Lot of Updates

Wow. Last time I posted was after Little Man's 4th birthday.  I've been SO busy and honestly completely forgot about my blog.  So here is the quick rundown of the last 3 months.

September
Little Man started in the Pre-K class at his daycare. There are 3 groups of children and he is in the smallest group. I wasn't thrilled with how the students were split and still have some issues. He had a LOT of behavioral problems just after he turned 4. Defiance. Hitting and spitting at his teacher. Stomping his feet and being naughty. But... we made a sticker chart and reward him when he's had a good day. Now he is mostly well behaved. He has his off days, but I cannot expect perfection.

He also started soccer with the town's league, which has a Pre-K group. I won't say he is athletic, but he has been trying (some other children just cry and won't even go on the soccer field). This coming Saturday is the last game. I probably won't do this again until he's a bit older. But it's been fun.

He chose #4 because he's 4!

October
The month of birthday parties! Many of Little Man's friends have October birthdays. He had a blast at all of them. We went pumpkin picking and he also went with his daycare. We saw a new movie in the theaters--Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. And Little Man was a Minion for Halloween. Surprised? He still quite likes minions and Despicable Me. Here he is!

"Minion Dave" for Halloween 2013

November

Well, I know it's only the 7th today but this month is BIG for my little guy. First he can READ!  Small words so far, but he's reading!!  And we are going to Walt Disney World next week! He is SO excited (heck, I'M excited). We got the Fall Free Dining promotion. And we're testing their new "Magic Bands" and staying on Disney property. I'll share pics and blog about the trip when we're back. Hoping for nice weather, low crowds and a happy 4-year-old.

Until Mid November...

Little Man is FOUR

My son has gone from baby to toddler to BOY.  He is a four-year-old boy! It's crazy how FAST it went. And I know he's still a little boy with a lot to learn... but I can hardly comprehend how my baby is not a baby any more. Though he thankfully still loves to cuddle with Mama and occasionally asks to be rocked to sleep. I love those moments and savor every snuggle.

And Little Man also had his first party with "school friends."  About 7 children from his daycare came to his party--along with our friends' daughter, who is 5 months younger--which was held at a local indoor play space thanks to a purchase from Groupon. It still ended up costing me $400 total (including all food) because I had to pay for additional children at $20 a pop... but my husband and I agreed it was worth it to see the pure joy in our son's face. He was SO happy to be the Birthday Boy. He even got a crown to wear.

I kept wondering about a theme. When I sent out the invites, he was getting into Monster's University so the invites and thank you's were with those images. But when it came to a birthday cake, he decided he wanted a MINION cake.

If you don't know minions, they are from Despicable Me 2 (and the original) and they are super cute little yellow guys who speak gibberish and wear goggles.

He LOVES them!

However, finding a cake at supermarket with the minions was impossible. They didn't have the DecoSet available. But I went to the DecoPac online store and downloaded the information on how to make a minion cake and purchase the set on Amazon. I brought it to my local Shop Rite and they were able to make the cake perfectly!

The cake looked just like this, with "Happy 4th Birthday Little Man" in yellow icing.

It tasted delicious as well!  Mmmm....

This Friday is Little Man's 4 year well visit. He gets 3 shots--boo!--but I promised him ice cream after. I'll report back with stats later. I expect him to be close to 42" and weigh around 40 lb. We'll see if I'm right.

Here's a pic of the family from his birthday.

Astrology ... Hmm...

I was perusing a site, from a posting on a friend's Facebook page, called Zodiac City and some of the Aries and Leo traits had me nodding my head (as I'm an Aries and Little Man is a Leo) and other scratching my head. Especially the bit about sleeping (for Little Man)

I wholeheartedly agree with this graphic:

Yep. I am probably too forgiving but before I forgive, I generally hold a grudge for a while.

This one I'm wondering about. Is my child NOT a typical Leo child? While I agree with the first two, he has no issues crying and when tired he fights sleep. While he is generous and shares with me and my husband, at school sharing is rough. Though is that because he's nearly 4? And I guess he has several friends who are girls. We shall see how he evolves.

The Tonsillectomy Recovery and Other Updates

It's been about a month since my last post. Initially I was unable to update after Little Man's surgery in June. Because, to be honest, the recovery SUCKED. I'm not even sure I can appropriately address how terrible it was with my words. But it was BAD.

So basically Little Man refused to take ANY medicine. He'd work himself up into a frenzy and cry and run away screaming "No medicine!" The antibiotics that were prescribed were preventative only, so we took the $25 copay loss and only got 2 doses into him (the first 24 hours). He wouldn't take liquid Tylenol so I purchased the Feverall acetaminophen suppositories. He actually preferred them to the oral medication, though not without a fight. But every so often I dosed him where I could. So I guess he was in considerable pain. I did manage to keep him hydrated--no clue how I did that--and he went between wanting nothing to eat to being STARVING. It was rough.

