An Update on Iris

We had our 1st appointment in Boston at the Children's Hospital. We were able to get in a few weeks earlier than the original July 2nd appointment. Last Friday we met with Dr. Arin Greene, who is a pediatric plastic surgeon and the go-to guy for hemangiomas at the Children's Hospital.
What a relief it was to talk to someone who knew what he was talking about. He met with us for about a half an hour, answering all of our questions, not rushing us along at all. As I mentioned previously, all of the options for treating a hemangioma are less than desirable on such a small child. But, as it would turn out, we do not need to treat it at all right now. This was wonderful news. We do not have to pump our baby full of risky medications or have surgery while she is so young.

Dr. Greene told us that the growth period of the hemangioma has finished. Now, it starts to slowly recede. He did say, because of its size, that it will leave some fatty tissue and a knot behind when it does recede, which he expects to happen by age three. Also, it is pushing her earlobe forward and that will eventually need to be corrected. So, eventually she will need surgery, but not until she is older. He believes we should have the surgery done when she is around three years old but before she is three and a half. At three and a half, long term memory begins to form as well as self esteem. Therefore, we want to time the surgery such that she is likely to have no long term memory of it and before her self esteem can be effected by the growth itself and the slight deformity in her ear. Both the fixing of the ear and the removal of the remainder of the hemagioma will be done at the same time.

In the meantime, we are just to apply Aquifer to the hemangioma several times a day to keep the skin smooth and prevent further ulceration, which is what caused the sore that is currently present. He also suggested that she wear a light cotton hat when she sleeps to prevent rubbing against the sheets. These are really easy enough recommendations to follow and much more palatable than the choices I thought we were facing. We see him again in 6 months, and then again when she turns two, at which time we will develop the further course of treatment.

Dear Daddy,

Thank you for all that you do for us.  Thanks for the regular day-to-day stuff, like feeding us, bathing us, clothing us, helping us get to sleep (and often getting up in the middle of the night to feed us - well just us girls, anyway).  Thanks for changing our diapers or cleaning us (well, me, Eli) up after an "accident" and not complaining.  Thanks for reading books to us every day.  Thanks for getting up every day and going to work so that you can take care of us.  We really appreciate these things that you do for us!

And thanks for the other stuff too.  The not so day-to-day chore stuff.  Thanks for kissing our boo boos when we are hurt.  Thanks for giving us hugs and saying I love you.  Thank you for telling us how handsome and beautiful and strong and cute we are.  Thank you for building our self-esteem.  Thank you for teaching us everything we need to know about how to be smart and caring and patient, just like you.

Thank you daddy for the love that you have for us and the love that you have for mommy!  And most of all thank you for showing us this love and letting us know that you will always be there for us, no matter what!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY! 

Love, Eli, Esme, and Iris

  

Come on Eli, It's Time to Potty...

Potty Training SUCKS! But then, so does changing diapers on a 3 1/2 year old. So, we must persevere - for now at least.

This past Sunday, we decided to start seriously potty training with Eli. We have been trying pull-ups for the past month or so, with no success. For those of you who remain lucky enough to not know what a pull-up is, it is essentially a diaper that works like underwear. It does not have tabs, so you have to pull it up like a pair of underwear. This means that every time you need to change the pull-up, everything else needs to come off. I guess the fact that it comes up and down like underwear is supposed to motivate the child to want to use the potty instead of the pull-up. If there is a parent out there that has actually had this experience I envy you.

Anyway, on Sunday, we decided to try putting Eli in underwear to see how that would go. I know a number of people who have had good success with this method. I am hoping that he wont like the feeling of being wet and that this will motivate him, along with a sticker chart and M&M rewards system, to use the bathroom, but I am not sure this will be the case for us. On day one, we had ok success - about 50%. Day two was better - about 70% success, but day three was a disaster. 0% success. I spent the whole day cleaning up messes and changing clothes. The last couple of days have been better, but being wet, or poopy for that matter, doesn't seem to bother Eli in the least. This might mean that he is not really ready and this attempt may be futile, but if nothing else, I think he is starting to become aware of when he does go to the bathroom and what that feels like. We will give it a couple weeks and see what happens. If it doesn't work, we will stop for now and try again in a month or so. I am trying not to stress out about it.

