New things we can do...

This will be mainly about the new things Eric is doing. He's accomplished a few things this week, mostly in the climbing department. He has started to climb on the baskets in the den and his toy baskets in the living room, only problem, he can't get back down. So, mama has to help, either picking him up, which is the easy way, or make him do the movements...sit down, turn around and down or just sit and slip off.

Well, actually he has now figured out how to get down. He's also discovered that "I can get to higher places if I use the baskets as steps." He climbed up onto the arm of a chair and rolled over the pillow and onto the seat. I was there to keep him from rolling all the way off. I've moved that basket and he hasn't moved it back.

A boy and his Pooh Bear.

This past week at Grandma and Grandpa's, Eric was standing at the couch looking at Grandma and me, getting very red in the face. Of course we both knew what was up and started to laugh. He stopped his grunting/concentration and let out a little giggle, then continued on doing his duty, grunts and red faced. Too funny!

Eric goes up the stairs like a champ, it's the coming down! He has started to go up a few and get down on his own, but not all the way. Must be all the practice of getting off the baskets. He still prefers to be carried or to have his hand held and attempt to go down like a big boy. Except that he still steps off into space.

The little riding car he got for Christmas has become a big hit. He's so funny when he gets on. At first, he was getting on it facing rear. Because he always leads with his right foot, he just ended up that way. He also gets off with his right foot, then he circles the car to get back on. He doesn't push himself yet, well a little, backwards. He'll sit there and grunt and call for someone to come and push him.

Eric is observant. He found a little piece of paper the other day. Came into the kitchen and opened, as far as could, child locks ya know, one of the cabinets under the sink in order to throw the paper away. Our garbage bag is under the sink. It was the wrong door, but he had the right idea! I opened the other door so he could throw it away and then thanked him.

He's starting to take only one nap a day. So, now he's getting a small morning and afternoon snack. That was added because A) he's not napping at what would be a good snack time for him and B) at his last check up he hasn't gained any weight, still 21 lbs. He's taller but the kid is so darn active he's using up all those calories. His heart condition also makes him use more calories. So, we need to get more into him. Cheerios are becoming a favorite thing. It's one food he'll feed himself. He did feed himself a couple of pieces of biscuit tonight. Maybe I ought to try pancakes, he likes those!

Here he is Sunday, after his second successful attempt at climbing onto a kitchen chair.

The video is starting with his third time climbing onto the chair. Love the grunts!

I started this post a few days ago. I wasn't going to finish it, but finish up what I had left to write on another post. But, I need to do something to keep my mind off my little man. Eric is running a 104 degree fever, so mommy is worried about her baby. Urgent care nurse (and Grandpa) said to give him Tylenol and Ibuprofen, alternating, every 4 hours. He had a slight fever on Monday. I remembered the doctor saying that his MMR shot could give him a fever in about 7-8 days. That was last Tuesday. I figured that was it. Yesterday, he was a bit cranky, ate OK, not great, but was getting really warm when we were at my parents for dinner. He was getting really cranky, Grandma held him, but he wanted mommy. We went home early. I got comfy in Paul's rocking chair, he was out making money, and we watched a couple of recorded episodes of "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" and "Handy Manny." He fell asleep an hour early. I changed his diaper and put him to bed. He woke up a little later than usual this morning, but in a pretty good mood. He was actually fine today, didn't eat usual amount, but did an OK job. We went to Red Lobster for dinner, after running an errand. He fussed on the way there, he was getting warm. Paul had a jacket on him, which he really didn't need. I took it off and his fussing toned down a bit. He was happy to get out of the car. He did well during dinner, ate most of his dinner, plus a little mooching off our plates. Towards the end he was ready to go. All he wanted to do was be held when we got home. When Paul went to run his bath water I took his temperature, that's when I got worried. Hopefully, he will respond to the meds. I'm prepared to comfort Eric, if need be, tonight.

Thanks for reading the ramblings of a first time mommy!

Handsome Boy

I can hardly get a picture taken before Eric stops what he's doing and comes running. He either hears the camera being turned on or sees the flash. I've been trying to capture him as he plays with the spice bottles and baking decorations, which is his current hobby, in the cabinet lazy Susan. He will just sit there and take bottles out, put them back in, not in the right spot mind you. Of course he zeros in on the glass ones, which he so proudly shows me. I'm waiting for him to launch one at me. I have a small collection on the counter, along with other things he doesn't need to be playing with. At times I can't get into that corner because he has twenty things spread out. Therefore I am putting things away numerous times during the day. I must remember that "this too shall one day pass." It will be nice not to find spice bottles in the various places he drops them off, like the barrel I keep plastic bags in.

