Still alive

It didn’t really occur to me until I started getting email that I haven’t been around here for a while.  When I looked at the date of my last post, I was shocked at how long I’ve been gone.  Very neglectful blogger, but I guess something has to give when you’re working 110 hours in a week.

No big news around here to report.  Oscar is turning into a full-fledged toddler.  If you don’t have one yet, that means tantrums.  Big ones.  In our case, exacerbated by the fact he can’t talk and only has about 35 signs that he uses so far.  So, if he wants something other than a cookie, ice cream, candy, apple, cracker, bread, banana, cheese, milk, juice or a bath, we’re kind of out of luck.  I used to wonder, though, how parents could deal with their kids screaming their little heads off.  They’d always just say you don’t notice it.  I get it now.  You just ignore it.  It’s one of those parenting skills that must naturally be imparted to us, I guess.

The only major thing that has changed around here is that we switched to soy milk (earth-shattering, huh).  I cannot tell you the difference it has made in Oscar.  I feel HORRIBLE for not making the switch earlier.  The poor kid has had some intestinal “issues,” shall we say.  I so dearly want to tell you the story of one of these issues, but because of the nature of cyberspace, I simply cannot.  Anyway, let me say that soy has changed our lives around here.  I actually think Oscar’s temperament has changed, too.  He’s just happier all the time (you know, other than when he’s screaming about not getting whatever it is that he wants that he can’t tell me that he wants).  He also “talks” a lot more.  Just babbling, but more of it.  I really think the discomfort he was in permeated his daily life.  I can’t believe I let this go on for so long.  I have been wondering whether he had issues with cows milk since we were in Vietnam, but having changed his formula to soy once and hearing a lot of negative stories about the hormones in it, I switched back and didn’t go back.  Probably a mistake.

So that’s pretty much all that’s been going on here.  Sad, really.  We managed to get to the Children’s Museum yesterday to see some friends and meet a new US citizen from Vietnam (the gorgeous young Ella, sister of Billy, the most hilariously active 2 year old in the world).  Oscar ran around like a crazy child chasing a bird, managed to get soaked twice in the splashing pools and enjoyed the train room, and was so wiped out from our time there that he was asleep within in 2 minutes of being in the car.  If only today were more like yesterday…

June 15, 2009 Posted by Oscar and Etta's mom | blogging, Oscar, Parenting | 5 Comments