WAY TOO GROSS NOT TO SHARE

I don't even know where to start.... we've had our share of pooptastrophies since Lucas was born but this one takes the cake...BY FAR. And I have no choice but to share this.. it was just too horrific..

I missed the early morning preview of what was to come (Doug was up with Lou since it was my turn to sleep in) but according to Doug, after Lou had breakfast he soon after had a poop explosion (some poop overflow out of the top of his jammie pants) and what made it particularly gross was that he reached back to feel what was going on back there and got a handful.. ewww.. glad I missed that one!

But wait, it gets better... After Lou and I did some shopping at the Farmers Market he fell asleep on the car ride home and stayed asleep in his carseat for a whopping FIVE HOUR NAP! (He still fits in his infant carrier so whenever he falls asleep in the car we just bring his carseat inside for him to finish his nap).  He happily woke up after what I would consider a Guinness Book of World Record nap and when I went to take him out of his carrier I almost fell over from the stench that I knew could only be the world's worst diarrhea. He just looked at me and smiled while I was quite literally fighting back vomit. This MUST have happened right before he woke up since he was in the living room with Doug and I for his entire nap.. there is no way that smell would have gone unnoticed. 

When I managed to get him out I realized it was much worse than I thought. My baby had poop ALL over him!!! :(  It completely saturated his pants and was dripping down his legs and off his toes. I'm not kidding. He was a GIANT poop. And I had to somehow get this giant poop from the living room into his bedroom so that I could clean him up.  So as quickly as I could and holding him like a flying superman, I managed to get him to his changing station.. all the while closing my eyes and wishing  "this was NOT happening"..  He was such a great sport and laid happily on his tummy with his booty up in the air for me to clean. And poop just EVERYWHERE. Don't ask me why I didn't take him straight to the bathroom.. or outside for that matter.  I must not have been thinking clearly.

But wait, it gets even better.  After I got him as clean as I was going to get him, we went straight to the bath so that I could finish cleaning him and sooth his poor red booty in some baking soda water.  It wasn't 2 minutes while in the bath that the entire tub turned into a brown cloud.  OMG!! He did not just reah in the tub!! Oh yes.  Yes, he did.  With a big smile on his face. This was just awful.. Lou has pooped in the tub before but a normal solid poop cannot even be compared to the damage that he did to this tub.. it's just a completely different ballgame when your dealing with diarrhea. I won't go into the cleaning of the tub because it may be one of my worst memories which I don't really want to relive. 

And if I haven't given a clear enough picture of just how awful this poopfest was.. when I was walking through the house after the storm had cleared I noticed poop smeared on one of our walls (and not even in his room where the changing occured!!!) and poop droplets on our tile.

And now.. pictures of the star. :) (don't worry - I'm not posting any poop pictures - my friend Jenn was the only one lucky enough to see one of those - SORRY! LOL)

It just so happens we got some before pics while he was eating his breakfast (toast with peanut butter - perhaps some foreshadowing here)

And the After...

I even got brave enough to put him in some clothes so he could play outside

(oh no!)

 No amount of poop could ever take away from Daddy Love

TINY GLASSES

This was hysterical. I'm not going to lie, there was some snorting when laughing at this one..

So Lucas LOVES his potato head - it's in a 3 way tie for his favorite toy right now (up against lego blocks and his cars).  In the set came a tiny pair of glasses. These are never really used appropriately (put on the potato head) - instead Doug and I usually will put them on to make Lucas laugh. Well the other night he brought us the glasses and wanted help putting them on.  So of course we obliged. I don't know, there is just something really funny about tiny glasses.. once they were on he started running around the house yelling "raaaaar" and trying to scare us.  LOL

And here are just some random pictures that were taken over the last couple weeks.  He's starting to look so grown up!!!  His smile lights up my life.

 Can I?

 Got it!

 love this face when he discovers something!

 His potato masterpiece :)

 Playing with mom's tablet again

 And very happy about it.

ADVENTURES WITH A SPOON

Lucas loves to steal the spoon while I'm feeding him purees so that he can do it himself.  Just some pictures from his meal the other night..

Ah Duh! (All Done!)

FUN FACTS @ 15 MONTHS

I can't believe it's been so long since I've written a post! It's time to get back at it..

I saw something like this on a blog recently and wanted to do the same for Lou. A full documentation of him at 15 months. :) Would be fun to do something like this every 6 months to a year..

