Toddler Tummy

Oh and a frustrating and confusing rant about Sam's digestion and such -- experienced parents feel free to offer suggestions.

Sam had diarrhea for probably more than two weeks. After just over a week of it not sorting itself out, we went to see the doctor. The doctor had us collect a stool sample to test for parasites. Have you ever had to collect a stool sample for a non-potty trained kid?? They want you to line their diaper with plastic to collect it. So uncomfortable! It kept going up his but cheeks. Poor kid. So we got a sample and turned it in. Didn't hear from them didn't hear from them, then the doc called to say they needed more! So Aaron goes out to the lab and gets another specimen cup. They need to do a blood cult test. They want to see if there is bleeding in the intestines. So they give him the cup and say he can do that or do this hemocult (sp?) card thing. So we decide to do the cup because we didn't know what to do with the cup. By this point it's a good week since our doc appointment and Sam's stool is firming up anyway. But finally we collect it; it's after hours so we refrigerate it and intend to bring it to the doc the next day. We don't. So the day after that (now Friday) I call the nurse to see if it's too old. She said probably, most of the time it has to be within 48 hours, but I should take it in and ask. I take it in and ask and they said it had to be within 24 hours and I should just do the card anyway. I *politely* explain how this is stupid because we've wasted all this time and I'm probably the irritated overly vocal mother that embarrasses everyone. Anyway we plan to do the card and they throw away the old poop that has been sitting in our fridge!! Then another nurse calls to check back with me and explain that the poop has to be back within like TWO - FOUR hours or something. I'm like "how is that supposed to work??" They don't understand why it's a problem -- "oh, do you live out of town?" No, but we share one car, and there is nap time, and he often goes in the evening, and.... anyway finally someone tells me I can go to the hospital to drop off the sample if I need to after hours. Regardless, in this instance we just need to do the card. Fine. I will do the card. By now Sam's poop is back to normal. OH and this last nurse finally told me that there weren't parasites, so I guess that's good news.

Augh. So frustrating.

Now, however, Sam is back to very slow bowel movements -- like every three days. Three days!! He is drinking lots of fluids, eats wheat and whole grain, might have too much dairy, eats fruits and veggies. We now give him the yogurt with the bacteria for healthy digestion...We know to ease up on bananas, rice, applesauce... I worry about this kid. Hmm.

Also -- I'm pretty sure Sam was doing some teething when the diarrhea hit. Moms out there -- did your kids get this when teething?

Ah, to blog about poop. I have no shame.

Craziness

I need to update my banner. Silly to see winter Sam in the hot and humid summer weather. I guess it's kind of refreshing though.

So, when I post so infrequently it leaves too much to say that I don't know what to say.

We are still trying to buy a house. Today is the 25th. We were supposed to close today. Didn't happen. Supposed to close Monday, won't happen. So now the goal is Tuesday. I hope it happens. The couple who took over our lease needs to get in the night of the 30th. Oi. That's Wednesday. We have to be out by Wednesday. We have a lot of stuff packed. We have a lot more packing to do. But instead I'm writing this blog. Aaron is doing some packing. I have a hard time knowing what packing to do next. Like I need to clear things out before I can know what to pack up. We're running out of boxes. I don't know how many dishes to keep out. I've already had to dig things out of boxes that were already packed.

I'm a sloppy packer. I pack ahead and I seal boxes and everything -- it's not like I'm packing as I load the truck. But I will pack things that fit the box well or balance the weight load instead of good sorting. Aaron is a good sorter, good organizer. I make boxes full of miscellaneous things and label them "liz miscellaneous" this has been a joke amongst us for a good long while.

I'm scared that we're buying this house. It is a cute house. It is a small house. It is on a good street near nice parks with good schools, close to campus, close to the library, close to restaurants...we got a great down payment deal. I should feel confident in this choice. But I'm having cold feet. Home ownership is exciting but always more money, more work, more commitment than it seems at first. These are things that are good about it too -- you get to put money into it, you get to accrue money in it, you get to make it your own. But every little problem you have with it is you problem, and it is a burden. But I think it will be ok. I'm scared to have close neighbors. I hope they are ok. I'm nervous about "settling" though it's something I've wanted for a long time.

