February Update

This month is going to be very busy. Craig is getting surgery on his wrist February 8 to remove remnants of a ganglion cyst. I say "remnants" because the doctor aspirated it about two weeks ago, and the bump got very mushy and the pain lessened considerably. But since the ganglion tissue and the sac are still in there, the chances of it coming back are very high. So surgery is still on.

He will be off work for three weeks and during this time his wrist will be wrapped and bent forward. This means he won't be able to play with Gabriel hardly at all and won't be able to watch him alone for very long. This also means that meals will be VERY simple during this time; basically anything that can microwaved or prepped very quickly and be placed into the oven. You veteran mamas know that it is hard to do high maintenance cooking with a toddler that wants to be up under you all the time.

I also haven't written on my Cafe´au lait blog in AGES...I am working on a book review of Push by Sapphire, better known as Precious the Movie, OR better know in Carisa's head as The Movie Where Black Women are Depicted as Depraved and Insane...can you tell I didn't like the book or the movie? I'll post it when I complete it.

Oh, here are the promised Christmas pics! Just a sample, it's not all the pics I took.




William eating scones I made Christmas morning.











We got my mom some butterfly measuring spoons.


My mom got me this cool hat.


I got Craig the new Alicia Keys CD.

Happy New Year and Gabe's 18 month appt.

It has been a long time since I've done an update! With the holidays and my mom and brother visiting (plus the mutant snow storm in Philly) I've gotten slack. Sorry! :) Also, it's becoming harder to write with Gabe being more mobile and needing near constant interaction.

Gabe had his 18th month appointment on Monday and it went well. But he did not want to be checked out at all and gave us a hard time. Totally freaked and cried during the check-up, but he recovered quickly when it was over. He is a little over 22 pounds, but I cannot remember the height. He is in the 75th percentile for height and the 5th percentile for weight; that has been his pattern since he has been born, tall and lean.

We really like his pediatrician, Dr. Gibbons. She is very down to earth and knowledgeable. The practice, The Natural Childbirth and Family Clinic, is somewhat of a hike being in Northeast Portland (we are Northwest), but the next time he'll go will be at 2 yrs. and then after that, yearly, so we're okay with the distance.

Gabe's teeth seem to be stabilizing. I think the intense brushing, cod liver oil, wheat germ and getting more nutrient dense foods in him are helping. He is still picky; doesn't like eggs or meat (unless really mushed), but eventually I think he will try them.

Look for Christmas pics in a day or two! Let's see if I can do it before January is over! LOL

The teeth saga continues...

About a week and a half ago, one of Gabe's teeth started chipping. I thought, oh great. It was right after his December 1 dental visit to treat his teeth.

So, I was wondering, did he chip his tooth from hitting it or biting on something? Or is it from the decay? So, I called Dr. Pike's office last Thursday and they said, "Well, if he's not in any pain, wait until his February appointment and we'll look at it then". But I just couldn't get the feeling out of my head that the tooth needed to be looked at. Unfortunately, Friday, they were closed and it forced us to reevaluate if we needed to try a new dentist. Why? Well, they are really nice and try very hard not to psychologically damage children as far as the dentist goes. But they are too passive in Gabe's case. After five or ten minutes of them being all slow, he's done. His window for semi-cooperation is closed.

So, we got a appointment that was today to see a dentist that's, um, right across the street, LOL. Shoebox Dentistry, Dr. Hsu. Anyhoo, we liked this dude much, much better. Their play area is bigger, Gabe got to play with some trains, and I got to watch the first 15 minutes of The Little Mermaid while I filled out paper work. Plus, the doctor went to University of Pennsylvania. Nice.

Dr. Hsu got a good look at all of Gabe's teeth, which Dr. Pike was somehow not able to do. Yes, he cried, but it was for like less than 60 seconds. And yes, Gabe gave Dr. Hsu somewhat of a dirty look afterwards, but he recovered. I guess the good news is that only two teeth have "mild to moderate" decay and Dr. Hsu didn't feel like he needed to do x-rays to see more (thank goodness). He wants to continue the treatments so we can keep things from not getting worse and closely monitor his teeth.

As far as diet goes, he said to continue diluting juice and we actually found out that our water does have fluoride in it (I thought it did not; but we weren't giving him tap water anyway). He said we can continue with the fluoride drops or give him 12-16 ounces of tap water daily, flavored with juice, if we want.

As far as foods, he said with kids his age you just have to do your best to make sure they getting nutrient dense foods. Gabe eats table foods fine now (it's amazing, as soon as his molars came in, he got interested chewing, just like his pediatrician said), but he is still extremely picky. So his favorite foods that are good for him include cheese, yogurt, apple sauce, mandarin oranges and garlic hummus. I'm cutting down on the crackers, cheerios and bread.

Since his diet is so weird, I've also started giving him a teaspoon of cod liver oil and wheat germ once a day. He actually takes the cod liver oil straight (it has peach flavor, but I was still shocked) and I sprinkle the wheat germ on apple sauce.

So I think his teeth will get better. Fortunately, the chip is in one of the teeth that will fall out sooner.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I meant to post this earlier in the week, since most of you probably won't check your emails today. I started coming down with something on Sunday and boy was I perturbed because I am cooking most of the food for the holiday! It turned out to be a mild cold (I was certainly praying that it was not a flu), but one day there I felt pretty wicked.

I am still a little congested, but getting better. I didn't take any medication, but I drank tons of tea with cayenne pepper in it. I am telling you, that stuff really helps tremendously with sinus issues!

We have a small group for dinner today; Craig, Gabe, Grandma Deb and myself. Deb is bringing some side dishes and dessert, I am doing the rest. This is the first time ever that I am cooking a turkey. I'll report back on how it goes.

The following are some really funny pics of Gabe I meant to post maybe a week ago. In the first one, he looks like he is dancing, and in the second one he looks like he is really getting down or possibly terribly upset. LOL. Enjoy!

Costume Party

One of Craig's former co-workers, Angie, invited Gabe to a costume party that took place this past Saturday. Her son Kaleb is 10 days younger than Gabe (in fact, he was born June 6, 2 days before Gabe's due date, which was June 8).

Gabe dressed up as a doctor and I dressed up as Lt. Uhura from Star Trek. I was teasing Craig, saying he dressed up as himself, :). On the way to the party, he said he wished he'd wore a costume, lol.

It was a lot of fun. Gabe and Kaleb were the youngest, there was one three year old and the rest were between 5 and 7 years old. There were three games before it was time to eat snacks and one game after that. Of course, many of the children barely cared about eating, only playing! And Gabe and Kaleb didn't eat anything at all; typical toddler behavior, right?

Gabe was mostly interested in playing with a large orange balloon, which I watched him with in case it popped. In fact, he was super into anything round. There was also a wooden train set that he and the three year old were totally engrossed in.

I find it hard to socialize at kids parties when one of the kids is my kid. LOL. And I specifically parties where I don't know anyone. So, it's hard to talk to people when you have to watch your 17 month old playing with a balloon and what not.

Here are some pics from party; one is a pic that Angie took that she sent us.














Pin the nose on the pumpkin.



Pic Angie took of us (Gabe was trying to take my cookie).






Balloon love.






The most interesting train set in the world!

Laugh Out Loud

Read the ignorant comment I got from my examiner post on the LA judge denying an interracial couple a marriage license!

Two new posts over at Café au lait Chronicles

Click here. Thanks for reading!