4 Miles

Alex got his first hair cut on Saturday (while I was out of town). It is much shorter then I would have started with and he and Will look MUCH more alike now. I’ve been trying to get a picture of it to put up here for you, but he’s not been too happy to pose for photographs lately.

Why, you ask? I’ll be happy to tell you! (Oh, you didn’t ask? Too bad!) Alex was sick all last week. It seemingly started as a cold and developed into the flu (or it was just teething, then the flu) with a fever. He spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday sleeping. Then he started to go through the “cranky phase” of getting better and was doing odd things…he'd scream when we'd lay him down to change his diaper, or be really fussy when I'd hold him sitting down, yet fine if I was standing up. I'd put him down to walk and he'd fall right on his bottom, crying. That one really concerned me and I was beginning to wonder if he had some ear problems that were making it hard for him to stand. He'd sit just fine and play, but if it involved standing, he'd be crying. Yesterday we finally noticed his left ankle is VERY swollen and sore to the touch. By the end of the day he was walking, but if you really watched him, you see he's favoring it–not just walking awkwardly b/c he's new at walking.

This morning he was back to crying when any weight was put on it, so we took him in to the Dr. today to have it checked out. We got to go to the hospital (conveniently located just down a long hall) and get it X-rayed. The good news is it isn't broken as far as they can tell…the Dr. told me it is VERY hard to see fractures in kids and with all the growth plates and not completely formed bones in a child his size they can miss them. So we have to watch him carefully. If there is no improvement or he gets worse in the next 2-3 days, they want us to see an orthopedic specialist. I've been feeling guilty for not noticing it before yesterday. He'd been fussing for at least 2-3 days before that because we kept banging it around! So maybe now that we are AWARE of it and are being gentler, maybe the swelling will go down and it can heal. We have no idea when it happened or how (so that's another thing I feel bad about). I guess I can be thankful I made it a whole month before losing my chance at Mother of the Year.

*I'm still looking for the "My First X-ray" sticker to put in his baby book. If anyone finds one, let me know!

Will: Daddy, when you went under the light and it turned from yellow to red while we were under it, did you break the law?