The Perils of Poop

Mama's Log:

Lunch time saw the praises of poop. For the second time, the Di Man successfully navigated the intestinal highway and jettisoned his products into the potty (thanks "shoufun" - it's just the right size). So, naturally, Mama propels poop praises galore!

After lunch, the Di Man lays down for his afternoon recharge. Two hours later, Mama's "spidey sense" alarms (i.e., mewing cries from the crib caught before the onset of the full-volume, full-throttle, toddler sobs). Mama enters the room to see her little dude laying in the crib - half awake, half asleep. Yes, the Di Man cometh awake (partially).

Mama sensing the tiredness of the Di Man, asks if he wants up or to go back asleep. No answer...peculiar, very peculiar indeed (not the typical response one would expect from a toddler who is normally very opinionated and vocal in this department). Moments later...strange sounds awaken from South of the waistband border. Not once, twice, or three times...yes, count 'em, four flatus -- hmm, or is that flati -- (farts for you non-medical people).

All I can say is thank goodness I've dealt with worse in nursing (anyone who's taken care of patients w/ C. diff or GI bleeds will agree) and that the Di Man is still a toddler (smaller amounts). So, down to the mat we go. Full diaper but fortunately, no leakage.

Time warp - 2 1/2 hours and two diaper changes later... Another "gurgle in the gut" - by this time, Mama realizes Midwesterners have more time to react to horns sounding tornado warnings than she has in dealing with the Di Man's current lack of intestinal fortitude. But, third time was defintely not a chart...yep, the Di Man had "leakage" and after a massive cleanup on aisle two involving a complete change of clothing & sheet covering the changing mat, Mama discovered the Di Man had a low grade fever to boot.

So, let's just say Mama is NOT a pediatric nurse (I work in the "land of the giants"). Call placed to the pediatrician's office - time to speak w/ the triage nurse. Brain cells cleaning the cobwebs in the section of my subconscious that hosted the peds nursing class taken 10 1/2 years ago...BRAT diet?). Fortunately, appointment available 1st thing in the am w/ Dr. D. Even better, clear instructions on what to do (NO JUICE, NO FRUIT - keep him hydrated). Ba finally arrives home & the baton is passed on to the next shift (nice night for a meeting, eh?) after starting a load of dirty laundry.

So, after a few bites of crackers and some sips of milk for dinner with Ba, we later finds the Di Man asleep and Mama working to identify ways to ensure our favorite little dude avoids the villainous clutches of "Dehydration Man" (fortunately w/ only one additional episode tonight for Ba...isn't he lucky?) and Mama having an insomnia jag...

May the force be with our Little Dude! At least he gets to see Ba and Mama get "shots" from those mean ole' nurses tomorrow when we receive our final "travel vaccinations" (yes, ironic that we get our last series of injections after our overseas travel is complete, eh ).

Stay tuned for the continuing chronicles of Mama, Ba, and the Di Man (and blog entries that don't involve poop).

The Praises of Poop

Today was a momentous day in the Heberlig household: Colin went poopie in the potty (seriously, never in my life did I ever have this much discussion about gastrointestional patterns before becoming the parent of a toddler).

While getting a few extra, very precious moments of sleep this morning, "the boys" were sharing "first breakfast" time together. E noticed that Colin wasn't chowing down on his banana like he normally does. Colin apparently also started making his "poopy face." So, after realizing what was going on, E asked Colin if he'd like to go to the potty.

Fortunately, E and C arrive to the potty chair in the nick of time, after getting the jammies & diaper off (C was wearing his one-piece footie jammies). Thank goodness, since the Di Man had a huge BM (that would have probably leaked out of the diaper).

So, after "clean up on Aisle One," E brought Colin upstairs to tell me about the big event of the morning. Being quite a proud Mama, I made a big deal out of his achievement. Colin was too cute because he was so proud of himself (end result being a big hug to Mama from her favorite little dude).

Considering we haven't begun officially potty-training Colin, I consider this a major victory on the parenthood front! Guess all those times of never having time alone in the bathroom because Colin insisted on escorting us to the bathroom in VN and here at home are paying off.

In other news, today was a beautiful day in Charlotte (a very unseasonably warm day). So in the spirit of "Carpe Diem," we took Colin for a walk (umm...guess ride would a more accurate description since Colin wanted nothing to do with walking and everything to do with riding in his stroller) on the Greenway. Of note is Colin's continued fascination with animals (dogs) and airplanes, both of which he saw a lot of this afternoon. Every time Colin would see a dog (no matter how far away it was), he would try to reach out to pet the dog. A few times along the way, the owners of the dogs would mistake this for Colin waving to them. As they would pass and say "Hi," Colin would wait until they passed by (out of sight), then say "Bye."

