Happy Easter. 3-31-13

Along with a visit from the Easter bunny, we were also visited by the Easter Duck?? There was a duck standing in the middle of the road when I was out walking Winnie. Which brings me to the obvious question:

Why did the duck cross the road?

To avoid getting hit by the truck!

<I was going back out to scare it across the road, but the truck beat me to it...>

Cartoon Time. 3-27-13

Boop was asleep; so he had to improvise with a photo...

Taking Stock at Week 61/62. 3-25-13

Here's what's happening at Boop's Week 61/62:

·         “This is some welcome to San Francisco. We’re visitors here, and this is how we are treated?!?!” Well, those words did come out of my mouth, and it had its effect. More on that later—too much to relate in this brief bullet point.

·         One more tooth poked through on our trip. That’s 6 ‘teehs’. 4 on the bottom. Those top ones are working their way down, but it will be a painful trip, as big as they are! And then, I looked over at little Boop as she stood by the futon for the first time in the week. Wow, she’s gotten so big. She’s tall. At 14 months, we still need to get to the pediatrician for her 1 year appointment.

·         Boop is shaping up to have a lovely ski-slope shaped nose, I believe J Only time will tell. It’s going to be a bit long, though.

·         Poor Winnie. It was a long haul while we were away. She has another UTI. I’m trying to figure out how we will get her to the doctor. I wasn’t able to get her to the vet before my trip; so I’m not sure if she got rid of her last UTI.

·         Why me? I seem to have a knack for wearing other’s vomit while on long plane rides, especially those from California—cross country. Delicious!

·         I’ll be 40 Wednesday.

Whine, Whine. 2-12-13

Don't think I've posted this one??

Okay, who did it? Who wished a pox upon our house? We might as well display a skull and cross bones on the transom of our door, as a warning for all who enter. Winnie is fighting UTI’s, and her current status is uncertain after a week of antibiotics. Next week, we go back for a check.

And I let Boop go on for too long. I was hoping it was a cold that would pass. Unfortunately, it settled in her lungs, leaving her with bronchiolitis and an ear infection. I was too tired on Friday to drive to the next town to take her to the pediatrician with walk-in availability and opted to wait for Saturday morning walk-in closer by. They put her on nebulizer breathing treatments every 4 hours and antibiotics for her ear infection. Poor thing. The nebulizer made her hysterical. We had to hold her down for the 1^st one. Since then, it has been variable. We have relied heavily on YouTube children’s songs to distract her for the 10 minute treatments. The YouTube videos are always a crap shoot. It’s amazing the potty mouth language of some of the commercials before children’s songs. The Zoosk one is really obnoxious. And then, some of the actual children’s songs are problematic, too. A probably unintended consequence of one of the songs is teaching a child how to beg for a dog. Parents: listen to songs from Patty Shukla on YouTube before you let your little ones listen. I guess that goes for all songs on the Internet. The one of the Kentucky Derby horse seemed promising, but again, you’re not sure what you’re going to get.

Puff, the magic dragon

It looks like I’ve picked up the ailment that led to Boop’s current maladies. The DO at the urgent care and I think it might be some sort of RSV. And she sent me home with a script for antibiotics in case I wound up with an infection. She told me to watch for some signs of a sinus infection at the end of the week. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re already there after 4 days. It may take 2 weeks to clear. I can’t afford to miss this much work!

The Weekend, Part II. 2-27-13

So, there was blood on my arm when I got to the animal hospital. I wasn’t really sure where it came from. We took her in, and the vet tech was telling me that it was a bad bite, that they would need to do surgery. It really wasn’t sinking in, and I really still hadn’t seen the bite. I was looking on top of her head, thinking the husky got her between the ears.

It took the vet a bit of explaining to help me understand the seriousness. There was some discussion about exploratory surgery and needing to leave her overnight. She showed me the bite again, and then I realized the bite was underneath, at the base of her jaw and neck. It was a hole the size of a crochet needle, very close to her esophagus and trachea. That’s when I started to get queasy. And then the anticipation to see if the guy would follow through and pay added to my anxiety, when I saw a potential bill of $700.  It took a few phone calls to get it sorted, but his mother eventually put a down payment on the bill.

I stopped on the way home to get groceries. I needed a distraction, but I was lucky I didn’t pass out in the frozen food section. Mom called when I was at the checkout, frantic that I wasn’t home. After getting in and getting sorted, I called the vet office, and everything went fine. I brought her home at 10:30pm, and she had a port and about 10 staples.

