Positive things we have going when it comes to eating

Lately, I have been talking too negatively about getting our 3 year old to eat. In fact, I feel like most of my eating posts are related to frustration. I don't mean to mislead readers in thinking this is normal for us. I often get the urge to post when I need to vent. It's somewhat therapeutic for me. Other bloggers could probably relate.

I want to let everyone know and also remind myself when I look back at this time one day that we are in fact very lucky to have a 3 year old who eats well. That's right. You heard me right! Tristan eats well normally :)

I breastfed Tristan for a year and he drank breast milk exclusively for the first six months. His first solid food was broccoli. He even tried bittermelon as a first solid food. Every new food presented to him was in pure form with no seasonings until he was around 12 months old. He only drank milk and water. Even now, he drinks more water than anything else. If you offer him juice, he would probably ask for water. He can be picky sure but we don't dine on junk foods like potato chips and we rarely eat processed foods. We may open a can of soup or cook from a pack of instant noodles once or twice a year. Processed foods usually gross me out. We eat a lot of brown rice, multigrain breads, vegetables, fruits, healthy grains, and we always have a variety. We have pretty much introduced Tristan to every kind of food out there since I love to cook Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Greek, Italian, Indian, Hawaiian, and so many other things. We are even doing tons of vegan food these days! Jean-Louis and I pretty much love eating everything and are somewhat adventurous eaters. Tristan will probably grow up being the same.

Feasting on durian

Tristan loved food until he was about two years old. He didn't care what it was as long as he could put it in his mouth, he would eat it. When he was around two, he started to resist certain foods, including some of his favorites. Jean-Louis called him a moody eater. Some times he would love it and other days he would hate it. He would pick at his food a bit for a few days or weeks and then he would go back to eating everything we give him again. We would go through these cycles where we would have to nag on and off to get him to eat most or all of his food. When he would be sick, it would be way worst. Nowadays, he will still eat anything but just not as much as we would like him to. Many people who have dined with us are usually impressed that he eats what we give him. They are also impressed he does this on his own.

Right now, Tristan is finishing all his meals. The nagging is almost non-existent. I guess he is hungry now from having so little to eat last week when he was sick. The type of nagging and coaching we do now is more along the lines of "you only have three more spoons to go. You can do it!"

Here is what he ate today:

• Breakfast: 1 slice of multigrain bread, 1 fried egg, 4 slices of pear, bit of water
• Lunch: chicken pesto salad panini sandwich (2-3 cups), 3 slices of apple, bit of water
• Dinner: mushroom, tofu, shrimp stir-fry rice macaroni (3-4 cups), 2 slices of orange, 1 hedgehog, 1 small vegan almond cookie, bit of coconut water, lots of water

Tristan finished everything above, except for a small piece of chicken from his panini sandwich. Today was a satisfactory day! The thing is Tristan knows that we are not happy when he doesn't eat. He also knows our rules at the table. Eat your main dish first, especially your vegetables and then you can have fruit and possibly a treat if you are really good. Sometimes we would present a dish of food to him and also give him a piece of bread or cracker to go with his meal. He would check with us first to see if he could start by eating his bread or cracker. That's because he knows that things like bread, crackers, and fruits are more like rewards for eating well. Some times we just tell him to eat everything together but he'll set aside the bread or fruit until he is done with his main dish anyway. Fine with us, as long as he eats everything.

The three of us eat together all the time. Well, I eat breakfast with Tristan every day and Jean-Louis joins us on the weekends. I sometimes eat or at least sit with Tristan while he is having lunch and at dinner, the three of us all sit and eat together. I think Jean-Louis has only ever missed a couple of dinner sit downs because of his iPhone meetups. I think eating together as a family is important and we are fortunate to have schedules that support that. Sadly, I have heard of many families where this can't happen very often. We also all eat the same things and that is also important for Tristan to see.

Speaking of eating the same things, because I started baking more in the past year, people may have the impression that Tristan eats too many sweets now and has become a pickier eater because of it. Yes, I have baked a lot but I'm actually the one that eats most of it. Jean-Louis is always watching his weight and I'm the Mommy in the family so I eat all the leftovers, sweets included. We also send quite a bit of sweets to Jean-Louis' work so we can get rid of them quicker. As for Tristan, if he is well behaved and eats well, we may offer him a small treat. If he does get a treat, it will be 1/4 to 1/2 the size of the treat we would get. Many times when a treat was offered though, he never got it because he didn't quite finish his meal. If he doesn't finish or at least eat most of his meal, he doesn't even get fruit! Yeah, we use fruit a lot as a bribe. It's funny because he would come so close to finishing his food some times and then refuse to take the last bite and just declare defeat. He would tell us he doesn't want the cookie anymore just so he doesn't have to finish the last bite of his food. That's okay with us and we just take his food away. Remember that Santa hat cake I made? Tristan didn't even have a bite of that! He probably has a treat like a cookie or chocolate two times a week. That doesn't sound like a lot to us, is it? As for how often I eat treats, you don't want to know! I will be hitting the gym next month though and will be paying dearly for all my sweet sins. Oh boy :S

3 year old had nightmares about eating

It's true. I witnessed him having a nightmare in his crib. He was obviously disturbed and he was turning and turning and he seemed scared. Then I stayed to watch to see if I could find out what he was scared about. When he spoke, he said "No. I don't want to eat." My heart sank.

