Goofy kid

He speaks Spanish and English too...

Adam will not say "1, 2, 3" - it's always "1, 3, 8". I think he knows 1,2,3 since I say it enough as a warning, but anyway... yesterday he was playing in the living room before dinner and I heard him say "one, uno, dos"!! Really?? Skipping english and going right to spanish?

I know he listens to me but...

I feel like I am constantly yelling at Adam lately. Earlier he told me to stop being so loud. I told him that since he didn't do what I asked, he must not be able to hear me so I have to talk really loud. Some time passed and then he says "I sorry for not listening you". When we were trying to get him to go to sleep tonight, he kept doing somersaults and kicking me. Once we lay in bed and don't respond to anything he does - he calms down. We were just laying there and he said "Sorry for flipping and kicking you, Mommy". Sooo...he kind of gets the apology part (he's been doing variations of this all week "Sorry for hitting and kicking you", "Sorry for being whiny and a brat", etc) but when does he get to the part where he'll actually stop doing it when asked? I'm really tired of hearing myself yell. Maybe I'll start whispering and see if that works.

Another thing he did tonight that was cracking me up was that he kept calling me "Baby Gina". I'm not sure why. Dave taught him to say "Give me some sugar, baby" which was just funny. Somehow that turned into putting a pillow in his pants and him saying he had a baby in his butt! I think Adam has baby fever! Did I mention he told me he wanted a "Baby Ethan" a couple weeks ago? (We had been looking at a friend's new baby pictures. HIS name was Ethan. And there was an Ethan in the Sprouts room that week, too). Love the name but sorry Adam, you can have a baby Ethan when you get married.

Storytime Live video

Finally got around to uploading this


We went swimming today at the Community Center for 2 hours. I thought he would get bored after an hour but he was having fun going down the slide over and over. He swam a little and was fascinated with some of the kids that had snorkles. Love that it is an indoor pool so we don't fry but it got pretty chilly after a while.

Anytime Adam eats Apple Jacks he says "eat me" while he's eating them. I think I was trying to get him to eat one day and made the cereal talk and for whatever reason, it has stuck. It's pretty funny!

Storytime Live

Today we went down to the Palace Theater and saw Nickelodeon's  Storytime Live where Adam got to see Kai Lan, the Wonder Pets, the Backyagains, and Dora (oh, and Moose and Zee, too).  We were in Row B - right up close!  It was no Yo Gabba Live but Adam seemed to enjoy it.  His favorite part was at the end when a bunch of the characters came out on stage and sang "Shout".   Adam and a bunch of other kids started dancing in front of the stage.  It was soo cute!

This week I have been trying the "Sneaky Chef" recipes trying to get Adam to eat some veggies.  I swear he hasn't eaten a veggie since he stopped eating baby food.  So far the only thing that has worked is putting the "orange puree" (sweet potatoes and carrots) into his mac and cheese.  He didn't want any meatloaf even when I said that's all I was cooking - that he had to eat what we eat (which turned into try one bite of meatloaf or a spoonful of orange stuff and we'll make you the dang chicken nuggets).  Tonight I put the meatloaf in spaghetti sauce (which had orange and green puree) and made a loaf of bread using the green puree(spinach, broccoli, and peas).  He ate a piece of bread and 2 noodles. Tomorrow I may try the chocolate chip cookie recipe that has white bean puree in it.  I'm sure he'll eat those!  After this, I think I'll stick with just giving him his multivitamin and hope someday he'll like at least one vegetable. The recipes are not all that quick and it's really hard to cook when Adam starts screaming and throwing stuff at me when I'm not paying all my attention to him...

A couple of funnies

(Sorry for all of you on FB who already read these).   Yesterday, Adam and I were out back in his new pool and I was telling him he couldn't drink the pool water (you could see the sunscreen floating on top, dirt on the bottom,  plus it's the back yard so who knows what was on his feet before he got in).  I told him "no ifs, ands or buts."  He looked at me and said "No ant butts??"  I started cracking up and he was all "You happy now, Mommy?"  After yelling at him most of the day for not listening, yeah, that made me happy.

Today he was watching the classic Superman cartoons again (another day of screaming at him so I needed a break).  I went to clean up the kitchen and when I came back to sit with him, he had a little piece of material sticking out of the collar of his shirt.  I asked him what it was and he turned around for me.  I pulled it out and it was the little Mr. Potato Head Darth Vader cape!  He wanted a cape like Superman and that was the closest thing around!  

I tried to get some video of his new rainbow song "I Have a Rainbow" (sung to the tune of "nanny nanny boo") .  Here's a little bit but he hates the camera lately so if he sees me with it, he usually stops or yells at me to turn it off.  

