No change. I will stop posting daily, until there is a change. Grrrrr. Shower Shower Shower!
I have a onesie with a monkey on it, and a pair of khaki pants - both from Carters. I remember when I got them both. They are blowout targets. It feels like EVERY TIME he wears these articles of clothing, I am washing poop out of them.
The doctor said potty training was one of the solutions, because he would learn to hold it in and expel it all at once on comand. RIGHT!
Can anyone else - with REAL child experience - tell me this is normal????
Carter's friend Tanner had his third birthday party. It was so fun, and humbling. I don't think I could ever be so creative. I had Lydia, so she got to enjoy the party too. They played a lot of games and had races. Carter was really only interested in playing ball. Lydia didn't want to stray too far from me for the first 45 minutes we were there. Then she figured it out. The kids decorated license plates, which is where Carter found the Googly Eyes. It was so hot that they stuck to his head through the sweat and sunscreen. They stayed on for quite a while too. Later we went to a 25 cent sale and I found a container of googly eyes for a quarter. It was a good score.
They both fought over this tricycle. Since Carter was already in the seat, I put Lydia on the back. This was okay until they tipped over. Not too much crying, they really just wanted back on.
Today Carter fell on our sidewalk. He scraped up his forehead, cheek, & nose. He wanted me to take a picture so he could see daddy in the camera. He was still hurting though.
I got a cute smile out of him. The camera doesn't do his scrapes justice!!
Day 10 went well. We had one step forward and one step backwards. Grrrrr. But, a lot of fun.
Carter is getting really good at feeding himself. He scrapes the bowl pretty clean. For his Gluten-Free breakfast I didn't have to change a thing. He is eating the same thing he always has. With the exception of the Yogurt - we switched to Soy in May when we first started having issues. Soy yogurt, Applesauce, rice cereal, and a little bit of coconut (a recent addition as well). He won't eat anything else. We have tried pancakes in the past, and waffles, but no matter what I try, he is content with this mix.
He is a neat freak, like his mother. He made sure to get the wipes "Wees" out to wash his face and hands. Unfortunately, this time, he went a little overboard:
Day 9 went well. I made Macaroni & Cheese with Gluten-Free noodles, soy milk, & Cauliflower puree (as the "cheese"). I did add a little shredded cheese in for flavor, but he's never liked cheese anyways, so I didn't put a lot. I used Cornstarch instead of flour as a thickening agent. Lydia's mom, Chandra, gave me the recipe. Together, we modified it to accommodate his diet. She said she adds peas and carrots. I did that too. The last time I made this, he gobbled it down. Today, he left a considerable amount of vegetables in his bowl. Tomorrow will probably be completely different.
Day 7 of our Gluten free diet has not shown many improvements. However, David pointed out to me that although his stools haven't firmed up a considerable amount - the sand is GONE. I realized that I haven't seen the sand since we started this diet. That is a relief.
We went to see a Gastroenterologist today. He was much more thorough than the allergist. He looked at my notes of what Carter had been eating, and through the ingredient list of his food. He said it was a Gastroenterologist's dream. He said he almost never sees a parent so on top of their child's diet, with such healthy foods, so well documented. He said it multiple times.
He did a rectal exam that lasted about 15 seconds - in which Carter didn't complain at all. He just laid there frozen. Then after reviewing Carter's diet, he said he didn't see anything that we could take out to relieve any of his symptoms. He concluded that Carter's bowel functions are normal for a toddler, and they will thicken up eventually.
He gave me a couple of reasons for this occurrence. The most likely is Carter is not chewing his food enough, and therefore it is going right through him with his bowels unable to absorb it all. He told me to add Metamucil to his diet (which he pointed out is Gluten Free) and give him more pureed foods to help him absorb more nutrients.
I asked him about the Gluten free diet. He said that he didn't think there was a chance that Carter has a gluten problem, and if he does have one that is going undetected it will not likely harm him with the diet that he was on before we started his new diet. He suggested that we try it out for a month to see if we have any improvements. He said that if it doesn't work, we can easily go back with no harm done.
