Lessons

Yesterday, while spending the better part of the afternoon scrubbing these alphabet rubber mat pieces with soap and water, I had a few life lessons drummed into my brain.

Lesson 1. Soiled diapers are meant to go straight into the diaper pail, especially poopy ones. Not on the floor to be set aside for later and especially not left within reach of a curious toddler.

Lesson 2. A quiet toddler = trouble (almost always).

Earlier in the day, Swe-cha pooped in his diaper and I changed him. I normally roll his soiled diaper up in a tight roll and set it aside near the stairs until I can get it upstairs into the diaper pail but this time, I was in a hurry and had left it inside his playpen.

I then rushed off to wash my hands and continue cooking. As I was cooking, I kept looking through that window towards the playpen to watch out for Swe-cha. On a normal day, it wouldn't be long before he would start climbing his playpen. When I didn't see him climb, I was so happy and proud of my young one, so well-behaved.

Some minutes later, I grew suspicious because he was unusually quiet. No climbing, screaming, no calling out for mommy and there are no sounds from any of his toys. I decided to check on him.

I saw a smiling baby sitting on the rubber mat, his poopy diaper opened up in front of him, the soiled wipes all over his play area and some suspicious brown stuff smeared across some areas of the mat.

::Mommy cries on the inside::

Given that I have a squeamish husband who keeps gagging and throwing up when he sees poop, I had to scrub & clean the mat. Hubby then wiped the rubber pieces one by one and propped them up all over the house and set up electric fans to get them dry.

Lesson(s) learned.

Sleep training

Swe-cha did well last night. He drank 8 oz of milk at 11p, fell asleep at 11:30p (no rocking / carrying him to sleep). He woke up at:

4a - 1oz diluted milk (1/3 water)

7:30 - 2oz milk

He woke up for the day at 9:30am. Seeing that he only drank 1oz diluted milk at 4a and only 2oz milk at 7:30a tells me that so long as he drinks enough milk (8oz or more) before he goes to bed at night, he should be okay till breakfast time.

I'll dilute his milk a little bit more tonight.

Sleep training

Swe-cha is back to east coast time again, yay! We're back to normal now (+/- a couple of hrs) so life is a bit easier in our household.

Our main sleep issues now are that:

- he does not sleep on his own again and wants to be rocked to sleep with me standing up (no sitting for mommy).

- he wakes up all night to feed

Tita Riza's food

We just came home from attending a birthday party this afternoon and I'm so proud of my little boy.

This afternoon, he munched (sucked) on a chicken lollipop most of the night at the party and when we got home, he tasted and loved the spaghetti we brought home. He loved it so much that when he finished the noodles (sayang, I only gave him a few strands because I din't think that he was going to actually eat it and I didn't want to waste food), he kept licking the sauce off his hands and fingers. Nasarapan.

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edit: I gave him a lumpiang shanghai the next day and he also sucked / munched on it.

Updates

Our family went on a short trip to visit family over the holidays. We had loads of fun but unfortunately, we seemed to have caught a bug or two before, during, and/or after the trip.

Long story short, what was causing Swe-cha's cough, cold and low-grade fever eventually gave him pink eye and an ear infection as well. We saw the doctor a week after the first set of symptoms showed up and requested some medication to help alleviate his congestion. We went back to see the doctor when his fever kept coming back and a new symptom cropped up - red & crusty eyes. Rx for antibiotics (Augmentin) was given but this made him throw up and have diarrhea all the time. I asked for this to be changed the next day and was given Omnicef which seemed to agree with his tummy a bit better (this only gave him diarrhea, no more throwing up). We then had to give him Probiotics supplements to try and help him w/ the diarrhea.

Swe-cha has been cooperative when it came to getting him his medicine. His eyedrops were a different matter altogether. His pedia told us that the bacteria causing the ear infection, eye infection and cough/colds were one and the same and that the antibiotics (Augmentin / Omnicef) should address that BUT she did prescribe us some eyedrops to cover all the bases. The eyedrops were supposed to be given to him 3x a day for 7 days, each time was a struggle! I am very relieved that we are past day 7 and are done with the drops.

Not surprisingly, the past few weeks brought some sleep issues for Swe-cha:

- He's on a weird time schedule. Wakes up at 3p and goes to bed between 4 to 6am.

- He needs to be carried upright and rocked to sleep.

- He needs his milk in order to fall asleep. He asks for milk all night long.

We're in for some sleep-training again.

Applesauce (Stage 3)

Green Bean Casserole

Daddy Pick Up

Vegetable Turkey Dinner

Rice and Lentil Dinner

Plum Banana Brown Rice

Beef Broth

Made some beef shank soup again this evening and mixed the soup with wheat cereal for Swe-cha's dinner. He ate it naman. He loves the soup and he likes it mixed with cereal but he still rejects the potatoes that I mashed and tried to feed him.

In fairness, the potatoes were tasty because they were boiled in the beef soup. Weird.

Anyway, I'm not complaining. At least, we're moving forward in the sense that he is now willing to eat home made food.

Next time, I should try some rice mixed in with the soup.

Waving

Last night, I watched my son wave to his Dad through the small window that connects our kitchen to the dining area.

Later, we went out to throw the trash (my son and I) and he kept waving at the doors that we passed along the hallway and each time I say "good job", he would clap his hands.

:)

Pumpkin Apple

Chicken Mango Risotto

earth's best

Banana Apricot Mixed Grain

Earth's Best Banana Apricot Mixed Grain

Clapping

Swe-cha is able to clap for a while now but I've only seen him clap a few times and then he doesn't do it again.

Last night, he was watching his videos and I saw him clapping non-stop. I called his attention and he looked at me, still clapping. He didn't stop clapping until some several minutes later. I don't really know what he was clapping about but he was fun to watch.

These little things make me smile these days, especially now that he is sick (and has been sick on and off for a couple of weeks) and matamlay. I look forward to the things that bring a smile to his face* and watching him enjoy himself bring me pleasure.

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* such as meeting his Dad at the building lobby when he comes home at the end of the day

Carseat

Remember that carseat that I spent so much time looking for ? and so much time considering ? Well, we did purchase it so that Swe-cha can have something to use for our visit to sister's in California. Unfortunately, we had not counted on Swe-cha having plans of his own.

He must have gotten used to being carried around all the time during the 6 hr plane ride and the hrs before and after that (in the airport) that when we got there, he refused to be put in the car seat. He screamed, fought, shouted, hollered and cried - basically, anything he could do to be let out. He did that each time we tried to buckle him in and would immediately quiet down once we let him out.

So the carseat remained on display in the van. He would tinker with it, touch it and even play with it. But he wouldn't sit on it. Thank goodness for returns, Achi was able to return the brand-new, unused carseat to the store where we purchased it from. Buti rin that I did consider that we might have to return or exchange the carseat when I was purchasing it so I decided to buy online from a retailer that has local stores in California.

Watercress soup

Tonight, I cooked some pork bone and watercress soup and decided to let Swe-cha taste it. He seemed to like it and I proceeded to mix in some cereal with the soup to get it to thicken up (the thin soup tends to dribble down his chin). Still eating.

So I gave him small chunks of pork meat. He played with it with his teeth, pushed it around his mouth and made chewing motions... and he ate the meat. I gave him some more.

I was also able to sneak in smaller pieces of watercress with the soup / cereal / pork mixture. We did mix in some multigrain pasta with the soup but he did not like it, probably because it was not soft enough.