Conversations with Daddy

Chris wrote this down from his time with Anna this morning:

Anna: (with blanket on her head) Go under with me?

Chris: Okay! (ducks under blanket)

Anna: We're a ghost!

Chris: A ghost with two heads?

Anna: Yeah.

Chris: Are we scary?

Anna: (grinning) Yeah!

Chris: You're not scary - you're cute!

Anna: (indignantly) No, I'm scary!

Chris: Okay, I'm scared.

Anna: Yeah, me too. (pause) Let's go out.

All made 100x cuter by the fact that our noses were inches from touching the whole time :-)

Earlier, after giving me a THOROUGH inspection using all of her other doctor kit tools, Anna decided it was time to take my temperature.

Chris: Does that go in my ear?

Anna: (holding thermometer; grinning) No, in your bottom!

Chris: No, that kind of thermometer only goes in your ear.

Anna: (putting thermometer in my ear) Gotta push the button (furrows her brow as she inspects the temperature, then nods in confirmation of her reading).

Chris: That was scary!

Anna: Oh, it's okay! (climbs into my lap and gives me a LOOOONG hug with pat-pats)

Chris: (melt)

IU Homecoming

We all had an early start on the Saturday morning of Homecoming - Chris and I needed to leave for the stadium around 6:30am. Anna ended up waking up just before we left and bleary-eyed Aunt Blaire and Chris took over as we left. It's usually hard to pull Anna off of me first thing in the morning, but she ended up staying in Blaire's arms without a fight. Go Blaire! Anna really loves and trusts you!

Anna, Blaire, and Chris caught up with us after morning rehearsal at "The Walk", a pre-game event where the football team walks toward the stadium while the Marching Hundred plays a short concert. We were so very excited to see how Anna would react to her very first in-person encounter with the Marching Hundred. She has seen several videos on YouTube (and asks to watch them from time to time!) and we were so happy to get her up close. We were VERY close, in fact - brushing shoulders with the trumpets.

She didn't get all bubbly and excited, she just kind of watched intently and absorbed what she was seeing. I'm learning that that's what she does when she is really fascinated by something. I remember the same intent look on her face when she was in the DinoSphere at the Children's Museum, just full-on focus, taking everything in.

After a while she said "I don't like the Marching Hundred" and we were SO crestfallen! Fortunately in future conversations, we would find that she really did like seeing them, it was just probably getting a little too loud for her and she didn't quite have the words to let us know. In any event, we took her for a walk through Assembly Hall to the Jennison Fieldhouse, where the other alumni were gathering to eat a boxed lunch and get ready for the game. I got to show her off to some of my old friends (always fun) and then Blaire and (my) Chris took her for a lap around the fieldhouse track, topped off with some fun flopping around on the soft mats in the pole vault pit. She had a quick snack and was getting kind of antsy by the time the alumni band was lining up to march to the stadium. We were debating whether to bring her with us for a bit when she made her intentions clear - "I wanna go to my red car!" Love it when she's 100% clear like that. We hugged and kissed our goodbyes, then Blaire and Chris took her back for lunch and a nap while we headed to the game.

Chris and I decided we'd had enough by the end of the third quarter and cut out a little early. When we got back to Blaire and Chris' houses (their houses are right next door to each other), Anna was still napping. My Dad had come down to visit so we all kicked back until she woke up. She was pretty sunshiny and ended up laughing her head off every time Loki (Blaire's dog) put his front paws up on the windowsill, the kitchen counter, anything. It was caught on tape and if you're Facebook friends with Chris you can check out the video.

Dad and Amy had graciously offered to have Anna sleep at their house that night so that we could do what we wanted in Bloomington. I kind of agonized over the decision, but in hindsight, that was the right call, without a doubt. Besides the evening freedom, it gave us an opportunity for a good night's sleep just before a TON of driving the next day. I was nervous about how Anna would take it. I explained it to her and she seemed fine, but I wasn't sure she totally understood. I fed her a snack, switched the car seat to Dad's car, packed up her bags, and buckled her in. She was TOTALLY FINE. In fact, she was pretty happy about the whole thing! She smiled and waved to me as she and Dad were pulling away, which brought me back to that parental emotional cocktail of pride tinged with grief. I was so proud that she was able to feel secure with her grandparents and happily go for a trip without us, but also kind of heartbroken that the little girl who used to only feel secure in our arms no longer exists. I walked back into the house with tears in my eyes, but it wasn't long before the pride took over and I was so happy to know that she's really on her way to being the smart, secure, independent person we're trying to help her become.

By all accounts, she had a ball at Grandpa Larry and Grammy Amy's, including a bath where she did NOT protest her hair washing. This is a feat I have not been able to pull off in recent history, and I have still not been able to replicate his success, even when trying the same technique he described to me. Grandpa magic, I guess! We had fun too. Some old friends came over to hang out and we laughed long and hard - loud enough to definitely wake up a two-year-old. We were glad we could just laugh and relax without having to shush ourselves.

After a laid-back morning in Bloomington, we made it up to Grandpa and Grammy's just after noon. Shortly after we arrived, Aunt Sharon and Uncle Tim joined us to help break in Dad and Amy's awesome new house. We had great weather, grilled burgers and brats, and just had a nice time hanging out. We postponed Anna's nap so that she would sleep in the car. We were shooting for a 3pm departure, but it was more like 4pm, which is pretty close to par for family gatherings - just kinda hard to leave!

Anna passed out almost immediately, which was exactly what we were hoping for. I should point out that we were in separate cars at this point because... well, Chris had some meetings and I won't go into boring details, but it ended up that we had both cars in Indiana. Anna was with me. Things went really well for the first leg of the trip. We somehow made it across the Michigan border without having to stop at all. Anna woke up twice crying but then quickly passed back out. I would have loved to have kept going all the way home, but we were low on gas and needed food. Chris kept going while we stopped about a dozen miles past the border at a Wendy's.

Anna was pretty golden in Wendy's. She was cooperative in the bathroom and cute & endearing towards the girls at the counter. She ate a good supper in the car - chicken nuggets, mandarin oranges, and peas - and was content to get back on the road.

Here is where things went really wrong. Not with Anna, but with me. The sun had gone down while we were in Wendy's and I was worried about Anna's ability to stay content without the aid of her many books. I decided to talk to her as much as possible. As we were getting back on the road, I was starting into a detailed recounting of everything that had happened that weekend. I was so focused that I didn't pay enough attention to...

...which...

...way...

...to DRIVE.

Oh yeah. I ended up going the WRONG WAY on the highway. That in itself is sad, but what is just many, many times sadder is the fact that it took me a solid TWENTY MINUTES to realize what I had done. By that time we had returned to Indiana without me even noticing.

OMG WHO DOES THAT.

I was so frustrated with myself and kind of freaking out when I called Chris to tell him what had happened. Fortunately, he had the cooler head and said all the right things. Stay calm, turn around when you can, and just stay focused on the task at hand. Don't get mad at yourself; it's really okay. Now, there were lots of reasons that this was NOT okay, but I was so glad he said those things. It really did keep me calm and helped me get home as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, because it took several more miles of driving before we could get turned back around, we arrived home nearly an hour later than we would have if I had driven the right way. Anna and I both got to bed late and started the week with droopy eyelids, but we made it safely and without a toddler meltdown, which is pretty impressive considering that she spent about 5 solid hours in the car.

Thus ended a very full and very fun Homecoming weekend!

