I’m fairly certain that the Whac-A-Mole arcade games are actually meant as parent preparation tools. They arm one with the hand-eye coordination and super speed one needs in order to siphon those tiny boogies out of a baby’s nose as it pops out and then hides with each breath. Though I think it would be much easier if I had a mallet for the job instead of a nasal aspirator (the snot sucker).
Lukas isn’t sick. He’s just been perpetually snotty for a few weeks. I think it’s the spring weather.
Kurt and I are having a hard time coming up with a name we can both agree on and that flows nicely with our last name. It’s as if Kurt took the only name that works beautifully, but I don’t like going with junior. We would like to go with a name that goes with Kurt’s Scandinavian heritage many of the names I’ve found probably don’t serve a child growing up in the United States very well. The name Jens for example would likely be confused for some shortened version of Jennifer. And Monk, Knute, Folmer…do I really need to explain why those won’t work here?
Prior to knowing Sophia’s gender Kurt said that if he had a boy he wanted to name him Darth, as in Darth Vader. He even had hopes that the baby would have asthma so that he would sound like Darth Vader. Kurt is a very sick man. Thankfully, now that having a boy is a reality, Kurt is actually considering the consequences of such a name. Unfortunately, it seems that Kurt’s mom actually thought the name a valid contender. During a phone conversation with Kurt she tried to convince him that it was a solid choice by invoking a famous person of the name, “What about the one Country singer?”
“That’s GARTH mom.”
“Garth, Darth, what’s one letter?”
Hhmm six, sex…sick, dick…duck, suck..brick, prick…yeah what’s one letter?
Then there are the names that Kurt and I dwelt on seriously for longer than I care to say like, Sheldon Leonard after the two lead characters in The Big Bang Theory.
George Carlin is still a contender as far as I’m concerned. Good ‘ol George.
Then there are the names selected purely in jest like, Elton John. That name could work so long as we could find a feather onesie that looks like this…
And the names considered for the free products they may invite like Ivar Ingmar. Do you think we could get free chowder from Ivar’s and furniture from Ikea…for life maybe?
The real list has been trimmed down to something like this: Alexander, Benjamin, Eric or Erik, Franklin, Ian or Iain, and Lucas or Lukas
No, Sophia doesn’t have jaundice nor has she been smoking dried banana skins. Not that I know of anyway. She has been incredibly mellow for the past couple days though. Mellow, even for her.
The day before yesterday I spent the morning running errands. Sophia became frustrated with getting in and out of the car so I took her to the park to burn off some energy before doing some grocery shopping. She went to the play equipment excitedly but once on it she just stood there like a bump as kids made their way around her. She would wander around the park a bit, then climb on the equipment again, and just stand. I chalked it up to not being fully recovered from her cold. We didn’t stay very long.
Yesterday morning she woke up crying as she did everyday that she was sick. After about five minutes, she went back to sleep for an hour then cried again. I got her up at eight, gave her milk, and made breakfast as usual. She didn’t touch her breakfast.
It was supposed to be my cleaning day so I zoomed up and down the stairs gathering stuff together. Sophia got upset because she could keep up with me so I sat with her and read one of the books she always carries with her. After the third time through the book I told her I had to go clean the house. She wasn’t happy.
It was only 10am and she looked tired. Her tantrum seemed to me like a cry for a nap. I picked her up and put her in her crib with her book. She protested for about five minutes and then either sat quietly plotting my demise or fell asleep. It was completely silent until about three, but even then, I only heard a couple tiny sounds that didn’t seem like a fully awakened toddler.
I had left her there all day with the assumption that she must have needed the sleep, but at Kurt’s urging I got her up at four thirty so that she would still sleep at night. I opened the door to a fully awake toddler, laying on her back, and reading her book. She cuddled with us the rest of the evening. She wasn’t interested in playing at all.
Sophia’s nine-month check up was on June 27th, the day after my doctor appointment. My original appointment was supposed to be an annual check up sort of deal, but it turned into a multi-gag test for strep (Streptococcal pharyngitis). It was negative, but OHMYGOD my throat HURT! I went home and drank chamomile tea with lemon and honey as if it were the latest craze. It really did make my throat feel better! Sophia’s appointment went much better than mine did. She was leery of the nurse, but there were no shots this time – Yay!
The nurse asked me, “So is she walking yet?” Um No – she just turned nine months two days prior. She said that Sophia looks so much older. Dude – don’t you like have a chart that shows her age? I’m loosing confidence over here. Then she starts asking me the questions geared for Sophia’s age, “Does she know her name?” Oh shit. Maybe we should have so many nick names for her, Monkey, Monkey Butt, Snot Face, Baby Cakes, Petree Dish, Lil’ Shit, Bastard. Don’t scoff at the last one. Strictly by definition, she really is a bastard. I told the nurse that we use so many nicknames that she may not know her name. Once we got home I tested this and *whew* she does know her name, probably due solely to daycare and not from us.
“Does she know the meaning of, ‘no’? – not that she’ll actually obey.” Umm that’s another negative. I don’t usually use, ‘no’ with her. I simply redirect. There have been a few times that it flew out as a knee-jerk reaction, but usually I just capture her attention with some shiny object and lure her away from whatever. If it’s safe enough I just let it happen though. Earlier today she pinched her fingers in the filing cabinet. The drawers slide easily and the thing is perpetually open because it leans slightly forward and we can’t find the keys to lock it. She is also learning that gravity is a bitch, only on soft flooring right now of course. I think Kurt does use ‘no’ with Sophia, but he doesn’t stop with that word. He uses is in a complete sentence, no maybe a paragraph to explain what will happen if she continues with her current actions.
