Tue 11/24: Thanksgiving week!
Published November 24, 2009 ben , cry , daycare , development , talk , waving Leave a CommentBen has been back to school since last Wednesday — fantastic! Everything seems to be going well at school. Every day when I go to pick him up, it seems like he has learned a new word that day. Yesterday the new word was “necklace”. Ben has gotten pretty good at learning new words through imitation, so his vocabulary is expanding at an increasing rate. I’m so impressed by the things that Ben learns without me really thinking about teaching him. It’s amazing how kids can pick things up just by watching the people around them.
Another thing that Ben is doing much more these days is saying hello and goodbye. It used to be that we would rarely get him to wave goodbye when we left, but now he does it every time. I think yesterday I even taught him to say “bye-bye” when he was waving. He is also doing a better job of waving hello to people when he greets them.
Ben is still pretty cranky in the morning, but for some reason he has been sleeping in later these past few days. Today we were able to sleep in until 6:40 with no interruption — sweet relief!
Ben returned to school for the first day yesterday and seemed to get back in the swing of things with no trouble at all. The ladies who work there report that he was eating like a horse. I can’t blame him — after being stuck at home with nothing but rice, bananas, and applesauce for 10 days, I’d eat a tin can if you put some soy sauce on it. Speaking of that, Ben has developed a craving for rice covered in teriyaki sauce. Don’t ask me why.
Lately Ben has been waking up very early (say around 4:30) and being very upset when I come in to get him. We decided to wait him out and let him calm himself down, which works, but it doesn’t make that last 90 minutes of sleep very easy for Marcie and myself. I wonder why this is happening?
The stomach virus is over! Ben’s digestion has returned to normal!
Angels peal and join the chorus of song.
Looking back, the last 10 days was excruciating on several levels, but it was also valuable in some ways. I really felt like Ben and I bonded more through all the time that we spent together. Even more to the point, Ben and Mary got much closer together since they spent so many days at home. (Thank you, thank you, thank you Mary! We wouldn’t have survived without you!)
As with most parenting experiences, I’m sure that this will be a learning experience and that next time we will know what to expect. I’ve learned not to get my hopes up and to be patient while waiting for things to subside. It was a blessing that Ben was in such a good mood this week; I can’t imagine remaining so cheerful if I had been in his shoes!
Benjamin said “cracker” today. It sounds a little like “quacker,” with the less than hard /k/ sound at the beginning. It’s the most precious word he’s said so far. It’s super cute. I’ll try to get a video of it tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll be eating more crackers tomorrow, that’s about all he ate today. He had about a sleeve and a half of graham crackers so far today. There’s still more eating time to come, so we’ll see if he’ll finish the second sleeve. I might have to join him in the cracker fest as I have caught the same ickies that he had. Ugh.
My mom spent Wednesday through Friday taking care of our sick Ben so Roger and I could work. I think they both had a great time together, some quality bonding time for sure. Mom even reports that Ben said “Grandma” to her on many occasions. Awesome work B!
Let’s see some cute pictures instead of dwelling on the pestilence that has descended upon our household.
The face gets a new hat from GrandMary.
It takes some pretty good timing to find a pile of leaves around campus. The grounds crew typically vacuumes them up as their falling from the sky. So this pile was a special treat for Ben. He climbed in it and burried himself looking super cute the whole time.
Fri 11/13: Not out of the woods yet…
Published November 13, 2009 ben , cry , diaper , diet , marcie , mary , sick 2 CommentsOur long national poopy nightmare continues unabated. On Wednesday, Ben went the entire afternoon and evening without any diarrhea, and I really thought that we had turned the corner. But yesterday morning he woke up with his pajamas full of poop. At this point the diapers are really just an optimistic thought. No improvement through lunch and dinner, although applesauce does seem to improve the color and aroma of the situation.
Yesterday afternoon was a very trying time for this father, and I am getting increasingly ground down by this thing. Ben was outrageously cranky yesterday afternoon, and seemed inconsolable for a long time. Fortunately he calmed down around dinner time and managed to make it through the shower fairly uneventfully.
This morning Marcie reports that his BM is a little more solid, but I can’t get my hopes up and get my soul crushed again. If we can go the whole day without any diarrhea, then I will start to feel a little better about things.
I’m taking a Multimedia class at the school I work at. We’ve learned to make virtual realities in the early part of the class. Now we’re starting movie editing. Because I missed class yesterday I decided to splice together a video to practice. The clips are from our visit to the Children’s Museum on Sunday. Watch out for the music, it’s wacky.
Warning: the following post is messy and disturbing on multiple levels, including scatological. You were warned. 
Good news, we seem to be out of the woods with our cold from last week — the cough has almost disappeared. Unfortunately, it seems to be replaced by a virulent stomach bug. Ben was home again today and will also be home tomorrow as he tries to recuperate.
This one has been characterized by *explosive* diarrhea. I mean, you have no idea. We have suffered containment breaches in the past with his diapers, but this time there’s no keeping up. Last night in the dining hall, he totally blew out the back of his diaper, through his pants, and even onto the back of his jacket — that was a fun time trying to carry him home! And this morning he woke up with poop all over the inside of his pajamas. I had to actually give him a surprise shower this morning just to get it all off.
It’s really gross, too — the only way I can describe the smell is that it’s like the smell of rotten algae that you sometimes get in your aquariums if you haven’t been doing a very good job of scraping down the glass walls. Tonight, as I was getting ready to put him in the shower, I took off his diaper and found that he had pooped on both sides of the diaper and also on the diaper cover. While I was in the process of scraping all of that into the toilet (and clogging it), Ben decided to pee all over the floor. Ahh, the joys of parenting…
Exciting news from day care yesterday — Ben said three new words!
- cold
- off
- all done
I have also heard him try to say the words “pasta” and “pizza”.
Ben’s cold actually seems to be getting a little worse. Today he woke up with a 100.6 degree fever, so that meant a day at home with Daddy and the beginning of a course of antibiotics. I’m sure that the medicine will clear things up quickly. Generally Ben has been pretty cheerful for a sick little guy, although his appetite is a little off and he is much more tired. Let’s hope for a quick turnaround!
