No means no

I missed yesterday's update! It was quite a busy day.

Liam had his ears checked again at Dr. Wampler's office. He still has fluid in his left ear. Grrr. I talked with Dr. Wampler about alternative therapies and he says it can't hurt to try in this case since he no longer has an infection. I need to get him back to Eric for some more adjustments and look into some homeopathics. He goes back in 6 weeks to get a recheck; if the fluid is still there then Wampler wants us to see an ENT. I really do not want to go that route; I'm sure they would suggest tubes. So keep your fingers crossed that the alternative therapies will help!

Okay, so Liam always gets excited when we go to the dr's office...I guess because he doesn't associate the dr's office with shots. For those of you who don't know, Liam is only partially vaccinated. We started out with a delayed vax schedule to a) give his immune system a chance to develop naturally and b) because we were very leery about all of the chemicals and heavy metals that are in vaccines. It never made sense to us personally to give a four month old four shots at one time. Anyhow when it became clear that Liam had some communication issues, we put a halt to the vaxing. Dr. Wampler has always supported our decisions for selectively/delaying vax. He agreed with me at Liam's 3 year old visit that there will be no more vaxes until we get Liam on track as far as communication is concerned. That may be a very long time...thankfully Friends School is fine with his lack of vaxes (since there are lots of other kids in the same boat!) and hopefully wherever he ends up later will be too...otherwise there's always homeschooling. Now if Liam is in a public school (which is highly doubtful) he can get a religious exemption to avoid the vaxes but private schools don't have to accept this.

For those of you wondering what in the world a religious exemption has to do with vaccinating, well, it's interesting. First of all, many Catholic parents choose not to vaccinate as some vaccines are cultured from aborted fetal tissue (MMR, Varivax, Hep A to name a few). Many Wiccans choose not to vax as they worship nature and believe that disease is a part of nature's creation and should not be obliterated. Some Christian Scientists choose not to vax and so on...and then you have the people like me who really have no other alternative. Now if I approached the Board of Health and said, "My son has severe communication disorders...I have read research which suggests that his brain may be affected by some of the heavy metals that are in vaccinations and I really don't want to risk that..." they would say, "Too bad, nutjob." So I have to say that I object to vaxes because of my religious beliefs. Thankfully I don't have to state what those are. Yes, I realize I may be going to hell for this, but it's better than the alternative at this point.

Okay, I so did not mean to get on a vaccination soapbox. Moving on.

So, Liam likes to go to Dr. Wampler...because he loves the SUCKERS. At the check out desk they have a big basket full of those wonderful suckers with the paper looped handle...delicious. I actually look forward to getting them as well! My ped from childhood used to hand them out too. Yum. Anyhow, our name is called and we're trekking back to an exam room when Liam sees that basket and starts asking for a sucker. Here's our conversation:

Liam: Sucker, please. Want a sucker.
Me: No, you can have a sucker AFTER you see Dr. Wampler.
Liam: Want a sucker.
Me: AFTER you see Dr. Wampler.

So we have the crying. The pleading. The foot stomping.

I walked away. And, HE FOLLOWED ME! I was giddy! I was afraid I was going to have to hand Beckett off to a nurse and peel Liam from the floor.

So after we visited with Dr. Wampler, he got his sucker. Cherry.

Then he wanted mine...which wasn't going to happen. No means no.