First Assisted Steps!

This afternoon when Karston went potty, Cale had a moment of wishful thinking, and thought it was bath time! After all, we did tell him he was getting a bath in the evening, and bathtime starts with Karston going potty. I was helping Cale stand up after a diaper change, and he started to charge, so I held his hands and we ran to the bathtub! Although he had assistance from me the whole way, Cale took his first steps today. And these weren't hesitant steps, either! He was running!

I helped him walk after dinner and that beloved bath, and Cale was already much steadier at assisted walking this evening. I don't think he intended to run to the tub this afternoon, but this evening he enjoyed a few short, purposeful strolls. I know I've been saying it for a while, but I think Cale's just about ready to walk!

Chasing

Cale gets some strenuous exercise (and then sleeps well at night) when he and Karston play at Mimi's house on pretty days. When we dropped Karston off at preschool this morning, Ms Jan was telling us that they were a sight to see, with peals of beautiful laughter echoing through the neighborhood. The game is Chase: Karston drives his Big Wheels up the ramp and Cale chases after him in his walker. Yes, Cale hauls himself and a walker that weighs almost as much as he does up that ramp! Then Karston turns around and free-wheels down the ramp (easy) while Cale turns around and chases him some more (hard). Yesterday afternoon when we picked them up, we watched a few rounds of Chase. Karston lifts his feet and zooms down the ramp; Cale powers into it, little legs pumping fast, and chases him. Cale has very strong legs after a number of weeks of this! Cale eats well, sleeps well, and is surprisingly strong.

An Easter to Celebrate

Easter on its own is always reason to celebrate, but the last two have been especially special. Last year, of course, Cale was less than a week old when we celebrated Easter. This year it's a completely different reason, but we're still thrilled: Karston pooped on the potty! He knew when, he ran, and he didn't sit for long. His reward is a small football, and he loves it.

In more traditional Easter activities, Karston was adorable in his preschool Easter parade on Wednesday and he will still sing his "In My Easter Tie" song for you. He was not, ahh, just not very competitive at his preschool's egg hunt that day, though. The Easter bunny stopped by to hide two eggs for Karston to find that also happened to lead him to breakfast. This afternoon we joined Nadia and Tasha for a church Easter egg hunt, and he was much more intent on collecting many plastic eggs this time. In fact, his basket was overflowing! He enjoyed most of games there too.

Down

Cale just gave me a huge grin, as if to say Watch this Mommy!, crawled to the one-step edge between the living room and the sunroom with kids' toys, turned around at the edge, extended one leg, and confidently slid down into the sunroom. I've never seen him enter the sunroom on his own! He used to go forward until he crawled over the edge, did a face plant, and started to cry. Or he would crawl there, and cry with outstretched arms until someone helped him down. But now he goes by himself!

He's very proud of himself, and he laughed when he saw the surprised look on my face.

Lunch with Pictures

This afternoon we met Larry and Jen for lunch, like the old days, except Jen brought Nadia and Tasha because it's not the old days anymore! We all have kids now. Tasha jumped into my arms when she saw me, and said Beach? She really enjoyed the beach, even though we didn't expect it to "click" for a newly-two year old child. She gave me a picture that she and Nadia worked on this morning of us playing at the beach. I think we need to go back!

Uh-hunh

Cale seems to use the same baby words that Karston used, so Ha-da means play and Ah-da means again (so if you're playing with Cale and some aspect is really great, he says ah-da and we do that again; ha-da is to get you to start playing).

This morning before lunch, we went to the beach. (We thought about going to the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, but the kids didn't seem like they were ready for it. So we went to Emerald Isle instead.) Mostly I kept Cale in the shade since he can't run in the surf but watching the older kids would tempt him to try as hard as he could. However, when Nadia, Tasha, and Karston switched from chilly surf to sand castles, Daddy brought Cale over to join the fun. Daddy asked Cale, Ha-da? Ha-da? Cale gave him a wondering look, said Uh-hunh quite distinctly, and with a big grin, started playing with his daddy. First step from declarations to conversations!

