Big Sigh of Relief

i FINALLY finished the first chapter of my dissertation yesterday, after many, many hours of constructing and editing tables and figures and attempting to condense as much data as possible. i still wound up with 18 tables and 12 figures in the first chapter alone. i'll have 4 chapters. thankfully, the first is the most data-intensive, so the next two shouldn't be nearly as daunting. the fourth is really sort of a mini-chapter on the project i did in maine a couple of summers ago, and it's pretty much done already, since i already had to write that up after we came back from maine.

in other news, max is STILL not over whatever he's had for the last couple of weeks. he ran a fever every single day for almost a week, and when the fever went away, i thought he was getting better. he started eating a little more (though he still mostly ate baby food), and he FINALLY started sleeping through the night again this week. but he's still gagging on nearly everything he puts in his mouth. except bananas. but he also pushes almost everything away when you try to get him to eat. yesterday he ate half a banana, half a container of yogurt, and 2 gerber graduates wagon wheels snacks (a full serving of those is 3 wheels). all day. i gave him the wagon wheels about half an hour before bed because he didn't touch his dinner. he wouldn't touch his lunch at daycare either, and he wouldn't even drink his juice, which he usually LOVES. he drank about half a cup of his formula. they've been having to give him baby food because he won't eat the hot lunches at daycare (he's been eating the cafeteria lunches at daycare for 5 or 6 weeks with no problem - until last week), but yesterday he wouldn't even eat baby food. max did an EXCELLENT job on his breakfast this morning, though, downing a full serving of rice & apple baby cereal and a jar of apples & pears. baby food is better than no food, even though we're trying to steer him toward table food. but he wouldn't eat lunch today. he took about 4 bites and drank some juice. i don't know what i'm gonna do with that kid.

i called the pediatrician yesterday, and they said he's probably got a tummy full of mucus from being so congested and stuff for two weeks, which makes him feel full. so he doesn't want to eat. and also probably makes everything taste bad. if he still isn't eating well this weekend, he'll have to go back and see the doc again. they said to push fluids to help clear the mucus out, so i've been trying to get max to drink as much as he will. i'm leaving a cup of water on the coffee table for him all the time, and he goes over and takes a few sips every now and then. i'm also giving him formula more often than usual, since he's not drinking as much of that in a sitting as he usually does. he's still only drinking about 16 oz. of formula a day. normal for him is 22-26 oz. a day. plus 4-6 oz. of diluted juice after lunch and a few ounces of water at breakfast and dinner.

i'm not sure if max's throat is still sore. he isn't crying all the time like he was last weekend, and he isn't trying to eat and then crying after a few bites (which is how he was acting when he first got sick). he's just not at all interested in eating. he's not crying much at all, really. he just pushes food away, and when he does take a bite of table food, or even baby snacks like puffs and Cheerios, he gags.

but anyway. other than not eating, max seems ok. he's still kind of snotty, i guess, and he wants to be held a lot more than usual. today he figured out what his stacking rings are for. his favorite thing to do with them has always been to topple the base over so all the rings fly off. then i put them back on. and he topples it over again. or he pulls the rings off one by one. but today he put two of them back on the base. well, he put one ring on, pulled it back off, and then put another ring on. i was so proud. then he got bored with it and started playing with a water bottle that still had a little water in it.

here's what max's christmas list SHOULD look like:

• empty bottles
• clothes hangers
• old tv remotes
• boxes
• old magazines
• dish towels

that's what he finds around the house and has a blast playing with. he spent a good half hour playing in the kitchen floor with a dish towel one day. he spun around in circles with it like a dog chasing its tail. he 'cleaned' the floor with it, crawling all over the place and wiping it around on the floor. he swung it around. and he thought it was the best thing ever. a dish towel.

instead here's a little taste of what max is getting for christmas

• a fisher-price laugh and learn my busy day activity table
• a vtech ride on toy
• some little frog bath squirties, which i actually think he'll love

i've made a list for the MIL, and it includes some no-frills basic toys like classic wooden blocks and baby musical instruments (like a cute little baby xylophone). max does play with his decked out lights and sounds learning toys, but i think he spends more time with the really basic stuff, like the stacking rings and plastic blocks in different shapes. oh, and a hockey puck. can't forget the hockey puck.