Licks

I went grocery shopping today and when I got home, I set the groceries down on the floor while I put them away. Dallin crawled over to the gallon of milk I had just purchased and started licking the condensation off of it.

Weird.... or cute?

You decide.

Nursery

Dallin is now old enough to go to nursery at church. I've been a little nervous about this for a few reasons. Yes, he is old enough, but he's not your typical 18 month old. He can't walk or talk or eat or do any of the things you would expect a child to be able to do upon entering nursery. Our ward has a lot of kids in nursery, so I worried about how the nursery workers would handle all the extra attention that Dallin needs. And I wondered how the bigger kids would play around Dallin. With all this worrying I was doing, we were blessed (depending on how you look at it) with a calling in our ward. Mckay and I were both called to be nursery workers.

It might not be the most glamorous or sought after calling, but I was a little relieved when we were asked to be in the nursery. This way Dallin could be in nursery and have the good experience from that environment, but I would still be able to watch him and help him. The down side is that now we don't get to enjoy having a 2 hour break from him during church because we're in nursery with him!

Yesterday was the first Sunday in nursery for all 3 of us. Mckay and I were invited to come just to observe and see how things run before getting an assignment over a specific group. It made me laugh when all the adults would talk to Dallin or ask him a question, thinking he would understand what they were saying or answer them. When it was snack time, someone came over to Dallin, got down to his level and said, "Dallin it's snack time! Come on over and get your snack." I explained to her about his gag reflex and how he would not need any snacks during nursery.

They had little classes where the kids would go to color a picture, learn about the scriptures, or sing songs. When they would tell all the kids to line up, I picked Dallin up and stood in line with the other kids. When they colored their pictures, Dallin wanted to eat his paper. I tried to show him how to color with the crayon, but he did not want to hold onto the crayon. He just wanted to eat his paper.

The purple and blue crayon was me showing him how to color. The yellow was another kid coloring on his paper.

During the lesson, the teacher passed around a bean bag turtle and the kids were supposed to say an animal they liked. When Dallin got the turtle, he got really excited and put it in his mouth. Of course, he did not say what his favorite animal was, but I'm thinking it was a turtle at the moment. When I took it from him to pass it back to the teacher he got really mad and started screaming. I think some concepts are a little over his head.

A lot of the things they do in nursery are a little advanced for him. He doesn't understand the lessons being taught or the songs they sing. But lets face it, not many of the young kids his age understand either. The point of nursery is to get them used to the structure and routine of learning, and they will eventually catch on to what is being taught. Dallin really likes watching other kids and I think this will be a really good experience for him.

Vent

No, not that kind of vent.

This kind:

I know I've mentioned before that we don't really like our apartment complex. I'm trying not to dwell on it too much because I don't want you to get the wrong impression. The truth is that we have a decent sized, relatively well kept, cheap apartment in a safe neighborhood, and that's all that really matters. But we HATE the management here. We've had a few scuffles with them and I feel like I always leave the leasing office feeling really angry and muttering under my breath, "I hate this place, I hate this place..."

I won't talk about all the past problems we've had with them, because that's not what the post is about and it would take too long to write it all down. The point of the post is to tell you about the most recent problem we've had with them.

I forgot to pay rent for the month of October.

I don't know how this happened. Believe me, this is not a common thing. I never very rarely forget about paying rent or a bill. Somehow, the first five days of the month came and went, and I never once thought about rent being due. I blame it on doing the same thing every single day. I don't need to know the date to do what I do. That won't make Dallin sleep any longer or eat any more. It won't change how much laundry I do. So, I knew there was a $50 late fee for late rent, but I went to the office to see if there were any other options. I know of some places that will waive the late fee if you are willing to pay the rent for the following month as well that day.

The lady was unmerciful. She was understanding ("It happens. You're a parent. Sometimes you just forget."), but unforgiving. She informed me that not only would I have to pay the $50 fee, but it would have to be in a cashiers check or money order. They would no longer be able to accept a check for October's rent. WHY?!?!?!?!? Why is that their policy? It doesn't even make sense to me! So now that I've proven myself to be an untrustworthy person by not paying rent 2 days earlier, I'm now treated as if my money is no good. My check will obviously bounce because I'm clearly trying to con them and I don't have the money. And the funny thing is, I had my checkbook in hand and could have given her a check on the spot. But because of their stupid rule, I had to go out to get a money order and couldn't bring it to them until the next day.

The thing that really gets me every time we deal with the management is that they're not really doing anything wrong. Their policies aren't unethical. They have every right to make those policies. We signed a lease with them and are bound to follow the rules. And this situation was our fault. We forgot about the rent. My problem is how they handle things. They always treat us like we don't matter, and their only job is to suck all the money that they can out of the tenants. This company does not care about us. And they know if we don't like it, that's too bad. It's not their problem. They don't have to worry about pleasing one little family when there are tons of other people happy and willing to pay them.

It's not about the money. Yeah, paying $50 that we didn't have to pay sucked. But we get $30 off rent each month because Mckay is a student. Losing $50 is not going to make us starve this month. $50 won't be the difference between buying a house or staying in this cave. It's about the principle of it. We are nothing to them but an 11-month lease. Suddenly mean old Cathy doesn't seem like such a bad manager after all.

18 months

I have an 18 month old child now. Is that crazy, or what? It's hard to remember how old Dallin really is because he's basically a 6-9 month old, developmentally. But you can tell he has the brain of an 18 month old and the definitely the temper of an 18 month old. Here's a little update on how Dallin is doing.

*He still weighs right around 15 pounds. He's been floating comfortably at that weight for at least the past 6 months. Yet when I look at him, he looks like he's grown. His face definitely looks older.

