Leashed!

I admit it.  Before Three, I was one of those silent judgers.  You know, the ones who look at other parents with their kids on a leash and wonder, "How difficult is it to keep track of a toddler?"  I smugly looked at my two girls riding in the double stroller and patted myself on the back for my excellent parenting skills.

Turns out, the bigger girls were just a tad bit lazy.  And a bit timid when they were young.  Three is a whole new ballgame.  She. Has. No. Fear.  None.  We once had a standoff at the zoo where she stood in place while I slowly walked away.  I never did figure out how far away she'd let me walk--my brother freaked out at 40 paces and scooped her up.

Three's also very physical. She doesn't fear the water.  She's not that into the stroller.  She asked to go on the biggest roller coasters and rides. She is curious.  Three hasn't met a barrier she hasn't touched, tried to climb or licked.  Seriously.  I often find myself saying, "Please don't lick that fence.  Please don't taste that fire hydrant! Please don't taste that handrail.  No licking the slide! Please keep your tongue in your mouth." Yikes.

Three is not content to hold my hand and walk beside me.  Three likes to bolt.  Eventually, she'll look up and try to locate us.  If she doesn't see us right away, she cries and freaks out.  Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped her from zooming away.

She engages complete strangers in conversation.  No stranger danger at all.  Case in point on the rental car bus where she told a lady, "You have BIG Boobies."  Another case in point, she lifted up her arms to be picked up by Darth Maul in the Jedi Training Show ("Pick me evil man!  I will be your partner in crime!  Can you please provide me with a weapon, preferably a sword or lightsaber?")  But I digress.

In preparation for our trip to San Diego and Disneyland, I bought a leash.  I bought the leash that looked most functional and cool. I was not going to buy one of those stuffed animal deals.  How humiliating and hot--who wants a hairy stuffed animal on their back in California's heat?

Well, we got looks.  Dirty looks.  In addition to the normal silent judgers about the leash were the folks who I'm sure were horrified that we only leashed the black child.  Once the strangers started in with  the weird remarks ("You have such a unique family!"), I was feeling pretty embarrassed. But then I started exchanging looks with the other leasher parents.  We smiled and nodded as if to say, "Oh, yes, I feel your pain.  Mine likes to run out into traffic, too!" "I've had to call poison control three times.  And you?"  "Welcome to the crappy parenting club-- might I offer you a sip of wine?"

I found myself explaining to complete strangers, "She's a bolter!  No fear. Ha ha."  But then I thought about it.  I stopped apologizing for keeping my child safe.  Allowing Three some independence while keeping her close was the right thing to to.  Three loved her "backpack" and the freedom it gave her to walk and explore apart from us. She keeps asking to wear it at home.

In the end, I'm comfortable with our choice and I think Three is, too.

** I also bought these great temporary tattoos with our phone number on them.  They gave me peace of mind that if she did get away, people could locate us quickly.

Bye Bye Harvey the Tonsil!

I'm very late with this post, but wanted to document the end of Harvey the tonsil.  Here he is in all of his glory:

 

Here's Doodle before the procedure:

Here's Doodle after the procedure:

Here she is winning Hospital Bingo:

Doodle did great and we can't say enough good things about our local childrens' hospital.  Doodle was very brave, but they made it easy on us.  They let her bring her stuffed animal in to the procedure (Husky was a last minute substitute-- Dad forgot her penguin so we rescued Husky from the gift shop that am) and he got a hospital bracelet and his own "laughing gas mask,"  The hospital even scented/flavored the laughing gas with the flavor of her choice:  cherry.  The whole procedure was familiar to her as she took a class the weekend before and got to see everything, including the operating room.  The icing on the cake was hospital bingo, which she played from her bed.  She was a lucky winner and got to pick out a blanket from the tv as a prize and it was delivered to her!  

The recovery was tough, lots of pain and no school for a week.  Nothing like barfing after surgery when your throat is raw!!  No gym, no physical activity for two weeks.  No crunchy foods for two weeks.  She survived and is so quiet when she sleeps I have to check and make sure she is still breathing.  We took a video clip of her voice, and I'll post before and after video-- her surgeon told her that her voice might change after the surgery. 

