Poor Baby

After my last post, Greyson visited the doctor again to see how he was doing. The nurse practitioner we saw really scared me. I'm doing better now, having done a bit of research, but I'm still quite worried about the little boy. Basically he's got another (or the same?) ear infection, and he's got effusion or fluid in his ear, and he's likely to keep getting sick unless that fluid clears soon. So we're on another round of anti-biotics, requiring more probiotics to keep the system in balance. He had a pretty good fever at the doctor's office and again for the next day or so, which has since gone away. He's back in school but still has a runny nose and cough. We go back for his one year checkup on Monday and we'll see if the ear is better. Our next step might be an ear nose throat specialist, and I'm seriously considering looking into chiropractic or other non-surgical relief.

In exciting news, Greyson spontaneously started signing at dinner time. I had always questioned teaching the sign for "more" because it's such a nebulous sign - a sign for an idea rather than something concrete like water, food, or milk. So I never really showed him that one. My mother and father did, whenever they would feed him on a visit. About two nights ago, we noticed he was doing the sign, perfectly, during dinner. We wondered if it was on purpose, or an "accidental sign" but he's done it consistently, and he always opens his mouth wide for food when he asks for more. So there you have it, he learned a sign on his own! He will also do the sign for "fish" when we give him goldfish and demonstrate the sign.

On the verbal front, he's also trying to say a few words. Of course he's a babbling fool, and he sings or hums along with me in the car. But now he's trying to say "bye" and "frog" with varying levels of success. Frog sounds like gog most of the time. And he waves and says "bob" - perhaps for his great Grampa Bob ;-)

Greyson is just a joy these days, having so much fun and drumming on everything with his hands. We went to the park on Sunday to feed the turtles and ducks, swing, and visit with friends. Hopefully we'll continue to do fun family things on the weekends through the holidays. It has really cooled off so we can go out without fear of heatstroke, and it's actually been quite cool for the past week. Looking forward to perfect weather when we head up to Aunt Gail's farm for Thanksgiving.

Comin' around again

Poor Greyson, home sick again. After a week and a half on antibiotics, he came down with a cold. Hopefully that's all it is - his eye, ear, sinus infection seems to have cleared up quickly, but a sniffle and cough was right on its heels. He's at home with Dad today because he had a fever last night and this morning. In the meantime, I thought I'd recap his birthday...

He had a great weekend. From the time his Grandparents arrived on Friday afternoon, Greyson was in baby heaven. So were Mike and I - we got to go out two nights in a row, just the two of us! We have not had a real date since the day we went to the hospital to have the little booger. That day we had lunch at Wendy's and saw a movie. It was exactly a year later that my folks watched Greyson while we went out for Thai food and a Coldplay concert. It was nice to be alone with the hubby and go to a nice quiet restaurant. Greyson did great with Jo Grandma and Grandpops, no problems going to bed. The next day we ran errands and did party prep and went to dinner with Greyson's Uncle Mike & Aunt Jenny. He had his first taste of Chinese food (chicken lo mein) and he loved it! Again, Greyson stayed with the grandparents while Mike and I went to John Crown's birthday party (he shares a birthday with Greyson!) and enjoyed our second "parents night out" in as many days.

Sunday started bright and early, and everyone was busy getting ready for the party. I have read so many articles on planning the first birthday party and they ALL say to schedule it around baby's nap. Of course I scheduled it for the exact time of his usual nap. Der. So thankfully he had an early nap and was happy as a clam when noon rolled around and his Aunts and Uncles started arriving. All of Mike's brothers and sisters, my brother and sister-in-law, and my folks were all present for the big cake-smashing. If you've seen any of the photos, you might wonder about the ants... Grey's favorite song is The Ants Go Marching, so we had a picnic theme, complete with ants. He won't remember, but we'll have photos to show him :-)

Greyson loved his presents, particularly the Kawasaki four-wheeler (foot-powered) ride-on from his Great-grandparents (Thanks Nana & Grampa Bob!), and a toy from Aunt Cindy with a big red button to push. Of course he has lots of other toys, books, and clothes to discover now too. We haven't even given him the big present from Mike and I, because we're still enchanted with all of the other new things.

As for the birthday cake, Greyson did a great job of digging in and shoveling handfuls of frosting (and a smidge of cake too) into his mouth. He was messy and happy until his Dad put some cake on top of his head. I guess that was the straw that broke the camel's back because the meltdown started shortly after that. Mike fixed it by putting the baby in the sink, clothes and all, and rinsing him down. After a quick wardrobe change, Greyson was back to play with his toys - he figured out how to get on and off his four-wheeler in record time! Then he was done and had another nap while the boys watched football and finally everyone left. It was a whirlwind day, and Greyson handled it like a champ.

Now if we can just get him feeling well again...

Finally

I was just chatting with Emily last week about milestones and the awful mom habit of comparing your kid to others that age. I was paranoid that Greyson was slow to wave, point, clap, etc. He is "supposed" to do all these things by age one, and we're closing in fast. Well... finally he has got them all down. It took quite a few repetitions of patty cake (thanks Mom!) but he spontaneously started clapping during dinner this weekend. He waved at the garage sale, although that is not part of his usual repertoire yet. And he's a pointing fool lately, so I'm getting good at identifying everything around us. Now I'm training him to say Obama!

In other big news, when Greyson goes to school next Monday as a one year old, he'll be going full time in the one year old room. His tuition will go waaaaay down (YAAAYYYYY!) but I won't be able to go into his classroom with him every morning, or see a log of how much he's eaten/pooped/napped for the day. My baby's growing up.

Sick skunk

It's been a busy week. While Mike and I await election returns, I'll recap...

Friday was Halloween. I hurried home from work and we decided how to spend the evening. We debated heading down to the local lake/park where there was a big family celebration - but we decided it was too much to try to do before dark. We were more concerned with visiting our neighbors. This wasn't the year for true door-to-door trick or treat'ing, but rather a chance to visit Greyson's friends in the neighborhood and show off his costume. He was quite a hit, and Mike and I enjoyed the candy that he gathered :-) Matt and Kristi came over and we feasted on Chinese food and spent the evening chatting and playing games.

Saturday morning Greyson woke up with a very crusty right eye. I let Mike sleep in while I researched pink-eye and debated calling the doctor. We decided to let it ride, knowing that he had been battling a cold and figuring it just moved into his eye. Sunday was about the same but Greyson didn't seem bothered by the goop, just annoyed when we tried to clean his face up.

Early Monday morning Greyson woke up fussy and sounded congested so we used the scary rubber bulb and sucked the crud out of his nose. Yuck, he was full of it. When we woke up to go to work, his eyes looked ok and we were on our way. When I got him out of the car at daycare, I noticed the crust had returned and his eyes looked much worse. I pulled aside Miss Fiona and asked her opinion. She sent us out the door in a jiffy and we went straight to the pediatrician, who has walk-in hours each morning - thank goodness! We met Mike there, saw the doc, and I was back on my way to work by 9am. Poor Greyson, it turns out he has ear infections, a sinus infection, plus the conjunctivitis! What a trooper, he didn't complain once. Tonight, after four doses of his antibiotic, he's a new man. Mike's been home with him since I've been busy at work.

Now we're busy planning his birthday party for Sunday... we've got the cakes and food ordered, we built some ants out of styrofoam and pipe cleaners, now it's just the little details to finish up - and lots of photos to take and share! I can hardly believe it's been almost a year...