Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Flying baby boy

By his second birthday, A has been on twenty flights. I saw a blog post by a friend and thought, gosh, I wonder how many flights A has been on so far. Twenty.

Two!

That's right; he's two.

The grandparents came out for the weekend and we had a birthday party at the zoo that went well, I thought. We fed the giraffes, had some lunch, opened presents, had cupcakes. Low-key, good for a two-year-old (especially one low on naps).

Yesterday he and I didn't do much since we were still in recovery mode from the weekend; I don't think any of us got enough sleep. But he's now got piles of toys (not like he was lacking before) and he was happy to play with the new toys and watch his new Elmo DVD over and over and over again.

And over.

And over.

I can't believe he's two. Two! He's a walking, talking little boy with opinions, when two years ago, we had this tiny, tiny thing that couldn't hold his head up. Yesterday, within the space of two minutes, he climbed up on the counter (using his brand new Tonka truck) and poured a ramekin of cooking oil on the kitchen floor. I would have chosen some other way to highlight his independence and abilities, but ornery is what being two is all about. Two years ago, it took all our combined efforts to nurse; last night he had meatballs and corn chips for dinner like they were going out of style. He ate seven mini-meatballs. Good grief.

So happy birthday, beautiful baby boy of mine.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Napping again

But I've been doing a lot so the nap will end soon so this will be fast, fast.

A is doing super. He's picking up a lot of words recently, elephant and giraffe and hello (finally). He just comes out with them out of the blue, apple and banana (nana). I think he's used to having all his needs anticipated that he hasn't had to say a lot of words, so I've been trying to be less proactive and reactive to him so he has to ask.

He's into the occasional temper tantrum right now. He's into throwing things and that's bad when we're already down one monitor in this house due to him throwing things. He got a lot of timeouts with Dad for throwing things at people, cats, and screens this weekend.

We go to the Zoo frequently in the evenings now, since the zoo is on extended hours for the summer. The weather is perfect; the air is cooler and the animals are more active. It's a lot of fun.

He adores ice cream. Loves it. Sat in the kitchen with us and polished off two bowls of roasted banana ice cream last night.

Today was swim class, where he is a rock star. He loves to kick around the pool holding onto a noodle to keep him up, and thought he was doing well enough today that he let go of the noodle and dunked himself. Oops.

And we are still getting our CSA share. Yesterday we made a zucchini-basil-squash blossom frittata and a batch of mint ice cream which will become mint stracciatella when I churn it, maybe tonight.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Down for a nap

He's just stopped fighting me and is now napping, which means I can blog.

We had a rock-star Fourth. One of my writing group friends who has a son a month and a week older than A invited us over for a BBQ, and we went and had a good time. Yay! A had a fabulous time playing with all their water toys.

This weekend's excitement was getting our first share of the CSA we joined. C signed us up last week while I was out of town, and wa-la, we have fresh, local, organic produce for the week. Gaze upon and be jealous of our haul. Then go support your own local CSA.
July 6th share

In other news: we started our new swimming lessons today, the advanced toddler class (can't you all just see my motherly pride from here?). There's only three kids in the class and it's taught by who I consider the best instructors there. It's the "next step" class that's supposed to still emphasize water safety while giving them a push towards independence in the water.

And I must say, he had a good time. They put him in a wacky noodle and let him swim around--and he did. He swam around. It was amazing.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

The Cannoli and the Mouse

Yesterday was also a good day to be almost-two and disgusting.

We went to buy cat food. The store has these chi-chi dog biscuits shaped like cookies and bon bons and what not, complete with little bakery-style bags and napkins to put them in.

A decided to take a big bite out of a cannoli-shaped dog biscuit, which I then bought in mortification. He almost took a bite out of a faux sugar cookie, but the sales girl told me, "It's okay, I'll just rub the teethmarks out of it," when I offered to buy that one as well.

Anyway, if that wasn't disgusting enough, then we went to the zoo. On one of the paths, there's a catchbasin filled with water, and A likes to throw a leaf or two in there when we walk by.

Yesterday, he throws a leaf in and looks down and picks up something else and is about to throw it in when I realize what it is: a dead mouse. Actually, it's a small dead rat, but it could have been a large mouse. Maybe.

So I scream, "No, no, no, no, no," like a banshee, make him drop it, then keep his hand firmly in my grip while I pull the stroller over and rummage one-handed through the diaper bag for the Purell. A begins to cry.

A nice woman with two kids who saw this whole incident stopped and took A's arm and kept him occupied while I looked for hand sanitizer. I found it and doused him with half the bottle. Then I washed his hands at the next bathroom. And I took him to First Aid, where they basically said, "Oh, dead mouse, well, wash his hands with warm water, that's about it." I think they had just gotten through a macaw biting someone, so I understand they were preoccupied.

As a fun fact, the zoo apparently keeps a virologist on staff to study disease vectors in vermin deaths.

I'll be happier when A develops a disgust factor. Yup.

Enter the Allergist

A had a rash after playing in the starfish tidepool at Sea World, and the first aid person there said that A may have an iodine allergy. We took him to the pediatrician, who referred us to a pediatric allergist to get him tested.

We saw her yesterday. The pediatrician's office had one of those large plastic mini-houses to play in and lots of riding toys, so A had fun while we were waiting. The allergist told us that actual iodine allergies are pretty rare, and it's usually a reaction to the protein in the animal itself. She didn't have anenome or starfish to test, but she tested all the seafood she had: lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops, cod, salmon, clams, oysters, etc. She added in dust mites, peanuts, cat, and dog as a bonus since he's had croup recently.

He ran around the office shirtless with sixteen little dots of oil on his back. Sure enough, a couple of them welled up almost immediately. I was relieved, so relieved, that he could run around the office instead of trying to keep a toddler sitting on a table for fifteen minutes.

A is allergic to cats and dogs. Yes, just like his mom. I felt very badly about it. We're not getting rid of the cats, but I felt terribly irresponsible sitting there not even pretending like I was considering getting rid of the cats to the doctor.

She suggested that we watch A for any lower respiratory diseases, get a HEPA filter for his room, and follow up in six months to see how he's doing. Oh, and that we stay out of the tidepools.

I'm glad he's not allergic to any seafood and I'm really glad he's steered clear of the peanut allergy. I guess that means I can start him on a PBJ now. He just got tested for all the things we hadn't introduced and is free and clear. Maybe a PB & shrimp sandwich?