So, does the trouble begin now?

It's The Monkey's second birthday today, and my has he grown - literally! In the past three weeks he's grown quite a lot. He's now about 3 inches taller and much more mature looking in the face. I think it was the visit to his Gramama in Victoria that did it, plus that country air (far less smoky than in the city).

It's kind of hard to believe that it was two years ago today that he was born. So much has happened that the time has simply flown past in a great blur! He's coming along quite smoothly as well. His vocabulary is improving with every minute that passes, as he attempts to repeat most of the words that Patrick and I say. He's even taken to having conversations on 'the phone' (the phone can range from an actual phone to a calculator, remote control or even an empty strepsils packet). Just yesterday he asked if he could talk to his Grammy on the phone, to which I obliged him. He walked around the house for ten minutes telling her about the weather (it's hot), to various things he saw on the floor (ball) and that he needed to wee (wee wee, toilet, poo poos).

As far as toilet training goes, its slow. There are days when he likes using it, and days when he doesn't, so we're taking it at his pace. He's good at doing "wee wees" in the toilet, but has yet to graduate to "poo poos".

He's wearing glasses now as well, due to being a little bit cross eyed. He loves them. Took to them straight away, and even tries to put them on himself (he doesn't quite get the bit about the legs going over his ears yet, but at least he tries). Won't know more about how they're working until February sometime.

So much has happened since the last update it's difficult to keep track of them. He's growing at such an alarming pace it's hard to keep up with him, let alone his blog :)

Gotta go keep him out of harm's way while Patrick toils away in the scrub land we call a back yard!

WTF?

Patrick and I just spent the last ten minutes in a two against one battle with Bas forcing him to eat a few pieces of banana - his favourite food!

This is way beyond ridiculous already. He battles us everytime we try to give him food or drink. It usually ends up with one of us holding down while the other piles the food into his mouth. Often times it will result in a rather upset child, but at least he's eaten, other times it will encourage him to eat more. It is never known which it will be at the time.

I really hope he gets over what it is soon.

What's in the Oval Window?

After an absolutely horrendous night wherein he wouldn't let us sleep til around 0330, and a bumpy start to the morning, The Monkey appears to have perked up a lot. Playschool may have something to do with it, but I'll assert that it was the sleep he's had today plus the food he's been voluntarily consuming.

He's sitting on the couch singing to himself as though he's his old self, but he punctuates it occasionally with one of his random moans and grizzly noises. The fact that he's happy to just lie there and watch the television and play with his juice cup rather than hang off us and whine in our ears is a good sign: it means he's finally on the mend.

This may deteriorate later on tonight when he begins to tire again, but at least for now he's in a pleasant mood and happy to entertain himself.

Take Care: Fragile

After not wanting to sleep in his cot, we bundled the little guy into bed with us and the three of us drifted off to sleep. At some point in the middle of the night I put him back in his cot (mainly because he'd taken over my side of the bed and I was being forced to sleep at the foot of it), where he lay talking to himself for a time before drifting away back to the land of slumber. When he awoke this morning he was far from pleasant. He's only just now calmed down after spending most of the morning being clingy and whingey.

He would not allow Patrick to let him go, clinging to him like his life depended on it, and whenever I came near him he would hide his face in Patrick's shoulder and whinge like I was some big scary monster there to take him away. He's still a little like that now, won't allow us to leave him; we are to carry him everywhere we go and hold him while we attend to the things we need to attend to.

With his temperament a little fragile, those occasions when we've had to put him down, he's sat there with his ugly face on and his annoying little whinge. He gets over it pretty quickly though and just sits there with a bit of a smile on his face and chatters to us.

For the first time since he got sick on Monday, Bas has tried to walk again. Unfortunately this illness has knocked him for six and his balance has suffered somewhat. It's almost like he's taken a backward step in his development. Where before he was an accomplished little toddler who could almost run, now he's back to learning to balance and walk steadily again. It's really upsetting for him as well. When he finds himself about to fall over he cries and staggers over to whoever is closest, for comfort. He's decided that for the time being crawling is safest, but there are still occasions where he will try to stand and go for a walk only to upset himself when he starts to wobble. This will sort itself out when his strength returns, which will only happen when he gets over whatever psychological thing he's got that stops him from eating enough food.

The food thing is interesting. Last night at dinner, he would often times refuse the small fork fulls of rice I would offer him, only to eat the few grains that would land on the back of his hand or stick to his lips as I offered it to him. He would play this 'game' for practically every serve, eventually caving in (or me being sneaky and when he yawned shovelling in the rice) and eating it quite happily. It was obvious to both of us that he wanted to eat, but he'd managed to train himself into not wanting it. He ended up having the biggest meal of the week last night, but is still playing the 'i don't want food game' this morning.

