So, the doctor’s office wants me to go to a GI pediatrician at the hospital to see what’s wrong with Clark. Weird thing is, right now, there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s eating, (finicky as all heck, but he’s eating), his system is moving ok with a daily dose of Miralax, he looks healthier in skin tone and the circles under his eyes are lighter…

I don’t know what to do. It seems like there should be some symptoms before taking him to a specialist.

So, I’m going to wait it out, I think, and focus on trying to get him to eat as well as possible, which takes some considerable effort. If he has trouble again, I’ll take him in. He still claims his stomach hurts, but only when I ask, and he’s not very convincing anymore. The last time I asked, he said “no. Um, yes.”

Uh, huh.

Thanks for your input. It’s both helpful and overwhelming, hearing about how many different issues it could be. But I like the information because if something really rings true, it’s a lead to follow.

Stephanie, I need to call you. I’m curious about what kind of reactions Conner is having to wheat.

Clark is on a meatball kick right now. He and I just spent an hour making 80+ turkey meatballs that are in the oven now, and he’s anxious for them to come out. I’m relieved. For awhile, I couldn’t get ANY protein down him, with the exception of the occasional peanut butter sandwich on white bread- no jelly. And THAT’S not healthy. Once he started turning down chicken nuggets, which are a rare treat anyway, I kinda panicked.

I’m wondering if the vitamins are helping him to feel better?

I have some knitting to do, but I haven’t been able to leave my guitar alone. All of my free time finds me playing with it, and I finished writing another song last week!

I’ll check in again soon. The oven is done and Clark is not going to leave me alone ’til I get the meatballs out.

While I was truly not looking forward to hearing that Clark is allergic to most things edible, I was expecting it. The test came back negative for everything, as in, he’s not allergic to anything, food or enviornment. Not even milk.

This scares me. What the heck is wrong with my child?

His stomach always hurts. I don’t know where to go from here. And I can tell you right now, he’s not going to be thrilled at the prospect of more blood tests.

Dr. is out ’til Monday, so I get to spend my weekend “trying not to worry about it.”

Lovely.

While Max was perfectly willing to smile for me, he wasn’t giving it up for the camera.

He’s such a big boy!

Speaking of big boys, Clark had his blood drawn today for an allergy test.

He was super brave. I had him look away when they stuck in the needle, but the tech asked him to look before he took it out so Clark would know what was happening to his arm. That was probably a good call. Clark handled it well and didn’t say much as we were walking to the car. I asked him if it hurt a little. He said, “yes.” Then, with a little more vigor, he said, “it hurt a LOT! I didn’t like it.”

He’s so very sweet.

Out of the blue, Veronica noticed the wool she dyed over the summer, and asked me if she could spin it. Her attempts at spinning over the summer didn’t go so well, so I was braced and determined to be patient, despite the difficulty. And she hardly needed my help at all. She spun a bobbin full and is working on the second. How fun!

I took some pictures. This camera I’m borrowing from Carol takes really nice flash pictures, better than any of my cameras have,

but I still go for the non-flash pictures.

They’re so much more… alive.

My mother-in-law had surgery on Friday. The surgery went well. They think they got everything, said it didn’t look like it had spread, and didn’t have to reconstruct much if anything. There have been complications since the surgery that were scary, but as far as I know, she’s stabilized now and should be out of ICU today. We’re still concerned about her blood, which has to clot in the right places and not in the wrong places, as she has artificial valves in her heart. So we’re not out of the woods yet. Once she’s recovered, she gets to enjoy six months of weekly chemo. Prior to surgery, it was monthly.

I’ve changed my mind about the shawl I’m knitting. Instead of a half circle, I’m going to try a faroese from the top down with shoulder shaping.

Those of you who have been around awhile, like, a LONG while, will remember my green tweed shrug?

I frogged it.

It was kind of fun, actually. At first, I just freed the yarn and walked down the hall, unravelling stitches, then winding the yarn onto my niddy noddy as I walked back to the shrug in the living room. When that became tedious, I sat in the living room with the niddy noddy, and the KIDS walked down the hall, carrying the shrug and unravelling stitches, and I wound the yarn up as they walked back towards me.

I now have two huge skeins of moss green Kathmandu Aran yarn that I’m going to re-knit into a vest. I’m very excited, as I need some new sweaters. Today, I picked out a cable stitch to work into the front/center and all that’s left to do in preparation is soak the yarn to get the kinks out. I have a picture, but it’s on the other computer because I forgot to email it to my laptop before putting Monsters Inc on for Clark.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have pictures :-). I just don’t have THAT one.

Here’s what Max is doing, as I type…

He is getting SO big! Veronica has a hard time carrying him now. I’m guessing he’s about 30% of her body weight and catching up quickly. Of course, she’s a shrimp.

We had a bit of a tragedy this week. I have shawls on the brain, and as I pulled out all of my knits from the hall closet… my big, red shawl

is full of holes. New, unintentional holes.

The wrong kind of holes.

I can’t find any evidence that it was actually eaten, as everything else in the bin is just fine, and I don’t see any moth waste… but I’m not sure it’s fixable. It’ll take a phenomenal amount of time and eyestrain. I’ve counted 7 holes so far, but that was a quick lookover. I’m sure there’s more. One of them is unfixable, but I don’t think that one will spread.

Moving on, because it’s too depressing to linger-

I am planning to frog my huge, Donegal Tweed poncho to re-work into a cardigan. I’m excited. It’s a gorgeous turquoise color with red flecks of tweed in it.