Sometimes, though, it is hard to keep the stress level down. First, it is not easy for me to remain calm when I am cleaning up puddles of pee all over my house. Sometimes I feel like my head might explode. Moreover, whenever we are struggling with something new, some new facet of parenthood, it seems that there is no shortage of superparents with magic children ready to tell me all about the ease of their experience with my latest struggle. Does this happen to you? Who are these parents out there that just breeze through child rearing? They are not people I know or who know me. Rather, they are the "well-meaning" (read annoying and self righteous) strangers who love to offer their advice when they happen upon me and my "insuperior" (read normal) parenting self. You know them, those people who approach you in the grocery store, or in the waiting room at the doctor's office, or any other random place. These superparents always happen to stumble across me just in time to discover my new parenting struggle and can't help but brag about how their children excelled at whatever issue I am now struggling with. Well, to you parents who have these magic children who have slept through the night at 6 days old, never cried, never whine, eats anything and everything, who are always well behaved and potty trained by 2 years old, in just a few days, I am sticking my tongue out at you the second you turn your back and walk away.

Fortunately, superparents, I can brush you off, because I have wonderful family and friend support who share their true experiences and offer supportive genuine advice. Who share stories of both their children's strengths and struggles and acknowledge the same in my children. And, I will meet a few strangers along the way who will reach out and do the same. So to those who share your stories of success and struggle, who offer advice not judgment, who lend a helping hand or a listening ear, who support us normal parents with normal children, I thank you. And to you, I smile as you walk away.

All of us parents have children who are good at some things and struggle with others (even the magic children of the superparents, I suspect). There are plenty of things Eli has been really good at, that he has picked up very quickly. I think learning to use the potty may not be one of them. But I have full confidence he will get it, even if not at a magically rapid rate. When I get really stressed out I try to take a deep breath, call on the strength and support of my normal parent brethren, and remember that this too shall pass. I will not have a 17 year old still in diapers, and if I do, god knows he will be changing his own!

A Medical Misadventure (Update)

We finally heard back from the dermatologist's office yesterday.  We will be taking Iris to the Vascular Center at the Children's Hospital in Boston on July 2nd to meet with a specialist.  Even though it was a scheduler for the children's hospital, I still grilled the woman who was scheduling us on the phone.  I made her tell me at least three times that the doctor or doctors we will be seeing understand that the patient is a baby and that the issue is a hemangioma and they will know what to do about it.  She was very kind and reassured me that most of their patients are babies and they would know what they were doing...I guess we will see...

Westbrook Fair Fun!

Yesterday we went down to Riverbank Park, here in Westbrook, for Westbrook Together Days. This is our annual city fair. It is a pretty small event, nothing compaired to a state fair. There are no farm animals or serious fair rides, but it does have some children's rides, food vendors and local performers.

We were not there very long. We don't stay anywhere very long these days if we have all three kids in tow. But we walked around for about an hour. On our walk down to the park, we passed a couple with two young children who gave us 10 ride tickets on their way out. As a result, Eli went on his first fair ride. This is the first time we went to any sort of fair/carnival that he has been old enough and tall enough to go on even the smallest kiddie rides. On our way into the park he saw this small red train chugging around in a small circle. Immediately he started asking to go on that ride. So that small train became his first fair ride! Of course, we forgot to bring the camera, so the only pictures we have are the ones that were taken from Jesse's phone. So the pics are not great, but at least there are a few!

He also went on the Ferris Wheel with Jesse, but there are no pics of that because I was off getting food while they went on the ride. And, he went down the big bouncy slide twice - even though both trips down he held onto the side for his dear life!  My first baby really has become a little boy. Maybe a trip to Santa's Village will have to be in the plans for a summer adventure.

Puppy also enjoyed the slide (Puppy goes everywhere Eli goes).

Best Ever Banana Muffins (according to the web site anyway)

I don't know if these are the best banana muffins ever, but they are pretty good and pretty easy to make.  I made them this morning on a whim.  I had some bananas that really needed to be used up and I really did not want to throw them away.  It probably took 15 minutes to prepare and then 20 minutes to cook.  If you bake at all you probably have all of these ingredients on hand.