It saddens me to know that he is having nightmares about eating. He will grow up troubled because we constantly nag at him at the dining table :( On the up side it does work in getting him to eat a balanced healthy meal. When I told Jean-Louis about the incident, he first laughed and then he said it's only human to be psychologically damaged. If it's not this, it will be something else later on. I guess when it comes down to it, we have more or less two options:

1. Have him grow up physically healthy knowing he has good nutrition but is a bit troubled or 
2. Have him grow up unhealthy, a bit malnutrition on vitamins, and not troubled with eating issues.

Obviously we picked to go with option 1.

The past week was a terrible week in that Tristan was sick and he didn't want to eat. We were lucky if he had a few bites of his dinner. He ate very little and we didn't push him too hard. We also got in the habit of feeding him his leftover dinner, at least a spoon or two of it, before giving him his normal breakfast of bread or pancake. By morning he was usually hungry so it wasn't so hard. However, one morning was particularly bad in that I lost my mind and force fed him two spoons of fried rice. I knew it was wrong to do and but I had to do it to prove a point. When my threats didn't work, I just lost it. I didn't hurt him since I was still pretty gentle but the fact that I did that upset him a lot. Of course this made him cry and I felt really bad. I had a miserable night of sleep and I was feeling under the weather. That was why I lost my mind. I'll just have to step away next time for a breather. This mad incident and the increased nagging last week probably gave him bad dreams. Poor Tristan:( Already troubled at 3 years old.

Speaking of eating well and finding balanced meals, this Healthy Eating Plate was released September 14, 2011 from a research study based on scientific evidence. It looks like a good blueprint to follow.

Toddler has strep :(

First time for everything, right? I imagine he contracted strep somewhere between Monday and Thursday of last week. Apparently, he got it 1-4 days before his symptoms showed up. He was feeling very tired around 3PM on Friday. We thought it was just the flu. Since we only went to the store for a short trip on Thursday and he stayed home with me the rest of the time, there is a good chance his strep is from being at daycare :(

Yesterday, we went out for a bit but mostly for the drive. Tristan got to nap in the car most of the time. We hadn't been out really for 2 days so I thought the fresh air would be good for him. He was quiet most of the time and didn't have much of an appetite. I also noticed tiny bloody dots under his chin. It was unusual but I figured it was related to his dry skin from the cold weather. This morning it looked worst and he complained that his teeth hurt a bit so as a precaution, Jean-Louis took him into the walk-in-clinic. We almost didn't either because I know the doctors here and unless it is really, REALLY bad, they won't treat it and would just send you home. It's cold season after all and he was acting sick. It turns out, we did the right thing. Jean-Louis arrived 30 minutes after the clinic opened and had to wait 2 hours to see the doctor for 5 minutes. It's the usual story with the walk-in-clinics here but luckily (and unluckily for us), the doctor didn't just tell him to relax and go home. Tristan was diagnosed with strep right away, even without doing a strep test. He had all the symptoms already and the doctors prescribed him antibiotics. His lymph nodes were swollen, he was still feverish, he had a rash on his chin, as well as inside his mouth, on his tongue and throat, and he just wasn't interested in eating or drinking because they hurt him.

On top of strep, his bacterial infection, he may also have a viral infection. He's sick. He vomited three times today and barely ate anything. He hasn't vomited in a long time. The viral infection could be from Jean-Louis since Jean-Louis was sick last week. It could also be from daycare since I noticed one of the staff there was coughing and sneezing. It's funny how we're always trying to figure out how all this happened. It's not like he can avoid home or daycare. Well, sickness is bound to happen sooner or later and it is better now than during Christmas, I suppose.

Poor Tristan. Strep must be very cruel because he has been crying from pain on and off all day and he normally doesn't cry much. It has also been a long time since I blogged about Tristan being sick. Hopefully this winter won't be as bad as last winter. I hear that daycare kids don't get sick as much in their second year. Last year we got the H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. We still got sick a lot. This year we're going to skip the shots.

What daycare has given baby and me

Tristan has been in daycare full time for 4 1/2 months now. In that time, I have learned and done many things. The 2-3 months were quite bad because either he was sick, I was sick or Jean-Louis was sick. In fact, we were averaging about 5 missed days of daycare every month due to sickness. Those missed days do not count the weekends, many of which Tristan was also sick. Sick or not, I still got to relax and catch up on much needed sleep. Prior to daycare, I was home alone with Tristan for 13 months. We barely went out and we had pretty much no social interaction at all. I was tired and a bit insane. Now, everything has changed.

