Milestones and muddles…

I’ll confess. Part of the reason I wasn’t online much in October had to do with all the fun we were having! The weather was beautiful for much of the month, and we spent a lot of time outside. And eating cake. The eating of cake was the children’s favorite part, of course.

The mama in me cannot believe how fast my little men are growing and changing. Nope. Nu-uh. Kind of in denial ’round here. 🙂

Ben-the-man is 8. I am still wrapping my mind around this fact. He’s rocking the second grade, reading up a storm, and generally picking on/endearing himself to his siblings. He’s got the skills to be a good leader and friend- we just have to teach him how to use it the right way instead of the (bossy) way. This is easier said than done. Oh my.

David is 3. He is boy enough for three boys. He is giggly enough for three girls. He is our rough and tumble doodlebug and we wouldn’t have him any other way. (Okay, okay, the washer would gently and politely request that he wasn’t such a dirty doodlebug, and I guess we can give the poor overworked machine that.) David is a ray of sunshine most days (and a grumpy little rain cloud the others), and he is a dear, dear little bug. We try not to spoil him too much.

But in other news, this little bug eating/smearing/devouring cake hasn’t felt good for a long time. He’s lost and gained weight, never quite recovering what weight he’s lost, bouncing all over the bottom end of the growth chart. Josiah had been right on track up until just before his first birthday, but then started to having all sorts of digestive problems as he weaned from mama. It’s not uncommon for breastfed kids to struggle a bit as they adjust to different foods, so at first no one was particularly worried. But one month turned into two, and then three, four. I spent most of October shuttling the little man from specialist to specialist as the doctors try to figure out what is going on. We just got the test results back yesterday, and he has tested negative to food allergy, gluten intolerance, and Celiac’s disease. This is wonderful news! But, it still leaves us in quite the muddle, because something is not right. Please pray that the docs have wisdom in his care and we figure this out, so that Josiah-bug can get back to growing and doing what he does best. He is ever so slightly falling behind developmentally and they are concerned that he is just not getting the nutrition he needs. The why is what has the doctors and specialists concerned, and all of the “obvious” answers have been eliminated at this point.