Jackpot
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Elijah hit the toy jackpot this week! Dan's mom gave him a wooden train set and some new books (one of which is being held by The Lounger in the previous post), and then our friend Cara gave him her daughter's old toy barn and animals, which are just awesome. He adores every bit of it. He has been in a toy daze all week. That is, in between being in a Thomas the Train daze and an I-need-to-be-outside-RIGHT-NOW-or-else-I'll-start-flopping-like-a-fish daze.
We have had a quiet week, which has been really nice in comparison to the past few. Elijah re-entered the world of daycare, and he didn't necessarily love that. It had been three weeks since he was there, so he cried giant, dramatic tears of sadness when Dan dropped him off each morning. We feel it is really important for Elijah to be around other children on a regular basis. He naturally stays close to whatever and whoever is safe (us), so it is good for him to regularly interact with other people without us around. Hopefully we are done with surgeries and the hospital for a while so we can get him back into a steady, tear-free daycare routine.
We are hoping Dan can get some work this weekend (why can't money start falling from the sky?), and we have a few fun things planned, too. I don't have to work tomorrow, so I have an extra bounce in my step tonight.
Elijah's incision still looks great and his rash hasn't come back. He has continued to recover amazingly well after his recent surgery. We are anxious to see what the future holds for his gross motor development now that his spinal cord has been set free!
Have a fun, safe weekend, everyone! Thanks for checking in.
p.s. For those of you who have read the Harry Potter books.. I just finished Book 6 and I was devastated about what happened at the end! (Don't say anything about specifics because Dan doesn't know what happens yet.) How, why, HOW, WHYYY?? (Have you noticed yet that I get a little bit caught up in the books I read?)
Posted by The Portas 5:18 PM 7 comments Links to this post
Labels: daycare, development, photos, recovery
Lounging comes naturally for him
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Posted by The Portas 8:57 PM 14 comments Links to this post
Labels: photos
Hair
Monday, June 29, 2009
After looking at some of the photos I've posted recently, you must think that we never comb our child's hair.
And that would be a good assumption because we don't. That head of hair has a mind of its own. I could comb through it for five straight minutes and it would look the same as if I didn't comb it at all. So we have learned to let it express itself in whatever way it wishes.
Every once in a while I will see other parents whisper to each other as they look at Elijah. I always wonder if they are commenting on his crazy (awesome) hair, wondering why he isn't walking, or just gushing about how cute he is. Most likely they are gushing about his cuteness because that trumps everything, right?
The stitches came out today! Minus some dramatic tears, all went well. His incision looks great. We have to take him back in two weeks for a final incision check, and guess what? We can't bathe him until then! Oh well, this is really not a big deal, just a slight inconvenience. We will continue on with our sponge baths until then.
Rashy has left our little boy's body! Let's hope it is gone for good, never to return.
This is a short work week, yay! We have a few fun plans and a few other fun ideas for the upcoming weekend, so I'm getting excited. Almost two weeks post-surgery, I'm finally feeling like we can enjoy our summer!
Posted by The Portas 6:30 PM 5 comments Links to this post
Labels: hair, photos, rash, recovery
Sunday funday
Sunday, June 28, 2009
We took Elijah to the Children's Museum downtown today for the first time and it was awesome! What a cool cool place. We got there right when it opened, so we had the entire ant tunnel floor to ourselves. Dan and I crawled through the tunnels on our hands and knees with Elijah, and we all totally loved it. Our knees started to hurt after a while so we moved onto other things.
Not so sure what to think of the giant ant.
We attempted story time at the museum. I really had no idea how Elijah would do with this. He seemed to want to crawl around and through the kids and just take everything (but the story) in. Then he spotted two huge doors to the right of us. I saw where his gaze was leading and gave Dan the we-have-to-leave-the-room-now look. We are constantly having to divert his attention to other things when he spots doors, cupboards, anything that he can open and close repeatedly. I can just see Elijah in kindergarten, avoiding games and kids and color time because he wants to be along the wall, playing with doors of some sort. I really hope this obsession fades. 
Turtle Dan.
This is a door that was painted on a wall (there were a few of these), and Elijah could not understand why he couldn't get it to open.
The water centers were a ton of fun. This was one of his favorite rooms.
He stood there by himself for quite a while.
The rash is better today, thankfully. I'm worried that Elijah has an allergy to Tylenol since last night was the first night I haven't given it to him in over a week. I guess we'll find out the next time he needs it. I'm just glad the bumps seem to be getting better. We were able to spend some time outside this afternoon since it has cooled off, yay!
Using sidewalk chalk for the first time!
I must go grab my dirty boy and give him his nightly sponge bath. I can't wait to be able to throw him in the tub again. He gets his stitches out tomorrow, so hopefully after that we will be cleared for normal baths.