Daycare has brought social interaction and play into Tristan's life. He is learning how to share and wait for attention. He paints, does craft, and receives lots of exercise. He is well liked at daycare and that makes us very proud. I also like to think that he is building some kind of immunity from being sick all the time from their germ-infested environment :) The most important thing is that he is happy and having fun. Farewell boredom at home!

For myself, I have been able to concentrate on work a bit more. I have increased my contracting hours a bit but I mostly work for myself creating iPhone applications. When I'm not working, I do fun things such as tweeting, blogging, assembling baby books, and organizing personal photo libraries and home videos. I also do not-so-fun things such as cleaning. I spend more time cooking too but I love to cook :)

In the past month or so, I have also been taking better care of my health. Actually, that was one of my initial goals when daycare started. I have reduced my sugar intake and am now running about three times a week. It's crazy to think that I used to eat chocolate, cake, or cookies every day for almost a year! But I kind of needed it back then :( In addition to running now, I bring Tristan to and from daycare during the day and that adds around 40 minutes of walking. I shouldn't really count that but compared to the past year, that bit of exercise is actually making a difference. As a result of my new found time since daycare, I feel physically stronger, am not tired anymore, less stressed, happier, and in control again. Thank you daycare!

Still on the gastro diet for diarrhea

It has been just over a week now since Tristan had a stomach flu. The vomiting stopped after two days and then the diarrhea took over for a couple of days. He is still having what daycare calls "mushy" bowel movements so we're still keeping him on the gastro diet. He was doing quite well during the middle of the week so we decided to slowly introduce a bit more fruit and vegetable in his diet but then it got a bit worst. It's hard to give him low-fiber foods because we always concentrate on purchasing foods that are high in fiber. I don't think I have eaten white sandwich bread for years!



Last week, the doctor sent us home with a sheet listing the foods we should be avoiding and foods that we should be feeding Tristan. I would have typed it out but was too lazy :) We have been working off of the list all week in preparing his foods. The other hard part about this food selection is that it doesn't give him a lot of variety. Luckily, he is still eating but that is because there is nothing else and he is hungry!

He has been on the gastro diet for a week now and it's pretty boring. We keep coming back to the same things: white rice, white pasta, chicken meat, egg-salmon omelette, eggs, cheese, rice crackers, bananas, and apples. It may sound like a lot but imagine repeating that for 3 meals a day, plus 2 snacks. Boring! At least boring for what Tristan is used to.

We also haven't been feeding him a lot, just in case he vomits again. We are increasing the milk offerings each day and are now giving him about 140-160ML of milk 3 times a day. His normal intake is 180ML of milk 3 times a day. It's so ironic because we have always been giving him foods that are high in fiber so that he wouldn't be constipated and now, we have to do the reverse. He always eats brown pasta and whole wheat bread and had only tried white pasta once in the past. Now, we kind of want him constipated so we can return back to our normal diet. How much more white food does he need to get there? Well, I hope we'll get there soon!

Sickness update - it was the stomach flu!

Tristan is much better but is still recovering. He is actually back at daycare today. We went to the doctors on Friday and had him checked out. We barely got an appointment that day too but they sympathized with me when I told them we tried 2 other walk-in clinics and still couldn't see a doctor. Our doctor said that this could be a sign of a flu coming up or it could be a stomach bug. After I dropped him off at daycare this morning, I found out that the stomach flu is going around so that is definitely what Tristan has. The infant room got hit by it, including the staff that work there and apparently, it's in the toddler room too. These things sure spread fast!

Tristan has been on a gastro diet since Friday. Basically, we need to avoid fiber, wheat, vegetables, and most fruits. It's kind of crazy because that is the sort of diet Tristan is always on. We always offer him things that are high in fiber. Even our rice crispy is made from organic brown rice! We aren't feeding him a lot in case he vomits again but he does have to eat and drink frequently. Even though he was still having diarrhea, we figured that was okay since his body was still cleansing and he needs to get rid of all the bad stuff first. He has been eating plain pasta, bananas, plain chicken, white congee in chicken broth, plain bagels, and organic rice mum-mums biscuits. Throughout the day, he drinks lots of water. We only began giving him a bit of milk again yesterday. So far, no vomit :) His diarrhea is slowly going away as well. Hooray!

Vomiting can't be for no reason, can it?

I think I jinxed myself in the last blog post. I thought we would finally get a full week at daycare but it doesn't look like we're going to make it. Today, after a perfectly good day at daycare, Tristan acted a bit strange around dinner time, only an hour after I picked him up. He wouldn't really eat anything at dinner except for tofu, bread, and some raspberry and banana puree. A bit of the raspberry and banana came out while he was in the highchair. Then we let him out and he played happily, giggling and all. While I was packing his lunch for tomorrow and cleaning up, he vomited while playing by the stairs with Jean-Louis. A lot of it got on Jean-Louis and the rest went on the stairs and carpet. Jean-Louis quickly ran to the kitchen and tilted Tristan over a bit so that he could finish vomiting. And he did. Lots more came out of him. I think he pretty much emptied his entire stomach tonight. Poor baby :(

Carpet cleaning and soaking smelly clothes were not on the agenda tonight but that's what we spent 2 hours doing. Oh, what kind of sickness is this now? I can't help but suspect a repeat of viral conjunctivitis since when he had that the other week, he vomited a couple of times as well. Tonight was much more vomit though. Since daycare and getting sick all the time, we find ourselves constantly trying to diagnose Tristan's illnesses and trying to figure out how he could have contracted it. We have been watching a lot of House too so that could explain some of our obsession of this. But seriously, when is sick season over? I really, really want to know.