We had lunch at The Bogue House (very tasty food, although Karston announced he doesn't like sweetened applesauce which is good news in my book) and met Rusty the town manager. He's a very happy person, good lunch company.

Measles Vaccine Rash

Measles Vaccine Questions and Answers says

Transmission of the measles vaccine virus does not occur from a vaccinated person, including those who develop a rash. No special precautions (e.g., exclusion from school or work) need be taken.

Nice to know Cale isn't contagious even to those who aren't MMR-vaccinated!

Doctor Update

Cale and I went to pediatric walk-ins this morning because he's got a rash.

On Friday, March 20th he had vaccinations for MMR (measles mumps rubella) and varicella (chicken pox). Cale is allergic to eggs, but just the uncomfortable kind of allergy, not worse. I would rather skip the anxiety of childhood diseases and take the vaccines! Cale also started a 10-day regimen of amoxiciliin for his ear infection. Cale is so agreeable, even when sick, that we were surprised he had an ear infection!

Starting Thursday, March 26th, Cale's morning diapers have not been as full as I would expect and nor does he need as many changes during the day, but he's also not eating and drinking as much as usual either, so it probably balances out. Daddy had his electric blanket on and Cale needed extra cuddles, so I don't know when Cale got hot, but he didn't cool down when I did when I got out of bed. However, Cale's palpable fever went down 10 minutes after we gave him a dose of Motrin, so it wasn't too worrisome. His diaper rash started looking bad today, and he rarely has diaper rash. However, rates of diaper rash double while on baby'mox, so I'm not surprised.

By Friday, March 27th, Cale didn't have a fever, but his diaper rash continued to get worse. He's still not eating well (only one 4 oz jar of pears total for Saturday and Sunday! he's been known to eat 18 to 20 oz per day before!), and he started to refuse to take his amoxicillin Saturday evening.

Sunday, March 29th, Cale had his last dose of amoxicillin in the morning. Sunday evening, my friend Jeni let me know that her kids' amoxicillin usually goes bad before the 10 days are up, and she's had bad results from continuing to give it to them anyway. So we made it to a strict 10 days, and Cale's not going to finish the bottle as I had originally planned. For the first time ever, Cale didn't want me to put cream on his diaper rash, so it must really hurt him now. He started getting mild red bumps on his trunk this afternoon. Another unusual symptom for him was that he was tugging on and scratching at his ears today, so I was concerned about his ear infection.

This morning the bumps had spread all over his body, and were an angry red instead of mildly red!

So we went to the doctor, and she said his bumps look more like measles. (The other choices would be chicken pox or amoxicillin rash. We're all hoping he's not penicillin-allergic, so we're hoping it's not amoxicillin rash.) I will give his a dose of Benadryl this morning to see if the bumps subside then resurge when the Benadryl wears off, and then we'll know. His ears are better, just some fluid on one side, so he's fine to stop the amoxicillin. His diaper rash looks like typical candida albicans, so I'll continue to treat it like that. If his rash gets worse and gets crusty then it's probably a bacterial infection (skin staph) so we'll treat it as such right away if it gets worse. I'm happy to know what to look for, for the worst case. And I'm happy to know this rash is probably just a mild reaction that won't bother him as much as it does me.

UPDATE: gave Cale Benadryl (roughly 1 mg per kg of body weight so 3/4 tsp) at 9:45 AM.
UPDATE 2: no reduction in redness or bumpiness at 11:30 AM. Measles, not amoxicillin rash! Whew.

Walker

No, Cale isn't walking yet! But this weekend, he came up with a new use for an ordinary household item. We have bar stools at the kitchen counter that are taller than Cale. Cale grabs a stool at about his shoulder height, moves it across the kitchen floor, and then follows it. He isn't walking unaided, but, with a bar stool, he is moving upright in the direction of his choice now! Since he can stand for 30 seconds without support, I expect him to start walking soon!

