Christmas Part 2

Picking up where I left off - on the 27th we were supposed to head north to DeMotte for the Marschand family Christmas and then south to Indy for a couple of nights with Dad & Amy.

Welp, none of that happened. We had heavy snow all day and the road between Delphi and I-65 was basically not driveable. Chris' sister Lauren was unable to get up one of the hills and missed her shift at Target. Chris took a test drive and slid right past the bowling alley parking lot in which he was planning to turn around. No way we were going to put ourselves out there with a baby and a loaded-up SUV!

We stayed in our jammies and ate pizza and had a relaxed day at the homestead. After the sun went down we FINALLY saw trucks with plows and salt going up and down the highway. The next morning we got ourselves together as early as possible and headed down to Indy. We were greeted by a happy pair of grandparents, an excited pair of dogs, and one fuzzy, snuggly puppy!

Once Blaire arrived too, we started round 3 of Christmas presents. Anna got even more books (which she again read with GUSTO), tons of clothes including an "I ♥ Elmo" t-shirt that she demanded to put on immediately, an Elmo & Ernie tub playset, and a huge Little People amusement park. She of course really, really loved all the wrapping paper, bows, and tissue as well!

After presents she hit a wall and we put her down for a late nap. Us big kids popped in the new Star Trek movie and relaxed. Anna was too excited to stay asleep the whole time and woke up close to the end. She made a comment that brought the house down - okay, so we've been working on the "potty" concept, right? Captain Kirk sat down in his low, flat, white captain's chair and Anna points & yells POTTY! Omg. We were rolling!

We had a relaxing afternoon, an awesome spaghetti pie dinner, and then it was time for Anna's bedtime. After she was out I headed out myself for a drink with 6 amazing old friends from my IDEA classes in high school. SO GREAT to see them all!

The next morning we had a relaxed morning and a big, big, delicious breakfast! Dad made hot cakes with initials in them - A for Anna, B for Brooke, etc, just like my Grandma and Mom used to do. Anna loved the hot cakes but kept calling them "pancakes" despite our prompting with "hot cakes"... I wonder where she learned that? We don't usually have pancakes or hotcakes around here! I guess it would have to be daycare? She really enjoyed the eggs too.

We packed up and headed out around noon for Peru, IN where Chris' extended family lives. We got there after Anna's lunchtime and right at her normal naptime so I was a little nervous about how she might behave. She was not her chipper self but she was really so good for the circumstances. We all had lunch there and even though she was so tired, she was so sweet to everyone there. So proud of her.

She passed out pretty much immediately after we were on the way home. She slept for a good 90 minutes or so and then we read books for the rest of the way in. When we got home she asked for not only Leila (who was still boarding) but also Blaire and Loki - awww! We got her fed, bathed, and in her own bed a little late but in decent time.

Today was just a day at home. Tried to take it a little easy because we all three are sick now so that kind of put a damper on things. Anna and I just have some minor sniffles but Chris, who was feeling under the weather for most of our trip, probably has bronchitis. He's on antibiotics and hopefully will be feeling better soon.

Anna did something so loving and sweet this morning - she walked up to me, said "Mama kiss!" and waited for me to lean down and kiss her. Then she marched up to Chris, said "Dada kiss!" and waited for his kiss too. I think if Chris and I could have squeed our eyeballs out, you would not be reading this right now because I'd be blind and wouldn't be able to use a computer. Omg. She is such a sweet girl.

Then tonight she BLEW US AWAY with her successful potty venture. So, my thinking was to just get her used to the idea of sitting on it here at the start, not really to try to push the potty issue for a little while. Last night before I put her in the tub I let her sit on it and praised her for staying there for a few moments with a book. (She kind of likes to keep getting up and sitting back down, etc.) Tonight wasn't a bath night but I took her in to sit on it right before I put her overnight diaper on. She got up, sat down again, got up, sat down... she was mostly searching for the right book, I think. Then she sat down for a few moments, grunted a little (I didn't hear the tinkles) and when she stood up, I realized what she had done! She had peed! Chris and I basically threw a praise party because I had not even worked out what we would use for rewards! Totally caught us off-guard. Wow, I'm still so amazed. My face hurts from smiling, seriously.

That brings us up to speed! I'll start up the Twitter updates again from here.

Happy New Year!!

