Constantinople (Not Istanbul)

We’ve been reading some of the Dr Seuss books to V since Christmastime, including Hop on Pop. The end of the story has a little girl saying her Daddy reads big word too, like ‘Constantinople’ and ‘Timbuktu’.

This morning, V was sitting on the couch with one of Chris’ library books open in her lap. She looked up at me and said ‘Constanople’ [sic].

Too cute.

Introducing Cordelia Anne!

Born Friday, June 27, 2008 at 6:09 pm. She weighed 8lbs 13 oz, 21 inches long. Labor was induced Friday am at 7:00, and she popped out after only 5 pushes!

What timing

So…four weeks (or less) to go and counting until the new baby arrives, and V decided that last night was when she wanted to start potty training. We were reading her stories for bedtime, and she got all wiggly and insisted on “diaper off”. I said if you want to take your diaper off, you need to do pee-pees on the potty. She said “onna floor?” (I put her in a defective diaper earlier this week and she leaked on the floor) and I said “No, we don’t do pee-pees on the floor”. Then she said “Onna changie table?” and I said “No, we don’t do pee-pees on the changing table. We do pee-pees in the diaper or in the potty.” She became increasingly insistent that I take the diaper off, and after saying it’s okay for her to pee in her diaper, I obliged her. We went to the bathroom, she sat on the potty, held my hand, and did a pee! She was so excited she demanded Daddy come up and check it out. We got her back into her diaper (which was completely dry), and she went to sleep.

This afternoon during lunch (after throwing half of it on the floor and being pushed back from the table until she could behave herself), she got all wiggly again and cheerfully announced “pee-pee coming!”. A few minutes later she started squirming again, and started asking for “diaper off”. So we raced for the bathroom, whipped off her diaper, and after a little fit about the small red potty we have in the downstairs bathroom, she held my hand, relaxed and did another pee! That’s two in a row of her identifying the feeling, insisting on having her diaper off, and peeing on the potty!

She’s been waking up relatively dry for the past few days (instead of rather soggy), so I’m hoping this will be an easy task. With any luck, she won’t regress too much once the baby arrives - and it may even reinforce the “babies wear diapers” concept. I’m just concerned that all the transitions (new baby, new yet-to-be-determined daycare, potty training, and eventually a new big girl bed) will stress her too much. We’ll mitigate what we can as it happens (and she’s such a easy-going kid for the most part), so hopefully it won’t be that bad.

Genes

So how exactly am I supposed to get a two-year-old to sit still long enough to do not one but TWO nebulizer treatments (albuterol and pulmicort) for her wheezing that may (or may not) be asthma?

Ugh.

The backstory: Three weeks ago she had hand, foot, and mouth. A week after that she had impetigo (a nasty staph diaper rash). The next week, she started with the phlegmy cough and had a fever of 102.5 on Saturday night. Fever broke, but cough and snotty nose persisted. My diaper disinfecting routine included a new detergent (Charlie’s) that we’re BOTH allergic to - poor thing had nasty red burns on her little bits and I wasn’t too comfortable myself. (Which means another round of stripping all the soap off the diapers tomorrow before she can wear them again).

She woke up singing this morning (the happiest she’s been in a couple of weeks), we went grocery shopping and came home. After a short romp around the backyard she started to get fussy, and then crashed on my lap around noon. By 12:30 she was sound asleep after not having any lunch. Slept for an hour, and woke up with a fever of 103.9. We called the doc’s and got there for 2:15. Fever was down, her oxygen level was registering a 94 (and the nurse tried two meters and wasn’t happy with either one of them). The NP we saw prescribed amoxicillin for what may or may not be a chest infection, pulmicort (a corticosteroid) for long-term, and albuterol for the next week or so (until the wheezing stops). We’ll follow up with her regular doc next week.

She puked about 20 minutes after finishing the treatments. An hour later, she was wired and literally bouncing off the walls. An hour after that, she crashed hard and her fever had returned. She didn’t even make it to a story before bed - she was out for the count. I’m half expecting her to puke again - she’s been swallowing so much snot it isn’t funny. Her appetite was better today than it has been, which is encouraging.

On the bright side, at least we got a spiffy new nebulizer out of it. Mine is (no joke) 20 years old, noisy as hell, and on its last legs.

Happy Birthday, V!