Cale has been practicing for his Toddler Tryouts this weekend ... I think his Terrible Twos could be a challenge! He's just been determined to get into as many things as possible, the more dangerous the more interesting. He's also been practicing his "mountain climbing" on me this weekend. However, he mellows out when we go for a walk outside, so he could just be stir crazy from all of this rain keeping us inside. However, with Karston and Daddy in Florida, he's also been sleeping better at night. I think evening bedtime with Karston is very exciting for Cale, but I can bore him.

Cruising

Oh yes, Cale is finally cruising. He has figured out that if the furniture is long, he can cruise from one end to the other before crawling to the next piece of furniture. Cale is unbelievably fast at crawling! His hips go side to side, and he really speeds past! When he's exhausted, his arms will go faster than his legs so he'll do a stretched-out belly flop on the floor, and then cry because he knows he can crawl better than that. Watching Cale crawl really accentuates what Karston missed from his bad tummy stopping him from crawling until he could already walk (Karston was never a speedy crawler, and rarely did it). He thinks cruising is pretty fun, and will stop to slap on the coffee table just to let us all know how delighted he is to move around, upright, on his own.

While brushing Cale's teeth this evening, I noticed he has two more! Yes, the poor child had two teeth punch through at the same, and to make matters worse, they're molars. I can't believe he's been fairly agreeable lately! Cale's so mild-mannered, he's sweet-tempered when he's in pain and has every right to be fussy.

Cale 1 Year Checkup

At his checkup this afternoon, Cale weighed 20.5 pounds for 29 inches tall with 18.5 inch head circumference. Those percentiles are 20th, 25th, and 70th. The rule of thumb, or so I have heard, is to double the birth weight at four months, then triple the birth weight at one year of age. Both Karston and Cale were about doubled in weight at four months, but neither tripled at one year. Karston was about 18 months when he reached the 3x mark, so we'll see how Cale does on that time scale. Cale's pretty healthy and normal. He has ten teeth, and is working on #11, which is a bit ahead of schedule. Maybe we'll get this teething over with sooner; rapid teething might explain why Cale chews on everything. I thought teething explained why Cale hasn't been sleeping well lately. However, he did have an ear infection, a better reason not to sleep well, so the doctor sent out his first prescription for amoxicillin. This was my first experience with electronic prescriptions. The prescription went to the pharmacy electronically, and I picked it up at the grocery store around the corner from the doctor (after they saw my insurance paperwork since this is Cale's first prescription). But he's a happy, healthy one year old boy!

ONE YEAR

I can't believe my sweet baby Cale is one year old now! He's a very fast crawler, and he can crawl up stairs (but not down, although he will take the face plant if that's how he gets down to get closer to Karston). He pulls up to stand, and he can stand unaided when he forgets to hold on (if he's holding a cookie, important work for his hands). Cale really tucks in to his food, easily out-eating Karston most days. He makes lots of sounds, but doesn't really talk yet. He laughs at so many things! He loves to play games and take baths, and does his most-est to keep up with Karston. Cale's a great little guy!

Pixie

Cale just came crawling down the hall as fast as he could (I was washing up in our bathroom) to let me know he had made the greatest discovery in the world! He found Karston's Valentine's candy leftovers, including a pixie stick (a paper straw with flavored sugar inside). Since Cale feels the need to have paper in his diet, he started chewing on it. Not only did he get paper, he got sugar! Oh, was he ever excited with this discovery of sugar inside of paper! He crawled as fast as he could to find me, and once he found me, he waved his pixie stick triumphantly over his head! As if to say, Look, mom, it's the best thing ever! This paper has sugar too!

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.

The Party

This afternoon we had a birthday party for Cale, his friend Chris (ok, my friend Jeni's son), and Chris' immediate male line of dad and grand-dad. Cale will be 1 in just over 2 weeks, Chris turned 2 last week, and the dads don't have to admit age. With the season, lots of people were sick (or maybe scared off by the forecast of blizzard at 4 pm that wasn't), so we had extended family and our neighbor Maria with her two girls over. 14 adults, 6 kids, and our basement wasn't crowded.