Sophia lost a pound. While she was sick she kept weighing in at 17 pounds, but I guess that and becoming more mobile took away from her weight. She is currently 16 pounds and 29 inches tall/long. My nine month old daughter is just three inches shorter than Verne Troyer (mini-me). She’s in the 85th percentile for hight and the 5th percentile for weight.
The nurse asked me one other question, “Has she been a relatively healthy baby?”
“Oh yes.” I said without hesitation, but this weekend, Fourth of July weekend, we’re both sick AGAIN! This crap is getting old. On the fourth, Sophia was fine except that she was sneezing A LOT. I knew she was catching a cold, but we went to go see a local fireworks show anyway. We didn’t go to Seattle because we had know idea how she would react, but the show we did go to see didn’t have much for parking so we went to an alternate site to view from. We were too damn far away. We could see it, but it was so far that it just SUCKED. And the baby was cranky. Since there was nothing close up to see she couldn’t figure out why on earth we would keep her up past her bed time. She looked around the crowd wondering why all there other people were up as well. Occasionally some fireworks would go off nearby from private displays and Sophia would pause, watch, and then go back to being grumpy when they were done. She didn’t seem very impressed, but she wasn’t scared at all either. She slept nearly all day the fifth and all night too. Today she seemed to be a lot better except that her sinuses are so full of snot that she sounds and feels like a cat purring when she breathes.
I’m late, I know. I’m sorry for any undue stress my tardiness may have caused. The little human petree dish gave Kurt and I some sort of mid-evil not-a-flu that hit us so hard that even Kurt called in sick. Our little darlin’ is such a giver. *eye flutter and dreamy-like smile* Speaking of giving, here is this month’s donation to the Baby Squeezins Diaper of the Month. Brought to you by the color green and taken on June 6th (that’s 6/6/08) with my awesome Nikon D60.
This is the reason I STILL cannot figure out why it’s necessary to wipe girls front to back. You see my finger at the bottom of the picture – that’s the front of the diaper.
From June 12th, “Hi there! Sophia had a good day. I put her to try to walk with the walker toy and she can walk slowly with it! She also sat in the bike and *name of boy* was pushing the bike with Sophia riding.”
(It’s not really a bike – it’s a push toy that’s barely shaped like a motorcycle, BARELY)
June 16th, “Hi there! Sophia had a very good day! She is very comfortable and she loves to play with *name of boy*! Today they were having fun with musical instruments.”
She came home with the art project they did last week.
June 17th, “Hi there! Sophia had a good day! She is eating better and when she wants me to hold her she put her arms wide open and shake them looking at me! She is so cute!”
She was finally her smiling and giggly self for the first time since Tuesday June 3rd. Two weeks to the day!
June 18th, “Hi there! Sophia had a great day. She loves to play with the chewing toys. I can see her second tooth cutting off already. A couple weeks ago I could only feel them. She can stay standing up by herself for a couple seconds!”
Actually being able to feel her teeth was three weeks ago, but who’s counting? 
And she’s been able to stand on her own for a while now.
June 19th, “Hi there! Sophia had an ok day. She loves to walk around the classroom with help. We read lots of books today and she smiled a lot to me when I was acting with the story.”
Sophia puked right before Kurt picked her up today. I didn’t think anything of it since he said is was due to her coughing, but I put her to bed at seven and she woke up drenched in her own vomit. I didn’t hear any coughing. I think she might be sick, AGAIN!
“Hi there! It’s very good to see Sophia again. She had an okay day. She didn’t drink much of the bottle at 12:00. She made a beautiful art project for father’s day.”
It’s nice that she’s doing better and made it through daycare. Although they sent her home looing like Pebbles.
I snapped a picture of her with me sneer too…
No, wait. It’s better than that. THIS is MY sneer…
She is almost over her cold. It just doesn’t sound like it. She has a terrible cough that keeps her up at night. Keeps me up too. 
I write this while wondering if there really are any benefits to milk baths. Yep, I got another one. My little faithful fountain blew again. She coughs so hard after eating sometimes that she erupts. She’s so miserable. I want my smiling, giggling little baby back.
Last night Sophia had a fever of 100.4. I gave her Tylenol which she promptly spit out. I don’t know if she spit it all out or if she actually got some in so I didn’t do another dose. An hour later I was still awake so I took her temperature again. Same temp. This morning she still had the same temperature. So far I’ve given her two doses of Tylenol and she has had two naps – both under twenty minutes. I don’t think I’ve taken a temperature under or over 100.4 today. She is working on her third nap and I’m debating on weather I should shower or try and get some sleep. Most likely I’ll keep debating with myself and neither will get done.
Sophia discovered her feet yesterday and has made diaper changes more difficult. She already insists that she keep her knees tucked into her armpits when we change her but now she also has to hang onto her feet. This morning Kurt stayed home sick and Sophia would not cooperate in keeping quiet so daddy could sleep. I tried everything but nothing calmed the little fuss budget until I took her socks off and laid her in her bassinet so she could play with her toes. She actually used her feet and legs to spin herself around so that she could play with the toys dangling above her and she was able to push the button on one of them that played music for her.
