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August 30, 2005
When Keith came home today, I was telling him all about the news stories I've been reading about New Orleans, and started drawing him a little map of New Orleans' elevation above sea level versus the height of the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain and the sea. In the middle of this Zeke came in and tried to interrupt, but we told him firmly that Mommy and Daddy were talking and that he needed to wait until we were done. So I finish drawing my little graph, talking all the time about levees and sandbags and flooding, and Keith says it's very interesting, and we have to stop Zeke from interrupting us like two more times during this, but then finally it is Zeke's turn to talk. He just wanted Daddy to read him a story or something, so they traipsed off down the hall together.
Keith came back a few minutes later and resumed chatting with me. Then Zeke came down the hall, waving a piece of paper that I realized was my hand-drawn map of New Orleans. He very seriously showed it to us, pointed at one of the lines, and said, "Look! This is where we have to put the sandbags so that the river does not go into the city!"
What can I say? Zeke likes maps.
Posted by Jan at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
I took the kids to the library earlier today. I've been letting Zeke pick out most of his own books (I do exercise some administrative control or we'd wind up with nothing but Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder books), and today he picked one called "Jellybeans". It had a friendly picture of two anthropomorphic animals and some jellybeans on the cover.
So I get this book out to read it to him earlier today, and it starts out innocently enough, with the first character (Bob) getting a letter from the second character (George) about how they should get together later, and will Bob bring jellybeans? Bob writes back and says yes he will, and will George bring drinks? So then they meet up with each other and have a little conversation about what flavor of jellybeans Bob brought and what kind of drinks George brought. Then Bob says, apropos of absolutely nothing, "I wonder if we go to heaven when we're dead."
Imagine the sound of screeching brakes and the smell of burning rubber and you will have a rough approximation of my state of mind at the moment I reached this page. I flipped quickly through the rest of the book and found that, yes, the rest of the book was all about Bob and George having a conversation about whether they would go to heaven if they died, and if so, whether they would be able to recognize each other in heaven because there is a chance that "when we go to heaven we might not remember anything that happened in our lives before we died."
I told Zeke that maybe we should put the Jellybeans book away for now and go find "Daisy-Head Maizie". I mean, cripes, I thought it was going to be a fun little book about jellybeans, not a deep theological discussion about the metaphysics of death and the afterlife.
Maybe I should have just stuck with Bob the Builder.
Posted by Jan at 11:28 PM | Comments (1)
August 14, 2005
Two nights ago Stazi didn't want to nurse at any of her night wakings. She just snuggled next to me in her bed and then eventually dropped back off to sleep. Then today at naptime she didn't ask to nurse, either. I just sang her a song ("New York City", TMBG, if you must know) and then her little eyelids fluttered closed and she's sleeping like a rock now.
By George, I think this is what all the books refer to as "self-weaning"! I suspect she'll still want her nightly before-bed nursing session for some time, but who knows? The only thing that's for certain is that until my body adjusts to this new schedule, I'm going to need to find my old nursing pads. Yesterday I soaked through two separate shirts. It's almost like having a newborn again. Sheesh.
Posted by Jan at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)
August 8, 2005
Zeke-isms
A few days ago me and the kids and my sister and brother-in-law were in the mall parking lot, discussing the little signs they have there indicating how many parking spaces are currently left in the garage. My sister said, "I don't trust those things." Zeke piped up and said, "Aunt Amanda, I don't trust them either." He then paused, pointed to a yellow arrow on the ground, and said, "But I do trust this arrow, though."
We all agreed that those arrows pretty much won't let you down.
Then today when I was picking him up from preschool, I told him that this week we would go to the fair. "Oh, YAY!" he said, and then informed me solemnly, "At the fair I think there will be candy. There will be different kinds of candy. Maaaaybe.... there will be pop candy."
"Pop candy?" I said.
"Yes. Pop candy. Baby Tazi will like it. She will say, it is yummy! Because she can talk."
Posted by Jan at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)
August 5, 2005
Stazi had her 18-month checkup yesterday. We just switched to a new pediatrician, so it was a bigger deal than usual. The whole family went along. Keith wanted to get a chance to evaluate the new doctor, and we also wanted Zeke to get the opportunity to see the doctor and get to know her, even though his next checkup won't be for another six months or so.
