37 month updates on Lil J

So Lil J is now 37 months, well on his way into the 3's.  He now weighs 34.4 lbs, he is 38" tall, & still has a head circumference of 21.5".

I'm still dealing with him acting out in public (especially in front of other kids) more than when he was younger.  But at home his behavior has been settling down.  I've been putting him on less "time outs" lately I've noticed.

We're still struggling at night time.  Every night he goes to sleep in his own room, but almost every night he wakes up & comes to our bed & sleeps with us.  I have noticed that he's been having some bad dreams so that may have something to do with it, although I tend to believe that it's more because he shared a room with us for so long.  I have also found that he is afraid of the dark, so we have a nightlight in his room, but it's not keeping him out of our bed.  I am sympathetic to these things because as a kid I was very afraid of the dark & I remember having lots of nightmares.  I can remember knowing that being afraid of the dark was an illogical or irrational fear, but that didn't help me overcome it one bit.  We aren't sure how to proceed, but for now we are letting him sleep in our bed.  It doesn't bother me at all, but hubby has a hard time SLEEPING with Lil J in our bed.  Although hubby has a hard time sleeping ALL THE TIME.  That's a never ending saga here at Casa Buendia. 

I'm still doing the no grain, no dairy diet--as best I can.  He still eats cookies at church every Sunday.  I really don't understand why they feel the need to feed them, they're only there for a little over an hour, it's not like they're going to starve!  And it's so frustrating as a parent of a child with major food issues going on.  Yet at the same time I am grateful that they have changed the foods they serve to things that he can eat.  But I don't feel comfortable disrupting everything & telling them no grains now either.  I don't want to be the difficult parent.  So for actual allergies I will put my foot down, but not for something like this.  I am just continuing to do the best I can & praying that his system will evnetually be healed & recovered. 

I've been reading a book about the current "4-A epidemic".  The tremendous rise in Autism, ADHD, allergies, & asthma over the past few decades.  The doctor who wrote this book believes the same as I always have.  That it's simply due to toxins.  And the whole factor determining if your kid is diagnosed or not depends on how toxic their little body is.  And, just like I have always believed, vaccines are a big source of toxins, but not the ONLY source.  We are being bombarded from every direction with more toxins that imaginable.  Even from things you would never, ever suspect.  It's very scary.  And based on what I'm reading in this book I do believe that if I had vaccinated Lil J that he could very easily have been one of the many 4A kids.  His little body is overly toxic, just as mine is.  It stands to reason that he picked up a lot of it (if not all of it) from me while in the womb.  I don't want to ignore the symptoms that I see & let him have bigger issues down the road (much like myself), so I am trying hard to reverse what I can & set him up the way he should be as soon as I can.  But it sure is a long process & it's not easy by any means.

2 days ago we took him to Sea World.  I had told hubby I wanted to take him somewhere for his birthday, Disneyland, or something like that.  And hubby called up one of his many business contacts & got 6 free tickets to Sea World, so Sea World it was.  I was a little concerned that Lil J was too young for Sea World.  We've taken him to lots of little zoos & even the great big San Diego Zoo in the past & he wasn't too thrilled about any of it, although the San Diego Zoo went over better than all the others before it, but I think that had more to do with his age & maturity level than the actual place.  So I was concerned about him having to sit & watch shows & look at animals.  I thought he might be too young to really enjoy that, but it turned out perfectly.  He was sooooo well behaved & he REALLY enjoyed himself.  The first show we went to was the killer whales & he knew exactly what they were & was soooo excited & yelling at the whales.  It was truly awesome.  He loved all of it, even when he started to get a little tired.  I had thought he might take a nap in his stroller, that was one of the reasons we had brought it, but he never did.  He was very well behaved & patient while me & hubby ate, which was really nice.  And then he finally fell asleep on the long drive home. 

For souvenirs I got a whale mug that I loved (anyone that knows me knows that I love & collect whales).  They had really nice whale statues/figurines, but they were VERY pricey, so I skipped those.  But I really liked this particular mug.  Hubby went for his usual-a refrigerator magnet.  And we got Lil a t-shirt & we asked him to pick out something & he picked a truck that says Sea World on it & has a whale logo on it.  He has sooo many vehicles, including trucks, already, but if that's what he really likes then I'm ok with it & he does definitely play with ALL of them, including the new Sea World one.  They had this little hang over the door basketball set that I had really wanted to get for him & I don't know why I didn't--now I'm kicking myself because I didn't.  I think he would REALLY enjoy it. 

He's also wanting to play baseball badly lately.  He keeps getting sticks & holding it like a bat.  And then he gets a ball or rock or pinecone & throws it up & tries to hit it with the stick.  I'm not even sure where/how he learned to do this.  I'm hoping to get him a tball set soon, I think he'll have a blast with that.  I've seen them online for less than $20.

I think that's all the updates I have for now.