree it does, but let's face it--he's really not that into it yet. I think by next year he'll be talking a bit and will have more of an appreciation for what's going on. This year I know he'll love wrapping paper, since ripping and crunching paper is one of his favorite activities. The other thing that does give me a little Christmas spirit is watching his face light up when he looks at the tree. Most days I'll pull him out of his car seat when we get home and walk over to turn on the tree. The way his face lights up when the tree "magically" illuminates is classic. I need to try to catch it on video one of these days, because it's that adorable.
But truly, I'm just bummed...and stressed. I want to enjoy this time of year so badly. I want to look at the pretty lights, eat some cookies (which, of course, are far more complicated this year with the whole gluten-free thing), listen to the music, and ponder God's great gift. Instead I spend my evenings searching the internet for the perfect gift for everyone and wondering when I'll actually be able to make a decision about it or go to a brick-and-mortar store to buy it. I look at the dwindling days and our busy schedule and I freak out, pretty sure that this will be the year it doesn't all get done. Every year I feel that way, but with a lot of work and a few late nights, it does. Nothing feels better than hopping in the car, usually on the 23rd, with all of the presents wrapped and packed. That is when I usually can finally relax and enjoy Christmas. But for whatever reason, this year I'm not so sure it's going to happen. And what then?
I have a lot of work to do...but I suppose I should start tonight by getting to bed so I'm not as tired tomorrow!
Friday, December 13, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
The Good Stuff
Despite all of the craziness with Carter this past weekend, we did have a couple better moments. Friday was Craig's birthday, and I managed (possibly for the first time ever) to do a homemade cake for him. We can't exactly run out and get cupcakes at Wegmans anymore, so I took the opportunity to test out Wegmans' gluten-free cake mix. It was a relatively short, dense cake, but it wasn't too bad. I will probably do another test run before Carter's birthday (even though he can't eat the gluten-free cake, I will make one so Jacob and Craig's brother can eat comfortably) to try what a random former pastry chef told us when we were in Florida--add an additional egg and beat it for an extra minute. Still, it was fine. My decorating left a little to be desired, though. I should not write on cakes, it is confirmed. I just need to do star tip letters and all is right with the world. End of story. I just did a little piping along the bottom and topped the cake with round ball sprinkles. Simple but festive. Here's Jacob trying to help blow out the last candle...
On Sunday we had Jacob's Christmas program at church. When I was a kid, we spent a good chunk of our Sunday School time in December, as well as a couple Saturday mornings (I think--I know it was at least one), practicing for our Christmas Eve program. It always seemed like a lot of work. Our current church's program seems a little more haphazard. It's usually in early December, and this year it was at the same time as church instead of on a Sunday afternoon. It was also in the gym instead of the church itself. Considering they couldn't really fit everyone in, I'm thinking they may not do that again. Anyway...Jacob had been there for a couple weeks prior and we did go to the Saturday practice, but that didn't seem like enough time to learn what he needed. Still, they do have a director who prompts them on hand motions and all that, but I was still understandably unsure how things would go. Everything with Jacob is a bit of a crap shoot, but lately he's fancied himself a bit of a performer so we figured this could be right up his alley. Sure enough, he did awesome. I mean, I'm not going to say he knew every word, but he faked it really great when he didn't! He did a good job standing up front for the whole hour, too.
Here's a picture of him doing the motions for one of the songs. Sorry about the quality, it was odd lighting and I was zoomed way in. Also please excuse his hair. It would not behave and he has since gone in for a haircut...
The other big thing from last week was that Carter is getting no less than three more teeth. He's got three on the bottom (the symmetrical fourth is still being stubborn), but suddenly three have busted through on the top. In the picture below you can see the three bottoms, and if you click on the picture to see the zoomed version, you'll see at least two of the three popping through on top!
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| See, the writing ruins it! Someday maybe I'll learn how to write neatly! |
Here's a picture of him doing the motions for one of the songs. Sorry about the quality, it was odd lighting and I was zoomed way in. Also please excuse his hair. It would not behave and he has since gone in for a haircut...
And here is a video of him singing "Go Tell it on the Mountain". He was really into it, and I loved every minute. We don't see that kind of enthusiasm often, so when we do, I will take it!
The other big thing from last week was that Carter is getting no less than three more teeth. He's got three on the bottom (the symmetrical fourth is still being stubborn), but suddenly three have busted through on the top. In the picture below you can see the three bottoms, and if you click on the picture to see the zoomed version, you'll see at least two of the three popping through on top!
I'm very sentimental about these first few batches of teeth. When the first couple come in, I miss the full-on gummy smile that I've loved from the beginning. I love the two bottom teeth phase, though...it is my absolute favorite! It just symbolizes that great time when your baby is smiling and active, but before they start formulating plans of their own to take over the house! There's a joyful simplicity about that period, and when the top teeth come in, it's the beginning of the end. They're old enough to start having opinions (but not old enough to express them in a coherent, clear manner--ugh!), and it changes their whole look from tiny baby to emerging big kid. Still, part of me is excited to see his big boy smile, because it does start us down the road of knowing what he'll look like as a big kid!
Otherwise, we're just hanging in there. I'm totally freaking out about Christmas being two weeks away. Hopefully I'll have a whole post on that one of these days. Carter is still pretty iffy. He got a fever on Monday but it went away in the evening, only to come back (very low) yesterday morning. He was fine by evening, but in the meantime he's gotten a nasty cold with a cough. He's not quite as happy as usual, but it's hard to pinpoint the cause. All of this is making me hope that all of this has been just a weird virus and not the intolerance thing like I feared. There have been a couple other babies in his room at daycare with oddball illnesses--random puking, etc.--so that's making me hope that's what it is. I also had a minor stomach issue last week and Craig hasn't been feeling great in the past day or so, either, so maybe this is just some weird illness that wreaks some havoc with the digestive system for a bit and then goes away. I'm hoping to slowly start to reintroduce the questionable foods to him soon, but it's hard to judge when even his cough is contributing to the vomiting. I just wish he wasn't so skinny already, because this whole not eating much thing isn't helping him put on the weight he needs. And once all of this is over I will have the added task of figuring out what else to feed him to help him bulk up. At least those new teeth should help that task a bit!
So at least parts of the weekend were good, and I hope you enjoyed the proof!
