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).