Anna's Christmas, Part 1

Anna has had an awesome Christmas and it’s not even over yet. Let me tell the story so far:

Christmas Eve she put on her PRETTY Christmas dress and we headed out to the 7pm service at Church. It was a very nice service, lots of music. She has always enjoyed the bell choir very much – she just stares at them, entranced, each time they play. Now she’s old enough that she can softly exclaim “bells! Bells!” I was really thankful for all the music as it kept her occupied for much of the service – we usually take her to the nursery for church services but everyone always stays together for Christmas service. She was pretty squirrelly but was never unmanageable.

We put her to bed right away when we got home - WAY past her bedtime. She went to sleep easily, slept like a log and – I’m going to enjoy THIS while it lasts – slept through until NINE A.M. It was awesome. In years to come I am confident she’ll figure out the Christmas thing and wake up at like quarter til 5, unable to wait any longer to plunge into the Chrismas cornucopia, but for now? Sleeping in is awesome. Especially because Christmas takes hours of preparation for Mommies and Daddies, often til the wee hours of the night.

In the morning we came downstairs, camcorder at the ready, overly-enthusiastic MERRY CHRISTMAS!!-es all around!

She did not get it. Fully ignored the presents.

Granted, she does not have any present-opening experiences that she can truly remember, however I thought she might at least be curious about all the brightly-colored stuff under the tree. Nope! How about you read me this old book, Mama? The one you got in a Happy Meal when you were seven? I’d rather do this.

We helped her with the first present, a cobbler’s bench with colorful pegs and a hammer. She liked it for a minute but then was pretty much over it. Her second present was a big hit – BOOKS. Thomas & Friends (trains) book and a Curious George. She was captivated by the trains and plopped down to page through it excitedly. We waited a few minutes before trying present #3, but apparently not long enough – we tried to hand it to her and she actually pushed it away with a firm “no present! No present!”

As we didn’t want to spend all day on presents, we started helping her with them and slowly she caught on – oh wait, presents are AWESOME. In addition to the cobbler’s bench and books, Santa ended up bringing her a Sesame Street school bus (with passengers Big Bird, Ernie, Grover, and Elmo), 3 wooden peg puzzles, a wooden frog pull toy, a Thomas DVD, a Sesame Street DVD, and the coup de gras – a training potty! We are not starting potty training immediately, but the pediatrician’s office said it’s good to get a potty earlier just so she can get used to the idea of it. The first thing she did? Sat astride it backwards and cracked open a good book. Yes we have pictures. I will post them later.

We had a decadent meal of French toast, scrambled eggs, and Sara Lee butter streusel. Anna has never had French toast before… I gave her a piece to munch on and she chowed down the whole thing! I love it when I get to add easy meals to her repertoire like that… Score.

She spent much of the rest of the day napping, playing with her new toys, and reading reading readingreadingREADING. A very, very nice Christmas Day.

Yesterday morning we got loaded up early and headed south to Delphi. We feared a slow, snowy trip but lucked out and had dry roads the whole way. Anna was very cooperative for the trip but never went to sleep the whole time, not once! (I even snuck in a little nap myself, but not her!) I thought she might hit a wall later in the afternoon / evening but she never did – amazing baby.

As is her habit for the moment, she clung to me for the first 5-10 minutes before she warmed up and started playing. The three of us hung out with Grandma Cindy and Aunt Susan waiting for Aunt Lauren to finish her shift at Target. We had this fun game going with the letter blocks Cindy keeps at her house for Anna – Aunt Susan or Chris would build a tower with them (sometimes with help from Anna), then Anna would exclaim “OH NOOOO!” and gleefully knock them all over. This game cracked her up SO MUCH. I can’t wait to post some videos of it, it was so hysterical to see her so tickled!

After a yummy pork dinner we started in with the presents. Anna, now totally oriented to the “presents” concept, dug in with enthusiasm. She got a ton of books, an adorable tiny pink backpack for carrying books, some 2T 2-piece Elmo jammies (for when it’s warmer and she doesn’t need footie sleepers), a cabbage patch doll, new toddler plates and suction-cup bowls (YESSSS says Mama), a tiny Chicago hoodie sweatshirt, and probably her favorite gifts of the day, small plush Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh dolls. Seriously? I cannot count how many times she hugged them with eyes closed, an ear-to-ear grin on her face and a loud “AWWWWW!!!” She hugged them like that in my lap as soon as I cut the scratchy tags off and it literally had me in tears, her happiness was just that incredibly heartfelt. One more gift that was both fun and touching – the tag read “To Anna Love Grandpa Bruce.” Grandpa Bruce died less than two years before Anna was born. He worked for Caterpillar and loved his job very much. In the gift bag was a tiny yellow Cat hard hat and a yellow Cat phone (with lights and sounds!) that folds into a Cat dump truck.

