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Monday, January 31, 2005

keep on chowing

This weekend was a bit off for Spencer. He ran a fever Friday afternoon, spiked at 103.4 on Saturday, and came back around 100 on Sunday. Fortunately no other symptoms, besides just being a little cranky for my pop's weekend visit. But it sure didn't affect his appetite. Holy cow. Saturday we had lunch out at Pappasito's (a must when visitors are here from out of town) and Spencer put away an unbelievable amount of food. He just kept asking for 'more' and packing it in. Part of me thought he might throw up later in the afternoon, but it never happened. And at dinner time he ate a huge amount of food again! We were stunned and impressed. Not to mention the few bottles of milk plus a snack he had between the two meals. He is usually a good eater, and we've seen him pack it in like this before, but back-to-back meals of that size was an eye-popping feat.

Friday, January 28, 2005

chow time

Yesterday for lunch Spencer's school served lamb curry with chutney - how awesome is that! Jim was able to stay for breakfast and watched him devour the freshly baked molasses brown bread. Their tasty menu is one of our favorite things about the place. It's amazing to see how Spencer is one of the 'big kids' in the room now, when he was the 'little guy' for such a long time!

Pictures of baby Mia, mom's visit to Houston, and some other random ones not previously downloaded have now been added to the January photo album.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

she's here!

Spencer has a new friend. Our neighbors (the only ones we really talk to) welcomed baby Mia into the world yesterday morning. Jim and I went to the hospital to visit her at lunch today and she's just beautiful, with lots of dark hair just like Spencer had when he was born!

Monday, January 24, 2005

"help"

Of all the words that Spencer can say and sign, I think it's cool that he can ask for "help" - something that is not a noun or action. And he's coming close to combining signs to say "help, please." Today Jim showed the teachers at school Spencer's variation on the ASL sign so they can recognize any requests for "help."

I definitely blogged too soon yesterday about feeling better, as things are still not quite right today. One of Spencer's teachers was out sick with a stomach virus, so maybe we have all been hit by the same bug going around.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

weekend downtime

On the surface, things got much better on Friday. Spencer spent a full day at school, and Jim and I were able to work the whole day without any unforeseen interruptions. But something wasn't quite right. I didn't feel very hungry at lunchtime, and by dinner I had no appetite at all and knew that something was very wrong with my stomach. By Saturday I felt completely puny. I managed to get out of the house with Spencer to meet other signing mommies and babies at 11:00, but I was hardly feeling chipper. Unfortunately, the meet up was a bust as a birthday party for someone else was being held in the pre-arranged location which prevented a bunch of strangers from getting together. So I fed Spencer his lunch (thank goodness HIS appetite has returned, and easing him back into milk this weekend by combining regular and lactose-free has been successful) and played with him on the Meyer Park playground for about 45 minutes. By then he was beat and passed out for a nap on the ride home. I transferred him to the crib, crawled into my own bed, and didn't get out until 4:30 in the afternoon. Feeling nauseous is no fun at all. Things seems to have turned the corner this morning for me, thank goodness.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

back to normal

Spencer ran a small fever and had gotten sick a few times over the weekend, but he seemed to have turned a corner by Monday/Tuesday, and now with mom back in NY, I thought for sure that on Wednesday everything was going to go "back to normal" around here. But instead, Spencer threw up all over himself when Jim was taking him to school. So they came back home where I watched him for most of the morning and Jim did duty in the afternoon. I felt frustrated for forgetting we had encountered this pattern before a few months ago. The doctor had explained to us that often times a nasty stomach bug can shear off the ends of the villi in the stomach, and this is where lactase is stored. So, after the bug passes, the baby develops a temporary lactose intolerance and returning him to milk causes more diarrhea and vomiting. Sigh. Back off of milk again, and back on a diet to help bind things up. Spencer took three naps yesterday, and was not quite on top of his game, but did quite fine considering. So, today was another attempt at "back to normal." But after Jim and Spencer left, I discovered that our recently flaky high speed connection was out. For us, this means no internet and no phone, essentially rendering my home office worthless. Jim came back to the house to wait for the cable guy, while I dashed to the office to host meetings from there. We swapped again after lunchtime, and fortunately everything is working fine now (after I understand multiple cable guys were checking out screw ups all along our cul-du-sac.) Maybe tomorrow things will get back to normal...

