Growing pains

Recently we changed pharmacies the one we have now ships a three month supply of medication at one time which is convenient. The bad part of that is that when they sent his growth hormone medication the needles they included were a size larger then the ones we had been using.

They are a a tiny bit thicker and about a third longer. The Kiddo doesn’t have enough fat on his arms and legs for us to give him a shot without a little ouch going along with it. He holds up as well as usual though and doesn’t fight getting them -though on two shot day (half a dose from a nearly empty pen the other half from a new one) he gets a little extra unhappy. We’ve started keeping a bin with tiny circle band-aids near where we keep the rest of the shot equipment. When we order his next batch of medication we will request smaller needles and keep our fingers crossed that they send them…

The other day we finally put up the Kiddos growth chart. With those bigger needles I thought the Kiddo might need some visual confirmation of what the shots are doing for him. That and his three month endocrinologist visit was coming up and I wanted to see how much he had grown since the last one in April. We stood him against the wall, put the level on top of the pencil and made a mark. Then we put the green sticky in place and measured - One and a quarter inches!!

Surprisingly enough during the weigh and measure at the docs office on Friday we found that our at home measurement was right on the money. The kiddo has officially gotten back to his over an inch every three months growth pattern. He was so excited he jumped up and down.

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6 1/2 years old and he is now 43 inches tall and 43 pounds.

mini vacation

The Mans schedule has changed around so often this month that he hasn’t had more then one day off at a time in quite awhile. Generally when he *does* have a day off he ends up with at home work he has to do for one of his jobs or another. That means we haven’t had much in the way of family time for several weeks. The Kiddo was getting needy, and we were all feeling a bit stressed out. This week the Mans schedule shifted again, but because of the way his boss does the schedule he actually ended up with three days off in a row!! Granted he works his second job this morning but he calls that his fun job and it doesn’t detract from the mini vacation feel of the weekend.

Yesterday was day one of the three days off and we decided to squeeze a vacation activity into the budget so we took the Kiddo to the theater to see Transformers 3, he’s been asking for months (even before it was out) and we thought it would be fun. One large popcorn, three tickets, and some smuggled in water. It was a great movie we thoroughly enjoyed it, so did the Kiddo he didn’t stop grinning for hours.

After we got home we decided to take Cupcake out for a game of fetch. Her birthday was this past Tuesday, we don’t do much for dog birthdays but we did give her a new rawhide and we took her for her very first off leash outdoors game of fetch. She did well, there are a lot of smells out in the central commons area of the complex but she brought the ball back almost every time and didn’t run off at all (whew). So we decided yesterday that we would take her out again, wear her out a little. I love watching her run to get the ball, she’s fast and looks so happy.

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The Kiddo bikes with us to get out there (hence the helmet in the pictures) and then he likes to try to run with her to get the ball. He’s nowhere near as fast but it’s good exercise for him and he laughs the whole way.

Today is day two of the mini vacation. The Man is still at work (he’ll be home around 1 I think) and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do with the day. I think we’ll go visit the Kiddo’s friend Theo for an hour or two this afternoon, then at 3 the Kiddo has an Endocrinologist visit where we’ll get the official numbers on his past three months worth of growth. I’ve got the unofficial amount but I’m keeping it under my hat till tomorrows post because I’m always off by about half an inch.

Tomorrow is day three of the mini vacation and we’ll be spending a large part of it at the in-laws having a bbq. The Kiddo will have fun playing with his cousins (they have an above ground pool) and hopefully we’ll get in some high quality family time and relaxing.

Toast Cake

This past weekend I decided to make the Kiddo French toast. I can’t remember the last time I made it, I know it’s been years (probably at least four) so he had no idea what it was I was going to make him eat. He watched me mix the eggs and dump in the milk, he saw me add a bit of sugar and his smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. He watched me add the vanilla and the nutmeg and it grew a bit more (he thinks of those as ‘cake’ ingredients).

I turned on the skillet and he asked if I was making it like toasted cake, I told him yes that when it came off the skillet it would be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I then pulled out the powdered sugar and the butter and the syrup.

The Kiddo loved it! He ate three pieces before he was full, he saved a few for his dad (for when he got home from work). The next morning I started to get out the cereal and the Kiddo demanded the “special cake toast” again. I decided it sounded okay so I made another batch. He gobbled it up as quickly as he had the day before.

