Halloween 2009 had some potential, but - thanks to a looooooooong day with a very poor nap schedule, Dexter crashed before we could take him anywhere to show him off.
Dennis spent a couple of hours making and covering a wire armature for Dexter's banana costume. I think it came out GREAT! Too bad Dexter was not in a mood to agree.
(To be fair, it's pretty much torture for that kid to see/hold/touch/otherwise interact with an unpeeled banana. He wants the good stuff.)
Today, I picked up Dexter at about 4:45. He'd had a good day. We got home and played some with his safari car and stacking blocks.
Then he started fussing, walked out of the living room into the kitchen, looked at me and made the sign for "more." Then when I got up to follow him, he walked toward the dining room and turned back and looked at me and again signed "more." Then he went into the dining room and stood next to his high chair. I guess he was ready for dinner. :)
For a kid who has zero words, he finds a way to get his message across. I was very impressed with all of that, actually. (He ate a whole banana, some sweet potato, some peas, and (almost) half a grilled cheese sandwich. He aso drank several ounces of milk. The Great Communicator is a growing boy!)
I'll go ahead and call it a "first," although I certainly hope we never see any more scary rashes. Ever.
As we said before, Dexter visited the doctor on Monday, 10/5 for his one year well-child visit. While there, he received the MMR and polio vaccines. He was also prescribed amoxicillin for a possible sinus infection.
On Friday, 10/9, we tried to get him a flu shot. But he was running a fever (101ish), so they couldn't give it to him. The fever wasn't terrible but didn't respond well to the standard tylenol/motrin combo.
When he still had a fever on 10/10, we called the pediatrician (as instructed). They wanted to see him. He looked fine, but they figured if he had fever, then the amoxicillin wasn't working and prescribed him some keflex. We asked if he could be one of the 16% of children who gets a fever from the MMR vaccine, but the pediatrician seemed confident that was not the case.
On Sunday, we started giving him the keflex. He slept a lot on Sunday (Saturday, too), but we figured he was just feeling badly and needed extra rest. Besides, he usually sleeps a lot on the weekends to catch up from his busy weeks at daycare.
Monday morning, we woke him up and got him dressed. When we brought him into some brighter light, we noticed a faint rash spreading across his nose, scalp, neck, and torso:
So we kept him home that day. Again, he slept a lot. I called the pediatrician to ask if Dexter was one of the 5% of children who gets a rash in response to the MMR vaccine. They asked a few questions over the phone and decided that yes, that's probably what it was, but to call if it got worse.
Well, by that night, it was worse:
But it still didn't seem like a severe rash along the lines of what you find online when you search for "measles" or "MMR rash reaction" or anything. And Dexter didn't seem too bothered by it. (a little grumpy, but he wasn't scratching at it or anything. And he was still happy to play "upside-down baby" with Dennis.) So we weren't too worried.
Tuesday morning (10/13), I brought him to daycare as usual. As the day progressed, I decided I would email the above photos to the pediatrician, just to make sure this was indeed a "mild" rash. Except we hadn't submitted the correct form to correspond with them via email. So that afternoon, after I picked him up from daycare, we made a quick stop at the doctor's office to drop off the form.
When the receptionist saw Dexter, she gasped and called a nurse over. When the nurse came over, she gasped and said she'd never seen an MMR rash that bad. They took his temp (normal) but squeezed us in for an appointment right then because things were surprisingly slow that afternoon. The doctor walked in and instantly said "That is not an MMR reaction." Instead, he diagnosed an allergy to keflex (an antibiotic he's been on before with no issues), prescribed a steroid to help the hives go away, and took him off of all of the antibiotics altogether (since the sinus infection was only "suspected" and none of the antibiotics were particularly effective anyway).
We got a few more pictures that night. Things had definitely gotten much worse:
Poor kid was still not really scratching at the rash, but he had to be miserable.
We were just SO lucky that we happened to go in to the pediatrician's office and that they were able to see us. Otherwise, we would have continued giving him the keflex and made things so much worse.
The steroid worked well overnight. On Wednesday morning, his rash was MUCH better (back to Monday-ish looking), and it kept getting better after that.
Unfortunately, Dexter's general demeanor continued to sour, and he was just not himself for a couple of more days. He was clingy, cuddly, crying, screaming, and he slept A LOT. We weren't sure if it was a reaction to the vaccines (still a possibility, as we're in that time window), a delayed reaction to a change in his diet (transitioning from formula to milk), continued effects of the allergic reaction, or a number of other things. All we knew is that something wasn't right.
And I guess that's all we'll ever know, and that's OK. He finally seems to be getting back to his old self tonight (10/16). Boy did we miss our HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY boy! I'm looking forward to seeing him make a full recovery by the end of the weekend and be ready for tons of playtime on Sunday and throughout next week at daycare.
Dexter is a very healthy baby. Er, toddler. Or something.
Weight: 26.6 pounds (91st %ile) Height: 34 inches (99th %ile - actually WAY above the curves on the graphs) Head circumference: 18.75 inches (83rd %ile)
He got his MMR vaccine today, and another dose of the Polio vaccine. The MMR is a pretty nasty shot, as these go, and he certainly let us know he did NOT approve. Our worst shot experience yet, but he still only cried (ok, screamed) for 2-3 minutes. His mom cried a little longer than that. He also got a little finger stick to test his iron and lead levels (great on both counts).