Monday, December 9, 2013
Baby Question Mark
Carter is seriously the best baby I could have asked for. I know I say that a lot, but it is true. He is awesome. He has his moments, certainly, but the thing is that he's so good when you hope your baby is so good...eating, sleeping, when he needs to be patient...and he is. Knock on wood, of course, as everyone knows everything with babies is somewhat of a phase and it can change tomorrow for no apparent reason. Still, he's been such a sweet, chill baby from the beginning that I'm hoping that element of his personality is here to stay. When dealing with Jacob there's a certain element of normalcy that's missing. I don't mean that in a bad way, but let's face it--it's not normal to battle with your child for an hour about clothing or bedtime. And it happens All. The. Time. So, not normal. And I know each kid is different, yada yada yada...but sometimes you just want your kid to be like, "OK, mom." With Jacob, it's rare. With Carter, if he could talk, I think that's how he'd be. Yes, now that he's crawling and getting more mobile he's definitely getting a little fussier about staying in one spot. And when I leave the room for more than a couple minutes (or seconds, depending on his mood), he's not a happy camper. But for the most part, I think he gives us a taste of that normal that Jacob does not right now. And while it's hard to recall how Jacob was as a baby, I think he was fine...but not like this.
Anyway...the one knock on Carter at this point is obviously his eating issues. The rice intolerance is a major challenge. Given that most of the gluten-free foods we eat have some sort of rice flour in them, and that most baby foods use rice because it so rarely causes reactions, it is very hard to feed him. Either foods aren't easy enough for him to eat, or it's something we haven't tested yet, or it's a food that's not easy to make in small quantities. I'm definitely struggling, and it doesn't make me feel much better that he's not really gaining much weight right now. We had his well visit this morning and it was pretty obvious that he's not really gaining like he was. Not sure if it's just a natural growth pattern, or that he's more active now, or if the craziness of this past weekend contributed. Allow me to explain...
Friday morning Carter woke up happy as usual. I took him to daycare, left as he was starting his bottle, and went to work. As I was getting on the elevator, daycare called my cell and told me that he had just thrown up three times. I found this extra strange since he'd been normal and happy right up until I left him. When I got back there to pick him up, he was sleeping but woke up when I tried to move him to his car seat. He seemed happy and comfortable. We spent the day on the living room floor on the designated puke comforter with a bunch of towels and his toys. We played, he napped, and I tried to get stuff done. I gave him some water, which he held down no problem, then some formula. I initially started with just his usual formula just in case it was a stomach bug and he had a touch of temporary lactose intolerance. I'd actually been giving him a half scoop of sensitive formula for the previous week to see how he tolerated the dairy, and he seemed to be doing well. He held down the single ounces of formula I gave him, and I gradually increased the amount. I also gave him the dairy-laced formula again (since I had his daycare bottles sitting there ready to go). He did fine all around. He was in a good mood and kept everything down. It was definitely weird but I was also grateful he was doing so well.
This, of course, got me thinking that this was another intolerance coming out. We'd been doing Cheerios for a few days prior, and then Thursday night I gave him one Yogurt Melt (those little Gerber yogurt drops) because it's one of the few baby finger foods not made with rice. I figured since the dairy-laced bottles had been going well, that was a good next step. Everything seemed fine until Friday morning, and the way it all went down seemed eerily reminiscent of his rice reactions back in August. Projectile vomiting, fine afterward. But he'd been on oatmeal (and indirectly wheat) for a month, and dairy for a week. The only new thing in either of those snacks was corn starch in the Cheerios. Still, it seemed a little odd that he didn't vomit until three days in and the next morning to boot (rather than a couple hours later like usual). But it did take him a week to react to rice, too, so who knows?
Saturday morning I gave him a regular bottle, and I think then he spit up a bit more than I would have expected. At that point I thought maybe his belly wasn't ready for dairy, so I cut out the other formula and stuck to the Nutramigen. At lunch I gave him some squash and oatmeal. He wasn't really into it, but he eventually ate it. Later on he had another pretty significant spit-up, which got me nervous again. Still, he seemed fine aside from being super tired because our busy day (Jacob's Christmas program practice--during which we went to the mall--along with Jacob's lacrosse game and a Knighthawks preseason game) kept getting in the way of his napping. Every time he'd almost fall asleep, I'd have to move him and he'd wake up.
Sunday he was fine all day. He still didn't seem particularly eager to eat solids, but he did well with tiny pieces of banana at breakfast and drank his morning bottle relatively well. He fell asleep mid-bottle in the afternoon, probably because his lack of naps Saturday left him extra sleepy. He took a long nap and initially woke up a little cranky before conking out again for a little longer. He woke up happy from there and while he didn't finish his dinner bottle or have much interest in solids, he still seemed happy enough. As I was giving him his bedtime bottle, he stalled out with a couple ounces to go. He didn't seem uncomfortable, just distracted, and then he puked up a good amount. Not the whole bottle like he's seemingly done before, but still, quite a bit, mostly all over me. And then he was fine.
So...seeing as he hadn't had dairy but had eaten oatmeal, was it that? Or did his stomach bug take a break and decide it wasn't done? He was fine again this morning and I definitely felt like I stumped the doctor at his well visit this morning when I recalled the weekend's events. She said to continue on as normal and see if the upped dose on his one reflux med helps. I think I'm actually going to cut out the oatmeal and dairy for a couple more days, then start introducing them back in one at a time. Hopefully by then if it is a bug, it will be gone and he'll be fine. If not, I'll have to keep experimenting. That is torturous, though, because making your kid sick (and bracing for the puke) is so awful.
Oh, and to complicate matters further, he spiked a fever at daycare today. That could be the next step of a bug, or it could just be a reaction to the one immunization he got this morning. He seemed miserable when I picked him up from daycare, but after a while he seemed to feel better. His fever went away, too. Tomorrow is another day, of course!
But seriously, the questions just keep coming. It seems almost impossible to know what's going on with him right now. Sick? Intolerance? Who knows? I just want him healthy and I want to stop worrying about how skinny he is. That kid is such a source of joy that I just want to get all of this hard stuff behind us and focus on the good. We need as much of that as we can get.
Anyway...the one knock on Carter at this point is obviously his eating issues. The rice intolerance is a major challenge. Given that most of the gluten-free foods we eat have some sort of rice flour in them, and that most baby foods use rice because it so rarely causes reactions, it is very hard to feed him. Either foods aren't easy enough for him to eat, or it's something we haven't tested yet, or it's a food that's not easy to make in small quantities. I'm definitely struggling, and it doesn't make me feel much better that he's not really gaining much weight right now. We had his well visit this morning and it was pretty obvious that he's not really gaining like he was. Not sure if it's just a natural growth pattern, or that he's more active now, or if the craziness of this past weekend contributed. Allow me to explain...
