Bored Toddler + Mommy in Shower = OMG!

So as many moms of toddlers can attest - they don't stop moving. EVER. At least mine doesn't.

Not too long ago I was getting ready for a concert that I had to perform in. Well, things really never seem to go as planned. Especially when a mommy needs to get ready and a toddler might have to occupy his time for 10 minutes - that is WITHOUT getting into something. HA HA - It makes me laugh just to think about it. Anyways, sorry for my digression.

So I needed to take a quick shower and get ready for the concert so I asked William to watch a "show" in our bedroom while I took a lightning fast shower.

Things were going good - I heard him talking to me.
William: "Mommy, what you doing? You taking SHOWER?"
Mommy replies: "Yes William I am taking a shower I will be out in just a minute. You can watch Little Einsteins for a few minutes then help mommy pick out her clothes." (Chris is going to LOVE reading that)
William replies: "Ok mommy, I go watch Einsteins."

All good right?

Hell no.

Things got eerily quiet. You know the quiet I am talking about - when you KNOW something is going on.

So I called out: "William, Mommy is done in the shower. Whatcha doin?"
His reply: Silence.... nothing
Me: "William???"

Then he came running into the bathroom... AND... he had something all over his face. It was red. Was it BLOOD?!?!?!? OMG!!! What happened? What did he get into??? If a dresser drawer had been emptied on the floor - that I could handle. But what on earth happened to his face???? Did he slice and dice himself with some unknown object. My mind started racing trying to figure what he had maimed himself with... when I realized that I needed a closer look. Oh and dear blog readers, might I mention that without my glasses or contacts I am BLIND AS A BAT (I wonder if bats are really blind), but nonetheless I cannot see much of anything. So once I got my wits about me a little and looked closer this is what I saw.



What is that all over my sweet little boy's face? PERMANENT RED MARKER!

The night before being the good teacher I am, I spent a few hours grading papers. I really prefer to use a felt tip pen or marker when grading, especially when grading essays. I don't know why. I just like it better. (I am weird like that) But the evening before I left a stack of essays on my nightstand with yes you guessed it - a permanent red marker. The only "felt tip marking pen" I could find in the house the night before.

Back to our dialogue:
William: "See mommy, look I color!" (So proud of himself)
Mommy: (Trying not to laugh) "Yes you did, but remember we don't color on our faces we color on paper." (Thinking to self.... hmmm, papers, there is something I should be thinking about right now.... OH SH!T - The essays!)

I then rushed into the room and yes on my nightstand were the papers in their neat little stack, but...

William decided that he need to "color" on Mommy's papers, aka - my AP Student Essays. Crap.

So I checked out the nightstand - all good.
The bedding - all good. And yes of course it is ALL White.

Hmmm, anything else??

Well I seemed to remember that when I first saw William he had red marker on his hand, maybe I should check that out more.

So when I was able to find him and check out his hands, this is what I saw.

Nice, huh...


Our next adventure was trying to find something that would take the marker off and wouldn't irritate his sensitive skin. Darn Eczema. So we tried hand soap - nope. Purell - nope. On an offhand chance I grabbed his bath soap - Aveeno Baby for Sensitive Skin - No Fragrance - IT WORKED! Really well I might add. His checks just had a little rosy glow. His arms were more noticeable but I figured I could keep him in long sleeves until it wears off - Right?

Why do I tell you the whole long drawn out story? Well, because after I jumped out of the shower to see what the little man was up to I threw my towel on.... and "forgot" to change into my clothes. So the ensuing craziness was all done - wearing my towel!

Oh and my student's response to the situation? She laughed and told me not to worry about it - what a great kid! Too bad she is already getting an A. She might have earned herself some sympathy points (if I ever did that).

This week in pictures

Hello again, I hope there are some of you blog readers left. We have been quite busy the past few weeks and my good intentions to update the blog more often went by the wayside... along with grading, lesson plans etc.

I did want to include of couple of recent pictures of the kids. The one of William is from Thursday night. Like many other little boys his age William is so busy doing that he frequently forgets to pay attention to where he is going. Thursday afternoon at daycare he was running from one part of the playroom to the next and BAM! He tripped over one of the toys and landed face first in the "Marble Castle". As you can see by the image he ended up with scratches under his right eye and left eye too. When I picked him up from daycare I asked William who he got into a scuffle with and if the other kid looked as "good" as he did. He told me "Noooo, Mommy. I trip and hit my face." Yes, William you did. He likes to stay busy, keeping us on our toes.


Miss Katie is doing really well with her DOC band. I included the link to the company that manufactures her cranial device. When Katie was 4 months old her pediatrician and I talked about her head and we were both concerned that she was developing a flat spot on her right parietal/occipital region. The pediatrician suggested repositioning exercises, more tummy time and limited swing/bouncy seat time. After researching plagiocephaly and treatments, I began rigorous repositioning (changing her sleeping and resting positions often) and lots of tummy time. I kept joking with others that Katie was in "Belly Bootcamp" and needed to be working on tummy time as much as possible. But honestly I did not see much if any improvement of Katie's neck control during tummy time and her flatness was not improving either. So when she had her 6 month appointment and the pediatrician recommended getting Katie evaluated for a band we were not terribly surprised. We went to a Cranial Tech site in Madison at Dean Health and had Katie evaluated for Plagiocephaly (flatness of one side) and Brachycephaly (flatness in the back). She was diagnosed with both and her asymmetry was considered in the severe category. Her asymmetry was 4 standard deviations above the mean (translation - it was quite severe). So we started on our journey of haggling with the insurance company to get her device covered. At this point we have been denied and had to pay out of pocket for the band, but are going through the appeals process to try to get it covered.


In the meantime along with Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly Katie was also diagnosed with Torticollis. Sometimes called Wry Neck or Stiff Neck. What most likely happened was that when Katie was in utero (during the pregnancy) she had a "restricted environment" (not a lot of space) so she grew with her head tilted to one side causing one of her neck muscles to develop shorter than the other. Katie HAD a subtle head tilt to the right. A physical therapist from Early Intervention of Illinois diagnosed her with torticollis this fall. So we have been working with Katie to strengthen her neck and consequently upper body. Because of the weak neck muscles she was developing slower than average with some of her other large muscle movements, like pushing up from a tummy position, rolling over, etc. All of which were influenced by her limited range of motion of her neck.

Recently, Katie has made some fantastic progress. She has graduated from "Belly Bootcamp" and is eager to conquer "Crawling College". She can roll over (when she wants too), can transition from sitting to tummy and tummy to sitting. This week she has started to take a couple of hesitant movements forward while in the crawling position. My guess would be that she will be confidently crawling by Christmas!

Take care,

Heather