Still on the sick side

Will we ever get healthy again around here? It seems a long time since we were all feeling well at the same time. Finn and Neil are down for a nap right now, hopefully getting better. Finn still has diarrhea on and off and somehow caught a nasty bug as well. He was SO miserable all weekend, coughing and throwing up all the time. Sunday was especially bad. The poor guy literally was in our arms all day, whimpering. We took turns with him on the couch. He ran a high fever, between 39 and 40 ° C. He didn't eat anything for 2 days and we couldn't get much fluid into him either. On top, Neil was feeling ill as well. So on Monday (yesterday) we were all back at the doctor's. Finn was feeling a little better, and some more bloodwork luckily didn't confirm the suspected pneumonia. So we will just keep his fever down and treat his cold and his tummy problems.
We stopped giving Finn his apple-flavoured formula (milk). His digestive problems seem to have started at the time he started drinking bigger amounts of it. I still nurse him once a day and he gets rice milk in the morning now. It's worth a try - since my sister is lactose intolerant a milk allergy might run in the family. Maybe Finn has a good reason for refusing milk and milk products.
We all hope to be well again by the end of this week. We have a trip to the Baltic Sea planned, to visit my parents and grandma. My sister will be up there, too. We plan on leaving Friday evening, hoping that Finn will sleep in the car. If all goes well we could make it there in 7 hours. Saturday morning the happy grandparents can take Finn for a nice long walk while his exhausted parents will take a nap. We plan to stay until Wednesday next week.

To Eat or Not To Eat

I told myself I would never be one of those mothers who frets about her poor child not eating enough or not eating the right things. No healthy child starves to death of its own free will, right? We would just set a good example by eating healthy ourselves and there would never be a problem with our children and food. Just present them with a few choices and let them pick what they want to eat. I know that toddlers are not the healthiest eaters and that they might not eat a wholesome diet for some time, but this should be no reason for concern. And guess what? Now that I have a toddler I do worry. And I want him to eat more, but I can't stuff it down his throat! When I still nursed Finn a few times a day I wasn't too worried about food. Now I have practically weaned Finn from the breast; before his noon nap is the only time that I still nurse him. And it is more about comfort than about milk.

After Finn got over the cold I wrote about some time ago he was fine for 2 days and then had terrible diarrhea. The worst was over after a day, but I still took him to his doctor a few days later. Finn just wasn't his usual cheerful self. The doctor thought Finn looked too pale and took a blood sample. He prescribed pills for his tummy and an iron supplement and I also bought toddler vitamins. It also turned out that Finn has not gained any weight since he was 11 months old. I had noticed he seemed to be getting thinner. No wonder - learning how to walk, weaning, his cold and not eating enough all at the same time! So, we are trying to get more food into him. In 3 weeks our doctor wants to see us again and hopefully Finn will have gained some weight then.

We finally got Finn to drink a small bottle of apple-flavoured baby milk in the morning. That is a huge success. But now he doesn't want breakfast anymore. Before he goes down for his nap at 1pm he usually doesn't eat much at all. He might nibble on a couple whole grain crackers or cookies. A hot lunch is not to his liking, so usually he eats a fruit bar. On a good day I might get a few teaspoons of yoghurt or some grapes into him. I buy the richest fruit yoghurt I can find. On a bad day he won't even eat the fruit bar. I offer him apple slices and he chews one up and then spits it out. I offer him banana and he takes two bites at most, but usually I end up eating all of it myself. He doesn't like cantaloupe or pureed fruit. Part of the problem is that he wants to feed himself, but can't handle a spoon yet. The other day he ate a few pieces of ripe pear with his little fork. Yay! After his nap is basically the same as in the morning, he might snack on something or he might not. If I make a sandwich he will sometimes take a bite or two. His only good meal is supper. He still eats baby or toddler jars, especially with noodles. Often he will eat a whole jar. Then he might try some of our food or eat some desert, like yoghurt. I noticed Finn enjoys eating much more when Neil is here too. Often when Finn refuses food from me he will take it from Neil. So I try to wait with supper until Neil is home.

So much for food.

We still mourn for Aimee. Today a lady came to our door with a small kitten she found in the neighbourhood. She said the kitten was abandoned and thought that maybe Aimee was its mother. Of course Aimee wasn't (she was neutered). Amazingly, the kitten did resemble Aimee. It meowed and meowed and Finn looked at it with such longing. The lady asked if we wanted to keep it, but we don't. We don't want another cat. All we want right now is ours back.

Aimee is gone

We were wondering why our cat hasn't come home in 3 days. Monday at noon I let her out of the house and we haven't seen her since. Wednesday morning Neil looked for her with his bike, but couldn't find her. Last night he asked some neighbours and it turns out Aimee got run over by a car Monday afternoon on a busy street not far from our house. Tuesday morning a lady phoned the town hall and they took her off the street. By the time we started looking Aimee was already gone. We are sure it was her - a dark grey and white cat with long hair is pretty rare. But then - sometimes - I am still hoping against hope it WASN'T her and that she will be here any minute. Her food and water are waiting for her and there is still cathair on the living room carpet. But I guess I am happy I never did see her lying there.
We are all sad; although she was "just" an animal we really loved her. We had her for 6 years (since she was 6 weeks old) and not only was she really pretty, she was also quite the character! When someone lives with you for 6 years you sure get used to having that someone around. She just belonged with us. Now Finn will never really remember his kitty. He started to really like her - following her around, squealing with delight when she came into the room, petting her, throwing his toys at her, letting her try his cookie (she politely declined) and waving goodbye when she went away. Once Aimee even scratched Finn because he was pestering her. I would have loved for Finn to grow up with a pet, but we don't want to get another cat in this house. Maybe we will live on an acreage one day; then we will have a cat and a dog and maybe a pony. As for now, we will be sad about our little kitty for quite some time.
Goodbye, sweetie. We miss you very much.

Getting out of the hole

Well, we are back in the land of the living. About two weeks ago Finn caught a bug somewhere and it turned into a nasty cold. A few days later both Neil and I came down with it also. We all felt awful for a quite a while. Finn couldn't sleep well at night, but during the day he seemed to be doing way better than us. Feeling lousy and having to take care of an active toddler is no fun at all! We had planned to go to Zurich to visit my sister for 4 days, but had to cancel. We hope to be able to go visit her soon. Now we are all doing better; Neil even biked to work this morning.
Yesterday afternoon we did a really fun thing - we took Finn swimming to a nice indoor pool. We went to babyswim classes with him when he was 6 months old, and he enjoyed them. Now that he is older he enjoys the water even more! The pool had a really nice enclosed baby area with lots of things to do and Finn loved the fountains and the slide. We also took him to a deep, really warm pool where he "swam" from mommy to daddy and back. Maybe we should buy him water wings so he doesn't go under quite as often. Not that it seemed to bother him much - he just sputtered and coughed and burped and then was all smiles again.
Finn also loves playgrounds and walking around outside. Not that you ever get far with him. He mainly walks around in circles or in the opposite direction you want him to move and picks up interesting objects - stones, leaves, chestnuts, acorns. Everything is a wonder to him. Sometimes I still can't believe that this is my baby doing all of these things. As Neil said - our baby is not a baby anymore!