Weight: 20lb, 8oz (5th percentile)
Height: 30 1/4" (10th percentile)
Head: 18 3/4" (50th percentile)

Nicknames: Lou, Lou-Bear, Lou-D, Bubba(s), Muffin, Lou-Keesmo, Loukifer (when he's being mean lol)

Loves: playing with Dad, going "bye-bye", being outside, going grocery shopping with mom, daycare, playing with his friends, wheat toast with peanut butter, croutons, being held, napping on mom or dad, How I Met Your Mother theme song (he likes all TV theme songs but this is his favorite - will stop what he's doing, run over to the TV and bob his head to the side like Night at the Roxbuy), talking, fake falling (he thinks it's hilarious), being read to (loves to bring us books and points and laughs at the pictures as we read), dogs!, sitting on Dad, water (drinking it, playing in it), snacking, morning walks with mom (and/or Granny) in his stroller, giving five "fi!", giving hugs, his night time bottle (yells "me baba!!!!" as it's being made), going to restaurants (he usually finds a random stranger to awkwardly stare at through the whole meal), fruit and veggie purees, baths (all I have to do is say the word bath and he runs over to the bathroom and waits by the tub, a lot of times he refuses to get out even after the water is drained, and once he's out he likes to run around the house in his hoody towel like a naked superhero), legos, putting the caps on things (water bottles, fruit pouches, really anything with a lid, he likes to take it off and then twist it back on), TV remote, mom's phone (he walks around the house with it to his ear saying "ehwo" "ehwo" "ehwo" - I've also caught him doing this with the giant remote), brushing his teeh (aka sucking the toothpaste off his toothbrush), Elmo

Dislikes: Sleeping in his crib, large crowds, a wide variety of foods (pretty much any solid food that is soft, smooshy or slippery), swim lessons (he just started so this should hopefully change), waking up in his crib (I hear that some kids will wake up and happily play in their cribs. NOT Lucas. I don't think he has a chance to blink twice before he starts screaming for mom or dad), being handed to someone he doesn't know, sharing (unless it's food.. food he will share, toys he will not), being told no (imagine that)

Description: Happy boy, sooo funny (there is not much he does that doesn't make us laugh - he is becoming quite the ham too.. loves when you laugh at him), very expressive (he has a face for everything and you can always tell what he's thinking or feeling just by looking at him), strong willed, challenging sleeper (started sleeping through the night consistently somewhere between 13-14 months, then several weeks after, his molars and a few other teeth started coming in and we were back to getting up anywhere from 2:30 - 4:30am (still in this phase) - Doug and I take turns sleeping with him on the couch when he gets up as there is no way he will go back to sleep in the dreaded crib), VERY early riser (he starts his day by 5:30am and sometimes earlier!), very active, total sweetheart (he melts my heart with his hugs and kisses), gets sick often :( (mainly he struggles with ear infections. Every time he gets congested from a cold or allergies he gets an ear infection), VERY picky eater (he gets this from his Dad!), terrible napper (UNLESS he is napping on mom or dad - we used to try and put him in his crib once he fell asleep but he would wake up crying within minutes of being put down so now we just take turns and set aside time on the weekends to nap with him - and honestly it is our favorite part of the day! He will nap for 3-4 hours when being held - I absolutley love it)

Words: hi, ehwo (hello), bye-bye, dah dah!! (dog dog - always said in an excited high-pitched voice), fi (five), dada, mama, uh-oh, I dunno (shoulder shrug and raised hands always included), ah duh! (all done! - with his hands raised), shoe, sah (sock), bite (he loves offering bites of food and always asks for a "bite" when hungry, he even likes to offer you "bites" of his medicine), baba/me baba (bottle - when he sees his night time bottle he goes into total freak out mode and starts whining and screaming "me babaaaaa!!!!"), more (sometimes includes the sign), nah nah (knock knock - says this when we knock on the door at daycare), ball, wha tha? (what's that?), cra cra (cracker), no (usually accompanied by a mean face), oweee and oucheee (when he hurts himself), wawa (water), ehmo (Elmo), oh no! (always exclaimed! and sometimes puts his hand over his mouth and points - too funny), nose, eye, tees (teeth - always asks for more "tees" after brushing his teeth), moo (moon - every time he says it he points up to the sky), yaaaaaay! (he probably says this word the most. Every time he does something he's proud of he will say yaaaaay and clap, he also says it when you give him food he wants), baby (Granny taught him the sign for this one so every time he says it he holds his arms like he's cradling a baby and swings them back and forth - SO CUTE, now when he sees Granny he always signs and says baby), nigh nigh (night night - says when he goes to bed), tay chu (thank you - this my favorite right now - he says it most all the time when you give him something he wants but the cutest is when I've been sitting next to his crib at night he puts his arm out the slat and wiggles it for me to hold his hand - as soon as I touch his hand he says "tay chu" are you kidding me!? LOVE. Reminds me of the Dumbo scene when the mom is locked up! lol). He uses all his words in the correct context except for oweee.. sometimes he says that one when he wakes up crying in his crib or when he wants something. I think he just knows he gets our immediate attention when he says it so he uses it to his advantage. :) He will also try to repeat pretty much any word you try and get him to say.

