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By Jen, on January 27th, 2009
I’m pretty sure that Nicky has all of his canine teeth now, making a total of 16 teeth right now. I can’t get a great look or feel in there, but we’ve been practicing, especially because we’ve got a dentist appointment in a few weeks, and I’d like him to at least be able to look at Nicky’s teeth this time.
He’s been doing really well with letters, numbers, shapes and colors lately. We have a puzzle with letters and also foam numbers and letters for the bath, and he recognizes just about all of them. He loves to point at Chuck’s RIT magnet and tell me the letters while he eats lunch.
Just thought I’d share a snippet of our daily breakfast conversation. It goes like this:
Me: What would you like for breakfast, Cheerios or oatmeal?
Nicky: Sticks.
Me: We don’t eat sticks for breakfast. You can have Cheerios or oatmeal.
Nicky: Crack. (He’s saying “crackers”.)
Me: Last chance, Cheerios or oatmeal?
Nicky: Mewwow. (He’s saying “marshmallow”.)
Then I pour him a bowl of Cheerios with soymilk and he’s just fine. It’s the same conversation every morning, and I thought I’d have everyone share a giggle with me.
By Jen, on January 21st, 2009
Nicky must be going through another growth spurt; I cannot believe the amount of food he’s been eating lately! For lunch today, he ate:
- about half a bowl of quinoa
- about 1/4 of a spinach wrap
- some avocados
- some raspberries
- some corn soup
- his whole cup of soymilk
- and, for dessert, the beloved sticks
I definitely count my blessings on that, because I know that several other moms have a very hard time getting their toddlers to eat. I’m always impressed at the amount that he can consume! He definitely gets his appetite from me! 
By Jen, on January 18th, 2009
We had to change some things around for Nicky last weekend, but I think we’re back on track now. We decided that we left his musical crib toy in there for too long and it was waking him up at night, so Chuck and Nicky went out to get a Gloworm. We told him that he’s a big boy now and that he doesn’t need the crib toy any more. Then, Chuck gave him “Glowie” and he took to it right away. However, getting him into his crib was very difficult since that change, and there were too many tears for my liking. It got progressively better every time, though, and I finally think we’re back on track. Phew, I’m all about the good sleeping!
Nicky’s vocabulary is definitely growing. He loves to sort through his play food and give the names of all of the kinds of food. He says:
- mushroom
- orange
- apple
- pear
- eggplant
- banana
- corn
- chocolate
- french fry
- hot dog
- pepper
- coffee
- garlic
- watermelon
- grapes
- doughnut
- carrot
- potato
- celery
- broccoli
- chips
- lemon
- apricot
- egg
- tomato
I took some video of him saying those things, so maybe I’ll upload it before he’s ten.
By Jen, on January 9th, 2009
Nicky finally slept all night again last night, and clearly his brain was working hard. His vocabulary has improved a ton, just since yesterday! He’s mastered the “ow” sound and has been using it every chance he gets: plow, cow, down, meow, bow, towel. He’s also gotten better at pronouncing Keanu’s name; it comes out “Ka-noo”. And, just a little bit ago, he said chocolate for the first time: “choc-cleet”.
We went to the library today. This is the toddler class, for kids 15 months and up, and while I feel that Nicky has outgrown the baby class, I’m not sure he’s ready for this one. Some of the kids look to be between 2 and 3 years old, and there’s a huge difference developmentally. Nicky was definitely not giving his attention to what was going on there today, but maybe just because he’s getting over being sick. We’ll try again next week.
And finally, Chuck and I made this sweet potato pancake recipe for dinner. I substituted light vanilla soy milk for regular milk and two bananas for two eggs (since Nicky still cannot have freshly cooked eggs). I also didn’t measure out the sweet potatoes; I just used about a cup and a half of the puree I made yesterday. We’ll definitely make them again because they were very good!
By Jen, on January 6th, 2009
Here’s some stuff I forgot to write about last night:
Grandma Nancy’s going to owe more money; I just noticed Nicky’s 13th tooth pushing through yesterday! It’s on the top left, right in the empty spot between his front teeth and his molar. I’m assuming the other three will be filling in soon and he’s going to have a full toothy grin before I know it!
When I say “I love you” to Nicky, he responds (sometimes), “too”. Melts my heart!
We’ve been trying to focus on colors lately. A couple of months ago, everything was green according to Nicky. Now, everything is orange (“o-rang”) and just a few days ago his second choice became blue if I asked him again. However, if I show him a few things and ask him to pick out a certain color, he’s remarkably accurate.
What impresses me the most is that he’s starting to pick out letters and shapes in places where other than his toys, books and puzzles. Just now, as I was putting the wash in the dryer, he showed me the Es on the lint trap. Earlier, he pointed out the heart across the street on the neighbor’s front door. He really gets it!
