Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Memorial Day weekend 2006

Laura and I were fortunate enough to be invited to New Hampshire to spend the weekend with Thomas' family. They have a townhouse/condo next to Loon mountain in Lincoln, NH.
We left about 7:30pm on Friday night so that the kids could sleep on the ride up. Laura slept but woke up once we got there (2 1/2 hours later) and stayed up for another couple of hours since she was not familiar with her surroundings.
The next morning, after breakfast, we went to Storyland which is a small amusement park geared toward kids. A kid's paradise, a parent's torture chamber. Anyway, we were standing in line for the first ride, which was a SLOW car buggy. Laura followed Thomas underneath the banister separating the lines. Thomas came back but Laura started booking. I had to crawl underneath and run after her. She, of course, took a spill and landed right on her face. Her upper lip was bleeding and puffed up. Poor kid. I held her for a while, put ice on her lip and then took her on a SLOW train ride around the park. She seemed to like that. We ended up going on the car ride afterall but it was not very exciting.

The best part of the park was a small section designated for smaller kids. It had the story lines like Peter Rabbit, Mother goose, 3 pigs, etc. The kids loved it.

































Thomas especially loved the balls. Laura enjoyed herself as well but proceeded to take a big dump here.




























By the time we finished with the park, it was around 4 or 5pm. The kids did not nap and it was really evident.
We drove back and Laura did not sleep. I now realize that when Laura is overly fatigued, she becomes a bully. She was hitting and pulling Thomas' hair all night. We gave them dinner, got a bath and put them to bed.

The next day, after breakfast, we went to the bear show. I can't remember what this place was called but it was close by. There was a SLOW train ride that goes to a dead end and then comes back to the station. The "theme" is that the train gets attacked by the "Wolfman" who is an overweight white guy in the "Mad Max" or the others from 'Lost' type of theme and shoots a fake shotgun in the air. Laura was clutching me the whole time more b/c she was afraid of the loud train. It was funny though b/c there were older kids, maybe 4 to 5 who were crying their eyes out from fear.

We then watched the bear show. It's apparently a tradition for like 50 years where this family trains black bears to do tricks. It was cute but nothing exciting.














We had lunch and then went outlet mall shopping. Both kids, again, did not nap until the ride back. We let them sleep in the car for about an hour.
We had dinner and then I drove back to Boston with Laura at around 7:30pm.
Overall a great trip.

Monday, May 22, 2006

19 months


While I was away for the 24 hr period, Laura was very sick and having a lot of difficulty breathing. Hubby took her to her doctor on Monday and he thinks that she has asthma. Very disconcerting. She improves during the course of the week. Hubby stays home with her for most of the week.

1st week of May: Rain, rain, rain and then on Thursday: Gorgeous 74 degrees. We go to the playground after work. Hubby makes pizza for dinner.

May 7th: Sunday
Picnic at Arnold Aboretum. The day is sunny and gorgeous. A bunch of us bring food and have a great time. In the shade is cold but in the sun, it's warm and pleasant. The lilacs are in bloom and glorious. Laura doesn't nap at her usual time so she is a bit cranky then slept in her stroller for about an hour. We spend most of the day from 1pm to 5pm. By 5pm, it abruptly becomes chilly and we all sped home.


May 12th: Friday evening. I take Laura to the Atrium mall (against my hubby's request) b/c I am burned out from the week and need her to just run around so she will tire. It has rained nonstop for the whole week so she has not had a place to play except her home. Of course she gets sick!

May 14th: Mother's day.
Happy 2nd Mother's day. Laura is sick, her breathing worsening during the course of the day. The rain is just nonstop. Hubby is working all day. Laura begins to cough nonstop and appears short of breath even though she does not appear distressed. I start to freak out. At about 2pm, I call hubby to try to get home early. He says he'll try but is busy. By 3:30pm, Laura is getting worse so I pack her stuff and put her in the car. Drive to Boston Children's hospital and call hubby from the car.
What a fantastic ER. Triage is efficient and we're whisked to a room right away. The ER doctor sees her in a timely fashion. She gets some oral prednisone then 4 nebulizer treatments. She improves dramatically. Diagnosis: Reactive Airway Disease (aka Asthma). Hubby gets there about the same time. What a miserable day.
Here is a picture of Laura after I brought her home. She was so tired, she just wanted to sleep on the floor in the foyer.

Rain, rain, rain. Record rainfall and massive flooding in northern part of Mass,NH and Maine.

May 17th: I take Laura to her pediatrician. Dx: Asthma. He gives us a nebulizer machine and then wants to give a steroid every day for a YEAR. Preventative measure. Ugh. Hubby makes and appointment with a pediatric allergist for the end of the month for any alternatives.

Here's a picture of Laura coloring a card for her grandmother.


Tidbit stories:
It's amazing how fast she is growing and how quickly she is learning. Every night while I am putting her down, she points to all the various parts of my face and names everything. Nose, hair ('air'), eye, ear are easy for her. She has to think and be reminded about new words like eyebrow, chin, cheek.
She loves Ernie and Elmo. I bought her a sippy cup with Elmo, cookie monster and Big Bird on it. She says "Elmo!", "Cookie!" and "Chicken". She now calls Big Bird by the correct name. However, when she is outside and she sees all the birds chirping, she points to them and says "chicken". This is so cute that I don't even correct her.
I bought her a pair of sunglasses. She loves it b/c she thinks they are like the glasses I wear. I put them over the stereo and forgot about them until later on that day, I was standing over them. She was reaching up to the sky and kept saying "I, I, I" and crying. Huh? There was paper and junk on the counter and I kept picking up stuff, "Is this what you want?" but she was getting frustrated and said "I, I" until I looked on the stereo and saw her sunglasses. She was saying "eye, eye, eye".