Speaking of speaking (in the immortal words of Dirty Harry), Colin "made my day" earlier this week. I had to stop by the office to pick up some books. As I called E to let him know that I was coming home, Colin indicated that he wanted to have the phone (usually resulting in him listening and no talking...a 180 from his Mama's normal pattern). So, expecting the norm, I began talking to him. Lo and behold, he spoke (granted it was to say "Pat, Pat, Pat" when I asked if he and Ba watched "Little Einsteins" but words they were - for those of you unaware of the show, the characters say "pat" and pat their laps to help their rocketship blast off). He also said "Hooray" when I asked if he was happy.

Of course, we can't end this blog entry without the picture of the day! Hope you enjoy...

Holiday Hijinks in the Heberlig Household

Well, the holidays are over & we have some fun stories to tell. You'll find a special present of many pictures embedded within our first blog entry of 2008!

Colin, Ba, and Mama have survived our first Heberlig Holiday season! And let me tell you, the Di Man is mean, lean, package unwrapping machine. Our holiday hijinks began at the home of T's mother (code name "Mawmaw" to differentiate her from E's mom, code name "Grandma"). As you can tell from the picture below (taken at Mawmaw's house), Colin was quite enthralled with finding surprises inside the presents he received (better than a Cracker Jack box, believe you me).

One of the main surprises at Mawmaw's came about when we discovered that Colin may become a good ol' Southern boy after all. At dinner that evening, Colin chowed down on a heapin' pile of breaded fried okra (egad, don't even think Mama is going to fix these at home).


Instead of leaving on a jet plane, Ba, Mama, and Colin packed up T's car to the brim and ventured north. Our first stop was Laurel, MD, where we were able to meet Miri (Colin's best buddy from the VL orphanage who was adopted by the V's in July). OMG is she just too cute for words, or what? After taking a bit of time to bypass the "toddler syndrome" (and those of you who have or have had toddlers in your life know what I'm talking about), Colin and Miri had a fun time playing together (at least until Miri's two older brothers & friend decided to come upstairs and play...Colin and Miri wanted to play w/ the big boys).


Another car ride found us arriving to stay overnight w/ Uncle Joe and Aunt Helen. Although this picture was taken at home before our travels, Colin has quite diversified his dining experience. Anyone who has had the pleasure of eating Helen's cooking can certainly understand why Colin was not a fussy eater.

The next day, Colin had the opportunity to meet his Great-Grandmother. After a bit of toddler shyness, Colin turned on the charm & like the gentleman he is, took Great-Grandma for a ride.

We arrived to Grandpa and Grandma's house. As with our first meeting back at Thanksgiving, Grandpa was an instant hit w/ Colin. And, of course, Grandma's cooking was a hit, especially sweet potatoes (I have never seen a little guy put down that much food...whoa). One day during playtime, Grandma came across E's old hats, including his Mickey ears. Mama decided it would be fun to have Colin wear the hats...let's just say I was fortunate to snap this picture quickly enough before he decided to make a game of tipping his head forward to watch the hat fall off his head.

Christmas morning arrived and, oh the lessons one learns from experience (you know, that 20/20 hindsight thing). Colin had quite a few presents to open. Yes, he had fun ripping the paper but our little guy wanted to open each present and proceed to play with the toy or look at the book (note the look of excitement below upon seeing the doggie). Seeing we had to travel at lunch to visit the "Fay Clan," we hurried Colin to the next present, rather than allowing him time to enjoy each present. So, lesson learned...next Christmas he opens a few presents & we save the rest for other days...a good way to really celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas (without all the bird poop from those silly calling birds, French hens, turtle doves, etc.).

When we arrived at lunch, Mama decided to give Colin an opportunity to wear one of the Ao Dai's she purchased for him in VN. Ba would have rather had him wear the other outfit in this size but w/ cold weather abounding north of the Mason-Dixon line, long sleeves were in order. He had so much fun (after getting over another case of toddler shyness, of course). And, as usual, chowed down on Aunt Helen's delicious meal.

We ended the evening's festivities by gathering the clan together for a family photo (well, tried to anyway...apparently Uncle John had decided to go AWOL and be MIA during the action).

Colin finally was able to meet his Aunt Julie (and Baby Fox in-utero), Uncle Kevin, Cousin Ashley, & Tyson the dog. Ashley was too funny. When they were opening presents, Ashley looked at her mommy and said, "I need more presents." Ah, the wonderful nature of toddlers and American capitalism, all wrapped in one cute little package. Ashley also taught Colin how to say "cheese" and sport the mack daddy cheese grin.

As you can tell by the picture below, Uncle Kevin was also a big hit w/ Colin.

So, the holiday hijinks halted and the Heberligs found themselves safely at home (after what became a 12-hour drive in really yucky weather and a pit stop at a Cracker Barrel - laugh of the night came when Eric took Colin to see the fireplace in the restaurant. As he approached the flames and felt the heat, he put his hand to his forehead and said, "Phew."). Mind you, the story doesn't end there....but tonight's blog does!