First things first. We took you to two specialists this month: an allergist and an ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT).
The allergist had his nurses poke your back with things you might be allergic to, like ragweed and pet dander and mold and dust mites. They also poked your arm with egg to check that. Sure enough, you’re allergic to eggs — and you’re mildly allergic to cats, which explains the constant runny nose.
(Not long after your allergist visit, Mommy and Daddy went out and bought a brand new vacuum cleaner to get the cat hair up better than the old Kirby did. Since we did that, and have been vacuuming more frequently, you’ve been a lot better.)
We got you a blood test (you behaved so well!) and learned that your egg allergy is the kind that you’ll probably outgrow, and the kind where you can eat egg baked into things, and can get the flu shot (which is incubated in chicken eggs). The allergist gave you a prescription for an Epipen, just in case you react to eggs worse than you have been — usually you just vomit. A lot. But if you go into anaphylactic shock, I’d rather be prepared.
The ENT visit started with a hearing test. I wish I would have taken pictures of this booth they had us in. You were sitting on Mommy’s lap in a small soundproof room, facing a window where a doctor was observing you. She had headphones on you, and she would make sounds come through them and animals in the room would light up and move around with the noises. She also asked you where all your body parts were, your nose and your knees and your belly and all sorts of things, and you seemed to get them all right. Mommy was glad we’ve worked on those words! According to the test, your hearing is just fine.
She also did a test on your eardrums to see whether there was fluid buildup behind them. One eardrum definitely had fluid behind it, and she couldn’t tell about the other one. The ENT explained that if the fluid can’t drain out of your ear, it sits there and can get infected.
So, you’ll be having surgery Friday morning (tomorrow as I write this) to have tubes put in your ears to help the fluid drain out. You’ll be under general anesthesia — that means they’ll have you breathe in some gas that makes you sleepy so they can do the surgery. Mommy’s a little nervous about the anesthesia, but not about the tubes themselves. You might be a groggy little dude that weekend — Mommy remembers what general anesthesia made her feel like, last time she had to go under for surgery, and it wasn’t fun.
Doctor visits aren’t the only thing you’ve been up to, though!
You’ve started pretending a lot more lately. Your animal friends like to sing songs to you and climb up your crib, and your Little People Batman likes to climb up your towers of alphabet blocks.
You use many more words now, and you string them together in short sentences sometimes. You still mostly respond or request things using single words, like sippy, cheese, cookie, blanket, or tiger (when you want to watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood), but you have been known to ask questions like, “Connor go bye-bye?”
Nap strikes have been a thing lately. It’s not that you don’t need a nap — believe me, you do, and so does Daddy — but you kick your crib and sing songs and play games to keep yourself awake. This results in a Very Tired Little Boy (and a very unhappy Daddy, if you’re at home during the nap strike).
You’re going to be in daycare an extra day starting next week, though, so any nap strikes will only affect Daddy two days out of the week from now on. You should really just take a nap, though, no matter where you are — home or school. Please?
You continue to understand what emotions are, but you aren’t sure what to do about them sometimes. When Mommy uses a certain tone of voice, you know she’s mad, and you kiss her arm to make it better… but you still don’t do what she’s saying, and that’s what’s usually making her mad!
You can jump with both feet off the floor now, and you like to ride on Mommy’s back like a horsey, and you love playing with the kazoos you got from daycare for Halloween.
You have an obsession with autumn leaves. You started out with the giant leaves from our neighbor Paul’s ancient maple tree. Then, you moved to smaller leaves, which you said were “cute” in comparison.
You’re still a fan of all kinds of foods, and you like to try new things. Mommy roasted some butternut squash, and gave you a taste, and you proceeded to eat a bunch of it before bed one night — then ask for it again the next day when you saw it leftover in the fridge!
Your go-to at restaurants is grilled cheese, though, whether it’s a grilled cheese at Panera (you saw the Panera sign one time and said, “Sandwich?”) or a quesadilla at a Mexican restaurant. You’re also a big fan of the refried beans.
You like to help, and you want to see everything that’s going on, especially in the kitchen. Mommy pulled one of the kitchen chairs up to the counter so you could stand on it and help make Daddy’s birthday cake (pumpkin angel food). You had so much fun! We might have to do more of this together during the holidays.
Well, Mommy should really get to bed soon — we have to get up early-early tomorrow to be at the surgical center by 7am. It’ll be an interesting weekend, but the end result will be worth it.
I love you, little man.