A lot of my insecurities come up just because of lack of confidence. I'm teaching again. Bring on the self doubt. The class is going well, the students are good workers -- it's all fine. But if there is anything to ruffle my feathers it's teaching. I guess it just isn't for me. I keep thinking with more experience I will gain confidence. But you know what? I guess I've been doing this for five years now -- how much experience do I need?? (it has been on and off for five years though). Anyway, that kind of insecurity just makes me insecure about all of my life choices and all of that. But really things are good. I should feel good. And I think I do feel good. Most of the time.

We are busy. Too busy. I'm working full time -- or just under, with the gallery and teaching. I can't believe there are couples where both parents work full time. Yikes. We are exhausted even with this arrangement. I get home from an 8-hour day and I'm exhausted. I don't have the energy to pack, to clean house, to entertain Sam with something better than a movie or lying next to him while he plays with cars on our bed. It's terrible. It's terrible to not have the energy for my son. I sorta feel like I'm a wimp. There are so many parents that do this all the time. Surely they don't neglect their children all the time like the way I feel I'm doing? I guess that's extreme. It's not really neglectful. But it sure isn't what I would want it to be.

And then I feel neglectful of my spouse. Our summer at one point was going to be very relaxed; I would work some and Aaron would have time for his art. His time is now all for Sam and moving and house chores. It's taking it's toll.

But we will get through it. It isn't long now, actually. We should close next week. We should move next week. I'll take time off of the gallery next week, only teaching (four hours/day, three days/week). Then I'll work one more week at the gallery and be off until August. Then I have the two job overlap again for a week, then it's back to the gallery only. So it will ease up. Of course Aaron is traveling all over the country and world with art shows, so we'll see how we sort that out. If anyone wants to come watch Sam for a couple of weeks in August, let me know!

I started looking into daycare options in the fall. I thought maybe two half days a week would help. Sam is more into playing with kids and we don't do that too much. And it would ease things up for the two working parents. But I dunno. It's expensive; it's scary. Aaron is probably teaching just two days/week next term, so alternating schedules won't be too bad. I don't know. OH! this is also instigated because the past two years we've had a cheap and reliable sitter living next door -- Meg! But now we're moving, and so is she. She got a good job downtown and just leased a sweet apartment above some downtown shops. Very cool.

So it's change, change, change. But I guess it's good. It is exhausting.

A mixture of pictures:

Playing guitar over video chat with Grandpa

Washing his car. Serious business.

Cake is way more important than smiling for the camera. (Aaron's bday!!)

More serious car washing

Hallway in the house that may soon to be ours.

Living room.

Kitchen

Showing body parts.

This is Sam's pout. He is a total 2 year old. If he doesn't get what he wants, we see this face in an instant. We probably give in too much. Here, he wants me to put the camera away.

My beautiful boy.

Mom, put the camera away!

This is my Sam.

yeah

So I am finally posting. It has taken so long to post that I no longer wanted to post because there is too much to say, and where do I begin?

I will begin with Sam and his talking, since that's where things left off.
The kid talks. He may still be behind his peers, but he talks. Since last post, the assessment team suggested Sam get speech therapy twice a week. We did one session with the speech therapist and she said that she was surprised they recommended so much therapy. Schedules got busy, almost every day Sam would learn a new word, so we quit therapy. This past weekend we went to visit family in Ohio, and that really encouraged Sam to speak more -- all the new people to communicate with, one of them a very talkative 2 1/2 year old. So now Sam just keeps saying more and more words and putting two and three word combinations together. Sometimes I don't understand him, but he sure is trying. He likes to say "Meg Home" and "Big Building" and "Big Car" and "Pink Ball", the other day he started saying "run" and this morning he said "keys" for the first time. He still does a lot of signing too.

Other than that, the big news is we're in the middle of buying a house!! I still have some jitters and anxiety about this commitment. After owning a home in Michigan for only a short time, Aaron and I were pretty convinced that if we were to buy a house again, it was going to be IT. THE home. I don't know that this is IT. We're not so married to West Lafayette. But we are here. And we like a lot of things about being here. The cost of living is so low and I like my job. But mostly this incredible deal turned up for a cute little bungalow in a neighborhood we like. With parks nearby and good schools for Sam and we can still walk to campus. So, we went for it. We are well on our way and scheduled to close June 30! We have recently submitted our inspection addendum with the fixes we hope they will make, and now we're waiting to hear back from the seller. I hope it all works out ok.

I am still working at the gallery and I'll be teaching a class at Purdue starting mid-month. It ends the beginning of August.

I guess that's a superficial update about what's up with us. Now I'm going to see if I can lie down for a few before Sam wakes from his nap, which could be any minute...