Sickie Boy Latest

It appears we're over the worst of Ari's gastro bout.
It's been a shock to the system, as our boy has really never been sick before.
Suddenly we're experiencing sleepless nights and a niggly, tired, cranky baby. He has never really been like this before.
Tonight we may have discovered another culprit to his niggly, niggliness - his flaming red cheeks pointed to a possible new tooth. Sure enough, I peeked into his mouth and saw what I think is a newbie.
I asked Ari in the bath tonight if his mouth hurt, and he said "yes". So a dose of Panadol and off to bed - hopefully for a full night's sleep for all of us.

A sickie boy - update

On Wednesday night Rob and I went in to check on our sickie boy and discovered him lying in a pool of his own vomit. He was extremely pale and breathing funny, so we threw him in the car and drove over to the Royal Childrens Hospital.
Hanging out for hours in the emergency department of a childrens hospital is one of the more surreal experiences you can have.
Everyone in there is bleary-eyed and anxious. Children slump in their parents' arms while their pyjamed sisters and brothers play on the indoor playground.
While we tried to keep Ari calm (he threw up again at the reception desk, which prompted bustling scenes of mopping-up behind us), I tried to guess what was wrong with all the kids around me, all the while staring at the clock and hoping we wouldn't wait too long.
A boy next to us had something shoved up his nose. We listened to his squeals of pain as the nurses extracted it. Then he emerged looking as though nothing had happened. Kids are so resilient.
Everyone around you is tense, tired and worried. Rather wisely, the hospital has a nice lady who comes around to greet you and let you know how busy it is.
After a long wait, we were sent home again with our sick boy sucking on a gastrolyte icy pole. He has a bad case of gastro and has been weak and listless ever since. Between throwing up and diarrhoea, he's barely eaten anything in two days. We know he'll be alright, but at the moment Ari is a shadow of his usual self.

A sickie boy

Today Ari freaked us both out by projectile vomiting in a shop.
It was awful. I stood there like a stunned mullet with him in my arms. I really did not know what to do.
A woman came across us in an aisle and looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. She fetched a shop worker, who was so incredibly nice about it all. Ari and I - both covered from head to toe in vomit - headed for the nearest loo to mop up and left that poor woman to mop up our mess.
The poor little tike had another chuck at dinner time tonight.
I know kids get sick all the time - but our boy has hardly ever been sick. He has barely vomited at all, even as a little baby.
I am an anxious mummy tonight...

Teeth, the pool and everything

TEETH
Ari hates having his teeth brushed. It turns out all toddlers do (well, all the ones I know do).
My attitude to his teeth has gone from "It doesn't matter that much, does it?" indifference, to "holy hell, we'd better hold this kid down and brush twice a day" panic, naturally after reading a bloody baby book.
Seriously though, it does make sense for us to perservere with the hellish task of wrestling with Ari to clean his teeth - he won't be able to do it properly himself until he's nearly 10, so that's a whole lotta decayin' over 8 years.

THE POOL
Today we discovered the joys of Fitzroy Pool on a hot day. Lovely lawn and shady trees, a completely shaded toddler pool and a great playground just next door.
Ari and I spent a happy afternoon splashing about - well, actually, he mainly walked laps up and down from shallow to "deep" and climbed in and out of the pool about 50,000 times.
Still, the banana smoothie afterwards at Soul Food Cafe in Smith St made me feel for the first time like I had spent a day out with my son. And it was ace...

EVERYTHING
The great sandal fight goes on. Ari despises wearing either of the two pairs of sandals bought for him - and the lovely lady at Payless (or is it Spendless) Shoes told me the other day that all toddlers hate them at first, so I can at least stop stressing about the ones I've bought him.
Ari's favourite things are...reading "My Dad" and pointing to his own Dad, then pointing to my tummy, his tummy and his Daddy's tummy; digging holes and watching machines that dig; playing with water.

Speakin' man

Ari's conversation has come on in leaps and bounds in the last two weeks. He listens to everything we say and answers yes or no to questions now. For a person who has spent all of last year and most of this caring for him, this is an amazing breakthrough.
With babies (and toddlers), little things change your whole life, and this is certainly another one of those.
He only has a couple of new words - "poppa" (for my Dad) and "brekky" - but the fact that we can have little conversations now makes the day so much more exciting.

Who'd be a parent?

Not many people these days, it would seem.
I've just watched a forum show called Insight (on SBS) about Australia's fertility crisis and it raised some interesting points.
The main facts are hardly surprising - Australia has a fertility crisis. People are delaying marriage and children, so often they leave it too late, or just have one child. Parents are becoming older and older (as a woman who had her first child at 30, I feel very very young as a Mum).
People these days don't want to have kids. And I can understand that, I really can. Why would you want to give up a nice lifestyle, great income and the freedom to do what you want, when you want?
But there are other contributing factors. As one commentator on the show said, we just don't live in a children-centred society anymore. How many people do you know in their 20s and 30s with kids? How many TV shows feature children? Seinfeld, Friends, Sex and the City and the like have helped create a no-children norm.
And, as (Sex Discrimination Commissioner) Pru Goward pointed out, children are contagious. If you don't grow up around them, or have friends with them, how on earth do you know about them? Many women in their 30s these days have never held an infant before they hold their own.
What kind of society is this creating?
I'm not advocating that all of us drop everything and have children now, now, NOW.
But the consequences of a child-free society are something we'll all have to deal with.