Friday morning Carter woke up happy as usual. I took him to daycare, left as he was starting his bottle, and went to work. As I was getting on the elevator, daycare called my cell and told me that he had just thrown up three times. I found this extra strange since he'd been normal and happy right up until I left him. When I got back there to pick him up, he was sleeping but woke up when I tried to move him to his car seat. He seemed happy and comfortable. We spent the day on the living room floor on the designated puke comforter with a bunch of towels and his toys. We played, he napped, and I tried to get stuff done. I gave him some water, which he held down no problem, then some formula. I initially started with just his usual formula just in case it was a stomach bug and he had a touch of temporary lactose intolerance. I'd actually been giving him a half scoop of sensitive formula for the previous week to see how he tolerated the dairy, and he seemed to be doing well. He held down the single ounces of formula I gave him, and I gradually increased the amount. I also gave him the dairy-laced formula again (since I had his daycare bottles sitting there ready to go). He did fine all around. He was in a good mood and kept everything down. It was definitely weird but I was also grateful he was doing so well.
This, of course, got me thinking that this was another intolerance coming out. We'd been doing Cheerios for a few days prior, and then Thursday night I gave him one Yogurt Melt (those little Gerber yogurt drops) because it's one of the few baby finger foods not made with rice. I figured since the dairy-laced bottles had been going well, that was a good next step. Everything seemed fine until Friday morning, and the way it all went down seemed eerily reminiscent of his rice reactions back in August. Projectile vomiting, fine afterward. But he'd been on oatmeal (and indirectly wheat) for a month, and dairy for a week. The only new thing in either of those snacks was corn starch in the Cheerios. Still, it seemed a little odd that he didn't vomit until three days in and the next morning to boot (rather than a couple hours later like usual). But it did take him a week to react to rice, too, so who knows?
Saturday morning I gave him a regular bottle, and I think then he spit up a bit more than I would have expected. At that point I thought maybe his belly wasn't ready for dairy, so I cut out the other formula and stuck to the Nutramigen. At lunch I gave him some squash and oatmeal. He wasn't really into it, but he eventually ate it. Later on he had another pretty significant spit-up, which got me nervous again. Still, he seemed fine aside from being super tired because our busy day (Jacob's Christmas program practice--during which we went to the mall--along with Jacob's lacrosse game and a Knighthawks preseason game) kept getting in the way of his napping. Every time he'd almost fall asleep, I'd have to move him and he'd wake up.
Sunday he was fine all day. He still didn't seem particularly eager to eat solids, but he did well with tiny pieces of banana at breakfast and drank his morning bottle relatively well. He fell asleep mid-bottle in the afternoon, probably because his lack of naps Saturday left him extra sleepy. He took a long nap and initially woke up a little cranky before conking out again for a little longer. He woke up happy from there and while he didn't finish his dinner bottle or have much interest in solids, he still seemed happy enough. As I was giving him his bedtime bottle, he stalled out with a couple ounces to go. He didn't seem uncomfortable, just distracted, and then he puked up a good amount. Not the whole bottle like he's seemingly done before, but still, quite a bit, mostly all over me. And then he was fine.
So...seeing as he hadn't had dairy but had eaten oatmeal, was it that? Or did his stomach bug take a break and decide it wasn't done? He was fine again this morning and I definitely felt like I stumped the doctor at his well visit this morning when I recalled the weekend's events. She said to continue on as normal and see if the upped dose on his one reflux med helps. I think I'm actually going to cut out the oatmeal and dairy for a couple more days, then start introducing them back in one at a time. Hopefully by then if it is a bug, it will be gone and he'll be fine. If not, I'll have to keep experimenting. That is torturous, though, because making your kid sick (and bracing for the puke) is so awful.
Oh, and to complicate matters further, he spiked a fever at daycare today. That could be the next step of a bug, or it could just be a reaction to the one immunization he got this morning. He seemed miserable when I picked him up from daycare, but after a while he seemed to feel better. His fever went away, too. Tomorrow is another day, of course!
But seriously, the questions just keep coming. It seems almost impossible to know what's going on with him right now. Sick? Intolerance? Who knows? I just want him healthy and I want to stop worrying about how skinny he is. That kid is such a source of joy that I just want to get all of this hard stuff behind us and focus on the good. We need as much of that as we can get.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Parent-Teacher Conference
So....today was Jacob's parent-teacher conference at school. Given the results of his first report card (good academically, bad behaviorally), I knew it would be a rough meeting. We were there for a good 45 minutes, discussing and rehashing all of the stuff we've been dealing with for the past three months. What we deal with at home is far worse than what they deal with at school, but at school there are 20 other kids to manage at any given time so it's significantly more complicated when you have a child that needs guidance every step of the way.
And that, I suppose, is the overriding issue at school. At home we deal with violence and complete disregard for whatever we tell him. At school he just cannot stay on task. We deal with that at home, as well, of course, but at school where the structure is so important, it is impossible. The usual morning tasks that take most kids 5-10 minutes takes Jacob a full half hour if the teacher isn't on him every step of the way. He then misses out on drawing and writing in his journal like his classmates. Projects that take his friends 30 minutes to do stretch across days with him. Part of the issue is that he gets distracted. The other part is that he gets so tied up in the details that he can't focus on the important stuff. He will draw a scarily realistic depiction of a basketball court, but by the time he's done with that, he's blown all the time that he was supposed to spend writing about it. On top of it, he usually distracts his friends by singing or talking, and lately he's gotten a little disrespectful when he's asked to stop.
They've tried a lot of the usual tricks to keep him on task. They have pictures of each morning task so he knows what order they go in. They've tried a "cardboard office" where they put up a barrier to give him his own space, and they've tried putting him at a desk in the corner with less distractions. Nothing works. On one had I feel their pain. We've tried everything, too. But on the other hand I'm frustrated because they've collectively dealt with a heck of a lot more kids than we have. There has to be some kid out there that was more distracted than Jacob, and there has to be something they tried for them that worked eventually. Or maybe he's just that special.
They talked about some other things to try--for example, giving him a tangible way to mark off when he's done with a task (like Velcro pictures or marking it off with a dry erase marker) or setting up rewards (game/TV time) when he completes tasks successfully. We can certainly institute those at home, as well, but my caveat every time someone recommends any sort of chart or reward is that when he gets in one of his moods, nothing sways him. No matter how many times we tell him in the morning that the sooner he gets ready, the more time he'll have to play, it doesn't motivate him to stay on task...so will a series of tangible checkmarks to "earn" the playtime do it? No idea. We can try.
I do wonder a bit if all that they're asking of him is intimidating him. They're trying to have these kids try to write sentences when they're still learning to sound out words. He's not very good at it, in case you're wondering, and I have to guess that for a detailed perfectionist like him, it might drive him nuts to the point he doesn't even want to try. That's just a guess, but even his teacher admitted that they're asking a lot of the kids these days.
