I've lost it...

...my creativity, that is. I have nothing creative to offer anymore. No fun words for my blog. It's almost like it has become a CHORE that I have to do. Does anyone else go through this? I miss the excitement and fun I used to have sculpting cute stories and mixing in fun pictures of my beautiful little boy! Oh well...I'm sure the fun part will come back. In the mean time, I do it because I want to chronicle these times for Malachi!! I love you sweet baby!

So, at 16 months (well I'm only 11 days late for that one) what is Malachi up to? A LOT! He's learning new words EVERY DAY! He has added Doggy, Quack Quack (we recently started taking him to feed the ducks), Juice, Cookie and Thank You. He had his first McDonald's hamburger on Thursday the 16th and LOVED.IT. He's running ALL OVER THE PLACE and plays peek-a-boo around ANY and EVERY corner he finds! The pacifier is now officially gone! (YEA and it wasn't even that hard! He lost it the night he got tubes put in and it remained lost until last Saturday when I opened up the top drawer to our desk and found it. But, according to him, it's lost forevermore!) He climbs up in his high chair when it's time to eat and says num-num! (Cutest thing EVER) He can now identify mommy, daddy, Uncle Logan, Lolli and Pops in any picture and point to them! He's been visiting the toddler's room at daycare more and more, and, even though it's not going too well due to the complete and total devotion he has to Traca, Delores and Brenda (his nursery teachers), he'll get there and learn to love Ms. Denise just as much! (On a side note, could I BE more thankful for the wonderful women that love my little boy like their own? God has truly blessed him!) He's sleeping on a cot at daycare for naptime and no longer takes morning naps, just afternoon naps. Bedtime is about 7:30 p.m. usually and he usually sleeps until about 6:45 or 7:00. However, if it's not closer to 6:45 when he wakes up, he doesn't get to finish breakfast! (He gets distracted WAY too easily and it takes him FOREVER to eat breakfast if the TV is on or anything else is around him to distract him!) On a side note, he's currently loving French Toast Sticks and Oranges/Peaches for breakfast! Yesterday, the little toot got his first office time-out when he wouldn't quit pulling hair. I don't think he knew that it was wrong, but, he's got to learn. (And, let's face it, it's Lolli's office, how bad could it really be? The worst is Lolli's disappointment! Hope it ALWAYS stays that way!) He's learned to sing E-I-E-I-O though most times it comes out YAYAYO. It's still SUPER DUPER CUTE!

A year ago I posted this post in which I talked about Malachi having Croup...YUCK. Little did I know what the next 2 months would hold after that post. UGH - I don't even want to think about how horrible last year was. How sick Malachi was. How helpless we, as his parents, felt. How much we coveted the prayers and encouragement of our families and friends. I could not be more thankful that he is SO MUCH BETTER OFF this year than he was last year. (Lord willing that will continue, of course!) He's currently on Poly-Vi-Sol for vitamin supplementation, Allegra and a nasal spray for allergies and Bio-Gaia Acidophilus for his tummy. We're hoping this will keep him healthier throughout this winter season. He did, actually, get Chicken Pox FROM the vaccine a couple weeks ago, but no fever, just a few spots, nothing major. Other than that, his tubes are doing their job and he's been relatively healthy for going on 4 or 5 weeks now. He got thrush from the two HUGE shots of Rocephin he got right before he got his tubes put in and we've been fighting that for about 6 weeks. Finally, I went and got some Gentian Violet, and, though it stains EVERYTHING it touches, including his mouth when he spits it out, his lips, his cheeks when the Q-Tip goes right up the side of his cheek while you've got the Q-Tip in his mouth and he decides he wants to sit down, his sheet from drooling at night and the one pair of pajamas we've been washing and letting him sleep in every night so it doesn't ruin EVERYTHING he has...But, it's finally gone for good now!

Finally, he went to Donut Stop about 6 weeks ago with Lolli and Pop (and me and daddy were there just for fun) for his first Cherry Donut! Pop said that they were gonna go for Cherry donuts as soon as he got old enough. So, I've been holding off on giving him donuts and chocolate milk until Pop could take him. And, it finally happened!

I'm telling you, right here and right now! Little boys don't get ANY MORE LOVED than this one! (And, on another side note...that shirt is already too small for him...YUCK - he's growing up TO FAST!)

