Jess and Michael's Window

My how the time flies.  I can’t believe that Evan is 10 months old.  We had planned on taking him to a pumpkin patch today but he has a cold.  Jess and I didn’t want to keep him outside in the cold weather all day so we’re staying at home where it is nice and warm and Evan can recover.  Here is a quick video of Evan’s crawling and walking progress.  He’s figured out how to crawl up stairs and is taking assisted baby steps.  Hope you enjoy.

So Evan’s worst trouble (besides the reflux that lasted about 5 1/2 months) has been ear infections, starting at 6 months, he’s had two doubles and two singles, nearly back to back.  So we had about 1/2 a month of good sleeping!  I know….yadda yadda yadda, it could be a lot worse!  Definitely I know that, and am profoundly grateful for a happy-and-healthy-during-the-day Evan (seriously, he’s like Jekyll-Hyde Junior)!  Anyway, the docs all convinced us to go ahead and get ear tubes now since he’s had such trouble over the summer, and it’s only going to get worse when fall rolls around.  Also b/c we’ll be flying to California soon.  The actual colds that caused the ear infections haven’t been too bad, up until this monster set up camp.  Poor Evan has spent the last three nights yelling for 2-3 hours at a time (all while being walked/rocked etc.) until finally, he is so exhausted he goes back to sleep and sleeps through his snorting and coughing.  He is really miserable   The worst problem seems to be a cough which he didn’t have the other times he’s been sick.  Now I think I have a very small taste of what it must be like to have a colicky baby and boy those parents have it so rough…they should all win medals for survival and patience!

We went to the doctor hoping for a prescription since the nurse said if it was keeping him awake, then we should come in.  I thought that meant “yes, we can help you.”   Umm, no.  More like a well spent $25 copay having the doctor say, “yep it’s a cold alright…have fun.”  Great.  Spanks a lot.   Luckily, going to the doc wasn’t a total loss.  We did find out that two days after Evan got his tubes in, his double ear infection is finito!  So yay for that or we’d really be in trouble right now.

So yes its true…all the research I did online looking for cold remedies for babies and finding that there are none (now) was confirmed by the pediatrician who said he didn’t have any prescription remedies either.  How abSURD is it, that the part of our population that has the most trouble with colds has no medical relief whatsoever?!  Apparently that is thanks to a few parents who misused what drugs were out there so none of us can use them (at least that’s one thing I read, the other is that the drugs simply don’t work on infants – but I think that is what they decided to tell people to keep them from trying it).  Wonderful.

Anyway, I asked for help from friends on facebook and got the usual suggestions, all of which were helpful (thanks for that) and mostly already tried.  My sister and sis-n-law both said we should get a prescription.  So is my doc just conservative or what?  Anyone else got help from their pedi’s recently for a cold?  Just wondering if there really is stuff out there, but he just wants us to suffer for some odd reason?  All I know is that when I have a cold, all I want to do is sleep and take medicine. If there wasn’t any medicine, and I couldn’t sleep, I’d be screaming in someone’s ear too.

Here is a little clip I put together from some recent videos of evan.  Hope you enjoy!

Evan turned 8 months old yesterday!  And since he woke me up a little later than usual this morning, I couldn’t go back to sleep… so I have a chance to sip some Italian sweet cream choked coffee and record our adventures for his 8 month anniversary.  Yesterday I had one of those spontaneous moments that make being a mom so satisfying (uh oh…stirrings from the nursery, may have to finish this later).

Well, so much for that idea.  Evan woke up for the day, so I had to delay.  Now he is down for a morning nap and I’m writing instead of doing chores.  So back to our adventure.  Right around Evan’s naptime we had a cloudburst come through with a heavy downpour.  And since playing in the rain is one of my favorite lifelong pastimes, I thought I’d postpone naptime and take the opportunity to introduce Evan to some real rain.  Up until now he’d only gotten a few drops here and there on the way to the car, but nothing like this.  We looked through the windows at the different world outside, then opened up the doors and our umbrella and went out into the yard and driveway.  The rain beat heavy on the umbrella, like when you’re cozy in a camping tent, filling our ears with a new sound for Evan.  The street was flooded and a river appeared at the foot of the driveway.  The street came alive with silvery raindrops bouncing and ricocheting everywhere.  Thunder boomed in the distance.  Evan helped me hold the umbrella.  Looking at his wide eyes, craning his neck to see all there was to see made me really pay attention to all the details, imagining what it must be like to experience that moment for the first time!  WoW!  How neat!  After several turns to walk up the street, changing our minds with every thunderclap, I wasn’t ready to just end the experience.  The rain was still pouring down; we were having too much fun…at least I was…Evan was pretty much in awe.  Finally I thought to borrow the neighbors covered porch so we could hang out a little longer.  I plopped Evan down in the middle of the brick porch to see what he would do.  First thing he wanted to do was play with the umbrella.  Push on the handle, see how it rolled around.  Then,  I called his attention to the puddles gathering at the edge of the porch on the brick.  He figured out how to get himself over there and to my surprise crawled out right into the thick of reflecting raindrops!  He patted the puddles, got his knees wet and let the rain roll down his face.  Already a spirited adventurer!  That’s my boy! : )

Pretty soon I knew we’d need to go in or he would have a meltdown when naptime finally came to call.  So we went in and had a bath.  By the time he got dry, dressed and had his bottle, Evan became a limp little scarecrow in my arms, head and arms lolling everywhere, dead asleep!  What an adventure to dream about!

That was great!  This was exactly the sort of thing I always looked forward to about being a mom.  Being able to teach my kids how to enjoy the world’s great shows.  Nurturing a spirit of adventure in Evan that will carry him into adulthood and help him seize every opportunity to experience Life’s gifts… and most importantly, how to turn his face into the rain with a grin.  I can’t wait for rubber boot puddle stomping!

Evan has reached another milestone this week.  He is starting to crawl.  We are so excited.  Here is a quick clip of his first attempts at crawling.

Here are a few recent pictures of Evan we took the other night before getting him ready for bed.

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