Back to normal, back to daycare

Today is the start of the first full week of daycare for Tristan. At least I hope it will be. We stopped giving him antibiotics for his pink eye on Saturday. That pretty much means we are back to normal and life goes on for all of us. Right? Sometimes, we can't help but think there is something else disturbing him because he is quite a bit of trouble these days. He seems easily agitated and is becoming picky at the dinner table again. Are his molars coming out? I don't feel anything at the back of his gums at the moment. He has a small tooth coming out in the front but it can't be that. Maybe this is all normal because he is getting used to daycare where he has all the freedom in the world and then he comes home and we have all these boundaries. He is venturing into places at home where he is not suppose to and he knows it too. Sometimes when we yell at him and say no, he slowly drops himself to the ground and rolls over like he is going to sleep. What is up with that? Maybe he saw someone at daycare do it and is now imitating that person. So bizarre!

The past week with Tristan at home made me appreciate having daycare even more. Sure he gets sick more and he is allowed to get away with throwing food at daycare etc. but overall, daycare is a blessing for us, especially for me. Tristan is such a monkey and I am getting tired of running after him and saying no. The problem is our place is just not baby proof enough. There are so many things that are dangerous like the stairs, fireplace, sharp objects in the kitchen drawers, and dirty places we don't like him to touch or step on like the hallway, window sill etc. There are just too many restrictions and it sometimes feels like a high-paced full time job just keeping him away from all of these things. We get frustrated and so does he.

Besides running after my little monkey last week, we did get to enjoy some quality time together. We read together, sang, danced, played with his toys, and went for walks. We also got the chance to practice more sign language and learn a few new ones as well. We got to enjoy lots of potty time too. Tristan is really getting used to seeing it and wanting to sit on it, even if it's just for a minute. The goal right now is not to actually train him but to get him familiar with being on the potty and thinking it's fun to sit on one. When I pee, I have him sit on it right across from me. He usually doesn't stay sitting though. He would rather stand by me or throw things in the bathtub. Go figure! The other good thing is that he is now often telling us his diaper is dirty after he poos. A few times he even told us before he went and maybe when he was peeing but we're not totally sure about the pee part. It's a good sign and we are definitely headed towards the right direction :)

It's affirmative: it's bacterial conjunctivitis

The lab results came in today and there is bacteria in the swab sample we took on Tuesday. It was definitely a good call to start the antibiotic treatment yesterday. We had a 50/50 chance of there being some bacteria. From what I understand, it could also be viral but the test didn't tell us how much of it was bacteria, only that there was bacteria present. Either way, the antibiotics should help. In fact, I noticed a bit of improvement this morning when he woke up. His eyes were not as gooey and crusty as before. The mornings always look really bad though. Throughout the day, I noticed less and less as well. I didn't have to wipe his eyes much at all today. I'm also not taking any chances so I continued with the warm compresses and am also changing all used wash cloths.

So the bad news is that there is bacteria in his eyes and that he does need antibiotics but the good news is that he is now allowed back in daycare. In fact, the only policy is that he needs to be on his antibiotics for 24 hours before going to daycare. If he still has goo in his eyes, that is ok. They actually don't have a policy against that, although they should because he would still be contagious. They seem more concerned about new medicine causing allergic reactions and the staff are not in a position to help if medical attention is needed. The fact is daycare still admits sick children, as long as they are on medication for at least 24 hours. They will even administer the medicine for your child if you give them clear instructions from your doctor. This worries me knowing that children who are contagious are still allowed to go to daycare. Not just the children but the staff become sick all the time and still need to work. They only have 5 sick days in a year just like all of us. I have seen staff members with really runny noses that have to blow them throughout the day and there was another staff member that completely lost her voice too. If they can still physically work, they do. All this is just a fact of life for daycare. It's nothing new and obviously, there is nothing much you can do but complain at the next board and parent meeting (which I won't be doing by the way). Parents who work are already in a tough position when their child goes to daycare, like I mentioned in my last post. I am going through some of this pain right now. The demands would just not be realistic.

I debated today whether or not to take Tristan to daycare tomorrow and have decided to do so for many reasons. He has improved enough that I believe he is not that contagious. In the morning, he will be even better. He really needs to leave the house and be with other kids because I think we are both driving each other a little nuts. The change of environment will be good for him. He has much more freedom at daycare and he definitely loves that! For myself, I really need to get some work done. When I drop him off tomorrow, I will let the staff know that I don't think he is 100% better and that maybe he should keep his distance a bit from the other kids. I will also ask them to clean his hands more. Conjunctivitis is a beast and I don't want him to get it again nor do I want anyone else to go through what we went through the past week. We will continue to administer the antibiotics tomorrow but I don't want to ask daycare to give it so I'll just give his second dose late after we pick him up. Applying eye drops is a pain in the butt!

