Who Am I Kidding, There's No Title For This

It is with regret that I note that I am squeezing this post out in an attempt to have more than two postings for the entire month of March. Pathetic excuse for a blogger, eh? And it's not like this was one of those crappy shorter months, like November or, good lord, February. March is a 31-dayer, I really have no excuse. Except the usual - busy at work, sick kids, sick me, we all know the drill, right? Yawn.

I'm typing this from a hotel room in Northern Virginia, with no access to the lovely outdoor photos of the kids I took this past weekend. This means I can't cop out with a photo post, and have to actually WRITE something. But, it's been a very stressful two days of meetings, and while this work that I am here in lovely No. Va. (amidst cherry blossoms! pretty cherry blossoms! Which we admittedly have in MD too but they're maybe half a step behind in blooming) is by no means over, the HARDEST part is over, and thus I am marking the occasion with my second glass of wine of the evening. So by no means should you expect that this writing will actually be COHERENT.

Instead, random thoughts and things to note.

1) Lucy has begun making the transition out of the infant room at daycare and into the toddler room. She is by no means walking yet, but she is crawling and pulling up, so I think she'll be able to hold her own. Plus, she naps like crap at school lately, so the switch to a 1-nap day may actually be an improvement for her. She's had some anxiety about this, crying quite a bit with the new teachers, but it seems to be getting better. She will be done with the transition as of April 19th, and while I know she is ready for it, and I am ready for her to be ready for it, it makes me a little wistful about being almost done with babyhood. Not wistful enough to contemplate having another kid, but still, wistful.

2) Finn is cute. Adorable, really. We are definitely on the upswing as far as behavior is concerned. He is (for the last week and a half) behaving pretty well at school, he is playing wonderfully with Lucy, and he is just fun to be around. I do not take it for granted, I very, very much appreciate it. M. and I have had plenty of reasons in the not-so-distant past to be frustrated with his behavior, but we have definitely hit a little bit of a sweet spot. It is even sweeter this time around because I see the struggles my sisters are having with their own little ones. We are triplets, and we've been told on occasion that we're a bit competitive. It's like weight. Or grades. Or accomplishments. Who's the skinniest? Who has the best GPA? Who has the most education? Who makes the most money? Who has the best behaved kids, BE-OTCHES??!! That's right, for this milli-second in our lives, I DO!! (the kids, not the money or weight or some of that other stuff. Except that I am the only one who can be addressed as Dr., and I don't see that changing anytime soon...).

3) Next weekend we start swim lessons for the kids. We wanted to do it for Finn because he loves the pool, but he very annoyingly likes to only be dragged around by one of us while in it. No floating on his own with a flotation device or any other such "risky" nonsense. So our hope is to get him a little more independent in the water, and more willing to do things like, oh, put his face in it. Typical kid stuff, in preparation for our neighborhood pool opening in a couple of months, and our family vacation to the beach that is slated for this July. Since they also had a class for Lucy's age group, we decided to throw her in the water, too. Sure, maybe they'll have less money for college tuition (dude, these activities are EXPENSIVE!), but at least they'll know how to swim, or at least tread water, right? So anyway, with any luck, expect pictures of this sometime soon-ish, provided I can get my blogger act in gear.

4) Back to some of my introductory blatherings, and related to meetings and travel for work, I have made an (interesting?) observation about my bathroom habits and public restrooms. Have you ever been to a meeting for several hours or a few days, where you repeatedly find yourself using the same public restroom? Do you find that you tend to use the exact same stall in that bathroom whenever possible for the duration of your stay? Because I apparently do. Once I use a stall, I seem to use that stall from that point on (unless it's occupied, or upon inspection, the seat is covered with the evidence of a "hoverer". In the latter case, it's game over on that stall, for good). I'm by no means a germ-a-phobe, AT ALL (I would lick a shopping cart handle to prove it to you but I'm hoping you don't need me to go to such lengths), but perhaps this is my mind's subconscious way of trying to protect my hiney from multiple strains of germs?

Seems weird to end the post on that note, but end it I will.

Had I Known How Long It Takes To Upload Video, I Would Have Just Written A Real Post Instead

I have all kinds of fodder for new blog posts (a trouble-making Finn, a speeding ticket, yet ANOTHER stomach bug for Lucy, our very first ER visit with one of the kids, various other heart-attack inducing injuries - all of which occurred in just this past week), but no time to write them. Work is quite soundly kicking my ass right now, and I don't foresee a break from it any time soon. So instead, I shall just post some pictures in yet another cop-out post.

Lucy during a nebulizer treatment, with which we are thankfully done.

Lucy concentrating on her favorite activity - grabbing at the cat

Balloon-head Finn

What a smile!

