Hooray for no surgery!

Some people say their kids are a pain in the bum.  Our kid has a pain in his bum.  Our pediatrician told us it was an abscess and it quickly healed on its own.  Then it came back, so we took him back to the doctor.  She told us he would most likely need surgery to repair it because it went all the way in to his insides.  She set up an appointment for us with a pediatric surgeon while I was busy panicking.  Today was the Big Day.  On the way to the appointment Isaiah was a bit fussy so I started singing songs to him.  (Actually he was fine, I was the fussy one who needed distraction).  I started singing the "Found a Peanut" song.  It was all great until I got to the verse "had an operation" which is followed by the verse "died anyway."  Wrong song choice.

As it turns out Isaiah doesn't need surgery.  The surgeon said that probably what will happen is that the abscess will come and go but after a year or so it will heal on its own without the need for any intervention.  He said they used to always do surgery on them but have since figured out that it isn't really necessary.  He also mentioned that it is a "neat surgery" that it's "fun to do."  That's good to know...if Isaiah's doesn't resolve itself after a year and he ends up needing surgery, I'm glad to know that at least the surgeons will be enjoying themselves.

I'm so glad he doesn't need surgery!  I have spent the last few days worried, and not my normal overreaction worrying...sometimes a doctor can say something like "yep, it looks like you have a hang nail that's a little inflamed" and I know what he means by "inflamed" is "infected" and the look on his face (regardless of what it is) clearly indicates that it's not just any infection, but rather a serious, severe, and possibly even lethal infection.  I realize, without anyone saying anything, that they will probably have to amputate my finger, and actually most likely they'll take off my whole arm just to be safe...Anyway, this time the worrying was legitimate because the doctor had actually said he would need surgery. 

I was going to find a drawing of what he has and post it but when I did a search for images I got a message saying it had been blocked by my computer's obscene images filter.  You can read a bit about what Isaiah has here if you're really bored. 

Do they come any cuter than this?

We had picture day at our house today. Isaiah was the only participant, which is fine because he's cute enough for all three of us anyway! I got him this outfit the other day. I've been wanting it since the fall when I first saw it, but I waited until it went on sale for 60% off. I love the pants because they remind me of Dr. Seuss (and I have a big crush on Dr. Seuss). When Jerel saw them he said "What are those, like Dr. Seuss pants?" but strangely he didn't seem to think that was a good thing...It gets better though--the pants have a little ducky on the bum! How cute is that!

As you can see, our baby boy's getting the hang of sitting up. I think he'll really like it once he's mastered it because then he can play with toys and such. As it is now he can only play when someone's playing with him and that's never as often as he wants it to be. Don't get me wrong, he gets plenty of attention, but I do have other things to do once in a while and it will only get worse as tax season progresses. Isaiah is going to end up being a tax expert because I usually read all of my work out loud to him. I try to make is sound interesting with my voice but I think he knows it's not really all that exciting.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Look who's getting huge!

Here's a side-by-side of Isaiah at 1 month and 6 months. He is getting so big! He had his 6-month checkup last week and he's now 18 pounds 12 ounces (compared to 8 pounds 8 ounces at birth). He's 28 inches long now (compared to 21 inches at birth) and his head is, well, I don't remember, but it's pretty big (compared to not as pretty big at birth). His weight is at the 69th percentile and his height is at the 91st percentile.

Isaiah is a big faker now--if you laugh, even if nothing's funny, he will do this fake little laugh back. It's nice to see that he is already learning to humor me. I mean, I think I'm pretty hilarious, but I understand that other people might not agree...as Jerel reminds me every time I do my gangster voice...it's so funny. I'll use my gangster voice and say to Isaiah "Hey. You...in the onesie." and it will leave you rolling on the floor laughing (or rotfl for those of you younger ones who only speak text). Anyway, when I say it, it totally sounds like I'm in the mafia, wearing a trenchcoat to hide my weapons or something and can you imagine a mafia guy talking about onesies? Jeez, I'm laughing just thinking about it. But truthfully it's not really funny at all so I'm glad Isaiah fakes laughs for me.

He is sort of sitting up now. If you start him out balanced he'll last for maybe a minute or so. Just long enough for me to think he's got it down, so I look away, and that's when he flops over onto his face. Of course it's not really all that surprising that he sits up; all he has to do is lean forward slightly so that his big belly rests on his knees and he's all set! He's a cute boy and we love him lots.

Isaiah and his Great Grandma Greene

Grandma was so excited to meet little "Charley" and I took advantage of it by giving her babysitting duties. They had a good time together, of course. They probably won't get to see each other again until the cruise this summer and by then Isaiah will be walking around and acting all grown-up, so I'm glad Grandma got to see him when he's still a little baby...well, not really little, but sort of.

More Christmas

Here's Isaiah opening one of his presents. He didn't really get the concept, of course, but we tried to make him try anyway. This is him opening a new book Jerel got him. I got him a couple of balls...I picked them out because it said on the package that they made a "chime" sound and he loves his other toys that make a chime sound. The balls were all tied into a box so you couldn't hear the sound, but I figured a chime is a chime. As it turns out the balls make more of a dull "thud" sound, which is clearly not as delightful, but oh well. Isaiah's cousin Brigham got him a cute little outfit which he wore later that day. Grandma Atkinson got him the cutest Noah's Ark play set--it is a soft cloth ark with windows where you put the animals in, and the animals make sounds. Grandma Greene got him a toy piano which he enjoys flailing at. It has 4 notes to make an arpeggio, but so far Isaiah doesn't seem to appreciate the musical genius of it. Let's see...oh, he got another ball from his cousin Clara. This one makes noises whenever you move it and he plays with it a lot. And lastly (I think, forgive me if I forgot anything) we got him a high chair. It's more for us because we got tired of sitting on the kitchen floor to feed him in his bumbo chair. Admittedly it wouldn't have been so bad if we ever mopped the floor, but since that's unlikely to change we decided we better get a high chair. The one we got hooks on to the table, and it also swivels around so you can face him any direction. He doesn't seem to mind it and we really like it so I consider that a success. And that's that for Isaiah's first Christmas!

Christmas Bananas

We went all out for Isaiah for his first Christmas and got him some banana baby food. This is him trying it for the first time. Jerel picked it out for him as a special Christmas treat. We made him eat this before he could have the rest of his presents...When I was a kid we got up on Christmas morning and opened our stockings. Each stocking had one of those individual-sized cereal boxes and we had to eat the cereal before we could open our presents. We hated that, so it only makes sense that we would make Isaiah do something similar...