November has been like a speeding bullet. I can hardly keep up. I think some of it is all the birthdays—we may start out slow with just three family birthdays in late September and through October, but in November we hit our first birthday bonanza with friends and family. More on that later.
Tate’s been doing pretty well. He’s eating up a storm, which is great for his growth and development, but pretty hard on the pocketbook. Casey and Marcie were out of baby food by around 12 months for the most part. Not Tate. He devours the stinky stuff. Can’t get enough. Goes through nine containers (at a dollar each, on sale) each day. PLUS he eats some of our people food. I can’t really push the table food issue until the cleft is repaired, so I’m biding my time. For now.
At his last doctor’s appointment, Tate was up to 19.6 pounds! Just a little more and we can turn him around so he can see where we’re going in the car. We’re still working out the staph infection on his head, though. We were able to get a culture run of the stuff in the last remaining bump, and it turns out it’s MRSA (I probably spelled that wrong). So now we’re on to another anti-biotic, which will hopefully help (along with the warm compresses) expel the last remaining, stodgy infection. Tate is so accustomed to it, he doesn’t even flinch when doctors push around on this last little lump. And I’m anxious to get rid of it because, well, it’s an infection. And I don’t want anything to hold up our palate surgery.
Speaking of palate surgery, that’s a saga in itself, of course. We have scheduled appointments with all the specialists, but even once the last one (the ENT) sees him on December 21, we’ll then have to coordinate all their schedules for the surgery so they can take care of everything at once. We’re told Tate will spend one or two nights in the hospital, then have no-nos on his arms for a couple weeks. Those are like boards that prevent him from bending his arms so he can’t puncture the palate repair. He’ll be a little frankenstein. We’ll know more once we see the plastic surgeon in December.
In the mean time, we’ve been very busy around the house. I’ve discovered I actually like a clean house! (At least cleaner than the one I was living in.) I like not having to do laundry and grocery shop on weekends. I like having a clean kitchen and a family room floor I can roll around on to play with the kids. I like not being slightly embarrassed when the kids’ friends (and their parents) drop by for a play date. The keeping up takes some definite work, but it was one of the (many) things I had to just let go when I was at work outside the home full time. Things around here still aren’t perfect, but that’s okay.
Here are some pictures from our month so far:
This is how I spend much of my mornings—putting away the tupperware Tate has pulled out (it’s the cabinet without the baby lock so he has something to do without frustration in the kitchen), and pulling Tate away from the dishwasher. If it’s even slightly ajar, Tate makes a beeline for it.
My Aunt Joanne made this sweater for Tate. It zips up the back (how smart is that?), and it arrived on the first coldish weather day we’d had in a while, so it was the perfect cover when we went to the park that afternoon.
One weekend we made it to the zoo- Tate’s first visit. We mostly stuck by the Monkey Trails, and you can see Marcie and Jason monkeying around above. We also visited the elephants (who were trumpeting while we were there!), the koalas, and the reptile enclosure. After, we stopped at Ruby Tuesday for dinner:
Tate’s first taste of lemon. . . not really enjoying it so much.
Tate got to join us for a couple of Casey’s soccer games. Casey played really well in both and even scored a goal in this last one. His team is undefeated, and they are playing in their championship game (against another undefeated team) this coming Saturday.
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