Simi's swimming gear

Here's two old pictures of Simi posing with his new swimming outfit. This was a couple of months ago, but it still makes me laugh. The second picture is Simi showing one of his swimming strokes, but it looks like a great bodybuilder pose!

-raj

Update

Gosh it's been too long since the last update. Here are the highlights:

Simi had his first soccer "practice" on Wednesday. It was a miserably cold, rainy day and we were both very glad that he's playing INDOOR soccer. He and his best friend, Alex, are enrolled in soccer together and you've never seen anything as adorable as the two of them running around the field, chasing after their size 3, regulation weight soccer balls. There are about twenty 3 year-olds in the class. Graeme, the coach, did a GREAT job of coaching. We're still really amazed that he got these little toddlers to follow his directions. They played "red light, green light", where red light - you stop the ball with your foot, green light: you kick the ball, yellow light: you go SLOWLY, and BLUE light: you SIT on the ball. Then all the little toddlers lined up and kicked their ball into the goal.

The look of glee on both Simi and Alex's faces was just heart-warming. I don't think I've ever seen Simi this happy. Of course I didn't bring the camera; you better believe I won't forget it this-coming Wednesday!

Now for an Asher update (I have to take a big, deep sigh before posting. OK, another one): The good news is that he's eaten four 4 oz. jars of stage 2 veggies and chicken today -- plus a couple of Wendy's french fries. And it's only noon. In fact, I haven't even given him a bottle all day. That's the highlight of the week. In other good news, he's just tremendously, absolutely, incredibly adorable. Let's just leave it at the good news today.

This morning was the annual easter-egg hunt in our neighborhood. Both Simi and Asher had a wonderful time. Asher didn't really care much about picking up plastic eggs, but he had a great time playing on the playground. Simi had a wonderful time picking up the eggs and eating the candy treats inside them. He even got a couple of yo-yos -- woo hoo!

We'll post some photos -- just as soon as Raj teaches me how.

Until soon,
Liz

Set-back for Asher

We learned something this week: it's probably not a food allergy that's causing Asher to vomit. The results of the allergy tests show no signs of any allergy - except for wheat which is too small to count. Plus, even with his stringent elimination diet, he's still vomiting. So, his issue is not food related.

While it's a good thing that Asher has no food allergies, we're still left with the unanswered questions: Why does Asher vomit all the time? What's going on in that adorable tummy of his that's causing all the distress?

Stay tuned while we continue to go 'round and 'round in this seemingly fruitless effort....

Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions on doctors who may help or Internet searches to read, or anything else that may help poor Asher's stomach, we're open to hearing them.

Epoca de Fútbol

In addition to swimming lessons, Simi wants to play fútbol norteamericano -- otherwise known as "soccer" in this country (isn't that a weird word?). Thing is, on Saturday mornings, Simi can either play fútbol or go swimming.

The other day, Liz found a flier for an indoor soccer league. They have classes during the week at 4:30 PM -- late enough for one of us to leave work a little early and take Simi to soccer play. Simi was sooo incredibly excited -- he hounded us until we signed him up. Then, it was off to the sporting goods store to buy a ball. Simi is now the proud owner of a size 3, regulation weight soccer ball. I can't wait until I get to say my first, "GOOOOOOOLLLLLLL!"

Swimmingly Simi

Last September, Simi began swim lessons. He first began with a six-week session in the parent-tot class; he really enjoyed that class. The following six-week session, we put him in the 3-5 year old group lesson, which was much less enjoyable. With five boys in the class, he hardly had any practice time with the instructor. And since he's too small to reach the step they put in the water, he had to cling onto the side of the pool. With his back to the action going on in the pool, he couldn't even see what the other kids were doing. Last, since he was in the water for so long without moving, he got so cold his legs barely moved by the end of the class. He learned nothing.

When it came time to sign up for the following sessions, we asked if we could go back to parent-tot class. With a parent in the water with him, Simi can spend the entire 1/2 hour lesson learning to swim. Plus, he'll be moving around and keeping warm. With permission granted, Liz and Simi trotted off to swim class. The next six-week session, Asher and Raj joined in, now that Asher is finally old enough. The Saturday morning parent-tot swim class is now a family event.

What a difference a few weeks in parent-tot classes make! Simi is really doing great! He kicks and paddles and even puts his face in the water and blows bubbles. This past Saturday, Liz tied a noodle around his waste, and Simi motored off on his own. It was just beautiful to watch! Simi is VERY proud of his aquatic accomplishments! You can practically see his chest bursting with pride.

Asher is doing great too, considering he's been in the water exactly twice now.

Our instructor is trying to get us to move Simi up to the 3-5 year old class again; we'll resist for as long as possible :-)

Torturing Asher

In an effort to find out what's causing Asher's gastro-intestinal distress, he has had to endure a battery of torturous medical tests over the past few days.