Modeling new swim clothes, ready for summer (aren't we all?)

Finn in his pirate shirt

Perhaps you can make out one of the above-referenced injuries in this photo - Lucy took a header down the only two hardwood steps we have in the house. Perhaps you can also see that gate that was put up to prevent it from happening again... Geez, you'd think this was our first time doing this parenting thing.

Another view of the head injury, and a picture of the new crawling skills

In the last day or so, Lucy has developed a new "thing" that was funny/cute at first, but is quickly becoming annoying. I like to call it the "laugh-cry." She seems to do it whenever she's tired or frustrated or happy or hungry (so, always). Enjoy the new soundtrack to our lives:


Another quick video for you with a few seconds of Lucy crawling and rolling around:

Back From The Big Easy

I spent most of this past week in New Orleans for work. I and more than 25,000 other people descended on the conference center for the annual American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons meeting. This may sound strange for a girl that spent all her time in grad school sorting fruit flies, and well, it was. I have never seen so many people, and such grand vendor exhibits, at a meeting before. Seriously, the drug and device companies were out in full force, and it was like a crazy flea market for orthopaedic surgeons. Needless to say, I was not really their target audience. That's OK, I still managed to soak in some useful information and got to see a little of New Orleans while I was at it. I ate lunch riverside as the barges floated down the Mississippi, tried a po' boy sandwich and charbroiled oysters (I would never, ever eat them raw as they make me think of, well, boogers, but OMG those charbroiled ones were smothered in butter and garlic and breading and seasonings and if it wouldn't have been disgusting to watch I probably would have licked them, they were that good), drank Cafe du Monde coffee, ate fresh beignets (do you see a theme here? I did a lot of eating. But also a lot of walking, so hopefully it all evened out), and went on a walking ghost tour of the French Quarter at night. I tried to experience as much as I could within the confines of my travel plans (conference sessions every day, and a hotel room 20 miles outside the city due to all the bagillions of surgeons and salespeople that made reservations before me), as it was my first time to the city, and lord knows when I'll ever make it back again. Hopefully I will, though, and next time with M., as I'm sure he'd enjoy it.

So, that's what I did last week. M. was on single dad duty and did a marvelous job. The last night was a bit of a doozy, with both kids waking up multiple times, but he came through like a trooper.

Let's see, since it's been so long, I'll just do some quick updates on the kids. Lucy is nearing 11 months old, and has FINALLY started crawling. She's also doing her darndest to stand up, but usually requires human assistance for that. She missed several days of school (and thus M. and I each missed a few days of work) over the last two weeks as she caught her biggest illness yet. A virus morphed from a stuffy nose into a sinus infection, bronchiolitis, and eventually an ear infection too. The poor thing was getting breathing treatments a few times a day with a nebulizer and was on antibiotics, too. Her fever got up to over 103 degrees when she came down with the ear infection, so lots of motrin, too. Hopefully her internal organs will one day forgive us.

Aside from the illnesses and a refusal to nap at daycare (making her VERY cranky most evenings), Lucy has been wonderful and happy and so, so cute. She eats like a champ (broccoli! spinach! everything her brother won't eat and more!), is addicted to cheerios, and has taken to saying "uh oh" a lot. Often in appropriate situations, such as when she's tossing her sippy cup off the high chair, but she likes to throw it in at random times, too. I am in denial that her first birthday is coming up, as I'd like to freeze her just like this forever and ever.

Finn has also had some seriously charming moments lately. He still hugs me and tells me he loves me, and every once in a while even asks for kisses. He gets so excited when we are proud of him, and we have been proud of him a lot lately. Daycare is focusing on teaching his class to write letters and numbers, and he has been showing a lot of improvement. He can trace pretty well now, and is even getting the hang of writing some of them sans dotted guidelines (A, F and 2 are his specialties right now). We just finished a 7 week soccer session for 3-4 year olds, and he surprised us by doing really well with the class. He listened to the coach, followed directions, and even showed a good degree of coordination (he obviously didn't get that from me).

Off the soccer field, though, Finn has been showing some trouble with the whole "following directions/being a good listener" arena. His teacher has been getting frustrated with him because he just will NOT listen to her. We have similar problems at home, but had been sort of avoiding the issue by not really presenting Finn with too much he didn't want to do (other than the basics like eating dinner or going to sleep). It's becoming a real problem, though, and so we're trying to face it head on. As a result, today was fraught with lots of time outs. Very, very frustrating, for all of us, but hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

M. is giving me a hard time because I've written so much, and provided nary a picture. Also, our pinot grigio is getting warm. Thus, I end this jumble, with the hopeful statement that I will be back soon-ish, possibly with pictures (just have to take some first).