At bedtime she did not waste any time – she was EXHAUSTED after so much excitement and no nap. It usually takes 3-5 books to settle her down to the point where we can put her in her crib for the night, but not last night! I stepped out for a moment to throw away her diaper and left her with Chris. When I came back in, prepared for 20+ minutes of stories, she was already in her crib! Chris said she pointed to her crib, arched her back towards it, and demanded “NIGH-NIGHT!” Yeah… that’s a sleepy baby. Wow.

She slept for a solid 12 hours (well, ok, one settling needed just after midnight) and woke up chipper as could be. We’ve had a low-key day here today so far. We expected to be heading north for the Marschand Christmas gathering, but heavy snow has us grounded for the time being. Not sure whether we’ll head out later today or wait til tomorrow morning – we’ll see what happens! I have TONS of videos and pictures to upload but Cindy’s house is in a neglected corner of the universe that still cannot get broadband, so it’ll have to wait.

Hope you’re all having a nice relaxing post-Christmas with family and friends! And seriously? If the weather is bad, STAY HOME. Don’t need anybody else I know ending up in an icy pile-up. (p.s. the estimate is back on Blaire’s car - $6000+!!)

Anna and Nolan

WELL. It seems that Anna has herself a tiny, handsome little suitor at daycare!

I had her all bundled up and was ready to walk out the door. Before we go she always gives Marcia and Pam a hug and a kiss. We were standing near Nolan, who was in his high chair for a snack. She leaned towards him, making it clear that she wanted to hug him. When I held her down to his level she WENT IN FOR THE SMACKEROO. And you know what? HE KISSED HER BACK.

It was so freaking adorable; I almost had sunshine squirt out my ears.

Cabin Fever

Well, I spoke with my doctor today and he thinks I should stay home for TWO more days. Certainly not what I was expecting. I was thinking maybe Monday but he says that if I have H1N1, I'm contagious for 7 days and Monday & Tuesday will be days 6 and 7. Blurgh.

So why do we think it might be H1N1?

• I did have an off-and-on fever for the first two days, so it wasn't just a standard cold.
• I was vaccinated against seasonal flu.
• Chris and Anna were vaccinated against H1N1 and I wasn't - and I'm the sickest of the three of us, which never ever happens.

It still could be something else, but the only way to know for sure is a test that's inaccurate and expensive and really isn't done anymore unless someone gets really, really sick. So we'll never know for sure.

It's frustrating because... well, haven't we all more or less conditioned ourselves to work sick when we can manage it? It's not really a safe or medically defensible aspect of our culture, but it's true. When I'm sick but I could work, I feel guilty if I'm not working. And that's the case now - though I still have a runny nose and productive cough, I have the energy to work, so it's maddening to stay put. But... I suppose the whole pandemic thing more or less changes the rules. If this is H1N1, I got off relatively easy, but others might not have the same luck. Have to keep telling myself that.

Like me, Anna is getting a little stir crazy. When we walk past the front door she reaches for it and yells "bye-bye!" Understandable since we haven't left the house since Wednesday. She will be THRILLED when we drop her off with her friends at daycare later this week.

Other than my runny nose/cough and Anna's slight case of cabin fever, we're doing fine and even though we didn't get to do what we wanted to do for Thanksgiving, we still found a lot to be thankful for around here with each other.

Scary Times

Had a little accident tonight and it really freaked me out. Here's what happened:

Chris had just left to go take our collection of bottles & cans back to the grocery store for refunds. I was just finishing up eating my dinner and Anna was tooling around the living room / dining room area with a cucumber slice in her hand.

Now - lately Anna has taken to trying to stand on anything she can. She will empty her book box, flip it over, and try to stand on it. We recently had to take away her ride-on music truck because she would not quit standing on it.

The other day I purchased a contour pillow, which came in a box. After I unpacked it, I put the empty box on a chair, thinking I would break it down later, probably the next time the trash went out.

[IDIOT]

While I was finishing up my dinner, Anna, incredibly quickly, pulled the box off the chair, stood on it, and fell, faceplanting on the ground.