I know that it's very hard for me to know how to work with him, because school came naturally to me. I did have to study to do well, but I'd guess that my retention with what I did was better than average. So to have a kid that can't focus and doesn't love school, it's really hard for me to know how to manage that. We also don't have a lot of time in the day to try to make things fun. I feel completely stuck on that front, because obviously we both have to work. I'm feeling very frustrated with this whole situation and I'm just not sure where we go from here. There are so many things that need fixing, and no good answers yet. Oh, the school psychologist did call today and say she started evaluating him yesterday. She enjoyed her time with him and he's scoring well on everything she's done so far. The speech pathologist that we talked to today said the same. There's no question he's smart and very verbal, but the challenge is channeling all of that into something productive and efficient.
I won't lie, it's getting hard hearing the same story over and over again. So much potential, so little action. My heart is just breaking because I don't know how to help him, and he can't seem to help himself. We just have to keep trying. We don't have a choice. But this is, by far, the hardest thing I have ever gone through, and I don't know how I'm going to keep going. I will, but only with God's help, I guess. Prayers, please...
And that, I suppose, is the overriding issue at school. At home we deal with violence and complete disregard for whatever we tell him. At school he just cannot stay on task. We deal with that at home, as well, of course, but at school where the structure is so important, it is impossible. The usual morning tasks that take most kids 5-10 minutes takes Jacob a full half hour if the teacher isn't on him every step of the way. He then misses out on drawing and writing in his journal like his classmates. Projects that take his friends 30 minutes to do stretch across days with him. Part of the issue is that he gets distracted. The other part is that he gets so tied up in the details that he can't focus on the important stuff. He will draw a scarily realistic depiction of a basketball court, but by the time he's done with that, he's blown all the time that he was supposed to spend writing about it. On top of it, he usually distracts his friends by singing or talking, and lately he's gotten a little disrespectful when he's asked to stop.
They've tried a lot of the usual tricks to keep him on task. They have pictures of each morning task so he knows what order they go in. They've tried a "cardboard office" where they put up a barrier to give him his own space, and they've tried putting him at a desk in the corner with less distractions. Nothing works. On one had I feel their pain. We've tried everything, too. But on the other hand I'm frustrated because they've collectively dealt with a heck of a lot more kids than we have. There has to be some kid out there that was more distracted than Jacob, and there has to be something they tried for them that worked eventually. Or maybe he's just that special.
They talked about some other things to try--for example, giving him a tangible way to mark off when he's done with a task (like Velcro pictures or marking it off with a dry erase marker) or setting up rewards (game/TV time) when he completes tasks successfully. We can certainly institute those at home, as well, but my caveat every time someone recommends any sort of chart or reward is that when he gets in one of his moods, nothing sways him. No matter how many times we tell him in the morning that the sooner he gets ready, the more time he'll have to play, it doesn't motivate him to stay on task...so will a series of tangible checkmarks to "earn" the playtime do it? No idea. We can try.
I do wonder a bit if all that they're asking of him is intimidating him. They're trying to have these kids try to write sentences when they're still learning to sound out words. He's not very good at it, in case you're wondering, and I have to guess that for a detailed perfectionist like him, it might drive him nuts to the point he doesn't even want to try. That's just a guess, but even his teacher admitted that they're asking a lot of the kids these days.
I know that it's very hard for me to know how to work with him, because school came naturally to me. I did have to study to do well, but I'd guess that my retention with what I did was better than average. So to have a kid that can't focus and doesn't love school, it's really hard for me to know how to manage that. We also don't have a lot of time in the day to try to make things fun. I feel completely stuck on that front, because obviously we both have to work. I'm feeling very frustrated with this whole situation and I'm just not sure where we go from here. There are so many things that need fixing, and no good answers yet. Oh, the school psychologist did call today and say she started evaluating him yesterday. She enjoyed her time with him and he's scoring well on everything she's done so far. The speech pathologist that we talked to today said the same. There's no question he's smart and very verbal, but the challenge is channeling all of that into something productive and efficient.
I won't lie, it's getting hard hearing the same story over and over again. So much potential, so little action. My heart is just breaking because I don't know how to help him, and he can't seem to help himself. We just have to keep trying. We don't have a choice. But this is, by far, the hardest thing I have ever gone through, and I don't know how I'm going to keep going. I will, but only with God's help, I guess. Prayers, please...
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Thanksgiving in Review
I've been trying to write this post for at least three days now. I'm either too busy or too tired to finish it each time, but hopefully today will be the day...
We certainly had an eventful Thanksgiving weekend. Wednesday during the day we went to Jacob's Thanksgiving feast at daycare, since he was off school. I brought a few gluten-free accoutrements to replace the things he couldn't eat--stuffing, rolls, and gravy--which worked out well. We managed to get all packed up that night and head to Buffalo right around bedtime for the boys, so they got some sleep on the way there and settled in pretty well at Craig's parents once we got there. We had a comfortably lazy morning before heading over to Craig's brother's house in the early afternoon. We snacked, watched some football, and played with Carter before eating closer to dinnertime. I tried to help prepare the food a bit, but Carter is going through a mommy phase right now and would not stop crying (whether he could see me or not) until I was holding him. So I'd do what I could while he was distracted, hold him for a bit, and repeat it the next time someone wanted to hold him.
Our dinner was a fantastic and mostly gluten-free affair. While there were a couple gluten-filled items, there were gluten-free substitutes. Cornbread stuffing, gluten-free drop biscuits, gluten-free gravy, and lots of naturally gluten-free items as well. Dessert was much the same, with some layered rainbow jello, apple and cherry pies with gluten-free crusts, and a yummy gluten-free Oreo pie as well. Everything was delicious. We had a pleasant evening and then headed back to get some sleep and check in on Black Friday online shopping (not successful).
We left late Friday morning and had a late lunch at home. I took down all of my fall decorations, made up some Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, and made popcorn for movie night. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked, though.
Saturday morning was equally low key in that the kids and I were in our pajamas until at least 11am. Craig had an event to go to at 11, Jacob was content watching TV and messing around with coloring and hockey tape (don't ask), and Carter went down for a great morning nap. During that time I managed to get a lot of the Christmas decorations up from the crawl space and scattered around the house. I also got the tree out, but it sat undecorated for a couple days. If it wasn't pre-lit, it wouldn't have had lights either. When Carter got up from his nap, the boys and I went out to run a few errands. I stopped to get a pair of boots I'd been eyeing up for a while (a very good sale), then we went to the dollar store to pick up some supplies for a couple projects Jacob needed to do for school. We got a note home before Thanksgiving that each kid needed to contribute a decoration for their door, as well as a stocking to hang by the classroom "fireplace". UGH. I mean, it's fine...but I hate projects that end up being more work for the parents than the kids. And with Jacob, everything is a battle so I knew it would be a bit of a long haul. Still, we managed to come to some fairly quick agreements and escaped with only having to spend a few bucks. Our final stop was Lowe's, where I needed to get desperately overdue filters for our refrigerator and furnace, as well as some replacement nuts and bolts to fix our broken kitchen drawer. The wheel that keeps it on a track came unscrewed from the drawer, and the screws would no longer hold it in. After wracking my brain for a while I realized that screws with nuts to hold them on would work, so I just needed to get a couple of those. And yes, it worked. Go me.
