Malia had her 15 month appointment this morning and it was a rough well-baby visit for a variety of reasons:
1) She woke up this morning at 5:30am to a massive poop. For reasons known only to her, she's designated her crib as the Primary Pooping Area. She only poops in her crib. It wrecks havoc on her naps but I suppose if a girl's gotta go, then a girl's gotta go. I had hopes of nursing her back to sleep... until Kael walked out of his room at 6:15am and kicked Truong out of the kid's bathroom so HE could poop. It was an odd morning to say the least.
2) She didn't eat breakfast. Since the kids were up early and the house cleaner was coming, I decided to take them out for breakfast -- alone. Bad idea. Malia was so distracted at Kael's antics and Kael was so amped up from waking up early, that breakfast was... well, not quite a complete disaster, but not very successful either. Let's just say I was able to doggy bag a lot of food, despite Malia wearing a good portion of it. Hopefully Kael will eat his lunch at school to make up for the lack of breakfast.
3) She's just an ornery kid. She knows want she wants and will let you (and everyone within a 2 mile radius) know what she doesn't want. She most definitely did NOT want the doctor touching her. She was fine with him in the room chatting with me but once he pulled out the stethoscope, she shook her head, said "nononono" and ran away. I pulled her into my lap and she proceeded to swat his hands away. When that didn't work, she tried to hit him. And when that didn't work, she used her powerful lungs to scream him away. It took both the doctor and I to bear hug her (me) and hold her head still (him) to get the exam done. By the end of the exam (10 minutes) she was so pissed, she was practically foaming at the mouth. It was the fastest exam I've ever gone through. Kael was the best kid (read: mellow) when it came to the well visits (he doesn't cry at all now). The only time he cried was when he got his shots and even then it was over when I picked him up. So this screaming banshee routine - I don't know what to do. When the nurse came in to give Malia her 3 shots, she didn't bat an eye. Well, she did give Stacy a suspicious look (or maybe it was the evil eye) but didn't try to run away or hit her. Since she was already "prepped" by the exam, she knew something was up once I got her on her back to receive the shots. Her kicking was fierce and her screaming was glass shattering. It was a relief to finally get her clothes on to leave. She did throw her shoes across the room to show me how mad she was.
So here are her 15 month stats (drum roll, please):
Weight: 16 lbs (definitely a keeper)
Length: 30 inches
It's not much by most standards but for Malia, it's phenomenal. She's gained 15 oz since her 12 month visit and the doctor is very pleased. She's hitting all her milestones in terms of development and she's obviously very active so we've accepted that she's going to be a petite girl. And given the appointment we just had, being petite in no way affects her ability to being heard.
Our next appointment is her 18 month in November. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I can get Dad to take her....
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
She will not tan.
Sunblock, SPF 50 -- Check!
Hat, wide brimmed -- Check!
Full rash guard suit, SPF 50 -- Check!
Swim shoes -- Check!
Shovel -- Check!
My girl will find it hard to tan, much less burn on my watch. We are prepared for a day at the beach.
We attended a beach party at Doheny State Beach and the kids had a great time. The weather was great and the water was warm. Malia didn't nap this morning -- at all -- and she's still working on those two molars, so we were expecting the worst but hoping for the best. She did pretty good up until the very end. Malia's a pretty good baby - she's got to be beyond tired to fuss. Around 1:30pm, she started to fuss and she fussed right up until her tush hit the carseat and then she went out like a light... before we finished loading up the car, before I had the chance to load up Kael. She was T-I-R-E-D!
Kael had a great time. He met the grandson of a client and it was pretty funny to watch the boys play. Christopher is 6 and already you can tell he's going to be a hunk and a half when he grows up. He's obviously very athletic, with the innate grace natural athletes exude. Kael is 4 with the expected clumsiness and goofiness of being 4. They were trying to play soccer. "Trying" being the key word... In the end, the kids had a great time chasing each other around and Kael was pretty bummed to leave.
Kael, checking out the beach.
Found our spot.
Let the digging begin!