The Ingredients and Instructions:

3 lg. bananas, mashed
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 slightly beaten egg
1/3 c. melted butter

Mix the above ingredients together and add:

1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
Grease 12 muffin tin (I used papers which I sprayed lightly with cooking spray rather than greesing, but that is largely because I hate cleaning muffin pans) and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Bakes a firm consistency muffin that doesn't crumble.

The website claimed that this recipe is excellent for mini as well as jumbo sized muffins and suggests for a dessert treat, simply top with vanilla frosting. I haven't tried either.

A Medical Misadventure

As I am sure many of you have noticed, Iris has a large hemangioma behind her left ear.  For the most part, hemangiomas are harmless and most will go away on their own.  But, the placement and size of the one behind Iris's ear has started to push the cartilage of her ear forward.  Therefore, at her last well-child check up her doctor recommended that we see a dermatologist about whether or not it will need to be treated to prevent the ear cartilage from deforming.  Also, because of its size, there is a chance that it could interfere with her inner ear as well.

So, twice now, we have packed her up to go see a dermatologist locally.  The first time was a truly terrible experience.  Jesse took half a day off of work to come to the appointment.  I was unable to find child-care for Eli and Esme, so we all went together.  We waited for a very long 15 minutes in the waiting room, with both babies fussing and Eli running from one end of the waiting room to the other.  Finally, we were called into an impossibly small exam room with all five of us plus the double stroller.  We were scheduled with a dermatology nurse practitioner who came into the room, talked with us very fast, took a picture and then told us that we were mis-scheduled (despite the fact that Iris's doctor made it very clear her age and issue) and needed to come back to meet with a different doctor because he was not that familiar with hemangiomas OR with infants.  Despite this, we were still charged our co-pay.  We rescheduled.

Yesterday we had our second appointment.  This time, Eli was at his summer play-school so it was a little easier.  But we were still crammed into a very small exam room with the double stroller.  We were told that we would be meeting with a doctor who knew what to tell us.  So, this doctor came into the room, and looked Iris over, told us various treatment options, none of which sound all that appealing, and then told us that she is not an expert in these things so she is going to refer us to a specialist in Boston.  We should know on Monday when our appointment is.

So, we will be taking Iris down to Boston to meet with a pediatric dermatologist who will, in theory at least, know what he or she is looking at and whether or not we really need to treat it.  Besides the large hemangioma she has behind her ear, she has a much smaller one on her forehead and two very small ones on her chest.  She also has a soft bump on the back of her head, which the dermatologist said may be a deeper one under the skin.  Therefore, she is likely to have imaging done to ensure that there is not anything going on internally that we should be concerned about.

All of this has my anxiety up just a little bit.  I am trying not to get to crazy about it, but it is nerve racking to have to take one of your children out of state to see a specialist.  But, despite her little bumps and red spots, Miss Iris is still one of the cutest babies I have ever known.  She has truly captured my heart!

Summer Citrus Broccoli Salad

Broccoli Slaw Citrus Salad

I am a BIG fan of summer salads.  I love the fresh vegies and the fun light dressings.  Everything tastes so fresh and refreshing.  This past monday we went to a Memorial Day picnic at my in-laws.  I made a delcious crispy broccoli slaw citrus salad with Jimaca.  I had never had Jimaca before.  It is a sort of potato-type vegetable from Mexico.  It is very crisp with a subtle sweet flavor, although, it really is a pain to peel, as it has a pretty tough skin.  I tried a potato peeler but had to switch to a knife.

Here is the recipe for the salad (you can also find this on the back of the Green Giant broccoli slaw package):

Ingredients for salad:
1 package of Broccoli Slaw, which contains shredded broccoli, red cabbage, and carrots
1 Jimaca, sliced julienne style
1 half a small red onion sliced julienne style (approx 1 cup)
3 Oranges sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
2/3 cup chopped cilantro

Ingredients for dressing:
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest
4 teaspoons of sugar
A pinch of salt

Chop and mix the broccoli slaw, the jimaca, red onion, oranges, cilantro, and orange zest.
Prepare the dressing in a separate bowl.
Pour the dressing over the salad and mix throughout.

This is what a Jimaca looks like