He was very supportive of me as Carter's mother making decisions for him and his well being. Unlike the Allergist, who was more interested in getting us in and out and going off the test results.
Today Carter grabbed a piece of metal shelving that I use when I sew as a straight edge. He has been trying to sneak it out of my sewing area that is also the office for quite some time. Today he succeed. I heard some noises and walked out to find this:
I didn't know that my child was so into singing and dancing. Please ignore the stool on the table. I had set it up there to take video of us playing basketball, I just hadn't taken it down yet. He was saying "Wooo Hoooo" every time I made a basket.
I think my favorite part of the video I took was how distracted he got a the ball.
It brings to mind another video:
Carter and Lydia reading today. Grandma Hammond made Carter quite a collection of fabric books. She also made Lydia a couple too.
I found him like this today in his bed. Sock in his mouth and on his hand.
Day 7.
He still does not want to eat my food. He ate very little rice and chicken today. I think he gets frustrated that there is so much chewing. But, he chews the sandwiches just fine? 4 yucky diapers today. No blowouts!
On Wednesday, we went to the park and saw Caspar Babypants in concert. Not his first Caspar Babypants concert, but the first one he was a little young for. Today he said "I have Googly Eyes!", out of nowhere. He is getting quite the good memory.
This is the song he is referencing:
Today the thermostat said 90 degrees. It was HOOOOOOOT. Carter got to play outside. He figured out how to climb my kitchen door. This is how tall he is:
This is how tall he is standing on a trim piece on the door:
I scored big time yesterday at a garage sale. I bought a Power Wheels car and a tricycle that has an adult handle to push it for $3 each. They were pretty clean too. Alas, the Power Wheels car didn't work. I asked about all the pieces too. I had to wait for 10 minutes for the nice lady to find the charger that went with it. They had a handful of larger Power Wheels toys, so it was amazing that they still had the charger to this one at all. David got home from a day at the race track around 10:30. He worked on it until 12:30 in the morning. He took all the power connections apart and tested them with his volt meter. The connections were corroded, especially the ones in the buttons. He cleaned them and made it as good as new.
There is a parent handle with a button on it, and a button on the steering wheel. Carter insisted that he have his sunglasses on. Funny, because neither David or I were wearing sunglasses. He had to run back to the house to get them. He even knew where they were!! I couldn't have told you that. We drove about 2/3 of a mile. Carter gave up half-way. He tried to push it the rest of the way home.
Next time we will take the trike:
Today during Family Home Evening, Carter sang along with us. He literally sang "La La La" while we sang our song. He correctly identified Jesus in a picture (The first time doing that was at his cousin Brylee's house two weeks ago on the 10th).
So, on to his diet. We had a success and a failure today. David made a gluten-free meal for the two of us that we could "share" with Carter. We just happened to be out of noodles, and the sauce that he was going to use said it was gluten-free. So, we had rice, chicken, peppers, and sauce. It was yummy. Carter sure thought so:
He was feeding himself like this. It looked like he was flying an airplane into his mouth.
Now for our failure.
No this did not happen today. This happened a couple weeks ago. David and I were getting ready to go to a cousin's baby blessing. We were packing snacks. I accidentally left the pantry door open, and Carter grabbed a bag of chips. I NEVER let him eat chips. He was walking around the house with this bag saying "Yum Yum". It was too cute to not take a picture of. What followed was a MASSIVE fit over this bag of crumbs.
I took special snacks up to nursery. Unfortunately one of the leaders didn't know that Carter was on a special diet. He gave Carter a handful of fishy crackers. I don't think it will set us back any, but we'll see. We also had 2 diapers that were the entire weight of my child gross - to say the least. It does not appear as though we are having any breakthroughs yet. Unless you are talking about the poop breaking through the diaper, then we are still having lots of those.
I will tell you, it takes twice as long to shower a kid smeared from top to bottom with poop when you are already dressed for church.
