William

My parents were in town recently and they brought the kids some t shorts from San Diego. William was so thrilled, he wore his to school the very next day.

When grandpa came upstairs (William had a very sweet note left on their pillow requesting a ride to school the next day), William couldn't wait to talk about it.

Mama: what should you say to grandpa about your new shirt?
William: oh yeah! Grandpa?!?
Grandpa: (sleepily rubs his eyes, long drive+late arrival+early school drop off= sleepy grandpa) hmmm...what William?
William: Thank you for bringing me a shirt from San Diego! But, I do have a question.
Grandpa: your welcome...wait, what?
William: see this picture on the front?
Grandpa: yes...
William: I'm just wondering. Is this a picture of a dolphin or a porpoise? They are almost the same, but are different. Do you know which one is on my shirt?
Grandpa: (deer, headlights, albeit a sleepy deer) ummmmm...... I'm pretty sure it is a dolphin.
William: really? Great! How can you tell? Is it the nose? Or the tail? Or the flippers? How do you know Grandpa?
Grandpa: they told me at the shirt store.
William: oh! Wow! Well, how do you...

Mama: OK!! Zip up that jacket and out the door you go! Wow! It is time to go!

Happy at Patrick's day!

Here is William with his leprechaun hat he made at school this week. I can't keep every paper and project, but I'm trying to get pictures of some of my favorite things.

Oh, and don't worry. I am saving a lot of papers in my new file system. I'll tell you about it another time, but it only holds papers that are letter sized, not the bigger stuff.

Amelia

Amelia had a dentist appointment this morning. It went really well, but what stands out is this conversation with the dentist:

Dentist: how old are you now?
Amelia: (shyly holds up 3 fingers)
D: hmm.... I wonder how many that is? 2?

A: no! I'm not 2! I'm 3!
D: (looks to me) that surprises me! You are such a big girl, I thought you were at least 4! Are you almost 4?*
A: yes!
D: When will you be 4?
A: on my birthday!
D: (big, deep laugh, this answer has taken him off guard) You are right! I guess I asked the question wrong, didn't I?(Trying not to giggle) do you know what day your birthday is?
A: March! March 30!
D: Wow! That is very soon!

*and we finally have a dentist that TALKS to our kids at their level and spends a moment with them before shoving fingers in their mouth. Thank goodness.

Sent from my iPhone

Amelia's teacups

I found a picture of the teacups and table set up.

Yes, she is one of ours...

It's taken her awhile, but Gemma is showing the same love of books as the other kids. Here she is crawling into my lap with her book of choice. She didn't stay around to listen to the whole thing, but she enjoyed the part she did hear.

On President's Day...

A month late. I'm sorry.

I will never get tired of kindergarten writing. It is osum.


Here we have a picture of what I assume must be Abe Lincoln in his tall hat. Inside his hat, we find the following gem:

"I would keep a tent and dinosaurs in my hat bkus tary are osum."

Obviously. Because dinosaurs and tents are awesome.

9 Month check up

Last Wednesday we had our 9 month visit with our doctor for Gemma.  My primary concerns were:

1. Update me on the food rules.  I knew the food rules in and out when William was a baby.  I keep up on the new stuff, but not as diligently as before.

2. Ear check - did we clear up the ear infection yet from last week?

3. Catch up on our HepB vaccine.  We declined this one at birth for the bean and need to catch up

So the answers were:

1. No major changes.  Whatever you want to give her is fine as long as it isn't a choking hazard.  Even peanut products.

2.  Ears look great.

3. Done

Everything else checked out great.  She's ahead of the game (obviously) on the gross motor skills and on track with everything else.  He noted that she is teething all over the place, which is probably why she isn't sleeping great still.

Her stats were:

Weight 20 lbs 12 oz  (85%ile for kids her age)

Height 29.5 inches (97%ile for kids her age)

Head: 45.7 cms(unknown, but probably large)

Which means, she is on track to be an Amazon.  Or a giant.  Or tall.  Or Gemma.  For reference: William's 9 month appointment & stats and Amelia's 9 month appointment and stats.

As an added bonus, that morning, Amelia woke me up and complained about her cheek hurting.  And then pointed to her cheek next to her ear.  Suddenly things started falling into place.  No apetite.  Check.  Falling apart over every little thing.  Check.  A doozy of a head cold the previous week?  Yes.  Generally difficult to negotiate/crabby/uncooperative?  Yes, yes, yes.  So far, I had been chalking these things up to being a threenager.  Yet, Wednesday morning when she came in complaining of cheek pain, I knew we probably had something more.

Luckily, the dr office was able to squeeze in an ear check for Amelia in conjunction with Gemma's well visit.  Look at me multitask.  The verdict?  Ear infections, both sides.  Ugly ear infections that had been brewing for some time according to the doctor.  He was very surprised to hear she hadn't complained once before this morning*.

* This makes two weeks in a row of ear infections for a grand total of four infected ears at our house and twenty days of remembering to give the antibiotic twice a day.

This also makes twice I have had to present kiddos to Nurse Skeptical.  Kids with no fever and no specific complaint other than they aren't sleeping well and aren't eating.  C'mon mom, her look tells me, get with the program.  KIDS CHOOSE NOT TO EAT AND SLEEP ALL THE TIME.  For NO REASON AT ALL!


I'll also add that twice I have been right about the ears being a problem.