Fall

So, technically it's fall here in the great prairie. We are enjoying those precious few weeks each year when the weather is perfect; sunny (mostly), warm days and cool nights, no humidity. Despite temperatures in the 80's we introduced E to one of the joys of fall with a trip to our local apple orchard and pumpkin patch. E's favorite part was probably driving the "tractor"; he loves a steering wheel. We picked some apples, posed with pumpkins and generally had a good time.

 

 

The season is not the only kind of fall going on around here lately. Little E is walking everywhere but still gets tripped up by unexpected elevation changes, especially going downhill. He loves to be chased; a little "I'm gonna get you" really gets him wiggling and giggling.

On Sunday morning the Mav was entertaining the little one while I showered. E got a bit over-excited by being chased and a misstep landed him on his noggin. He was sufficiently traumatized that only Mommy kisses could ease the suffering. Once said kisses were administered the boy bounced back to happy play mode, no harm done.

The boy and his Daddy played a bit longer until the Mav left to mow the lawn. As the Mav shut the basement door behind himself his little boy pointed to the door, said "Daddy", and signed "more". Repeatedly.

It's no wonder I fall for those two all over again every day.

 

Pictures

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

These first three pictures are from a local park which had a jazz walk last Friday evening. Little E had a good time walking around, pointing at dogs, and dancing.

These 3 pictures are from E's first ever attempt to finger paint. It was not a big success. I guess E is still a bit young but I wanted him to try it out while the weather was still nice enough to do it outside. He preferred holding the paint containers to actually painting.

And in further news ...
E signs "toothbrush" now but still not "drink". He says "fishy" (but they have to be orange like cheddar goldfish crackers or Nemo for him to recognize a fish). He loves to go outside, especially to a park. He loves reading books with people or by himself. He still squeals sometimes when he walks, for the sheer joy of walking.

Pledge drive
Just like all independent media, we here at "E Eats Everything" occasionally need the help of our readers. We're asking you to make a pledge in the form of Halloween costume ideas for the little guy. All of our creative abilities are currently directed toward work activities (and blog writing) so we'd appreciate any help you can offer! There will be a reward if your idea is chosen.

E-level

Once upon a time the term "E-level" referred to the on-campus bar at my undergraduate university. I've heard that the bar is long gone but I'm not really sure. E-level now means something entirely different to me.

As the small boy grows in height and mobility his world expands and we discover new ways in which our home and habits are not childproof. Anything below the new conception of E-level is potentially in harm's way. Right now E-level is about 3 feet from the ground, the height of my boy from tip (finger tip) to toe. Change on a night stand = bad. Trash can = bad. I've started preparing for the point at which the kitchen counters are within finger tip range; knives left innocently near the edge flash giant warning lights. So far we've avoided major mishaps but that's been luck and luck alone.

Today we went to that bastion of boy-dom: Best Buy. Little E, already sick of shopping, was adamant about being on his feet. So off he went, walking around the maze of aisles just as happy as could be. As always, a miniature version of his Dad, E squealed with delight at the array of speakers and stereo equipment.

The amazing thing is: Best Buy was prepared for our visit. Almost everything was either in a locked cabinet or just above E-level! E could reach the pricing information but not the video games, computers, tvs ....

Perhaps we should get their Geek Squad out to the house, not to deal with our electronics since the Mav does that pretty well himself, but to improve our child-proofing.

Signs of the time

Little E understands lots of words and phrases. He definitely knows "want to go to the park?", "time for school" and "go get a book". It seems like the only ones he doesn't understand are "no" and "come here".

His vocalization of words, while progressing, lags considerably behind his comprehension (as expected for his age). He has recently added "tree" and "spoon" to his vocabulary list but I'm not sure I would know this if he wasn't holding up the spoon or pointing to the tree while saying them; his annunciation needs work. I'm not complaining; he's right on track for his age and his "words" are adorable.

E has made great strides in the non-verbal communication arena of late. He waves all the time. He waves "hello". When he's ready to go he waves "bye-bye". When he's ready to sleep he wave "night-night". (If he doesn't wave, generally he's not ready).