Malia didn't like the slope at first but she quickly got over it and started running into the water.
Digging is very serious business.
Back at the tent, Malia is blissfully eating edamani beans.
1) Luckily she hasn't figured out the zip-lock bag (yet).
2) The proper way of sitting in a chair.
The improper way of sitting in a chair.
Ice cream mustache.
Hat, wide brimmed -- Check!
Full rash guard suit, SPF 50 -- Check!
Swim shoes -- Check!
Shovel -- Check!
My girl will find it hard to tan, much less burn on my watch. We are prepared for a day at the beach.
We attended a beach party at Doheny State Beach and the kids had a great time. The weather was great and the water was warm. Malia didn't nap this morning -- at all -- and she's still working on those two molars, so we were expecting the worst but hoping for the best. She did pretty good up until the very end. Malia's a pretty good baby - she's got to be beyond tired to fuss. Around 1:30pm, she started to fuss and she fussed right up until her tush hit the carseat and then she went out like a light... before we finished loading up the car, before I had the chance to load up Kael. She was T-I-R-E-D!
Kael had a great time. He met the grandson of a client and it was pretty funny to watch the boys play. Christopher is 6 and already you can tell he's going to be a hunk and a half when he grows up. He's obviously very athletic, with the innate grace natural athletes exude. Kael is 4 with the expected clumsiness and goofiness of being 4. They were trying to play soccer. "Trying" being the key word... In the end, the kids had a great time chasing each other around and Kael was pretty bummed to leave.
Kael, checking out the beach.
Found our spot.
Let the digging begin!
Malia didn't like the slope at first but she quickly got over it and started running into the water.
Digging is very serious business.
Back at the tent, Malia is blissfully eating edamani beans.
1) Luckily she hasn't figured out the zip-lock bag (yet).
2) The proper way of sitting in a chair.
The improper way of sitting in a chair.
Ice cream mustache.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Would you like one lump or two?
It's been a while since Kael's gotten into any accidents. I was starting to think that maybe his aura changed and I could put away his crash helmet.
I was wrong.
Wednesday we meet Annie and her two boys at the park and then headed over to Carl's Jr. for lunch. Carl's has an air-conditioned indoor playground that's great for the kids to get out the last wiggles before naptime. While there, Kael konked heads with another kid. Pretty hard. REALLY hard. Both boys came down screaming but only mine got the goose egg. The other kid only had a red spot where the heads hit. My kid - I was worried that he got a concussion!
It's still swollen and discolored today. He says it still hurts but apparently it doesn't hurt enough to not go back to the park. Go figure.
Here he is 10 minutes after the collision. It's already looking really ugly.
But it's the side view that really makes a statement.
OUCH!
I was wrong.
Wednesday we meet Annie and her two boys at the park and then headed over to Carl's Jr. for lunch. Carl's has an air-conditioned indoor playground that's great for the kids to get out the last wiggles before naptime. While there, Kael konked heads with another kid. Pretty hard. REALLY hard. Both boys came down screaming but only mine got the goose egg. The other kid only had a red spot where the heads hit. My kid - I was worried that he got a concussion!
It's still swollen and discolored today. He says it still hurts but apparently it doesn't hurt enough to not go back to the park. Go figure.
Here he is 10 minutes after the collision. It's already looking really ugly.
But it's the side view that really makes a statement.
OUCH!
Malia's First Scream Lesson -- I mean SWIM Lesson
We finally registered Malia for swimming. I feel so bad - Kael started swim (Mom and Me) at 6 months old and here's Malia, almost 15 months old...
The lesson started out great. I was expecting the crying to start when I handed her off to Sara. Malia loves the water but she's never been in it with a stranger. Surprisingly, she didn't fuss at all and looked at Sara with a befuddled "who ARE you?" look on her face. Sara got her to back float the first time without any problems and dunked her under the water without any problems. But as she repeated the exercises, Malia caught on to the game and started wailing. Then she really understood what was happening and only wailed when Sara counted because it's 1-2-3-DUNK. Malia was fine in between dunkings but when she heard the 1 count, she would starting wailing, arch her back and do the limp noodle act. It took Kael awhile to master the float without freaking out and it looks like Malia is the same. She only sucked in water the wrong way a couple of times and by the end of the 15 minute lesson, she knew to close her eyes and hold her breath.