By Jen, on January 5th, 2009
Most important stuff first: I took Nicky to the pediatrician first, and he’s much better. He weighed 21 pounds, 12 ounces. The nurse couldn’t get a great reading on his oxygen, but what she got was acceptable. Dr. Shin really listened well to his lungs and said that he’s still got congestion in there, but that he’s much better and we can lower Nicky’s prednisolone dose for the rest of the therapy (2 more days). He’s been so good taking it, but I don’t want to give anything I don’t have to. She said that he might still cough for about a week and a half, but that I can give him a dose of the inhaler if I need to. He slept all night last night and took a great nap today, so I really think he’s back on track!
He has a new word now; apricot! We don’t even need to translate it for anyone, it sounds exactly like that when he says it. I think it’s the first 3-syllable word that he’s said completely correctly!
On a completely different note, I’ve finished Mensa Absolutely Nasty Sudoku Volume 2 and have moved on to Volume 3. I’m not gonna lie, it’s tough. I’ve had to use a sudoku solver several times to help me learn some new techniques and get used to looking for them. I feel like I’ve been able to complete more of them on my own as I move through the book, so I guess my skills are improving. I still can’t get enough of it!
Going to take advantage of sleep while I have the chance…
By Jen, on January 3rd, 2009
Nicky was up again in the night, and something was really wrong this time. We called the pediatrician and she recommended that we go to the emergency room. She said that usually, you need a stethascope to hear the sounds that she could hear from Nicky over the phone, so it was important for us to go right away. We went to Strong Memorial Hospital because of their pediatric emergency room.
We were there for just under 3 hours. In that time, Nicky got two nebulized treatments of albuterol, a medication to open up his airways. He also had both of his nostrils swabbed to test for RSV, which came back negative. We gave him a loading dose of prednisone, a steroid, before we left as well. He was really good for all of these things, all things considered.
His official diagnosis is bronchiolitis. They were very specific to say that he had wheezing but not asthma. They said that asthma is a pattern of events, and that this is a one-time airway problem, probably due to a virus that he picked up earlier in the week at the museum. It still makes me scared that he might be more likely to develop asthma because of this infection.
Now that we’re home, we need to give Nicky 2 puffs of his inhaler every four hours for the next 24 hours, and then as needed. We also need to give him 4 more days of prednisone liquid. We have a follow-up appointment with Nicky’s regular pediatrician on Monday afternoon.
I had to go to work for a little while, but luckily someone was able to cover the rest of my shift so that I could leave at 1pm. Chuck stayed home with Nicky and played with him and gave him a little nap and more food. I have to say, during all of this, Nicky certainly has an appetite! He’s been eating like we never feed him, which is good!
I’m hoping that we’re now over the worst. According to the paperwork we were sent home with, the wheezing can last for about a week and the coughing can persist for up to 2 weeks. Hopefully, he’s a quick healer like me and will bounce right back after a night of restful sleep. Now, if we can just find a way to achieve that…
By Jen, on January 2nd, 2009
We took Nicky to the Strong National Museum of Play on Tuesday, a gem right in our own backyard. We had a blast! I haven’t uploaded the photos yet, but Nicky had lots of fun running around and exploring. It’s definitely something that we’ll be doing more often, since there’s so much stuff to do there, for all ages of children.
The souvenir we brought home was a cold. We kind of figured it’d happen anyway, with all of the kids germs all over the place, ew. Since yesterday, Nicky’s had an extremely runny nose and he’s started coughing a little bit today. He was up for about half of last night. I really thought that he’d be better for tonight, but he’s only been asleep for a little over an hour, and Chuck just had to go back in there for him. Hopefully, he’ll sleep the rest of the night so that his body can heal itself.
On a side note, here is a link to our Christmas photos. I haven’t had a chance to caption them yet; Chuck’s been off all week and we’ve been enjoying as much family time as we can!
By Jen, on December 24th, 2008
Here is a link to Nicky’s Christmas photos.
I feel truly blessed every day and give thanks during the holiday season for my family and friends. I have everything I’ve ever wanted in my life.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
By Jen, on December 21st, 2008
Nicky has starting pointing out letters in various places, other than his puzzle; for instance, on my RIT sweatshirt, he pointed out the R and the T yesterday! Today, Chuck was wearing and Izod pullover and Nicky pointed out the Z, O and D. He’s picking up so much so quickly!
He’s also learning to count. If we get him started, he can kind of count 1 through 10, so that’s something I didn’t think would happen so soon.
Yesterday, even though the weather was bad, I called the library to find out that his story time was still scheduled. When we got there, we were the only ones to show up, so Nicky had a great time reading books, stamping pictures, playing with balls and jingle bells and doing a reindeer puzzle. I also got a library card (first time in probably 20 years!) and we took out a couple of Christmas books to enjoy at home.
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