We went home, and all my productivity vanished into a frustrating evening. We found out that Craig's Nana was in the hospital and not doing well, so we concluded that it was important that we go visit her on Sunday. We're happy to do it, of course, under those circumstances in particular, but it definitely dashed my hopes for a productive yet restful last day of the long weekend. On top of that, Jacob (who had been rather cooperative for most of the day) turned back into a maniac. I didn't know what to make for dinner, and reluctantly settled on breakfast for dinner. I've been doing it a lot these days and it seems like a total cop-out, but it's so easy to make gluten-free pancakes or waffles and some eggs. I got more of my decorating done, and spent the rest of the night working with Jacob on his school projects. We got the body and face of his hockey-playing snowman decoration done--posterboard and glitter glue--and set aside to dry. I wrote Jacob's name on his dollar store stocking, also with glitter glue, and set that aside.
Sunday I felt compelled to get up and go to church despite our busy day ahead, if only because it was the first practice for the Sunday School Christmas program. They pretty much only have two, so that was important. Not that Jacob usually participates willingly, but it's worth a shot. We came home, had a quick early lunch, fed Carter, and got on the road to Buffalo. Both kids slept along the way and we arrived at the hospital around 3:30 thanks to some really bad traffic on the way in. Craig's brother's family arrived shortly thereafter and we took turns going up to visit Nana so someone was still down to watch the kids. It was great to see her, and by the time we got there she was doing better. What they thought was an intestinal blockage possibly wasn't, and they were hopeful that antibiotics would do the trick. If she would have needed surgery it would have been devastating, as she's 94 and her heart isn't particularly strong. We originally thought as we were going there that it might be the last time we saw her, but the prognosis has gotten better over the last couple days so we're hopeful she'll pull through. Still, it was good to see her and talk to her, and it definitely meant a lot to her that we came.
We decided to eat dinner at the hospital before returning home, mostly because there was a conveniently located Mighty Taco in the lobby! Mighty Taco has a great gluten-free menu. In fact, the only alteration to what Jacob normally eats there is a corn shell instead of a flour tortilla. It does make me a little nervous with all of those flour tortillas lying around, because cross-contamination would be easy, but they make a pretty big deal about their gluten-free menu so I'm hoping that means they take it seriously. It was nice to have a "normal" meal out, and we headed back home with some evening time to spare. Jacob and I spent most of it working on his school projects again. I let him loose on his stocking with the glitter glue, and we were lucky to have it 99% dry yesterday morning (36 hours later!) when he had to take it in. He did a great job, though. I forgot to take a picture, but maybe I'll post one after he gets it back after the holiday.
The bigger challenge was his snowman. The assignment was to create a Christmas/winter-themed decoration for the classroom door. Jacob wanted to do a snowman, and he wanted it to play hockey. Ok, that seemed doable. The assignment gave suggestions on materials people have used, and I decided a trip to the dollar store was in order. We bought posterboard, googly eyes, glitter glue, and craft foam. We had originally intended on using cotton balls, too, but we forgot about that until it was too late...same with the googly eyes! Jacob had a lot of ideas about how he wanted to do it--including real sticks for the arms. It turned out that the real sticks worked well, but then he wanted to make a hockey stick out of the sticks, too, but that just didn't go well. But he fought us on it for quite a while. I think he's got this thing where he can totally see something (that a certain outfit makes him look like a sports guy, for example), but he can't understand that no one else will see it that way. Our big concern was that no one would know that it was a hockey stick. Same for when he tried to make a goalie mask out of the foam, which pretty much just covered the entire face. Or when he wanted to add a chin strap and it looked really strange. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually we found acceptable other suggestions and let him do a lot of the execution. I tried to only step in when a step had been going on for far too long or if a screw-up would have messed up everything to the point we'd have to start over. I helped do the arms (since it took some engineering), did the nose (since it was a mix of two colors of glitter glue), connected the stick to the arms (again, engineering), and did the skate blade glitter and some of the cutting around the skates (since we had to cut before glittering and Jacob couldn't quite visualize leaving space for it). But he did the vast majority and we were thrilled with how it turned out:
So, it was a busy weekend and this week hasn't slowed down. Craig has a busy week and I haven't been feeling well, and I feel like there are a million things I need to be doing to get ready for Christmas. At the same time, Carter is getting to be very active and will not sit still for anything (or be far from me for long), so it's hard to get anything done. Oh, and Monday night as I was playing with him, I thought I heard him grind his teeth--which is impossible with only bottom teeth--so I felt around, and sure enough, one of his top teeth is coming in! The other one doesn't look far behind, and I think I can even see another couple looking like they're coming soon! What happened to my baby?! Oh, and he's totally pulling himself up now, and this morning Craig put him in his crib for a minute and came back in to find him standing up! I've already moved the mattress down once and I don't see him going all gymnast on us anytime soon, but the final mattress move is coming sooner than we thought! He's getting to be a major handful, which is a little frustrating at times, but he's still darn cute...
We also started putting a half scoop of sensitive formula into his bottles last weekend, and so far he seems to be tolerating it, which bodes well for dairy. I bought some of those yogurt melt things last night so we can try that, as I'm having major anxiety about his ability to do solid table foods at his age and his rice intolerance makes finding suitable foods difficult. We seem to be upping his food intake a lot now (usually an entire jar of food and some oatmeal at each meal), and last night I gave him a couple Cheerios, which he successfully ate without choking. He even got one in his mouth by himself!
Ok, one more story from the weekend. I happened to put up the tree and lighted garland during Carter's nap on Saturday, and I was interested to see his reaction when he woke up. I carried him out of his room and his eyes instantly went to the tree. He stared at it for a few seconds, unsure of what he was seeing. Then a coy little smile popped out with a little grunt/guffaw he's been doing lately when he's amused by something. He's been staring at it (and crawling toward it) a lot ever since. I was trying to get a good picture of his fascination, but between him moving and his short attention span, this was the best I got. I know it's blurry, but I just love the sweet look on his face...and you still can't beat those cheeks!
So, yeah, things are a little crazy. But we're swimming along...
