Two-Year Check-up

Emily's two-year check-up was actually on the 13th (the day after her birthday), but I haven't taken the time to write about it until now. I did a lot of explaining to Emily that morning and in the waiting area, so I was hopeful that the whole experience wouldn't be quite as traumatic as previous appointments have been.

I knew we were off to a good start when she was perfectly happy to have her head measured. Whew! (In past months, this most painless part of the whole appointment has been really scary for her.) I convinced her that laying down to be measured would be great fun because then everybody would really know what a big girl she is. Same was true for the scale. I've never seen a happier Emily sitting on that little scale - perfectly still while we waited for the number to register.

And then came the best part of the appointment. For the first time ever, everyone was thrilled with her growth! Not only did she maintain her weight, but she jumped up from the 3rd percentile all the way up to the 8th or 9th. Emily beamed the whole time while each successive visitor to our room commented on what a big girl she is now.

Then came the vaccine. While we waited for Ken (our usual vaccine man) to come in, I talked to her about diseases. She has a bit of knowledge in this area thanks to the book "B is for Battle Cry" (which got it's own special entry here a while back). From looking at the illustration for D is for Disease, she definitely does not want to contract small pox or the measles. I didn't mention that this specific vaccine wasn't exactly related to any diseases involving spots on the skin, though.

So, by the time Ken made his appearance, she was almost eager for the shot. (Almost is the key word here.) And then Ken dropped the bombshell. Not only is he a nurse, but he is also a medical massage therapist of some sort. So, since Emily (for the first time ever) would only be getting one shot, he would massage her leg in advance so it wouldn't really hurt. Alright, I thought. Aren't we lucky? Well, little did I know that his very thorough massage would go on for at least three minutes and would scare little Emily much more than a quick shot. He really massaged her little leg good! I was ready to plead for the shot when he finally quit. And for the record, she still cried when she got pricked.

In any event, after it was over, we talked about how glad we were that she wouldn't be getting any diseases, and happiness was quickly restored.

Here are her latest numbers:
Length - 34.75 inches (77th percentile)
Weight - 22lbs 15oz (8th or 9th percentile)
Head - 18.25 inches (25th percentile)

Oh, and they say that you can double a two-year old girl's length to find her adult height. If this is true, Emily will be 5' 9'' or so. I am convinced that she's really more like 34 inches tall (based on our home measurements and the fact that the assistant at the doctor didn't check to see if her head was all the way at the top of the chart before measuring). In any event, it doesn't look like she'll be short.

Dorothy 2.0

One of Emily's favorite birthday gifts this year was the goldfish she received from Grandma Scherer. She was very excited to have her very own Dorothy (just like the goldfish on Elmo's World). I have no experience with fish, but was confident that we could keep the little gal alive for a good, long while.

Unfortunately, when we woke up this morning, little Dorothy was floating at the top of the bowl. Emily wasn't alarmed, though she did try to wake our very "sleepy" fish. During her nap, Dan ran to the pet store to pick up a replacement and hopefully some fish care tips. Emily woke before he got home, happily met him at the door and was pleased to learn that Dorothy went to the store to get a new bowl. Apparently tanks with filters are better homes for fish, so we're hoping we won't be buying replacements every few days. They're cheap, but that would get tiresome for both of us.

Anyway, Dorothy 2.0 has been home for almost 12 hours now and seems to be active. I'm confident she will be alive at least through tomorrow. Any fish tips that you might have would be appreciated, though!

She's Two!

Emily had her first theme party this year - a "tea" party. She had been eagerly anticipating her birthday for months. Couldn't wait to blow out the candles on her cake, really wanted a party hat, was excited for her friends to come over, etc. So, we went ahead and bought a little kid-sized table (which I'm thinking should work well for Thanksgiving too) and some tea-party-appropriate hats for the occasion.



