Separation Anxiety

The funny thing about toddlers is that the more independent they get, the more they seem to need their parents. Jesper had only a touch of separation anxiety when he was younger, but it seems to have gotten much worse since he learned to walk.

Josh got out of the car to go into a store and I filmed Jesper's reaction.

Let's Play!

I had to do an update about how much fun it is to play with Jesper. He is learning something new every day, and I’m often surprised that he knows how to do something or how well he understands what we say. It’s so fun to watch him learn!

Current favorite games:

• Acting Out “If you’re happy and you know it”: As soon as this song comes on our “Toddler” radio station, Jesper starts clapping his hands and stomping his feet along to the words.
• Singing Along to “Six Little Ducks”: I wasn’t familiar with this song, but like all toddler songs it has pretty simple components. The chorus is something like “Six little ducks say ‘Quack Quack Quack’”. Jesper heard this song and he started saying “Quack quack quack” along with the chorus. Okay, so it sounds more like “cack cack cack”, but you get the picture. :
• Bubbles: Everything in my toddler's life can be made better with bubbles. Did he just fall down? Does he have to have his diaper changed? Voila! Bubbles make tears disappear. 

• Reading books: All those evenings of reading together seem to be paying off. A few days ago, he was looking at the books in his room and he picked up “Red Hat Blue Hat”. The whole book is pictures of animals wearing an item of clothing in a different color with the last animal wearing it incorrectly. For example, the words on the first page are “red hat, blue hat, green hat, OOPS!” Jesper opened the book and said “da-duh, da-duh, da-duh, UH!” in the same cadence and intonation that I use when I read it. I dissolved into a big puddle of mommy pride. What a smart kiddo!

• Being Outside: Jesper will pick up his sandals and follow me or Josh around the house with them. He gets SO EXCITED when we put them on because it means that he gets to go outside. We don’t even have to do anything outside. He just wants to wander around. Or eat mulch. Or pull leaves off the hostas. You know, normal things for a toddler to do. :)

These leaves come off, Mom!

Can we stay outside all day long?

• Water Play: He still loves his bath, but now playing with water has expanded to the backyard. We have a little hard plastic pool that we get out for him on weekends. And last week, we introduced him to the hose and sprinkler while we were watering flowers. Wow, did he think that was fun!

• Stacking Blocks: I bought the cheapest square boxes of Kleenex that I could find at Target and gave them to Jesper. He loves them! He can stack towers higher than he is tall. Did I mention that this kid is smart?!

Everything is a block

His comprehension is growing quickly, too. Now when I ask him if he’s hungry, he walks over to his high chair and starts to pull it away from the wall. What a difference just a few weeks make!

Tongue-Tie Surgery

Jesper’s tongue-tie surgery was scheduled for June 15.

On Thursday, June 14, I noticed that Jesper felt a little warm when I dropped him off. I took his temperature and it was 102 degrees. No school for him that day! I called the doctor to see if we could still move forward with the surgery, and they said that it would probably be fine long as he didn’t have nausea or diarrhea.

Josh and Jesper "watching" the US Open

Jesper was clearly not feeling great on Thursday. He took 3 naps, didn’t eat dinner well, and went easily to bed by his normal time (NOT normal after 3 naps). However, his fever broke overnight and we took him in to the outpatient clinic for his surgery.

We were with Jesper while they put him under with gas and the surgery only took about 10 minutes. They clipped his frenulum and put in 2 stitches. The doctor said that it probably felt like he had bitten the underside of his tongue very hard but would be feeling better within a day or two.

Dressed in scrubs and waiting for the doctor

He was NOT happy after coming out of the anesthesia. We comforted him and took him home. He didn’t eat or drink as well as normal and drooled excessively all day on Friday. He also didn’t want his pacifier because it seemed to hurt to suck on it. Maybe as a result of that, he didn’t sleep as well as we expected him to and wanted to be held all day long.

Saturday was similar, but the drooling slowed a little. Josh and I agreed that if he still wasn’t eating or drinking well on Sunday morning that we would take him in to the doctor to make sure that nothing else was going on. Both of us were concerned that he might have strep because it had gone around his classroom a couple weeks prior.

We were at Urgent Care nearly as soon as it opened on Sunday. They gave Jesper a quick strep test and it came back positive almost immediately. We got him antibiotics right away. Sunday was a little easier than the rest of the weekend and he seemed to be feeling better the next morning after being on meds for 24 hours.

Poor kid. He had a bad case of strep AND had his tongue cut in the same weekend. On top of that, we didn’t give him back his pacifier. As always, though, Jesper adjusted easily and seemed to be feeling better on Monday. Daycare was amazed that he didn’t seem to even miss a beat while breaking the pacifier habit.

Feeling better later that week

Books!

Now he can stick out his tongue a little further than he could before, but not quite as far as other kids. It’s also still a little heart-shaped on the tip because the middle tongue muscles are still developing. The doctor told us to give him ice cream cones and encourage him to stick his tongue out and move it from side to side as much as possible. Too bad he’s a little young to appreciate those doctor’s orders. :)

First Steps!

Jesper took his first steps on June 2….backwards. Goofy kid. Apparently we’ve been encouraging him to move in the wrong direction. However, within a few days, he was walking (forwards) much longer distances. By June 9 he could walk a good 35 ft. from our kitchen to our master bathroom.

Walking Progression

April 18

May 19 

  May 26

June 6

June 9