We certainly had an eventful Thanksgiving weekend. Wednesday during the day we went to Jacob's Thanksgiving feast at daycare, since he was off school. I brought a few gluten-free accoutrements to replace the things he couldn't eat--stuffing, rolls, and gravy--which worked out well. We managed to get all packed up that night and head to Buffalo right around bedtime for the boys, so they got some sleep on the way there and settled in pretty well at Craig's parents once we got there. We had a comfortably lazy morning before heading over to Craig's brother's house in the early afternoon. We snacked, watched some football, and played with Carter before eating closer to dinnertime. I tried to help prepare the food a bit, but Carter is going through a mommy phase right now and would not stop crying (whether he could see me or not) until I was holding him. So I'd do what I could while he was distracted, hold him for a bit, and repeat it the next time someone wanted to hold him.
Our dinner was a fantastic and mostly gluten-free affair. While there were a couple gluten-filled items, there were gluten-free substitutes. Cornbread stuffing, gluten-free drop biscuits, gluten-free gravy, and lots of naturally gluten-free items as well. Dessert was much the same, with some layered rainbow jello, apple and cherry pies with gluten-free crusts, and a yummy gluten-free Oreo pie as well. Everything was delicious. We had a pleasant evening and then headed back to get some sleep and check in on Black Friday online shopping (not successful).
We left late Friday morning and had a late lunch at home. I took down all of my fall decorations, made up some Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, and made popcorn for movie night. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked, though.
Saturday morning was equally low key in that the kids and I were in our pajamas until at least 11am. Craig had an event to go to at 11, Jacob was content watching TV and messing around with coloring and hockey tape (don't ask), and Carter went down for a great morning nap. During that time I managed to get a lot of the Christmas decorations up from the crawl space and scattered around the house. I also got the tree out, but it sat undecorated for a couple days. If it wasn't pre-lit, it wouldn't have had lights either. When Carter got up from his nap, the boys and I went out to run a few errands. I stopped to get a pair of boots I'd been eyeing up for a while (a very good sale), then we went to the dollar store to pick up some supplies for a couple projects Jacob needed to do for school. We got a note home before Thanksgiving that each kid needed to contribute a decoration for their door, as well as a stocking to hang by the classroom "fireplace". UGH. I mean, it's fine...but I hate projects that end up being more work for the parents than the kids. And with Jacob, everything is a battle so I knew it would be a bit of a long haul. Still, we managed to come to some fairly quick agreements and escaped with only having to spend a few bucks. Our final stop was Lowe's, where I needed to get desperately overdue filters for our refrigerator and furnace, as well as some replacement nuts and bolts to fix our broken kitchen drawer. The wheel that keeps it on a track came unscrewed from the drawer, and the screws would no longer hold it in. After wracking my brain for a while I realized that screws with nuts to hold them on would work, so I just needed to get a couple of those. And yes, it worked. Go me.
We went home, and all my productivity vanished into a frustrating evening. We found out that Craig's Nana was in the hospital and not doing well, so we concluded that it was important that we go visit her on Sunday. We're happy to do it, of course, under those circumstances in particular, but it definitely dashed my hopes for a productive yet restful last day of the long weekend. On top of that, Jacob (who had been rather cooperative for most of the day) turned back into a maniac. I didn't know what to make for dinner, and reluctantly settled on breakfast for dinner. I've been doing it a lot these days and it seems like a total cop-out, but it's so easy to make gluten-free pancakes or waffles and some eggs. I got more of my decorating done, and spent the rest of the night working with Jacob on his school projects. We got the body and face of his hockey-playing snowman decoration done--posterboard and glitter glue--and set aside to dry. I wrote Jacob's name on his dollar store stocking, also with glitter glue, and set that aside.
Sunday I felt compelled to get up and go to church despite our busy day ahead, if only because it was the first practice for the Sunday School Christmas program. They pretty much only have two, so that was important. Not that Jacob usually participates willingly, but it's worth a shot. We came home, had a quick early lunch, fed Carter, and got on the road to Buffalo. Both kids slept along the way and we arrived at the hospital around 3:30 thanks to some really bad traffic on the way in. Craig's brother's family arrived shortly thereafter and we took turns going up to visit Nana so someone was still down to watch the kids. It was great to see her, and by the time we got there she was doing better. What they thought was an intestinal blockage possibly wasn't, and they were hopeful that antibiotics would do the trick. If she would have needed surgery it would have been devastating, as she's 94 and her heart isn't particularly strong. We originally thought as we were going there that it might be the last time we saw her, but the prognosis has gotten better over the last couple days so we're hopeful she'll pull through. Still, it was good to see her and talk to her, and it definitely meant a lot to her that we came.
We decided to eat dinner at the hospital before returning home, mostly because there was a conveniently located Mighty Taco in the lobby! Mighty Taco has a great gluten-free menu. In fact, the only alteration to what Jacob normally eats there is a corn shell instead of a flour tortilla. It does make me a little nervous with all of those flour tortillas lying around, because cross-contamination would be easy, but they make a pretty big deal about their gluten-free menu so I'm hoping that means they take it seriously. It was nice to have a "normal" meal out, and we headed back home with some evening time to spare. Jacob and I spent most of it working on his school projects again. I let him loose on his stocking with the glitter glue, and we were lucky to have it 99% dry yesterday morning (36 hours later!) when he had to take it in. He did a great job, though. I forgot to take a picture, but maybe I'll post one after he gets it back after the holiday.
The bigger challenge was his snowman. The assignment was to create a Christmas/winter-themed decoration for the classroom door. Jacob wanted to do a snowman, and he wanted it to play hockey. Ok, that seemed doable. The assignment gave suggestions on materials people have used, and I decided a trip to the dollar store was in order. We bought posterboard, googly eyes, glitter glue, and craft foam. We had originally intended on using cotton balls, too, but we forgot about that until it was too late...same with the googly eyes! Jacob had a lot of ideas about how he wanted to do it--including real sticks for the arms. It turned out that the real sticks worked well, but then he wanted to make a hockey stick out of the sticks, too, but that just didn't go well. But he fought us on it for quite a while. I think he's got this thing where he can totally see something (that a certain outfit makes him look like a sports guy, for example), but he can't understand that no one else will see it that way. Our big concern was that no one would know that it was a hockey stick. Same for when he tried to make a goalie mask out of the foam, which pretty much just covered the entire face. Or when he wanted to add a chin strap and it looked really strange. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually we found acceptable other suggestions and let him do a lot of the execution. I tried to only step in when a step had been going on for far too long or if a screw-up would have messed up everything to the point we'd have to start over. I helped do the arms (since it took some engineering), did the nose (since it was a mix of two colors of glitter glue), connected the stick to the arms (again, engineering), and did the skate blade glitter and some of the cutting around the skates (since we had to cut before glittering and Jacob couldn't quite visualize leaving space for it). But he did the vast majority and we were thrilled with how it turned out:
 |
| Success! |
So, it was a busy weekend and this week hasn't slowed down. Craig has a busy week and I haven't been feeling well, and I feel like there are a million things I need to be doing to get ready for Christmas. At the same time, Carter is getting to be very active and will not sit still for anything (or be far from me for long), so it's hard to get anything done. Oh, and Monday night as I was playing with him, I thought I heard him grind his teeth--which is impossible with only bottom teeth--so I felt around, and sure enough, one of his top teeth is coming in! The other one doesn't look far behind, and I think I can even see another couple looking like they're coming soon! What happened to my baby?! Oh, and he's totally pulling himself up now, and this morning Craig put him in his crib for a minute and came back in to find him standing up! I've already moved the mattress down once and I don't see him going all gymnast on us anytime soon, but the final mattress move is coming sooner than we thought! He's getting to be a major handful, which is a little frustrating at times, but he's still darn cute...
