Kiddie Anecodotes

Sometimes, when working, I keep a dictionary next to me as I edit. Right now, Melody is sitting on my lap and swatting at it. A little genius?

Melody is finally starting to bat at hanging toys. This morning she grabbed hold of the cow on the mobile for the first time!

Both kids went to the doc for shots on Saturday. Melody weighs 14lbs, 10 oz. As usual, she cried when she got the shot but was immediately comforted by nursing. Theo was up next, and I felt bad that I couldn't help him out the same way! He's such a drama queen, he was saying "ouchie, ouchie, huuurt" before he even got the shot! But daddy and the doctor gave him stickers, and he was fine a few seconds later.

Later that day, we visited Nonny and Aunt Don. Melody fell asleep in Aunt Don's arms; that's a sweet memory that I'll treasure.

So, funny story: Last night at dinner, Theo refused to eat his carrots. I told him if he ate his carrots, we'd make cookies. Still, he refused. Two hours later:
"Mommmmy, I wanna make cooookies."
"No, Theo, you didn't eat your carrots." (I really wanted the cookies, so it took all my willpower to reinforce my own rule.)
"First carrot, then cookies?"
"What, you want a carrot now?"
"Yeah."
And so I took a raw carrot out of the fridge, peeled it, and fashioned a carrot stick. He ate the whole thing! And we made cookies.
Sigh. What a silly boy I have.

Happy 4 Month Birthday, Melody!

To celebrate, Melody got to have a bath this morning with her favorite person--her brother. I'll have photographic evidence of this happy event posted soon. The two of them sat making oogly eyes at each other the whole time; I'm not sure which of them is crazier about the other. All I know is Melody stares at Theo and smiles whenever he's around. And when he's not around, she stares at pictures of him on the wall and smiles.

Melody is 14 lbs, 6 oz. and still delightfully chubby!
Melody's learning the art of laughing from her gut. She's pretty easy to get going in a fit of chuckles.

Melody's favorite toys are a rattle that Aunt Pia gave her (it's wiry and she can hold on to it and put it to her mouth) and a super, super soft blankie attached to a bunny head. She does the same thing with that. I could swear she's teething, though I know it's early. I'm pretty sure I'm already seeing the two white spots through her bottom gums. Theo cut his first tooth at exactly six months, so I'll be curious to see what happens.

Melody likes her new swing, and spends a lot of time in her bouncie. She loves talking to her friends on her mobile still. She's really starting to love her play mat and getting great at tummy time.

She loves her weekly meetings with her baby friends in the neighborhood. The boys outnumber the girls, so she has several boyfriends competing for her attention already. I've caught a couple of them holding her hand.

VIEW PHOTOS OF MELODY WEEK BY WEEK.

AAAAAH I just love her!

Wow

There was really no better title for my blog post. I am, to say the least, overwhelmed. Theo had surgery today--in the most delicate place you could think of. The procedure was called a meatoplasty.

Theo was peeing out of an abnormally tiny hole and I never knew it, having had no point of reference. I always figured little boy=thin stream. But because of that tiny hole, it took him forever to pee and his bladder was never really empty. He must have always felt the urge to go, which explains all the accidents and the prolonged toilet training. Reading back on my first potty training blog entry now makes me go "ohhhhhhhhh." Check out the third paragraph.

I wasn't sure if I should blog this...I wanted to respect his privacy. But this is a big deal and a big changing point in all of our lives. His surgery today was a success. Even though his poor "down there" is swollen, bruised and bandaged, the stream that comes out is at least 5 times the width it was before. In other words...normal. All this time and I had no idea. None of us did.

Here's Theo in his kiddie hospital gown. A nurse was kind enough to take a cell phone picture for me.

Clowns came to visit him. The staff of the pediatric urology clinic were kind folks. And the name of Theo's surgeon...Dr. Dix. No, I'm not kidding. That's really his name.

So how's he doing now? He's been sky-high on codiene and completely happy. He played blocks, ate pizza, made cookies, read books, colored...but then there were the two unfortunate instances where he had to pee. He literally banged the walls howling in pain. I don't know who cried more, the boy or his mama. He had no idea what was happening to him or why. Although he seemed to understand our explanations as we gave them, once the extreme pain hit, all reason was out the window. He's finally sleeping now, and I hope it's better tomorrow. Within a few days he should feel pretty good. This should have been done when he was a baby, but at least he's not an adult. He'll grow up and have it over with.

He was so brave today, my poor monkey!