Traveling with a Toddler

This week we are in Colorado for Margaret's skating competition and then to spend some time with her cousins.  Margaret competes on Saturday in Colorado Springs and then we are going to Keystone to hopefully go skiing.  This meant we had to fly with Josh for the first time since he was three months old.  We were supposed to fly to Curacao in December but that trip was cancelled because of the passing of Margaret's grandmother.  So this was the first time we had to take a long trip with Josh since he has really been mobile.

Margaret's parents purchased our tickets using their frequent flyer miles which meant we got to use their premiere status.  Boy was that necessary.  Not only did we bring enough stuff for a small army but we got the bulkhead row of seats which provided extra space.  We decided to carry on our new carseat which is meant to be used on an airplane and is supposed to be very portable.  Let me say, it is NOT.  It was very heavy and bulky and only because Margaret has small hands were we able to get it installed on the airplane.  If we did not have the extra space of the bulkhead it would not have fit at all.

Our flight took off at 5:50 which is nearly Josh's bedtime.  Our hope was Margaret would feed Josh during take off (so he wouldn't be bothered by the changing pressure) and then he would fall asleep and we would put him into his carseat.  It didn't quite work out that well.  Josh was not at all interested in sleeping initially.  He eventually got tired but then couldn't get comfortable in the carseat.  At night he sleeps on his stomach so going to sleep on his back was not what he had in mind.  He has slept in the carseat but only while driving.  After much crying, a bottle, some cheese and Margaret feeding him several more times he did finally fall asleep and we successfully transferred him to the carseat.  He slept for about an hour and a half which at least gave us some time to rest.  He woke up when we were close to Denver and was fussy but not too impossible to handle.

We finally landed, got our bags and got our rental car.  Fitting all of our stuff and the carseat into the car was not easy but Margaret figured that out (as she always does).  We were concerned Josh would not sleep well or the time change would be very difficult for him but after Margaret fed him he went to sleep and slept until around 7 (mountain time).  Seems he has adjusted well to the time change, we just hope it stays that way.

I find traveling stressful and doing it with a toddler certainly doesn't make it easier.  Hopefully we will come up with a better plan for the flight home and it will go a bit more smoothly.

Ready to fly

Checking out the in flight entertainment

First trip to the ER....

Today was yet another 2 hr delay for Josh for daycare, so Julian and Josh had breakfast while I showered and got ready. Then when I came down for breakfast Julian got started on his work for the day. Josh was very upset that I got to eat a bagel and he had already finished his, so I gave him another piece of bagel. He was not satisfied, and was pointing at my plate, so I gave him a plastic plate for his bagel. He is going through a phase where he loves bowls, plates, and silverware for eating--and is very grumpy if you have these things and he does not. Sadly, he was not satisfied with the plate and bagel I gave him, and instead wanted MY plate and bagel. He stood up and came racing over to try and get my food, and accidentally stepped on his plate and slipped and fell :-( It was a very banana peel-esque fall. He hit his butt first and then lightly hit his head, while the plate flew out from under his foot. He started to cry immediately, so I picked him up and he calmed down a bit. Julian came out from our office to investigate the commotion, and I told him what had happened but by then Josh calmed down so we thought everything was ok. After a minute or so, I noticed that Josh looked very unsteady on his feet and could only take 1-2 steps before falling down. Julian and I were both very concerned that Josh had hurt himself more seriously on his fall than we originally thought. Josh was getting very upset at this point, so we decided that I would feed him to calm him down and then see how he was doing after getting a bit of a rest from being held. Unfortunately after 15-20 minutes, he still could not take more than 1-2 steps and would cry when he fell (we weren't sure if he was just frustrated or in pain). I called our pediatrician and the nurse said that any time a toddler can't walk they should go to the ER to be checked out. She said that I could wait an hour to see how he was doing, but that I should probably just go get him checked out. Since it had been about 30 minutes since the fall at that point with no change, we decided to head to the ER.

We went to Suburban Hospital, which I shall rate highly for their ER services :-)  We only had to wait about 5-10 minutes to be seen by a nurse. And another 5 or so minutes before the doctor came in. Josh wouldn't try walking for the nurse, he looked very scared to (we thought maybe he was remembering how hard it had been at home to walk), but by the time the doctor came in he would take 3-4 steps, but still didn't look like himself. The doctor ordered X-rays, but told us he thought it was unlikely that there was anything broken. Both Julian and I were very relieved that Josh's walking already seemed to be improving. Josh was a VERY good boy for his X-rays, no crying at all! By the time we got back to our room Josh started investigating the room and walking around :-) We were waiting for the doctor to come back, and Josh even ventured out to the play area and then was walking around the hallways. We were so happy to have Josh walking around again! By the way Josh was acting we were pretty sure there was nothing really wrong, and the doctor came back and confirmed that there was no break. He said it might have just been a mild sprain, but that we didn't need to be concerned since it seemed like Josh was doing well. All in all we spent under 2 hrs at the ER, which is a record low time!

I think the doctor didn't think that we needed to come in, but I'd much rather have gone in when it wasn't necessary than the other way around! We knew Josh was not acting normally, and we are very lucky that nothing was really wrong. I think in the future we might wait the hour before going to the ER, but I'm glad we didn't this time! I don't think Julian and I would have made it if we had :-P

Enjoying some snacks!

Being a good boy for his X-ray!

Don't worry, Julian made sure to get digital images too ;-)

MORE snow???