We've been teaching E bits of sign language and he can now sign "milk", "all done", "eat", "more", and "please". He's a bit confused about the meaning of "more" though. He seems to think it means "I want something specific" even if he's not currently having some of it. The sign for more is to repeatedly touch the finger tips of opposing hands together. The speed at which E puts his hands together starts slowly but will increase to a frantic pace if he doesn't get what he wants. If he wants something really badly he will switch back and forth from high-speed "more" to extreme "please". "Please" is to rub your hand on your chest. Extreme "please" uses both hands and looks more like he is beating his chest Tarzan style.

As for the something specific he wants more (or some) of; usually it is something in his line of sight and he points. Cheerios, goldfish crackers, outside ... you name it.

E's a bit shaky on "all done" too. He'll throw his hands in the air (not official ASL but it works around here) but then immediately sign "more". I think he may be telling me he's all done with the current offering, please get him something else. I tend to ignore this. He'll also sign "all done" repeatedly but then start eating again once I get a washcloth from the kitchen. The really bad thing about our sign for "all done" is that it sends his food-covered hands up to his hair. He's been trying out applesauce leave-in hair conditioner lately and boy is his hair sticky shiny.

He's doing so well with signs that we're trying to add some more. On the list are "help me", "banana", "peas", and "outside". I'm thinking of trying for "Mommy, I'd like to clean my room and then do the dishes", but I'll settle for "I love you".

The picture(s) of health

Rarer than rare

Warning: this blog entry is long and not about cute things. The cliff notes version is that we had a health scare with the boy but found out today that everything is ok. Feel free to skip the rest; cute pictures will be coming in the next day or so.

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Our boy is fine. Healthy and hale. His doctor assured us of this with 99.999999999999% certainty. Nevertheless, he sent us to a specialist; a pediatric ophthalmologist in a city an hour and a half from here.

You may have noticed that we take pictures of little E on occasion. One or two, anyway. Well, a picture that I took showed an eerie and potentially ominous effect in little E's right eye. You can see for yourself.



You might not think that this could be a big deal---probably just an artifact of the flash or something. I might have thought the same except I'd read an article a couple of weeks ago about a similar white response from a child's eye. The little girl in the article had a tumor on her retina. Cancer.

The red eye effect that often appears in pictures is actually the response of a healthy retina to the camera flash. When there is a problem with the retina the light is reflected differently and this can show up as a white spot in a picture. This phenomenon is called leukocoria.

Though we've taken thousands of pictures of our boy, this white eye thing only showed up in one so I was initially not very concerned. I decided to look it up on the internet assuming I'd find articles that would allay my minor concern. I assumed that this was a common camera effect. Instead I read this: "This is never a normal condition and requires immediate evaluation by trained specialists".

Not a phrase I ever want to read again.

Leukocoria is a symptom of several different problems; none are things I want to contemplate with respect to a loved-one, especially my small, amazing, happy, beautiful baby boy.

It was 10pm. I was alone. Little E was sleeping and the Mav was out of town. I called him, sent him links to the articles. We searched the web; learning about the various conditions, the diagnostic techniques, the prognoses. I kept hoping one of us would find the article saying that nothing was wrong with our little boy. All we found was more to fear.

The Mav was on the road home by 6:30 in the morning having canceled his meetings for the day. I called the doctor's office as soon as it opened and got us an appointment for that afternoon.

The Mav made it home before noon, exhausted from a sleepless night and a long drive. He renewed the search for more info and finally, at last, found the article we'd been longing for. It IS possible to get the white reflection from a completely healthy eye and it's under conditions similar to those in our picture. We may have captured a reflection from his optic nerve.

We might have been saved a sleepless night if our pediatrician had checked the boy's eyes at our appointment just a week earlier. He hadn't. I didn't notice the absence of the check at the time. It was only in retrospect that I realized the omission. He had never turned the lights off to check E's eyes. Do other pediatricians do this routinely?

We saw the specialist and his team today. E's eyes were examined when we arrived then he was given drops to dilate his pupils. Half an hour later we saw the doctor. He checked the small boy's eyes thoroughly and pronounced them completely healthy!

The good doctor (and he is a very good doctor, both in his manner and his expertise) told us that we did indeed take a picture of E's optic nerve. He said that we could have never taken this picture if we had tried; it is nearly impossible to catch the optic nerve through the pupil. The camera has to be a such an angle and the eye at such an angle and so on ... The very rare cancer we feared occurs in about 300 people per year. The study the Mav found had exactly 3 examples (ever, not per year) in which a photograph with a white eye reflex turned out to be the optic nerve. Despite retinoblastoma being extremely rare a white eye in a picture is much much more likely to indicate a tumor than to show the optic nerve and it should always, always be checked out by an ophthalmologist. We did that and, against the odds, received the best imaginable news. We are beyond relieved that our boy is one is a billion instead of one in a million!

