Poor Jocelyn has had a stomach ache for months now.  Months!  Poor kid is hurting ALL THE TIME.  We have been to her pediatrician, we have eliminated dairy from her diet, we put her on antacids, and we put her on Miralax.  And nothing has worked.  She gets bloated, and her pain is at her belly button, which can mean absolutely anyting.

So we finally went to a GI doctor on Wednesday of this week.  He’s a pediatric GI doctor, so he has a lot of experience with children.  He suggested doing extensive testing, but warned that he may not find anything.  Evidently, about 30% of children complain of tummy distress, and it eventually just goes away.  Still, though, we want to rule out anything that could be troubling.  It could be an allergy or sensitivity that we just don’t know about yet.

So we spent the morning getting tested.  Poor Jocelyn had to undergo an upper endoscopy and a full abdominal ultrasound.  For both procedures, she had to have an empty stomach, so we scheduled them both on the same day so she would only have to skip breakfast once.

Jocelyn was a trouper!  I mean, she is seriously one tough cookie!  We scheduled the scope first, because that one had no food or drink allowed.  We had to get there by 6:30, so when I woke her up at 5:40, she popped right out of bed and got dressed like it was no big thing.  She was fine to not eat or drink anything for a very long time.  When the nurse called us back to the prep room, she quickly followed, not needing any hand-holding.  She was super brave when they hooked her up to different machines, and got wheeled off to the operating room with no problems.  I was so impressed.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed in the operating room, but that was for the best as I was a nervous wreck.

When it was all over, she was groggy and confused – poor thing!  And she was in a lot of pain.  She was super thirsty, so she drank a bunch of water, and she really hated having the IV in.  Once that was removed, she was much happier.  Also, once she had a few ice pops (3, so she could try all of the colors), she was happier still.  And the room had a TV, so we watched Disney Channel while we waited around for her to get discharged. 

The good news is that the doctor didn’t see anything that stood out in the endoscopy pictures.  We’ll see if anything comes back from the biopsies, but right now we can almost completely rule out any major GI diseases.  The bad news, of course, is that we still don’t know why she has tummy troubles. 

After she was all recovered, we took her to get a bunch of abdominal ultrasounds.  That was very interesting, but we don’t know what (if anything) they saw, since the tech didn’t tell us anything.  That didn’t hurt, of course, but she hated it just the same because she was bored, hungry, and hurting.  It also took a long time – far longer than any ultrasound that I ever had done (which makes sense, mine were only of one specific part, although there were always a lot of measurements. 

When it was finally all done, we went on a hunt to find a restaurant that would serve pancakes.  I had to call a few places in the area – most of them had French toast, but not pancakes (weird!). But then we found one that was super close to where we were.  Of course, when we did get there, Jocelyn changed her mind and wanted French toast!  HAHA!  She ate a TON of food.  Poor hungry kid!  And then just rested for the rest of the day.

But, by evening time, she and Donovan were running around the basement, kicking the soccer ball.  So I would say that her recover was just fine J.

My baby boy is 3. THREE.

Okay, he was 3 about 2 months ago.  What can I say?  I had a lot of other projects going on during that time. (Also, if I figure out how to backdate this thing, then this first line won't mean much).  

Donovan is the best companion that anybody could ask for.  The kid just loves to help.  LOVES it.  It’s adorable.  If you are going to the grocery store, Donovan wants to come along.  Does he want to hang out in the play room?  No way!  He wants to grab a little cart and pick out some groceries!  It rules.  He loves to help in the kitchen and with cleaning (which has been the case for as long as he can stand). 

Donovan is the funniest little guy I have ever met.  My favorite joke that he made up was when we were outside and Dakota (our cat) was at the screen door.  Donovan turned to me and said, “Dakota says, ‘let MEE-OWT (like meow / me out).”  Seriously, how adorable is that?  After he saw 101 Dalmations, he commented that Cruella has “fancy shoes on a naughty lady.” 

He speaks like an adult.  If he changes his mind, he will start the new sentence with “Actually”.  For example, he will say, “I’ll take vanilla.  Actually, I would like chocolate this time.”  Although, once he transitioned to the 3-year-old room, some of his mature phrases were replaced with less mature ones.  “I don’t know” became “not know”.  He also started speaking with an accent – cat is now cyat (very northwestern NJ). 

