Dylan Henry Jones - Month 35

Sunday - 28Dec14
Well, I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas!  Many thanks for all the wonderful presents and we hope that everyone has a prosperous and fun-filled 2015

Ours has been busy with the house full of people and excitement for over a week what with the arrival of the inlaws and the outlaws (all of them) in quick succession.  Amidst all of that Dylan has mostly been interested in opening presents - possibly more than the contents - but now that there's nothing left to open is probably now looking at what he was given with more interest!

It's Christmas jumper time
(and we didn't have a fight to get him into it!)

Just prior to the festivities he was started on a new drug to assist in the management of his blood pressure (propranolol) with the existing captopril.  So far so good; his kidneys remain happy with the addition of the new drug and he's still very good with his medicine so he just takes them.  Occasionally he'll mutter about only taking one or t'other but nothing serious.  And we think it's working.  Which is good.  The longer it takes (or rather the bigger we can get him) before someone has to do something to his heart the better.

Growing has also been a feature in the last month.   I was quite shocked to find that he'd grown out of something that a month previously he'd only grown into to.  I have no idea where we are on the charts and frankly I'm not particularly worried about it.  The boy is definitely getting bigger!

Dylan and his Christmas "stash"
This is pre-Kitten carnage

He also managed to join (albeit breifly) the ranks of the lurgied.  Everyone amongst the outlaws (and myself) have had a low-grade lurgy for the last few weeks\months.  Dylan has too.  Friday night it got a bit worse and yesterday he was mostly... not floppy as such but very poorly... and so spent much of the day in front of Ivor the Engine* or in bed.  Today he's much better, his resting breathing rate is down from the 60's to something more normal and although still working hard is much cheerier.  Although more vomity.  Yay.

The Kits meanwhile have been having adventures.  First there was the arrival of Lyra - a very large alsation.  This dog had a continuing Mexican stand-off with Fugly and was on numerous occasions chased out of the house by him but mostly they just pretended to ignore each other.  Since Fugly's demise Lyra has been much happier visiting - especially when the Kits were little as they were easy to chase but mostly were hidden from view.  Not this time.  And the Kits most definitely are as psychopathic towards dogs as Fugly was.  On initial meeting it looked like we'd have to keep Lyra and the Kits apart for the sake of the Kits but very quickly that turned about with Lyra cowering in the corner as the Kits ganged up on her.  I've not seen anything more stupid (until Christmas day that is) than Mayhem jumping on an animal about 10 times the size of her or Chaos going up to Lyra's nose and hissing.  I'm not sure Lyra wants to come back....  Having said that, after a day or so, Chaos had mostly decided to ignore her.  Mayhem on the other hand definitely wanted to show everyone who was boss.  And then on Christmas Day we temporarily lost Mayhem.  A window in a room was open and whilst everyone was distracted with opening presents she took her chance.  A brother (one of mine) discovered Chaos by the open window - whether Mayhem jumped, fell or was pushed is unclear - either way it was from a second story window.  A fairly brief and traumatic search found her safe and well and it only disrupted the present opening.

Is this the face of a kitten who would push his sister out of a window?
(photo (c) C.Carnuth)

* I'm hoping to wean Dylan off watching Thomas and move him to Ivor and then Willo the Wisp as frankly I'm sick of Thomas.  The Fat Controller's railway is a poor example of Health and Safety at work given there appears to be an accident in every episode...  I think the unions should be informed.

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 34

Monday - 08Dec14

I always thought that it was an urban myth the relentless use of the word "why" by a toddler.  It appears to be true.  Fine, I can accept that there might be interest in why someone wanted to be a tree surgeon.  But why is he [Chaos in this instance] a cat?  I s'pose you could go down  the reincarnation route - "well, because he was a really good mouse" - but that then could go on ad infinitum.  Alternatively there's always "because we didn't want a dog" which I wish I'd thought of at the time as it might have been more successful than "why are you a Dylan?".  Which spectacularly failed to stop the repetitive search for the answer to the question "why is Chaos a cat".

Round 1 to Dylan methinks.


Friday - 05Dec14
Hmmm.

