Determined

That is the word I would use to describe Vance. He may be small but that is not going to stop him from getting to what he wants. Last Sunday I watched as he pushed the footstool down the hall to the bathroom door & then to our bedroom door (where Daddy was napping). He pushed, climbed up & tried to open each door. Fortunately he couldn’t turn the door knob. But the need & ability to get to those out of reach objects increased each day. I want to correct him & tell him to stop but I can’t. It is too entertaining to watch him as he spies his next feat then patiently pushes that stool to the exact right spot. I’ve even seen him climb up, get down & push it (not even an inch) to get the stool in the right place. A couple of times today I placed my foot in the path of the stool. That did not make him happy. He pushed & pushed and one time went around me. DERTERMINED! That is my little Vance. Surely that has to be a good quality to have in the future, right?

I will say the frequency of this has increased and the places he’s trying to reach are starting to be an issue. I have now removed their “kid sized” chairs out of the kitchen and I’m contemplating the removal of the foot stool. The lamps in the living room have already spent much of the last few months on top of the couch because he would NOT leave them alone. Since he couldn’t reach them from the floor he figured out how to climb onto the couch and reach them. Again, my son is determined! Maybe the ability to finally get to those unreachable places will become his new obsession and my lamps can return to their normal home.

I guess all this means that sooner than later I should stop him. Or I can continue to move things further up the shelves or pushed back against the wall where his little arms can’t reach or tucked away in a safe place. Nah! That just sounds like too much work. I’ll have to stop him!

One Happy Daddy

Vance has never been an overly affectionate child. He would always snuggle with us for naps & bedtime but he was never one to give or receive kisses, until recently. I’m so fortunate to be with him all day & I saw him become more loving with stuffed animals & Ella’s baby dolls. I tested the waters and found out that he would now give kisses. I didn’t fill Byron in on this little fact. The next day as he was telling the kids good-bye before work I told Vance, “Give Daddy a kiss bye-bye.” Oh my goodness! He kissed Byron and my husband lit up like a light bulb. Byron kept asking for kisses & Vance kept giving them. Byron was so giddy that Vance was too. These pictures capture the joy in both of them.

Where have we been?

Here is a quick update on our lives over the past few months. I can actually sum it up in two words…SLEEPLESS & SICK! Since the middle to end of April my precious son has not been sleeping again. He either takes hours to go to sleep or is up for hours in the middle of the night. It has been very reminiscent of the first 9 months of his life. He is miserable, in pain & we cannot help him. It has not been easy and I feel so bad for him. It is beginning to take its toll on Byron & me. We need sleep just as much as he does.
The month of June was the worst. As a family we had 9 doctor’s visits and one emergency room visit. All but 3 of those visits were for Vance. June 1st he was diagnosed with reflux and they started him on medicine. Two days later he managed to get an egg shell out of the trash can. I had to administer the Epi-pen and rush him to the hospital. Five days later he had an ear infection and breathing issues while Ella had walking pneumonia. The next day I finally went to the doctor with a sinus infection then took Vance back to the doctor for an allergic reaction to Amoxicillin. The next day Byron was treated for a sinus infection too. Three days after that the doctor prescribed medicine for Byron to prevent the onset of pneumonia. At some point we finally started feeling better and Vance had a happy doctor visit. He was officially cleared of a corn allergy which opened up a whole new world of foods for him.
I have no “official” idea of what is going on or what started all of Vance’s problems. However, my mother’s intuition tells me that when something unacceptable enters his body it flares up his insides. It then takes a LONG time for his body to get back to normal. This all started when he took an over the counter allergy medicine that didn’t agree with him. Then the reflux started. Then he had the egg exposure followed by the ear infection. It was just way too much for his little body to handle. Now we pray daily for God to miraculously help him sleep. Because what is the number one thing our bodies need to get well? SLEEP! Since we can’t physically make him sleep we have to turn to God to make it happen. We had a few nights earlier in the month of July where he slept all night and we praised God for a full night’s sleep. But it hasn’t happened on a consistent basis. We would greatly appreciate you praying alongside us for Vance to sleep again.