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

16 to 18 months




It was around this time when Laura was becoming more cognizant that this event occurred. I was trying to potty train her and at this stage, she was going through a long stretch of constipation so it was always readily apparent that she had to go number 2. She would hunch over and start straining and make a gutteral noise at which point I would pick her up and sprint to her potty. I would make it to her potty maybe 30% of the time. She would then get up and point to her masterpiece and say "doo doo". I'd put it in the toilet and flush and she would say "bye bye".
Anyway, on one of these nights, her belly is distended after eating dinner and I assume she will have a poo. She only has a small one. Alas, not wasting any time, I threw her in the tub. After scrubbing her down, I let her play in her little tub while I went to her room to get her towel. I came back and she was holding something in her hand. She said "Mama, doo doo." AAUUUGGGHHHH! She was holding a large turd in her hand and the entire tub was filled with poo. Hard, soft, floaters, sinkers, CORN! Horrible. I took her out and had to scrub down the tub then rebathe her. Hubby was working that night and I told him the whole horrid story in which he asked, "did you get a photo?" Huh?! Okay, let me just run down and get the camera while she's holding a big turd in her hand. Uh, NO! (did you notice the appropriate picture of her eating corn above the bath picture?)

Feb 18th. My sister comes to visit with her boyfriend and she brought back my cat, Kato. She kept her for about a year and a half b/c I just couldn't deal. Kato was always a skittish and high strung cat. Hates men and has a pissing problem (when she gets pissed, she pisses). My sis couldn't take her anymore so she brought her back to me. Laura just became entralled. She was very hesitant at first but after a while, she became much more comfortable with Kato. She would wake up in the morning and look for her. "Dado?" she'd call. So, moving into our new home, Kato adjusted very well and seemed very happy, actually hanging out in the open instead of hiding out in the closet. Kato and I had a serious talk and I said, buddy, you get 1 chance. You can live here and be happy but one false piss and you are going bye bye.

I'm not much of a green thumb but I transplanted my old Christmas cactus with one that a friend gave me (both of which has not bloomed in years) and voila, this year, they bloomed. Gorgeous.

Laura continues the sickness trail of 2 wks sick, 2 wks healthy and we both follow. It's a miserable winter. Overall, mild with only a few not very hearty snow storms but still cold (to me).
Hubby goes through some dental work this month (February) and it's not pretty.

Most of Laura's activity revolve around going to the "Treehouse" at our gym so she can run around or to the Atrium mall where there is an indoor playroom which is infested with germs (every time she goes, she ends up with a new cold)

A rare nice day (Sunday) after a daytrip visiting hubby at work for lunch.


April 2, 2006. We are invited to go to the Big Apple Circus with Laura's little buddy, Thomas. (Or as Laura calls him, "AhMi")
I didn't know why she was so scared. First I thought it must be the loud music. She was clutching onto me for dear life. She was a little better in the middle of it and then when there was another clown act, she turned around and clutched me again. Hmmm. Weird.

April 5th. Typical snow in April.
Laura is sick AGAIN with fevers. Call in sick.

A new toy from Uncle Wonton. She loves Sesame street. The MP123 player with the likes of Elmo rapping to the Bingo song. Laura loves it.

April 13th. My mother has a green thumb.
Took a couple of days off and visited my folks in Philly. When I picked up Laura from daycare on Wednesday, I took her to the playground b/c it was a bit chilly but sunny out. Her eyes were swollen. They were swollen for most of the weekend. Hmmm.

Philly is warm: mid 70's. Trees are blooming, grass is green. It's gorgeous. I don't even need a jacket. Laura takes a while to warm up to my parents. She's having separation anxiety. (She hasn't seen them since Thanksgiving). Whenever my mother tries to pick her up, she has a fit. Plus the whole puffy eye thing (allergic rx to something?) doesn't help. My sister arrives on Friday and Laura warms up to her pretty readily.
We go to Minhado restaurant and then Assi grocery. Laura sees a mixed asian boy and calls him "Ahmi". By the end of the weekend, Laura is clutching onto my sister as if she was her MOMMY!
April 17th: Patriot's day.
I work for the federal government so they don't recognize this holiday since it is only a New England thing. Last year, I forgot and showed up to daycare and found that it was closed. I had no choice but to bring the child to work since hubby was already working. I distinctly remember driving to daycare thinking, WOW, the traffic is sooo light today. I wonder what THAT's about.
This year, a patient of mine REMINDED me that there was no daycare so that I would not make the same mistake again. Luckily, my hubby was not working.
April 22nd. I take my first trip away from Laura to NYC to visit my sister. She needs help purging all of her goods for spring cleaning. This is an EVENT that is so fantastic that I must take the voyage. I get first dibs on all her stuff and boy did I score. I only leave Laura for about a 24 hr period. I call regularly and find that she is AGAIN, very sick but hubby is taking good care of her.
I feel free. It is good and bad. Guilty but delicious. It's a crappy weekend, cold and rainy but I don't care. We go to 'Iron Chef' for sushi then walk around and get drenched to get baklava and then to an local Indian restaurant for dinner. The freedom is remarkable. I mean, I love my child but it was the first time in 18 months that I felt free. It was a good weekend. I leave 7am Sunday morning.