So like everybody else, Dylan has a cold.  Nothing major as yet.  Except last night it did get quite "interesting".  I'm glad there's a medic in the house even if her standard response to everything from a headache to the loss of a limb is paracetamol, saltwater gargle and stop the whinging because I was getting rather concerned about the boy.  He woke screaming as we were going to bed and shivering with a resting breathing rate of over 60 (hard to get an accurate number as every 13 seconds or so he'd stop).  He wasn't clammy and no idea if he had a temperature as our thermometer has gone SNAFU.  This lasted about an hour until he had a small coughing fit and then threw up.  He then slept through til about 830 this morning.  Even The Mother was marginally concerned when we thought he needed changing and appeared to be blue about the gills.  Anyway, this morning: cheery little chappie who probably didn't need calpol but I dosed him up anyway and he's currently at school.  Although he did get me in trouble by announcing that he had been sick during the night.  Comments like that don't go down well with the nursery people!  Thankfully they're used to him and now that coughing fits sometimes have unexpected consequences.

Other than that he's good.  The bike handling skills are developing well; he's reasonably happy to cycle home in the dark from school and his latest trick (last night) was to ride along the wall outside our driveway which is a brick's width wide or about twice the width of his wheels.  It's not straight or flat.  He's also decided that actually going down hill can be quite good fun.

"well I've got my snack..."

The kittens taking up their preferred position
(until someone throws a pingpong ball!)

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 33

Monday - 03Nov14
Well that was a new experience! Full-on meltdown lasting well over half an hour. Not entirely convinced by what caused it but it resulted in a full refusal to take half his medicine (he needs 7ml and we only have 5ml syringes - he took the small one nicely).  Eventually we got it inside him but it did require two of us.
Given he needs to take it three times a day I'm hoping this doesn't become a habit.  On the plus side his lungs are clearly working as he didn't turn blue once.  Other than that all is well in Chez Jones; the cats are living up to their names and the boy is mastering the Puky bike and while he doesn't like going down hill will tackle rows of steps.  He also needs to understand that when moving at speed, waggling the handlebars is a bad plan.

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 32

Sunday - 12Oct14
Well, quite a lot has happened but nothing really important (ie - relates to the Boy).  We have two new arrivals in the shape of Chaos (male) and Mayhem (female) who are currently living up to their names.  These are a brother and sister from the one of the local rescue centres and they are now about 5 months old and much bigger than when we got them.  And more trouble.  We have yet to let them out into the wild or in fact a good portion of the house but we're getting there slowly.

Chaos and Mayhem.  Or is it the other way round?

In other news, we may have hit the right level of drug (Captopril) intake as we have taken two successive blood pressure readings which give values that the cardiologist would like ( higher than normal but not riduculously high... less than 100 systolic).  Which is good.  It's also a minor miracle to get two sensible readings in row as it's normally one in seven.  Other than that he's continuing to do really well although now that it's Autumn he's trying to remove his one good lung through repeated high pressure diaphragmatic maneouvres.

Dylan the Tiger pushing Holly's pram in the Sea of Sand at Cul de Chien

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 30

Thursday - 21Aug14
Dylan had a review meeting with the  paediatric consultant last Thursday; just the usual 3monthly one.  And they're very pleased with his progress.  He's growing and putting on weight at a faster rate than average and so moving up the centiles albeit very slowly!  His motor development is good and his speech and language\comprehension are very good.  His ability to control his blood pressure on the othe hand is rubbish.  The drugs don't work.  So we'll have a review in "a bit" and then probably up the dose providing that his blood pressure remains high and his kidneys still don't mind.  His mood has also got worse.  Yay for the terrible twos.

And on the subject of drugs not working, the Cat died last night at about 930.  He was 14.  Whilst the Cat may not have cared, we were pleased that he was at least warm and dry and as it turned out we were there at the end.  The vet suspects that he disappeared because he'd had a stroke and got very confused.  He never really recovered from that and was left struggling to breathe, drinking but not eating.  As most people who have met him will probably atest, he was a dribbling psychopathic pain in the proverbial and scourge of dogs and small rodents everywhere.  Although very patient with children - and brilliant with Dylan - he would often swipe at the grown-ups and the Mother will relate the story of the time he had clamped his claws so firmly into her wrist that she could pick him up.  Somerset calmed him down a lot.  He will be sorely missed.  Although  I can now at least leave butter on the side without fear of it getting eaten...

Dylan and the Cat playing

Monday - 11Aug14 Update
Well, within 30minutes of the last post being published the Cat came home looking rather the worse for wear.  Clearly he's been out on the town for three days given how wobbly on his feet he is (and the fact he was about to go to sleep in a bush and is now drinking his weight in water).  But he's home.


