Snow Imaging Ten

This morning we woke up to two inches of very sticky snow, with bare snow-capped branches in a winter wonderland. Cale didn't enjoy snow the first time, so I planned to stay in with him. (I also feel like I might get a sore throat, so indoor air is kinder.) Well, when Cale saw Daddy and Karston suiting up, he started reaching for Daddy, hopped out of my arms to crawl to Daddy... usually that means he's hungry, but he had just eaten. So I put Cale in his snowsuit (before the Abominable Snow Man grew up, he might have been an Adorable Snow Baby too), and then in the backpack. Daddy got quite the workout, toting Cale on his back and pulling Karston really fast on the sled. Our active terrier-mix dog Emma had a blast running around them too. Karston was so happy to wear his new hand-me-down coat that he got from Chris last night, I wasn't sure he was ever going to take it off. Karston says his formerly-primary coat is now Cale's because it little like Cale who's within 5 pounds of Karston so who you calling little?

This afternoon, Karston had his medical imaging referral from the pediatric GI specialist. He was very good for the abdominal ultrasound. I'm still impressed with the high resolution of the newest ultrasound machines! Next was the upper GI fluoroscopy, and as we feared, Karston wasn't up for the barium swallow. Swallowing is, I suppose, too close to eating, and he's rarely up for that. We tried to coax him into it, and I warned him it would get awful if he didn't drink his chocolate milk shake for the camera. Karston held on tight to my hands, and I regret scratching my nose because I can still hear him cry, Mommy, hold on to me! hold on tight! We don't want to repeat that. Despite parental trauma, Karston was a genuine trooper who didn't squirm. He scored a lot of stickers and a blue squeaky dolphin (think rubber ducky, but as a blue dolphin with a really loud squeaker inside). Afterwards, we let him pick what he wanted: green chips. I don't know why he said green chips, but despite the fresh snow coming down, we took him to Bandido's for green chips. He plowed down gummy fruit on the drive over, and then he worked his way through a whole lot of green tortilla chips. Wow, eating! If he were wondering, yes, if he eats like that regularly then he won't have any more appointments like we just had. He also talked me into three Hershey's kisses once we were home. He doesn't seem to have any structural flaws, so that's probably not it. We'll go back to the specialist in just over three weeks to see what's next to help Little Mr. "tummy hurting" Karston.

Just like that, Cale now has ten teeth. The first of his first molars, upper left, took forever to peek out. It was swollen, lumpy, and bothering him. The upper right first molar just popped out without much fuss (not that Cale slept well the past several nights, but that's not too far out of line either). I noticed it while brushing Cale's teeth this evening.