When Bees Attack

Here's how the crazy bee attack went down:

Anna and I were playing in the backyard with Leila after we got home from work/daycare. Normal fun time, swings, slide, etc. Then Anna wanted me to get the pooper scooper and hunt down some poop. Yeah, she thinks that's a pretty good time - her finding poop, me scooping it up, her watching and commenting, "That's Leila's poop! It's stinky." The pooper scooper was leaning against the deck so we headed that direction.

As I was prepping the scooper, I noticed Leila skittering by me in a very strange way - tail between her legs, very scared and submissive. And she had these weird little yellow dots on her. It occurred to me that they were bees and at that moment I should have quickly shuttled all three of us into the house, but the brain is really slow to recognize serious danger in a context where you're just not expecting it at all. I tried momentarily to shoo them off of Leila before glancing over at Anna, who was curiously observing the dozen or so bees swarming around her and landing on her jacket. OMG FIRE HOT RED ALERT TIME.

I scooped up Anna, sprinted up the steps, pounded on the sliding door, yelled at Chris that we were being attacked by bees, and then... well, honestly it's a little hazy because I was in total panic mode. Interesting how panic makes you drop little bits of memory... anyway, we all somehow ended up inside (quite a feat since Leila didn't want to come in), but there were still bees around us in the house and probably a dozen or so still stuck on poor Leila, who had already been stung several times. Anna crying because she's scared, all of us freaking all the way out.

Then Anna screeches in pain and holds up her hand with a bee firmly attached and stinging. I screech myself and slap her poor hand hard to get the bee off, then grab her and sprint upstairs to our first aid stuff. Leila tried to follow us up there, which is the LAST thing we wanted with her covered in bees. Poor Leila - the vet said that when animals are stung with their people nearby, they think the people are hurting them! So she already thinks we're torturing her and she's slinking upstairs with me to go away for her punishment. We are SCREAMING at her to go downstairs but poor thing, she just couldn't understand. I had to almost kick her down the stairs and shut the gate to keep her from reaching our bedroom.

At that point we split up. I took Anna into the bathroom and Chris took Leila out front to get de-beed. Chris said they were all burrowing under her fur on their way to her skin. He even found one in her ear, ugh! Once Anna and I were in the bathroom I swatted one bee that followed us upstairs and stomped it into the carpet. Then I found another one BURROWING IN THE BACK OF MY HAIR and swatted at it wildly until it flew out. It started buzzing around the light fixture so I grabbed the bandaids, first aid cream, and children's tylenol and took Anna into our bedroom, shutting that horrid bee in our bathroom. I calmed her down, let her open her Dora bandaid (one of her favorite things to do), and gave her a dose of Tylenol. She settled down and we just waited up there for Chris to come back.

When I heard him come in I walked out to the landing that looks over the living room and noticed a half dozen bees up in the front semi-circle window. He was in the process of killing the ones left in the house with the only spray we had, which was an outdoor nest-killing spray for wasps and hornets, powerful stuff. Once they were all dead he came up so we could regroup and give each other holy-$#%@-did-that-just-happen looks. We inspected Anna's sting to make sure the stinger wasn't still in, then decided to look outside and see if we could figure out where they were coming from. It took about two seconds for us to spot a hole at the base of our deck still swarming with bees. Yellow jacket ground bees, mean mothers. http://bit.ly/9gnES9

Once the coast was totally clear, Anna and I went downstairs to eat supper while Chris went to buy a full can of nest-killing bee/wasp spray. He emptied the whole can into both holes - hope that did the trick.

I was really nervous about the amount of strong pesticide in the house so after supper I went into cleanup mode. Took down the curtains in the front window and the back sliding door, which was also sprayed. Then I went to work with a big bucket of dishwater and wiped down every single surface that might have even possibly been sprayed. We kept the windows open all night (even though it was cold) to help everything air out. Quite an undertaking, but very necessary. We had no choice but to spray it in order to kill those aggressive bees, but man, is it nasty stuff.

Poor Leila really got the worst of it - several stings and the scare of her life. She cowered, shaking under the table for a little while before I coaxed her out for some treats and snuggles. Anna would periodically cry as her sting would start hurting again, but she absolutely refused to let us ice it.

So that's the story. Everything is back to normal now, though we are keeping a very close eye on that hole for any signs of life. Fingers crossed that we never have another awful bee incident like this ever again!

Morning Time with Grandma Cindy

Cindy emailed this to me shortly after 1pm yesterday. Nice account of her last morning of the week with Anna! (I especially like her post script...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grandma report:

Anna has been napping since 12:45. This morning we went to Fresh Market to get Anna some more milk. On the way we went for a little ride and Grandma decided to get the car washed. Anna is afraid of the car wash? She wanted to be all done car wash, but we made it through and we decided we were very brave.

We came home and played in the backyard and then went for a wagon ride. She told me the colors of all the mailboxes in the neighborhood and how many each house has. For lunch Grandma made a turkey sandwich (without asking first), but Anna wanted peanut butter. So Grandma ate the turkey and Anna had peanut butter. She also had peas and some greek yogurt with blueberries.

Next she got out her cobblers bench. Grandma remembered the "If I had a Hammer" song and sang some for Anna. She was interested because of the word hammer, but not interested enough to listen Grandma sing out of key. So I looked up Peter, Paul and Mary and she heard the real thing. That led to watching other nursery rhymes on youtube and then her nap. Pretty good morning!

Grandma

Okay, I just read this. Sorry for using the third person. Must be from reading all the toddler books.

Day at the Lake

Shortly after we arrived at Quinn & Linda's wonderful lakeside house everyone changed into suits (except me, left mine in Michigan!) and headed out to the boat. We had told Anna that we'd be riding in a boat and she was STOKED. No fear or anxiety at all. If we had let her, she would have attempted to hop into the boat all on her own and surely wiped out. As Quinn was bringing the boat alongside the dock, she was exclaiming "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! The boat!" She watched, calm and curious, as the boat trundled out of the cove and took on speed in the middle of the lake.

Now - In the name of safety, Anna was of course wearing a kid-sized life vest. In the name of sun protection, she had on a cotton hat. In the name of foot well-being, she was wearing little pink crocs. As it turns out, these safety measures combined with the beating sun and oppressive heat seemed to be overwhelming for poor Anna. While we can't conclusively say whether she fell asleep from the rocking waves and lack of a nap or actually passed out from becoming overly hot, she definitely lost consciousness.

At first we were all like "awww, sleepy baby!" Not alarmed at all - but when Dad passed her back to me, she was fairly limp... and then I saw that her cheeks were flushed and sweat was beaded on her nose and upper lip. We asked Quinn to steer us back to the house. En route we soaked one end of a towel and dampened all of her exposed skin to keep her cool. It seemed that once we crossed the threshold back into the air-conditioned house, she perked up considerably. Linda fixed her a dish of vanilla ice cream, which she ate with gusto. After that, she was perfectly fine for the rest of the day.

Yeah.

That was too close. I'm gonna be more careful with heat from now on. Zoiks.

After everyone was back from the boat ride, everyone (but swimsuit-less me) hopped in the lake. Anna has been rather timid about swimming so far, and she started out that way today, but after about 15 minutes sitting with Amy in the shallows, she determined that she had this lake thing totally figured out and did NOT need any further help from anyone. Seriously, if we had let her, she would have marched straight out into the lake. "DON'T HOLD ME DON'T HOLD ME DON'T HOLD ME!!" If there is anyone out there still harboring a shred of concern that we are raising a wallflower over here, you may now relax.