Monday - 11Aug14
Also the bat... (who hung onto the curtains and wailed).
Ho hum.  Dylan has transformed into a screechy monster whenever it looks like the something might not be going his way.  Especially if it might be bedtime.  He's also decided that rather than let Daddy get a lie-in on weekdays he needs to be with the sparrows (and before the Mother) which is not going down very well.  Hopefully it's just a phase....  But most of the time things are progressing as only the can with a two and a half year old who has discovered the joys of jumping, climbing and bouncing onto things.  He also amuses crowds by yelling "Daddy is a numpty" (yeh, thanks for that Godmother!) and "Silly Daddy".  I might have to remove some of his bicycles - he almost has as many as I do and that simply wouldn't do.

"roar!" - Dylan enjoyed the beer festival....

In other news the Cat decided to go on holiday on Friday without due notice and without taking his (twice daily) medication.  He too has a heart and lung condition.  This is causing some angst and probably some very strange looks as we walk around the neighbourhood shouting "Fugly" at random intervals occasionally shaking a box of biscuits.

Have you seen this Cat?

Monday - 04Aug14
Zagazoo is a true story.  Especially the bit about the dragon.

Thursday - 31Jul14
So last Friday we fought the holiday traffic North to go to see the cardiologist on Friday (25th).  Note to self - appointments in Bristol on a Friday afternoon in the Summer holidays are a bad plan especially in 28 degree heat in a car without aircon, the M5 is not the place to be.  Anyway, Dylan had been pre-primed with what was going to happen with practice sessions on bunny, but what we had failed to mention is that he might also get weighed (11.4kg) and his height measured: cue much screaming.  He was perfectly fine throughout his ECG and his echo (cardiogram) which he wriggled through last year.  However it appears that the drugs don't work (in reducing his blood pressure) so the dose is being increased to three times a day from twice.  We will need to make sure his kidneys aren't affected by the increased dose in a couple of weeks  and continue to monitor his blood pressure.  We have been loaned a blood pressure monitor from Taunton hospital which he's very good with but the cuff is the same size as his upper arm so getting a sensible reading out of it is a tad tricky.  Thankfully Dylan tolerates it very well and doesn't even need the chocolate bribery.  So we need to control the blood pressure because otherwise there is the danger of damaging the internal organs (kidneys, heart etc.).  The heart is doing more work because he only he has one and a half lungs.  The cardiologist is reasonably happy with what's going on despite the drugs not working.  There is the continued issue of trying to get him sufficiently big (and old) so that Dylan can have a stent rather than open heart surgery and there is also something (else) funky going on that will require an MRI scan to check again in a few years time.  So the end message is that everything is actually ok, we just need to get the blood pressure to drop and there is plenty of scope with his current levels of medication to increase it.  Different drugs can also be used.

And just to say the M5 is horrible.  Can someone please find a more efficient way to get between Bristol and Taunton? Either that or persuade people that the South-west is a rubbish place to visit and they should all stay home!

Dylan with somewhat predictable timing manages to fall asleep just in time for the peleton to pass
(during the tour in Yorkshire at the start of the month)

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 29

Tuesday - 01Jul14
In fact as it turns out, Dylan has missed out on the whole chicken pox experience twice!  Someone at his nursery went down with it last week (presumably not caught from Dylan...).  Other exciting news is that on Wednesday he managed to jump properly for the first time and he's been practising ever since sometimes jumping off not things that he probably shouldn't.

And finally (and somewhat predictably) on the eve of our departure to the North (along with 10million others), Dylan has a cold.  But it's ok as we have calpol!

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 28

Tuesday - 24Jun14
Well, it looks like Dylan has missed out on chicken pox this time round (as has Daddy - but it turns out that I am in fact immune I guess it must be the joy of having three brothers that no one can remember who had what when...).  He does have a heat rash at the moment which is not doing wonders for his skin which is reasonably rubbish at the best of times.

Other than that he's doing really well.  This week has mostly been about practising his jumping (off things).  Last week was climbing up things (walls, changing stations).  Relatively uninterested by the paddling pool despite the heat.  Perhaps he remembers falling in last year?

Dylan intent on the meerkats at Bristol Zoo

Busy making sandcastles.  Far more interesting than any of the animals.  Even the owlpackers....
(at Puxton)

 Given the state of (some of) the garden, we have a number of nesting birds which doesn't always mix well with a psychotic cat*.  So we had a small incident with a baby blackbird which we all saw - well cat's like to advertise their hunting skills - still slightly alive outside the backdoor.  Dylan pronounced to dead on the scene but having pointed out that he wasn't and attempted a rescue Dylan stated that actually I should have just left it for the cat.  Harsh, but probably fair.