You woke up this morning to Mama and Daddy singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you. For breakfast, we had a bagel with cream cheese and raspberry jam and a banana. After breakfast, you help mix and cook your birthday cupcakes. You thought Mama throwing the pink ball up to the ceiling and catching it was hysterical.

When the cakes were all cooked, we went to the train station. On the way there, we saw lots of buses and trucks! We had to wait for three trains in the wrong direction before one came to take us to South Station. We got to talk to Papa while we waited for our train. After we got on board, you ate goldfish two by two. When we got to the station, we walked next to a park, down a street past tall buildings, and across a bridge! On the other side of the bridge was the Children’s Museum!

Once we got inside, the first thing we did was play with the big bubbles. You did a great job making enormous ones with the ropes. Mama had fun trying to get you to use the hoops to make a big one. You even stood inside of a bubble! That was fun until you stepped in the bubble juice container on the floor. Oops! Good thing you were wearing your water shoes!

After the bubbles, we went and played on the slide in the ball room. You had fun climbing up the stairs and sliding down. Next, we rolled golf balls down a track to make them jump into cups. Yours made a great loop de loop before going in.

Our next stop took us upstairs to the Construction Zone, where you got to climb through a tunnel, put on a hard hat and ride a digger! That was so much fun! After a hard day’s work on the construction site, we took a break to do some grocery shopping in the local market. I think you had three pineapples, six cloves of garlic, eight mangoes, two bananas and a lemon at the end of the trip. Yummy! A quick stop to drive a truck around the neighborhood, and we headed downstairs.

Mama got to play musical chairs! Unfortunately, you were too little to trigger the sound until Mama helped you. There were other fun things to do, like catch butterflies and roll marbles around on the big screens. I think the next room was your favorite: the water room with boats! You put on a life jacket and sat on a boat, and then we grabbed a smock to play in the water table. I think you spent a good 10 minutes just dumping water from one bowl to another, but it looked like you were having fun! It was time to go when you dumped the water onto both feet.

Lunch time! We headed out after drying off and had ‘maggie oneys’ (macaroni & cheese - that you didn’t eat, by the way), watermelon (that you couldn’t get enough of), banana, chips, milk, and monkey juice (yogurt smoothie). Mama had a teriyaki steak rice bowl and a lemonade. Yum! You were very good, except when you started dropping forks on the ground and then bumped your head on the wall while sitting down.

After lunch, we put sunny glasses on and walked back to the train. When we got home, we read a quick story and had a great nap! (Both of us!) Both Nana and Grandpa called while you were asleep to say Happy Birthday. Daddy came home from work while you were asleep, and the only way you wanted to get out of bed was after being enticed by freezie pops on the porch (your favorite treat!). After pops were all done, we headed inside to decorate your birthday cupcakes while Daddy cooked a yummy chicken stir-fry. You put the pink and purple sprinkles on top of the cupcakes all by yourself. For dinner, you actually ate your chicken, all your rice, and demanded seconds on carrots. Mama was so happy!

When dinner was declared ‘All done’, you got washed up and ready for birthday cake! Mama put two candles in your cupcake and carried it in while she and Daddy sang ‘Happy Birthday’ again. Your face was lit up as brightly as the candles. You tried to blow them out, and then got a little scared so Mama helped. I hope you get your wish, sweetie. You licked all the frosting off your cupcake, and even ate half of the cake. Then it was time for presents! Your big one will be coming at your party this Sunday, but today you got three horses (My Little Ponies), and two books (Richard Scarry’s Day at the Airport and Day at the Fire Station). Daddy read you the Fire Station book for bedtime, and the last thing we heard you say from the monitor before you fell asleep was “Happy Birthday, V!”

Love you!

V was so naughty this morning: not eating her breakfast, making a mess, running away instead of putting on her coat, taking her shoe off in the car…sometimes I think she’ll drive me completely up the wall.

But as I was walking out the door from her classroom, I blew her a kiss and said good bye. She put down her banana and signed ‘Love you’. I’m pretty sure this was the first time she said ‘love you’ without being prompted.

Her communication skills just keep getting better and better. She’s trying out multiple words for things (big girl cup, big girl chair, ….

6/25/08: I started this and never finished it. Oops! I think this happened back in April or maybe March sometime.

Potty talk

V just did a pee on the potty!