After swimming we dried off and had snacks on the deck. Linda thoughtfully brought out some zoo animal toys (originally belonging to their kids David & Jill!) which Anna shuttled back and forth from one lap to another.

It was a great visit! Hey Quinn & Linda - let's not wait 6 years til the next visit, eh? :-)

Mama Movie

This morning Anna was not super enthused about eating her breakfast. One of the best things in my bag of tricks to help her eat when time is of the essence is to show her some video clips on the computer and sneak the spoonfuls in while she's watching.

Here is one of the videos we watched this morning: (http://bit.ly/dyPjnQ) Anna was about 9 months old when this was recorded. It's one of our all-time favorites! She had just learned to say "Mama" and was making sure all within earshot were aware of this new skill.

At this point it's been months since she started calling me "Mommy" full-time, but after the video clip was over, she turned to me with a huge smile on her face, took a deep breath, grasped my arm close to her body, and said "Mamaaaaa! Mamaaaa! Awwww... Mamaaaa!" Then she reached up and hugged me close, still saying "Mama! Mamaaaa! Mama mama! I love that! Mamaaaa!!"

It was so amazing and I feel like the description comes nowhere close to how great it was, but I was just so touched by it. While she has expressed many emotions before, she's never been quite so purposefully and intentionally warm and loving. Made my week for sure, I'll never forget it.

Tonight's tweets

Just in case Twitter loses my tweets from earlier tonight, here they are:

annajogrows

Chris: Is Mommy awesome? Anna: No. Chris: Is Daddy awesome? Anna: No. Chris: Is Anna awesome? Anna: No. Chris:Who is awesome? Anna: Blankie.

annajogrows

Chris: Who else is awesome? Anna: Blankie. Chris: Ok, who ELSE is awesome? Anna: Blankie. Chris: Anyone else awesome? Anna: Blankie.

annajogrows

Unsavory symptoms much improved, but she's still just kinda off her feed. Y'all know I'm pretty particular about her diet- slightly on edge.

annajogrows

Her bedtime stall tactic tonight was to "change Mommy's poopy diaper." Mmhmm.

annajogrows

Her sentences are getting more complex: "I picked a pink one." "Mommy, you do it now."

Elmo's Gender

As told by Chris on his Facebook profile:

Last night Anna developed a crazy high fever very suddenly, but this morning she woke up with no fever and feeling VERY spunky. We've enjoyed her many escapades as she literally bounces off the walls with energy.

At one point this morning she decided she wanted to take Elmo's temperature, and having just had her own temperature taken the *ahem* old-fashioned way, Anna seemed to have some ideas for how she would like to have taken Elmo's temperature. Of course, not wanting to let Anna use her *ahem* special thermometer for fear of contamination, Brooke decided to grab a random object instead and tell Anna it was a thermometer (Parenting 101: Lie to your Kids) - that object happened to be a contact lens case.

Of course Anna was not fooled - she immediately said "Contacts," and proceeded to unscrew the caps and put Elmo's contacts in his eyes.

*Shrug*

After she finished, she praised Elmo for being brave and said, "Good girl, Elmo." Brooke inquired, "Is Elmo a girl?"

"No," Anna said confidently, "He's an ELMO."

"Oh, an Elmo," replied Brooke.

"That's right," said Anna, followed by a more emphatic, "That's RIGHT."

Lessons learned: Elmo is an Elmo, and contact lens cases are NOT thermometers.

Anna's Second Birthday

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Anna's Birthday - Arriving Home

She of course opened the biggest present first:

Anna's Birthday - Opening Basketball Hoop

And played with it immediately:

Anna's Birthday - First Baskets

Then she opened a very special present from Grammy Amy and Grandpa Larry:

Anna's Birthday - Opening the Alphabet Book

We sat down and looked at the new book:

Anna's Birthday - Reading the Alphabet Book

Relaxing after everything is open:

Anna's Birthday - Post-Present Glow

Just after supper, Anna and Daddy JAMMED on the Elmo Camera song:

Anna's Birthday - Elmo Camera Boogie

(She's in the high chair at her request... sometimes she just feels like sitting there. [shrug])

We saved her last present for later because we knew that once we showed it to her, she would never sit down and eat her dinner. It's a combination sandbox/wading pool from Grandma Cindy. It looks like a butterfly - one wing is the sandbox and the other wing is the wading pool (which is the lid for the sandbox when it's empty). First I just asked her if she wanted to get her swimsuit on. Her eyes got as big as dinner plates and she gasped for joy! She was flailing all over the place while I was putting her swimsuit on and when we got downstairs, she sprinted to the door, jumped up and down and yelled "WOOHOO! WOOHOO! EXCITED!"

We don't have any videos of the pool (yet!) because at that point we were using the laptop to video chat outside with first Aunt Blaire and then later Grammy Amy and Grandpa Larry. I did take some pictures on my phone, which I'll post to twitpic after I post this blog entry. She had a BALL. Later our neighbor Amanda walked over with her kids Annie (4) and Jonah (2), who also got to enjoy the pool/sandbox for a little bit. After that it was bedtime, though - surprise! - she was so wound up that she got to sleep plenty late.

I think the coolest thing about her birthday is that she more or less understood that it was her birthday. Though she of course has no idea why we're celebrating, she knew that it was a special day for her and she became familiar with some of the traditions. She talked about blowing out candles, eating cupcakes, opening presents, etc. I would also catch her singing the birthday song to herself from time to time!

The Last Hurrah - Party at the Church

As Anna now has a peer group, I decided to throw a little party for her to celebrate with them. I certainly didn't feel like doing the house-full-of-toddlers thing, so I reserved the nursery and Sunday School classroom at the church. We had the party in the classroom but the nursery was open to whoever felt like hanging out in there (or whoever needed a diaper change). It worked out REALLY well for the 2-year-old set, who sure as heck aren't going to follow any kind of structure.

We had six kids there, which was a nice manageable number. All I did in the way of activities was tape down some banner-sized white paper to a table, setting out a basket with a 64-pack of crayons dumped in it, and letting them go wild. That actually went pretty well. Chris also made a CD for dancing (since Anna loves cuttin' a rug) but it didn't really catch on. Oh well, there were plenty of things to do - they sat 3-wide on the piano bench to play a little music, they rolled all over a stuffed bear that was much bigger than any of them... it all went very smoothly.

Then we ate. For the kids I made PBJ and used cookie cutters to make them into heart, flower, and star shapes, plus sliced some grapes in half (no choking!), steamed some carrots (yeah nobody ate those), and got some of those juice boxes that have veggie juice hiding in them too. For the grownups I had deli sandwiches, a veggie tray, and a fruit tray. Then on to the cupcakes. Amy & Dad totally showed me up in the cupcake decorating department... I took the easy route and bought little edible sugar Elmos to stick on top of the cupcakes. I stuck a couple candles in Anna's cupcake, we all sang to her, and she blew them both out - she's gotten really good at it!

It was more work than I thought it would be but it was worth it. We got to meet some of the parents of other kids at the daycare, we got to hang out with some church friends, and Anna and her friends had a great time.

Birthday complete! I wonder what it will be like next year...

Anna's Birthday

Wow, have we had a time today!! First let's get caught up...

