The Great Escape

Parker is sound asleep upstairs as I begin to write today's article. Now, that the hustle and bustle of Halloween is over I figure I should mention some things that have been going on here the past couple of days.

Now, I know that there are probably quite a few moms out there who frequent the blog and I am sure that many of them have a similar experience with their child as I am about to share. I guess it was a few weeks ago that Parker started a strange new ritual every time he was put in his high-chair for a feeding. He would take his hands, place them on the tray in front of him and throw his body back repeatedly on the back of his high chair. When we first witnessed this we were quite shocked. We were worried that he was going to hurt his head banging it the way he was. Then, we noticed that he was laughing uncontrollably while he was doing it. So, of course, we thought we were bringing up some deranged child who likes to bang his head against things while he laughs. Today, while reading one of her books, my wife found out that this is apparently a developmental milestone that many infants go through starting at around nine months of age. That said, I guess my son is gifted, as he started banging his head at about eight and a half months. Regardless, I hope he stops this little attention getter soon.

Now that we are on the topic of feeding, I shall continue by saying that we have noticed that Parker does not have the same appetite that he once had. Of course, my wife had been quite stressed about this the past few days as she feels that how much Parker eats is indicative of how he is feeling. When Parker first took ill, we had an extremely hard time getting him to have his bottle.

Now, Parker still has quite a bit to eat and drink each day, but it is less than he was eating a few weeks ago. Luckily for me, my wife read, in the same book I might add, that babies appetites eventually decrease as they get older. This makes sense as Parker cannot continue to gain weight at the rate in which he was in the first six months of his life or even the time since then. If he did, our son would be a very big little boy a few months from now.

Continuing on with the theme of food, Parker's diet has recently changed to include some food that is more indicative of what we as adults would eat. Parker has recently begun eating toast with butter, and last night for supper Parker had baby sized pasta. He was a little reluctant to eat the pasta at first, but once he realized they consisted of tiny things that he could chew he eventually had a few spoonfuls. The toast on the other hand was not a problem. He could eat that all day. He loves taking the little pieces and putting them in his mouth. The little squares of toast must feel very nice on his gums and teeth because he ate almost a whole piece for lunch today.

Now to a new topic. When Parker first got sick we spent over two weeks at Centenary Hospital in Scarborough. Eventually we left to come home with Parker before going to Sick Kids a few days later; however, when we were at Centenary there was a very wonderful Nurse named Debbie. She spent quite a bit of time comforting not only Parker, but also my wife. We were very happy to hear from her recently and very surprised to hear that the pediatrics floor had done a "Pennies for Parker" fundraiser. We are so thankful to everyone on the seventh floor at Centenary for doing this for us. I know I have said it before, but I cannot say it enough, we are so thankful for all the support we have gotten from not only family and friends, but people that we have never even met. There are so many wonderful people in the world that have helped us in our battle against ADA deficiency. Thank you.