Baby's 1st prescription medication

And it's for (drum roll.... ) conjunctivitis. Yes, Tristan still has it :( It was a bit of a tough call since we don't know for sure that it is a bacterial infection and his condition is not getting worst. It's either the same or very slowly getting better. Either way, I have to do something to speed things up. It's just ridiculous how many days he has missed daycare because of it.

I hear that daycares are really scared about anything to do with sickness from the eyes. Our doctor tells me that viral conjunctivitis is no more contagious than say the common cold with sneezing and coughing. Bacterial conjunctivitis is even less contagious since you would need to be in direct contact to spread it. Last Friday, one of the staff members at our daycare said that if Tristan was on antibiotics, then he could still come to daycare. I told our doctor this and she says that antibiotics will not make him any less contagious. Hopefully, they do get better on the antibiotics but they will still be contagious.

I can understand that you should keep sick kids at home but I have learned that it is just not always practical to do so if you need to work. As a result, many kids still go to daycare with a runny nose and cough. If a child has a cold for 2 weeks, keeping them at home for the first few days is a must but then as they recover, they still go to daycare. I know they do and that is how other kids get sick too. The problem is that there is not enough support and help for working parents with small children. If say your child gets sick once a month and then you need to keep them home two days, that equates to 24 days in a year. Most people who do not have the benefits cannot take that much unpaid leave from work to care for their child. The solution? Hire an on-call nanny if you can find one? Don't work full-time? In an ideal world, we would all leave our children at home until they were all better and then the sick rate at daycare would probably go down. Wouldn't that be nice!

After giving Tristan a chance to heal himself at home 3-4 days per eye without any treatment, I took him back to the doctor's for a consultation yesterday. The doctor seemed really knowledgeable about conjunctivitis. She says that since Tristan's eye does not appear pink, the infection is not on the eyeball itself. His infection is on the lining of the eyelid. When she looked underneath the eyelid, they were indeed red. At this point, it could be viral, bacterial, or likely both kinds of conjunctivitis. The only way of really knowing is to test it. We took a swab and sent it to the lab yesterday. Unfortunately, the lab results won't be ready until next week. The information will only feed our curious minds because I need Tristan to heal before then. I hate medicine and will only take it if absolutely necessary. The doctor said that we can give Tristan antibiotics to start and if the lab results are negative, discontinue giving it. Or we could just hold off and see if things will improve without anything. It's not uncommon for it to take this long to heal. Anyway, I held off for 24 hours and finally took the plunge today and filled the prescription she gave me. Damn it. If it's not bacterial at all, then the antibiotics will have no effect. It's just unfortunate we have to put antibiotics in his system to diagnose it.

It looks like Tristan will be home with me all week. That would mean he will have missed 6 days of daycare just for an eye infection. Does anyone else think this is silly? It's also crazy how this all panned out. If you go see a doctor about conjunctivitis or pink eye, they will all tell you to wait 3-4 days and if it doesn't get better by then, come back. But the way it works is that you will discover it in one eye first, then it will spread to the other eye (2 days after for us), then you need to wait 3-4 days for the last eye, then you see the doctor and if you get antibiotics, then it will take at least another day for you to see improvement. To be safe, you should then keep your child home for 48 hours after giving the antibiotics. And there you have it, you need to stay home from work for a week! For an eye infection! If you want to wait for the lab results before giving the antibiotics, then that could be a week and a half or more. For an eye infection!

No, I'm not that annoyed that I am missing a lot of work this week. I am kind of annoyed that I have had to keep him home so many days from daycare due to illness since he started in January though. I think the count is at 9 or 10 days so far. 2 or 3 colds, plus an eye infection. By the way, besides the eye infection, he is perfectly fine. No other symptoms of anything. He is as big of a little monkey as always. Just look at him!

The past couple of months has made me realize what a health hazard daycare really is to Tristan. I need to be here for him more than ever so I am going to give up looking for any new job. Once the sick rate goes down in the summer, I may start up my job search again. Sadly, that's just the reality of it for me (and for us) :(

Baby has conjunctivitis (a.k.a pink eye)

When we picked up Tristan today from daycare, we were surprised to hear that he had goo in his eye and that we should take him to the doctors. For eye poo? Nope. Apparently, it was green and yellow in his left eye and is likely contagious. If that is the case, he is not allowed to be in daycare. In fact, I think they were trying to tell us nicely that he was not allowed to come back unless we checked him out and he is declared noncontagious. We would need a note from the doctor saying that he was noncontagious if we were to bring him back to daycare tomorrow. So from daycare, we walked straight to the walk-in clinic :( I don't really get it because he was perfectly fine when I dropped him off. Can it really happen that quickly?