Yesterday, after so much fun in the backyard with the wading pool,
bubbles, and doggies, we went out for a nice dinner at this great
restaurant on the Geist Reservoir called Bella Vita's. Anna, not being
very experienced with the restaurant scene, just could not stay in her
seat much more than 2 minutes at a time. She was so enthralled with
this waterfall thing at the front of the restaurant - she just wanted
to go back and keep staring at it. She also got to go down to the dock
and see some ducks and geese. A very big hit as well. Her delicious
supper? Not so much. Oh well! Dad, Amy, and Blaire were kind enough to
run her around. Chris and I very much enjoyed the staying-put-ness. :-)

We came back home, had a bath, and tried valiently to reproduce her
home bedtime routines. It worked out pretty well, though she was so
wound up that it was almost quarter to ten before I finally was able
to tuck her in and leave! She didn't make a peep after that, though.
She was tuckered out.

I didn't realize HOW tuckered out she was until I looked over at the
clock next to my bed to read 8:21am - she NEVER sleeps that long!! She
woke up just before 9 in the most pleasant of moods. Sleeping in was
great but I really had to hustle to get myself and Anna out the door
to the party on time. So yeah, the party?

THE. PARTY. WAS. AWESOME.

I didn't bring my phone so I don't have pictures now but there will be
PLENTY later, letmetellyouwhat. Lots of folks with cameras - I will
share pictures as they're shared with me!

Anna rode to the party in the Caddilac of red wagons, a 2-seater with
cup holders and built-in storage. It was a birthday gift from Aunt
Dede, Amy's sister. She loved our ride to the neighborhood clubhouse
and was greeted at the party by a huge helium-filled Elmo! She ran
right up and hugged him. He was the center of her attention for about
the first 10 minutes after she got there.

By that point the guests had all arrived. Here is who was at the
party, besides the three of us (listed in terms of their relationship
to Anna):
Grandpa Larry & Grammy Amy (party planners extraordinaire)
Aunt Blaire & Chris
Grandma Cindy
Great Aunt Sharon & Great Uncle Tim
Aunt Lauren & Uncle Tim
Great Grandma Peg-o and Great Grandpa Stan

Anna had a blast just bouncing from one person to the next then back
to Elmo then another person... She loves hanging out with everyone
there!

First we ate brunch. We had breakfast casseroles, fruit, and
pasteries. Everything tasted great, though Anna's meal was almost
exclusively strawberries. :-). Then it was time for PRESENTS. Oh wow,
the presents. She had so much fun opening them and got SO much great
stuff! Tons of cute clothes, great books, and toys she just couldn't
wait to play with.

Next was swimming. We put her in her cutie-patootie little swimsuit
and swimmies and took her out with some of her new toys in tow. The
neighborhood clubhouse has a baby pool, which was PERFECT. The water
was about 18 inches deep, just right for Anna. (My) Chris, Lauren & I
swam while the others watched or dipped their feet. She had a ball in
the water, though floating is still a little too scary for her. The
weather was very hot, sun beating down, so the water really felt
great. Anna especially enjoyed playing with her two new watering cans
and "washing" our hair for us.

Finally it was cake time! Besides the traditional banana cake with
brown sugar frosting (thanks for baking it, Blaire!), Amy & Dad put
together the most amazing Elmo cupcakes! Picture it - red frosting,
mini-marshmallow eyes with black frosting for pupils, orange jellybean
noses, and semicircle mouths made out of Oreo cookie halves. So cute!
Anna tore into an Elmo cupcake, getting red frosting all over her cute
white swim cover-up. Oh well - bleach is cheap.

After a swing on the swingset with Grammy Amy, it was time to turn the
wagon around and head back to Grammy Amy & Grandpa Larry's. Even after
all the excitement of the party, she still played hard for another
hour to an hour-and-a-half before we finally hit the road for
Williamston. As you can imagine, she passed out pretty much immediately.

Thanks so much to everyone for making her second birthday party so
special! BIG thanks to Dad and Amy for working so hard on putting the
whole thing together. So many great memories were made today!

Flower Girl Weekend

Brain spurt. Pretty dress. A bonk on the head. Handfuls of rocks. A conversation with a frog. Dancing. A snake.

Lots to talk about!!

We left town at noon on Friday to drive down to Delphi. The ride was a little intense for Anna - had to take about a half hour to stroll around a rest area and blow off some steam. She just wouldn't nap - at least until we were about 15 minutes away from our destination! We ended up driving in circles around Delphi to let her sleep longer, which backfired when she woke up suddenly and was MAD about it. We were a good ten minutes out by that point... it was a long ten minutes.

We went to Cindy's house and bummed around there for about an hour before heading out to the church. At the rehearsal Anna was introduced to the flower girl basket, which was full of silk petals. Starting from the back of the church we tried to show her how to throw them down. This clearly did not compute - she immediately set about picking them all back up and returning them to the basket! We then decided to set our sights on simply walking down the aisle with the basket in her hand! :-) (Keep in mind - no performance pressure really. The consensus was that she could do no wrong!)

She spent most of the rehearsal in the church nursery with a babysitter. The nursery at the Delphi UMC is SO full of awesome things - she had a ball!

After the rehearsal we went to the Stone House for dinner. Anna's restaurant decorum is improving but she's still really squirrelly - she just wanted to run up and down the stairs the whole time. Not totally surprising for her age I suppose. Chris and I took turns chasing her around.

All of the kids' meals on the menu were like carbs + grease + some fat just to make it interesting. The only veggie was french fries. I went off-menu and ordered a scrambled egg, a cup of steamed veggies, and applesauce for Anna. The kid shook his head a little but whatever, it was a better meal! (Not to disparage the Stone House... I really like it there; kids menus in general are just yuck.)

The next morning we made it to the church around 10:30am for pictures. Somehow the whole setup spooked Anna - when it came time for her to have her picture taken with Lauren she kind of lost it and went into full-on clasped-to-Mama freakout. We eventually got the picture taken, albeit with me as an add-in for the picture!

After another hour or so of Nursery Awesomeness, it was time for the ceremony! She seemed to be in a pretty good mood when I took her to the back of the church with the rest of the wedding party. I hugged her, kissed her, and took my seat on the aisle, ready to beckon her to the front. I was optimistic that we would have at least a cute sprint down the aisle until the music stopped and all I heard was a muffled "MAAAMAAAAAAA!!!" coming from the back of the church. Poor kid!

She didn't end up coming out at all. After Cindy was seated she let me know that Anna had hit her face on the corner of a desk and was so upset that they decided to let her go back to the nursery for the rest of the ceremony. It didn't end up being a big bump - just a little scratch on her face, but it was very ill-timed. Oh well - you can only do what you can do! It was definitely a good call not to put her in front of tons of people at a time like that.

The ceremony was short and sweet, very nice. Afterwards the wedding party planned to ride around on the trolly for a bit (those who were at our wedding - remember??). I promised Anna that we would ride on a train and she was SO excited! The three of us boarded with Chris and I just gushing "TRAIN! TRAIN ANNA! WE'RE ON A TRAIN!!" She kind of popped our bubble a bit when she calmly looked around, looked back at us, and corrected us - "Bus." (Why do you have to be so freaking smart sometimes, kid?!?!)

At the reception Anna had plenty of space to run around, however she kept running across the lobby to the museum, where there was TONS of interesting stuff, including a fake rock ledge with a model rattlesnake and a motion-activated hiss/rattle sound. It was just at eye level for her and therefore ENTHRALLING.

Once the music got started, Anna got to show off her dance moves! She already loves dancing... she danced with each of us during the reception. One of my favorite moments of the whole weekend was when I was holding both of her hands and we were bouncing to the music. She looked up at me with this excited look on her face and said "We're dancing!!" I melted - I'll never forget it.