No big shocks otherwise. Gross motor development is excellent. Fine motor is right on track. Verbal is slightly behind the curve, but nothing to be concerned about yet, since he's still making progress (increasingly sophisticated babbling, understands us, follows directions, tries to communicate, mimics actions, etc.).
Dexter's first birthday party was a success! The weather was great (ok, maybe a little hot, and we could have used some shade, but since the alternative was cold and rain, we'll take it!), Dexter had some fun. And everyone ate, drank, and was merry. He is a very well-loved little boy.
Well, it's been a whirlwind of a month, and now Dexter is officially one year old! Not much else to say about that. I'm speechless! How can the longest year ever also be the shortest one?
Teeth: Still waiting on tooth #9. There seem to be a few making their way down, but they're still pretty far up there. LOTS of drooling and chewing on things lately, though, so there may be some progress we can't really see. We think the giant spaces between his teeth are absolutely charming, by the way.
Hair: Still stunningly gorgeous. He could probably use a trim in a few spots, but for now the little curls are too cute to chop off. It's still not in his eyes, so I guess we have a little bit of time.
Weight: We're guessing close to 27 pounds, but we find out for sure tomorrow.
Height: Really really tall. He's getting better and better at reaching things, but (thankfully) still can't open doors.
Sleep: The last month has been pretty darned good. He'll very consistently sleep for approximately 12 hours at night, usually with just one or two brief, self-resolved wakings.
Food: That whole "use up what we have" bit the dust when Dennis came home one night with a whole grocery bag full of purees. We've used it, though, as Dexter has become a little more finicky and pretty much only wants to eat bananas. He'll tolerate other fruit and the occasional black bean, but he doesn't really care much for any veggies, cheese, or meat. So we're doing what we can to get his diet rounded out a bit.
Verbal: More slow but steady progress. Sadly, he doesn't have any recognizable words yet (a goal for 12 months), but he does say "Dis" and points to *everything*. We can't figure out if "Dis" means "What is this?" or "Hey, look at this!" or any number of other things which may or may not involve the actual word "this." If you ask him, "Dexter, can you say 'essssssssss?'" he will repeat it back. ("sssssssssss") Very cute.
Gross Motor: Increasingly confident with the walking, and getting better at things like walking up hill and on uneven terrain. He almost never crawls anymore, unless something so exciting is about to happen so soon that he doesn't have time to stand up first.
Fine Motor: Looking good. We're liking the extension of the index finger when saying "Dis" (see "Verbal" above).
Books: No new favorites here, really. He's liking the books that squeak and buzz and otherwise make noise. His favorite thing about books is pulling them off of his bedside reading table, turning the pages, then discarding quickly. Still, we're determined to read to him *every* night, even if "reading" ends up meaning "turning the pages of a book really quickly while Mom or Dad tries to talk to me ever so briefly about what might be on that page that just flew by."
New Tricks: Dexter has been playing "peek a boo" with us (hiding/showing himself) for a few months, but he's really upped his game lately. Thanks to our open floor plan, he can go back and forth through the office and surprise us on either side. Ditto for the dining room/entryway and either side of the kitchen island. He also plays this when going into and out of his room. Sometimes he gets so excited he can barely catch his breath. Too fantastic. Other new tricks include giving things to people ("Give Dad the toothbrush.") and sitting on his potty (for a few seconds, at least) before bath every night. There is much clapping on both occasions.
Likes: Being outside. BOY does he like being outside! I wish winter weren't coming. But he'll probably love being out in the snow, too. We'll have to get him properly geared up. Other likes include bananas, peek-a-boo (see above), being thrown, being bounced, being swung around, chewing things (then spitting them out), to be scared (see "peek-a-boo"). Still likes Lady Goat and Down Dog and Mr. Bear and his Puppy.
Dislikes: Getting dressed. Being dressed is OK, as is being naked. But the actual act of getting dressed is for the birds. Other dislikes include swallowing food, being held (or otherwise confined) for long periods of time, being inside (especially when other people are outside). He may or may not like Roomba and his Safari Car. He likes to test boundaries with these. He'll turn on Roomba and then watch it from a safe distance. As long as Roomba is headed away from him, things are good, and he'll follow it. But when Roomba turns around, Dexter runs away. The Safari Car is extra scary, and its use requires an actual person to hide behind.
Personality: He's our same old Dexter. :) Always up for a game, and the rougher the better. I am starting to fear he is a true adrenaline junkie who will seek out risk at every opportunity throughout life.
When the receptionist saw Dexter, she gasped and called a nurse over. When the nurse came over, she gasped and said she'd never seen an MMR rash that bad. They took his temp (normal) but squeezed us in for an appointment right then because things were surprisingly slow that afternoon. The doctor walked in and instantly said "That is not an MMR reaction." Instead, he diagnosed an allergy to keflex (an antibiotic he's been on before with no issues), prescribed a steroid to help the hives go away, and took him off of all of the antibiotics altogether (since the sinus infection was only "suspected" and none of the antibiotics were particularly effective anyway).
The Invitation