The past couple of nights we have been trying to get Adam to go to sleep by himself.  Ever since we moved him into his toddler bed, one of us (usually me) stays in his room until he falls asleep.  I have been trying to sit just outside his door so he knows I'm still right there but he wants me to come lay on "my" bed. Well, he has this fear of ghosts that we try to use to our advantage sometimes.  I tried it first when I wanted to get rid of his bottles - the ghosts took them.  He was fine with that.  More recently, the ghosts took his little froggy potty.  Sooo, I told him if he didn't go to sleep, I was going to call the ghosts to come from their castle.  He faked snored for a couple of minutes and fell asleep.  It worked for 2 nights.  I tried it this morning when he came in our room at 6:30.  All I got was some really loud and fast fake snoring.  Tonight, we got a lot of scared crying and wanting to keep the lights on so Dave had to go sit with him.  Guess I need to find a new tactic...

The beach

We had a good time at the beach last week.  Dave and I haven't been in 11 years!!  Adam stayed dry for the 12 hour trip down there!  We got in at dark so we went down to the beach the next morning.  We were just going to walk along the beach but he was not afraid of the water at all. Fully dressed, he walked right on in.   Much like my Dad, he wanted to keep going out farther then he probably should.  He ending up getting some really bad chaffing on his thighs the first day so he went without a swim diaper the rest of the week like a big boy.  He also tried to write his name in the sand a couple of times (good thing the beach was pretty empty in the evening).  We had a little bit of rain so we went to the aquarium at Fort Fisher on Tuesday - it was packed!  Since it was raining on the way there, we stayed in our car on the ferry ride over but it was really nice on the way back.  Adam was very hard to contain so we had to go back in the car which really made him mad.  He cried to go back on the ferry and then finally fell asleep.  He woke up when we got back to the house and had a meltdown saying he wanted to go home.  Here's a clip.




The only other meltdown of the whole week was when we were coming home on Saturday after another short nap.  


During the week, he mastered getting on and off the big potty.  It's pretty funny seeing him climb up there. Today he has decided he wants to pee standing up like daddy.....

Ponytail

Now that my hair is long enough again, I have been wearing a ponytail a lot lately. No time for a real haircut ( I get my bangs trimmed at Cookie Cutters when Adam goes) and it's just convenient.  I don't think Adam likes it.  He points at it and says "Hair sticking out, Mommy?"  "Well...kind of, Adam." "Ooohhh".

AFP and ultrasound

Adam had his quarterly stuff done on Monday.  He was SOOOO good.  He watched some of "Land Before Time" and ate his lollipop during his ultrasound so it went super fast.  Then he didn't even cry for his arm poke!  He squirmed a tiny bit but I was able to restrain him myself unlike previous times where they had to have someone else hold his arm while I got the rest of him.  We always know before we leave that his ultrasound is clear otherwise the radiologist would come in and talk to us.  We only have been having to wait a couple of days for his AFP results (it used to take weeks when we went through the Geneticist) and it is down to 2.6!!!  Woo Hoo!  When I saw Dave write it down, I thought it was a 26 and I started to panic but there's a decimal point in there.  Only a year and a half left of arm pokes!!

And in case you forget why we have to do all this...
From the screening protocol -

Wilms tumor is the most common cancer in children with BWS, occurring in about 5-7% of all children with BWS. Most children develop Wilms tumor prior to their fourth birthday; however children with BWS can develop Wilms tumor up to 7 or 8 years of age. By 8 years of age 95% of all Wilms tumor have occurred. J Pediatr 1998 Mar; 132 (3 Pt 1): 377-

The second most common cancer in patients with BWS is hepatoblastoma. Similar to Wilms tumor hepatoblastoma can be identified by abdominal ultrasound. However, an abdominal ultrasound does not view the entire liver. Fortunately there is a marker for hepatoblastoma and this is alpha-fetal protein (AFP). AFP is a protein that is made in the liver of unborn infants. At birth the AFP levels are high and gradually decline to adult levels by 10 or 11 months of age. However, most infants with hepatoblastoma do not have a declining AFP measurement, rather their AFP level increases rapidly. 

Hepatoblastoma is also a fast growing cancer and because of the fast growth, we recommend an AFP  measurement every 6 weeks and ultrasound of the liver and kidney every 12 weeks. The ultrasound of the liver can be done at the same time as the ultrasound of kidney. Unlike Wilms tumor, the risk of hepatoblastoma drops off after 4 years, so we would recommend screening with AFP up to 4 years of age. We don’t see any value in conducting a liver ultrasound after four years of age.

As with all screening programs there is a risk benefit ratio that has to be determined by each parent and physician for the child with BWS. Our recommendations to screen with AFP up to age 4 years and ultrasound up to 8 years is based on the observation that most but not all hepatoblastoma and Wilms tumor will occur by these ages. The decision to screen beyond these ages is an individual one, where the benefits must be weighed against the risks. The major risk of screening is a misdiagnosis of cancer resulting in inappropriate surgery. We have had three such incidents. We conducted a cost effective model describing the costs and benefits of screening for cancer in this population;  although not perfect, the model coupled with the data strongly favors screening for Wilms tumor and hepatoblastoma based on the above mentioned data.  Med Pediatr Oncol. 2001 Oct;37(4):349-56.