He told me that he thinks we need to have the special toast every day for breakfast. I told him we’d get fat and that we better save it for a once a week thing instead. Breads good for you and all but covering it in powdered sugar and dipping it in syrup doesn’t help the healthy factor any.

Slam the snail

I’m not sure how many of you remember his “friend” Butterfingers, for a long time any fly he saw was his friend and he would be happy and excited. Fortunately the phase has ended and The Kiddo has decided that flies don't make good friends.

The bad news part of that is now having a fly in the house makes him gag. If he’s eating when he sees the fly he’ll stop and wont take another bite until the man or I “catch the fly and put it outside”. If we try to make him eat he’ll gag with every mouthful. If he’s not eating he’ll still randomly gag until the fly is gone.

The good news is that now he has a new friend, this one is far less yucky AND stays outside. He’s a snail, his name is Slam. He was crawling across our patio the other day and the Kiddo made friends through the slider. The next morning the snail was making his way up the mesh of the screen door. That’s when he was christened Slam and became a friend/pet. The next day (pictured) the snail was sitting on the inside of the door screen hanging out. Now he’s somewhere along the outside edge of the sliding door so we can’t open it without smooshing him. I’m not to annoyed because it’s 90+ degrees outside so we don’t go out on the patio anyway. The Kiddo is ecstatic because every morning he gets to say hi to his “outside pet” and talk to him. He really is an odd child.

20/20

Wednesday was the Kiddos’ annual eye appointment. Of all his doctors this one is my least favorite! We go to him because he is supposed to be the leading specialist in optic nerve hypoplasia and we feel like taking him there is the responsible thing to do as parents. Because the Kiddo is a relatively easy case I have no idea what this doctor does that another child ophthalmologist couldn’t do. We drive 40 minutes to his office, then the visit takes a minimum of two hours, and we drive 40 minutes back home. I have never had a visit, door to door, last under four hours.

The kiddo handles it far better then you would think. He does gets hungry and bored but I take snacks (sandwich baggie of crackers) and distract him with his hand held game system and a book or two.

This months appointment went the same as all the others. I bit my tongue as the less then intelligent tech tried to get the Kiddo to read the numbers with his bad eye (all the while really really wanting to smack him on the head and say “he can’t SEE through that one dummy”). We waited some more after that, then we saw the Doctor who pointed out the drift in his “blind” left eye. We refuse to have surgery done on him and on this visit the doc didn’t push it as hard as he usually does, which was refreshing. The Kiddo got drops for dilation, and we waited some more. They looked in his eyes, said he looked good, and sent us on our way.

The good news is that the small bit of nearsightedness the Kiddo had in his right eye is gone. He is now officially 20/20 in that eye!! Doc isn’t sure how that’s possible (because the nerve in that eye is a bit underdeveloped) but it is and we are really happy about it. He does still need to wear glasses in order to protect his eyes. So we’ll save up our pennies and get him new lenses as soon as we can (right now he has basic polycarbonate lenses, he needs scratch resistant ones, along with transition to help with his sensitivity to bright light).

Running around

The Kiddo told me that he is now the Man of the house. I asked him what he thought that meant and he said the man of the house protects the family and gets to have the remote so he can tell his family what they can watch on TV. I have to laugh, apparently he’s got a high opinion of a mans duties. Of course he redeemed himself a little when after dinner he demanded to wash the dishes because “the man of the house also washes the dishes!”

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Unfortunately the real Man of the house has been extremely busy lately and the Kiddo hasn’t done much in regards to learning to play soccer (we signed him up for a team and games start at the end of August). I have decided that the most important thing is him knowing how to kick the ball without falling over. So once a day I take him out, we walk around the inside play area and he kicks the ball along as we go. It’s not organized, I have no idea if he’s “doing it right” but as long as he remains standing while he does it I’m calling it a success.

We are still doing our daily reading, I try hard not to schedule or force him to do it. The Kiddo is very good at randomly going to read and I want him to keep that habit. I think it’s silly to have set reading times when reading is recreational. We’re also still doing daily math, either addition or subtraction. He is really proud of how well he does and can’t wait until he gets a chance to show off to his grannie (I’m not sure why but he seems to think she is the one who will be most impressed with his skills… maybe it’s because I tell him he gets his brains from her).