We made it back to Cindy's around 5:30pm. She had skipped nap time and we planned to just keep her awake until bedtime. We decided to go out to eat with Chris' sister Susan and let Cindy put Anna to bed. Just after we sat down at our table (7pm-ish?) Cindy texted to say that Anna had passed out in her arms during a book. Tired baby :-)

Despite being exhausted Anna was still up at 6:30am, sigh. Ah well - it gave us time to get to church with Cindy. For Anna this meant a return to the Room of Awesomeness, which suited her just fine. When I went to pick her up it was so gratifying to hear the nursery attendants say such nice things about her. "She's wonderful!" "Anna is so polite!" "She was so good." It's a wonder I didn't pop off some buttons.

After church we had some downtime and it occurred to me that we hadn't seen Pam & Tom V. in some time. I've known them forever - they went to high school with my mom and we've been visiting them my whole life. It just so happened that their oldest daughter was in the same grade as Chris, so they knew his family too - they knew both of us years and years before we knew each other! I gave them a call and we made an impromptu visit to their house with Anna. It was SO awesome to see them. Their house is in a beautiful setting with forest all around. Anna and Pam had a great time scooping up handfuls of pea gravel and letting them sift out of their hands. "Rocks... handfuuullllll!" Big smiles, grimy hands, good times.

We headed back to Cindy's for lunch. As we were getting packed up we let Anna run around outside a little bit. Behind the house we found a little brown frog! We watched it hop across the yard toward the house - Anna was fascinated. Once it settled down she plopped down in the grass to watch it. Then she started talking to it - she nailed me to the ground with her cute little sing-songy voice saying "C'mere froggy! It's okay... it's okay, froggy, c'mere!" Then she picked a few blades of grass and held them out to the frog, saying "Here you go froggy, it's yours! Here you go..."

Just wow.

We headed home around 2pm and not surprisingly, Anna slept most of the way home. We stopped at Albion on the way home and had a magical visit to campus. It was a beautiful day and after Chris picked up his check, we let Anna wander around the quad. She was happy, energetic, and curious as she darted about, chasing squirrels, giving us pine cones as presents, smelling flowers... it was just awesome.

As we got ready for bed that night we talked about the weekend and I was SO impressed with what she could remember. Our conversation went roughly like this:

Me: Did we go to a party for Aunt Lauren?

Anna: Party for Aunt Lauren!

Me: What did you do at the party?

Anna: Danced!

Me: Who did you dance with?

Anna: Danced with Aunt Lauren.

Me: Who else?

Anna: Danced with Grandma Cindy.

Me: Anyone else?

Anna: Danced with Mama, danced with Dada!

Me: What did you see at the party?

Anna: Anna saw a SNAKE! The snake said SSSSSSSSS!

Me: What did Anna wear to the party?

Anna: PRETTY DRESS!

Me: What color was the pretty dress?

Anna: White.

She kept talking about all this stuff Monday morning and during the day at daycare. When Chris went to pick her up, Marcia woke her up from her nap and the first thing she said when she saw him was "ANNA SAW A SNAKE!"

She's been able to remember and talk about this stuff throughout the week. She is also starting to be able to tell us stuff that happens at daycare like "Anna went down the slide!" or "played with playdoh!" Brain spurt for real.

YAY I FINISHED MY BLOG ABOUT THE WEEKEND! Hope you liked it - g'night!

Payback

Last night Chris and I had taco salads for dinner. Anna kept asking for bites but given her current gastro situation, about the only safe things were the pieces of taco shell we crumbled up at the bottom of the salad. She called the pieces crackers and ate them happily, which we were pleased to see since she wasn't super-enthused about eating much of anything yesterday.

I think she got most of her bites from Chris' bowl - he got home late and ate after I was already done. He had just finished his salad and was still holding his bowl when I directed Anna's attention to a sleeve of her favorite crackers. (I wanted to keep the Actually Eating Something train going...)

I handed her the first cracker. She didn't eat it. She didn't pause to think about it. She just went straight over to Chris and deposited it into his bowl with a soft smile on her face.

How many 22-month-olds are considerate enough to pay you back for the food that you give them???

The Saga Continues

Ok, so I started this story on Twitter: www.twitter.com/annajogrows while Blogger was down.

A little more about last night... while it may have been a combo of gas and this new cold she has, gas was definitely in the mix as she would pass some almost each time I soothed her.

After such a restless night she was in a FOUL mood this morning. Just did not want me to put her down for anything. Ok, maybe one thing - Thomas and Friends on TV. Though I hate doing this, I put on the DVD so she would settle down and let me feed her some breakfast. I was trying to get out the door by a certain time and just couldn't afford to try the coaxing thing anymore as all my usual tricks were failing.

She was clearly exhausted and not feeling well. Today was one of the hardest days in a while for either of us to miss work. I was scheduled to be the lead presenter on a 75-minute session at a statewide conference in Grand Rapids at 10:30am. Chris was scheduled to be at Albion for his usual advising duties plus teach his final class before spring break and do the midterm thing. Both pretty crucial. Both putting us an hour or more away.

She fought her diaper change hard - it took both of us to get it done. I also took her temperature using the, er, reliable method. No fever. Because she didn't have a fever, we had a glimmer of hope that she could go to daycare, but when she railed against getting dressed, basically begging us through tears to put her sleeper back on, that was it, it was clear daycare was completely out of the question.

We came up with this wacky scheme whereby I would drive to Grand Rapids instead of carpooling (putting me on the road for hours with no sleep), leave immediately after my presentation, and get back just in time for Chris to leave for Albion so he could at least make his 3pm class.

I left the house with her hoarse little voice screaming "MAMA!! MAMAAAA!!!" I felt like DIRT.

I was really daunted by the thought of me driving so much while feeling so exhausted myself... so on the way into work, feeling pretty desperate, I called Dad in Indy. I wanted to know if he could come up and help us out so we could both go take care of business. He said he'd make some calls and call me back asap.

After I got off the phone with him, I said out loud to myself, "What am I DOING??" Seriously, Dad lives 4 hours away. Helping us out would torpedo two whole days for him. There may be dire circumstances under which that would be an appropriate thing to ask, but I quickly came to terms with the fact that this 75-minute presentation was not one of them. My colleague was co-presenting with me. While I know a bit more about the material than she does, she really knows her stuff and would do a good job. I decided I just needed to LET GO. Detach from this whole job-as-life mindset that I slip into when I'm not looking. When I got to the office I called Dad back and told him never mind, it's really okay. He comforted me by telling me that I got my attachment to professional responsibilities very honestly and he's glad I'm trying to keep it in check.

I gathered up some materials to work on from home, listened to my ten - yes TEN voicemails, and headed back home. Chris left for Albion not long after I got back.

Anna was far more chipper when I got back, to my relief, though she was still obviously under the weather (see picture on Twitter for clear evidence...). I left a message for the pediatrician, gave her a snack, and watched Sesame Street with her.

Lunch was scrambled eggs, mini waffles, and sweet potatoes. Managed to get her to eat it all. She was cranky after that due to her exhaustion. I let her watch video clips of Thomas on the computer while I ate my own lunch. She was so tired she started nodding off in my lap!

She didn't want to go into her crib right away for her nap. Instead she picked out a Berenstain Bears book for me to read to her. She passed out COLD in the middle of the book and didn't even flinch as I laid her in her bed. Here's hoping for a nice LONG, restful nap and a happier baby in the afternoon.