The doctor examined him and said almost immediately that he had conjunctivitis or pink eye. I asked how he got it and the doctor said it is likely from someone at daycare. It's viral or bacterial but in both cases, it would resolve itself in 3-4 days. The only treatment is cleaning it, keeping his hands clean (because he will likely rub his eyes a lot), and applying a warm compress on it as often as possible. If it doesn't get better on its own or gets worst, we will need to get antibiotics. Apparently, it's going around because this was only one of a handful of cases the doctor has seen this week. Great. So Tristan is stuck at home with me tomorrow. Besides the eye, he seems ok. There are a few things that are odd but it is hard to say. He vomited his milk 2 days ago but it may not be related at all. He doesn't seem to like plain yogurt lately but again that could be something else. The doctor says that the conjunctivitis could be related to a cold in that it could be a sign that one is coming up. Terrific :( He was sick only a week ago!

So I wanted to post a picture of Tristan today but I don't think anyone wants to see his yucky eye. Instead, here is a picture of him eating part of his dinner. I made some baby sushi for Tristan to try tonight. He seemed to like it since it was a novelty for him. He was picking the rice off of the nori sheet but I think that was because I used too much nori and he can't really chew with only his front teeth. I think I will try to cut them into smaller pieces tomorrow and see if he will eat more of the nori. For the sushi, I reduced the amount of rice vinegar and sugar I added. I smeared avocado over the rice and ripped pieces off for him. It was rather messy but he doesn't care about presentation :) I also did some with papaya. If only I had cream cheese, that would be good with papaya too! Maybe next time :)

Another sick day at home from daycare

Today is day 2 of staying home with Tristan. He came down with a mild fever over the weekend and was just not himself so we decided to keep him home. Yesterday, he vomited his morning milk. It was the first time he ever vomited because of a cold. His fever has been gone since last night and he is starting to eat more so I think we are still on track to go back to daycare tomorrow. He is still not all there but I just can't keep him home all the time until he is 100% better. As long as he wants to play, can eat, and has no fever, then he can still go to daycare. It is only the second month and I have already kept him home for 5 days. At this rate, there is no way I could handle a full time job. You are only allowed to have a few days of family leave a year without pay so if I was working, I would be putting my job in jeopardy.

Tristan is getting sick every 2-3 weeks, which is what I heard would happen when you first start daycare. When he gets sick, we sometimes catch it too. On the upside however, my doctor says that he is building immunity faster than other kids who don't attend daycare. When he is of school age, he won't get sick as often. School age here is 5 years and I think that is way too long to look forward to!

For the first time last night since he was sleep trained, I had to help put Tristan back asleep. He actually woke up several times but the 2:30AM wake up was bad so I had to help out. Holding him, rocking him, humming to him etc. I haven't had to do that for almost a year now and it sucked. Part of the reason he couldn't go back to sleep was because we were a bit disruptive. We gave him water, we took turns holding him and going to the bathroom, and then we gave him Tylenol. His throat really hurts but that is all we can give him :( He was really tired and he didn't want to be held. He just wanted to sleep.

Baby is sick after 2 weeks of daycare

Actually, he was a little off late last week and then on Saturday, his nose started to run. I kept him home from daycare yesterday and today. It looks like I may do the same tomorrow too :( He won't be going anywhere until his nose stops running at least. When I first told daycare about his runny nose, they mentioned that it might be his teething. I'm not sure I ever heard of that but he has a nasty cough too so he has definitely got a cold. He's warm but no fever.

It's great to actually spend some more time with Tristan at home. I missed taking care of him when he was in daycare. It's good and it's bad too. I'm getting absolutely nothing done again and I'm starting to yell more because of the lack of baby-proofing we have here. Also with all of our close contact, it's not surprising I'm starting to feel under the weather. My throat started to hurt today. Man, I sure hope the early arrival of Spring will halt all the colds going around. Jean-Louis is also sick. He actually never fully recovered from his last cold and now he has gotten worst.

This is another cold so the seasonal flu shot we got was useless. I'm getting sick once a month it seems so next year, I think we're just going to skip the seasonal flu shot. It was our first and will be our last!

Happy New Year 2010! Happy New Decade.

2009 was a good year because all three of us are still here safe and healthy. Tristan is thriving and like Jean-Louis puts it, his comprehension of the world is exploding right now. It's so exciting to see!

2009 was a bad year because we lost two family members on Jean-Louis' side. However, we did gain one on his side as well. Also, I may still have great health but I did catch a cold many times this year, including during our anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, and now my birthday. I'm tired of being sick as a stay-at-home mom. When Tristan starts daycare next week, I will only catch more sickness and that totally scares me. How can I possibly become sick more than I already do?