At first, I thought it was a typical, short-lived bump, then the blood started to flow. It was coming out of her mouth, but I had no idea whether it was her lip, her tongue... and since she's too young to understand what is going on, she wasn't about to be cooperative about it. All she knew was that it hurts in her mouth so QUITTOUCHINGMYMOUTH.

I started freaking out a little, I'll admit it. I'll own it. We have been extremely fortunate in terms of childhood illnesses and injuries so I'm just not used to it at all.

I called Chris and just said "She's bleeding out of her mouth so I need you to come home now [click]." He made a U-turn and headed back. Anna wouldn't lay back on the kitchen counter so I took her up to her room so she'd lay back on her changing table. I couldn't see very much except a lot of dark blood around her two front teeth. It just took a couple minutes for Chris to get home but it felt like FOR.EV.ER. If the RAV4 with the car seat had been in the driveway, I might have just peeled out for the urgent care center.

When he got back I was pretty much ready to go but he said no, calm down, let's just wait a few minutes and see how she does. He correctly diagnosed it as a cut on the inside of her upper lip, but not an awful one. I'm glad he convinced me that it was the right plan to wait - she cried for a few more minutes then perked up when I asked if she'd like some applesauce.

I fired up the Thomas the Train DVD and fixed a bowl of applesauce. She cheerily fed herself applesauce, watched the trains, and fully calmed down.

She opened her lip up twice more before bedtime by just messing with her mouth, but she didn't seem to notice or mind. No more tears, just some curious slurping as she tried to figure out what this weird taste was in her mouth.

So, mini-crisis over. Now that it's over I can look back, listen to things that Chris said I said when I was freaking out, not remember those things, and think the following:

1) This crisis was not that bad.

2) I'm really thankful that we have had so few crises that this crisis SEEMED bad at the time.

3) Maybe I should take a first aid class.

Now that some Sam's Oktoberfest has settled my frayed nerves, I will hit the sack. Good night!

Anna in charge

Marcia had a story for me when I went to pick up Anna.

Nolan is a boy about Anna's age at the daycare. Apparently he's a bit of a fusser... they often have to tell him he's alright and comfort him. Today he was in a high chair and had a tray full of crackers but wanted the crackers that another kid had. Anna was nearby when he started fussing.

She said, with authority in her voice,

"Nolan, you okay."

Man oh man...

Braniac

Anna had a brain day today. Even though it was a work day and we were away from her for many of her waking hours, she still found time to pretty much blow us out of the water with what her little noggin can churn out already.

For your consideration:

• When I was getting her dressed on the changing table, she hoisted her blanket up between us to start a round of peek-a-boo. To get the game going, she said "where Mama go?" Three words people. Three words in a row. About two weeks back she said "where Amy go?" when playing peek-a-boo with Grammy Amy over gchat, but at the time we thought she was just imitating what Dad and I were saying. Nope - she understood the structure enough to substitute "Mama" for "Amy".

• As we were walking up to her Mon/Wed daycare house, the dog (named Cheyenne) was barking as usual. We asked "who's that?" hoping for a nice solid "dog!" reply. Instead we got a thoughtful pause and a clear-as-a-bell "Cheyenne."

• Should she be able to use pronouns yet? Because I swear she used "I" more than once today to refer to herself. She started playing this game where she would "hide" by flattening herself against my back (I was kneeling on the ground), then LEAP out with ferocious giggling. I would laugh with her and say "you're funny!" At least twice she replied "I funny."

• Her ability to handle books is getting a little crazy. She is pretty much bored with her board books (har har) already. She is now digging into my collection of little kids' paperback books from the 80's - Sesame Street and Clifford books are big winners right now. Tonight she picked out "Annie" (as in Little Orphan). The text is pretty extensive so when she brought it to me, in my head I'm like YEAH RIGHT KID. Darn it if she didn't sit attentively as I read every single word, cover to cover.

• While reading Annie, I was trying to teach her the name of Annie's dog, Sandy. Early on I pointed at Sandy and asked "who is this?" She wasn't sure yet about the dog, but she did feel confident about one thing in the picture... she pointed at the trash can and said, "Oscar!"

We are so incredibly out of luck once she decides to use her smarts to outwit us, eh?

Gotcha Mama!

I have a story from tonight that wouldn't fit into a reasonable number of tweets - so here goes!

I bought Anna a new toothbrush today because this morning I noticed that the bristles of the old one were starting to come off in her mouth. I left it downstairs with the other Target stuff and remembered it at bedtime after we were already upstairs. Anna had her blankie and foofoo (pacifier) and seemed reasonably absorbed by a book in her bedroom. I decided to try to sneak downstairs without her noticing, as she usually gets distraught if I go downstairs without her.

