Word of the day..."no"

So Micah has learned the word "no".  I knew this day would come but a sick 15mo old with an attitude was not on my agenda for this weekend.  We had a fun family weekend planned with Aunt Jen, Uncle Matthew and cousin Noah coming into town.  Our plans were changed quickly when Micah spiked a fever of 104.3.  It's taken Motrin and Tylenol ever 3 hours to keep it down.  Not sure what he's got but Nathan came down with it too.  So soon our fun weekend of heading to the zoo, going to the Chiefs game, and swimming at Splashdown turned into cuddling on the couch and lots of soup.  I started to feel crummy this morning with a sore throat and body aches but feel better after sleeping most of the day.  So thankful that Micah took a 4 hr nap today!  We both needed it. 

Micah's been using more and more words and it's so cute!  I knew his vocabulary would take off when he went to the toddler room at school.  His favorite word of all is "no".  He used it many times today.  Want to eat... "no".  Take this medicine..."no". Drink your milk...."no".  It's kinda cute because he says it so clearly and uses it in context. He'll shake his head back and forth and say "no, no, no".
 I see this getting old really soon.

Time Out!

So it's come to the time to discipline our sweet little boy.  Ok, maybe we should have started this sooner but give us a break!  We're new at this :)  We've had food throwing issues since Micah cold pick food up.  He's just so stinkin cute when he throws it, Champ runs to get it, and then Micah laughs hysterically!  Last night we finally said we have to do something.  Other parents say their child went through this phase for a week.  We're going on 6mo!  So out came the "naughty chair" (maybe I've been watching too much super nanny).  We tried a restrained time out per the doctor and that failed miserably. So now we're just doing a chair in the corner and 1 min in time out.  The first time last night Micah thought it was a game.  He kinda squirmed and giggled for a few seconds and then tried to get down.  Right back on the chair he went.  We did this for 1 min all the while I looked away and payed no attention to the fit he continued to throw.  It's so hard when all you want to do is cuddle him until he stops crying!  But I did it and after 1 min he could get up and play again.  And a second time he threw his goldfish crackers to Champ.  Back to the chair we went.  This time he cried for a solid minute.  Back down and then back to the chair we went for a third time after the fishes went flying.  This time the tears were really flowing and I wasn't sure we were making any progress.  Tonight went a little better.  He only threw food once and then his cup of milk.  One time out was had, and hopefully he'll figure out soon that it's not nice to throw his food. 

Got Milk?

Got Milk?  Micah does....in his tummy :)  Big boy drank 5oz of milk from a cup tonight and didn't put up a fight!  Dr. Beaty was right!  We starved it out of him and he finally gave into his thirst.  I was a little worried when he'd gone 20hrs with nothing to drink but he eventually gave in.  I asked that his school to only offer milk with meals and then water for an afternoon snack instead of juice. They said he even drank from one of their cups instead of his preferred cup.  I sure hope that we're moving in the right direction!

Moo (micah moo) is growing up too fast!  He is so very independent in everything he does.  Little stink won't let you feed him yogurt or applesauce from a spoon, but he's not so good with it himself.  He slops it everywhere!  We went out for breakfast a few weeks ago and I'm pretty sure he slopped applesause in the lady's hair behind us.  Guess we can't take him anywhere these days!  I just keep telling myself that he's learning and that's why my floor is always covered with goop.  So glad we have Champ on those days!

He's even growing up at school!  Micah just graduated to the Toddler I room!  I'm so proud of him and so excited for all the fun arts and crafts that he will bring home.  He slept on a cot in a room of 15 other toddlers for nearly an hour.  Kind of a short nap but hopefully he'll nap the full 2 hours at some point.  There are so many fun things to do at PALS.  He just loves it!  They have an awesome playground, so many fun new toys, a ton of friends to play with, and the best teachers ever!  We've really had a great experience there and I recommend it to everyone that is looking for childcare! 

15 month Well Check

Today was a busy day!  Micah and I both had well check appointments.  Micah checked in at 21 lb 9oz.  He's at the 12 percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height.  We may not have a football player, but he could still be an all star at baseball.  Dr. Beaty said it's time to do away with the bottles.  We've tried this before and looks like we're going cold turkey this time.  No more "ba ba's" for Micah.  Bedtime was rough tonight.  I offered the cup of milk over and over and he just cried more and more.  Finally he cried himself to sleep.  Dr. Beaty says that "thirst will eventually take over" and to not offer anything but milk for 24hr.  If he doesn't take it after 24hr then offer some water and go back to the milk.  I hope he gives in soon!

