The Magic Fork

I hate touching peeled banana. Apparently my son does too. In fact, he doesn't like touching any wet or slimy foods. Except for a brief period of time where he would self feed with peas, Ethan only wants to self feed with crackers, bread, or cereal. You would think that he would do dried fruit but I think that is a taste texture thing for him because those still end up on the ground. He also doesn't do cheese or chicken (at least not consistently) but i think thats general pickiness.

Sigh, I guess what i'm trying to say is that while my child can self-feed, he has no interest in doing so. I even gave him a spoon and he would hold it but thats it.


Enter the fork. Or what I refer to as the "magic fork". My mom had a fork from when we were little that was a bit smaller than the average toddler fork. Just perfect for a kid Ethan's age. First try with the fork and Ethan started spearing banana pieces and eating them off the fork. Just.Like.That. It was as if someone was giving him lessons during his sleep. Sometimes the banana would fall off and he'd whine and I would help load the fork and lay it on the tray, but then he would pick up the loaded fork and eat.

I was one proud Mama. Since the fork miracle last night, Ethan has started trying to eat with a spoon now! Of course he still holds the spoon upside down and gets food everywhere but the main thing is that he is trying. He found eating with a fork so much fun that he's interested in the spoon now. :-)

He even prodded a few peices of banana with his finger today. Yep, thats right, he touched something icky.

And all because of a fork!

Ethan Eczema Update

I know I am long overdue for an update on Ethan. Time has gotten away from me in a blur of dr's visits, toddler tantrums, and trying to keep my child from scratching his skin raw. Looking back on my previous post about his Eczema I realized that it has been 18 days since I posted those photos of Ethan.

Pediatric Dermatologist

Two weeks ago Ethan saw a pediatric dermatologist. His appointment was originally supposed to have been this week but persistence paid off and we got the appointment moved up. The dermatologist was wonderful. She prescribed a new set of medicines for Ethan (ointment for his body, ointment for his face, medicine to keep him from itching at night, and a prescription moisturizer) and the new stronger medicine did wonders for him and two days later we were seeing dramatic improvements. Five days later and his skin looked the best that it had looked since he was 4 months old. No more oozy bloody spots. Also, no more scratching his skin raw.

You can't tell because of his pacifier, but his chin is clear and the skin feels normal!

The dermatologist recommended allergy testing for Ethan. (this is something that I have repeatedly asked for in the past). We dropped by the blood lab at the hospital for a blood allergy test on the top 5 allergens. This part was awful. It took 30 minutes, the nurse was the only one on duty and had to keep leaving us to answer the front desk, etc, and Ethan didn't like being cooped up. It took three tries (switching arms in between tries) for her to find his vein and I had to bodily restrain him for his blood draw. Poor little guy still has a faint bruise from where the blood was drawn. Everyone in the waiting room heard his screams and when I came out with him I think everyone in the waiting room looked a little shell shocked. It.Was.Awful.

Results

I had expected the allergy test to be negative or that maybe he was allergic to milk. So I was thunderstruck when the nurse called and rattled off a long list of things that he is allergic to. Peanuts, eggs, wheat, milk, soy, and walnuts. He also tested positive for cats and dogs but the Allergist wasn't too worried about those results because she said that Eczema like Ethan's is usually triggered from a food allergy not an environmental allergy. Also blood testing isn't as accurate for environmental allergies. So that brings us to the next appointment...

Pediatric Allergist

I have to confess, I wasn't too impressed with our Allergist. Maybe it was her inability to communicate with me and answer my questions during my toddlers tantrum or her recommendation to give him Flintstone vitamins which she said she wasn't sure if he is old enough for (turns out he's not old enough for them) or just the fact that she was unable to answer most of my questions. I felt like I didn't get a lot out of this appointment other than Ethan needing to avoid wheat, milk, and soy, and avoid eggs as main part of a dish, but trace amounts are fine. Perhaps my questions just weren't in her field of specialty though. I just felt a little disillusioned because the Dermatologist's office told me the Allergist would be the person to go to with the questions I had and then the Allergist recommended that we visit a Dietitian for our questions instead. I still have a lot of questions about parameters as far as his allergens but maybe that is something that she intended for us to discuss in our next appointment.

Pediatric Dietitian

This is the appointment that we have tomorrow. I have high hopes for this appointment and I hope that I'm not setting myself up to be disappointed. This time Garrett is going to join us for the appointment so that if Ethan throws a tantrum (like he has at all his other appointments) he can take him out of the room so that I can discuss my questions without having to talk loudly and try to concentrate while he screams. ;-) I don't blame the poor kid though. Dr visits are boring and a little scary when you are only 1 year old!

In one week we have a follow-up appointment with the dermatologist to see how his medicine is working. While he did have dramatic results at first, his skin did flare up again over Easter weekend. We spent the weekend in San Antonio and when he woke up his skin looked noticeably worse. The next two days when he woke up I saw his skin get worse and worse. We are still using the medicine that the dermatologist gave us and we had already changed his milk to rice milk. We were trying to remove wheat but there were a few accidental slip-ups. Now that we are home his skin got a little bit better and then a little bit worse. It still isn't as bad as it was at the beginning of the month though.

Not the best photo, but the Eczema on his chin and cheeks has returned along with a little bit starting back up on his forehead.

We have a follow-up Allergist appointment for the end of May but the jury is still out on whether or not I will keep the appointment or find another Allergist. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just request his test results and then go to another Allergist. Can't hurt to have another opinion.