Carter decided to go outside and play in his car. My good friend Laura gave us this car. All 5 of her children loved it, and at least one family before hers. Carter LOVES it. Mommy has a car, Daddy has a car, and now Carter has a car. We've had it for a couple months now, but he still loves it. It had recently rained, and he felt that him and his Cookie needed to go out and take a ride. I don't know if you can tell, but Cookie is sitting in at least 1/4 inch of water. He came inside drenched!
He is wearing his hat, & Daddy's hat. We went to the mall to get some wiggles out the other day. We ran around the loop and played in the play area for a while. On the way back to the door near our car we passed a hat store. He was in heaven. He ran in yelling "S-hat S-hat!!". Believe it or not, he started grabbing hats and tried to put on as many hats as he could. All while wearing these two hats! The man behind the counter could only shake his head and giggle.
Also on that trip, he stopped dead in his tracks. Frozen, he kept saying "May May". I had to process what he was saying (it all sounds the same sometimes). He saw a bearded man with glasses managing a tobacco pipe kiosk. He thought he was our Mail Man. Right now he is excited when he sees the Mail Man, that means we get to go out of the yard and get the mail. He sees mail trucks on the street from his car seat and gets excited. He even identifies the USPS symbol off of ANYTHING as the Mail Man.
He has been very adamant that we pray with him ALL THE TIME religiously. I think he does this just to make daddy take off his hat (after 4 or 5 prayers in a row, he usually excitedly ends up with daddy's hat and runs away). However, he does it with me too. He has started to attempt to make Lydia pray with him. She didn't take too kindly to his advances. When I told her why he was grabbing at her hands, she was fairly compliant - ONCE. After that she just screams at him. She does not want to be held down. He ends up praying without her. Usually while she is still screaming at her. I can always tell when it is coming. He will come to me wanting to pray, then he will leave after only one prayer. He has remembered that he has a buddy. He runs down the hall shouting "Pairs Pairs". Then I hear her screaming.
On to his diet.
Today, he ate his usual banana with soy yogurt/applesauce/rice cereal mix - which he has been eating in some form or another (We used to use Nancy's Organic Whole Milk Honey yogurt before we cut out all dairy to get to the bottom of his allergy) for a year now. We have added coconut - thank you Aunt Arlene for the recommendation to firm up his stool. It helps a great deal. Other than that, all he ate (collectively) was a sandwich (the same kind as yesterday and the day before), some watermelon, and some Annie's gluten-free Bunny Crackers. He calls them "Amals". I think he is trying to say "Animal". I get the idea. We went to a birthday party today, and he had no desire to eat what the other kids were eating. What a weird easy going kid! They had cake and ice cream right in front of him, and he didn't even ask me for any. He was the only one not eating too. I think he will be able to manage his weight very easily as an adult because he doesn't eat when he is not hungry - no matter how yummy it looks.
Tomorrow will be fun. I need to go and prepare a baggy for the nursery.
Day 4 was a little bit of a struggle. He didn't want to eat anything other than a sandwich. I think he is just going hungry rather than eat what I have made. We have been through this before. Any time I start a new dish, he fights it. I have never had to throw away an entire batch of food because he wouldn't eat it. I am throwing away lots of bowls full right now though. It is very frustrating. I think it is because he does not like to chew. He wants to swallow everything. Grrrrr. So far, our nasty diapers have not really changed, although his poop is staying inside the diaper!
This morning we woke to a nasty blowout. One that resulted in a shower - typical of our struggle. Carter wakes up and says "I need a shower". He says that every morning. Most days he does need a shower. Baths just don't work anymore. However, Carter's door did not get shut all the way while he was in the shower, and the dog got in and helped clean up the rest. I do hate rinsing out his clothes, but I don't hate it that much.
Today we went to the Ballard Locks with our church playgroup (We also went to GasWorks Park in Seattle, and the Fremont Troll just the three of us.). We all had lunch in the fish ladder viewing area (I have pictures, but I will save them for a post later in the week. This post is about Carter's diet.). He did not show any desire to eat anybody else's lunch. He was pumped about this new bread and the soy-nut butter. He ate his sandwich and some hazelnut crackers again today. I tried the rice chicken vegetable thing again for dinner. No go. So, we had another sandwich for dinner. I need to learn how to make gluten free bread. It will save me a lot of money.