Baking for the party was interesting because both birthday babies have allergies. The train cakes were yummy even without milk, soy (in margarine), eggs, barley, or oats. However, allergy avoidance led to fairly healthy party snacks! Other than cake, we had fresh fruit and veggies, and rice chips with fresh guacamole.

Karston loves parties! Jeni brought over a hopping ball (a ball with a handle that kids can sit on to hop all around), and Karston hopped most of the afternoon and all evening. He loved playing with the other kids in our basement (he's Chris' height but weighs much less, and he's nearly four, almost twice Chris' age). The inflatable palm tree forest held up to rough kid play remarkably well! Karston asked if Chris' big brother Will (only 5 weeks older than Karston) could stay. Actually, he asked that with both arms wrapped around Will so Will couldn't go anywhere! We had to distract him with the hopping ball. Karston really liked Cale's birthday present of stacking bath cups. Bath play is a big hit around here; a fast bath takes us an hour.

Cale, who also didn't nap but is young enough that that really matters, didn't work the room as much. However, Cale did show me his two new favorite games with Amy, flick and mountain climbing. For flick, once he's eaten enough chips, Cale likes to flick small chip bits off of Amy's knee and laugh. Baby giggles are great, and from the sound of it, so is this game. Cale also likes to climb people sitting on couch mountain. He started sitting on the floor, then pulled himself upright. With some help from Amy, Cale climbed into her lap. Then, standing on the couch, he was just determined to climb over the back to see out the window. And was pretty happy to start over on the floor, ready for more mountain climbing again. Cale really liked his spinning race car toy, especially chewing on the handle, but also watching he cars go around.

Number Nine

Cale's ninth tooth, the first of his first molars, came through today. (Actually, I didn't check yesterday, but I checked Wednesday while waiting for the doctor.) I can't believe he slept seven and a half hours last night, after weeks of poor sleep, with a new tooth. This has also been the longest time between teeth eruptions since he got his first tooth. His eigth tooth came in just before he turned nine months old, and he's more than a week past his eleven months birthday. More than nine weeks without a tooth! Yes, Cale seems to be fast on teething.

The Specialist

Karston finally had his appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist specialist this afternoon. (Finally! Over three months of waiting!) This morning when Karston said tummy hurting, we told him he would see the doctor today. This evening, Karston asked why his tummy was still hurting after he saw the doctor. Heart-rending!

Overall, my sense is that Dr. Litchtmann isn't too worried about Karston. Karston doesn't "show" well to doctors. He starts off shy, hiding his face in Daddy's lap. Then he warms up, starts laughing and then working the crowd. He's so happy that when we say he often screams at night from his tummy pain ... what we say (crying from pain) doesn't match what Karston presents (extra happy, energetic kid) to the doctor. The doctor's not worried about his small size (nor would I if I didn't think it were a direct consequence of his food aversion that's almost certainly due to his tummy pain). He wasn't even too concerned with the poor eating habits -- but he's going to help us look for the root cause of the pain, so this doctor is reading off the right page.

The positive outcome is that we have an imaging appointment Monday afternoon. First Karston will have an abdominal ultrasound to see that all his organs are the right sizes in the right places. Immediately after that, he'll have a barium swallow (or so they think ... swallowing is close to eating and Karston would rather not) and an upper GI x-ray. We really should see something; if not, the doctor will send a 'scope down to look (requires general anesthesia, can biopsy to check level of esophageal damage from reflux). So, as I expected, nothing got resolved today, but we're on the path to see what's wrong.

Like all of his recent doctor's appointments, Karston absolutely did not want to have his vitals measured, least of all his weight. I suppose he has heard too many times that he should eat more after he's weighed. After much resistance, we learned that he's 26.7 pounds dressed in winter clothes, and 35.75 inches tall. And he looks healthy.

