Aww Bedder! (that Jack-Language for 'All Better')

Jack is home.

He came home yesterday late evening. We checked in to the Children's Hospital Sunday afternoon. He stayed over night and was there all of Monday. Jack was able to spend the night at home last night. He was sick every half hour or so from around 1:30PM to about 5:00 or 6:00PM on Sunday. He got sick early afternoon, yesterday.

I think he got sick one other time besides that while we were there.

They put us in a very nice room at Children's. Cara did stay the night there and failed to get good rest due to a poor little kid in the room next door who cried almost our entire stay. I went home to use my CPAP and retrieve a list of needs for the next day.

One of our favorite nurses was Catherine from Uganda. She was thrilled to find that Cara lived there for a short while years ago. She took to Jack and kind of gave him special treatment- ordering a red wagon for him.

Monday evening my parents came with Leesha to see Jack as well as feed us. Around the same time, Cara's folks came too (they had fun meeting Catherine, it was cool that they were able to meet). Jack was maxed out with visitors. Not much later, the doctor came to check out Jack and said it was ok for him to go home.

Around 1:30AM he chuck up a bunch o.f fluid and a little piece of peach he had eaten during the day. He got sick a few more times through the night, the last one around 5:30AM.

It is Tuesday evening and he hasn't spit up anything worth reporting. He's drinking a lot and eating a little. I think Jack even loaded his diapers- a breakthrough!

Jack Single-Handedly DeRails the Holiday Plans

Today was going to be fun. Our plans were to go to Greg and Mandy's house and open our Secret Santa gifts and just hang out, maybe play some games and definitely eat. We went to church and picked up Leesha and then started driving to Willis West. About 1/4th off the way there Jack exploded. Something caused him to throw-up everything he ate for breakfast. ALL OVER himself, and the car seat. Quick thinking we diverted our course to Cara's parents house which is sort of on the way. They were there and we all got him and everything else cleaned up. However, Jack threw up again. And soon it was apparent that this wasn't going to stop anytime soon. We decided to call off going to Willis West and started on our way back home. Jack then upchucked something yellow so we decided to change course again to the Children's Hospital.


He was poked and prodded, and x-rayed. They seemed concerned that he was getting dehydrated and finally they I.V.ed him- which he was a real champion about. Having an I.V. put into your little guy is a scary ordeal. It did help to hear that the ladies doing it had done 8 already today. And they pointed out that that was just her count, there were other nurses doing them, too.

When it seemed he was finished he was fed some pedialight or whatever. But that came up pretty quick. But that was the last.

All said, Jack threw up at around 1:30pm and continued to around every half hour till around 5:30. The poor little guy never had a nap and was completely exhausted.

Cara's dad came and took Leesha to stay with them for the night. They are so great.

They moved us up to a real fancy room with the fanciest crib you've ever seen. TV, toys. Jack is definitely coming back. He started to get chatty again. What a wonderful sound that is. Looks like Cara's going to stay here to sleep and I'm going to go home to my CPAP.

A doctor says this may be the beginning of it and this may carry on for a few days.

Exponential vocabulary expansion

I don't know if I can keep up with all of this, but we'll at least capture some.

A very short time ago, I took Jack downstairs while I worked on the sewing machine. When I was done, I asked him if he wanted to stay downstairs or come back upstairs with me. He shook his head, so I left him down there. Moments later, he said; "Hi Mommy. All none (done)." So I asked him if he wanted to come back upstairs and Jeffry heard him say; "Yeah." Jeffry then put him on the stairs and followed him up.

It seems he's very eager to speak in full sentences, but we're only able to catch a few words at the most.

So, the last couple of days have included the following words: blankie - sometimes, it's blue blankie, bonkers (what I say when he falls or bumps his head), Emily (from his favorite "bi' puppy" or Clifford books), plum (from Little Jack Horner), yup, yeah, uh-uh, ready, uff da, applesauce, belly button, Peef, nigh' nigh' (someone going to bed) and bus.

At least twice, he's also wanted my help with something (ie. trying to find something that he threw down the laundry chute) and he'll come pull on my pants and say; "num on Mommy" (come on).

Earlier this evening, I entered Green Mill ahead of the boys and when they came in, Jack was saying; "Mommy go?" at Jeffry's prompting.

Also after much prompting, he finally called his lovie something - "lovely" although it seems to come out more like "bluvlie".

During a conversation about television the topic of BBC's programming came up and there was much mention of Doctor Who. At some point Jack repeated what he was hearing and said "Doctor Who".

Leesha has had her cute moments as well. Since we've scaled down Christmas at our house, she only got a couple of presents, one of which was the discontinued pink dragon Webkinz. Very fun to see her open that and watch her eyes light up with wonder. Grandpa David and Grandma Darlene also gave her an mp3 player which brought about the same response. Now, we'll have to see if the mp3 player goes the route of her ipod shuffle to "Small Electronic's Heaven" and if the fascination of the Webkinz lasts longer than the one for the Washable Doodle Bear we got her a few years ago (that must have gone to "Stuffed Animal Who-Knows-It's-Whereabouts".

