HunterTrek.com

Turns out Jillian is allergic to Amoxicillin.  And that we should probably stay away from the other -cillins too, like Penicillin for instance.  During her one year checkup the doctor noticed some fluid behind her ears and even though she wasn’t complaining gave her the antibiotics to stop the pending ear ache.  I sure am glad we caught it in time though, poor Cal.

She took the medicine for 8 days before we noticed anything so we didn’t think much of it.  At first it looked like a little heat rash, which the kids get down here all the time, because, well, it is hot all the time.  But as the weekend wore on she was covered head to toe.  On her face, her chest, her back and arms and legs.  Under her clothes and under her diaper.  So that ruled out the new laundry sheets.  By Monday she was a mess.  She’d gone from being covered in individual spots to being covered (on some parts of her body) by one big red amorphous blob.

In to the doctor we went.  He said allergy to the antibiotics, nothing we can do.  So we didn’t do anything.  It doesn’t bother her and it is almost all gone now.  Just a few sprinkles left on her legs.  We did skip the Austin Hot Sauce Festival on Sunday though for fear that either the rash was photosensitive (it was worse on her face and arms) or that it would not react pleasantly with sunscreen

So we went to the zoo last week.  I’ll let Amber write about that if she wants.  It was fun.  But the best part, for me at least, came in the first few minutes.  We were looking at the White-Handed Gibbons when I thought to myself “That monkey looks like he is going to poop”.  You learn to spot that look when you have children.  You can sense it even across the room.  My first reaction of course was to get the camera ready.  And sure enough he swung out onto a branch over the water and “dropped the kids off at the pool” as Adrianne would say.  The turtles in the pond came rushing over.  I’ll leave that part to your imagination.

Go ahead.  Click on the photo to see a bigger copy.  I won’t tell anyone.  Here it is on Flickr too!

On Wednesday we went with Angela and Wesley to the Boggy Creek Farmer’s Market.  It is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9-1.  They say to come early for the best selection.  We were there about 9:45 and there was a lot of everything but lettuce and tomatoes.  They were all gone.

The boys carried the bags while Angela and I filled them up.  Angela got some eggplant, peppers, onions, and potatoes.  I got some pears, and onion and half dozen fresh hen eggs.

After we got our veggies the kids headed over to the baby chickens.  They were so sweet talking and pointing to the chicks.

Next we went over to the hen house.  This is were the eggs I bought were laid and collected.  There were a lot of hens and a rooster or two.  The kids did not see the rooster, but Wesley heard it and got really excited.  He started saying cock-a -doodle-do over and over.

Next to the hen house is a dirt pit/pile and some trucks.  What kid can resist that?  Wesley spent his hole time there.  He was uninterested in the big chickens, but Wesley Owen and Jillian thought they were pretty neat.

After our visit with the hens and a tour of the farm, (The boys thought it was cool to see where the produce was grown.  They also liked the rows of dirt that were tilled over for the next crop to go into.) we sat down on the benches and had some goats milk ice cream.  Wesley Owen had chocolate and I got Ambrosia (pineapple, coconut and vanilla flavor) for Wesley and Jillian.  Jillian loved it - Wesley did not.  Wesley Own shared a bit of his chocolate and Wesley loved it.  So we went and got him Turtle Chocolate.  Once everyone was happy with their flavors, they sat and enjoyed the ice cream and made a pretty big mess on the bench and on their clothes.

Then it was time to leave the farm.  Angela and I had no real plans for the rest of the day.  We were planning on heading back to her place and letting the kids play.  But she got a call from the her friend the owner of Los Portales asking her to come and work the lunch shift.  So we headed over there for lunch.  The kids ate their tacos and ate queso and chips.  Wesley was dipping queso on a chip for Jillian and feeding it to her.  It was pretty cute.  Then I noticed there was salsa in the queso.  And then I looked at Jillian.  Wesley gave her the salsa too!  It was hot for me so I was worried that she would be crying.  She just looked up at me and gave me a look like “huh.  My mouth is hot.” and then took a sip of her milk and she was just fine.  She is like her daddy.  Likes it hot!

It was a fun day.  It is nice that Angela lets me tag along with her.  As she pulls away from my house she always says - the bus is on the move…  Wesley now calls our car a bus too.  It is pretty sweet.

We are looking forward to our next excursion out with the Wesley Owen.

Wesley has long been addicted to his pacifier.  Even as a very small baby he slept with many in his crib.  He could only self sooth so long as he could find one of his pacifiers.  During the early months I would often find myself in his room, in the pitch dark on hands and knees sweeping my hands across the floor trying to find a lost pacifier.  I’d give him the first one and he’d calm down pretty quickly.  Then I’d keep looking for the rest of them and place at least one in each hand.

It was only a few months ago that we got down to just one pacifier.  He calls them “wawas”.  I’m not sure where he got that name, I think he came up with it all on his own.  I always tried very hard to always call them pacifiers, not binkies or lovies or any other pet name.  I had a plan you see.  We hooked small stuffed keychains (a dog, Poochy; a pink bunny, Pinky, and a cat, Kitty) to his pacifiers.  We referred to them that way as in “Where is Poochy”.  My thinking was that he would grow attached to the toys, not the pacifier.  Then when it was time to transition we would remove the pacifiers and he’d still have his security objects, Poochie, Pinky and Kitty to help him get to sleep.  No such luck.

So being the resourceful parent I am, and not at all above bribery I hatched another plan.  A few weeks ago I told Wesley that when he was ready he could take his pacifiers to the store and use them to buy a new toy.  He of course wanted to leave immediately, but he still wasn’t really ready to give up the wawas.  After a few false starts he managed to go two full nights and one full day (naptime) without needing his pacifier.  So off to the toystore we went.  First we went to TerraToys which is really cool, but not if you are two.  This store has lots of nice toys, but most are meant for an older crowd, maybe five and up.  He really just wanted the fishtank which fortunately wasn’t for sale.  Toys R Us it was.  After a few close calls with Diego toys we ended up with a nice sealife playset with a boat, submarine and numerous, not-to-scale sea critters.

The first night was pretty rough.  He woke up a number of times (some due to thunder) and needed to be loved.  Last night was better.  Hopefully this will stick.

It was a very hard decision to take away his pacifiers.  They are so important to him and clearly the most soothing thing in his life aside from Amber or I.  We didn’t do it to be mean, but really for his good, I hope.  He did seem very proud of himself that he was a “big boy” and that he didn’t need pacifiers any more.  But mostly we were worried about his teeth.  He has a hard time getting his front teeth to touch and this can be caused by using a pacifier too much.  We really notice when he tries to bite the end off of things like a piece of licorice which he can only do by using his back teeth.  The pacifier isn’t his only problem, he also has huge canines like I do, but it wasn’t helping.  And I hope it will help him sleep better.  When he can’t find his pacifier he can’t get back to sleep and will moan until we help him locate it.  Those are the rationalizations I use to help me assuage my guilt.  It is always hard to do anything that doesn’t make your child feel immediately happy and this is definitely stressful for him and for us.