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.