Another GI bug?!

Poor Dillon's been throwing up most of the day. She was acting really sad this morning, wanting to be held a lot. She kept saying that her tummy didn't hurt and told me not to ask her if she was going to throw up. Then all of the sudden, up it came. All of it. Bless her heart. She seems to feel better now, but we'll see how tonight goes. I feel bad for her- that's like twice in 8 days.

Cooking

I've found that one of the things I really enjoy doing with Dillon is cooking. It's given us the occasion to talk about where food comes from, what good food is and what junk food is. While I've never really understood a heavy reliance on fast food, I read something about a year ago about french fries being the "vegetable" most offered to toddlers. Certainly as she gets older, I've have less influence over what she eats, but I'm hoping that talking about it will help her make better decisions in the future.


Anyway, for the last several nights, I've been able to get her involved with fixing dinner instead of begging the watch a movie the entire time. We've had lots of mushrooms for dinner since they can be cut with a knife that's not sharp. I've also found that she's pretty safe with a hot pot or pan on the stove- she's touched them enough times noe that I' can just tell her they are hot & she's VERY careful. So last night, she was insistent that she wanted to cook on the stove like I was. The burner had to be on because she wanted there to be steam. So, I put a little water in the pot and let her make soup.

So, what's she making?



Why, it's grape carrot noodle soup, course. After she decided they were done, she put them in the fridge to cool off, then ate the grapes as part of her dinner.

What's going on around here....

I keep trying to get here to post and things keep coming up. So I'll run down the highlights.

A GI bug - last night at 9:00 Dillon said her stomach hurt and she wanted to hold a towel since she felt like she might throw up. Sure enough, a few minutes later, EVERYTHING came up. And came up. And came up. Bless her heart, she was miserable. She threw up a little every hour or so during the night, but nothing like the original occurence. She drank some water this morning, then threw it up. She fell asleep on her bed a little before noon & has now been asleep for about an hour an a half. Poor baby.

Dave's herniated disk- 2 + weeks ago he herniated a disk in his lower back. He's slowly getting better, though sitting for 30 hours working diligently on his final project for his class didn't help it.

Paperwork for the sleep study has arrived. It has to be filled out, then they will call with his appointment. Of course it arrived in the midst of finals and now 3 long days working in the OR. I may have to help him fill it out so he can get this sleep apnea addressed.

I started working for the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at the hospital doing case management work. They have several clinics per year that I'll need to go to, but the rest of the work can be done mostly from home. It'll be interesting work & will be a bit of a learning curve not only figuring out resources, but also figuring out how to make this work being at home. Dillon is less than cooperative with playing on her own to give me computer time- or time to make phone calls.

It snowed yesterday. Only about an inch, but that's an inch too much in my opinion. It's March. It's almost my birthday. It isn't supposed to still be this cold- or snowing- this close to my birthday. I am so over winter. The birds are starting to come back & we're starting to hear them singing - or hammering on trees, which does help. It would help more if it were sunny and 8o degrees.

Dave is no longer Dad or Daddy. He's almost always David now. So is every father in every book we read- as in "Why is that boy's David not holding him?"

Dillon's a little perplexed by the fact that her friend Lydia now goes to school 2 days a week like her David does. Lydia's mom will go back to work in July, so Lydia has started easing into daycare, so there's been a couple of times that Lydia's not been somewhere we normally see her. I think Dillon's really going to miss Lydia when she's in daycare full time. I may have to see if I can go pick her up early occasionally so they can play together.

I had to take Dillon with me to teach class last night. All said, she was very well behaved and entertained everyone with summersaults, dancing and handing out pretzels. Everyone was really nice to help entertain her while I answered individual questions after the lecture part was done. When we first got there she asked "What are all those people of different sizes doing?"

Rarely a dull moment around here. I wouldn't mind a few sometimes.

Grocery stores

It's happened twice now- compliments in the grocery store. Today, we were in line & Dillon wanted to go over to an area that she's gotten to play the last couple of weeks as I checked out. We were in a different line today, too far away from that area. Of course, she got upset as I stopped her from going where she wanted to go. I tried putting her in the cart, which, of course just escalated her upsetness. Then I remembered what actually works when she's upset like this- verbalize what she's feeling. I whispered in her ear "You're upset because you want to go over there and I won't let you." Instantly calmer- "Yeah." "And you want me to put you down so you can go." Calmer still- "Yeah" Then I explained in simple terms that it wasn't safe for her to be that far from me in the grocery store, etc. All this happened in just a minute or so with the end result being her sitting calmly in the cart seat. The lady behind me told me that she wished she knew what I was saying. I was a little surprised, since you just expect everyone to be unforgiving of a melting down child. I asked her why & she said "Because it's working." I just smiled and said that we talk a lot. A very similar situation happened a few weeks ago with someone else telling that I handled an upset Dillon really well. I just wish it was the first thing I thought to do instead of something I have to remember. Often it is, but not always.

It's so interesting, these random compliments. You really do expect everyone to be unforgiving. Parenthood is such a tough thing and society expects kids to be seen and not heard- especially in public places. So for someone to compliment you on your handling of child's very realistic, but not publically desirable behavior is refreshing to say the least. It also really makes your day.