It's been a challenging year so far. In January, David caught a cold. For 5 days, he was pretty much in bed, resting. He did end up going to the clinic at one point to make sure it wasn't anything too severe, since he was running a fever one morning. In those 5 days, Vincent and I caught the cold, too. But, since David's test results came in fine, I figured there was no need for Vincent or I to see a doc as well.
February 4-11, the family goes to Kaua'i, Hawaii for a much needed, sun shining vacation. While there, David turned 30 years old. February 15th, I am still coughing, have apparently injured my ribs from coughing so hard, so I go to the clinic. The following week, David came home from work looking green. He had some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. I sort of felt a little bit of it a couple days later, but nothing as bad as he did.
Saturday, March 1st, my cough is FINALLY dwindling away, David feels good, Vincent has no cough, either. But, then, the vomitting started. Poor Vincent apparently caught the rotavirus. In short, it's a stomach bug that is common in children between age 1-2 years. We can get it as adults, too, but it doesn't affect us so much. We were fortunate to have a doctor come out to our place the next day to see him. It was so hard to see Vincent so miserable. He was also really hungry and thirsty. Luckily, we managed to keep him hydrated enough, though I'm amazed. We were told by the clinic nurse on Saturday to only give one teaspoon of clear fluid every ten minutes. I wasn't supposed to even nurse him until I was sure he could keep fluids down. It was awful! I'd give him a teaspoon of water, and then he would beg for more. I felt so bad for him. We switched to Pedialyte after an hour and a half of the water, but that made things bad again. Finally, I gave in and just nursed him. That was about the only thing he could keep down, thankfully. I should have just done that in the first place. Once he was keeping things down, we sort of had him on a BRAT diet. Rice would make him sick. He would hardly eat bananas. Bread was okay, when he was in the mood for it. And, he LOVED applesauce.
By the end of the week, Vincent felt much better, but I had been beat down. When he was feeling really sick, he was just very tired and wanted to be in my arms at all times. It wasn't so bad. I could put him in the Moby and walk him around that way. But, once he started to feel a little better, but still not very good, he was just cranky & hard to please. On top of it all, David was having a really busy week at work. That, coupled with lack of sleep, he caught a cold. Then, I caught it, just when my other one was about gone (but not quite!).
All during this time of Vincent's virus, our boy cat, Buster, started to act different. He was eating less than normal, and he would hardly move from any given spot all day long. I made an appointment at the vet for him, thinking that they'd tell me nothing was wrong. Nope. He had a high fever of 105. I guess if it hits 106, he could have brain damage! The gave him antibiotics and injected him with some fluid, and told us to feed him this (apparently delicious) wet cat food. He also had to check his temperature a few times. But, all his test results came back clear. They couldn't find anything wrong with him. He seems to be perking back up now, and we hope he'll be back to his old self by tomorrow...oh wait, I couldn't sleep, it's morning already...I mean later today.
Sounds like such a depressing start to the new year, huh? Well, it wasn't all bad.
Vincent started walking not long after he turned 13 months old. He's now what my friend, Toi, calls a "waddler." I love it! He's so darn cute when he has just had his diaper changed by Dadday, and he comes walking out of his room to find me. He looks so proud of himself for having a fresh diaper. And, it clear to us now that he can understand so much of what we say to him. Some words in English, some words in Mandarin. And, he has become better with his sign language. He has his versions of signing for more, want, please, and apple. If you say, "diaper change," he will occasionally sign for that, although, it doesn't mean one way or the other. And, from the photo above, you can see that he is learning to spoon feed himself. It's easier with stuff that sticks to the spoon, like applesauce and yogurt. But, he is starting to do it with rice. Yes, he can eat rice again.
Okay, I think I'm ready to head back to bed now. It's Monday. Fresh week. Fingers are crossed for healthy Hunts all around.