He's most definitely a great big sook. And I think he's really enjoying all the extra attention he's getting from being sick, and there are times when you can tell that he's milking it. Oh well, you can't blame him really, can you?

Return to Bas(e) Camp

Good news! Bas was discharged early this afternoon after some comfortably low temperatures and blood work that showed a reduced white cell count! It's still uncertain as to what has caused the fevers, but it does appear that he's on the way back to good health.

He appears to be happy to be home as well. The hospital environment was just a little too much for him I think. All that unfamiliarity really wasn't helping him very much at all (though he did seem to like his nurse. He'd most often have something to say to her and would respond to her questions and give her a smile, even when he was feeling like crap). When we got him home he went straight to sleep, was fine to let us leave him in his bed alone (which was unheard of while he was in hopsital) and has even been eating better! He's a lot cheerier and talkative as well. Given the way he's going, I'd say he'll be close to 100% by the end of the week.

It'll be great to get a good night's sleep in our own beds tonight. I think we'll all benefit from it.

It's a Mystery

The Monkey was admitted to hospital last night due to excessive fever and what may have been a urinary tract infection.

On a bright note: all tests carried out proved negative, however it still means we don't know what the cause of the illness is. All that's been discovered is that he's got a high white cell count, which simply means he's got an infection...somewhere.

Patrtick got a little upset by the Lumbar Puncture, but mainly because we weren't able to hold him during the procedure, and his cries for help were left unheeded til it was over. It was the inability to be able to help him that really upset Patrick, which in turn got me upset (up to that point I'd been doing pretty well). The results to that also came back a resounding negative.

Bas perked up somewhat after he was given some extra fluids, and some antibiotics and some other solution of dripiness. But just as he was admitted into the ward his temperature began to soar again and he started getting irritable.

He's to be kept in for a minimum of 48hours, so they can grow the sample cultures to find out if there is anything worth noting. Other than that, he's just there for observation and treatment in the broadest possible way. There's nothing else we can do.

Patrick stayed there last night, and with any luck I'll be bunking with the Monkey tonight.

Return to Regular Programming

Well, it would seem that the Monkey has been learning some new things while on holiday. The least of which is how to stay up late and squeal like he's been stabbed when he's put to bed. The main thing he's learned over his holiday and in the few days since his return, however, are as follows:

• Oh, really!
• Alright
• Socks
• Shoes
• Shirt (though, the last three all kind of sound like 'shit')
  

Apparently while he was on the plane coming back, he got his own seat. Patrick tells me that the passenger on the other side of Bas noticed that he'd managed to work out how to do up and tighten his seat belt all by himself, which is impressive considering how annoying those airplane seat belts are! Patrick was astounded by it.

I met the boys at the airport on Wednesday when the returned, and Bas looked at me as though he didn't know who I was, and has thusly been treating me like a stranger since. Whenever I've picked him up for a cuddle or even just wanted to play with him, he's gone running back to Patrick as if I was trying to kidnap him or something. Thankfully, since last night things appear to be returning to near regular programming. He's voluntarily coming to me and offering me cuddles and asking for me to pick him up. This morning we were sitting on my fitball (Bas on my knee) and he was being all cuddly wuddly and resting his forehead on my chin and being a real sook. At least until Patrick got out of the shower anyway.

All that's left to do now is to retrain him to go to bed and sleep when we tell him to, instead of having to go through the nightly theatrics of hysterical screaming and balling til he simply passes out from exhaustion. He got away with being allowed to go to bed at midnight virtually every night while in Victoria, and seems to think that he can get away with it here. He's slowly falling asleep earlier and earlier each night, but only by ten or so minutes each timel. At this rate, he'll be going to sleep at his regular time by Christmas! Mind you, he does seem to find the fact that we read him bed time stories absolutely hilarious. He giggles and laughs (almost manically) at the sound of us reading to him in different voices. I think he might like the Scottish Fairy Tales book though, more so than the Andersons Fairy Tales.

One last thing: Bas has been teaching himself how to use a fork. He fed himself his dinner last night using his little fork (given to him by Grammi and one that I used when I was his age). He's been paying close attention to the way we use the utensils and has decided it's time he started doing it himself, so I sat him in his highchair, gave him his plate of fish pie and the fork and away he went! And with next to no spillage as well!

Next step is to start teaching him how to cook! (^_^)