Pretty art, Elijah!
Dan balanced out all of my "hearts and flowers" chalk art with this lovely drawing. I know, weird.
Posted by The Portas 4:12 PM 8 comments Links to this post
Inside
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Washing our hands at the kitchen sink. This is what Elijah does when I ask him to show me his happy face. He grins hugely and points to his smile.
So much for taking a day trip today. We hardly even left our house! This morning it was rainy/cloudy/windy, so Elijah and I hung out at home. The sun came out this afternoon so we went to the park for a bit. About ten minutes into swinging I noticed that Elijah's welty-looking rash was getting worse before my eyes. Arrgghhh! So we headed back home, out of the heat. 
Washing my hands (which have just been dunked in the toilet), Mommy!
Elijah just went to bed and I have a date with my book and maybe the tv for a bit after that. Life is so exhausting! :) I'll have to think of an indoor adventure tomorrow so we can avoid making the rash even worse and also so we can get out of this house.
This is what I found in the bathroom tonight. When I came back from setting the camera down, he had his arms dangling over the side of the toilet and was splish-splashing in the water. Fun!
Posted by The Portas 7:33 PM 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: funnies, photos, weekend
Giving up
Friday, June 26, 2009
I'm posting the same photo as yesterday because of its total cuteness.
I've decided to give up wondering if our little boy will catch a break because it is becoming evident that it's not going to happen. Elijah woke up this morning with a new set of all-over-his-entire-body rashes. Actually, they look like welts. They look awful. They are even on his face and ears. We also noticed that the stitches around his incision are red and appear irritated. I can't wait to get those out. Monday morning!
Dan called The Voice to see if he had insight about the mystery welts. He said everything that was in his body while in the hospital should already be out, so he had no guesses. As long as the rashes don't appear to be bothering him (they don't, thank goodness), he said not to worry too much. We cannot for the life of us figure out what could possibly be causing this! It is maddening. I love what my friend Pam called Elijah today: Bumpy Monkey. How perfect!
I'm going to do my best to accept the fact that it will literally be one thing after another with our Elijah. Maybe then I'll at least feel some peace about everything he (and we) must endure. Like.. Oh good, I'm glad it's strep throat because Human Werewolf Syndrome could have been next! Phew!
Changing the subject completely, Elijah's speech has been very encouraging lately. The other day he mastered the word CAKE. He likes to try saying a word and then I will say it, and we repeat this until he has it somewhat right. It goes like this:
E: [pointing to picture of a cake] Uck
Me: Cake
E: Ake
Me: Cake
E: Ock
Me: Cake
E: Guck
Me: Cake
E: Kuck
Me: Cake
E: Cake
Me: Cake!
E: Cake!
He also started saying CAR this week, and doing the sign for it as well (which is so super cute, by the way). Last night he was saying CARD, which actually comes out sounding like a bad word, so we will have to work on this one some more. His little mind is a sponge. He adores his letter books and he would sit with us and go through them a million times a day if we had the time. He has even sporadically been calling me MAMA. We'll get there! We are constantly so proud of our little man.
I really really wanted to get away this weekend. After a few days of hospital life and then after feeling like an emotional wreck during this aftermath, I want out of the city very badly. Dan will be working all weekend, so I was thinking I would pack up our things and drive somewhere, anywhere, with my sidekick for a night. Now with this new rash development, I suppose I should put that on hold. Who knows, though, maybe he will wake up tomorrow morning rash-free and the two of us will be off to California! Or maybe not quite that far.
Ok, I'm going to practice my giving-up skills now.. Oh goody, Elijah has an awful rash all over his body! That's great because Trichotillomania could have been waiting for him.
Dr. Moga wouldn't like for Elijah to have this disease, so I guess I will embrace you, Rashy!
Posted by The Portas 6:01 PM 8 comments Links to this post
Mystery bumps
Thursday, June 25, 2009
We found a bunch of red bumps all over Elijah's body earlier today, so Dan brought him into the doctor to find out that he is having an allergic reaction to something. We have no idea what it could be. Maybe a lingering medication from his hospital stay? Who knows. We gave him a dose of Benadryl to hopefully help with it tonight.
Even though it was a little bit warm, we played outside for a while tonight. We made an attempt at eating some ice cream in honor of our angel friend Kate, but Elijah was not interested. I guess he is back to refusing entry to anything that doesn't look worthy of going inside his mouth.
Elijah has a new love. Thomas the Train. He makes googly eyes at the Thomas DVD case all day long. He's in love!
That's about all we know today. Thanks for checking in!
Posted by The Portas 6:33 PM 5 comments Links to this post