Six Months

It’s been about six months since the kiddo broke his leg. Last Friday was his four months checkup since after the cast came off . From the top view you can't even see the break anymore, and from the side you can SEE the new bone growth. It helps me feel less nervous that he’s going to break it again while it’s still healing.

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Doc said he is doing amazing, him and his residents spent some time bending both his legs around and marveling at how symmetrical his flexibility is. Apparently there is usually a problem with that, but not with the Kiddo… because when he does something he does it well!! When he broke it he broke it well, and now that he’s heeling his body is determined to do that well also.

The doctor said that the foot pain the Kiddo has been experiencing is probably due to somewhat flat feet combined with an odd gait caused by the difference in leg length and the unusual pressure it puts on his feet. Nothing much we can do for that but keep an eye on it and wait.

Of course healing a big bone takes a couple years so we’ll keep going in for checkups, the next one will be in January. Until then we’ll continue to nag him to stretch a bit each day, sit right, and walk right. I think the one change we’ll have to make is to buy him new shoes. If the flat foot is part of the pain problem, and the difference in length is causing pressure problems, then good quality shoes should help with that. No more $9 walmart specials for awhile *sigh*

hobble

Today we go see the orthopedic surgeon. I am hopeful that we will find out that the Kiddo is recovering normally and that no physical therapy will be required. I’m not sure though because he still walks with his left foot turned outwards and when he is tired or has done a lot of walking he still hobbles on his toes as if his heels hurt. I will, of course, update later this evening.

Ghosts

The Kiddo loves our new place, he has asked me many times if we can live here forever. I’m not sure about forever but I don’t see us moving anytime soon, I’ll bet we stay here at least five more years.

He has done a few odd things since our move here though. The first week or so he would close the bathroom doors. He said that he wanted to keep the ghosts in (or out) and that’s why he was doing it. He’s also had to have his bright night light on all night every night since the move. I thought maybe it was because he was in a new room, but really his room looks exactly the same as his old one so I can’t see why it would bother him.

It was suggested to me that I help him create a “no monsters allowed” sign for his bedroom. The theory being that adults create boundaries and they are obeyed (by kids, dogs, etc). So if an adult helps a kid to create a ghost boundary then it will be obeyed and they will stay out.

Auntie D had a better idea, she mailed him a tiny Gargoyle. She wrote him a note about how gargoyles exist to guard against lost spirits and that if he puts his new baby gargoyle in his room then the ghosts and monsters will be kept out.

The Kiddo LOVES him. He has temporarily named him Gar, and asked to put him on a string so he could wear him and not lose him.

We set a nail into the wall at the top of the Kiddo’s bed for Gar to hang on at night. The Kiddo has the option to wear him during the day or “let him rest” on his nail.

It will be interesting to see if Gar can help the Kiddo’s worry about ghosts diminish. I think it will, like most kids he has a firm belief in heroes and magical things.

antics

The Kiddo made a new friend the other day. Of course that part isn't a surprise, he makes friends every day (shoot last night he made friends with a little old lady named Fawn). This particular friend though is his age (!) and more to the point I can talk with his mom without the panic "get me OUT" feeling.

Even better her sister has Addison's... I'm not celebrating that she has the same medical condition the Kiddo has* I'm celebrating that somebody is familiar with the condition and knows a little bit about why we are so careful with the Kiddo (i.e. supervised play outside, no sleepovers yet, etc.).

So we traded phone numbers, and found out which apartment he lives in. She's a very nice woman and not to much younger then I am so it's possible we could be friends as well. That could be nice, a friend within walking distance.

As I mentioned her son is the Kiddo's age. He is about a head taller though, and has extreme ADHD. He's a wired little kid I'll say that much. He seems basically like a good one though, and she parents him pretty much the same way I parent the Kiddo. I think on Monday we'll go find out if he can play and see if they continue to get along. Then I'll have more pictures of him playing WITH somebody and less of him all by himself ...



*Addison's is adrenal insufficiency caused by the adrenal glands, they also call it primary adrenal insufficiency, and people with this condition usually have a harder time controlling their cortisol level then those with secondary. Secondary is closer to what the Kiddo deals with, his is caused by his Pituitary gland not functioning and seems to impact him in a more controlled way.