Anti-girls?

About 2 months ago, Ethan adopted an "anti-girls" stance. He stopped talking about Georgia, Amber, Nicole and the other girls at preschool that he used to play with. Playdates with friends who have girls were met with a less than enthusiastic response. He reluctantly invited one girl to his birthday party, and then proceeded to ignore her the entire time.

I decided this was just a stage, and he would eventually grow out of it.

We go to a fairly small church. A lot of the time, our 2 boys and 3 children from one other family are the only kids under the age of 10. The kids in the other family are Aidan (8), Teighan (7) and Catriona (4). In fact, Catriona is just 5 weeks older than Ethan, so they have pretty much grown up together. Over the past 4 years, I can't say they have been particularly close. They aren't really "friends", but they sometimes play together at church because they have nobody else to play with. Lately, Ethan has been hanging around Aidan a bit more, because he is into "cool boy stuff" like cars and dinosaurs and robots. Thankfully, Aidan doesn't seem to mind :-)

Yesterday at church, Ethan was playing with Teighan & Catriona. They had built a "hut" from cushions in the corner of the room, and they were huddled in there like sardines. I figured they were playing hide and seek, so I left them to it. About 45 min later, they came out and Ethan told me that they had been playing "Mums and Dads", and they did lots of kissing and cuddling. Surprised, I asked him how they kissed each other, and he proceeded to grab my face, and kiss me on the lips for a really long time. In fact, he only stopped when I pulled away! Nana said to him: "But I thought you didn't like girls", to which he replied: "I don't! But I like her", and pointed to Teighan!

I'm not sure what this means now. I hope he doesn't start kissing all the girls he knows … somehow I don't think that's very likely.

Attitude, teeth and tummy bugs

First, the attitude.
Ethan has one. And I'm not a fan.
It really only started over the past week or so. Like, after his vaccinations. Can I get away with blaming everything on them? Anyway, he's been back-chatting and arguing, refusing to do what he is told, and generally complaining about almost everything. Nice.
I really need to nip it in the bud now, before it becomes a habit. Wish me luck.

Second, the teeth.
Tyler is getting some. His 2-year molars.
Actually, he's been pretty good about it. Sometimes he gets grumpy but I just rub some Bonjela on his gums and it seems to help. Boy, I'll be glad when these teeth have finished coming though. It will be the end of teething for our family! Okay, I know they get 4 more teeth when they are older, but I figure it won't be much of an issue.

Third, the tummy bug.
Rob has had one. A nasty one.
Thankfully it only lasted for a day. And most of it was during the night. Now although that equaled less sleep for both him and I, it also meant the kids were in bed and safely away from the germs. I actually enjoyed the opportunity to be the nurse. He spent so much time looking after me when I was sick, and doing everything for the kids. So it felt good to return the favour :-)

Ethan's arm ...

Vaccinations

I took Ethan to get his 4-year vaccinations on Tuesday afternoon. He had to get MMR in one arm, and DTaP-IPV in the other. He did most of his crying in the car when we got to the doctor's surgery. He was afraid it would "really, really hurt" but then afterwards he said "Hey, it didn't hurt that much ... I was really brave, eh Mumma?" ... which he was :-)

I watched out for any reaction that evening, but there was nothing. I couldn't even see the prick marks from the needles. But he did complain of not feeling well and had a slight fever. I gave him Pamol and he slept well. The next day he was at mum's for the day and she said he wasn't quite himself. Then last night (this is 2 days after the vaccination), Rob was giving Ethan a bath and called me in to look. He had a HUGE red patch on his right arm (the DTaP-IPV) and it was swollen and very hot. Rob put a cold flannel on it for a while. We took his temperature and it was normal, so we gave him some Pamol for the pain in his arm, and he went to bed. He slept until 8am this morning and came out looking quite hot. His arm was still red and hot. I took him up to see the nurse again at 9am and she said it was a reportable adverse reaction (I knew it would be, since Tyler had a reaction to the third MeNZB vaccine and his red patch was about 1/4 of the size of Ethan's one). She also said it was most unusual to react 2 days after the vaccine (it usually happens within 6h). She drew a line around it and if it spreads too much we have to go back to see the doctor and get some antihistamine.

The whole thing is quite interesting for me. In my job as a medical writer, I specialise in the area of Vaccines and Viral Infections. But when something like this happens to your own child, you feel really differently about it. Of course there is no way I would refuse to vaccinate my kids because I know that it is important, but it doesn't make it easy.

Photos

Christi - how do you like Rob's 4-week growth???? It's gone now .... :-)

The d-d-d-d-dentist!!