More on Butt Goo

Jack was informing me that he had a dirty diaper earlier today but I didn't have the tell-tale smell, so ignored it until once again he got butt rash. When I finally changed him, he wanted "butt goo". I asked him if butt goo would make it better, so then he started saying; "Butt goo budder" (better).
Terry, Lucas and Miriam came up today. The kids and I stayed home while the dads went out shopping. Lucas and Miriam are awesome kids - they were so accommodating of each other and Jack, just playing nicely the entire time. Terry and Teresa have really done a great job with them.
Leesha was even polite and friendly with them for a bit and helped them get ready for lunch, etc.

More vocabulary

Jack's vocabulary now includes the words; "lello" (yellow), "guy", "bado" (bottle) "bed" (bread) "ta-wo" (towel) "ga-wi-la" (gorilla) and "dawa" (Kiswahilli for medicine). This morning, he and I were in the shower and he was looking at his tub book of colors. When he came to the yellow page, he said "lello".
We also managed to re-locate his "Lo, lo" (telephone - "Hello. Hello.") twice today.
He will also say; "nigh-nigh" when he sees a picture of someone sleeping, and "oh my!"

Leesha filled out an application to volunteer as an usher at our church today. It was odd for her to fill out the application which asked things like work number and whether or not they could call her at work. I gues the day is not so far away where she'll actually be filling that out completely.

Koala!

Jack has an alphabet toy from Fisher Price where each letter is represented by an animal. The play set has a mat with a spot for each letter and its animal and if you touch it the toy will say the letter and play a soundbite of the animal making its noise. Randomly, I touched the letter K and the toy says "Koala!" and then Jack looks at me and starts making an exaggerated chewing motion with his mouth as the toy plays a chewing soundbite (I mean, really. What other sound can a koala make!?!). I started doing it too and he just cracked up at that.

We tried to catch this on video. Here's the result...

OO-pa-dee

When something drops, Grandma Darlene often says "Oo-pa-dee", so today, that's what Jack is clearly saying. It is so amusing to see how he even copies our tone of voice in things he mimics from us. Children are indeed amazing.

Timely

Leesha was unhappy about her alarm clock going off this morning and took it out on me. Later, just as I was getting out of the shower and thinking I should suggest to her that we start over, she came in and apologized. I was very impressed.

tooo, teee

I've been counting with Jack ... giving him some time to make the right decision when he wants to climb on the chairs, table, shelves, etc. Just a moment ago, he was starting to climb up on his shelves and Leesha told him she'd come get him and said; "One." Jack followed it up with; "Too, tee." Hmmmm....

Jack Can Pray

Almost every night we all sit down together to eat dinner. Before each meal we pray. Lately, we've been putting exaggerated emphasis on this by making the cliche praying hands. Almost instantly, Jack caught on...

Gnome

Jack's word, today, is gnome. We watched some of an episode of a show called David the Gnome. I also showed him one of my all time favorite books all about gnomes (which the show was based on). I don't think he's noticed yet, but there are a few gnomes inside and outside around this house. There's even one that Leesha and I take turns hiding in different places. Now Jack is in on it.

I'm afraid he's going to confuse the word with nose which he says as 'no' or the actual word 'no'. Either way, he now is saying gnome when he sees one.

Butt Goo

Sometime between a dirty diaper at 5pm and another at 6pm, Jack started saying "Ew" (translated - I've got a dirty diaper) and doing his higher pitched inhale which tells us that he's developed what we affectionately term "butt rash". I don't remember if he brought it up, or if I asked, but pretty soon he was asking for "butt goo" (A&D diaper ointment), and proceeded to go and get it out of the drawer. Keane was visiting at the time, and being sympathetic to Jack's plight he assisted by getting out the wipes. I'm hoping that all this means Jack will be easy to potty train, but we'll not know that for a little while yet.
While we were eating and simultaneously feeding the boys, Jack said "ham".
This morning, he looked at our Little People Nativity scene and said "ee-a" (donkey sound), "moo" (duh!) and "baa" (duh again), then later "moo cow".
It's so fun to watch how he's growing and learning and putting things together.
Leesha has been practicing counting with him, so at dinner last night, he was pointing to each of his fingers saying; "two". She has taught him a lot as they share time in the back seat.
She's with Jeremy and Bri this weekend. It's weird not having her home at all for the weekend, but we know she enjoys her time there too.

Words for the day

Jack's words for today were ... "Grampa" and "Grama".
On our way to take Leesha to school this morning , I thought he was saying "Gobble, gobble" but it didn't quite sound right. Then I figured out he was saying "Grampa". After some coaxing, we weasled a "Grama" out of him. Up until now, they've simply been known as "Papa".
Last week, after we dropped Leesha off, he did his usual "Eeee-Ah" (Leesha) showing his distress that she was gone. Sometimes, I'll try to console him that we're going to go see Grandma and Papa right afterwards. So, after his cry of distress, he started saying "Papa. Papa." I had to disappoint him by informing him that he had to spend the day with me.

I love it that Jack informs us he's messed his diaper by stating "Ewww!" and grabbing his diaper.
Just a minute ago, he jumped with both feet leaving the floor.
Leesha is with Grandpa David and Grandma Darlene going to Bethel's Festival of Christmas tonight. I hope she has fun.

putting words together

Over the weekend, Jack put together three words. "A-none wader" (translated to: "All done water.")
However, he thinks two of them are one word, so I don't know if it counts as a sentence.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Jack got new shoes. Jack is completely obsessed with his new shoes. He even sleeps with them.

Test

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