Children's Hospital called. They got a referral from my doctor. I was on hold for 13 minutes. I chatted with the woman for about 13 as well. I figure, I am going to get my time out of her. It paid off, because she squeezed us into an appointment on Tuesday. They are booking out into September, with one appointment the very end of August. David happened to be off that day, but I didn't want to wait that long to get in. So, I took the appointment for Tuesday. We are going in for a consult. They will probably tell me that it is silly to avoid gluten or wheat until they tell me to, just like the doctor and the allergist did. The doctor also told me it was silly to avoid dairy. Well, the allergist proved him wrong. But I am the mother, so nothing I am doing to protect my child is silly. If it works, it will have paid off. If it doesn't work, no harm done.
Today was fairly successful. He still wouldn't eat my chicken vegetable rice meal. However, he had 2 slices of dairy-free gluten-free bread (From Haley's Corner Bakery) with soy-nut butter on it, oranges, and hazelnut crackers by Blue-Diamond. I am glad he liked the bread. He wouldn't eat the applebutter on the slice, but at $7.50 a loaf I couldn't waste a slice!!
We went to our church potluck. I was fairly worried that I wouldn't find enough for Carter to eat, but I coordinated it so I had to be there. I was surprised to see how much there was to eat. Everything was red. Carter had some EXTREMELY watered down Crystal Light, red Jello with fruit in it, Watermelon, Strawberries, and a hot dog. All gluten free. Shortly after this picture he rolled over and crawled across the blanket - through his plate of red stuff. It was such a mess!!
We also went to a concert in the park. We saw Caspar Babypants. It was so much fun. It seems like all the kids had snacks. Carter didn't try to grab any other snacks, even from his friends. YAY!
Carter's allergy test via blood came up negative for everything.
I have eliminated every allergen that I can think of - except wheat. I have decided to go one step further and take gluten out. I figure, it can't hurt him for 2 weeks - as long as I make sure he gets enough vitamins.
I went to Fred Meyer, Nature's Market, and Haley's Corner Bakery. The only thing I had to change was the noodles in his meals, and his snacks. I bought fruits and vegetables like normal along with bread, noodles, crackers, a different brand of "Cheerios", and a couple snacks. I also bought the soy yogurt to replace the dairy that he also can't have. Overall it cost me $45.75.
Day 1 - didn't go so well. He didn't want to eat. I replaced the pasta with rice today. No go. He loved the Hazelnut crackers that I bought, and the pieces of gummi worm I used to bribe him to eat bites of lunch. But, he was not excited about eating and probably went to bed hungry. He said he was "all done", and I can't force him. Oh well. We'll try again tomorrow.
Today we went to the children's museum to wear Carter out so he would take a good nap for the wedding we went to today. Unfortunately, he never fell asleep. He talked to himself the entire nap time. So, we went out to Buckley on no nap. Carter was AMAZING. I brought some toys to distract him during the service. He only needed the phone and the Cheerios:
But what he really wanted to do was help Daddy take pictures. Daddy let him carry some stuff around. Carter was more than willing to help:
Carter had a ton of fun. He got to play with his cousin Brylee. They ran and chased all over. This is Brylee hugging Carter:
Uncle Daniel Carter caught the garter:
Then he went out on the dance floor with the ladies, and the bride taught him some fun dance moves:
Then he got the garter stuck on his face:
He got into somebody's wine - thinking it was juice. I was just a little too far away. I ended up spilling it all over him trying to get it away from his mouth. Then he wreaked of alcohol. We changed his clothes.
Tide was super low yesterday so we all packed up and went to the "beach". We had to find a more public beach - as the beaches on state parks charge $10 to visit. Carter did not want to walk along the beach. He kept saying "All Done" and running away. Once I got him to the water, he was okay.
He refused to touch anything . . .
until I showed him how to throw rocks into the water skip the rocks. He never really caught on, but he sure thought it was fun.
