My Child Slave :)

What can I say...I start 'em early. :)

The Bug loves it when I vacuum. Isn't that weird? Aren't most kids afraid of the vacuum? Nope...not mine. He follows me all over trying to get a hold of the vacuum. So, when I get done, I pull off the end and let him "vacuum". It's too funny.

Hopefully, he'll continue to like this game when he's old enough to actually vacuum.

p.s. Are you wondering how I vacuumed around all those toys? Yeah...I didn't. I vacuumed the stairs and then the upstairs. So no mom...I didn't just vacuum around the toys. Sound familiar Maysi?! :)

You Know You're Tired When...

...the bleacher at a basketball game looks comfortable.

This was after the long week of diarrhea. Shayne's boys had a game in Homer on Saturday, January 23rd. I was tired of being stuck at home, The Bug's diarrhea was under control, so I decided to drive down and surprise Shayne. It was nice to get out of the house. It was a beautiful drive to Homer too.

Anyway...The Bug was such a good boy for the games...we sat through three of them. He was pretty darn tired by the last game though. I looked down and saw him just laying his head down on the bleacher...he was nearly asleep...then mom with her dumb camera woke him up! :)

It was so cute while it lasted though. :)

Papa Pond Hat

Grandpa Pond sent The Bug two hats for Christmas. The first was a cap with the Pond Concrete log on it...and I've already posted pics of that. The other is of this black beanie with a bill. It's so funny when he puts it on...it' s like a grown up hat on a little munchkin of a kid. Anyway...when he finds it in the house, he likes me to put it on him. So, this is him with his black beanie and his pj's.

Unfortunately, it's kinda hard to see the bill on the beanie. I'll have to get another pic of him while outside with the snow as a background. Then you can really see how cute he is in this hat. :)

It is seriously too cute!

Crappy Week...

Literally.

On Sunday January 18th, The Bug had some "iffy" diapers. We didn't think anything of it until Monday. Monday after eating all of his breakfast, he threw it all up...all of it. Then about 2 hours later he threw up again. So, I stopped feeding him, and only gave him a little bit of very diluted juice. I thought we were doing pretty well when he hadn't thrown up for about 9-10 hours. So, I fed him a little supper and we were headed to bed. While going through our bedtime routine he threw up ...and then again about 30 minutes later. After cleaning everything up (thankfully we have no carpet in our house, so cleanup was a breeze...especially when you have two dogs...hey, you do what you gotta do!), I was able to get him to bed. He did fine all night, so I thought we were past it.

He was miserable though on Tuesday. He just did not feel good, and spent most of the day sitting in my lap. He didn't eat much, so I started him on some pedialyte. Other than a little bread and cheerios he wasn't interested in food, and I didn't force it. He started feeling better by Tuesday evening...and I seriously thought that he would be good to go on Wednesday. I was wrong.

Wednesday morning he did great. Acted much better, but still didn't eat a whole lot. But...by about 4:oo that afternoon, things got bad. He started in on the diarrhea. He'd had a little earlier, but nothing like this. By 6:00 it was straight water...literally. I was changing his diaper, and his clothes every 30-45 minutes. His diaper was completely saturated, so much so, it was running out the top and bottom and soaking his shirt, pants AND socks. I changed 13 diapers in 8 hours.

Thankfully, he kept drinking. He was constantly drinking. He drank more than 2 liters of pedialyte, from 3pm to midnight(when he finally went to bed). Shayne had to work that night, but it was a good thing, b/c he talked to the ER doc and asked him what we needed to do. He said that there were no medications they could give a 15 month old. The only thing they could do was put an I.V. in him and give him fluids. So, if he continued to drink and act fine, to not come in. And he did drink...which I'm so grateful for.

I was seriously worried. If he hadn't stayed in such a good mood, and kept playing like he did, I probably would have taken him in. I've never seen that much fluid come out of a person. I've talked to a couple of mom's since and none of them have dealt with diarrhea like this before. It's kinda gross, but the best way I can describe it is this: Have you every played with those bath toys that suck up water, then you squirt them out? Well, that sound they make when you squirt the water out?...that's what it sounded like when The Bug had a bout of diarrhea. Not kidding. It didn't help he hadn't eaten anything substantial in 3 days, so it literally was just water coming out.