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

not so little boys

Tonight I just couldn't stop the tears. Mom left this afternoon after a wonderful week here. I don't know why I can have infinite patience with my son, but not my mother. Our visit was great, but I know they can be even better if I learn to just chill out and stop trying to be a mom to everyone. This evening Spencer and I were singing and dancing together to a Raffi CD that mom had brought. As we were listening to "Puff the Magic Dragon," Spencer stood up by himself for the first time (in the middle of the room, without needing to pull up on any one of anything else) and it was exactly as the line "a dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" was sung. And the tears started streaming down my face as I think about the "infant" chapter in his life coming to a close. We'll move forward together with new and maturing relationships, but this part is gone forever and I am really beginning to understand how it can make a mom so, so sad that these days are behind us. Then my mind flashed to yesterday's Oprah with Nate Berkus recounting his experience in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. And I could only think about poor Nate crying and mourning the horrific loss of his partner who he watched, and felt, get carried away from him in the waters. His loss is permanent, but Spencer will continue to be a part of my life, just in a different way. Nonetheless, the tears just kept coming down my face as I tried to smile and keep singing along for my son.

Monday, January 17, 2005

WOW!

WOW!
WOW!,
originally uploaded by Leachfamily.
Spencer has begun not only to do signs for certain things, but has started to add a little extra to them with facial expessions.

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Da da?

Spencer does not seem to distinguish between Jim and me as parents and says "da da" to refer to both of us. It's a little deflating to be the first to arrive in his room in the morning and be greeted with a huge smile and "DA DA!" When I remind him that I am "ma ma" he easily repeats it, but so far he has yet to get it right the first time.

Friday, January 07, 2005

Momma?

Is this the cutest story ever or what???

I watched the premier of the new show Wickedly Perfect last night. Mainly because I heard a radio interview with Candace Bushnell earlier in the morning and learned she is also a Rice grad. Looks like the show will be "entertaining," and I really like how the website includes instructions and recipes for all of the projects

Thursday, January 06, 2005

"All Done!"

It was cool to see the signing babies in "Meet the Fockers." Now perhaps folks will have a better idea of what our life is like with Spencer. He knows and uses about two dozen signs - including eat, drink, sleep, play, socks, shoes, and of course 'milk' which was signed many times during the movie! He is also saying more words for which he does not have signs. He can identify and say his favorite shape "oh-oh" (oval) and favorite color "puh-pull" (purple) and is working on a few more colors with help such as "deen" (green) and "boo" (blue) and "elllll" (yellow - which involves running his tongue back and forth across his upper lip!)

He definitely has a good handle on "all done" (both speaking and signing) and is able to generalize the concept very well. He announces "all done" when he has finished dinner, when he is ready to get out of the bath tub, and when he has turned the last page of a book and reached the end. This weekend while playing around he paused for a bit to grunt and poop in his diaper, and when the grunting stopped he looked at Jim and announced "all done!"

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Today our usual Sunday outings to the Children's Museum and Niko Niko's were made a little bit more fun as we were joined by Tracy and Oriol and seven month old Aurelie. It was their first time to visit both the museum and the restaurant. Tracy was so impressed with all the museum had to offer she plans to get a family memebership so perhaps they will be joining us frequently in the future. Unfortunately we didn't bring out camera today, so no pics of cutie Aurelie. Maybe they'll get to play together next Sunday!

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Happy New Year! We have enjoyed a long week off of work - even sending Spencer to school for most of the week to allow us time to do things for ourselves (like run errands and go to the movies!) On Thursday poor Spencer was sent home from school early with a fever, but fortunately it was gone by bedtime.

Spencer's signing and verbal vocabulary continues to improve. We took a walk to the nearby duck pond today so Spencer could get a closer look and he has been saying "duck duck duck" and signing it all day. And yesterday at the grocery store he was so excited to see to many apples all in one place! I gave him one which he held with both hands (and did try to eat) while riding in the cart repeating "ah-pull."

Pics from today are in a new January album. And the December album has been updated with more pics found in the camera with Spencer wearing some of his new clothes and also enjoying opening a Hanukkah present from mom.