Today, is the first day of 2010 and therefore also my birthday. To mark the occasion, I made us a nice French meal and Jean-Louis bought me a chestnut cake. That is about as much as we celebrate these days. The nice thing is that in the past it used to be just the two of us and now it is the three of us. I love it :)

It's not just a new year, it's a new decade. One year seems to go by fairly quickly when you think about it but 10 years - now that's a long time! 10 years ago, I already met Jean-Louis. I was an undergraduate student working towards my degree in Physics and Astronomy. I said I would not become a stay-at-home wife and mom and that I was looking for stay-at-home man. Jean-Louis knew that but it turns out I am way better at being the stay-at-home parent :)

What we are looking forward to in 2010

• Tristan finally talking
• Having Tristan potty trained
• Running and racing with Tristan in the jogging stroller
• Our trip to France in the Spring to see family
• Decorating for Christmas

Happy New Year!

Christmas: Just the 3 of us

This year it was just the three of us again for Christmas. We were all sick and Tristan was quite contagious. To mark the occasion, we made our traditional Christmas meal. I like turkey but Jean-Louis doesn't so we had both a small turkey and small ham. The problem was we couldn't cook them together since our roasters were too large to fit in the oven. Because of this, it took about 3 hours longer to prepare the meal. We also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean salad, and apple-cranberry streudel. Everything was homemade this time :) Well, we bought our pumpkin pie but we actually ate that for breakfast. It has been four days since Christmas and we are still eating leftovers!

We dressed up a little more than usual so that we could take some nice pictures. Tristan looked all festive! It's too bad he was feeling rotten. We were lucky enough to capture some decent shots so I'm happy :)

There were no decorations this year. Again :( Next year we promise to decorate since Tristan will be 2 and may actually enjoy them. I already bought some decorations from the recent Boxing Day sale so we'll definitely have no excuse now! Celebrating Christmas will really be for him and I hope to make it special next year. I think it's important to create a magical experience for kids during the holidays. Those will be the fond memories they carry with them throughout life. I really think so. Let's cross our fingers we don't get sick next Christmas.

Rash from the common cold virus

Tristan developed a rash all over his body a few days ago. It scared us that morning when we found his entire back, forehead, and neck was covered in red patches. His body was covered too but it wasn't as dense. Jean-Louis thought it was the chicken pox. In fact, he woke me up that morning saying that Tristan had chicken pox. I thought it might have been a heat rash. Others thought it was a heat rash too when I described it.

We went to a nearby walk-in clinic that day on Saturday and the doctor diagnosed it as a common cold rash. He said it must have started on Thursday since I noticed a bit of it on Friday. The doctor says that if you get it, you only get it once in your lifetime. As adults, most of us have already gotten it. It is contagious and can spread easily among young children. Once the rash goes away, Tristan will have antibodies for them. It's so strange I didn't know about this before. Maybe we all had this as babies when we got sick and don't remember any of it? Normally, the rash lasts maybe 5 days. We were told to treat Tristan with a bath using Aveeno soothing baby bath treatment. It is also important for him not to get too hot since that makes the rash worst and to keep him hydrated. We followed all the recommendations and we're pleased to say that the doctor was right :) Tristan's rash is pretty much all gone now! Now all we have to get rid off is his nasty cough and runny nose.

Baby has a fever and is not himself today

Today is definitely an off day for the baby. Even when he experienced his first cold, he was still playing and getting himself into trouble. He woke up with a fever this morning and went to bed tonight with a fever as well. I started to give him Tylenol in the late morning. For most of the day, he has been very mellow and sleepy. He barely ate anything for lunch but lucky he did eat at dinner.

He normally cat naps twice a day for about 15-20 minutes each time but today, he slept on and off starting from 1PM. He slept for maybe 30 minutes and then I tried to give him a snack. When he refused, I just let him play in his highchair but to my surprise, he was falling asleep! I didn't keep track but he must have slept at least 30 minutes in the highchair. After that, I let him out to play but he would touch a few things and then just lay on the ground. He didn't sleep at first but then he dozed off again! I would have thought he would be even more cranky and fussy if he didn't feel well. Seeing him all mellow and not wanting to do anything worries me even more. Throughout the day, he had a temperature of around 38.5 C. I took his temperature under his armpit. It's definitely a fever so if this continues for more than 48 hours, I'll go to the walk-in clinic.

Whenever the baby is not well, I always try to figure out what happened. Jean-Louis and I have recently acquired itchy throats and are coughing so it could be us. Actually, Jean-Louis has been sort of coughing for about a week now. When we went to daycare last Friday, I noticed one of the staff members were sick and a couple of kids were coughing. We were not in a lot of contact with any of them but it's possible we caught something just being in the room. My nephew was coughing a lot and we had dinner with him and his family on Sunday. Or maybe I under dressed the baby at home? He was fine yesterday and we have been in the house for 48 hours. I find it peculiar that we are all feeling a bit sick because we all had our flu shots. Tristan had his shots about two weeks ago. None of what we have or what he has should be the common cold. Of course, there are still risks of getting sick even with the seasonal flu shot. Maybe we would all be a lot worst if we didn't get vaccinations.

Could it be teething? No, it can't be. He is teething but he was fine all the past times and we didn't even give him Tylenol at all. Ok, I'm going to stop guessing. Hopefully, things will be more or less back to normal tomorrow. Too bad I'm not breastfeeding anymore. He certainly could use my antibodies now.