The “Terrible Two’s” are all but over.  We do get fits still, but they are far less frequent.  Unfortunately, they are really irrational, and come out of the blue.  His big thing is to get upset about something that happened in the past.  Like, he will remember at bed time that he wanted to bring his dinosaur book to daycare that day.  And immediately start crying actual tears because he didn’t bring it.  But, really, he’s pretty good about his fits overall.  They are not nearly as frequent as they once were.

My big boy is definitely not a baby anymore – we moved him out of his crib and into a big boy bed just before Christmas.   He hasn’t yet figured out that he can get out of bed.  Poor kid spilled water on himself one night and cried until somebody heard him.  But it was late, and we were downstairs, so we didn’t hear him right away.  That’s when we told him that he should get out of bed if he needs to. 

Potty training was a bit of a beast, but I would say that he is trained.  He was most of the way there for the whole time he was 2, and then when he switched classrooms, he back-slid a bit.  But we are back to where we need to be – at very few accidents each week.  That said, he did pee on me the other night.  Nobody is perfect :-P.

He still loves vacuum cleaners.  It’s to the point where he knows different brands, and he wants a Shark.  He also loves to sing, and make up words, and goof around. 

Donovan is a fantastic eater.  Seriously, he will eat just about anything.  And if there is a treat to be had, he definitely eats well.  He loves crab.  Seriously, they both do.  If I bring home some crab legs, they are both all over me.  He also really likes dark chocolate – specifically theGhirardelli 60% dark kind.  For a while there, he was really big on eating raw onions, but he got away from it a bit because they can be a bit spicy.  He will occasionally fuss about trying vegetables, even ones he likes.   But once we remind him that he only gets a treat if he tries everything, he will take a bite and remember that he does, in fact, really like roasted cauliflower. 

Donovan is also an excellent food sharer.  No matter what he is eating, he offers bites.   Even if it’s something delicious, like ice cream, he wants to share it with you.  Which is good, because he wants a bite / sip of whatever you have as well.  He does take it personally if you don’t want it, though.  And sometimes, after it has been squished around in a 3 year old’s hands, you really don’t want it.  So I wind up taking bites of some really gross stuff sometimes, all out of love. 

He still looks up to Jocelyn, and he copies her every move.  He loves pink and princesses and glitter, and he wants to see her friends.  Sometimes he is sad that he is a boy and he tells me that he wants to be a girl.  He also tells me that when he grows up, he wants to be a woman so he can be a mommy.  It’s really sweet.  At this age, I suspect that it has less to do with gender identity, and much more to do with the fact that I’m definitely his favorite parent (which is weird, because Mike is definitely the more fun parent).  Of course, if it is a gender identity thing, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

He’s a good boy.  I love my little doodle boo. 

Holy crap - I have a 4 year old!

My first born, my pride and joy, my mini-me - she has turned 4 today (nearly to the minute, as I type this).  I don't even remember life before her.  Okay, that's not really true.  I remember life before her.  But I would never go back in time to before her. 

I'm constantly amazed by the person she is becoming.  In some ways she has grown so much, in others, she is exactly who we expected baby Jocelyn to grow up into.  When she woke up and I wished her a happy birthday, and told her that she was 4 now.  She asked when it happened, adn I told her 'today.'  Her question back to me was, "While I was sleeping?"  With big, wide eyes at that! 

Jocelyn is a very introspective girl.  She really takes things in, observes the action before jumping in, takes her time and hangs back before getting too comfortable with people (but once she is comfortable, she is really comfortable).  She is hard to to bond with, so shen she gives love she really means it.  She does give some benefit to family - she knows that her family members love her, and extends that trust even to those who she doesn't know well.  She is hard to impress all around - so when you can make her laugh, it's sort of a big deal. 

She is so exuberent, though.  When she does get excited, like truly excited, she gets excited with her whole body.  She shakes with excitiement.  It is so amazing to see.  And she loves with her whole heart and body.  She gives big hugs and kisses, she loves to touch faces and stroke hair, she loves having her back or tummy rubbed, she will is a big fan of cuddles and hand-holding. 

My big girl is so smart.  From a milestone standpoint, she has really done well at learning her letters and numbers.  She enjoys building things out of Duplo blocks and other blocks they have at daycare.  She talks about how shapes work together, can count really high, and has a very strong vocabulary.  She is very articulate, but often gets shut down by emotion and can't express herself. 

Jocelyn enjoys creative / imagination play.  She loves her dolls and stuffed animals, and she gives them personas and has them interact with one another.  She dresses them in her clothes.  They are friends, and they fight with each other, and they have very complex relationships.

