Sayonara February!

I'm so glad to see February go! Now, in any given year, I'm always glad to put one more month of winter behind me. This year, it's for completely different reasons. We've had a mild winter, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. Unfortunately, this has been a bit overshadowed by health problems. Nothing too serious, but annoying nonetheless.

It started with my gallbladder problems at the start of the month. Paul's company had just switched insurance carriers, so we hadn't even gotten our new cards, numbers, or any paperwork when I went to the ER. We do now have all that so things are a bit easier when we go to the doctor now.

Last week, I started coughing, which led to a fever and horrible sinus infection. Then over the weekend, thanks to all the coughing, my back "went out." Here we are 4 days later and I'm still dealing with back spasms that no pain killer can even touch. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and, in attempting to test my range of motion, I burst into tears because the spasms were so bad. It was awful, and still is. I'm absolutely miserable right now. I was lucky to have my mom here on Monday and my mother-in-law here yesterday to watch Jackson. Without the 2 of them, I'd be a lot worse off.

Of course, when one of us gets sick, someone else follows, and that would be Jackson. I took him to see his doctor today and he has croup. Poor thing is coughing and sneezing, his nose is running, yet he's still a very energetic 2 year old who isn't going to let a little phlegm (or a laid-up Mommy) slow him down!

So February, it's been real but now it's time for you to G-O go. I, for one, won't miss you. Here's hoping for an extra healthy March!!

Letters

A funny story about our visit to the eye doctor yesterday....

We 3 had our annual appointments yesterday. Yes, even Jackson went and had his own little exam. I don't really understand how they know things, but they seem to. I was sitting in the chair with Jackson on my lap. The doctor wanted to test how far he could see, so he starts to pull out some symbol cards, saying, "I'm sure Jackson doesn't really know his letters yet, so let's try some symbols." I could tell this would require him to use vocabulary he probably doesn't have, so I immediately told the doctor that no, the letters might be a better bet. So he shined them up on the wall, and wouldn'tcha know it, my boy nailed all of them.

Jackson has a habit of saying the letter, then following it with the sound of that letter. When we were teaching him some words, we would use the sound of the first letter, and he now does that as well, so please comes out, "Puh-puh-peeeeze." I did this initially to distinguish between a P and B sound, which he has trouble with, and it sort of backfired on me. I'm sure one day, he'll just say PEEEEEZE. Either way, it's damn cute when he does it. ☺

So he rocked his letters at the eye doctor yesterday, and the doctor was totally impressed! That's my boy!

A post about....wait for it....

JACKSON! This month has brought all kinds of interesting new developments where Jackson's concerned, not only in his speech but his actions as well.

Today, we had the fair-haired Angus visiting. Angus is the son of a friend who comes to visit most Friday mornings. His mother, Jenny, is about the nicest person I've EVER met. That's no exaggeration. She doesn't read this blog so I'm not saying that to suck up to her. HA! Anyway, Angus is 3 weeks younger than Jackson, and when he's here, I can't help but compare the two. I know how wrong this is, but it's a natural thing. Please don't give me shit for it.

Angus and Jackson are similar in so many ways. Simlar temperament, similar speech delay, similar developmental patterns. It's really fun (and interesting!) for me to watch the 2 of them together. Right now, a lot of what they do involves parallel play. They do play together, though not often, and they really don't argue much, which is nice. Angus has been in speech therapy for several months now, and it's really helping him. His vocabulary is much more full than Jackson's, though his delay is still noticeable (compared to what many 2 year old's should be at...emphasis on SHOULD). He has a good command of sh- and ch-, and a few other double-consonant combinations, which Jackson doesn't.

Speech-wise, Jackson still has a lot of trouble. One area of trouble for him is the difference between M and B. This is getting better, but today I was trying to get him to say Boom and it kept coming out Moom. He can say Boo, and he can say Moo, but he can't say Boom. I've been trying to get him to say Elmo, which he still says as Eyo (sometimes, it also sounds like How). He can say the 2 syllables separately, but can't put them together. Same with the name Abby (we watch a lot of Sesame Street here!). He calls her Ah-oh. Sometimes, I have a really hard time understanding HOW he gets the combination of sounds that he does.

Jackson's doing a lot more this month that he hasn't done before. He can now reach most of the light switches in the house. So far, he hasn't abused this (i.e. I haven't found lights on in rooms where I haven't turned them on), but he can definitely reach them.