We had regular, party-type food options for the adults, but the kids' menu included a first course of: blueberries, peanuts, frozen peas and cheerios followed by a second course of: goldfish, M&Ms, jelly beans, and Pirouette chocolate hazelnut sticks.



The "tea" was actually apple juice served in the tiniest little cups I've ever seen. Emily asked for refill after refill. She doesn't get juice very often.



I was a bit worried that the hats would be too large for Emily's little head, but it worked out alright in the end.



We debated about various cake options since most of Emily's favorite things seem to be a little boyish and not exactly in line with a tea party theme. Also, I wasn't convinced that a cake in the shape of a teapot would be very exciting for a two-year-old. So, we went with this elephant cake. It was pretty yummy but sure did have a lot of frosting!



When it was time for cake, I set it down in front of her and told her not to touch it while I went to get the candles. She sat perfectly still while she waited.



I think the most highly anticipated part of the day was the blowing out of the candles.



I'm pretty sure she didn't get the job done by herself, but I'll have to watch the video to be sure.



She's still talking about her party, her friends Danielle & Kyla, and her "happy day".



Hard to believe she's already two!

Favorite Things: The Webcam Edition

This afternoon, I turned on the webcam and then went through yesterday's post with Emily, and this is the result. The video is very choppy, I guess I should have just used the camcorder instead, but the audio is the more amusing part anyway. You might just want to start it playing and then scroll down to follow along with Emily and I. Oh and I will add, Emily and I had just returned from the park, so I had hat hair and she's looking a little windblown -- I wouldn't say either of us are looking our best. In any case...

These are a few of her favorite things

With Emily about to turn two, I wanted to get down for posterity some of the things she is particularly fond of in her day to day life. A kid her age is quickly and easily obsessed, but those little obsessions also change frequently from one thing to another, so here is a little snapshot on the week of her second birthday.


Roary the Racing Car ("WHOA-weeee" in Emily-speak). Roary is the main character in a show on the PBS Sprout channel. It's one of my personal favorite Sprout shows, whenever Emily talks about him she sort of half-sings it like the opening of the show's theme song. Whenever she runs around fast, she is being like Whoa-wee.



Green Eggs and Ham ("Hahm") When we first checked out this classic Dr. Seuss book from the library, Emily was completely obsessed with it for a couple weeks. It's pretty cool, because I remember being very big into Green Eggs and Ham when I was a little guy. As a bit of an aside, since I've been a parent, I have really come to appreciate the art of writing kids' books. You sort of tend to think you have an appreciation for them before you have kids, but watching first hand how they work on a little toddler's brain day in and day out, that's where you really experience the genius of someone like Dr. Seuss. I am completely in awe of his craft. Another favorite of mine (and Emily's) is Margaret Wise Brown ("Goodnight Moon", "Big Red Barn") -- something very beautiful, and easy for young kids to engage, about her language. Anyway, back to "Ham" -- the book had to go back to the library a few weeks ago, but she's getting her own copy for her birthday. These days, she ALWAYS wants to watch the fun little animated version they have on youtube, complete with very '70s-sounding cartoon music; whether it be on the computer or my iPhone, Emily loves "hahm". Which brings us to...



Youtube ("Puter") We may have created a monster with this one. It started when I'd get on youtube and show her animals she liked -- elephants, cows mooing, that sort of thing. Then we found the aforementioned Green Eggs and Ham video. Then we found some other books, as well songs she knew and other stuff, and she loves watching them. We already find ourselves struggling just a tad to moderate it.

Barney ("Bah-gee") I guess it's inevitable. Little kids just love this guy. Not sure why Emily has such a hard time with the 'n' sound in the middle of a two-syllable word, but it always seems to turn into a 'g'. For example, "bunny" becomes "bughee".

Bix ("Bissy") Emily loves her Bixy. She's into a stage where she's always trying to boss him around, and Bix, bless his little heart, really seems to sort of listen sometimes. He'd usually rather play with grown-ups or older kids, who can better grasp the little intricacies of his own fetching games, but he is very patient and sometimes very affectionate with her.


