Filling in the blanks

My that was a long break between posts! The reason: we all got sick. That was one nasty bug. Poor Dex was sick for nearly two weeks. His dad also came down with something and he missed work for an entire week. I was the lucky one. I was ill the first Saturday night and was essentially fine after 24 hours.

Nothing like a sick baby with a bad case of the runs to really up that laundry quotient. And -- just when we needed it the most -- our washer conked out on us. How great is that? I'll spare you the gory details, but needless to say, it was a very un-fun two weeks.

Dex must have lost a couple of pounds during the ordeal. He only went back to his usual volume of food four days ago and he's been ravenous ever since. I'm hoping he gains the weight back soon.

Being sick also meant the baby no longer has a routine. I'm trying to get him back on schedule but there's been some resistance. It does not help that molar number two is still trying ever so slowly to come out.

So much for weaning

Major setback on the weaning -- Dex came down with a virus that has affected his digestive track. He hasn't been able to take in any solids so he is back exclusively on breastmilk. I gave him a little bit of rice cereal today (once he was puke-free for at least eight hours) and he tolerated that a bit. Hopefully tonight will be incident-free. But, I suspect he will wake up tonight. I'm sure he will be hungry so I am bracing myself for the sleepless night again. Breastfeeding every three hours -- It's like having a newborn again. He has a bit of a fever too so he is a little needy.

Poor thing. His mouth hurts because of the new molars and now this.

Molar #2 is out

I felt the edge of the molar on the right hand side of his mouth. That explains Worf the day before and the sleepless night after that.

The artist formerly known as Dex

Craft time today involved white paint and poster board. Here's a picture of him Pollock-ing away.












And here's a picture of his post-activity apron (my old shirt) which actually looks like a piece of art in itself.

By any other name

Since CTV has picked up Dexter, the TV show, I should explain once again that Dexter was named after his paternal grandfather, not some popular culture program. Our son's second name is Gordon, which makes him Dexter Gordon, as in the brilliant jazz saxophonist.

He's Dexter or Dex to us -- kewl kid, friendly, casual, easy-going, good sense of humour, calm. I haven't seen the more business-like Gordon side yet. Maybe he will grow into his second name.

Other nicknames:
Ziggy - Short for zygote. This was his nickname while he was in utero.
Worf - We call him this on his needy days, when he spends his days as a cling-on (get it?).
Komodo - sometimes he crawls so fast that his backend swivels like that of a lizard or a komodo dragon
Index - when he's sorting paper
Rolodex - when he's (obviously) rolling around on the ground

I'm sure we'll find other nicknames over time.

It is so fun to see him develop/evolve into his personality.

First molar

We spotted one! Don't know whether it came in yesterday or last night, but on the left side is a molar. No wonder he woke up screaming at 5:30 am yesterday.

Mommies do not get sick

I'm still trying to fight off this nasty bug that hit me late last week. I complained about my ache-y muscles last Friday, but I thought it was just because the little tyke's been clingy and needed to be held a lot. Well, if there was any doubt it was the flu, it was gone by Saturday, because I definitely felt awful and could barely make it out of bed. Fortified by my friend, Tylenol, I felt much better by Sunday, but this nasty thing came back with a vengeance on Monday.

Luckily, Dexter managed to evade the flu bug -- or so I gather, seeing as his energy level was not affected. He has a cold -- now on the mend -- but again, did I mention his activity level did not go down?

Jon stayed home with us on Tuesday which gave me a chance to crawl in bed for part of the day, but today it was back to work for him. Dex was stuck with his slow-moving, drippy-nosed, sick caregiver again.

While I'm fighting this off, I kept thinking, oh please, please, don't let Jon get sick. It's taking every ounce of my energy to take care of Dex now. If Jon goes down, I'll have to take care of him, too -- and that would surely finish me.