Tubes - 100th Post

Yep, Sam's gonna have to get tubes in his ears. When we went to the doctor for his 12 month check-up on Friday, he was starting to get an ear infection. We ended up getting another antibiotic shot and scheduled an appointment with an ENT, Dr. Champion. We had his ears rechecked on Monday when we went back to the pediatrician for his vaccinations, and the infection was gone, but he still had fluid. Looking back through his chart, his ears have never been free of fluid since the first ear infection when he was five months old. With that history, plus the fact that he failed the hearing test in his right ear, Dr. Champion is recommending tubes. Looks like we are going to have to wait until early July for the surgery based on our schedules.

Sam was 21 lbs 2 oz and 29.75 inches at his check-up which is approximately 25th and 50th percentile respectively. Everything else checked out as expected.



So here's a shot of Sam eating dog food. Yummy! Not really, he put it in his mouth and spit it out. He dumped all of Cleo's food out, then put it back in the bowl one piece at a time. He just wanted to do a little quality control along the way.



Sam is doing very well with his sippy cup and milk. I've still been holding him for every bottle, so now that he's using the sippy cup, I'm trying to let him drink it on his own. He's also been eating very well -- if you count eating a lot of snacks as eating well. He seems to have made the connection that he can tell us what he wants, so he tells me that he wants cheese crackers, banana puffs, baby cheetos, and graham crackers for dinner. I tried to feed him fruits and veggies last night. He just shook his head "no" and pointed at the crackers. I think he ate for an hour. I kept asking him if he was "all done" and he'd shake his head "no" and point at the cheetos. Fun, huh? He did better tonight -- maybe because I hid the snacks so he couldn't see them. He ate chicken, cheese, mashed potatoes, and a jar of baby food fruit. We actually went to a BBQ restaurant for lunch Sunday with Sam and let him eat off our plates: pulled pork and chicken, potato salad, bread, and cinnamon apples. He even tried half of a fried okra! I may be the only person interested/amazed at what he's eating -- I'm just thrilled that he's eating.



We got a little break from the rain this weekend and went swimming both days. The pool actually got up to 83 degrees on Sunday, so we were able to get in the actual pool instead of just the hot tub. Sam had a blast jumping off the wading area.




This is a shot of Sam walking around the house with one of his lift-the-flap books.



Another fun bit of advice that we got from the doctor was to stop getting up when Sam cries in the middle of the night. Now if he's in pain from teething, we can get up and give him medicine, but we shouldn't rock him back to sleep. He shouldn't need any milk in the middle of the night. And, we shouldn't rock him to sleep when we are putting him to bed. It seems kinda mean, but it's a skill that he needs to learn. After two nights, he seems to be able to go back to sleep on his own. It makes naps easier too.



This is Sam playing with a mesh toybox. It seems like it was on his head the whole weekend.

Sam's new word is "uh-oh". He's been saying it for about a week or so. At first he would say "uh-oh" and then drop something, but I think he understands to say it after he drops something or when he falls now.