Basically for 12 days post-op, he ate macaroni and cheese. For breakfast. For lunch. For dinner. Mushy mac-n-cheese. With the occasional ice pop or fudgicle. He had yogurt too. That was IT. And those foods bound him up. So he'd complain that his tummy hurt--the combo of constipation and hunger! By day 10, I had enough and let him have some soft muffins and blueberries. He was much happier and the blueberries are the magic poop fruit. Seriously. Those with a thermos filled with Miralax infused water did the trick.

The poor kid would also wake several times a night SCREAMING!  The first night or two, I think it was from pain. But after that, he had night terrors. He didn't fully wake. He hit me and cried. Some nights he stayed in his bed, but I was there every 2 hours (like when he was a newborn, only not as easy). The first few nights he slept in bed with me and my husband--which meant WE got no sleep. He was able to articulate once that he was afraid of being put to sleep (and we were so careful to say the doctors would only HELP him fall asleep) and he was afraid to sleep. I felt awful.

Finally he had his post-op visit on our 5th anniversary (Saturday June 22nd) and the doctor gave the go-ahead for a normal diet. Thankfully the tonsils had healed properly with no complications. So we went to a diner and he had pancakes. Kiddo devoured them. He was SO hungry. He also tried some of my husband's orange juice and actually "stole" the cup. For about a week after, he was an eating machine. But now, a month later, he's slowed down.

Here are a few pics.

In other news...

• We took him to his first movie IN the movie theaters. Monster's University on June 23rd.
• He went back to daycare (after 2 weeks off) on the 24th and is doing really well. Even is going on field trips with on a big school bus!
• As for me... Hubby and I actually had an anniversary dinner out by ourselves!

So I guess that's it.  I know I keep saying that I'll update this blog more frequently. I guess I should, right? At the very least I'll try to write at least once a week. TRY is the key word.

Tonsils, Adenoids and Tubes

Again, it's been a month since I last caught up here. For the most part, not much happened in late May. We had a nice Memorial Day weekend with my husband's sister and family as well as my BFF and her family. And the first weekend in June we went back to the Bronx Zoo with friends.

Then came Monday, June 10th. Surgery day. I mentioned that he was having a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and myringotomy last month. Well it happened and it was ROUGH!

The OR was booked for 7 AM sharp, so we had to arrive by 5:30 AM.  We were 20 minutes late, but I figured they couldn't start without him. We did OK for the most part during check in. Little Man spelled his name for a nurse and let them weigh and measure him (38 lb and 41 inches). I think until the anesthesologist prescribed Versed (similar to Xanax) for his anxiety, we were OK. But once the nurse made him drink it, it was downhilll. Managed to get him into the hospital gown and he wanted me to go into the OR with him. The medication hit while we were in the staging area so he wasn't quite as belligerent as expected, but it still took me and his ENT and a nurse to hold him down while the anesthesologist administered the gas. He was out, finally, and I was ushered out of the OR at 6:55 AM.

The procedures were quick. The doctor came out at 7:40 to let us know it was all done. Apparently Little Man's tonsils were "really big." And we waited another 20 minutes (give or take) until we were taken to recovery to be with him. Upon arrival, we found out he'd ripped the IV right out of his hand upon rousing. He was HYSTERICAL.  Nothing and I mean NOTHING would calm him. My holding him helped for a minute. Then my husband tried. But he really didn't rouse well.  They moved us out of the PACU to the short stay recovery area (loud and not really conducive to recovery).

Little Man was crying and screaming the entire time. "I want to go home!" Over and over. He fell asleep on me for about 45 minutes. When he woke, we coaxed him to drink some more water and he peed. We had been telling him he could go home if he drank and peed. So he tells the nurses "I did what you said. I drank and peed. I'm a good boy. I want to go home."  I was nearly in tears and I think one of the nurses was too. But, thankfully, they sent us home a little before noon.

I'm not entirely sure that was the best thing. Since being home he has refused ALL medication. No pain meds. No antibiotics. I only managed to get the Rx ear drops in. But thankfully he's remained hydrated and I presume he's healing. Today is actually worse than yesterday (48 hours post op). Day 1, when his throat was still numb, he ate chocolate pudding and ate ice pops and ice cream. Yesterday he ate oatmeal. Today he's refusing foods (though, oddly, he had some mushy mac-n-cheese for lunch) but IS drinking. It's been so rough. And I can't even get a Feverall suppositiory in him.  At least he doesn't have a fever, though he's been at 99.5 a bit.

I think we must be the worst patients his ENT has seen. I called a few times and got mixed messages. I'm not 100% thrilled with the communication but I do realize that Little Man is NOT the ideal patient.

