Mama II

Her name is Valerie, but I call her Mama II. I should post a picture of her. I should take a picture of her, so that I have one to post. She is Eliot's "auntie," or nanny. She is the woman who primarily watches him at his daycare, and has since he started there in Aug. 09, when he was 7 mos old. Eliot and Val are pretty tight. At one point, when he was about a year old, he would regularly cry at daycare if she would leave the room. If we drop him off at daycare and she's not there, it's always a more difficult morning -- difficult to leave, because he gets upset. But when she's there, no big deal! We say, 'bye,' and he says, 'bye,' all smiles. Brady says he can't decide which is worse, when he cries because we're leaving, or when he could care less that you're leaving.

On Fridays, Val watches Eliot at our house, and today I walked them down the street, on my way to work, to the community playroom we joined. He loves that place, and was so excited to go play. When it was time for me to leave, I said, "Bye, Eliot," and he said, "Bye," like it was no big deal. Then I said, "Can I have a kiss?" He obliged. And then he ran off to this egg-shaped chair he likes to play in. And that was that. Starting in Sept, Eliot will be done with daycare and Val will watch him at home on the days that I work, MWF.

We hope that Mama II will be around to watch Eliot during the birth of Baby II, but I'm not sure; the baby might come at Christmas, and Val's family lives in Oklahoma, so she might be out of town then.

In other news, starting yesterday, we decided to try removing dairy, wheat and eggs from Eliot's diet, to see if it improves his eczema on his head, and maybe also the rash around his mouth. It's only been one day, but already last night he wasn't itching his head (he usually itches it quite a bit before bed), and this morning some parts of his scalp had healed more and there didn't appear to be new sores or dry spots. So good news! I hope that eventually he can eat wheat, dairy and eggs sometimes, in some forms at least. But we'll take it one step at a time. I also started giving him fish oil and probiotics, which are supposed to help. Our regular doctor really had no opinion or information about whether diet might help his eczema or chin rash, so we have an appointment with a naturopath at the end of the month, one with experience dealing with eczema and other skin disorders, to see if she has any opinion or good ideas.