Sesame Street Builders – Team Mom
So I recently joined Team Mom, a group that does unpaid product reviews, and what was the first product shipped to me? Sesame Street Builders by Knex. Think Lego-like Sesame street characters, but better (meaning they actually look like their characters). They come in a variety of characters – Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie and Oscar. You KNOW which one I was hoping for, of course, but we ended up with Cookie Monster. Can’t say my Oscar was disappointed, though. One look at the box and he was hooked – and he doesn’t even watch Sesame Street yet.
I was a bit concerned that these would be too advanced for him (he’s just 14 months old, and the box says for age 2+). No need for concern. They’re large enough that I’m not worried about him swallowing them and also big enough for his little hands to grasp in a way that allows him to actually build things himself. So he wasn’t able to actually fashion his Cookie Monster into any recognizable form (Nanny Norma had no problem with it, though). He did love what he built, though, and even better, he loved taking it apart and putting it together again. Must say, though, that his favorite thing about this toy at first was the box. He spent about an hour chewing on Cookie Monster’s eye and practicing placing the pieces back into the box.
I dragged Cookie Monster along with us to our doctors’ appointments last week, and it was a hit with other kids as well. Well, I assume it was a hit since a little boy swiped it from Oscar and his mom took him away crying when he had to give it back to us.
A day at the doctors’
Oscar and I are recovering from a full day spent meeting with way too many doctors. I thought that it would be great to get the pediatrician, autism specialist and all three of the eye guys out of the way on one day. We have to drive from San Francisco to Stanford University, and Oscar hates the car. You can tell I’m a first-time mom, since I scheduled the visit to his pediatrician first. Perhaps we could have done it all in one day, but those who have BTDT already know what the fatal mistake was. Vaccinations.
How is it that I thought Oscar was caught up on his shots? He is SO FAR from being caught up. In fact, he’s so far behind still that he needed to get poked five times (seven immunizations). Following this nightmare (the screaming started when I stripped him so he could be meaured – 31 inches and 22.5 pounds!), we went for bloodwork, since there was a little discrepancy in his last CBC. Yeah, that just didn’t happen. Oscar started screaming the moment we entered the lab (I guess he remembers the room). When the three phlebologists came up to him in a pack (one was an extern, so he was completely extraneous), the wailing hit an all-time high (Kathryn, if you’re reading, the screams were very similar to those you heard through the walls of the Hotel Elegance 3 in Hanoi the first couple of nights I had Oscar). They grabbed his arm, tied it off and tried for twelve minutes to find a vein. Tried, I say, because they FAILED. I had to tell them to stop when I looked down to see that there was no blood flowing into the vials. So, off we went to the autism guy.
Luckily, we had to wait. I was able to calm Oscar down with a bottle. Yes, I know I shouldn’t be giving him bottles of milk anymore during the day, but the kid needed comforting. Off we went into the office, where this guy confirmed what the pediatrician had said a few minutes before. He just doesn’t think Oscar is autistic. Sure, he’s got a lot of the markers that should put him “on the spectrum,” but he had good eye contact, was pretty engaged when he was reading books to him and certainly was focused on him during our appointment. He failed the name recognition test (where the doctor calls his name while Oscar is playing a toy), but we’re now going to get his hearing tested (even though I know his hearing is fine). None of this is to say that autism has been definitively ruled out. There are just other possibilities that might make more sense. So, with this success, we were off to the retinologist.
All of the eye specialists were in the same area of the hospital, so that was nice. We were able to camp out for a while and play while we waited. Plus, eye doctors have the coolest toys. Lots of stuff that lights up and makes noise. Oscar’s a big fan of this. And, the main guy’s PA is awesome – she gives him balloons when she sees Oscar, which he loves. Unfortunately, nothing definitive came out of all of these appointments, other than the need to return in two weeks to meet with some other guy. I think all of this waiting is in part to get me ready for the fact that they’re going to have to put Oscar under general anesthesia for all of the tests they want to do. It’s impossible to really assess his vision right now, so they need to do an MRI, some really long-named test (with electro in the name, so I don’t like it) and some other stuff to see what’s going on. The eye guys don’t like that he doesn’t talk (who does?), so they need to rule out a brain tumor, but they’re not too worried about it since he’s so advanced with respect to all of the motor skill-type stuff.
That was our big day out. He was fine the rest of the day, but last night was horrid. He’s running a (very low) fever, threw up once, broke out in a rash and was just miserable all night long. Here’s hoping tonight’s easier.
Oscar’s secret life
I came home a little early today to hear Nanny Norma standing at the top of the staircase telling Oscar “Oscar do it only” [translation - do it yourself, Oscar]. Alarmed, I run over to the stairwell and peer down to see my not-yet 14 month old son scaling the stairs on his own – and doing so incredibly quickly. She tells me to go downstairs (we both mind Nanny Norma) and he then came down the stairs even more quickly. It had not dawned on me until that moment that I have really no idea what the two of them do with themselves during the day. Whatever it is, it appears to be more productive than the time we spend together playing all weekend long.
Multiculturalism
What does being a multicultural family mean to me? Next year we get to celebrate the new year THREE different times. The plain vanilla January 1, Tet (for Vietnam) and Enkutatash (for Ethiopia). How cool is that?
A question
What are people’s thoughts on my taking Oscar to Ethiopia when I pick up his sister sometime next year? Obviously, there are pros and cons on each side. He’ll be far too young to actually remember such a trip, but it would be part of our family history, so there’s an advantage there. I also just cannot imagine going away for over a week without him. After all the work we’ve done with respect to attachment, I hate to think of the impact leaving him with my friends / parents would have on him (in addition to what I’m already going to do to him adding a sister to the mix). The downsides are the travel, the less than ideal conditions (although I don’t know if they’re any more difficult than those in Vietnam and we did fine there), and the split in my attention (although he’ll be getting used to that). Anyone out there actually do anything like this?
Big morning in the Grouch house
Guess who learned to blow kisses? No, it wasn’t me. Oscar blew me a kiss! From the way Nanny Norma and I were carrying on, you would have thought he had just finished his first novel. She actually said “it’s just as important as when he first started walking!” Why, you ask? While blowing kisses isn’t quite pointing or waving, it’s similar in that there’s a communicative intent involved. Last night he fed me Cheerios after I signed “more.” AND he pointed at a picture in a book (this one is huge). I think we’re making some progress around here.
Socialized medicine
Today was my first experience with socialized medicine (well, to the extent that occupational therapy can be called medicine). I received a referral to Early Start for Oscar’s delays/whatever. I called immediately (of course) and was told in three different languages (if you’re wondering, the third was Chinese – sort of surprising) that it would be at least two weeks before someone returned my call. This is simply to talk about scheduling an assessment – the assessment itself will not happen for at least 45 days after that call (at least two months from now, then). I am, of course, exploring privatized medicine as well, although oddly it’s going to be a little while before I get in with that guy, too. Maybe that patience I learned (sort of) while adopting Oscar will come in handy here.
Love this
I just bought this necklace, which I love, love, love. The designer has a number of great pieces, including many adoption-related ones (she even donates part of the sales of certain items to adoption-related causes).
Holy buckets
I just had my first experience dealing with someone else’s vomit (I now realize that everything that came before this was simply spit-up – nothing compares to this). Oscar was wildly ill last night, throwing up all over himself, the bed, the walls, me and as an added bonus, the dogs. Everything is fine now – he’s acting as if nothing at all occurred. The upside to this? The bedroom hasn’t been this clean for a while now.
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Etta’s Hats
Where I’ve Been