H1N1 and seasonal flu shots

As parents, we all know how miserable it is when your baby falls ill. If the baby is sick, they are cranky, they may not sleep well, or eat well, and are extra clingy. If that isn't bad enough, chances are you will catch their cold too and fall sick yourself. And being sick and haven't to take care of a sick baby is the worst of the worst things out there! So there you have it - we're not taking our chances and Tristan needs to be vaccinated against the flu.

Yesterday, we brought Tristan in to a public clinic that opened up in our neighborhood. They were administering H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. It's only the second week that the H1N1 vaccine has been available in Canada and this week Tristan falls under the priority group of children 6 months to 5 years. The H1N1 vaccine will probably open up to the general public in a week or two and that will be when Jean-Louis and I will get ours. We also plan to get the seasonal flu shot. We have never gotten the seasonal flu shot before but since we became parents, it has become much more important for us to stay well. I am especially concerned about myself since I can't explain how I could have fallen sick 3 times in the past 3 months. I am normally quite resistant to catching colds. I'm so tired of getting sick.

The clinic we went to was open from 9AM-3PM. We wanted to go early because we didn't want them to run out of vaccines. We heard about shortages in vaccines and long line ups so we were a bit worried. It started out exactly how I pictured it: lining up outside in the cold and freezing rain. I felt sorry for some of the parents and kids in the line up because they were all under dressed for the weather. It was no fun but once we got inside, things went quite well. Tristan received 2 pokes, 1 in each thigh. He cried on initial contact only. He was such a trooper :) Afterwards, we were instructed to sit down for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have a reaction to the vaccine. The whole journey took about 2 hours and we got home around 12:45PM.

When we got home, we just continued on with the rest of our daily routine. Tristan seemed to be doing well so we didn't even bother giving him any Tylenol. We have been observing him and feeling for his temperature but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He went to sleep at his usual bedtime of 9PM. During the night, we noticed he had some difficulty staying asleep. This was unusual so I got Jean-Louis to check his temperature the second time he woke up. He felt a bit warm so we decided to give him some Tylenol around 2:30AM. After that, I held him for a bit until he fell asleep and then I put him down. That seemed to have done the trick and he slept until 8:30AM. In the morning, after his milk, we gave him a second dosage of Tylenol. After that, I think we more or less returned back to normal.

Baby's first Halloween

Happy Halloween! I got to carve a pumpkin this year - woohoo! I love carving pumpkins. Last year I didn't because I was too pregnant. This year I decided to carve one for Tristan so after browsing around for ideas, I settled on aviator Snoopy. Since there is so much talk these days about the movie, Amelia, I thought it was appropriate as well :) This design was a lot simpler than most of my previous carvings but it still took around 40 minutes. As usual, Jean-Louis prepped the pumpkin for me by removing most of the flesh inside. He did a great job but I could have actually used a bit more flesh in the area I was working in, if you know what I mean ;-) Anyhow, it all worked out and I'm happy with the end result :)

We bought a scary shirt from Gymboree for Tristan to wear. We probably shouldn't have done that since he will only get to wear it once or people might think we are creeps. Actually, I already put it on him one other time leading up to Halloween. The skeleton on it is suppose to glow in the dark but I don't see it. Maybe in special lighting?

Jean-Louis and I are feeling a bit under the weather so there was no party tonight. It's too bad because Halloween doesn't often land on a Saturday night. If I were much younger and childless (and not sick), I would have loved to throw a costume party. My cold is actually getting worst. I don't think having New York Fries for lunch helped either! I am drinking so much too and honestly, I think it is only making me pee more, nothing else. Man, I hate being sick and I can't wait to get the flu shot. Never had it before so I sure hope it will work magic.

Baby is experiencing his first cold

Tristan had a few questionable moments in the past, even a confirmed fever once. This time, it is definitely a cold. His nose started to run on the weekend and now he has a cough too. Poor thing.

This is Tristan's first cold. Today, I made him some baby get better food. It was basically a soup of water, rice, zucchini, tofu, some garlic and ginger. I threw away the bits of ginger but the flavor is all over the soup. Ginger and garlic are awesome ingredients for fighting sickness! He seemed to like it too. It is much more exotic than what he is used to :) I'm planning to feed him this for the next couple of days.

So far, his behavior is more or less the same. His nose is constantly clogged so I'm having to use the aspirator on him several times a day. And no, he doesn't cooperate! Like it or not, it has to be done. I'm not risking him getting an ear infection and I want him to sleep and feed better. On top of that we're dressing him warmer and feeding him baby Tylenol. Having just come of a cold myself recently, I totally feel his misery.

Baby is sick and both Jean-Louis and I could catch his sickness too so we're taking precautions. I told Jean-Louis no kissing the baby, unless it's on the head. I'm drinking tons of fluids and plan to stay indoors the next few days. Won't be a problem since we're not going to daycare anymore. In fact, I had to call daycare and cancel his last day tomorrow. Sadly, I could have used another day of work.