The turd that turned the day

Today started off like any other day. On the heels of a rather bad evening, I had high hopes for a normal day. No tantrums, no mishaps, no ridiculous-ness over simple things. Alas, I was proved to be wrong!

It started with exciting news at first. Ellis is breaking his first upper tooth. His first tooth broke last Wednesday. He has been super crabby over it, lots of drama and excitement. But finally, TEETH! Since it's Tuesday, and I am crazy, it is grocery store day so we headed over to Target because I had a gift to return. In the midst of getting lost in the toy and Halloween aisles, I lost my grocery list, which took me half an hour to make the night before. Whatever, I winged it and actually did a good job of getting everything that I needed! I get to the register and realize IMMEDIATELY that I forgot my wallet at home (I left it in my purse when I went to EXTREME scrapbooking - something I was an hour late to because I was in the shower before I remembered I needed to be there!). I had to drive home and back again with wallet the second time to pay for my spoils. In the middle of that, Ellis fell asleep in the car so I carried him in the sling completely asleep as I paid for my groceries. Thank goodness for small favors!

After that, we got home and I was going to make lunch. Clara always pushes away (even though I tell her not to) everything that is in front of her "space" at the table. This time, it was my cup of old coffee which she proceeded to spill ALL over the recipes I had on the desk and herself, her chair, the toys that had gathered underneath the table and everything else within a five foot radius of the incident. After cleaning that up, Clara dropped a honey dew on her chair and proceeded to grind her new crocs into the melon into a mushy pile of gooey green goodness. My lord, and it wasn't even 1 o'clock yet!

But... all of a sudden, out of no where, Clara asked to sit on the potty and I threw her on thinking she would spend her usual hour in there reading book (and I do not exaggerate) but within minutes she told me she peed on the potty. Or so that is what I thought that she said. I went in there to clean her up and there was a TURD in the TOILET! I was so excited. That turd totally made my day. Sure, spill coffee everywhere, drive an extra 20 minutes so I can then buy my lukewarm milk. But poop in that potty missy and I am on CLOUD NINE!

Well isn't that a coincidence?

So Ellis got diagnosed with having the Thalassemia trait. Good news! He is not anemic and he will just have to worry about this later on in life, when he is having his own kids. It was the best case scenario out of all the things that it could have been! I have a few more questions for the doctor when we head back to check his weight but they can wait until then. It is so odd that Cherie tested negative for it and it was Gary that was the carrier in the case of Nate's Thalassemia. If we decide to have another baby, we will get tested but until then, it is a mystery!

What is that?

I have this ridiculous irrational fear that Ellis will fall out of the crib. I have no idea why. He is certainly not tall enough to do it but I often imagine that he has accomplished this impossible feat while I am ignoring him or sleeping. This morning was no different. I was asleep and ignoring the fact that he was awake. Sometimes it works. Sometimes he falls asleep to 9:30 (I have my kids ridiculously sleep trained). This morning he was making this weird noise. At least I eventually convinced myself it was coming from him. It sounded like a scratching. Now we have two cats so that noise is not an uncommon noise but I was fairly certain it was coming from the monitors and since the kids' doors are routinely closed, I did not think it was that. I heard it through my dream, rolled over, opened an eye and thought that I was imagining the noise. But it was SO persistent! Eventually it freaked me out enough that I got out of bed and saw what the culprit was. My son, of course. He was laying on his back and had his two legs up against the wall. He was wearing footy pajamas and was dragging his feet up and down the wall. He was very content doing it that when I walked into the room, instead of popping up like a jack in the box like he normally does, he continued with his odd noise because it was amusing him so. What a silly little kid!

Do your best, now do better!

I try to do well by my kids. I think about the best way to do things, I get angry with myself when I don't think before I do things, I feel guilty when they have a rogue cookie or when they have to have juice because all the other kids are even though I did my best to not even let her KNOW what juice was for close to three years. And then some bad news.

I took Ellis to his one year doctor appointment. He seemed healthy to me and felt like it would be a regular appointment. We would be out of there with the usual painful waiting which that I even thought I would avoid since I made an early appointment so I could leave Clara with Matt.

The first thing they do when you get there is they weigh and measure them. Right away, a problem. Ellis only weighed 17 lbs and 7 ounces, not even on the chart for a 12 month old. So all the food worries that I had with him, the worries that I actually succesfully talked myself out of were actually validated. He was not eating enough. He is SUCH a hard baby to feed. Most meals end in tears and frustration on both our parts. Clara was such a good eater compared to him and I am such a strong believer in giving them a myriad of GOOD foods. I just don't want a kid that will only eat two things that are BAD for them. Ellis really wants to be that child. New things don't fly. Something he likes the day before he is angry at the next. It is a constant battle and I never know if he is getting enough food. The doctor said it is nothing too bad to worry about, that most nursing babies drop in weight a little after the ninth month, and actually Clara did. But then the blood tests came back and he was severely anemic. I need to find out what the number was. They are sending his blood in for a number of tests and I am anxious to hear what the results are. I am trying not to be nervous about it, I am trying not to be scared by it, because we do not know what is wrong, if anything and it might be minor and fixable. One thought that came up was that it was thalassemia, which Nate has. I hope it is minor and then again, it is nothing to worry about. I hugged that baby so hard all day. I followed him around and stuffed him so full of food he pooped three times. I just look at him and nothing seems wrong. He is so happy, so full of life that I can't even imagine that there is anything wrong with him. But I have to remember, even if there is, he is still the SAME little boy that fills my heart with joy and love as he was the second before we found out any of this. I just have to stuff him full of iron-clad foods, fatty foods to beef him up and love him even that much more...

Ridiculous things

- Clara sticking her fingers up her nostrils and saying "These are my ankles"
- Ellis ohhing at EVERYTHING
- Clara saying, "My pee makes you happy?"
- Ellis sticking his finger in Clara's belly button over and over again SO seriously
- Clara having to take every "nap" naked
- Ellis crying anytime I leave his vision
- Clara trying to poop on the potty
- Ellis eating ANY meal
- Clara and her love for her kitty
- Ellis and her fear of pumpkins