Our Little Boy!

Lately our baby boy seems to be turning into so much more of a *gasp* little boy insteady of a baby boy. Since my last post, so much has happened. Now, that could be because he is such a genious little boy and he's picking up on SO MUCH SO FAST, or, it could be because I haven't posted for almost a month...haha! Either way, Malachi is doing SO MANY new things!

The August 12th ENT appointment turned into an August 21st appointment for tubes and it went swimmingly! We showed up at 7:00a.m. with Mali still in his pajamas (which were adorable and everyone loved, if I do say so myself!) We registered and then sat in the waiting room for a few minutes before they called us back. He played with the bead path they had on the wall (that's right, they had it stuck to the wall - genious if you ask me), walked around, and then came over to daddy. Daddy was playing with this REALLY cool sand toy. It's basically a table with a LITTLE bit of sand on it, some toys on top of the sand with a plexiglass cover so you can't actually get to the sand. Daddy had found that the toys would move with magnets from underneath. So, Mali laughed for a few minutes watching the toys move without being able to touch them. Then, all of a sudden, he bent down and picked up one of the magnets they had hanging from the bottom and started moving a little tugboat from underneath. I'm tellin' ya, he picked up on it FAST! When it was time to go back we dressed him in his adorable little hospital gown with some sweet little booties they provided. Almost immediately they gave me a syringe of some sort of medicine used to calm him down, and calm him down it did! 5 minutes later he was jelly in my arms, laughing at EVERYTHING, giving us kisses and blowing us drunk kisses. It was THE.CUTEST.THING.YOU'VE.EVER.SEEN!! I swear, he was the cuddliest thing and I CHERISHED that time because I was able to get some REALLY sweet kisses from him! When it came time for them to come get him, he went to them without hesitation (not at ALL like MY kid - normally it's WWIII for him to go to someone he doesn't know). The sweet nurses then took us around to where he would come out of recovery and we talked for a couple minutes. Before we knew it, the doctor was coming out and giving us post-op instructions. I'm telling you, I thought he was fixing to go INTO surgery it was so fast, I didn't think he had even started when he came out and told us he was finished. It literally took less than 10 minutes from the time we handed him over to when the Dr. came out. However, we soon heard his screaming coming from down the hall. One nurse came out and got his pacifier. Then, another nurse came and got his sippy cup. Then, 3 nurses brought him to us and let US try to console him...NO.SUCH.LUCK! After we signed the release papers we were out the door, got breakfast, and were back home (30 minutes away) by 9:15a.m. He and I slept most of the day Friday together and by Friday afternoon he was as good as new!

Funny story, though, I had gotten up and started the dishwasher when he was asleep and when he woke up, I was feeding him some Cheerios and playing in the floor since he was still a little wobbly. All of a sudden, the dishwasher kicked into the rinse cycle and Malachi stopped dead in his tracks, carefully walked into the kitchen and looked around the refrigerator - then he walked up to the dishwasher and started screaming and banging on it. I guess he had never heard it before - it was HYSTERICAL!

So, post-tubes, things have been pretty laid-back. We now have him on a twice a day regimen of Allegra and Nasonex for his allergies. He hasn't REALLY gotten sick EXCEPT for the fact that he had a reaction to his Chicken Pox vaccine and we had to quarantine him for a couple of days. Other than that...he's been pretty healthy! As long as his immune system continues to do as well as it's been doing lately I'll be happy - BUT, if he starts having a hard time and not being able to fight anything off again, I WILL push for immune system testing to make sure his levels are all where they need to be!

On the development front he's doing FABULOUSLY!! He used to be behind compared to his buddies in the nursery at daycare. He didn't roll or sit up or crawl as fast as they did, but he's kicking baby butt in the walking department! (And no - I don't REALLY compare him like that nor do I think it's bad that the other babies DIDN'T walk as fast as he did, it's just that HE has always been the one that's been behind, so I'm thrilled that he's not when it comes to walking!) We now have him back in shoes and he's doing great! During the time we were letting him learn to walk WITHOUT shoes, though, his feet went from a size 3 to a size 5! And those adorable Nike Shocks that Lolli bought were a size 4 - maybe if we have another little boy HE will be able to wear them, but for now, they're stuck in a SpaceBag with the rest of Malachi's clothing he's already outgrown! (I guess when Daddy wears a 13 and Uncle wears a 15...there's not a lot that can be done to prevent big feet!) He loves to run from us when we say we're going to get him and we LOVE to chase after him...it's SO FUN!