Mister Noodle ("Goodle") Mr. Noodle has been a favorite of Emily's for quite a while. He is a character in the "Elmo's World" portion of Sesame Street, which has been a staple of Emily's sleepytime routine for as long as I can remember. Mr. Noodle is basically a mime/clown character who comically tries to illustrate Elmo's thought for the day. There was an original Mr. Noodle, but Emily's favorite (and mine and Mary's, too) by far is "Mr. Noodle's brother Mr. Noodle", pictured above, and played by emmy-winning actor Michael Jeter, who died of AIDS in 2003. RIP, MNBMN.

Wynken, Blynken and Nod ("Nodt") Another brilliant piece of literature for young children, Emily HAD to have this classic Eugene Field poem read before almost every nap and bedtime for a few weeks. Mary and I both love reading it to her. The only copy of the poem we currently have is in her Bookhouse anthology (volume 2), but she is getting a neat little illustrated version for her birthday. We've been steering her away from the Bookhouse version at sleepy-time for a couple weeks, hopefully to get her more excited when she gets the new one.

Ernie ("Euhney") Emily's been in size 3 Pampers for a long time, and lately she's been very enthusiastic about pointing out which Sesame Street character is on the front, which one is on the back, and whether the animals on either side of him are dogs ("row-rows") or cats ("MEEow"). Ernie is her favorite, so much so that lately, whenever we open a new pack of daipers, she makes us find the Ernie ones for her to wear first. I had to open a new pack to get one to photograph.

Honey - The really notable thing about honey is how cute Emily sounds when she says it. Just adorable. But she likes it quite a bit, too, which is one of the main reasons the Black-Eyed Pea has become a regular eating-out stop for us -- she loves their cornbread, and loves that they bring honey to put on it.

Blueberry Eggos ("waffoos") Probably the #1 breakfast food of choice. I like them quite a bit myself, but rarely eat them because, well, then Emily will run out quicker.

Waitresses ("Lady") OK, this one is a little embarrassing, because it reveals just how much we eat out. But interacting with waitresses is one of Emily's favorite things in the world. And yeah, the gender specificity is completely intentional, because she's not so keen on male servers (or unknown men in general). She sometimes calls the waitress over to tell them she wants water, but the part she really loves is paying the bill. You should see her little face light up when the "lady" either picks up or brings back the check.

Fruit Cocktail ("Apple") A little quirk of Emily's is that she won't eat most fruit unless you tell her it's apple. Give her a little piece of peach and tell her, "Here, try some peach," she shakes her head no. Call it "apple" and she gobbles it right up. Exceptions to the fruit-apple rule are blueberries ("boorries") and banana ("nana"), which she enjoys eating when called by their proper names.

Ms. Niki ("Neeki") Emily loves the people she sees often -- me, Mary, my mom, her regular babysitter Ms. Emily (whom she describes by pointing to herself and saying "you"). But her enormous affection for our friend Niki -- pictured above with her husband Canaan and son Ezekiel -- is mysterious. She only sees her regularly for maybe a few minutes each Sunday at church, and the handful of times we've all had dinner together. There was one time Canaan and Niki took Emily for a few hours when mary was recovering from getting her wisdom teeth out. Who knows what happened during those few hours, but Emily came away completely enchanted with Ms. Niki. She talks about her and Ezekiel all the time.

Brushing her Teeth ("teef") Except she doesn't actually brush them. She just chews on her toothbrush. But mostly what she loves is the running water. I think Mary keeps her occupied for hours at a time by just putting her little stool up to the sink, giving her her toothbrush, and turning on a tiny trickle of water so she can keep getting it wet and sucking out the water. OK, maybe "hours at a time" is slight hyperbole on my part.

