Daredevil!

Allow me to set the stage with some background information. There are three important things to know to understand how entertaining this brilliant photograph really is. (Photo credits to Mimi 🙂)
First we are beginning to potty train and Seth always follows all of us to the bathroom and loudly proclaims that we are peeing while trying to imitate us. At Mimi’s house he has his own potty separate from the regular toilet that he will sit on and “pee”. He does this every time she goes in the bathroom without fail...until this time.
Second, this truck has the utmost devotion in his life. When we get to Mimi’s house he runs to the truck first and then says hi to Mimi. He will spend hours riding it around. He has on occasion lost his truck for short periods due to unsafe usage because he learned he could park it near furniture and stand on it. He has not done this in some time because he really doesn’t want to lose his truck. It is the live of his short life so far after all.
Third, he is running headlong into the “terrible twos” and it is presenting mostly as challenges to us and testing his limits. Most of the time it ends with a time out or a discussion depending on the circumstance. In this case it ended with a lecture, a picture, and lots of laughter.
What happened was Mimi had gone to the bathroom and Seth had not followed. She knew he was focused on his toys so while she was surprised, she wasn’t concerned. All was quiet, no loud noises or screaming to alert her to any catastrophes. Mimi came out of the bathroom several minutes later and Seth was not where she left him. She looked around the room and was presented with this scene:

Mimi was quite surprised as Seth had not put the truck there before and certainly hadn’t climbed up on it there. He also appeared perfectly poised to take off on the road like he had places to go and people to see. The cherry on top is the look on his face which seems to say, “Yeah I’m up here, what are you going to do about it?” 

One thing is for sure, we are never going to get bored!

Sick Baby/ Sick Mommy

My little love bug got sick for the first time ever really. He was acting a little oddly and then vomited everywhere....including all over my mother. The poor little guy was so scared and didn’t know what was going on. I finally got the clothes off him and got him wiped down and then he wouldn’t let me go for the longest time. He had a low fever for a couple days and we had a reeeaaalllllllyyyy long night, but he got better really fast. Flash forward to two days after the vomit and now Mommy is sick. Thanks to the lupus I can’t fight off common illnesses very well so it hit me pretty hard as a head cold with body aches. As an added bonus I had a treadmill stress test that morning which thankfully I managed to complete and then was exhausted. I then spent two days on the couch. What this means is that Seth got lots of extra screen time. I’ve always been of the opinion that less screen time is best. The tv is usually on during the day for background noise but Seth ignores it while he plays. Since I wasn’t able to chase him much, he spent a good part of the day doing stationary activities in his chair and watching some movies. I learned that sometimes you do what you have to do to get by. Seth is no worse off and probably enjoyed his two day vacation!

Sickness

There have been so many illnesses going around that last month or so, and of course there is the corona virus scare going around, and I am incredibly grateful that Seth has been as healthy as he has been his whole life. That being said, we have had to worry about him and make multiple trips to the ER, some turning out fine, some funny, and some sucked.
With myself having lupus, there were several health risks we had to worry about before and immediately following birth. First due to some of my antibodies, Seth was at risk for being born with heart problems. He had a fetal echocardiogram at 20 weeks with my first ultrasound and then I had an ultrasound every month to monitor his heart develop for any changes. Luckily he has a super healthy ticker and it was something that we never needed to deal with any further. The other thing that could have happened is that he could have been born with neonatal lupus since babies are born with their mother's immune system. Boys are at a higher risk for this complication because for reasons unknown boys do not do as well as girls with lupus. Luckily for us he also showed no signs of neonatal lupus at birth or during our time at the hospital. I was told to watch for any rashes at all as that might have showed as a sign of a developing issue, but again we were so very lucky and he made it through scot free.
However, there are issues that come with babyhood and toddlerhood that have nothing to do with my issues. His first ER visit was when he was three weeks old. He got an eye infection, very common with tear ducts still developing. He had no problem at all with me putting the cream in for him and he healed up fine. Too bad that a few days later my eyes were gunked shut. :)
He of course also had a cold or two which nothing can be done for during his first winter. But the fun part I have found is trying to play the game of what is causing the symptoms. For Seth and ear infection and teething symptoms are almost identical. His first ear infection happened to coincide with cutting a tooth but it was fairly mild on both fronts. He had trouble sleeping through the pain but some baby Tylenol and antibiotics got him through both pretty quick. His next ear infection was my first epic fail as a mom. I knew he was cutting a tooth, I could see it and feel it. I attributed his crankiness and slight fever to the tooth as they had done before. When I went to work that day, he was warm but not too high of a fever and obviously cranky but otherwise okay. Carroll called me from work to tell me that he was not doing well and was just laying around and he was on his way to the emergency room with him. I met them there as they were going in. My little baby had a high fever by then (almost 103) and was just miserable. He definitely had an ear infection and started to perk up quickly once the medicine started working. I have never felt so horrible as a mom as I did that day not realizing that something was really wrong and just blaming teething.
The next two trips into the ER were easier. We brought him in one time after he refused to eat for two days and was barely taking fluids. We were worried about dehydration and weren't sure what the issue was. Of course in that instance it was teething making him miserable and not want to eat. Just to make us look bad, he ate an entire popsicle for the nurse while laughing and playing with all the staff there. The last trip was just a couple days ago. Seth was home with Carroll and after taking a bite of a chicken nugget started screaming and holding the side of his face. His crying and whining continued periodically for the rest of the afternoon even though nothing was visible to cause the issue. Carroll gave him some Tylenol and when I got home two hours later he seemed okay but kept pointing to his ear to indicate it was hurting. He isn't cutting any teeth and everything looked okay, but we trusted him and went to have him checked. The official diagnosis was an ear block, he doesn't have an infection, he is perfectly healthy, and he never acted hurt after being checked. I personally believe he just wanted to go flirt with the nurses, but we will never know for sure.