She is a fearless monkey child.  Jocelyn figured out a way to spin herself on her airplane swing by pre-twisting it and then climbing on so she can spin really fast.  She is trying really hard to learn to swing upside down on the swinging bar.  She has mastered climbing up our slide.  Bounce houses are about her favorite thing.

Jocelyn is the most strong willed person I have ever met.  We worked really hard on "Thank You", and she has finally, FINALLY, started to whisper it to people when they give her a gift.  She is a master at stalling bedtime - even to the point where I'm pretty sure she holds her poop until bed time.  It could be partly because she just doesn't need a lot of sleep - she was a terrible sleeper as a baby and some things never do changre.  But we are not the only people she manipulates her - she is great at tricking Donovan into playing with a different toy so that she can have the toy she wants (or just get him away from her and whatever friend she is playing with).   

She still loves to read.  We read so many books every day.  But she also likes watching TV - lately we watch a lot of Dora, Sophia, Bubble Guppies and some Jake.  We watch significantly less Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We are also really big into movies - specifically animated Disney movies.  Frozen is the big favorite right now, but we love Tangled, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast as well.  We want to get her some other movies, because she knows who all of the princesses are and she adores them.  Lately, she likes to play interactive games on my phone.   We mostly play with apps that read her a story, and let her interact by moving characters around.  But she also likes to watch me play some games. 

She is incredibly confident.  She knows she is smart, strong and beautiful.  She is proud of our house, and wants to show it off to her friends.  She aims to please, but only to an extent.  She doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do - she is nobody's trained monkey.  At the same time, she really respects boundaries and rules.  She loves the company of women - cousins, aunts, grandma, etc.  She even wants to marry a girl, because the idea of marrying a boy is icky to her (last I checked, she wants to marry Ariel).  But her favorite person is totally her daddy.  And Donovan is her best friend (they really do get along great). 

Jocelyn is very observant.  She notices things in her environment and asks interesting questions about them.  She points out inconsistencies in movies that she has watched several times.  My favorite is that she told me that Sebastian sings that Ariel "don't say a word and she won't say a word until you kiss the girl," but that even if he kisses her, she still won't talk.  She will just stay on land with legs but no voice.  She is kind of obsessed with death - and has asked a lot of questions about Mufasa dying, as well as Babar's mother. 

Jocelyn is a fashionista.  She is very particular about what she wears, and puts together awesome outfits.  She enjoys wearing dresses, but pairs them with pants for practical purposes (it's hard to slide down slides at daycare in a dress!).  She always makes it work.  She loves tights and boots.  Her favorite color is pink, and if it sparkles, then even better.  Not only does she pick out great stuff for herself, but she also picks out great stuff for me.  When she goes shopping, she points out clothing and says, "You will look so beautiful in this, mommy!" and "Daddy will just love you in this!"  It's amazing.  Even more amazing is that she is right - when I wear a Jocelyn selection, you can bet that I get complements everywhere I go. 

She wants long, golden hair, but hates having her hair brushed.  So we keep her red hair short and sassy.  She is completely unphotogenic for posed pictures - her 'cheese' smile is a funny, toothy face.  It's adorable.  It's also ironic, because she is incredibly beautiful (my biased opnion, of course).  We get stopped by strangers all the time who comment about how pretty she is, so there is hard evidence from unbiased sources. 

All in all, she is an incredible person.  I can't believe I get to be her mommy.  I hope I can to right by her.  And I can't believe it's been 4 years.  In some ways, it doesn't feel like it could possibly be that much time.  In other ways, it seems like she has always been around.  It's crazy. 

Happy birthday, little bug! 

Happy second birthday, Donovan!

I can't believe that my big boy is 2.  TWO.  2!  I know that he technically became a toddler a year ago, but I still thought of him as a baby.  Now, he is defnitely not a baby anymore.  He is a BIG BOY!

They made him a crown at daycare, which he got to decorate himself.  And he brought in "Birthday Cake" flavored Oreos to share with his friends at snack time.

Donovan is so big that he speaks in full sentences.  I'm talking 4, 5, and 6 word sentences.  He is opinionated and expresses his thoughts incredibly well!  He tells us when he likes something, when he doesn't like something, when something hurts, when something is funny.  It's great.  He communicates very well.  Of course, it's not really helping keep the terrible-two's in check - we understand him perfectly, but sometimes he still doesn't get what he wants, and so the tantrum begins :-P.