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Eric got his first "all over" professional haircut today. He's had some trims around the ears and off the back, just to keep him from looking like a hippy. He would never cooperate with me. At "Great Clips" he sat on my lap and was such a good boy! He even got to pick out his own "Dum Dum" sucker. Not sure if he knew what it was. He did make sure that he could hold it in the car and when we got to Grandma's the end of the stick was wet and chewed up. After unwrapping it he knew what it was. He got his first one last week from a neighbor. We finished that one up a few days later. Glad we were outside, he left a drool puddle at my feet.

He loves the swing but just would not smile! Like his haircut?

While we were at Grandma's he decided he wanted a snack. This was his first afternoon snack because normally he would have been taking a nap at the time, but he fell asleep this morning about the time I would have been getting him up from laying down/napping, hence he was running behind. I was dishing out leftovers (thanks Mom!) to take home. He pointed that he wanted some. I gave him bits of cold chicken, noodles, carrots, celery and onion while Grandma held him. Eventually, he wanted to sit in his chair. This is the kid who just starting to get interested in tasting food two months ago, I checked my blog "Mr. Baked Bean Face." Now, he tries just about everything. Breakfast right now is oatmeal with yogurt and bits of pancake/syrup. If I have toast he wants some of that or if it's cereal he wants to sit on my lap and have milk and a little cereal. Now, he'll take milk from the spoon, but not from a cup, go figure. The Pediasure isn't working. He doesn't like the banana (which I thought was pretty good) or chocolate. So, he gets 4 oz. of that in his tube with breakfast. Oh, and he LOVES Campbell's Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder. He had some for dinner Monday and was VERY upset when it was gone. Fruit saved the day! Anyhoo, guess it's time to start giving him more chunky pieces of food.

Chick magnet

We survived Hurricane Ike...well at least the winds he unleashed on us. Lost power for 24 hours. Ya know, it's rather boring home alone in the dark. Just me, 3 cats and a sleeping baby. I did talk to Paul for about 45minutes, that killed some time. Tried to read by candle light, that didn't last long. Finally, I went and read by flashlight until it was time to give Eric his final feeding and then I went to bed. I was very happy when the power came back on. Here's a cartoon that sums it up...

"Folks just don't realize how much they depend on the power company."

Eric doesn't feed himself, lazy little..., he will pick things up, hand it to you so you can feed him, lazy little... Anyway, Tuesday it was lunch time, he was hungry and impatient, what's new? So, I put him in his chair and gave him a few Cheerios. Low and behold! He fed himself! The next morning I asked him if he wanted Cheerios while I got his breakfast ready, he went straight to the pantry door. Two more teeth have come in. He's also said "bye, bye" a couple of times. If you tell him it's time to brush teeth, he heads to our bathroom. I bought some Pediasure to see if that would help in getting him to drink milk, didn't work, doesn't like the banana cream flavor at least. Although he did like my banana cream Blizzard from DQ, that I had to share with him on Wednesday! Guess we'll try chocolate next. I made pancakes yesterday. He ate about a third of a small one, with syrup, of course.

For dinner Wednesday, we had a coupon for buy 10 wings, get 10 free at Hooters. Paul took a picture of him with a couple of the girls last year wearing his "chick magnet" bib. I don't have a good copy of it, will have to get one from Paul. He had to wear it this time also. Paul was prepared this time, brought his camera. After flirting with ALL the girls he could and before we left, we got a shot of him with four girls. Unfortunately, you can't see "Chick Magnet" on the bib, but it's cute anyway...

Update to this. Here is the old picture...

Eric has just figured out how to climb up on the two baskets I have under the window in my computer room. He can't get down, so he is good and waits for me to rescue him.

Knows what he likes...knows what he wants

Where to start? Since recovering from his cold, Eric eats like a champ! No problems getting those 10TBS down, he's actually eating more than that now. He loves his fruit, especially the "exotic" Gerber ones, mango and the banana/orange medley.

It's hard to believe that on Thursday it was a year since Eric had his 5 month "overhaul." That was a hard morning watching him being wheeled back into surgery for his double hernia repair, g-tube placement, nissen and circumsion. He had fallen asleep before the nurse could put on a hospital gown. He looked so cute in the orange jack-o-lantern sleeper (his orange and black for the Bengals Monday night football game, which they lost) and so tiny on that big gurney. I was in tears watching him being wheeled away. Even though he wasn't officially ours yet, that was MY baby being taken away.