Asher first visited the pediatric allergist, who heard Asher's story and said it sounds like eosinophilic esophagitis. The symptoms do quite resemble Asher's symptoms. If it is this condition, it explains why Asher's vomitting isn't like reflux vomitting and why he's not improving on reflux meds. To cure him, all we'll need to do is keep him away from the foods causing the allergy.

Two vials of blood were taken from our little dude to see if we can determine what is causing the allergy (if it is, indeed, this condition). We need to go back and get his skin tested, but that's another day.

The next day was shear torture: the upper gi series. This is the test where you drink some nasty-tasting barium and lay on a table and get x-rays taken of your belly while the barium is going through the digestive tract. It's quite neat if you're into that kind of stuff, but for a 17-month old who doesn't understand what's going on, it's really really scary. They strapped him down onto a board, strapped his arms over his head, put him under this big, noisy machine, and force-fed him some nasty goop.

The good news is that he's anatomically correct -- all the parts are there and in the right position. Even better news: no sign of reflux -- even with a belly full of barium, them pushing on his belly trying to provoke the reflux, and him screaming and crying in fear. If there ever was a time when a child would reflux, it would have been then. Which gives even more credibility to the eosinophilic esophagitis theory.

So we'll continue down this path and see where it takes us. Hopefully it'll take us to a healthy happy Asher -- one who doesn't vomit so regularly and who eats age appropriately.

We'll post his progress.

Put in-Take out

Asher has another game: the put-in-take-out game. I think you can get an idea of how it goes: you put something into a box, then take it back out. Except Asher's game has a twist to it: he puts a toy into the garbage can, then walks away before you notice him doing it. We have inadvertently thrown away a lot of stuff.

Adorable Asher

Asher has a new game. While we're in the kitchen fixing a meal, he toddles into the adjoining dining room and hides behind the wall separating the two rooms. Just before he hides, he smiles, waves, and says, "bye-bye". A moment later, he reappears laughing.

If we're too busy and don't play the game with him, he continues to say "bye-bye", each time getting louder and longer until we pay attention to him and play. If we play the game with him, he laughs hysterically.

We love the game too.

The Greatest Show on Earth!

Simi and I went to the Circus today. What a blast! Before the show they let people in an hour early to go down to the floor and watch some warmup stuff, and that was a lot of fun. Simi loved the show, especially the animals (elephants, horses, lions, and even a zebra!), the motorcycles, and the popcorn. And he got a new motorcycle to vroom!

We had excellent seats, 4th row, so we got a great view of everything, though taking pictures in the dark is tough. Simi enjoyed every minute of it (except he got a little bored waiting in line for popcorn). Hopefully next year we can take Asher as well.

-raj

Babysitter

We went out on a date, actually got a babysitter and went out to a nice restaraunt. Cecelia came over at 6:30, and Asher started crying when we left as we expected. We were nervous the entire time that he wouldn't stop crying or would throw up, but were delighted to hear both boys giggling when we got back home. Next time we'll be able to enjoy the night more not worrying about the boys, though we still had a good time.

We went to Backus, on Ninth St, a very nice Tapas place. It took a while to get noticed and seated at the bar, and the "about 15 minutes for a table" became "nevermind the table", but the food was very good, as was the Sangria, and it was a beautiful place. Next time we'll make reservations.

-raj

Acupuncture

Asher's ear infection/sinus infection and vomiting didn't seem to be getting better, so a few weeks ago we took Asher to see an acupuncturist. Dr. Chen came very highly recommended, and I had listened to him give a talk a couple of years ago when we were thinking of taking Simi. He only used the needles briefly because of Asher's age (though Dr. Chen said he'd never seen a baby take the needles so well), and focused on Acupressure and teaching us a few things to do a few times a day.

Dr. Chen was very optomistic we'd see immediate results, and we were slightly disappointed when Asher vomitted that afternoon as he had pretty much every day for quite a while, but he hasn't thrown up since. We went back a week after the initial appointment for a followup, and will only go back as needed now. Perhaps it's a coincidence, maybe the meds finally kicked in or his body fought it off, but we certainly are gaining more faith in it.

-raj

King for the Day!

Simi was "King for the Day" today. One of the moms from his class brough in a cake (something to do with Lent) and Simi got the lucky piece with a baby on it. He got to make a nice crown and wear it in class and take it home.

The boys look especially cute wearing matching shirts, Simi picked it out before he Asher, pure coincidence but awfully cute.

-raj

Boys at Chuck E Cheese

Here's a couple of pictures of the boys at Chuck E Cheese:

First post

Hello World! This is our first blog entry on our new blogger site. We'll start by posting a photo of the most adorable boys on the planet: our sons.

OK, forget it. We can't do pictures yet. Harumpf! We'll just start with text.

Ciao World!