Just one of those days
I was ready to throw in the towel by 2PM today. The morning started at 4AM with Allison crying in her crib and making her way (via Dad) to our bed for a few more hours of sleep (see below). Katherine then padded into the room at 7AM exclaiming, “I stayed dry. Please get my new cell phone down from the fridge.” (ditto) Steve left for the gym at 7:30 and returned for a brief one hour stint before the house sort of upended itself…What caused all the racket and stress today?
Well…Katherine’s big wooden Vermont 5-drawer maple dresser fell over. I was feeding Allison downstairs while Katherine riffled thru her drawers for some clothes. For some random reason, instead of using a stepstool, she stepped into a drawer to reach a higher drawer (this is how she described it to me). The sound of a large dresser falling sounded like “BOOM, WHAMM…WHAMM….WHAAMMM…..then AAAARRRGGG.” I ran upstairs to find this dresser about 45 degrees from the wall, Katherine stuck under a couple drawers and sitting on top of her train table. I lifted it up, had Katherine crawl to the back of the dresser to retrieve some items stuck below and we pushed it back in place.
Where was Steve? He was having lunch with a friend. We agreed that bolting this thing to the wall was the next step and Steve finally arrive at home around 2:30 with the necessary equipment to do so.
The good news is that Katherine seemed no worse for the wear. She was running around, telling me all about what happened and seemed fine. I called the nurse for some advice. She advised me to prod Katherine in the torso area to see there was any pain, e.g. internal bleeding. Thankfully Katherine didn’t flinch or seem in any pain. She giggled through the whole exercise, thinking I was trying to tickle her. She was bound and determined to see the doctor (always an entertaining visit) telling me that all parts of her body hurt, from her ankle to her torso to her hair. We’re keeping an eye on her, but I think at most she might end up with a bruise.
She also has informed Dad that she’s afraid of her dresser now. She also asked us to bolt the dresser in another part of the house – pointing down the hallway to the nursery. ๐ I think she’s learned her lesson.
More Sleep Deprivation
We had a very eventful weekend with Allison, starting with a 103 fever on Sunday morning. Her temperature went up and down for 2.5 days – reaching 104 highs and 99 lows. I took Allison to the doctor on Monday morning for a checkup – nose, throat, ears and lungs were clear. The doctor’s best guess was roseola- a virus that causes 3 days of high fever followed by a rash (50% of time). Typically it occurs between 8 months and 2 years. Allison pulled out of her fever officially on Tuesday afternoon and has been making up for lost eating/sleeping time since then. No Rash.
The strangest aspect of the doctor’s visit was her weight. At 9 months, Allison weighed 16 pounds. On Monday, she weighed 16 pounds 13 ounces with clothes!!
Tonight she polished off a bottle of green beans/rice, a container of baby yogurt and then eat rice and scallion pie. How did she get scallion pie? Steve was feeding her yogurt at my mom’s house. While he wasn’t looking, she sneaked her little hand under his arm, grasped the pie and proceeded to eat her treat very happily for the next 5-10 minutes.
Staying Dry
This past summer Katherine tried sleeping thru the night without diapers – with limited success. After several loads of laundry, we decided to try again later when she had greater bladder control. Spring break was an opportune time for this, and we broke out the incentives.
1) Stay dry for 3 nights – get a little book with miniature tea items and a tea party at Grandma Chang’s house. Patty also threw in a “push-up” popsicle at the zoo for good measure. (done)
2) Stay dry for 3 more nights – get a doctor’s kit with cell phone that’s on the fridge. Katherine managed to negotiate the cell phone this morning after night #4.
We’re having much greater success now at 3.5 years. Assuming no accidents by Saturday (1 whole week), I think we can officially put away the size 4/5 diapers for Allison someday!!
Sleepover
Spring break also seemed a great time to have Katherine sleepover for the first time at Grandma Chang’s house. We’ve been talking about this for a while, but wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t interfere with preschool. We dropped by for an early dinner today, and my mom said the magic words “making cookies…” (a rare treat). Katherine virtually pushed us out the door afterwards. She stood at the door with my mom, waving energetically, saying “Bye bye, see you later!!”
It’s now 11:30. My mom hasn’t shown up yet with Katherine in tow and we haven’t gotten any calls yet. Boy…kids grow up so quickly.