M&Ms ("emmas") These little spheroids are our leverage to get Emily to eat. As readers of this blog are well aware, she's always been very low on her weight percentiles, so they always want us to push calories. Well, emmas serve that purpose in two ways -- one, they have a lot of calories themselves, but more importantly we use them to bribe her to eat more of the stuff she should be eating. Is it an ideal way to get her to eat more/better? Probably not, but one thing I've learned is that parenting turns you into the ultimate pragmatist.



Mommy - Last, but certainly not least. I know Emily loves me. She is happy to see me when I get home from work, she loves horsing around with me, and we really connect in a loving way each night at bedtime when we read books and cuddle before she goes down. But Mommy is the be-all-end-all of Emily's little world. For me, their love for each other is the most beautiful thing in the world to observe.

Loss

There really isn't much day-to-day kinds of news to report. Just a lot of procrastinating about things like figuring out what kind of birthday cake to have for Emily this weekend and the details of her "party."

Generally, I try to keep the entries here as honest as possible while always remembering that anyone can read what I write here at any time. So, generally, I don't write about students or their lessons (except when the youngsters say funny things) and I don't write about any drama or controversy that might happen in the world of all things harp and try not to air any dirty laundry, etc. So, I haven't written about it until now, but it seems like it ought to be included in a blog about everyday life...

Most of you don't know, but we found out that we were expecting a few weeks ago. We were very excited indeed, even though the due date was right in the middle of the summer. Not good planning to deliver in the peak of wedding season. So, I was considering all the details of passing some gigs off to other harpists in town but decided to wait until a little further along in the pregnancy. Went in for the first OB appointment and came home with a bag full of baby goodies. Ultrasound was scheduled for the 19th of this month. You might remember that I was weighing the idea of getting the H1N1 vaccine in a previous entry. (Didn't actually know that I was pregnant when writing that entry.) I didn't really think it would be an issue, though, because I read that the vaccine was in such short supply. As it turned out, the office I went to had just received their supply two days before I came in and I was easily convinced that it would be ridiculous not to be vaccinated. So, you can imagine my first thought when I miscarried three days later. I'm actually quite convinced that the miscarriage had nothing to do with the vaccine, but those are the kinds of things you consider in the midst of the shock and sadness. So, Halloween was a sad day, but we didn't actually find out for sure that the baby was gone until the middle of the next week after going in for blood work on Monday and getting the results.

I think that anyone who suspects they are miscarrying at the start of a weekend probably reads just about everything they can find about statistics, causes, stories of hope about women who bleed excessively and go on to deliver healthy babies, the many stories of women who have miscarriage after miscarriage, etc. So, after doing lots of reading, I've learned that a huge percentage of all confirmed pregnancies end in miscarriage - and that doesn't even include the number of women who miscarry so early that they never know they are pregnant. I'm hopeful that this story won't be repeated for us again and again in the months to come.

I'm doing much better this week - probably in large part because my hormone levels seem to be returning to some semblance of normal. And really, who could be depressed when you've got a beautiful, healthy, happy little girl about to turn 2 this week?

And I think as I type this in one room, Dan is in the next room working on a gem of an entry about Emily. It will include photos and I'm not sure what else. He's been working on it for a while now. I always love it when he contributes to the blog!

So, I'm glad I've cleared the air (even if you didn't know it wasn't clear) and we're moving on one day at a time, counting down the days with Emily until it's her "Happy Day" as she calls it.

Oh, and happy birthday to my Mom!

Vodka?

So, after watching a recent episode of Oprah, I've been thinking about switching to vodka as our bathroom cleaner of choice.

Pros:
1. Cheap vodka is less expensive than most cleaning products
2. It is non-toxic
3. It is basically odorless
4. It supposedly works well on soap scum, mold, mildew, etc.
5. It makes things sparkle and is anti-bacterial.

Any cons you can think of? I'm fairly well convinced that if diluted a bit, it could be a good option for cleaning.