He "sees" a lot more too. We were in Target on Wednesday, wondering around, because they are remodeling I can't find anything. Anyway, he saw the cold food case and started pointing, not sure what he saw, didn't stop to see what it was he wanted. Picked up the toy I wanted to get him, walked down other toy aisles, no response...until we hit the jackpot. Oh, did he get excited when he saw the Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger toys. I let him hold Tigger, put it back, and then Pooh, put it back. Then he got to hold a Handy Manny toy, he turned and put that in cart, stinker. I let him hold a few other toys, which he put in the cart. While he was distracted, I put everything back on the shelf and we left with just what I came in for, no fussing. Not sure how long I'll be able to get away with that! Next we stopped to pick up a couple of pairs of socks for him, got excited over those too. He's very into socks and shoes, this usually means we are going out. Took a wrong turn heading to checkout and ended up in women's socks, he got excited there too, only it wasn't the socks he was pointing to...panty hose!

After Target we stopped at Kroger for a few groceries, one being yogurt for him, he liked that! When we got home Eric dug into the bag and removed a carton of yogurt, smiled, giggled and handed it to me. Do you think he was trying to tell me something? Besides the fact that it was past dinner time? I gave him a few bites while I fixed his dinner. When it came time to eat he wanted no part of his (pureed) stew, just yogurt. I just told him he could have that instead of fruit AFTER he ate dinner and I put the yogurt in the refrigerator. Not happy! I heated up my stew and buttered a piece of bread. He got interested in the bread, so he got little, bitty pieces. I was able to dip a few pieces in the stew and feed him. Nope wanted just the bread. So, then I started to put pieces of bread on top of the spoonfuls of stew, making sure he saw it. He ate it all and then proceeded to eat his green beans with bread. Eventually he got his yogurt.

The speech therapists are offering different ways to get Eric to drink more, especially milk. Yesterday, one came up with trying it warmed up a little, that seemed to help a little. I got out a different sippy cup that's even helped a little. If we can get him to drink his milk, hopefully we can begin to wean him off of his breakfast and 11pm tube feedings.

Eric is starting to know his routines. He's pretty good with bedtime. After bath/diaper/jammers/teeth brushed are done we usually relax and play/read. He gets his Pooh cuddle blanket and carries it around, tosses it, picks it up and comes cuddle with me on the floor, repeat numerous times until he's just about to fall asleep or it's bedtime. I'll tell him it's time for bed and he'll either walk to his room or toss Pooh and reach to be picked up. Which means I bend over so he can pick Pooh up then head to bed. We say prayers, he gets kisses, put in crib and I kiss my hand and then rub my hand across his forehead, brushing his hair. "Goodnight"

The other night, I told him it was time to brush teeth and he went into our bathroom and pointed to my medicine cabinet. He knew where his tooth brush was! He's not too fond of this part of getting ready for bed, but he's better. I think part is that the brush bothers his gums where those teeth, that just don't seem to want to come in, are sore. I'm lucky if we get to brush for 30 seconds.

A couple fo pics from this week...

Ready to be crucified...

Rambo Baby...

And Monster Kitty with baby stinky shoes, oh how he loves stinky shoes!

Here is 5 minutes (sorry so long) of typical Eric, wandering from one thing to another. I think I counted 14 things he "played" with...

Getting better

Hope you like my new background. I've seen others that are all fancy and "blingy." Too much for me. I have friends with cute simple ones that I really liked. So, for a few days I "stole" the background of one of them (school days theme, but I liked the apples) until I could make my own. Took me a while to do, but I got it close to what I wanted. I plan on doing a new one everyone month. Enjoy! Now on to the purpose of this whole thing...

Between Eric's teeth, that refuse pop out, and the cold he's getting over, the last week was not the best in eating. Sunday through Thursday, he had to be tube fed for a least one of his two oral meals. Thursday was the only day where I had to do both lunch and dinner. Yesterday he ate everything, it was just a difficult long chore. Today he ate like a champ. Normally he eats half a 4oz container of fruit. I had to have Paul bring over another one to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner because he ate a whole one at lunch. He proceeded to eat the whole thing again for dinner, along with pasta (pureed) with Grandma's sauce, a few bits of meatball and peas. So, he's back to eating, yeah!

You can see his poor stuffed up nose, sort of...

Here he is playing tonight before bed...

Here's a video of why I can't get pictures of him currently...

