Cookies and Crayons

In North Texas, this is the time of year when wild bluebonnets — the state flower — are in bloom. They grow all over the place, especially along the highways (apparently a legacy of Lady Bird Johnson) and it’s a big tradition here to get your family pictures taken every year with the bluebonnets. It seemed like a shame to miss out on the fun… so this afternoon we trundled Dougie out to the nearest field.

Dougie and Mum

“What the heck am I doing in these bluebonnets?”

Dougie and Dad

Someone pointed out a great article to us today.

Multiple Pets May Decrease Children’s Allergy Risk

Turns out, children exposed to more than one dog or cat during their first year of life are less likely to be allergic to things later in life. Who knew the dogs were so useful?

We had our first Kindermusik class today. It was fabulous. Ms Kat, our teacher, was great with the kids. She clearly loved what she was doing and she made it fun for the kids and parents. I really can’t say enough good things about her. There were 6 of us in the class ranging in age from 10 weeks to 19 months. We sang, danced and played with instruments. Dougie loved it for the most part. A few times he got a bit over stimulated but a quick cuddle with mum and he was ready to keep going. I’m already looking forward to going next week.

Dougie’s all happy again. He clearly isn’t in pain anymore. It’s so great to have our little guy back to his old self.

After days of screaming, we think we see a light at the end of the tunnel. The last few days, the screaming has been gradually decreasing. We’re really hoping this is a sign that the new medication is working.

In the meantime, we’ve found that carrying Dougie calms him a lot. We both have carriers (I actually have 2) and Dougie loves it. Here are a few pictures of Dougie being carried by dad.

Awake and Alert

Knocked Out

More Sleeping Pictures

Poor Dougie didn’t sleep well last night and neither did we. He just couldn’t settle. Once we managed to get him down, he did sleep well though. Unfortunately, when he woke up to eat, he got sick on the bed so we had to get up. Looks like Dougie and Daddy managed to find a few extra Zs though.

We thought that we had the reflux under control but apparently we didn’t. The last several days Dougie has spent hours crying/screaming in the evenings. Nothing I tried could comfort him. I called the doctor yesterday to see if we could increase his medication. They said that he was still too small but that if I was concerned that there was still a problem that we’d try something else. So, we’re trying something else. Dougie started on Prevacid today. It normally takes at least a few days to work so we won’t see an improvement right away but hopefully this will be the solution.

Dougie smiles a lot. He laughs a lot too. Sometimes, he just cracks himself up with some thought and goes on laughing for a while. Unfortunately, he doesn’t like to do this for the camera. As soon as the camera comes out, the smile disappears. It’s looking like he may not have much of a modeling career ahead of him. Anyway, we managed to get a cute picture while he was actually smiling, so we had to share.

Notice how blue his eyes still are. They still have lots of time to change but mine were brown by this age.

Here is one more I got while trying to get a smiling picture. He looks like he knows something I don’t.

Dougie went into the doctor today to get his next round of shots. He got the Prevnar vaccine. It went pretty well. He cried a bit shortly after the shot and the nurse picked him up. He noticed a poster on the wall for the food pyramid and that seemed to distract him and he was fine after that.

Dougie looked a bit like a golfer today so we got some pictures with dad (who was working from home).

Dougie and Dad

Dougie Without the Jacket

We also talked to MyGym again. They still aren’t open but construction has started. Yay! The lady I spoke to thought they would be open around mid-April. She said that she’ll be calling everyone later this week to let us know the exact date. I can’t wait for it to start.

Dougie and I went to a “shelter shower” today. My MOMS group’s service project is to sponsor the mothers with children at a local shelter. Each of us picked a kid and bought a few things for him or her. Dougie and I ended up with a 3 month old boy so it worked perfectly for us.

Anyway, while we were there, I bumped into another mom I had befriended at La Leche League. I joined both organizations so I could meet some mothers in the area. It was so nice to see a familiar face at the event. I’m finally starting to feel like I’m getting to know people.

Here is updated “family picture”. I don’t love it but we have so few of them that I wanted to share it.

Family Photo

More Real People Clothes

Dougie’s mouth seems to be doing a lot better. The drooling has almost stopped. So, it looks like the teeth are taking a break. His eye continues to get infected though. We’re really hoping his duct is going to open soon.