So the DC area is just getting pelted with snow and ice this winter. It was fun the first few times, but now it is just getting old. Our daycare follows the government for closing, but if the public schools in Montgomery County are off or have a 2 hr delay we also have a 2 hr delay. Fortunately I just finished all my revisions and turned in my final thesis (yay!) and now I'm just cleaning out and organizing all my samples at work but will be done very soon. So at least I have the flexibility to stay home with Josh when needed, but I do have to plan my week very carefully around days when the weather might not be good. I really feel for families that don't have the job flexibility we have in dealing with backup care!

The most recent storm was almost "half a Josh" deep. Around 12-15 inches of snow! We took Josh outside for perhaps our most successful playing in the snow (not saying much...) We tried to sled down our front steps, but our "sled" was not particularly good. By the time we borrowed a sled from a neighbor, Josh was really over the whole snow thing and just wanted to go back inside. Overall, Josh really hates his coat, and mittens, and hat....so snow has less appeal to him for now. Hopefully we can change his mind for our trip to Colorado in 2 weeks!

For now, enjoy some pictures and a video of us playing in the snow :-)

Almost half a Josh high!

Family photo time

Pull faster Daddy!

Moving Right Along

Over the last month Josh went from crawling everywhere to almost exclusively walking.  Josh has always been very active and now he's even more so.  When he started walking it was just a few steps (I remember counting them and being very impressed when he made it 7 steps).  He would walk a few steps, fall down and then crawl the rest of the way to where he was going.  Now he walks everywhere.  He still falls down somewhat frequently but when he does, he gets himself back up and keeps walking. We are working on getting him to walk in the direction we are going, but so far he gets a bit too distracted by things around him.

Cool dude ready for a ride

Happy Valentine's Day :-)

Nuts...

Since Josh was a few months old he's had eczema.  We've always assumed this was caused by a food allergy and Margaret spent a lot of time avoiding certain foods to contain it.  After lots of trial and error we concluded that Josh was allergic to soy and peas and we assumed he might be allergic to other legumes.  When Josh turned a year old we had to get blood drawn for other tests so our pediatrician agreed to include blood allergy testing.  Unfortunately we were right he is mildly allergic to both peas and soy. The results also showed that he has a very high allergy to peanuts.  This surprised us because we had sort of ruled out peanuts and Margaret has still been eating them. Fortunately we have not given Josh any peanuts yet, but he might be getting exposed through Margaret eating them.  We have no idea how much of the peanuts make it into the milk so we don't know if he has really come into contact with them or not--nor do we know what kind of reaction he would have if he were to be exposed. His level of allergy based on the blood test is extremely high, so our pediatrician was very concerned.

We immediately made an appointment with an allergist to get more information and to get an EpiPen.  We talked with the allergist for over an hour giving him a history of Josh's reactions and talked about what might happen.  The tests prove Josh is allergic and very likely to have a reaction but it does not tell us what that reaction will be. Based on his blood levels he has a greater than 95% chance of having a "clinically relevant" reaction. But he might just get a small rash or he could go into shock.  Unfortunately there are no definite answers.  There is a lot of new research on peanut allergies but none of it is conclusive.  What is interesting is doctors are no longer 100% recommending avoiding peanuts, even with an allergy.  New research is showing that giving small amounts of peanuts can help teach the body to not react to peanuts. This research is way too preliminary at this point though.

For now we are going to avoid peanuts and see how things go.  We are trying to get used to our new situation and trying to not be too stressed about everything Josh comes into contact with.  We were not particularly careful before about peanuts and he hasn't had a problem.  That being said we are going to be much more careful going forward and always make sure we have the EpiPen with us just in case.

Josh's daycare is nut free and we talked to the people there.  They were very helpful and made us feel better about our new nut concerns.  Josh now has an EpiPen that will live at daycare in case he has a problem but hopefully it will never be used.

It's been a rough week for us but we are trying to get used to the new situation.  Josh is still his normal smiley happy self and even enjoyed playing with the EpiPen box :-)

Reading about the EpiPen

Watching me shovel snow

Good to the last drop

Still our happy little boy!

Winter fun!

Sorry we are such slackers on the blog lately... We had a fun weekend full of winter activities! On Sunday we took Josh to the ice rink and yesterday it snowed!

This was not Josh's first trip to the ice rink, but it was his first time out on the ice! We met up with one of Julian's coworkers, and I was teaching his kids how to skate. Julian, Josh and Julian's coworker were hanging out to watch. After convincing Julian that I am a responsible adult, he let me put Josh on the ice :-) He was not at all afraid (Josh, not Julian :-P )!! He stood up happily without slipping and even took some steps on the ice (in shoes, not skates). He also sat down to investigate the ice. I certainly have no plans to push Josh into skating, but it was very fun and cute to see him on the ice!

I like ice!

Checking out the skaters

It snowed about 6 inches here in the suburbs yesterday, and we decided to take Josh out to play in the snow :-) As we suspected, we only made down the front walk before he got upset, but we got some cute pictures. I'm not sure if it was the mittens, jacket, double layered pants or cold wet white stuff that bothered him. We are going to need to buy a sled before the next snow storm, I think it would have been fun to pull Josh around on one :-)

Not happy about the coat...

ooops!

Happy Snow Day!

1 year stats

We had Josh's 1 year checkup this week and he is 22 lbs 7oz and 30.25in tall! That puts him in the 65th percentile for height and weight. He is growing and developing well :-) He had to get his first round of the MMR vaccine at the appointment. While I'm a scientist and I certainly know better, all of the hullabalu around that vaccine still made me nervous to give it to him. But we both bucked up and he got his shot. We have to take him to get blood drawn to test for lead and something else I can't remember. We are also going to do a blood allergy test for some of the members of the legume family. Hopefully all will go smoothly.

Josh did not want to cooperate to take our traditional "Mommy holding Josh and sitting in Dr. Kulp's chair" picture, but we still got some cute ones.