Kael had his lesson at the same time and I could tell he was really bothered by her crying. I heard him tell Jamie his instructor "That's my baby sister Malia crying - I need to go help her. " It was so sweet. Hopefully she'll get used to the lessons in a couple of weeks and learn to love them as much as Kael.
The first back float.
1-2-3....
DUNK!
What the @#$% just happened?!
She's starting to get fussy with the floats. She's not wailing yet - just eh-eh-eh!
Another dunk. Her eyes are tightly closed.
Now we're full blown wailing.
Otherwise she's just fine and dandy in the water. You like her tie-dye swim suit? It's size 12m and so baggy on her!
So it's really really obvious she hates the back float. But look at her form - it's perfect!
And here's our brave little swimmer at the end of her first lesson.
The lesson started out great. I was expecting the crying to start when I handed her off to Sara. Malia loves the water but she's never been in it with a stranger. Surprisingly, she didn't fuss at all and looked at Sara with a befuddled "who ARE you?" look on her face. Sara got her to back float the first time without any problems and dunked her under the water without any problems. But as she repeated the exercises, Malia caught on to the game and started wailing. Then she really understood what was happening and only wailed when Sara counted because it's 1-2-3-DUNK. Malia was fine in between dunkings but when she heard the 1 count, she would starting wailing, arch her back and do the limp noodle act. It took Kael awhile to master the float without freaking out and it looks like Malia is the same. She only sucked in water the wrong way a couple of times and by the end of the 15 minute lesson, she knew to close her eyes and hold her breath.
Kael had his lesson at the same time and I could tell he was really bothered by her crying. I heard him tell Jamie his instructor "That's my baby sister Malia crying - I need to go help her. " It was so sweet. Hopefully she'll get used to the lessons in a couple of weeks and learn to love them as much as Kael.
The first back float.
1-2-3....
DUNK!
What the @#$% just happened?!
She's starting to get fussy with the floats. She's not wailing yet - just eh-eh-eh!
Another dunk. Her eyes are tightly closed.
Now we're full blown wailing.
Otherwise she's just fine and dandy in the water. You like her tie-dye swim suit? It's size 12m and so baggy on her!
So it's really really obvious she hates the back float. But look at her form - it's perfect!
And here's our brave little swimmer at the end of her first lesson.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Sleep, sweet sleep
Truong was on a business trip last night and while it sucks, it's also OK since I've got the timing of putting the kids down to a well orchestrated science. By 11:30pm, I got myself to bed. I always have a hard time settling down when Truong's gone but I was feeling pretty sleepy by then.
12:01am - Malia starts crying. She always cry around this time. I don't know why. Half the time her eyes are closed but she continues to cry and cry. Sometimes she can settle herself but not tonight. I barely got any sleep so I feel very sluggish as I drag myself out of bed to get her. Plus usually Truong gets her for me. I bring her into bed with me to nurse and she falls asleep. Now I can't sleep because I'm pretty tired and I'm scared that I'll sleep too hard to realize when/if she walks off the bed.
12:20am - I can't take the worrying anymore and I bring her back to her crib. She's in a dead sleep so I hope she stays asleep in the transfer. This of course doesn't happen and she wakes up screaming bloody murder as I close the door to her room. Luckily she settles down after a minute or so and falls asleep. Ahh - finally, sleep sweet sleep.