*He is crawling all over the place. (See the video in the previous post.) He hardly does his little inch worm crawl anymore, it's all real crawling. I still can't get enough of it. I get so happy every time I see him crawl. I'm so amazed at my little boy.

*He pulls himself up to stand on things all the time. I especially love when he wakes up from a nap and I find him standing in his crib (also a new accomplishment). He gets this big smile when he sees me and starts bouncing on his legs.

*He's sleeping longer and better at night. I've been feeling so well rested recently.

*He's more content to play by himself now, requiring less constant attention from me. This is probably related to him being able to crawl now and get to all the fun stuff he wants. It's now a daily occurrence for him to crawl over to the diaper bag to grab my wallet.

*He can drink water from a cup in very small amounts. He will drink out of a bottle very willingly now. 3 months ago you couldn't get him near a bottle, but he loves it now and he can hold the bottle by himself.

There are still some things that we are struggling with too.

We're still working on eating solid foods. He likes to watch us eat and he starts to lick his lips or move his mouth when we chew. You can tell that he wants to eat food, but he still can't get over the strong gag reflex. He likes to hold food like crackers and lick them. But you have to watch carefully, because every once in a while, he'll get daring and take a bite out of the cracker, and then start gagging.

He throws up daily. Sometimes it's to get attention. If we aren't looking at him, he'll put his fingers down his throat or start a deep coughing. It's really gross, really annoying, and I'm really sick of everything in our apartment smelling all the time.

Through the many blood draws and tests that Dallin had this summer, we found out that he has calcium in his kidneys and high levels of calcium in his blood. That is a common occurrence in children with Williams Syndrome. So we got to add a Pediatric Nephrologist (Kidney Specialist) to the list of doctors he sees. Because of the Hypercalcemia, we have to limit his intake of calcium and vitamin D. That's not too hard at this point because he doesn't really eat anything but milk, but it does affect the kinds of milk he can have. Breast milk has less calcium than formula or cow's milk, but it still does have some. So it'a good thing that I've been nursing him this whole time. Who knows how bad the situation could be otherwise. I found out about a very low calcium, no vitamin D formula made specifically for infants with hypercalcemia. Even more exciting is that with a prescription from our doctor, we can get the formula (normally $120 for a case of 6 cans) for free through the local WIC clinic. Dallin is losing interest in sitting still long enough to nurse, and he will eat more from a bottle. I also wonder if his throwing up is related to the calcium in the milk he's now getting. I'm hoping that this formula will work out well for him and make things better. And hopefully he'll gain a little weight?

It's a struggle being in a new place and meeting new people who have no idea about Dallin's WS. I'm often asked, "How old is he?" And after telling them his age, people always say, "He's so tiny!" or "He's the size of my 5 month old!" Sometimes I get, "Was he a premie?" Because, of course, that is the only reason that a child would ever be smaller than normal. And he would have to have been born 12 months early (do the math, that isn't even possible) to explain what they are trying to suggest about him being the size of a 6 month old. It's hard being in a place surrounded by a lot of other young families with children the same age as Dallin who are huge, walking, talking, and eating large chunks of food in one bite. It's even harder when children much younger than Dallin are doing those same things.

Now one here in our new ward knows about his condition yet. It's not that I'm embarrassed or worried about mentioning it, it just never seems like the right time to bring it up. I want it to come up naturally in conversation. Like, "So your child seems like he might have some sort of genetic condition." Me: "Yes, in fact, he does. He has Williams Syndrome." Yeah, that just doesn't happen. I guess I should find a way to bring it up with people I know, because pretty soon we'll be at the end of our 5 years here, Dallin will be the same size he is now, and all the parents will be wondering why I don't feed my son.

As you can see, there are a lot of ups and downs with raising Dallin. Some days it feels like there are so many negative things and it's hard to deal with them. Other days are really great and Dallin does wonderful things. It's important for me to keep a good perspective, to realize how lucky and blessed we are. Yes there are rough times, as there are raising any child, but I get to be this amazing kid's mom. How cool is that?

Proof

Finally, proof that Dallin can really crawl. He's crawling more and more and will go further distances now. To get him to crawl for this video, I had to bribe him with my wallet. This child would crawl miles to be able to play with my wallet and credit cards.

I love it! It makes me so happy every time I see him crawl. Even if he crawls to get into something he's not supposed to, I can't get mad at him because I'm just so proud of him.

I did it!

I made it to 30 posts in 30 days! I'm actually surprised that I did it. I was sure I was going to run out of things to blog about. Good thing I have Dalllin here. He can always come up with something cute to do. I do have to confess, there were a few times when I would write the blog the next morning and then post the time as for the day before, but I didn't do it nearly as often as I thought I would need to. And it still came out to 30 posts, so it doesn't really matter, right?

I can't promise that I'll keep posting this regularly. I might take a few days break here and there. I do think that I will be posting more than I did before, now that I'm used to it.

I'll close the last post of September with the same way I started the month. Dallin! I mentioned before that he is making great progress towards crawling. He will even do a real, normal crawl on his hands and knees every once in a while. He was doing a real crawl a lot on the day of this video, so I tried to record it. Of course, he never performs when I want him to, so this video shows his inch worm crawl. At least this is proof that he can get from one point to another.

(Sorry for my laughing and talking in the background. I couldn't help myself.)

First United Bank of Dallin

Dallin has been doing well with getting around. He has a little scoot/crawl that he does. He takes a few crawling "steps' on his hands and knees, and then he'll do an inch worm scoot to get to his destination. Today he mostly crawled about 3 feet to the diaper bag, knocked it over and took out my wallet. He knew exactly where it was and what is inside it.

Coins!

Later on he pulled the credit cards out.

It's way too early for him to be interested in money!