Today was an interesting day.
We woke up this morning, and made the decision to try to go to a doctor to have a look into Eli's ear issues, as well as into the incessant scratching that he seems to do. Finally, we also wanted to ensure that he was not having to deal with parasites, and if he was, how we could clear that up before coming home.
We got picked up at 10:00 by our driver, who is an excellent driver, and if any of you ever need a driver, let us know and I can give you his contact information. We had not called him until today, but had ridden with him a number of times when going somewhere with A&B. He is very soft spoken, so I have a tough time understanding him, but he is incredibly knowledgeable with the streets of Addis, as well as what "tourists" might want to see. He also seems to know everyone, and is able to communicate when we can't understand. We have been blessed to have been directed his way, and we will use him again for any of our excursions.
I digress, we left the hotel around 10, and got to the doctor's office. We were ushered into a room to get some numbers for Eli. He got weighed (sadly, I forgot to see exactly what his current weight is), and his temperature (thermometer under his arm... Eli wasn't very impressed with this). Then we were brought in to see the doctor. He chatted with us for a bit, and then did some of his tests. He was great with Eli, even if Eli still wasn't all that happy with all the poking and prodding that he did. He ordered some blood tests, and wanted us to get a stool and urine sample, and also a trip to a different clinic for a culture of some of the leakage that was coming from his ear. So we drove, what felt like across the city, to get the swab, and then headed back to the doctor for him to actually do the swab, and then back to the other clinic to drop it off. Seemed like a bit of a waste of time, but hopefully something will come from this, so that we can treat all that ails our dear son at this time. We also got a blood test done, which sent this little boy into a tizzy. He screamed and flailed and kicked as they tried to draw blood. They also seemed to have a hard time finding his vein, so they wiggled the needle around a bit. Our driver was great as he tried to distract Eli, and was all around just fabulous all day with helping us getting things done.
All these little issues have not tempered this boys enthusiasm for life though. He is almost always happy, and willing to come to both of us. We had a little bit of a tantrum today when we were trying to get him to sleep, but after a while, he fell asleep. It was a long day for him, so I thought it could've been because he was overtired. We spent the morning, and into the early afternoon driving all around the city with various doctor stuff, and then had a nap.
In the afternoon, we played together, he played a bit by himself, and we went downstairs to play with soccer balls in the courtyard. That boy loves to play with balls, even though he isn't the most coordinated kid out there. He often will kick it somewhere other than to me (sometimes on purpose, and sometimes not). The soccer ball is a little bit too heavy for him, but one of the security guards here has a great little light ball that bounces all over place, and we have played with it a few times as well. He loves being able to run free. From what we understand, the kids only got outside time on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's. As a result, we want to ensure that he gets outside every day if at all possible.
One thing we did do today for Elijah, was buy a piece of cake from a restaurant nearby. We decided that today, we would celebrate his 2nd birthday, with a candle and a piece of cake. A fairly low key celebration, but a celebration nonetheless. He did not enjoy the cake, and sadly, our lighter didn't work for lighting the candle.
As we got him ready for bed this evening, we spent some time singing to him, and it seems he really calms down once he hears singing. He is sleeping right now, and Hilary and I are unwinding and will jump into bed in the next hour or so.
We woke up this morning, and made the decision to try to go to a doctor to have a look into Eli's ear issues, as well as into the incessant scratching that he seems to do. Finally, we also wanted to ensure that he was not having to deal with parasites, and if he was, how we could clear that up before coming home.
We got picked up at 10:00 by our driver, who is an excellent driver, and if any of you ever need a driver, let us know and I can give you his contact information. We had not called him until today, but had ridden with him a number of times when going somewhere with A&B. He is very soft spoken, so I have a tough time understanding him, but he is incredibly knowledgeable with the streets of Addis, as well as what "tourists" might want to see. He also seems to know everyone, and is able to communicate when we can't understand. We have been blessed to have been directed his way, and we will use him again for any of our excursions.
I digress, we left the hotel around 10, and got to the doctor's office. We were ushered into a room to get some numbers for Eli. He got weighed (sadly, I forgot to see exactly what his current weight is), and his temperature (thermometer under his arm... Eli wasn't very impressed with this). Then we were brought in to see the doctor. He chatted with us for a bit, and then did some of his tests. He was great with Eli, even if Eli still wasn't all that happy with all the poking and prodding that he did. He ordered some blood tests, and wanted us to get a stool and urine sample, and also a trip to a different clinic for a culture of some of the leakage that was coming from his ear. So we drove, what felt like across the city, to get the swab, and then headed back to the doctor for him to actually do the swab, and then back to the other clinic to drop it off. Seemed like a bit of a waste of time, but hopefully something will come from this, so that we can treat all that ails our dear son at this time. We also got a blood test done, which sent this little boy into a tizzy. He screamed and flailed and kicked as they tried to draw blood. They also seemed to have a hard time finding his vein, so they wiggled the needle around a bit. Our driver was great as he tried to distract Eli, and was all around just fabulous all day with helping us getting things done.
All these little issues have not tempered this boys enthusiasm for life though. He is almost always happy, and willing to come to both of us. We had a little bit of a tantrum today when we were trying to get him to sleep, but after a while, he fell asleep. It was a long day for him, so I thought it could've been because he was overtired. We spent the morning, and into the early afternoon driving all around the city with various doctor stuff, and then had a nap.
In the afternoon, we played together, he played a bit by himself, and we went downstairs to play with soccer balls in the courtyard. That boy loves to play with balls, even though he isn't the most coordinated kid out there. He often will kick it somewhere other than to me (sometimes on purpose, and sometimes not). The soccer ball is a little bit too heavy for him, but one of the security guards here has a great little light ball that bounces all over place, and we have played with it a few times as well. He loves being able to run free. From what we understand, the kids only got outside time on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's. As a result, we want to ensure that he gets outside every day if at all possible.
One thing we did do today for Elijah, was buy a piece of cake from a restaurant nearby. We decided that today, we would celebrate his 2nd birthday, with a candle and a piece of cake. A fairly low key celebration, but a celebration nonetheless. He did not enjoy the cake, and sadly, our lighter didn't work for lighting the candle.
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| Eli's 2nd Birthday Cake |
As we got him ready for bed this evening, we spent some time singing to him, and it seems he really calms down once he hears singing. He is sleeping right now, and Hilary and I are unwinding and will jump into bed in the next hour or so.
Aww... this is so wonderful to hear all the little moments going on! I am praying! Hilary I miss you! Just imagining your busy-ness as a momma and incredible efficieny skills with all things domestic and child-caring; I'm sure the newness, Doctors appts, emotional energy and constant care is all exhausting and unnerving and frightening and wonderful and joyful all at once, and I'm sure you will get more and more comfortable! I have such a beautiful picture of you two having KD together and playing soccer and singing him to sleep; absolutely beautiful!!! Love you!
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