Scary Halloween Tale

Once upon a time, there were two moms enjoying a peaceful sleep as the sun was just beginning to gently rise in the distance. In the adjacent room was their son, beginning to stir and make his small morning noises. All was serene and pleasant in the household. As their son’s noises began to get a little louder, the women yawned and stretched, slowly getting into the mindset needed to start their day. One of the women leaned over and told the other to relax, that she’d go take care of their son that morning. With another yawn, she lifted herself out of bed, put on her slippers, and made her way to the little boy’s room.

As she pushed open the door, her pulse started to race. She could already tell that something was not right. Heart pounding, she flicked on the light and gasped! There, in the crib, stood her son…

and…

he was…

covered…

IN POOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *runs away screaming*

But seriously, Halloween scariness aside, we have been subjected to scenes of mass poop-splosions one (or two or three…) too many times in the recent past. You see, our son likes to put his hand into his diaper. It’s like some kind of obsession. Doesn’t matter if it’s from the side or from the top…he knows there’s goods in there and he wants em. Too many times in the past we’ve put him in two piece pajama sets only to wake up to find him PAINTING HIS CRIB SHEET WITH POO FROM HIS DIAPER *dies*. This is one of those ugly parenting truths you may one day face, so lest you think you’re alone, you’re not. Unfortunately.

It took many times and experiments for us to figure out how to keep this from happening, especially since our boy likes to drop a load first thing in the morning. Yay. We must dress him in a one-piece, zipped footed sleeper over a disposable diaper with a cloth shell over the diaper. That seems to be the only way to both contain the poop and make sure he doesn’t get into his diaper. Footless sleepers? Mr. Houdini somehow manages to push one of the pajama legs up and still get into his diaper. I sincerely hope you all don’t find yourselves needing to do this one day. And for those who have been here…please let us know when this behavior stops. And if you find yourself wanting to answer “Never,” please refrain.

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Twist my arm

There was some drama at chez Strawberry and Nutella a few days ago.  Being the contrary and volatile toddler that he is, Curly was refusing to walk towards our house from the nearby playground.  He kept turning around, or stopping, so Strawberry took his hand to keep him headed the right way.  And he did a full out yank of his arm and threw himself to the ground.  We heard a slight “pop” and sure enough, there were screams and tears of real pain.

We scooped him up and tried to comfort him as we carried him home.  But he was inconsolable.  He screamed if we tried to touch his shoulder, elbow, wrist, or hand, and wasn’t using that arm.  We tried applying ice, but there wasn’t any swelling and after about 5 minutes, he calmed down and clearly wanted to go down for his nap.  He fell asleep instantly, on his back with his arm stretched out to the side, a very unusual position for him.

The worried moms headed for Dr. Go.gle*.  I remembered being prone to dislocated elbows as a child and that the fix was easily done at home by a parent.  Sure enough, it’s a very common injury in toddlers, most often called Nursemaid’s Elbow and frequently happens just the way it did to us.  The treatment** is easy too, and we knew that if the injury were more serious, attempting it would be unlikely to cause any more damage.  It was worth a try.  If it didn’t work, we would head straight to urgent care.

When Curly woke up, still in pain and not using his arm, we sat him on Strawberry’s lap. I took hold of the elbow of the injured arm in one hand, and his hand in the other.  Holding the elbow gently but firmly in place, I faced his palm up, then rotated his hand towards his body and sure enough, “POP”.  Followed by a scream, of course.  But he was easily calmed with hugs and some juice and 5 minutes later he was clapping his hands in delight, clearly pain free!

Some illustrations of the injury and treatment.

I recall this happening to me often as a kid, and sources seem to indicate that once it happens it’s likely to reoccur, although I hope not.  It is awful to see your child in pain.

* When in doubt, call your doctor or seek emergency medical care.

** I used the pronation treatment, verses the supination treatment, based on the evidence presented in this study.

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On the road again

So this was Curly’s first week at the new daycare. We prepared ourselves for the worst- a rough transition, tears at drop-off and pick-up, no napping, etc. Luckily, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Sure, he was confused, but they said he did great…no tears. He has so far not cried at all during drop-offs, but is still very excited and hugs us at pick-up. He has so far napped at least an hour every day, sometimes longer. He’s eating well (healthy food!) and he loves his teachers (he even hugged his favorite one when we arrived this morning). It’s not *perfect*…there are one or two issues we have to work out, but overall it’s wonderful and Curly is doing so well there. We are truly relieved.

In other news, we’re going on a small road trip this weekend to a city just over two hours away. Meeting up with some blog and non-blog friends and their kids. We got a great name-your-own-price deal on a 4-star hotel on Pric@line, although that can be tricky with a small child because who knows if the bathroom will be big enough? Um, you see, we bring along our pack n’ play and set it up in the room’s bathroom so he has his own separate area to sleep and we can still hang out in our room and watch tv and stuff. We use the hotel lobby’s bathroom (tag team) to do our evening routine. Thankfully good hotels usually have large enough bathrooms to fit the pack n play so fingers crossed!

The Great Pumpkins

We kicked off Fall with a bang and went apple and pumpkin picking with friends and their children. Here are some pictures.

A while back on the question post, Olive asked “What is your favorite tradition that you hope Curly will grow up cherishing (or at least participating in)?”  Apple picking is certainly one of them, as well as pumpkin picking and carving.  We’ll be going back for pumpkins in a couple weeks.  The actual apple picking wasn’t that great, (we went on a Sunday and I think most of the good stuff got picked on Saturday) but I had enough to make a pie.  I used my mother’s crust recipe and the rolling pin I remember my grandmother using when I was a child.  And Curly quite enjoyed sharing a piece with us the next evening.  I hope it’s just the first apple picking and apple pie in a long line of years.