Good luck or bad luck?

Sunday night Sophie wasn't looking too good and felt very hot. By Monday morning it was clear that she wasn't feeling well so her dad took her to the dr. (read earlier post). I was a bit frustrated because the days she decides to get sick coincide with the last few days I have to write before I turn in my dissertation on Thursday. Fearing that she's not going to make it back to school until Wednesday, in something of a panic, I call both of our extra babysitters, who are both unavailable. Luckily by Tuesday she seemed mostly better except for her vomiting on my in the morning, so we sent her off to school. On the one hand, I thought, what bad luck, right as I am trying to finish, my child is sick with a raging fever and vomitey. On the other, I thought, what good luck, at least she made it through school on Tuesday and they didn't send her home which would have meant she'd have to stay home for the next day as well. In hindsight, I now realize it's all really just a matter of perspective.

My mistake

"Oh goose," I said as she huddled on her mother's lap at 1:30 a.m., coughing and radiating heat like an unhappy little pot bellied stove, "Oh goose, are you sick?"

"No, Ima two!"

Spiderman

Taking a talking girl to the doctor is a new experience.

She's much more aware than last time I was with her at the doctor's.

Mainly, she's aware that she does not want to be there.

"No here, no park here!" she told me as we turned into the parking lot.

"No in here! No in here" she continued as I tried to unbuckle her car seat. (She covered the buckles with her hands to try to keep me from unbuckling her. Then she hung on to the straps as I tried to remove her from the seat).

She lapsed into an apprehensive silence as we entered the building and then burst into tears when we approached the desk to check in.

There was a waiting period, which we filled with books, which was nice enough. But every time a nurse came out, she whipped her head around to see if this might be it.

"Daddy, mono in my car now" she told me, trying to get back to the car under the guise that it was mono (her stuffed monkey) who needed to go back.

"No, goose, we're not going back to the car now," I told her.

"No, my mono my car now!" she said.

Soon enough, our time had come. She wailed as I carried her back to be weighed (27 pounds as of today). The nurse and I tried to explain that there would be no shots this time, but she was having none of it.

Then we were left alone in the office. She clung to me like a barnacle on a rock.

"Would you like to sit on my lap?" I asked.

"Nyes." She crawled up and buried her face in my chest.

When the doctor finally came, she was so brave. After all that apprehension, she was so good about having her ears and throat looked at. The stethoscope didn't bother her at all.

Her spirits rose noticeably as we approached the exit. She got a Spiderman sticker (thwarting the receptionist's efforts to guide her to Hello Kitty), which she promptly pasted on her chest.

Then we went to play in the mall, feeling much better.

(She has a summer cold: fever and congestion/coughing, but not too contagious).

Just a bit bent, thanks

Sophie, upon seeing her father stumble in the door after his run:

"Daddy broken?"

Potty trained!

I'm writing this entry knowing only too well that I will have to write another admitting that I called it a bit too early. Regardless, I'm going to go ahead and say it, Sophie's potty trained. All done with diapers, at least during the days. Today we went all day in the same shorts we started out with. I don't even think they put on diapers during her nap at school--although I'll have to ask about that. I can't really take much credit for this, peer pressure and some willing teachers did/do most of the heavy lifting. Although, I should be given a little credit because I did suspect if we put her back into school but in the older room, this is what would happen.

hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.

all abord the potty train

We're all on board now. Amazingly, Sophie Tegel's new caregivers at school (she moved up into the older room) are all about getting her potty trained. When we were talking to them about this, they boasted that they got their entire room trained. The teachers' eagerness, along with the peer pressure from being with the older kids, has made training much easier. Suddenly, the money with pay for daycare seems completely 100% worth it.

it's never too young for music lessons, right?

The local symphony offered children the chance to familiarize themselves with different instruments. Sophie's favorite: the violin.