more on potty training

So yesterday I picked Matthew up at daycare. The assistant teacher mentioned that he was doing great at his potty training. My reaction was something like this: "huh? Matthew? potty?" She said yes and that they are working with one of the little girls in his class and he was showing interest so she started putting him on it too. I told her that here he has a couple of times told me he needed to potty or "phewy" and that I put him on it but he never does anything. She says he has used it there a few times, but only for #1.

David mentioned it to his normal teacher today & she said no they aren't working on it with Matthew, so I don't know what to think. In a lot of ways I think he is ready, or close to ready, but then in a lot of ways it is easier for me not to train him right now. Scarlett is so young that there are times she requires my attention and Matthew has to wait. It isn't like I can stop feeding her to go put him on the potty. I know this is my issue not his so for now I'll just keep watching for signs and if he wants to sit on the potty I'll put him on it.

Scarlett's two month appointment

We just got back from the pedi's office - here are Scarlett's stats:

weight - 12 lb 9 oz (90%)
height - 23" (75%)
head - 38.5 cm (50%)

The pedi says she is perfect...I made the 4mo checkup with her too cause I like hearing I have perfect children :)

Scarlett got stuck 3 times and had the oral rotovirus vaccine. She handled them ok - she kept turning her head from the oral and of course got the shocked look when they stuck her leg the first time. She hardly cried though and has been asleep since I put her in the car. Matthew didn't have any reaction to these so hopefully she'll follow suit.

could he be ready?

I'm starting to wonder if Matthew might be ready for potty-training. In my dreams, right? He has shown an increased interest in the potty recently and several times over the past 2 weeks we've had to take him out of the tub to sit on it. He will usually tell me when he is poopy too. Yesterday he woke up just one hour into his nap and wouldn't settle back down. He kept telling me "PU" - which is how he tells me he's poopy. I checked his diaper and it was clean. I put him back down to try to get him to sleep a little longer. Fifteen minutes later he still hadn't settled down so I went to check on him and he was poopy. Maybe I'm reading more into things than I should, but I think he was telling me he needed to poop. Now I just have to figure out how to proceed.

On another, cuter note, he is such a good big brother. He frequently wants to hold Scarlett, but tires of her pretty quickly. He has started motioning to her and saying "mine" when he wants to hold her. He sits in his Elmo chair and I put her in his lap. The bad thing is, he hasn't yet learned to tell me he's tired of holding her. Instead he just starts to stand up & says "all done." I've tried to teach him to say "all done" and let me get her BEFORE he stands up, but without success. Of course I'm always keeping a hand on her, so she hasn't fallen yet :) The downside to having to keep a hand on her is that it's really hard to get a good picture of him holding her. I'll keep trying though.

Another cute Matthew story - yesterday he was watching Curious George. When it went off, he asked for "more" and started making his monkey sound, which you can see here.

Scarlett is growing every day. She had been giving me a good 6-7 hours (sometimes 8) hours at night without waking to eat but suddenly started waking up after 4-5 hours. I can't complain because she has always gone immediately back to sleep, but I thought maybe I should try something different. I had been feeding her around 9 or 10 pm and then rousing her to "top her off" before I went to bed at 11 or 12. She would then wake at 4 or 5 to eat. Last night I fed her at 9:10 and instead of waking her when I got ready to go to bed, I just put her down. She slept until 6:15! I'm crossing my fingers that we can do this every night!

nokitty is a little modest

So I guess I have a modest cat. For those of you who don't already know, nokitty is potty trained. He will only use the downstairs bathroom so during the day it is near all our activity. This morning as I was getting breakfast ready, he was running around acting crazy and kind of howling. That is odd behavior for him but I couldn't see anything that seemed wrong. I noticed the bathroom door was wide open, usually the door is only about half-way open. So I went and closed the door part of the way, and sure enough, he went in there and took care of business. I guess he didn't want to poop with the door wide open, and that's ok with me :) I would hate to walk by & see that.

Can you say awwww?