I eased the gate open and tiptoed down each stair. Unfortunately Anna heard just enough and I was totally busted - I looked back to see her little face peering earnestly down at me from between the bars of the gate. I braced for wailing... Amazingly, she wasn't upset at all, she just stood there and looked at me calmly. I decided just to hurry up and grab the toothbrush, which was in a bag at the foot of the stairs.

As I was bending over to rummage through the bag, I heard the sound of her foofoo hitting the floor, then bouncing down the stairs. Then it ricocheted just right and nailed me right on the butt! How the heck did she do that?? It had some speed on it - she hadn't dropped it, she THREW it! I whirled around and looked up in time to see Anna totally CRACK. UP. She thought this was HILARIOUS. No trace of separation-anxiety Anna... she was completely replaced by Anna the mischievous imp!

I feigned shock and dismay, which made her laugh harder. I found the toothbrush and walked upstairs to find her around the corner, still in stitches.

Isn't it amazing how some changes in babies are so gradual that you hardly notice them and other changes are like WHAM instant 180? Incredible.

This kid is freaking sharp.

Tonight Chris and I were totally bowled over by something Anna did. As I new it wouldn't fit into tweets, and I wouldn't have time to write much about it, I asked Chris to write instead. Here it is:

After dinner and a little time in the backyard, Anna was happily babbling as she toddled around the kitchen. Leila had just been given her dinner, the ritual of which Anna keenly observed (though we didn't know just how keenly until later).

As Leila finished her food, Anna went over to Leila and began saying a word we couldn't at first interpret, but soon we realized she was imploring Leila to "Sit." She said it over and over again, each time with the exact inflection we would use to give a command to Leila.

This alone was amazing and we couldn't believe she had picked up on so much of the routine so quickly. What happened next would absolutely floor us.

When Leila refused to sit on command, Anna held out her hand, her palm facing Leila, and said, "Uh uh uh uh," much in the same way that we scold Leila when she has done something wrong (or in this case, refused to do something that she had been told to do). Again, her inflection was exactly as ours would be in that situation, making it all the more hysterical. She just stood there, hand out as if chiding a small child, with the only posture she could muster to demand respect from all of two feet off the ground.

The Extremes

Tonight I had such a wide range of emotions that I am still feeling scrambled and trying to sort them out.

I was just a few minutes away from arriving home and squeezing Anna after an absence of several days and I was SO excited. I called Cindy and asked her to bring Anna out front so that we could say hello without Leila flipping her lid all over us at the same time. Just as I was getting off the phone with Cindy, not two minutes from home, I got a text message from my best friend Katie. Katie and her husband recently became pregnant after trying for many years. They were on their way to the hospital because she was experience cramping and bleeding, and they were very scared. My heart sank into my stomach... As we pulled into the driveway I was smiling at Anna with fearful tears in my eyes.

We had a nice little time at home - Anna wouldn't let me out of her sight - and then went out to dinner with Cindy. Anna was just so bubbly and happy, so excited to see her Mama and Dada. She ate her dinner very well, including an order of steamed peas from the restaurant. She then started doing one of the most adorable and endearing things she's ever done... she fed me peas one by one and then after each one said "kiss!" -- she was asking to give me a kiss! So I'd lean over and she'd kiss me on my cheek. So it went: pea, "kiss!", wet one on my cheek. It was so amazingly wonderful - and then I got another text from Katie.

The worst has happened - they lost their baby today. It's so sad and unfair and horrifying... I can't imagine their grief. Just then Anna reached up to feed me another pea... and I thought "why do I deserve this??"

I felt guilty, and I still feel guilty. I looked at Anna, so happy and healthy and loving and smart, just waiting to feed me a soggy pea and plant one on my cheek. Why do I deserve this and not Katie?? It's not like that at all... we are both deserving and there is no good reason that this should happen to one and not the other.

But I can try to reason it away - after all, life is unfair, isn't it? Why should we expect that a loving, deserving couple who can provide everything for their child would have a healthy baby? We shouldn't, but we do anyway. No matter how much we know in our heads that the world won't always reward the deserving, we still want it to and we still feel disillusioned and wounded when it doesn't. (Or maybe that's just me. Is it just me?)

*sigh*

I have a few things to say about this.