We also started putting a half scoop of sensitive formula into his bottles last weekend, and so far he seems to be tolerating it, which bodes well for dairy. I bought some of those yogurt melt things last night so we can try that, as I'm having major anxiety about his ability to do solid table foods at his age and his rice intolerance makes finding suitable foods difficult. We seem to be upping his food intake a lot now (usually an entire jar of food and some oatmeal at each meal), and last night I gave him a couple Cheerios, which he successfully ate without choking. He even got one in his mouth by himself!
Ok, one more story from the weekend. I happened to put up the tree and lighted garland during Carter's nap on Saturday, and I was interested to see his reaction when he woke up. I carried him out of his room and his eyes instantly went to the tree. He stared at it for a few seconds, unsure of what he was seeing. Then a coy little smile popped out with a little grunt/guffaw he's been doing lately when he's amused by something. He's been staring at it (and crawling toward it) a lot ever since. I was trying to get a good picture of his fascination, but between him moving and his short attention span, this was the best I got. I know it's blurry, but I just love the sweet look on his face...and you still can't beat those cheeks!
 |
| Oh, that face... |
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Thoughts on Thanksgiving
I won't lie, there have been times this Thanksgiving that I've had trouble being thankful. I know full well that I am blessed beyond belief. I have a fantastic extended family (both sides), a loving husband, two kids, a beautiful (albeit messy) house, a good job, and a relatively comfortable lifestyle. We got a nearly free trip to Disney this year. Carter is the best baby I could have asked for. We live in a place generally devoid of natural disasters (though the lake effect snow falling outside right now is a little more intense than I'd like for November). My parents' 43rd wedding anniversary is today. They're spending it in Portland with John and his family, so while I didn't get to see them, I'm happy their other grandkids are getting the chance to spend the holiday with their only grandparents. We are so fortunate. I know that.
But it's been a tough year, no doubt. Carter's birth was by far the highlight, but between a tough end to my pregnancy, the angst over stopping breastfeeding, Jacob's behavior and Celiac diagnosis, Carter's rice intolerance, and Craig's dad's open heart surgery, this year has been one challenge after another. So while I know we have so much to be thankful for, the issues we've been going through have taken a little of the joy out of our day-to-day existence. Nothing seems easy anymore. Even something as simple as going out to dinner is a challenge now, for multiple reasons. The new diet hasn't really helped Jacob's behavior, and we haven't made a lot of progress using other means. Carter's intolerance being of the very thing that we're eating a lot of these days has not helped my stress level at all. I feel like a lot of things in our lives are out of sync, and I just don't know how to fix them.
It's not that I'm not thankful--I am--but all that we're dealing with has sucked a lot of the joy and simplicity out of our daily lives. Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday, but there are so many things that we're harder about today because of Jacob's issues. On top of it Carter had a rare bad day today--guessing it's either teeth or his lack of poop--so there were a lot of things on my mind this holiday. I know my stress level won't be going down anytime soon, either, because my long to do list just got doubled with all of the Christmas decorating and shopping to come. I'm tired, and it's not going to get any better anytime soon.
Still, I know we're blessed. I'm thankful that Craig's Nana made it to this Thanksgiving, and that I could capture this picture a couple weeks ago:
Despite my annoying with the snow and the danger it poses, it was truly beautiful out my office window yesterday.
And, of course, I love my kids, even if I don't always know how best to manage them. This little Indian boggles my mind in so many ways every day.
We have so much to appreciate this Thanksgiving, but that's not going to stop me from wishing for a Christmas miracle. We need one in the worst way. God has been good, but I miss our sense of pure joy.
Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends out there. May this year give you many things to be thankful for. And us, too.
But it's been a tough year, no doubt. Carter's birth was by far the highlight, but between a tough end to my pregnancy, the angst over stopping breastfeeding, Jacob's behavior and Celiac diagnosis, Carter's rice intolerance, and Craig's dad's open heart surgery, this year has been one challenge after another. So while I know we have so much to be thankful for, the issues we've been going through have taken a little of the joy out of our day-to-day existence. Nothing seems easy anymore. Even something as simple as going out to dinner is a challenge now, for multiple reasons. The new diet hasn't really helped Jacob's behavior, and we haven't made a lot of progress using other means. Carter's intolerance being of the very thing that we're eating a lot of these days has not helped my stress level at all. I feel like a lot of things in our lives are out of sync, and I just don't know how to fix them.
It's not that I'm not thankful--I am--but all that we're dealing with has sucked a lot of the joy and simplicity out of our daily lives. Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday, but there are so many things that we're harder about today because of Jacob's issues. On top of it Carter had a rare bad day today--guessing it's either teeth or his lack of poop--so there were a lot of things on my mind this holiday. I know my stress level won't be going down anytime soon, either, because my long to do list just got doubled with all of the Christmas decorating and shopping to come. I'm tired, and it's not going to get any better anytime soon.
Still, I know we're blessed. I'm thankful that Craig's Nana made it to this Thanksgiving, and that I could capture this picture a couple weeks ago:
Despite my annoying with the snow and the danger it poses, it was truly beautiful out my office window yesterday.
And, of course, I love my kids, even if I don't always know how best to manage them. This little Indian boggles my mind in so many ways every day.
We have so much to appreciate this Thanksgiving, but that's not going to stop me from wishing for a Christmas miracle. We need one in the worst way. God has been good, but I miss our sense of pure joy.
Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends out there. May this year give you many things to be thankful for. And us, too.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Handful
So...I knew it was coming, but I hoped it wouldn't happen quite yet. My perfect, sweet little Carter is suddenly a major handful. I think we've got a few things going on right now, actually, and it's making him much higher maintenance than he used to be. That said, he's still sweet, perfect, and adorable...and far easier than your average baby, but still, he's a handful.