Also, I went through the stash and pulled out two different compilations of yarn for shawls. This one will be a large, half Pi shawl (half circle)

and I found nearly 3000 yards of sock yarn, mostly Koigu with a few skeins of Carol’s yarn which matches up nicely, that will look great together in a full Pi shawl. I didn’t buy them to coordinate, they’ve been acquired over time and happen to be gorgeous together.

All this, combined with a few girl shawls I have planned for this spring (shhhhhh… don’t tell), and I have a year (or more, depending on how distracted I get) of knitting at my fingertips without buying a thing! It’ll make a serious dent in my stash, as all of my yarn fits in that little bin you see under the last picture, and maybe by the time it’s all done, I can afford to buy more!

Well, maybe on that last part.

But I’m looking forward to it, despite the fact that my elbows are really bothering me. I’m not sure why, but I notice it the most when I’m carrying Max, both in and out of his carseat. Infant carseats are brutal and I already make efforts not to carry it, but I really need to stop lugging that thing around.

I have some close-ups of this yarn that makes me happy just to touch it.

Here’s a good shot of the encased plying. I don’t know the technical term for it,

but it makes for a much more interesting fabric when knit.

I got 3 hours sleep last night. I’m kind of loopy. Fortunately, I don’t have to go anywhere today but I do have a lot of laundry to wash, and countertops to clear.

And I’d really like to card some batts!

Here are some quick pics I snapped this morning in the few minutes before the girls went to school of Liv in Grandma’s new hat.

I love this yarn (handspun slub). The merino is undyed, and the silk is a shiny, honey-gold that is just gorgeous.

I love this hat. It’s so simple and classy looking.

I love this camera (Canon Rebel xti with gorgeous lenses), aaaaaand….. it’s not mine.

I posted about Clark late last night, so if you’re interested, make sure you catch that post, too.

I hear that a few times a day. Spontaneously. Usually accompanied by a leg hug, or an arm nuzzle. Clark is seriously the sweetest little guy EVER. Tonight, after dinner (which he’s eaten twice since I called the doctor about him not eating, what’s up with that???? But I’ll take it) he said, “thanks for making french toast for dinner, mommy” and gave me a hug.

Sorry I didn’t post earlier today. I haven’t had the opportunity, but I know some of you have been checking to hear how it went with Clark at the doctor yesterday.

So, we discussed the financial concerns and he said we’d start out conservative with an abdominal x-ray to check for constipation. I heard back late this morning that he is in fact backed up. So he’s going on a 3 day mineral oil/limited diet thing to clean him out. Then we’ll call and chat with the doctor, but the office manager said something about putting him on an appetite stimulant. I don’t remember what it’s called at the moment. She also touched on some psychological approaches to getting him over his stool holding and perhaps even potty training him.

I’m just hoping that if there is something wrong with his digestive system, since we’ve been struggling with it all his life, that we’ll finally figure out what it is and how to help him. I want an allergy test.

Anyway, that’s what I know.

I was able to take some pretty (not perfect, but pretty) pictures of my batts this afternoon using Carol’s camera. They’re on my other computer, though, so I can’t upload them tonight. I’m sitting in my chair with the laptop in the living room right now, typing around a swaddled and sleeping Max, who’s laying on my lap.

He’s about to go in the swing, and then I’m heading to bed.

Oooh, oooh! Before I forget, I finished the second handspun hat for my mother-in-law today. The yarn’s been spun for a week or so, but I balled it up and knit it today. It’s pretty. I’ll see if I can get Clark to model it for me before I give it to her. I have almost enough yarn for a second hat, and plenty of the silk single left, so I may pick up another ounce or so of white merino to make up the difference.

I finally put a banner on my etsy shop and wrote a brief shop description on what my batts are about. I borrowed some equipment from my friend Carol to try to get good pictures of the batts… it hasn’t worked so far. It was my intent to take the softbox into my bathroom today to utilize the natural light, but after exercising, showering, running Veronica to Barnes & Noble to use her gift card, taking a phone call and feeding Max… all the daylight hours were spent. So I’m pouting a little bit because tomorrow isn’t looking good for daylight free time, either.

I’m not feeling very patient.

We’re taking Clark to the doctor tomorrow because I can’t get him to eat. He’s a walking sack of bones and I’m really getting worried about chronic malnourishment. The few things I could count on him eating (peanut butter sandwich, chicken, turkey lunchmeat, eggs, apples, grapes, canned peaches…), he no longer eats, with the exception of an occasional peanut butter sandwich, no jelly. I went and bought Flinstones Gummies the other day. He’ll eat those.

I know he’s hungry. He’ll ask for food in a general sense, but doesn’t actually want anything specific. He never eats dinner. He’ll come to the table looking all excited, take a look at the food, whatever it is, and leave. There have been days where the only thing he’s eaten the whole day is a quarter of a peanut butter sandwich. Three days in a row. A few times, he’ll ask for “food”, reject everything I have to offer, and then he’ll just look at me and cry. Not a tantrum cry, a sad, desperate sort of cry.

It’s heartbreaking, and I’m going crazy.

So, I don’t know what the doctor will do besides send us to Children’s Hospital for tests and evaluations that we can’t afford. Which brings me to a topic that I can’t talk about too much without getting angry. We buy the best health insurance available, which is better than the best that is currently offered ’cause we’ve had ours some years now. We pay through the nose for it, and at the rate it increases every year, it’ll soon be more than our mortgage. And yet the coverage isn’t good enough that I can take my kids in to the doctor when they need it without worrying about how we’re going to pay for it.

And that’s wrong.