Last night I had to go the dentist. I had chipped a molar and it started to hurt over the weekend. I was lucky to get an appointment at 6.30pm last night as they are usually booked weeks in advance. Ethan wanted to come with me, and I was happy to take him. I wanted him to experience going to the dentist and the Smile Studio is a great place for him to do that. They have movies playing on a TV attached to the roof, lots of toys for kids to play with, and Adam (my dentist) is just fantastic. He always makes me feel great, even when I haven't been to see him for ages!
I actually ended up being *this close* to needing a $900 root canal, but thankfully I only needed a standard filling. My tooth had broken because there was a cavity, and the tooth had just caved in.

Anyway, Ethan was really well behaved. He sat on the floor and played with toys and looked at books. Adam kept explaining to Ethan all the things he was doing as he went along (he does that anyway, which is SO awesome, why can't all dentists do that?) ... "look at these cool sunglasses that your mummy gets to wear" … "now I'm taking all the yucky stuff out of mummy's tooth, and I'm using this cool drill, see?" … "now I'm filling mummy's tooth with this white stuff" … I think Ethan was pretty fascinated by it all. On the way home ($270 later), Ethan was telling me that he would like to go there again, and he would like to sleep there overnight, in the dentist's chair! Because it would be "so much fun!"

I'm glad Ethan has had a positive introduction to the dentist. I remember being scared to death of the dental nurse and the "Murder House" and that fear stayed with me as I grew up, until I started going to the Smile Studio. They charge about $35 for kids to get an exam, but I think I'll take Ethan there instead of the (free) school dental therapist. I made an appointment with her a few months ago and she wasn't very friendly at all. I ended up having to cancel because the boys were sick, and I haven't been able to get hold of her to make a new time. After last night, I think I'll just spend the money and take Ethan to the Smile Studio. Now he's met Adam, he knows there are videos he can watch, and he's familiar with the place. So it should be a really positive experience. What a change from my childhood!

Loving the LOVE between my boys

Granted, brotherly love doesn't always feature highly around here, but when it does it just makes my day.

After dinner, Tyler will often run off to the playroom. Which is down the other end of the hallway from the kitchen. He doesn't like going down there in the dark. He will stand about halfway down the hallway and call out "Ethan? Sunny?" which means he wants Ethan to come and turn the light on for him!! He can't actually say "Ethan", instead he says "Eh-Uh" (gee, it is hard to write in toddlerspeech!) ... which, conicidentally, is exactly the same way Ethan said his own name for quite a while!

Saturday morning, Tyler had woken up first and I went and got him out of his cot and took him back to bed with us. We usually do that at the weekend. Tyler's room is upstairs, right next to ours. Ethan's room is downstairs, but he just gets out of bed himself when he hears Tyler and comes up the stairs to get into our bed too. Anyway, on Saturday when Ethan came up, he saw Tyler's blankie, so he decided to go back downstairs to get his blankie. Well, Tyler wanted to go with him. We still don't let Tyler navigate the stairs on his own. He is fine going up, but coming down is a bit trickier since we don't yet have a handrail! So Tyler always walks down the stairs holding Rob's or my hand. Ethan said "I'll hold your hand, Tyler" and so off they went. I heard them both get to the bottom and then run into Ethan's room. I said to Rob, "This is the first time they've both been downstairs while we're still in bed" .... it was a strange feeling! We could hear them chattering away to each other and Ethan's little helpful comments: "Here, Tyler. I'll help you with that", "Tyler, Tyler, hold my hand" and "C'mon Tyler, I'll help you" ...

Of course, that second story is rather well balanced by what happened the previous Saturday morning. When Ethan came up the stairs and into our room, Tyler (who was already lying in bed between Rob and I) sits up, points his finger at Ethan and says "NO, Ethan!"

Like I said, I'm loving the LOVE!!

A great start to the day (NOT!)

Tyler has had a cold for the past 2 weeks or so. In fact, I'm pretty sure he also had laryngitis like me, because he lost his voice completely as well. But generally he hasn't been bothered by it. I've taken him to the doctor twice to get his ears checked, just in case. Both times they were perfect. So we've just been giving him Pamol & Tixilix for his cough. On Wed night he took ages to go to sleep (he was just talking) and then woke up at 10pm crying. We gave him Pamol but he didn't really go back to sleep until midnight. Most unusual for him. But the next day he was fine, and he slept well last night.

