Big Boy Moves

Cash, showing off his skills

For a little extra fun at dinner tonight, I decided to give Cash a child size fork and spoon to try with his Gerber toddler entree. I figured it would be a fair amount of mess for me to clean up but I've read that it's about time for fork and spoon introduction (and I was asked by his new day care if he was using one yet) so I guess it's time to get better about that. I was extremely surprised but Cash was actually pretty good with them. He gripped it well in his right hand, made a scooping motion, actually got food on it without dumping it on the floor, and lifted it in the air as if to take it to his mouth. This is the point that it didn't make it to his mouth and he picked off the food with his left hand to eat, but still, I was pretty impressed. I guess I shouldn't underestimate my little man.

Also, Cash's vocabulary has really grown in the past few days. We had a Skype session with Mollie and Old Gran-Dad on Saturday and Cash cruised up to the computer, waved his hand and said "Hi" very distinctly a few times. This was the first time Ross or I had ever hear "Hi" come out of his mouth. Before this weekend, his vocab was little more than "mamamamamamamama", "Dat-ty", "BeepBeep" when we drive in his car, and "Uh-Oh". For the record, "Uh-Oh" is his favorite word by leaps and bounds and is said whenever something is dropped, intentionally or otherwise. Which happens a lot. This weekend though, we got "Hi", "Bye", "Head", and "Eyes" to add to the list. I'm also pretty sure he was trying to say "Dog" when we were reading tonight. So while we still aren't walking, we are talking up a storm.

Rough weekend

*Kind of in love with my new Instamatic app on my iPhone if only because I can make Cash look all 70's out.

Ear infections have struck again with a vengeance. This past Friday, I took Cash to our new pediatrician during urgent care hours with a sneaking suspicion that he had come down with another ear infection - the second in a matter of three weeks. For the record, I think that I take Cash to urgent care on average about twice a month and I realize that I am a part of what's wrong with the American health care system. However my neuroses haven't allowed me to get to the point of making an appointment and then waiting for said appointment if I suspect that Cash is ill. And mostly because, I'm usually right, as is evidenced by this time with the diagnosis of another double ear infection.

Since this is the second occurrance of a double ear infection in a short time period I decided it was time to go ahead with the tube surgery. Even though Cash had a nice two month respite from ear infections, I think that the constant reintroduction of aggressive antibiotics to his tiny system is causing more harm in the long run. So on August 12th, we're taking Cash for outpatient surgery. Recovery time is supposed to be quick but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at all petrified about watching my baby go under general anesthesia. Hopefully though, the tubes will be the cure we've been waiting for ever since he started getting ear infections at 3.5 months old.

The ear infection wasn't even the worst of it this weekend though because on Sunday, it seems that Cash had a 24 hour flu bug that just made him into a sad, lethargic and feverish mess. We spent most of the day rocking him and trying to bring down his 103 degree fever as he moaned and scared us to death. His fever ended up breaking in the middle of the night and by the morning he was doing better, if still a little weak seeming. I took him to day care a little late and was expecting a call to come pick him up but he made a great recovery and by the time I went to get him at 4:30, he was playing, had eaten a lot and was in great spirits. Since Ross is away all week on a work trip, this made me extra happy because having a sick baby while by myself just seemed like a bit of an impossible task.

Holy Molars

There's been a breakthrough in the Inman household over the past week, actually three breakthoughs. Cash has gotten three molars all at once, two top and one bottom, and the the little guy is in agony. In all of the baby books I've read, when you get to the teething part and it talks about cutting one year molars, I believe the phrase most often used is "exquisite pain". There is absolutely nothing exquisite about what Cash is going through. I put that picture up above because I feel it best illustrates his current disposition - part drooling rabid animal, part sad little monkey. We've gone back to rocking him to sleep while he wails for a half hour, getting up to soothe him at least once in the middle of the night, and morning wake ups around 4:45 or 5am. No amounts of motrin and baby oragel will soothe him and I'm desperately breaking out some of his old rubber and vibrating teethers that he hasn't used in at least 6 months. Hopefully we'll get the fourth one through soon and Cash can get a break (at least until the two year molars).

Scenes from a Spaghetti Dinner

4th of July Fun!

Living in North Carolina has some great perks. One being that we can now spend some holidays other than the major ones with family. So for this Fourth of July, we headed to Winston-Salem to hang out with my parents and my brother and his family. On Saturday, we headed to the Deacon Shop in the mall to check out some new Wake Forest gear. Here's Cash doing his best Demon Deacon impression:


On Sunday we headed over to my brother's house and had some fun in the pool. Cash really seemed to enjoy it which is a relief since we start Mommy and Me swim classes at the Y tomorrow:


We had to head home on the actual holiday but had a great time celebrating with Grammy and Papa!