It's been a fairly eventful week for the babe. On Sunday, Micah took his first solo steps. One step toward dad and then one toward mom. We were all in his bedroom hanging out when it happened. Today (Wednesday), he took two steps toward me at the park and it was a little different than the steps on Sunday. Today's steps seemed intentional. He looked at me and thought about whether he should sit down or just try to get to me by stepping forward. Also, he stayed standing and balanced after the first step and not until the second step did he lose balance and sit down.
On Monday we got some surprising news. Micah had a blood test done last week and it came back with a reading of elevated lead levels. Apparently the low end of the scale is 0-9, medium risk is 10-14, and high risk is 15-19. Micah's lead level is at a 10. I was very saddened by this. I felt like we haven't done enough to clean up the house and his environment to protect him. And of course, when the hospital called to tell me, they were completely unhelpful but promised to "send literature".
After cooling off for a few days, I think that it's okay. I'm going to try to do a few things to reduce his exposure: cleaning up and covering up the fireplaces, and making sure to wash his hands a lot more frequently. It seems like he must be picking it up outside because all the paint inside our house is covered and we have a water filter that should be filtering out any lead in our drinking water. So I figure he must be picking it up on his hands on the porch or the sidewalk, or anywhere else, he crawls around everywhere we go. I'm just trying to do more hand washing after he's been crawling around on the ground. Of course the other problem is that he does so much thumb sucking so he's constantly dragging his hands on the ground and then sticking his thumb in his mouth. The main reason I've decided not to sweat it is because I realized that for that kind of hand to mouth exposure, he's getting as much exposure now as he will at any time in his life. He's crawling and thumb sucking like crazy right now but in a couple months he'll be walking and that will reduce his exposure a ton.
Another sad event this week was what I've been calling Micah's first alcohol related injury. Last night he was picking up and putting back down an unopened bottle of beer. This is something he does pretty regularly because we keep our active case of beer next to the fridge and replenish fridge beer from there. So he takes beer from the case and puts them on the floor and back again, and then takes them and puts them in the china cabinet and in and out of tupperwares, and then back into the case. But last night when he was doing this, he was putting the beer in and taking it out of a cup holder on a large cooler and he dropped it directly on his big toe on his right foot. The toenail turned black and blue almost immediately and his toe swelled up. He cried and cried and clearly didn't want anyone touching it. He also woke up crying every twenty minutes or so after I put him to bed at 8 and at 10:30, Michael suggested that I pick him up and snuggle with him so I took him to bed with me and we snoozed together until around midnight when he woke up again and I fed him and put him back in his crib. I was certain that the toe must be broken but this morning he seemed to be doing okay and he didn't seem to have a problem all day. He still doesn't want me to apply pressure directly to the top of his toe, but he's been walking on it and getting up on his tip toes just like normal all day, including crawling and climbing around at the park without socks on, so I have a feeling it's just bruised. I really did feel bad for him though and Michael was in the kitchen when it happened and has been kicking himself for not intervening and taking the beer away. There's no way he could have known of course, and it's something Micah does all the time without a problem.
All in all, this boy is growing up by leaps and bounds. He says Daddy constantly, he occasionally says "Wa" to ask for water, he has learned to take apart the Duplo blocks and has been trying to put them back together, he has learned to push the bottom buttons on the microwave and has occasionally cancelled the cooking cycles, he also has been doing a lot of waving lately which he didn't do for a while even though he did know how. I can't even put into words how much I love him. Life is wonderful with him in it.
On Monday we got some surprising news. Micah had a blood test done last week and it came back with a reading of elevated lead levels. Apparently the low end of the scale is 0-9, medium risk is 10-14, and high risk is 15-19. Micah's lead level is at a 10. I was very saddened by this. I felt like we haven't done enough to clean up the house and his environment to protect him. And of course, when the hospital called to tell me, they were completely unhelpful but promised to "send literature".
After cooling off for a few days, I think that it's okay. I'm going to try to do a few things to reduce his exposure: cleaning up and covering up the fireplaces, and making sure to wash his hands a lot more frequently. It seems like he must be picking it up outside because all the paint inside our house is covered and we have a water filter that should be filtering out any lead in our drinking water. So I figure he must be picking it up on his hands on the porch or the sidewalk, or anywhere else, he crawls around everywhere we go. I'm just trying to do more hand washing after he's been crawling around on the ground. Of course the other problem is that he does so much thumb sucking so he's constantly dragging his hands on the ground and then sticking his thumb in his mouth. The main reason I've decided not to sweat it is because I realized that for that kind of hand to mouth exposure, he's getting as much exposure now as he will at any time in his life. He's crawling and thumb sucking like crazy right now but in a couple months he'll be walking and that will reduce his exposure a ton.
Another sad event this week was what I've been calling Micah's first alcohol related injury. Last night he was picking up and putting back down an unopened bottle of beer. This is something he does pretty regularly because we keep our active case of beer next to the fridge and replenish fridge beer from there. So he takes beer from the case and puts them on the floor and back again, and then takes them and puts them in the china cabinet and in and out of tupperwares, and then back into the case. But last night when he was doing this, he was putting the beer in and taking it out of a cup holder on a large cooler and he dropped it directly on his big toe on his right foot. The toenail turned black and blue almost immediately and his toe swelled up. He cried and cried and clearly didn't want anyone touching it. He also woke up crying every twenty minutes or so after I put him to bed at 8 and at 10:30, Michael suggested that I pick him up and snuggle with him so I took him to bed with me and we snoozed together until around midnight when he woke up again and I fed him and put him back in his crib. I was certain that the toe must be broken but this morning he seemed to be doing okay and he didn't seem to have a problem all day. He still doesn't want me to apply pressure directly to the top of his toe, but he's been walking on it and getting up on his tip toes just like normal all day, including crawling and climbing around at the park without socks on, so I have a feeling it's just bruised. I really did feel bad for him though and Michael was in the kitchen when it happened and has been kicking himself for not intervening and taking the beer away. There's no way he could have known of course, and it's something Micah does all the time without a problem.
All in all, this boy is growing up by leaps and bounds. He says Daddy constantly, he occasionally says "Wa" to ask for water, he has learned to take apart the Duplo blocks and has been trying to put them back together, he has learned to push the bottom buttons on the microwave and has occasionally cancelled the cooking cycles, he also has been doing a lot of waving lately which he didn't do for a while even though he did know how. I can't even put into words how much I love him. Life is wonderful with him in it.
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