Valentine’s Day

Seth goes everywhere with us. There are very few things we have done in the last two years without him. Valentine’s Day and every holiday has been a family affair and I have loved every minute of it. This year for Valentine’s Day I happened to have a doctor’s appointment and my mom agreed to watch Seth for us to make the appointment easier. Then she went a step farther and offered to watch him through lunch so that my love and I could have a date. We went out to lunch and spent a half hour just being together and it was wonderful. Our life may not be all parties and romance, but it is all about love and we wouldn't’ have it any other way. Find the love and the joy in every day and hold on to it with everything you have.

Finished product!

This was a fairly simple craft for his first project since I wanted him to do most of it. I bought the base sign at Dollar Tree and already had the rest of the items so it was pretty inexpensive. I put acrylic paints in a pallet tray for him and gave him two brushes. I did one small line for him to show him how to use the brush with the paint and then did one line hand over hand with him, after that he took over and did great on his own! After his art dried I hit it with a finishing spray to seal it and keep it protected a bit from possible spills and such that happen around toddlers. I let Seth pick which picture he wanted to use from three options and then I laminated it and used a glue gun to attach it to the back. 

Any paint has a huge potential for mess, and acrylics stain materials very fast. I had him topless since skin cleans easier and I put poster board under his work space to protect those surfaces. Also a tablecloth from Dollar Tree works really well to stop paint splatter.  

First Time Painting

As the smile gives away, I had a very happy boy at his first try of painting. He wasn't sure at first what to make of it, and I was hesitant as he hasn't finished his everything to the mouth stage. After I showed him how to use the brush he was all about the painting! I was right too...he did get it on his fingers and transfer that into his mouth, but he lived. The first paint to hit his skin surprised him and he wasn't too happy about it, but by the end he was painting his face on purpose. He actually threw the longest tantrum I have ever gotten from him when paint time was over. (He was very happy to hear that we have another project lined up for another day.) The finished product is a gift for Daddy for Valentine's Day and I am sure Daddy will love it. 

Bed Time!

One thing every parenting book recommends for bed time is to set a routine and to stick to the same routine every night. At this I have failed spectacularly. Maybe because of our work schedules and maybe because of my own sleep issues. But to beat all of the odds, my son is a great sleeper. He started sleeping through the night at a month old. He would go down by nine and rarely wake up before three-thirty. It was great, but it was also luck. We also co-slept with my son by default. By that I mean we all shared the same room living in my partner's parents' house. Seth went from a rock-n-play beside our bed to a bassinette on the other side of the room. Then when we moved to our own place the nursery was too cold in the winter and so his crib was in our room beside our bed. We then had to move again and were only able to afford a one bedroom house to rent. One very large bedroom seemed like a good choice as we could partition off the far end of the room and create two rooms. The first time we closed the curtain, Seth had a full out panic meltdown over not being able to see us. We decided that it was better to cross that border when he was ready and older. It makes me feel better to be able to see him at night too.
However, because of sharing a room and my personal issues, Seth now is used to having a tv playing to fall asleep at night, he is used to always have a dim light on in the room, and he is used to hearing us talking. Due to my job occasionally requiring me to work late hours, sometimes he is in bed at seven-thirty and sometimes he is in bed at nine-thirty. Sometimes he has a bath before bed, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he has nightmares, sometimes he sleeps through the night entirely. But no matter what, every night, he goes to bed with a hug and a kiss and an, "I love you," from both of his parents. He goes to sleep knowing he is safe and loved. Nothing can be better than that.

We all do our best to give our children what they need ot be happy and healthy...and if they end up being completely neurotic, at least we tried!