Home sick/new stats

Eating popsicles for our throat while wearing our chef hat
(for no good reason)

Dylan has been home from school since Friday though technically he wasn't off "sick" on Friday. He has not liked going to school lately - he seemed to be due for a "mental health day" and it was snowing, so I decided to keep him home. But then Saturday we realized part of the reason he'd been so crabby was that he actually was sick. He's now on antibiotics and will go back to school tomorrow. We've had lots of bonding time, but it's time for mommy to get some work done.

I took him to the pediatrician yesterday for his high fever, vomiting and sore throat and she said that while we were there, she may as well do a wellness check-up since the last time he'd actually had one, he was small enough to fit on the infant scale and to be measured with a tape measure. My pediatrician is one who likes to "call in" her performance by offering the minimum in health assistance (she's just as parsimonious with smiles and good humor - things you'd think a pediatrician would be equipped with) but I think she's obligated by the state to justify her existence, so she insisted we do the wellness appointment as well. I had to sign two forms saying she'd actually done it. She almost had me sit Dylan down on the table that had the dirty paper and urine from a previous patient. When I pointed that out, she motioned for ME to clean it up, which I did since I wasn't going to put my kid on there. Oh how I loathe my pediatrician. Though we have some new official stats for Dylan.

He's 1 meter tall (39 inches), which blows my mind since I'm 1.65 meters and it seems like he's catching up to me too fast! He is still the same weight as he has been for a very long time - around 13.5 kilos (29.7 pounds). That makes him tall for his age, but very skinny, which is not surprising since he eats NOTHING. We are still having the constipation issues (I know - TMI, but what can you do?), and I have to perform an enema about every five days because he refuses to go on his own. Eek. He pees on the toilet just fine though and really doesn't have accidents. Since July, he has only worn a diaper at night, and usually wakes up dry in the morning. In other medical news, I've set up the appointment to get his heart checked out after age three because of the "issue" they detected when he was born.

Thanksgiving 2010

I had a crazy busy week so didn't have time to post any of our pics from last weekend's fantastic Thanksgiving celebration in Tuscany with friends. Here are a few photos!

Chef Dylan

He made no-bake Nutella cookies (not pictured as he ate them all right away as his afterschool snack) at school today. And a chef's hat.

Nato Milanista!

Dylan was "nato Milanista" (a born fan of the Milan soccer team) by way of his papà and nonno. Tonight was the big derby game against Inter, which is the other hometown team and Milan's archrival. Dylan was rooting on "black and red" with his papi by saying "Forza Milan!" (Let's go Milan!). You can also see that he's scratching himself, which is what he does pretty much 24/7 as the eczema is just not improving. Sigh. On a positive note, we beat Inter 1-0. Woot woot!

Forza Milan! from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan's "track"

I bought a long roll of paper at IKEA imagining rainy winter afternoons spent in the house finger painting. I have found that while the finger paint is somewhat washable, it's just so incredibly messy, and I don't have an "activity room" where I can let Dylan splash about. I've decided that finger painting is not an activity to be done on the kitchen table in dangerous proximity of my white curtains, cream carpet and beige living room set (yes, I'm one of "those" moms - I know, I suck in that regard). I have concluded that it's more a spring/summer activity to be done on the balcony when we aren't wearing six layers of clothing (trying to take off your clothes with painted hands and arms is tricky) and can just jump right into the bathtub at the end. So then we began using the roll of long IKEA paper to design "tracks" for Dylan's cars to run on. The tracks have evolved into entire towns complete with houses, trees, sidewalks and traffic lights. I call this place "Dylandia" and we spend hours creating new features for "citizens" (ie, his Little People) of this world. I am terrible at drawing, but Dylan doesn't seem to notice. Here's a video of Dylan last night with one tiny track I created to fit into a corner of our living room. The one that went the entire length of the hallway was getting difficult to navigate, and every time someone would open the front door, Dylan would happen to be behind it running his car on the "track" and get pegged.

Pista from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan playing with his "pista," which means track in Italian

Dry

Another rainy weekend, but no worries here. I did not have to check the time of sunrise and set my alarm accordingly to be able to try to get my first load of laundry outside so that I'd also be able to get a second load in the sun before noon. Actually, there is no sun but that's my normal Saturday routine. Today we picked up the dryer! Fortunately we were able to just push it up our stairs because there was no way the two of us would have been able to lift it. I've got arms like toothpicks. It looks like Dylan's smocks will be ready for school on Monday, won't smell like a wet dog AND I won't have to iron them. Yeah! I even took a video of the dryer actually DRYING. Exciting stuff!

Untitled from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Don't mind the packing materials. Isn't she a beaut? I hope so because it's the first thing you see when you walk in our apartment! The big fat plug makes it jut out into the hallway so we need to figure out how we can enclose it and make it fit in that space.