This morning I got him up and noticed there was "stuff" on his sheets. I figured he must have been sick during the night. He was coughing a lot around 2am, and sometimes coughing a lot can make you sick. Later on when I was feeding him his porridge, I noticed some gunk coming out of his right ear. It was like snot, but had a brown tinge. Blood, maybe? So I cleaned it out with a tissue and he didn't seem bothered by it. He didn't have a fever, and he was happy. But I'd never experienced ear discharge before so I rang the HealthLine. The nurse I spoke to said the only thing it could be was a burst eardrum, and that I needed to get to a doctor immediately. I explained several times that Tyler has grommets (tubes), and I asked if it could just be a discharge like a runny nose. But she insisted it could only be a burst ear drum. When I got off the phone I started crying, because I was so worried about it. I figured if his ear drum had burst, the grommet would have come out. I don't want to go through all of that again.

So it was off to the doctor (the 4th time I've been up there in 2 weeks). I was so relieved when Ruth said no, his ear drum had not burst, and both his grommets were still in place. She said (and I quote) "it could just be a discharge similar to a runny nose". OMG. Exactly what I had asked the nurse!! So his ear drum is perfectly fine, and there was no real emergency. Gee, talk about freaking me out for no reason!! Ruth said there could still be an infection, so she took a swab and is getting it checked at the Lab. Then she will know exactly what bacteria is in there and exactly which antibiotic to use. I'm worried about that though, because none of the other antibiotics worked for his other ear infections, which is why we got the grommets put in. I didn't expect him to get any more ear infections - I mean, that is the whole point of getting grommets. So that is a little upsetting, and I feel anxious about how easily this infection is going to clear up. Hopefully it won't be an infection and he won't need antibiotics. But I'm really just glad that it wasn't worse, and he is happy and sleeping now :-)

Pardon my absence ...

… but I have a very good excuse.
I've been sick as a dog. A really, really sick dog.

First, I got a cold. Not a big deal, nothing I couldn't handle. I carried on as normal, went to church, work etc. Then 3 days later BAM! I was hit with laryngitis and almost lost my voice completely. I had the sore throat from hell and couldn't talk, I had a nasty cough that I couldn't cough out. I had many moments of being almost unable to breathe because my throat was completely blocked. I had 3.5 days off work and 3.5 days in bed. Then I started to feel a bit better (although whenever I talked to people they would comment on how terrible I sounded, which was funny because I actually sounded great compared to 4 days ago, lol) and decided to go back to work on Monday. After I'd been at work for about 1/2 hour, I realised I could not stay. I had a headache when I woke up, but took Panadol and Nurofen thinking it would gradually ease off. But it got worse and the pain was spreading all over my face. I diagnosed myself with sinusitus (sinus infection) and got myself to the doctor. Got my antibiotics and then went back to bed for another 2 days. On the third day, I woke up and thought "I actually don't have any pain in my face today" and ventured back to work. I made it through yesterday in 4-hour blocks. That's because every 4h I took 2 Panadol and 2 Nurofen, and used my Otrivine nasal spray. Last night I cut back to just ONE painkiller, and things are looking up. Finally.

Now I just have to hope that my sinus infection doesn't come back (which they are known to do), because the last thing I want when I fly to Canada in just under 4 weeks' time is a stuffed-up head for my 12h flight to LA, 8h layover and then 5h flight to Toronto! Ugh!

Preschool progress report

I've decided to do one of these preschool (daycare) updates every few months. The older kids at preschool have portfolios and the younger kids have daily record books. They write about things that the kids have been doing, and they stick photos in as well. Tyler's record book comes home with him every day for us to look at, but we only get to see Ethan's portfolio every few months. So here is an update of what the boys have been learning at preschool over the few months.
I know this post is very long, but hopefully you'll find some of it entertaining!

Anecdotes from Ethan's preschool portfolio:

Devon and Ethan were playing aeroplanes today. They built an aeroplane out of our climbing frame and a plank of wood, then with their arms stretched out, away they flew. They talked about the pilot that was in charge of the plane.
Devon was tipping his wings so he could turn the corner. Ethan was looking down at all the houses and people below him. He wanted to fly all the way to space and back again so he was going to speed up. Devon wanted to fly all day long.

