October 2007 (finally)

The first thing that October brought was Berik's new found ability to say, " no no no no, no no, no no no no, no",( I'm sure you get the drift). Everything was, "No", probably thanks to the 3- 3yr old girls at daycare or at least that is who we are sure it came from, when it came with an attitude and "the look". For a while there we couldn't get him to answer yes as he was stuck on "no". We'd be at the store and be getting him out of the basket and he be saying , no, over and over and escalating his voice and people would look at us like we were abusing him. Thankfully his little power trip only lasted about 3 wks.
After about a bizillion ear infections, he finally got tubes put in on Oct 11th. We had been to the Dr and or the Dr's colleagues EVERY SINGLE MONTH,
(except June) from Jan 2007 until Oct. 2007. at least once or twice each month, for his ears, which included 2 trips to the ER. Each time we would see a doctor, they would tell us that he would probably out grow the infections and then give us antibiotics. After about the 4th or 5th time we were starting to get anxious and inquired about tubes, but to no avail, nope, it will be ok, here are some more meds. In Oct, our second visit to the good ol' Huntsville ER, was with Berik screaming /crying and running 104, at midnight no less. Jaimie and I lost it with "those" people after they never so much as triage him and left us waiting for over 30 min. We drove to a different hospital 30 miles away, all the while he was screaming at the top of his lungs. The new ER saw him immediately as they said he was definitely a priority. His ear drums were perforated and leaking out all the gunk at which time he began to feel better. The MD there says, "have you'll ever thought about tubes?" FINALLY, someone who saw the light. He gave us a referral and we saw the ENT shortly thereafter.
The trip to the ENT was awful and according to the ENT doctor the worst experience he had ever had with a child. As "B" had been to the doctor so many times he was no fan of the "white coat" which is what set him off to begin with. Then came the hearing test, which lead to hysterical crying, causing a horrible nose bleed, which almost no amount of wipes, tissues, or shirts etc. could absorb. It took forever to calm him down and needless to say that was the end of the visit. The Dr. informed us that the only way to evaluate him was to put him "under" and we did that two days later and yes he got the tubes, finally!!!! It has been the best thing that ever happened to us and to him! We were able to see the change in Berik almost immediately. He is so happy and has started to speak alot more.
Toward the middle of the month we visited the pumpkin patch/playground/petting zoo with my friend Tracy and her son Matthew (4). We had alot of fun and it was nice to be able to let Berik loose and let him run and run. He was really interested in "looking" at the animals but not so kean on touching them. In fact while on his hands and knees spying the sheep, the sheep began to get up and Berik fled the scene rather quickly! It was comical :) .
At the end of the month wevisited my brother and his family in Southlake, Tx. Berik cheered for Graham (my nephew) at his football game and at the house he helped uncle Reid play the grand piano. We took him to the park to run and swing, two of his favorties things! Jaimie and I took him for his first real bike outing, which he really liked. This pic was taken at home when he was on the "test ride".
The end of the month of course brought , Halloween, in which, we produced quite possibly the cutest giraffe ever! We went a church carnival of sorts and Berik was thrilled just to be able to RUN!! Is anyone seeing a pattern here? Everywhere he goes he wants nothing more than to be let loose! Mind you, he may run for a bit but still stops to see where we are, so that makes us feel good. We also visited Pawpaw and Nana's house, where B loves to play the piano and then visited a couple of friends before calling it a night. He had no concept of trick or treating/ getting candy, which is fine by us, but had no probably eating a nutter butter ghost cookie, given to him by our friend Robin. We also participated in the daycare Halloween gift exchange at daycare and this is about the closest I let him get to the bags as he will make short work of tissue of any kind. Bubbles continue to be a big hit and if I can get it to load you might see B in action with the bubbles. Berik continues to fool with all the electronics he can get his hands on, which is almost anything, considering how tall he is! (3ft). No matter how careful we think we are he still manages to come up with a phone. All in all we had a really fun, busy month! G, J and B