2:00am - "MOM! PEE!!" This I hear from the monitor in Kael's room. Ugh - while I'm thinking evil thoughts for yet again being woken up, I'm happy that he's at least telling me that he has to go rather than going in his pull-up. He tends to lay in bed and waits for me to get him so if I don't get him in time when he wakes up, I miss the opportunity to have him use the potty and wake up dry. So this is good. It would have been better if it wasn't at 2:00am but I can't complain. I run to his room and hustle him out of bed to the bathroom. We go back to bed and I tuck him in. I made the mistake of putting Mikah next to him when it should have been Baby Jaguar. He tells me the proper order of animals that should be in bed next to him and I realize that he's pretty lucid for 2:00am in the morning. I quickly tuck him in, kiss him g'night and run out of his room in fear that he's waking up. As I'm doing all this, I'm telling him "Please go back to sleep. Please go back to sleep." However, I can't tell if I'm telling him "PLEASE, go back to sleep" or if I'm praying "pleasegobacktosleep, pleasegobacktosleep." Doesn't matter. It's 2-friggin-o'clock in the morning. Back to bed - ahh, sleep sweet sleep.
6:00am - I hear voices. Strange voices telling me about traffic. It's Truong's damn alarm clock. I can't believe he left it on! ARGH!! I don't know how to turn it off so I push all the stupid buttons. I manage to dim the numbers and turn on the CD before the radio gets turned off. I settle myself back down. Then I think "what if I just pushed the snooze button and it'll turn back on in 10 minutes?" So I get up again and actually read the buttons this time to properly turn off the alarm. Back to bed - ahh, sleep sweet sleep.
6:07am - I hear noises from Malia's room. DAMMIT DOESN'T ANYONE SLEEP AROUND HERE ANY MORE?? I angrily slap on the video monitor and there she is: awake, walking around her crib and playing. I'm too tired to care. I turn off the monitor and try to go back to sleep. In the meantime, I can hear Malia chatting to herself, playing with the music toys and opening/closing her shutters.
6:20am - She's getting louder, calling me. She actually doesn't say "MAMA," she says something else that I can't quite pronounce but I understand her tone to mean "mama." She's not mad or crying, just yelling it, knowing that I'm next door. So I get up and bring her into bed with me to nurse in the hopes that she'll fall asleep.
6:40am - Not dice. She's totally awake despite nursing on both sides. She's mobile, crawling all over me. I try to doze with one hand clutched to her onesie to prevent her from falling over the edge. She starts to play the nose game with me (points to her nose, says "nose!" then points to my nose and says "nose!"). I'm not as animated as I usually am so she starts playing harder, jabbing her finger UP my nose rather than AT my nose. I quickly stop the game before I end up with a bloody nose. Then she scoots onto my belly and does the horsey-ride bounce. Cool - this I can do with my eyes closed so I start bouncing. Until she launches herself off sideways and comes within inches of the floor. It's this moment that I decide having a mattress on the floor would be a good idea. She can crawl where she wants at will, I won't have to worry about a broken neck, and I'll be able to catch more sleep. I'll have to discuss this further with Truong when he returns.
6:55am - I put her on the ground to wander around, after closing my bedroom door to keep her in the room with me. My eyes are closed, but my head is hanging over the edge of the bed - this is my way of sort of keeping an eye on her. I forgot to close the bathroom door and she walks out clutching toilet paper, making a banner from the bathroom all the way to my bed. I'm past the point of caring. Then she wanders to the bathtub and turns on the water. The granola guilt in me propels me out of bed to turn off the water and I figure, what the hell I might as well get up.
So that was my morning. Malia went down for her nap at 8:25am and Kael finally woke up at 8:30am. I'm staring at my pot of coffee, willing it to boil faster, working on the laptop as Kael's eating his oatmeal. I'd have gladly paid someone $20 to run to Starbuck's to get me a cup of java but alas, it's just me.
12:01am - Malia starts crying. She always cry around this time. I don't know why. Half the time her eyes are closed but she continues to cry and cry. Sometimes she can settle herself but not tonight. I barely got any sleep so I feel very sluggish as I drag myself out of bed to get her. Plus usually Truong gets her for me. I bring her into bed with me to nurse and she falls asleep. Now I can't sleep because I'm pretty tired and I'm scared that I'll sleep too hard to realize when/if she walks off the bed.
12:20am - I can't take the worrying anymore and I bring her back to her crib. She's in a dead sleep so I hope she stays asleep in the transfer. This of course doesn't happen and she wakes up screaming bloody murder as I close the door to her room. Luckily she settles down after a minute or so and falls asleep. Ahh - finally, sleep sweet sleep.