Silly little boy

Eric just turned 17 months old on Saturday and is doing some serious teeth cutting. He's chewing his fingers and drooling a lot. The last few days he has been running a fever, cranky, tired and today there were a lot of diaper changes, eewww! Because of this, his eating hasn't been great. I did have to use the tube with dinner last night and today for lunch. But, dinner tonight was better, his fever was down and was he running around, then "asking" to eat. Didn't quite have what I wanted him to eat, but all in all he did good.

Oh, yes, Happy Labor Day, what's left of it. Mom made potato salad and David grilled corn on the cob and burgers, tasty. The grill running out of gas and David's run in with a bee did not stop him from completing his duties as grill master. Eric mooched off everyone, I believe...yes, yes, I believe he did. Most of it was cheese off the burgers and potato/egg/and "sauce" from the potato salad. And he finished off a third of a container of BBQ sauce from Chick-fil-a, which we had for lunch.

Now, to the silly part...we had apple pie and ice cream for dessert. So, a spoon was given to Grandpa so Eric could have some of his ice cream. After getting a bite from Grandpa, he was sent to Uncle David with his spoon (we're eating in the family room). He happily took it, with a giggle, and got more ice cream from him. Eventually he made it over to me and Grandma, who thought she would get out of giving him anything since she didn't have any ice cream, wrong! She had to give him tastes of her pie. He walked around to each of us carrying his spoon and gave his little giggle each time. He does love dessert! That's my boy!

Here is the family picture Dad took at the family room that we will be using in our adoption profile...

Tornado

Not outside...inside. The house looks like a tornado hit it...a 30 incher. Now a little bit is my fault, I have laundry that needs to be folded and put away upstairs. I've already picked up the toys in the "great room" (aren't there living rooms anymore? anyway...). The plastic containers in the kitchen are put away, as well as the muffin pans and the Hopester artwork is back the fridge. The newspaper that he dumped out of the plastic bag still remains strewn on the what-will-eventually-become-the-dining room floor. My den has been rearranged, but that isn't too bad. I think every toy was removed from the shelves in the loft. Clothes have been removed from the laundry basket in the nursery, mainly the socks. I wonder why just the socks? I found one sock in the bathtub. Haven't checked the litter box yet. Other toys rarely touched were out of their usual places. And I found one cat shut in our bathroom. Who knows how long he was in there, no accidents though.

Uncle David said Sunday that I shouldn't bother washing Eric's mouth out with soap (do people do that any more?) when he gets older, it won't work. He kept putting the bubble wand in his mouth. Well, that's different than the real stuff. He bit off a piece of soap during his bath last night...oh the face! Not a happy camper! He spent the rest of the time fussing and wiping at his mouth. He got a rare treat from me, a few sips of diet cola. Then he took a few licks of my popsicle and was off on his merry way.

Tooth number ten popped in yesterday, lower right bicuspid. He's a drooling fool lately.

Eric has been eating well lately. I pretty much have to eat while he is napping or eat after he's been fed. Because if I don't, he won't touch his food if you have anything, he wants what you have. Which is fine, but he can only handle so much of the table food, unless it's a sauce, because he doesn't have the oral skills. Cheese puffs are great because he works them around and they melt in his mouth. He's done fine with a few grains of rice, mashed potatoes, tiny bits of ham and french fries. Loves zucchini bread, ate about a third of a muffin tonight for dessert. But, my father gave him some pretty big pieces of onion ring breading the other night. That does not melt in the mouth, he doesn't chew yet, so he ends up swallowing it whole and sometimes choking on it. Dad, much smaller pieces next time, please!

It's amazing what he'll eat at times. Loves Italian dressing, creamy too. We had dinner at a German restaurant last week. When I had my leftovers he ate some of the red cabbage and artichoke from the sauce on my chicken schnitzel. He's not too fond of pears, he'll eat a little. Not too keen on broccoli either. Ate four bites tonight before deciding he didn't want anymore. Humm, maybe I should put those in his breakfast tube feeding. Supposedly, kids who get pureed food actually develop an oral taste for the foods they have been tube fed. It gets the system or something to that effect. OK, broccoli for breakfast doesn't sound great but he won't taste it and he will get it for dinner around here.

Still working on the drinking, oye! Today's the best he's done with his milk.

And finally here are a few pictures...

He's chasing my brother's dog, Pip, around with her leash.

"I know this thing goes on here some how!"


Just sitting and playing yesterday.

A video of Eric playing. Don't you just love the cammie onsie and shorts, that are too big? He has socks to go with them...