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Thirty consecutive days of blogging later and I can't decide if I loved it or hated it. At first it was completely liberating, like I'd checked myself into a nudist colony. But then I ran out of crap to talk about. And the weekends! Oh god, the weekends.
All hail M. Kennedy! It was a brilliant idea and well executed from beginning to end. I'm just glad it's over until next year.
No wonder she screamed only for the last shot! It left a welt on her thigh the size and feel of a golf ball. It was the flu shot, in case you're wondering, the only shot that was optional and the immunization most likely to come in handy now that Alex is in preschool. Unfortunately, she'll have to get a booster in a month.
And because I'm seriously at a loss and there's only ONE DAY LEFT, here is a picture of my boy with fire in his eyes. He did NOT want his picture taken. Too bad.
I took Genoa for her six month well baby this morning and for the sake of her baby album and the fact that she doesn't technically have one (unless this blog counts), I should note the following statistics for the record:
Height: 26.75 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 16 pounds, 14 ounces (70th percentile)
Head circumference: 44.5 cm (92nd percentile)
She's pretty well on track for all three measurements, whatever that means. The only item of note is her giant Charlie Brown noggin. Apparently, it's, um, really big. When Dr. Chen said, "we'll just keep and eye on it to make sure it doesn't grow too fast," my instant response was 1) to freak out and 2) to try not to shriek when I coughed out WHAT WOULD THAT MEAN. Apparently, if her head grows to fast it could mean encephalitis (aka BRAIN SWELLING). So glad I asked about that one, let me tell you!
After the doctor reassured me that the chances of that are pretty much slim to none and that Genoa doesn't show any of the signs of delayed development that would indicate any swelling in the brain, I made the constructive decision to simply not. freak. out. about. it. She's fine. I know it. She just has a freakishly giant head because she's extra smart! That's our story and we're sticking to it.
I also asked the doctor about another phenomenon I've noticed and I'm sure you have too (but you were too nice to say anything because you're sweet like that). My girl? She is orange.
Seriously. I've been noticing it more often lately and my gut told me it was too much beta carotene. (The only reason I even thought of that is because my dad was friends with David Sanborn a decade ago and I remembered that he used to only eat like five foods, four of which were carrots and the man was orange. Seriously noticeably orange.) The doctor agreed. Our girl looks a bit like she went overboard with the spray-on tan. She's going to get back to me on whether or not I should worry about vitamin poisoning (!) and in the mean time, poor girl, sweet potatoes are out.
I also asked about the celiac disease thing and officially decided I should get myself tested before I give Genoa anything with gluten. When I mentioned that my sister was just diagnosed and that my mom and I have always considered our constant diarrhea to be par for the course, she seemed to think it was a topic worth investigating. We'll see. I will seriously dread it if they need to draw her blood. That would suck.
I should also note for the record that Genoa had four shots and didn't cry until the very last one. Of course I lied and told Alex that she didn't cry at all because she was so brave. That three year appointment is coming up here and I need all the ammo I can get.
We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house yesterday. The food was excellent (and NOT turkey), the sky was blue and the whole day was totally relaxing. My kind of day. Exactly. We also took a butt load of photos. This one is my absolute favorite, but to really see the beauty in it, you have to look past me and the dog to the adorableness of Alex playing with his Daddy in the background.
Before dinner, I begged my brother Tom to help me take our family Christmas card picture. We all got dressed, posed on the porch and Tom snapped over 100 pictures. Of which ONE is usable. And I'm not even going to use it because, sure, we're all mostly looking at the camera and in focus, but it's Blah City. I have the world's most adorable children and this photo doesn't do either of them justice (not to mention the fact that I look like I'm phoning it in):
At one point I asked my brother why he wasn't using the flash and he told me
it looked better without it. HA. I LAUGH AT YOU AND YOUR
FLASHLESSNESS. I basically have that boring photo up there and 106 photos that look like this:
Tomorrow I'm going to snap some photos of the kids dressed up in (different! new!) Christmas outfits and we'll end up sending one of just the two of them. Photographing the entire family in one sitting is just too damn hard.
I also got another great idea from Suebob's post with ideas for putting meaning back into Thanksgiving. Here is what we are all thankful for (click to see the entire set):
Our thanksgiving was great. In fact, neither Dave nor I can remember ever enjoying our meal more than we did last night. I think we might've started a new tradition, which makes sense since we're both ambivalent about turkey anyway. I also enjoyed one three too many watermelon cosmopolitans and I paid for it a bit this morning. Not even my coffee tasted good.
We spent the day mostly relaxing. We went to the park, rented a movie, had a starbucks and now that we're home, Alex is completely melting down. He's playing with his Barrel of Monkeys across the room and when he drops them, he yells, "LOOK WHAT YOU DID MOMMY!" even though I'm sitting in my chair and not even looking in his direction. That's some three-year-old rationale right there. He's SO tired. His fever is gone, but obviously he's not feeling 100% yet.
Dave is out joyriding in his new Xterra. He really loves it and I really love that he loves it. Yesterday he went out with a tape measure and calculated the height differences between our two cars. Turns out his is an inch taller. Crisis averted!
I flickr'd a bunch of stuff from yesterday including all the food that is now sitting in my fridge attempting to make me sick just thinking about it. There are some cute baby pictures too.
Even though we are sick, I have never had more reasons to be thankful.
I am thankful that my baby is six months old today. My angel. My smilie, happy little girl. We are so lucky to have her. Just like with Alex, it never ceases to amaze us that she is literally the result of a sex act. These little miracles spring from a twinkle in Dad's eye into PEOPLE. We've made PEOPLE, people, and it's totally amazing. I highly recommend it.
Last weekend we went to a birthday party and she was cheerily chatting with her friend Sprout (above) when Alex needed to go inside to pee. She was happy, so I left her for MAYBE three minutes and when I returned, my friends were passing her around to see who could get her to stop screaming. She's such a momma's girl! Not that I'm complaining. It really doesn't bother me that we are glued together at the hip. I only hope I get to be so lucky when she's a teenager.
I am thankful for my amazing little boy.
Yesterday at the park he joined a group of big kids who were playing a game of shark and he got tagged after thirty seconds. I'm grateful that he is still too young to know that the big kids were teasing him for not really understanding the game. The oldest boy, who was probably ten or eleven, kept saying "try to get me baby". It hurt my heart, but I was proud that he had not been too shy to simply walk up to one of the boys and say "can I play with you?" I'm also proud that they thought he was acting like a baby because they had no idea he was only three and assumed he was much older. Most three year-olds don't possess the social skills to initiate games with other children. I'm thankful our boy is so special.
I'm thankful that over the course of a ten+ year relationship and all the ups and downs we've gone through, Dave and I are currently on a mighty sexy up swing . Apparently nothing makes him hotter than the sight of me cooking a casserole*. I certainly can't complain. Dave wakes up every day and offers to make me breakfast and the best part of every day is when we get to be alone after putting the kids to bed. To say that he is still my best friend is an understatement.
I'm also thankful that my sister just got diagnosed with Celiac Disease because it means she doesn't have a stomach tumor or cancer or anything really, really bad. Of course gluten allergy sucks at least ten kinds of ass, but it's treatable. And that's a good thing. Anyone have any good gluten free recipes? Anyone? Anyone? (Moxie?)
Happy thanksgiving and I hope you find just as many reasons to be thankful as I have.
*Cooking casseroles without wearing a bra doesn't hurt.
