Parenting Tip

I think there should be a book given out at the hospital on tips you should know. My latest parenting tip. KEEP all toy catalogs it is HOURS AND HOURS of FREE entertainment. I was going to throw it away thinking she would be asking for 40 things, but on the contrary she just flips though the pages. She loves just looking at the different things and asking what they do. She has worn a couple magazines out already.

Thumbs Up

The last couple weeks Maci has really been into thumbs up. She says thumbs up and then she presses your thumbs together. Tonight we had a 2 thumbs up night. She is learning to count items, so she combined the counting and the thumbs. Too bad she can't do messy stuff...

My Little Monk

So we had our visit from parents as teacher last night. The activities we worked on were all related to puzzles. She can match things up, but is not really good at lining the things up. We are going to work on that later. Then she wanted to do a messy activity. So she put shaving creme on a pan with some picture under the creme. Maci kept making up excuses to why she couldn't participate. Oh...I need to...put my baby away. Then, oh...I need to...feed the baby. She just kept making up excuses. It was kind of funny to me. So then Cara and I put our fingers in it and showed her how we could wipe it off on a towel. She tentatively put one finger in and quickly requested I wipe it off. So we need to work on our messy play! However, the whole time we kept asking her where was the duck, dog, or deer. She would point to the pile of creme without touching it. So she remembers things well.

After parents as teachers left, we tried on our Halloween outfit. She looks pretty cute in it. She loved modeling it. She kept telling me that she was a beneficial bug a.k.a. ladybug (my mother told her that this weekend.) I took some pictures, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise. I will post those soon.

Spanking Big Bucks

Last night on our way home we saw a big buck in the middle of the road. We checked it out and then continued on our way home. However, I forgot some medicine at my parents' house so we had to turn around. On our way back to the house the big buck ran into the side of our car. Maci and I sit on the same side. So I asked her did you see that big buck run into us? She responded "yes I am going to spank that big buck on the mouth. He needs to be careful!" He only grazed our car - dusted it off. BUT his antlers made quite the noise on my window.

Pedicure Anyone?

Last night Maci was in watching one of her many Disney movies. She usually watches about 10 minutes and then ventures out to play or help do whatever I am doing. However, last night I had washed all the dishes and finished cleaning the kitchen when I realized she hadn't ventured out. At first I was excited - wow maybe she is learning to entertain herself more...then I realized the danger in quietness. So I start heading to the bedroom, as I am approching the bedroom there is a strange smell coming from her direction. It was a familiar smell, but I couldn't quite place it. When I turned the corner she was sitting in her rocking chair with her shoes and socks off. I asked what have you been doing? I still couldn't see what she was doing, but the smell was very strong. Then I saw the foot pedicure creme. She was giving herself a pedicure. I should be so proud. She wasn't destroying anything, she didn't write on the walls, she just decided she needed a pedicure. She didn't even waste any of the creme.

St. Louis

As requested an update on our trip to St. Louis. We went to visit the friendly Cardinal Glennon Children's hospital. First, they did a scope procedure to make sure Maci is built correctly on in her upper airways. She is perfect - no toys, erasers, food, etc in her lungs. I didn't know until after the procedure I should have been wishing for an eraser. I guess some kids swallow object, aspirate and get them lodged in their lungs causing all kinds of crazy problems. Then after they remove it the kids are all better. Not Maci.

Then after the scope we went and picked her up and headed to recovery. (So far Maci has had no food or drinks since midnight the night before...) They put her IV in after she had smelled some strawberry gas so the good news is we didn't have to go through that drama. However the IV was causing her much distress. She kept saying it was bothering her. So in and effort to take her mind off of it we had to review our sticker collection we received from the different nurses. We had to wait several minutes to make sure we were able to do a swallow test. After many request for milk we FINALLY we able to move on to the next thing. The best thing about this hospital is all our appointments are on time or EARLY! I think our swallow test was around 1 p.m. We thought it might be an issue for her to drink the magic milkshake. However, when you starve her she was ready to drink it before the doctor was there to read the x-ray machine. He finally arrived and Maci drank the milkshake like it was the best thing she had ever had. Her test all looked fine. We got her dressed out of her little hospital nightgown and were ready to get the heck out of there. BUT before we could leave Maci asked if we could take her milkshake with her. She was officially the first patient to ask to take the nasty thing with her!

We quickly left and took her for some great macaroni and cheese with a big old glass of milk. We were all starving. We didn't eat or drink in front of her - so we also had nothing to eat or drink.

So all is well with Maci structurally so we have to continue on our quest to figure her out. All in all Maci is a great patient.

Holy Jalapeno!

In the famous words of Skippy JonJones - Holy Jalapeno it has been over a month since we posted! We are slackers.

Maci is getting smarter by the day. She has learned to count to 10. I give all the credit to her asthmatic case. We have to take 2 puffs of 5 breaths of her inhaler. So we count to 10 morning and night!

She is fascinated at all the things to see when driving. There is lots of construction on our way home. She loves to watch the tractors. AND she thinks Uncle Dan operates all cranes - no matter where they are located. Yesterday there were 2 tractors parked along the highway and she said look mommy two tractors. I don't know when she learned to count and associate things with numbers.

She is doing better, but not the best with her asthma/allergies. We visited the allergist and added a nose spray. I think she might be the only kid that at 2 would so easily allow you to squirt spray in her nose. It makes me cringe each time we do it. I didn't even have to bribe her with M&M's. Usually with particularly nasty medicine she gets an M&M to get rid of the taste. I think she will be a hypochondriac when she grows up. She is really into any medical show I watch. I like to watch House and she is always asking me what is wrong with that boy/girl. I know she won't be able to be a nurse because any foul smell makes her gag and puke.

Right now she can't wait for Halloween. We have purchased the stuff to make fancy cupcakes for Jeannie's, a fun new costume, & treats for her friends. She doesn't understand why we have to wait...