My hands in my pants and I need to dance!

So for the last month and a half, our lovable sweetie of a baby Mischiefmaker#2 has been engaging in the bizarre habit of resting his hands in his diapers every so often...

I remember when we were kids, we'd stick our hands in our back pockets of our Jordache or Levis jeans and walk around like we were cool or something. So everytime I see this it reminds me of that, but waaaaaaaait a minute, there could be ca ca or pee pee in there, that's no sanitary place to be resting a hand.

and we know that because he is still a baby, his hand would go from his "pamper" (as he calls his diapers. so cute cause he wears Huggies brand) to his ear, nose or worse his mouth, so needless to say, we've resolved ourselves to figuring out why he does this...Could it be his butt is dry?...a good cocoa butter rumdown after baths and diaper changes could do the trick....

through all that, he still has his hands down the crack...hmm. Perhaps, his butt is itching from the inside. Could be all the sweet and sugar he takes in his diet. So we lessen the sweet things. No more juice. He now only drinks milk, water and flavored water. No more cookies, just crackers and maybe animal crackers. But alas, he's still doing the reverse Al Bundy.

Maybe, it is worms. Flashback to our Trinidad trip a month earlier, my SIL goes,

"Oh, he hand in he diaper AND he grind his teeth. Yeay chile, dat is signs of worms. Her son does get them all the time."
Me: "Worms, eh?" (shrivel brow. One brow up. One brow down. Look of skepticism on my face) Ferreal? Er..okay. If her son had those same symptoms and they got cleared up by some. Yes, by all means, let's get a doctor to write up a prescription"

SIL: No no, we ent need no doctor. I'll get him some medicine from the pharmacy across the street fuh it.

Me: Er...okay (knowing good and well back in the States, I'd call my pediatrician office, they'd put me on to an advice nurse...who would call me back...take my concerns...hang up...and then go converse with the doctor...and then i'd get a call back...they'd tell me to come in or give me a prescribed treatment right then...if i had to come in, I'd schedule an appointment...bring Mischiefmaker#2, sign in...taken back...seen by the nurse and alas would get a doctor to examin' the boy and if lucky, I'd walk a way with a prescription for the problem. The worms medicine)

In Trinidad, like in much other Caribbean and African countries, there's not that much hoops and I dare say pomp and circumstance surrounding getting a simple prescription...It's all OTC (over the counter) over there! woo hoo. cut out the middle man and pray you don't over, under or mis medicate yourself and wind up dead, at least you're closer to the cure, right?!

So sure nuff, 15 minutes later, my SIL had fetched me some "worms" medicine for Mischiefmaker#2. We give it to the boy thinking the worms would come out at his next BM (bowel movement), but nary a worm come out the booty. It's been nearly a month since we've been back and while Mischiefmaker#2 did get regular again (he was constipated for the last 4 days of our Trini trip), we haven't seen anything that would resemble a worm, a tiny snake, a mini parasite...nuthin!.

But the boy still steady walking around scratching his butt all day...We tried cornstarch and medicated powder...Vaseline and other home remedies, but me thinks it's time to call the doctor again...hopefully, the gatekeepers will let me bring him in so we can get to the "bottom" of this!

haaahahaha "bottom" Get it? I CRACK MYSELF UP sometimes with meh dry jokes! Hahahaha!

UPDATE!!

Wow, just called and got an appointment for 11:20 am today! It's 9:34 am. I have just 2 hours to fetch him from my mom's and get to our doc's office 25 minutes away in the next county over! Can't be late. Later!

Trini is beating Africa

My 1/2 Trini, 1/2 African children are getting more and more Trini everyday. After 10 days in Trinidad for carnival this past February, Mischiefmaker#1 has perfected a few Trini habits, most notably his taste in music has wained from Baby Einstein to soca!

Now our conversations on the music selection in the SUV goes like this:

Mischiefmaker#1: mommy, I don't want to hear "wheels on the bus, play the 'mas' song."
Me: Er...the what?
Mischiefmaker#1: the mas song
Me: Boy, I don't know what you are talking about, how does it go?

Mischiefmaker#1: the one that goes like this, "jump up... we movin...we playin..jump..jumbeeee dat..."

Aaaaaahhh THE MAS SONG!

Now, it's just Machel...and "tack back"...and Jumbie...and...ah get a cold sweat...all the way to school...and back. Which I don't mind, because I love soca, but it sure looks funny to our stodgy neighbors as we're singing loudly at the top of our lungs rolling into our driveway.

And then Mischiefmaker#2, the boy can't hear a soca tune emitting from the next car and he's bopping his head and twisting his little body in his car seat. Hmmm. With me gravitating to Caribbean music, party, friends and lifestyle, I wonder if I'll be able to maintain their Africaness and make sure they are aware of African culture.

My parents would surely be jealous. It's not just that Mischiefmaker#2 is just 1 and has been to Trinidad twice already and 4 year old Mischiefmaker#1 has been there 4 times already. It's more so that they've never been to our native Sierra Leone, West Africa.

I gotta get these boys to come with me if I get to go to Africa again next year. This January's trip to Africa was work and business, but now that my parents are nearly done with their country home, I'm hoping next year to take the entire family with me to Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone is very much like Trinidad in its climate, carefree relaxedness of the people, its politics, the seriousness of the natives over futbol...though in a moment of awe last month, I was shocked and amazed to learn that the oil rich Trinidad which has boasted a Miss World and Miss Universe and has hosted a MTV Real World "Gauntlet" series (here my American sensibilities show through) also had a stock exchange!! augh!!! Trinidad is soooo much less of a Third World country than Sierra Leone it's not even funny. I love Trinidad with all its flaws, I'm in love with the place and the people. Mischiefmaker#1 and #2 are in love with it too.

So...Mischiefmaker#1 will soon start Soccer (futbol) and hopefully will get to practice cricket using the cricket bat that his brother's godmother, Natasha bought for him in Trinidad...and they will become more and more Trini boys. Gotta sneak some Africa in there somehow, after we finish this last piece of Roti and get tired of the 2K& soca we brought home from Carnival! hahahahahaha!!