I was getting supper ready tonight while Scarlett sat in the swing and Matthew played with his toys. She started to fuss so I peeked in just in time to see Matthew get off the couch and walk over to her. He started talking to her and playing with her feet, and she quieted down! It was so sweet to see him "tending" to her. I wish I'd had the camera, but it was in the room with them & I know if I had gone to get it I would have ruined the moment.

Drinking age & marriage

I just read an interesting article on a movement to lower the drinking age. I say interesting because it brings up other points besides the normal "if someone is old enough to vote and die for their country" arguments. I don't guess I care too much what the law is, but I've always thought it was silly that 18-20 year olds are deemed mature enough to help elect a president or to go into battle for this great country, but they aren't mature enough to buy their own alcohol. The other points are interesting but I won't go into them here - read the article if you want to know. What I thought was really interesting was the interactive map of the US that was in the article - you could click on any state to see their law. For most states, it says "under 21 may not possess or consume alcohol." That is what I have always thought the law was, mainly because I don't see how you could consume it if you don't possess it. But then some states bar possession and allow consumption...I really don't understand how this is possible. There are some that really strike me as funny though:

In Washington state: Under 21 may consume alcohol if parent or guardian is present. - now this screams crazy to me. First of all, once you're 18 aren't you your own guardian? So legally anyone over 18 can consume alcohol because their guardian would always be present, right?

The winner though, goes to multiple states (and I'm almost ashamed to admit Georgia is one of them): Under 21 may consume alcohol only if married AND if spouse or guardian is present. - now this strikes me as totally ridiculous. Do they think just because someone decides to get married they are responsible enough to decide to drink alcohol? Does getting married automatically make you more mature? I know plenty of married people that are more immature than some single people I know. Maybe if young couples realized this was the law they would get married younger just so they could legally throw one back instead of doing it illegally. I wonder if these states have higher divorce rates than others? Hmmm....

Now this whole thing leads me straight into another train of thought - about marriage. It bugs me that marriage is a legal issue. After I read this article I mentioned the crazy Georgia law to a friend of mine from Pennsylvania. She said there is a big debate in PA now about taxes because single people are taxed at a higher rate. Personally I think marriage is a religious thing and that the government shouldn't care about it at all. I don't understand why we should have to get a marriage license from the county or why it should matter at tax time. A lot of people are probably thinking, but if you're not "legally married" there's no "next of kin" to default in case something happens. My response: SO? I think if someone wants their spouse to be their beneficiary, or wants their spouse to have the right to say what happens to them in a medical situation if they can't say for themselves, then they need to document that with other legal documents, it shouldn't be that way be default because they got a marriage certificate.

Back to the drinking thing - I'm guessing that the law saying "Under 21 may consume alcohol only if married AND if spouse or guardian is present" really means you can drink if you're under 21, married, and your spouse is present OR if you're under 21 and your guardian is present, but the way it's written that's not how it sounds. ??

More pinkeye!

Matthew has pinkeye again. I'm not surprised since he's at an age where he is learning body parts and loves to point at his and ours. It's impossible to keep his hands away from his eyes, and pretty hard to keep them away from ours.

The bad thing is, David has it too! We've all 4 gotten it in the last week, Matthew twice now. I guess I need to follow everyone around with Lysol?

Growing up

Matthew continues to amaze me. He seems to soak up so many things - someone once told me to be a sponge and just absorb as much as I could, sometimes I forget that children are sponges. Last night he did a couple of cute things. First, he put a finger puppet on his hand and waved it around saying "hi". Second, David realized it was an elephant and asked him what sound the elephant makes and Matthew responded by putting his arm to his nose using it like a trunk and kind of roaring. Yesterday he also covered Scarlett with her blanket while she was in the swing and put a cloth diaper above her head, much like I do when she's in the carseat. (I roll a cloth diaper up as extra head support, instead of buying one of the inserts...yeah I'm frugal.) He also can sing "baa baa black sheep" with almost all the words. :)