We also talked about disciplining and I'm at my whits end with the food throwing.  It was cute at first but has gotten old quick.  He suggested "restrained time outs" where you restrain them from hurting themselves and hold them until they give up.  He said to expect to restrain him for 10-15min.  We did this and then he went right back to the food throwing.   Good thing he's cute!

On the search

So we're back at it with searching for jobs.  Didn't we just do this? Oh right, we did 2 years ago when looking for a residency!  I thought this time would be easier, but it's not.  We matched in basically a lottery to find out where we would end up for residency.  Now we're the ones that have to figure out what would be the best job and where the best place to raise our family would be.  With residency we said, "we can live anywhere for 3 years".  But this time there are so many more factors involved.  We have Micah and we'd like to live in a place that's safe with great school districts.  We want to be closer to family.  Four hours is just too far.  The pay/benefits are different everywhere and they all have different amounts of contracted hours each month.  Some are 12x 12hr shifts, others 20x 8hrs, and others are a mix of both.  Some are large hospitals with residents, others are slow paced rural hospitals, and still others are a mix of both.  I'm pushing for less working days, and a place with a great school district!  Oh yeah, and fun things for us to do as a family :)

Life as a resident/physicians spouse is stressful enough and you just can't explain it well enough for anyone else to understand.  I feel like the only people that could understand this are spouses living it.  Long hours and nights by yourself, getting uprooted from your job and friends to follow your husband to residency and on to other jobs, single parenting but yet still married, trying to tiptoe around the house at 10:00am because it's your husband's 3am while a screaming 15mo old just doesn't understand why he can't play with daddy,  and finally student loans out the whazoo and poor pay per hour as a resident!  Seriously, some people flip burgers for more than my husband makes per hour and he's saving lives!  I personally think that should be worth more, but I don't make the rules.  It's just tough and now the thought of moving is just overwhelming! 

The good thing is that we're praying and seeking God's direction in where to go from here.  He's never led us astray before and we know that he'll provide for us!

Day at the Zoo

Me and Micah Moo just love the Zoo!  One of the many things I will miss if we end up taking a job somewhere other than Peoria.  It's not a huge zoo, but I'm surprised at how many animals they have.  We saw the sea loin, tigers, loins, rhinos, monkeys, giraffes, and so many more animals!  We particularly like the new Africa exhibit and today we watched at the giraffes were let out.  Micah points at the animals and calls all of them "du"  which either means "dog" or "duck". 

Snack Time!

Another fun outing that we just discovered is the East Peoria Farm Park.  It's only a few minutes from our house and we had so much fun visiting there on Father's Day.  It's this cute little farm area that has geese, ducks, fish, goats, a horse, donkey, cow, and chickens.   For $0.50 we bought a feeding cone and had a blast feeding all the animals!  Micah loved watching the ducks and goldfish come up to feed.  We will definitely be making more trips to this park!

Do you ever stop worrying about your child?

So they say, "a little knowledge can be dangerous". Well, being married to a doctor only makes that worse. In medical school they call it "medical student syndrome" when the students think they have what condition they're reading about. The same is true when they have a family and start assessing their children. I always wondered what kind of dad Nathan would be. Would he be overprotective knowing the things that could happen? Would he blow things off thinking "I've seen worse"? Would he worry about every cough, cold, bump or bruise? I think it's a little of everything. Nathan has great intuition when dealing with his patients and the same is true with his son. I'm the one that worries about everything. Nathan will say, "well it could be this, or this, or this" and then I start to worry and research everything it "could be".

We did noticed some weird behavior in Micah a few weeks ago. He wasn't his usual smiley, happy self. He was distant, distracted easily, and seemed to be playing in his own little world. This started right around 1yr when he was into everything and wanted to do everything himself. He would explore things and be oblivious to anything going on around him. We were backing out of the driveway when I looked back and he was doing this weird staring thing. I call his name many times and he wouldn't look at me. He just stared straight ahead. Finally, i grabbed his foot and shook it like crazy to get his attention. He snapped out of it, but it had us concerned. Nathan asked "well does he ever look when you call his name". My answer was no, he really doesn't. Not a good thing. This is one of the first signs of autism in young children. Nathan even went over to Micah's day care and observed him playing and other children his age. The other children were wanting to play with Nathan but Micah was still in his own little world and could care less that daddy was there to see him. Many of the children even looked to the call of Micah's name but Micah never acknowledged him. Now we were even more concerned. We prayed a lot about it and called his pediatrician to schedule an appointment. We worked with him daily to try to get him to make and keep eye contact. After a week it was like we had a new child. We were a little embarrassed when the doctor came in the room and Micah walked up to him with open arms as to say "pick me up". Dr. Beaty did and laughed. He said we need not worry about his social skills at this time, but that this is only a slice in time and he can't speak for what the future holds. We were happy with this and consider it an answered prayer!