Saturday, April 28, 2012

There's a great future in plastics.

I am quirky and I certainly don't know where all my different likes and dislikes came from. Well, I don't know where most of them came from. Some I can place, for example my love of the smell of tobacco. It makes me feel safe and like a 9 year old. If I'm in a main street kind of town or shopping in a NewHope-esq place, and see a tobacco shop, I must immediately enter and hear the bell chime. Taking deep Yoga stomach protruding inhales and exhales of tobacco scent is calming. I almost always buy an empty tobacco box, as demonstrated by my boys' containers for gogos, tech techs, army dudes and baseball cards. These might not be the safest toys, but my boys really do hoard little stuff and they are great stuff holders. Also it makes me feel less freak-like for entering the store just to do some breathing poses. I know where my love for tobacco smell comes from. My grandfather, my Dziadzi, smoked a pipe. I freaking love that smell. I instantly am transported back to my grandparents' house for a Sunday dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes.

There are two big quirks that Adam has: a love for plastic and sand crabs. Sand crabs? huh? Let me explain. When Adam was born, he was uber- tiny. Like a pound. In the beginning of his life, we weren't allowed to hold him. And in the NICU, they would place beanbags on him while he was in the little incubator, which we affectionally (and quite overwhelmed with medical bills) nicknamed his "million dollar condo".  I suppose this was to keep him feeling safe, and warm and more comfortable. He would sleep all the time and they would pose his limbs around these bendy soft tubes and place beanbags on top of him. Here's a scary looking picture of him, the heart fabric are actually beanbags on top and around him.
 
What happened as a result... well, when Adam sleeps, he must dig himself into tight spaces. In his crib, he would wedge himself in the most dangerous corners and when you held him, he would dig his arm into your side and tuck it under your shirt. As he got older, and now in his big boy bed, he sticks his legs between the mattress and the wall, often wedging his body in "the cave", this tight spot. Most nights he gets up and climbs into bed with us, often between 4 and 6 am. Once in bed with us, he wedges his limbs underneath us, I am so used to this, that in my sleep, will feel him digging into me with his foot and I will strike a modified side plank yoga pose, while he slips under my legs and my back and sometimes will dig his arms into my side so hard, I feel I will have internal bleeding. We have affectionally named this "sand crabbing". If I wake up and yell, "Ow, Adam, stop hurting mommy." He replies, "I not hurt you, I just sand kwabbing" Ok, I sigh and I place my back over his legs. On a bad night (where Phil ends up half on the night stand and I wake up horizontally across the foot of the bed), we remark while yawning, "Adam was a bad sand crabber last night".

Besides crabs, Adam also loves plastic. Again, this comes as no surprise. When he was born, as seen above, plastic was everywhere. When he got his tracheostomy he had a plastic mask that would be around his neck, pumping in humidity and oxygen. You can see him doing tummy time with his plastic mask and tube.


In that picture, it's a bit too loose, but, his tube and mask learned to crawl and walk with him. He would go to sleep, hands wrapped about that tube, which we named, not so cleverly, "tubey". He and tubey were buddies. If you moved him while he was asleep, he would clutch that tube as quickly as possible and rest his hands around tubey. Of course, it was enabling him to breathe and survive, so it's understandable. 

Adam has a few stuffed animals and blankets and such, but just today, Phil and I went on a run. Phil was pushing Adam in the jogging stroller and Adam asked if we could lower it so he could nap. He also asked if we had his batman plastic figure, so he could hold him while he slept. This is normal for him. He sleeps with a hard as..., well, hard as plastic, Buzz Lightyear and will be known to take a vehicle or two into bed. 

So, while my boys will grow up with many quirks (as we all have), I find it interesting to know exactly where these two came from and it's kind of cool to see how events directly from infancy and birth have effected him firsthand as a toddler and preschooler. That being said, I sure hope it doesn't develop into an adult love for life size mannequins that he weights down and sleeps under. Although, if it does, I'll know just where it came from and will, of course, pay for overwhelmingly high psychiatrist fees. 


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