She’s been fascinated with potties for a while, so a couple of months ago we dragged out the red Bjorn our friends gave us. She’s been really happy with it, just sitting every time she feels like it with her clothes on. Last week we picked up a second, bigger potty so the little red one could come downstairs (one for each bathroom). She’s delighted with it. It’s got a lid and everything. So today while giving her some nekkid time to battle a nasty rash, she did her usual sit for two seconds then hop up, then go back for two seconds thing. She started to sound a little uncomfortable so I offered to put a diaper on her. She ran right back to the potty (we did this whole thing a few times). I went to close the door to our bedroom and left her standing near the potty when I heard the splash of pee on plastic. She hopped up while still going - a little disturbed by the whole thing - but she did get some in the potty where it belonged! I cheered and clapped while wiping her up, and tried to reassure her that that’s what was supposed to happen. She finally started to get happy about it. We got a diaper on and went to tell Daddy who was all excited.

I don’t think she’s quite ready to do it all the time, but it’s a big first step. With any luck she’ll be close to trained by the time the next one arrives!

Yay V!

Lots to tell!

Need to find the discipline to actually sit down and do it.

For now, I’ll leave you with this:

V is going to be a big sister.

White & Nerdy

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Chris and I went to see Weird Al Yankovic in New Bedford on the 19th. What a hoot! We left V with C&W and Miss KE to play, and headed down around 6pm. We got a parking space right in front of the Zeiterion Theatre, and picked up our tix from the will call desk. Since we hadn’t had dinner yet, we wandered around looking for a place to it. The neighborhood reminded both of us of Worcester, and our attempt to find food before the Queen concert in 2006. Eventually we saw a little burrito place that was still open. What a find! It was skateboard-cool, with skating and band stickers on every surface, and hat-clad guys working the kitchen. It had a very casual, welcome-to-my-house, pull-up-a-seat kind of feel to it. And the burritos! They were the biggest, yummiest things I’ve ever had. Too bad we don’t live closer, or we’d go all the time. There were a few other patrons who were obviously there for the show (parents with boys aged 10 or so), so we had fun people watching too.

Finished with dinner and headed back to the theatre. This is one of the old theatres that has been revived or restored. The staff were all very grandparently, and there was no line to get in. Our seats were in the center section, right on the aisle, and 3/4 of the way back from the stage. The theatre was tiny, so it was almost like having 20th row seats in a larger venue (if that makes sense). The red plush seats were super cushiony, and reclined when you sat back in them. The audience was such an interesting mix of 30-to-40-something geeks, 12-year-old boys with their parents, and college kids. I don’t know if it was the venue, or the crowd or what, but when the music started, everyone stayed seated. It was like watching a movie (although there were clips of Al TV on the three big screens on the stage…). The only time anyone stood up was to clap at the end, and we stayed standing all the way through his (too long) rendition of Alberquerque.

The concert was fantastic, though. The music was great - typical Al stuff. He did all the big ones - Fat (in the fat suit), Eat It (in the Michael Jackson jacket), and the ‘Saga Begins’ was complete with Jedi costumes and dancing Storm Troopers. He followed The Saga Begins with Yoda, which had a great break-out choreographed scat section that was incredible to watch.

Chris was a little disappointed that he didn’t interact with the crowd at all - just a ‘how ya doing, new bedford?’ at the beginning and that was it. It was a great show, though. We both really enjoyed it.

They say it’s your birthday…

My birthday yesterday was a lovely, low-key little family thing. Got nifty presents (a new little digital camera from Chris, a digital photo key chain from H&B, a lab scale from T, D & Co., a bottle of whisky from my folks, and a massage in and envelope from Mum!), and Chris, V and I had a lovely dinner at the new Cheesecake Factory at the South Shore Mall. I got my Ravelry invite on Friday evening, so I spent most of yesterday taking pictures of my yarn stash with the new camera and uploading them. I feel more organized already!

The only downside is the allergy issues I started last Friday have developed into a full-blown pain in the head that’s also moving into my lungs. And to top it off, work is about to get very interesting with my boss about to have her final two weeks with us. I’m so very sad she’s leaving, but at the same time I’m excited for the new opportunity she’s taking. The group and the department are both reaching critical mass, and there are going to (hopefully) be a lot of good changes coming down the road. I’m excited and freaked out all at the same time. It means, however, that I need to be able to do not only my normal work, but keep my head clear enough to focus on some of the bigger picture issues. Like I said, very interesting. I did get news today that I got the promotion I was hoping would come, and that really helps me feel like I’m on the right track.