The Weekend. 2-26-13

It’s 2am, and my mind is buzzing. I was trying to pull together an exam for yesterday, and this was complicated by the fact that my assistant had never given an exam before. He tried, and I appreciate him hanging in there. But it magnified my stress level.

Poor Baby!

I got behind this weekend for a couple of reasons. For one, I was traveling for work on Thursday and Friday; so I didn’t have much time in the office before needing to finish the exam. The other reason is that most of my Saturday was taken up by a very unfortunate event. I had planned to do a bit of work on my exam while Mom was still in town and could help with the baby.

Mom had taken Winnie for a walk after we returned from errands. They were gone a while, and I was starting to wonder what had happened. I figured I would wait a bit, as I didn’t want to spur friction if I went to look for them. Not long later, we got a call from the dog park. A dog had attacked Winnie. So, I grabbed Boop and went down to see what had happened. The owner was there, and I looked him square in the eye and said, “You need to pay to have her evaluated.” Winnie was bleeding, and we tried to find a pen to take down his information.

One of the people we encountered while in search of a pen was walking back from a nearby ball game. She just happened to be a vet. She agreed that she needed to go to the vet, and we both thought it would require a few stitches and some antibiotics for infection. As it was Saturday afternoon, vet offices were closed; so after getting the fellow’s name, we head to the animal hospital in a nearby town. As it turns out, our initial assessment was wrong.

What's wrong with this picture? 3-13-13

Boop's Fisher Price Little People: Hmmmmm. Isn't this illegal?

Taking Stock at Week 59/60. 3-12-13

Here's what's happening at Boop's Week 59/60:

Boop's new shelves

• I gave up with trying to think back so far. That requires more mental capacity than I got--as does grammar, apparently! My life is too complicated. Long gone are the days that I can just pick up and go. Hopefully, they will return when Boop can face forward in the car seat, use a fork and spoon, and brush her teeth on her own. Then, they will be gone again to the school year when she starts school. I feel like I could teach her more than she can learn in school, but home schooling isn't a good option.
• Boop is obsessed with her 'teehs' (teeth), which she also points to in her mouth. She thinks teeth are hilarious, especially mine, and her laughter is often accompanied by enthusiastic clapping. And teeth brushing--probably one of the highlights of her day! Sometimes I hear her talking about her 'teehs' as she's buckled in her car seat behind me; although I don't know what she's saying about them.
• Winnie is recovering from the dog attack, but she has another UTI. Poor thing. At least there are no more stones. More antibiotics. Boop and Winnie are on the same ones.
• We stopped at the pediatrician on our way back to visit family, and then we got a call on Sunday (!) that Boop had another UTI. I was pretty sure it was contaminated, as Boop wasn't particularly fussy and as the bacteria was uncommon for UTI's. I took her back to the pediatrician today for a retest (normal), but she had pink eye. Anything to do with touching the head is rough for a toddler, but trying to put drops in her eye is pretty near impossible!
• Taxes are done, hallelujah! They took me a few days to do, and I'm going to put the money towards something for me: braces! Is it too indulgent for me to not want my teeth to chip anymore because they don't fit together properly? My previous dentist put something to cover my front tooth, but it chipped right back off. 
• I broke down and decided to try to refinance my mortgage. The extra money each month will help. And when Boop settles into her new daycare class, the rate for daycare will go down a tiny bit. She is starting to transition into the big girl class now. It will be nice to be able to save a little money each month for a change, and it will be nice to be able to manage some help.
• Mom wanted to be called 'Gammy'. I tried to tell her that Boop will call her what she calls her. And it looks as though Boop has decided her name is 'GaGa'.

Taking Stock at Boop's Week 58. 3-4-13

Here's what's happening at Boop's Week 58 (or the best I can remember):

• I put my finger to my mouth to quietly give Mom the idea that she needed to stop talking; then I pointed over to Boop. Boop had her back to us. She was walking around her turtle trying to figure out how to get on, and I was pretty sure she was going to do it. She hiked up her leg and hopped on. And if that wasn't enough, she put her hand to her mouth and blew a kiss! Not to us, because she couldn't see us watching, but to the world, just to practice, just because she could. We nearly split our sides and were gushing with praise. Boop is such a little card. She had never done either one before.
• And then the big news for Winnie. We had to make a trip to the doggie ER. More on that later.
• I managed the first trip overnight away from my little Boop. I was hoping to get lots of rest, but I forgot my breast pump and was pretty miserable. The review went fine though.

I'm Walkin', Yes Indeed! 3-2-12

Here comes trouble!