Catching Up Quickly

Lots of happenings from the last 24 hours or so...

After we got home yesterday I needed to run to Target to pick up a few things. Now - for much of the past year Anna has HATED it when I've left the house without her. Total separation anxiety. That's why Chris and I both had to pick our jaws up off the floor when she and I had the following conversation:

Me: Mama's going shopping, Anna. Bye bye.

Anna: [calmly] Mama hug? [opens arms]

Me: Of COURSE you can have a hug!!! [rushes down for the hug]

Anna: Mama kiss? [leans in]

Me: [passes out from all the cute]

Could hardly believe it. She even stood in the narrow little window next to the door and watched me pull away. Never cried - in fact, she laughed at all the goofy faces I made for her.

Later that night we went to the talent show at our church. It's an amazing tradition, so much fun. Chris was the emcee and he did an awesome job. He told some jokes, did his Robert Goulet impression, played a ukulele, even lead the whole place in a Rock Band version of Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer", which was probably the highlight of the night. I love that our church can rock out to an 80's hair band!

Anna and I went up there during the Open Mic section of the show. I brought up some half-sheets of paper with the letters of the alphabet on them and I invited the kids up to show them to Anna one by one, like flashcards. Anna then said the letter into the microphone (the little ham...) At least a dozen kids came up and enthusiastically helped out. We got about halfway through the alphabet before we wrapped it up for time's sake, and you know what? She got every single letter right! Amazing!! She got so many compliments afterwards. I was definitely bursting my buttons.

Got her to bed a little late but it went smoothly. Wish I could say the same about this morning - she was super-cranky and didn't want to do anything, even fought the diaper change something fierce. She had a little bit of, er, lower-tract distress later in the day which probably explains her crankiness. (Will keep an eye on that situation to make sure it doesn't continue...)

After work and dinner I took her grocery shopping with me. I was preparing to put her in a regular cart when she spied [cue angelic choir singing] THE CART WITH THE LITTLE CAR ON THE FRONT. She was just thrilled to pieces, seriously. Each time I would stop, put something in the cart, and get going again, she would yell one of the following three things:

1. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
2. YAAAAAAAYYYEEEEEE!!
3. CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!

Omg she LOVED it so much. She had other shoppers in stitches. I even had a bit of a rough time peeling her out of her little car in the parking lot.

Tonight when I was changing her into her jammies, she started talking about Marcia's place. For a number of weeks now, she has enjoyed listing the people she sees at Marcia's: "And Marcia and Pam and Nolan and Oliver and Briggsy and Kylie and Claire and..." Tonight she actually started telling me about things she did at Marcia's: "Color, play blocks, table and chair, high chair..." This strikes me as a pretty positive step!

Okay, I'm all caught up, whew!

Birthday Surprise

I couldn't tweet about our plans this weekend because they involved
surprising Anna's Grammy Amy for her birthday... Had to maintain
complete radio silence!

Friday night we weren't sure if we would be able to go- the roads were
really bad and the forecast at the time called for snow through 11am
the next morning. We were not optimistic but still prepared anyway,
just in case.

The next morning we woke at 7am to check the road conditions... And
the snow had magically disappeared! It had stopped snowing hours
before. The road conditions were good and the clouds that were
previously dumping snow all over us had vanished.

We started out later than we had hoped but still made it for a late
lunch at a restaurant in Noblesville. Amy was genuinely surprised...
It was a great moment when she walked in to see the three of us
standing there waiting for her! Her sisters Kath and Dede had
surprised her the night before and joined us, as did Blaire and her
boyfriend Chris when they arrived a few minutes later.

We had a booster seat for Anna and she stayed in it for a little while
(as long as we kept the crayons coming) but she much prefers a "big
girl chair." She wound up eating her order of steamed veggies in a
regular chair next to Grammy Amy after giving her some very sweet
Happy Birthday hugs.

As we were finishing the meal, Anna's toddler moxy bubbled to the
surface. She was just radiating happy energy, despite not napping at
all! Grandpa Larry chased her as she sprinted and squealed around the
restaurant for a while. She pinked up his cheeks pretty thoroughly
before he gratefully passed the Baby Chaser baton to Aunt Blaire. :-)

On the way to the house we told her about the three doggies she'd see
and she got SO excited. She maintained her Toddler Comet energy level
all the way through to bedtime, keeping us all very entertained.

At bedtime she was overly tired to the point that she was not super-
cooperative. After wrestling a diaper onto her, she did not want to go
to sleep in this strange place. (we've stayed there before, but still,
not routine.) I ended up propping myself up a little in the guest bed
and letting her fall asleep draped over my chest. I waited for her to
be deeply asleep (I even dozed myself) before finally laying her
limply in her pack n play.

The rest of the night did not go so well, despite her obvious
exhaustion. She woke up screaming at 2:15am. Not sure whether it was
just the unfamiliar surroundings or a lingering problem with dairy
digestion, but in any case she was NOT going back in that pack n play
and we couldn't let her cry it out with a house full of people. About
the only thing we could do was drag her into the bed with us. For the
first time ever in her life, she actually fell asleep in our bed.

It lasted only around 3 hours, though- she started stirring and just
flopping all over us. {Okay, shove feet in Daddy's face, now smoosh
Mama's mouth, aaaaaaand SWITCH!} Eventually I gave up and took her out
in the living room around 6am.

We lazed around a little... She made some noise but not a ton. Soon
Amy and puppy Brewster joined us. We had a nice time hanging out while
the others slept. Fed Anna her breakfast cereal (spiked with probiotic
powder) while Brewster looked on hungrily.

Sesame Street is shown by our local PBS station at 8am on Sunday, but
not in Indy... We opted instead to watch the "Elmo Loves You!" DVD, a
present from Grammy & Grampy.

Dad spoiled us with yummy egg sandwiches on freshly-baked biscuits.
Anna had a great early lunch of scrambled eggs, biscuit bites, banana
chunks, and strawberries.

After loading up on so much good food, Anna's engine wound down to a
lower gear. She had a healthy case of The Stares as we packed up the
car and got ready to go. We weren't to far down the road when she took
a nice deep sniff of her blankie and drifted off to sleep. That was
close to 90 minutes ago - a really great car nap for her!

Glad we could help give you a Happy Birthday, Grammy Amy!

We Signed Up For This

The last 24 hours have not gone to plan. I'm disappointed, I'm frustrated, and I'm tired, but I'm trying my best to keep perspective - overall, we have a good, smart, healthy baby and difficult days like this have not come as frequently for us as they come for others. I'm repeating all that in my head when I feel like screeching in frustration!

All last week she and I had a mild cold but it was never bad enough for either of us to stay home. By the latter half of the week, we were both pretty much better. Or so it seemed - when I picked her up from daycare yesterday, her nose was running like crazy. I don't know whether she picked up a new bug or what, but her nose is definitely unhappy.

Bedtime went surprisingly well and I thought we might luck out with a good night, but then just before 11pm, things went south quickly. I went in to comfort her and she just got progressively more and more irritated, even as I soothed her. It felt like we were rolling downhill, just picking up speed, getting worse and worse. We were stuck in this pattern, I would calm her, she would fall asleep on me, I would try to put her back in her crib, she'd wake up and cry, clinging to me tightly. Eventually I was unable to calm her anymore, she was just crying and yelling constantly even as I rubbed her back, rocked her, and sang to her.