I was also surprised recently to learn that Matthew understands that the same word can have completely different meanings. I hope he understands "hot" - I know he understands it when I give him food that is too hot, or when his bathwater is too hot, but I'm not sure he understands it in the kitchen when I open the oven and tell him "hot" or outside when we tell him the grill is hot. Speaking of grills, we were at the park and he asked David "what's that?" and pointed to the grill. Now the grills at the park look a good bit different than our grill so it's no surprise he asked. David told him "it's a grill" and he immediately said "hot." So I know he associates hot with grill, I'm just not sure he understands it would HURT if he touched it when it was hot. Anyway, the surprise I started to discuss was that Matthew understands "rock," as in "rock" in a chair, or that it is a stone you find outside or in Mema's flowerpots and you shouldn't put them in your mouth. Maybe I'm too easily impressed?

On another note, Scarlett is smiling - we took some pictures last weekend and noticed when we viewed them on the pc that she was smiling in one. We didn't see it in real life, but Monday she smiled for Matthew when he tried to share his paci and we've seen a few since then. Our camera has a delay between pressing the button & it saving the image so we haven't captured this on film, or rather disk, yet. She also rolled from tummy to back yesterday, but I think it was a fluke. I'm guessing when I put her down I didn't realize her arm was under her, but anyway she rolled. She also slept 8 hours again last night!! Maybe we're getting into a pattern? Can I hope?

I'll try to limit the mommy brags, but let's face it, a good part of my days (and nights) are spent with these two wonderful children. I'm bound to brag on them when they're good, just like I'll complain when they're not.

crying over spilt milk

The day was off to a good start. Scarlett slept from midnight to 8:30 this morning so I got a full night's sleep. Well, a full night minus the few times I woke up to check the clock to see if she "should" wake up soon. Imagine my surprise at 5:00am when she still hadn't gotten up to eat...then again at 6, 6:30, 7:00...you get the picture. Matthew didn't get up until almost 8:00 so I am a well rested mommy today.

After Matthew had milk and Scarlett was fed, I pumped for a few minutes. I have been blessed with an overabundance of milk so I've been pumping once a day just to have some extra stored. I figure it won't hurt to have a freezer supply when I go back to work. That way MAYBE I won't stress out every day about pumping enough for the next day. I say MAYBE because I think I'll still stress out - that's what pumping does to you, right? So after I pump I go fix breakfast for Matthew & me. While he finishes up, I put his highchair in the kitchen so I can do some cleanup. I also need to put the milk I've just pumped in the freezer, so I get out the bags. I have some from yesterday that I stored in the fridge so I get that out too. I pour the milk into the bags and stand them up on the counter while I wash the pump parts & the bottles.

That's when I hear it..."uh-oh" - from Matthew. I turn to look at Matthew, but as I turn I glimpse milk flowing across the counter. While it seems to be in slow motion, I can't grab the bag and stand it up before ALL of the milk is gone. Yes, ALL of it - 5-1/2 ounces of that so-called liquid gold...GONE! On the counter, down the cabinet, onto the floor, a river of milk flowing through my kitchen. For those that think I'm exaggerating, try pouring 5-1/2 oz of your favorite drink on your countertop, watch it spread...it's heartbreaking. (And no, breastmilk isn't my favorite drink, but it's definitely a top priority in life these days.) Fortunately Matthew's uh-oh was about the milk - there wasn't another crisis going on at the same time :)

I clean up the milk AFTER I close the other bags - I don't want the rest of it succombing to the same fate as the first bag. I continue washing bottles and hear it again..."uh-oh". I turn and this time see that Matthew has dumped applesauce everywhere - it covers the high chair tray, him, and a good bit of the floor. Then of course he reaches for his head, rubs his hands in it, and lays it down on the tray. Where is calgon to take you away when you need it?