Donovan is obsessed with vacuum cleaners.  Obsessed.  His vacuum is his absolute favorite Christmas present.  He always uses it.  And he does it 'right' too - the way a full grown person would vacuum a room with a real vacuum cleaner.  His is fancier than ours though - we got him a Dyson! 

He is my little kitchen helper.  Donovan loves to watch mommy cook.  So we picked out a nice stool for his birthday so that he can watch us whenever he wants.  It was pricey, but it was well worth it.  It's sturdy, durable, attractive and has hand rails for him.  Plus it's tough enough for Mike and I to use, and we have already! 

Donovan has the best sense of humor of anybody I have ever met.  It is so easy to make him laugh.  He laughs at things that really surprise me - like when Jocelyn sings the wrong words to something, he thinks it's really funny.  And he also laughs at things that are not surprising at all - like farts.  Farts are about the funniest thing he has ever experienced.  And if he farts on you, or if somebody farts on him (like Jocelyn, since she also thinks farts are hillarious), forget about it - that's the funniest thing ever!
I don't want this to be a string of updates and milestones, that needs to be a different blog post.  Even though I do want to brag about his fairly consistent peeing in the potty, counting to 13 and knowing his ABC's  :-P. 

Instead I want to reflect on his birth.  It's so strange to think that my little guy - who is so big, strong, and advanced, spent some time in the NICU.  All told, it was like 36 hours.  So it wasn't a crazy amount of time.  But it was so awful to go home from the hospital without him.  And, honestly, I probalby shouldn't have gone home at all since I spent more time at the hospital than home anyway (I went back twice that first day to nurse, and then early the next morning, and stayed until they sent him home with us that afternoon).  I remember how scared I was - and how jarring it is to see your newborn baby hooked up to all sorts of monitors with wires sticking off of him. 

In addition to being scared, I remember almost mentally pushing him away.  It was like I mentally prepared myself for the worst possible outcome, so I wouldn't let myself get completely attached.  It's weird, I know, but I guess it was a self-preservation thing.  I am so grateful that the worst didn't come (although, as a mother, losing a child is my biggest fear). 

It is so strange to think that was 2 years ago.  And how that is the last time (barring divine intervention) I will go through such an experience.  Sometimes that makes me sad.  But then I remember that newborns aren't very much fun, even when they are your own and you love them like crazy.  And toddlers are a TON of fun ("terrible twos" aside... and at least that makes for some good stories). 

It's funny how 2 years used to feel like a long time.  But it went by in the blink of an eye.  I have no more babies.  My baby is a big boy.  A big boy who I love so much that it hurts. 

Super pooper used the potty!!!

I forgot to post this last night...

We are still unpacking, and the stand alone potty was packed away (we picked up one of those seats you put on the toilet for the transition).  Mike finally got the seat out of the box it was in yesterday, and put it on top of a stool in our dining room.

He also didn't realize that I was upstairs for more than 'just a second', so he went to the basement, leaving the children in the dining room unattended.

The thing we missed - Donovan got the potty down, told Jocelyn that he had to use the potty, she helped him take off his diaper, and he pooped in the potty.  By himself.  With minimal help (and from his sister, not a grown up). 

Jocelyn yelled to the basement that Donovan pooped in the potty, Mike asked where I was, Jocelyn told him I was still upstairs.  Then Mike ran upstairs and called for me.  We all celebrated.  Donovan got 2 stickers, and Jocelyn got one for helping. 

I just can't believe we all missed his first poop in the potty! 


He pees in the regular toilet nearly every night.  Which I think I have already mentioned.  He is only 21 months old.  What a big boy!!

Crazy 8's!

So... Donovan can count to 8.  We had no idea.  Yes, we count often, but we don't force the issue.  The, the other day, Mike was disciplining Jocelyn by telling her that if she didn't sit down by the time he got to 5, she would be in trouble.  So he slowly counted up to 4, and paused a bit before saying 5.  But before he could finish, Donovan finished for him with a "5, 6, 7, 8".  I nearly peed my pants!  I had no idea he knew how to do that!  So we celebrated, gave him high-fives, etc.  So then he counted to 8 several times.  It was SO cute!

He has taken an interest in reading lately as well.  Donovan was never much of a reader before, but now he loves to look at this one Sesame Street book with little flaps that have different stuff behind them.  His favorite page has a playground.  We spend a lot of time on that page.  His second favorite page is an outside of school picture, and there is a talking bubble indicating a character saying "good morning teacher."  So when we open to that page, Donovan yells, "Good Morning Teacher!"

