Caleb's big day

  Being a parent requires coming to terms with helplessness.  I don't like it, but I don't have much choice in the matter.  Every little cough is a reminder of the fact that I can do nothing to cure him physically.  Rachel and I usually look at each other with faces full of pity each time he coughs, wishing we could wipe away every illness from his body.  But we can't...

  This point is being driven home rather forcefully right now.  Caleb had a tough time with rice cereal when he first started with it, and at the time we simply assumed that he hated rice cereal.  The doctor wasn't concerned about it, and considering the way the stuff tastes, I couldn't really blame him for throwing it back up.

  But then the sweet potatoes started coming back up.  That could just be an allergy, right?

  He's continued to struggle with solid food.  We tried rice cereal again, because he needed the iron, but it came right back up.  As new parents, we had always held onto the dream that nothing would be wrong, that his infancy would have nothing more than a cold or a stomach virus here or there.

  But tomorrow morning he goes to Children's Hospital to have his intestines x-rayed to see if there isn't some bigger explanation for his problems with solid food.  It's probably nothing, they say... but just to be sure.  It's probably food allergies.  Probably.

  Again, we can do nothing.  Nothing but sit and wait, sit and hope.  I try not to worry... but helplessness lends itself well to worrying.

  How is Caleb doing, you ask?  Clearly, he's worried: