Welcome April? - A peek at life now.

I cannot believe March is over. In many ways this year it was nasty and gross, the sort of month you are ready to shake off. The showers of spring have finally hit and are washing away the ugly grime.

We are moving. We think we've sold our house. We were sick with bronchitis and pneumonia basically all month. This was scarier for JAM than for the rest of us. We were close to hospitalization and oxygen, but we dodged it, gratefully. His albuterol inhaler was well-used this past month. And then, as if the weather were commiserating with us, winter seemed to refuse to end.

April has made a huge difference. We are all a bit more optimistic. Days have been spent out of doors, and while we still have sniffles and are still in transition, the world just looks brighter.

In March we visited the GI doctor. She gave us some magic juice that was specially designed to realign the delicate flora of his GI. She called the juice an antibiotic. She also asked us to give him probiotic. We did so faithfully. Some of the pain went away. The overall problems abated for about a week and then returned. Less pain, but same symptoms.

So this week I contacted his GI doctor and his nutritionist again. Since hitting the screw with a hammer didn't seem to nail anything in last time, we're going to try again, only hit harder. More antibiotic - but for a full month instead of a few weeks. His gut will heal, gosh darn it. We will make it so.

The nutritionist offered a variety of really yummy looking high-calorie smoothies. I told her I'd be sure to try the recipes "to make sure they tasted okay" before handing them over to him. She has been in conversation with an NP and a developmental pediatrician, all of whom are stumped about my little guy. Keep up with the zinc supplements. Keep up with the high calorie foods. And maybe, maybe he might someday grow.

Warm weather finally allowed us to get out. Here's JAM
with his sister at a sculpture garden, shoeing a gigantic horse
with great effort.
See, I told ya he was still so small.

He's been hanging out at 15-16 pounds since October.  He's still comfortable in his 9 month clothing. (Yep, he's 20 months old. Yes, that means kids a full year younger than him are in the same size clothing as him.)

Just because he's little, though, doesn't mean he doesn't LOOK his age. Over the past month he's decided that he's a toddler now.

He's crawling and climbing and giggling and exploring. He talks, though we don't often understand him, and he has a will that is showing more and more each day with insistent whines that we don't always know how to interpret. He loves to hold our hands and walk around the living room. We did this in a waiting room one day, and someone commented that he looked too little to be walking around like that. He's actually behind in gross-motor by about six months. Had he been a "normal" size for his age, they'd be wondering why he wasn't walking on his own yet.  I guess there are benefits to being little. You look brilliant for your size. Brilliance. That's what April will be about. Sunshine.

Welcome, spring.