First Dentist Appointment

Nicholas has never been much of a fan of having his teeth brushed, but will usually allow us to do so without too much struggle.  Despite our best attempts, Gabe and I noticed a brown spot on his lower bottom tooth.  It wouldn't go away and I was worried that it could be a cavity, so I decided to schedule an appointment for him at the dentist.  Our local dentist recommended pediatric dentist Dr. Vann in Trussville.  I am so very glad that they did because he was great.  Obviously I was worried that this was not going to go well at all, as most first dentist trips tend to be.   So last Thursday, we walked in and they had Finding Nemo on, which was a hit right from the start.  Dr. Vann talked to Nicholas and explained that all he would do is just brush his teeth. 

Nicholas sat in my lap and let him brush his teeth without any problems.  Luckily, Dr. Vann told us he did not have any cavities.  Nicholas does however have pretty bad staining that he said was pretty normal for kids his age.  Dr. Vann recommended starting Nicholas on fluoride toothpaste saying that to use such a minimal amount that he wouldn't be able to swallow anything and harm him.  He also recommended limiting juice between meals and switching to sugar free juice. 

Nicholas also has a pretty big overbite thanks to his sucking on his fingers.  Of course he also recommended that we work on putting a stop to this.  So we have started a plan of action.  The only time he ever sucks his fingers is when he has his blankie.  We have started to limit blankie time telling him he can only have it at bedtime/naptime.  It seems to be working pretty well so far, but this is not going to be easy battle to conquer as Nicholas is really attached to that blanket.  If worst comes to worst, Dr. Vann told me that they do carry a product that we can put on his fingers that tastes really bad and will help him stop.   

Dirty Jobs

Too bad I didn't have Mike Rowe from the show Dirty Jobs here today.  He could have helped when this evening I discovered what Nicholas decided to do.  If you read my previous post, you would know that just recently Nicholas started to put his hand in his diaper after he "dirtied" it.  He had never (to the best of my knowledge) done anything with what was on his hand until today.  So several days ago, in an attempt to figure out why he was doing this, I googled the toddler issue to see what I could find.  To my horror I read all sorts of stories about kids playing with their own poo and putting it in various places around the home.  Ironically, I told Mimi just earlier today that thankfully Nicholas hadn't done anything of the sort.  I spoke too soon...

So as I was baking some brownies and heating up leftovers for dinner.  Nicholas was (I thought) playing in his room.  After not hearing him playing for a few minutes I checked on him.  The door to his closet was wide open with - you guessed it - smeared all on it.  Nicholas was nowhere to be found.  I looked everywhere throughout the house and called his name but didn't hear a thing.  Finally I found him hiding behind the door to his room. 

At this point I remembered something from my google search the other day.  While I was reading the horrific stories of "dirty jobs" and how parents dealt with the situation, I remembered one effective technique that many parents used.  They put their child in the bathtub and would run a cold shower on them.  Granted I didn't get into the reasons why this worked because honestly I didn't think I would have that same problem.  Well I did put Nicholas in the tub and ran the shower.  I didn't run cold water though since he has had a cough all week and that just seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.  He immediately didn't like it and said that it was hurting him.  I let him stand in the shower for a minute while I worked on clean up efforts.  Who knows if this technique will work or not, but I am going to be overly aware of anytime Nicholas even thinks about making a dirty diaper, because I'm going to be all over it like poo on the closet door...       

I did go a little easy on Nicholas even with the situation because he has been sick all week.  His cough became so persistent that I took him to the doctor on Wednesday.  The doctor basically said he had a dry cough and also a slight ear infection in one ear (his first one).  He prescribed him some medicine and gave him something at the doctors office for the infection.  While we were there, they decided to go ahead and give him a flu shot.  Nicholas weighed almost 32 lbs, but my guess would be that has decreased as he has eaten very little this week with all the sickness.  Thankfully he seems to be getting better and has definitely caught up on his sleep. 

Needless to say I don't have any pictures to post on this entry, as I don't think the readers would appreciate that. For those reading this, could you please just say an extra prayer that my son will soon be potty trained?? I just don't know how many more dirty jobs (inside and outside the diaper) I can take.

Big Boy Bed

We have considered moving Nicholas to the double bed that is currently in his bedroom.  On occasion we would lay down with him in it (if he gets up early in the morning or something) but he's never been there for an entire night or nap time by himself.  He even received some Toy Story sheets from Santa this Christmas.  The only reason we've been a bit hesitant about this transition is because he does extremely well going to bed and we didn't want that to change.  It had to happen sometime so we tested the waters today during nap time.  Nicholas went down with no problems and even took a 3 hour nap.  Hopefully tonight he will do just as well.   

Here is Nicholas after his nap with his Toy Story sheets and all his "animals."

On a different note, Nicholas' commentary can be so random and funny.  Here are a few recent LOLs:

I was driving him to Mother's Day Out one morning and out of the blue he says "Good driving Mama!"  He told me again on the way home that night.  I do pride myself on being a good driver, but didn't quite expect a 2 year old to notice that... 

Then recently as he was saying his bedtime prayers, he threw us a curve ball.  Normally his nightly prayer is "Dear Jesus, thank you for everything.  I love you.  Amen"  Well one night recently his prayer went:  "Dear Jesus, thank you for everything.  I want some milk."  Even though this was way out of the ordinary, I will say that he will usually ask for milk at some point before bedtime as a stall tactic.  I just love this boy! 

One unfortunate thing recently that I'm sure everyone wants to know about is the decision for Nicholas to stick his hand down the back of his diaper after he has "dirtied it".  Just today he walks in the living room, shows me his hand and says "I have poo on my hand."  I really hope this is not a trend that sticks.  Gigi, ever the optimist, thinks that potty training might not be far away.  I'm going to hope that she is right, but we shall see.  Our favorite is when we ask Nicholas, "Do you need a new diaper"  He replies:  "No, I feel better." 

And I need to give a special shout out to "Uncle Bumbles."  His gift of Rocket from his favorite TV show Little Einsteins made an impression on Nicholas.  Just this week he was playing with it and said "it from Uncle Bumbles."  I was very impressed that he remembered who gave it to him.  Although his all-time favorite gift from Uncle Bumbles is blankie.  It will be a tough day when he will have to give that up.