First, about the survivor's guilt - as I talked with Chris about it, he asked me if Katie would want me to feel that way. I thought probably not, but at the same time, I can't shake it. I feel bad tweeting good things about Anna because I don't want to parade my good fortune out there, and I feel bad tweeting the bad things when they happen because they must seem so trivial - and I know that Katie would give almost anything for an extra-fussy bedtime or an exploding poopy diaper. I was reminded of my own experience after losing my mom. I certainly didn't begrudge anyone their living mothers, however I do remember feeling a certain indignation when people would complain about their mothers for something stupid. Especially those first few months, I just wanted to shake them and shout "you APPRECIATE your healthy mother RIGHT NOW!" I'm sure Katie will be feeling the same thing in the weeks and months ahead... and that she will struggle with it like I did, keeping quiet on the outside while screaming on the inside.

Second, I'm glad that I still feel like there should be justice in the world. It means that I'm not an apathetic cynic who just throws up their hands whenever injustice rears its ugly head and says "well, that's life!" and gives up. I'm glad that I get angry and think about what I can do to help. Sometimes I am rather helpless and all I can do is pray about it and offer my love and support, like this time. But other times I can do more, and can even work to make it right again. I wouldn't want to give that up, though it would certainly be much easier to detach from painful injustices. It's worth it to stay connected.

Third - please take a few minutes and pray for Katie and Matt. If you know them, please send them a note or email too.

Despite our lack of ways to understand why terrible things happen to good people, I do have faith that God takes all things, good and bad, and works with them towards the good. It may take a long time for that to happen. It was years before I perceived anything good coming out of my Mom's death, but now I can name several - the biggest ones being my tight bond with my sister and my ability to provide meaningful support Chris and his family when they lost his father to cancer. I don't know what good can come of this loss; right now it just seems too horrible to imagine anything, but I have faith that it can and will happen.

Katie and Matt, from the deepest part of my heart, I am so, so sorry.

BUH.

From Chris, emailed to me while I was at work:

~~~~~
Anna just brought her "Who Loves Baby" over to me (the one with the pictures of all of us in it) saying, "Mama." So we looked through all of the pictures and said who each person was.

When we got to Blaire, I said, "Who's that?" and she thought for a second and said, "Buh," then sort of smiled and rubbed her hands under her chin.

A little later we were going back through the book and we came to Blaire again. I said, "Who's this?" and she said "Buh" again. I said "Buh" myself, and she looked at me, quite indignantly, and said, more emphatically this time, "BUH." I replied, "Oh, BLAIRE," demonstrating that I now understood, and she was satisfied.

:-)

One-Year Checkup

First things first - This is a companion to my Twitter account (twitter.com/annajogrows). As such I don't intend to use this blog a ton, just on occasion when getting my message across would require, like, a dozen tweets.

Anna's One-Year Checkup

Overall she is just fine, the picture of health and is developing just fine. Way ahead of the curve on talking, but we knew that already. [sinful pride!] She's also right on time for walking. The only thing we are not doing a good job about is dental care - we haven't been taking good care of her teeth, although her teeth are showing no ill effects so far. We will get right on that!!

One thing that was... well, more unexpected (for us) than bad was the fact that she hasn't really gained any weight in the past three months. The doctor was not at all worried about this though - he said it's typical for this to happen when babies get more active, and that has definitely happened these past three months. Plus, he speculates that she's in between growth spurts. As she has been on this eat a ton/sleep a ton tear lately we think she's probably starting one now, so no worries. They will check her again at 15 months just to be sure.

The vaccinations? TRAUMA. There were four of them this time and thank God, she will never have this many at once again. One in each arm, one in each leg. I have never heard her cry like that. In the past, nursing her has always done the trick and calmed her down, but not this time. You know what calmed her down? She pointed towards the door... she calmed down as we got closer. Then she reached down and tried to turn the doorknob. It was her way of saying "get me the heck out of here!" She cried when I took her back to the table to get dressed but calmed down again when we left.

She got 2 kitty stickers as a reward from the doctor's office. When she and Chris got back home, she got to sit on Dada's lap and watch Elmo videos on SesameStreet.com.

I hope she's feeling alright tonight and doesn't have that fever/irritability that sometimes happens after vaccinations. An elderly woman at our church suffered a minor stroke and is in the hospital. She loves - ADORES - Anna and I know it would boost her spirits to see her. I just hope Anna is up to a visit!

All for now... if there's more news I'll post to Twitter. Love to all!