Saturday's child

Happy Saturday. Here are some pictures.
love,
K

So tired ...

Having a toddler is exhausting.

It is very very fun though.

(Well, most of the time).

We bought a car yesterday. Our dear old Cavalier served us very well for many years but she's got transmission troubles so she's headed for a nice farm upstate. The Mav, the boy and myself spent about 5 hours in or near the car dealership; test-driving, negotiating, signing papers. E spent about 3 of those hours racing around the show room floor.

He's quick. Really quick, considering he's only been walking for a couple of weeks.

He's strong too. And loud when he wants to be.

The Mav is away again so it's just me and the boy for a couple of days. The little man is pretty good company but he does create a lot of extra work and movement(I work on school stuff when he naps). Tiring, very tiring.

Hopefully I'll more stories for you all soon. Good night.

Just stuff ...

Today I am concentrating on the second purpose of this blog: to be a record of the events in little E's life. (The first purpose is, of course, to share E's antics, accomplishments and idiosyncrasies with those who love him but don't get to see him that often.) I'm a bit tired so the following will likely be rather dry ...

E started going to "school" this week. It is a drop-in morning program at a church around the corner from us. He gets to hang out with a bunch of other babies (he's currently in the nursery room but will move to the toddler room in a couple of months). He gets to play with different toys. I get to do some work. Everyone wins.

On the first day he ignored my good-byes as he was too enthralled with the blocks. On our way out the director mentioned that E had spent some time hanging out with his blanket but by the end of the morning he was walking all around the room.

After breakfast on day 2 I told E that he was going to go play with the other kids and he got quite excited. He had some tears as I left the room though.

We had E's 1 year well-baby appointment yesterday. It was pretty useless. The doctor pretty much ignored or belittled anything we had to say. He's a nice enough guy but inexperienced and appointments aren't very thorough. I'm trying to decide if its worth switching to a different doctor or hold on until whenever we move.

Little E weighs in at 20.6 lbs and I measured him to be about 29 inches tall (very rough measurement since he wouldn't stay still).

I think E is cutting another tooth. He's been cranky off-and-on and needed to be rocked to sleep a couple of nights ago for the first time in awhile. I hope a tooth is the cause and that it hurries on in. He's due for some more; he currently has only 6.

The Mav is traveling; due back late tonight. He and his business associates have a conference call with a big internet company in advance of a trip to CA in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed please!

13 Months Old!

 

 

These shoes were made for walking

Now that E is walking we know that running can't be far off so we took him to get fitted up with his first pair of real sneakers. E was pretty neutral about the fitting and the shoes; he mostly wanted to play with the toys in the store. He does likes to play with the velcro on the sneakers (the tie ones were really cute, but come on now ... he doesn't sit still very long).

E walks rather well in his new shoes (discounting the first couple of attempts). After dinner we all took a walk around the block and E walked most of it himself. He even tried to run at one point.

Baby (or new-toddler) running is one of the best things in the world. It's a cross between running in place and marching. He moves his feet fast and his knees high but doesn't change his mincing, toe-tapping stride. All this, and squealing in delight. I love it.

Hopefully the dear boy is tired out enough from the excitement and exertion to sleep in tomorrow.

He walks (the video)

E is getting very good at walking; he's just about mastered turning and stepping over small obstacles. We finally got some video; it's short but to the point.

Farmer Boy

Though we often complain about our prairie town it does have some great features including an amazing parks system. One of these parks is a replica turn of the century farm (complete with a native peacock? I think they took a few liberties with the word "replica"). It also has a petting zoo and smallish slide/climbing structure.

E had a complete blast. You might be able to tell from the pictures below. He walked all over the place, touched the animals and squealed in delight frequently.

In the petting zoo, hanging out with the cows. Yes, E and I have the same shoes. Yes, it is very cute.

Meeting a very friendly and hungry goat. No fingers were lost in the taking of these photos though the edge of my shirt was apparently quite tasty.

The bunnies were E's favorite animals. The pigs were his least favorite.

That is one happy kid!