Speech, Strider, and Spills

Not many pictures this week! I couldn't locate the camera for most of the days. It happened to be right where I always put it, just hiding a bit.

On Saturday we went to visit Nico's cousin Lexie and Uncle Jonny and Aunt Alanna. We gave Lexie her birthday present (she turned 4!) and then hung out for a bit. Nico really enjoyed playing with Lexie's remote control car that she got for her birthday. He preferred moving it around the floor himself instead of using the remote control. Lexie showed him how to play their "Don't Break the Ice" game. We both had fun, it was great to see all of them!

Monday morning Nico had an evaluation with Idaho's Infant/Toddler Program, to determine if he qualifies for free speech therapy. A speech therapist and a developmental specialist both came over on Monday morning and played lots of games with him (aka "testing"). Nico had so much fun! It turns out that he does qualify for speech therapy. The speech therapist we met on Monday, Marcia, will be the one working with him. He will be getting 15 sessions, 45 minutes each. She comes to the house to do the sessions, which is awesome! We are just waiting to hear when they will start. Once Nico turns three (a little more that FOUR MONTHS away!!), he will transition out of the program since it is only for those who are 0-3 years.

One awesome speech development in the last few weeks is Nico's ability to say "Mama". And he correctly uses it to refer to ME! This just completely melts my heart. He has also just started to say "Daddy" and a few weeks back he correctly started saying "Papa" to refer to Papa Salisbury. They may seem like such small steps, but to me these things are HUGE, especially when he inserts a "Mama" into his crying at night. WOW, what a way to get straight to my heart.

On Monday Nico had two falls. He face-planted off of the step stool in the kitchen, and then later that night face-planted off our really tall bed. OUCH. He busted his lip when he fell off the bed, and had a fat lip that night. I iced it for him and tucked him into bed a little late because we needed to snuggle and watch Curious George for a while to calm us down. He also had a bruise on his head. The next morning he woke up with the sniffles, and since then we have been fighting off ear infections (my mom got us an ear scope so I can look in Nico's ears when I suspect infections!) He also has a low grade fever (hovers around 99.0-99.5). I am using melaluca and garlic oil in his ears and it seems to be keeping the infections at bay. I'm hoping we can come out of this without a doctor's visit. At least this time I know that if his temp goes up and he starts doing the inconsolable thing, that his ear is probably in trouble. We've been doing extra snuggles to help out :)

On Tuesday, Guy had his follow up doctor's appointment (remember when I stole his last follow up appointment so that I could get my ear looked at??). She talked to him about diet since his cholesterol is pretty high. We switched his breakfast to oatmeal for now and will address the rest of his food in the coming weeks.

Nico and I have been going to parks, going for walks, and spending time under the carport cleaning up from the fall. Leaves leaves everywhere! I adjusted the seat on his Strider so he could ride it. He helped me a bit there.

We went for a short walk and when he was done, he carried his Strider back to the house and wheeled it into place next to my bike in the shed.

Until next week!

Sickness, and a Double Ear Infection

On Friday we went to visit Allicia and Evie at their house for a small play date with a few other moms and babies. Nico always has fun over there, he goes straight to the train table and starts playing. I tried to pick a picture where everyone else is obscured a bit :)

Later on Friday, Nico using a pen to help get his micro machine car out of a lego. He watched me do it once, so he put the car back in the stuck spot so he could try himself.

For a few days before this I had noticed that Nico was coughing every once in a while. Maybe twice a day or so. I thought it might be the season that was causing him some phlegm, but on Friday night he started coughing more. He woke up Saturday with a fever (101.6) and wasn't quite his normal self. We watched Netflix all day. He didn't have much of a runny  nose, but he was coughing and it was a very wet cough. He woke up on Sunday feeling a lot better, still coughing a lot but his fever had gone down to under 100. We skipped church.

On Sundays we always get to see Grandma and Papa Salisbury. They come by to drop off the eggs they get for us from their farm co-op in Nampa. They are the best eggs we've tried, Nico definitely prefers them to any others! Lately they've also been bringing Nico his favorite treat - a #12 unwich no mayo from Jimmy Johns! He always asks for more before he's even done eating.

Monday, I thought we were out of the woods with his cold, he ate a hearty breakfast and our day was started. But he became really whiny shortly after breakfast. Nico isn't much of a complainer, so it was strange to see him so intent on needing to be cuddled. He cried whenever I left the couch for any reason. For a time he would only stop crying if I was carrying him around the house (flashback to baby Nico!) He couldn't sleep without being held, so we spent the whole day on the couch with intermittent walks around the house. He would get worse whenever I would turn off Netflix, so I just left it on. He let me watch whatever I wanted (The Lorax, The Tale of Despereaux) without complaining. Although on occasion he did get up enough energy to sign "sheep", meaning that he wanted to watch Shaun the Sheep.

He slept in bed with me on Monday night for about half the night. Tuesday morning I was hoping he would feel better, but when I went to get him in the morning, he had a bloody right ear! I woke Guy up and we decided we better go to Urgent Care. Guy stayed home to try to sleep (yeah right! Poor Guy, he stayed awake the whole time, he was worried) and I took Nico to Urgent Care. Temp at the doctor's office was 102.6. She looked in both ears and saw that the right one had a perforated ear drum, that's where the blood had come from. She told me that in the old days, the way to heal an ear infection was to let the ear burst like that to drain the fluids, then it would heal. The problem was in the way it healed, the scar tissue could be a problem and cause problems with hearing. His other ear was just starting to get an infection, so she prescribed antibiotics to keep the other ear safe. Nico had never had antibiotics before, but we filled the prescription and started giving them to him on Tuesday night. We got a compounded prescription, where they just mix the active ingredients with water and a suspension agent, so that we wouldn't also be giving him unnecessary additives, preservatives, flavorings and sweeteners that are in commercial antibiotics for kids. We are mixing the liquid with a bit of warmed honey before giving it to him, and he is taking it without any problems.

I kept him with me in bed on Tuesday night for a few hours, just because I was nervous after giving him the antibiotic. But he did fine. The doctor said that it would take 48 hours before the antibiotic would build up to a level in his body to be able to fight the infection, but he woke up Wednesday morning with a temp of 98.9! Much improved. It did go back up to 99.7 for most of the day, but that's still pretty good. He ate an egg for breakfast, which is substantial compared to the few days before that. Also on Wednesday I gave him his first dose of the probiotic I purchased for him. The antibiotics will be killing off even the good guys in his gut, so we are going to replenish them. I started with half a capsule by opening up the capsule and putting the powder on a spoon and then just asking him to open his mouth. Nico loved it! He asked for more so I figured I'd give him the whole capsule. The entire capsule is one child sized dose anyway, I was just trying to start slow. But if he asked for more, I figured why not!

And today, Thursday, he has had no fever, but is still coughing and snotting. Guy and I have caught the dreaded cold/flu as well. It doesn't appear to be as dire as Nico's version, though.

Well, that's it for this week. (That's enough!)