I ended up lining his bed with receiving blankets to help soak up anything through out the night. I put him down at midnight and at 2, when I finally went to bed, I checked on him and he was still dry. I checked on him again around 7 am and he still felt dry, but when he got up at 8:30, he had been wet, but dried out. Poor kid.

However, he did much better on Thursday. No real bad diarrhea, and for the first time in almost four days he wanted to eat. Yeah!! So, Thursday was a good day.

But, he threw up again while eating breakfast on Friday, and had some diarrhea. Seriously?! That's when I started sanitizing EVERYTHING!! I boiled his binkies, washed ALL his bedding and clothes in hot water, and then used disinfecting wipes all over my house. I gave him some food about 6 hours later, and he was fine. He had a good night with no incidents either.

Saturday was good too. In fact, it was so good I ended up driving to Homer to watch Shayne's boys play basketball. I had to get out...I was tired of all the "crap" I had been dealing with. :) I packed about 3 changes of clothes and 20 diapers, just in case, but didn't need them! It was the best day we'd had in almost a week.

So...when I say it was a "crappy" week...I mean it!


Sorry if this post was just too gross...but I'm sharing this story for journaling purposes. While I should want to forget this...I also want to remember it...because who has such memorable weeks like this?! :)

January Snow Days

These are just some pics outside. Nothing too exciting. We do live in Alaska. There is snow. We do go outside at times to enjoy it.

I do spend a lot of time picking The Bug back up where he has fallen on the snow, b/c his snow boots are just a little too much while navigating the "potholes" in the snow. But it's all good...b/c he's so dang cute in those little snow pants and snow boots.

Notice Dezi...gloves!

Baby Siging Time = Crack for Babies

Not kidding! Kaye let me borrow the first two of the "Baby Signing Time" series DVD's. She told me Malia loved them, but I didn't realized what she meant by "loved." I now know.

It's crack...for my baby. He cannot get enough of them. CANNOT. My only consolation when he has turned on the tv, is looking for the remote, and is desperately signing "baby" for "Baby Signing Time", is that at least he's learning something. And he is learning stuff.

Here's a quick list of words he's learned to sign...and uses on a daily basis:

Please, Thank you, Eat, Milk, Book, Cracker, Dog, Cat, Horse, Bird, Coat, Hat, Milk, More, Water*, All Done, Mom, Dad, Shoes, Socks, Train, Boat*, Airplane, Car, Drink*, Fish, Brush Teeth, Sleep, Banana, Ball, Doll*, Hurt*, Wash Hands*, and I'm sure I've missed some.

The * means it's a sign he's just picked up, so is still learning where and when to use it. Other than "please" and "thank you", he's learned all of these from the video. It helps I use them as well so he sees them all day. But...I've seen him mimic the signs while watching the video.

He will sit and watch it all the way through before getting up. They are only 30 minutes long, but still...a long time for my kid. And...he begs for it EVERY DAY!! I try and only put it on in the evenings when he's starting to get tired and a little fussy, but some days he wins the battle and I watch it most of the afternoon. It's a good thing it repeats by itself, so I don't have to keep pushing play. :)

He loves them so much, and has learned so many words, I ended up going on ebay and buying the entire 4 set series with the songs on cd as well. I attempted to go to the library and find something else for him to watch, so I got an Elmo video, but he cried when it started. He knew immediately it wasn't "Baby Signing Time". Seriously, just dropped his head and cried until I put in his movie.

Crack, I tell you...it's crack!!

But...It's pretty amazing how much his language has exploded. Not only with his signing, he's also starting to say some new words too. Like:

Cracker, Fish(he loves to say this while signing it...and b/c of all the fish pics we have he says it A LOT!), Shoes, Owl, and Jesus (that's a story for another post.) I think he's also saying "truck", but I'm not sure just yet. He does make car sounds whenever he sees a truck or car. It's so dang cute.

I'm amazed EVERY DAY how smart he is, and how much he can learn in one day! We LOVE having a toddler in our home. We love having The Bug in our home.

December Catch Up...

As promised, here are my posts for December...and a little January. Sorry they are so late, but better late than never. And...who will ever know when I get my blog book? I love the "Post Options" option. :)

Malia & The Bug
To Infinity and Beyond
Ward Christmas Party
Yeah for Presents
Christmas @ Senior Center
Bethlehem Revisited
Basketball Junkie
Post Christmas Games
Tyler Siaki Tuia
Love Alaska
New Year's Eve
Reflections