2:00am - "MOM! PEE!!" This I hear from the monitor in Kael's room. Ugh - while I'm thinking evil thoughts for yet again being woken up, I'm happy that he's at least telling me that he has to go rather than going in his pull-up. He tends to lay in bed and waits for me to get him so if I don't get him in time when he wakes up, I miss the opportunity to have him use the potty and wake up dry. So this is good. It would have been better if it wasn't at 2:00am but I can't complain. I run to his room and hustle him out of bed to the bathroom. We go back to bed and I tuck him in. I made the mistake of putting Mikah next to him when it should have been Baby Jaguar. He tells me the proper order of animals that should be in bed next to him and I realize that he's pretty lucid for 2:00am in the morning. I quickly tuck him in, kiss him g'night and run out of his room in fear that he's waking up. As I'm doing all this, I'm telling him "Please go back to sleep. Please go back to sleep." However, I can't tell if I'm telling him "PLEASE, go back to sleep" or if I'm praying "pleasegobacktosleep, pleasegobacktosleep." Doesn't matter. It's 2-friggin-o'clock in the morning. Back to bed - ahh, sleep sweet sleep.
6:00am - I hear voices. Strange voices telling me about traffic. It's Truong's damn alarm clock. I can't believe he left it on! ARGH!! I don't know how to turn it off so I push all the stupid buttons. I manage to dim the numbers and turn on the CD before the radio gets turned off. I settle myself back down. Then I think "what if I just pushed the snooze button and it'll turn back on in 10 minutes?" So I get up again and actually read the buttons this time to properly turn off the alarm. Back to bed - ahh, sleep sweet sleep.
6:07am - I hear noises from Malia's room. DAMMIT DOESN'T ANYONE SLEEP AROUND HERE ANY MORE?? I angrily slap on the video monitor and there she is: awake, walking around her crib and playing. I'm too tired to care. I turn off the monitor and try to go back to sleep. In the meantime, I can hear Malia chatting to herself, playing with the music toys and opening/closing her shutters.
6:20am - She's getting louder, calling me. She actually doesn't say "MAMA," she says something else that I can't quite pronounce but I understand her tone to mean "mama." She's not mad or crying, just yelling it, knowing that I'm next door. So I get up and bring her into bed with me to nurse in the hopes that she'll fall asleep.
6:40am - Not dice. She's totally awake despite nursing on both sides. She's mobile, crawling all over me. I try to doze with one hand clutched to her onesie to prevent her from falling over the edge. She starts to play the nose game with me (points to her nose, says "nose!" then points to my nose and says "nose!"). I'm not as animated as I usually am so she starts playing harder, jabbing her finger UP my nose rather than AT my nose. I quickly stop the game before I end up with a bloody nose. Then she scoots onto my belly and does the horsey-ride bounce. Cool - this I can do with my eyes closed so I start bouncing. Until she launches herself off sideways and comes within inches of the floor. It's this moment that I decide having a mattress on the floor would be a good idea. She can crawl where she wants at will, I won't have to worry about a broken neck, and I'll be able to catch more sleep. I'll have to discuss this further with Truong when he returns.
6:55am - I put her on the ground to wander around, after closing my bedroom door to keep her in the room with me. My eyes are closed, but my head is hanging over the edge of the bed - this is my way of sort of keeping an eye on her. I forgot to close the bathroom door and she walks out clutching toilet paper, making a banner from the bathroom all the way to my bed. I'm past the point of caring. Then she wanders to the bathtub and turns on the water. The granola guilt in me propels me out of bed to turn off the water and I figure, what the hell I might as well get up.
So that was my morning. Malia went down for her nap at 8:25am and Kael finally woke up at 8:30am. I'm staring at my pot of coffee, willing it to boil faster, working on the laptop as Kael's eating his oatmeal. I'd have gladly paid someone $20 to run to Starbuck's to get me a cup of java but alas, it's just me.
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