Stats and Pants

Quick update here (wha... ? EIGHT posts in one month? Crazy, I know) as Lucy had her 1-year check up today. Meaning 3 shots, two of them live viruses, so she's a bit cranky. Too bad for you, daycare! Ha, ha, I jest. But she is there now, so do I really?

Anywho, the vital stats:

Height: 30 inches (75%)
Weight: 22 lbs, 13 oz (75%)
Head: 17 3/4 inches (70%) - actually managed to remember the head measurement this time!

Perfectly, proportionally, big and healthy! Wonder what her weight would have been had she not spent a week throwing up recently, though.

No concerns from the doc, Lucy is doing great in every way. We did discuss the vomiting/potential milk issues, and the doctor recommended we try introducing some milk again to Lucy's bottles now that she's been recovered for a week and a half. No specialists at this point, we'll just see how she does. The doctor was not that concerned and thought Lucy would probably do fine. We'll soon see, I guess! Operation Milk will begin again tonight, so that we can monitor how she does over the weekend. There will be no going crazy with milk and macaroni and cheese and ice cream all at once, we will just start with an ounce or so of milk in her bottle. Fingers crossed that the puking was a temporary, ill-timed fluke and it does not reappear!

In other news... well, I don't really have other news. Oh, wait, except this headline: "Three-year-old comes home from school with yet another pair of ripped pants." Dude, seriously, Finn has ripped the right knee of at least 6 pairs of pants in the last few weeks. Always the right knee, never the left. The kid may fall a lot, but at least he does it consistently.

He is actually quite coordinated, he just likes to fall on purpose (OK, sometimes by accident, too, but usually on purpose). And the fabric-ripping culprit is the mulch on the ground in the playground at school. Now that the weather is nicer, Finn and his classmates go outside at least twice a day, and run around like crazy people (who fall, a lot) on mulch. As a result, I now need to spend a fortune to replace Finn's jeans. Good thing shorts weather is fast approaching, and he can just re-grow new skin for free after each fall rather than making me buy new pants. Alternatively, any good non-sewing patchwork options out there? Maybe some patches with super heroes on them? I'm not crazy about the patched look, but I'm also not crazy about spending gobs of money on new pants every month so I'm willing to compromise.

In which I natter on about nothing at all

M. is working from home today so that he could go to the doctor's office this morning - his nagging wife, afraid that his achy and swollen lymph nodes were a symptom of some awful disease, made him go in despite his protestations that he was most likely fine (the doc ended up prescribing antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory so I feel quite vindicated, though he does, indeed, look fine). In addition to ending my maternity leave much the way it started, with both parents home with Lucy (though admittedly with fewer hormone-induced crying jags), I saw another potential bonus. I was hoping to pick up Finn a little early for some fun one-on-one time. The post-daycare, pre-bedtime hours have been a total drag for Finn lately. Lucy is a crab then, and even when we have a few moments in between prepping dinner and feeding the baby, it's been too hot to go outside and let off any steam. Finn has been kind of trapped inside, and a little bored and miserable (it doesn't help that he seems totally uninterested by all his toys, but that's a whole separate blog post in itself).

Today, I wanted to surprise Finn by packing his bathing suit (and goggles, of course) in the car and making a detour to the pool on the way home. Part of my motivation is to try out the new flotation device we just got him, which should help him learn how to feel more independent in the water, the Stearns Puddle Jumper. My neighbor has them for her two kids, and it was amazing how well they were able to stay afloat and get around in the water (Grammy and Bumpa, you may want to check them out for your boat, have a couple on hand for visiting grandkids...). I thought it would be a lot of fun for Finn, and as a bonus, tire him out for bedtime.

Alas, the day has been gloomy and cloudy (though hot) without a single sunny break. We've even managed to have a little bit of rain, something we haven't seen since June. So the pool trip has been placed on the backburner, hopefully only until tomorrow. Instead, I think I will take Finn to one of his favorite places - Target. Clearly we shop there too much, as our two-year-old commonly asks to go there by name. I'm headed there to pick up some photo prints that I ordered online - can't go back to work without at least one physical, actual photo of my new baby to display. I'm guessing I'll probably let Finn talk me into buying him a toy while we're there. One which he will play with for about a day, and then ignore completely. Sigh.

To follow up on my previous post, it seems apparent that Lucy is in the midst of another growth spurt. She has woken up every night for the last four nights, and she's been downing her bottles like there's no tomorrow. Hopefully once her limbs are done making like trees and growing, all will return to "normal." Whatever that is with a baby. In the meantime, after last night, the middle of the night wakings became "so not my problem" anymore. Now that I'm the one who will be working, and M. will be the one sitting around lazily eating bonbons and watching TV all day, he gets to be in charge of the 2 am feedings. At least for the next two weeks!