This morning Carter went to the doctor and was tested for allergies. He has a sensitivity to milk, I knew. However, something that I can't pinpoint is causing him digestive havoc. He was a very good boy at the doctor.
They scratched his back 16 times with various foods - Bananas, Oranges, Wheat, Corn, Peanuts, Eggs, ect..
He only reacted to the Milk - and to the control substance.
Then they sent us down to get blood drawn. They drew 5 1/2 adult vials of blood. Maybe 5 1/4. He was a trooper. He barely cried. He kept pointing to the needle in his hand saying "Airplane!". It did kind of look like an airplane. Then he decided that he was "All Done". He cried a little - no tears - and then said "All Done" multiple times. He stops crying when he says that. At one point he was even laughing. I was playing a game with him and he thought that was pretty funny. They were so impressed with him and how well behaved he was. The lady that was assigned to take his blood had to get somebody else because she couldn't stand to make him cry. Then, when he didn't freak out like she thought he would - she was in awe. She couldn't say enough about how well behaved he was. She said it is a reflection of David and I as parents. I think I am a little too high strung to be responsible for his easy going attitude.
Here is his "Band-Aid". It only lasted about 5 minutes before he had it off and in his mouth.
Carter is really into his toes right now. Most kids find their toes between 3 and 6 months and are completely fascinated by them. My child has found them at 22 months. He will take his shoes off to talk to them. Mostly he just un-Velcros them. It is so cute. We got a video of him saying "hi" to them. It is not with his usual excitement, but it is still cute.
I have to brag somewhere!! My dogs have been very productive hunters. One of them caught a mole on Saturday. I was ecstatic! I did take pictures, but didn't think that you all wanted to see them. Then this morning I was showering Carter - his preferred mode of cleaning - and David came running in to tell me that he thought Blu had a mouse. I went out there, and sure enough she had something. We researched it and determined that it was a Pigmy Shrew, more of a mole than a mouse. In fact, not a rodent at all. Shrews are insectivores. They live in the mole tunnels. They are destroying my vegetable garden!! David took the dead shrew away from her so she wouldn't eat it. I went back out after Carter's shower, and she had another one. David disposed of that one as well. Then she had a third (which got away. She was too close to the fence when she dropped him to play with him). Vortex got the fourth - before Blu took it from him. And Blu got a fifth before going in to take a nap.
We at first thought Blu just found a nest of babies - sad. However, they were from different parts of the yard. I am hoping that the reason they were all above ground can be attributed to my digging up their mounds and filling them with dog feces this morning. You are supposed to find their main tunnel and drop stuff in there. You are also supposed to use cat feces, but I just didn't have any of that handy. I also thought it a bit odd to go to my neighbors and ask for their cat waste.
However they came above, I am super excited that we have disposed of so many!!
Next venture - renting out my dogs to dispose of your Pigmy Shrew problem.
Carter has a new love. The Football is out - Basketball is in. EVERY TIME he sees a basketball hoop it is a fight to keep him away from it. Because there are two basketballs in the church gym, he thinks that basketball hoops come stocked with balls. He talks about it the entire way through church (He can see the hoop stored on the ceiling during our meeting.) We went to the park yesterday. The only thing he wanted to do was go across the street to the school basketball court. He tried to run out into the street twice. I caught him slipping through the rungs on the fence to get out of the park. And, he flat out ran from the playground when he saw that I was distracted. He screamed the whole way home "B Ball B Ball!!!". He yells every time we pass a basketball court in the car!
I decided that I needed a basketball hoop for this little man - for my sanity and so he didn't explode. I went searching on Craigslist. However, David made the mistake of stretching his arms like a hoop while Carter had a ball in his hand. Daddy was now a basketball hoop. He could not escape the screaming toddler and the ball in his face. He put together a hoop using the things we already had around the house. Don't ask me why we had all this stuff I would like to know myself.
With much discouragement NO training whatsoever, he seems to be a pretty good shot:
And excellent form - obviously left handed.
Michael Jordan, move over. Wait, did he already do that? Can you tell we don't follow sports?
Vortex tries to do this with tennis balls. Carter is much better at holding two balls at once.