THE FOUR LETTER WORD

In our household it's FOOD.

Eating solid food has been a continuing challenge for Lou.  It all started a few months after introducing solids and reached a peak around 6-9 months, at which time he was refusing baby food altogether.. and he wasn't able to eat any of the beginner finger foods (puffs etc.) without gagging or choking. During this time his weight was at a stand still. My once 95th percentile baby was now barely holding on to the 5th percentile. There were a lot of emotional and tear filled dinners and mealtimes (mostly by me) and it was just sooo incredibly agonizing not to be able to feed my baby.  I just wanted him to eat sooo bad.. and he wouldn't.  I had done a TON of research and knew how important it was to never force him to eat anything and to try and make mealtimes an enjoyable and fun experience. So this usually consisted of me putting out about 20 different options (and praying there would be one item in there he'd eat) but much to my disappointment EVERYTHING would end up in his lap and on the floor.  Looking at our dining floor every night after meal time and I longed for a dog.

THANKFULLY since that point he has made tremendous improvement.  He gobbles down purees now (he really only likes the very basics - i.e pears, sweet potatoes, etc. - if we get too fancy he won't eat it), he also will eat several finger foods. He eats most finger foods in small portions but there are some things that he'll eat large quantities of.. like croutons. LOL  He is by far the pickiest eater ever!  Texture is HUGE for him.. he won't eat anything soft or mooshy or slippery. I originally wanted to raise him on a vegetarian diet like me but that was thrown out the window when we discovered his eating issues.. during the worst of it there was nothing I wouldn't offer him.. just to try and get him to eat.  Some of his favorite solid foods are blueberry waffles, bread, tofu, cornbread, spanish rice, crackers, pretzels, croutons and popcorn. Carb lover just like mom.  I wish he would eat a wider variety of foods (some fruits and vegetables would be nice!!) but thankfully for purees and smoothies, we cand still get him to eat/drink them.   

His 1 year doctor appointment was a bit of a disaster.  We had to go back FOUR times since every time we went he was too sick for a well visit and coudn't get his vaccines.  The first time he had an ear infection and needed to be on breathing treatments for weezing (my poor baby spends so much time being sick), the second time he still needed to be on breathing treatments and the ear infection wasn't completely gone (despite the antibiotics), the third time his lungs sounded great but now he had a double ear infection in full force! :(  Fourth time was this last Friday and FINALLY he was better and was able to get his vaccines. Anyway, at the first visit we discussed his eating issues and weight with the doc.  She was worried about his weight (still hanging on to the 5th percentile) and sent us home with instructions to feed him very fatty fried foods... like tator tots, fries, fast food, etc.  This did not sit well with me at ALL since we understand the importance of eating healthy and how impactful it is on your overall health.  So after a couple nights of feeding him tator tots, chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries I decided despite doctors orders we would not continue on this path. I don't care what anyone says (including the doctor), I am going to do what feels right and what I believe is best for my child. That's what it's all about anyway.  So after learning that he had lost 4 ounces between his 1st and 3rd doctor appointment we decided to try another approach.  Back to the purees!! We had been trying to do mostly finger foods with some purees mixed in for some fruits and vegetables but now we were going to flip flop things.  Why not?  He does great on purees and we can get him to eat a lot more that way.  So what if he's supposed to be on all finger foods by now.  We are going to do what works best for him.. and if that means blended moosh - then that's what we'll do!!  He is doing GREAT so far.  He still eats finger foods (mostly the carb favorites listed above) but the bulk of his diet is now purees. And at his 4th doctor appointment last Friday he was back up in weight!!  At a wopping 19.7 lbs. :)  The doctor was very happy with his progress and thought he looked great!  No need for another weight check before his next appointment at 15 months!! VERY happy about this!

So despite all the challenges we've had we feel like we are now on the right track and mealtimes are MUCH happier now. :) It might take a while before he's on a pure solid food diet but that is perfectly fine with us! 

We were SHOCKED when he ate a few bites of this corn on the cob!!