*In fairness to the cat he's actually not been causing that much carnage amongst the wildlife of late.  He hasn't touched the mice in the garden shed...


Wednesday - 28May14
Well, the holiday was mostly a success despite Dylan waking up on the day of the flight out with the start of a stinker of a cold.  As it happens the weather was distinctly hotter than we anticipated and so he was really unphased by the cough.  The hot weather also explains my lack of climbing ability and that's the excuse I'm sticking with!  He had a lovely time winding up and learning new tricks from Holly - who's six months younger than him - but nothing useful like eating reliably with a spoon.  Or eating even.  Equally, I'm not sure whether Holly picked up any good habits other than the ability to say "pickle".  And demand items by shouting "'ave it".  Dylan has also migrated to a big-boy bed with a duvet as he was a little bit ill on one night.  He also experienced showers which he's decided isn't quite as much fun as a bubble bath.  On the downside we're expecting him (and possibly me) to come down with Chicken Pox in the next week or so.  Once I have a little more time I'll put a link to a web album with more photos.

Looking cool.  Or special. Perhaps both?

This is the face of a boy who knows he's being a wind-up merchant.  In this case
teasing Holly by touching her pram

"Mummy's ice cream, no I've not had any..."

Despite our worries about taking a small child who vomits really easily on plane, he was really very good and well-behaved throughout.  Helped in no part by a new sticker book!  Based on this success we've just booked flights for our annual pilgrimmage to Font (ainbleau) and no doubt this time he'll be an absolute stinker!

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 27

Friday - 09May14
Should we worry that one of the Godparents has introduced Dylan to power tools?

"Auntie Cat? Did I say that you could drill there?  And what are we building as it
appears to be the wrong shape for a slide..."

 Friday - 02May14
 Despite a week where the boy was ill (another cold interspersed with coughing vomit or is that a vomity-cough?) we've gone from
               "May I have a Mummy going please?"
whilst in the peaks to
               "Wondering what the cat is doing in the garden"
last week (nothing - the cat was still asleep in the kitchen in case you were wondering).  Needless to say school still think he's a genius especially as he knows his shapes as well as being able to count.  So the boy is mostly doing good, causing minor levels of carnage and keeping his parents on their toes - which is as it should be.  He's also acquired someone's charm - obviously not mine - as he managed to get free chocolate out of random strangers in a cafe.  I was most impressed.  Good chocolate too!

The excitement this month is progressing to a big bed - this is mostly so that we don't have to carry a cot bed with us when we go away - and we're going on a plane.  This latter point is going to be nerve-wracking (for us) on two points.  The first is that Dylan is not great with noise that he's not generating; he hated the steam train we went to see a couple of weeks ago.  And the second is just the potential for illness and not wanting to be in France with a poorly boy who needs to be in hospital fast.  It'll all be fine really!

 

From this (above) to this (below) in the space of an hour.  I wondered why the chatting had stopped!

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 26

Monday - 14Apr14

Packing for a week in the Peak District;

• Bike - check
• Climbing kit - check
• Dylan - check
• The Mother - check
• Bunny (the toy that Dylan has slept with every night since he was little and demands on a regular basis) - oops...

On the plus side, we know where to get a replacement and have the location of every toy shop within a 30 mile radius tapped into the sat nav.

Sunday - 30Mar14
Dylan learnt an important lesson today; teabags aren't very nice to eat.

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 25

Sunday -23Mar14
And we're back...  Boy is definately on the mend.  Still sounds horrific (in terms of gurgly breathing and coughing but he's getting back to normal in terms of eating, drinking and being a bit more cheery.  So all good there.... Hurrah!

Now if someone could just extract my phone off him, remove all the out of focus photos he's just taken and possibly replace any software and or settings he's deleted or removed that would be marvellous!

 
Wednesday - 19Mar14
We have a poorly boy.  The photo says it all (although I know that there are lots of photos of us adults looking similar at the breakfast table following a night on the town!).  He even refused blueberries.

