Thursday 27 November 2008

cowpokes


cowpokes
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken
The beloved brought back some genuine western wear for the boys from his recent trip to Texas. Here are some resulting photos.

Sunday 23 November 2008

Who'd'a thunk it?


grown up eating
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken
Erik, at 5½ months is ready for solids. For a couple of weeks now, whenever we eat in front of him he watches the passage of food to mouth, and drools, and chews experimentally. So today I decided it was time to start. I think he enjoyed it, he ate most of the rice cereal I made up, some went on his hands and face, but not too much, and he even opened his mouth for the spoon after the first couple of goes. Let's hope he proves to be more interested in food than his big brother.

D'Arcy has been saying he just wnts to "get it over with' in terms of his dentistry, which is an interesting attitude. I keep reminding him it's only 2 weeks away. Perhaps it's because I've promised him some new Pokemon cards for his recovery phase.

The beloved came home from his 2½ week trip to the US and Erik cried when he saw him. A lot. It only took about 15 mins for him to be happy again though. My mum came over and told the story of when she went to hospital for 2 weeks (when I was 18 mths) and for some reason decided that it would be less traumatic if I didn't visit her there, so when she came home I didn't know her, and ran away. I guess there's a lesson in that.

Thursday 20 November 2008

Advance apologies to the squeamish.


DARCY teeth 2
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken
So, here's a picture of the left side of D'Arcy's mouth. As you can see, the 6 y.o molar is, indeed, pushing on the 2 y.o molar. In fact it has almost totally destroyed the root of the 2 y.o molar, leaving a nice space for bacteria to grow into the kind of abscess he had last week. In about 2 weeks the paediatric dentist will take it out, on the grounds that there's plenty more crowding that will have to be dealt with in coming years, so teeth moving around to take up the space isn't such an issue. He will also fill a cavity on the other side, and put a stainless steel cap on another badly decayed tooth. There was a stern lecture on the value of good dental hygiene, at which D protested "my dad doesn't let me clean my teeth". You can probably imagine how this went down! I admitted to complacency, as I have reached the age of 39 with no holes (yay, flouride!) and we have a renewed campaign of toothbrushing twice a day and flossing with the little floss-on-a-stick things that the dentist reckoned would be easier for small people to operate.

D'Arcy is understandably nervous about all of this. He'll be under sedation (because the dentist thinks it's better to do all three at once, so he can't have one done and then get cold feet!) which is a new and scary thing, but is trying to be stoic I think. He's a good fellow really.

Fortunately Erik still has no teeth, though he's been carrying on like a pork chop for the last couple of days, so perhaps they aren't far off.

Sunday 16 November 2008

Another poo post (sorry)


100_1833
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken
It had been almost 3 weeks since the last real, big poo. This afternoon Erik had been kicking on the floor with his nappy off, and it was only a couple of hours until bath and bed time. "He hasn't been in cloth nappies much" I said to my mum, and thought I'd put one on. So I got it, laid it out on the floor and folded it confidently, explaining to mum as I put it on that if you tuck it around the legs as you bring the middle bit up, you get a neater nappy and that as long as there was no gargantuan poo, it should be fine. I spoke too soon. After the preliminary cleaning up, a bath was in order, and here is a very satisfied, post-bath boy in his lovely hooded towel. All that remained was to soak the nappy, and the cover.

In other news, D'Arcy's second ever course of anti-biotics is going well, and he's going for his mouth X-ray tomorrow, with his step-mother. Day off school. I feel a bit sad - I'd like to go with him for hand-holding, but also glad that he's comfortable enough with her that it's fine if she takes him. I think he's smart enough that if he wants me there he'll ask me, unless he gets into "I don't like to ask because mummy's often busy with Erik and it might be easier if she doesn't have to take me". I'll check in with him tomorrow about that one.