He also loves to CLIMB EVERYWHERE! A couple of weeks ago he climbed up onto the toddler sized couch my mom has at the daycare and tried to stand up. Well, he succeeded in standing up, but not for long...he fell right off into the edge of the train table she has and got a HUGE red mark on the side of his face. It bruised, but not terribly. Then, he got right back up and did it again...Oh what I'm NOT looking forward to when he learns to ride a bike/plays football/or does anything else that little boys just DO to hurt themselves...haha! Last night, in fact, we had taken the tray off of his high chair because it was dirty from dinner and he kept trying to climb up in his high chair seat. He succeeded a few times, but couldn't figure out how to get back OUT of it. SO, daddy kept rescuing him. Finally, I encouraged daddy to let him figure it out...after a few minutes of SCREAMING at the top of his lungs and looking at us WAITING for us to come get him (inevitably for him to get back up there...I'm sure) he figured it out and was SO proud of himself. We clapped, he danced, and the cycle continued for the next 30 minutes...haha!

He's pointing at EVERYTHING now! We have a series of picture books for him that are VERY heavy duty and he especially LOVES the animal book. I try to make noises of all the animals (except for, you know, the Panda, or the Giraffe...we have to glaze over those pages) and he laughs so hard on some of them. He's especially fond of the Dino, the Dog and the Sheep! He even tries to make the Elephant sound...it's SO sweet!

He loves his xylophone, his train (push and ride toy) and he still loves to dance! He rocks back and forth and bounces up and down anytime there's music on ANYWHERE!! His daddy also bought him his first matchbox car and he's learning to make vroom vroom noises and push it around! (Everything's a car these days, and, frankly, EVERYTHING gets pushed around with vroom vroom noises!) He loves his big yellow ball that Pops' bought him, and during the evening when I'm fixing dinner, his activity of choice is sitting in the floor with my metal colander, a long plastic ladle and goldfish! He hits the colander, turns it over, puts his goldfish in there, dumps them out and stays content for usually 30-45 minutes this way! (On a side note, he turns EVERYTHING over, his toys, our cell phones, anything gets flipped end over end if it's in his hands! Even his goldfish get flipped around a few times...I guess he feels the need to inspect everything!)

He's not horribly talkative, but knows how to get his point across. He says Lolli, DaDa, MaMa, Pop-Pop and Bye-Bye a lot. (The last two sound interestingly similar) He's started saying something akin to "Cal-Chi" which, I interpreted as Malachi since he hears his name so much, but, one of his daycare teachers thought he was saying outside...so we're still not sure about that one! ALL food is num-num and we're working on please and thank you. There was a little girl the other day at the doctor's office who was saying a LOT more, but I've come to learn that little girls just talk more than little boys...I think it's instinct...haha!

He's also learning the difficulties of discipline! The other night he got his first time-out in his room after a spanking. He threw a wall-eyed FIT at me and screamed AT me when he was finished eating. So, a swat on the leg and to his bed it was. After a few minutes of screaming I went in to see if he was ready to calm down and as soon as I went in his room, the screaming went UP a few octaves so back out I came for some more cool-down time. Then, after another few minutes (like maybe 5 at the most) I went BACK in and picked him up because he had calmed down. As soon as I picked him up, it started all over again. Finally, after about 3 or 4 cycles of this he had completely quieted down and I went in expecting to see him asleep. BUT, he was looking at the ceiling and when he saw me, his hands went up and he didn't make another peep. He finally got it! It was SO hard on me and daddy, BUT, he will learn and I'd rather deal with it NOW than 20 years from now! He has learned that he can't scream when he's getting dressed in the morning and get away with it and he's learning that when we SAY NO, we MEAN NO! It's hard, but it's part of our job as his parents to teach him right from wrong!

I know this has been a book, but I want to make sure I record everything I can so that when he comes back and looks at everything when he's older, he'll be able to see as many details as we can remember!

Oh, and by the way, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post pictures from him eating his first cherry donut with Lolli and Pop at the Donut Stop! A new tradition has begun!