Mom of Boys

About a year ago, we found out that Caleb was allergic to cats and we had 3 of them!  We decided to just keep 1 of them and have been looking for homes for the other 2.  Zoi, was actually the first cat that we(I) decided to get.  We adopted her from an animal rescue in Fairfax.  A few months ago, Zoi got lost and we were very upset.  She was gone for over 4 weeks and we were sure that she was gone for good…  One night we got home kind of late and Marcus saw her in the shadows.  I got down on my hands and knees and coaxed her out to me.  She came back!!!  Zoi is a part of our family and we love her very much!  She’s so sweet and gentle with the kids.  She follows me and the kids around everywhere, and I used to think it was because of me, but now I have a feeling that she just wants to be with the kids.  (Mostly Alec…)  Here’s why I think that:

• When he crys, she comes running up to him and rubs up against him
  (the way cats do when they want to be pet…)
• When he crawls out to the kitchen (which is often) she will follow him to watch him.  He usually crawls to his fridge magnets and she will sit under a chair to watch. 
• When he’s playing with the bus, she sits under it. (or on it)
• When Alec sleeps in his room and I go in to check on him, she’s usually sleeping on the floor beside the crib. 
• The other day, he was looking out the window and she got up on her two legs and looked out too!
• She plays with Alec and Caleb during the day.  If they are playing with the bus, she sometimes hops up there to play too.  If they are playing with the activity table, she stands up and plays too.  If they are crawling thru the tunnels and tents, she crawls thru also. 
• She lets the kids ‘pet’ her even though they are kind of rough and she’s never hurt either of them.

 It was hard for me to get some of these on camera, but this morning I was able to.  I took a picture of Zoi playing on the school bus with Alec, and a picture of her playing with the activity table.  Still trying for the tunnel shot!  She likes that the best! 

So…  when we started solids with Alec, I was pretty careful and we went through the foods and he did great with all of them.  Well, now we are to the point where he doesn’t eat baby foods at all, he doesn’t want anything to do with them.  In fact if you try to feed him, he will smack the spoon away from you!  He wants to feed himself, and he does not want to use the spoon!  It’s hard to think of things that he can have for lunch and dinner without having the same thing over and over… I’m holding off on a lot of things that I knew Caleb was allergic to, so we are limited over here. 

Well, recently I have been giving him little bites of Yogurt and I put some cheese on things that he eats.  I thought he was doing alright with it, but I have also noticed that in the past couple of weeks, he’s been spitting up.  He didn’t even spit up much as a little baby, so why now???  He also has small breakouts… just a few spots on his chin, nothing like I’m used to seeing with Caleb, but they ARE still there!  I’m really hoping he’s not reacting to the dairy!!!  Until I’m sure though, I think we will hold off on the dairy for a couple of weeks to see how he does… 

Now, if I look at “the bright side” of this…  I learned while Jayden was here, that Cow milk curdles in a day or two and smells REALLY BAD!!!  Soy Milk curdles in 1-2 weeks, (not that I let the milk sit around for that long all the time… but I do find cups under beds or in a bag that we took somewhere…) it also still smells pretty bad, but not nearly as much!  I can stand to open up the cups and wash them out at the sink… where I’ve learned that if it’s cow’s milk…  run the hot tap water, hold my breath, open it up place it under the hot running tap and RUN!!!  I would not be totally upset if Alec was allergic to Dairy.  It would actually make thing a little easier for all of us… the boys menu’s would be the same and I could save my cups and nose!