My doodle bug is still a great eater.  He will eat absolutely anything, and any cut of meat, be it chicken, pork or beef, is just "meat."  It's really funny.  He will yell, "More Meat!" 

Donovan recently had his first real Halloween (last year he was too little to really understand it).  We told him how we would go from house to house and they would give us candy.  What we didn't tell him clearly enough was that we would collect it up and take it home.  So at the first house he got a Hershey bar, and immediately pulled it out of his bucket and yelled, "OPEN IT!"  Then he cried when we didn't.  Eventually he understood about collecting up the candy to take home.  And now he loves having a piece each day. 

New daycare is so hard!

Poor Jocelyn is having a very tough time transitioning to her new daycare situation.  I don’t know what to do about it.  Donovan has transitioned fine – he hates drop off, but I know he is fine by the time I leave the building.  And they send pictures of him having fun.  Jocelyn, on the other hand, is not enjoying it as much.

I think part of the problem is her age.  She is old enough to really remember her last daycare, remember the routines, and remember her friends.  She was very comfortable there (but occasionally had the dramatic drop off), and felt empowered to ask for what she wanted.  And, quite honestly, she often got it. 

 This place is a bit more structured, at least for her room.  They do a lot more to prepare the kids for school, so there is a bit more of a curriculum.  Also, there is a choice board where you put your picture next to the play area you want to use.  They limit the number of spots per play area.  So sometimes she wants to go to housekeeping, but it’s already full, and she is stuck going somewhere else.  There is also an adjacent room, and she claims that they have better stuff over there.  So sometimes she wants to play with that.  And she doesn’t always get her way. 

I know she has fun while she is there.  They send pictures and updates, including a daily newsletter with the major activities that they did (so when you ask ‘what did you do in daycare today?’ you get more than ‘nothing’ or ‘I don’t know’).  I love those things.  And I know that Jocelyn does fun stuff, and has fun doing it.  They also go outside every day – as long as it’s between 10 and 90 degrees out, and it’s not raining hard (a light drizzle does not deter them).  So she has a lot of fun with that. 

 But I also know that there are things that she doesn’t like.  And she gets so sad when I leave in the morning.  They even started a system where Jocelyn gets a Disney Princess sticker on days when she doesn’t cry when I leave.  I feel like I have become a helicopter parent who is asking for special things for my baby.  I want to make the transition easy for my baby, but I don’t want to be the pain in the ass parent who asks for a million concessions.  It’s a hard balance to find. 

One compromise is that the neighboring room evidently has a whole collection of pretty dress-up dresses to play with.  Jocelyn likes them.  So she wants to play with them.  She does go into that room at the end of the day when they consolidate the kids, but the area where the dresses are is usually ‘closed’.  I have asked them to keep it open for her a few days a week, with the promise that she will clean it up when she is done.  So far that has been okay.  They also borrow a few dresses from that room for her room when they are not in use.  Now she is talking about animal toys that they have on the other side.  So that will be the next special request.  And today she complained that they don’t go to music class enough. 

 I’m just hoping she outgrows this soon and can start to enjoy her daycare.  It really is a cool place.  I mean, they have a sledding hill.  Sledding hill!   In the winter, when it’s snowy, they go sledding!  And they have at least 7 playgrounds surrounding the place, so there is always an open playground. 

 One terrible way this is manifesting is that she is wetting the bed almost nightly.  Good thing we invested in a few waterproof queen sized sheets for the temporary housing!  We put her in a diaper one night because it got so bad, but then she wanted to wear a diaper to daycare the next day.  So that is not the option.  Poor Mike does laundry daily now (ah, the joys of being a house hubby [for now]).  I am sure that all of this transitioning has gotten her back into wetting – she became night potty trained almost immediately upon becoming day potty trained.  I think it was about another week or two after getting rid of daytime diapers that we were able to get rid of night time diapers / pull ups.  But now, not so much.  Poor kid. 

 One good thing is that one of my coworkers has her kids there as well, and her daughter is Jocelyn’s age.  So she asked her daughter to be nice to Jocelyn and try to make friends with her.  So far it’s working, Jocelyn spends a lot of time with this girl (and one other one), and often comes home with stories about the things they did together.  That’s helping a bit. 

I hate that my poor little boo is sad.  I want to fix it for her so badly!  I have thought that maybe I should pull her out for now and let her stay home with Mike.  But he is only home temporarily, and will hopefully be working full time soon, so we will just be at it all over again.  So we need to get her used to it.