Edit Ah. I just realised that I hadn't blogged about D'Arcy's dental woes. Right.
Last weekend he said "mum, my tooth hurts" and I said "that'll be a trip to the dentist then" and promptly forgot about it (well, he went to his dad's). When he came back to me on Wednesday, A (his step mum) said "I think D'Arcy has an abscess on his tooth". I had a look, and it wasn't pretty. My mum had a look and said "it might be what they used to call a gumboil" she being the tooth-abscess expert in the household. A made an appointment at the dentist for the next morning, and offered to take him. She arrived at my place around lunch time bearing a prescription for penicillin. Turns out he (like his dad) has a mouth too small for all his teeth. His (still emerging) 6 year-old molar on that side is kind of impacted and growing into his 2 year-old molar next to it, causing irritation and infections. This is likely to continue until the 2 year-old molar falls out in 4 years time, by which time there will be even less room in the mouth. His dad had four teeth removed and braces as a teenager. Bugger. Bugger bugger bugger. The mouth X-ray is a precursor to an appt with a paediatric dentist on Wednesday, so we'll see what he has to say. One thing they could do is take out the 2 year-old molar, but as it's 4 years until its permanent replacement is due to grow in, in the meantime the other teeth will all move around to take advantage of the space and the problem continues. He's already got overcrowding in the front where he's lost 4 teeth, but the two middle ones are taking up all that space...Blah.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Most excellent birthday present

We finally got around to opening the rest of D'Arcy's birthday presents last week. These were from a girl friend of his, and while he wasn't particularly thrilled ("oh, books" just like his bloody father in that respect!) I could hardly contain myself. I haven't read any of the #1 Ladies, but they are on my "must get to" list. D'Arcy was convinced to start Akimbo and the Elephants the other day and read it to my mum. She observed, as I have, that he reads aloud with no expression whatsoever. I'm trying to remember if this is normal or not.

Erik has a new chair to sit at/on the table with, which he hates, as he does with anything new, but we're persevering. Pic on Flickr. screaming now, must feed. Bye.

Thursday 6 November 2008

I love The Onion for many reasons. Mainly this today.

Our yard signs showed up just in time (around 11 am) and we had a few people around to watch CNN with us. D'Arcy got home from school during McCain's concession speech, and watched Obama's victory speech. He's been pretty interested in the whole thing. The beloved is slightly bummed that it looks like Al Franken won't get up in Minnesota. Apparently it's time for a recount there, and he's headed home with Grandma Joyce just in time!

Monday 3 November 2008

Catching up


PA250006
Originally uploaded by Crit Chicken
Last weekend (what a long time ago it was now!) we had a long weekend in Sydney, to show Grandma Joyce some of the sights. So we did the usual touristy things - ferry trip to Manly, ride on the monorail to Darling Harbour, Aquarium and Wildlife World, stand on the steps of the Opera House. We had a good time, but we all came home very tired, and D'Arcy came back with a cold. That would have been OK, but it was his birthday this last week, so he had to have another day off school to be ready for it.

Sadly I have no photos to prove that he is now 8, despite the fact that he had 4 birthdays: one with his dad and family a few days before; one at school in his class on the day (well, just cake really); one with my family on the day; and one a the local laser-tag place with some friends yesterday. At the two events where I was present I was either trying to wrangle food, or babies, or children, and didn't have a spare hand for a camera. No-one else thought to take any either, sadly, but perhaps I can get a snap of him opening some presents from his party that came to my house yesterday.

We are gearing up for the election, hoping our yard signs arrive in time for our party at least (they were on back order, and didnt ship with everything else), and inviting all the ex-pats we know. Still cautiously optimistic and not putting voice to the many fears of nightmare pre- and post-election scenarios (and there are plenty of them, trust me)

Erik can now roll from his back to his front (there's video of it, but it's still on the camera), but not the other way, and he gets grumpy if someone else doesn't rescue him and flip him back over. He's also very interested in his toes, and in shoving everything that comes within reach into his mouth, also becoming excited about watching us eat and tracking the progress of food to the mouth. He'll be 5 months this week, which is very hard to believe.