I have to think there was something else going on. Last weekend she had bouts of inconsolable crying at the end of naptime due to painful gas. She does not have a history of inconsolable crying AT ALL and this gas thing is a recent and strange development. We are clueless about what might be causing it as there doesn't seem to be any particular food she's eaten recently each time. We've been in touch with the pediatrician's office - we just have to keep an eye on it and watch what she eats to try to figure it out.

Back to last night - we were at a loss for what to do. Chris came in from time to time but it was fruitless - there was nothing he could do. I tried to bring her into our bed (which we have NEVER done ever due to sids paranoia, even though she's past sids risk now) but it was too strange to her and it just made her madder. I then resigned myself to a night on the couch with her draped across my chest. We spent maybe 30-45 minutes downstairs but didn't stay there... being downstairs ended up helping her settle down. Then she was finally happy but wide awake. From there it was a matter of winding her back down again. We went back upstairs, read some books (oh man I struggled to keep my eyes open) and she finally went back down again, albeit with an Elmo board book that would keep her awake and occupied for another 15 minutes. Then she finally, FINALLY fell back asleep at around 12:45am.

She slept until about 8am and we had a pretty okay morning, although with the rough night and the nose still running, we decided to call off our Valentine's date for this evening. Huge bummer, but hey - we signed up for this sort of thing when we decided to become parents.

Then came naptime. No dice. She was (somehow) full of bubbly energy and never settled down, just kept talking and playing with her books and stuffed animals. She was up there for less than an hour before we called it off. With no nap, she ended up being on the cranky side of things for much of the rest of the day - no surprise.

I went out from about 5:45-7:15pm to run to Target and Kroger. (I left with the Traumatic Screams of Abandonment ringing in my ears and saw her looking balefully out the window at me as I pulled away; stab through heart).

As I was driving home Chris texted me a picture of her 100% passed out in her high chair. When I walked in I again heard her crying angrily in her room... I went upstairs and found Chris rocking her and singing to her. While she slept he had taken her out of her high chair, taken her upstairs and almost finished changing her diaper when she woke up and got mad. He told me she had also didn't eat very much for dinner (she passed out before she had the chance!), which was probably part of the problem.

I took her downstairs and offered her lots of different things, some of her favorite foods, but she wasn't having any of it. Finally I resorted to breakfast for dinner and whipped up some of her usual breakfast cereal - and score. She ate every last bite and even ate a few spoonfuls of peas after it was gone. Turned out to be not such a bad dinner. From there we went upstairs and tried to follow our usual routine as closely as possible. While she still fought sleep for an unusually long amount of time (how??? I don't know!! she has to be exhausted!), she finally fell asleep and has been down for close to two hours now. THANK. GOODNESS.

So that's where we are right now. I'm writing this as I watch the Olympics and Chris and Leila are snuggled up next to me, both snoring. Hoping for a better night, skipping church tomorrow to take care of her (and not spread germs around the church) and hoping that we can celebrate Valentine's Day in some small way tomorrow.

On the bright side, we've already booked the babysitter for next Saturday instead... we will have our night on the town sooner or later, dangit!

Valentine's Party

Anna's daycare is having its Valentine's Day party this Thursday and I can't decide what she should wear. Ok folks, I realize it's not exactly her prom dress choice or anything; I know it's no big deal... but I still thought it would it be fun to let democracy decide. SO: Please see below and then vote!

Choice 1:

Pink fleecey hoodie with red polka dots, pink & red striped pants.

Pros: Size is good, colors are right on.

Cons: Nary a heart to be seen.

Choice 2:

Red velvety top with hearts in the lower left, black pants with little white hearts.

Pros: Colors are right and plenty of hearts.

Cons: Size 18 months and getting a little snug.

Choice 3:

I ♥ Elmo shirt with either jeans or cargo pants.

Pros: Colors yes, hearts yes, and she LOVES her Elmo.

Cons: A little on the casual side.

Choice 4:

Velvety red dress with butterflies and hearts in the lower left, white tights.

Pros: Totally cute and she'd be the best-dressed kid at daycare.

Cons: Doesn't exactly fit our weather situation and I bet the daycare ladies wouldn't appreciate the tights vis a vis diaper changes.

There you have it! Vote by blog comment, email, or twitter.

Crazy Talk

One thing that nobody warned me about before having kids was the hallucination factor. I have had more middle-of-the-night bizarre hallucinations since Anna was born than during my entire life up to that point. Early on, when we were very sleep-deprived, it was worse, but I still somehow still work up a good n' crazy hallucination once in a while. Last night was one of those nights.

Chris just emailed me the following.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Around 1:30 I rolled over onto my right side, toward you. As I did so, you reached your hands underneath me mumbling something about Anna.

Chris: What?
Brooke: Where's Anna?
Chris: She's in her bed.
Brooke: No, where's Anna?
Chris: Anna is in her crib.
Brooke: I know, no, she's not.
Chris: It's the middle of the night.
Brooke: (unintelligible)
Chris: You're dreaming right now.
Brooke: [confidently] No I'm not. Commercial Anna might be in her crib, but (unintelligible) Anna might not be...might be on the TV.
Chris: What?
Brooke: [getting frustrated] Fine, if you don't want to go check... [starting to get out of the bed]
Chris: Whoa, whoa...
Brooke:

[aside] He says she's in her crib.
Chris: She is in her crib, I promise.
Brooke: [grabbing clock, checking time] Look, we still have a lot of time before my alarm goes off...
Chris: Okay.
Brooke: We'll figure it out.
Chris: Okay, good night.
Brooke: Good, right.
Chris: Have a good one?
Brooke: Have a good WHAT?
Chris: Night.
Brooke: Okay?
Chris: Get some sleep.
Brooke: [

acceptance, albeit with a hint of skepticism]

Anna playing with blocks

When we got home from daycare, Anna was just... effervescent. She played with her Mega Bloks and talked up a STORM. The battery was dead on our camera so video wasn't an option, but I was able to grab a couple of audio clips with my phone. Enjoy...

Clip #1

Clip #2

(Kind of reminds me of the audio tapes my mom made when we were really young. Love it.)

So Far So Good...

Tonight was it: the night we took away the pacifier!

It's about quarter after 9 as I write this and Anna is fast asleep. Yesssss....

It was a bit rocky but not as bad as I had feared. I envisioned a full-on meltdown, complete with reddened face, bulging veins, and snot streaks under her nose. Fortunately I was way off!

When we first faced the no-foofoo situation, she did start to cry. She then waited patiently as I fully emptied her diaper bag (at her request), which is usually where the foofoo ends up at bedtime, having been brought home from daycare. I gestured grandly, "see, no foofoo!" but she was already playing with a light-up truck phone that had been taken out of the bag. Round one: Mama.

A few minutes later she asked for her foofoo again and I explained gently, "Foofoo all gone. All done foofoo." She grimaced, she wailed a little, she took a moment to search under her crib, then stood up and confirmed in a resigned tone, "all done foofoo."

The tuck-in and final good-night went quite well, better than expected, but then started the moaning & groaning. I let her whine (never fully crying) for a good bit of time before I went back in and rocked her some more. The second time seems to have worked... she's been quiet since 8:45!!

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the night pans out... one of the main reasons we decided it was time for foofoo to be dispatched to the great beyond is that she's been waking up more frequently lately, wailing for us until we plug it back in, then immediately falling back to sleep. She's perfectly capable of settling herself back down at this age. We'll see if night 1 of the NFE (no foofoo era) is full of fitful wake-ups or not.

But seriously - I did not think things would be going this well at this point!! Don't want to call it a victory yet though... it's a long night.

