Taking Myself for a Walk

My parent's sweet little dog came to visit us for a night while they were out of town. Poor Chlesea endured a weekend of loud pots banging, hearing crying through the monitor in the kitchen and lots of chasing from uncertain feet that fall often. Howie LOVED having her here. It added a few items to his downstairs work-out routine. He busily put little presents in her cage, mostly toys that he retrieved from his play chest. He would stick his fingers through the door of her cage to let her lick him. This typically resulted in eruptions of laughter- so silly! And the best of all: he found her leash and paraded it around the house... around and around and around. Here is a photo of him having the time of his life with Chelsea's belongings as he wears the leash like a belt/necklace.

Chelsea has now been safely returned to her home where she will take a three day nap. We love you Chelsea!

Everybody is Growing Up So Fast

Happy Birthday to our friend Leah! She turned one this past weekend and we celebrated baby-style with her. We are looking forward to inviting ourselves over to play with all her awesome new toys... even the purple purse looks interesting!

"Those Fish Are Not So Harmless" -Howie

We went to the Newport Aquarium on Saturday. It was a fun place for Rick and I, but Howie was not entirely impressed. Granted, he is scared of just about all foriegn sounds and objects outside of the house, but the aquarium really was a scary place. It was dark and there was scary shark-like music playing in most of the exhibits. There were tunnels of fish so they were swimming above your head (very scary) and goodness help us, the two inch seahorses were the most frightening of all.

He did enjoy the frog bog where he could climb on the fake frogs and press the button to make the noise. He also tolerated/enjoyed petting the crab and starfish. Oh, and the gift shop was also a highlight. So many interesting (non-moving) things to touch there.

In general, I wouldn't recommend the Newport Aquarium for children under the age of 6 or 7 unless they are super brave.

Mommy's Little Helper

In trying to keep up with the housework, I resolved to try and clean while Howie was awake. It was mildly successful. He allowed it for about 20 minutes, then needed my attention to be held and played with. My floor took a little longer to clean due to his eagerness to help out with the chores.

The rest of the house can wait until he is down for his three hour nap this afternoon.

My Circus Monkey

Howie climbs on EVERYTHING. I take him to a climber area or playground everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. He loves to pull himself up on anything. And he is good at it. Here is a series of pictures I took after he surprised me with this circus tricks.

Ta-Da! He is so proud of himself.

Pool Party

Howie hangs out with the ladies at the Lifetime pool. 

Failure to Thrive: Follow-Up Thoughts

We have received the results from most of the "Failure to Thrive" testing.  Everything has come back normal so far.  I weighed Howie at Lifetime Fitness (I had to sneak him into the all-girl locker room.  No one busted me.)  His weight has gone up 2 ounces since the last doctor's visit, but 2 ounces could be the difference between a wet diaper and a dry one.

After receiving this diagnosis I have been analyzing my child with new eyes.  Why is he so little?  How is he different from other children? Is it a parenting issue or a child-centered issue?  And here is my temporary conclusion that could change at any time: He is SUPER active.  Howie seems to burn about twice as many calories as anyone else in the room.  He does not sit down.  Ever.   

Howie uses his awake hours to do as many activities and get into as many things as possible.  He laps the house an average of 4 times per minute, all the while bending over to carry items that weigh as much as he does.  He has to touch everything in a store while he is looking up to smile at all the customers.  He climbs his Little Tykes slide and goes down with rapid speed and repeats it about 45 times in a row.  He moves with vigor about the deck to the hose, dog bowls, sandbox, swimming pool, grill, hose, dog bowls, sandbox, swimming pool...  He laughs all the time.  He climbs on everything he can.  He moves everything he can pick up.  He is never still. 

As you can imagine, sitting down to eat is not a high priority in little Howie's life.  He just cannot be bothered.  When he does slow down enough to indulge his stomach pains, he eats high quality foods.  Example: Tonight for dinner he ate grilled lemon chicken, squash baked with oil/cumin/garlic blend, rice with butter and pieces of peach.  At this point, I simply offer him the highest quality of food as I know to give him and we eat at routine times throughout the day.   

So for now, I have decided to embrace my child as a little peanut and enjoy his energy.  He is fascinating to watch.  His mind is moving a mile a minute.  His weight will come with time; I am confident that he will grow into a healthy, strong little boy. 

Thank you to everyone who has offered us their encouragement and concern.  It is nice to know that we have so much support in the greater community.  I especially enjoyed the advice from people who have gone through this before and told me not to let my anxiety create eating anxiety for him.  This is so true.  You cannot force a child to eat- you just do what you can to create a healthy eating routine with healthy food choices. 

-Becky

Love at the Zoo...

