The hazards of living in Africa

We enjoy living in Mali but the job does come with some occupational hazards. Poor Silas has had to deal with a lot of them in his short life.

1. Having your mommy's "special friends" (HIV positive) follow her home, come pick you up and kiss you on the lips all before mommy is out of the car. (I've mentioned this before, but still deserves to be in the list).

2. Getting abcesses. Not sure what breeds them so well here, maybe it's the heat, but so many kids have them. Silas had several during hot season from where his heat rash became infected. Last week (or maybe two now) he had a huge abcess on his leg. Brett had to cut it open with a scalpel and stick scissors in it to break up all the pus and get it out. Yuck. I wasn't allowed to be there with him when he did it, though I heard it over the entire peds building because he was screaming so loudly. So he's just gotten over this and finished his antibiotics.

3. Cutaneous Larva Migrans. You get little parasites that bore into your skin and then start crawling around. The entry point is on the right and then you can see the little worm-like line which goes left. (the worm isn't that big, that's his path). thankfully this is easily treated with one dose of albendazole that went down nicely with some jello.

4. Cuts. Our house is a child proof as possible for a house in Africa. Our windows, which are made of metal, open into the house and are just at a child's level when standing. Our chairs that sit outside are also made of metal and do not have nice rounded edges. Both Dawson and I have had stitches in our head thanks to our windows. Today Silas joined us, but because of the chairs outside. I was sharing my breakfast with him and he was coming to get another bite and just slipped and hit the corner of the chair. I knew before I even saw it that it wasn't going to be good. Thankfully we have an in house pediatrician and he was sewed up (2 stitches) in no time.

He wasn't too upset about it...at least a few minutes after the fact. (this is a terrible angle for him, so he looks kind of funny, but I wanted to show proof that he was in fact happy after the stitches). He is a cutie, just look at the above picture. :)

You can even get a "I'm 1!" picture. Really, he was just pointing at the camera, but it looks like a good first birthday picture! :)

This isn't related to the hazards mentioned above (unless you say he is still nursing because his mother has become too accustom to seeing children nurse until they are 2 or 3 and thus 14 months isn't really a big deal) but we've decided it is time to wean. I actually don't mind the normal feedings but the problem is he thinks that I am his own personal drink machine and he can get free refills whenever he wants. Even this isn't too bothersome but the problem is that it makes him too attached to me. Brett can play with him all morning and he is fine, then I take him and he just cries all the time because he wants a drink. Or when we are with people, he won't go to anyone but me. So I need to cut the cord a little more. I really have no desire to do it but I agree that it is best. So pray he does it easily. Except for the morning feed, the others are really more for comfort in my opinion as he doesn't drink a lot, so it is really dealing with the comfort/ soothing issue when I will no longer give the breast. I'll start tomorrow. No more on demand feeds and I'll drop the afternoon feed. Will see how it goes.