I knew going in this would be rough. But I guess I thought he'd at least have ice pops.

Thoughts on My Family

There are times when I worry about my son's future as an only child. He'll be alone. He won't have a sibling. Even though I planned to just have ONE child, these thoughts go through my mind. But then I think of my own poor relationship with my sibling. And while my husband loves and gets along with his brother, they certainly aren't close. So a sibling doesn't necessarily guarantee a good relationship and friendship into adulthood. But I guess I also worry about the fact that I had Little Man when I was 39... he's going to have elderly parents earlier in life. And no matter how well my husband and I may plan, when we are ill, everything will fall on him. That's assuming Little Man grows up to want us in his life as an adult. But I'll just go on that assumption based upon our relationships with our parents.

Families are complex. While I am pretty close with my aunts and uncles, I don't have much of a relationship with any of my cousins. Only two of the five are actually in touch with me (via Facebook, but they're in touch). And they both live far away so we couldn't actually get together anyway. Two are pleasant to me, but it's obvious we'll never reconnect. One considers me to dead to him for nothing I actually did. C'est la vie. I know I have done nothing wrong and my circumstances are what they are. But that has affected things and it's too bad. I am almost like an orphan, because nobody in my family has me over for holidays because of past actions made by someone else--but I get blamed, I guess.  My husband's family embraced me, but for some reason we just don't manage to connect any longer. A lot of it has to do with geography. It is what it is. But at least I know they have my back. At least I hope they do.

There are days when I feel lost. With my parents' health issues, they really aren't any support to me emotionally. My one aunt tries, but her life is so busy that she barely has time for herself and her two children. So I have nobody from "my side." And while I know my husband's family is there for me, it isn't quite the same.

Catching Up

Where to begin? It's been a good two months since I've actually posted something of interest. I guess I'll break the months down in sections and go from there, because a lot has happened.

MARCH

In our case it came in like a lamb and went out like a lion. Yikes. We finally made it to the dentist for Little Man's first check-up and it wasn't that great. He wasn't a fan of the chair and sat ON me the entire time. The x-rays weren't easy to get. Then I find out that Little Man has four cavities. FOUR! So I make appointments for him to get fillings. Fun times.

The first issue was my dog Casey and the chicken bones. He got into the garbage and the rotisserie chicken carcass. He ate the entire thing. After diarrhea and vomiting, I took him to the vet. He had gastritis and got meds (and lots of blood work, as he also has canine kidney disease). A quick $300 later and he recovered. But honestly I was worried. He was a very sick dog for a few days.

Then the week before Passover/Easter we had the "mystery illness."  He had a fever ranging from 100.7 to 102 for a full week. I ended up using 3 out of my 5 annual sick days (that I only got in March, after 3 months of employment) and my husband was off on Good Friday, when he finally felt better BUT came down with an ear infection.

Since Little Man has tubes, we did antibiotic ear drops (Ciprodex) but they did nothing. Took him back to the pediatrician and he got a prescription for a Z-pack. That finally did the trick and I made an appointment with his ENT for mid-April to follow up.  More on that later.

APRIL

That first Monday, after Little Man was finally better, I felt awful. I went to work with a fever. Bad call, but I only had 2 sick days left and felt like I could handle it. That evening I even went to my allergist for a check-up. But by dinnertime I felt AWFUL and my throat was on FIRE.  I had a 103 fever and felt like death. Of course sick day #4 was taken on Tuesday and I wen to my primary care doctor.

Strept Throat. That sucked. And led to sick day #5 (of 5) being taken on Wednesday. Plus a bad reaction the the generic Biaxin I was taking for the antibiotic. A switch to a sulfa drug did the trick, but I was on antibiotics for 12 days and that wasn't fun. Thank goodness my boss is a nice guy and gets that life happens. I am so grateful for being hired there.

Then Little Man's appointment with his ENT came on April 24th.  Apparently the one tube in his left ear (the one that got infected) partially came out and wasn't functioning. Plus I found out that his adenoids and tonsils are so large that he is unable to breathe through his nose. And he had another hearing test and he has loss in that one ear of >25 decibels. So the recommendation was another Myringotomy (tubes) and surgery to remove his Tonsils and Adenoids.

I have to admit that I'm freaking out a bit. I've read that the recovery from a tonsillectomy is NOT easy. And I'm expecting the worst. I'll post more about that later and probably will keep a record of his recovery. Surgery is set for June 10th.

We ended the month a bit better, with a trip to the Bronx Zoo. We're members and we go as often as we can. Little Man loves animals.

MAY

So far so good.

It was my husband's birthday. We saw Iron Man 3. We're planning our Fall vacation to Walt Disney World. I'm hoping this month is a good one.

I guess tha't all for now.  Sorry for hiatus again. I always start out with good intentions of blogging but then never follow through.