11

Well, Cale's 11 months old now. This is his last "month" birthday before we measure his age including years. He has so much personality! He tells us when he's hungry and if he wants baby food or self-feeding, he wants to make you laugh, he tells me when he wants another bedtime story or when I should hurry up and finish the book. I looked at a picture of Karston when he was almost 10 months. They look very similar! However, Cale has already outgrown that outfit, and the next size up too. Karston had four teeth, while I can feel #9 about to poke through in Cale's mouth. Cale is crawling at high speed, while Karston didn't crawl. Cale must put everything in his mouth, while Karston wasn't quite that fixated. They both think Tinker Toys and wooden trains are great. Cale isn't as interested in Intellitainer as Karston was, probably because he's mobile and that beats a stationary play station. Unless it's his Leap Pad station to which he crawls and then pulls himself up to play with the knobs and buttons. He's come so far and grown so big! Shucks, he's already grown so much and developed more of his own personality in the last two weeks, it's just amazing! This week he learned to drink from a re-usable "juice box" with a straw! He doesn't have the hang of tilting a sippy back (or else he really enjoys having someone else do that for him!), but he sure knows how to suck from a straw. He's been on a kick of feeding himself crunchy food (rice chex), so we wanted more fluids in his diet before the dry food got uncomfortable.

Best Big Brother

Karston really is the best big brother Cale could want! This afternoon, I could not get Cale to take a nap. He was tired, clinging on to me and crying. When I set him in his crib, he shrieked. So I picked him up, and he cried in my ear. After an hour, I was tired of listening. So I strapped a very reluctant Cale in his swing. I pushed the button to start the rocking, but after one rock, the batteries died. Argh! Karston started to sing to Cale and push the swing, and Cale got much quieter. I left the room to get a coin to open the battery compartment, and Cale quit fussing at all.

Karston followed me, No, let me rock baby brudder to sleep! What else to say but sure, you do it? Karston got his xylophone so that he could play music while he was singing to Cale and rocking him. Cale was perfectly quiet when I wasn't in the bedroom, and Karston was very attentive. About four minutes later, Karston found me to announce that Cale was asleep. I checked, and he was sound asleep. He stayed asleep for a decent nap, too! Karston loves being in charge of his brother, and I love having such a good mother's helper! There are moments, of course, when two children are much more work, but there are many oases when the two boys have each other and don't want my full attention. Then, as long as I'm ready to drop everything and run when one calls, I can go to the bathroom (I did!) or cook dinner (I did!) and remember what adults do when we're not chasing children.

Yes, Karston really is this sweet!

Over The Top Circus

This morning, we met up with Jeni, her mom, and her two boys to go the 11 am circus, the Over The Top show. Karston finally settled in to watch the show; then he enjoyed it. I'm not sure he was as impressed as we were at some of the feats! Karston seemed to think if he were watching it, it must be reasonable. He liked the tigers because he likes kitties. Once the lights went down, Cale started watching. He seemed impressed with the aerial acrobatics at the start of the show. He got pretty wiggly after 45 minutes, and he started to nurse just before intermission. By the end of intermission, Cale was sound asleep, and he slept through the entire second half until we left at 1:30 pm.

So if you asked us how was their first circus, we were impressed with the daredevil stunts and we saw all the usual circus bits we would want to see. When we asked Karston, he said it was neat. I think he likes his elephant (the souvenir cup his snow cone came in) better than the show! And if you asked Cale, he'd probably say he slept well despite the noise. And why can't he have more long naps on my lap? We really enjoyed taking our boys to the circus!

After the circus, we were starved, so we went to Cloos' Coney Island. I was sure the one advantage to such a late lunch would be that we could get our food quickly. Before we got married and had kids, we would sometimes have a late dinner and split a pitcher over pinball, and we never had to wait too long. We waited at least 40 minutes for our hot dogs! Yes, just basic, top quality hot dogs! Well, on such a gorgeous, warm day ... everyone else was at Cloos' too. We still enjoyed that too, and both of our boys ate a french fry.