Little Man

This posting without pictures stuff is challenging!  I really wish I could share some pictures of Little Man with you guys because he is too cute for words!

LM is 21 months-old today! 

He came to live with us on Friday, March 16.  He is so much fun and a ball of energy.  He has been a joy to have in our home.  He is a great eater.  He has not turned his nose up at any food I have offered him so far.....including water chestnuts?  Ha!  He loves bananas and does great eating his veggies.  He prefers to drink milk and water but welcomes a little apple juice every once in a while.  He asks for "juice juice" but I quickly learned that means milk (when he would cry and throw his cup after I put juice in it and point to the milk in the fridge.  ha.)  Funny guy!  At this time his liquids have to be thickened to a honey consistency.  He does great and doesn't mind at all!

LM is a light sleeper.  We purchased a white noise machine to put in his room and it has worked great!  The first night we had him he woke up crying.  We waited a minute to see if he would go back to sleep on his own (while watching him on the video monitor of course :) ) but he kept sticking his hands way back in his mouth and crying so Joe took him some Tylenol and orajel to see if it would help.  He quickly went back to sleep and slept the rest of the night.  He is cutting some teeth, so since the Tylenol and orajel helped we assumed his teeth must have been hurting.  Poor guy!  

He also had a runny nose which is pretty typical this time of year.  But we had him checked out just in case when we took his sister to the doctor on Saturday.  Poor guy had an ear infection.  No wonder he woke up crying!  He is a CHAMP at taking medicine.  We give him his inhaler when he wakes up and before he goes to bed.  I think he enjoys it!  ha.  Along with his antibiotic we have been giving him Tylenol and orajel just in case.  It has worked great!

We followed up with his pediatrician on Tuesday (after a 4 hour wait) and poor thing STILL had a bad ear infection.  He got a new oral antibiotic, a steroid, (which he finishes today!) and an antibiotic shot in each leg.  Besides the steroids turning him into a bear, he is doing much better!  No more runny nose! 

He is such a happy boy.  He loves to laugh.  He is so ticklish!  He also loves to say mama.  He calls any female (and sometimes Joe) that he likes mama.  He also says mama over and over again when he is trying to stay awake.  He calls Percie (and the stray cat that hangs out at the dorm that I of course have taken to the vet to get fixed and shots) Aarf, Aarf.  We are working on meow.  ha.  Too cute.  He also says (not clearly, but I am beginning to understand him better) I get up, I want cup cup, I want juice juice, get out, ball, birdy (sounds like dirty), tree (he points out quite a few of them on the way to and from day care every day so it sounds more like tree tree Tree TREE TREE...get the point?  ha), dada (he still alternates from calling Joe dada and mama), sissy and baby (he is more consistently calling Baby Girl sissy.  I think it is so cute!),  night night (not his favorite time of day, but believe me he needs it!  Ha!), bye bye (he blows kisses!), hey, ot oh, and his favorite...thank you.  He screams thank you and holds out his cup or food or a toy, etc. when he wants you to take it from him!  Ha!  We are working on saying please and up instead of whining.  (That whining stuff drives me crazy!)  We are working on using our words instead of crying and whining.  Its kinda frustrating sometimes when I tell him not to whine and use his words and he stops whining and says something.....but I have no idea what he said!  Ha!  Poor guy. 

He wears AFO's on his feet to help stretch his feet out so he won't be a toe walker.  He is doing very well wearing them every day.  He also starts outpatient PT this week!  Yay!  I am pretty sure (when he is not too tired) that bath time is his favorite time of day.  He also loves to brush his teeth.  I'm so glad!

And this poor little guys requires so much sleep.  And if he doesn't get it he turns into a bear.  (It doesn't help that he is teething, has an ear infection, is on steroids ~which turn me into a bear~, and has only lived at our house for a week.)  I feel so bad for him.  But we stand our ground and do not allow him to make bad choices whether we feel sorry for him or not.  It's hard sometimes, but a must.  I hate it that he is such a light sleeper.  He is doing pretty good sleeping at night, but he is only taking a 45 minute nap at day care.  Joe or my mom are going to start picking him up around 3 every day so they can take him home and let him take another nap before I get home from work so maybe we can have a pleasant (aka non-whiny) eat supper/take a bath/go to bed experience every night.  :)  Right now I am putting him down at night around 6:15 (yes, you read that right) and he sleeps until 7:15 or 7:30 the next morning.  Hopefully we can work for a closer to 8 pm bed time if he gets that other nap every day.  I am also going to buy a white noise machine like the one we have at home for day care so maybe he will sleep longer there.  We will see if it works!

We spent his 21 month birthday at the zoo.  He loved it!!  We had a great time.  And baby girl did great, too.  LM's favorite were the monkeys.  He said aarf aarf to just about every animal but the Monkeys.  He got pretty good at hooo hooo.  Ha!  We had the best day.  I am so glad grandmama got to join us! 

This little guy really is a blast!  He has the biggest smile, and he loves to make people smile!  I can't wait to watch him learn and grow!

   

Rae