Raising a One Year Old

It's harder to keep the blog updated now that I'm back at work and Evan is experiencing major separation anxiety, making him more clingy than usual. That, and facebook has been taking up a lot of my internet time. I see that it's been nearly a month since I posted last so I figure I should write an update. Aside from cutting a tooth almost every week since just before christmas, Evan also seems to have had some sort of illness/cold/flu continuously since then as well. All three of us were out of comission for a few days a couple weeks ago when we came down with the most violent and cruel stomach virus I have ever encountered. Whatever it was, it was extremely contagious because our neighbours had it a couple days before us. Then their families and more friends got it as well, pretty much everyone who our sweet babies came in contact with became violently ill for a few days. After being under quarantine and having a day or two without seeing vomit from lil E we figured we were back to normal but then on Saturday he developed a fever again. After his bath I was dressing him on the change table and he was crying. His nose was running a lot so I tried to wipe it and that made him even more angry so he started crying even harder. Then all of a sudden his eyes rolled back and his face went red and he started gasping for air. I sat him up and his head just flopped back and forth and he went limp in my arms for a couple seconds at most. Then he threw up. I was so scared and still have no idea what happened. He went right to sleep after that. The doctor figures it was either febrile convulsions or breathe holding. Either way, it was very frightening. I took him to the doctor yesterday just for my own piece of mind and he figures the constant sickness is just a virus and we have to "let it run its course". It appears this constant illness is just par for the course as Evan across the street, Natalie and Anna all seem to be going through the same things... sick all the time and separation anxiety. Needless to say, we haven't been getting much sleep lately either.

I think having a one year old is way tougher than having a baby to take care of. Evan is curious about everything so we have to be continually attentive to his safety. Plus, he has developed a will. He knows what he wants but he gets frustrated when he can't have it and he gets frustrated when he can't express himself too. I will look back on this and laugh but I can't wait until he can talk so that I can know whats going on in that little mind of his. He notices when I leave the room but he doesn't understand that I'm coming back so he throws a fit everytime he loses sight of me. He has no concept of time yet so when he wants something ie. his bottle that's heating up, he wants it NOW. Brian and I went out for dinner to the Olive Garden a couple weeks ago and it was the first time that we realized our days of going out to eat with our son and not having to worry about him disturbing the people around us are numbered. We may have to frequent only child friendly restaurants for the next little while. Evan, like most one year olds, likes to bang things together to hear the noise it makes and he likes to make big messes, empty drawers and book cases and push buttons and throw things. He really has a good arm for such a little guy. I know Evan's behaviours are a normal developmental phase and I appreciate how much he is growing and learning but man, it's not easy. He's so darn cute though, it makes it all worth while.