A couple weeks ago he started crawling. I knew that it was the beginning of the end of our perfect, discipline-free relationship, but I hoped that somehow his perfection would carry over to that element as well. No luck. He may not be the most skilled, speedy crawler yet, but he can get where he needs to go rather quickly nonetheless. And once his gaze rests on something he wants, he will stop at nothing to get at it. Over and over and over again. I can't even tell you how many times in the past two days I had to reroute him from Jacob's Legos. A least a dozen? I was way behind on newspaper reading over the past month or so and did a major catch-up this weekend, often breezing through a few sections at a time while Carter was contentedly playing on the floor next to me. Sometimes he'd sit on my lap as the pages flipped by. But inevitably, once there was a pile of papers nearby on the floor, he'd be on his way to get them. He'd destroy anything in his grasp if I let him. A couple times I let him go to town, once on a catalog and another time on some ads, and he had a blast--for minutes at a time--crunching and ripping the paper. We just had to watch for him putting small pieces in his mouth, but other than that it was pretty harmless fun. It definitely made me look forward to Christmas and the joy of wrapping paper, because he'll be far more into it at ten months than Jacob was at six months. But still, he could have a dozen toys sitting in front of him, but he's far more interested in everything else! Oh, and if there's a piece of fuzz or a crumb on the carpet, he will find it. Good thing his pincer grasp still stinks, because he can't quite pick them up yet once he finds them.
He's putting up a fuss when I try to put him in his carseat, and wrangling him on the changing table is getting to be a challenge as well. He's forever trying to grab his medicine syringe or the tub of wipes, and he giggles maniacally when he flips himself over and nearly rolls off the table. If I have him sitting up there to put on a shirt, he will pull himself forward so he's practically folding himself in half to peer over the end.
He's also doing his darnedest to pull himself up. He hasn't really tried on furniture, but he's done it on me and his toys. He was sitting on his knees at his activity table yesterday! He's not doing it a lot, but he can do it, particularly if given a little balance. The bad news is that he's not too steady yet once he does get up, so he's definitely prone to toppling if we're not there to get him.
All of a sudden a week or so ago I realized that he was going from laying to sitting without a problem, and that's when I started to get the idea that he was going to be unstoppable very soon. Yesterday at church I put his feet on the floor as he was holding my fingers, and he effortlessly took a few steps toward me. I don't know where that came from because I had a hard time replicating it later, but I can't help but wonder if he's going to blow past Jacob in terms of starting to walk. Jacob took his time and didn't walk full time until about 16 months. I can't imagine Carter will take that long, but I could be wrong!
Despite my exhaustion and frustration with a little man who wants to be on the move, it's amazing to watch him figure things out. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head. He's growing and changing so much lately, and I'm so amazed (possibly even more than last time around) to watch it happen. I can't believe how fast this past year has gone (my car is a year old!), and while at times it seems like Carter has been here forever, I can't get over how time has flown. It's been an unorthodox last year, for sure. But to have this little baby that's growing and changing and turning into a little boy before our eyes...it's just nuts.
I'm a little sad that our discipline-free time is done, because that is a magical time where your baby can do no wrong (not on purpose, anyway). It's hard to see a willful side emerge, particularly now that we know what that will can do, because it all seems like it goes downhill from here. Sure, there are amazing moments along the way, but feeling like you and your baby can do no wrong is such a great feeling. All the smiles and giggles make it worth it, but we're in for an interesting ride with this one, I think...
A couple weeks ago he started crawling. I knew that it was the beginning of the end of our perfect, discipline-free relationship, but I hoped that somehow his perfection would carry over to that element as well. No luck. He may not be the most skilled, speedy crawler yet, but he can get where he needs to go rather quickly nonetheless. And once his gaze rests on something he wants, he will stop at nothing to get at it. Over and over and over again. I can't even tell you how many times in the past two days I had to reroute him from Jacob's Legos. A least a dozen? I was way behind on newspaper reading over the past month or so and did a major catch-up this weekend, often breezing through a few sections at a time while Carter was contentedly playing on the floor next to me. Sometimes he'd sit on my lap as the pages flipped by. But inevitably, once there was a pile of papers nearby on the floor, he'd be on his way to get them. He'd destroy anything in his grasp if I let him. A couple times I let him go to town, once on a catalog and another time on some ads, and he had a blast--for minutes at a time--crunching and ripping the paper. We just had to watch for him putting small pieces in his mouth, but other than that it was pretty harmless fun. It definitely made me look forward to Christmas and the joy of wrapping paper, because he'll be far more into it at ten months than Jacob was at six months. But still, he could have a dozen toys sitting in front of him, but he's far more interested in everything else! Oh, and if there's a piece of fuzz or a crumb on the carpet, he will find it. Good thing his pincer grasp still stinks, because he can't quite pick them up yet once he finds them.
He's putting up a fuss when I try to put him in his carseat, and wrangling him on the changing table is getting to be a challenge as well. He's forever trying to grab his medicine syringe or the tub of wipes, and he giggles maniacally when he flips himself over and nearly rolls off the table. If I have him sitting up there to put on a shirt, he will pull himself forward so he's practically folding himself in half to peer over the end.
He's also doing his darnedest to pull himself up. He hasn't really tried on furniture, but he's done it on me and his toys. He was sitting on his knees at his activity table yesterday! He's not doing it a lot, but he can do it, particularly if given a little balance. The bad news is that he's not too steady yet once he does get up, so he's definitely prone to toppling if we're not there to get him.
All of a sudden a week or so ago I realized that he was going from laying to sitting without a problem, and that's when I started to get the idea that he was going to be unstoppable very soon. Yesterday at church I put his feet on the floor as he was holding my fingers, and he effortlessly took a few steps toward me. I don't know where that came from because I had a hard time replicating it later, but I can't help but wonder if he's going to blow past Jacob in terms of starting to walk. Jacob took his time and didn't walk full time until about 16 months. I can't imagine Carter will take that long, but I could be wrong!
Despite my exhaustion and frustration with a little man who wants to be on the move, it's amazing to watch him figure things out. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head. He's growing and changing so much lately, and I'm so amazed (possibly even more than last time around) to watch it happen. I can't believe how fast this past year has gone (my car is a year old!), and while at times it seems like Carter has been here forever, I can't get over how time has flown. It's been an unorthodox last year, for sure. But to have this little baby that's growing and changing and turning into a little boy before our eyes...it's just nuts.
I'm a little sad that our discipline-free time is done, because that is a magical time where your baby can do no wrong (not on purpose, anyway). It's hard to see a willful side emerge, particularly now that we know what that will can do, because it all seems like it goes downhill from here. Sure, there are amazing moments along the way, but feeling like you and your baby can do no wrong is such a great feeling. All the smiles and giggles make it worth it, but we're in for an interesting ride with this one, I think...
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