As bad as this may sound, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Once I got things mostly cleaned up, Matthew was in a great mood. It promises to be a fun day when he's this cheerful. Scarlett is asleep in the swing (yes sometimes it is a babysitter) and he's entertaining himself as I write. I know how blessed I am to have not one, but two, wonderful children. I don't take it for granted, and I don't mean for my complaints to make it sound like I wish it was different. I realize too that I need to document more of these seemingly mundane things so that when it is truly a bad day, I can look back and smile over these moments.

Matthew's feet

Just a quick update on Matthew's feet. We visited a new doctor for his clubfoot today since his other doctor told us we could stop bracewear. We know from all our reading and research that the typical recommendation is to wear the braces until age 4-5, to prevent relapse. We are thinking our doctor follows the proper casting technique but hasn't kept up to date on the brace protocol. Anyway, we figured to be safe we would see a doctor that has presented the documentation to Dr. Ponseti to be put on the list of Ponseti Certified doctors. His office is about 2-1/2 hours from here but that's no big deal since we should only have to go 1-2 times/year. He is the only doctor in Michigan on the list.

He checked Matthew's feet, in and out of his shoes, and then watched him walk. He said that the only reason they recommend stopping bracewear early is because of overcorrection and that Matthew is not overcorrected. He added that they used to stop early because of loose ligaments but they have seen some relapse in that case also so they just change the angle of the shoes. Anyway, we don't have either of those 2 issues so we should not stop bracewear. He actually said we should try to keep it on 14-16 hours/day. He thinks Matthew's feet look great though, so I think we'll probably do 12 hours/day the days Matthew goes to daycare and aim for 14-16 the days he is at home.

and now I have pinkeye

I was pretty sure yesterday that I had gotten Matthew's pinkeye, but I wasn't positive. Today I'm sure. I called my pcp to make an appointment but he's only there on Mondays. Must be nice to work just one day a week, huh? I knew I should have gone to med school! Anyway, when I complained about not being seen until Monday they scheduled me with another doctor. After going for a 1:40 appointment and not getting called back to see the doctor until 3:00, he confirms I have pinkeye and is going to write me a prescription for some drops. Then I tell him that I'm breastfeeding, just to make sure it is safe, and he tells me he'll have to check. He leaves and is gone for quite some time, but I can hear him at the nurses station. He is looking up to see what is safe for breastfeeding moms that treats pinkeye and can't find anything so he tells the nurse to call another doctor and ask. As some point while they are talking, the nurse comments that "she only thinks she has pinkeye because her son has it" - to which the doctor replies "I know she has it, I examined her." I wonder if the nurse really thought the doctor was just letting me self diagnose without checking for himself....maybe this is common at this practice?

Anyway, the doctor comes back and tells me that I can take tylenol to keep my eye from hurting but that there is NO SAFE medicine for me to take. He says if I want to STOP NURSING for a few days that I could treat the pinkeye. Otherwise, I can't take anything and it should clear up on its own but I am to "keep an eye on it because it could lead to vision damage." WHAT? What kind of doctor is this? I can't believe I waited that long to walk away with nothing but "take tylenol and watch it".

I get home and call the pediatrician's office to see what they recommend. They end up calling me in a prescription for some drops that they say are fine for me to use while nursing Scarlett. Meanwhile, David gets home from work and says he thinks Scarlett's eyes are red and goopy. I look and agree, so we decide to get her script filled too.

Pinkeye and daycare vent

So Matthew has pinkeye - we knew this yesterday and started giving him the eyedrops, but daycare requires a note from the doctor. And the pediatrician's office won't give us a note without seeing him...how frustrating! So I had to reschedule my 6wk checkup to drag Matthew & Scarlett to the doctor today, just so I could have them tell me to give him the eyedrops that I started him on yesterday. Lovely. We saw a new NP at the practice and I liked her - I didn't need a script since I had drops leftover from last time Matthew had pinkeye, but she wrote me one for Matthew that is approved for use in children under 1 just in case Scarlett catches it. I thought that was pretty nice of her.

Matthew weighed 28.5 lbs and Scarlett weighed 11 lb 12 oz, so she's gained 1 lb in the last 1-1/2 weeks. Looks like she's slowing down a little.