 

Celebrating the Small Victories (and Setting Reasonable Goals)

I am realizing that motherhood is all about overcoming the daily hurtles and applauding all progress you see, no matter how small.  In that spirit, I write this entry. 

 

Here are some of the things we can celebrate in our home (young mothers- can you relate?!):

 

Howie eats chicken for lunch!  I read in my Baby Whisperer book (I feel that she is the final authority on all baby-related questions) that if a baby rejects a food, to put it away for a week and then try again.  We did that and... ta-da... he ate it!  He is also enjoying ham on a daily basis.  We may not have a vegetarian afterall. 

 

Food is no longer flinging across the kitchen at mealtime.  Paw-Paw (Howie's grandpa who has been eating with us quite a bit due to my mother being in Boston for 6 weeks) can vouch for us that Howie's table manners were hitting an all-time low as he yelled, threw food, and would not eat at the highchair.  Telling him "No" wasn't working.  So, rather than repeat "No" over and over in my firm voice, I taught him what to do with foods that he does not want on his tray- we put them on the table.  We practiced putting rejected food on the table for about two days, clap our hands together when he does it, and he now understands that we do not fling food or sippy cups onto the floor.  He is eating a lot better and mealtime is actually pleasant.  Whew, dodged that social bullet. 

 

We drink milk from the sippy cup and no longer use the bottles.  Howie refused to drink milk from the sippy cup.  The dietitian encouraged us to go exclusively with milk in the sippy- no more water.  Eventually, he got thirsty enough to drink the milk and now he is comfortable with it.  The transition to no bottles was a breeze after we got past the sippy cup trouble.  We added a CD of quiet music to Howie's bedtime routine in substitution of the bottle.  He really likes his Howie Day (Collide), BNL (Light Up My Room) and Michael Stipe (Into the Sun) and this has eliminated much of the bedtime fussing. 

 

Here are some things we will be working on in the weeks to come:

• Not hitting our friends (Howie understands that this is not okay, but still lacks the impulse control)
• Not playing with the dog bowls on the deck
• Identifying our ears, mouth, nose, etc.
• Making the sign for "All Done" at mealtime 

 

Alarm system

My sister has a new home and although there are alarm consoles all over the house, she has posted my picture to deter criminals "...we put up your school picture to gaurd the house, because what criminal wouldn't stop dead in his tracks after seeing that teacher stare?"

I'm glad that my school picture is being put to good use.

Howie's Walking!

The Pick-Up Game

Recently, Howie has really been into his Tonka Truck.  His new found interest in walking has created some back pain for us, but the Tonka Truck seems like it will be a savior for us after all. 

The game is a big walk around the neighborhood.  He likes to zoom as fast as he can until he gets tired or hears a dog barking.  At these points, he will stop and either acknowledge the dog, "Doggie!" or sit down and collect a few things from the ground.  The collection is a very important part of the experience as he will carefully selected the items he wants in his truck (leaves, sticks, rocks, cicadas).  Occasionally he will reconsider, stop his truck and remove an item or two.  This game is quite exciting, the new found freedom of walking alongside Mommy and Daddy versus relying on them is exhilarating. 

Still Facing Backwards in Life...

By State Law, children need to be at least 20 pounds and one year before their carseats can be facing forward.  Well, at 13 months Howie is still facing the rear and this is why...

He has been riding the lowest curve on the height and weight charts since about 3 months of age.  The pediatrician has us come in for routine weight checks as we watch Howie surf in the 3 percentile.  I have seen a nutritionist to get new ideas on how to add fat and calories to his already restricted diet.  That meeting happened about three weeks ago and it seems to me that he has since consumed more fat than most sumo wrestlers.  We have focused on maintaining good eating habits (i.e. not snacking, offering the nutritionally sound stuff first, making sure Howie isn't "drinking" his diet) and we are working on his table manners to prevent mealtime from becoming playtime. 

The disappointing news is that he acutally lost weight since his May check-up with Dr. Nick.  He is at 18 pounds, 8 ounces.  They can officially term it (and our sweet doctor cringed as he said this) as "Failure to Thrive".  We found ourselves at Cincinnati Children's Hospital with a needle in Howie's arm and a lab order sheet with just about everything checked off on it.  They are checking for thyroid issues, Celiac Disease, glucose levels. etc., etc...

Sigh.  Although cognitively, I know that I cannot take this on as my own doing since I have done almost everything I can nutritionally for Howie.  However, I still find myself combating those self-defeating thoughts of not providing and caring for my son as he needs.  Anyone else out there experiencing the same situation?  It seems like everyone's children are above the 100th percentile.  Anyone... anyone?