We switched because, obviously, I wasn't happy with our old pediatrician. Mostly it was a problem of attitude, or bedside manner, whatever you want to call it. He always talked directly to Keith and I, and rarely addressed the kids personally. He rarely used the kids' names. He just didn't really seem like a "kid person" to me, and if that's true, boy is he in the wrong profession.
The other thing that really bugged me is that Keith and I generally like to limit the number of shots that the kids get in one visit to no more than two. We just feel that more than two shots is unnecessarily traumatic and taxing to the system. This is partially based on the fact that Keith got several immunizations in one day when he joined the Navy, and felt like crap on toast for the next week or so. I mean, neither of us would want to get three or four shots in one day; why should we inflict that on our kids? I've always told all of our doctors' offices over the years that we're more than happy to bring the kids back in a few weeks specifically to get caught up with immunizations. We're not anti-vaccination; far from it. We just don't like to do too many all at once.
The previous pediatrician threw a little snit fit the first time we mentioned this. He looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, and then he sighed deeply and said, "Well, can I ask you WHY in the WORLD you wouldn't want to get all the shots today?" I explained to him more or less what I said in the previous paragraph. He then recited what I'm sure he's said to dozens of other parents he's trying to talk into something: "Well, all I can say is that if they were my kids, I'd have it done." (Note: He does not have kids.) He then proceeded to tell us that it doesn't really bother the kids to have so many shots in one day and four shots doesn't really hurt worse than one or two. So I didn't really appreciate the condescending attitude, to put it mildly. Actually I was tempted to grab the nearest hypodermic needle and shove it into his arm five or six times and say, "What's the problem? It's not supposed to hurt, right?" Asshole.
So I finally got sick of putting up with this crap and went through the rigamarole of getting the kids' files transferred to a new pediatrician. We found the new one based on a recommendation I got from one of the other moms at Zeke's preschool.
My first impression is that I like her. She's got the right combination of friendliness and no-nonsense-ness that really appeals to me. She made eye contact with Stazi, called her by her name, and treated her like a real live human being. The thing with restricting shots didn't come up, because I decided that since these are the last three shots until Stazi has to go to kindergarten, we may as well get it over with in one visit, but in general I felt that she took us seriously and interacted well with the kids. Also she did not give me any crap about Stazi still breastfeeding.
Anyway, the verdict is that Stazi is still healthy as a horse. She's 75th percentile in height and 60th in weight and 75th in head circumference. Her motor skills are great, she's talking enough to satisfy the doctor, and we don't have to come back to the doctor's office until February, when she turns 2.
All in all, it was a good visit.
Posted by Jan at 9:48 AM | Comments (1)
August 3, 2005
Well, we have officially made the Big Transition; as of two nights ago, Stazi is now sleeping in her own bed in her own room. The "bed" is actually a futon mattress folded in two and covered with a sheet, and she's sharing the room with Zeke, but still, it counts. This was precipitated partly by the fact that she's been waking frequently at night and I think it's because she's crowded and needs her own space, and partly by the 95-degree heat wave here. It's just too hot to have that many people in one bed.
So far things have been...iffy. The first night, she woke at midnight and then again at 4 AM, but I was able to re-settle her quickly both times. Last night she woke at midnight again, but wouldn't go back to sleep until 1 AM, which coincidentally is when Keith's alarm clock went off for his 2 AM start time at work today. So that was not super fun. However, we are going to keep at it.
In other Stazi news, I finally got around to buying her some hair detangler at the grocery store today. Zeke never really had this problem, because his hair is thick and wavy. Stazi's fine, delicate hair, however, tends to get snarled into horrific knots that are impossible to get out without yanking out half of her hair in the process. I got sick of seeing the hair on the back of her head sticking out in every direction and looking like a knotted mess, so I tried out the detangler this morning. I am happy to say it works like a charm. Stazi still wasn't happy with the whole process, but it was way less traumatic than the last time I tried to comb her hair, and all the tangles did come out.
And, uh, that's pretty much been the big excitement here lately.
Posted by Jan at 9:29 AM | Comments (1)