Littlest Patient

This week brought many milestones for Jackson:  he turned two-months-old on December 4th, he began crying for certain things he wants such as to look at the mobile or to go in his play gym, and he got his first cold.

In England, the over-the-counter equivalent of Dimetapp or Tylenol is called Calpol and the infant version is strawberry flavoured.  I had heard of this medicine from working in a school, but since we are not allowed to administer anything other than a band-aid (plaster), I have never seen the packaging.  Also, whenever I heard someone say Calpol, it sounded like "Cowpull."  This didn't make any sense to me, but neither does "Dimetapp," so I figured it was named after the loveable farm animal to appeal to sick children needing relief from a sore throat or cough.  I pictured the box having a smiling cow grazing in a sunny green field.  The box is actually purple and pink with a picture of a baby on it.  Over-the-counter medicine brands here are not in abundance like the local superstores in Ohio, so it was easy to figure out that Cowpull was Calpol and we were on our way.

Yesterday was the worst for Jackson with a constant runny nose, mild coughing, and needing to be held for most of the day.  Today it's just coughing and hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow.  Because of his runny nose, we also learned that he has a severe fear of the nasal aspirator.  He will cry at the mere sight of the thing and it's hard to be sneaky with that lightbulb-sized tool.  Luckily, we haven't had to use it much today and by the next time he needs it, hopefully he will have forgotten what it is.

Jackson will go for his shots on Monday (after he spends the morning meeting Santa) so please pray for a quick and painless process!  Also, I forgot to mention last week that he was weighed on November 30th and he was 13 pounds 6 ounces at the start of his eighth week.

Developmental updates
This week and last, Jackson started to do the following:  makes 'eh' sounds to attract attention, makes short bursts of sounds and listens to himself, repeats sounds if encouraged sometimes, likes staring at pages in his books that have high contrast or bold faces (Tiny Tim and Scrooge in Disney's A Christmas Carol is a favourite), watches fast-moving images on TV if they catch his eye, and wants to sit up and likes to be propped in the corner of the couch.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

 Two months old!