Anyway, I know that I have written a lot (and probably a lot more than you ever wanted to know). To sum it up, the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster filled with doctors visits, an unhappy baby, fighting Dallas traffic to make appointments on time, and several rounds of medicines (getting pretty expensive!) Of course one of the things I've learned so far about motherhood is that I no longer have the luxury of dwelling on my emotions. Ethan might pick up on my mood and since he is going to take his cues on how he should feel or react to something from me and my reaction I can't let things get to me. It's not easy but I'm working on it. ;-)

Finally, since happiness is a choice and a state of mind I'm choosing not to let my sons list of allergens or his itchy skin affect his or our own joy. I'm looking at the blessings in this situation (there are plenty!) and I'm going to use it to show my son that I love him through taking care of him and his dietary challenges. Creative baking here we come! Lets hope this takes care of things so that he can enjoy playing outside in our hot Texas summer without being miserably itchy afterwards. Oh and lets hope that Ethan outgrows most of these allergies before he goes to school and learns all about the awesome processed foods that other kids are eating. ;-)

Easter weekend

Okay, so I know that some of you will be suprised by this, but I only took 30 something photos at Easter. The.entire.weekend. Felt a little bit liberating but looking back on the photos I feel a bit like a bad Aunt because I only have a picture of one of my nieces and one nephew. Ah, oh well, they probably didn't want a camera in their faces anyways. To the future Sydney and Rowdy, I promise that I did hang out with you as well! ;-)

Wyatt and his and Sydney's T-ball game.(Wyatt 6 yrs)

 

 Irelyn playing at the nearby playground at the T-ball game. (Almost 8 yrs)

Manicure by Sydney (5 years old). She even did tips and a clear coat!

Ethan's Easter basket. He got a pull-back race car and two Wheebles for his Wheeble school bus.

Ethan and Austin playing t-ball before the Easter egg hunt. (Ethan 15 months, Austin 22 months).

Mason kicking back and relaxing in the swing while waiting for the eggs to be hidden. (22 months)

Now the egg hunt begins! Ethan "Now what am I looking for?"

Ethan spots something....

Not an egg, a piece of bark.

Why do y'all keep yapping about eggs? I found something better...

I'd much rather pick up dirt than eggs, thankyouverymuch.

And rub it on my face.

Hey, it feels good.

Oh, this is what you wanted me to get? (lets just say he wasn't too impressed with the eggs)

Garrett took Monday off work so we were able to stay an extra day. We had a fun weekend visiting with family!

After the bluebonnets

Lest you think that all my boy and I do for fun is sit out in a field with a camera, I thought I'd share some photos of our bluebonnet after party. ;-) 

Okay, I know, this photo is a hopelessly blurry test shot, but I just love his expression. When he was at the playplace at the mall, he was entranced. You would have thought I had taken him to Disneyland.

And no, this is not the first time that I have taken him to the mall to play. Far from it. ;-)

He's still too young to get anything out of the climbing structures (and too timid to go through the tunnels) but he loved walking around, watching the older kids, and looking at all the fun structures.

We had a fun time! After playing, Ethan and Mommy shared an Auntie Anne's pretzel while we visited with our friends. We had a great day!

Bluebonnets

Ethan and I went with our photography playgroup to take bluebonnet pictures.

But what he really wanted to do was dig for acorns in the mud. 

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Have I mentioned that my son is all boy? (and that he is totally unfazed by the camera?)

Ethan's 1st Haircut

I always knew this day would come. It was bitter sweet. I've been putting this off since his first birthday. :-) Dada was ready to cut it then but Mama wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to the curls so we put it off a bit longer. Lately though his hair was starting to have the "baby mullet" look. Not on days when his hair was curling nicely but his nice baby curl days were getting few and far between so I finally agreed that it was time to cut his hair.

I was super nervous of taking him to get his hair cut. Not only is Ethan still wary of strangers but I had no idea how we were going to keep him still. I looked up a few "How to's" on youtube and then finally decided I wasn't quite adventurous enough to do it myself and decided to take him to a kid hair salon so that someone who had plenty of practice with first haircuts could give it a try.

He loved the place. Bright colors, kids toys, train table in the waiting area, whats not to love?

Not only that but they had cars instead of seats. He had fun steering his car.

Each car faced its own small TV where cartoons were playing.

Unfortunately, our boy is picky about his cartoons. If its not claymation then it doesn't hold his attention for very long. ;-)

Ethan came out of his cartoon trance and noticed that Mama was not the person combing his hair. He wanted his MAMA!

For the rest of the haircut I held Ethan while we alternately gave him sippy cup, pacifier, toy (repeat) to help keep him occupied. There was a bit of tantrum throwing in between but eventually his hair was cut evenly.

Cool little dude checking out his reflection in the hubcap.

Dada loved his haircut and kept repeating that his baby finally looked like a boy. Mama agreed that the haircut was well done and not too short, but....he looks like a toddler now. A little boy more so than a baby.

But a handsome little boy.

A precious handsome little boy with a cute haircut that still loves and needs his Mama. :-)

Easter Egg Hunt

On Thursday Ethan went to his friend's house for an Easter egg hunt.

Mama! Look what I found!

(We started off with the eggs in the basket, E didn't collect all those. ;-)

E wasn't too big on the concept of putting the eggs in the basket and leaving them. He prefered to take them out of the basket or carry one or two around in his hand. He had such a blast running around holding eggs.

He also had fun picking up sweet gum pods and putting them through the chain link fence with his friend Carter.

Ethan loves playgroup and all of his playgroup buddies! (Mommy loves playgroup too!)