We're on day 3 of him being really poorly (a cold) so hopefully we're going to see some signs of improvement in the very near future.  Although being too ill to go to hospital is a first (he was meant to see the paediatrician yesterday, but given his state there really wasn't much point).  While he is very cuddly (ignoring the hacking cough and the threat of him throwing up over you) it'd be better if he was causing chaos and mayhem as normal... speaking of which we went to see some friends on Sunday which was a lot of fun being out in the sun marred only by having to deconstruct his car seat late at night in order to clean the vomit off it.   I was about a minute to slow getting him out of the car (although better the car seat than me - the car seat won't negatively react!).  The Mother had blithely run off to open the house at this point leaving me to carry in a dripping Dylan....

Dylan being pushed by Daddy on a borrowed scooter

 Thursday - 13Mar14
Clearly being two has made the boy power-mad.  He always wants what he can't have.  Either that or he's taken lessons from the Cat in how to be annoying and (metaphorically at least) be on the wrong side of the door.  And if he can't have it, there will be tears before bedtime.  Unless you can distract him.  Cake would be the obvious choice but given that that's pretty much all he's eating other than rice crispies and fruit we're a bit loath to succumb.  In practise it's not really that bad, it's just a new/different behaviour (and annoying/frustrating) which the dislike of anything new (especially clothes) generates a typically negative reaction.  It's also quite hard not to laugh.

On the (more) positive side he now mostly walks to school which is 10minutes for a Daddy or 20-30minutes for a Dylan depending on the number of distractions: puddles and tractors good; dogs and peacocks bad.  Speaking of peacocks (there is a village peacock - doesn't every village in Somerset have one??!), he's got really spooked by the peacock and we're not sure why or how not to play on it.  It's such that when the peacock calls, Dylan will want a cuddle, won't want to walk outside, etc. which isn't the best. 

Other than that his speech continues to improve - we're getting little sentences - and he's starting to recognise letters and numbers ("A is for ambulance").  Gross motor skills are less good!  The Mother has started him at trampolining club where aside from the trampoline there are lots of beams to walk on and hoops, balls, etc.  He's not really got the hang of it and doesn't really like it when there's more than just him on the trampoline either.  But he does seem to enjoy it.

The other day we managed to get out and enjoy some time on Dartmoor - yes, I was desperate to go climbing!  As a comment from your son, "let go" whilst halfway up a boulder doesn't work well on ones concentration levels.  So I did.

"... if I hit Daddy with this stick maybe he'll go faster..."

playing Pooh sticks (using sticks rather than Dylan in case you were concerned...)

Dylan is 2

Wow!  Dylan is two...
A lot has happened in a year - all of it good (as far as the boy is concerned).  Hurrah and a hurrumble!

We didn't have a party, but there was cake.  Lots of cake.  Many thanks for all the cards and presents received, Dylan will get round to saying "thankyou" properly hopefully more quickly than at Christmas!

"Hmmm cake! Chocolate cake..."

Dylan Henry Jones - Month 24

Sunday - 23Feb14
Dylan has had a busy half-term!  Godmother Cat came to visit early on in and we took him bouldering indoors for the first time.  He was more impressed with the hot chocolate than any actual climbing.  And today he went to one of his NCT friends' birthday party where there were lots of animals.  He was very interested in them until they were let out of their cages when he became quite concerned! 

"big crocodile!"

Dylan non-plussed by the fluffy rabbit

Other than that he continues to do really well.  His speech is continuing to improve but still with the accent... oh well!  And on Wednesday (his birthday) it will have been a whole year since he was in hospital for anything other than medical appointments!


Monday - 03Feb14
A bedtime story (no he can't read, but he does remember.  This may* cause problems for us later)

 *Did I say may? Almost certainly if one of my brothers is anything to go by who still has a grudge that he had to wait until he was 7 before he could have a watch and those younger than him didn't...

 Saturday - 01Feb14
Boy almost got disowned this afternoon.  He announced at the very start of the first game of the Six Nations (Wales v Italy) "silly rugby".  As it was he was right; an uninspiring game that really Italy deserved to win but I'm not about to admit that publically...


Thursday - 30Jan14
The boy has a cold.  He seems to be coping with it reasonably well with the aid of Calpol.  Thankfully school are used to his cough and aren't worried he might have the plague.

Terry Pratchett in his Discworld novels describes the concept of L-space.  The expression used is "knowledge = power = energy = mass" and thus all libraries and bookshops (or any large repositories of books really) can distort time and space such that they are inter-connected - that is to say if you know the route you can return to an earlier existence of the bookshop\library\repository.  Godmother Cat and I have had a similar theory about snot.  Because frankly there is no humanly way possible that something that small could generate so much...