Devon and Ethan were playing remote control vehicles today.
Devon was a Big Blue Motorbike that could go really fast. He was going to speed to the Library to get one of his favourite books. It was about a dragon. Ethan was a Green Sports Car that only felt like going slow today. Ethan was going to drive to the Dairy and buy a raspberry chocolate bar, which he was going to open when he got back to preschool.
[There is a photo of Ethan and Devon, sitting at the table together]

Ethan and Devon were playing with the plastic animals. Ethan picked up a zebra. "Marty can fly", he said.
"Yeah, Marty can fly because that's his name, Marty", said Devon.
"I have the Madagascar movie at home", said Ethan. "Me too", said Devon.
They both laughed and flew their animals around the room, they were singing "we like to move it, move it" (a song from the movie).
They flew across the room and met Ollie who had an ice cream truck.
"How do you do?" asked Ethan, putting on a voice. Ollie described all the different types of ice cream flavours he had. They bought an ice cream each and they flew off - "to fight crime."
[There is a photo of Ethan and Devon, sitting on the mat, playing with the toy animals]

Ethan was sitting outside under the climbing frame. He was holding a twig which he had threaded dry leaves onto.
"One, two, three" he said. He began singing, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me."
He blew on the twig cake.
[There is a photo of Ethan, sitting under the climbing frame, holding his twig cake]

Teacher comments:
- Ethan and Devon play well together, with good communication skills.
- Ethan and Devon both express their ideas in their play.
- Ethan is always looking at what is going on around him.
- Ethan enjoys playing with his friends.
- Ethan expresses himself and his ideas well.
- What an imagination and a fantastic way of expressing it!

Excerpts from Tyler's preschool daily record book:

23.01.06
Tyler helped me put all the toys away today, great help little man!
Tyler loves to join in with everyone when we put the music on. He especially loves shaking the shakers.

9.02.06
Tyler enjoyed painting this morning, mixing both the blue and white paints together.
Tyler fell asleep during lunch and ate the rest when he woke up!

28.02.06
Today we made a big tent inside. Tyler thought this was so much fun. He kept running in and out with a great big smile on his face!
Today we did face painting. Tyler was very patient while we did a cat face. When he looked in the mirror he got a bit of a fright!

21.03.06
Today we went for a walk to the beach and park. Tyler had a great time playing in the sand and on the swings. Tyler was also very confident on the playground. He would walk cautiously across the bridge, then smile when he got to the other side.

30.03.06
Tyler likes to sit on the chairs in the lounge and read stories with Olivia. They show the pictures to each other.
Today Tyler had fun playing with a bunch of carpet samples. He would line them up in a row.

11.04.06
Today we got a new grocery set with a cutlery set. Tyler especially liked the cake. He would pretend to lick the icing off!
Tyler enjoys building towers with Jake, using blocks.

18.04.06
Tyler always enjoys reading books, especially while sitting in the teacher's chair!
Tyler likes to put the dog masks on and pretend walking on all fours like a dog. So cute!
Today we playing cooking with flour and our tea set. Tyler enjoyed this and pretended to cook the flour in the toy microwave.

20.04.06
Tyler played downstairs with Ethan today. Tyler gave Ethan lots of lovely cuddles.
Tyler enjoyed the new bikes, he zoomed around with Jake and pushed them up and down the deck.

04.05.06
Today Tyler sat with Lily and helped her put the shapes into the shape dispenser. They worked very well together.
Tyler gets very excited when we blow bubbles outside. He'll chase them and stamp on them yelling out "bubbles" as they fly around and land on the ground.
Tyler always gets excited if he sees Ethan through the fence. Sometimes they give each other a big hug then go off and play with their friends.

25.05.06
Today we put a Spiderman cape on Tyler and straight away he said "Ethan".
Tyler likes to do pretend water painting on the fence outside. This keeps him very busy.

20.06.06
Tyler plays dress-ups with Raquel, and waves and says "goodbye" as they pretend to go shopping.
Tyler enjoys playing in the family area, with the pretend food, dolls and highchairs.

Funnies from the mouths of my kids

* Rob picked up the phone to ring somebody the other day and Ethan said “Daddy, who are you ringing? Are you ringing the police to take Mummy away?”

* I was on my way out on Friday night, and stopped in the playroom to say goodbye to Ethan. He didn’t want me to go out, so he said “Mumma, why don’t you just turn around, get those nice clothes off and put some other ones on, and just stay home!”

* Tyler and I were looking at books together on the couch. I pointed to a picture of a dog and he said “dog”. Then I said “what does a dog say?” and he pointed to the ceiling and said “roof, roof!”

* Ethan was practicing his letters (he has some flash cards that Rob made him). He only recognises a few letters (e, t, h, a, n, m, d, b, w, o and s) so when I held up “j” he asked me what it was. Rob carried Tyler over to say goodnight and he started saying “j” … we could hear him saying it all the way up the stairs. Ethan said “oh Mumma, Tyler is soooo cute, eh?”