Toddle Monkey

Mattie still has that same cough hanging on, so his pediatrician wanted to get a chest X-ray (mainly to make sure he hadn't aspirated anything, I think). He went to the hospital for that this morning, and we went to the doctor this afternoon. The X-ray looked fine, totally normal, which was good (and as expected).

The pediatrician was going to try him on a month of inhalers (pulmicort and albuterol), but then she asked whether we had tried giving him Claritin or Zyrtec (antihistamines) before bedtime. She had thought that was one of the things we'd tried, but we hadn't, so she switched to doing that instead. It seems like the right decision to me; the inhaler medications are basically for asthma-type conditions, and to me his cough sounds more like phlegm in the back of his throat than anything going on with his lungs, and it happens mostly when he's lying down, not when he's active. So, wish us luck -- maybe this will do the trick! (Of course, I'm sick right now with a cold, which means that there's a good chance he'll get it, which may put us right back at ground zero again.)

The pediatrician said that although the two medications are very similar, Claritin might be slightly better because Zyrtec can sometimes have a sedating effect. (We're like, "and that's a bad thing??" There are definitely some nights that we wouldn't mind a little sedation!)

Beyond the medical stuff, Mattie seems to be learning new things at an amazing rate these days. He's really into books, and will bring one over and sit in your lap to read to him. (So adorable!!) His particular favorites right now are the Old McDonald had a Farm book, a baby signs book, and a couple of ones about colors with different pictures (especially pictures of babies). When I was reading the baby signs book to him, he did the signs for "hat" (patting head), "dog" (patting leg), and "eat" (hand to mouth). Wow! I haven't seen him use "dog" or "eat" to actually say those things otherwise (not surprising with "dog", since he says dog already), but it's cool that he's doing them in imitation of the book. He also responds, "ooo" when you ask him what the cow says (which is kind of interesting because he can say "m" sounds just fine otherwise).

And he seems to be entering the slightly annoying toddler phase of reaching for something he wants and saying "eh eh eh" until he gets it or gets distracted from it. :)

I think he's also getting another bottom tooth; I felt it poking out from his gum, which might explain why he was a little fussy today. But a dose of baby Tylenol and now he's sleeping peacefully. :)

Jamesie is doing fine, too. Mike says he stood up for a second or two on his own today -- he's definitely working on putting the pieces together for walking.

P.S. Congratulations to J, Y, & big sister C on the birth of baby Eleanor! We are looking forward to meeting the new kid on the block!