April 2010 NC Visit

This NC visit started out really well ... but ended with our first ear infection experience. This is something I hope to NEVER experience again. We'll start with the GOOD part of the trip.

Kendall and I flew to Raleigh, Durham on Friday the 23rd and she was an absolute angel on the plane! I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that I applied my "expect the worst and you can only be pleasantly surprised by anything else" theory to the situation. We had a nice dinner with Uncle Dan and Aunt Corinna that night and Kendall was her normal, charming, ever-entertaining self. And I got to have NC barbecue - YUM! Here are some pics with Uncle Dan.

The next morning, I took her to meet my friend Laura, who is an old friend of mine from my theatre days, and her kids at Crabtree Park. Despite the (ridiculously large) number of snakes we encountered there, we had a great visit. Here are some pics .... sans snakes.

Here is Laura and her adorable daughter, Bailey, with Kendall.

Kendall and Laura ....

Kendall and Bailey ....

The very sweet and handsome, yet elusive, Tobias, was not in a picture taking mood ... but he did give me and Kendall some great hugs! When Toby was a baby, he and I spent lots of time together. I hold him solely responsible for any and all baby experience I had prior to Kendall's arrival. :)

Shortly after this outing, the visit started to unravel ...

Kendall's nap that afternoon was oddly short. She, oddly, did not eat her snack. Then didn't eat her dinner. Then got REALLY hot and fussy. I put her back down for a nap right about the time my folks' guests were arriving for a dinner party. She was asleep for about an hour, then woke up even hotter and fussier. She was up every single hour during the night screaming. I finally just put her in my bed. FYI, sharing a bed with a screaming, kicking, clawing, flailing toddler-shaped oven is not conducive to sleep. The next day, I got to experience every mother's fear when leaving town. Having to find a doctor when not at home ... on a Sunday. We took her to a Duke Urgent Care office where we were extremely lucky to have her seen by an old friend of my father's from med school. Diagnosis: Ear Infection. Temp: 103 degrees. She was put on Amoxicillin and lots of Tylenol and Motrin. Since she was going to feel bad wherever we were, we continued with our plans to visit some more friends so their kids could entertain Kendall. She actually seemed to perk up with the activity to take her mind off her misery. After dinner, I then spent Sleep-Free Night #2 next to the toddler-oven. She slept better. I did not. How sad are these pictures??? Clearly she has her father's tolerance (none) for being sick!

Her doctor gave us the green light to fly with her the next day saying "if the eardrum is going to rupture, it's going to do it wherever she happens to be, be it on the ground or 30,000 feet off the ground." Umm ... ok. He also gave the green light to give her Benadryl. Within seconds of the wheels leaving the ground, Kendall was O-U-T out. Enough so that I kept my hand on her belly to make sure she was still breathing. All was well until about an hour into the flight when she suddenly woke up screaming. LOUD. Like a banshee. And flailing so hard I could barely hold onto her. Thank GOD my mom was with us on this flight or I'd have had to reimburse whatever poor soul was next to us the entire amount of his/her flight. The screaming/flailing lasted for what seemed like 10 hours ... but was I'm sure only about 10 minutes in actuality. It did not help that the other 4 babies on the flight all screamed at the same time. I'm not sure if that was the "screaming baby copycat phenomenon" at work or if the pressure had changed and all of their ears hurt at the same time. Either way, we were not popular. But she finally went back to sleep almost as quickly as she woke up and slept for the duration fo the flight. As did my left arm since I was afraid to even twitch and risk arousing the banshee.

We got home, exhausted, but relatively unscathed. We both had good nights sleeps in our own beds and I am now blissfully sitting in my nice quiet, screaming baby-free office. Nana is with Kendall today, who, luckily for Nana, seems to feel 100% better!

It will be a while before I travel again with Kendall and I will NEVER again fly with her alone. It's daddy's turn.

15 month check-up

2 more shots. Each time she gets shots, I think that the screaming can't possibly get any louder. Then it does. No finger pricks or bags taped to her undercarriage to catch pee this time, though. Dr. Foster is no longer a "friend" of Kendall's but his feelings didn't seem to be too hurt and he said they'd probably be friends again sometime around her 3rd birthday. And HE'S not even the one who gives her shots - he has his nurses do his dirty work. As I carried her out of the office, still screaming, a new mom with a very quietly sleeping newborn just stared at me. All I could do was look at her and (above the tormented wails coming from my child) say, "Just you wait. Juuuust you wait!"

All in all, my screecher is doing very well. Her scores on the ASQ (Ages and Stages Questionnaire) were all in the very top percentiles ... except, again, her gross motor skills. But her doctor is still not worried in the least about this and says that a significant amount of his "white female" patients do not walk until closer to 18 months. Trying hard not to read too much into that statistic ...

What shocked me the most about this visit was that, despite the child eating us out of house and home for the past 3 months, she has only gained 3/4 of a pound and has only grown 1/4 of an inch since January! At least she's no longer a "Clifford sized" baby. (I am still referring to her as a "baby" until she decides to take it upon herself to toddle.)