Time will tell, but preliminary results are great-- her adenoids were blocking her airway by 50% and you can see how big Harvey was-- in the surgeon's words, "that tonsil is impressive"....so much so that the med students, anesthesiologist, were all, "wow, that is one huge tonsil!"

Having much more air has got to feel wonderful to her-- especially as the pain goes away.

Anatomy Lesson

I promise I will do a post on the demise of Harvey the tonsil, but I'm back from a trip so this nugget of fun will have to suffice for now.

Last week:

Three is in the bath and Dan is supervising.  Moo comes out of the bathroom and whispers, giggling to Doodle and I, "Three is in the bath and I just saw her pen*s!"

Me:  Speechless for a moment, "Well, that is interesting since she doesn't have a pen*s--at least she didn't appear to have one the last time I looked."

Doodle:  *Exasperated* "Moo!  The pen*s is that thing that looks like a sausage!  Three doesn't have that.  Boys have that."

Moo:  "Oh."

Doodle: "You saw her girl parts!"

Moo: *dejected* "Yeah. I guess so."

Three in the Snow- A Short Video Clip

Lesson #547 Do not bash the Locusts

So I shouldn't have mentioned the locusts.  We finish up at the ENT this am and I look over in the elevator and guess who has head lice crawling on her head????


Doodle!!

Yea!  Apparently the locusts and the lice are BFFs and got us back for making fun of the poor, defenseless locusts.

We got our second note home that there was lice in the school on Friday.  I *may* have been a bit hostile with the school nurse today.  Especially when she suggested that Doodle got the lice somewhere else.  See, we haven't GONE ANYWHERE ELSE but school since last week due to the barfy.  Not even Gymnastics. Or the Library.  Really.  A stationary store on Sunday, but I don't think that is where we got it.  Seriously, I think I may send them with shower caps to wear in school.

A Joke!

Doodle, "Mom, do you want to hear a joke?"

Me, "Sure, honey."

Doodle, "What is an animal you wear?"

Me, "Hmmmm.....I don't know."

Doodle, "A ze-BRA!  Get it?  Zeeee-BRAAA! Like a bra!"

Me, laughing, "That's actually pretty good, Doodle."

Doodle, "I made it up myself."

What's next, locusts?

It started with a cold shortly after New Year's day.  It decided to move into our house, make itself comfortable and invite its bacteria friends, who brought a keg and a stripper.  Well, it seemed that way, because the cold lingered and left a path of destruction in it's wake.

  After she hacked for a while ("Mom, when will I ever stop coughing! It's been 4 weeks!") we took Doodle into the ped (Tuesday) and she had a sinus infection.  On the way to the ped, the check engine light comes on in the van.  I was driving, Hoosier girl was frantically making sure the minivan didn't spontaneously combust.  After spilling milkshakes all over the minivan post-pediatrician, we arrived home and got the car fixed--thankfully just a bad oxygen sensor.  Thursday night Three started cough-barfing so Friday morning we took Three in-- she had an ear infection and pneumonia.  As you can see, she LOVED the breathing treatments.  I got bitten three times--once putting the mask on in the doctor's office and twice at home when I tried to give her the medicine.  She was so mad, she actually bit down on the syringe in her mouth and tried to crack it in two.  Thankfully, the treatments in the ped's office worked so we spared her an ER visit.

Apparently, the cold also decided to invite over it's stomach bug friends, who really know how to party.  This week, on Monday night, Doodle was up all night--she felt hot and barfed twice.  We weren't sure if it was her heartburn at first, but when Dan was up all night  Wednesday barfing-we knew.  I succumbed Thursday night and we're waiting for Moobear and Three to start. Let's hope for a germ free week!  I'd love just one week where everyone is healthy!

In other news, we're off to the ENT on Monday to see if the Doodle is going to need a tonsillectomy.  She has one giant tonsil on her left side.  It's so big it's crossing the midline of her throat and causing some serious snoring.  We've been waiting for her to "grow into it" but that just isn't happening.  It's so big I suggested we name it.   Doodle's not buying it, but I've been calling it Harvey.  Since she gets a bacterial infection almost every time she has a cold, we have to get the consult, which we've been putting off for a while. 

Not much else going on here.  Colds, and pneumonia and barfy, oh my!