He's also does this funny thing at the dinner table. He sits in a wooden high chair (minus the tray) right at the table. Tonight, he was eating and got something on his hands. He HATES having anything mess up his hands, and I was out of range to wipe them, so he stood up, reached to the lazy Susan in the center of the table, swung it around, and grabbed himself a napkin. I laughed so hard when I saw this! My little boy is certainly growing up!

Unfortunately, Jackson's still hitting me, but we're both getting better about this---I'm learning how to avoid situations where he might feel compelled to hit me, thus he's hitting less these days. He's throwing more tantrums when he doesn't get his way, but we've become quite adept at ignoring those. He definitely likes to have a lot of control over what's happening. Quite often, I'll ask him if he wants something and he'll immediately say no, then turn around and want what I've asked him. This is happening more and more, and I know it's just an issue of control. For now, I'll let him think he has it (or maybe he really does??!).

Every day is a learning experience for me with this little boy. I love him more than my life, and love each new thing that comes along!

Oh, the gall!

I have a fritzy gallbladder! A week ago (last Thurs), I started having pain in my gut that sent me to the ER that night. Things were ruled out, and I was sent to a gallbladder test the next day, which showed I have a low-functioning GB (no stones). I've seen a gastroenterologist, who will be doing an endoscopy tomorrow morning. I'm actually quite excited about this---the last time I had this test was in Japan. They don't put you out there like they do here, so I was totally awake for it (what I remembered most was seeing my reflection in the glass door of a cabinet...think "deer in the headlights" and that pretty much sums that up!). I'm really curious to know what they find down there. From what I've read (and that's been A LOT so far), this is pretty standard procedure. I have an appointment to see a surgeon next week to talk about options.

The funniest part of all this is how many people are coming out of the woodwork to tell me about their horrible experiences, and how I shouldn't have it removed, blah blah blah. The thing is, most of these people I've been in contact with have had gallstones, which is a much different protocol than what I'm going through. Mine is not an emergency, nor am I in pain 24/7. Thanks to a low-fat diet, my pain has been significantly reduced and I'm feeling pretty fine right now. I appreciate the advice people have given me, but it kind of irks me that no one really takes into consideration that what they went through might be different than what I'm going through. Anyway...

Jackson's speech is still slowly coming along. Last night, he shocked both Paul and me by saying "banana," which he's never said before (he doesn't like eating them, so they're not high on his need-to-know list). He knows all his letters and the sounds they make (thank you LeapFrog!), but he's not really on the path to learning to spell. In fact, neither of us is pushing for that right now. I'm reading an interesting book on typical 2 year old behavior, and they stress not pushing kids into learning things too quickly (like spelling and reading). We haven't pushed the alphabet on him, though we've encouraged it, and his desire to learn it has seemed more natural than forced, so we consider it to be ok. We're certainly not going to discourage it!

One of these days, I'm going to write about my neighbor. It's too much to get into right now. Suffice it to say, it's quite the story. I'll keep you hanging with that...

How could he do it?

Earlier this afternoon, I read an article about Josh Powell, the man who's wife Susan disappeared over 2 years ago, seemingly without a trace. She left behind 2 young boys, and suspicion always fell on her husband but there was never enough evidence to prove he had anything to do with her disappearance. Today, he allegedly blew himself and his 2 boys up after they were dropped off for a supervised visit.

I've heard of this happening with other parents, those who kill their children (some succeed in killing themselves as well). Andrea Yates from TX, Susan Smith from SC, Marilyn Lemak from Naperville...the list goes on. Many of these parents, if still alive, are left to contemplate their actions while living behind bars or in a mental facility.

I don't get it. I don't know how a person can kill his/her own child or children. What's even more confusing to me is why these kids weren't getting help in the first place. Josh Powell's kids were getting help and should have remained in the custody of their maternal grandparents. There are flaws in the system---I get that---but these things still manage to happen.

Does it ever click in the parent's head to let the child go? To let him/her live? Especially if the parent intends to kill himself/herself? Why not just let the child live?

Stupid questions with no answers. It just made me so sad to read that article today. The Cox family (the boys' maternal grandparents) have suffered enough, losing their daughter, and now this. My heart goes out to them.

Tonight, I looked at my beautiful boy who wasn't the best boy today, but I can't imagine any act that would make me want to harm one hair on his little body. That would make me want to take his life. I'm grateful to not be psychotic enough to do anything harmful to my son. Sorry for rambling tonight. Just a lot of thoughts scrambling around in my head.