Here are her 15 month stats:

Weight: 24 pounds (70th percentile)

Height: 31 inches (70th percentile)

Head circumference: 18 1/4 (again, 70th percentile)

EASTER 2010

Here are a few pictures of what the Easter Bunny brought Kendall last year when she was barely 3 months old:

And here is what Kendall got for Easter THIS year! A ball-pit/play hut! (this was a combination gift from the Easter Bunny, Mommy and Daddy, and Nana and Saba). I think Rehnny thought he had died and gone to doggy heaven when he woke up and saw 200 brightly colored balls, but he was quickly disappointed (again) upon finding out that these balls are for Kendall and not him (again.) Poor Rehnny!

Last year, I thought she looked (marginally) excited about her basket filled with cans of baby formula. That was nothing compared to the excitement this year!




"Naaaana!!! Ball-pits are for little people! Oh wait ... I guess you can qualify as one of us!" :)
The Easter Bunny filled a dozen plastic eggs with Kendall's all-time favorite food, Gerber puffs, and "hid" some of them (fairly obviously) throughout her playloft. It did not take her long at all to figure out that there were treasures in her midst and the hunt was on ... and puffs were everywhere! Rehnny did get to eat quite a few of these.

Look! Elmo laid an egg filled with puffs!!! And she thinks to herself, what a wonderful world ...
I'm sure we'll be picking puffs out of the ballpit for a while.

As an aside: I'm pretty sure "Puff" was Kendall's first word, at least the first word associated with the correct object. She asks for them ALL the time. And yes, I think she mastered "puff" prior to mastering "mama." I do think she finally associates "mama" with me, but then again, I think she's smart enough to realize that she can call me just about anything and I will immediately respond to any and all demands made by her highness. I'm that well trained. But I digress ....

It's just not Easter without a chocolate bunny, and it's just not a holiday without a kid on a sugar high. Here is Kendall developing a rapid and healthy (?) appreciation for chocolate ears:

And here she is trying to get out of her ball pit after having rolled it onto its side like she was a hamster in a wheel full of balls.

After the crash that followed the sugar high (which resulted in a 2 hour long nap!), our family, including Saba and Nana, went to Grandmother and Pops' house for a lovely Easter meal, during which we discovered that Kendall likes honey-baked ham, sweet potato biscuits, olives, grapes, pimento cheese, strawberries, pineapple, and potato salad. It's a good thing she didn't have a reaction to any of those new foods because I'd have had no clue which food caused the reaction - bad Mommy. The kid eats like there's no tomorrow and if it's not tied down or wigglin', she'll eat it ... and if it's wigglin' but she can catch it, she'll eat that too!
Grandmother found this AWESOME Elmo bunny basket - it was a huge hit ... as were, of course, the puffs in it! I believe that is a puff stuck to Elmo's nose in this picture.

She also got a Sesame Street sing along book from Grandmother and Pops and she loves it! However, she refuses to leave the little plastic (hopefully unbreakable) cd's in it long enough for a song to finish before she replaces it. This practice is going to quickly drive her OCD mother insane!

Family Pics: These now require the photographer, and all people behind the photographer, to make silly noises, put something odd on their heads or act like they are in pain to ensure a good smile out of the toddler who does not sit still. I think the most amusing pictures would be of the folks behind the camera!

Elmo occasionally makes an appearance on Daddy's blackberry ... like the blackberry isn't intriguing enough sans furry little red monster ... (for BOTH of them!)

Finally, here are a few pictures from our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt that happened last weekend. Kendall did not "hunt" for anything because I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of her crawling around the ground putting dirt, grass, bugs, etc. in her mouth. But she gladly took an egg that was handed to her and shook it. A lot.


Yep. The Easter Bunny is still scary. And mean Mommy still insisted on a picture with him! Maybe next year they'll be friends??

More Outdoor Fun!

A few days after the Mommy and Me picnic at the lake, Saba and I took Kendall for a wagon ride down to the ponds in our neighborhood for some more fun in the sun. This time, I slathered her with sunscreen and put a hat on her head. Then we stayed in the shade. I'm not an outdoorsy person, but I can be taught. Since Saba was with us, we actually got some pictures of Kendall AND me! My very sweet new secretary reminded me that mother's often have trillions of pictures of their kids but very few of themselves WITH their kids. And the "edit/retouch" function in iPhoto is my new best friend. :)

Picnic by the Lake

Kendall and I had an absolutely wonderful picnic by White Rock Lake last Monday! The weather was perfect and it was a great Mommy and Me Monday ... even if we weren't able to get into the (ridiculously crowded) Mommy and Me Monday at the Arboretum. We ate, then took some pictures ... then played in the wagon ... then ate again .... then took some more pictures ... then ate again ... then took more pictures ... then went home for a nice long nap (both of us, actually!) My only regret is that I completely forgot sunscreen for her so her little arms got a tad bit pink. She is now sporting a bit of a farmer tan. Ooops!

I'm finding that now that I'm back to work a few days a week, my days alone with Kendall are all the more special and I intend to take advantage of every single second that I have with her at this amazingly fun age (hers, not mine!) :)