Scary

We got away easy, but man did we have a scary scary SCARY moment tonight.

Don't freak out - Anna is fine, totally fine - but tonight she fell down a flight of stairs.

We were visiting some of our church friends across town. The parenting group was getting together to eat, watch football, and hang out.

Their house has lots of stairs, very unconventional layout, and their kids are teenagers so they've long since un-babyproofed.

Anna is very much drawn to stairs right now - she loves going up and down and up and down and again and again and AGAIN so it was just a recipe for disaster, really - tons of stairs and a toddler who is currently drawn to them like a magnet.

She just got away from us for just a brief moment and bam, there she goes, tumbling down the stairs.

I didn't see her fall so I don't know how she DIDN'T get seriously hurt, but somehow she managed to end up virtually unscathed. No obvious bumps or bruises and no signs of concussion. The fact that the stairs were pretty thickly carpeted surely played a role in keeping her safe.

I just... I can't even believe it! We were trying so hard to keep her under wraps, passing her back and forth throughout the visit. I also can't believe how LUCKY we are, to have had a very dangerous and scary thing happen yet have her come away just fine.

For those of you who may be concerned that we might have missed a sign of concussion, here's why we think she's fine:

• She never lost consciousness, just after it happened or at an uncalled-for moment later on. She did doze off in the car on the way home but, mind you, she had no nap today.
• Just after it happened and we got her calmed down, she easily counted to 15 on request.
• She continued to be as sharp and articulate as normal for the entire rest of the evening. She talked, read, sang, and danced as normal.
• We checked her pupil dilation with a flashlight when we got home. Her pupils looked fine and she even played a while with the flashlight afterwards, shining it back in our eyes and delighting in seeing the light spot float all over the walls.

So we're good. Anna's okay and Chris and I both managed to not throw up upon realizing that she had fallen down a whole flight of stairs.

Whew.

WHEW.

Donations and Health Kits for Haiti

We have to all do something about Haiti. Every single one of us.

All day today my my thoughts drifted to Haiti. I tried to put my myself, my husband, and my daughter in the shoes of Haitians affected by the earthquake.

What if Anna was trapped under the rubble and we could call to her but could not get her out?

What if she was wounded and dying but we could not find a doctor to treat her?

What if she survived the first few days but then died of cholera or dysentery due to lack of sanitation, the two of us powerless to help?

What if she survived the injuries and the disease but then slowly starved to death? Or was killed in the civil unrest resulting from millions of people trying desperately to survive?

What if she died and we had no means to bury her properly?

How on Earth could we go on??

There are REAL people facing all of these REAL problems above and more right NOW. Real parents, real children, real sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles.

What can you do?

First, you can send money. www.redcross.org, www.umcor.org. Please please PLEASE give. Give as much as you can.

After you have given, please consider putting together some simple health kits. When there is no sanitation, the ability to provide basic hygiene can and will save lives. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is asking for health kits to distribute in Haiti. Throw a few extra items in your cart the next time you're shopping and collect the following items in a sealed one-gallon ziploc bag:

1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27", No kitchen towels)

1 washcloth

1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)

1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)

1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)

1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)

6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

$1.00 to purchase toothpaste (just a $1 bill for each kit is fine; put it in an envelope if you want. If you wish to donate more please write a check for the toothpaste cost and your donation - make it out to UMCOR.)

Notes on health kits:

• All items included in kits must be NEW items.
• All emergency kits are carefully planned to make them usable in the greatest number of situations. Since strict rules often govern product entry into international countries, it is important that kits contain only the requested items-nothing more.
• Do not include any personal notes or additional materials in the kits. These things must be painstakingly removed and will delay the shipment.

What to do with the kits when you are done:

If you live in the Lansing area, you can give them to me. Two people from my church will be leaving for Haiti on January 26th (tentative) and they can take kits with them.

If you don't live near me, you have two options:

1) Call a local United Methodist Church (http://tinyurl.com/umchurches) and ask if they are able to accept health kit donations for UMCOR.

2) Ship your completed health kits to the UMCOR Depot in Louisiana.

Address:

UMCOR Sager Brown Depot

P.O. Box 850 131 Sager Brown Road

Baldwin, LA 70514-0850

Before you ship anything, please review the shipping instructions here: http://tinyurl.com/healthkits

Please hurry - the need in Haiti is overwhelming at the moment. Do whatever you can. Thanks to all of you.

Cuteness and Sickness

I have a lot to catch up on from the past two [busy] days. All the stuff I want to tell you about is either about cuteness or sickness.

Cuteness

I'll just bullet point these little gems out:

• Yesterday while I was at work, Anna was sitting on the couch next to Chris. Out of the blue she laid her head on his arm and said "Hi Dada, I wuv you."
• Lately we've been doing the whole "This little piggy went to market" thing with her toes and she has been eating it up with a fork and spoon. So much so that both yesterday and today she grabbed Chris' toes and gave the rhyme a try: "An a market, an a market, an a market, an a market, WEEWEEWEEWEE... home."
• Last night we were on our way out the door to take Anna to the doctor. Chris was getting the car ready and I was almost ready to go - I had Anna's coat, hat, and mittens on, and my own coat and scarf. I was walking quickly around the kitchen/dining/living room area switching off lights. Anna noticed that I hadn't put my hat on yet and was apparently worried that I would forget it because I found her chasing me around the room, hat pinched between her mitten hands, worried look on her face, yelling "here Mama! Here Mama! Here Mama!!"
• This one is more smartness than cuteness - As we were walking up to the doctor's office Anna started saying an odd-sounding word with three syllables. I couldn't make it out at first but as we got closer to the building I realized her eyes were fixed on a stop sign and suddenly the word she was saying made sense - "octagon." (How is this even possible???)

Sickness

Anna has not been 100% healthy since early December. It's always been mild, has seemed to come and go, and she never seemed that slowed down by it. Just your standard runny nose with accompanying cough. She would also sometimes put her fingers in her ears but we just thought she was being silly... she discovered that it was funny to stick her fingers in her ears and go LALALALALALA! so we didn't think much of it.

Earlier in the week I thought she had a fever because her temp was in the 99's. Because I was sick with a fever earlier, I called it in when I got home from work yesterday. The nurse didn't think much of the fever but was alarmed by the longevity of Anna's runny nose and asked her to come in asap. They had a 7:40pm appointment open and we took it.

The doctor said she didn't really have a fever - rectal temperatures below 100 are ok for her age - but that she does have both an ear infection and a sinus infection.

At first I felt like such a deadbeat parent - she's been sick for WEEKS and I didn't do much of anything about it! Just some saline drops, motrin now and again, some vapo rub... what a jerk, right? How could we let her be sick like that???

Then I thought more about it. There is much made of parents who become obsessive and call in every little sniffle, every little bump, anything. Kids are going to get sick and unless it becomes seriously problematic, we are supposed to just ride it out and let it strengthen their immune systems. Because Anna is almost ridiculously sunshiny, it was very hard to tell that she was feeling all that bad. So we were just coasting, assuming that she was just getting a series of smaller bugs. How were we supposed to know?

So it stinks that we let her be sick for so long, but it didn't seem to cramp her style much at all and she's going to get better now. I think it's pretty good that she made it to 18 months without needing an antibiotic.

That's all the news for now... tomorrow it's back to daycare! She has been missed - last night when I called to tell Marcia that Anna wouldn't be in today, she told me that one of the little boys about her age has just been wandering around the daycare calling out "Anna! ... Anna!"

Awww.